#could we not have had steve and lucas bonding to parallel dustin and eddie???

[kurokoros]

but what the fuck was the point of having Eddie, Robin, and Dustin all batting for team st@ncy in S4??? i don't know what would make me angrier. the writing continuing that plot thread or just dropping it and never addressing things in S5. why the hell would you devote time to that in an already bloated season just to drop it in the final??? could these characters not have had anything meaningful to talk to steve about beyond his less than a year long high school relationship???

[messrsbyler]

you have unlocked a specific brand of nerd in me by posting about avatar and stranger things, and a couple weeks ago i went on a trip with my best friend and we discussed this in depth so. now i'm here to word vomit my headcanons into your asks bestie. buckle up.

el: avatar, with her native element being water. i just feel like el is a very adaptable person (for the fact that she has been forced to be that way), but also very rooted in her love for her friends and her community (which is so water tribe ok)

will (and jonathan): air simply because will gives me SUCH aang vibes but also for reasons i will discuss further down

mike (and nancy): fire. no explanation needed.

max: earth (or fire bc tbh i can see both), but i was thinking about uncle iroh's quote about the earth kingdom/earthbenders and how he describes them as "diverse and strong" and also "persistent and enduring" and idk that gives me max vibes. also okay imagine a stranger things/avatar redux where max does lose her sight BUT THEN SHE LITERALLY CAN BE LIKE TOPH DUDE.

lucas (and erica): okay truthfully, i can put lucas into a A LOT of these (literally all of them but air lol), but when i was thinking about it, i ultimately went with water, in part because no one else in the party was water. but also, again iroh's quote about the water tribes "They have a sense of community and love that holds them together through anything" is giving me lucas vibes (particularly s4 lucas)

dustin: alright, don't hate me for this one, but i think dustin is a nonbender. dustin is INCREDIBLY sokka coded, and imagining some kind of ST/avatar world? steve is also a nonbender, and these two bond over it. steve helps dustin to find his value outside of the fact that he doesn't have bending, and it really helps dustin grow his confidence. (also something something something if eddie still dies in some kind of a world, imagine how crushed dustin would be realizing if he had bending maybe he could've saved eddie. shut up andi get out of here)

robin: AIRBENDING SHE IS SO AIRBENDER CODED NIC!!!!

joyce/hopper: both nonbenders who somehow got stuck surrounded by all these chaotic benders

brenner: waterbending. okay. so so so here are my more unhinged worldbuilding thoughts about this. i think it would be so Mean and so Neat for brenner to be the same native element as el, especially if it's the element where you can literally take away someone's control of themselves through bloodbending. there are so many horrors there, and i feel like brenner represents the darker, colder, and more calculating side of waterbending (if el and lucas and even erica represents the part that is love and community). also like. imagine el hating waterbending because of how she was forced to train with brenner? but then learning to heal from her trauma through her friendships later with lucas and the others? yeah ok.

vecna/henry: SIMILAR TO THE BRENNER/EL PARALLEL. i think it'd be so fun to have henry be an airbender (to have will/henry parallels), but also henry strikes me as a very zaheer coded character (idk if you've watched legend of korra, but the idea of chaos being the world's natural state and seeking freedom through chaos and disorder reminds me a lot of henry's monologue in S4E7). also like. the mindflayer particle manipulation could so very easily be like? an airbending trait? will, an airbender, gets hurt through some advanced form of airbending as a child and it traumatizes the hell out of him? but then he's able to reclaim his bending and use it to help defeat henry in the end? yeah yeah yeah do you see the vision?

other final thoughts in this huge ass ask that you didn't ask for but i sent anyways

lonnie is an airbender, and he's a shitty human being who is awful to jonathan (and will but less so since jonathan protects him) when teaching him how to bend. jonathan, because of this, hates bending and prefers to fight with other weapons when he has to, but robin and jonathan become friends eventually, and she helps him to reclaim this part of who he is. (please imagine robin, jonathan, will, and el all airgliding. thank you and goodnight.)

nancy is absolutely a prodigy when it comes to firebending, but mike is just kinda mediocre, which then feeds into his insecurities about literally dating the avatar and also being the party leader, because why should he get to lead if he's not even that good at bending? very azula/zuko coded wheeler relationship there except nancy doesn't wanna. ya know. kill mike and stuff.

i'm so sorry this was so long, like i said you unlocked a specific brand of nerd in me tonight LOL

yay! i love unlocking things! (btw i have to say your shoulder is really comfortable, maybe i'll stay here for a bit longer to be your personal demon who knows?)

okay yes YES! avatar el with her original bending being water makes so much sense based on her personality like you said and the great parallel between waterbending and how canon el uses baths to connect with the void and amplify her powers, so water is already greatly tied to her at least symbolically as her tool but ALSO as method used to torture her (i mean all the times she was put into sensory deprivation against her will), which ALSO TIES SO NICELY TO YOUR TAKE ON BRENNER ALSO BEING A WATERBENDER BC HE USES WATER TO CONTROL EL AND HE WOULD TOTALLY BE THE CORRUPTED KIND THAT USES BLOODBENDING ANDI YOUR BRAIN IS SO HUGE!! and el learning to find peace with her bending through her friendship with lucas is just so :((( also picture lucas teaching something brenner never taught el, how to user her bending to heal others and like that she learns that waterbending by itself isn't bad or good, it's how you yield your power that turns you bad or good same as how it happens with her powers in canon where they don't make her a monster just because she has them, it's how she uses that will define that and el has never been a monster, that is brenner. UGH I LOVE WATERBENDING EL IT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE ANDI IM LOSING MY MIND!!!

"mike and nancy: fire. no explanation needed" LMAO yes those siblings can only be firebenders

i loooove firebender max so much, it also brings the possibilities that @bottomlessabyssposts mentioned how max mastered lighting first than mike and she kept zapping him until he had enough and had to teach himself how to master it as well though he would fail miserably because he is not gifted like you said, he is pretty mediocre in contrast with nancy who is powerful by nature. so max taking pity on mike and teaching him and also madwheeler being the same bending makes so much sense to me i adore the idea BUT ALSO YOU ARE RIGHT MAX EARTHBENDING MAKES SO MUCH SENSE BASED ON UNCLE IROH'S DESCRIPTION?? and yes i NEED HER TO BE LIKE TOPH BC SHE HAS THE SAME ENERGY LMAO and with earthbending she would learn to see through her feet and powers and UGH I LOVE THAT SO MUCH. also she would be a skilled metalbender because one day just like toph she was captured in a metal confinement and she lost her shit so while trying to scape by punching the cage she realized oh shit something is happening oh shit i can bend metal? neat.

me, with lucas: well he uses a slingshot to throw rocks so earthbending

meanwhile, andi with lucas: based on the deep meaning of the waterbenders and their sense of community and-

i am a buffoon, putting my buffoon hat on right now. that being said, lucas being what keeps the party together through his sense of community aligns so well with lucas. thinking about lucas always owning up to his mistakes, how he apologized to el in season one and said he had judged her wrong, how in season two he gave max a safe space to open up and when she needed reassurance he was right there to offer it, how in season three even when will says it doesn't matter anymore he still admits he was wrong and apologizes and how he is a supportive best friend to mike and his shenanigans, and in season four how lucas literally tricks the basketball team and runs back to the party to be with them and slowly becomes the anchor max needed so badly and I'LL CRY LUCAS I ADORE YOU SO MUCH HELP-

okay okay dustin for me could be an airbender because of his free spirit and how easily he adapts to new situations and new people like in s2 and then s3. but also him being a not bender makes so much sense? thinking how canon dustin is basically a mastermind and a crafter that can put together a long range radio while being on summer camp. so imagine that, yes, dustin isn't a bender and in a world of benders that's kinda a big deal and he could be self conscious about it but what if makes up for it with his trinkets and projects? he is no airbender but he crafted a set of wings with a string system that can be adjusted to the winds and keep him in the air just fine. he's no firebender, but he designed a flamethrower just fine. dustin being the crafter of the party makes my heart go woosh woosh because it's SO HIM (also dipping my feet into a different fandom/au but thinking how dustin and leo valdez are so similar in that sense and how dustin would totally be hephaestus' son OK GOING BACK TO OUR AVATAR PROGRAMMING!) AND YES steve also being a nonbender who is still so self confidence and he teaches dustin to be confident in his skills bc even when dustin is an amazing inventor he still feels like his lack of bending is still something he needs to fix so his inventions are to cover that insecurity but steve is like "no, dude! you are literally a tiny inventor, that's so cool? fuck bending, that's a gift some get and some who don't. but this? *holding up one of dustin's inventions* this was all you! no gift, just you and your mind. how is that not awesome?" and them bonding because it's a parallel of steve helping dustin be more confident in canon and i will cry no andi nooooo-

ROBIN AIRBENDER TRUTHER RIGHT HERE TOO SHE SIMPLY IS NOTHING TO ADD HERE just picture her annoying steve floating around upside down in a crossed leg position, hovering around him in circles while he tries to recover from the last girl that turned him down, but robin is there in his face, shaming gravity and going "dingus adds another point to the 'you suck' category'" LMAOOOO do you see this vision andi? *extends hands in alladin's 'do you trust me?' fashion*

LMAO HOPPER AND JOYCE BEING NONBENDERS IS SO-

hop: uh, honeyyyyy!

joyce: *from the other side of the house* yeah?

hop: some little shit named mike burned the wall again

(context of this: will flirted too shamelessly with mike and his face went poof! into a burning blush that also reflected on his hands producing fire without him noticing)

about henry, i watched korra until like half of book three or two? the one where the nonbenders learn how to shut down bender's powers but honestly i don't remember much. BUT through a quick google search i can say that YES TF? that zaheer dude alings with henry's ideology *shudders* I SEE THE VISION SO WELL! henry using a forbidden technique of airbending to hurt will and corrupt his bending and will learning how to bend again over the years, also just like brenner and el, henry representing the dark side of airbending and will the good side that goes back to the old airbenders and their ways to connect with their bending AND IT ALSO ADDS TO THE WHOLE bending isn't evil or good, it's just power that you decide how to use and yield AAAHH I LOVE THE VISION I LOVE YOUR BRAIN KUDOS KUDOS KUDOS!!!

NOOOO jonathan hating bending and creating weapons instead because lonnie always taught him bending was about controlling others and using their bending to that purpose but jonathan doesn't want to control others, he wants to be IN control and he can control the weapons he designs and builds (OMG HE WOULD ALSO BOND WITH DUSTIN LIKE THIS AND IT WOULD ALSO SHOW DUSTIN THAT THERE'S A NOT SO COOL/DARKER SIDE OF BENDING AND JONATHAN WOULD TELL HIM HOW DUSTIN IMAGINATION AND CLEVERNESS TO BUILD ALL HIS INVENTIONS IS WORTH SO MUCH MORE THAN BENDING AND AAAHHH), jonathan can be the creator of those weapons that end up to being at his mercy, instead of him being at his bending mercy by how lonnie taught him how to bend. but yes omg jonathan bonding with steve (stonathan my beloved, even if platonic i need more of those two PLEASE) and with robin who teaches him the fun side of airbending and the good side, the side that doesn't feel like a power that pretends to control others and control jonathan but instead a friend that always has your back. TEARS! will would also learn so much from robin (and not only about airbending ehem ehem wink wink you get me)

AND OH GOD THIS IS SO LONG ALREADY IM SORRY BUT TO TACKLE THAT LAST PART YES!!! nancy being a natural, powerful and a prodigy. something something this reflects how in canon nancy played the part of the perfect child lifting karen and ted's expectations on mike who then never met them because he is not nancy so by season two mike is punished for not dealing with his trauma the same way nancy has (or pretends she has to keep up this perfect child image to her parents), meaning quietly unlike mike who instead acts out and does things that clearly are a cry for help that karen and ted never attend to OK SORRY HAD TO SNEAK IN A BIT OF MY MIKE WHEELER ANALYSIS IN THERE BC ITS MY NATURE GOING BACK TO WHAT I WAS SAYING- nancy is a prodigy, mike isn't, he is mediocre at best, he has a hard time controlling his bending and being as powerful as nancy even though he is expected to and this transpires into his deeply rooted insecurity that then intensifies when he starts dating the avatar that was missing from the face of the earth and that mike one day stumbled upon because of dumb luck only, and also how he is the leader of the party but why? he isn't as powerful as the rest, he isn't the avatar or at the avatar's level, he is just mike and in good mike fashion he can't see his worth, so then will comes and lets mike know that yes, he is just mike and just mike is what keeps the party together, his leadership and heart because mike doesn't need to be anything besides just mike, because that's enough. AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH SCREAMING FOREVER!!!

you are sorry your ask was long? no no no, look what you did to me. i went full nerd mode on you and you are to blame, i need to say hey, it's all you in your head, you are the one who burned us down but it's not what you meant-

ok enough with the taylor swift random reference this is long enough already i need to stop typing NIC STOP TYPING RIGHT NOW

okay okay bye bye