#it makes no sense that katara is less trusting of jet than sokka when sokka was the one arguably most personally affected by jet

[quartergremlin]

avatar live action first impressions:

i like the sets!

i dont really like the cgi bemdimg, but it's not egregiously bad either. I don't like the pacing of the starting fight, and the earthvemdimg is missing that good ome-two pumch, but it's something that if it hadn't already been pointed out to me, I probably wouldn't have noticed.

i also like the idea of small-scale resistance of the earth kingdom (besides jet, jet was framed as an outlier). I appreciate that out of everyone who lost their homes and their families and their livelihoods, there were more options in the earth kingdom than 1: moving somewhere else and hope it doesn't happen again or 2: ve rich and stick your head in the same. oh this is im the past nevermind-

that is some pretty impressive costuming! however. that fake beard. jesus.

i do like the "avatar stairs" that seems like. the shittiest place to spend eternity. Hope you didn't ignore leg day when you were alive. Are they allowed to sit down?

i dont know if I like the fact that aang is the only one flying around or not. probably a sound decision. that many fake flying people in the background.... yeah this is for the better.

i also like how the war is framed in the past outside of aang's perspective. As a kid, it would have seemed like,, the war just happened one day. "The fire nation attacked".

HES TWELVE!!! HES SO TIMY!!!! 😭

aamg just. taking some time instead of intentionally running away is. a choice. that will have some repercussions for his character. but I trust we all understand that without me writing a dissertation about it.

that guy: im a monk, but... 💨💨💥

that said I was prepared for monk gyatso to suck all of the air out of the room in a desperate final stand, but whatever. it's fine. that was fan speculation anyway. makes sense they didn't think that hard about it and just did a regular fight.

zuko keeping tiny avatar statues! i do love and understand that.

so if I'm getting this right:

aang never ran away. so any guilt related to him doing so ever. is just. fake! yes that guilt would still be there, but without like. an actual purposeful action that aang took, the answer is always going to be that he "didn't mean to". He was going to be the avatar (he was going back), but he got caught up in the storm. It was an accident. Where is the arc?

sokka has no misogyny arc, so he's p much right about everything ever. Still doesn't care about bending, but he's being reasonable about the responsibility that they have to their home. He's going to keep doing that for the entire series herding these kids like cats. is the plan to just. have him respect Katara's bending and that's it? Where is the arc?

Katara. since sokka is like. a reasonable guy and not just telling katara to go do some "women's work" what little anger she has is less justified. it feels like she's been de-fanged in response. my least favorite thing in a female character. Sokka shouts her down and she's just. fine with that. upset about it, yeah. but where's the anger, the passion? she was trying to get the boat and duped it up. The problem here is her lack of experience. not lack of control. Where is the arc?

Takeaway: i'll give it a three. I've watched worse things. But the misunderstanding of characters pisses me off and im not sure if I want to stick around to see if they get it together. if I stop, it will probably be because I got bored. Mismanaged pacing is the real killer if it's not ugly as sin.

[listless-brainrot]

how exactly would you say jet and sokka are foils?? I never thought of it that way!

i’m so glad you asked anon!! ok ok so let me try my best to get my thoughts in order it’s been a while since i’ve touched on this! this got kinda long so lemme put it under a read more to save your dash:

(side note: a large majority of this analysis stems from what i believe is the original writers’ intent. the demonization and vilification of jet and his extremism  in order to portray sokka as someone morally superior/a better leader is something i personally don’t agree with. these are all just analyses and observations derived from the presented text, and that’s just something to keep in mind while reading this. the following is less my own opinion, and moreso me trying to extrapolate the writer’s intentions directly, as i can’t write this analysis without acknowledging said intent.)

so i’m gonna open this post with the idea that jet’s episode is inherently a sokka episode. the events that happen are to contribute to his development and the main conflict centralizes around him. i say this because of what the episode opens with: sokka struggling to prove himself as a competent leader to the rest of the gaang. this is early on in season one, so sokka hasn’t necessarily “proven” himself yet as the braniac, common sense leader guy who helps keep everyone else in line. emphasis on yet, hence where this episode comes in.

the beginning scene has the following exchange (thanks avatarspirit.net):

Sokka (to Aang): I know you all want to fly, but my instincts tell me we should play it safe this time and walk. Katara: Who made you the boss? Sokka: I'm not the boss—I'm the leader. Katara (incredulous): You're the leader? But your voice still cracks! Sokka: I'm the oldest and I'm a warrior. (tries to speak deeper) So...I'm the leader! Katara: If anyone's the leader, it's Aang. I mean, he is the Avatar. Sokka: Are you kidding—he's just a goofy kid! Aang: He's right.

Katara: Why do boys always think someone has to be the leader? I bet you wouldn't be so bossy if you kissed a girl. Sokka: I-I've kissed a girl—you...just haven't met her. Katara: Who? Gran-gran? I've met Gran-gran. Sokka: No—besides Gran-gran. Look, my instincts tell me we have a better chance of slipping through on foot and a leader has to trust his instincts. Katara: Okay, we'll try it your way Oh Wise Leader.

here, we see sokka struggling to be taken seriously (mostly by katara). we get the sense that the others don’t see him in any sort of responsibile light. sokka, as of right now, is sort of in the role of “older brother who takes charge just because he’s the oldest”, and neither aang nor katara seem to really take this resulting attitude seriously.

enter jet.

jet is the self assured, confident, charming, adaptive, competent leader who is, as of right now, everything sokka is not. jet’s first introduction is he and the freedom fighters decimating a fire nation camp that they all stumbled into, and jet even takes down one of the soldiers he was trying to go after. this puts sokka in a light of incompetence. he then experiences jealousy and mistrust when jet is around, as aang and katara immediately trust this stranger’s judgement over his own, which is suspicious and arguably hurtful, especially when he has known aang and katara for much longer than jet has and has been trying so hard to prove himself to them, only to have all his efforts shoved off to the side the moment they meet some guy.

Jet: One day, we'll drive the Fire Nation out of here for good and free that town. Katara: That's so brave. Sokka (Sarcastically): Yeah, nothing's braver than a guy in a treehouse. Katara: Don't pay any attention to my brother. Jet: No problem. He probably had a rough day.

something to note is just how one-sided this jealousy is- jet acknowledges that sokka is smart and has valuable skills, especially later on when he has him come along for a mission. a lot of sokka’s struggle in this episode is pretty internal, outside of the many times he has sarcastically commented about jet and shown visible disdain. he has nothing to actually hold against jet- as of right now, his biggest grudge is that jet is a better leader than him.

at least, until sokka’s suspicions of him are confirmed and his plans reveal themselves to be “nefarious”, and this is where the divide between jet and sokka becomes more clear.

i’ll just quickly recap what happens but jet: attacks and beats up an old fire nation man and presumably planted a knife on him and said he was an assassin, lied to and used both katara and aang to fulfill his own plans and hid his true intentions from the both of them, and he also attempted to destroy the village of gaipan that he was saving through flooding it and killing everyone in it.

more importantly, though, is that sokka discovers jet’s plans and spies on him, which eventually leads to this confrontation.

Sokka: I heard your plan to destroy the Earth Kingdom town. Jet: Our plan is to rid the valley of the Fire Nation. Sokka: There are people living there Jet—mothers and fathers and children. Jet: We can't win without making some sacrifices. Sokka: You lied to Aang and Katara about the forest fire! Jet: Because they don't understand the demands of war. Not like you and I do. Sokka: I do understand. I understand that there's nothing you won't do to get what you want. Jet: I was hoping you'd have an open mind, but I can see you've made your choice. Jet: I can't let you warn Katara and Aang. Take him for a walk--a long walk. Sokka: You can't do this! Jet: Cheer up, Sokka. We're gonna win a great victory against the Fire Nation today.

here, we see a conflict of morality between jet and sokka, despite having a shared goal: to destroy the fire nation. this is a moment that the narrative is trying to show that jet is someone sokka could’ve become, should he lose sight of his own principles. sokka and jet are put in direct contrast with one another, and what follows is supposed to be a testament of that morality. we get to see the inner conflict of who is a good/better leader become an external one. 

sokka refuses to let the innocents of gaipan drown, even though there are fire nation present within the village. previously, sokka has been shown to be extremely quick to anger, especially when firebenders are even mentioned, much like jet. but here, he is refusing to let this happen because of his own morals and principles, which jet is shown to lack. he is being upstanding as a leader through his example and restraint, even when no one is around. he is defending what he believes is right, as is jet, except: the moment their views and beliefs don’t align, is when jet decides to turn on sokka.

and it takes the deception of jet and the severity of his actions for aang and katara to realize who they should’ve believed in and trusted.

Aang: Sokka's still out there—he's our only chance. Katara: Come on, Sokka. I'm sorry I ever doubted you. Please.

the episode ends with the village flooded, but its occupants still alive, thanks to the actions of sokka, who took the time to warn and save these people he didn’t know, even though some of which were fire nation. sokka proves himself to be both selfless and competent, thus reaffirming his friends’ belief in both him and his leadership, which he has now proven to be just and sound.

unlike jet, who has shown that he leads through deception and lies, and as such, is not sokka.

as much as jet sokka could’ve been, jet can never be sokka because of what he lacks morally. and in this episode, sokka makes a conscious choice to ensure that he will not let himself become what jet has shown himself to be, now that he’s seen it, and is allowed to develop as a leader from that point on. 

tl;dr: sokka and jet are intentional character parallels, and jet services sokka’s development and growth as a leader through existing as his opposite.

[atla-suki]

nose animation in atla: a long ramble with no actual point.

before i go further, i KNOW that atla has anime-inspired animation/art style. i am aware that the characters are not white and the animation reflects this. i have no issues with the atla art style (i actually love it it’s so iconic), only some of the continuity. i’m just nitpicking because it’s fun and i’m never satisfied.

i’ve also done NO research at all on this topic. idk anything about the animation or character designs or inspiration, etc. and if i’m wrong on any points i apologise in advance.

ANYWAYS one thing about atla that has, for some reason, stood out to me is the way the characters’ side profiles are drawn. i’ll give you an example.

characters such as aang, toph, katara, and even ty lee are drawn like this:

their noses, mouths and chins jut out from the rest of their heads at a quite sudden point on the face. what i mean, is that their noses are very rounded and soft. this is usually used to depict innocence and youth, which makes absolute sense considering all of these characters are children. they’re little. they’re immature. they have faces that reflect this.

on the other hand, characters such as hakoda, iroh, zhao, and any other older character have much more defined noses - like this:

now see how zuko, mai, jet and azula also have this feature? the sharp, defined nose? this never sat right with me. i’ll explain why.

you could argue that it’s a fire nation trait. that they just happen to have sharper features. and i wouldn’t disagree - they DO typically have sharper features. however there’s people like ty lee who don’t fit into this. and with the continuity of soft features for the rest of the young characters, it seems strange to have these few YOUNG characters have such adult features.

one guess is that they’re designed to be more menacing. they are, after all, antagonists in the story (ik jet isn’t a proper antagonist ok but he’s an antagonist for the purpose of this post). this explains the sharp features, the maturity and higher level of knowledge that comes with characters who are trained to be lethal and who have less distinct morals.

visual storytelling is just as important as actual storytelling. we, as an audience, see sharp features and we connect this to danger, to someone who’s probably AGAINST the protagonists. similarly, soft features welcome a sense of security, a sense of trust. aang wouldn’t be nearly as loveable of a protagonist if he had sharp features and a permanently serious expression.

i just don’t think this is the case with atla, though. atla does a great job at reminding audiences that both the protagonists and antagonists are still YOUNG. they are CHILDREN. they aren’t painted to be adults or leaders (well… sorta. this doesn’t fully apply to azula but i’ll psychoanalyse that another day). and that’s what makes the idea of these characters fighting a war so tragic - they are children. they act like children, so naturally they should look like children too, no?

so my question stands thus: why, when all of our main characters (on both sides of the story) are children, are certain characters given soft features and others sharp?

like, sokka is the eldest of the gaang (excluding zuko), so why is he drawn to be so immature when he ISN’T? or, why is azula drawn to be so mature when SHE isn’t? are we meant to forget shes only 14? she’s the same age as katara and yet they’re drawn so differently.

simple answer: characterisation.

i’m gonna use sokka as an example because he’s the best his nose animation changes significantly more than any other character’s. sokka is notably portrayed as the goofy, comic relief, older brother. i personally don’t agree with this description of sokka but there’s no denying it’s true. anyways sokka is ALSO portrayed as the intelligent, paranoid, organised to a fault, mother of the group from time to time. with this description, you’d expect him to be drawn with more mature features. however, he is most often drawn with soft features, as such:

it’s only in scenes where he is being very serious, or acting as an adult, or in the middle of a dramatic fight, that he is drawn with sharper features, as such:

so, like i was saying about the visual storytelling, the way sokka is animated reflects the story that is being told and his place in it (actually i’ve noticed sokka looks way too goofy and lanky sometimes omg justice for sokka). aang has soft features to reflect his gentle nature, his morals, his kind heart. similarly (oppositely), azula’s features are always sharp and distinct, and so is her character and her place in the story as an antagonist. zuko as well. mai is always in a mood, and so her features and expression reflect this. the list goes on.

anyways i just. i know this is so long and so pointless. but i think if zuko can be given sharp, defined, adult features, so can sokka (and so can suki, now that i think about it. they are the eldest of the gaang, and yet…)

something doesn’t sit right with me in terms of the lack of continuity in the characters’ noses/side profiles and the way they are designed to express age, personality, etc.

BUT, as usual, i’m just being picky for the sake of it and i love this show to bits and everything i say is said out of love.

[firelxdykatara]

Katara hated Zuko. It was a plot point. Sokka never did--and their "friendship" in the show was close to becoming something more--so they were on equal footing and had hinted romance. Zutara is misogynistic--why are you forcing Katara into a relationship with someone she hates? Choose Toph or Suki if you really believe Zuko isn't gay.

there’s so much to unpack here, and i know i should really throw out the whole suitcase, but i just can’t help myself

and please, i beg of you, picture someone laughing so hard that tears are streaming down their face because that’s me right now, reading this ask. i about choked on my eggnog, so thanks for that!

point the first: sokka hated zuko every bit as much as katara did in the first two books. it was a plot point. sokka wanted to leave zuko to die because saving him wouldn’t have been worth the trouble--he was pragmatic and deeply distrustful of anyone who wasn’t in his immediate circle, and that went especially hard for anyone from the fire nation. including the birds!

point the first part two: sokka’s easy acceptance of zuko into the gaang had less to do with any budding friendship or caring for him (since there was none to speak of until the boiling rock episodes), and more to do with a lack of any personal grudge. aka: there was no tension there. nothing to really dig into--no true development of feelings. because aang needed a firebending teacher, zuko was around and willing to take on that role, and also he was a prime roasting target, so sokka was happy enough to let bygones be after he helped them take down combustion man.

which, of course, isn’t to say shipping them isn’t valid. there are plenty of ships that have little to no canon basis but a lot of fandom support, and that’s usually fine....until the fans start getting uppity about it and insisting that there Is Canon Basis Really, and then insisting that the ‘rival’ ship is misogynistic when their alleged ‘canon basis’ requires stripping everything meaningful from the girl’s relationship to the boy and giving it to her brother instead. which is exactly what you’re doing here, but i digress.

point the second: how on earth was sokka and zuko’s ‘friendship’ in the show (and why the scare quotes? were they not actually friends? are you really sitting in my inbox right now devaluing their platonic relationship because you don’t think it exists outside of your belief that they really wanted to fuck the whole time, despite sokka being in a happy relationship with someone else?) ‘close to becoming something more’? when did they ever have a single, solitary conversation that hinted at any ‘deeper’ feelings? sokka spent most of their buddy cop adventure to boiling rock mooning over his girlfriend (heh, get it? mooning? because he- oh, you get the point), to the point where he had literal hearteyes the instant he saw her--and zuko’s purpose there wasn’t to deepen his relationship with sokka so much as it was to reunite sokka and katara with their father, and to see an example of what a healthy paternal relationship actually looks like.

(one of my favorite shots in the show is zuko’s soft smile when sokka and katara are hugging hakoda)

so already your claim that they ‘had hinted romance’ falls incredibly flat, because there was absolutely nothing in the show that was ‘hinting’ they had romantic feelings for one another--in universe or out of it. sokka was happily in love with suki, and even the one scene that i can imagine might make shippers scream--when zuko popped into sokka’s tent late at night--sokka was about to have sex with his girlfriend, and when he asked zuko ‘what’s on your mind’, the first words out of his mouth were your sister.

(and then, as soon as zuko left, sokka was calling for suki again. the next morning, he was making a flower necklace--or a lei. because he got lei’d. it’s amazing the things you pick up when you rewatch the show as an adult lmfao.)

point the third (and this one is really where your argument blows up in your face): your insistence that zutara requires ‘forcing katara into a relationship with someone she hates’ reveals your own ignorance, because it’s demonstrably not true--unless you’re trying to argue that katara hated zuko all the way through to the end of the show, which??? i suppose makes it make more sense that you think zuko and sokka had a hinted romance in the text, because viewing comprehension clearly isn’t your strongsuit.

why are yall so quick to dismiss katara’s own feelings in the name of calling a fictional, noncanon ship ‘misogynistic’? because katara said, in the text, ‘but I am ready to forgive you’--and then she hugged zuko, called him into a group hug with the gaang later, joked (and even flirted) with him on ember island, helped talk him through his anxiety about facing his uncle, and happily agreed to go with him to face his sister, where she saved his life after watching him take a literal bolt of lightning to save hers.

if any of that had happened with sokka, yall would be calling it demonstrable evidence that zuko and sokka are in love. and yet when we use that canonical buildup and the deep bond of friendship and trust zuko and katara have by the end of the series to imagine them getting into a romantic relationship because of feelings developed during these events......you call us misogynistic? really? because we’re ‘forcing’ her into a relationship with someone she ‘hates’....except she didn’t hate him by the end of the series, they were very close friends and had gotten over and had closure from their personal baggage, and that’s the kind of stuff that provides excellent fuel for envisioning a romantic relationship developing!

so what was your argument again?

ETA: i was so busy deconstructing the bulk of your argument that i forgot to address that laughable last line--toph or suki? who had much, MUCH less relationship development with zuko than katara did?? ‘if you really believe zuko isn’t gay’???? im sorry that you can’t recognize a whole bisexual when you see one, but as a bi myself, i know that zuko’s dual-wielding ass couldn’t ‘pick a side’ if his life depended on it. and he had more romantic coding with both jet and katara than he ever had with sokka--that’s just a fact. sorry if the truth hurts, anon!

[solatude]

ATLA Unpopular Opinions

I’ve had some thoughts about various aspects in Avatar: The Last Airbender. So, in order of least to most controversial, here we go:

Sokka looks better with his hair up. Sokka’s wolf tail is one of the more unique hairstyles in the show, at least for the guys. He looks so basic with his hair down. The wolf tail adds to his personality, his dramaticness, and humor. How can a water tribe warrior fight with hair in his face? Please also refer to his topknot in Book Three.

Sokka didn’t have as much pull as fans think he does. Pull, in this context, means to attract someone romantically/sexually. First of all, Toph is a child, so I’m not counting her because a 12 year-old crushing on a 15 year-old should be nothing more than that---a crush. Yue and Suki pulled him first, as he fell for them before they fell for him. Suki could care less for the sexist guy who insulted her on her own island; but teaching him the ways of the Kyoshi warriors, plus a kiss on the cheek had him blushing---HARD! He thankfully changed his mindset after that. Yue, while she barely had a choice, had accepted her role as princess and was prepared to dedicate her life to the values of her tribe in an arranged marriage. The amount of times she ran away from Sokka was both tragic and hilarious. But that only made Sokka want her more, she never chased him. To be honest though, he was probably the first guy who treated her normally, despite her status. I think she mainly wanted a friend, but was surprised to find a potential lover in Sokka. Plus he made her laugh. Ty Lee thought he was cute, but Ty Lee thinks everything is cute. That is all. If you wanna talk about pull, Aang had Zuko risking his life chasing him for three seasons (I’m joking, don’t think too deeply about that).

Azula and Katara are almost equal in power. I get that Azula is a firebending prodigy, but sometimes her skills are overestimated by fans and she’s made to seem as though she can overpower everyone. It makes perfect sense that she lost to Katara in almost every fight. Before meeting her, she’s only ever fought nonbenders, firebenders, and earthbenders. She never had experience fighting a trained waterbender, so her losing to Katara shows that even she has her limitations. Whenever she did win a fight against her, it was because she got help from her friends, brother, or subjects. Katara never hesitated to fight her, and being 14 years-old herself, allowed for an even exchange of combat. Let’s be honest, what bender would go up against Azula fearlessly except the one who’s element puts out fires?

Ursa was not a bad mother. Ursa was a victim of an abusive, arranged marriage. For context, Fire Lord Azulon wanted Ozai to marry Ursa because she was the granddaughter of Avatar Roku, and he felt that they would produce powerful heirs to the royal family. Ursa was forced to leave her village, family, and fiance behind for this marriage; because who would dare turn down the request of a Fire Lord? Ursa never really loved Ozai, but he never cared. He just wanted to increase his status and power. Ursa is often criticized for giving Zuko attention over Azula, while scolding Azula and not showing her any love. However, Azula was praised by Ozai, and as a result showed more of an obedience towards him. Ozai showed a great disdain for Zuko. Ursa was simply doing her best to show Zuko how much he mattered. He was living in his sister’s shadow, while being neglected by his father. I also really feel for Azula, because she was only valued for her firebending skills, and she probably had no emotional outlet that she trusted to help guide her. However, I do think Azula was too far along for her mother to really help her. Ursa encouraged Zuko to play with Azula; she genuinely wanted her children to get along like any other parent. I just don’t think there was anything she could say or do to encourage Azula to be less destructive and show remorse for her actions. She should have never called Azula a monster, but she was a woman filled with fear. She feared her abusive husband and the repercussions of speaking out against him, she feared the destructive tendencies of her daughter and the ways she hurt other people without caring for how they felt, and she feared for Zuko’s life for not living up to the impossible ideals of the royal family. Ursa was not a perfect mother, but she tried given the little power she had. Also, to be fair, we only see Ursa’s life from Zuko’s perspective in the show. Azula probably had many memories with Ursa but she most likely blocked them out to hold space for firebending forms and her father’s approval; one of which she never really secured.

Bloodbending is overrated and unnecessary. Some fans claim that Katara should have had a more positive reaction to becoming a bloodbender. However, it was never in her character to be so controlling, especially against another person’s will. Bloodbending is also not as useful as it’s made to seem. Since one can only bloodbend on a full moon, you would have to wait an entire month to even utilize the skill. That’s extremely inconvenient and because you have to wait until nighttime, it’s even less practical. How often does Team Avatar fight during the night compared to the day? They would be sleeping if anything. Also, when your team consists of an agile airbender, a master waterbender, a powerful earthbender, and a weapons strategist, plus Appa and Momo; why would anyone need to bloodbend? Most of the Gaang’s enemies never required that level of power in order to be defeated. Bloodbending is also VERY niche. If this is allowed, should bonebending be allowed since there are minerals in bones? Should soundbending be allowed since sound is produced from vibrations? I admit it’s a really cool ability, but it’s not that important in the grand scheme of things. Also, speaking of Katara...

Katara gets too much hate. I’m not sure if it’s the surge of new fans since the Netflix debut or the repressed thoughts of old fans but lately Katara’s character has been mercilessly criticized. It’s been said that she brings up her mother too often, and that she’s overly emotional and selfish. First of all, Katara was eight years-old (and Sokka nine) when her mother was murdered. During the run of the show, only six years have passed since then, as she’s 14 when she finds Aang. She lives with survivor’s guilt due to her mother lying about who the last waterbender was so that Katara wouldn’t be taken prisoner. Unfortunately, the firebender soldier Yon Rah wasn’t taking prisoners that day, implying that he was going to murder her. Katara mentions her mother only a handful of times, usually to relate to another character who lost someone close to them in an effort to empathize (Aang, Haru, Jet, Zuko). People forget that she saw her mother’s dead body after running to get help. It was definitely wrong for Katara to tell Sokka that he didn’t love their mother the way she did in the Southern Raiders episode, and she definitely should have apologized. But, she was right. Sokka was shown to be closer to his father. She was in extreme emotional pain and instead of being comforted, she was criticized by Aang and Sokka for wanting revenge. How many times has Katara sacrificed something for the sake of others? She barely had a childhood considering she took on a maternal role in her tribe after her mother’s death. She had to deal with Sokka’s sexist comments, she had to suppress her talent for waterbending, and she felt isolated and alone because the one parent that was alive left to fight in the war. When someone needed encouragement, Katara was always there to encourage them. When someone needed help, she never hesitated to assist them. She often put herself in harm’s way if it meant someone else didn’t get hurt. For a 14 year-old girl in a war torn world, she is immensely brave. How many times has Zuko gone on and on about his honor, or lashed out at his Uncle for a seemingly small reason? How many times has Sokka talked about meat? Or Azula and her speeches about controlling and manipulating people? Toph and her rebelliousness? Even Aang’s laid back attitude turned into carelessness every now and then. Every character has a crutch that they attach themselves to, but Katara isn’t given the grace that other characters have been given. Yes, Aang lost his entire nation, and Katara would never know what that felt like. However, Aang wouldn’t know how Katara felt either. Aang was in the presence of children his age and was able to travel around the world to make friends (i.e. Bumi from the Earth Kingdom and Kuzon from the Fire Nation). He was taught to be less detached, so his idea of family is very different from Katara’s. He never witnessed the dead bodies of his people firsthand, though he did see Gyatso’s skeleton later on. Katara grew up in a world ruined by war. She had little to no friends, and the one person she was closest to left her life very early. Her tribe was VERY small and I doubt she had a lot of people to talk to. She had never left the Southern Water Tribe before, so it’s very likely that she was going to stay there her entire life had she not met Aang. She’s been accused of not allowing Sokka to feel sad about their mother, but why should she? It’s not Katara’s job to burden the weight of Sokka’s emotions, especially about their mother. She cannot force Sokka to open up about his feelings, that is something he must do at his own free will. Sokka hides his pain behind his masculinity. He’s protective because he feels guilty about not being able to do anything to help his mother. He doesn’t even remember what she looks like, he could only picture Katara’s face in her place. He felt even worse when his father left and he, understandably, couldn’t go with him. Sokka is not upfront about how he feels, but Katara should not be blamed for that. Overall it may be said that Katara was a flawed character that has recently been more scrutinized for her flaws than acknowledged for her strengths. We can do both, but there’s been an imbalance. She successfully revolted to free Haru’s father as well as other prisoners of the Fire Nation. She guided her friends out of the Si Wong desert despite the obstacles that stood in their way. She healed Aang and Zuko when shot by lightning, ultimately saving their lives and the lives of many other people who have been physically hurt by someone. She even washed Sokka’s underwear and sewed his pants. We can cut the girl some slack if she wants to talk about her mother, can’t we? She’s the glue that holds everyone together. Katara’s emotions make her a stronger fighter. Her trauma has shaped her into someone determined to master waterbending and has allowed her to be more empathetic to those around her. But she shouldn’t have had to go through all of that. She was forced to mature faster in order to survive. Katara can sometimes be arrogant, misguided, oblivious, and doubtful, yes. But she is also resilient, brave, selfless, and generous. That is the duality of her character. She is NOT to be disrespected. After all, as she said to Sokka in The Painted Lady, “I will never, ever turn my back on people who need me!”. And she hasn’t.

Iroh should be banned from the Earth Kingdom. It’s not an unpopular opinion that Uncle Iroh is a war criminal, but I just don’t think he should be allowed anywhere near the Earth Kingdom; either temporarily or permanently. Yes he played an instrumental role in Zuko’s redemption, with tea in his left hand and wisdom in his right. However, that does not excuse his invasion of Ba Sing Se. He laid siege to the impenetrable city for 600 days. Surely hundreds, maybe thousands of innocent people died under his commands. He broke the lower ring, home of the poorest members of the Earth Kingdom. The only reason he stopped was because his son, Lu Ten, died in battle; not aware that many citizens also died as a result of his actions. How many children’s lives has his army taken away? How many sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, aunts, uncles, and grandparents have died under his siege? Not only does he get to establish a business and earn money, he is elevated to the upper ring of the city; meanwhile an entire population can barely afford food and stable jobs. I understand that is was for plot purposes, but It’s a slap in the face to allow him to thrive in the city after Aang defeated Ozai. His wanted poster should be everywhere, not just for supposedly betraying the Fire Nation, but also for crimes against the Earth Kingdom. The very least he could do was shut down his tea shop and hand the building over to a family who may need it, and establish a tea shop in the Fire Nation. I’m not saying Iroh couldn’t be redeemed for his war crimes, but it definitely would take more than what was seen in the show for him to be forgiven for them.

Anyways, let me know what you think. This took an ungodly amount of time to write.

[zuzuslastbraincell]

I've been thinking about the tags in this post, talking about how Toph was a sheltered rich girl, and it's striking me how little personal commitment or investment Toph has in the struggle against the Fire Nation.

On some level she has to be opposed to them - she's travelling with the Avatar, and was brought up in the Earth Kingdom outside Ba Sing Se and is fully aware of the war. But the reasons she joins the gaang are largely personal - she's trying to escape her stifled noble upbringing and get some measure of independence her parents have denied her. This makes her an interesting character but it means Toph has remarkably little to say or contribute to the conversation when it comes to the war, she doesn't have any original insight, she doesn't really seem to have a strong sense of belonging to the Earth Kingdom beyond clothing choices and her earth bending skills.

What's worse is how central the Earth Kingdom is not only to the Fire Nation campaign in the timeline of the show, but also is the most commonly depicted setting for episodes in the show, the one we are most familiar with as a backdrop as viewers. We see the Earth Kingdom so much and yet we lack a recurring protagonist to give us insights into how it functions, what the culture is like, how war and imperialism have affected it, on a more personal level. The closest characters we have to that are Jet & the Freedom Fighters, who are presented as antagonistically at first, in order to give us a morality tale about violent collective resistance being bad (unless the protagonists do it, then it’s good, of course), or Haru, who barely counts as a recurring character.

This means we spend a large swathe of book 1 & 2 travelling through the Earth Kingdom with a group of committed anti-imperialists... of which none are directly/personally affected by what is happening in the Earth Kingdom, beyond a sense of solidarity and shared struggle? This is absolutely not to discredit or diminish what Sokka, Katara, and Aang have all endured, having been hurt deeply by war and genocide, but it is strange that we often approach imperialism through, if not an outsider’s eyes (as Sokka and Katara and Aang are not strangers to imperialism), but from a greater distance, witnessed through people passing through. Imperialism can of course take multiple forms, and the way each nation has been impacted differs - from the almost total genocide of the airbenders, to frequent fire nation raids & destruction of a fundamental skill/pillar of water tribe life (leading to the dwindling of the SWT), to the settler colonialism we see in the western earth kingdom - and I think the show could benefited a lot from having someone speaking about the specificity of how the EK was affected from personal experience.

(Sidenote: I think the reason why the Earth Kingdom is largely considered less interesting in terms of worldbuilding than the Fire Nation & Water Tribes has something to do with this lack of characterisation & personal touch).

I also think had Toph been more personally invested in the Earth Kingdom and in the war, she would have had a bigger role in book 3. One of my complaints about book 3 is that Toph is sidelined somewhat, and while we see the culmination of her character arc in how she trusts Sokka in the Sozin’s Comet episodes and allows others to help her, this development is largely off-screen. Book 3 focusses directly on the threat that the Fire Lord poses and ending the war than the other books, and I honestly think Toph’s secondary role in a lot of these episodes, and her lack of starring features (lampshaded with her ‘where’s my life-changing field trip?’ line) in part boils down to the fact that she simply has less to say about imperialism and colonialism.

Like, Toph is a fantastic character and I love her character arc, but I think making the Earth Kingdom character with the largest speaking role and screen time relatively uninterested in the Earth Kingdom and the war was a poor move, from a writing perspective.

[tuiyla]

So i'm expecting A LOT of changes to atla for the live adaptation. In a perfect world there wouldn't be any changes ,but what are some adjustments or additions to the series that you wouldn't mind seeing? Like something you would like to see more of or less of. ?For me I would love to see more of Tophs and Zuko's friendship. Also would love to see a scene with Katara talking w sokka or someone admitting that she blood b for the second time. Maybe in this scene is where she finally decides that she never wants to to blood bend again maybe a little bit of foreshadowing because she eventually makes it illegal later on

So hey Anon. I know it’s been two months and I’m really sorry I just straight up forgot about this but I’m really hoping you’re somehow reading this.

I’m gonna be honest and say part of the reason I forgot about this is that the Netflix live-action series kind of just left my mind. I’ve been growing distant from it ever since Bryke left the project but then Avatar Studios was announced so I was like “Netflix who?” But like, I’m still hoping the live-action will be at least decent.

I actually think that even in a perfect world there’d be changes, if for no other reason than the medium change. Also, as much I believe ATLA is the pinnacle of television there for sure are changes that would improve it, especially in season 1. I’ve been wondering about what episodes they’d do since the Netflix show was announced since I think it’s fair to say they won’t do 20 episode seasons. I expect episodes to be longer than 25 minutes but the adventure of the week nature of book 1 means they’d still leave some stuff out. Given that there isn’t a single episode of ATLA that doesn’t get referenced in some way or another later on it’s a tough call but I think we can all live without “Great Divide” lol.

A general rule of thumb with adaptations, imho, is that characters come first. There was that (probably baseless) rumour about making Katara the elder sibling. That’d be a great example of not understanding the source material and the characters so I do hope that doesn’t happen. The thing about every single change is that, especially with a story that as carefully constructed as ATLA, it can change everything. It’s a ripple effect. For example, change Jet in a substantial way and it would change Sokka, Zuko and Katara - that’s three out of the five mains! So while I’d welcome some changes, pretty much ones like what you listed, I’m wary of them.

Seeing more interactions between characters is always good but there has to be a point. I love me some quality time between Zuko and Toph but, contrary to popular belief, they didn’t need a life-changing adventure. If any additional scenes between them serve the characters, such as highlighting thematic parallels then yeah that’d be good. Glob knows I adore the water sibs and the one thing I’d probably elaborate on is bloodbending but again, this is very tricky. Bloodbending is one of the most cohesive and thematically consistent aspects of the whole franchise and there’s a part of me that thinks any more scenes would dilute that.

That said I always did feel like Katara’s moment of darkness should have been reflected upon more. Part of the reason she’s so misunderstood in the fandom, imo, is that her arc is a lot more subtle than e.g. Zuko’s and some acknowledgement of “The Puppetmaster” and her bloodbending in “The Southern Raiders” could have changed that. I’d probably have her reflection at the end of the episode be primarily with Sokka and include an honest conversation about trauma and how they dealt with it differently. It doesn’t have to be too on the nose as that would go against their dynamic but Sokka deserved a bigger part in that story. Ngl I kinda dislike that the end of “The Southern Raiders” is used to introduce Aang’s moral dilemma. This is my favourite episode ever but the very beginning and very end feel somewhat disjointed from the rest. Understandable since it’s so close to the finale and the last “serious” ep before Sozin’s Comet but I think the adaptation could introduce that dilemma earlier and allow TSR to be entirely about Katara (and also more about Sokka). Katara can still have that moment of forgiveness with Zuko and it’s still a life-changing field trip between them but, yeah.

Going back to bloodbending, I do think that even just one impactful line about it would be a good addition to the story. You know, like when Toph says “he’s lying” in “Lake Laogai?” Yeah like that. Just a small gut punchy moment. Because Katara’s reflection on bloodbending, as is now, is more implied than anything so I think that final decision on her part to reject it would be good, and you’re right, foreshadowing her outlawing the practice.

Surprise surprise I got carried away with bloodbending, again, but yeah there are a few small things I’d change but it’s always tricky. As it stands now, I honestly don’t trust Netflix to make the good kind of changes. Transforming book 1 into something more cohesive could be interesting but that adventure of the week format is part of its charm and makes sense for the story of that season. I fear that they’ll make the same mistake as the godawful movie did in that Zuko’s arc will be much more on the nose. I fear a lot of things about it, actually. And maybe I’ll talk more about this as we get closer to actually getting any news from this project or as I inevitably do my annual Avatar rewatch. For now, I’ll say that there are things that could be changed but I don’t trust the production to make the right choices so I’m very happy Avatar Studios will most likely overshadow whatever Netflix does. And I hope Avatar Studios dares to come up with new content! But that’s another discussion.

[catie-does-things]

I loved your deconstruction of the Ember Island Players -episode. Could you be persuaded to write down your thoughts about the Southern Raiders too?

Well, since you asked.

(The Ember Island Players meta)

There’s a lot to say about The Southern Raiders and much of it has been said, but I’m going to focus on five major questions:

Is Aang’s response to Katara’s anger appropriate?

Is Zuko’s response appropriate? Is he being self-serving?

Is Aang’s philosophy about forgiveness correct? Should Katara forgive her mother’s killer?

Does this episode show Zutara in a positive or a negative light?

What were the writers trying to do with this episode?

Fair warning, I’m obviously Team Zutara, but I’m not going to be uncritical of Zuko, Katara, or this episode as a whole. I actually have some very mixed feelings about it, as you’ll see.

Also, this is hella long. So, get comfortable.

This is a serious episode. Look how serious we are.

1. Is Aang’s response to Katara’s anger appropriate?

When Katara and Zuko first tell Aang they plan to find the man who killed her mother, Aang’s immediate reaction is skeptical and dismissive, asking Katara what she thinks that will accomplish. This is point one against Aang - even if there’s reason to doubt that this mission is a good idea, that’s a bad way to open the conversation. And naturally, Katara doesn’t take it well, saying in disgust that she knew Aang wouldn’t understand.

Aang protests that he does understand, and I know a lot of people take issue with his comparison to losing Appa, which I do think is not really comparable to Katara’s trauma from her mother’s death. But to be fair, he does also mention the genocide of the Air Nomads. It’s weird that Aang even puts these two things on the same level, though, and kind of does come across as naïve - as I’ve talked about before, I think a certain level of age-appropriate naïveté is a definite part of Aang’s character, and the show runs into trouble when it fails to challenge him on this.

This is another example of that failure. A bit later, when the scene cuts to night time, Aang uses forgiving Katara for trying to sneak away with Appa as another example, cheerily asking if that gives Katara any ideas. This is a real cringe moment for me, as Aang is lumping all offenses, great and small, together as if they should be equally easy to forgive. That’s not to say that they should not all be forgiven. But forgiving the murder of a loved one is inevitably going to be much harder than forgiving the minor deceit of a friend, and Aang’s flippant attitude shows no regard for the distinction.

Pictured: The wrong attitude for this conversation.

Going back to the first part of this scene, after accusing Katara of seeking revenge, which she doesn’t deny, Aang says that she sounds like Jet. This comparison really is unfair, as Katara points out - seeking retribution against a killer might be wrong, but it’s nowhere near the same as attacking innocent people. Again, Aang is making sweeping moral generalizations that, even if they’re founded on correct principles, fail to recognize the realities that make these kind of moral questions difficult. I think it would be very hard to argue that Yon Rha does not deserve any kind of punishment for killing Kya, the real question is what that punishment should be and whether Katara should be the one to mete it out.

Aang is twelve. This is a children’s show. Fine. But the writers wanted to go there, and it’s a disservice to the gravity of the subject matter they chose to address if we’re really meant to take the twelve-year-old’s fumbling attempts at moral guidance at face value.

And unfortunatley, we are. After Zuko and Katara leave, Sokka declares that Aang is “pretty wise for a kid”, which to me is…the exact opposite of what we just saw. Aang means well and is even right in some important ways, but the only arguments he has to back up his own “wisdom” are unhelpful comparisons and platitudes. He’s about exactly as inept at this as I would expect a child of his age to be, but the writers are trying to tell me he’s wise beyond his years? Not buying it.

Some points in his favor: Aang does eventually come around and recognize Katara needs to confront her mother’s killer, though it is a weird and unexplained 180 after the scene cuts from day to night. And his advice that she should “let [her] anger out, and then let it go” is sound. It’s weird that Zuko makes fun of him for this, because it’s much better presented than a lot of his previous advice, and also…something Zuko has kind of already done. But we’ll get to that later.

Overall, I’d say Aang’s response to Katara’s pain and anger is not great. His heart’s in the right place, but his inability to provide strong arguments for his philosophy and his apparent expectation that Katara should easily forgive her mother’s killer prove he’s not actually mature enough to give moral guidance in a helpful way in such a difficult situation, in spite of what we’re told.

It’s hard to be a kid when the writers keep treating you like you’re more mature than you actually are.

2. Is Zuko’s response appropriate? Is he being self-serving?

For starters, we need to distinguish that Zuko is not trying to provide an alternative moral guidance to that offered by Aang. He’s not trying to be a moral guide at all, so that puts a lot of what he says and does in a different context.

What is Zuko trying to do? He’s trying to make up for his betrayal in Ba Sing Se. 

The beginning of the episode sets up that Katara is the last holdout on accepting Zuko as part of the group, and Zuko is bothered by this. (Though it is interesting that each of them saves the other’s life during the escape from the Western Air Temple, also hinting at how these two characters are mutually supportive of each other, antagonistic or not.) Because of this, some people have said Zuko pushes Katara to take revenge for selfish reasons, because he thinks it will make her accept him.

Well, Zuko doesn’t actually push Katara to do anything, so much as give her the opportunity. All he says to her is that he knows how to find the man who killed her mother, making no suggestion as to what she should do in that scenario. And when Aang challenges them, he says that Katara needs to find this man in order to get “closure and justice.” Where could Zuko have gotten the idea that confronting the person responsible for your childhood trauma is necessary for closure and justice?

Probably by doing it himself.

Zuko confronting Ozai is likely our best indication of how he’s imagining Katara confronting her mother’s killer is going to go. Zuko doesn’t try to punish Ozai, because he believes it’s the Avatar’s destiny to take down the Fire Lord. Instead, he essentially takes this as his opportunity to let his anger out so he can move past it…you know, that suggestion Aang made that I said it was weird for Zuko to scoff at? This is why. If he’s imagining Katara confronting her mother’s killer will go something like him confronting his father, which I think we have to assume is the case, then he and Aang would be more or less suggesting the same thing.

But Kya’s killer, like Ozai, also deserves punishment, and whose destiny is that? If this is the Avatar’s responsibility as well, Aang doesn’t seem to be jumping at the chance to do it - not once does he offer to accompany Katara on her quest. Legally, perhaps it’s the Fire Lord’s job to punish war criminals in his own armed forces - but Ozai’s obviously not going to do that, and who if anyone will succeed him is up in the air at this point. This is a classic setup for a revenge or vigilante plot - the proper authorities, the designated arbiters of justice are either unwilling or unable to act, so individuals who normally would not have the right to punish wrongdoers are the only ones who can.

Is seeking retribution in these circumstances morally perilous nonetheless? Absolutely. But to the extent that Zuko’s offer to confront her mother’s killer does move Katara to violence in this episode, it’s a principled rather than arbitrary use of violence. And the offer itself comes from a personal experience of how necessary the confrontation can be.

Which brings us back to earlier in the episode, and the reason Zuko is doing all of this in the first place. 

This is my favorite screencap of course I was going to find a reason to use it.

When Katara lays down her very legitimate grievance against Zuko, namely that she was the first person in their group to trust him, and that he betrayed that trust, Zuko is not dismissive of her anger, nor does he offer excuses. He just asks, “What can I do to make it up to you?” Zuko of all people understands the need to make amends for his own misdeeds. Katara of course only offers sarcastic, impossible suggestions (reconquer Ba Sing Se, bring her mother back), and here it would be very easy for Zuko to write her off and just accept that she’s always going to hate him. But, as he tells Sokka in the following scene, he doesn’t know why, but he does care what Katara thinks of him. We know why, though.

It’s because of his sense of honor. I hope I don’t need to explain to anyone how we know that Zuko has a deep-seated drive to the right thing, even if he’s sometimes confused about what the right thing is. But in this case, his instincts are good: he personally wronged Katara by his actions in Ba Sing Se in a way he didn’t hurt anyone else in the group, so he needs to do something equally personal to expiate his guilt against her in a way he didn’t need to for anyone else in the group.

And what he tries to offer her - the closure she’s never gotten over her mother’s death - really is the perfect thing. Their initial connection was forged because of their shared pain over losing their mothers, and as Zuko insightfully tells Sokka, Katara has connected her anger over that loss to her anger at him. This is not just some random favor he thinks he can do to get back in her good graces. It’s a specific redress of her actual grievance against him. It’s not selfish of him to want to give her that. It’s right.

But, there are some points against Zuko as well. He’s a little too quick to dismiss Aang’s advice, and a little mean about how he does it - though as I’ve said, in a way that I don’t think is quite in character. More gravely, during the actual confrontation with Yon Rha, Zuko is almost entirely hands-off, letting Katara do whatever she wants - apparently up to and including kill him. Again, Zuko is not trying to be Katara’s moral guide here, but that in itself is open to criticism. If killing Yon Rha really is crossing a line, then Zuko would be remiss in not trying to stop her.

The best light you can read this in is that Zuko trusts Katara not to cross that line - and he certainly shows no sign of surprise or disappointment when she does spare him. But I think this is reading a bit more into the text than is actually there. You could also take it as Zuko leaving the decision of whether Yon Rha deserved to die up to Katara, but again, this is a morally lax stance that is hardly above criticism.

So is Zuko’s response to Katara’s anger appropriate? Yes and no. His response to her anger at him absolutely is, demonstrating a healthy sense of compunction and a laudable desire to give due redress of grievances. How he responds to her anger at her mother’s killer is less childishly judgmental than Aang, but in a way that arguably runs to the opposite extreme of showing too little concern for the morality of her actions - which is itself odd, given Zuko’s established strong sense of morality and unwillingness to stand by and do nothing when someone else does something wrong.

“What can I do to make it up to you?” vs. “Guru Goody Goody”: Zuko’s moral compass is kind of a mixed bag in this episode tbh

3. Is Aang’s philosophy about forgiveness correct? Should Katara forgive her mother’s killer?

Obviously opinions will vary about this, but I can certainly give you mine.

Putting aside questions of Air Nomad philosophy vs. Water Tribe vs. Fire Nation - these are, after all, fictional cultures made up by modern American writers in a show for a modern American audience - forgiveness is generally valued by most people, though as C.S. Lewis puts it, “everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive”. Forgiveness is hard, especially when the offense is great and there is no easy way for the offender to make things right - as in Zuko’s case - or the offender has no interest in doing so - as is the case with Yon Rha. But Aang is right that forgiveness is necessary for healing, and I would say for other reasons as well. I’ll refrain from a full-blown treatise on forgiveness here, but I quoted Lewis, and if you have any idea what he wrote on the subject…yeah. That.

Katara says in the first argument with Aang that forgiving her mother’s killer is impossible. And as much as the episode’s final scene tries to present the resolution that Aang was right all along, Katara still definitively declares that she will never forgive him (though she does forgive Zuko). So even though Zuko says Aang was right about what Katara needed, Katara certainly doesn’t seem to think it’s that simple.

Pictured: Not someone who has accepted Aang’s philosophy.

I’ll be very honest. I hate this line. I wish she had said something like “I don’t know if I’ll ever forgive him”, which would allow her to still have that residual anger to work through like the writers apparently wanted, acknowledging that forgiving Yon Rha can’t be as easy as Aang made it out to be, while still leaving the door open that she might get there someday. True forgiveness might be too much to expect of her at this point, but her rejection of it as impossible should at least be tempered, especially if, as Zuko’s dialogue in this scene and Sokka’s in the earlier scene imply, we’re meant to learn from this episode that Aang is right.

In spite of how poorly argued Aang’s position is, I do agree with his basic thesis about the importance of forgiveness, and I’m disappointed how many people seem to be ready to dismiss it outright in order to give Zuko the moral high ground in this episode. I don’t think that’s even necessary to defend Zutara as a ship, which brings us to our next point.

4. Does this episode show Zutara in a positive or a negative light?

“Come on, kids! ‘Zutara’ never would have lasted! It was just dark and intriguing.” - Bryan Konietzco

For those who buy into this claim that Zutara was too dark to be a functional romantic relationship, The Southern Raiders is usually the primary episode cited as proof. And it’s not a lighthearted episode. The creators described it as “probably one of the most intense episodes of the series”. It deals with unusually heavy subject matter for a half-hour timeslot cartoon for kids, and sees Katara struggling with some very dark feelings. But confronting darkness does not necessarily make a character, storyline, or ship dark.

Some argue that this episode shows Zuko bringing out the worst in Katara, and there is some truth in that, inasmuch as the effects of his betrayal in Ba Sing Se are still being felt. But Zuko is also making the effort to help her move past that, as well as her childhood trauma. In the course of their “field trip”, we see them working together effectively as a team, and in an understated but crucial scene, we see Katara open up to Zuko about that pain, unprompted, and Zuko once again offer her comfort - which no other character is ever shown to do.

“Your mother was a brave woman.” / “I know.”

Consolation is a different thing from moral guidance, but just as necessary. And where Aang’s attempts at the latter come across as inept, Zuko seems to know exactly the right thing to say to comfort Katara at that point. Katara’s memory of her mother’s death, even though she doesn’t have all the details at this point, makes it pretty clear that Kya died protecting her, which again highlights the similarities between Zuko and Katara - he also lost his mother because she was trying to protect him. I think it’s a pretty safe assumption that their repeatedly paralleled backgrounds are the reason these two characters seem to get each other so instinctively, and here we have another excellent example of that right in the middle of the episode that supposedly shows what a bad influence they are on each other.

And then of course it ends like this:

So dark. Very intrigue. Much dysfunction. Wow.

Are all of Zuko and Katara’s actions in this episode beyond reproach? No. Why do they have to be? What’s wrong with two characters confronting a difficult situation and making some questionable choices but ultimately both growing from the experience? That doesn’t prove that a theoretical romantic relationship between them would be doomed to failure. It actually provides a pretty good foundation for a healthy relationship that they can work through these things together. I mentioned earlier the reciprocal saves in the escape from the air temple, and I still maintain that’s emblematic of a larger pattern of Zuko and Katara mutually enriching each other’s character arcs.

Which is another important point to make here: this episode is not the be all end all of Zutara. We see so many more interactions between them, from the unexpected connection they make in Ba Sing Se to Katara’s friendly teasing in The Ember Island Players. And then there’s the four episode finale.

Bringing this back from the last meta for a victory lap.

So I would say that the portrayal of Zutara in this episode, in the context of the rest of their relationship in the show, is overwhelmingly positive. They’re not perfect, individually or together, but they’re a far cry from grimdark dysfunction. Furthermore, some of the morally questionable aspects of their actions in this episode are even narratively questionable as well, which brings me at last to my final point.

5. What were the writers trying to do with this episode?

I’ve already talked about how I find the effort to portray Aang as a wise moral guide unconvincing, how I think Zuko’s nastiest dismissal of him makes little sense given Zuko’s own prior experience, and how Katara’s ultimate refusal to forgive Yon Rha doesn’t fit with the episode’s apparently intended moral. But other scenes, like the air temple escape sequence, the clifftop argument between Zuko and Katara, and most of the “field trip”, are fantastically written. So what’s going on here?

Well, there’s always the Team Ehasz Conspiracy Theory.

It’s speculation time again!

For those unfamiliar, “Team Ehasz” consists of husband and wife writing duo Aaron Ehasz, the head writer for the series and writer of several episodes, and Elizabeth Welch Ehasz, who also wrote several episodes, including The Southern Raiders. Various iterations of the conspiracy theory range from giving them credit for many of the show’s most successful narrative choices to asserting that they had an entire alternative vision for the show that frequently clashed with Bryke’s, including that they supported the idea of Zutara. There’s little to no evidence for any of this, but it’s…vaguely plausible based on what we do know for certain was the work of Team Ehasz, and that’s all that’s necessary for it to pass into Zutara fandom urban legend.

One wrinkle of this theory - which if anyone does have verifiable sources on I’d love to see - is the rumor that Bryke were supposedly unhappy with the original draft of The Southern Raiders because they felt it was “too shippy”, and insisted the episode be revised accordingly. If it were true that there was a creative clash behind the scenes, that would explain a lot of the episode’s inconsistencies. 

Perhaps the unsuccessful attempt to show Aang as a wise moral authority was a Bryke addition. Maybe Zuko’s uncharacteristic mean comments were meant to make him less sympathetic, lest anyone ship him with Katara. We’ll probably never know for sure, but whatever happened in the writers’ room, the end result is an episode with a lot of great scenes and important character development that nonetheless fails to land a coherent message. Aang is wise beyond his years for giving shallow and immature arguments for his philosophy of forgiveness, but in the end Zuko and Katara learn he was right all along, except Katara doesn’t actually forgive the person Aang wanted her to forgive and never will. Um. Okay.

At least we got badass ninja!Zutara out of it.

Bonus Point: The Writing Fail Train Doesn’t End There!

The episode ends with Zuko asking Aang a very important question: If violence is truly never the answer, as Aang claims, then what is he going to do about a little problem named Ozai? We cut to credits and never see Aang’s immediate response to the question, but of course this is an issue in the finale, with the potential consequences of Aang’s refusal to kill Ozai famously made a non-issue thanks to an eleventh hour power-up granted to him by a deus ex machina.

Maybe if a magical lion turtle showed up to resolve my moral dilemmas for me, I’d be as naïve a pacifist as Aang, too.

[kdinthecity]

Confessions of a Teenage Sugar Queen: Underwater

Welcome to Day Two of @zutaraweek. Here is the previous chapter from Day One, Chapter 1: Fired Up.

The Memorial Day holiday weekend marks the end of school and beginning of summer. Ozai—excuse me, Mr. Kasai, ever so graciously invited “Azula’s friends” to their family beach house on Ember Island. Dad must not have known we’d all be there without adult supervision, otherwise he’d never agree to this. Especially since Sokka is here with his girlfriend, Suki. Ugh, they are so disgusting together and not even subtle about it! I actually respected her—a cheerleader, taekwondo black belt, honors student who nailed the coveted coast guard internship for the summer. But when I stepped on something cold, wet, and squishy in the bathroom on the first morning of our beach getaway... just, ew.

I know it’s not their first time. And I know people do it, alright? Hell, Jet and I did everything but. I just want it to be special. And with someone I… dare I say it? Love.

Can you fall in love in high school? My rational brain says no. I write about it in my fictional stories, but that’s the only way I’ll entertain the idea. Besides, I have responsibilities. Gran Gran is great at taking care of us, but she isn’t getting any younger. Dad is gone over half the year. Sokka can barely match his own socks much less wash them. And for my junior year, I plan to take college level calculus, chemistry, and political science. I don’t have time for a boyfriend and certainly not any notions of love.

“Zuko was looking for you!” Ty Lee plops down next to me on my beach towel. I had distanced myself from the others, saying I want to work on my “tan.” My skin is dark enough already, so anyone with eyes can see through my outright lie. Even Toph wouldn’t be fooled. Although I swear that girl detects falsehood by the catch in your breath or the rhythm of your heartbeat. Toph teases that she can predict the next earthquake through her feet, but I bet she would feel it before the rest of us do.

It takes a while for Ty Lee's comment to register. Why would Zuko be looking for me? He hasn’t spoken a word to me since we arrived. I’m pissed about this, actually, and two can play the game of cold shouldering.

“He found the surfboards,” Ty Lee continues. “Did you want to surf?”

I do love surfing. Mom taught me. Sokka hates it; the uncoordinated doofus always falls off. But I’m a natural, almost as if I can command the waves. I'll be the bigger person and call a truce on this no-talking thing. Maybe Zuko surfs, too.

He doesn’t.

He doesn’t even like the water! He looks at the ocean like it’s going to swallow him whole. This could put up a serious roadblock in our relationship, I mean—friendship! Gah, we don’t even have that! I’ve spoken exactly 17 words to him. Why do I know? Because I've replayed that stupid encounter in my head, thinking I could have said something much more interesting. It would be a miracle if creepy, sexy scar boy ever talks to me again. Like when he gave me a board, he just grunted. And I took it without saying thank you! I clearly suck monkeyballs at conversation.

“Katara?”

“Hmm?” Get ready for case in point.

“I think I gave you the wrong surfboard.”

All I can think about is how tight my wetsuit feels all of the sudden and how his golden eyes shimmer in the midday sun. Even the half-lidded one is so striking, like his gaze is on fire. Zuko barely says a few words and apparently possesses the power to melt my insides and freeze my brain all at the same time.

“Huh?” Yes, I know. Eloquent.

“I gave you my sister’s board,” Zuko continues, a slight flush rising to his cheeks. “From when she was younger. I didn’t know how experienced you were.”

So… he was watching me. Again.

He shrugs. “Um. Maybe you want to try my mother’s instead?”

My tongue feels thick, but somehow I manage. “Yeah. Sure. That’d be great.”

He hesitates before handing over the board, tracing the rail with long nimble fingers. I don’t recall Azula ever mentioning their mother, so I wonder.

“Don’t worry,” I say. “I’ll take good care of it.”

He simply nods, and while the sadness in his expression is fleeting, it did not go unnoticed.

I distance myself again at the beachside bonfire that night. I much prefer the cool ocean breeze whipping through my hair over the hot stifling smell of burning wood. From my vantage point on a rocky ledge nearby, I can see the group down below. Azula assembles the ingredients for s'mores, taking a little too much pleasure in stabbing marshmallows with long metal skewers.

Sokka and Suki are snuggled up together in the same position they were earlier. With her head tilted back and lips slightly parted, I can only guess what’s going on underneath their blanket. Ewww.

Zuko is wearing a Hawaiian print shirt and handing out lei necklaces of all things. I decide he is much more interesting to watch—so awkward and adorable. He tentatively places the flowers around Ty Lee’s neck, obviously trying to look anywhere besides the cleavage spilling from her bikini top. She gives him a peck on the cheek in response. It’s too dark to tell, but I bet his face has turned as red as our school mascot, the firedragon. I wonder if he knows that Ty Lee is into girls.

Zuko’s sister waves him away. Sokka and Suki are making out now, so he avoids them. He’s obviously searching for someone. Could it be me?

Mai.

That girl has complained nonstop since we got here. She hates the sand. She sunburns too easily. Ocean water makes her eyes sting. Zuko doesn’t pay enough attention to her. Zuko won’t leave her alone! UGH!

He gives her TWO leis. And she fucking rolls her eyes at him. That’s it. I’m going for a walk on the beach.

I don’t know how long it’s been, but I have a tendency to lose track of time when I’m out here close to the water. My element.

Someone clears his throat. If he weren’t so wrapped up in his girlfriend—literally—I’d expect Sokka to start worrying and come find me. But no, this isn’t a concerned sibling visit.

“Missed you at the bonfire,” Zuko says.

“Yeah, sorry. I guess I don’t really like fire. It’s too—” Destructive. “—hot.” My throat feels tight again but not for the same reason as before. My thoughts have been... drifting.

“I like fire. As long as it’s controlled.” His voice is sexy as fuck, but surprisingly I am able to find mine this time.

“Well, anything out of control is a bad thing, right?” Control is everything. That’s why I work so hard to maintain it.

“Makes sense. I don’t really like the ocean for that reason. The waves seem… uncontrollable. Or controlled by a force that we can’t wield.”

Ah, he likes his control, too. “The waves are controlled by the moon,” I say.

“I know, and the moon is untouchable. At least with fire, humans can light it, contain it, and put it out. Y’know?”

“I think I’d trust the moon over a man with a match any day.”

He regards me for a few seconds with those sad, striking eyes of his, then laughs. “Maybe so.”

He turns to leave, and I’m searching my brain for something, anything to say to make him stay. I want to hear him laugh again.

“Oh! I almost forgot.” He’s suddenly back in my field of vision, and he’s closer than ever before. He smells like campfire and chocolate, and I didn’t think it possible, but those eyes are now smoldering. My breath catches as he gently places a lei around my neck; I shudder when warm fingers brush past my left ear.

He’s gone, and I discover this is no cheap party store necklace, either. The flowers are real, and their fragrance is intoxicating. I might feel high for a different reason, though.

“If you don’t like the ocean, then why did you apply for this position?” I’m basically high on two cups of coffee and a cocoa almond flaxseed energy bar. I’ve been anxiously waiting for our internship to start. We’re already on a boat first thing, and Zuko is gripping the side of it for dear life. Hahn immediately and shamelessly attached himself to Yue like a barnacle to a buoy, so it is only Zuko and me positioned here portside.

“It’s for PR,” he replies.

“What?”

He sighs. “Look, you wouldn’t understand.”

I don’t think his knuckles could get any whiter… or his face any greener. I can’t help but worry.

“Are you gonna be OK?” I ask when he’s clearly not.

“Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“No.”

“Can you maybe… explain? I can try to understand.” I stare at the right side of his face, chiseled and flawless. Admittedly, he’s beautiful. It's my turn to sigh.

His eyes remain fixated on the water below. “OK… it’s for my father’s business. To improve his reputation. It looks good for tech companies to support noble causes, give back to the environment. My father thinks I’m useless as an employee, so this is how he wants me to restore honor to the company name.”

“Oh.”

Even though I am mesmerized by his perfect profile, his statement doesn’t settle well with me at all. Of course, I want the position so it will look good on my college applications, and maybe that's a little selfish and not that much different. But I also care about the important stuff we're doing. Nobody ultimately goes into nonprofit work for personal glory, right? Maybe people do it to feel good about themselves, but somehow I know this is not Zuko's intention in this situation. It won't be fulfilling unless he feels something for it.

“Is that how you see it? As just a job to make your father look good?” I ask.

“Katara… I just need to… survive, OK? I need to graduate, get into a good college, so I can get the hell out of here.”

“But… you’ve got the education position at the Marine Center. How can you teach what you don’t really believe in?”

“I got that position because I have a ton of Future Fire Technology branded freebies to hand out when I go visit places. I’m telling you, Katara. It’s all about PR.”

But it’s not! It’s about speaking truth! And saving lives! And changing minds! That’s what Mom used to…

I can’t look at him anymore. I just can’t. I can only look at our reflections in the water and fight the urge to push him overboard.

What if he can’t swim, though? Is that why he’s afraid?

I look at his pained expression once again, and it seems like he’s already drowning.

The setting is modern day California, specifically Silicon Valley where HS kids are super stressed about stuff like internships because the tech culture is all around them, and Stanford and UC Berkeley are the “local schools.” Ember Island is like Angel Island; it exists solely for recreational purposes. The Marine Science Center is based on two real-life organizations in the Bay Area.

Chapter Three: Steamy  | Chapter Four: The Fall

[seyaryminamoto]

How does Sokka and Azula make sense? Not bashing just confused. I have attempted, really, REALLY attempted to read the fanfiction with them but I can't fathom it. Personally I can see Azula and Aang or Azula and Ty Lee better...

Oh, boy. Gotcha, I understand you’re not bashing, but this is going to be hard to explain if that’s what you think makes a better match for Azula.

What I’m getting from your preferences is that this really is a matter of tastes. You may be choosing Ty Lee and Aang over their gentleness, maybe? You think they’re happy, they’re sweet, so they’re ideal counterweights to Azula’s cold, abrasive nature? If that’s what you’re thinking, naturally you won’t see how Sokka and Azula make sense. This may be how you’re looking for Azula’s “happy ending”, if we may call it that, and I’ll say there’s nothing wrong with you thinking that way, Anon. You are allowed to have your own opinions and shipping tastes, regardless of what they may be. 

But, alas, as it must be obvious, I find Azula’s “happy ending” can be very different from what Ty Lee or Aang could provide, and it happens to be extremely fulfilling for me to see Azula and Sokka together instead. Below, a longer explanation of why I choose Sokka and Azula over any other ship for them.

For starters, it must be obvious that I disagree with you. I absolutely adore Sokkla, with the force of a thousand suns, and I’ve never found a pair that suits each other as well as Sokka and Azula do. And I mean in any other fandom, too. Matter of tastes indeed, but this is how it’s been for me up to date.

So, of course, that means I find other Azula ships to be less satisfactory than Sokkla. And here I’ll explain a few things where, in my opinion, Sokka surpasses Ty Lee and Aang as partners for Azula:

Personally, I don’t like Ty Lee’s history with Azula. While Ty Lee can be very sweet, she also has proven to be one character (along with Mai, truth be told) who can lie to Azula’s face and Azula will swallow it all without having any clue of what’s going on. Ty Lee has learned how to lull Azula into false senses of security, and she betrayed Azula, something Azula will have a lot of trouble getting over, if she ever does. The way I see it, Ty Lee and Azula would have no walk in the park fixing this relationship, because Azula’s likeliness to trust her friend again isn’t very good. Especially when Ty Lee, canonically, isn’t interested in fixing this relationship. So… as I see it, canonically, Ty Lee’s dishonesty is a major problem that won’t be easy for Azula to overcome. While she could be very loving if she feels like it, the show (and then the comics) press that Ty Lee doesn’t really feel like being loving with Azula, at least ever since Azula yanked her out of the circus.

Sokka doesn’t offer the same problem. Sokka is ridiculously honest, blunt to the point of insensitive: this is something I personally think Azula needs. He won’t pull his punches, he’ll tell her what he truly thinks about anything. Whether she’s going about things right, whether she’s going about them wrong, he won’t hesitate to tell the truth because he also has a very bad sense of self-preservation. I mean, Azula shoots a fireball at him and yet he still stands there waving at Ty Lee because she smiled at him? In clear shot? So yes, no self-preservation. He’d tell Azula blunt truths and only think “Oops, she didn’t take that well” a little too late.

But the thing is, Azula would appreciate his brutal honesty. Her closest friends lied to her, betrayed her, chose someone else over her. If someone like Sokka, honest to no end, picks HER? She knows he’s for real. She may think he’s wrong to want a monster, may hesitate, may be unsure of how this will work out, but she’s going to know he means it. It’s not going to be empty words or shallow promises with him. This in particular is something I emphasize as a quality Sokka provides in this relationship that is hardly paralleled by any other ships (also, if he ever did try to lie about anything it’d be obvious too, so Azula would be able to tell immediately, that’s how I write it anyways).

And the loving aspect Ty Lee provides is something Sokka could provide too. Just look at him in his relationship with Yue, how he defends her even when Toph wasn’t even attacking her outright. If you ask me, Azula deserves someone like that. Someone who’d stand up for her regardless of whether she’s listening or not. Someone whose dedication to her is absolutely genuine. And Sokka can very easily be that someone, if their relationship is developed properly, of course.

Now, as for Aang, does sound reasonable to some degree that the most morally and ethically correct character would influence one of the more morally corrupt ones, I guess? But the thing is that Aang’s morality is very… uh, extreme, I’d say. Azula has always been ends-justify-the-means, and I don’t think Aang could tolerate this easily at first (which would make relationship development a lot more complicated for them). Aang didn’t want to kill Ozai at all, refused to (although, uh, he kinda has killed other nameless people before, surely, soooo… that was kinda hypocritical, but the show let it slide), and he also reacted explosively when the others insisted that it was the only way (sure, they were wrong, but at the time they seemed to be right). Whether Aang is ethically correct or incorrect, the fact of the matter remains that he’s very strict with his sense of morality.

Meanwhile, Sokka’s morals are top-notch if you ask me, even though he doesn’t see the world in black and white. He dares trust a Fire Nation old man from as early as episode 10, and he challenges Jet because he knows is doing the wrong thing. This isn’t to say Sokka is exempt from making morality mistakes, but he’s usually a lot less preachy about his ethics, too. He has his principles, but he doesn’t really force them on anyone. He tried to convince Katara not to kill Yon Rha because he knows it won’t bring their mother back, but he doesn’t hesitate about doing what needs to be done to protect his friends and family. He will blow up a bunch of tanks off the Northern Air Temple if he has to. He will kill Combustion Man. He will tear down all the airships he can if it means stopping them from burning down the Earth Kingdom.

The basic difference is that Sokka doesn’t LIKE resorting to drastic measures, but he will do it if he thinks there’s no other choice. Aang instead won’t ever want to resort to those drastic measures, and if backed into those situations he’ll likely always try to find another way out. The way I see it, Aang’s strict mentality that won’t accept murder, for instance, as a resource to put an end to a menace or two, won’t sit well with Azula. Instead of leading her to rethink her own ethics, it can lead her to dismiss him as childish, innocent, idealistic and whatnot, and as I said above, this would cause rifts between them. Sokka, instead, will kill if death is the only way (but he will always choose another way if there’s another one). His cold blood in these regards is not too different from Azula’s: but his morality is a lot better than hers. In matters where she might think “If the enemy won’t comply then we threaten them…”, Sokka will stop her if he can think of another alternative to achieve success. And she will listen to the alternative, because maybe it can be more effective than what she wants to do. But Sokka won’t stop her with “No, this is so wrong!” but rather, “You don’t have to go to those extremes when this is a perfectly feasible alternative where nobody gets hurt”.

Sokka serves as a moral influence on Azula really well, if you ask me, because of how much of a pragmatist he can be. In those regards, he won’t be too different from her. But he will never pass a sentence on someone just on the basis of where they came from (old man from the Fire Nation, as an example), he won’t preach morality in a strict way even if he will certainly try to stop her from making bad mistakes and treating people wrongly. But she likely won’t feel like he’s a goody-two-shoes, the way she might with Aang. And I think that would make her a lot more receptive to what Sokka would say about morality than what Aang would.

But there are also other reasons why I suspect she’d listen to Sokka, and respect him, and it’s involved with one of the most powerful reasons why, I think, people ship Sokka and Azula: They have a huge number of things in common! 

First off, their families are fairly similar, only, Sokka’s isn’t a toxic mess while Azula’s is. The two of them admire their fathers (as usual, let’s not focus on the awful things Azula’s dad did…), gravitated towards them instead of their mother, from the looks of it. And they are the trouble-making, teasing siblings. Sokka will mess with Katara a lot, usually gets bitten back for it, Azula will tease Zuko to no end and Zuko explodes: both Sokka and Azula are, thus, the pragmatic, intelligent siblings with a sense of humor to siblings who are emotion-oriented, constantly striving to do the right thing, and whatnot.

So, their families are similar, and also they both have sense of humor. A major, seriously important factor, though, is intelligence. Sokka and Azula are both the smartest people in their respective groups (which, interesting, also turns them into the leaders). Azula certainly seems smarter, going by how her long-scale plans tend to pay off flawlessly, but therein lies the difference, the way I see it: Sokka likes long-term plans but he’s not so good at executing them. Instead, the show presents us a Sokka who can improvise rather quickly, who can analyze situations very fast and come up with solutions to handle every obstacle on the way. So, we have two tacticians here, but different kinds of tacticians: she’s good for long-term planning, he’s good for short-term. Imagine the unbelievably badass team such pair would make in a battlefield. I tell you, not a lot of people could stand against such leadership and tactical power.

But of course, there’s a lot they’re not equals on. Their origins are vastly different, and even though Sokka is somewhat a prince, he was raised humbly while Azula wasn’t. Water Tribe, Fire Nation, bender, non-bender. But see, curiously Azula doesn’t discriminate races or nations. At most she is classist, since she does call others “peasants”, but she takes the Dai Li into her service just fine because she sees how useful they can be. She discards a whole procession of firebenders and chooses to travel and finish her mission with two non-benders. So, if anyone’s thinking “She’d never want a Water Tribe non-bender”, the evidence really says the opposite. She’d be able to see what he has to offer, no matter his origins or lack of bending.

The encounter during the Eclipse also speaks for something that I don’t even need to headcanon as a possibility. Azula notices Sokka’s leadership, singles him out as the one who needs to be stopped. She might have tried a different strategy if she had seen Aang was the leader (like “At this moment, my forces are preparing to attack as soon as the sun is clear again, and your precious friends won’t survive… that is, unless you help them now instead of playing around with me”, for instance). She doesn’t. She goes for Sokka. And Sokka pushes her to that wall, glaring at her with defiance, and she responds with the same challenge in her eyes. Fact is, he’s not afraid right then and there. He’s fierce, he’s strong, and she’s seeing into the eyes of a man who will stand up to her if need be. Only when she attacks does he back off, and even when she ran he briefly wanted to stop her before realizing he’d made a terrible mistake by falling for her trap.

What this scene makes me think, in conjunction with the Boiling Rock’s fight, where Sokka and Zuko fight her, is that Azula would have no trouble in genuinely respecting Sokka, just the way she respects Mai, for instance. Sokka actually could have killed her in Boiling Rock, you know? There are moments where he’s just holding Space Sword inches away from her face or throat. Azula struggles keeping him at bay, and you can see he’s making her struggle. Basically: respect. As a warrior, as a leader, as a rival tactician, Azula absolutely would grow to respect Sokka because she already did in the show. And frankly, this sort of intellectual-warrior-respect bond isn’t something I can see in her canon or potential relationships with any other character in the show. This level of equal standing between them, the whole fact that the Day of Black Sun turns out to be Sokka vs. Azula (both physically and intellectually, since it’s his plan vs. her response to his plan), it tells you there’s potential. Lots of it.

Now, I cannot and will not deny they’ll butt heads, A LOT. Something else they have in common is stubbornness, no doubt. Neither Aang or Ty Lee are this stubborn, so maybe this is one of the reasons why you feel those two would match Azula better. Thing is, if Sokka and Azula find a rhythm, figure out how to handle their differences, how to balance each other, they make a brilliant match regardless of their stubbornness (if anything they get like Gladiator Sokkla as they are right now: their conflicts become lighter, sillier, and they just love it). I, personally, write them to make this happen. I write Sokkla to give them balance, not for one to overcome the other in any way. I want them equals, never uneven.

Truth is, the reason I jumped fully on board with Sokkla was because I ended up concluding this was the relationship that, if handled well, could make Azula the happiest. Sokka would get her, you know? He’d influence her in regards of morality, encourage her towards being better, but not by preaching how to be a model citizen to her, and he’d also be a challenge in regards of intellect: just imagine the board games, the two of them testing each other, working to beat one another and figuring out the other’s weaknesses and strengths. Sparring-wise, Sokka already proved in canon that he can be a challenge to her, and Azula is clearly aware of how deadly his sword is. Whether you do what I did, by having it so Azula hadn’t be taught how to use swords and Sokka teaches her, or whether you make it so she always knew, they can spar and have lots of fun with that too. And heck, a recent headcanon I thought of was Hakoda, Sokka and Azula having a bad jokes competition that everyone else flees from (it is known Hakoda and Sokka have the same sense of humor).

In short, I see a future with Azula and Sokka that holds endless adventure for them. If their potential wasn’t this great, I assure you, Anon, I would have never written a fic of the size of Gladiator. I’m nowhere near done with it. There’s so much story to tell with these two, and it’s amazing to rewrite ATLA completely with these two at the center.

(Also, I answered another ask about why I think Sokkla is the perfect match for Sokka, and not just for Azula, so if you’re interested in that side of the matter, here you go. Better than repeating myself.)

You are allowed not to ship Sokkla, nobody will stone you, nobody will be disappointed in you (plus, you’re anonymous, so who’d even know? xD). If you don’t see it after all I wrote here, that’s fine. If you still think Ty Lee or Aang make better matches for Azula, that’s fine. People can indeed agree to disagree and not clash about it, right? Only, if you follow me you should know (if you haven’t realized it yet) that I’ll always be posting Sokkla, so I warn you already that, um, you may not enjoy yourself much here if you can’t wrap your head around the ship. But really, you may just be like I am with Toph and Sokka. I have never been able to ship that, even though I tried at first. It just doesn’t work for me on some fundamental level, so if that’s what’s going on with you and Sokkla, I get it. Just, keep in mind the reasons I described are as valid as anyone else’s ideas for shipping Azula with someone else. I think the amount of fanfiction that has been written for them speaks for itself regarding how much potential Sokkla has.

Anyways, thank you for coming into my askbox to ask this out of genuine interest, and I hope my answer wasn’t rude in any way.