#like poor aang/katara's been at it since I was a child

[antotheethnographer]

Ship wars in my tumblr? More likely than you think.

Everyone of you is pretty and smart and the best, don't worry. Take your ship-based ethnocentrism and question it, my dudes. Go hug your fellow romaione, dramaione stan. Wholesome-ship-dynamics person, go take the hand of your enemies-to-lovers-to-therapy partners-to-my parents lil' guy. We are all cringe here, there's no need get our collective nickers in a twist.

I know some of people have a... very high self identification with shipping and antishipping to the point of being part of their personality, but there are better reasons out there to hate someone's guts. Like, have you met any nazis lately?

We all like to think that people who ship our notp are delusional, but are we not the same?

You, multiple individuals reading this, see any controversial/crack/unpopular ship you don't like getting hate, and you think it's justified because they're annoying, inmoral or whatever label you prefer, so the people doing the hating have the moral high ground. Buuuut it's usually hardcore fans of other equally cringy ship doing this, or some snobbish dudebro (gender neutral) whose understanding of concepts like mythology or transformative work are self-serving or limited, usually framed by some ambitious ideal of The Craft of StorytellingTM that's only undestandable by like-minded individuals and not by uncritical and shitty shippers.

Do you guys see where I'm going with this? All this sides sound like religious zealots, worst case scenario. People go preaching equallity and world peace and what not, and then act like any good old sectarian of your favourite christian variety.

Oh, and Lèvi-Strauss contacted me by means of hierofanic nature (came to me in an email). He says you should really check out works on the social aspects of storytelling and the importance of seemingly secular narratives to put the perceived chaos of the universe into order, which is related to our social and cultural organization.

(Besides the sarcasm, and surprisingley enough, sociological, anthroplogial and literary studies of religious beliefs have a lot to teach us about how we face the more secular aspects of our social lives. You should really check it out, random person reading my rant.)

Or you know, keep annoying eachother without reaching full-blown and multidrectional attempts at bullying. That's nice enough. You do you, and that's what's important.

[oneatlatime]

The Headband

I don't care how dormant a volcano supposedly is. Living in the maw of one would absolutely freak me out.

Zuko out for his nightly constitutional lurking practice.

I want this snuggy cape.

No better disguise than a cloud 1.2 metres from the ground. That's where all clouds hand out. Cool puffins though.

Enemy puffins approve of new fluffy Sokka.

Did Sokka just dive headfirst into rock?

I do not like this angle. Looks like his head's on backwards.

This episode is three minutes in and already I'm loving the comic tone.

Wow Katara, with the enthusiasm you're showing for stealing those clothes, they must belong to pirates.

These are some top tier nonsense sound effects. Far too few of those in recent episodes.

Beat up Sokka quota fulfilled!

Toph has by far the best outfit. Love the gold accents.

We've had two seasons of blatantly blue Katara not being identified by the Fire Nation as a Water Tribe person. I think the necklace can stay.

His headband is an airbender arrow. So much for disguising himself.

I would love it if linguistic drift meant that Aang was going around tossing out slurs completely unaware.

WHAT is this face

"Just slob is fine." I ADORE characters that are so secure in themselves and in their belief in the decency of others that all attempts at ridicule slide off like water off a duck's back.

He does it again! "Wow. Are you a bully? This is so exciting! I've always wanted to meet a bully!"

Onji - get better taste in men. Why are you even dating this prick? Did you have any say in becoming his girlfriend? Blink twice if you need help.

These Fire Nation kids are all so mild. Contrast them with Zuko and they might as well be a different species.

What is Hide and Explode?

Sokka is showing a mastery of slapstick that I haven't seen since The Fortune Teller. Glad to have it back.

Is this the first time someone has recognised Zuko by his scar? About time.

Was it really necessary to beat up the guard? Seems a bit much. Zuko could have just asked nicely. That usually works for Iroh.

Speaking of: Iroh! Hi Iroh! Didn't think you'd still be alive.

Noodle Ozai. Did Aang get put in preschool by accident?

Those hippies should do a song about Secret Rivers.

Tired of spending three years talking to Zuko without making any progress, Iroh decides to attempt a new technique and deploys the silent treatment. It works just as well as three years of talking.

Colour me completely unsurprised that the Fire Nation has a pledge of Allegiance.

This school must have some gnarly punishments if questioning the teacher garners this reaction.

This man's head is alarming.

This man is also surprisingly nice for a fascist agent of the state bent on suppressing personal expression.

Movements? Aang you were showing her MOVEMENTS! GASP! FILTHY!

I love this fight. It's been a while (maybe back to season 1) since Aang's preferred fighting style was 'Nope'.

They haven't committed to the bit this hard since Bonzu Pippinpadalopsicopoulous, the Third!

It's funny how we spent two whole seasons haunted by nothing but threatening shadows of the Fire Lord, and then an episode after his face is finally revealed they turn him into part of the decor. He even gets a noodle version.

Play Spot the Firelord with this episode. I count four.

Sokka is having way too much fun with this.

Just going to sneak a reference to child labour in there. Gnarly punishments indeed.

Local Emos Experience Happiness for the First Time; Immediately Implode.

I'm sorry but Mai's cloak has such Santa vibes.

That is some serious side eye.

"You get to be normal all the time." Aang is pulling no punches today.

Where did they get this many candles? Actually, where did they get that many matches? They don't even have a Firebender on staff.

Poor kid is objectively correct. I guarantee your parents don't want you dancing in a cave. It will be good for you though! just don't lick the walls.

No wonder the Fire Nation got rid of dancing. Those moves are awful.

Zuko! "I brought you this food that I know you don't like because I need your help." Buddy. Why.

I could do without the heavy-handed Katara and Aang romance. Also, when exactly did Katara learn advanced gymnastics and choreograph a whole routine with Aang?

I hate this twerp so much!

That song the band is playing right as the adults bust in is better than the songs featured earlier in the dance montage.

I love this guy.

i know that the soundtrack probably went from diegetic to non-diegetic as soon as the chase started, but I love the idea that the school band provided theme music for searching for Aang.

Delightfully eerie. and also very Spartacus.

Actually with the guards starting to dance, it WAS the school band providing a soundtrack for the Aang hunt.

Is Momo at the reins?

How is this assassin good at keeping secrets and not being followed? He creaks and clanks.

Final Thoughts

I loved this. This type of episode is when Avatar is at its best: heaps of goof, a side helping of heart, subtle and not-so-subtle critiques organically incorporated, tonally contrasting storylines that combine to form a whole greater than its parts, and even one-note characters who are given depth.

Aang was in his element as a normal kid; Sokka was having a great time being super agent / team dad; poor Katara and Toph got like two lines each but still had fun with what they did get. Even Momo got some sight gags.

Aang is so personable. I think it's the combination of great social skills from a good peripatetic upbringing and being a peacetime child.

I think Zuko experienced every possible human emotion this episode. I loved seeing him snark with Mai (those two are way too good together), but his scenes with/revolving around Iroh were confusing and intense. Which is probably how Zuko would describe them too. Seems he's speedrunning his season 1 bad decisions arc.

I'm not fond of this new silent treatment approach from Iroh, but I have to admit that talking to Zuko didn't work for years, so what else is there to try?

I wasn't expecting a Footloose homage and a Spartacus reference in Avatar of all places. But it works. And it works if you don't catch the references too.

I am severely disappointed in Fire Nation fashion. I was expecting gloriously eye-searing red/gold/yellow outfits. I got black/tan/brown with dull red edging. It's probably a visual commentary on what imperialism does to its own people. And the price of dyes. But I was really looking forward to reds and golds! At least I have Toph's outfit.

I loved the liberal use of sound effects in the Gaang's plot. I love comic sound effects on their own, but they really enhanced the contast between Zuko and the Gaang's plots.

There was lots of heavy stuff under the surface this episode, what with the squashing of the self and the discrimination against colonials and the propaganda and the revisionist history and the assassin. But I feel like being silly today, so I'm not going to dig into it. That's one of the great things about this show. Not all, but many episodes are structured so that you can choose your level of engagement and consequent angst.

This episode was funny, and fun. A much-needed palette cleanser after the drudge of the season opener. The last time there was an episode this unapologetically silly was probably Avatar Day. In other words, it's been far too long. Definitely going on my rewatch list.

I really want Zuko's snuggy cape.

[hello-nichya-here]

How was Ozai suffering from the imperialist regime of FN of all people? I mean in the past, yeah, he's a victim of the environment too. But when he was the Fire Lord and could stop the very war? The only "suffering" I can think of is managing the country's declining economic state because the war was driving out all the resources iirc. And also Azulon ordered him to kill his own son but imo it was more of Azulon being an abusive asshole than the imperialist system's doing.

The Fire Nation's imperialism directly affected how the dynamics in the royal family would work.

We see Sozin kill Roku, his best friend who might as well have been family, because he was in the way of his goals. Lu Ten died because Iroh, his dad, just HAD to fucking conquer Ba Sing Se. The whole deal of the "weak" needing to be harshily punished and forced to submit was what led to Azulon becoming abusive, and to Ozai then repeating that pattern with his own kids - hence the scene of Azulon demanding Ozai to kill Zuko mirroring the Agni Kai scene.

Also, it is totally possible to be a victim of your own poor decisions (see Sozin basically driving himself mad as he continues to chase the Avatar and Iroh losing his only child because of his ambition) and that very much fits Ozai's case.

In his blind ambition to become Fire Lord, Ozai betrays his own brother, kills his father, and banishes his wife. Because he couldn't stand anyone questioning his authority, even if indirectly and/or accidentally, he irreparably destroyed his relationship with his son by physically abusing him. Even the last person on Earth that still cared about him, Azula, CAN'T help him because the immense pressure he put on her to be the perfect princess/child soldier psychologically destroyed her. And let's not forget the only reason he lost his bending (and nearly died) was because he refused to accept Aang's final request for a ceasefire - we even see him explicitly say he doesn't believe the air-nomads deserved to exist, and then loses EVERYTHING when the last survivor of that group puts him in his place.

Ozai ended up all alone and powerless because his megalomania made him hurt people, and these people then turned against him - just like he did with his father.

Now, obviously he didn't suffer nearly as much as say, Aang, Katara, Sokka, or literally any of the victims of the genocides his family was responsible for, and the fact that he was a victim both of his environment and his own pride doesn't mean we have to forget everything he did - but neither do his bad actions erase his suffering, and half of said suffering being his own fault doesn't make it less real.

I don't hide the fact that I dislike Ozai. A LOT. Sometimes I legit get angry just looking at his face or remembering that he exists. But the whole point of Avatar is that when the world is out of balance, EVERYONE suffers. Spirits, animals, nature itself, and, of course, humans too - from the common man to the most powerful ruler, benevolent or otherwise. Saying that, even with how horrible he was, Ozai's fate IS 100% a tragedy, isn't the same as saying I want him to be redeemed or that what he did wasn't that serious or that he can't be blamed for anything since he was suffering too, it's just me pointing out that the show's narrative was coherent with it's themes when it came to Ozai's characterization, role in the story, and bitter end.

[stitchlingbelle]

Watching Avatar, Part 12

Breaking from my usual four-episode-batch approach, because the various multi-parters make consistency difficult. Instead, let's wrap up everything before the main event. Everything being a lot of Special Fieldtrips With Zuko.

12. “The Western Air Temple”: Zuko finally joins the Gaang! I was fully not expecting his base personality under all the issues to be Dorky Loser, but I guess that probably is pretty accurate for most over-aggressive tryhard teenagers, so. Still, the 180 was very funny. Also, “I bet you’re surprised to see me”/ “Not really, since you follow us everywhere” was absolutely hysterical. Was surprised Sokka wasn't more upset about Zuko helping cause Yue's "death". Called it on Katara, and also called it on Toph’s encounter with Iroh being pretty important to how the group would ultimately feel about Zuko. I didn’t expect her to go so far out of her way to try and do something about the group’s rejection of him, though. That was a cool moment for her, since she’s so prickly and antisocial normally. When Combustion Man showed up I fully expected Zuko to have paid him to attack the Gaang again so Zuko could “rescue” them, with disastrous consequences, and was very relieved to be wrong. Fun as it would have been to watch him chasing after them, ineptly trying to help, for a few episodes, I’m glad we’re getting on with things. I do wish we got more of the Expanded Gaang, though.

13. “The Firebending Masters”: I had worried in the previous episode that Aang was rejecting Zuko (and all those other suggestions) as firebending teachers because he’s still hung up on hurting Katara (and further disheartened by his failure during the eclipse), but that seems not to be the case. I liked how they handled Zuko needing to find a new emotional source for his bending, that was cool. I 100% bought the “Iroh killed the last dragon before he reformed” thing and was delighted when that turned out to be a cover for Iroh once again being the best ever. I loved the statues teaching them the form, I loved the dragons, the whole episode was great worldbuilding.

14. “The Boiling Rock, Part 1”: Aww, Zuko serving tea like Iroh is adorable. (Where IS Iroh, anyway?) Why tf does Sokka not bring Katara in on this? It’s her dad, too! The island prison is brilliant, very screwed up and the “cooler” thing is great—it makes total sense as a horrible torture for firebenders. (Sticking Hakoda in there probably would have backfired, though.) Loved using it as part of the escape plan. THRILLED to have Suki back and in pretty good shape. Concerned about Zuko being recognized, even if they do escape—they’ve now been located. I hope they don’t kill off Hakoda during Escape Attempt 2.

15. “The Boiling Rock, Part 2”: Sokka really needs to learn to ID himself to his allies, lol. Ooooh shit, here’s Mai. I’m impressed with Chit Sang still not giving Sokka up. OOOOH SHIT, here’s Azula. I suppose she was inevitable. Awww, the poor anger management guy, I love him and hope he gets out and has a very nice life. The escape plan was going very well until the Warden turned out to be suicidal??? Why would he give that order? Exact opposite energy as MAI COMING IN WITH THE STEEL CHAIR and saving Zuko despite what Azula will do. Aww, Ty Lee, you weird sweetheart, I loved watching her save Mai in turn. Will Azula learn from this? Probably not but I live in hope. (How does Chit Sang feel about leaving his gf & bff behind this time?) Nice to have Hakoda back alive (and Suki)—will we start seeing more of the expanded Gaang now? How will having a grownup around affect things?

16. “The Southern Raiders”: Oof. Great shock opening (and great line from Azula about becoming an only child, true sibling energy there). No more expanded Gaang, which is a missed storytelling opportunity for me, but this late in the series probably makes the most sense. I would have liked to see a bit more about Katara being entitled to her feelings and not being required to forgive on others’ schedules, but an Inigo Montoya-themed field trip works too. (It’s a very old-Zuko thing to suggest, though.) Deeply uncool of her to tell Sokka she loved their mom more, though. Watching this episode and how it mirrored Aang’s worst side after they lost Appa was interesting—we don’t get to see Sokka, Toph, or the others in their darkest moments in the same way. (Zuko doesn’t count, the whole show is his darkest moment.) (Where IS Uncle Iroh?) But bloodbending? Wtf Katara! I kind of expected she’d end up using that as a last-resort-before-death thing, but I guess this emphasizes its evil nature far more. No good use for it, only bad ones. I wasn’t shocked that they went with the “you’re not worth murder” approach to the revenge arc, and it did set up the conflict over killing Ozai well. (I did notice that they showed us Yon Rha’s life is miserable, though. Would it have been harder if he’d been a happy man who “just followed orders”?)

17. “The Ember Island Players”: Oh, HERE is the episode that gets referenced all the time. Ngl, it was… uneven for me. I feel like it could have gone a little earlier in the series instead of right before The Main Event, both tonally and in terms of emotional continuity. Knowing that Aang and Katara end up together at the end of the show, it seemed weird to have their relationship issues here, instead of earlier. Likewise, the play lasting the whole episode with no other plot was odd. It essentially functioned as an extended “previously on Avatar”. Maybe it’s just because we’re speeding toward the end of the series and I’m going to miss it, but I would have preferred to bask in the world a little bit more, instead of this dvd-extra-vibes ep.

Next up: Sozin's comet and the end of the show! I'm not ready.

[justanotherthrowaway1950]

(Before I start, I just want to let you that when I argue or disagree with you, it isn't personal, it is just fandom. And that I acknowledge that you have a different interpretation of canon of me. For at the end of the day, we are just arguing about fictional characters. Also, I read your blog and engage with you partially to make sure that I don't get stuck in an echo chamber.)

Sorry, for not responding sooner, life got in the way. But now that I have the time, I will try my best to respond to your post.

In regards to this post, I didn't say that Iroh specifically encouraged Zuko to an Agni Kai. For Iroh had no idea that Azula would mentally deteriorate that hard to the point that she would willingly challenge Zuko to an Agni Kai.

But he did encourage Zuko to fight Azula so that after Aang defeated Ozai, Zuko could take the throne and stop the war, which was hundred percent the right thing to do. For Azula was a genocidal, imperialist, colonizer who would have continued the 100 Year War if allowed to remain free, let alone if she assumed the throne.

But imo it doesn't change the fact that it was sad that two siblings ended up on opposing sides of the war, fighting each other to death. Nor does it change the fact that Iroh must have known that he was asking Zuko and Katara to fight Azula to death.

For Azula, sane or insane, would have never willingly stepped aside for Zuko willingly, let alone for a traitor who sought to end the war.

Thus it seems pretty obvious that Iroh, who is a marital genius, had to know that Zuko and Katara's confrontation with Azula would be one fought to the death. Especially since the circumstances that allowed Katara to capture Azula alive was a massive fluke.

It is also doesn't change imo the fact that Azula's mental deterioration, or more specifically, how a composed fighter and tactician became a sloppy fighter who has to rely on raw power and is incapable of strategizing, is sad.

For yeah she mostly brought it upon herself, but if she hadn't been influenced by Ozai and indoctrinated from birth, she wouldn't have become a pro-genocide, colonizing, imperialist monster who killed a child solider and condoned the torture of POWs, a monster who needed to be stopped and either killed or locked up for the good of the world.

Nor would she have the alienated and/or gotten betrayed by her mother, brother, and "friends". Also, instead of using her martial gifts to hurt family, friend, and foe, she would have likely used it to better the world by becoming a teacher for example.

Finally, when I sad that Ozai would probably approve of his actions, I don't mean that to put Zuko down, but to point out how Ozai wouldn't view the Final Agni Kai as a tragedy/a reflection of his poor parenting, but instead as validation for his twisted "might makes right" worldview.

In regards to this post, I admit that forgot to give background context, so I will provide it.

If Avatar had any real sense of realism in it, imo, after Ozai and Azula were defeated, Zuko would have Ozai and Azula publicly killed or made sure they had "accidents" to secure the throne and to prevent them from being lingering threats. That or he would have exiled them far from Caldera City while having Aang de-bend Azula and (explicitly) stripping them of their titles/removing them from the line of succession.

But Zuko didn't, presumably because it wouldn't jive with the post-war order him and the Gaang wanted to establish and because he literally thought prison would do Ozai good like his banishment did for him.

So, when I say that Zuko has an obligation to help Azula, I just mean making the sure the asylums are actually helping their patients since, as Fire Lord, the buck doesn't just stop with him, it is always with him due to being an absolute monarch.

(Yes, I know you don't think the asylums abused Azula or the Fire Warriors. But I am going to respectfully disagree with you on this point and hopefully we can agree to disagree.)

Also, Zuko is to blame for Azula's actions in the comic since he should have seen that she hadn't recovered (ex. why did he never ask her healers who Azula was hallucinating; who was this "she" Azula was referring to) and never taken her from the asylum, let alone agree to her terms just so he could sate his understandable, but selfish, desire to find Ursa again, which lead to her being able to escape his custody and break out the Fire Warriors.

For part of his redemption arc imo was realizing that he had a duty to the world that superseded his desire to have his family whole. So why did he forget this?

Likewise, I thought part of Zuko's redemption arc was realizing that Ozai was the one to blame for his shitty childhood.

So while it is true that Azula was his main secondary abuser, she abused his (ex) girlfriend, attempted to kill him and his friends multiple times (and actually killed one of them), and Zuko was lashing out in frustration after another one of Azula's attempts to hurt him and/or his friends, it is odd that Zuko asks Azula why has she put him for so much from the moment she was born when he already knows why: trying to appease Ozai/Ozai's influence.

Also, I don't think I ever blamed Zuko for challenging her to the Final Agni Kai and I repeatedly say that Zuko and the Gaang have to find her and do everything in their power to neutralize her, up to and including killing her, before she hurts someone permanently.

(Azula has already hurt the children who she kidnapped, as well as their families.)

So with that, I think I am doing responding and I hope you have a good day!

Another thing I've been seeing more and more of that just isn't supported by the actual show is the idea that Zuko needs to "realize" that Azula worked hard to get where she is, and not only is this victim blaming because it ignores how both Ozai and Azula treated Zuko as a scapegoat, it's also simply not true.

Zuko is the one in the text who believes in working hard, while Azula believes in superiority through inherent ability.

I often see people quoting Zuko's line about how everything came easy to Azula and their father said she was born lucky as evidence of Zuko's "jealousy" of Azula's hard work and skill, and how he needs to realize how much pressure she was under, but those people are forgetting what Zuko says right after that.

I don't need luck, though. I don't want it. I've always had to struggle and fight, and that's made me strong. That's made me who I am.

Zuko rejects the belief Ozai tried to enforce about being born lucky. He of course still struggles with it, because he's a kid and being told repeatedly by adults that you are inherently worthless is a hard thing to combat without internalizing. Zuko struggles with assuming that he can't generate lightning because it blows up in his face, "like everything always does." Throughout his journey, he learns to embrace working hard, learning and growing to overcome those mental blocks.

But to say that Azula, in comparison, has a better understanding of hard work is just wrong. What Zuko says about struggling and fighting actually is similar to what Azula says about Long Feng.

I can see your whole history in your eyes. You were born with nothing, so you've had to struggle, and connive, and claw your way to power. But true power, the divine right to rule, is something you're born with.

Azula ultimately disdains the idea of having to struggle to achieve things, and says that true power is something you are born with.

This isn't just an Azula vs Zuko thing, this is a major theme of the story and part of what leads to Azula's ultimate downfall. While Zuko works hard and grows not just in ability but his worldview, adapting and becoming a better person in the process, Azula's worldview narrows in her need to prove her own inherent perfection, which causes her to become more myopic and end up alone.

From the beginning of the story, we see Azula trying to get others to bend to her, even trying to argue against the very tides themselves because of her unwillingness to believe in anything less than her own inherent right. This is also similar to the way other Fire Nation characters show a myopic view of the world that leads them towards megalomania, like Zhao attempting to destroy the moon in pursuit of his own greatness. Both he and Azula think they can defy nature because of their own need to prove themselves powerful. Zuko tries this, too, in "The Storm," and learns one of many lessons about humility and working with others. Azula fails to learn these lessons.

So it's not Zuko who needs to learn this by the end of the series, and especially not from Azula.

I think it's also telling that these people never talk about how much pressure Zuko was under to try and prove he wasn't worthless, and I think that's because by the end, Zuko has realized his own worth, but Azula is still desperately trying to cling to the belief in her own superiority. She's the only one who can relieve that pressure she's putting on herself because she can't let go of the idea that she's not better than other people, and it is not on the people she hurt to try and make her feel better about herself, when she still thinks she's superior to them.

Moreover, I find it very hard to believe that post series Azula would even accept any offer of sympathy from Zuko. This is another example of something Zuko learned in the series that Azula did not, as Iroh says. Pride is not the opposite of shame, but its source. Azula's belief in her own superiority is, of course, a coping mechanism as a result of very low self-esteem, but she needs to figure out how to deal with that in a way that isn't hurting others. What she doesn't need is constant validation from people she victimized and reinforcement of the same toxic beliefs.

[the-badger-mole]

No Sound But Silence: A Course Once Charted

Katara's locker was too low. She'd have to ask the principal if she could be assigned a top locker. Her belly wasn't big enough that it was throwing off her balance yet, but the growing baby had caused a constant, dull ache in her lower back, and stooping for her books wasn't helping much. She stood with a groan and shut her locker with her foot. Zuko was picking her up. He had surprised her with a prenatal massage and it couldn't have come at a better time. Katara rubbed the aching spot at the base of her spine and turned to leave.

"H-hey, Katara." Aang stood in the middle of the now empty hallway. His shoulders were bunched up around his ears as he gave Katara an awkward wave and a shy smile. It had been nearly a month since he'd spoken to her. He'd even been avoiding their friends to make sure he didn't bump into her. It had hurt, but Katara had found many ways to distract herself from his absence. It seemed, though, that her friend was finally ready to move forward.

"Hi, Aang," she said. "Long time, no see."

"Um...yeah..." A light blush colored Aang's cheeks and he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. His eyes darted to Katara's protruding belly. She was nearly five months along, and past the point where she could be mistaken for merely bloated. Briefly, Katara considered zipping up her heavy winter coat, but she didn't want Aang to think she was ashamed.

"Did you want to talk?" Katara asked. "Zuko's picking me up, but I have a few minutes." Aang tore his eyes away from Katara's stomach, with some apparent effort. He met her eyes before his gaze darted back to her midsection and then back up again.

"How...?" Aang paused and cleared his throat. He tried again. "I mean...you and Zuko are really..." He gestured at Katara's stomach.

"Yeah, we really are." Katara grazed her hand over her stomach protectively. Aang swallowed hard. Then a second time. Then once more.

"Were you really thinking about killing your baby?" Aang asked. His voice was small, almost shy, but there was a furrow to his brow and a firm set to his mouth. He looked at Katara as if she were someone new. Katara sighed and fought the urge to roll her eyes.

"I did consider an abortion, yes," she confirmed. Aang balked in horror.

"How can you be so...so...blah about that!" he demanded. "It's murder!"

"Aang," Katara's shoulders sagged in exhaustion.

"It is!" he insisted. "I was raised to believe that all life is precious. Even the ones that haven't been born yet. You must think so, too since you chose to keep your baby." Anger, hot and quick, flashed through Katara. Her shoulders stiffened and she glared at Aang.

"I was raised to believe that a woman's choices are her own," Katara countered. "And that no child deserves to be born to a family that can't or won't care for them."

"But what about the baby's life?" Aang pressed. "If the mother can't or won't care for the baby, then there's adoption. There are lots of families that want babies. I'm sure you could find one for yours."

"Do you know how many kids get bounced from foster home to foster home waiting for one of those families?" Katara snorted. "Do you know how many of those foster kids grow into adults with no support systems? Who end up in the same position as the women who gave birth to them? What about the women who are too poor to afford good health care? I'm lucky. My dad has good insurance and Zuko's in a position to support me, but there are lots of women who don't have that. And some of them may choose to have an abortion rather than struggle to raise a child or abandon them to foster homes or the off chance that a good family will adopt them. Or maybe they just really don't want a child. And you know what? That's none of your business.

Aang stared at Katara in shock. His mouth opened and closed around half-formed words. Katara's hands shook in anger. She'd known that her friend had a different opinion on abortion than she had, but she never expected him to confront her like this over an abortion she'd chosen not to get. Frankly, she didn't think he had it in him. Aang was at his core, a conflict avoider, and this was one doozy of a conflict he'd chosen to deviate on. Katara rolled her eyes and started to walk past him.

"You don't believe that," Aang said quietly. Katara froze midstep. She turned back to Aang in confusion.

"What?"

"You don't believe in abortion," Aang said firmly. "You can't possibly believe what you just said, because you are keeping your baby even though you're not even out of high school yet." Katara sighed and pressed her thumb to the corner of her eye. She could feel the beginnings of a headache just behind her left eye, and she prayed for Zuko to call and let her know he'd arrived.

"Just because I'm pro-choice doesn't mean I was obligated to have an abortion," she explained slowly. "Zuko and I went over all our options and I chose to keep the baby. You're my friend, Aang, but if the only reason you stopped to talk to me is to lecture me about considering abortion, then save your breath. It's none of your business." Katara bristled and started to walk off again when Aang caught her off guard mid-step.

"Why?" His voice was almost a whisper. Katara glanced back at him. His eyes were anguished and to Katara's surprise, welled up with tears.

"Why?" Katara repeated, her brow scrunched up. "Why what?"

"Why him?" Aang asked. "Why keep the baby? Why marry him? For the support? Katara, there are lots of other people who would support you. You don't have to marry Zuko."

"I'm marrying Zuko because I love him," Katara said. Surprise kept her rooted where she stood. "I think I've always known I'd end up married to him, eventually. The baby just moved the timetable up a bit." She forced out a nervous half chuckle.

"But what if it's not him you're supposed to be with?" Aang reached out and tried to take Katara's hands, but she stepped out of reach. "What if there's someone better for you? Someone who would have never made you feel like you even had to consider killing your baby?"

"Aang..." Katara rolled her eyes and huffed. "It was my choice. Zuko never made me feel like I had to do anything. He let me decide without trying to force any one thing on me, and that's why I chose this. Chose him. There's no more support I need than what he gives me, and there's no one better for me than a man who trusts me to make my own decisions. If Zuko had tried to force me to do anything, I would have had the abortion and dumped him.

Aang was a child, Katara reminded herself. He was only two years younger than her, but he was still very much a child. That was why Katara wanted to walk away before he said something that would make their friendship unsalvagable. Walk away before he elaborated further on his thoughts on abortion, or on who would make a better partner for her than Zuko. So while he was still gathering his thoughts, Katara spun on her heel and walked quickly towards the exit. Her phone rang just then, giving her an added shield in case Aang gathered himself too quickly.

"Hey, I'm outside," Zuko said cheerily.

"I'm on my way." Katara cast one last glance at Aang. He stared after her with a lost, wounded look, and Katara wondered if perhaps their friendship had already crossed into unsalvagablilty after all.

Part 1... Part 21, Part 22, Part 23

[gingersh0t]

glimpse of the future

tags: azula redemption, subtle tyzula and maizuko, ember island, basically a glimpse into what azula what look like near the end of her rehabilitation at her fave childhood vacation destination

wc: ~900

a/n: i might write a longer azula redemption fic in the future, with this one-shot as the end goal and guiding point. depends on if my azula brainrot goes away or not! will eventually x-post to ao3

___________________________________________________________

The east coast of Ember Island is no longer the thriving tourist destination it once was. The vacation homes have grown dilapidated, their wooden support beams rotting at the edges, and the stores are mostly shuttered and boarded up. 

But the mountains seem to reach taller than they ever did. The inland grasses bloom a vibrant, healthy green each spring, and there’s a beautiful flower garden - with a turtleduck pond - behind the only house that is still well-kept. 

This is Azula’s home. 

She wakes with the sun every morning, as all firebenders should do, and warms herself a carefully crafted cup of jasmine tea. And every morning, without fail, she remembers to feed the turtleducks. 

She still doesn’t feel anything when she looks at them. Soft, weak, and as Zuko would say, cute. Sometimes she idly wonders how they would react if she were to kick the rocks along the pond’s edge into the water. Or maybe even directly towards them. 

Then she remembers her mother’s frown, lines creasing in her forehead. She thinks back to Zuko’s voice, soft with disappointment, laden with concern for the poor, poor creatures.

She holds back. 

The turtleducks have swam in this pond happily and untraumatized ever since they arrived. That’s a feat Azula is particularly proud of. It took self-control. More self-control than she ever thought she was capable of. 

Instead of disturbing their peace, Azula scatters breadcrumbs into the still reflection of the water. Cobalt, cerulean, azure. Blue is such a beautiful color. She hesitates, staring at the turtleducks lazily paddling back and forth, and heads back into her house. 

She used to tell herself that she was born lucky. That Zuko was just lucky to be born. She’d gotten it backwards. 

Zuko was the one who was born lucky. Lucky to be naturally, effortlessly kind, to have the distinction between right and wrong come so easy. It was second nature for him. Azula, on the other hand - well. She had injured her fair share of turtleducks as a young child. But Azula has never been one to shy away from the difficult. For the most part, she has this thing known as morality pretty much down. Some days, she even finds that it feels as natural as breathing, as weightless as bending. 

The house is empty, of course. She’s ordered that no servant or guard come near her as long as she stays out of the forest and between the two jagged peaks of rock that flank her house on either side. Old habits die hard, even if the “old habit” in question was formed in the middle of a throne room during her infamous mental breakdown. She likes solitude these days.

She used to be more scared of it than anything, she thinks, smiling humorlessly.  Mai and Ty Lee. As if they ever needed Azula. It was always the other way around. She’d just been too idiotic to realize it. 

Sometimes, Ty Lee comes and visits her. Presses kisses into her forehead, talking excitedly about her latest exploits, look, Azula! Isn’t this new circus troupe I’ve put together just wonderful! It is wonderful. Everything she says is wonderful. It’s always when Ty Lee is here that Azula feels the most normal. As if she could be just like Zuko, just like Iroh, just like Katara and Aang and everyone else who never had to think too hard about caring, about loving.

She hasn’t seen Mai in years. Azula feels strangely apathetic about it. She’s learned from Uncle Iroh that forgiveness is never deserved - only gracefully accepted when someone chooses to offer it. That old food. She wonders when she’ll see him next, if only to get another chance to crush him at Pai Sho. 

Azula sits down at her kitchen table and stirs her tea. She picks up a pen and smoothes the white piece of paper in front of her until it becomes creaseless and perfect. 

Dear Zuzu,

You’re an idiot if you don’t withhold raising the taxes on the largest corporations and highest tax brackets for another six months. I know treasury funds are running low, but growth is bound to soar with the official trade agreement you’ve signed with the Earth Kingdom. The influx of profits will make your plan to construct a true Fire Nation welfare net all the more politically palatable. People with money in their pockets don’t put up much of a fight. 

Have you survived any assassination attempts lately? Put down any coups? Tell me all about the political extremism present within the borders of the Fire Nation. I’m sure there’s much to discuss. And I’m sure it’ll be more interesting to read about. I’m destitute when it comes to entertainment on this godforsaken island, as I’m sure you’re well aware. 

The turtleducks are doing well. The wisteria has already begun to bloom. Tell Mai I wish her well.

Your most loyal, useful, beautiful, and perfect servant,

Azula

She takes a deep breath, grounding herself, and looks out the thick glass windows for a hawk on the horizon. They’re beautiful creatures, their mottled brown wings powerful and tireless. She trusts them to relay her letters week after week. 

Azula might be the only person on this section of the coastline for miles around, but she is far from alone. 

Things have changed, haven’t they?

[sokkagatekeeper]

bestie did i read that right you CANNOT just say “haru had a brief fling with zuko” in the tags and leave it at THAT-

no but i WOULD like to hear about haru x zuko🤔🤔 (@i-hate-mayo)

yeah well maybe i need to stop talking so much in the tags. that said! me and @/zukkot crafted this scenario (about an 80% of a joke. give or take) in which haru has a brief fling with zuko at the western air temple, most importantly at the same time he has a fling with katara. now i know this sounds batshit but there’s a big comedic value to it.

reasons why haru should hook up with zuko and katara at the same time: it would be further proof of the fact that katara and zuko share the same taste in men (see: jet, who is also sokka-esque); it would mean katara and zuko share not only one, but two ex-boyfriends/boyfriend-adjacents; it would mean dumb teen romantic drama, and i think they deserve it; it would definitely strengthen their friendship. somehow!

people this fling would piss off: katara, for letting another tall boy with nice hair break her heart and for zuko of all people nonetheless; sokka, for being foced to remember the fact that katara and zuko have the same (SHITTY) taste in men; aang, who is deep down a twelve-year old in puppy love; ty lee, who is honestly a little tired of people breaking zuko’s little heart, even if it was kinda funny at one point

people this fling would be a fun little adventure to: haru! and do not misunderstand him, he might’ve made a mistake, but in his defense, he thought katara... knew. zuko knew he was having a fling with katara as well, why wouldn’t katara? overall this was a fun experience that served haru to understand he is, in fact, straight. now “why would haru experiment with zuko, fugitive prince of the fire nation, of all people?” the answer is that haru has no impulse control, next question; toph, who loves teen drama when it’s merely outside of her person but inside her social circle, and whose feet are very aware of everything that went down at the western air temple, is very amused as well.

people this fling would not piss off: zuko, whose heart was not, in fact, broken by haru. he might’ve been hooking up with haru but deep down he was pining after sokka the entire time, the poor thing. which also brings me to my next statement;

zuko can uh... forgive the mustache, when they’re at it. katara thinks it’s hot, sokka thinks it’s hideous, zuko thinks it’s... fine. whatever. five out of ten. but it’s definitely not a plus. zuko likes haru enough, and nothing more — he’s not a sokka, y’know. not even a jet. but that’s fine, because zuko is not looking for romance! he’s looking to distract himself from his embarassing crush on sokka, the crushing weight of uncertainity of not knowing if his uncle hates his guts or not, his imminent defeat and death and general mortality upon joining a 12 year-old’s rebel gang of child soldiers, etc. you know, typical teen boy stuff. so when haru off-handedly mentions katara, zuko is just like “huh. ok?” he simply doesn’t give a shit. good for him! katara on the other hand is not looking for romance on principle, not because haru wasn’t a good candidate, but because you know, the War. girl has her priorities. but haru is so sweet to her she has got to admit she sort of got a crush. now there’s two possible scenarios in which katara finds out;

first, during their last days at ember island, when sharing grief over jet, looking to lighten up the mood a little, zuko says “isn’t it crazy we share two entire ex-boyfriends” and katara is like “what.” and then zuko gets drenched instantly. there’s no witnesses; who’s to say what happened really. maybe a very big wave or something

OR, when toph says, “i knew you had a secret thing with haru!” at the same time katara and zuko, aka the exact same person defensively say, “NO I DID NOT—” and it goes downhill from there

either way. internally, katara is like, “haru wouldn’t do that” but then she concludes she actually doesn’t care that much about haru, and she thinks “i can’t believe ZUKO would do that!!!” and she gets back on her zuko-is-evil mindset the entire day — “you just had to colonize my love life as well, didn’t you???” they are back to being ride-or-die besties by the next morning tho.

upon these very public, very hilarous revelations, sokka sincerely believes it is his right to punch that dude. fuckboying it up not only with his bro, his boy bestie, his pal, his totally absolutely entirely platonic lohl (love of his life) etc etc, but also with his sister!! that is of course until zuko tells him no, haru did not break his heart (jet did tho. poor thing p2. good thing zuko broke his heart right back! but that’s for another post). zuko insists it was a meaningless fling for him, even if it angered katara to no end, and then it angered zuko because it angered katara, because they are both Like That. since then, sokka finds the situation... kinda funny.

so a year after the war has ended, aang and katara inevitably break up. the first thing sokka does upon hearing the news is go directly to zuko like, “if you go after aang i swear to god” and then zuko almost pukes a little. not about to make out with a twelve year old, y’know? (and actually, aang is fourteen at the time, but once you know someone at twelve at sixteen you always know them at twelve at sixteen. privately, aang thinks zuko is kinda ugly, anyway.) during the years aang and katara spend as just friends, katara and haru light up their little flame again for a little while. it’s fun, but it doesn’t last. there’s too much history there, y’know? sometimes zuko will visit and give haru the bad eye, and haru thinks it’s because he kinda broke zuko’s heart, but in reality it’s because he broke katara’s heart and made her angry, and zuko can hold a grudge. eventually tho aang and katara get back together because they go really hard on fate and soulmates. zuko thinks it’s perfectly reasonable, and sokka & toph don’t want to ruin their beautiful love story just yet, so they keep quiet. when sokka and zuko get together, katara looks at zuko straight in the eye and says “no.” and zuko points at aang, and says “no.” so their shared type in men comes to an amiable end.

that is, until one night at a sleepover. zuko takes a sip of his tea (alcohol) and says, “jet was kinda like sokka, though” and katara says “No.” but zuko keeps going, also pretty horrified, “and haru is kinda like aang” and katara says “STOP.” and they happily agree to never speak of any of it ever again.

[zelzenik]

my take on the infamous kataang kisses

so i just saw this post that spoke highly of Kataang and on how ATLA deals w consent and what's allowed between partners, and i'm... i'm mad, lol.

this has been spoken on before, but since these bad takes are still floating around on the internet, i feel the need to at least vent/give some sort of rebuttal.

i'm not linking or screenshotting this post, but this is word-for-word what was said regarding Kataang (questionable grammar has been transposed as well):

"One of the many things I adore about atla is how the girls are allowed to and do tell their partners off when they cross a line.... Katara gets upset with Aang for kisses her without her consent, and it's never made out to be overly dramatic or unreasonable, it's framed so that the girls are in the right."

HOW does Kataang properly convey this message??

there's a lot to unpack here. like, a lot

just to start off, yes, i'm aware that not all Kataangers believe that the kisses were consensual and can recognize how problematic (and WRONG) they were. but there are some (many) who do not

for the sake of this rebuttal, we're all going to establish and agree on what happened with the Kataang kisses. personally, in the Cave of Two Lovers episode, i don't believe they kissed - if they had kissed, the creators would've made that known in the show; in the Day of the Black Sun episode, it was clear that Katara was NOT pleased w what went down, same with the Ember Island Players episode; the finale kiss was consensual, however, in my opinion, it made absolutely no sense and came out of nowhere.

this is an address to the following various shippers within the ATLA fandom.

to those who DEFEND Aang's actions toward Katara and JUSTIFY these non-consensual kisses:

don't DO this. these portrayals of murky non-con kisses on television are so harmful!! they perpetuate this whole "nice guy" complex where a guy (or anyone) thinks that he (or they) deserve(s) or can take physical affection from others without their consent/mutual feeling. we have such an awful problem in media concerning these sorts of "nice guys" who wind up taking advantage of women simply due to the fact that they know they're nice and feel that they deserve it.

yes, Aang was a child. yes, he was in an iceberg for like 100 years. i work with plenty of preteens from the ages 10-12, and they've all been taught to respect other people's boundaries, especially when it involves romantic (and depending on how old they are, sexual) encounters; it's worth noting that, at least from my experience, guys are significantly less interested in relationships around this age than girls are!

portraying Aang in a light where he simply takes what he wants from Katara multiple times does a disservice both to him as a character and to all who watched the show without having a clear outside understanding of physical boundaries.

to those who claim that the non-con Kataang kisses are good lessons to others on consent

i might have been able to agree with you had the situations been ADDRESSED within the show! but they were NOT.

the non-con Kataang kisses are not a good example of when a girl has been made uncomfortable by a guy or has been touched nonconsensually by one and stands up for herself because we never have a scene where Katara actually stands up for herself!

between the two non-con Kataang kisses that occurred during the show, not even FRACTION of the show was dedicated toward addressing them!

okay, yes, if you rewatch the show as an older teen or an adult with accurate views on consent, then, yes, those non-con kisses can be an example of how pervasive lack of consent is within our past/current culture

but, for the most part, this show is watched by kids. it's a kids' show. ofc it's grown to be much more beyond a kids' show, and there are so many teens/adults who LOVE the ATLA fandom, and that's totally cool! i'm always anti-harassment and anti-bullying-people-for-enjoying-shows-they-love.

for a show that's primarily marketed to children, though, regardless of the time that it was made in (since the 2000's were far less up to date on consent than we are now in the 2020's), if non-con kisses are included, then they should be addressed.

they can only be good lessons if they're addressed, instead of left hanging and teaching children that such non-con kisses are rewarded.

canonizing Kataang, in a way, validated Aang's blatant ignorance of Katara's boundaries which annoys me to no end.

to those who who say that this behavior was FINE because Kataang canonically dated/married

it's not! it's really freakin not!

do you know how many women experience some form of sexual harassment or assault or rape within their lifetime?? 1 in 6!

and do you know how often these women are unable to do anything about it because the person who attacked them is someone that they love or are involved with?

just because one may be in a relationship with another person doesn't simply excuse this type of behavior.

"no" or "i don't think this is a good idea" or "i'm not feeling this" or "maybe later?" or "i don't feel so good" or "we're in the middle of a war right now" or SILENCE -> NOT CONSENT!!

regardless of your relationship with another person, if they do not respect these boundaries, then they have not respected your damn boundaries.

i don't care if they're your boyfriend or your girlfriend or your husband or your wife or your partner. whatever. if they ignore your boundaries, then they are not respecting you, point blank.

closing

it's no secret that i'm a huge anti Kataanger. i first watched the show as a teenager, and while i initially started the show off loving Kataang, as soon as i hit the non-con kisses, i was immediately turned off from the ship and became a huge Zutara shipper (not even knowing which ship was ultimately endgame but especially loving the dynamic between ZK post-Crystal Catacombs scene).

as someone who's survived a relationship with non-con elements present, i cannot in good conscience ship Kataang because of those non-con kisses.

i love both Aang and Katara too much as characters to see them portrayed in such a way. what hurts the most is that all of these issues COULD have been fixed in the show, if there'd been some sort of reconciliation between Aang and Katara, some sort of encounter where Aang recognized that what he did was wrong and Katara learned that it's okay to say no. but this did not happen. so here i am writing a meta/rant/vent about it.

i understand that this post may not be well received, but this is something i really needed to get off my chest (again) because i hate seeing people praising ATLA for its poor examples of consent within relationships. (it literally drives me crazy.)

[saby-chan]

Why the ATLA comics fail when it comes to Zuko and his family

To whom ever took their time to actually stop and read this post, thank you in advance for not skipping my post and willing to stay and read my humble opinion! I hope I won’t disappoint you!

As a relatively newcomer to the ATLA fanbase since 2020, I’ve come across a lot of interesting debates, comments and rants about the show, characters and fandom in general, but nothing has captivated me as much as the dumpster-on-fire that are the ATLA comics, more specifically: The Promise and The Search. 

On one hand we have the hardcore fans who want them to be animated or serialized into the Netflix live action, praising the comics for the new views and subject matters they’ve brought into the show’s lore, while on the other hand we have the furious Azula fandom who is really angry for the fact that best girl didn’t get the redemption arc she rightfully deserved so much after the painful event that was the Last Agni Kai and the even more angry fans of the Urzai ship (yeah, the people who actually ship Zuko’s parents unironically) who hated the retconning of the show’s cannon since the comics basically took a huge fat dump on what was previously established as official cannon, when the Search entered the scene, but between these two sides, who has the more valid point? In the end, are the comics good cannon or bad written fanfiction?

Well... Here are my two cents on this matter since I myself happen to be an Azula and Zuko fan and had huge expectations from these comics (since I wanted more from my fave hot-headed fiery siblings duo) but ended up disappointed: the comics are indeed a huge mess and actually bad written fanfiction when it comes to Zuko and his family! Don’t click off yet, because I actually documented the reasons why exactly the comics fail in this area:

1. The author of these comics is not part of the BryKe duo

Yes, I would like to start with the fact that if you actually take a second to look up who in the heck took the time to write these two books, you won’t find Bryan, nor Mike, but a fellow man named Gene Yang. This is important because while the wiki of both The Promise and The Search state BryKe as the creators, that doesn’t mean that they were the actual minds behind these comics, but rather because ATLA is their “baby” and these comics involve their characters, over which they have copyright. Mr. Yang here is the actual brain behind the plot, as the main writer, which explains why we find huuuuge inconsistencies between the show lore and the comics, especially Zuko wise.

My main issue with Mr. Yang isn’t that he isn’t BryKe specifically, but because he did an unforgivable mistake in his writing process: He projected himself into Zuko’s character, based on the relationship Zuko had with his father. This is a documented fact from an interview in which he explains that he sees himself and his dad’s relationship into Zuko and Ozai and used that when writing their interactions and built Zuko’s character in the comics. And this is wrong because when you have an already very developed and complex character such as Zuko, you can’t just come in and be like “Oh, I was an angsty teen just like him in my teenage years, fighting with my dad and whatnot, so he must have the same thought process as me!”. NO! This is bad fanfiction writer behavior! Zuko has his own personality and philosophy, which he developed over the course of 3 seasons and is not defined by only 1 unfortunate aspect of his past, so you can’t just base his whole mindset and actions off of your own personal experience just because you had the same daddy issues he had!

2. The whole “Promise that you will kill me if I turn out like my dad!” nonsense in The Promise

Reason number 2 why these comics fail and go under the category of “bad fanfiction” is because they fail to convey the core essence of the source material. The whole point of Zuko’s redemption was that he realized the wrongdoings of his ancestors and his own mistakes. He outgrew his desire of gaining his father’s acknowledgement in favor of choosing his own destiny. Having him worry that he’ll turn into his father is utter nonsense and feels like poor angsty drama material for the sake of angst. At this point in time, Zuko has overcame that obstacle in his life a long time ago and should be at the level where he himself is the “Uncle Iroh” for other people and in no way someone concerned of becoming their own worst enemy!

Not only that, but the whole point of Aang’s journey and the story of the show as a whole was to teach us, the viewers, the importance of forgiveness, empathy and love in life. Aang didn’t spare Ozai, aka “the ultimate evil” just to flex in front of his pals or because he is a “ 12 y/o vegan pacifist monk kid”, but because he knew that killing someone, no matter of what they did or wanted to do, wouldn’t restore balance into the Universe, on the contrary, him killing the villain would have meant perpetuating the “endless cycle of hate” that plagued the world. So having Aang promise to kill his best friend in case “they turned into an evil maniac like their dad” contradicts Aang’s whole character and it’s a nonsense that throws into the trash what we’ve learnt throughout the entire TV series.

3. Azula deserved (and was supposed) to have a redemption ark

This might still be pure speculation, but I count it as a documented reason because I’ve heard quite a few people saying that there should’ve been a book 4 in the show, aka “Book 4: Air”, and no, it wasn’t The Search, but actually Zuko and Azula’s journey as Zuko helps his younger sister heal her broken mind by being her very own “Uncle Iroh”. Sure, they prolly were going to end up looking for Ursa, but the journey should’ve ended with them actually being happy and a family again and not the bs we got in The Search where a still very unstable Azula runs away and becomes the “Next Joker”! The only problem is that M. Night had to pop up and curse the world with his movie, which forced BryKe to delay the project (and eventually abandoned it in favor of Korra).

All in all, either if BryKe had this preplanned or not, it made sense for Azula to get a redemption ark, she deserved it because she was just a broken 14 y/o child! If Katara’s mom’s murderer deserved to be forgiven, so did this poor child who had no fault for what happened to her since she had a dysfunctional family! What Gene Yang did in his poorly written fanfiction was to just antagonize a broken child, turning her into a monster for the sake of friggin angst!

4. The Search is the worst of the two, being flat af character wise

And finally, getting to the point that I personally find the most annoying about these comics: The Search. This one... This one is a mess on a hella lot many levels, and just to list a few: characters are flat as fudge, being either black as vanta black (like Ozai and Azula) or pure white like Gene’s Gary Stue OC, Mr Ikem (or how I like to call him, IKEA man) and his ‘victim’ rendition of Ursa, Azula gets to suffer more for no reason (see reason number 3 to why I find this as a no no), Ursa’s whole character sucks ass (man, I could write a whole thesis on why Yang’s version of her is terrible and doesn’t match the strong woman we got in the show) and Zuko does morally wrong stuff (my man literally used his unstable sister to bribe their dad into spitting info about Ursa... Show Zuko would never do that!;-;)

Oh boy, as a person who’s seen a ton of anime and other media and read many books, I can’t begin on how much I despise this type of writing: flat characters are the worst!

 ATLA characters in the show are nothing close to being flat! What I mean by that is that none of them fall perfectly into pure white (aka goodest of good characters with no imperfections) or vanta black (aka lowest and darkest twisted monsters out there), each of them are various shades of grey (like Aang who is a very light grey because despite being a very kind and nice character, he still isn’t a “perfect hero” since he ran away from his duties, practiced tax fraud with Toph, had insecurities and even threatened to kill people on ocassions like with the sand benders who took Appa) and this is a good choice because that prevents them from becoming what’s globally known as Mary Sues and Gary Stues (aka those either “perfect” characters with no flaws and/or unlimited power, or the twisted monsters full of flaws).

And the other reason why many other people hate The Search: it literally negates previously established cannon. And here comes my short essay on why this comic fails Zuko’s family (since we’ve already talked enough about Zuko himself).

In cannon and even interviews with BryKe, it was clearly stated that Zuko’s family was “once happy”. Where is this “once happy” family in The Search? All I see is pain, deception, lies and betrayal, nothing close to anything that resembles happiness. Okay, some of you might come in and say that “It’s because it was never the case! It was only lies and Zuko trying to convince himself that he didn’t live in hell forever!” and here is WHERE YOU WERE ALL WRONG! And why? Because, my dear fella, where were depicted the flashbacks of Zuko’s “happy family” in The Beach? Ember Island. And what do we know and had been even quoted in the show?  "Like waves washing away the footprints on the sand, Ember Island gives everyone a clean slate. Ember Island reveals the true you." (direct quote from the show). Exactly, no matter who you are or how hard you try, you can’t hide your true self when you are on the Ember Island, best example being Azula, who’s impenetrable though shell cracked and revealed the true vulnerable child that was underneath. If Azula couldn’t resist the “spell of the island”, no one can. So this means that Zuko’s family was indeed happy once and yes, Ozai wasn’t always the douchebag we got to know in Season 3 (I have a whole nother essay on my theories regarding what could be his real past story and why he’s actually the “Zuko” of his generation, based on stuff I gathered from old wiki entries and character analyses I made, but that’s for another time, lemme know if ya’ll are interested).

And what I guess is the biggest proof why The Search did this family’s past trash is comics Ursa herself. My dude, if this woman were indeed the victim of years of endless abuse and never loved her husband, I guarantee you that she would’ve been closer to what we saw in Todoroki’s mom from BNHA and Zuko would’ve gotten that scar or even worse long before the Agni Kai, not from his “daddy dearest”, but from “mommy dearest” herself, because no sane woman would be soo affectionate and attached to a child that’s the perfect copy of their abuser, sepecially appearance wise (again see Todoroki’s mom’s case from BNHA because the stories are really similar) and in no way would’ve she been willing to sacrifice her life for said child’s sake. With this ocassion, I remind ya’ll folks that according to the ancient ATLA cannon wikis on Nick’s site, Ozai was designed with Zuko’s appearance in mind, being meant to be like a “grown up scarless version” of Zuko. So yeah, remember this with a grain of salt that whenever you simp over grown up Zuko, you involuntary simp for Ozai too.

So yeah, I guess this kinda concludes my “not so short” rant about why the comics fail and are bad fanfiction. Lemme hear your thoughts in the comments and if you agree, feel free to leave a like and even reblog.

Bye bye and remember that Momo is the true strongest character of the show!

 Saby out.

[reinerispretty]

burned. (zuko x reader request)

hi!! thank you all for being very patient with me :) this is something that’s been requested a lot!! 

Hello! I recently read Rotations AND FELL IN LOVE! IT'S A MASTERPIECE! Could I request a zuko x reader where zuko and y/n get into an argument and Zuko burns y/n since he couldn't control himself, and leaves y/n hurt for weeks, but then she suddenly forgives him instead of yelling at him? Kind of like the scene where Zuko and Iroh reunite, I guess!! Ty so much, I love your work! (I hope this isn't too much of a burden 😢❤️) have a nice day and stay inside!! (*´ω｀*)

Hey!! Could i request an imagine where Zuko accidentally burns and seriously injures his SO by his own hand? I feel his reaction would be interesting when he realizes what he’d done!

(Y/N) and Zuko had come from very different lives. He was Fire Nation royalty, someone who had been honored and revered almost his entire life. She was an earth bender from outside of Omashu. Her father had been a farmer, as had her grandfather, and her great-grandfather, and so on. She had been dirt poor and, until recently, Zuko’s feet had never even set foot on dirt. Still, she couldn’t help but be drawn to him. He was funny, even if he wasn’t always trying to be, and she enjoyed his company. He was honest, and (Y/N) admired honesty. It wasn’t bad that he was pretty cute, either. 

Their day had been surprisingly lazy. Ember Island seemed to have that effect on people. The chill, beachy vibes of the island made you want to kick your feet back and enjoy some watermelon juice on the beach, and (Y/N) and her friends felt no different. She lay on the beach beside Suki as Katara and Aang swam and Sokka and Toph made sand sculptures. She held her hand over her eyes as she scanned the area for Zuko. He was probably inside brooding somewhere. 

She closed her eyes to return to sunbathing, but then heard the harsh blasts of fire that were engrained in her brain since she was a child. She jumped to her feet immediately to find the source of the blasts, and was sadly unsurprised to see Zuko firing at Aang. It had been hard to retrain herself to trust him and it shocked her to find how easily she was willing to accept that he had turned on him. 

(Y/N) ran toward Aang, putting herself in between him and Zuko’s fire. She quickly tried to make a shield from the rock wall that surrounded the beach, but just as the shield came up, she felt a searing pain in her left leg. She cried out, falling to the ground, and the shield fell as well. 

“(Y/N)!” Aang shouted as he dropped to his knees. “Are you alright?” 

She shut her eyes tightly as she shook her head, shaky fingers pointing to her leg. (Y/N) opened her eyes to see that half her calf was red and raw. Burned, and there was only one thing that could have done it. 

Zuko fell to her side. “(Y/N), I-I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to, I was just testing Aang and I didn’t see you, I’m so sorry-”

“Sokka, help me get her inside,” Katara ordered. (Y/N) felt herself being lifted into Sokka’s arms. Her eyes welled with tears from the pain. She watched Sokka’s face as he carried her inside to her room and laid her on the bed. Katara came in soon after, water floating around her hands. 

“This might hurt a bit,” Katara said softly and (Y/N) nodded as she began healing. 

Zuko watched from the door frame as Katara healed (Y/N). He felt horrible. The pit in his stomach was large and heavy. He knew how dangerous fire could be. He had grown up being taught that burns to someone you were fighting were supposed to be deliberate. If you burned someone, it was because you meant to. He wasn’t trying to burn Aang and he certainly hadn’t meant to burn (Y/N) in the crossfire. But now he had to watch her suffer from the pain that he caused.

“She’ll be okay,” Toph said from beside him. Zuko jumped as he looked down. He hadn’t heard her approach. “She’s tough.”

(Y/N) spent a few days on bedrest in her room. At first, only Katara was allowed to enter for their healing sessions. Slowly, their other friends started to visit. Everyone stopped by her bedside to say spend time with her, except Zuko. He felt much too guilty to even consider going into her room. It wasn’t until (Y/N) hobbled downstairs one day that he knew the conversation he had been dreading would be unavoidable. 

She wobbled on her leg as she made her way to the kitchen, where Zuko sat at the table. (Y/N) sat in the chair directly across from him and Zuko could feel her stare boring into him. He opened his mouth to speak, but was surprised to see hers open at the same time. 

“Sorry,” They said simultaneously. They both blushed. 

“You go first,” (Y/N) said. 

“I am so, so sorry for burning you. I never meant to. I was just trying to test Aang but I should have let everyone know that I was going to do it, and I feel so horrible for even causing you pain that I haven’t been able to sleep at night and--” 

“Zuko,” (Y/N) interrupted him. “There’s nothing to forgive.” The boy paused and stared at her, confused. 

“There’s not?” She shook her head. 

“It was an accident. I know you never meant to hurt me.” She looked down at her leg. “Plus, I think I’ll have a pretty cool scar to match yours!” 

Zuko sat there, positively dumbfounded, before breaking into a smile. “You’re crazy.” 

(Y/N) grinned back. “It’s why you love me.” 

Zuko kept smiling down at his hands. She was right, after all. 

---

Tag List!!

@beifongsss , @musicalkeys , @harryisthesunshine , @aroyaldarknessblr 

[tsukihimeyfan]

Sorting the main cast of AtLA into Hogwarts Houses

I know I’m late to the party because I’ve seen many different people tackle this before, but I feel like it is my civic duty as both a Potterhead and an AtLA stan to put in my two cents, since every single time I’ve seen it talked about people either misinterpret what each House values in their members or pick a House by taking into account only one aspect of their personalities. I want to make it clear that these are my own opinions, which I’m basing on the definitions we’ve gotten of the main traits of each House over the years and the “core values” of each AtLA character, and that I’m in no way am I trying to insult anyone who thinks differently. That being said, here goes nothing!

Let’s start with the easy ones. Namely, the Fire Siblings:

1) Azula is 100%, undoubtedly, definitely, incontrovertibly Slytherin. Just doing a quick rundown of the qualities Salazar Slytherin prized in his handpicked students, as stated by the Sorting Hat, Albus Dumbledore and Pottermore: Cunning? Check. Resourcefulness? Check. A disregard for rules? Check. Using any means to achieve her ends? Check. Shrewdness? Check. Ambition? Check. Self-preservation? Check. Pride? Check. An argument could even be made that, as a member of the Fire Nation Royal Family, Azula also kind of meets the “blood purity” criteria. I’m sure most of us agree on this. Even if she does exhibit a lot of loyalty to her father as well as courage and intelligence, there is just no contest. Azula is one of the most Slytherin characters I’ve ever seen outside of the Harry Potter universe.

2) In the same way, Zuko is irrefutably a Hufflepuff. Hear me out! I know that he’s very brave and daring, but when we think of Zuko, what is his most essential trait, what do people tell us again

and again

about Zuko’s character?

He’s a hard worker. And what’s the House of the hard-working?

"You might belong in Hufflepuff, Where they are just and loyal, Those patient Hufflepuffs are true, And unafraid of toil.”

You guessed it. Hufflepuff. Of course, that’s not the only trait valued by this House that he exhibits. Who is more loyal in the series than the child who got half his face burned off and still did his best to earn the love and respect of the one responsible? Who never faltered in his loyalty even when he was sent away on an impossible mission? Who spouted angry words most of the time yet was willing to let his ticket home go temporarily in favor of ensuring the safety of his Uncle and his crew? That’s right, our boy Zuko. That very loyalty to his father is what unfortunately bound him for the longest time, until he was forced to face what a monster he was and let go of it in favor of more important things, namely his own morals and his loyalty to his Uncle.

He also has an incredibly strong sense of justice, as proven by the above statements, as well as this moment:

and he can be incredibly patient when he needs to be, as seen during The Blue Spirit and the Southern Raiders episodes.

Hufflepuffs are also said to be fair (which he clearly is), dedicated (need I say more?), honest (which Mr. shouts-his-feelings-at-the-top-of-his-lungs and can’t-lie-without-being-obvious-or-glancing-away-and-has-been-found-out-every-time-he-tried of course is) and modest (this one he starts without but by the time he joins the Gaang there isn’t anyone more modest or humble)

As “an idealist with a pure heart and unquestionable honor” , Zuko is the Hufflepuffiest Hufflepuff to ever Hufflepuff and I will die on this hill

3) Another easy one is our girl Suki, whom I’d say is a Gryffindor through and through, even if she is very loyal to her friends.

The rest of the Gaang under the cut.

The other members of Team Avatar are a bit trickier because they all exhibit a pretty even mix of traits from more than one House, but still if we just concentrate on their defining characteristics we can get to an answer. 

4) I’d argue that Sokka belongs in Ravenclaw, even though he is of course quite brave and extremely loyal to his loved ones, not only because he’s a strategist and an inventor, but also because, as best stated by Master Piandao:

Ravenclaws most value wit, learning, intelligence, creativity and wisdom (this last one is a bit iffy but I’m sure he’ll get there when he’s older), as well as priding themselves on being original in their ideas and methods. That’s Sokka to a T.

5) Katara gave me a hard time. She’s unbelievably loyal to her friends and family, she’s compassionate, patient, fair, hard working and dedicated, with a REALLY strong sense of justice, so a case can be made for Hufflepuff easily. However she can also be quite cunning when she wants to (most obviously during The Waterbending Scroll, City of Walls and Secrets, The Painted Lady, and The Runaway), she has a lot of ambition (if you count every variation of “I will make the world a better place by force if I have to”), she disregards the rules when it suits her (again The Waterbending Scroll as well as The Runaway) and she can be proud at times, so we could argue she’s a Slytherin. She’s also undoubtedly very intelligent and even quite wise for her age. It took me a while to decide but then I pondered; at her very core, what are the statements that define her? What words just scream “that’s it, that’s Katara”? They are, of course, these two phrases:

The first sounded incredibly Gryffindor to me, and the second is half Gryffindor half Hufflepuff, so it had to be between those two. As such, I decided to look into Gryffindor first. Katara is, of course, astoundingly courageous, but what else? I had to actually look up definitions for the Gryffindor traits besides courage because they all just kinda meant “brave” to me initially 😅, but what I found was:

*Nerve: “one's steadiness and courage in a demanding situation”. Yep. Who’s the most level-headed, steady and reliable person whenever the Gaang is in any kind of pinch? That’s right. Katara

*Daring: “adventurous or audaciously bold“. Yep. I’d say she ties with Toph for boldest in the Gaang

*Determination: “firmness of purpose”. Yep, absolutely. See the above image from the Painted Lady. ‘Nuff said.

*Chivalry: can mean 2 things, one is “sum of the ideal qualifications of a knight, including courtesy, generosity, valor, and dexterity in arms”. All of that is true of her (her “arms” being her waterbending), but I found it interesting that to be chivalrous can also mean “gracious and honorable toward an enemy, especially a defeated one, and toward the weak or poor”. I’d argue that this fits her even more. Once again, just take a look at The Painted Lady episode. 

*Courage and bravery: they can mean the same thing, namely “the ability to do something that frightens you” and of course that fits Katara, but the word courage in particular has another meaning, which is “strength in the face of pain or grief”...

I’d say she’s pretty good at that. I think that settles it, Katara is a Gryffindor.

Turns out that when it came to the water tribe siblings Bato was right all along

6) For Toph I was split between Gryffindor (thinking of her brash, bold nature) and Slytherin for a while, but after looking into Katara and researching all those definitions I think I have to give it to Slytherin. Of course, Toph doesn’t seem to be very ambitious unless you count “being recognized as the greatest earthbender in the world”, but she is quite cunning. She knows exactly how to use her “poor helpless blind girl” persona to get what she wants, as seen both on The Blind Bandit and The Runaway. She’s also an extremely good actress, being able to play the “reserved and obedient little girl” to her parents for years, and being easily able to pick it back up when it suits her. 

She’s also stubborn, proud, and 100% willing to use any means, regardless of laws or rules, to get what she wants. 

As for self preservation? Remember that her response when asked to teach Aang, which was crucial to save the world but would’ve compromised her secret, was this:

Slytherins can also “hesitate before acting, so as to weigh all possible outcomes before deciding exactly what should be done “ and my first instinct was to say that it didn’t fit Toph at all, but what is Toph if not a person who “waits and listens before striking”? Slytherins tend to favor Neutral Jing it seems. 

Almost forgot that as a daughter of the Beifong family she’s sort of nobility and she technically also meets the “blood purity” criteria.

7) Finally, we get to my boy Aang. He was really difficult. He’s loyal, patient, fair, kind, modest (usually) and just but I can’t really call him a hard worker most of the time.  

He’s brave, adventurous, determined and chivalrous but he does tend to get discouraged during demanding or stressful situations (his friends always make it better though)

He’s creative, very wise for his age, and quite smart (except when he’s playing around with Sokka in which case they share one brain cell 😂)

He can even be cunning when he needs to be. If he ever went to Hogwarts, he’d definitely be a Hat Staller like Harry. I heard someone say once that they considered Aang a Gryffindor because he liked to show off a lot, but that’s not really a Gryffindor trait (think of Neville Longbottom, Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and Minerva McGonagall. I think any one of them would sooner Stupefy themselves than go show off their skills in front of a crowd for no reason other than to brag).

Once again, we must pin down what it is that defines him, what his core is. After much thought, I decided it’s this: 

It’s his compassion, which he learned from his people, and his desire to value and protect all life. It’s his loyalty to the ideologies of the Air Nomads of which he is the last remaining bastion. It’s his strong moral code, his sense of right and wrong, his wish to make friends and to believe the best of everyone. That’s his center. That is what makes him Avatar Aang. In light of that, I think we can consider Aang, first and foremost, a Hufflepuff.

In the end, Team Avatar is made up of one Ravenclaw, one Slytherin, one Gryffindor (two after Suki joins), and two Hufflepuffs

Ironic, that the House least valued in the Harry Potter universe is the one that houses arguably the most pivotal characters of Avatar the Last Airbender: Zuko and Aang. Fitting, that even in this they parallel each other.

This is already long enough so I don’t think I’ll do Mai, Ty Lee, or Iroh. Maybe some other time.

[the-melting-world]

picrew

Seeing as how long I have been a HUGE fan of the airbender series (ATLA), it's actually kind of ridiculous that I never got into the fandom. Anyway, humor me while I go through each of my ocs and babble about their roles, histories, and bending styles in the ATLA universe! Also please excuse the fact that they had zero afro-textured options for hair in this one lol.

*Check under the cut for an unnecessary amount of lore.*

Kipling ~ Waterbender | Northern-style waterbending, vine/plant-bending, healing

Water Tribe Babeyyyyy

I don't really see Kip hailing from the Southern or Northern Water Tribes, but rather from a coastal village that developed after a handful of Southern Water Tribe hostages escaped one of the prisoner of war strongholds in the Earth Kingdom. I mean, if Hama (The Puppetmaster) and the plant benders from Foggy Swamp were any indication, there were water benders scattered all over the Earth Kingdom during Lord Ozai's military campaign.

Bending-wise, Kip has always been an average waterbender, whose bending is strongest when she's manipulating the water in plants and vines. When she comes of age, she is determined to advance her skills and find a way to serve her tribe more directly. So she travels to the Northern Water Tribe to seek an apprenticeship. There Kip advances her skills in traditional water bending forms (because up until then, her methods have been rather unorthodox) as well as her affinity for healing.

While Kip is up north, she does get close to Princess Yue in their healing classes. For a long time, Kip develops what she believes is a stupid crush, but eventually discovers the Princess has mutual feelings. Step aside, Sokka, you ain't the only one. Kip and Yue explore their relationship, but only briefly until the guilt and paranoia of getting caught and tarnishing Yue's reputation catches up to them. Kip ends up leaving in the dead of night leaving nothing but - you guessed it - a poem for Yue to find.

Kip happens to be one of the travelers Team Avatar meets while they're on the road. It's quite some time after the invasion of the Northern Water Tribe. This is after Yue has passed on, but before the group reaches Ba Sing Se. Both being kind of self-taught waterbenders, Kip and Katara bond very easily. Kip has a hard time being around Sokka since it's the first time she's felt something for someone since Yue. Still, despite Kip's efforts to ignore Sokka, they end up bonding over a lot of stuff, both stupid and serious. I'm not going to go into details about what went down when they inevitably learned of each other's past relationships with Yue, but yes, there were lots of emotions. A lot of Kip trying to run away and shake herself of Sokka. A lot of Sokka battling between pursuing her or leaving her alone. It's a mess. And no I still don't know how it turns out. Haven't planned it out that far.

After Ozai is defeated, Kip makes her living as a traveling waterbending instructor with her good Earth Kingdom friend, Khleo. She travels the territories, finding hidden water tribes and informing them of the fall of Ozai. She works with Khleo and the community members to open smalls schools, closely modeled after the earthbending schools in Omashu.

***

Khleo ~ Earthbender | earthbending, sandbending, lavabending

Khleo had a rocky start to their journey. Sorry, I couldn't help it.

They were born in an area that bordered on the Si Wong Desert and the mountain chain dividing the land from Chameleon Bay (where they later meet Kipling.) Naturally, Khleo picks up a little bit from each of the known forms of earth manipulation. Although they develop into a fully realized master by the time they reach adulthood, they don't ever try their hand at meltalbending when it starts to gain popularity after the fall of Ozai.

Khleo grew up poor and had to resort to unsavory business ventures with the local sandbenders in order to keep food on the table. But since they were the sole bender that could calm down the nearby volcanoes whenever they acted up, they were always regarded as a hero within the community.

Eventually, the Fire Nation finds a way to complicate Khleo's existence and they have to flee their home. First, they cross the mountain range to Chameleon Bay, where they meet the waterbender Kipling, who they easily bond with. Khleo and Kip travel together for some time until they run into Jet and his crew. Jet's lifestyle appeals to Khleo, who was tired of roughing it. But Kip takes one look at Jet and knows that he's bad news. She and Khleo part ways.

Like most of the kids in Jet's crew, Khleo blinded themself to his activities in order to survive and stay connected to a family group. But when his actions become too hard for them to go along with, they abandon the Freedom Fighters and go to go look for work elsewhere.

Khleo had set their sights on Omashu, where they believed they could earn an honest living and still practice their bending without the eyes of the Fire Nation bearing down on them. The journey was tough and Khleo had a few brushes with death, but they made it to Omashu. There they were immediately hired by a cabbage vendor who struggled in the past with keeping his wares in one piece. Khleo guarded his cabbage stand for all but a week before they were noticed by some Omashu academy trainers. They offered Khleo a job as an instructor in multiple earthbending forms. Surprised, but very willing, Khleo accepted. Eventually, Khleo was inducted into the Order of the White Lotus.

Years later, Khleo reunites with a very emotionally scarred Kipling. She stays with them until the capture of King Bumi, after which they quickly leave the city so that they can carry out the will of the White Lotus in hopes to undermine the Fire Nation's plan to conquer the Earth Kingdom on the day of Sozin's Comet 2.0.

***

Ozy ~ The Avatar Firebender/Airbender hybrid | firebending, airbending

Ozy's kind of special. He has an affinity for two elements.

He was born in the Fire Nation in a very, very small village on the coast of Crescent Island. When Ozy's parents noticed that their child was something of a prodigy, they brought him straight to the Fire Sages.

Now, there was a split among the sages. Some were loyal to Lord Ozai while others were secretly members of the Order of the White Lotus. One of the members recognized Ozy's affinity for airbending very early on and did everything they could to protect him.

Without being able to say goodbye to his parents or getting an explanation for what was happening, Ozy was sent to the Western Air Temple (you know, the cool upsidedown one) where he learned airbending with the help of older White Lotus members as well as spiritual experts like Guru Pathik (the same guru who taught Aang how to navigate the Avatar State.)

As Ozy became more and more enlightened, he came to believe that his gift was not a rare one. When he was not actively practicing the rudimentary components of bending, he was meditating on the factors that led the majority of people to believe that the ability to bend was inherited based on the ethnic and cultural group into which they were born. He thought that while this was true to some degree, additional affinities could be unlocked through the forgotten teachings of the Air Nomads.

To test his theory, Ozy went on a very dangerous journey to the Library in the Si Wong Desert, where he met and became very bonded to Uncle Iroh. Thankfully, Iroh and Ozy managed to not get eaten by the Library's spiritual patron. Later, Ozy declined Iroh's invitation to the Order of the White Lotus, instead choosing to retire to the Northern Air Temple. Thre he ended up assisting the mechanists with the construction of the flight technology (part of which had already been stolen and weaponized by the Fire Nation.) Ozy never left the Northern Air Temple to help in the fight against Ozai. Instead, he remained and became the first of the Air Acolytes, from which grows a community that later founded Air Temple Island and discovered the next child born into the Avatar Cycle - Korra of the Water Tribe.

***

Sun Bai ~ Airbender | proficient in airbending. Technically.

Bai, unfortunately, did not discover that he was an airbender until he was well into his twenties. The only way he unlocked his affinity for bending was through a traumatic event, the effects of which he managed to suppress for several years. It wasn't until Bai found himself in another flight or fight situation that he spontaneously called upon his connection to the air element. (Turns out Ozy was kind of right!)

Once Bai realized what he was made of, he made it a point to gather as much knowledge on the subject as he could. Everything that he came to understand about bending was self-taught. Meditation came more naturally to him, but even that required additional training, discipline, and theory to fully master. (He was basically the opposite of Avatar Korra, who picked up on the manual technique of airbending quite easily, but struggled with its spiritual component.)

Bai didn't really play a role in the fight against Lord Ozai. He didn't run into any of the Trio or Team Avatar. His journey didn't really start until after the war. At which point he meets General Adrenaline, and then later, Sascha of the Water Tribe.

General Rosario Adrenaline ~ Firebender | firebending, master in lightning redirection

Like Ozy, Adrenaline was another firebending prodigy. (In fact, it was Adrenaline who worked very closely with Princess Azula to hone her lightning redirection technique.) Eventually, Nali's skills were exploited to the fullest in the Fire Nation's military campaign, but long before that, firebending for her was a means to perform and entertain the masses.

Adrenaline grew up in the same circus troupe as Ty Lee! They had been best friends since childhood and ended up escaping together.

While Princess Azula always favored Ty Lee and Mei over Nali as bodyguards, she often went to Nali for "companionship." Azula kept her relationship with Nali very private. It lasted well into Azula's teenage years and got pretty serious. Though neither of them considered themselves in love with the other (just due to the fact that there was so much of a strain on them thanks to social hierarchy, and Azula being Azula) Nali developed a very deep, unhealthy loyalty to Azula, that in the end, resulted in her banishment from protecting the royal family.

After she was banished, Nali linked up with Zuko, who wasn't really all that happy about it, but Iroh steps in and gives the wise compassionate uncle lecture. Zuko folds and Nali becomes one his crew!

Nali and Azula continue to pursue their relationship. And now that it started to hinge on whenever Azula came around to fuck with Zuko's head, you can imagine how even more unhealthy and eventually toxic it became. Nali was torn between her loyalty to Azula versus her loyalty to Zuko. And Azula... didn't really care. It was a mess. Didn't end pretty.

Only after Azula was imprisoned by her brother did Nali finally wipe her hands completely clean of the Fire Nation's royal family. Not really caring what was happening in the rest of the world, she stumbled around from territory to territory, drinking, gambling, and taking up muscle for hire gigs to keep herself afloat. Until she meets and unexpectedly bonds with a very lazy monk, who needed an escort through the Serpent's Pass.

***

Sascha ~ Nonbender | weapons specialist - firearms and projectiles

Solo ~ Waterbender | Southern-style waterbending, bloodbending

Sascha and Solo were both students of Hama. Nuff said.

Although the twins soaked up much of Hama's ruthless, yet practical attitude towards survival, they just didn't inherit her very deep, eternal loathing for the Fire Nation.

They also realized that she was pretty messed up.

When Sascha and Solo were of age, they made a clean break from Hama and decided to open up a business in one of the towns along the mountainside.

Having grown up in the Fire Nation colonies, Sascha and Solo were very used to hiding their connection to their Water Tribe heritage. They blended in well and opened their garment and optics shop. It was a strange combination, but they managed to stake their claim in the community.

However, the two of them were still very clear enemies of the Fire Nation. They rebelled by getting the information out to other Water Tribe refugees living in hiding. Solo taught bloodbending in his self defense classes (which was much easier for him to pull off rather than traditional waterbending because it required less physical labor and thus did not put as much of a strain on his body.)

Meanwhile, Sascha would show Water Tribe nonbenders how to assemble firearms, which at the time, were considered still very new and dangerous technology.

Solo was happy with their life, but Sascha grew bored and restless. She wanted an adventure.

Then one day a very strange monk winds up wounded on her doorstep in the middle of the night. He's riddled with bullets - the kind of which only Fire Nation militia and Sascha herself would know how to remove and treat the damage they could cause...

***

And a treat for those that made it this far! 😜

Me!!! A water-airbender hybrid. And you're damn right I would have some hair loopies!

[notasiren21]

bless us with your thoughts on zutara

Honestly babe, Zutara makes more sense than what we were given.

Zutara was basically an act of fan baiting and some teasing, leading many to believe that there was no way they wouldn’t end up together.

Their dynamic is better than any other in the show. They are foils as well as compliments to each other as well.

Both have lost their mothers and the maternal care they once had. Both have siblings they feel the need to reign in -let’s be real tho, Zuko was given a shit deal even if I kinda wish Azula was given a redemption arc. And both are at an emotional maturity that suits the other.

This also goes in with my theory and debate of: what’s worse: to wake up after a coma of x amount of years or to wake up after being cryogenically frozen into a new world?

And surprisingly, I’ve gotten a lot of siding to the coma one which is what I associate Zuko with.

Zuko was that coma patient who was living asleep with only rage and a need to redeem himself keeping him alive and functioning. His awakening was brief when he and Katara had that one moment before it was interrupted and then he was coaxed back to sleep by Azula. Iroh was by his side through it all when no one else came.

Zuko’s awakening leaves him without those few years he lost out on and now he’s like 16 and has to forget everything to be his age, be mature, act as it. Zuko is left almost defenseless and without help besides one person when he lets go of his demanding rage. He’s left with the child he once was in a close to young adult’s body, someone who needs to help take down the man that abused his trust, loyalty and love.

Katara manages to be this warmth he’s missing -ironically lmao- and once she moves past her hurt and his betrayal, she sees he is weak like the rest of them but trying. There’s a certain comfort they can get in one another and respect they don’t hide for each other.

I’m willing to bet this extends in a desperate need to have the other alive.

(Yea to anyone who is gonna argue, cryo freezing would suck too and poor Aang, I do feel bad but consider this:

Coma you lose out on years of your life -literally. Everyone has grown up around you and dealt without you in a mask if you basically being dead.

Aang wakes up to his world destroyed and literally nothing to hold him back -I stg I put this more eloquently in my post about this.

Basically, Aang can’t dwell on his past because his past literally looks like ruins or doesn’t exist, it’s not what he once knew. For some reason, he’s able to mourn then cope with it far easier than Zuko is for being a person who has had to live in those years of exile and judgement.

Aang also lives with the constant surrounding that he is of the utmost importance to their world and survival. And he’s young. Despite being an air bender he lets it go to his head multiple times and has a war between arrogance and humbleness, sometimes his love for praise and childish desire to be seen doing stuff overrides what someone needs of humility and grounding.

(Not to mention I guess he’s a shit father in LoK but that’s another time)

Aang sorta believes him and Katara are meant to be since she and Sokka have been the only constant in his life. Since they are the only things he’s known in this new world to him. It would only “make sense” that he and Katara end up together because she’s always been there, he loves her, she’s always willing to do what he needs.

But I believe Katara lives in blindness because she’s also in the state of mind of doing what Aang wants and needs, not necessarily what she wants. It’s like misguided maternal affection -something Katara has been giving out to her tribe since she was old enough and picked up the slack, even managing Sokka.

I think Zuko to her is like a breath of fresh air and a huge comfort- and not like brother and sister sense.

Honestly believe that they would confide in one another about anything and everything, stuff they could never say to the others. These two act as the parents of the group and constantly have to reign them in, aging their emotional and just maturity in general.

I think Zuko holds back because he also just assumes she’ll end up with Aang. Zuko also have next to no confidence for shit like loving himself. So I think Zuko wouldn’t go after Katara because of 1) Aang and 2) because he doesn’t think he deserves her, he probably thinks he’s lucky enough to be her friend.

Their hug had more chemistry than any kiss I’ve seen between Kataang, and it was a hug.

Also there’s the lovers, Oma and Shu, that I believe they are the reincarnation of -I believe that theory so hard. I think Zutara are the basic example of soulmates and they always find their way back to each other even if they don’t necessarily end up together.

Because it seems that in the end, the most important person in their life, their person and other half, is each other. Even if they don’t act on their feelings.

I think had they ended up together, it would’ve been a happy and love filled marriage, that a child would’ve known the love of two parents and seen true love in their eyes.

Both are willing to die for one another, not necessarily the cause if it’s for Aang.

Ifk what the fuck happened and it this was consistent oh well

[a-d-curtis]

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle

Read on AO3 or FanFiction.net

This is it friends! I’m finally posting the first part of my new story! I’ve been mulling this concept over for almost two years, so it is time I finally get it out there!

.............

Description: AU: Aang was never found in the iceberg by Katara & Sokka, but by the Fire Nation instead. Firelord Ozai adopts Aang as his son, making him a Prince of the Fire Nation, with hopes of using the Avatar as his Weapon — after all, the hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world. 

Aang has mastered all the elements but one. But what will happen when a certain waterbender is brought in as his teacher…?

I also need to warn that there is some abuse in this story. What more would we expect when Aang shares a father with Zuko...?

..............

Prologue

As expected, my execution was a public display.

I would expect nothing less from Firelord Ozai, for attempting to corrupt his most prized pet. I’d heard of punishments as much as this for far less than I was guilty. 

Ozai only allowed a small number to interact with the boy. (Although I suppose he is nearly a man now—even if he still looks so young to my old eyes.) Only those handpicked and vigilantly fed the same carefully measured lies the boy was nourished with daily were allowed near him.

Which was easy enough for his servants and slaves, the poor brutes who carried his palanquin and cleaned his chamber pots. Those who tailored his silk robes and brushed his hair into a royal topknot knew better than to speak to him, and his educators were all well versed in what deceits to serve. 

(I don’t know if his torturers knew anything at all beyond the whip they held at the ready if he was delivered to them for ‘re-education’.)

But such thought-clones were not quite so easy to find when Ozai finally decided it was time for his pet to learn to command Earth and Water. I had heard that one of his Earthbending teachers had been shot through the eye by a Yuyuan archer mid-lesson, on command of the Crown Princess. As far as I know, the Princess never accounted for her reasons. She didn’t have to. Ozai trusted her implicitly. And her Word was Law, second only to the Firelord himself.

I was told this grisly tale on the first day I began teaching the young Avatar, no doubt to remind me of my place and what I stood to lose if I were to step out of line. I took the caution to heart, but perhaps not in the way Ozai’s fools would have liked. My efforts with the boy were subsequently evermore subtle. 

Command of water came easily to him; he learned quickly, too easily -- his raw power unlike anything I had ever seen. Teaching him I walked the sharp edge of a sword, holding back but all the while needing something to show for our efforts. And I could see that he held back as well. Just as much as I did. There was no hurry to complete his training, when mastery only promised both of us ruin. I don’t know if he knew that. 

But I did.  

For centuries, teaching the Avatar to bend was seen as a mark of honor, a way for one’s own name to go down in history along with the Avatar he served. But now, for one from my nation, to teach the Avatar is a mark of submission, of surrender. Proof that all shame could be bought with the right kind of leverage. To teach the boy was to sell your mothers, your grandfathers and children to servitude, or flames.  

And I, Master Pakku of the Northern Watertribe, had sold my soul to be his teacher. My name would be spat forever more among my tribe, a hiss and byword only to be uttered in derision. 

But they don’t know, that I taught him more than what the Ash-lovers knew. 

I only pray he learned the lesson. And that one day he would use it to end this eternal inferno, this war without end. But who knows if he could discern my cryptic teachings? Or if he would even want to? He’s been in the Firelord’s pocket since he was a child, after all. 

I guess now I will never know.

For now I am to pay for my secret lessons with my life. But I hold my head high as they roughly tie me to the stake in the square.

I can feel the execution drums bang deep within my chest, my skull full of the sound. I feel the sweat begin to drip down my back. As the torches are brought high and close, I think of my beloved home, longing with sudden potency for the chill of the ice and snow of the North. I am an old man now, but I am not beyond the fear that clutches in my stomach like a small child frightened and alone in the dark.

I fear. But I will not let them see my fear.

I lift my chin in pride. At the last moment I look up toward the palace, the very place I had committed the heinous crime of Truth that brought me to this moment. And there on the balcony, three figures emerge in royal glory to watch me die. 

At the center is Firelord Ozai himself, as imposing and commanding as ever, the Golden Flame in his hair glinting viciously in the high-noon sunlight; On his right, the Crown Princess Azula stands, a smirk on her blood-red lips. 

And there, standing on the Firelord’s left and nearly as tall as the Firelord himself is The Reason I risked this infiltration. His long black hair is pulled up as always in a Fire-nation topknot, leaving only the end of the sky-blue arrow of his ancestry visible on his forehead. His face is carefully neutral, but I imagine that behind his dark eyes is something like sympathy. Sorrow? Repulsion? 

Or maybe nothing at all. Perhaps I am just an old man wishing for my pyre not to have been for nothing at all.

The last thing I see is fire reflected, flickering brightly in those ancient and youthful gray eyes before I pinch my eyes tight in pain. 

And against all my best efforts, I scream.

……………..

Keep reading in the Next Chapter

[theclockworkmonk]

Not Just an Airbender

This is probably my favorite fic in my "Aang/Katara Missing Moments" series on AO3.

Trying to make Aang's dilemma more sympathetic and make sense of Katara's change of heart.

Kinda-sorta sequel to Intermission

Summary: Days before Sozin's Comet, Katara tries to reassure Aang about the task he now faces, and he tries to explain to her why he feels he can't go through with it.

Words: 2,460

Read on AO3

Read on FF.net

********

Katara peeked her head through the doorway to the balcony again. He hadn't moved since she first checked on him an hour earlier. Still sitting cross-legged in front of the candles, facing out into the moonlit night on Ember Island.

"Is something wrong, Katara?"

His voice made her jump. It wasn't loud, or soft either. He spoke calmly and plainly. She felt foolish, of course he had noticed her, he'd be a pretty poor Avatar if a nervous girl was able to sneak up on him while meditating.

"No, nothing's wrong," Katara said stepping onto the balcony. The breeze coming in off the ocean was warm, but she instinctively shielded herself by crossing her arms anyway, "Sorry if I'm bothering you, Zuko said you needed to figure things out on your own, but I just wanted to check and see how you were doing. Out here. On your own."

Aang kept his eyes closed, "You know that you could never bother me. I'm doing…..well, things are what they are."

Katara didn't know what else to say. Her first instinct, as it always was with Aang, was to comfort and reassure him, to do anything to remove the thing that was causing him an ounce of unhappiness. But this wasn't something either of them could just avoid, this was something that had to be done and was so much bigger than them. Katara knew that she understood Aang better than anyone alive, but she had absolutely no idea how to go about convincing her sweet best friend to be more ruthless. If he were capable of being talked into doing this, then he wouldn't be the boy that she understood so much.

Before she could think of a way to fill the tense silence between them, Aang opened his eyes, turned to look at her and did it for her, "I'm sorry, Katara. For snapping at you earlier. I don't want you to think I don't appreciate how much you're all counting on me."

Katara couldn't believe what she was hearing, "Aang, we do not think that you don't appreciate the situation or realize what kind of pressure we're under. It's quite the opposite, not only are you expected to defeat the most powerful firebender in the world, but you're holding yourself to an additional impossible standard. Aang, I have seen you do so many things that I never thought possible, but at the end of the day, even the Avatar is only human. Defeating him is going to be hard enough without protecting him from yourself."

"It's not an impossible standard, Katara, it's a standard that my people have held themselves to for thousands of years. If I do this, I will lose a part of myself that I will never get back. I won't….I won't be the same person anymore."

Katara sat down beside him and rested a reassuring hand on his shoulder, "Aang, that might be true if you had any choice. But sometimes we don't. I understand that it's terrifying to consider what crossing that line might do to you, that's why I couldn't bring myself to kill the man who took my mother from me. But that was different. That was revenge against a man who was no longer a threat to anyone, it would have just been about me giving into my own hate."

She shifted even closer to him, as if maybe by touching him she could absorb the pain he was feeling, "You're not taking revenge against the Fire Lord, even though you have more reason than anyone in the world to do so. That's how I know doing this won't make you a worse person. You're always going to be the best person I've ever met. As for being a different person….well, I don't think there's any way to avoid that. You're already not the same boy that I pulled out of that iceberg last year. With each new element, I've watched you master new parts of yourself, and grow into the man you were born to be."

Without thinking about it, she playfully nudged him and winked, "You're certainly more bold now than when I first met you, I know that better than anyone."

Aang's calm demeanor cracked slightly as his cheeks turned red, and Katara could feel her own doing the same, partly out of embarrassment and partly with anger at herself. They still hadn't directly addressed Aang's previous "boldness" and she suddenly realized that right now he probably didn't need a reminder of the last time conviction backfired on him, even if it was due to her own lack of it.

Katara quickly tried to not linger and plow ahead with her point, "And maybe that's what it means for you to truly become the Avatar. Maybe that's what we've been coming to this whole time. You started your life as an airbender, but you're not just an airbender, you're the Avatar too. I don't want to be mean, Aang, but...isn't the Avatar supposed to be loyal to the whole world, not just his native nation?"

Katara had been terrified of getting to this point. It needed to be said, they had been dancing around it, but she was sure he would lash out and ask how she could possibly say something so heartless. But when Aang responded, he didn't sound angry, or even frustrated. He sounded…..tired. Tired, scared, and above all, sad. As if he were grieving a lost love.

"I think it might be different when I am my entire native nation."

He stood up, and leaned with both hands on the railing, hanging his head between his arms. Katara could see his hands trembling as he gripped the wood as if for dear life.

"You're right, Katara. I'm not just an airbender. I'm the last airbender. So if I don't hold to my people's beliefs…...then who will? My people's beliefs….they're all I have left of them."

The front he had put on since the moment she stepped outside started to crack as a sob caught in this throat, "All I have left of Gyatso, and Jinju, and Pasang, and Iio, and Tashi, and all my other friends I knew, and every man, woman, and child I didn't."

He didn't even seem to be talking directly to her at this point. He seemed far away from her, his eyes looking out across time one hundred years, "Every pair of fat, old monks playing Pai Sho, every acolyte crashing his first glider, every group of kids playing airball. As long as I stay the best airbender I can be, then maybe...maybe they're not really gone. But if I actually do this…..if I kill the Fire Lord…..then that's the moment when the Air Nation is truly dead."

He looked up at the moon, as if she might hold an answer, and Katara could see the moonlight reflecting in the tears forming in his eyes. "I'm the Avatar. I'm supposed to maintain the balance of the World. How can I claim to do that after I kill off what's left of one of the Four Nations?"

Katara followed him to the railing and they stood shoulder to shoulder, "You know Aang, sometimes I get furious with myself that I keep doing this."

He was momentarily snapped out of his despair by the amazing girl next to him saying something bad about herself, "What? Doing what? What do you have to feel sorry for?"

"I sometimes forget that you've already gone through more heartbreak than anyone can be expected to endure in a lifetime. You're such a warm and kind person that always sees the best in people that some people might mistake you for downright sheltered. But even close to a year out of the iceberg, you're still just trying to piece back together an entire world that you've lost. After we saw the ruins of the Southern Air Temple, after a few days you managed to regain your sunny disposition, I thought you had moved on already. But I quickly learned….you have to "move on" all over again every single day, don't you?"

Aang had to break his eye contact with her and look at his feet, feeling uncomfortably exposed by someone else explaining him to himself so easily.

"Aang, even after you lost everything you had to fight for, you still fight. You fight and struggle every day to bring hope to a world that, until you came along, had none."

She tilted his chin up to get him to look back into her eyes, "And that is the single bravest thing I've ever seen."

"Puh," Aang let out a sarcastic chuckle and shrugged her off, hard as it was to pass up any chance of physical touch with her, "If I were brave, none of this would have happened. I wouldn't have run away, the Fire Nation wouldn't have taken over the world, and I wouldn't be here now choosing whether to be a true Avatar or a true Airbender."

"Aang, it would take a lot more than stopping one monster for you to suddenly not be a true Airbender anymore. You fight for what you believe in harder than anyone I've ever met. The Air Nation way won't just live on in you, it will live on in everyone you've touched. Because that's what you do, Aang. Everywhere you go, you inspire people to be better versions of themselves. To fight for a better world, in any way they can. You inspire me."

She found herself reaching out for his hand and grasping it in both of hers like it was the most precious thing in the world, "I'm not the same person I was a year ago either, you've changed me. If I had never met you, I'd still just be a scared girl hiding my bending at the end of the world."

His eyes softened and he cracked the faintest of smiles that looked both comforted and comforting. She hadn't really solved his problem, he couldn't bring himself to agree with her that the Air Nation way would survive what he now contemplated, but it always made things better to hear Katara say nice things about him, no matter the context.

"That's nonsense and you know it, Katara," said Aang, unharshly and with a slight chuckle, "You were ready to fight even when there was no one around to fight. It was you who inspired the prisoners on that prison ship to rise up. That was the first moment since I saw the ruins of the Southern Temple that I started to truly believe that we might be able to bring back the world that I failed. That was also when I realized that I lo-," he stopped himself, his smile vanished, he slipped his hand out of hers, took a step away and could no longer meet her gaze," when I realized how special you were."

Katara became acutely aware that she was asking him to confront a decision that went against everything central to his very identity, while she couldn't even confront how a boy felt about her, and how she felt about him. There were dozens of times since that night at the theater when she could have told him everything, and despite the fact that it would be literally nothing but positive for everyone involved, she still didn't have the courage to do this simple thing that would make both of them happy. She had been so afraid to open up that door with Aang because that would make the danger so much more real. The idea of losing her best friend terrified her enough, let alone the idea of losing someone she was in love with.

But the more she thought about it, the more she thought Zuko had been right. If, perish the thought, something happened to Aang, her keeping that door closed wouldn't shield her. It would just add the pain of everything left unsaid. And talking with Aang now, she was starting to think that some reassurance about what awaited him once this was all over was just what he needed to get him through what he faced.

She closed the gap between them again and put her hand back on his shoulder, "Aang, I can't give you a reason, but I have faith that you will see this through. And you will do it in the most good way possible, because through everything, you are good. It's as simple as that. And whether that way is by going through with this, or by pulling off yet another miracle to find another way that I can't see, the whole world will know that you did your best."

He still wasn't looking at her, he was back to gazing out into the night air, "Do you really believe that?"

Trying to muster up some courage that she could pass over to him, she closed what little space remained between them, leaned forward, and kissed him on the cheek. The front part of his cheek, not quite on the corner of his mouth, "I know it."

Aang had at the same time about a thousand words and zero words running through his head. This wasn't, technically, a new experience, she had kissed him on the cheek before, but not since….everything happened. All he could do was blurt out the start of new sentences before he could finish them, "What…..But…You…...Do you…"

Katara just smirked, "Like I said, you're not the only one who's grown into a bolder person. We're all just figuring it out as we go along. And I know you will, before this is all over."

She gave his shoulder one last affectionate squeeze before turning around to head back inside, "Now try to get some sleep, you remember how you got the last time you stressed yourself out instead of getting rest."

Aang could still do little more than just blink. After a while, the only thing he could think of was sitting back down in front of the candles and resume meditating. He supposed if Katara had been trying to distract him from facing the Fire Lord, then it definitely worked. He found himself less paralyzed by the upcoming battle, because reconciling his core beliefs with stopping a genocidal monster seemed easy compared to mentally processing that kiss.

After remaining alone on the balcony for some time, he was joined again, this time by someone far less likely to confuse him with romantic affection.

"Hey Momo, I don't suppose you know what I should do."

The lemur's big eyes didn't offer any wisdom, about either puzzle.

"I didn't think so."