#physics powers and more because one day you watched avatar the last airbender and decided people could now do water manipulation and

[rubber-glovs]

Oooohhh the urge to yap about my ocs and the world they live in......

[xoxo-teddybear]

Oh, The Lies You Tell - Bakugou Katsuki - pt. 1

Bakugou x f!reader

Warnings: angst, trauma, abuse, betrayal, fluff, slice of life, smut, cursing, manipulation, possible spoilers, physical harm, 18+

BAKUGOU’S MASTERLIST

Ep. Warnings: cursing, mentions of abuse and manipulation, slice of life(ish), manga spoilers!!

A/N: Ok so this is just what I daydream about, and since ima tv addict, I’m involving some “Avatar: The Last Airbender” related things, but a little different. This is more of an introduction to our character but I hope you enjoy!

Pt.1 Pt.2 Pt.3 Pt.4 Pt.5 Pt.6 Pt.7 Pt.8 Pt.9

Summary: It’s Y/N’s first day at UA.....as a “former” villain

“Y/N L/N. She’s a new transfer student. Treat her with your respect and do your best to take care of her.” The tired teacher spoke.

“.......Hey. Please treat me well.” The intimidating girl said as she bowed in respect.

Now if you were to see Y/N on the streets as a stranger, you wouldn’t even think she would have this threatening aura. The class agreed. She’s gorgeous. From a far, you would think she’s a sweetheart, But the girl had a cold, calm stare in her E/C eyes. There was actually no way to describe it. It was just chilling to the bone.

Not only that, but it was clear you were a little rebel. Mainly because of the way you decided to change up your uniform. Your sleeves were torn off to make your button up top some sort of tight fitted turtle neck with a tie that was complimenting your busty figure. Especially since it was tightly tucked into your skirt, pressing against your torso instead of loosely sitting in there like the other girls. You also added a small dark brown belt to cover where your skirt and top meet. Your waist gave the perfect show of how curvaceous you truly were. Your thighs were deliciously thick and your ass must’ve been a perfect peach, considering it caused your skirt to seem a little too small for you. Instead of the typical shoes and knee high socks, you opted for thigh high dark brown leather boots that folded at the top to match your belt. No heel though, of course. Gotta keep it casual. You finished off your rebellious look with a pair of black leather fingerless gloves. Do you look like trouble? Yup. Do you look hot as hell though? You bet.

“You may be seated next to Katsuki Bakugou.” Your new teacher spoke. Before anybody else could give an indication of who this “Bakugou” boy was, an electric blonde spoke up.

“Be careful with that one pretty lady, he’s our resident hot head.” The boy spoke while the entire class giggled.

“Shut it dunce face.” Your eyes shifted from one blonde to another. This time with a spiky head of ash blonde hair and piercing red eyes. As you walk towards your new seat, you made eye contact with the spiky blonde, you saw the look on his face. Just like everyone else, a face of fear and shock, except this time the person didn’t know who you were.

Bakugou could definitely say upon first glance, you were definitely something fierce. It threw him off just how powerful your presence was. He quickly turned away as you took your seat.

As class began, everyone had their eyes on Y/N. Some admiring her beauty, others wary of her aura, and some too nervous to mention their newfound fear of her. In the middle of Mr. Aizawa’s boring lecture, a scratch at the door could be heard.

‘A scratch?’ Everyone thought. But Y/N knew exactly who it was.

When Mr. Aizawa went to open the door, in came what appears to be a wolf-dog. Mr. Aizawa seemed to casually accept it and just expected you to explain. He was too tired to deal with this crazy shit.

“Oh..there you are Rumor. Took you long enough to find this place.” The creature, also somehow intimidating, simply just huffed at the girl and layed down next to her seat in between her and Bakugou.

“L/N, please explain to the class why Rumor is here. They clearly seem to be confused.” Y/N looked around the room to see her new classmates staring at her and her furry friend.

“*sigh* he’s my animal companion.” You simply stated. Apparently it didn’t satisfy your peers because a freckled, green haired boy spoke up.

“Animal companion? Like a service dog?” The timid boy asked. You secretly rolled your eyes at the fact you’ll have to answer this question again. That is until Bakugou spoke.

“You damn nerd, if he was a service dog, she woulda said that now, don’t ‘cha think?” ‘Dunce face and a damn nerd huh? Wonder what new nickname this hedgehog will give me.’ Your little quip made you give the smallest smile with a quiet laugh to yourself

What you didnt realize was that during your little moment, Bakugou was watching you the entire time. He fought the blush that was threatening to rise and successfully won. ‘The hell?’ Bakugou thought. Since when did he blush?

“He’s right. Rumor isn’t my service dog, he’s my animal companion. And no, not my pet. He’s more like a close friend. My best friend if anything. He’s also not a dog either, he’s a changeling.” You explained hoping someone else knew what a changeling was. Thankfully, the “damn nerd” did.

“Changeling? I thought they were just a myth.” He said. “What the heck is a changeling, Deku?” You turned and saw it was a girl with a round face and pink cheeks. ‘Deku? How rude’ you thought to yourself.

“Changelings were rumored to be magical like beasts who could take the form of any animal they chose. Those forms could be as real as eagles and bears or as mythical as dragons and unicorns. They could also change the size of their form too. Am I right, L/N?” Deku asked you.

“You’re completely right, Deku.” The green haired boy blushed at his nickname on your tongue. “Rumor can be any creature I command. His wolf-dog form is his casual form though. It’s the form he took at birth I guess.”

“You guess?” Bakugou asked.

“Yes, I guess. I didn’t have Rumor since he was born. I found him while I was on a walk in the forest. We just clicked, and he followed me home. That’s when I discovered his powers and what he was, and seeing that changelings were only rumored to have existed, I thought it would’ve been a fitting name. We’ve been together ever since, and not only does he work as a friend, he’s a fighter too. He’s like a partner to me which is exactly why principle Nezu allowed him to attend UA with me. I guess you could say he’s part of my...uhm..quirk” You thoroughly explained. You couldn’t help it. You loved talking about Rumor. He was your best friend and definitely one of a kind.

Rumor looked up at you and barked. You turned to pet him on the head and gave him a little smile. Something that didn’t go unnoticed by the resident hot head, which once again caused him to fight back a blush. ‘The fuck is going on with me today?’ The blonde thought to himself. Finally satisfied with the answers, the class picked up where they left off and continued to learn about quirks which didn’t seem all that useful to you since....you don’t have one.

——————————————————————————

Later

“Remember, we will all be meeting at gym gamma tomorrow morning, so don’t bother coming to the classroom. Just meet up there with any comfortable gym wear.” Mr. Aizawa said at the end of the day.

“Yes sir!” The class all said. “L/N stay behind, I need to speak to you and Rumor.” The tired teacher said with a yawn.

“Yes sir.” You calmly replied.

As the class gathered their things to leave, some came up to speak to you. First it was Deku and the round faced girl.

“Welcome to UA L/N. My name is Izuku Midoriya!” Deku said.

“Oh my apologies. I thought I heard that your name was Deku.” You said so nonchalantly with your sweet voice.

“Well it’s just a nickname that started up with Kacchan.” The boy was now blushing in slight embarrassment while rubbing the back of his head.

“Kacchan? I’m sorry, I don’t know who that is.” You said.

“Oh right! My bad, Kacchan is Bakugou. It’s a name I gave him during our childhood.” He stated.

“Seems a little mean.” You chuckled

“Yeah but he’s always been like that.” The boy smiled with a small laugh.

“I think I can tell. He must be really nice to Deku and Dunce face.”

You both shared a laugh at your little sarcastic poke at the explosive blonde that the girl was feeling a little left out.

“Anyways, I’m Ochako Uraraka! I was really hoping I could talk to you more but Deku over here can’t seem to keep his mouth shut.” the girl slightly teased.

“Meh. No worries. We’re gonna be stuck together for the next few years. We have plenty of time to get to know each other.” You so kindly spoke as you gathered your stuff.

“Totally! We can-“ Uraraka was cut off by a very handsome two toned boy with a scar. He definitely reminded you of some you knew. You watched as he came up to speak to Midoriya.

“Hey, Midoriya. Did you want to...” you tuned out his conversation. You simply just stared at him in awe. No doubt about it. He was definitely Dabi’s brother. But he was a whole lot more handsome.

The boy caught onto your staring and introduced himself.

“Hello L/N, my name is Shoto Todoroki. You may know me from my father, Endeavor, but I assure you, I’m nothing like him. In fact it’s safe to say I hate him.” He stated ever so calmly. ‘Wow. So blunt. And I guess hating Endeavor runs in the family’

“Hey it’s fine. I get it, daddy issues.” You nervously laughed but this seemed to strike an interest in Todoroki as he seem to have wanted to continue bashing both of your fathers until he was interrupted by Bakugou.

“You’re in my way Icy-hot.” ‘Jeez, another nickname?’ You thought.

“Then move to another side.” Todoroki quickly came back with.

This caused you to now openly give a quiet laugh, you could already tell what kind of relationship those two have. During your small laugh, Bakugou once again caught himself staring, except this time, he was caught. And it was by you.

You both made eye contact once again. As he stared into your E/C colored eyes, and you stared into his rubied gems, you both grew a slight blush on your cheeks and the 3 standing next to you both took notice.

“Hey..” you sweetly said.

“..........hey.” He replied and quickly looked away embarrassed. That peaceful little moment made your heart stir. Something that hasn’t happened in a long time. If felt calming, loving, happy...and weird and confusing. Thankfully, Dunce face came up to flip the switch.

“Wow Kacchaaannn,” the electric blonde said wiggling his brows. “Never seen you blush like that. You got a little crush on the new gir-“

“SHUT UP SPARK PLUG!” Bakugou exclaimed as he quickly made his way out of the classroom.

“Hey why you gotta be so mean all the time man!” Dunce face cried out.

“I SAID SHUT UP” Bakugou screamed from down the hall. ‘Well he certainly is interesting.....and cute’

“Ah jeez, whatever,” the blonde sighed before you seemed to have caught his attention.

“Well hey there pretty lady,” he started “I’m Denki Kaminari and you are one gorgeous girl. And you definitely got a rockin’ bod-“ he was cut off by our scary teacher.

“That’s enough Kaminari, I need to speak to L/N. Now all of you, out.” He commanded.

They all took their leave thinking about how cool and kind you were. Oh how wrong they were. The little act you put up sure was convincible. Hell, the only thing you genuinely meant was that Todoroki and Bakugou were cute and the blush that came up whenever Bakugou stared at you. You still couldn’t explain it but you brushed it off.

When all were gone, you mentally took notes of their names and possible quirks.

Izuku Midoriya. Alias: Damn Nerd and Deku. Quirk: unknown.

Ochako Uraraka. Alias: unknown. Quirk: unknown.

Shoto Todoroki. Alias: Icy-hot. Quirk: possibly related to cold and heat

Denki Kaminari. Alias: Dunce Face and Spark Plug. Quirk: possibly related to electricity

Katsuki Bakugou. Alias: Kacchan. Quirk: unknown

“L/N.” Your teacher snapped you out of your quick thought and got you focused.

“You seemed to be very comfortable with telling them about Rumor.” Mr. Aizawa said with an eyebrow raised.

“Well he is my best friend. I could go on and on about Rumor for hours if people didn’t stop me. And you can’t lie, he is pretty interesting. Especially his fighting style. You would know all about that, wouldn’t you....Eraser Head?” You said with a sinister smile.

You were well aware that Aizawa knew Rumor’s capabilities very well. You were also aware he knew much about yours too. I mean, you both have fought each other before. And one of you almost didn’t make it out alive. Hint hint, it wasn’t you.

“You are to address me as Aizawa Sensei or Mr. Aizawa, Titania.” He sternly said.

“Ouch, the villain name? I thought the past was the past. There’s a good inside me, dont you remember? You were the one who said it after all. You were even the one who recommended an S-Class villain like me should join UA.” You snidely replied.

*flashback*

As you fought against the skilled pro, you could tell he was getting weaker and weaker by the second. You used your air bending to push him back, crushing him into the wall, and keep him far away. Before you could send Rumor in to finish the job, a hand on your shoulder stopped you.

“Kurogiri? What are you doing here?” You stopped fighting and quickly turned to your superior in a fearful and shaky manner. Although you were much stronger than him and could easily take him down, you knew better. Your mind had already been so manipulated into thinking you were the weakest villain in the league, when it reality, you were strong enough to take down Shigaraki in a snap...but you didn’t need to know that.

Eraser Head, too tired and beaten to even pick himself up off the ground watched the interaction from the distance.

“You were told to collect intel, not fight a pro.” The black fog stated.

“Well yes, but he tried to stop me an-“ he silenced you with a smack to the face. Kurogiri was a respectful man...in ways...but he was just following orders on how to treat Y/N.

“If he tried to stop you, you run away.” He said, matter of factly.

“But he-“ once again, he cut you off but this time with a louder voice.

“But nothing! You were to gather intel and report back to base. Not fight. If you got into trouble, you are to run away, and use your bending and Rumor as assistance.” He stated.

“Yes sir. I’m sorry sir.” You said with your head bowed down in dishonor.

Aizawa could already tell from afar how controlled you were. In past fights, he’s noticed how you were so quick to succumb to any villain in the league, and you were always so willing to go back to them no matter how many times you could’ve ran away on your own. It was like they had something you needed, or more so it was them that you needed. For survival, perhaps?

“Did you even gather the information we needed?” Kurogiri asked.

Your silence gave him all the answers he needed. With a disappointing glare he reached for you, when you flinched at just the slighted movement, Aizawa knew something was wrong. Yes you were a villain, but it was clear you were also a manipulated child. So he acted quick, and attacked Kurogiri, knocking him out, and grabbed you. Before you both took off, you threw one of your earrings at kurorgiri’s unconscious body, knowing he’ll know what to do once he sees it. As he ran with you, he took notice of the animal behind him that followed you. When he finally landed on a cliff hanging over the city, he placed you down to sit on the grass and looked at you before speaking.

“I can see it. All of it. They’re controlling you aren’t they?” The pro-hero spoke.

“Excuse me? Nobody is controlling anybody! I choose to follow orders!” You yelled as Rumor came up to you.

“What is that thing?” Aizawa asked.

“He’s my friend and you won’t harm him!” You said while grabbing onto Rumor.

The pro took note of that word you used. Friend. Villains don’t have friends, they don’t have anybody but goons and partners in crime. Literally. You were definitely different compared to these other villains.

“I have no intentions on harming you or your friend.” The pro spoke.

“So what do you want with me.”

“....Simple. I want you to go to school, live in the dorm rooms, eat good food, train more to become better as a person and fighter, and make more friends. I see a good in you Titania, you deserve a good life. Not one controlled by villains where you do their bidding for what? Survival?” Aizawa said as he crossed his arms while looking at you.

You were in shock. He was able to figure you out. Well, he figured out why you were with the league. Survival. But it doesn’t matter, you were so brainwashed that you were convinced anyone outside the league wanted to kill you...at least that’s what the LOV told you.

“I don’t want to go to school, I want to go back home to the league.” You said while looking down and holding onto your furry friend.

“Home? UA could give you a better home.”

You looked up in shocked at his words. He wanted you to attend school at UA? You know that place. That’s the one place where the league has been so invested in ever since All Might joined the staff there. Suddenly, an idea came into thought. You knew exactly how you were gonna get into the league’s good graces and out of the cold shadow.

“UA?....That’s where you want me to go? How the hell am I supposed to get in there? I’m a known villain genius.” You sarcastically said.

“A villain hidden behind a full face mask. People don’t know your true identity, and did you ever think that maybe the league wants it that way?” He said

“Are you saying you know who I truly am?” You questioned him.

“No, but that doesn’t matter right now. If you want to go to UA, I can help you. I’m a teacher there and I can put in a good word for you. Sure it will take a lot of convincing but I’m willing to do it. Using UA as a reformatory program for you could be benefitting you in more ways than one. So if going to UA is what you really want, I’m more than happy to help you Titania.”

You couldn’t believe it. Your heart was so excited. You were finally going to get away from this horrible life of crime and killing. Away from the abuse and blood. Away from the league. But your brain was telling you to deny it all. You were safer with the league, everyone is out to get you, and you will die without the villains help. But a bark broke you out of thought.

You turned to your side to see what seems to be a smile on Rumor’s face. He was wagging his tail and sticking his tongue out while giving you puppy dog eyes. It appears he knew what was going on and he seemed excited. For your best friend, the world. So you gave in...happily.

“Y/N.” You said while getting up off the ground.

“Huh?” The pro spoke.

“My name is Y/N L/N, and I’d be happy to join UA.” You said with a smile and tears of joy filling you eyes. Rumor happily barked at the pro as well.

“Well alright then,” the pro said sticking out his hand for you to shake, “Y/N L/N, welcome to UA.”

As you shook his hand your smile held a thousand words. Happiness, excitement, villainy, and sin. Sure you were going to benefit yourself, but you were also going to benefit the league.

*Present Time*

“I was hoping I’d get more respect from you considering I was the one who got you into UA,” Aizawa tiredly said while turning his head towards the ceiling and crossing his arms. “But I guess that mischief and attitude just comes with the deal.”

“Correct.” You simply said.

“So are you willing to tell them what your “quirk” is? You seemed so open about Rumor, I thought your powers would be the same.” Aizawa pressed on.

“Not sure yet. I only just met the students. They seem nice.” You said while looking at your now very interesting shoes.

“They’re a crazy bunch, but they’re incredible friends. They could be great friends to you too Y/N.” You looked back up at him with hope, but quickly remembered why you were there in the first place.

The teacher took noticed of this and continued. “Either way, they’ll have to see what you got tomorrow. In gym gamma we’ll be doing some sparring including our quirks, so you’ll have to show them all that you can do.” He said.

He saw how that made you nervous. Not because you were scared to speak about or show your abilities, but because you knew you would be hit with thousands of questions. Oh how annoyed you must be.

“Understood.” You said to him as if you were a soldier. He won’t get used to that. He’ll have to make sure you know it’s ok to speak to people as..well people, and not like everyone is your superior.

“Good,” he began to walk to his yellow sleeping bag to pick it up, “now head to the front of the school. I left an escort for you to help guide you to your dorm room. That person will also be a guide in all things UA for you so be nice. You’ll be stuck with them for awhile. That is all, you can go now.”

As you and Rumor made your way to the front, you had so many questions going on in your mind. Should you make new friends or keep them at a distance? Should you completely drop the league and join UA? Should you blow your cover and expose why your truly there? What to do, what to do.

When you made it to the front, you finally saw your escort, and you couldn’t help but give a little smirk.

“Hey..”

A/N: If y’all wanna see the clothes that inspired Y/N’s uniform, check this out!!!

A/N: Damn guys, I know I’ve only just started writing but this is kinda the story I imagine in my mind at night. So I thought it would be fun to give it to reality. So here’s my first FanFic😅 hopefully it doesn’t turn out too terrible, but I promise to work on my skills and improve. Also, if you need a reference to what Y/N’s uniform looks like, search up “Akame from Akame Ga Kill.” That’s the look that heavily inspired Y/N’s new uniform. And if you’re confused on what the boots look like, search up “Lucy Heartfilia thigh high boots,” bc those are the EXACT boots I imagine on Y/N except in a darker brunette color to match the belt. Once again, NOT spell checked so my apologies for any mistakes. I hope you enjoyed pt. 1! And if this goes well, tell me if you’d like a pt. 2! I love to hear feedback! Thx <3

[low-budget-korra]

Lets talk about Korra (again)

i already made this analysis, and it was well received but i dont know, i wanna do it again. Why not right? My english is better now than was when i made that analysis so i think  this one will be better written

What a way to introduce a protagonist. This line and this scene tell us everything we need to know about Korra at that time and everything she knew about herself.

In book one Korra is a 17′s old teenager who have no idea how the world, how life is outside the training center she grew up in and had been locked up since ever. So she is not only naive but have lack of social skills

Oh, and not everyone who lack’s social skills will act like Zuko and Azula okay? Korra can be confident, expressive and outgoing and still have problems when it comes to social skills.One thing dont exclude the other.

“I’m the Avatar and you gotta deal with it” did you guys notice that only for that line we can see the entire opposite on how she treat her role as avatar in comparisson with Aang? And im not here to judge because is two very different contexts.

As far as we know, Korra grew up without friends or romantic partners. Of course, she had her training partners but i believe that they are just that. 

So her entarely perception of herself was around her duty as Avatar, she didnt have personal life, she barely was Korra...She was The avatar and thats that.

So she came to Republic City, it was a mess. 

Its funny to see that she have no touch when it comes to simply talk to people, i guess when you grew up away from society, this happens. And yes, she is cocky and had to learn that people arent there to somewhat please her, and she learned that quicky. 

Thats why the Pro Bending was important for her character, not only for training but also as means of socilization.

Now lets talk about the villains: Amon and Tarrlok

The two of them represents two differents threats to Korra. Amon represents a threat to her duty as Avatar while Tarrlok represents a threat to Korra as a person.

In episode 4 we have what i still thinks is the darker episode from TLOK. In this episode Amon ambushes Korra in the final moments... Even knowing that they did their best to make Amon’s power and control be non-sexualized as possible still...He have her down on her knews, totally helpless and he even invades Korra’s personal space by touching in her face forcing her to look at him. He didn't have to sexually touch her to violate her.

And right after, the fear in Tenzin voice when asking what happened after seeing her laying in the ground like that, and how Korra is sobing in his arms teeling him how powerless and helpless she felt. I mean...Oh, and she keeps terryfied by him until he takes her bending.

Tarrlok in the  other hand doesnt do much different from his brother and started to harass Korra because he cant take ‘no’ as a answer when Korra didnt wanted to join his task force.

Whats interesting is that if it wasnt for Tarrlok harassement and maniputation, Korra wouldnt have joined his task force and wouldnt have confronted Amon and wouldn't have gone through that terrible encounter.

The thing is that Korra is caught right in the middle of a politcal power dispute over the city, something that she for sure wasnt prepare for it. And both Amon and Tarrlok woud hurt or kill her without think twice about it if that means gain  power. And that was exacly what happened

Tarrlok tried to manipulate her and keep her on leash where he could, and when his tatics didnt worked anymore he alreay had a plan B. Yes that whole metal box in that cabin in the middle of nowhere was made especifically for her and maybe Tenzin if he also get in his way.

In the end Korra lost the physical battle against both but won the ethical battle also against both. She was the responsable for expose both of them as corrupted and hypocrites. But at what price? Amon was able to remove the bends of the Avatar. And without them, how could she be the Avatar?

Remember that her entirely conception of herself was built around her duty as Avatar, be the avatar. After all, everything she was, everything she'd trained so hard for, had been destroyed in minutes. Thats why i still strongly believe that she was thinking about killing herself at the end, nobodys goes all sad and crying to in front of a clifft without thinking about jumping from it. 

But she, i think given up the idea and just sit and started to crying when Aang appeared and help her, giving her bendings back in one of the best scenes of the show. So after have everything solve and still managed to get the boy she was in love with, things where great and she “move on”

In that first half, Korra is unbearable. Everything she learned in Book 1 how to be more mature, less spoiled and all, was thrown in the trash and she was the same "child" of the book one only worse.

Until I stopped and realized that I was also unbearable and childish like this when I had my bad phases of anxiety and depression, as defense mechanism and keep people away. Returning to Korra, and if this way of acting of her was nothing more than this defense mechanism?

Because guess what, i dont think she “move on” from all that happened in Book One that fast, and for add more drama she discovered that was her father idea of keeping her locked up training in that training center we saw in book one and not traveling like avatars before her. No wonder she felt betrayed. And for adding even more drama, people still keep treating her like child, so she was despered for some validation. Something that she found in her uncles arms but she was betrayed by him after.

In the end, Korra again goes through a traumatic experience when she has her connection with past lives destroyed. We see how it affected her when she apologizes to Tenzin, through tears. And Tenzin, as the excellent master he is, tries to motivate her to face Vaatu again (now merged with Unalaq, her uncle) and again she saves the day even after go throught a traumatic event

In the final moments, we see the innocent decision to reconnect the world of spirits and the world of men. And we also see Korra and Mako permanently end their turbulent relationship.

Book 3 begins in a more mature, we see all the characters being presented in a more mature way and it seems that Korra now has overcome everything that has passed. We have the relationship between Korra and Asami deepening as well

In Book 3, called "Change" we have a great sacrifice from Korra. Her life goes down a notch when she decides to save the new airbenders from Zaheer and the Red Lotus, the only villain until now that really threat her life since their sole goal was to kill the avatar.

Korra won again but this time victory costed way too much. Yes she save the day again but now she was  physically and psychologically defeated. It was too much, she broke.

Book 4 begins and we only saw Korra in the final minutes and she is unrecognizable. We see that, once proud and courageous avatar, in someone depressed and cowerd. We never have saw Korra like that, even when she was afraid of Amon she wasnt like that.

Korra is afraid of being the Avatar again and her fight against PTSD is still one of the most sensitive, responsable and honest representation of Mentall Issues that i saw, and it was before this subject gain more space on media. It was before people started to give attention to this

I also think that she was having flashs from her other fights and not only the one against Zaheer.

Another thing I think is worth mention is that Korra took 3 years to feel safer and re-embrace her duties as Avatar. It was not 3 weeks or 3 months, it was 3 years. And anyone who suffers from some mental illness knows very well the stigma that is, the fight that is, because everyone wants you to be well faster as possible  when the truth is that many times you spend years fighting against this.  And this is a pressure that falls on you.Imagine, seeing all your friends moving forward while you continue "stock in the same place"?

Only after Korra confronts Zaheer, I think that was a way to show her coping with the trauma, she improves to the point of returning to be the great Avatar we know. I personally still struggles with this scene because put the victim in front of her agressor may not be the best idea but i understand that she needed to see that he was just a man and not the invencible monster her mind was telling her

One of the lines that stuck with me the most was in the TLOK version of the ember island players, the one that made a recap of the show before the finale. When Korra said “I was so naive” just before we watch her narration of her journey, we can feel pain, sadness and strenght. Janet was amazing in the way the delivered this line.

And this fucking quote i saw here on tumblr still is the goat: “The Last Airbender is a story of a boy who becomes a god. The Legend of Korra is the story of a goddess who becomes a girl "

And I still get really pissed when someone comes to talk shit about  Korra because she is such an incredible heroine and her journey is also so incredible.

The story of how life can be hard and unfair, how it can hurt and paralyze, but there is always a reason to move on. We should always move on.

Korra is definitely not weak, quite the opposite, she is one of the if not the strongest heroine I have ever seen. Korra inspires overcoming 

[thoughtsofanexcitedspacechild]

Kataang: An In Depth Analysis

Hello again! I apologise for the inactivity. It’s been a busy month as far as school goes for me, so let’s just say I’m a lot busier solving chem equations and working on stuff for AP art. Don’t get me wrong though! These analysis and essay format posts are my favorite and I wish I could do them more often! Seriously, it’s the only thing that keeps me wanting to write! I’ve also decided that I’m going to make these little intro paragraphs separate to the actual essay, because while I’m at this, why not kill two birds with one stone and practice writing essays for my actual AP Lang. class? I mean I’m obviously not gonna turn them in or show them to my teacher, (unless this gets 1000 notes or more, in which case  I’ll show this to her ;)) but this is a good way for me to work on formatting a thesis and developing arguments, all while doing and talking about something I love! Speaking of which, let’s dive right on into today’s topic; the much debated, and thoroughly analyzed ship: Kataang. (Buckle your seatbelts hotmen, because this is gonna be one hell of a sky bison ride) I got inspired by a creator on Tik Tok that I follow, Amanda Castrillo, to write this. Her username is @theamanda2d and I highly recommend you go check her out and give her a follow. A lot of the arguments in this are my own, but I also sourced a lot of information and arguments for Kataang from her series “a case for Kataang”, which I highly recommend you go watch. I’ll insert her quotes directly so you know exactly where her points are coming from as well as mention where I elaborated on a point she made but didn’t directly quote her. I’ll also be sourcing a lot of information from the show and including exact episodes and scenes that support my case. So without further ado, here is my *unofficial* case for Kataang.

     In our lives, there’s usually one point at which most of us make a choice. That choice is to love someone. Yes, you heard me right. You make the choice to love someone. Of course, the feeling that most people know as love, but is really just sexual or romantic desires, tends to be confused with real love. Authentic love that comes from the choice to love someone. This kind of love persists through even through the darkest times. This kind of love truly does burn brightest in the dark. 

 It stems from a strong base of mutual understanding and friendship first, and doesn’t rely on a spark of passion to keep burning although it can fuel the flame that already burns strongly. There are many great examples of this kind of love, both in our own world and daily lives, but also in literature. One of the greatest examples of this, is the relationship explored between the fictional characters Aang and Katara from Avatar: the Last Airbender. (Oh, what? You don’t think Avatar is a legitimate form of literature? Pity, you must not have read my previous posts or even watched the show at all, because it IS.)

     From the time I first watched the show, I was rooting for them to end up together. Right off the bat, Aang and Katara have this instant connection. Within the first episode, they already become friends, and not only that, they act as if they’ve been friends for years, almost like they were meant to meet each other. Aang finally getting together with Katara just feels right, but there’s more to their relationship than the feelings that Katara and Aang both experience and the feelings that we the audience feel seeing them together. Throughout the series we see them both make the choice to love each other, not only as lovers, but as friends too. Their relationship thrives, and we’re able to see them both grow as people and better themselves because of each other.

Firstly I want to address the counterargument that many people bring up and that is that Kataang, in and of itself, is one sided. Fans (often Zutara shippers. More in depth analysis on why this ship DOESN’T work out realistically to come) will argue that Kataang is forced and one sided, and that Katara doesn’t share Aang’s feelings. Although I can see where this is coming from from a first time viewer’s perspective, this argument can be extinguished by looking deeper at Katara’s actions and intentions towards Aang. We see them bond as friends very early on in the series, but the earliest hint at a romantic relationship actually shows up in season one episode four, when they go to Kiyoshi Island. Katara acts snarky and jealous when Aang gathers quite a fan club of little girls. 

Nevertheless, when this fan club fails to stick around for Aang’s encounter with the unagi, Katara’s the one that’s there making sure he’s okay. (S1, Episode 4, The Warriors of Kiyoshi) This is ultimately foreshadowing for their relationship as a whole. Although his role as Avatar lands him many friends, and in this case fans, the only person that truly stays with him the whole time is Katara. She’s the one who shows up and has his best interests at heart. Most of her intentions are in fact platonic in this episode, but the hint of romance comes out when we see that Katara doesn’t like the idea of Aang with another girl.

     After half way through season one, specifically the Fortune Teller episode, we do see that Katara does in fact have feelings for Aang, albeit complex ones. In this episode we see her pester Aunt Wu for information about her future husband and she’s informed that he’s a very powerful bender. She doesn’t consider Aang until Sokka mentions that it freaks him out how powerful of a bender Aang is while Aang protects and saves the village from it’s demise by an erupting volcano. Her hopes were set high on a muscley, extremely strong looking bender, and I’d like to imagine that before her realization, Katara was probably picturing someone more like Haru or even post redemption Zuko as her future husband. For the first time, that image is replaced by Aang, and she doesn’t mind it. (S1, Episode 14, The Fortune Teller) We see these new found feelings develop further in the Secret Tunnel episode, when Katara is finally forced to confront the romantic feelings that she’s pushed down while trying to sort them out. At this moment, Katara finally acknowledges her romantic feelings and attraction to Aang. (S2, Episode 2, The Cave of Two Lovers) The creators intentionally showed us the story of the two lovers for a reason. “Avatar is a very smart show,” says Amada Castrillo, Avatar fanatic and creator of the Tik Tok and youtube series “A Case for Kataang,” “and we’re never told or shown anything for no reason...A war was keeping them apart maybe not physically, but romantically.”

     Later in the series during the season finale of season two we see her absolutely distraught when Aang nearly dies and she does everything in her power to save him. We see her almost break. Only when he wakes up does she feel better, and start to be happier again. She doesn’t care about anything else but making him feel better, and even when he does wake up, she still focuses mainly on healing him. Here we see Katara make the choice to love Aang both in sickness and in health. (S2, Episode 18, The Guru/The Crossroads of Destiny and S3, Episode 1, The Awakening) She of course would have done this for any member of team avatar, but the way in which she treats Aang when he’s nearly taken away from her points to the extreme love and affection that she carries for him every day. This happens multiple other times throughout the series, with many of the occurrences being in book three. When Zuko joins the Gaang, she flat out tells Zuko that if he were to hurt Aang, (not Sokka, not her, not Toph, but Aang specifically) she would personally see to his demise. (S3, Episode 11, The Western Air Temple, 23:30) (Some Points taken from, but not directly quoted from Amanda Castrillo’s “A case For Kataang Part Nine: Text and Subtext”) This is why the assumption that Kataang is one sided can be proven wrong.

     Two other arguments stem from the previous argument, one being that Aang is a simp, and/or that Katara is a trophy. First of all, the later argument is easily disproved by the fact that Katara is not a prize to be won. “Katara is, and was never a prize for Aang,” says Castrillo, “And to say that she was, grossly mischaracterizes and undermines her as a character.” (Amanda Castrillo, (@theamanda2d) “A Case for Kataang: Chapter 2, Katara the trophy) Katara is shown multiple times throughout the series being able to speak up and defend herself without Aang’s, or anyone else’s help. 

Aang, although viewed as a simp, is not. Yes he respects Katara, and all other women for that matter, but he doesn’t fawn over her. He allows her to defend and take care of herself. The definition of the word “simp” is the abbreviated term “simpleton”, meaning “a silly or foolish person.” Although Aang is silly at some points, he’s also not foolish. He’s a smart and capable individual that many fans fail to recognise as legitimate because of his innocence and softness. So no. Aang isn’t a simp that bases his entire self worth on his status with Katara.

     Another point that must be acknowledged is the fact that Aang and Katara are actually complementary characters. Although many people would bring up the argument that Air and Water aren’t opposite elements, the type of bender they are doesn’t necessarily tend to point to the exact type of person they are. The creators aren’t dumb, and the characters in this franchise are so well developed, that there are many sub personalities in each type of bending, and all of them can be analyzed further than the type of element they bend. Judging a character solely by the element they can bend is like judging a person on the color of their skin or a book by it’s cover, and when diving deep into each of their personalities, we can see that their personalities are actually complementary. Katara is high strung and anxious while Aang is usually calm and collected. Aang is very good at regulating his emotions while Katara is not. This aspect extends further than their personalities as well. Katara grew up in a very family oriented and close family while Aang only had one parental figure in the form of Gyatzo and occasionally a few friends. Katara is also more grounded and a home body while if he could, Aang would probably continue to explore whatever corner of the earth that he could. (Some points taken, but not directly quoted from Amanda Castrillo (@theamanda2d), “A Case for Kataang: Chapter 10, Balance”)

     Another thing that I found is that when looking at color theory, Aang’s signature orange toward the end of the series and Katara’s signature blue are actually complementary colors. I’d like to think that as Katara develops and explores her feelings for Aang, Aang’s color palette changes slightly. It goes from being red and yellow in the beginning when Katara didn’t know she had feelings quite yet, to eventually shifting to orange when we see her feelings start to fully become clear. I thought this was a super interesting detail and despite it being a bit far of a stretch, I think it must have been planned. If you consider the time when we see Katara start to develop feelings, it’s about the same time that Aang’s outfit choice shifts to orange. Of course, this piece of evidence is mostly based on my personal observation and knowledge of color theory, but it’s a detail that I personally found super compelling.

     Kataang also works because of the extremely well executed communication and dialogue that happens between them. There are multiple different examples throughout the series and as their character’s develop, we’re able to see a beautifully efficient and respectful form of communication between them. We see Aang clearly express his feelings of anxiety to Katara, and in return, Katara is able to help him and offer advice on what he’s feeling. Katara also is able to confide in Aang in return and oftentimes he’s the one that she’s most comfortable being vulnerable in front of. We see her almost mother Aang alongside Sokka in the first season, but her relationship with him changes and shifts to one where both her and Aang feel comfortable and contribute and receive equal care from each other.

     One issue in particular also comes to mind when talking about this ship, and that is the issue of boundaries. Counter arguments against Kataang often bring up one scene in particular, specifically in the Ember island players episode about halfway through when Katara confronts Aang on the balcony. (S3, episode 15, the Ember Island Players) Episode Aang is understandably upset with the way that he and specifically he and Katara’s relationship is portrayed in the play. He obviously has feelings for her and at that point we know that Katara also has feelings from a few episodes prior when they kiss before the invasion. That kiss was mutual, and she kissed him back, meaning that from that point on, both of their feelings towards each other are very clear. The night of the play on the balcony, Aang does cross a boundary that had been established. The kiss before the invasion made sense, and Katara didn’t do anything to stop him from doing it, and Aang had her consent in this case. Aang’s kiss on the balcony was a mistake, and in this case it was uncalled for, but many people misread Katara’s feelings of confusion. When Katara mentions being confused, she’s not saying she’s confused about her feelings for Aang. Since season one, we’ve seen her show multiple forms of affection towards Aang, and not only that, she was usually the one initiating the many hugs, cheek kisses, etc. 

She’s not confused about how she feels about Aang. She’s confused about the timing and if it’s a good idea or not. (Some points taken from, but not directly quoted from, Amanda Castrillo (@theamanda2d) “A Case for Kataang Part 7: The Camelephant in the room)

     Regarding the consent for the kiss, yes. That was Aang’s mistake. He’s human, and he did mess up there. But his intentions weren’t meant to harm anyone. He, like so many of us watching at home, read Katara’s confusion to be about him, and wanted to see what she really felt. Afterwards, he knows he messed up, and feels bad about it. “...[Aang’s] very self aware. He knows how he feels about Katara, and he’s said it multiple times...Aang is human. He f***s up. He says the wrong thing. He makes mistakes. And he was just as confused as Katara at this moment.” (Amanda Castrillo, (@theamanda2d) “A Case for Kataang Part Seven: The Camelephant in the room)

     Lasty, I want to acknowledge the visual and audio parallels portrayed in the show and how they can effectively work towards supporting Kataang. If you observe the angles at which characters are shown as well as the framing, it visually sets up and can represent how two characters feel about one another. First let’s consider the framing of a scene from the very first episode after Katara breaks Aang out from the ice. Aang is lying down and katara is directly positioned above him. When he wakes up from being trapped in an iceberg for 100 years, her face is the first that he sees. 

This positioning and framing is shown multiple more times throughout the series, establishing their strong connection. So is this one:

(For a better visual reference please see Amanda Castrillo’s video “A Case for Kataang Part Four: Parallels) “Its built up and set up for us time and time again. Their interactions aren’t framed like that for no reason. Scene framing matters.” (Amanda Castrillo, “A case for Kataang Part Four: Parallels.”

There’s also the fact of the score and what specific music points to what character or what mood the creators were trying to enforce with the music. Avatar’s score is genius and every song and note was hand crafted to set the tone for each scene and help explain what’s happening. (This is one of the many reasons Avatar would translate well to be a musical or even a ballet. Post/informal rant on this later to come.) There are many great examples, like how Azula is represented by a clash of chords, (To quote my previous post: “I love how Azula is just represented by a pair of clashing chords and when you hear it you know that she’s about to f*** s*** up.”) or that Aang has a lively flute melody that plays when he gets really happy/excited, but perhaps the best example of the use of music in the franchise is the use of the “Avatar’s Love Theme.” It’s my personal favorite song from the show, and it’s used extremely effectively and efficiently throughout the show to provide a very specific and recognisable feeling: romantic love. When you hear it play, Aang is ALWAYS with Katara. Go back and listen to the times where it plays, and it’s always when he and Katara share a special moment together. We only hear part of the melody for the majority of the series, but in the final episode, right towards the end when Aang and Katara are left alone on the balcony looking above the city by themselves, we hear it play again, and this time, we hear all of it. The kiss between them also happens right at the crescendo and peak of the music, emphasizing and establishing that Aang and Katara are officially canon. The music plays a huge part in this story, and all musical elements as well as visual point to Aang and Katara being a team, and not just that, but a romantic couple.

In conclusion, Aang and Katara are a couple that was meant to happen. Throughout the series, their love is shown through their undeniable chemistry, complementary characters and personality, and the visual and musical elements set up for us within the show. Aang and Katara love eachother very much, and although their feelings were often being confused by looming threats to their lives or tainted by the war they were both fighting, in the end they’re able to fully and completely allow themselves to love each other. Despite their romantic love, they are ultimately friends before they are lovers, and don’t rely on a spark of passion to be able to keep their love for one another burning. They love each other wholly and in so many different ways, and that my friends, is why Kataang works and will always work.

[112aang]

Kataang Week 2021: Day 2- Home

Welcome to day 2 of Kataang Week, Home.

Words: 2,112

You can find my ff.net account here, where the whole of my Kataang Week submissions will be posted, as well as my other stories.

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Growing up in the Southern Air Temple, Aang was always told that he wasn’t allowed any earthly attachments. The Air Nomads didn’t believe in tying themselves down with worldly possessions or people - they believed in freedom and spiritual enlightenment. So, for a while, he did too.

Until he met her: the Watertribe girl with deep, cerulean blue eyes and dark, chocolate colored hair. The airbender had never seen someone so beautiful, so captivating.

Aang knew what a physical home was, his being the Southern Air Temple; but something had always been missing for him, even at his young age.

His mentors had long since released their attachment to the world, achieving spiritual enlightenment. He had always been told to do the same, and until meeting Katara, had planned on doing so. Something about her, though -be it her caring nature, the way she spoke to him, or even just her smile- seemed to keep him grounded.

As they traveled the world together, his attachment to her appeared to grow- transforming from a simple crush into something more. Aang never told her, or anyone else for that matter; but he did speak to the stars.

The Air Nomads had been gone for one hundred years, but when Aang would sleep under the stars at night, he could feel them. It was as if they were always there, watching over him.

***

One night, when he couldn’t sleep, he looked up at the stars with glossy eyes, and spoke softly.

“I miss you all, more than anything in the world, and I will never truly forgive myself for leaving.”

He choked back his tears, knowing that if he started crying, he wouldn’t be able to stop.

“I just feel so lost, so alone. If I were at the Air Temple- if I were home… maybe I could stop feeling this way. But something, or someone, has been helping me to feel less alone recently.”

Aang smiled softly, looking in Katara’s direction, then turned his eyes back to the stars above.

“I think… I think I might love her- Katara. I know I’m not supposed to have any earthly attachments, but I just feel… connected to her. What should I do?”

Almost on cue, the wind began to pick up, swirling all around him. As he looked around, Aang smiled, watching as the leaves and loose flower petals danced in the wind. He knew it was a sign, a message from the Air Nomads, telling him what he should do.

As the wind died down, he set his gaze back upon the stars and smiled, bowing in respect.

“Thank you.”

***

After that night, Aang had decided to keep his feelings for Katara at bay, at least until he knew whether she felt the same. She had given him subtle hints, through kisses on the cheek, frequent hugs, and soft-spoken words. The waterbender had a rather tight grasp on her feelings, and often kept them bottled up inside. Although Aang wasn’t blind to the way she looked at him, or the stares they received from their friends, he didn’t try to push his luck with her, as he was scared of pushing her away.

It wasn’t until he met with Guru Pathik at the Eastern Air Temple that he knew the depth of his connection with Katara.

***

He had arrived at the Eastern Air Temple with Appa, in search of a Guru. This man had attached a note to Appa’s horn when he was lost, informing Aang that he had been awaiting him, ready to help him take the next step in his Avatar journey.

Nervous, but ready, Aang set his eyes upon the man and eventually began working through what needed to be done.

Guru Pathik had told him that in order to master the Avatar State, he would need to open all of his chakras. Aang agreed, and with the help of the older man, had opened the first three chakras rather easily.

However, when he made it to the fourth chakra, he made a realization.

“The fourth chakra is located in the heart,” Guru Pathik had told him. “It deals with love and is blocked by grief.”

Aang began to see a vision of the Air Nomads, lined up behind one another, appearing to be meditating. He felt his heart begin to swell at the sight of them and smiled, until they started vanishing, one by one.

He heard Guru Pathik’s voice, “you have indeed felt a great loss; But love is a form of energy, and it swirls all around us.”

Aang watched as the floating smoke that was once the Air Nomads began to swirl in the sky, transforming into something else. He was floating in the air, waiting for the smoke to settle.

He squinted, trying to focus on what the smoke had transformed into, when he saw her.

“The Air Nomads' love for you has not left this world. It is still inside of your heart, and is reborn in the form of new love.”

Aang listened and watched as the cloud of smoke formed a face- the face of Katara, the moment he first saw her after waking up in the South Pole.

He knew, in that moment, that he and the waterbender were connected, and that she meant more to him than he had ever known. The airbender began to shed tears, and gently wiped them away, opening the fourth chakra.

The fifth and sixth were simple and he was able to move through them quickly. But the last, and final chakra was the moment he had decided what his choice would be, forever.

They sat atop a platform under the stary, night sky. Guru Pathik informed Aang that opening the final chakra would grant him full power and access to the Avatar State, but once the process began, it must be completed.

Aang had agreed, until he knew what, or who, he had to let go of.

“The Thought Chakra is located at the crown of the head.” Guru Pathik explained, “It deals with pure cosmic energy, and is blocked by earthly attachment. Meditate on what attaches you to this world.”

Aang began to see visions and images of Katara, bringing a smile to his face, before the older man spoke again.

“Now, let all of those attachments go. Let them flow down the river, forgotten.”

The airbender’s eyes flew open, appalled. Angrily, he said, “What? Why would I let go of Katara? I... I love her!”

Guru Pathik shook his head, “Learn to let her go, or you cannot let the pure cosmic energy flow in from the universe.”

Throwing his hands in the air, Aang protested. “Why would I choose cosmic energy over Katara? How could it be a bad thing that I feel an attachment to her?”

He felt at a loss; just a month prior, he had received a sign from the Air Nomads, telling him that his connection with the waterbender was what he needed. But now, he was being told to let her go in order to master the Avatar State.

Conflicted, he weighed his options, eventually coming to the decision to let go of Katara, despite his connection with her. As he did so, he saw a giant figure of himself glowing purple, at the end of a long path. He followed the glowing trail, coming to a large orb and stepping inside. Before he could fully open the final chakra, a vision of Katara chained up clouded his sight, and he jumped from the orb, falling through the sky.

Despite Guru Pathik’s protests and admonitions, Aang left the Eastern Air Temple, choosing his attachment to Katara over the cosmic energy, locking the Avatar State.

***

That event had been some time ago, but had never left his mind. Before his battle with Ozai, the airbender had found himself in a strange place, and was at a loss of what to do.

Aang had decided to contact his past lives in hopes of receiving advice about whether to spare the firelord’s life. In the midst of doing so, he had met the Air Nomad Avatar before him: Avatar Yangchen.

After much talk of the Air Nomad ways, Avatar Yangchen had told Aang something that he hadn’t thought about in months, bringing him back to his choice at the Eastern Air Temple.

“Many great and wise Air Nomads have detached themselves and achieved spiritual enlightenment,” she said. “But the Avatar can never do it. Because your sole duty is to the world.”

Before having been through what he did with Guru Pathik, he wouldn’t have thought much about Avatar Yangchen’s words. But after choosing his attachment to the world, it became clear to him why he couldn’t let go of Katara.

To choose detachment and spiritual enlightenment would have kept Aang distant, separate from the world. As the Avatar, he needed something, or someone to keep him grounded- someone to keep him connected to the world. For him, it was Katara.

Aang kept this in his mind during his battle with Ozai, as he still was unable to reach the Avatar State. But during his lowest point, when he thought all was lost, he was able to reconnect with his Avatar Spirit, savoring his connection with Katara.

***

It had been almost 30 years since the end of the 100-year war, and Aang was celebrating his 43rd birthday alongside his friends and family. He stood on the balcony of the Jasmine Dragon, looking out into the sunset over the tops of buildings.

He had asked for a small get together with his closest friends and family, not wanting to make a large spectacle about it. He and Katara had been together for the majority of the 30 years, and had been married for 25 of them. He thanked the spirits every day for her, as she did for him.

They had three beautiful children: Bumi, Kya, and Tenzin.

He smiled, leaning his elbows on the railing. It felt just as it did all that time ago, where everything began.

Aang heard someone behind him and looked over his shoulder, not surprised as his wife made her way beside him.

She smiled at him, “feels familiar, doesn’t it?”

He chuckled softly, “yeah, it really does.”

They stood in silence for a few moments, watching the sunset with each other’s company. Aang was the first to break the silence. Turning towards Katara, he placed his hands on her waist and looked into her blue eyes.

“Did I ever tell you about my time with Guru Pathik at the Eastern Air Temple?”

She looked up in thought, “well, you told me that you chose attachment over cosmic energy, but nothing more.”

“Yes, well,” he nodded, and she placed her arms on his shoulders. “I chose my attachment to you over everything.”

She tilted her head slightly and raised a brow at him.

“Why would you have done that?”

Aang looked out into the sunset before turning his head to face her once more.

“Growing up as an Air Nomad,” he began. “We were always taught that earthly attachments would drag us down and keep us from spiritual enlightenment.”

She nodded, so he continued.

“Before I met you, I had every intention of detaching myself from the world, but that all changed the moment I opened my eyes and saw yours.”

Katara blushed and looked away momentarily before turning back to him.

“How did I change your mind?”

He pulled her closer and kissed her cheek softly.

“I’m afraid that’s a long story that I can explain another time.”

Katara started to speak, but Aang continued.

“The short of it is,” he smiled lovingly and placed his forehead on hers. “I felt a connection with you from the moment I laid my eyes on you, but it took me awhile to figure out exactly why.”

She returned his smile before placing a gentle his on his nose.

“And what did you figure out?”

Aang waited for a moment to answer, making Katara anxious.

“You’re my home, Katara. You always have been.”

Tears began to fill her eyes and she kissed him, pulling him closer. He returned the gesture in kind, wrapping his arms around her waist.

Katara pulled away after a few moments and smiled at him, love emanating from her eyes.

“I love you, Aang.”

He pulled her into another kiss, and she smiled before returning it.

The two benders remained on the balcony for what seemed like hours, reliving their first official kiss as a couple, in the arms of each other. In the arms of each other’s homes.

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Next will be ‘Dance.’

Thank you to everyone who is reading, and I can’t wait until the next one!

[simplysparrow14]

Why I absolutely hate Korra.

 Gifted Children do not make good protagonists. 

I really hate Korra. Like, I fucking cant stand her as a characters. She’s honest to god one of the only characters besides Kylo Ren that I just full on hate. 

She’s whiny, She’s cocky, she’s too brash for her own good. She got the biggest overinflated ego the size of Mount Fuji. She bitches and moans when something doesn't go her way, and then as the balls to blame other characters or blow up in their faces when she’s starts the fire herself!  

She leaps into battle before she thinks and when the villain of the season kicks her ass to the curb, we’re supposed to sympathize with her and feel sorry for her, even though She deserved everything she had coming to her

Her god complex is bigger then the fucking sun and she gets all pissy when someone even mildly calls her out on her bullshit or even gives her polite constructive criticism on her Avatar duties. 

She never learns diplomacy or peacekeeping or patience or empathy for others around her or when to shut the fuck up and take a step back before you get the shit kicked out of you. 

One of the prime examples of her being absolute stupid was when She and Mako go to one of Amon’s rallies, and after figuring out that Amon was a bloodbender who locked his own brother up in a cage, they decide to go to the rally to boldly claim that Amon is a bender without presenting any physical or damning evidence that suggest otherwise.

“How in the world do we beat him?”

“We cant. Any attack we throw at him, he’ll redirect with his mind. That’s how he’s been able to challange any bender.”

“So much for our ambush....If we stay here, we’re toast. But there’s another way to beat him!”

“How?!”

“This whole time, Amon’s been one step ahead of us. But finally, we have an advantage...We know the truth about him!”

“If we expose him as a bender in front of all his supporters, we can take away his true power!”

.......huh...... WHAT?..... A-are you serious?! THAT’S YOUR ADVANTAGE AGAINST AN ALL-POWERFUL BLOODBENDER ?! WE’RE REALLY GOING TO  BLATANTLY CALLING HIM OUT IN FRONT OF ALL OF HIS FOLLOWERS WITHOUT EVEN A SHRED OF EVIDENCE?!

what makes matters worse is that they don’t even take Tarrlock with them. They just leave him in his cage. Like, yeah, he tells them to go because he doesn’t want Amon’s supporters and the rest of the public to know he was Amon’s brother, but honestly, that hasn't stopped Korra before from forcing someone to give her what she wanted. She’s not lik a regular person who has to abide by the rules of Rebublic City, she’s the goddamn fucking avatar: If she wanted a fucking statue erected in her honor, she would order that in a fucking heartbeat. 

ANd  May I remind you, lovly readers, that Korra literally  manhandled a non-bender activist to give her information about Amon’s next rally not just a few episodes before this?

So her acting this respectful and this pulled-back is so out-of-character and jarring to watch because the show clearly states that Korra is a bad bitch and if she wants something really badly, she’ll fucking get it herslef, no questions asked.  

 And then when Amon corners them in a storage room and beats the shit out of them with bloodbending and chi-blocking, we have to feel sorry for them. We have to feel sorry to Korra  All because her “expertly” constructed plan didn't work out, and that Amon took the brats bending away when she  busted into his rally uninvited without evidence to show to his followers,  or even a half-ass plan on how to effectively beat the shit out of him if he refused to go down easily.

Look, I get that we have to have dramatic tension for the story, but that doesn't mean that the characters have to lose a majority of their very limited brain-cells  in order for it to happen. We should not have to sacrifice a character’s personality in order to progress the story. 

There’s also the fact that during Season 1 when Korra literally barges into Tarrlocks’ office unannounced to let the non-benders out of jail and berates him about how he’s intimidating people into falling in line with his views and opinions 

I

“You’re using your power to oppress and Intimidate people!”

Its only when Tarrlock pulls the Reverse Uno Card on Korra’s superiority complex that we as the audience get the first and maybe last good spot of introspection and interesting character development within this show 

“And you don't? Isn’t that what you came here to do? Intimidate me into releasing your friends?” 

But then, its all thrown out the window when Korra goes full ape-shit and tries to fuck-up Tarrloq, and we’re again supposed to feel bad for her when Tarrlok fuck her up right back with blood-bending, kidnaps her and locks her up in a metal box. 

Your avatar, every one. 

All throughout these scenes, we never get any notion that she’s gaining character development. 

She never takes a step back, never looks into the situation, She never shuts the fuck up,  never considers that maybe, just maybe, her plan might not work. There’s no patience in her what so ever and it infuriates me to no end! 

And yet, the show treats her as through she did nothing wrong! They treat her like a goddamn goddess, and its so....

There’s also the fact that throughout the series, Korra goes through more pitty parties and anger bursts then most characters have in their entire series run and in the end, her woes/ temper tantrums are forgiven because, well, she’s the protagonist.

Your boyfriend calls you out on your bullshit about the civil war happening between your home-tribe and the sister tribe? Crash his place of work and throw his desk across the room and tell him that he’s a traitor just for doing his job--A job he;s wanted to be apart of since he was little, no less. 

Cant figure out how to work with the wind panels without getting punched around? Don't be the leaf and burn a historic Airbending training device to ash!

“That was a Two-thousand year old historical treasure… WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!”

“There’s nothing wrong with me! You’re a terrible teacher!” 

Cant handle being called a wuss?  Challenge the mastermind of a political movement with chi-blocking and blood bending to a fight under your previous incarnations statue and then cry like a bitch when he kicks your ass. 

No Korra, you don’t get to cry when it’s clearly you’re fault it happened in the first place. Look, I get that you’ve just had a low-key high-key traumatic moment.....But you don’t have brain-cells. You knew he could take away bending--You saw it at their rally not just a few days ago-- so i don’t know why you thought that challenging him to a one-on-one duel in a dark, abandoned place where no one can hear you scream was an perfect idea you dumb bitch.  

Aparently,

Its also apparent within the series that she never has to work for her character development, or work for what she wants. 

People often remark that Korra was coddled at the Avatar, but I feel as if Spoiled is the best word: 

In the beginning of the series when the White Lotus comes to the southern Water Tribe to Search for the Next Avatar, we're Introduced to Korra punching a hole through the wall, spewing flames from her fists and using water to put out the fire. Hell, the first sentence that we hear from the brats mouth is “I’m the Avatar. You gotta deal with it.”  

 Look, no one likes gifted children (unless those children are yours). Gifted Children are probably the worst type of main character to have, because the whole point of your main character is that people are suppose to relate to them. People cant relate to gifted children, because we, as normal human beings, are not all gifted. 

Cut to 15 years later, and we learn that Korra hasn't even left the Southern Water Tribe.  Teachers have been flown into the water tribe to teach Korra more on the elements. And at the every start of the first episode, we see her pass her her fire bending test, with her commenting on how already she’s mastered Water and Earth.

 The whole point of the Avatar journey was that the Avatar had to journey to find their teachers and experience the world they needed to protect. When you take away that Journey, you’re just leaving the Avatar to be handed everything on a silver platter. 

During Season 2 when Kaiju Korra nearly gets her ass handed to her, Jinora force-ghosts her way into the battle and gives Korra the upper-hand during the battle with Vaatu, almost entirely erasing any the trace amounts of danger that the battle was trying to portray. 

There’s also the fact that in the middle of Season 2 when she’s fighting Eska and Desna, suddenly out of no-where she can Spirit bend (Or as I like to call it, Spirit-pacification) without so much as a single day of training. Like, talk about pulling out an ability out of your ass. 

There’s also the fact that during her visit to the Su-yin’s home, she  masters Metelbending out of no-where and then has to gawl to show off in front of Bolin, who’s been trying to metelbend for a while.

There’s also the fact that she’s never punished for any of her actions. 

When Amon takes her bending away, she never as a moment to reflect on how her actions affected her future or the rest of the avatar cycle.  We never see her come to terms that facing Amon head on resulted in her losing her bending. And when it looks like it does have an impact on her, Ghost Aang pops up right out of nowhere, takes pitty on her and gives her back her bending. Oh, and we’ll also throw in the Avatar State as well, as a treat. 

Right after she destroys the alleyway in the first episode of Season 1, Tenzin busts her out of jail and says to Lin that he’ll cover all the damages Korra caused! 

There’s also the incident where Tenzen told Korra not to go to the Pro-Bending tournament. And when Tenzen does have to drag her ass back to Air-temple Island, he remarks that Pro-bending is what she needed, completely Ignoring the fact that she disobey’d a direct order from her master and thus is never punished for it! 

 She’s never called out on her bullshit regarding her very sudden kiss with Mako when the man openly and explicitly said that he was dating another woman. 

(Like, girl, i get it. you have feelings for him, I get it. But when someone says: “I’m already dating someone right now.” and they admit they might be also have very confusing feelings for you as well,  You back the fuck up and give them time to make a decision. You just don’t go: “Oh you already have a girlfriend? oh, smoochy smoochy time then.”) 

Omg, it’s like the show was entirely written by male writers who have no idea how to write romance or develop unique and interesting characters who are not homicidal bat-shit insane brats who cry’s when they’re not the center of attention 

I guess my big question towards Korra’s character is… Why? 

Why do we have to root for a character who doesn't struggle, doesn't think she has to try to master her bending and that everything should come easily? How are we supposed to connect to someone when they blow up and get all pissy when someone even just lightly insults their god complex? 

Why is she a waterbender when she has the temperament of a fire-bender? Why is she getting her ass kicked by every villan if she’s the all powerful avater?  Why is she the avatar when she doesn't  have when a shred of humbless or appreciation for the bending she’s been given? Why do we have to put up with a brat of a protagonist for 3+ seasons? 

She is, in the bluntest term I can say, a meaningless character. She holds no purpose to the story or its messages or its themes. 

Aang was meaningful because it was his story and he was a 12 year old with the weight of the fucking world on his shoulders as both the last living Airbender and the Avatar, all while trying to navigate a world that did not and would not uphold his peaceful beliefs. 

Katara was meaningful because she broke down social norms by not only mastering the both the female -only water-bending techniques and Male-only water-bending fighting style, but also the scary-as-fuck-blood-bending. She showed the duel sides of being a bad ass strong independent woman. 

Toph was meaningful because she was an all-powerful earthbender who was fucking blind, showing that disabilities cant stop you from kicking ass. 

Sokka and Suki were meaningful because they were two badass people who didn't need bending to kick fire-nation ass. You don’t need to be like everyone else to save the world. 

Zuko was meaningful because his failures,and mistakes and abuse and scar showed people that no matter how awful your current situation was, you’re able to build a better life for yourself through hard work, self-love and good people who love you. 

Korra is meaningless. She is selfish, and spoiled and the only message she has to tell “Be a brat, cry a lot, and throw temper tantrums until you get what you fucking want.” 

Fuck Korra.  Fuck her character. I’ve never seen a character so poorly executed in my life, and I surly hope I dont ever get to see that ever again. 

[postmodernmulticoloredcloak]

Avatar: The Last Airbender episode 3x18 ･:*:･ﾟ’☆

Oh boi we’ve gotten to the final batch of episodes. It feels like yesterday that I started the show. Oh man. I’m not ready.

Aang is having his firebending lessons with Zuko. “Now let me hear you roar like a tigerdillo! ...That sounded pathetic, I said roar!”

Awww it’s a small thing but Momo intimidated by Aang roaring hiding behind Zuko’s leg is the cutest thing. When the kitty trusts you that’s it, you’ve won.

Zuko is a hard teacher but everyone else decides to have a beach party and make sand sculptures. Awww Toph’s been working on sandbending!

“Zuko’s gone crazy! I made a sand sculpture of Suki and he destroyed it! ...Oh, and he’s attacking Aang.” Priorities XD

Zuko is bewildered that they’re wasting time when the comet is due in three days, but Aang has decided to wait to attack the Fire Lord after the comet, not feeling ready for the task yet. Everyone’s reasoning is that Aang needs more training and the Fire Nation’s already essentially won the war, so things can’t get any worse... but Zuko knows more than them. Oh, it’s about the famous war meeting that basically opened Zuko’s eyes about everything!

“The people of the Earth Kingdom are proud and strong. They can endure anything as long as they have hope” “Yes, you’re right. We need to destroy their hope” “Well, that’s not exactly what I--” oh, muffin. It’s obviously poetic that everything comes down to the Earth Kingdom, which has been Zuko’s home after being thoroughly rejected from his own, where Zuko found a place and connected with the people, empathized with their struggles, genuinely saw them as actual humans. And of course the circular structure of it all, everything started when Zuko participated to a war meeting and spoke out in defense of people who’s be purposely sent to death. Now he participated to a second meeting, at this time with his father allowing him to speak and in fact asking for his opinion, and is also horrified by a plan that would mean a full genocide, but stays silent, endures the shame of that silence, but processes the meaning of it all and chooses to join the resistance.

Zuko’s character development is peculiar because he starts off as someone who has specifically selfish goals. Which in fact would normally be “bad”, because selfish goals are usually associated to being a bad thing, except that in his role selfish goals are actually a good thing, temporarily speaking, because of who he is, i.e. the son and heir of a genocidal dictator. He doesn’t go after the avatar to further the success and glory of his nation, but to go home, to acquire respect and love. He never really cares about his nation, even about his position as the heir to the throne; he only cares about regaining the respect of his father. And that’s the key to his salvation because he never is a cruel or violent person, but a compassionate person whose trauma closed him off into a shell of selfishness but that could slowly come out of that shell once he was forced to set his goal aside (in the Earth Kingdom). He temporarily regressed but of course that was necessary for him to fully realize how empty and meaningless that original goal was - the respect of his father means nothing because he’s a genocidal dictator. And his experience in the Earth Kingdom has allowed him to really grow into a compassionate person, because he lives among refugees and ordinary people, as a refugee and an ordinary person, instead of being a prince in a world of power.

He had a potential for empathy which his experience in the Earth Kingdom fully realized, and when Ozai decides to literally burn the Earth Kingdom away, that obliterates all the the value Zuko placed on his father’s respect. It obliterates all the respect he had for his father at all. He looks at him with the eyes of all the people he’s empathized with during his journey outside the Fire Nation, and sees the enemy.

And now he tells Aang that he might not be ready to save the world, but once the comet comes there won’t be a world to save anymore. He’d never told them about Ozai’s plan before because he was still under the assumption that the deadline was before the comet, and possibly he assumed that the rest of the gang had a full grasp of how evil the Fire Lord actually was. Funnily enough, the Fire Lord was always “the enemy” for the rest of them, but somewhat an idea, a concept, while Zuko’s experience of his father is very real and concrete. Heck, he carries it on his face.

Aang is distraught, but they tell him that they’re going to fight the Fire Lord as a group. They have a powerful bender for each element plus two weapon masters, their group as a collective has the full power of the avatar. Team Avatar indeed :)

“Get over here, Zuko. Being part of the group also means being part of group hugs.” Awwww <3

Zuko teaches Aang the technique to redirect lightning that Uncle Iroh invented and taught him. Zuko describes the experience of being passed through by lightning as “exhilarating but terrifying” because it’s so incredibly dangerous. Again, Aang is reminded that it’s either the Fire Lord’s life or his, but he’s obviously not okay with the idea of taking a life.

Meanwhile Sokka has come up with a plan to take down the Fire Lord. Or, in this case, the Melon Lord. They practice it--Toph has a great time playing the Melon Lord. If she were the avatar the Fire Lord would already be dust.

I mean, all due respect for Aang but sometimes people need to be physically eliminated, even if it doesn’t feel good. Then again, I’m not a monk or a particularly good person, so maybe it’s me. They have two days and no alternative...

It gets worse when Katara finds a picture of baby Ozai, which humanizes him even more.

They have a fight over it, and Aang mysteriously disappears into the sea... They decide to split up and look for him.

“I’m going with Zuko! What? Everyone else went on a life-changing field-trip with Zuko, now it’s my turn.”

Suki and Katara only find the actress!Aang...

Asdfghjkl Toph rants about her difficult childhood to Zuko but he’s not in the mood to listen XD

Aang is nowhere to be found...

“What should we do, Zuko?” “I don’t know. Why are you all looking at me?” “Well, you are kind of the expert on tracking Aang.” “Yeah, if anyone’s got experience hunting the avatar, it’s you.” when you have 2 experiences on your curriculum and one is tea server but the other is a highly specialized research that suddenly gets in demand.

Oooh Zuko indeed has an Idea(TM).

Meanwhile what I assume are the preparations for the arrival of the comet has begun.

Ooh. Azula was supposed to be with her father in the attack to the Earth Kingdom, but Ozai has decided that she’ll stay behind. She is upset at first, but he explains that her task is to watch over the Fire Nation... and she will be the new Fire Lord, as he becomes the king of the entire world. The Phoenix King in fact. Which is a really cool name, admittedly.

He’s already got a whole aesthetic ready. Damn, the dramatic gene is strong in the family.

Oh, Zuko’s idea is to recruit the bounty hunter from that other time!

Meanwhile Aang wakes up, with no memory of getting there...

[somniumoflight]

Crossover Idea #10 – My Hero Academia/Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Fire Nation’s royal family is haunted by two spirits that appear under very specific circumstances – these spirits are Todoroki Shoto and Dabi.

So, I’ve been reading a lot of Avatar fanfictions lately, and amongst the ones I’ve read is this really good BNHA crossover fanfic where Zuko and Todoroki keep accidentally switching places with each other in their respective worlds.  The fanfic itself isn’t too long yet (only 4 chapters so far) but there’s a very long bnha atla swap au tag on @captainkirkk’s tumblr page (might have gotten the acronyms in the wrong order, be forewarned) where people have drawn many, many comparisons between the Todoroki family and the Fire Nation royal family, and that kind of inspired this idea.

So, here’s the rundown of this crossover au.  The first divergence happened a hell of a long time ago, only a couple generations after the first Fire Lord was properly crowned.  The grandson of the first Fire Lord (aka the third Fire Lord, aka guess who this is?) sought the power to surpass his generation’s Avatar, at first with his own flames but eventually by finding a spiritually powerful firebender of mixed blood to force into a marriage, in the hopes that having more than Fire Nation in their blood would make his children strong enough to challenge the Avatar.  This, and that Lord’s abusive “training” of his two sons, backfired on him magnificently when the eldest son first ran away, then tried to lead a rebellion against his father and in the process convinced his youngest sibling to help said rebellion. When the two boys were executed for treason after the rebellion failed, their ghosts lingered, haunting their family so that they could continue trying to bring their father down after death.

Except after their father finally died, they continued to linger in the living world rather than moving on.  So now they haunt the royal family and have been doing so for generations, and slowly over the centuries have become proper spirits rather than just human ghosts – one, a guardian spirit for those betrayed by those of their blood (Shoto) and the other an avenger who lingers as long as the one betrayed wants vengeance but has yet to take it (Dabi.)

Fast forward to when Zuko is alive.  For as long as his father’s been treating him poorly in favor of Azula (so, like, as soon as Azula started bending before him), he’s been catching glimpses of a strange teenager with mismatched eyes and a streak of white in his hair around the palace, usually when something nasty is about to happen to him and then some weird incident happens that stops that something nasty in its tracks.  Nobody but Zuko seems to realize he’s there until after his Uncle comes back from Ba Sing Se, sees the spirit as well, and realizes just how screwed up the royal family’s become.  And then little differences start stacking up, influencing canon as they go and blowing everything off the rails one wheel at a time.

Details of this crossover:

Endeavor was the grandson of the first Fire Lord in the Fire Nation’s history, and the third Fire Lord to be crowned.  He was, according to legend, one of the most powerful Fire Lords to ever rule, and was said to be friends with his generation’s Avatar (who, come on, has to be All Might. Who else could it be?)

However, jealous of the power that that Avatar had, Endeavor forced a woman of mixed Fire Nation and Water Tribe blood (there were probably Water Tribe pirates, let’s say that her mother was fire nation… let’s leave it at that) and great spiritual and (water)bending power to marry him, in the hopes that the mixed blood would make his children powerful enough to contend with the Avatar.

Technically he sort of got what he wanted – his eldest son found it remarkably easy to use the more powerful blue flames that he had such trouble with, and his youngest son figured out how to imitate waterbending by basically pulling a Zuko from Vathara’s Embers – he could put heat into water and manipulate it that way

However, both of these powerful children hated his guts for how he treated them while “training,” and so when the eldest son (Dabi) ran away and eventually returned as the leader of a rebellion against him, and the youngest (Shoto) was convinced to help his oldest brother in order to protect his family, he was “forced” to hunt them down and kill them before they could topple his regime.

The two sons, however, lingered after death as ghosts in order to protect their remaining family from their father (Shoto) and keep trying to kill him as revenge (Dabi).  They lingered for so long waiting for their old man to die that some of the servants in the palace started praying to them as if they were spirits, and as such when Endeavor finally died (Dabi managed to destroy the ceiling in his room somehow and crushed him under the beams) the two ghosts ended up lingering as… guardian spirits of sorts, for their siblings’ descendants.

They only appear when similar circumstances to their own life – one of the royal family trying to hurt (physically or emotionally) one of their siblings, parents, children, etcetera – and otherwise do not interact with the family.

Fast forward thousands of years, Shoto and Dabi have grown in power, and their origins have faded from the annuls of Fire Nation history. Zuko is born to Ozai, and it soon becomes clear that Ozai is not happy with his perfectly good son, and could care less whether he lives or dies. He starts seriously considering hurting the boy when Azula starts bending before him, which is when Shoto first starts appearing.

He mostly protects Zuko from attempts on his life or accidents that could end up hurting him. This includes everything from assassination attempts from people within or without the Fire Nation to, I dunno, random branches falling out of trees that could squash him.  On one memorable occasion Shoto saves Zuko from drowning, which draws the attention of the palace staff and Ozai, since it was so very clearly a spirit that saved him – what else could make water boil and then surge to shore carrying the drowning boy?

Zuko basically ends up growing up in the palace with a spiritual bodyguard hovering over his shoulder that he’s at first barely aware of and knows next to nothing about, save that the spirit is apparently Fire Nation yet controls water somehow, and he seems to grow stronger as the years go on.

Technically, Shoto is getting stronger, but not because more time is passing – it’s because Ozai starts betraying Zuko as a father more and more, and Shoto’s starting to be reminded of his own father, and he DOES NOT APPRECIATE THE SIMILARITIES THANK YOU.

Then the Agni Kai happens – and the entire room of people watching the Agni Kai against Zuko’s father are right there to see Shoto suddenly appear before all of them, extremely pissed off at Ozai.  While most of the people in the room don’t know what his appearance means, Ozai does – he knows what makes this particular spirit appear, and if anyone else in the room knew then he’d be screwed.

So instead of killing Zuko after the Agni Kai, like he was seriously considering, he banishes his son.

Shoto ends up sticking with Zuko throughout all his years searching for the Avatar and throughout the course of the canon story.  His presence doesn’t overly change much, except Aang and eventually Katara and Sokka (after the North Pole) can see him due to their various spirit shenanigans across the nations, and seeing a spirit with the same scar as Zuko throws them through a loop a bit.

Things do make a major change after Azula arrives to take Zuko and Iroh back to the Fire Nation as prisoners.  See, while most people don’t know the true nature of Shoto and Dabi as spirits, one of the few people (other than Ozai) that does is Iroh, mostly thanks to that pilgrimage he took following Ba Sing Se.  And during one particularly bad day when Zuko is basically cursing Shoto’s existence because he doesn’t need help, why is this spirit even here, Iroh decides to tell him exactly why that spirit is there.

Finding out why Shoto is protecting him – because his father has betrayed him, and wants to harm him – shakes Zuko’s faith in Ozai WAY earlier than canon.  It also plants a budding seed of resentment against his father and Azula (who has also betrayed him, if to a lesser extent than his father), which eventually leads to Zuko actually taking Aang and Katara’s side against Azula in Ba Sing Se, instead of later.

This is where Dabi comes into play, because unlike Shoto, who appears whenever Zuko needs to be protected from one of his own blood, Dabi appears whenever Zuko feels resentment and, even if only for a moment, seriously wants to hurt one of his own blood.  Even normal siblings will occasionally want to strangle each other – there’s no way Zuko didn’t seriously want to hurt Azula at some point, even in canon.

So during the fight with Azula, Zuko feels just enough resentment of how perfect an heir to Ozai Azula is that Dabi appears and literally turns Azula’s own flames against her, burning her.  It leaves a nasty scar similar to Dabi’s own across Azula’s face – a scar she cannot hide, a scar that makes her less than perfect, and Zuko is more than a little horrified, especially when he later finds out it was his own anger against her that technically let Dabi hurt her.  He may have seriously wanted to hurt her, but he didn’t actually want to put her in danger from their father, and those scars are very recognizable.

Dabi doesn’t hurt anybody again for a long time, but Zuko keeps seeing him out of the corner of his eye or in reflections, or in dreams of his and Shoto’s past that he starts having following being attacked by another spirit while traveling with the Gaang out of Ba Sing Se or something.

Those dreams eventually lead to Zuko discovering just who Shoto and Dabi were in the past, with help from Iroh and the Gaang, and Zuko decides that not only is he going to help take down Ozai and keep his sister off the throne, but he’s going to do everything in his power to make certain that nobody in the royal family is ever hurt by their family again, at least not like THAT.

After that most things are more or less canon in terms of actual events during the show, and the last bit of canon divergence before the end of the show’s timeline is, when Aang turns up with Ozai after getting rid of his firebending, Ozai tries to convince him to take revenge against him, to burn him, kill him – and Zuko decides that he’s already had his revenge against him.  That’s the last time Dabi appears, when he ends up burning a mark of shame into Ozai’s face and then vanishes and is never seen by any of the Gaang again.

Shoto, on the other hand, lingers for a long time, and Zuko still sees him out of the corner of his eyes as he becomes Fire Lord and works towards a better future for himself and his nation.

Cracky alternative title for this crossover: “Fuck Endeavor and Ozai: Shitty Parents Need to Burn”

[manlyman06]

Katara and Toph or how to make strong women

I talk here about stRong in the term of good writing no just strong about badass skills even if this have a important part in their developement.

Let describes each of this character:

You will find the entire article in the great blog: http://femalefortitude.blogspot.com  I advise you to go take a look ;)

Katara :  She should have been the heroine  of the serie in my opinion, she is a young girl who despites her young age take many responsability, she take care of her family and organize the most part of the journey with their group, she is very interesting beacause despites having cleary amother role, she have goals she have doubts and defaults, she thinks about her and have a strong wil.

Her dreams it’s to becoming a Master in water bending, by make her dream comes true she doesn’t hesitate to steal a trarining parchement, that can be view as a bad thing but it is very coherent due to the situation that she see Ang becoming more and more powerful with the water bending, and i don’t think it’s jealousy i think is ambitious, but the moment in the serie where we see that is real deveolop character and not just a female support for the hero is in the  Northern Water Tribe episode.

 Having worked with Aang to develop her ability, Katara seeks a master to train her. Unfortunately, the best instructor available, Master Pakku, refuses her entry to his program. In the Northern Water Tribe, he tells her, female benders learn how to heal while their male counterparts learn how to do everything else. Katara rejects this model, saying, “I don’t want to heal, I want to fight!”

She soon gets her chance; Pakku dismisses her as a “little girl,” and Katara challenges him to a duel if he’s “man enough” to take her on There are in this scene a very important moment in my opinion where Ang says to her “  do not do it for me as if in every serie the female support doing thing only because of a male character, and she replies  i’m not doing this for you i’m doing rhis to teach him a lesson  Aware of her own inferior bending technique and the reality of her inevitable defeat, Katara nevertheless chooses to face Pakku and forces him to fight her

IInn “The Runaway episode,” Sokka reveals that he relies on Katara’s strength and responsible nature. He describes the role Katara has played in his life since their mother’s death: “I’m not sure I can remember what my mother looked like. It really seems like my whole life Katara’s been the one looking out for me.

Her important personal quest is getting revenge on the Fire Nation soldier who killed her mother. Both Sokka and Aang try to dissuade her, telling her that she should forgive the soldier and move on, but Katara says that that would be impossible. When Zuko tells her to save her strength, she tells him that she has plenty: “I’m not the helpless little girl I was when they came.” Implicit in this statement and in Katara’s recollection that her mother sacrificed herself to protect her is Katara’s feeling of guilt. She has immense power now, but she couldn’t protect her mother when it counted. She had to rely on her mother’s strength so that she could one day increase her own. For Katara, a child who not only suspects, but knows that her mother exchanged her life for her own, it would be impossible not to think of her death as Katara’s fault. Tracking down and punishing the man who physically did the deed might allow Katara to feel less responsible.

This doesn’t mean that Katara is above doing terrible things in her quest for revenge and redemption, which becomes evident when Katara bloodbends the man she suspects is Kya’s killer. When it proves to be the wrong man, she appears disheartened, but not particularly remorseful. The weapon that once horrified her is now just another in her arsenal. Still, when she finds the killer, she uses only normal waterbending, which suggests that some of that initial reticence has been restored. She still resists becoming Hama’s successor.

When it comes time to make a decision, Katara decides not to kill the former soldier. She explains the situation to Aang: “I wanted to do it. I wanted to take out all my anger at him, but I couldn’t. I don’t know if it’s because I’m too weak to do it, or if it’s because I’m strong enough not to.” Aang tells her that she did the right thing, and that forgiveness is the first step toward healing. Katara replies, “But I didn’t forgive him. I’ll never forgive him.” She does, however, forgive Zuko. This is a significant point in Katara’s characterization. Whole episodes are devoted to Aang learning how to let things go, and we know that he has had to overcome the loss of his people in order to become a better Avatar. We appreciate his thoughts about forgiveness because we know that he knows what he’s talking about. But Aang and Katara are very different people, and her inability to forgive is just as important to her character as his unwillingness to take revenge. After watching three seasons of A:TLA, the viewer knows that she holds grudges, that she has immense stores of rage, and that the loss of her mother has informed much of her personality. To take violent revenge would be to become Hama, but to forgive Kya’s killer would be to stop being Katara.

Source : http://femalefortitude.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-last-waterbender.html

Toph : Is my favorite in the entire show she is funny, endearing, stubborn or determined ^^, I find in her all the  i love about my girlfriend ^^

Toph’s introductory episode is an explicit rebuttal to the typical portrayal of people with disabilities. The first time we meet her, she is defending her title at a WWE-style earthbending competition as the Blind Bandit. Aang, Katara, and Sokka are initially skeptical; surely a tiny twelve-year-old blind girl couldn’t beat a bunch of full-grown men. However, she can and does, and she is only defeated when Aang unfairly uses airbending in his challenge for the title. 

Later in the episode, after she and Aang have been kidnapped, Toph’s father reveals that his primary reason for keeping her close is her blindness. When Sokka and Katara ask for her help to save Aang, her father states, “My daughter is blind. She is blind and tiny and helpless and fragile. She cannot help you.” Toph, confronted with her father’s low opinion of her ability, says simply, “Yes, I can.” Sokka and Katara offer to help her, but she declines. Then she takes on all seven adult earthbenders at once and she wipes the floor with them.

Toph’s father is presented as controlling and irrational, and the show condemns his point of view. He is wrong for controlling her and for viewing her in terms of what she can’t do instead of who she is. By condemning him, the show rejects the usual approach to the mainstream portrayal of disability. It strengthens this message by having Toph defend her actions with very little reference to her blindness, instead framing the conversation as a matter of agency versus control. She doesn’t explain that she has devised a method of sight that involves reading vibrations in the earth, thereby “overcoming” her disability. Rather, she points out that she’s good at fighting, that she loves it, and that she deserves to exist and be accepted as she is. Ultimately, she joins Team Avatar because they can give her that acceptance.

The shift in Toph’s loyalty from her biological family to her found family forms the bulk of her character arc, and it is best exemplified in the development of her relationship with Katara. In “The Chase,” nurturing team mom Katara comes into conflict with the recently liberated Toph. Toph refuses to help the others set up camp, claiming that she can pull her own weight. The tension increases over the course of the episode, in which Team Avatar endures a sleepless night spent fleeing from Azula’s relentless pursuit, eventually causing Toph to leave the group. She runs into Zuko’s uncle, Iroh, to whom she confesses, “People see me and think I’m weak. They wanna take care of me, but I can take care of myself, by myself.” Iroh tells her that there is nothing wrong with getting help from the people who love you, and she decides to rejoin the team.

Katara tries to re-define their friendship as a relationship between equals by offering to pull a scam with Toph. In this way, she can show Toph that she’s fun while hopefully removing the baggage of projected parental failure from their relationship. At the end of the episode, Toph tells Katara that she was right and asks Katara to help her write a letter to her parents, thereby relieving her of her role as maternal figure as Toph seeks to re-open communication with her actual mother.

The exchange that follows is remarkable. Katara tries to tell Toph that the girls had no idea what they were talking about, but Toph assures her that “It’s okay. One of the good things about being blind is that I don’t have to waste my time worrying about appearances. I don’t care what I look like. I’m not looking for anyone’s approval. I know who I am.” Still, she’s crying as she says it. Katara notices and tailors her response to reinforce Toph’s value as a person, even as she also addresses the unspoken question: “That’s what I really admire about you, Toph. You’re so strong and confident and self-assured, and I know it doesn’t matter, but you’re really pretty.” This response earns Katara the (should-be) coveted Beifong shoulder punch of affection.

This is particularly interesting in light of Toph’s complicated relationship with gender performance. Whereas Katara fights to be allowed access to traditionally male spaces, Toph’s domination in Earth Rumble V and VI proves that she’s already there. As far as we know, she spent all of her time at home with her parents and servants, with regular visits from her earthbending teacher, Master Yu. It’s no surprise that a sheltered, disempowered kid would want to emulate the competitive earthbenders’ overt displays of strength and forge a place for herself among them. Joining their ranks, however, necessarily requires her to immerse herself in their hyper-masculine subculture, based on violence and trash talking. Toph happily becomes a master of both.

ne of the incontrovertible truths of the A:TLAworld is that it is impossible to bend metal. Xin Fu says as much when he tells Toph, “You might think you’re the greatest earthbender in the world, but even you can’t bend metal.” For a time, even Toph believes this. As all of her ploys to get out of the box prove unfruitful, however, she looks to the metal itself. Overlaid on the scene is the voice-over of a guru, telling Aang that all of the elements are connected. Even metal, he says, is just “a part of earth that has been purified and refined.” Without the benefit of hearing this voice-over, Toph nevertheless finds the impurities in the metal box and physically pries it apart. When her captors come back to investigate, she imprisons them in the box, exclaiming as she leaves, “I am the greatest earthbender in the world! Don’t you two dunderheads ever forget it.” In this scene, we see the essence of Toph. She finds herself in a seemingly impossible situation, so she does the impossible to get out of it. She has been locked in a cage -- a metal box, the prison of her parents’ house, the jail of their controlling affection, or the dark dungeon that others assume she is confined to due to her blindness -- and she forges her way to freedom. Ultimately, Toph Beifong is a character who finds empowerment in disempowerment, turning perceived weaknesses into real strengths.

All the analysis belong to femalefortitude.blogspot.com

Source :http://femalefortitude.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-greatest-earthbender-in-world.html

[ginyang98]

Ducktales/Disney Avatar AU (Part 1)

I was thinking about this AU since long time ago. And finally i got to end it. 

Earth, air, fire, water. When we were younger, the old man of the town told us stories about a person, born from time to time between each nation, who could master all the four elements, who were called "the avatar." He told us how the avatar kept the peace throught his time until he died because of the betrayal of one of his associates and that, as a result, a war was to begin. We also heard the stories, told by that old madman, of how the avatar had had a group of partners in which my Uncle Donald figured as a great waterbender. I, personally, did not believe these stories, because of my uncle Donald, and I remained skeptical. See to believe, isn’t it? I’ve never had seen someone who could master more than one element… Until that day when Dewey, my younger brother, accidentally burned my Uncle Donald's boat with his hands. Now, my brother is the avatar, he has to maintain the world order. And, you know what? ... I trust in him.

New team Avatar: Group of friends of the new avatar Dewey. It’s currently formed mainly by his brothers and Webbigail Vanderquack.

Dewey - The new and improved avatar (or so he says). Dewey was born in the southern water tribe inside uncle Donald’s boat, and he is the second brother of triplets, that is to say that he is the one in the middle. Dewey is the most powerful avatar so far as he is extremely strong both physically and mentally; but he has a problem: he has a hard time learning to control them properly because he always acts before thinking (Scrooge, his last teacher, always scolds him for working harder than working smarter) His abilities are superior by much of the previous avatar: in addition to the four elements, he knows pretty well energy control, healing, purification, and metalbending; and he achieved a better control of the avatar state, being practically conscious when he uses it (but this after a lot of practice and an early maturation he didn’t wanted to get). Funny fact: He discovered he was the avatar because he set on fire Louie’s sweater and then, trying to put out the fire he burnt all the boat. After that, Uncle Donald took him and his brothers to all the world and he belived it was because of the shame he made them pass that time (but Donald does this because he wants to protect his nephews).

Huey - He is the elder triplet brother of avatar Dewey, and Louie. He is a boy from the southern water tribe, the son of a waterbender (who died) and an airbender (who disappeared); is, along with his two younger brothers, in the care of his uncle Donald (who is a waterbender and expert navigator). He is a waterbender as well as his uncle and his father, with an innate talent for healing and soul purification through water, and his power is strong enough to control the clouds from the ground thanks to the arduous practice which has had since he was small thanks to being part of the rescue group “Junior Woodchuck”. In addition, he knows very well self-defense without element thanks to his training as Junior Woodchuck, and all the things that the JW guidebook has taught him. And because of his personality, the spirit of the moon gave him some abilities that only the water witches can possess: Astral travel, basic energy-bending, and the ability to enter into the dreams of other creatures. He has a responsible personality, organized, worried for his brothers, with a very particular temperament (maybe learned or even inherited from his uncle Donald) and with problems to know how to have fun. Curious fact: He has a red hat because Uncle Donald didn’t wanted to confuse them (the nations has to wear the same color. Every. Day).

Louie – The younger brother of Huey and avatar Dewey, with the same offspring as them: Born in the southern water tribe, son of an airbender and a waterbender, living with his uncle in a boat, etcetera. As for his abilities, he is also a water master who has control of the element as an innate talent, and without much practice managed to master the element much faster than his brothers; unfortunately he is too lazy and does not practice as much as them and somehow ended up being the weakest in power (though with Dewey it's pretty obvious because ... he's the avatar; but he stills weaker than Huey). After seeing what his brothers were capable of doing, he decided to begin a training by himself. In the way to the success, failing a lot because he didn’t wanted to learn with his brothers only cause of his pride, he found a women who taught him a lot like healing, fighting,taking water from the weather, and the forbidden water technique: Bloodbending. He can use this powers without the full moon,, even he is so powerful he can waterbend and bloodbend only with his eyes. He is a very loose and whining, manipulative, and too emotional boy, but with a little impulse he can get to do great things because of his great determination and cunning (for example, learning those forbidden and complicated techniques). Curious fact: He has Della’s visors just because Uncle Donald didn’t wanted to confuse them (the nations has to wear the same color. Every. Day). Another fun fact: He had never have watched his waterbender teacher’s face.

Webby – She’s a kyoshi warrior apprentice who lives in Scrooge’s mansion (the ancient air temple of the north). She lives in there with her granny (a Kyoshi Warrior trainer), and all her partners and the apprentices. She is a very strong girl even without an element to bend, with physical skills that are to envy like knowing lots of martial arts, a lot of history, of war, of war tactics, music, culture, she knows where the nervous points are to leave a person without their bending and physical abilities for moments, and she even is the little bodyguard for the tripplets (mostly Dewey because of the uprising war). She gets excited very quickly because she didn’t had a normal childhood, growing up closed in that air temple, just training to be a good Kyoshi Warrior as her granny. So when the tripplets came out, she had a taste of freedome for first time. Fun fact: She really is Dewey’s bodyguard, even if he doesn’t want to. If anyone of the tripplets gets violent, she has the permission to block them out of their powers until one of their uncles arrive the place.

Old team Avatar: The group that formed the closest friends of the Avatar Mickey.

Mickey Mouse - He was the previous avatar, born in the Fire nation with an older sister (who wasn’t a bender) and his parents. He gained control of the four elements and a little of energy-bending. Unfortunately it was not enough and he was murdered at 25 years old by one of the former leaders of the order of the white lotus (General Peter of the Fire Nation, who revealed he was in associate with the society of the red lotus). He was a playful, adventurous and some sort of irresponsible avatar. He kept his whole life a childish and selfish attitude, because of the different life he had, having not a normal childhood because of the training to be a good avatar; but despite this, he kept the earth kingdom away from a revolution, maintaining the world order. He had benevolent and naive attitude, so he is considered one of the best avatar that has ever existed. In a part of his life, he discovered he had a half-brother, but when they met, his brother hated him a little with no reason.

Donald Duck - He is a waterbender and the best sailor in the world, or that is what he says (because, truthfully, he is a better waterbender than sailor). He was one of Mickey's closest friends, and one of the few people who watched General Pete kill him. He was part of the society of the white lotus until the murder of Mickey and the disappearance of Della (thinking that was the order’s fault, and mostly of his Uncle Scrooge). He now lives in the southern water tribe, taking care of his nephews in the name of his sister and, with dying hopes, that she will return someday. And after discovering that Dewey was the avatar, he forced the family to move much of the city in the city hoping that the white lotus and/or the red lotus involves his family again in a conspiration (he hates them alike). His skills are truly impressive, so much so that he was Mickey's teacher in the element of water, and he is currently the master of Huey, Dewey and Louie (Although he initially taught only the basics, the white lotus command forced him to teach him all that Dewey knew). He has innate talent for healing, and when he is angry he can easily beat an army of fire and land soldiers alone (or all the beagle boys on a milestone).

Goofy - A soldier of the earth kingdom who did not agree with the revolution some rich people wanted to do in the earth kingdom. He does not own an element and is quite clumsy normally, causing millions of accidents, but his loyalty made him one of the most important in the avatar team. Currently, he lives in a village near Omashu, where he took care of his son Max and told him all his adventures as a friend and companion of the old avatar. But that was before he disappeared at the hands of the “face thief” (an evil spirit who steals your face). Goofy thinks that he is dead, so in every Max’s birthday, he makes a little funeral for him and sings and stuff.

Pluto - It was avatar Mickey’s pet. He is an ordinary dog, but it was his companion throughout his life, even because Mickey was a small mouse, the avatar could mount his pet. The animal was buried next to its master a few days after the death of the avatar; is thought to have died of sadness.

Honorary member.

Della Duck – An impressive airbender who revolves the tecniques of this ancient art. She was a pilot of the Northern Water tribe army when she lived with her parents and his twin Donald, as well as one of the first women on a real plane. While her brother is a waterbender, she is an airbender because her mother has the air genes and her father is a native from the water tribe. But she doesn’t worked as a monk because the aribenders where practically extinct. She is the mother of the triplets (Huey, Dewey and Louie), and with that, the mother of the new Avatar Dewford. Sadly, she never got a chance to see that, because she disappeared seconds before the murder of avatar Mickey. Her skills as an airbender were impressive, and most importantly, she was Mickey's teacher on the Air element. She was mainly the pilot of the avatar team and she didn’t get into the adventures as much as her brother did (she had to take care of Scrooge's plane). 

Bonus:

[iishipallthethings]

Three is (not) a crowd

Story Summary:  Two months after Kuvira was defeated, things have finally settled down in Republic City. For better or for worse, Avatar Korra is ready to talk to Asami about the Unspoken Thing between them, however there's something Asami had been hiding from her friends. And that something is Lin Beifong.

Chapter 8: Pema to the Rescue!

“In other news, a tragedy occurred in Zaofu so soon after its own Kuvira attempted to destroy Republic City with a giant mecha suit.”

Korra’s head jerked up at the name of the city. She turned her head to look at the radio she had turned on after she had went to her room. Korra got up and turned the volume down in case there was someone walking by her door.

“There was an explosion that toppled one of the domes.”

Korra’s eyes widened in shock. Lin didn’t say that one of the domes was destroyed!

“At this time, we have found the bodies of sixty civilians and two of Republic City’s officers, but more are expected to be recovered. Suyin Beifong herself was hurt during the blast but it does not appear to be critical. It is unclear if it was an accident or an act of terrorism. Suyin Beifong and the Chief of Police, Lin Beifong, have not yet commented on the explosion. Some are starting to question whether Lin Beifong, daughter of Toph Beifong, the former Chief of Police for Republic City, is still fit to be Chief of Police or if-”

Korra turned off the radio and was tempted to throw it out the window. She restrained herself to giving the contraption a punch but she put too much power into the blow. The radio flew into the wall and laid destroyed on the table. Korra only gave the broken machinery a huff before unplugging it so it wouldn’t start a fire. Maybe if she hurried tomorrow, she could get a new one without anyone realizing that this one was broken. Korra nodded to herself at the course of action and threw the piece of junk away.

She left the room before she could punch something else. Korra took calming breaths as she walked through the temple towards the training grounds. Today she was supposed to teach the airbenders about the Spirit World. Korra had tried to give the responsibility to Tenzin, Jinora, and Bumi but each one turned her down. She even tried to ask Meelo to fill in for her but Tenzin put a stop to that in an instant.

Once again she became a tide of airbenders walking to their studies. Korra had to maneuver around a few of them to reach the doors that led outside. Air Temple Island was getting very crowded since the destruction of the Northern Air Temple forced the rest of the airbenders to move back to the island. Korra considered moving out several times but she knew it wasn’t feasible. She may not have to worry about buying food and other things, but being the Avatar also meant she didn’t have an actual paycheck. Perhaps she could move into Asami’s mansion. Korra dismissed the idea at once. She couldn’t ask her friend for something like that, especially considering everything happening between the two of them and Lin. Korra raked a hand through her hair and tried to recall what she meant to tell her class.

Korra walked to the meditation area and saw twenty pairs of eyes train on her. She took another deep breath and smiled at the airbenders. She saw one of them raise a hand to wave at her and she was relieved to see that it belonged to Bumi. His dragonfly bunny spirit friend, Bum-Ju, flew over his head and chirped happily at the sight of Korra. He zoomed over to the Avatar and circled her once before going back to Bumi. Korra almost laughed at the bright pink sweater the spirit was wearing and was grateful that Bumi hadn’t attempted to make one for her yet. It did look comfy but Korra did not pull off pink well, especially bubblegum fluffy pink. Asami might though.

“Hello everyone,” Korra called out and was greeted in turn by the airbenders. She took a seat in front of the airbenders and assumed the lotus position. The others did the same without prompting and Korra cleared her throat. “Okay, so the Spirit World. It’s a world with, well, spirits.” Korra felt her cheeks burn as all the points she meant to say refused to come back to her mind. “Currently there’s three portals that allows people to directly enter the Spirit World. They’re found at the North and South Poles and of course the one in Republic City.” Korra trailed off, not sure what else to tell the airbenders. She could list off everything she knew about the Spirit World, but Tenzin likely covered that already which would leave Korra looking like a fool.

“Is it true that you can’t bend when you’re in the Spirit World?”

Korra didn’t see who called out the question but she was glad to have something to talk about. “Yes, but only if you meditate into the Spirit World.” Everyone was listening intently and Korra felt a boost in confidence. “You leave your physical body behind so you can’t connect with the elements. However, if you physically enter the Spirit World, you can still use the elements but you need to be careful. Spirits don’t like it when you try to bend at them.” She grinned sheepishly as she explained her trying to bend at several meerkat spirits. The airbenders were laughing by the end of her tale, Bumi loudest of them all. Korra didn’t mind the laughter, it actually made her more relaxed and she started to recall the things she wanted to talk about.

“The Spirit World is amazing. Every spirit you see here is only a fraction of what they actually are.” Almost like he could sense it, Bum-Jun zipped to Korra. The Avatar smiled when he landed in her lap and scratched under his chin. Bum-Jun chirped again and rubbed his head against her hand. “Don’t ever think that you’re stronger or smarter than them because in their world, they rule. They can sense your emotions and that can literally change their world. If you’re good, truly good, they will flock to you.” Bum-Jun chirped once more before flying back to Bumi.

The airbenders shot off more questions and Korra answered them with ease. This was way easier than she thought it was going to be. The airbenders were paying attention and were actually interested in what she had to say.

“What about that dark spirit a few years back?” one of the airbenders asked. “He was huge and almost wrecked the city before you stopped him as a giant blue woman.”

Korra realized what the airbender was talking about and a hush fell over the crowd. Bum-Jum sensed the change in the atmosphere because he zoomed closer to Bumi and chirped erratically. Bumi managed to calm the spirit down with a few soft words and hugs. “That was Vaatu,” Korra answered. She could see Bumi shaking his head. “They deserved to know the truth. It is said that in the beginning of this world there were two spirits: Raava and Vaatu. Raava was the spirit of light and peace while Vaatu was the spirit of darkness and chaos. They fought each other every ten thousand years on the day of Harmonic Convergence to decide the fate of this world.”

“Couldn’t Raava just destroy Vatuu?” another airbender asked.

“No,” Korra said with a shake of her head. “Even if Raava destroyed Vatuu, one cannot exist without the other. Eventually Vaatu would be reborn and the fighting would continue.” She saw the concern on some of the airbender’s faces and grinned. “It would be the same if Vaatu destroyed Raava. In fact, it actually happened.” She told the story of how her uncle had tricked her into opening the Spirit Portal in the South Pole and fused his spirit with Vaatu. She had to answer many questions about it and time slipped away as she continued her story of how Raava was destroyed by Unalaq but she was able to reconnect with the light spirit in the Spirit World. She didn’t talk about Zaheer and losing her connection with Raava. They deserved to know some things but others were too personal.

“Now that the Spirit World and the Physical World are reconnected, there is a possibility of another Unalaq,” she warned the airbenders. They all took the words seriously, even Bumi. “Power is tempting, believe me I know. There was a point in my life that I would have given anything to not be hurt again. I might have given up my own humanity. But we can’t lose ourselves to those urges. Your job as the new generation of airbenders and mine as the Avatar is to protect the world and teach humans and spirits to coexist with one another.” Korra smiled at Bumi and Bum-Jun. “Like them.”

Korra continued to talk about the Spirit World and answer questions that the airbenders had. It was a long time before the Avatar dismissed them but it didn’t feel like it. She got up to start heading back to her room but Bumi stopped her.

“That was really good, Korra. I don’t think I ever got through a lesson without falling asleep,” Bumi beamed down at her. Despite having no blood relations, Korra came to look at the man like an estranged uncle. “Maybe you could Tenzin a few pointers.”

“Thanks, Bumi but no,” Korra laughed. “The last time someone gave Tenzin a few tips he apparently became like a drill sergeant. I wonder what idiot thought that was a good idea.”

Bumi stared at Korra for a few moments before he cleared his throat. “Yeah, that airbender really was stupid,” he chuckled weakly. Korra tilted her head at her friend’s strange behavior. “Well, anyway I got to go knit a new sweater for Bum-Jun.” The spirit zipped around Bumi’s head at the mention of a new sweater. “Now, now, you like this one, don’t you? I’ll use softer thread this time and it’ll have a bow!” Bumi walked away from Korra while he talked to the spirit about the sweater he was going to make him.  

Korra watched the two for a time before she began to make her way to the stables. She fed the airbison some hay and patted their heads. The Avatar went to the last stall where Naga was napping. Once the airbison had made permanent living quarters in the temple, the polarbeardog had claimed one of the stalls as her own. The polarbeardog lifted her head at the sight of Korra and her tail thumped against the ground.

“Hey, Naga,” Korra whispered, kissing the crown of Naga’s head. It didn’t matter that the animal easily dwarfed Korra, she would always be her baby. Korra scratched behind Naga’s right ear and laughed as a hind leg thudded against the ground. “Wanna go for a quick run?” Naga perked up at the word and whined. Korra smiled and went about securing her saddle. Once it was done, the two walked out of the stalls to the outskirts of Air Temple Island. The island didn’t offer nearly as much room as the base in the South Pole but it was enough for the two to run for some time. Korra mounted Naga and pushed her heels into the polarbeardog’s sides as she gave the command to run. They dashed along the trails on the edges of the island where the grass first meets the beaches. Korra laughed as Naga ran faster, the polarbeardog sensing the Avatar’s excitement and it was feeding her own. It was too long since they had a good run just for the fun of it. The Avatar leaned down as they ran under a low hanging tree. It took more times than Korra would like to admit for her to learn to press her body against Naga’s back when they neared the tree. Korra spotted a hill fast approaching them and she squeezed her thighs to spur Naga to run faster. “Ready, girl?” The polarbeardog huffed as they raced up the hill and leapt off the crest. Unfortunately for the two, Pema was on the other side, carrying vegetable from the garden.

Both Korra and Pema yelled out in alarm at the sight of one another. Pema managed to dive out of the way as Naga landed right where she was standing a second before. Korra jumped off Naga to make sure the older woman was okay, apologizing profusely all the while.

“Oh spirits, are you okay Pema!? Naga and I didn’t see you!” Korra helped Pema back to her feet and grabbed what vegetables that weren’t squished in the fall.

“I’m fine, Korra, really!” Pema said, brushing off the dirt from her clothes. “I raised Meelo, I’m used to being knocked down every once in awhile.” She grabbed the remaining vegetables and looked up at Naga. “Do you think you could give me ride back to the temple though?”

Korra helped the nonbender up on Naga and the three set off back to the temple. Korra talked about her first class experience and Pema listened attentively. One the two were back to the temple, several airbender acolytes came to take Naga back to the stables. Korra made them promise to give the polerbeardog a treat for being a good girl and Korra made her own promise of bringing some food for the animal after dinner. Naga licked Korra’s face and followed the acolytes as Korra followed Pema into the kitchens.

The two women set about cleaning the vegetables and cutting them. Even though the cooking duties went to the acolytes, Pema liked to help, especially since Rohan refused to eat anything that Pema didn’t prepare. Korra was cutting away the skin of the carrots as she remembered that the older woman helped her with her conflicting feelings about Mako.

“Hey, Pema?” Korra began, keeping her hands busy so it didn’t seem that she was desperate for help, which she was.

“Who is it this time?” Pema asked without looking up from the potatoes she was washing.

Korra startled at the question and almost cut her finger but she let go of the peeler in time. She managed to keep the utensil from falling to the ground with metalbending. “What are you talking about, Pema? Who's this who person?”

Pema did look up from her vegetables long enough to give Korra a knowing look. “Every time someone talks to me while I’m cooking or cleaning it’s for relationship advice.”

“Oh,” Korra said. She looked back to the half peeled carrot. “Can I ask for some or should I just get back to peeling?”

“Of course you can ask,” Pema said smiling softly. “I like helping. It’s why I became an acolyte in the first place, after all.”

Korra nodded and took a deep breath before she launched into her problem. “Okay, so I like this person who's with another person. Well, I mean they aren’t together publicly but they’re still together. Anyway I still have feelings for the first person even though I know that person is off limits but then I started to be around the person the first person is dating and I think I’m starting to have feelings for that person. But I know I shouldn’t because that person is with the first person but I have feelings for that person too and I don’t know what to do and I could really use some advice right now,” Korra finished, her chest burning from her hasty talking.

Pema was fully facing Korra, the knife in her hand and the vegetables in front of her completely forgotten. “What?”

Korra repeated what she said, still not naming Lin and Asami.

“Okay, let me get this straight,” Pema had put the knife down as she tried to put the pieces of the puzzle together. “You like two people who are in a relationship together.”

“Yeah but they have to keep it a secret because if word gets out it could seriously jeopardize their careers.”

“Because they work together,” Pema was starting to get the picture.

Korra shook her head and gestured with the peeler and carrot still in her hands. “No, they work two completely separate jobs. It’s just that if it came out that they were seeing each other, it would make one of them look seriously bad and right now she doesn’t need that.” Korra snapped her mouth shut when she realized she had said “she” but the damage was already done. Now Pema would know that she liked a woman.

Pema could see the beginnings of fear in Korra’s eyes and was quick to stop it. “Korra, it’s okay if one of them is a woman.” She shrugged and resumed cutting the potatoes. “Love is love, right? The airbenders believed that and so should the rest of the world.” Pema looked back at the Avatar who was still staring at her. “Do you think either of them like you back?”

“Well, no, maybe, I don’t know.” Korra almost rubbed the back of her neck before she remembered she was holding a carrot. She put it and the peeler down and was glad that the two of them had the kitchen to themselves at that moment so she could speak openly. “I mean there is something between me and one of them but then I found out she was dating, well, another woman.”

This did shock Pema and it was clear in her voice. “I didn’t know Asami liked other women.”

Korra jumped at the name like Pema had shocked her with an equalist weapon. First Lin, then Bolin, and now Pema! Did everyone knew that she fell for the duchess!?

The older woman rolled her eyes at the reaction and smiled at her. “It is obvious, you know. You stare at her when you don’t think she’ll notice.” A blush spread on Korra’s face and it deepened at Pema’s next words. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Asami liked you too. She stared back at times.” Her face sobered as her hands stilled on the vegetables, giving Korra her full attention once more. “But this other woman, what about her? Do you think she likes you too?”

Korra thought about the question. It was loaded and honestly Korra didn’t have a cut-and-dry answer for Pema. “We’re okay now, I think? I know we’re at a lot better standing now than when we first met.” Korra remembered first meeting Lin through her arrest and back talking her. That was really stupid, Korra realized. “She knows about my feelings for Asami and she gets jealous.” The Avatar felt like her entire face was on fire as she admitted. “And it might be more physical than anything else.”

Pema nodded and she was quiet for a bit as she thought of what to say. Korra was in a very… interesting situation. “Have you considered telling them?”

“What!? No way!” Korra balked immediately. The two women were only now dating in earnest and Korra didn’t want to mess it up with her feelings. “I can’t just, you know, tell them I like them. I don’t even know if I really like Li-Lizy,” Korra was able to change the Chief’s name at the last moment.

If Pema knew who Korra was really talking about, she didn’t show it. “Korra, you fought Amon, Unalaq when he fused with Vaatu, Zaheer, and Kuvira.” She gave Korra’s arm an affectionate and comforting squeeze. “You can be open about your feelings.”

“But they were all things I could punch,” Korra argued. “And what if they say no?” That was her greatest fear. She was terrified that she wasn’t enough for the two women. She might be the Avatar but she was also Korra.

Pema gave Korra a motherly smile. “Isn’t it better for you to get a definite answer instead of wondering ‘what if?’ I’ve been in your shoes, Korra, and it hurts too much to be left wondering.”

Korra sighed and nodded. “You’re right.”

“Then do what you did with Mako, just without the fighting and breaking up at the end.”

Korra hugged Pema and thanked the older woman for her advice. The two finished cutting up the vegetables and Korra left Pema to go to her room. She had about half an hour to kill before dinner was served. She grabbed her phone before she could rethink things and dialed Asami’s number.

“Hello, this is Ms. Sato of Future Industries,” Asami answered on the second ring.

“Hey Ms. Sato, this is Avatar Korra,” Korra chuckled back. “Listen, I was wondering if you were free anytime soon.”

There was sounds of paper being moved around from Asami’s end and Korra guessed that the duchess was looking for her schedule. “I’ll be free tomorrow. Why? Do you want to invite the boys over to have another race?”

Korra grinned at the competitive tone Asami used. She could feel her belly bend into a knot but she got the words out. “Tomorrow is great. Actually I was wondering if you could invite Lin over.”

Asami didn’t say anything and Korra’s knot tightened. “Did something happen?” Asami finally asked. Korra could hear the concern in her voice. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Korra said, not sure if she was lying or not. “I just need to get some stuff off of my chest.”

“Oh,” now there was apprehension in Asami’s voice. “I can have Lin over tomorrow. Let’s say around five?”

“Five sounds good.” Korra said. The two said goodbye and Korra hung up. She looked down at the phone and realized that her knuckles were white from clutching the phone too tight. She set it back to its stand and got on her bed. Korra grabbed her pillow and hugged it to her chest. She could feel her heart pound and wasn’t sure if it was from excitement or fear for her talk with the two women tomorrow.

[animepowermakeup]

Hollywood “Ghost in the Shell” Film Review (with Spoilers)

After 7 months of stalling since its release, I finally watched the Hollywood rendition of Ghost in the Shell. I told my followers I would do a film review on it months ago but I could not bring myself to sit down and watch it right away. Keep in mind that I am a HUGE Ghost in the Shell fan of the original manga/anime and had very high expectations when watching this film. I watched it from the point of view as a fan but kept in mind the perspective of someone who was new to the series. This review will contain spoilers because a core problem of the film lies in its twist and- I think you know where I’m going with this. I will break this film down in different sections (no pun intended): Casting, the plot and character development, visuals, and what I liked and what could have been done better.

Casting

I will not focus too much on this portion since a lot of you may be tired of hearing about it but it is still important to include. No, I did not approve of Scarlett Johansson playing the role as the Major and no, the plot did not justify her presence in the film. In fact it worsens the case for her but I will discuss that in “The Plot” section. Batou’s actor is fine (as he is the only character that many fans have made speculations about his original character being caucasion based on different accounts) along with most of the other Section 9 members. Kuze is white yet I never liked Kuze as a character to begin with, even in the second season of Stand Alone Complex (that’s a topic saved for another day). However, I heard many people defend the casting by saying “It’s okay if the Major is white because there are so many POC characters”. You mean POC supporting and background characters? You can hire all those people for the background but not consider one of them for the foreground. Making Ishikawa a black Austrailian will not make up for the Major being white. To me it seemed like a cheap, baited shot at diversity and erasure of Japanese people and their role in the industry.

The Plot/Character Development

The plot is simple. Too simple. Major Mira Killian is a full-prosthetic cyborg who was "saved” by Hanka robotics and now works at a counter-terrorist organization called Section 9. She finds herself on the trail to hunt down a hacker by the name of Kuze only to discover that her past may not be what it seems. Some action stuff happen and frankly it gets a bit muddy from there but in the end she discovers she’s, in fact, not Mira but actually Motoko Kusanagi *gasp* who was a girl who ran away from home and was basically kidnapped for the 2571 experiment which is the action of placing a human brain in a robotic body. So Mira wants revenge but in the end she decides to stay where she is while embracing the fact that she is really Motoko.

Now the core problem with this film is the plot twist that Mira is Motoko. They went through all the effort to actually cast an actress to play the real Motoko and even her mother yet only cast Scarlett Johansson because she’s “well-known” and would “bring in more revenue” as well as appeal to a Chinese audience (for the Chinese market, not Japanese). Obviously their plan failed since this movie bombed in the box office.

Another big issue I had was that they stripped away any complexity from the original source material. The 1995 Ghost in the Shell movie was so thought provoking and unafraid to challenge its viewer. The true Motoko Kusanagi was a symbol of philosophy and “the next step” in our human evolution. She transcended herself and her peers in all aspects and was willing to learn more about the world despite what little she knew of her past self. Mira simply gets butthurt about being lied to and when given the chance to join Kuze, she turns it down because despite everything, she still thinks Section 9 is her home or something like that. Honestly, it was rather forgettable. 

The writing was so dumbed down to the point of characters literally explaining every little thing that was going on in every scene. A good writer can convey ideas without always having to explain them. So I get it. The modern American audience can only handle so much but that is no excuse when you have astounding sci-fi films like Ex Machina or Interstellar which are extremely well-written films that make their audience actually think critically. Everything was laid out to you like a book for middle-school readers.

So character development for Mira goes like this. She’s unsure of herself in the beginning, she feels betrayed in the middle, and she has closure in the end (I guess). Now her character is so bland that it was hard to sympathize with her which is a key component in writing a character. We sympathize with Motoko in the original film because, despite how strong and powerful she may be, she expresses her human side and shows moments of vulnerability and questions her own existence right after encountering the Puppetmaster. But in the end, she was able to free herself and move beyond the physical world. Mira, on the otherhand, already begins showing doubts in herself since the beginning of the film. In fact, she doubts herself in every scene until she realizes that they were somewhat true. It’s not that dynamic for her character arc and there was only a “turning point” after meeting Kuze (and by watching him shoot at her coworkers? Like she literally stood there while he fired at them. I just thought that was weird. She like trudges away after that happened).

The most development Batou got was Aquafina bottle cap eyes.

All the other characters were simply props and the only other character who had any dynamicism was Dr. Owlet, I mean, Ouelet, who was the lady who basically brought Mira back to life and knew about Mira’s past. She sacrificed herself to save her from this bad dude called Cutter but frankly, it wasn’t that impactful.

To wrap up the characters, I felt nothing for them which is a shame because I LOVE their true characters from the original manga/anime.

The Visuals

3D technology is a wonderful invention but constant and heavy use of it is not always a good idea (unless you’re James Cameron’s Avatar). Every shot in this movie was riddled with 3D enviornments while attempted to blend it with real ones. Sure the geishas in that one scene were practical effects but that’s the only case of it in this film. I don’t know what it was but I did not get the Blade Runner feel that they tried to achieve and I even recently rewatched that movie the other day.

One of my main criticisms in regards to visuals was the constant bombardment of fanservice. Now I’m not talking about seeing Johansson in a nude body suit every couple of scenes, I’m talking about the scenes recreating exact shots from the 1995, 2004 film and Stand Alone Complex show. I could pinpoint and reference everything as they appeared to me yet it did not make it any better. To me, these sequences did not translate well to live-action. The moment I especially thought looked awkward and out of place was the recreation of the tank battle. Like from the actions to facial expressions, it was all ripped from the movie and it did not look right at all. I believe it’s the fact that there are things that should remain animated and not recreated in real life. The fanservice was more like “Hey if you’re a fan of the Ghost in the Shell series, our movie has those same scenes that you love!!” well if that’s the case, I’d much rather be watching the anime than something that was trying too hard to be memorable like it. The anime is memorable not only because of what took place in it but how it was made in terms of technology at the time and how it still stands to date.

There’s a distinct difference between taking creative liberties with original source material and simply ripping scenes and making them look too forced for the sake of “appealing to veteran fans”.

What I Liked

There are two things that I liked. The songs created by the original composer Kenji Kawai (which was just 2 songs) and the cameo of Gabriel/Gabu, Batou’s basset hound from Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. This movie simply made me want to go watch the original movies/read the original mangas/books.

So all in all, what could have saved this film? 

Well after watching it, nothing really. Even if the Major was casted to be Japanese, that could not have saved this film. The writing was too bad to work with, the visuals were gaudy, and they tried too hard to be like its source material while failing in every aspect. It wasn’t memorable and if there’s any silver-lining, it was better for Johansson to take the fall for this film than say Rinko Kikuichi because at the end of the day, Johansson can still sit on a pile of cash despite how good or bad the film turned out. 

I give this film a 3/10 and that’s me being nice. It was “better” than Hollywood Dragon Ball but no better than The Last Airbender or the Netflix Death Note.