#she is more than an avatar

[theartingace]

when I tell you I have been doodling Wolf359 nonstop and listening to hardly anything else..

[demaparbat-hp]

Golden Boy (and Silver Girl) for the Kintsugi AU.

[fanfic-gremlin-ft-trauma]

i am disgustingly late but for women’s day i wanted to appreciate the mother figures of the world :)

[wilcze-kudly]

"Why did Toph come to save Su but not Lin?"

We can solve this mystery ✨️together✨️

[just-an-enby-lemon]

"The Mechanisms were Jonathan Sims college band" and "Jon is the secret real past of Jonny D'ville" are both great takes but I present "Jon's descend into an unwilling antichirst figure is The Mecs new album and Jonny plays him in the songs because they just have very similar voices for some reason."

[aangarchy]

"Azula never underestimated nonbenders!" Except she literally did? She underestimated Mai and Ty Lee, she constantly underestimates Sokka, she even underestimates other benders (notably Katara and Zuko) and that's what brought her downfall.

"Azula chose Mai and Ty Lee for her team bc she knew how powerful they are even without bending" yeah, and because she underestimated their ability to make their own decisions and to overcome their fear of her.

"Azula kept Sokka busy during the invasion bc she knew to watch out for him!" No she kept him busy because she knew there was no way Aang and Toph would leave his side if he stayed. She tried other methods before by taunting Toph into lashing out, and she noticed how once Sokka figured out her plan to waste their time, Toph calmed down and listened. She knew then and there that Sokka was their leader.

Azula also underestimated Katara twice. Once during the battle in the crystal catacombs (which she would have lost if Zuko didn't come and interrupt their 1v1) and the second time during the final agni kai.

Azula's grand failure is continuing to underestimate people. Yes she knows how powerful other people can be BUT she also overestimates how powerful she is herself. If you grow up being a golden child, always having to be perfect and being compared to your less powerful older brother, your ego might become the death of you.

[katerina-q]

the only reason this girl is so hated is because she's the one that Zuko actually LOVES

[johnskleats]

Azula would have lost the Final Agni Kai no matter what. Here's why:

Azula is insecure. That's why she takes cheap shots. She did it with Katara, and she did it with Aang in CoD, AND she did it with Iroh striking him with lightning. One could even argue that her behavior in CoD foreshadows some of what happens in the Agni Kai, where in CoD, Katara fights Azula, and Zuko saves her, whereas in the Final Agni Kai, Zuko fights Azula and saves Katara. It's a little mismatch of dynamics.

Azula cheating (constantly), is a staple of dishonorable behavior, which I think is interesting.

We see her "play with her food" like a cat, with the Dai Lee and other opponents she encounters. She tricks them and manipulates them and there's no threat. Killing Aang with lightning was SUPREMELY stupid on her part, and she wouldn't have done it unless she was cornered. She didn't even stick around to make sure he was dead or have any of them followed-- because she was scared. Zuko NEVER flees in fights out of fear. He doubles down like a lunatic and tries to get himself killed instead. Azula is not willing to risk her life, and that's why she's a worse fighter. The insecurity gets to her head and she psychs herself out

Azula has a lot of fire power (lol), but Zuko has the heart and commitment to see actions through to the end. That's why he would have won, had Azula not cheated.

By the end, they were evenly matched in firepower anyway. They did the Raging Line of Flames Competing Colors thing and met in the middle, and stayed there. That's how animation tells us about their ability.

Azula's seat of power in her firebending is spite and fear. She's not even mad, bro.

Zuko's seat of power, at the end, is light and life and love. One is a powder keg that runs out after you blow it up once, and the other is like an oil fire in a parking lot. There's essentially infinite fuel there.

Zuko would have certainly outlasted her. And did, if you think about it. Because she panicked.

Azula's entire persona is a mask, just as Zuko's bravado and pettiness in the first season was a mask. (Funny, that he can only be himself when he's hidden the scar with the blue spirit mask, therefore freeing himself of the shame and the mark that brands him as a villain)

They show us that Azula's mask is not only slipping, but cracking, crumbling in the mirror scene. That's why it's there: to show the audience that all of her running has finally caught up with her.

This world that Azula created has been a sham from the beginning. Castles in the sky to make up for what she lacks: love.

Which is why she would never win against Zuko if they both reached their full potential, as they did during the comet.

[fossilfan39]

Omg someone please save her.

[petricorah]

yue🌙 id in alt

[hadesisqueer]

Enough bender vs bender, Avatar vs Avatar scenarios. Who would win in a 1v1 fight, Sokka or Asami

[kibutsulove]

Their relationship is extremely important . To me

[demaparbat-hp]

soooo… any news on the kyoshi warriors au?

The girls are fighting

[bluespiritshonour]

Thinking about how popular Mai would've been if she were a boy. Like, can you imagine?people would've swooned over her like they swoon over, idk, Jet—it just occured to me that I like her because she's so unconventional for a female character.

Girls like Mai exist in real world—but women are rarely allowed to be complex and three dimensional and grey in fiction.

I would argue that Mai is a grey character; she did start out as Azula's lackey. And well, that's a fictional girl; I found her apathy stan-worthy.

I love that she constantly has a bitch face. She cracks dry/dark jokes. Wears black. Is mysterious and stoic. Does everything she can to disregard authority/even though she's not confrontational about it. (There's one difference. Bad boys are usually very confrontational).

All these characteristics exist in popular male characters. (Except for one thing that I've noticed: most of these “bad boy” characters are volatile and yet, are described as broody/stoic, like, dude. That ain't stoic, that's so emotional.)

So yeah. Coming back to Mai. Imagine if she were a boy.

A boy who's apathetic and has no passion for anything. A boy who's constantly bored/a thrill-seeker/has nothing he cares about. A boy who has a shutter for a face and rarely expresses himself, is amazing with knives and hand-to-hand combat and is gloomy.

There's nothing he cares about because caring gets people hurt and everyone wants something and is two-faced so it's safe to be a mask of indifference. Until—hold on—until he meets a passionate, hot-headed girl who's ✨ different ✨and if not anything, wears her heart on her sleeve/is an open book...

Yes, I'm talking about Zuko.

...and oh, oh, would you look at that? Now he has something to fight for!

I mean, for Mai, Zuko (after Ty Lee) is the only other person in front of whom she can be herself.

Reminds me of “he's only nice to her” trope. Sorry.

“You're so beautiful when you hate the world.”

“I don't hate you.”

Just imagine Mai as a boy. People would eat it up. They don't like her 'cause she's a girl.

[floof-ghostie]

I might not like Hama as a person, but as a character, she's such an interesting allegory for the perpetuation of the abuse cycle as a result of colonization. She lashes out at Katara for not wanting to learn to bloodbend, which Hama sees as an important skill (intergenerational clash over values, or tradition allegory? Perhaps). She takes advantage of Katara's trust, and hurts her, but in Hama's mind, she's helping Katara realise her full potential. And isn't that kind of reminiscent of how elderly relatives treat their young? Trying to prepare them for the real world harshly, as a result of their own trauma but ultimately causing harm and pain? I think that she represents what Katara could have become had Kya not been there to protect her. Had she not met Aang, and had the Fire Nation arrived before she could meet him.

Have your opinions on Hama, but I think she's a really interesting and complex character who really shouldn't be seen as purely vindictive, or as some kind of hero. There's a lot of nuance we should approach her with.

[queen-morgana91]

kyoshi is the reason why i'm 100% convinced that natla is just a fanservice (and badly written) series