#the zoom in aang...

[ashwithane]

i also drew some cursed aangs with @wyvern-witch

[woodlaflababab]

Book three Aang, my beloved. 

Just thinking about the way he handled Zuko's return. The fact that he remains quiet while the other's talk bc he's thinking things through. The fact that he was never against Zuko or for Zuko, but rather making decisions as the Avatar based on actual thought and valuing the input of those he trusts. Like, literally, the fact that it zooms in on Aang's face as Zuko walks away and you can see the resigned conflict in him, the fact that he's STILL thinking it through, even as he accepts his friend's judgment for the time being. 

Then when they all talk about it, while Katara and Sokka both discuss how awful Zuko is, Aang pipes in in defense of Zuko, but still accepts their input. Then when Toph starts defending Zuko, Aang joins the others in their frustration because even as he sees Zuko's good, he sees his bad in equal measure and believes, ultimately, given what they've seen, trusting Zuko is the wrong choice.

Every time they talk about it, Aang is thinking. He's on the side of 'keep Zuko out' but he's never there out of feeling, he's there out of putting together pieces and determining what's best. He very rarely actually adds input and is most often just listening. 

As soon as Aang hears Zuko say "I don't want you hunting the Avatar anymore" to Combustion Man, he is Paying Attention. When Zuko comes to talk to them a second time, Sokka and Katara are still taking aggressive faces, but Aang is open. Not accepting, but open and hearing him out. Even with every reason Not to trust Zuko, Aang is still thinking, and allowing himself to consider the bigger picture as it changes. 

And then even when he says he thinks Zuko is supposed to be his firebending teacher and that, for all intents and purposes, he could've stuck to that and the others would just have to go with it (bc what are you gonna do, stop the avatar?), he still holds off and asks each member their opinions, allowing everyone a voice, taking in every angle. And you KNOW if Katara said no in that moment, Aang would have accepted it. He wouldn't have necessarily been happy about it, but he was well aware that Katara could say no and looked genuinely concerned about how she felt. 

Ugh, I love Aang in the episode so so much. Even him vs the Combustion Man I love watching, the casualty with which he pulls off feats of airbending, ugh

Aang may not have wanted it, but you can clearly see, Aang was built to be the Avatar.

[queen-morgana91]

“At the end of the finale when Katara kisses Aang and the camera zooms out, we tried to make it look, and symbolize, a kiss that the bride and the groom have at the end of a wedding.” - Aaron Ehasz

[survivalove]

Air Temple Island, the Water Tribes & the Real Life Influences that bring them together

I was gonna screenshot a post I saw and add it to my post but I don’t feel like giving that individual attention (and the 300+ notes they got), so I just decided to make my own standalone post debunking this narrative that air temple island is this fully air nomad brothel (yes they said this) with ZERO water tribe motifs which katara is forced to live in until aang passed away.

frankly it just reminded me of how little people in this fandom actually bother to analyze the actual content, instead preferring to write entirely made up scenarios of katara being reduced to an air nomad incubator along with dozens other female acolytes (yes they also said this lmao. also them acting like both male AND female acolytes weren’t living on the whole other side of the island 😭)

when in truth, i’ve come to find a lot of elements of both water tribes as well as traditional inuit elements across air temple island:

1. the paifang

a traditionally chinese element that for some reason is exclusively found in the northern water tribe (why do they have a gate inside a throne room, you ask? ask the white people that made this show). the one on the left is actually one of two aang BUILT, at the main entrance and another at the temple entrance. this is just one example of water tribe design on the island.

2. the bagua mosaic

another structure is the bagua mosaic on the training grounds. bagua is a set of traditional chinese symbols of the cosmology, taoism. the bagua composes of 8 sets of broken or unbroken lines that represent yin and yang. where have we seen yin and yang in the original series? oh yeah, as tui and la of the water tribe! (because atla is a mess of asiatic and indigenous motifs joined together and spread out across each nation, mainly traditionally chinese elements at that.) aang building this right next to the air nomad training grounds is a symbol of the dual bending heritage their children will have.

3. gold and blue accents

now, gold and blue are the main colors of the exterior structures but is also very strong inside the air temple itself. note, the massive air nomad symbol designed fully in blue in the center and the blue banners and rugs throughout the temple. this is no doubt, for me, a visual depiction of both katara and aang’s representative cultures, but of course this is not limited to color only.

4. cloud carvings

now, this is a slight detour since clouds aren’t a significant part of either of their individual cultures (that we know) but i love the kataang monopoly they have on clouds as a couple so i’m talking about it. if you look at these images very closely what do you see? CLOUD CARVINGS!! specifically near the ceiling of the pavilion (left) and the arches and walls of the temple (right) just imagining aang painting and etching these very consistent swirls, like he’ll never be the selfish inconsiderate unromantic loser you people want him to be, but let’s get more into the southern water tribe style interior.

5. interior design

so here is a southern water tribe white lotus outpost vs the air temple island main dining room. first thing, the seat cushions and rug! while we don’t see air nomad eating quarters we do get to see enough SWT customs both in atla and lok, to know this is how they traditionally eat compared to the north (limiting myself on pics cuz mobile).

another thing is the dining table itself. both have what i believe to be built in fire pits (i couldn’t actually tell for the air temple island one cuz of the quality but if you zoom in you can see the lines go in the table plus the hanging kettle on it makes it obvious to me idk). the southern water tribe one however is clear and likely a more traditional version of what aang and katara have.

thirdly, the exposed timber on the ceiling. i actually looked it up and found this is a common element of these two inuit structures: left is an aasiaat peat house and right is an igloolik turf house. all this for me to believe not only did aang build air temple island to be a haven for the TWO of them but also that katara herself had a lot of input on the interior than people care to notice lol.

maybe instead of projecting these loser fantasies of katara being some unwilling air nomad baby making machine so you can feel better about your fantasies of katara living in a red palace with people that tried to wipe her out for a whole century, you all can go study the actual canon you were shown and the real life cultures the franchise takes from.

6. lastly, some of my own headcanons/stuff i want to see in the movie

the bathroom because I LIVE for a white marble tiled bathroom. i just know katara has to have a HUGE tub and they have one of those insane glass showers that can fit like 3 people, with cloud swirls everywhere because aang clearly got it like that

the KITCHEN, i imagine it being timber like the dining room and is probably on the other side behind the built-in shelf (get into the details like hello). in a perfect world, it would be open plan but hey

the bedroom, now we saw it in lok a bit but i wanna see it in the gaang movie too. i’m on pic limit but there’s a lot of artwork and flowers throughout the whole house which i give katara credit for because I can. like the desk, the bookshelf, that fancy looking vase thing? these two clearly have taste like don’t talk to me rn

I also didn’t show the rooms and aang’s study but there’s a lot of blue decor in those places which makes me think katara decorated the whole house, even the acolytes’ hall has blue sitting cushions and columns which i think is such a nice detail.

if you guys have any air temple island headcanons of your own please reply with some i’m feening lol

big shoutout to this user:

atla-annotated (their page is so great and filled with a lot of incredible information if you guys like this sort of stuff)

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

https://www.tumblr.com/longing-for-rain/773759938388492288?source=share

You thoughts?

Gross Zutara bullshit that quickly escalates into misogyny (with gross misunderstanding of trauma), as always.

"Let's pretend the show never acknowledged how much having to grow up too fast hurt Katara, and as exemple lets use the scene in which the show literally zooms in on her face to make us confront how much Katara has endured"

"Let's pretend Katara is never appriacted by the others for all emotional support she's given them and how she kept the group together, and an exemple for it let's use the scene of Sokka literally getting Toph to admit just how much it all meant to her because he wants his sister to be shown proper respect and appreciation"

"Let's say the show never resolved that conflict by ignoring how the war that killed Katara's mom and forced her dad out of home is now over and she can finally go back to being a kid because there'll be an actual adult around again. And lets propose the REAL way to fix that is to make her kiss Zuko instead of Aang because somehow that's ALWAYS the ONLY solution to any of Katara's problems"

"Let's act like acknowledging that Katara, no matter how mature and wise she is, will have moments where she's childish because she IS still a kid, is, in fact, misogyny and disregarding her trauma. Let's also romanticize Zuko's trauma to pretend that makes him an adult/dad, that's totally not gross. After all, the only thing that could make the unfair situation of a child being forced into a parental role any better is to force ANOTHER child into the same situation so they can play house together, but with real people, and thus real responsibility they're not ready for, instead of dolls"

"Let's act like Katara dressing up as Aang's mom reveals anything about how they see each other, but ignore that Sokka is pretending to be his dad and Katara's husband, and that Aang also dressed up as their grandpa in an early episode. Let's pretend this isn't an obvious fucking joke for the sake of our shitty, bad faith arguments"

"Let's pretend that acknowledging literally ANY OTHER ASPECT of Katara's character that isn't her trauma about being parentified means you're ignoring that part of her arc/characterization, instead of simply not reducing her to it because there's a lot of other interesting things to discuss about Katara"

These people are so transparent, the alliens can spot their bullshit from Mars.

[ghostbreadovni]

Over analyzing background characters is very fun so let's look for Zuko's crew in book 1!

For henchman lovers such as myself, or for fanfiction purposes.

At first I thought that this was the entirety of the crew, which would be very funny, but there were some other guys that weren't participating in music night in this episode.

Zuko doesn't seem to have many komodo rhinos, so his entire crew is huddled in one in this scene. Very funny. Unfortunately, can't know for sure who the masked guys are, but I'm assuming they must be the same who are training with him in the first episode.

Zuko kicking grown sailors' ass.

Even as a banished prince, Zuko still has guys helping him get ready.

Let's terrorize civilians with his highness.

Shout out for the "silence!" guy. He was really into his role.

What you get for underestimating a 14 yo girl.

This is the guy that heared about Aang's presence to Kyoshi, shout out to him as well. Maybe he is the cook that Zhao recruited for the siege?

Bonus some soldiers without masks or helmets:

Ok, enough about the background background guys. Let's get to the bigger boys.

First, the helmsman! Famous for being shouted at by Zuko and not being paid enough to deal with a runaway avatar. Also the guy who was saved by Zuko in the storm fiasco.

Now for the two guys who were dancing together in music night, who have a more distinct design from the soldiers.

Prince Zuko dgaf, I'm sorry.

Guy with the white beard in the background. Notice how he is always near the engine guy. Sailor yaoi?

Oh yeah, also Zuko's tragic backstory.

More zoomed in faces:

This guy has beautiful eyes.

"That's fucked up, should you be telling us this, General Iroh?"

Look at them dancing! They look so happy.

And last, but certainly not least, Lieutenant Jee, who even managed to get a role in the netflix series!

Not much is known about him, but we DO know that he has a lovely singing voice according to Iroh, and plays the pipa in the ship's music nights.

[zuko-always-lies]

The Time Zuko Spends Trying to Fix His Relationships With Various People in the Show

Ozai-three years

Iroh-three months

Ursa-maybe six weeks? (This one is really weird)[1]

Aang-A week maybe

Sokka-about three days

Katara-about four days maybe?

Mai-about three minutes

Toph-about three minutes

Zhao-about 10 seconds

Suki-about three seconds

Ty Lee-0 seconds

Azula-0 seconds

[1] From the Day of Black Sun:

Cut to a portrait of Lady Ursa. Camera zooms out to reveal Zuko kneeling in front of her picture.) Zuko: I know I made some bad choices. But today, I'm going to set things right. (He grabs his broadswords and backpack before looking at his Mother's portrait for one last time. He throws on his cloak and walks away.)

I find this list quite interesting, in what it says about Zuko.

[btheleaf]

Fandom: Legend of Korra Characters: Pema & Lin Beifong Words: 726 Rating: General Audiences Read it on AO3 @flashfictionfridayofficial

“This was all Kya’s idea, you know.”

Pema turned her tired eyes on Lin who was just coming over to sit next to her. “What was?”

“This.” Lin gestured a lit cigarette at the group playing their game and then up at the sky. “On the full moon.”

Pema looked at the moon and then back at Jinora, Tenzin, Bumi, and Kya who were still playing the game they invented earlier in the night and flinched as another ice ball exploded.

“Waterbenders like full moons.” Pema was so tired that she wasn’t sure if she understood what Lin was saying, but hoped that was a decent response.

Lin’s lips pressed together in what could have been a smile, but Pema really wasn’t sure about that either. She watched the ember at the end of the cigarette glow and fade before Lin tossed it down on the stones to stomp it out.

“Come on, Pema.” Lin finally exhaled the smoke. “You’ve been married to him for over a decade, you never noticed how he gets around the full moon?”

Pema shrugged. “I guess he gets a little wired.”

She looked back out at the courtyard and flinched again as yet another ice ball exploded. Bumi started yelling that Tenzin was cheating, and Kya told Bumi he was bitter because he’s old and, well, bitter and old. The healer punctuated the sentiment by sticking her tongue out at him. Pema wondered if she should sneak down and snag the wine bottles while Kya and Bumi weren’t looking.

“None of them really sleep when there’s a full moon. They get it from their water tribe genes. I’m surprised you don’t know.”

 “I’m not exactly in the business of staying awake all night. I do have four young children.”

“Three.”

Pema bristled. “She might have her tattoos but she’s still only eleven years old and you better remember that.”

“Touchy subject?” Lin put her hands up in a gesture of surrender when Pema didn’t dial down the glare. “I’ll back off.”

The two of them turned their attention back out to watch the group in silence. Kya sat in a chair and would pull water from the nearby spigot to form it into a hollow ball of ice. Pema didn’t know exactly what they were doing, but it looked like Tenzin, Jinora, and Bumi were fighting for control of the ball with their airbending while Kya zoomed it around in random patterns.

After watching for a while, Pema decided there must be a small hole in the ball somewhere that each of them was trying to get at. She curled her legs up to her chest and wished the four of them would go to bed. Tenzin, Kya, and Bumi were still injured from the Red Lotus attack, and Jinora’s skin must be hurting after the days-long tattooing sessions with Tenzin. She bit her lip in worry and flinched again as another ball exploded.

Jinora’s arm jutted out a couple seconds before the ball shattered like broken glass and she exclaimed with glee, jumping around while the others praised her. Bumi and Kya’s praise wasn’t quite so eloquent after all the alcohol, but they were trying to reel in the swear words, especially with Tenzin's pinpoint flicks of air to the forehead that he kept using as reminders.

“Looks like Jinora got the gene too,” Lin said casually.

“The gene that makes them stay awake during full moons?” The words came out flat because she was so tired, but truthfully, Pema thought Lin was being ridiculous.

“Mhm.”

“Everyone is still excited from the ceremony, that’s all.”

“Kya convinced Tenzin to have the ceremony today because she wanted to party all night." Lin pulled out another cigarette. "You’ll see as she gets older. The other kids are probably like that too.”

“Great.” Pema yawned.

Lin shrugged and lit her cigarette. “You get used to it.”

 “I’m going to go take the wine away. Pray to a powerful spirit for me.” 

Pema uncurled from her seat and walked down the hill towards the group. Lin chuckled and laid out on the grass; her eyes locked on a twinkling star. 

“Give her strength, Uncle Aang.” Disgruntled protests from Kya floated up the hill not a moment later and Lin laughed again as she stood. “Okay, okay. My wife, I’ll go cut her off.”

[antvnger]

@earth-and-fire-just-make-lava

Zuko and Druk had been following Aang and Appa as they chased a spirit but he hadn't expected the spirit to turn around and charge them, unable to dodge like Aang and Appa he and Druk got hit, hard enough to be sent through a spirit portal. As they enter a strange, unfamiliar land Zuko tries desperately to help Druk stable out and keep flying instead of crashing

Scott was out on patrol on ant-back when he sees a bright flash in the sky very near him. It was so bright, the white had undertones of blue. For a second, Scott thinks it’s lightning, but it’s weird that there’s not a cloud in the sky.

That’s when he hears some animalistic shriek, and Scott shrieks in turn with something gigantic and red zooms past him, just barely missing him and his ant.

“What the hell was that!”

And that’s when he sees it. Holy shit, it’s a dragon. With a rider on his back.

“C’mon, Alan GrAnt,” Scott exclaims excitedly as he guides the ant towards the dragon. “Let’s go check it out!”

[avatarcompanion]

If you zoom out from the individual stories and consider Avatar mythology overall:

Overall the world has gone from Wan's world of people living on the Lion Turtles and randomly being assigned bending, to the Four Nation being established some time after Wan (we don't know when exactly).

The four nations of harmony reign lasted for some thousands of years (without being completely harmonious...).

Overall, the relatively short course of Avatars Roku-Aang-Korra is one of completely disrupting this harmony.

Roku's era saw one nation (as an ethnic group, history, culture, etc) being completely obliterated.

Aang established the nations would no longer be strictly divided into four, by creating Republic City.

Korra has taken the world further, and opened the spirit portals. The Avatar cycle has been reset.

It's really not surprising that Bryke would move the world forward with HUGE changes after Korra, because they already moved the world forward a lot of changes going from ATLA to LOK, and even more during LOK.

They just don't like repeating stuff, and want to make the new stories actually feel fresh. It's always been the baseline for Avatar stories that nothing is constant and that it's world will always move forward, no Avatar is going to fix things in any absolute sense.

World building wise, giving they now have a whole studio where they will continue to tell stories in both the past and present, it's completely reasonable they want to differentiate the story they will tell across the timeline.

They already established Korra as the new Avatar of a whole new reign, and an Avatar who changed the world more than most other Avatars. She's the founder 2.0 after Wan.

It's actually completely sensible to have a world reset after Korra's timeline.

Now, if they killed Korra off at the age of like 32, then I also will call #unnecessary, but we have no idea when Korra's time actually ended, she could have been much much older. There was no reason to expect Korra to have an exceptional long life when other characters didn't (except Kyoshi).

[homestuck-fanauthor-coalition]

@madam-melon-meow

"Hang on, Momo!" John shouted, snapping his glider open with a practiced flick of his wrist. Karkat looked on with only a little bit of jealousy, and a whole lot of longing, as the younger boy showed off both his bending skills and his physical prowess, leaping into the air and zooming towards the cage that held not just their flying lemur companion, but also a trio of rather plump hog monkeys. Karkat's stomach grumbled in protest as he watched his crush, the bridge between his world and the spirit world, free several game animals without a second thought. He reached for his water pouch on his left hip, feeling the way the water sloshed eagerly within the leather. It called to him, not as strong as the ocean back home, but still enough to make him smile as he took a sip. "We could have used those," Rose complained, his nonbender sister cocking her arm, boomerang raised as she watched the hog monkeys scamper away. "I understand John's dietary restrictions, but would we not have an easier time preparing his portion of the meal if we were able to forgo consuming some of his rather small nut pickings?"

Chapters: 6/6

Rating: Explicit

Archive Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage Sex

Category:  M/M

Fandom: Homestuck

Relationships: Eridan Ampora/Karkat Vantas

Characters: Karkat Vantas, Rose Lalonde, John Egbert, Eridan Ampora, Terezi Pyrope, Sollux Captor, Freedom Fighters (Avatar)

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Avatar (TV) Fusion, John Egbert is Aang, Karkat Vantas is Katara, Rose Lalonde is Sokka, Eridan Ampora is Jet, Terezi Pyrope is Smellerbee, Sollux Captor is Longshot, Rose Lalonde and Karkat Vantas are siblings, POV Karkat Vantas, Trans Karkat Vantas, Internalized Transphobia, Dubious Consent, Songfic, Dom/sub Undertones, the freedom fighters are war babies, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Minor John Egbert/Karkat Vantas, karkat is pining, Hate Sex, Kinda, Choking, First Time, Bringing childrensbookstuck energy to the songfic function, Vaginal Fingering, Not that Karkat wants to call it that, Vaginal Sex, Trans Male Character, Air Nomad Genocide (Avatar), Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Drowning, sorry the sex tags and the plot tags are kinda shuffled together, attempted handjob, Virgin Karkat Vantas, Stealth Karkat Vantas, Blood and Violence, War, Misgendering

An entrant in the Homestuck Fan Author Coalition's January 2025 Competition: Bard. 

Awards:

[s10127470]

Nickelodeon Rebrand Opening

It starts off showing a television, which was showing nothing but static. But then suddenly, the camera zooms onto the television and cuts to what appears to a fancy train station of sorts that was orange, filled with hundreds upon hundreds of green tunnels.

This station was none other than Nick Central Station. It was the center of the Nickelodeon Universe, serving as a hub that featured gateways to each of the Nickelodeon worlds. It was here where the resident of these realm could congregate, socialize and travel to each other’s worlds as well. 

Just then, the Strato XL came flying out of the tunnel that led to the world of Retroville. But after a few seconds of soaring around, the Strato XL suddenly started to run out of fuel. This prompted Jimmy Neutron and Goddard to immediately jump out of the rocket while it was still in mid-air, deploying their parachutes in the process.

Soon enough, the rocket began falling towards the ground below. While that was happening, Lincoln Loud was putting up some streamers up on the ceiling via a streamer launcher, all while standing atop of a stand.

But just then, the rocket finally crashed, which caused Lincoln to stumble and fall off the stand (along with knocking a few spare rolls of streamer onto the ground). Luckily, he grabbed ahold of a streamer strand and began swinging around, screaming for his life.

It then pans down to SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star, who were getting chewed out by Squidward Tentacles.

But right before he could continue nagging, Squidward stepped on one of the streamer rolls that fell off the stand and began barreling backwards.

Soon enough, Squidward fell down one of the many canals of NCS. Luckily, she landed on the glider staff of Avatar Aang, who was soaring across the water alongside Momo.

Upon seeing he was safe, Squidward began doing a few goofy poses, right before glance at the audience with a smile. But little did he know that there was a suspension bridge up ahead, which was about to be crossed by The Thornberrys. But it was already too late as Squidward hit his head on bridge, prompting it to spin rapidly, with Donnie on it. Soon enough, the bridge snapped and Donnie found himself swinging all over the place, laughing manically.

It cuts to a group consisting of Ren, Stimpy, Rocko, Heffer, Spunky, Arnold, Gerald, Helga, Norbert, Daggett, and CatDog were all watching Donnie swinging around with looks of awe.

It then cuts to a set of benches, where the Rugrats family were sitting. But just then, Donnie dropped in and sent Angelica Pickled flying into the air, screaming.

It cuts back to the group from earlier, who were now joined by Invader Zim, GIR, Dora the Explorer, Nate Wright, the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Beavis, Butthead, Jenny Wakeman, and Danny Phantom, who all looked up at the flying Angelica with awe.

It then cuts to Garfield, who was sitting on bench and getting ready to a chow down on a massive submarine sandwich. But just he was about to take his bite, Angelica landed right next to him and sent Garfield flying into the air.

Garfield eventually found himself sliding down the rails of a flight of stairs and sent flying again. He eventually landed on a giant ray of sorts, which the group from earlier were revealed to be standing under, prompting them to duck.

Just then, the ray was activated a shot a beam at a giant empty pedestal at the center of NCS, grabbing the attention of everyone there.

Once the dust, it was revealed that the pedestal now has a giant sign that said “ELODEON”, much to everyone’s confusion.

Just then, Cosmo and Wanda looked at each other and nodded. And with the snap of their fingers, the word “NICK” was added onto the sign and began glowing orange, prompting everyone to cheer with excitement.

I'm sure most of you reading this have seen my previous post how Nickelodeon could possibly be fixed.

Well I've also been thinking about what their new rebrand could be like.

And well, this is the opening for this rebrand, which I based off the opening to the Friday Night Nicktoons block.

The rebrand itself would see tons of crossover bumpers, heavily inspired by the ones done for the Sega Dreamcast and Kids WB!

[ladyloveandjustice]

I keep meaning to post about it, but I watched the first three episodes of the live action ATLA with my partner and friend and we decided that Zhao really has office manager energy, especially the way he talks for some reason, so it was fun riffing off him by saying things like "Please join my Linked In Zuko" "I'm very good at networking" "We'll table this for now" "Let's do this over Zoom" etc.

other than that it uh. wasn't very good? There were some fun moments and cool visuals but...I think the thing that bothers me the most--besides everyone turning to the camera and stating their motivations constantly instead of letting us spend time with them as characters--- is that because Katara and Aang didn't have like any chance to interact or bond before then, instead of her going "Aang I know how much it hurts to lose people we're you're family now you're not alone" when he find Gyatso she gets to say "hey aang! losing everything makes you strong! it's how you fight" like what an absolutely fucked up thing to say to someone who survived a genocide. That wasn't the show's message at all, what the hell.

Also hilarious was how Sokka has no reason to distrust Jet in this version. He just spends a total of one minute not even talking to him is like "he's probably evil based off zero evidence", Katara's like 'you're wrong!" runs back to Jet, Jet' s immediately like "i don't care if I kill civilians actually" and she just immediately runs back to Sokka and is like "no you're right how could I have doubted you :(" Girl of course you doubted him the only reason he distrusted the boy was because the writers told him to.

Glad for Zuko's budding deviantart career though, hope he gets a patreon. I'll prolly post more thoughts later.

[natlacentral]

The Actress Who Waited a Lifetime to Become Katara

Kiawentiio talks joining the cast of Avatar: The Last Airbender and playing a character that means so much to so many

The 17-year-old actress Kiawentiio (pronounced gya-wuhn-dee-yo) can’t remember a time when Avatar: The Last Airbenderwasn’t part of her childhood in some way. Growing up on the Akwesasne Mohawk reservation in Ontario known as Kawehno:ke (or Cornwall Island), Kiawentiio—who was born in 2006, a full year after the beloved animated series debuted on Nickelodeon—recalls having older siblings who would have the cartoon regularly playing in the background of their house. Years later, when all three seasons began streaming on Netflix, she revisited the series and developed a newfound appreciation for its narrative ambition.

So, when Netflix first announced that it was developing a live-action adaptation of Avatar in 2018, Kiawentiio told her team to get her an audition for Katara, the 14-year-old girl who is trying to fulfill her potential as the last Waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe after her mother was killed by the ruthless Fire Nation.

“By the time they actually did start casting, I got the call from my manager that was like, ‘Don't freak out, but we think we have the Avataraudition.’ And obviously, I freaked out,” Kiawentiio tells Harper’s Bazaarwith a laugh in a recent phone interview. Of all the roles she had auditioned for, this one was at the top of her bucket list, because she knew that it could have the same impact on the next generation of Indigenous children that it had on her. “Katara was one of the only people that I could really see myself in. With the role model that she is for young Indigenous women, it's hard not to be drawn to her, especially when the representation is so scarce.”

Kiawentiio got her wish in the spring of 2021. After undergoing an intensive audition process, complete with a seemingly never-ending number of Zooms and chemistry reads, she got the news that would change her life. “They sat me down for another Zoom call, and I was expecting them to tell me it might take a while, but [creator and showrunner] Albert Kim ended up telling me what the project was, who I was auditioning for, and then I landed the role, and I was crying,” she recalls.

Every diehard Avatar fan can recite the basic premise by heart: Long ago, the four nations—Water, Earth, Fire, Air—once lived in harmony, with the Avatar, the master of all four elements, keeping the peace between them. But everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked and wiped out the Air Nomads. A century later, Aang (Gordon Cormier), a 12-year-old Air Nomad who has been frozen and suspended in time in an iceberg, reawakens to take his place as the next Avatar. Feeling responsible for the destruction he was unable to prevent, Aang sets out on a quest with his newfound friends, Katara and her Water Tribe leader brother Sokka (Ian Ousley), to save the world from the onslaught of the power-hungry Fire Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim), who is determined to place all the nations under his authoritarian rule.

Katara, as Kiawentiio puts it, is the heart of the Avatar crew tasked with using their bending powers to restore peace in the divided world. “I think the core factors that make Katara [who she is] are her hopefulness and her optimism, and she's the person in the group that can keep them moving forward in a positive direction, and I think without that, team Avatar wouldn't be able to see the light,” she says.

Below, Kiawentiio reflects on the defining moments of Katara’s arc in the first season (which was shot two years ago in Vancouver), how she has grown alongside her character, and why she feels a new day has come for Indigenous representation in Hollywood.

A lot of the dramatic tension of the first season boils down to Aang’s internal conflict: Does the Avatar need to act alone, or can they afford to have people who help them along the way? In Aang’s case, he doesn’t just want people in his life; he needsthem to help save the world. Why do you think Katara is immediately drawn to Aang and his mission? How do you think that relationship evolves over the course of the season?

I think the reason that she was drawn to him in the first place was this energy of bender to bender, honestly, and I feel like that type of energy [bonds them] not only physically, but just spiritually. It's really intertwined in who they are because Aang plays a huge part in Katara's growth physically with her bending, and I feel like it was just this calling of fate and where you're supposed to be. But in terms of how the relationship has grown, I think it really is just blossoming into a family. Team Avatar is a family in our show. They're not going to leave each other's side; they're always there for each other.

Midway through the season, Koh, the face stealer of the spirit world, temporarily imprisons Katara and her brother Sokka and traps them with some of their darkest memories, which allows us to see, rather than hear about, their backstories. In Katara’s case, she is forced to relive the day she lost her mother. How do you think that loss has affected her in the present day?

It's just painful and that is the point of Koh, right? It is to weaken his prey with their own pain and their own memories. The way I see it is she probably feels helpless. She can't do anything, and that's really what has held her back. What has stuck in her mind is the fact that she couldn't do anything [to save her mom], and to be stuck in that painful loop definitely puts a damper on her confidence that she's been working up this entire season.

That memory of the loss that she went through is a roadblock, and that's something that she has to try and overcome as we go through the series because it really is the main reason that she can't get to that next level [of waterbending]. In the episode with Jett, after he shifted her perspective on how she was thinking and how her memories were acting up, she really unlocks that good energy that her mom was trying to leave her with.

It's impressive how together Katara actually is, especially in our season, because the flashbacks and her memories are so brutal that it's like, "Wow, I can't believe you are still normal." [Laughs.] But that goes to show how resilient she is and how strong she is. I think that was one of the things I took away from her while playing her. I tried to implement her message in my life more to be more optimistic and to have that hope and strength.

When she arrives in the Northern Water Tribe, Katara realizes that the women of this tribe aren’t allowed to fight, which comes as a bit of a culture shock for her. But it’s moving to see how she is able to mobilize the women of all ages when the tribe is under siege by the Fire Nation. At the end of the day, they are the ones who helped defeat the enemy.

Arriving at the Northern Water Tribe was something that she was looking forward to all season, and I think in her mind she had this image of like, "I'm going to get there. I'm going to meet a master, and he's going to teach me everything I need to know, and I’ll finally be able to reach that next step [as a Waterbender]." And getting there and being told basically all your work is not going to be paid off [because you’re a woman] was, in my opinion, devastating. That devastation leads straight into anger, which I relate to. I feel like I get the same waves of emotions, and then that leads to wanting to prove them wrong, wanting to change things [like Katara does]. Honestly, that scene with the women [Waterbenders] is just so beautiful, and it was one of my favorites to film. But I think in her mind, she was just reality checking Master Paku: "We are literally in a war. We are not going to make it. Just use your resources." And not only was that the realistic thing that needed to happen, but the change that she's been fighting for [all season].

I read that you trained for six months ahead of production to commit Katara’s waterbending motions to muscle memory. You spent that time going over forms of tai chi and getting strong enough to handle the action sequences.

Boot camp was intense for me personally, just because I'd never really gone through that before and I don't have as much or any experience outside of the show with martial arts. But it was really helpful to be in the same boat as my character, training-wise. At the start of the show, she really doesn't know that much about bending. As we go along through the episodes, we could see her get more comfortable and more confident in her bending. As we watch Katara gain her confidence, I feel like off-screen I was also gaining confidence with those movements, getting stronger as we go and just getting more comfortable in general.

With the critical success of many Indigenous projects in recent years—Reservation Dogs, Rutherford Falls, Killers of the Flower Moon, The English, Dark Winds—it feels like we have reached an inflection point when it comes to accurate depictions of Native American communities. As someone who is part of this growing movement, what is your take on the state of diversity and inclusion for Indigenous communities? And what do you think is the next step that needs to be taken to move the needle even further?

I think we are making huge steps in the industry. I love being able to look around more and more and see more of our faces, and I do think that there's places that we could improve on for sure. But thinking of how far we've come, even from when I was younger, Katara was one of the only brown people that I saw on my TV, so it's really special to be a part of this generation that's being able to do these things.

I think the next step could be just normalizing things, like it doesn't always have to be an Indigenous story to have Indigenous actors, writers or directors. I think that's one of the things that can get touchy in this industry because we want to include everybody of course, but it doesn't have to be so specific. Why does the doctor have to be [only] the Indigenous doctor that came from [this tribe]? Why can't he just be a doctor that happens to be Indigenous?

Indigenous people or actors can be the main character. Obviously, our culture is always a part of who we are, but it doesn't have to be that the reason we are in this role is because we are Indigenous. We can tell our story as a person and still value and venerate our culture without that being the only reason that we're in the story to begin with.

With big blockbusters, I feel like it ends up being like, "Oh, the lead is white, the other lead is white, and then everybody else is a person of color." I feel like that's a theme that we end up seeing a lot. But another really good way to improve [on that] is supporting Indigenous storytellers. We have so many stories, and [telling them] is one of the things that is keeping our cultures alive, and there are so many stories that could be told from our perspective.

[avatar-legends-confessionblog]

Their third favorite is making snowmen/ice sculptures-- They don't quite have Toph and Sokka's artistic sensibilities, but they have fun with it!

a scene of katara and aang bending a sculpture & the process looks really cool and beautifully choreographed, shot pans to toph and sokka with pickaxes looking stressed & ice chips are flying everywhere.

then a cut to the final product - a really gorgeous & intricate sculpture vs a wobbly spiral of ice. zoom out — toph and sokka are standing next to the first (sokka looks like he’s just sparred with foo foo cuddly poops’ mother, toph’s picking her nose) while aang and katara are next to the second (smiling proudly with a little tada! motion). then pan to zuko and suki with a very melty snowman of avatar kyoshi. life sized, obvi. nobody knows how they managed to make it that tall (especially with zuko’s hot hands getting in the way of actually building anything), but it’s obviously kyoshi (because suki stuck her fans on it, not because it’s any good)

X

[azure-firecracker]

ATLA Live Action Episode 6: Overall Thoughts.

I have mixed feelings about this one. It made the least changes from the original, which means I have nothing really to commend it on that the original didn’t already do, but at the same time, I don’t have anything to complain about either. In isolation, it is a very good episode of television. In isolation, it’s the best episode yet, but I have a harder time crediting it because most of the good stuff in here is from the original. Onto the specifics:

This episode continued the trend I don’t love of Aang being just a vessel for cliché heroic lines. I get that the show is supposed to have a more mature tone, and maybe some of Aang’s more childish traits wouldn’t have translated well, but they could have at least put SOMETHING interesting in there.

In terms of the Aang/Roku scene, I didn’t love it. I don’t like this “the avatar must not have friends” dilemma the show is pushing. It’s tired. We’ve seen it in every fantasy show. A variation of this could work as part of Aang’s work, but it doesn’t work as his central conflict. It’s too overdone.

Also, Katara wasn’t in this episode, so I couldn’t get annoyed at them for butchering her character. Definite plus.

Another plus was June! Didn’t love her flirting with Iroh but she was fun and entertaining. Arden Cho did a wonderful job. I hope they bring her back more, she’d be a great recurring fun character to have around.

I did love all the stuff with Zuko. I loved the juxtaposition between younger, idealistic, naive Zuko and current, hardened Zuko. Even though live action Zuko is softer than animated Zuko, this episode really did a good job of showing how he has been hardened by his experiences, relative to what he once was. I liked his conversation with Aang, and how the two clearly have a connection despite their circumstances. I generally like it when those types of stories are played out in a non-romantic context because it’s so rare. A lot of the lines between them were a bit cliché, but they worked (except for the line going right into the flashback where Aang was like “You can’t have always been this way. That one was a little heavy handed).

In terms of the flashback itself:

Younger Zuko seems softer and more naive than animated Zuko, which works with the way we see Zuko here. He had a lot of good lines, especially his line about giving the weak a chance. I know some people didn’t like that he fought back against Ozai in the Agni Kai, but to me it worked. It showed that he was still trying to please his father, and just how willing he was to sacrifice his morals to do it (though not willing enough for Ozai).

Speaking of Ozai, I find it interesting how he’s portrayed here. The original show portrayed him as very uncaring, willing to banish Zuko for disobedience but not really caring if he came back. Here it almost seems like he genuinely thinks this is good parenting, like he genuinely believes this will make Zuko stronger. Obviously he’s still horrible and abusive, but I actually think it works better than the original. It goes hand in hand with how he seems to really think he’s doing the right thing for the world with the FN (because newsflash…that’s what imperialism is!) A villain who really thinks they’re right is always more interesting than one who just wants power and is horrible. I think they could do interesting things with him and I’m intrigued.

Iroh was really sweet in this episode. I liked that he tried to stop Ozai from having the Agni Kai, and that he was with Zuko afterwards. It always puzzled me why he didn’t do that in the first place, and while Iroh having flaws makes sense (he should have flaws!) that particular flaw didn’t seem right, so I liked that addition.

And rounding out the fire family flashback (haha alliteration!) we have Azula. She didn’t really do anything here but the bangs were a great choice! I found it a bit weird that the camera kept zooming in on her expression during Zuko’s burning, but her expression was very neutral. It’s another change I like from the original. I think Azula smiling in the original works and is super interesting, but this show is clearly taking steps to make her more humanized right off the bat, which I appreciate as an Azula stan who has to deal with…many people who don’t see her as human. I’m not sure what to make of her expression, but I did notice that it’s the same one she used when Ozai burned the spy in episode 3 (good job Lizzy Yu!) It seems like a mix of fear and joy and detachment, like she’s trying to relish it but also she knows it could happen to her, but she doesn’t want to admit that, and also she just wants to detach from what’s happening. It can be interpreted in many ways!

One minor thing: I didn’t like that this Agni Kai was outside. The really dark, all red, fiery throne room looked a lot more menacing. And they literally already have that set! Having it outside made it look so much more mundane.

Back to the present:

Blue Spirit escape sequence was great! Again, basically torn from the original so no surprise there. I appreciate that they didn’t feel the need to change everything, and the mask looked great. I also loved Iroh’s last line about the mask being the real you. That’s a theme that could come back for a number of characters (Aang, Zuko, Katara, Azula, Mai and Ty Lee…) And I did get this spoiled, but the addition of Zuko’s crew being the 41st was great. Lovely. Super sweet. A wonderful way to pull at the heartstrings.

I’ll give this episode a 9/10. A very strong episode of television, but I can’t give it a 10 because the strongest stuff is plucked from the OG.