#this katara just felt so one dimensional

[dreamchasernina]

Netflix, I don’t know how to tell you this but a woman doesn’t have to be self taught to be a strong female character. It’s ok to let her know her limitation and ask for help. It’s ok to let her get angry, it’s ok to let her be jealous, it’s ok to let your female character have flaws and WORK on them. Your female character doesn’t have to become a master on her own to be memorable, it just makes her accomplishment feel unearned.

[longing-for-rain]

Ember Island Players…Racist Caricatures or Meta Commentary?

This episode was supposed to be a fun filler episode to recap the events of the show in a silly way before the series finale, but it’s managed to become arguably one of the most controversial episodes in the fandom. Over the years, Aang’s possessive behavior towards Katara has been rightfully criticized, but there are always people who attempt to justify everything Aang does.

Apparently, the latest iteration of this is the claim that—wait for it—we should be sympathetic towards Aang and give him a pass in The Ember Island Players because he felt “emasculated” due to the supposed “feminization” of his culture.

I’ve been called racist for saying this is a reach, but it’s more than a reach. It’s an entire acrobatics routine; a level of media illiteracy that shows a lack of understanding of the point of that episode.

Yes, Aang’s character is portrayed in a silly, mocking way. So are all of the other characters. That’s the point; the episode was a filler, a gimmick, and the underlying comedy is the fact that all of the characters are reacting to exaggerated, one-dimensional versions of their own personalities.

For example:

Katara is portrayed as an “overemotional crybaby” in her own words, and is constantly giving motivational speeches and crying

Sokka’s “comedic relief” archetype is played up to the point his lines are just corny one-liners

Zuko is portrayed as an angsty, whiny pretty-boy who acts like a bratty asshole at all times

Toph is a huge buff guy (although in this case, it’s a play on how her character was originally going to be a “jock” type male character)

As for Aang? He’s portrayed as unserious, goofy, and childish. Which—just like all the others—is a jokey exaggeration of his childish demeanor and nature. He’s not even alone in taking offense to his portrayal. All of the characters aside from Toph hate their characters for largely the same reason. They’re being confronted with aspects of themselves that make them insecure. For Aang, it’s his immaturity—and specifically his fears that he’ll be rejected by Katara.

As for why Aang is played by a woman? Well, we don’t actually have to wonder about that, because the creators themselves answer this question in the episode commentary.

Bryan: “It's sort of a self-referential joke. Whenever you do a animated show, they usually want to cast, uh, women...who are, like, in their thirties to play boys, because you never know how long the show is gonna go on, and, you know, as Jack mentioned earlier, boys' voices start cracking.” (source)

Wow, imagine that! An inside joke about the cartoon industry in a show’s meta-episode dedicated to making fun of itself? Impossible!

I’m serious though. The episode transcript is right here. Point me to where exactly there is even the slightest hint of anyone bringing up Aang’s culture and tying his childish behavior to it.

That’s right; it isn’t there. Because that wasn’t the point. Aang’s anger did stem from feeling emasculated, but it had nothing to do with culture and everything to do with his own misogynistic attitudes. He was offended at his portrayal on an individual level. I’m not denying that the issue of oppressive nations using femininity as an insult against men of colonized nations is a very real issue, but that was never a theme present in this episode. We don’t see Aang expressing anger towards the Fire Nation, nor do we see him mention anything about culture. What we see is Aang, individually, feeling insulting that his actor is female and Aang being angry at Katara, individually, because the play suggested she felt more attracted to Zuko than him.

Trying to downplay Aang’s behavior and suggest we coddle him despite his atrocious treatment of Katara is a disingenuous reading of the episode.

Why are you reaching to make an excuse for Aang when if you’re really taking the “the point of the episode is that the play is racially demeaning the characters” angle…and why are you not bringing up Sokka? He’s portrayed as a dumb oaf who is always talking about eating meat. There is a much stronger argument to be made there about caricatures, but Sokka isn’t threatening anyone’s ship so apparently nobody cares.

And while we’re talking about caricatures, how about this crap?

Sorry, Aang stans, but this show and Aang’s character aren’t the enlightened portrayals of anti-colonialism and groundbreaking activism you think they are. It’s pretty clear from the context and the episode itself what the intention here was. It is poorly aged comedy from the early 2000s written by white Americans. And we will continue to critique that, thanks.

[old-people-like-avatar]

Netflix Avatar the Last Airbender S1 - Overall Thoughts [SPOILERS]

I am a longtime fan of Avatar the Last Airbender. I did not watch it in its original 2005 run, but I discovered it in around 2010 after my good friend R.S. recommended it to me. It's been my #1 favorite TV show ever since and I have rewatched it more times than I can count. I was cautiously optimistic about NATLA.

Now, having watched the whole first season of NATLA, and looking at the season as a whole, I think the best word to describe it is uneven. I can't say that I loved it, and I can't say that I hated it. But there were things I really liked about it and things that really did not work for me. Overall, I enjoyed watching it -- if only to dissect what did and did not work about the adaptation -- and would want to watch more.

WHAT WORKED

Everything to do with Zuko and Iroh. I found myself going back through just to rewatch all of the Zuko and Iroh-related scenes. I thought Dallas Liu really nailed Zuko -- from tantrums about his journal being stolen to incredible action sequences to the boyish vulnerability of worrying about the laces on his gauntlets. He took an iconic character and made him his own. NATLA added some incredible scenes and lines to my favorite duo: Lu Ten's funeral (coupled with orchestral version of "Leaves from the Vine"); Zuko's first war council; Iroh choosing to go with Zuko on the boat; the 41st Division; Iroh putting a blanket on Zuko. And I liked that NATLA emphasized that Iroh needed Zuko in the wake of Lu Ten's death as much as Zuko needed Iroh after his mother left.

Daniel Dae Kim's interpretation of Ozai. Ozai in ATLA is kind of one-dimensional. Daniel Dae Kim's Ozai adds a deeper layer to him in that he genuinely seems to think he's doing legitimate parenting -- even going so far as to visit Zuko after burning his face and remarking, glibly, that he'll recover ("but he'll never heal," says Iroh). It adds an even more monstrous angle to his cruelty because Kim's Ozai seems to think he's doing it for his children's own good. This post perfectly encapsulates my feelings about why I thought the agni kai between Ozai and Zuko was an excellent addition to NATLA.

Zuko/Aang. These two bonding over goat hair brushes was the scene I never knew I needed. The way Aang managed to wrest a little smile out of Zuko in that scene before Zuko blew up at him for criticizing the Fire Lord? And the way that tied into the "Compassion is a sign of weakness" scene from the agni kai? Great character work.

WHAT DID NOT WORK

Dialogue. I already observed at length my dissatisfaction with the clunky, exposition-dumping dialogue in my episode-by-episode writeups. It certainly wasn't as bad as the Movie-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named, but . . . there was no art or subtlety to it, and no trust in the audience. A disappointment.

The GAang did not feel like family. The lack of breathing room in the 8-episode season meant that all of the "filler" episodes that fleshed out the relationships between Aang, Katara, and Sokka were sacrificed. I am not saying NATLA needed to recapture each of the filler episodes. But they needed to build the foundational bonds between the main trio with showing not telling and they really didn't. They separated them for big chunks of 2 episodes. And, really, they just felt like traveling companions. That took all of the emotional heft out of, well, everything related to Aang, Katara, and Sokka. I mean, frankly, the kid actors did a better job establishing the "family" dynamic just by being themselves in their press interviews than the show did with the characters.

Aang did not run away from responsibility. I am not one of those people that's just mad that the show wasn't exactly like the cartoon. No. What I mean is, even putting aside the cartoon, even if you just look at NATLA itself: their own themes were undercut by never showing Aang actually running away from responsibility. Each avatar seemed to be berating Aang for doing something he was never actually shown to be doing.

Katara. I really don't think this one is on the actress. Katara felt like a fundamentally different character from ATLA's Katara. It's not to say an adaption is not allowed to have their own interpretation of a character, but... I just did not understand NATLA Katara. There was no passion, no rage, no overbearing nurturing. She was... I don't know what she was. Traumatized, yes, but nothing grew out of that trauma? Meek, until the plot demanded that she suddenly become a waterbending master without any guidance other than a waterbending scroll? The "younger sister"? More than any of the main characters, I'm not sure what NATLA was trying to say about Katara at all. And, as a result, I'm afraid the word to describe it might be uninteresting. And given that she is the heart and soul of Team Avatar, this one was really tough.

Despite the fact that a lot of NATLA did not work for me, I still enjoyed it because the things that did work for me, well, really worked. So. I'm here for all of the Zuko/Iroh scenes!

[the-badger-mole]

In the debate between pro-aang-kill-ozai and anti-aang-kill-ozai. Which side are you on and why? If it's the anti then did you like how it was done or do you picture something else?

I think I've mentioned before, but I am not inherently against Aang not wanting to kill Ozai. Some of my favorite heroes have a no-kill policy. I don't even mind the lionturtle solution itself. What I didn't like was how it was handled. There was plenty of time to address Aang's reluctance to kill before the second to last episode. I can think of three points in particular where it would've been thematically appropriate and given Aang's bland, two-dimensional character some depth.

First, right after the siege at the Northern Tribe. Aang may not have technically been the one who killed all those Fire Nation soldiers, but it couldn't have happened without him. You would think that someone who is both committed to pacifism and also the one the entire world is relying on to end a war that people have been fighting and dying in for a century wouldn't just be able to shrug off what happened. Aang did, though. Didn't even cross his mind when he was whining about people expecting him to kill Ozai.

What should have happened was the next season should've opened with Aang grappling with what happened and his part in it. He should feel guilty about it, not because he was actually wrong, but because it should feel wrong to him. Then, Katara and Sokka should comfort him and tell him he did nothing wrong. Build it up that their word are comforting him a little, then drop the bomb when they start talking about how cool it was. How amazing it was to see all those soldiers running in fear for once. How relieved they are that so many of them died. Then have Aang snap on them about the sanctity of life. He needs to be angry and hurt, and this should be the point where he decries the powers of the Avatar. He'd call himself a monster, and maybe he would call Katara and Sokka monsters, too. Then they (probably mostly Sokka) would argue with him that they aren't monsters, they're just trying to survive, and the Fire Nation is a threat to be taken out. This would be the first time it's brought up that Katara, Sokka...the entire world expect Aang to kill Ozai. I think it would be perfect as a season 2 opener. Season 1 was light and goofy, and Zuko was their biggest immediate threat. The siege raised the stakes, and season 2 should continue on that rising. Aang should also have started looking for another solution here. In the library, Aang should've asked Wan Shi Tong if it was possible to end the war without more violence. We should've seen Aang coming to terms with the fact that the world is suffering and he is the one they are looking to to save them. One thing I think the Harry Potter movies in particular did well was that shift from goofy and whimsical to darker and more frightening (as far as kids movies go) as the story went on and the stakes got higher, and the danger felt more real to the characters. Aang never gets that realization. He has moments when the danger feels real, but he's goofy and whimsical for pretty much the entire series until the plot of an episode needs him not to be.

The second place they should have brought up his reluctance to kill was DoBS. This really should've been a no brainer. Aang was loosing sleep over facing Ozai. He had his anxiety about losing- though not really what losing would mean for his friends and the world- but he didn't even consider what winning would take. If DoBS had been successful, there's no way Ozai would've been able to be taken alive. Logistically, killing him would've been the easiest, safest option. You mean to tell me no one brought it up? No one asked Aang how he was planning to take Ozai out? No, instead we get Aang proving he knows what enthusiastic consent looks like and taking away his excuse for what happened later, but nothing about Aang weighing his personal beliefs against the needs of the world. That training montage and confrontation that he has with his friends in the second to last episode should've happened here. This should've been when his tendency to run away should've been challenged, too, because half a season before he was crying about how he abandoned the world again. Now his instinct would be to run, but his friends would challenge him, calling back to that moment. They could demand that he present an alternative to killing Ozai. I don't think any of them would object to him living to stand trial, but Ozai is a rabid dog, essentially. He needs to be put down. Aang's got nothing, but not for lack of trying. When he tells his friends about all his efforts to find a non-lethal way to defeat Ozai, they are unmoved. They are at the doors of the Fire Nation, and now is not the time to be indecisive. He has to go face Ozai. And he's probably relieved when the plan fails. This whole situation would have the added bonus of skipping that first Kataang kiss because no way would Aang want to kiss Katara after her insisting he terminate Ozai with extreme prejudice.

The third place Aang's no-kill policy should've come up is TSR when Zuko asks him what he's planning to do when he faces Ozai if he's so against killing. This should scare Aang, and it should be his focus for the rest of the season. He should be more withdrawn from his friends, because with all the training he's doing (and he would still be training on all the elements because he's not that good at any of them), talks about the most efficient way to kill would be unavoidable. Katara might actually try to teach him bloodbending. Toph would just tell him that a big rock is just as effective as some fancy bending move. Zuko would be warning him about his father's ruthlessness and cunning. This would be where Aang looses his patience with his friends and insists that he's a pacifist and Ozai doesn't deserve to die. This would piss Katara in particular off because by this point, Aang knows what happened to her mother. He would get an earful about how Ozai's plan is to do to the Earth Kingdom what his grandfather did to the Air Nomads and how he's going to let millions of people die because of his refusal to kill one. Now, Aang can take off, only instead of just running away from his friends because he doesn't want to hear them anymore, he could be making one desperate last ditch attempt to find a solution that both ends the war and keeps him from having to kill Ozai. EIP could still happen in this circumstance, but instead of getting mad that he's being played by a girl, he would focus more on how eager for his death the Fire Nation is. That would come up in the argument about killing Ozai.

Now, for the lionturtle. I'm about to blow some minds. I have been vocal about my hatred of the Lionturtle/Rock of Destiny desu-ex-double team, and I do still hate it with a passion. However, as a concept, I don't mind the lionturtle. This is a fantasy adventure. You expect a bit of magical intervention. What I wanted was Aang grappling with this problem for more than half an episode. I wanted him working on a solution the entire time, starting from right after the siege. I wanted to see him take initiative. To actually think about the problem. Maybe have him specifically looking for the lionturtle. Then when it shows it, it could be because it knew Aang was looking and decided he was worthy of a meeting. Aang could still have his meeting with his past lives, and that could still go the way it did. Then the lionturtle could speak up. Instead of poo-pooing the idea of killing Ozai, it could agree that it was the most effective way to make sure that the war would end. Then, when Aang is despairing that he'd wasted all that time trying to find a different solution, the lionturtle could offer the spirit bending. But it would have to come at a cost, and it might not work the way that Aang hoped. Now Aang has to make a choice. Sacrifice something for this spiritbending ability (I'm thinking he loses his airbending, because it seems poetic) that might not have the outcome he's hoping for, or give up his pacifism- one of his few connections to his heritage- and kill Ozai. He chooses the spiritbending. Instead of the conveniently placed rock, Aang would actually have to give up his attachment Katara. I think he would be half-way there, having finally realized how little he understood her. He "loved" her because she was pretty and took care of him, but he's come to realize there's a lot more facets to her that he hasn't gotten to see because they don't fit his narrow view of her. He also understands what Guru Pathik was trying to tell him about one person not being able to replace everything Aang has lost, and he realizes how unfair to her he had been. He still loves her, but as a friend and caretaker. This will actually lead to a deeper friendship between them. Aang defeats Ozai without killing him, but now he has to deal with the loss of his airbending, which only now does he realize was a much of a connection between him and his people as his beliefs. He still has spiritbending. He can still airbend in the Avatar State, but he's effectively cut off a limb to keep his integrity. He will go the rest of his life wondering if it was worth it, especially after Ozai goes to trial and is sentenced to execution anyway. The effects of that on his children could be explored in LoK.

TL;DR I don't have a problem with Aang not wanting to kill Ozai. I just wanted to see him deal with it before the last minute. I think the show would've been better for it, and Aang would've been a more interesting character.

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 2

Propaganda Under Cut

Elizabeth Midford

She started as just a cutie fiancée trying her best, turns out she's also a swordfighting genius, very under pressure to perform feminity in the Victorian Rose type of way. Fandom crucifies her bc she's Ciel's fiancée and they want him to be with his butler, Sebastian, the demon he sold his soul to for revenge

anime was a shitty canon divergent adaptation that butchered her character down to her "cutesy silly girly" persona, which obviously made the 2008 anime fans hate her with a passion (nothing wrong w being girly I'm just saying the adaptation made her super one dimensional) anyways fujoshis used to treat her as a villain because she's the fiance of Ciel,, who as u might know already was HEAVILY shipped with his butler, Sebastian back then (now it's kinda looked badly upon, nice tbh that ship sucks ass xD) She's a bit similar to Misa Amane from death note in the way she was treated. (Like an obstacle the yaoi ship must overcome rather than a person)

she's my silly little rabbit! i could gush about her character but i'll keep it short and just say that she's really well written and one of the best characters in the series. anyways she's ciel's fiance and she's like, rightfully annoying as any other 13 yr old girl would be but the fanbase fucking crucified her for even existing. she gets demonized for being 'annoying', but then ciel gets yaoishipped with an even more annoying guy. there is 100% an argument that lizzie/ciel is weird bc they're cousins (i personally don't ship it) but that falls flat when her detractors then ship the 13 yr old ciel with an eons old demon who Canonically looks like his father. the anime also never reached her main character development until years after its peak and that was only in a movie, so she really got the bad end of the stick here. not me though i had a giant crush on her when i was 12

Katara

Katara is constantly mistreated by the fans in favor of the Zukka ship (Zuko × Sokka.) They make her out to be mean, homophobic, and completely out of character just to add drama to the Zukka ship. In reality, Katara is very compassionate, and would never act that way toward anyone. 

Zutara was a popular ship but when zukka got popular over covid during the atla renaissance there were a million posts about how zutara was problematic while zukka was perfect usually for racist reasons. Meanwhile katara and sokka are siblings so it didn't even make sense. They did not have to be so illogically rude to her to ship zukka and it was weird

Katara is FANTASTIC I fucking love her to pieces she is so cool and yet the entirety of the ATLA fandom treats her like garbage because she “talks about her mom dying too much” (even though she BARELY does & also was parentified from a young age due to her mother’s death) and, of course, because she’s a more feminine women when compared to her counterparts. Even in the show itself she’s mistreated: she’s ALWAYS shown cooking for the rest of the gaang, doing their laundry, any ‘womanly’ task. She ends up with the guy who kissed her twice without her consent & who she never showed any real attraction to and apparently (despite being a badass warrior-doctor!!!) after the show ended she just… settled down in the South Pole and had a bunch of kids and never did anything else. She didn’t even get a statue :( Anyways during the ATLA renaissance, despite Zutara actually not being canon, people felt that Katara threatened the sanctity of the new almost entirely baseless yaoi ship, Zukka. Unfortunately for them, due to the fact that Katara and Sokka are siblings, the usual anti-Zutara arguments didn’t work as well. So they resorted to just… slaughtering her character. If she was lucky, they’d just make Katara a background character, wingwoman, &or throw her together with her canon love interest. If she was unlucky they’d do anything from make her homophobic (??) to killing her off! Fuck’s sake, she never even got a token spare-the-pairs wlw ship! Sorry for getting so heated, that whole debacle made me FUMING MAD.

[p34rl34rring]

um no nuance november: atla edition?

this was all over tiktok and ive seen some people do it here so...here we go...some of these are probably hot takes, you have been warned.

most of the fandom seems to forget that katara is a young girl with deep-seated trauma that she never truly dealt with. cut the racism and misogyny. shes not the “token straight,” shes not annoying, shes not technically the “mom friend,” she deserves a better life (and life partner) than she was given in canon.

katara’s comment to sokka during the southern raiders was harsh don’t get me wrong, but it was justified 

most of my issues with characters fall on their writing...not the characters themselves if that makes any sense

bakoda should have been canon

why didn’t katara, toph and zuko reunite in korra (they’re literally my three faves i was robbed, plus they all just seem sad...)

mako is hot

if we are talking combat, earth is the strongest element...toph can genuinely just drop a rock on someone and its over

republic city is absolutely unnecessary and frankly, stupid. capitalist propaganda :) why would you american-ize this series? im baffled

i just hope that azula got therapy and some love...her actions were outrageous but as far as we know she was conditioned by ozai to just be a pawn

katoph = best duo (friendship and fighting) in the whole show

katara is not a sister to zuko...that role is for toph

(as much as i love firelord zuko) zuko should have waited at least a few years to actually assume the position but even then i truly think he would hate it and institute a democracy

the humor did not land in for me in lok (list of tried and failed for me is meelo, bumi, bolin, varrick, eska...)

i truly did not feel any strong emotional attachment to any lok character (causing me to be pretty indifferent to most of the entirely new editions to the show)

(i think the large cast did not allow for much development for really anyone, save for korra tenzin and maybe lin?, leaving them all to be pretty two dimensional.)

more rambling under the cut (its more shippy you have been warned...)

the fanon portrayal of aang is a glorified version of the canon (you can criticize your faves!)

aang being a “bad” father in canon fits his (poorly written) character 

TAANG IS GENIUS (it makes me like aang more :)

i dont think maiko is healthy...at all (same for bolin and eska and zhu li and varrick) - bottom line: bryke cant write relationships

building on that it felt weird for zuko to change throughout book 3 for him only to revert back to his old life in the finale by staying with mai

sokka and suki are the only valid canon couple

also why is everyone so quick to be “oh suki is bi!!” but so much of this fandom feels the need to say “no, katara is the token straight she can’t be bi...” it seems so silly to say but katara hatred is so normalized in this fandom and it makes me so upset. literally everyone would be fucking dead if it werent for her i love my queen fuck y’all

kanna would not have gone back to pakku

MAILEE BITCHES

why are most zukka shippers women...food for thought

peace by taylor swift is a zutara song...zukkas dont even try to claim that

zutara works...it just seems like antis forget that these two characters (even if it is not explicitly romantic in atla) have such a strong bond. they listen, care, and look out for one another...and bottom line they see each other as equals. (also watch the second half of tsr again...they play off each other and work so well together)

this fandom demonizes zutara shippers for absolutely no reason while completely disregarding actual problematic issues that occur throughout the rest of the fandom

suki in the comics is practically a katara stand in

makorra felt like an attempt to appease the zutara shippers (it failed immensely)

should we love kuvira as much as we do? should we be shipping her with korra...?

in canon it does make sense that sokka could have been suyin’s father, but where did suki go? were they hinting that zuko and suki had izumi, meaning that sokka and suki broke up? but WHY? they were literally perfect with absolutely no complication in canon...tldr: post-atla is so ridiculous

i think this feels salty...and i went on for too long...i needed to get that out...um...

[cavehags]

i realize this will probably bring up old drama so you might not want to answer it. but do you ever regret, however on purpose or on accident, bringing all that unnecesary hate towards Katara? i'm really sad and dissapointed tbh. i'm a woman of color and katara was so important to me growing up. my favorite animated woman ever. and then this resurgence comes and theres so, so much unnecesary hatred for her and everyone ignoring everything that makes her a good character.

(2/3) 2- and you know, i expected this from the male side of the fandom. they were misogynistic to her and the others even back then so i would expect it to be even worse with how internet culture is more mysogistic now that ever. and i wasnt wrong. male atla fans had some truly horrible takes and views that just came across as racism and misogyny. but, i expected these circles to be better. to be a safe space for us woc who love this character. but i found the same weird hatred for her.

(3/3) 3-i just, i cant believe i feel less welcome now that i did even back then. and back then i didnt even paricipate really. but at least i could enjoy fandom content without stumbling into misogyny and racism every other post. also sorry for sending this to your personal blog b i just wanted to let you know you controbuted to that too even if it wasnt your intention. at least you realized that and arent contributing to it anymore right? cause honestly the hate has only gotten worse not less.

hey anon. thanks for asking this question, because i hadn’t addressed this topic previously and this gave me an opportunity to do so. 

no, i don’t regret publicly interpreting a character whom i love through a nuanced and human lens. and i don’t regret combating the one-dimensional interpretation of this character, which posits that she’s merely an vaguely defined object of attraction for some boy or another, and a singularly gentle, mature, maternal figure whose sole purpose in life is to nurture others. those interpretations suck. they rob her of the humanity and complexity that make her character unique and they stem from misogynistic tropes that reduce women to the services they can provide to men. the thing in the world that matters most to me is fighting misogyny, and this trend to diminish a proud and powerful and angry teenage girl by exaggerating only her most socially acceptable traits is misogyny. 

unlike you, i did not grow up watching avatar: the last airbender. the shows i watched growing up did not have a lot of girls who felt real to me. the girls i saw on tv growing up were simple. they were the main characters’ crushes. they were simple, desirable, usually sweet and loving, and not much else. if they had a flaw, it was that they were, at best, “awkward.” whatever that means. or if they were the protagonists, which was rare, they were nice enough and tried to do the right thing, but they never had strong feelings like resentment and anger. they weren’t allowed to be unfeminine which meant they weren’t allowed to be bitter, angry or in any way flawed. they didn’t look like the version of girlhood i knew to be true for me personally, which included a lot of anger and frustration and powerlessness. 

that crappy representation left me with internalized misogyny that chased me for longer than i’d like to admit. i did not learn to think of girls as humans who could be as interesting and flawed and messy as the boys were. i did not value myself as a girl, and later a woman, because i thought the best thing a girl could be was... bland. boring. pretty, but empty. passionless.

it would have meant the world to me to see a character like katara. 

because katara is angry. she has every right to be: she’s had so much stolen from her, including her mother, her people, and her childhood. katara has a short fuse. she yells. she snaps. she fucks up. sometimes she makes mean jokes! i never saw a single one of those dreamily perfect cartoon love interests make mean jokes when i was a kid. she is extremely idealistic--it’s her defining character trait--but we see the bad side of that as well as the good. we see that her need to help others  leads her to act rashly, to get herself into danger, to put others in danger too. 

and she has her very own arc. it’s not about her love for another person, either (what a snooze of a storyline); it’s about growing up and learning to break down some of that stubborn black-and-white thinking that we all indulge in as children. it’s a true coming-of-age arc and it belongs to a fourteen-year-old girl. 

when i, to use a phrase i find crass, “entered the fandom,” i quickly realized that other fans’ perceptions of katara did not line up with the things i valued most about her. other fans seemed to valorize her most socially acceptable feminine qualities: her generosity, her kindness, her dedication to helping others. and of course i love those parts of her--i love everything about her--but what is really remarkable about avatar: the last airbender is that katara’s many important virtues are also counterbalanced by equally significant flaws. a good character has flaws. katara is a good character, and a deviation from the characters who made up my formative media landscape, because she has flaws. her temper, her idealism, her stubbornness--these are flaws. flaws make her seem real and human and challenge the mainstream sentiment that girls are not real or human.

it simply did not occur to me that celebrating these aspects of katara that make her a realistic and well-written teenage girl would spark ire from other adult fans. it absolutely did not occur to me that i would then be blamed for somehow causing misogynistic interpretations of this character, particularly given that misogynistic interpretations of this character are the very thing i sought to correct when i began to blog about this television show.

i’m told there are “fans” on instagram and tiktok who think katara is whiny, annoying, and overly preoccupied with her trauma. i do not use instagram or tiktok, so i wouldn’t know, but i’ll take your word for it. respectfully, however, they didn’t get that from me. misogynistic takes on katara have existed since before i came along. i have never, ever called katara whiny. and seeing as i have been treating my own PTSD in therapy for nine years, you can safely conclude that i don’t think anyone, katara included, is overly preoccupied with their trauma. that’s not a thing. do i think she’s annoying? of course not! as a character, she’s a delight. does she sometimes find real joy in aggravating her brother and her friends? yes, because she’s 14. i, an adult, am not annoyed by her. sokka and toph often are, because that is katara’s goal and katara always succeeds in her goals. she’s not “annoying.” 

if there are “fans” who are indeed following lesbians4sokka and somehow misreading every single post and interpreting them to mean that we hate katara and they should too, i don’t really know what you want me to do about that. l4s has over ten thousand followers and we have already posted so many essays disavowing katara hate. our feminist and antiracist objectives in running the blog are literally pinned with the headline “please read.”

furthermore, you cannot reasonably expect my co-blogger and me to control the way our words will be received. we should not have to, and are not going to, add a disclaimer to every post saying that when we critique or make jokes about a teenage girl we are doing so through a feminist lens. our url is lesbians4sokka, and we are clearly women. if that alone doesn’t make it obvious, then refer back to that pinned post. 

it is indescribably frustrating, and really goddamn depressing as well, that people are so comfortable with the misogynistic binary of Perfect Good Women and Flawed Wicked Bitches that they perceive any discussion of a woman’s flaws to be necessarily relegating her to the latter camp. if that is how you (a generic you) perceive women, then i’m sorry, but you’ve internalized sexism that i cannot cure you of. and it’s unjust to expect my friend and me to write for the lowest common denominator of readers who have not yet had their own feminist awakenings. we do not write picture books for babies. we write for ourselves, and with the expectation that our readers can think critically. reading media through a feminist lens is my primary interest; i have no intention of excising that angle from my writing.

as i go through my life, i am going to embrace the flaws of girls and women because not enough people do. as long as the dominant narratives surrounding women are “good and perfect” and “unlovable wh*re,” you’ll find me highlighting flawed, realistic, righteously angry women in the margins. and for what it’s worth, it’s not just katara. i champion depictions of angry girls in all sorts of media. that’s sort of my whole thing. my favorite movies are part of the angry girl cinematic universe: thoroughbreds, jennifer’s body, hard candy, jojo rabbit, et cetera. on tv, in addition to katara, you’ll find me celebrating tuca and bertie, poppy from mythic quest, tulip and lake from infinity train, korra, and more. i adore all these women and see myself in them. i hope you find this suitably persuasive to establish that i have sufficient Feminist Cred, according to your standards, to observe and write about these very flawed and human fictional women. 

what i’m saying is this: i decline to take responsibility for the misogynistic discourse orbiting a children’s cartoon. as someone who writes about that series from a perspective that seeks to add humanity and nuance to the reductive, one-dimensional, overwhelmingly sexist writing that already exists, i am pretty taken aback that i am the one being blamed for the very problem i sought to address. except not that taken aback because i am a woman online, haha! and this is always how it goes for us. 

finally, i think it sucks that you’ve chosen to blame me for a problem that begins and ends with the patriarchy. i can’t control the way this response will be perceived, just like how i can’t control the way anything will be perceived because i am just one human woman, but i do hope you choose to be reflective, and consider why you’ve chosen this avenue to assign blame. 

[army-of-mai-lovers]

@katarahairloopies thank you so much for the tag!! talking about my writing to procrastinate writing is one of my favorite hobbies <3

prompt-share your: 

first fic: the actual first fic I ever wrote was a pjo self insert fic I wrote in a binder when I was eleven and shredded six months later, in which the whole love triangle plot between Leo, Frank, and Hazel was resolved in three pages because even then I hated love triangles, my self-insert proudly declared that they were “too smart to date” (this was the excuse I was using at the time to escape the fact that I was a lesbian), and the completely un-child friendly myth of Philomena and Procne featured heavily because it was the coolest thing in the Mythology Book For Adults That Little Arthur Should Have Never Got Their Grimy Little Hands On, among other things. the first fic I ever posted was a 1D self-insert fic that I regret deeply. 

favorite fic: ughhhh this is so hard I think it’s a tie between let him fly, victory lap, and like ripples, like love. let him fly was really important to me to write because the way the kataang family was portrayed in lok felt like a horrible twisted funhouse mirror version of my own family, and I knew that a lot of other mixed folks were upset by that portrayal, so I wanted to do something that showed Tenzin growing up with both Water Tribe and Air Nomad influences. honestly that’s the fic I’m proudest of, because I got feedback from a lot of other mixed folks saying that they felt seen by what I wrote, which is really all I’ve ever wanted. victory lap I love because I love writing and reading character study fics of characters who don’t get to do much on their own in the show, and I just love the concept of deconstructing the perfect badass Suki whomst we all stan and making her an actual human being. And like ripples, like love just makes me feel good, honestly. Writing it puts me in a good mood, and none of my other profoundly depressing wips do that quite as well. 

EDIT: ok I think the original intent of this question was favorite fic that someone else wrote fjsdkfjsdjfklsjf my bad. for me it’s between Hooked by @listless-brainrot, Balance My Heart in the Palm of Your Hand by the lovely sukis_fans on ao3, where the stars do not take sides by WitchofEndor on ao3, and paint it red, they’ll cover it up anyway by snowandfire on ao3. Hooked I love because it’s the original Jetru fic and because it’s one of the most nuanced characterizations of both Jet and Haru that I’ve seen in any fic ever, also List’s descriptions are phenomenal, also BRUH THE FRAMING DEVICE ok listen framing devices are so easy to mess up and List just made his perfect the rest of us can all go home I guess. Balance My Heart is to this day my favorite mailee fic, I’m obsessed with it it’s so sweet and so well thought out. The author pays so much attention to Mai and Ty Lee as characters and also!!! Mai and Sokka friendship!!! we stan!!!! where the stars do not take sides is honestly a fandom classic (or should be, anyway). Y’all know I love a good major canon divergence and this is honestly one of the most well thought out ones I’ve ever seen. Also the characterization of Azula and of Azula and Zuko’s bond is INCREDIBLE. god-tier content honestly. paint it red is also something that should be a fandom classic and really readjusted my opinions of Jet as a character with its well thought out characterization. I love the concept of past jetko when it’s not “Jet was a total asshole and Zuko was perfect in every way” and paint it red ABSOLUTELY delivers on this it is so wonderful. A common thread with all of these is that they prioritize characterization over “ship dynamics” and they make sure that all of their characterizations are nuanced and three dimensional, and I love them for that. 

most recent fic: love will always find you, the second installment in the donnaverse (in which the girls of Avatar inexplicably love Donna Summer and start a band together), which is about Yue and Suki going on their first date. There’s lots to love about this fic for me: it’s yueki (my favorite atla wlw ship), there’s a philosophical discussion of a Donna Summer song as they drive through LA, Suki backstory, background mailee, just good vibes all around. 

fic with the most notes: like ripples, like love by far, but my most popular fics on ao3 are the greatest of them all (in which Toph and Bumi I duel and become besties) and keep the world at bay (Avatar Sokka) 

a line or two from a wip: what I’m currently working on for atla femslash week-

She’d never needed anyone before, and she didn’t want to need anyone ever again. It was torture, picturing Yue’s face without being able to see her for real. 

Just one night. Only one night. 

How do you know? 

The moon always comes back. 

Suki felt the tears roll down her cheeks, the dry sobs wracking her body as she hid her face in her chest. I don’t know. I don’t know.

favorite character to write for (and why): Mako 100%. I vibe so hard with the tired older sibling with several undiagnosed mental illnesses energy he gives off. 

character(s) you find hard to write: I hate to say it but Katara. I love her to pieces but I have no clue where to start with her characterization wise, which is why if she’s in a fic she’s usually not the pov character and she’s sidelined more than I would like her to be. 

tagging: @listless-brainrot @the-hot-zone @miannmian @scrtminlikesdrawing and anyone who wants to!

[jaxsteamblog]

Aurora

Click here to read the full fic on AO3

And it was over.

Zuko took time to help her move during the week and on Saturday, Sokka closed up the Ice Blossom and drove the big truck to move the pieces she couldn’t break down. In the evening, as she washed away their sore muscles, they all sat at Katara’s kitchen table and shared the various cartons of take out.

They ate by candlelight as the electric company had not switched over her account like she asked.

It was awkward for more than that, as they all knew what the next day was.

Katara’s summer was over, though there was still a week left before her classes began. All of them were about to head up to the North Pole for the Avatar’s debut and, even worse, the Fire Lord was coming along.

They slept over and in the morning, they went together to the airport. Despite the impending three day ordeal, their luggage was light. All of their fancy attire would already be there and waiting for them.

Flying to the North Pole was a lot easier for Katara, mostly due to the fact that they boarded a private plane. Iroh met them at the airport, coordinating with Zuko about when they would be meeting up with Azula and the Fire Lord.

The thought that she would soon be face to face with the man behind her mother’s death was, for the lack of a better word, odd. The degrees of separation between the Fire Lord’s order and Kya’s death passed through so many people, it was difficult for Katara to connect the two. Still, having to meet him made her feel queasy.

Everything was moving so fast, and Katara took her first breath of the day on the plane. It was as if the past few weeks had swept by her in a gust of wind. Her head spinning, Katara gripped her armrests and tried to focus on the small porthole window.

Hopefully the next five days would pass quickly and without incident.

Multiple cars were parked on the tarmac and their plane taxied slowly over to them. A stairway was wheeled over and as the door to the plane opened, the cars similarly opened. Most of them were guards, but Hakoda stepped out of one, smoothing down the sleeves of his parka.

“Hey, there they are!” Hakoda greeted as Sokka and Suki emerged from the plane. “Let me see my soon to be daughter-in-law!”

Katara followed after them and watched as Suki hugged her father. She hesitated before walking over and was distracted by a loud calling. Looking around, Katara finally peered upward, shielding her eyes from the sun still clinging to the horizon.

A Sky Bison banked and landed in a turn, facing the rest of them and stomping some of its tree trunk legs.

“Hi Katara!” Rohan’s voice bellowed from over the Sky Bison’s head. There was a flurry of orange as multiple people jumped down using their airbending.

Still breathing, Katara smiled. It didn’t seem likely that the time would pass slowly now.

It was dark when Zuko found her.

A dinner was being held for just the guests of honor, and drinks were being served. The Avatar was in conversation with Arnook and Tenzin, while the Fire Lord was standing with her father, Iroh, and Azula. It was too much and, with dinner still yet to be called, she had to escape.

It was the end of summer, so the North Pole was heading quickly into the dark season. The sun was only up for a few hours and lingered at the horizons, but evening fell quickly. So it wasn’t surprising that Katara stood in twinkling darkness before suppertime.

“I am not used to it being this dark but not feeling tired.” Zuko said as he walked up to her. Most of the building was made of wood and stone, but the balcony was pure ice. Zuko looked uneasy as he stepped on it, despite the grit the architect had added.

“It’s worse when the sun doesn’t go down at all. My bending is all out of wack then.” Katara replied.

“Sounds like Firebender perfection.”

“Don’t like the moon?”

“I prefer the ocean.”

Katara rolled her eyes and turned, crossing her arms on the railing just as Zuko stood next to her. He, like every other Firebender that came to the Poles, was dressed lightly. It was a mark of weakness if they needed arctic clothing, and while Katara understood that their inner fire kept them warm, it also greatly annoyed her.

It was as if they were saying they were better suited to living in her home than she was.

“So the Avatar seems nice?” Zuko offered. Katara glanced back briefly and nodded.

“She is. She definitely seems interested in being your friend.” She said.

“It surprised me too. I wasn’t prepared for her to get political so quickly.” Zuko replied. “But she wants Azula to teach her firebending.”

“You’re kidding!” Katara scoffed and Zuko smiled.

“It makes sense. If she cozies up to me, it gives me a leg-up on the global stage. But by having Azula be her teacher, she doesn’t risk ticking off my father too much.” He explained.

“About him…”

“What?”

“Does he always look like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like he has a rod jammed up his backside but instead of taking it out, he just gets offended that you haven’t impaled yourself?”

A laugh burst from Zuko and he quickly covered his mouth.

“That is definitely one way to put it.” He said.

“I can find other ways.” Katara offered and Zuko chuckled.

“I’d rather you not.” He said.

They stood in silence, looking out over the snowy courtyard. Everywhere she looked was snow and ice. With no humidity, the lampposts and streetlights didn’t glow, but stood like beacons of crisp white brilliance. The snow and ice itself glowed, coloring the light blue.

When it got truly dark, people would begin to carry around lanterns that were as old as their tribe.

“I hate being here.” Katara said suddenly and Zuko faced her.

“As in tonight or just in general?” He asked.

“In general.” She shook her head and tucked some of her hair behind an ear. “It reminds me of horrible things, yet I spend all of my time needing to go to the Oasis.”

“Then let’s go.” Zuko said.

“And be late to dinner?” Katara asked.

“Let’s cause a scandal. I don’t really want to eat with my father.” He replied. Smiling, Katara took his hand.

“We can be quick.” She said and pulled up a massive ice ramp from the snow on the ground.

Katara raced them both around the palace and to the high walls that guarded the Oasis. Out of respect, Zuko insisted they use the door and the guards let them pass. It was going to be hard to deny Katara entry when she harbored a link with one of the spirits being guarded.

Zuko seemed in awe of the place and Katara watched peacefully as he walked around. She went to the pond and sat down, not looking at the fish beside her but neither was she ignoring them.

After marvelling at the plantlife, Zuko walked to her and sat next to her.

“How do you feel?” He asked.

“Calm.” Katara said with a smile. She then grinned and leaned toward him.

“Want to see something weird?” She asked. Zuko only nodded and Katara sat back, putting her hand into the pond.

She couldn’t see it, but the look on Zuko’s face told her what was happening.

“Whenever my link to La is active, my hair turns black.” She said.

“But at the beach-” Zuko started, still staring at her hair.

“My hair was wet, you wouldn’t have noticed it.” She said and then turned to look at the fish. As they swam by, Katara put out her hand and let them pass under. Their scales felt like silk.

It was while she looked down that she saw the reflection of the sky.

“Zuko.” She said with a gasp and looked up, pointing as she did.

Green light spilled over the dark sky like trickles of water. The lines themselves also bled upward, illuminating a three dimensional space that made the vast sky a maw of darkness. The lights shimmered and Katara turned, lying on her back to watch them. Zuko joined her on the grass, his hands under his head.

“Now that is cool.” He said.

“Everything is so beautiful here, I wish I was happier.” Katara murmured.

“Are you not happy?” Zuko asked.

“I am, right now.” She said and turned her face. She was looking at Zuko’s scar and felt impelled to reach out. His eye fluttered, but he didn’t move away and Katara lightly touched the burn. At her touch, he closed his eyes and Katara rolled onto her side.

“I think here, of all places, I could heal you.” She whispered.

Zuko smiled.

“No. Right now, I’m happy too.” He said.

Katara took back her hand and leaned over as he opened his eyes. Zuko reached up with one hand, putting on the back of her head as she dipped in to kiss him. As her lips met his, she turned herself, and he sat up, holding her. They curled around each other as Katara ended up with her arms around his neck; his wrapped around her middle.

As they broke apart, Katara felt her arms pull against him and he pushed her up.

“We should probably go to dinner.” He murmured.

Sighing, Katara rested her forehead against his.

“Fine.” She put down an arm and pushed herself up, allowing Zuko to stand.

“May I escort you, your Highness?” He asked, offering his arm.

Katara only stuck out her tongue before linking her arm with his.

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[vannahfanfics]

Hiya dear! Okay so for the Tokka requests here’s the first one lol. We all know Sokka is an AMAZING*cough* artist. How about a little story of Sokka teaching Toph how to illustrate? Perhaps the results are a LITTLE bit abstract 🤣

Hey, dear! Finally managing to get through a couple of requests ~sigh~ So here’s one of yours! :) 

Category: Friendship Fluff

Characters: Sokka, Toph

Requested By: @deliazeedork

Scritch scritch. Scritch scritch. 

Toph’s ears perked at the light scratching noises floating across the breeze. The sounds mingled with the rustling leaves of the trees surrounding them and the babbling brook that extended just five and a half yards from where she was perched on her sleeping bag, nibbling on some jerky. Occasionally, Katara and Aang’s grunts and yells eclipsed the faint scraping; the two splashed about in the small river practicing their waterbending. Toph had grumped that the Avatar ought to be practicing his earthbending, but the flighty individual had replied that one always ought to review old knowledge lest it be forgotten. Damn philosopher. 

Scritch scritch scratch. 

The persistent scratching yanked Toph out of her slightly unflattering thoughts of her pupil. Toph could not “see” from her current position, so she shoved the rest of the jerky in her mouth and stood up to press the soles of her feet against the grass. The soft, pillowy green stuff and the air pockets bubbling in the loamy soil always eclipsed her sight somewhat, turning the standard crystal-clear vibration images into grainy static. She grimaced as she wiggled her toes, concentrating hard on the small vibrations trembling the forest layer’s dirt particles. After a minute, a hazy image of Sokka reclined underneath a tree scrawling avidly on a paper pad materialized into view.

Toph’s jaw worked against the jerky as she stared through her mind’s eye at the boy. From the way he hunched over the pad, drawing the pencil across the parchment in alternating long, smooth strokes and quick little flicks, Sokka was deeply absorbed in his work. However, Toph was bored out of her mind just sitting there chomping on the dehydrated meat, so she wasted no time in tromping over to the Water Tribe boy. 

“Oi. Whatcha doodlin’?” she quipped as she padded across the grassy clearing to him. She kept careful track of his vibrations to avoid accidentally tripping right over him in her slightly impaired state. In the gray haze of her reconstructed image of the world, she saw Sokka glance up before returning his eyes to his work. 

“Just the river and the trees,” he responded simply. The scritching sounds echoed much louder in her ears now that Toph stood by him. She thought she would find them irritating, but the gentle scraping of the soft lead against the parchment was surprisingly soothing. Without asking permission to breach the aura of solitude encapsulating him, Toph plopped down next to him and reclined against the sturdy trunk of the oak tree. Though she could not see the leaves quivering in the breeze above her head, as they were too high up for their vibrations to reach the sensitive soles of her feet, she could hear them dancing eagerly along the streams of wind rustling their green skirts. Toph’s mouth twitched. 

She knew they were green because that’s what everyone said, but what did green look like? Sokka’s eyes were blue, too, according to what she’d heard, but what did blue look like? With a glance down, she noticed that Sokka actually switched between several pencils piled neatly beside his thigh, which shifted slightly each time that his fingers rifled through them to choose the right one. Those must be colored pencils, she reasoned. However, to her, they just looked like nondistinct gray-black sticks. As her mood soured, a frown tugged down on her lips. 

Toph didn’t dwell on her blindness often, but it was times like these where she bitterly wished she were normal, at least for a few minutes. 

“Toph?” Sokka blinked. She twitched as he called her name, but continued to keep her sightless gaze on her lap. 

“Sokka…” Her voice joined the flutters of the greenery around them, a dandelion seed plucked from her mouth to spirit away into the distance. “Would you… Describe it to me?” 

Toph couldn’t see the expression on her face, but she imagined from the prolonged silence that he stared incredulously at her. Perhaps he had his hand clamped over his lips, struggling to contain snickers of derision. Toph felt sudden anger bubbling up inside her blood. Just as she clenched her fists and opened her mouth to shout, “Fine! Then don’t!”, Sokka interrupted her. 

“Sure, Toph.” 

The ire dissolved from Toph’s bones like snow under the heat of the first spring sun. Her cheeks warmed as she felt Sokka shift beside her, his leg brushing against hers for a brief moment. The embarrassment clouded her mind for a moment, nearly preventing her from hearing Sokka’s description of the surrounding area. 

“Okay, so…” he began with a sweeping gesture at the open space. “About five yards- maybe six?- is the river-” 

“No,” Toph interjected sharply. When Sokka flinched, she blushed darker; she hadn’t meant for her words to sound so harsh. She fidgeted uncomfortably and cleared her throat, willing her voice to be softer this time. “Not that. Your drawing. I want to ‘see’ your drawing.” Another confused silence settled between them. Toph’s cheeks burned hotter than the sun now; if the tension had melted from her body before, it was now baking back in. “I-I know that you’re drawing, but I can’t ‘see’ it. All I see is a blank piece of paper.” 

“Oh,” he said simply with a glance down at the drawing pad. With a quiet, “hmmm,” he rubbed his chin thoughtfully; she knew so because his right arm jumped lightly against her deltoid with every little stroke of his index finger across his chin. “Okay! Here, I have an idea.” 

Before she could object, Sokka scooted up against her and grabbed her left arm. Her body tensed immediately, but Sokka ignored her rigid form to tug her arm over the drawing pad. A pleasant hum rumbled from his chest, followed by a self-satisfied snicker, probably appreciating his genius before he’d even conducted his little experiment. Gently, Sokka guided the pads of her fingers down onto the soft paper. Toph sharply inhaled, instantly mystified by the pencil wax’s very subtle indentations on the white page. 

“So, this is the river,” Sokka began. He guided her fingers in a winding pattern over the swirling bands decorating the page with tender pressure against her wrist. “Running water has a characteristic pattern, you know,” he smirked amusedly, “like flowing ribbons running side-by-side.” Toph’s eyebrows cinched as she struggled to relate the foreign feelings triggering the nerve endings in her fingers to his words. She managed to form the image of streaming bands enclosed within the boundaries of a bank, swirling together and flowing from left to right. Though likely dramatized, Toph found the picture incredibly soothing. 

“And then, on the far side, there are tons and tons of oak trees.” With a simple flick of her wrist, her fingers jumped over the page to land on the sketched bank. Sokka guided her fingers to trace them up the barked trunks to the stretching branches and the ovoid leaves bunched around the stems. “The branches split off from the trunk, and more from those and more from those, all the way down to skinny little twigs. That’s where the leaves spring from, shiny and waxy-looking, thousands of ‘em! They fill up the tree to make it look, umm, kind of like broccoli?” Toph snorted at the image of broccolis standing at attention next to the pretty river she’d created in her head. 

“Yeah, I know, it isn’t the best comparison. Anyway, the light filters in between the leaves, and it creates a dapple effect on the ground. Imagine little blobs of light just playing over the grass, swaying with every gust of wind.” Toph had to admit that the premise was sublime; broccoli-looking trees aside, she imagined lighter areas near her river, small smears bobbing back and forth as the leaves danced back and forth in the breeze. 

“On this side,” Sokka continued, pulling her hand to his illustrated near shore, “a patch of wildflowers bloom a little off the bank. Their flowers are small-,” He traced the little bunches of petals with the tip of her index finger. “-with pollen patches in the middle. Actually…” He leaned over to pick up something. Toph gasped as she felt something incredibly soft ghost over her hand. “Here’s one. Feel it.” Carefully, afraid to damage the delicate structure, she turned the plucked flower over and over in her hand. Tactile differentiation allowed her to form a three-dimensional image of it in her mind. However, instead of populating just that small area with the little buds, she painted the entire grassy field with them. 

Tears welled up into the corners of her eyes. When she blinked, her lashes dislodged them and sent them rolling down her cheeks. 

“Beautiful. It sounds beautiful, Sokka,” she murmured. Sokka’s arm jumped against hers again as he released a bashful chuckle. 

“I’m sure whatever you’re imagining is far more artistic than what I’ve got,” he sighed wistfully with a glance down at his drawing. Toph shook her head, causing Sokka to flash her a crooked smile, which she could just barely see with her limited vibration feeling. “Heh. You’re in an awfully good mood today.” 

“Don’t push it,” she growled, hand snapping up to yank hard down on his earlobe. He yelped, immediately slapping his hand to his ear to gingerly cradle the now aching tissue. However, a serene smile decorated her face. 

Maybe being blind had its problems, but she’d much rather Sokka describe his art to her like this instead of merely being able to see it. It came alive in her mind, the flowing water and dancing leaves and little flowers, a world inside her own cognizance that no one else could see. All that brought forth by Sokka’s simple drawing and poetic words. 

“You think I could draw?” she asked, turning to blink curiously at him. Sokka let out a small “urk!” before grabbing his child pensively once more. With an affirmative grunt, he smiled again and flipped the drawing pad to a new page. Toph stretched out his legs as he leaned sideways to place the drawing pad in her lap. When he held out a pencil, she plucked it from his grasp, feeling heat rise to her cheeks when their fingers brushed slightly. 

“Okay, Toph. Let’s start with the river…” 

With her sightless eyes fixed on the blank canvas before her, Toph glided her hand across the page as Sokka voice instructions in her ear. Occasionally he’d reach over to adjust her movement, demonstrating it with passive motion of her wrist and fingers to allow her to memorize the muscle action. Guided by Sokka’s gentle direction, Toph penciled the landscape around them bit by bit. When she set the pencil down to stroke the parchment with the pads of her fingers to trace the tenuous grooves and peaks of the wax pressed into the fibers, Toph was delighted. She could re-create almost the same image, meaning that her drawing was an actual landscape and not just senseless scribbles. 

“Thanks, Sokka.” 

“No problem! I’m a little jealous, honestly. Keep it up, and you’ll replace me as the gang’s artist, and then what do I have? Only my devilishly handsome looks and impeccable wit?” he sighed dramatically, placing the backside of his hand against his forehead in a gesture of woe. Toph laughed loudly. 

“Nope. You’ll just be our group idiot.” 

“Gee, thanks,” he huffed and elbowed her slightly in the ribs. Toph squealed at the ticklish sensation that bloomed in the intercostal spaces as his elbow rubbed against the curved bones. With a broad smile, she regarded her drawing again. 

“Can I keep it?” 

“Of course,” he said, taking the drawing pad from her. She heard a loud ripping sound, and then the flapping of the paper as he set it down on her lap. She hurriedly gripped the edge between her fingers, lest the wind blow it away. “An artist deserves to be able to marvel their masterpiece anytime they choose.” Toph smiled happily and hugged the illustration to her chest, with a careful amount of pressure to avoid crinkling it. 

Yes, she would marvel her masterpiece because it was just another reminder that Toph was capable of anything and everything despite her eyes. A particularly prominent gust of wind blew through the area, causing the leaves and limbs above to shake wildly. As their cacophony filled the air, Toph smiled widely, imagining their wild quivers in her mind. 

Normal sight was so overrated.

Enjoy this oneshot? Feel free to peruse my Table of Contents!

[lunariaan]

Voltron: The Legendary Let Down

Warning, if you couldn’t tell from the title this is a major spoiler.

So like, Princess Allura, beautifully flawed, gracious, forever learning and just so damn beautiful Princess Allura deserved better. Why is it that our only Black/Dark-Skinned female character dies  at the very end of the series? She really didn’t have to die to save those realities, heck, Honerva should have really been the one to sacrifice herself as a sign of redemption.

Some people may not see why the colour of Allura’s skin seems to be an issue for me but I’ll explain. The first ethnically black fantasy princess I ever saw was Layla/Aisha from Winx Club, I never imagined myself or anyone like me could be ‘fantastical’ in a sense, so seeing Aisha as a princess and a guardian fairy of her realm is comforting in a way. Allura’s characterisation was so real, so relatable and I felt very connected to her character as a dark-skinned leading female character with obvious black features who can be seen as a superhero, a leader, a redeemer and a 3-Dimensional character with feelings and emotions and desires. 

Then to top it of her relationship with Lance (though I don’t really ship anything I understand people’s views of it being one-sided) deserved better. Some of my pet peeves in TV (live-action or animated) is that black presenting characters never end up in relationships with other black presenting characters/brown skinned characters and right now, the ‘Black Love’ issue is predominant in my community so to see it emphasised in a show was comforting (i.e. Avatar Korra and Mako/Asami, Katara and Avatar Aang). Plus with Lance being light-skinned and Allura being significantly darker than him also helped with this ideal of black men date light skinned women and it’s never shown in reverse.

Allura deserved to experience the beauty of the new reality just as much or maybe more than anyone in the lead cast, so can one of the writers really tell me why she couldn’t? I just feel sad, she became a sacrifice, a scapegoat, or a martyr, she should have been a living legend not a fading one.

I am not saying this happened because of her ethnic comparisons, but it hurts all the same.   

edit: THEY DIDN’T EVEN HAVE THE AUDACITY TO MAKE HER QUEEN?????????????????

[ravenvsfox]

Hey Meghan. Have you seen season 7 of Voltron yet? I'm seeing a lot of mixed reviews. I watched it and was disappointed in some ways (though not surprised), and a little bored at parts (parts of it reminded me of the politics of Order of the Phoenix), and I loved some other parts. Cosmo for MVP this season. But what was your take (if you watched it)?

Okay holy shit!!! I literally just finished it this instant right now and I have many many thoughts if you’ll indulge me

(obviously there will be spoilers below so uhhh....... watch out)

Firstly I want to be clear that like everyone’s critiques of this season?? beyond valid. so absolutely justified.

I’m mostly disheartened to my bones that the writers think they exist in a creative vacuum that’s somehow out of reach of the bury your gays trope, and that they assumed hyping up a two dimensional gay character destined for death would be.... okay

“here’s a dead gay man that we did not mourn for nor care about plEASE clap”

plus I don’t like.. care about allurance and I thought it was boring and unnecessary lol but like it is what it is and I’m not surprised by it

I think their relationship scans the same way that Aang and Katara’s did in atla, you know? like they’re together bc they’re both..... there.... blue and pink, boy likes girl, girl gives in eventually (when OBVIOUSLY zuko would’ve been a better and more interesting match for katara 👀👀)

making allura a blushing schoolgirl who’s like.. forgotten lotor I guess?? weird. making keith seem straight??? curveball. homophobic

All that said though? I love love loved this season I thought it was hopeful and rallying and emotional and connective

Here are some of my favourite things!

- Shiro and Keith’s brotherhood is such a key emotional force and seeing a vulnerable furious rebel find himself a family and a purpose all at once was SO  effective 

- Keith is a superb leader, like. everything about him is beyond s1 keith’s wildest dreams. He fosters emotional connections and commands respect, he’s a mama’s boy and a deeply awkward friend as well as being the utter coolest and thinking so quickly on his feet that he’s a blur my dude

- the war feels like a war!! there are such interesting stakes, military proficiency with a healthy dollop of alienness and magic, quirky pilot personalities, interpersonal drama, and endurance of human spirit. When it’s the Earth on the chopping block everything seems more frantic and flawed and personal

- I totally get what you mean about kinda boring politics, but it actually felt the most compelling to me of any season’s shop talk, maybe because there were familiar faces on home turf, and we got to see the way the Holts or Iverson or Veronica worked through their fear and hope

- I loved that there was some lost time, I love that people grew up and grew apart, the implications of time flushing out years and lives from the resistance instantaneously

- now like.. the paladins are unquestionably soldiers, saviours, legends, and they’re also kids who will never really know how old they are?? like they’ve suffered all of this loss and blinked in and out of existence, and when they face Earth again, both they and their home are unrecognizable, and everyone is struggling but also more capable than they ever thought possible

- Hunk is the bravest gd kid and he got to actually hear and feel and understand that (Keith is so fatally honest and wildly action-driven that I think it was critical that he was the one to tell Hunk his worth as a soldier). He has incredible ideas and unshakeable heart and he went from relating to Romelle to relating to Keith? like from poking fun at his own fear to understanding that bravery and terror are two sides of the same coin

- Allura wrestling malfunctioning technology to the floor and gifting altean tech and being metal as fuck but also embodying this steady kind of gentleness?? unreal. give her more interesting lines.

- I heart Coran, my alien kiwi dad

- all of them being vulnerable and sleepy and bored and confused, roadtripping and participating in a game show and spiralling out into hallucinations in space. interesting arcs for interesting kiddos

- Pidge is a child in the war of a lifetime and we got to see her vulnerability and brilliance coexisting in the same scenes. When she leapt out to hug her mom with all four limbs and when the Atlas was under attack and she like whimpered ‘dad?’ she was so so young we really weren’t allowed to forget it

- Cosmo (Kosmo??) you’re absolutely right, a true MVP, head and shoulders above the rest of the animal sidekicks, my apologies to mademoiselle kaltenecker. That scene where lance guides keith & pidge through guarded terrain and they teleport around on the back of a wolf? TIGHT as HELL

- everything about lance, everything everything

- the way he always stands up for his friends first, before anyone else, with that determined mouth of his, “don’t you touch her”, the way he thinks mixed heritage and leadership are the future, the singleminded tenderness for and reliance on keith as “team leader” even though it makes him second in command

- his pristine marksmanship, the focus and seriousness and planning, his ease in battle scenarios, slapping down a shield in front of Veronica to free his arms for fighting or swinging out a rifle to cover Keith’s back, the way war looks on him

- and the way it isn’t all of him!! his gnawing worry for his family, the way you can see him shrug off his trauma when he sees them again, how much kids and animals adore him, his willingness to die for his cause or his sister or his people, self sacrificing over and over again without hesitation, looking so sad and grave when no one’s looking

- his strength at Keith’s side, their constant fizzing energy in battle, their trust in each other, turning their bayards in tandem and creating magic together, voting each other out of purgatory

- (calling him the dumb one is patently untrue and pretty shitty in general lol)

- Veronica? exactly perfect. strong and annoyed and fierce. The only person who makes sense to be lance’s sister, so exasperated and kind and willing to die

- Shiro’s gorgeous character design, his blinding strength, (like..... he shouldn’t have to be this strong and he should’ve gotten big gay married and never been hurt again but) his expression when he finds himself at the helm of a sinking ship and the sheer grit that allows him to win anyway

- his victory is (as always) borne from his generosity for the people he loves and always always believes in

- the last episode?? the coalition of survivors, Shiro’s rousing speech, the sweeping music, the way everyone looked at ruin and division and got immediately to work? hurts. exactly the right emotional punch. 

- unity, shiro says. unity, the universe echoes.

[old-people-like-avatar]

Netflix Avatar the Last Airbender -- S1E3 Omashu Review [Spoilers]

Episode 3 of the show was noticeably weaker than the first two, unfortunately.

THE GOOD

Appa, yip yip! The way Gordon Cormier's face totally lit up when he said this was just pure joy and the embodiment of Aang.

Commander Zhao: I continue to be interested in Zhao's failure in officer training and scheming/conniving. More of this please.

Fire Nation resistance: I appreciated the introduction of the idea of Fire Nation rebels, planting the seed that not all Fire Nation citizens are bad. I also liked that Azula was instrumental in rooting them out and destroying them. Because of course she would be. And of course Ozai would roast them all alive.

THE I-APPRECIATED-WHAT-THEY-WERE-DOING-BUT-NOT-SURE-THEY-PULLED-IT-OFF

Jet/Katara: There was a lot to like about this dynamic. Jet had swagger. He had decent lines. "That's the price of freedom." They also had a good scene where they shared their pain and Jet helped Katara access her feelings for waterbending. But the "innocent people are going to die" line really didn't land with me because, well, no one died in the explosion we saw earlier in the episode. The explosion seemed kind of... small?

It makes no sense that Zuko/Iroh went to Omashu. I like seeing Zuko and Iroh together and seeing their dynamic develop. And they probably needed to get these characters there to set up later developments. But story-wise, in universe, it makes absolutely no sense that they went into an Earth Kingdom stronghold. Like what?

THE BAD

Clunky, terrible dialogue continues: "I just want to help people!" "One person at a time!" Wince.

Teo/Mechanist: Wooden, wooden, wooden. I hated all of their lines. All of them. These characters were flat and less than two-dimensional.

My cabbages: I love the Cabbage Merchant, but he just did not translate here in the live action. "My cabbages" felt totally off and like random pointless fan service, which it was, sadly.

UNKNOWN

Azula and sibling rivalry...? "He's done the impossible." Not sure whether this will pay off, but they have framed Ozai as playing Azula and Zuko off each other and Azula to be motivated by sibling rivalry. It's a different take and I am interested in seeing where it goes.

Zuko: Dallas Liu is doing an admirable job. I like what the actor is doing with the role. But... character Zuko thus far has not done much to earn cred with the audience. He's threatened to kill both Sokka and Katara in a rage. So far he's fully in villain camp with not much shading. Am willing to let this continue to play out before judging.

Onto the next one...

[salzspektrum]

top 5 fave atla moments!

the entire show

the entire show

the entire show

the entire show

the entire show

okay for real tho, this is probably gonna be a really long reply since atla is my fave thing ever sooo let’s go! this is in no specific order bc omg I can’t put this in an actual order…

the final agni kai between azula and zuko: for me, this was the emotional weight of the entire finale. while I did enjoy the entire finale a lot, this specific fight just felt so real to me. it felt so personal to watch these two siblings fight each other, one of them falling apart mentally while the other finally has a clear mind after years of hurt and confusion. the music is absolutely beautiful and the animation is fucking stunning. it feels so tragic, knowing that if things were different, they might actually get along but well that’s the tragedy behind it…idk this entire thing just makes me so emotional since I love both of them haha

katara refusing to kill yon rha: this entire episode showed so much of katara’s strength and I admire her so much for it. the amazing thing about this episode tho was that the writers didn’t tell the viewers which way they should feel about this. they didn’t say “forgiveness is key, revenge is bad and senseless” but they showed the harsh reality. sometimes you can’t forgive and while it may not be healthy, it is the reality. this episode showed such a unique approach to this moral dilemma: katara didn’t end up killing him but she also didn’t end up sympathizing with him. he was pathetic, she told him so, they didn’t show us any good sides to this man because we didn’t need them for this story. this is katara’s story of loss and character strength and I feel like this 20 minutes episode managed to balance it out in a way that most liveaction shows can’t manage and I respect that so much.

leaves from the vines: I’m crying just at the thought of this man, I am so fucking weak for tragedy it’s pathetic. look the entire episode was awesome but iroh’s part is objectively the best (like everyone agrees here). his part shows him walking around town being a gentle and kind-hearted man and in the end we get this heartbreaking scene with him celebrating his dead son’s birthday aw fuck my life I’m gOnNa CrY

the campfire scene in The Beach: I am one weak ho for this episode but especially for this scene. it not only shows how conflicted and unhappy zuko was at that point of his life but it also gives a glimpse into mai and ty lee’s psyche and shows us that they aren’t one-dimensional characters either. it also gives us a glimpse into azula’s own fears and insecurities which was a great set-up for the finale imo. it feels very teenage-angst breakfast-club but I love it and I love these characters lol

sokka and toph in the final battle: okay apparently 4/5 of my fave things are from book 3 but this was so great and sad and when I watched that scene with them holding on for dear life I was so fucking tense. like toph couldn’t even sense her surroundings but she held onto sokka bc she trusted him and they couldn’t do anything else. imagine being toph and being in this deadly situation and not being able to do anything about it. imagine being sokka, already hurt, holding your friend knowing if you made one wrong move your friend would fall down and die, trying to fight but the enemy has the clear advantage. just….both their faces when they realized that that was it, they would die..thanK FUCK FOR SUKI OH MY GOD

Bonus: the entire show, bc these are only a few of the 346543 moments that I love

Ask me my top 5 ___

[flameysaur]

So. This is going to be a rant about the most topical of subjects: the ending of Avatar: The Last Airbender!

This is something I discussed with @harunohoe but I remember when Avatar finally ending there was a lot of bitterness. Now I’m in the zutara side of that shipping war. (The right side.) But there was a lot of bitterness among people I talked to that had little to do with the ship. It felt like it did, because Katara centered the discussion, but it wasn’t. Later, when Harry Potter ended, I noticed an interesting echo, and I think it comes from the same place.

The finale for Avatar: The Last Airbender felt wrong with the rest of Season 3. It had the same feel, scope and depth as season 1. Season 1 was epic. It’s easy to forget because seasons 2 and 3 so blew it out of the water, but Season 1 was large. It was deep. It had pathos and engagement and fun. If the finale had come at the end of Season 1, I don’t think a lot of people would have the feeling that something was off the way they did when it came at the end of season 3. I think this because I think the finale was written before episode one ever hit the air.

(This is a good thing, btw. When writing serial fiction with a solid end point, you need to know what the end is if you want to keep working towards it. That’s how you avoid ended up in the reeds with no way back except how you got there in the first place.)

But things changed. The Avatar crew was very vocal in they changed things in response to fan criticism. (The amount of female characters in season 2, for example.) And that change included adding depth and character struggles that were so much more than season one Avatar. Especially in season 3 which dealt with adult themes of redemption and darkness with a maturity that I’ve never seen in an adult show. The biggest examples being: Katara’s flirtation with murder and Zuko’s redemption.

Katara is a dark female lead. It’s easy to forget, because she’s the Mom Friend(tm) and she’s so loving and she’s the healer but Katara is also a person that about a month after promising to never use bloodbending again, USED IT. She premeditated an attack to use it and she used emotional blackmail to carry out that attack. Katara has, from season 1, put her friends first, but her feelings before that. She wants to do what’s right, mentally. But emotionally? Katara wants what Katara wants. It’s a complex side of female characters we do not get in fiction. That someone can be both the light and the dark. She is the moon, always shifting between the brightest and darkest points during this very long night.

Then you get Zuko, the masterfully written redemption of a character. I don’t think anyone can argue that Zuko’s change from one dimensional whiny villain to desperately trying to redeem himself boy wasn’t amazing. You could argue it’s the best thing written for television, never mind a kid’s show. And his redemption. His confrontation of his abuse. Him receiving everything he ever asked for and realizing it wasn’t what he needed, then taking the steps to fix his mistakes. All that was beautiful and complex and hard and understated within the show. Which is perfect. The show trusted us with knowing more than they told us, and that’s hard to do.

Both Katara’s darkness and Zuko’s redemption were confronted the most during season 3. They told us this show understood moral complexities without losing its optimism. Katara didn’t kill because she couldn’t. Zuko did the right thing because he wanted to. For all the greyness of them and their actions, they chose the light. Which, again, isn’t something you’re likely to get on an adult show.

Then we have Aang.

One of my, and many people’s, biggest complaint with Aang in the finale was the spiritbending/stripping of bending power. I remember watching a lot of people discuss the morality of that choice. How it wasn’t “better” then killing. How it was more evil and Aang was wrong to do it. And I don’t agree. It was a fight to the death and Aang found an option that wasn’t death because he chose his morality over the easy answer. That should be a good choice. It should be powerful. It should be the culmination of everything Aang has grown to be.

But it wasn’t. Because Aang lost nothing in making the choice.

Season 3 showed us again and again that it was morally complex. This theme continued with Aang realizing everyone expected him to kill Ozai.

(Tangent! This was also something I saw people complain about. I don’t think anyone, really, had an issue with Aang being anti-killing Ozai, but it does not make sense that the death didn’t come up before it did in season 3. Death rules this world. Reminder: Katara was a small child, eight, when she watched her mother get murdered in her own home. That means, from young childhood, Katara knows death can come to anyone and from anywhere. Sokka likewise, was ten, maybe eleven, when his father left to fight in the war. Sokka declared himself a man and asked to go with him. He was a CHILD. And he wanted to go KILL people. That’s brutal. He only agreed to stay because his father framed it as needing him to protect the villiage. Sokka has, since young childhood, decided that his job is to kill to protect his family. Death is a part of these kids in a way most first world people will not understand. You think Sokka or Katara would use “stop” and “destroy” every time they discussed the finale battle? No. They’d use kill. And Aang would have had to have the debate sooner than the last quarter of season 3. End tangent.)

Aang’s character arc, from episode one, is a painfully simple conflict between Want and Need. In writing, the easiest way to create tension in a story is to have your characters Want a Thing, and they do whatever it takes to get that thing, but they Need something different. And if that Need conflicts with their Want, then bam! You get instant story tension.

Aang wants to be Aang from day one. He wants to be the fun loving monk boy who doesn’t hurt anyone, gets along with everyone and always had a hand outstretched. He wants the world to support this boy. He wants to be a child who helps people and travels and makes friends everywhere and has no care greater then taking care of Appa or what his next prank is.

Aang needs to be the Avatar, savior of the world, master of all four elements. In a world that’s desperately unbalanced, he needs to find and maintain balance. Not just in himself, but in everyone around him. He needs to know not only how to solve surface issues, but the deeper issues that arouse from a 100 years of war and conflict.

And in all three seasons, Aang turns down being the Avatar for being Aang. We get told this rather blatantly in the season 2 finale. His love for Katara is holding him back from becoming a fully realized Avatar. And one thing this show fails at in all this telling, is it fails to show it’s not about Katara the person, but Katara the representation of the love he’s found in this time. Aang failed at being an Avatar before the show began because of this same love. They were going to take his beloved master away from him, and so he ran away. Now, a hundred years later, and everything a hundred years worse, he’s making the same choice. His love, his heart, over his duty. Aang doesn’t want to kill the boy in service to the Avatar.

(And if the show focused on this rather than if Aang could totes bang his first crush, we’d not be left feeling that Katara is a rather literal prize that Aang is fighting for, but instead Aang choosing between his humanity and his destiny.)

Now we return to Season 3. Aang has lost contact to his Avatar spirit. But he’s growing closer and stronger with these people he surrounds himself with. By being himself, Aang has formed a family that is as diverse as he has always wanted. He has Zuko, Sokka, Katara, Toph, Suki, and more allies always reaching out to him. Aang has gotten his want, and he thinks he has married it with his need. He is both a boy who is Aang and the Avatar who is going to save the world. He did it. And in the finale we got...yeah. That’s it. Three quarters into Season 3, Aang stops growing as a character and he never starts again.

But here is where things should have changed. Aang has achieved balance, he thinks. He’s not a fully realized Avatar, but he shouldn’t have to be. Being the Avatar in this world is more about being the spiritual guide to the world, the one person who is not attached to any one country and so can help lead them all to balance. Aang can do that as he is. He already has! He has brought balance to his friends and united a group of people from around the world to join him and believe in him. And it can all stay that way.

But he has to kill Ozai.

We remember, I’m sure, the scene where Aang talks to his past lives and they all say, “Yeah, no, smoke the asshole. Kill him dead.” And that was a weird scene. It was supposed to be a dark moment, before Aang figured out a third answer, but...he...didn’t. He talked to a lionturtle, we don’t see what really happens, and then end of show, BAM! Magic answer from no where.

What should have happened, what would have been stronger, is if he’s told in all his lives, there is faint memories of a non-lethal option. He can find and learn that option, but only if he becomes a fully realized Avatar. Aang knows he can’t. He doesn’t want to pay the price, his heart, his self, for that. So his past lives agree. That’s fine. You can do that. You can do everything you’re supposed to do and never reach that finale pinnacle. Many Avatars, great Avatars, never get there. You are best as you are, Aang.

But you will have to kill Ozai.

That’s the cost here. Kill the boy, or kill the man.

And I want to focus on something: neither of these options are evil. Aang would have to make a choice that echoes the very first one he ever made in the series. He can chose the world or himself, but before, when he chose himself, he doomed thousands (at least) to die. This time, no matter what he does, he will save the world. He is not choosing between dooming humanity or dooming his own heart. He is choosing between his heart and his morality.

(Something that, btw, would echo Katara’s journey. She had that choice when she faced her mother’s killer. She chose her morality over her heart. Something Zuko knew she would do because she’d done it once before, with him. In the season 2 finale, Zuko and Katara had their moment and Katara offered the water from the spirit well to him to heal not a debilitating injury or to save his life, but to heal his scar. He is someone who chased her across the world and has tried time and again to kill her best friend but when he showed her weakness, her response was kindness. That’s why Zuko took her to face her mother’s killer. He knew she’d chose empathy in the end because that’s who she is. If Aang was going on this journey, Katara could be brought in to echo what Zuko did for her.)

I also want to say it is very clear what Aang would chose as well: himself. Aang has, from the beginning, been selfish. He’s caring, empathetic and giving, but he is always selfish. From day one, he put the world on hold so he could do what he wanted. The more he started to understand what the world was going through, the more he clung to what he wanted. That’s why Katara became this giant sticking point in the series. He wanted something to make all this worth it. And she, his crush, became that something. That thing he could want and have and hold. And though he and Katara are friends. Though they are best friends, he still turned her into an object in his head. Something for him to clutch to. “You can have this world, but I want this in return.”

And I think, if we confronted this head on, it would give Aang what he needed. Clarity.

Here’s the scene in this story: Aang has learned the price of his Want and his Need. To get what he wants, he only has to kill someone that everyone agrees should be killed. To get what he needs, he has to kill the part of himself that is so desperate to live. And Katara talks with him about it. She relates it to her mother’s death and what Zuko did for her. She tells him that she knows he’ll do the right thing. That he’s a good person, and a good Avatar, and that he will--

And Aang kisses her. Not on the dock before a battle. But here, in this private, intimate moment. A moment where it’s just them as they are, at their best. Friends who love each other. He kisses her and he thinks, yes, I choose this. I chose her. I will always choose her. I love her.

And Katara pulls back. Because she doesn’t love him. Because. She. Doesn’t. I don’t care if she’s kissing Zuko or not. (Though she is.) But she doesn’t love Aang. She, at best, doesn’t like it when the boy who likes her show interest in other people. And as a former fourteen-year-old girl? MOOD. Even not wanting someone, you can get pissy when their attention is given elsewhere. You feel like shit about it, but damnit, it’s yours even if you don’t want it.

Now Aang is kissing her. He crossed that line she put up a long time ago. And made his feelings clear. And her response is, at best, “Not now.” And she leaves. And Aang is alone. And Aang has to come to some realizations about himself.

He expected Katara to fall into his lap. All his stress and angst and fighting for her, he never realized that...he never asked her how she felt about it. In his head, he was fighting for his future with Katara, but it was never about Katara the person. It was always about Katara, the symbol of all his new love he found in this dark future. 

And Aang would look over his friends. He’d watch them go through the nightly routines. He’d see the joy they had (Sokka and Suki flirting casually together.) and he’d see the growth (Toph, loud as she ever is, bullying Zuko, able to take it and smile) and he’s see the darkness (Katara, alone because of him and his feelings and his choices and him not doing the blindingly obvious) and Aang will realize something.

The problem has always been him. Aang, the boy, has been the issue this entire time. The good he’s done, the good he will do, isn’t what this world needs. This world doesn’t need empathy. It needs balance. And Aang gets up. And he leaves.

He goes to the lionturtle. He learns what he needs to know. The finale battle happens. And he is still Aang, the boy. He’s hoping he can make a third choice. He’s hoping, Aang, the boy, is enough. But he isn’t Ozai isn’t willing to be anything less then ruler of the world. Aang fights. Fire, rocks, wind, water. All of it flying at him. At a pivotal point, a dagger of rock is snapped free from the ground around him. Aang throws it, and it’s aiming for Oazi’s neck. And it would kill him, but at the last moment Aang stops it.

Because he made his choice.

He will kill the boy.

And in that moment, he becomes the Avatar.

He takes Ozai’s bending. No longer a cop out “yay no death in our kids show” ending, but the price of peace. Something must die. In this case, it was Aang.

He doesn’t smile as bright after this battle, (though he does still smile.) And he doesn’t laugh as hard (though there is so much laughter to come.) His pranks are smaller (but they do still happen.) Aang still lives, but as a man, and a man who carries the lives of everyone he killed because he was a boy for too long. (And not near long enough. Spirits help him, not nearly long enough.) And he still has his love. His friends gather around him. 

The ending isn’t Aang and Katara kissing. It is Aang, held and loved by the family he formed on his journeys. The reward for Aang isn’t a girl he earned by virtue of saving the world. It is the family he made because Aang, the boy, chose mercy at every turn. Now Aang, the man, still has them. All of them. They all lived. All grew. All loved.

Aang won.

[zuzuslastbraincell]

What to you think about measure each to step to infinity overall? I remember reading it years ago and being annoyed by how Zuko was depicted in the beginning

oh boy. I read it years ago, re-read it recently (i.e. this july) and realised I’d remembered it with big rose-tinted lenses. I ended up writing a whole review of it in the drafts of a private blog, which i just posted now: i’m linking it here.

Putting bullet-point thoughts under a cut - I tear into it a bit, big warning. (Would appreciate that you don’t send this to the author, thanks.)

starting with the positive: love the way azula is characterised and develops naturally and grows. really works as a redemption arc for her.

strongly dislike that azula’s firelord by the end because i do quite honestly feel that letting go of that ambition (or ‘glory’, as the fic calls it) is crucial to letting azula heal. ties into the way i feel the author glorifies the FN a bit too much.

feel like katara’s character is massively sidelined, though, and doesn’t get nearly as much depth, forgives azula far too easily and readily, and feels really two dimensional to me? similarly i wish we had so much more water tribe stuff. i enjoyed the worldbuilding we got on that end (asides from again, how readily everyone forgave azula & the FN) and wanted more.

i feel like katara has a lot of war trauma she needs to work through & a lot of pressure on her shoulders as the last southern waterbender that needs to be addressed and could have been explored.

i also feel like the dynamic was off, katara/azula honestly should just... bicker more, they’ve got potential in spades for rivals-to-friends/lovers, wish we saw more of that shine through. again, katara felt too accommodating, too pliant, too welcoming. i wanted more fire (ironic word choice) from her. it felt like it didn’t do her character justice.

it’s just. really horrible to aang’s character. like classic character-bashing stuff, wildly out of character, turns him into a weird jealous lover, it’s just weird and bad. ends up being very dismissive of his choices & in turn trauma from genocide.

like very much feels like this fic leans too hard into the fire nation stuff and veers into apologist territory too much for my liking. i love the fire nation characters and the fire nation as a setting, but really, the culture’s militarism and love of war is not something you should romanticise or present as essential or inherent to the culture.

importantly:

all of the sex scenes were entirely unnecessary. all of them.

I fundamentally believe you shouldn’t write explicit sexual content about kids. even if they’re aged up. not necessary.

but even putting that aside for half a second, the way it was written, it was all intrusive, unnecessary, got in the way of a more compelling narrative, and the attitude to sex was so immature. the way azula and aang were compared on the basis of skill just felt very juvenile. that’s not what sex between long term partners is about, and not how you’d talk about an ex you cared about.

anyway.

more minor things:

in general, really like the way that author writes - it’s really compelling and readable

there were a lot of great scenes/moments with azula. love that she’s a dork in this. it’s a common trope, but i like how she lost her flame & had to work to regain it. love the dragon scenes. love all the fire nation politics she gets embroiled in - love political drama honestly.

in general, I really liked the fire family dynamics. iroh & azula and ursa & azula in particular were really good, really liked how it dealt with iroh/ursa and the affect that has on the dynamics. the awkward dinner scenes at the beginning were priceless imo.

i feel like zuko is portrayed as more bratty and tbh a little bit more lazy/incompetent than canon but i can mostly let it slide, honestly. he’s still young in the beginning and i liked how he did initially get mad about azula ‘stealing’ iroh from her (but got over it). like there’s a level of pettiness there that doesn’t feel too out of character, if you remember what a mess book 1 zuko was like and what potential he has to be a mess.

i’d say the author does have a tendency to flatten characters to an extent. sometimes this works - e.g. ursa’s mostly a mild-mannered and mildly homophobic mother (in a way that is quite funny honestly, the sleeve ties comment always gets me). sometimes this really doesn’t - e.g. sokka’s (limited) portrayal mostly shows him as a bit of an idiot, which I honestly really hate.

hakoda’s character was turned into a bit of a villain similar to aang, as if to present him as being mean and an obstacle for not forgiving azula/distrusting azula, when there are plenty of good reasons why a water tribe chief would distrust a princess of the fire nation. just. hated that.

(really wish the water tribe family dynamic had half the thought put into it as the fire family one)

basically, the imperialism in this fic - the way azula and her trauma was favoured by the narrative, the way katara and her trauma was sidelined, the way the fire nation was treated as a whole - just largely ruined it for me. I wanted to enjoy it more, because the great moments in this really are fantastic. it just disappoints politically and ends up failing the characters in the process.