#this whole sokka sexism thing is so funny

[all-inmoderation]

lmfao

[snekdood]

ok so i watched the new avatar show (yes obviously thats what my post earlier was about, duh,i wanted to watch it before sharing my thoughts) and it was. iight.

[nariko-senpai]

Realised I never posted my final views on the atla live action so here we go.

Casting is spot on, all the characters look like their cartoon counterparts and that's a huge tick for me. And I love the actors, they're just so funny and they're just teens living their life.

But I hate how each character was portrayed!

Katara and Aang are bland and don't have much of the fun personalities they have in the cartoon, and Zuko is kinda mid. Even Iroh seems bland. Sokka is the only character who still had his usual pizazz but even that was dulled down a bit.

And I have a problem with the whole deal with Katara's bending.

Like, the show said they wanted to exclude the sexism, but Katara figured out to water end by having a chat with JET OF ALL PEOPLE. It was quite lame in my opinion. And the deal with Pakku? Poorly executed.

But I loved the bending animation and the CGI of the series! It all looked so real and fluid, and choreography was amazing! Definitely way cooler then what I was expecting.

I also liked how they added to Yui's character, I felt that she added more to the show (but I hated her wig. Please get tips from the movie for Yui's hair 💀).

But I feel like adding Azula and Ozai into the show so early will make Azula's official debut not as exciting. Loved how they showed her training with lightning and stuff, but they should've reduced her scenes.

All in all, the live action would be incredible if it wasn't based on a much loved cartoon. As a separate series, it's amazing! But based on the cartoon, it was bland and boring. Especially since Atla is such a well loved series, people have very high hopes that simply can't be met.

My advice: Let the actors do their thing (they're more like the characters then the writing made them portray them as) and focus on making the script and story as accurate as possible.

[ablatheringblatherskite]

my thoughts on ep 1 and 2 of the live action ATLA series!

So it is absolutely GORGEOUS. like the visuals??? the costumes?? THE VFX??? OUTSTANDING. CHEF'S KISS. INCREDIBLE. the worst thing is Zuko's scar and like ok whatever nothing we can do about that.

Episode one was fantastic we actually see a lot of great additions, which is COOL! like more of Monk Gyatso, and the actual attack on the Air Nomads... 😭

I'd say writing wise it's not as great as I want it to be. A touch too many monologues for my taste, especially in the first episode, but nothing too bad. Could've been better, but definitely DEFINITELY could've been worse *eyes the movie that will not be named*

You can tell they're trying to squish important plot points together instead of spacing it out across more episodes I mean especially since Netflix decided everything has to be EIGHT EPISODES. but the pacing is actually good considering that LOL

but oh the EMOTIONS. THE EMOTIONS?!?!!

the actor of Aang oh my gosh, Gordon Cormier, OMG. DUDE I NEARLY BAWLED MULTIPLE TIMES BASED ON HIS PERFORMANCE ALONE. IT WAS ABSOLUTELY HEARTBREAKING 😭 HE'S SO GOOD 😭 and he's so cute too he's so baby I'm wjrhwhrhwhdhwhdhwh

I love the actors of Sokka and Zuko whdhwhdhshdsjjdhsjd. Ian Ousley and Dallas Liu? DID NOT DISAPPOINT.

SOKKA WAS HILARIOUS we BURST out laughing SO MANY TIMES, he was so GOOD 😭 the jokes he cracked were genuinely funny wwhdhwhgd and the SARCASM especially. and HIS ACTING THE ACTING HE NAILED IT?? It was so natural and THE EXPRESSIONS HE'D MAKE AND JUST. ALL HIS ACTING CHOICES IN GENERAL WERE SO GOOD. HE WAS HILARIOUS. and other than the funny parts in general he was just so good! HE GETS IT. HE IS SOKKA.

and Zuko was so good too like, we haven't gotten to all the juicy angst yet so I can't fully judge, but so far he's done SO well. Like especially the moments he'd get really angry and also HE'S SO GOOD AT MARTIAL ARTS. SO.

BUT HE'S ALSO RLLY FUNNY TOO??? especially when he gets annoyed with Uncle Iroh LIKE THE BODY LANGUAGE WAS SO SUBTLE BUT IT WAS HILARIOUS. and YES UNCLE IROH WAS GREAT TOO, I LOVE HIM SO FAR. HE IS ALSO HILARIOUS and does seem like Uncle Iroh to me so far!!

Katara hasn't had much to do yet and much like. acting stuff or much to do with her character yet but like that's okay, I'm pretty confident they're still building it up. They haven't gotten to the JUICY bits yet. But she was already so good too.

I'm really interested in some changes, like how they focus more on the Avatar State as a plot point? It's interesting LOL. There was also a shot that showed that in this universe, Katara actually saw her mom die?!?? like omg, that's so gruesome I'm crying.

and it's true that they cut out the sexism arc of Sokka 😭 BUT BUT BUT. IAN OUSLEY. OH HE GETS IT. Like you can see he's really doing his best to keep it a part of the story, like in his acting choices, he's still trying to include the more sexist aspect of his character even if the script isn't supporting it. Like he really truly did his best with what he had and he nailed it, it's the script's fault

And I will say I'm not crazy about some of the stuff they added to Suki? like, I wasn't crazy about the whole "thank you for bringing the world to me" thing, but it's just okay LOL. She's frickin GORGEOUS tho

(also I was really hoping we'd get the scene of Sokka wearing the Kyoshi warrior outfit and makeup but sadly they didn't put it in but it's okay)

OH BUT THE CRUMBS. THE SOKKA AND SUKI CRUMBS. OH THEY'RE SO CUTE. ESPECIALLY THE SCENE IN THE DOJO WHERE SHE'S TEACHING HIM?? OH IT WAS SO CUTE. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. you can tell they're doubling down a bit more on their romance, especially since we know it's already gonna be endgame, but it's making me wonder how they'll tackle Yue 🤔

but yeah. Sokka and Suki stinking adorable I was SQUEALING MULTIPLE TIMES, I LOVE IT I LOVE IT

and the BENDING. THE BENDING IS KRIFFING GORGEOUS. IT'S SO GOOD. THE STUNTS?? THE MARTIAL ARTS?? BEAUTIFUL!! MAGNIFICENT!! PERFECTION!! and the VFX?? HECK YES. AUGH!! I'm definitely not disappointed about it. And I love how dangerous the bending legitimately feels?? like it feels so LETHAL. And there were some really shocking bending moments that were done incredibly well. I loved it.

so YEAH. IN CONCLUSION. so far, judging from just the FIRST TWO episodes... I rate it a 7.5/10

The writing is maybe a 6.5/10, but the acting for sure a solid 9/10. DEFINITELY worth the watch imo, BUT so much more enjoyable with an open mind and acceptance that it's not supposed to be a carbon copy of the show.

[sunflowericescribbles]

Avatar Live Action - yeaaa no

Phew, so I had nothing better to do this weekend than watch the LA and compare it to the cartoon series. The first 2 episodes were fine I have to admit and got my hopes up. Then it got stupid.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

The good stuff:

The world looks beautiful and honestly I loved all the places and the scenes, so many details everywhere.

The costumes, I really can´t complain about them, because I don´t care if they´re not dirty enough or what else. You can see the details and structures on every different type of clothes, even a simple Kimono has details and I love it. The Kyoshi warriors looked beautiful. (And seriously stop comparing the costumes to cosplays as if that is insult. Maybe if they looked like bought costumes than I would agree, but we´re talking about handmade costumes here!)

Iroh & Zuko relationship is good, love that.

Surprisingly Sokka is not that big of a problem for me with his lacking sexism.

I liked Zhao, at least how he was potrayed.

Jet is good, they got the important point about him across I think.

They showed Katara diligently practicing water bending even in the back ground, which I really appreciated.

The bad stuff:

The humor is seriously lacking and I miss that. The only funny ones are sometimes Iroh and Zuko

Aang gets told multiple times how he should not have any friends and rather be alone, which I find stupid. Hence why most of the time he´s portrayed as a sad boy, and I really really miss his playful side in this.

Sokka is way too serious though. And they robbed us of him in a Kyoshi warrior outfit T_____T

Katara lacks serious rage. She´s... too mild? I don´t know exactly how to describe it but I never really felt much?

they ASSASSINETED Azula´s character! I cannot comprehend how they made her a whiny child who has to prove anything to her father which is way too similar to Zuko! Azula certainly is NOT LOOSING CONTROL over her emotions like that. She´s perfect, she´s the golden child, why does she get played like that? What the hell?? With every new scene I saw it got worse. Yea she is manipulative, you got that right, but everything else about her that makes her terrifying was thrown out of the window because of what??

Omashu and the way too many plots in one.

The mechanic and his son Teo are suddenly there and their reasons for all what they´re doing is infuriating me to no end, because it´s so stupid.

The tunnel is stupid stupid stupid and I hate it. If that is how they wanted to avoid the AangxKatara romance but still wanted to plant their LOVE message in there, then they can keep it. Not that I´m against sibling´s love, but I am against the idea that a wild animal will simply forgive you for trespassing if you hold on tight enough on your beloved sibling >_> And it was useless! The whole tunnel search to get to the prisons was useless! The beautiful glowing stones that ARE THE GUIDES are useless!

Bumi IS NOT BITTER! Why did you do this to him? No wait, I know why you can do this to him, but it still makes me angry, because Aang is already weighed down enough and not even his one old friend can just be happy about him being alive and well.

Aang does not once water bend! Wasn´t the first season about learning at least water bending?

They managed to cram so much into Omashu, but they couldn´t be bothered to add the rivalry between Sokka and Yue´s fiance? Why? Honestly, of all the things they let drop it was the engagement part?

The precise timing of the one day in the year where both gods are mortal so Zhao could kill one of them. Too many mental gymnastics and luck of timing for that kind of plan, seriously.

Result:

I can enjoy it for the pictures and the costumes, but characters and plot are giving me grief.

[sokkastyles]

I feel like you are misinterpreting my post. I don't think this is something we should be "comforted" by, and I think the fear that the show might make Katara into "just another female warrior type" is itself pretty sexist. Katara IS a warrior, but she doesn't get the label of warrior like her brother does, and we all know why. So I am absolutely %100 not here for panic about how the show might be making Katara "too masculine" or whatever or she won't have her "whole character." Being motherly is not an essential trait to being female. Nope nope nope nope nope.

Also the thing about Sokka's sexism is that it isn't really "clearly" portrayed as a flaw he needs to get over. A lot of it is portrayed for laughs, as is Katara's anger at him over it. I can definitely see how that won't translate well to a live action adaptation. The thing about the way the show portrays this stuff is that yes, Sokka learns to respect Suki, but with a lot of *wink wink nudge nudge* "isn't funny that Sokka had to wear a dress / isn't it wild how these female characters get so riled about sexism? / Isn't it funny that Sokka "got the misogyny beat out of him" because you know, women beating people up is sooo hilarious." These ideas all exist because of sexism. The idea that female characters have to go to extremes to get basic respect and the whole thing is just so cute and funny IS sexism.

Even the fear that Katara might turn into "just another" female warrior, as if there is a limit to how many female characters are allowed to be warriors in a MARTIAL ARTS SHOW is indicative of this problem.

For all the talk about how sexism is an essential part of Sokka and Katara's arcs and hating on the Netflix live action for saying they're removing some "iffy" moments, I haven't seen anyone remark on how the promos show Katara talking about being a warrior while Sokka still gets labeled as "the Warrior" in his promo. So make of that what you will.

I'm not saying it means anything one way or the other, only that sexism is baked into how we view these characters in a lot of subtle ways that doesn't often get noticed.

[takaraphoenix]

Movie Review: The Last Airbender

Earlier this year, @kunfyouzed​ and @kimmycup​ and me watched Cats - the worst movie ever created by humans. And, after miraculously surviving that somehow, coupled with that ATLA renaissance, I figured it’s about time to tackle The Last Airbender, a movie-adaptation I have avoided so far because, well, it is so universally hated. So, instead I decided to watch ATLA back in the day.

Now I saw this movie.

And... it’s not good? I mean, that was a given, right? It was definitely bad, but... gods damn it, I laughed a lot (not at times this movie had intended it though. I... don’t think there was anything intentionally comedic about this, they took a funny cartoon and stripped it of all its humor and soul but inexplicably did so in such a twisted, bad way that it is unintentionally funny in how bad it is).

I had a lot of fun with this movie, I was laughing so much at how ridiculous the effects were, how overly dramatic everything was executed, how cringey and forced the expositional dialogue was.

The acting was so bad, it didn’t even so much bother me as that it made me laugh because these untrained children were just... reading off the script. Zero emotions. Zero emoting. At all. It gave the delivery a certain hilarity because they are just stone faced and like kids who were forced into the school play and are now rattling down their lines.

The only one who emotes is Zuko and he was... allowed one (1) emotion and that was anger. Man, that boy is angry.

And then suddenly Katara will do narration out of nowhere, for zero reason, not even plot-furthering, she just talks over things as though they remembered they should have her do anything because she is literally useless.

They took this personally motivated, strong female lead, who is a badass water bender and... just... made her a doe-eyed naive girl whose entire purpose is to puppy-dog trail after Ang (as I assume this character is spelled considering they pronounce him with only one “a”). That sure is some next level character assassination. I mean holy shit, they made Sokka the voice of reason and her so completely uselessly naive, it is nearly amazing how the sexism just jumps out at you.

And I was prepared for the whitewashing. I assumed they just... made everyone white like pretending ATLA takes place in Europe or something.

But even their version of whitewashing was accidentally comedic I mean look at this shit and Spot The Protagonist:

It’s the white kid. The protagonist is the only white kid. They’re all air nomads but no one is white aside from ProtagonistTM. Same with the water tribe. Everyone is actually played by POC, aside from Katara and Sokka.

I don’t know but somehow this feels... even worse than if they had put ATLA into white countries or even had a mix of nationalities in every country? Because they are actively acknowledging that these groups of people have a certain non-white ethnicity but then go outta their way to specifically only cast the main characters white. That’s... that is an amazing level of tonedeafness.

And it is really crowned by the fact that no Zuko, “the bad guy”, gets to be played not just by an actor of color, but also by a brown actor, even though Fire Nation is supposed to be Japanese, but they really had to go the route of “well, no, the bad guys need to be distinctively darker skinned than the rest of the people. how else would the viewer know this is the villain?” so they racebent them for... even more racism.

Okay so, don’t get me wrong, the racism and racist casting of this movie is not the funny thing! That is not what I am laughing at. That’s bad. But the part where someone genuinely thought this was a good idea and then went about it in the most obvious way possible to signal that they didn’t just whitewash, they really did it with very much intend and purpose and just the twisted reality yof the fact that this movie was created by M. Night Shyamalan, a man of color, and not by just a complete room of white people in charge as is usually the case when this level of white nonsense is happening? That is just so incomprehensibly bizarre.

This entire thing felt like someone read the wikipedia entry of the show, the short summary version not a longer in depth version, and decided to adapt it. Only based on that summary.

Because the vague plotpoints were actually... there? They more or less followed the journey but in a way as though they had blank spaces between?

For one, the character motivations were completely missing. I mean, seriously, literally for no character, they actually show you their personal motivation to do what they did. They didn’t give Ang much time to establish the whole “sole survivor of a genocide” thing in a way that lets it fully settle in. Katara is just... on board with everything, no questions asks, just... does it because she has a crush on Ang apparently? That is genuinely the only hint of a motivator this movie gives us? Sokka is against everything until he kinda isn’t. Zuko has his change of heart but we don’t really get shown why, he just does, Iroh is just along for the ride.

Occasionally, exposition is peppered in in hamfisted ways through some general just... randomly monologuing or dialoguing shit for no fathomable reason at all aside from “the viewer needs to know this but gosh there is just no conceivable way we could show you, the viewer this”. Which is just, seriously, that made me laugh every time because it is not just badly written explosition in that it makes little to no sense in how it is phrased, it is not phrased in a manner that fits into the situation, it just delivers exposition, and it is delivered by the actors in such flat manners.

And then there is the completely incompetent fire nation army! I mean, holy shit. Ang blows a little air at them and they, who they have actual fire and weapons and a numbers advantage of like 1 to 100, just fold and quiver in their boots. It’s amazing, honestly.

Literally the only thing that worked was that Sokka and Yue had chemistry and were... sweet, for what little they lasted anyway. Also Appa looked hella adorable, that was cute CGI design.

But I still... I had fun? Because I could laugh at how cringey and incomprehensibly bad this movie was because it just piled up so much and in such ridiculous ways that it nearly came off like satire than even the attempt at an actual adaptation.

[chaoticevilbean]

So, there’s this whole Youtuber Atla Au, and I have Stuff stuck in my Head. This is Sokka-centric bc thassa me.

Here Goes:

- Sokka has a mixed channel. He does educational videos, how-to videos, political videos, stories about him and his weird friends, dancing and singing videos, makeup videos, parkour videos, etc. He’s a very well known account.

- He uses fake names/obscure nicknames/code names for anyone he mentions. Anyone featured in his videos either wears a mask/facepaint or allows him to say their real name. He uses only they/them pronouns unless the person is with him and has given him other pronouns to call them by.

- He has never mentioned his name, refuses to be called Boomerang despite someone suggesting it because “that’s a disrespect to boomerangs, please don’t”, and he responds to commenters asking for his name with “;)”, “:)”, and “...”

- People only know he’s a male because he put that in his first video

- Sokka always wears facepaint in his videos, and absolutely no one recognizes him. He is unidentifiable. His continuous need to wear contact lenses and wigs of varying styles and colors also messes with people. No one can figure out what Nation he’s from (there are all four in this AU).

- Sokka has seven different facepaint styles he’ll wear.

- - Earth Kingdom is just Kyoshi Warrior facepaint. Someone attempted to drag him for disrespecting a elite warrior and all-female team. The Official Kyoshi Warrior account responded with this and only this: “Back off, he’s ours.”

- - Southern Water Tribe is based off their traditional warrior paint and La. Northern Water Tribe is based off of Tui and wolves.

- - Air Nomads is brown and blue arrows and flying lemur markings around his eyes.

- - Fire Nation is based off of Agni and the Painted Lady. It’s simple with red and yellow markings, and the accents will either be black (if he’s talking about something funny), blue (if he’s talking about something weird), or white (if he’s talking about something cool). People had to figure out those meanings themselves.

- - The Spirit World is based off of Hei Bai and Wan Shi Tong, a black, white, and grey style.

- - The blended one is cut into six sections. Fire and Air are the top two, taking up his forehead and creeping into his hairline. Water and Earth are on the bottom, bleeding down his neck. The Spirit World and nonbending sections are on his eyes. For those, he does fox markings on both sides, and the Spirit side is colorful like many of the minor Spirits are (bugs and birds and others). The nonbending side has normal fox colors, and the edges of all sections are blended together.

- - Each mask has a different meaning, which wasn’t figured out until later. If something is about a story, then it will be Fire Nation or Water Tribe. If the story includes strangers, then it will be Fire Nation, but if it’s mostly his pre-established friends, then he’ll have Water Tribe. Any sort of performance is Earth Kingdom, unless he’s doing it with someone else, which is when he wears his blended one. If the video is instructing in any way, it’s Air Nomad. If it’s a political video, he will always have his Spirit facepaint on.

- Most people assume he’s Air Nation because he seems nomadic. He’s constantly talking about new friends, his backgrounds change every video and he speaks all the languages one could possibly learn.

- As a Note, there are all four Nations. They all have different languages. There are formal and informal of each language (or common and high-speak). There is also the General Common, which is the language basically everyone knows so they can communicate with other nationalities. Air Nomads have many different slangs depending on where the nomads are from, but only one central language. They don’t have formal or informal.

- Sokka’s most viral video is called Secret Tunnel. He met some nomads and they taught him to use their instruments at an amateur level. He then asked if they wanted to record a video with him. They said yes, so he recorded them singing and dancing to the song, and he joined in on guitar (or whatever the stringed instrument is called in that episode). The video ‘solidified’ that Sokka was from the Air Nomads.

- Things people know about the channel and the Friends (called ‘Boomeraang’, though no one seems able to figure out why - most pass it off as a typo, but true fans know Sokka pays too much attention to his work and his boomerang)

- - Lady is either related to Sokka or as close as a sibling. They’re a master waterbender and extreme activist. They’re constantly starting rebellions and protests and getting into trouble through that. They have once impersonated a Spirit in order to get rid of a corrupt company that was polluting a river and then got the nearby fishing town to work together to clean said river. Lady got their education in waterbending after beating “an old coot in battle, didn’t have much to learn but Lady needed ‘finesse’ or something.”

- - Kuzon is Lady’s SO. They were friends first, SO’s second, and Sokka had to endure the pining. Kuzon acts older than they look, and uses extremely outdated slang. A video with Kuzon in the background as Sokka told a story confirmed the fact when Sokka asked “What did you say to Bluey?” “Flameo, Hotman!” It is assumed that Kuzon is a bender, but no one knows which type. Kuzon once threw a raging party because his school was really strict. The entire student body was invited and the cops were called, but no one got in trouble because they weren’t breaking any laws.

- - Bluey is either a nonbender or a firebender. Sokka’s stories are unclear on that, but one thing is clear: Bluey is a vigilante. And works in a tea shop. And holds some sort of position of power somewhere. It varies from “Bluey stopped a drug ring this month” to “Bluey’s uncle told them they can’t work the night shift because they haven’t slept” to “Bluey just passed a rule saying no drinks during meetings. They’re just mad that I kept slurping my cactus juice.”

- - Bandit is an actual criminal, but also holds some position of power. They are blind, maybe, and an earthbender. Apparently the greatest earthbender in the world, but that could also be Rocky. Bandit scams scammers, usually ones on the street that can’t call the police because they’re also criminals. They’ve made a lot of money that way, and Bandit uses the funds for a combination of food and taking Sokka shopping since he helps them. Bandit also fought in an underground earthbending tournament and won the title every time. Sokka says that the reason behind Bandit even going there was that their family was awful and somehow thought they were fragile, so they learned how to ditch their escort and vent their frustration via illegal fighting ring.

- - Rocky is a king. And insane. And friends with Kuzon and some old people. Nothing else is known, besides they’re a bender.

- - Bison. Is maybe an actual bison. Is Kuzon’s best friend and they’re constantly kissing everyone and messing around with Lemur. Lemur is flighty and loyal and like lychee nuts. Not much else is told, but they’re in many stories and the wording is weird enough that no one can tell if they’re animals or humans.

- - Wheaty was a real jerk when they all first met, and the group all left on bad terms. However, when they met back up, Wheaty was much nicer and was trying to be better than they originally were. They had to go to therapy to help with anger issues and were recovering well when the group reunited. Gurl (Sokka makes sure to spell it out for the viewers) is one of Wheaty’s best friends, having been there for the other through everything. Yuyan was in a similar boat, and was usually the ‘voice’ (Sokka would laugh at that, before continuing as if he hadn’t) of reason. The trio were all very nice and helpful, and had some other friends that Sokka met and hit it off with. Mini-Me was someone who was smol and idolized Sokka. Big Man always traveled with Mini-Me, but never once stopped them from following Sokka around.

- - Warrior is a nonbender and is the one who taught Sokka to fight with fans. They also educated him on toxic masculinity, getting rid of the sexism ingrained in him (*note, in this AU, Sokka wasn’t as sexist, due to being exposed to a few more people and the internet, and therefore finding more female idols. Suki helped him stopped what was left, because he still struggled and wanted to be better). Warrior is about 30% of Sokka’s impulse control, which is still a large chunk considering how many impulses he has. They have been in a few videos wearing an entire robe and mask get-up, and spoke once (1) when they told Sokka that Knife and Ballerina were head over. It was the middle of a video about how to fight with fans.

- - Princess, Knife, and Ballerina were a trio that could rule the world. Princess probably would’ve turned out awful if they hadn’t left home with their uncle. Knife hated any sort of protocol, but never seemed to show emotion. Both they and Yuyan were people that had to be observed to understand their emotions at any one point. Ballerina was happy, a gymnast, a yoga instructor, and a nonbender. It is assumed that Knife is a nonbender who uses only knives and Princess is a master firebender, but there is speculation.

- - Roller and Pusher were best friends. Roller was in a wheelchair and Pusher always pushed them. Roller was incredibly intelligent and often helped Sokka with inventions, while Pusher was a skilled earthbender who used more finesse than most.

- - The Moon is mentioned once and never again, and everyone wonders why he mentioned them in the first place (when discussing what he’d done while Lady battle for her education “I hung out with The Moon”).

- - Most likely to appear in a video are Roller, Pusher, Bandit, and Gurl, all in masks. Bandit’s they can’t possibly see through, but they walk like everything’s normal.

- - Most likely to be off-screen in a video are Kuzon, Bluey, and Lady.

- - Most likely to be mentioned in a video are Kuzon, Bandit, Bluey, Lady, and Warrior.

- Things that are known about Sokka:

- - He learned Earth Kingdom formal from Bandit and informal from a combination of Friends and observation. He learned Fire Nation formal from Bluey’s uncle and Bluey occasionally slipping into it and informal from Kuzon and some colonists he met. He learned the dialects of the Southern and Northern Water Tribes from The Moon, Lady, and Lady’s family. He learned Air Nomad from a variety of monks and people like Chong and Lily.

- - His parkour skills come from a combination of his Friends’ illegal activities, chaotic antics, and just a dash of bad luck.

- - He learned fighting from practically everyone he’d met, and observing them or having them teach him. He hadn’t actually wanted to learn to fight with fans or knives, but Warrior and Knife had taken one look at him and told him he had to or else. In fact, the only weapons he wanted to learn to use were a sword, a club, and his boomerang. He learned the first from Rainbow Father, the second from Bi Father, and the third was self-taught. Everything else, he posted videos as he learned new skills, and also told the varying stories of how he was coerced into being taught. For example, Ballerina insisted on teaching him chi blocking, a very obscure form of fighting, and would randomly use it on him until he agreed. They always undid what they blocked immediately after, but it was still annoying to randomly lose use of both arms.

- - Sokka’s Boomerang is deadly in his hands. He does not know this. During a livestream, Gurl snuck in after causing a distraction outside of the room he was in and read it off someone’s comment. They informed the viewers to never bring it up because Sokka didn’t know and if he underestimated his Boomerang, than everyone he used it against would, too. And that led to hilarious situations.

- - Sokka is a genius and inventor who has several patents. However, no one can find him through them, mostly because he didn’t want any attention when he put the items out into the open. He invented submarines and airships (people had no use for them before, but found they were incredibly useful when Sokka got everything patented and got a sponsor). He also invented cactus juice, which is as mentally impairing as alcohol with none of the lasting physical effects. Bandit loved that one.

- - Sokka has seemingly been everywhere. He’s mentioned meeting the Spirits Hei Bai, Wan Shi Tong, and the Moon and Ocean Spirits in passing. (*while wearing the Spirit facepaint* “I mean, I get that the Spirit World seems great and all, but I’ve been there. Not that exciting. Met Hei Bai and had to be rescued. Don’t see the appeal. And there isn’t a single bathroom there.”)

- - Can dance pretty average, but knows a lot of different styles because of various Friends. Can also sing and whistle well, and usually hums Secret Tunnel while doing parkour. Most of his music videos include other people, minus a few where he was asked to demonstrate his instrumental skills. He, again, is average and only knows the different instruments because people decided he should learn.

- - He is amazing at makeup. Every person he brings in to do (mostly people who aren’t seen again on the videos) leaves with stunning work done.

- - He can draw and paint, but he didn’t start off good. He started doing instructional videos based off articles and lessons he found. His viewers learned with him, and he’s improved greatly. He’s also prone to adding random rainbows to his landscapes, even in the black and white ones (it starts a trend of usually colorful things done in black and white, or in a way that’s more appealing to colorblind people).

- - Sokka wants to get rid of patriarchal societies and old men with problems. He fully supports his Friends’ protests and rebellions, and is likely to have cohesive arguments backed up with verifiable evidence and trustworthy sources.

- - He loves terrible jokes, and knows they’re terrible, but that’s the point.

- - He’s theorized to be in a position of power because once King Kuei and his bear Bosco walked on-screen from behind (Sokka was at a park and had his Earth Kingdom facepaint, so he definitely wasn’t expecting anyone to come), spotted Sokka and looked absolutely delighted, came straight over and hugged the boy from behind while he was explaining a move with a club. King Kuei said nothing, just hugged him until it was returned, let go, and waved goodbye. Bosco did a similar thing before following his owner. Sokka just continued the video as if nothing had happened, so it seems that he’s used to being around heckin’ royalty.

- Boomeraang gets a lot of hype and Sokka does sell merch and earn money, but only sells what is specifically requested. Someone requests he make t-shirts with his channels logo on it, he starts selling them, and doesn’t stop until there aren’t any more demands. Spoiler, there’s always demands. He tries to tell them he doesn’t want to take their money, but he almost had a riot when he suggested not selling anything anymore because he felt bad.

- The Gaang knows about the channel and talk about it a lot. Sokka had planned to keep it small, anonymous, and just have fun with his catch-all videos. He’s 2/3 at this point.

- Katara has her own activist channel, and considered making a second as the Painted Lady and use Sokka’s rep to eventually boost her, but decided against it. Her channel is called ‘Freedom Water’, based on the fact that water is the element of change. She has a moderate following.

- Toph has her own channel as well, which consists of Sokka holding the camera for her and videotaping her as she performs complex earthbending. She calls her channel ‘roc’. Her following is mostly other earthbenders who aren’t too proud to learn from a preteen, and other kids who think she’s cool. She also has a channel called ‘Bandit’, which is just her in the mask she wears for Boomeraang, telling all about different ways she’s scammed scammers, occasionally also showing videos of those instances. Sokka is her cameraman there as well, and will sometimes go on-screen with his facepaint. That channel has a large following because of Boomeraang. Toph is actually good at not slipping into the wrong nicknames or giving away genders.

- Aang has a channel called ‘The Temple’, which is almost solely different animals he spots. Some people try to say that he isn’t at the Air Temples, but he just laughs and ignores them. It drives people insane and it’s just accepted that the name of the channel is misleading. He has a small to moderate following, mostly animal enthusiasts, and the others are nature enthusiasts.

- Zuko has a channel followed by only theater kids and wannabe theater kids. He literally put ‘Title’ as the name, and uses his videos to rant about different plays and a lot about how the Ember Island Players botch the best of shows.

- Jet has an official channel for his Freedom Fighters, which is now solely used for spreading awareness and raising funds for those who need help (orphans, abused people, and people affected by disasters). The group lost a lot of followers when they changed their tune from angry and vengeful to calm and actually trying to help instead of harm. However, Katara and Zuko both gave shout-outs to the channel, and Toph ‘mentioned’ them as well (*read: threatened her followers if they didn’t check it out*). Their following has grown and now has a very good rep.

- Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee share a channel called ‘Royal Three’ where they show off their skills. They have a large following.

- Teo and Haru help manage everyone’s accounts and Teo is the official Kyoshi Warrior technician by the time everyone is done. Both are paid by their Friends for the work and recommend the duo to literally everyone possible.

- The Kyoshi Warriors are extremely well-known. There was an uproar when Ty Lee was announced as an official Kyoshi Warrior. They post basic fighting tutorials.

[chaotic-multi-fandom]

KATARA RANT!! PLEASE READ!

I stan Katara, fight me. I really don’t understand why people hate on Katara so much. She’s amazing, empathetic, caring, loving, optimistic and of course has flaws like a normal human being and like what? What is that I hear? A TEENAGE GIRL. People really hating a 14 year old teenager for mentioning her mother geesh. Besides I’ve noticed she doens’t even mention her mother that much and when she does she normalaly says our mother not excluding Sokka. For example in the episode Jet when Jet tells Katara how he lost his family to the fire nation she replies: yes we lost OUR mother to the fire nation too it was really hard for US. In fact there’s only 3 moments in the show were she says MY  mother “excluding” Sokka and only one of those moments was actually hurtful which is when she says “You didn’t love her as much as I did” to Sokka. Sure that was hurtful and horrible but idk SHE’S 14. She was by fat the character who brought the most hope to everyone in the group and kept an up beat optimistic attitude gicing hope to everyone else. She always took the time to comfort everyone and let them know how incredible and worthy they are, without her Aang would have never gone past his feelings of blame and Sokka woudn’t have found a sword master it was thanks to her he felt worthy despite not being able to bend. Carrying this attitude for the whole show for the whole group is amazing for a 14 year old girl. Let me add she’s the younger sibling and it would be expected for het to be less mature or less focused than Sokka but she isn’t. She had to grow up incredibly fast even more than Sokka as he is older, growing up so fast and loosing her mother also caused her to have to taker over the dutied we see women have to take over alone in the village. From a young age she expirience’s sexism even from her own borther (this wasn’t Sokka’s fault but it was still hard on Katara.) Then she goes through the same thing when Master Pakku won’t teach her simply beacuse she’s a girl instead of giving up she resists and persists and proves him wrong and ends up becoming one of the most powerful waterbenders to ever exist. How amazing is that? May I add that when Aang said that if Mater Pakku woudn’t teach Katara then he woudn’t be taught either Katara insists and conivnces Aang to still learn from him, she talks with Pakku, swallows her pride and makes sure Aang gets his training, all this so people call her selfish. People gloss over her trauma as if it were nothing, her mother lied to protect her causing her death, imagine how guilty she must have felt for so long, her mother died for her and then its her who finds her dead body. That is some heavy trauma but she never speaks about it, she keeps that part inside, all that so people call her whiny. Instead of being inmature and negative Katara enrolls in a motherly role over Sokka which people also criticize her for, can’t people understand how after loosing her mother Katara wanted to fill inthat void by imitating her manners and ways of a mother to always fell connected with her and to always have her within her. She’s protective over Sokka beacuse of her trauma and because she doesn’t want to lose yet another person who she loves, also her having been so connected to her mother adopting her manners is also a way for her to feel more connected to her brother. All of this so people call her a party pooper, unable to de bun and boring. Her empathy is always incredible to me she helps however needs her, she carries everyone’s problems and her own all while keeping a smile on and giving hope. That is amazing. Now there’s also a sexist side to hating Katara because if roles were reveresed between her and Sokka she would still be hated on. She’d be seen as inmature and unfocused always being goofy, sarcastic and sexists towards Sokka, they’d say say she’s being unfair and selfish and that as an older sister her duty should be to care over Sokka and be a sort of leader and mother. Sokka on the other side would still be loved as much, people would connect with his desire of vengance for his mother’s death, they’d see him as this strong guy who had to quiclky grow up and still takes over with leadership he’d be the “protective older borther” trope that everyone loves while Katara is seen as controlling for being protective and called whiny and annoying for wanting revenge. Then people complain about Katara not shuting up abut her mother which I explained above how that is utterly and completely absurd, but they complain about this as if other characters like Zuko who mentions  and complains about his honon in every episode of season 1 didn’t exist. Zuko has actually hurt people because of his honor he has hurt, betrayed and amde the gaangs life much more difficult for a long time. Yet his honor thing is tuned into a funny joke an no one ever holds it against him. (I love Zuko with my entire heart this is to put things into perspective, I still love Zuko with every fibre of my body and soul.) I’m not saying Katara should be your favorite character or that you aren’t allowed to be angry at her ot you can’t like her less than other characters because that’s just personal preference but hating her for these reaons or hating her at all is is absurd and stupid. Quit hating on a teenage girl how is absolulty amazing. Katara is amazing and I stan her. i rest my case.

[zuzuslastbraincell]

14 and 4 for the salty asks?

4. Do you have a NoTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP?*

As previously discussed, Jet/Zuko in 90% of cases (I would only read it if it was being presented as an unhealthy relationship and even then I have difficulty stomaching it).

I also can't deal with Zuko/Aang (or Zuko/Toph) because the size of that age gap with kids is deeply unhealthy, you're at *completely* different points of maturity, and it'd be near impossible to conceive of a romantic relationship without the younger party being coerced or groomed at some point. I have unfortunately been witness to a 17 year old friend dating a 13 year old friend when I was a teenager and it was an absolute disaster start to finish, with the younger girl being really hurt by it, so to an extent this is personal too. It's a shame because I love *love* Zuko and Aang's friendship but a lot of Zuko & Aang art and content in particular is made by shippers. Sometimes I hear the complaint from Zuk*ang shippers that m/m shippers don't appreciate/hate Aang because he's not masc, he's very spiritual, he doesn't appeal to western audiences etc. and yes those are reasons why Aang's character is underappreciated in general, but also I'm always rolling my eyes because bro maybe the reason people don't like it has WAY more to do with that skeevy age gap. Yikes!

14. Unpopular opinion about your fandom?

You're gonna get more than one. I have a lot tbh, I think my main divisive one (but hopefully not too unpopular) is just that we need to make more effort to be consistently anti-racist and anti-imperialist in our approach to a deeply orientalist source material. The other main one is the way people massively favour m/m and how that ties into fetishisation but really that's not unique to ATLA and is arguably imported from other fandom culture.

one small one I don't think I've voiced publicly before is '______ is homophobic' as a joke, is like, just unfunny, annoying, and at its worst actively upsetting (and I'm so glad we've mostly dropped those jokes). obviously to some extent this is subjective and depends on your sense of humour but like... homophobic katara jokes were funny for exactly five minutes (because the idea of katara being a raging homophobe is so ridiculous it's laughable) before getting far too out of hand and it felt like it was very much slipping into irony-poisoned humour where people would actively make the case that yes she was very homophobic rather than recognising that ATLA's script as a whole tends to make jokes at the expense of gender non-conformity, especially men being weak or w/e, and people weirdly singled out katara for it. I mean you can read katara as straight, sure whatever, just why do you need to attach homophobia to it?

I mean. Obviously context matters here. I don't mind (and even like) azula jokes when it's like 'gay rights but only for me' or whatever because she IS that type of conservative gay and i honestly have difficulty imagining her getting over internalised homophobia but it's something I do think she gets over. It hits different knowing the chara is widely regarded as gay quite frankly.

The other thing is that I think some matters in fandom *are* subjective and we should agree to disagree more often. And by this I absolutely don't mean hard lines like inappropriate age gaps or very clearly abusive relationships. What I mean is that people are allowed to dislike characters and dynamics for whatever personal reason they'd like and that's ultimately fine. I know I follow people who don't like Sokka for his sexism and are unconvinced by his supposed shedding of that, and quite honestly I respect that opinion and viewpoint (and they're not entirely wrong i think). I follow people who don't like various things I ship, or aren't interested in tenuous wlw rarepairs where the characters have never met and don't have a established dynamic and I get that and that's honestly fine. Other people have different interpretations of characters and the thing is this can be both a subjective or objective matter, depending on the evidence provided. While some readings of a text are simply wrong (it's not entirely subjective) we should be careful not to take one reading as law. and honestly, interacting with people who share different viewpoints is more fun and interesting imo.

[seyaryminamoto]

hii, can you tell me more about why you’re anti sukka?

... Okay, now, that’s an inaccurate statement.

As per current internet terminology, I’m not ANTI Sukka. These days, an anti is someone who obsesses with the ships they hate, and spends an insane amount of time harassing fans of the ship, attacking other shippers, making content to disparage the ship and pretending they’re on some sort of superior moral high ground by doing all these things. While I’ve made occasional posts on why I don’t ship Sukka, I don’t think I’ve made any since AGES ago. I don’t get in the way of anyone who does ship it and I wouldn’t even say I HATE the ship. In truth, I just don’t care for it. I won’t read or look for content about it, but that’s not the same as hating a ship, let alone the same as harrassing its shippers: so I’m not anti-Sukka, I just don’t ship Sukka.

Now, since your question’s intent was to figure out why don’t I ship it...

... Warning: long, long essay that won’t sit well with any hardcore Sukka shippers right under the cut. I would be using a truncated term like su*ka throughout the whole post if only the anon hadn’t already used the actual ship name, but regrettably, it’s likely to show up in your tags all the same. I am sorry, preemptively, if it does: please ignore it for your own good and go on your merry way without letting me ruin your day.

I haven’t talked about this for ages tbh. But anyways, here we go.

When I watched The Warriors of Kyoshi for the first time, I actually liked Suki plenty. I liked her initial conflict and chemistry with Sokka, though I wasn’t big on how she made him wear the Kyoshi Warriors uniform when it clearly made him uncomfortable, but all in all, I liked how their relationship had shaped up at that point and I even looked forward to Suki returning in future episodes.

On my first watch of ATLA, I seriously saw nothing wrong in Sukka. I didn’t think a lot of things through during that first time I watched the show, I was just binging the whole thing like a maniac (like a lot of people are doing at the time), so I found their relationship perfectly acceptable as it was, for the show I was watching.

And then later rewatches, even before the Sokkla bug bit me as hard as it has, I realized maybe that wasn’t entirely true.

One of the things I really, REALLY don’t like about Sukka to this day is how unequal their relationship is in terms of how the characters are written in the show. Basically, the same complaint I have about Asami in LOK applies to Suki ever since she reappears in Book 2, but ESPECIALLY in Book 3: her character ends up revolving almost exclusively around Sokka.

Meanwhile, Sokka appears to forget about her surprisingly often and easily.

Instance #1: there’s no sign of Sokka holding a torch for Suki when he first develops a crush on Yue. Implying that, while Suki impressed him, his feelings for her weren’t necessarily romantic despite she outright kissed his cheek... whereas he is crushing, HARD, on Yue. In contrast, Suki was so affected by Team Avatar’s visit to her island that she took off to help people around the world to follow their example. Sokka (and his friends) have a huge impact on Suki’s life... whereas Suki’s impact, sure, taught Sokka to set aside his sexism, but he’s never even seen reflecting on how much Suki has changed him because of this? Neither is Katara portrayed mentioning how much nicer he became after meeting Suki? There’s not a single sign through the rest of the season of how much Suki has meant for Sokka, whether as a teacher, friend or potential love interest.

Instance #2: after initially hesitating to kiss Suki in the Serpent’s Pass, Sokka finally kisses her once they’re about to part ways before she returns to the Kyoshi Warriors. It’s soooo very romantic... until, a mere episode later, Ty Lee openly flirts with Sokka and, instead of reacting as he does later in the season (with a comment along the lines of ”Uh, I’m with someone else”), Sokka merely WAVES AND SMILES. I... don’t even understand why the writers did this. They spent the entire season featuring Sokka avoiding Ty Lee, or being fully hostile with her, but somehow RIGHT AFTER establishing his relationship with Suki, he’s shown behaving like this? It doesn’t make any sense to me. It basically says either he’s not taking his relationship with Suki all that seriously, or he’s just blatantly disloyal, and considering how devoted he was to Yue, I can’t bring myself to believe it’s the second thing. A writing oversight? Eh...

Instance #3: when Toph talks about the moon turning mean, Sokka rages and rants about how nice the moon is. Why do I bring this up? Because Yue is out of reach. Yue is gone: he still feels the need to defend her from someone who isn’t really insulting her despite that. MEANWHILE... Suki’s fate, at the time, is unknown. Sokka has no idea if Azula captured her, left her for dead, tossed her in a river, sold her to a traveling circus...? He doesn’t. He seriously doesn’t. He can’t KNOW what Azula did because the last thing he knew, Mai and Ty Lee were masquerading as Kyoshi Warriors. Implying them, and their leader, did something to the group his girlfriend was part of. And yet, for an entire season finale AND the first half of Book 3, Sokka betrays zero intentions of wanting to discover what happened with Suki, or guilt about not being able to save her UNTIL AZULA BRINGS HER UP. I know it’s very sad for Sukka fans to see Sokka crying over Suki as he did when Azula taunts him... but why haven’t we seen the slightest sign of how affected he is by Suki’s presumed capture/murder/whatever he was imagining happening to her, when Book 2 features Sokka suffering over failing Yue in the Swamp, as well as rejecting Suki initially over guilt because of his lingering feelings for Yue, paired with fear of failing to protect those he cares about? And then in Book 3 he’s even standing up to Toph when she makes a careless comment about the moon spirit...? Why is it so easy to bring up Yue, but not Suki? Is this really just another writing oversight? So we’ve had TWO writing oversights about this relationship already, both of which suggest Suki is barely on Sokka’s mind at all? Is this oversight... or accidental characterization? :’)

Instance #4: Sokka and Zuko travel to the Boiling Rock. Sokka is determined to save his father. It’s a really cool, absolutely acceptable, very important decision for his character... but here’s the kicker: Sokka knows now, at this point, that Suki might still be alive and a prisoner of the Fire Nation. Azula outright said Suki had been WAITING FOR HIM AND GAVE UP BECAUSE HE NEVER CAME. This is what drives him to tears and to shout at Azula while wasting time during the Eclipse! :’D And then? Then he goes to Zuko, to ask him about Fire Nation prisons, and my gullible, first-watch self thought “oh, he wants to save Suki now that Azula said she’s alive! :D” ... only for his intent to be exclusively about his father. I’m not saying it’s WRONG for Sokka to privilege Hakoda over Suki, I mean, he is his father and Sokka really cares about family. It’s one of his main priorities, always has been. But isn’t it WEIRD that after Azula taunted him SO BAD about failing Suki, after saying Suki GAVE UP ON HIM, Sokka makes zero moves to find out if she might be alive and within reach? He could ask Zuko about her, maybe, seeing as he was on Azula’s side in Ba Sing Se and may have known a thing or two about any prisoners she captured in the Earth Kingdom? Sokka could have mentioned he wants to save BOTH Hakoda and Suki, and it doesn’t harm the story in the least for him to say something like that. It doesn’t make his efforts for Hakoda any lesser, and it shows Suki is a priority for him too... But no. Instead let’s feature him bumping into Suki by sheer luck, because that’s truly what it was, and instead of feeling any guilt for not helping her sooner, he’s just lovestruck and attempting to put moves on her when she doesn’t even know who he is yet. Super funny. Super romantic. Super lacking and I can’t understand why, WHY, someone would ever think this is how to write a quality romantic relationship?

Instance #5: connected to instance #4, actually. When traveling to the Boiling Rock, Sokka and Zuko have an awkward conversation. During this awkward conversation, Sokka asks Zuko if there was anything he left behind in the Fire Nation that he might have missed. Zuko smiles and talks about Mai. Sokka is surprised that the “gloomy girl who sighs a lot” was his girlfriend, and Zuko looks genuinely fond of her as he smiles and thinks of her. And then Sokka brings up his own romantic experience... WITH YUE. Instead of bringing up the girl who taught him girls can fight too, instead of bringing up the girl he hasn’t been able to save yet, the girl who MIGHT BE in the prison he’s headed towards, Sokka brings up the girl he absolutely CAN’T save anymore. He brings up the girl whose death most clearly scarred him, deeply, and I’m not trying to lessen the blow Yue’s sacrifice takes on Sokka... but Suki literally, LITERALLY, has something to do with the plot of this very episode? While “My girlfriend turned into the moon” “That’s rough, buddy” is a well-loved hilarious scene and line, I’d have sacrificed that IN A HEARTBEAT if the writers had thought to feature Sokka talking about Suki instead. He could’ve said Azula took her! He literally KNOWS this now, for a fact! Zuko could’ve told him “Hey, maybe she’s in the Boiling Rock too!”, and the plot of the episode wouldn’t have changed in the slightest, beyond featuring Sokka actively looking for BOTH Hakoda and Suki! But no. Again, no. Again, the writers choose to privilege Sokka’s bond with Yue over Suki. With Hakoda over Suki. With anyone else over Suki.

... whlie Suki, most obviously, has no one else she cares about more than Sokka. Why? Because she hasn’t even had enough screentime to establish any other significant relationships, and after the Boiling Rock, she doesn’t establish them anyways.

This causes Suki to feel like a Sokka satellite: SHE revolves around HIM. But Sokka? Sokka doesn’t revolve around Suki IN THE LEAST. Would it be healthy for him to be completely devoted and crazy over Suki to the point of disregarding his ties with other people over her? Hell, no! But it’s not healthy to feature Suki as good as doing that for Sokka either! :’D Suki doesn’t even have a solid, established friendship with any of the other Gaang members. She has POTENTIAL for it, but ever since she joins the Gaang she is most frequently shown interacting with Sokka and only on occasion with the others, but in no memorable, meaningful way with anyone but Sokka. She even joins Katara while searching for Aang in Sozin’s Comet, and we don’t see the slightest sign of unique, important bonding  between them. She saved Toph from drowning once, found out Toph has a crush on the same boy she likes, and it’d have been interesting if she, for instance, had refrained from seeking an openly romantic relationship with Sokka out of respect for Toph’s feelings? They could’ve had a conversation about it? With Toph telling her to go for it, maybe, because Sokka liked her too? Suki saying she doesn’t want to hurt her? A perfectly nice bonding situation for these two girls, showing quite a lot of respect between them, as well as respect for their personal relationships with Sokka?

But no. That doesn’t happen. 

The second important character Suki bonds most with is Zuko, and in the show, it’s exclusively because they’re with Sokka in the Boiling Rock. Once that’s over you can’t really say there’s any relevant, personal dynamics between them in the show. Heck, Suki tells him she wants a rematch with Azula in the Boiling Rock: Zuko could have offered her a chance to come with him to the Fire Nation and get that rematch, instead of offering it to Katara :’D Why doesn’t he? Because they DID take their time to establish a relationship between Zuko and Katara, even derrailing the show for a whole episode to ensure they would convince Katara to forgive Zuko for all the wrong he did, in the most absurd and contradictory situation possible. Meanwhile, a simple “sorry” from Zuko is enough for Suki to stop holding a grudge. You absolutely CAN interpret this as Suki not being the type to hold a grudge! Which, great! But you also CAN interpret this as the writers being way too lazy to give Suki as much time to forgive Zuko as she could have/should have needed. And sadly, while story-wise I’ll choose to read it the first way, I think, realistically, what happened was the second thing instead.

Suki doesn’t even have a meaningful relationship with Aang. AANG. I’m not saying she should have been his best friend, but Oyaji outright says “you kids had a big impact on her”. It’s PLURAL. It’s not supposed to mean “Sokka had a big impact on her”. Hell, Aang is Kyoshi’s PAST LIFE. Kyoshi is, in all likelihood, Suki’s hero! :’D And yet... nothing. Not even featuring Suki as a Kyoshi fangirl who knows all sorts of random facts about her, such as her favorite foods or the habits she enjoyed most, and Aang saying “oh hey, I like doing that too!”, so that they both could rejoice in this unique, curious shared common ground!

Nay. Nothing. Literally nothing. Her only serious, meaningful relationship is with Sokka... and like I said, whenever Sokka is asked about meaningful relationships with girls, his brain goes “Yue”, immediately, even when the plot would benefit from him saying “Suki” at least ONCE. He’ll sit out at night watching the moon, but he can’t be bothered to bring up how frustrating it is for Azula to have captured Suki whether before or after the Invasion. Yes, Sokka is shown to be the kind of guy who grieves quietly: why is it so much easier, then, to see his quiet grieving for Yue than his concern for Suki?

The truth is, it’s a writing shortcoming. It’s not even something I’d blame on Sokka’s character because, as I always have said, his relationship with Yue really highlights what a wonderful boyfriend he can be when he’s seriously interested in someone. He takes Yue out on dates, gives her gifts, fights for her people, fights the fiancé who only objectifies her, tries to protect her from fulfilling a destiny that will kill her? This is all top-tier romance hero behavior. It is. Why the hell isn’t this behavior seen with Suki too?

It’s not a matter of Suki being a warrior rather than a Princess so she doesn’t need him to act the same way he did with Yue: the show outright, literally, explicitly states Suki is a girl and a warrior, implying Sokka could easily enough woo her the same way he does with Yue, if he cared to. But he doesn’t. It’s Suki with the initiative when their actual romantic relationship begins, and later on Sokka can forget Suki is his girlfriend whenever it suits his fancy, to absolutely no consequences.

So... does this mean, then, that Sokka, in canon, only tries really hard when he’s chasing after someone he can’t be with? That he slacks off and drops the ball when the girl is already his? Well, that’s... not good. Not healthy. Not pretty.

This doesn’t mean that there’s nothing good about Sukka altogether, there are a few things about the ship that aren’t bad... but even then, scenes like “Sokka makes a gross sand sculpture and says it’s Suki” aren’t really that heartwarming to me. It’s not only a comedic relief scene that tries to feature these two as super romantic dorks... but it only reinforces one of the main shortcomings in this relationship for me:

Sokka doesn’t even have to TRY.

He doesn’t. He can make a gross-looking statue, say it’s Suki, and she won’t even make suggestions to improve it? She just says it’s perfect this way. It’s basically the kind of coddling Ursa did with Zuko when Zuko messed up in his firebending display and Ursa said it was wonderful. In the case of a couple, it feels like a mix of cute and condescending? Suki accepts Sokka as he is, sure, so she doesn’t challenge him, doesn’t try to make him do better, he doesn’t need to improve his work... because she’s fine with whatever she gets from him. 

This is complacency. It’s a relationship neither one needs to make efforts for. Suki will always accept Sokka’s occasional romantic gestures, even if he leaves so much to be desired in his relationship with her, as opposed to his relationship with Yue. And I’m not saying Sokka DOESN’T care about Suki, but he doesn’t need to do better with her, and while that’s just what Sokka may think he wants/needs for the future, in truth, that’s not what makes his character thrive.

What makes Sokka’s character grow amazingly is CHALLENGE. And I don’t mean that he needs a girlfriend difficult to be with and out of reach (like Yue): I mean that, when faced with a love interest who keeps him on his toes and makes him continue pushing his boundaries, Sokka would genuinely develop and grow further as a man, warrior, leader and love interest. Look at how fast he develops into a quality swordsman while training with Piandao: why? Because it was a challenge. Because it was an opportunity to hone his skills. Because he had to rise up to prove himself, and HE DOES. In the Invasion? He feels he can’t measure up to Hakoda, but in the end? He winds up LEADING the whole operation. People FLOCK to him as he draws out the battle plans and strategies they’ll follow so they can figure out where Ozai is and take him out before the eclipse ends. Right after thinking he couldn’t do it, when the situation DEMANDED that he stepped up, he did and he goddamn EXCELLED at it, proving himself well above these challenges indeed.

THESE are the moments where his character shines the brightest. And a relationship that wasn’t so complacent would do this kind of thing for Sokka’s character just as well: a challenging relationship would promote his GROWTH. He wouldn’t be stunted in simplicity with someone who doesn’t give up on him when he spends MONTHS disregarding her circumstances. Because the truth is, I see Sokka as an overachiever in denial: he wants to go the extra mile, to do things no one else has done before, but because he’s stuck in a world where he doesn’t have the crazy powers his friends do, he wrongfully assumes they’re the ones who’ll do amazing things and he’ll just lag behind them, so he figures it’s better not to bother trying to stand out at all. Yet look at him, figuring out the perfect plan to take down Ozai’s fleet: look at him, making such an impression on Piandao, epic swordmaster, that Piandao even says “If you stay on this path, I know that one day you will become an even greater master than I am.”

Sokka has incredible, extraordinary potential as a character. He has huuuuge anxieties and sources of anguish and insecurities, and those only make his potential greater. He has flaws that can be worked on, there’s so much room for growth...

And the true reason I can’t support Sukka, on Sokka’s end, is because I don’t think that relationship will encourage him to grow any further.

Meanwhile, I can’t support it on Suki’s end because I don’t think she deserves to be an afterthought for a boyfriend who has so much going on in his life that she’s a secondary or even tertiary thing in his life unless she’s right in front of him. And even when he doesn’t have that much going on (meaning, during the first FOUR comic trilogies), he’s shown traveling the world with his friends instead of spending time with her. And heck, where Suki SHOULD have arrived in the South Pole with Zuko as his guard during North and South, Suki doesn’t show up at all. Why? Seriously, what sort of logic explains that the Fire Lord’s appointed BODYGUARD would stay behind in the Fire Nation while Zuko travels halfway across the world, with hell knows how many dangers ahead? If she HAD gone with Zuko, she would’ve had a chance to spend more time with Sokka and it’d even be a point in Sukka’s favor. But that doesn’t happen. To make matters even worse, Sokka doesn’t even tell Aang to say hi to Suki for him when Aang leaves to the Fire Nation by himself in Smoke and Shadow? There are TWO WHOLE PANELS as Aang takes off on Appa with NO DIALOGUE. Sokka calling after Aang to ask him to say hi to Suki literally would’ve fit PERFECTLY, right there! But no. Suki doesn’t even get that much from her boyfriend.

Seriously, it’s NOT THAT HARD to show a healthy long-distance relationship. It’s not that difficult to feature Suki and Sokka longing to see each other but having too much going on to meet up. But that’s not what we got with Sukka, not in the comics, not in the show. Fans ARE free to believe otherwise, and I’m not going to trample on someone who thinks we just conveniently never get to see the healthiest aspects of their very positive relationship... but there’s no genuine evidence to back up this belief. It’s just wishful thinking and hoping that things are far better behind the scenes than what we’re genuinely shown.

Again... I blame the writing. Especially seeing as Yang’s writing of Sokka is DISMAL. But it doesn’t erase what’s already there. It doesn’t do away with the very obvious problems in this relationship.

The positive moments Sukka gets are offset, for me, by all the negatives. The meaningful relationship they could have developed feels underdeveloped instead, something we should take for granted is there and nothing more. And even those positive moments and episodes aren’t necessarily that positive?

In particular, I point to The Ember Island Players: there are soooooo many messed up things about Sukka in this episode I have no idea how people aren’t more bothered by them. First of all: the episode features Sokka crying about Yue’s staged death scene, and Suki is shown amused, saying she had no idea Sokka had made out with the moon spirit. First of all: SOKKA DIDN’T TELL SUKI ABOUT YUE. Her initial reaction here is amusement, for some reason...? Yet as we already saw that there’s no real bad blood between her and Toph despite she, of all people, KNOWS Toph has a crush on the same guy she likes, there’s no real reason to think Suki would behave like a jealous fiend if she knew Sokka had a relationship with someone else before her. Yet Sokka doesn’t tell her about it: this implies he either doesn’t trust her, or doesn’t know her well enough to realize she WON’T be a jealous fiend, and outright assumes she will be one because of mistaken preconceptions about how relationships work.

At this point, Sokka and Suki have been officially together since Book 2, episode 12. Book 2 happens in spring. Book 3′s conclusion is at the end of summer. This means Sokka has had about four-five months of a relationship with Suki. Out of which, yes, she spent the majority of those months in prison :’D but then he rescued her! And... apparently proceeded not to tell her about his experiences while fighting in the war? To not share his biggest failure to protect someone he cared about? So... to NOT open up to Suki about anything that genuinely mattered?

Considering he’s willing to snap at Toph when she brings up the moon could be “mean”, considering he’s willing to tell Zuko that his first girlfriend turned into the moon when they’re only starting to trust each other... this unwillingness to tell Suki about Yue feels OFF. It doesn’t make any sense. His relationship with Yue was far from something to be ashamed of. It meant A LOT to him. Why the heck hide it from Suki, when all the reasons sound either condescending or distrustful as hell?

Ah. Because the writers thought this scene would be funny, that’s why.

And the funny scene gets even BETTER when Sokka shushes Suki and proceeds to cry about Yue’s death: he’s shutting her out. And hey... Suki doesn’t like this. She turns her face around and looks pretty irritated, whether by being shushed or by his unwillingness to share his past with her or BOTH THINGS...

... And then the show doesn’t acknowledge this OBVIOUS, SIZABLE, IMPORTANT shortcoming of their relationship ever again.

We’re supposed to assume Sokka explained everything later just because? Hell, he looks like he has absolutely no intentions of doing that. If you ask me, it even could feel like he thinks his relationship with Yue is none of Suki’s business? And that’s not pretty. That’s not good romance writing, no matter how you look at it.

This, of course, is not everything: there’s another two unpleasant situations in this episode alone! :’D

The second one is a slightly smaller one, but bears mentioning all the same: Aang is annoyed when the play makes a mockery of Zutara, so he gets up and leaves: Sokka tells him to bring him snacks. After his initial request, Sokka wraps an arm around Suki and they’re shown surprisingly cuddly now, DESPITE their previous impasse. At first, Suki smiles fondly at him. But then he turns around and asks Aang for more snacks. And then Suki outright looks ANNOYED, while Sokka looks like he doesn’t give a single crap.

This, I feel, ties in with what I mentioned earlier about how Sokka doesn’t even have to try with Suki: Suki isn’t merely a happy girl who thinks Sokka can do no wrong. She CAN be annoyed by him and his behavior, but for some reason, she chooses not to bring up her grievances with how he’s acting, even if it doesn’t sit well with her?

So while there’s supposed to be something so very cute with the monster blob sand statue, her approval doesn’t feel genuine to me. I simply can’t see it as genuine. Because when you feature Suki smiling in that strangely motherly way, saying the statue is “sweet” (instead of, I don’t know, saying she actually sees the artistic merit of it (if she did) or saying he just needs to put in a bit more work), she’s focusing exclusively on making SOKKA feel better about himself. And when Suki is annoyed? He doesn’t have to show remotely the same amount of consideration or compassion she displays for him. Why? Because she sweeps her feelings under the rug and lets him get away with everything he does, even things she’s not happy about. She lets him get away with keeping important secrets, lets him get away with annoying her in the middle of the play, AND...

... lets him get away with rubbing in Suki’s face that Azula kicked her ass :’)

Look, I’m not even being my biased shipper self here. The third unpleasant thing in Ember Island Players is that Suki decides to point out that Team Avatar keeps getting out of deadly pinches by sheer luck and that they lose a lot! She doesn’t say this with concern: she looks sardonic, like she’s legit mocking them. It’d feel completely out of place if she hadn’t been annoyed by Sokka earlier, so it feels (to me) like she’s just taunting him because she’s already not in the best of moods and expects to feel better by making fun of him. Not a terrible crime, but a rather strange one to commit too, considering she’s making fun of her boyfriend damn near dying all the time. You’d think, maybe, that kind of possibility should worry her a little more...?

... But then Sokka retaliates with: “You're one to talk, Suki. Didn't Azula take you captive? That's right, she did!”

Isn’t it goddamn WEIRD that Sokka would bring up what, according to a large amount of Suki’s fanbase, must have been a terribly scarring experience for Suki... just to win an argument with her? Just to piss her off because she’s making fun of him? They’re BOTH shown being remarkably inconsiderate towards each other and the struggles they faced in their respective journeys in this scene. It’s supposed to be lighthearted bickering, but the subject they’re choosing to talk about isn’t lighthearted AT ALL.

According to some Suki fans, Suki could have even been tortured, tormented in thousand ways, by Azula when she took her prisoner. There were whole posts going around about how heartwarming it was for Suki to still be waiting for Sokka, no matter what...!

And THIS is how Sokka reacted to Suki’s patient waiting for him? THIS? By telling her “lol loser Azula caught you anyhow so your argument’s invalid”? If Suki HAD gone through some serious torture, beyond getting stripped off her uniform, how on earth would it be healthy for Sokka to use this allegedly mentally scarring experience AGAINST HIS GIRLFRIEND?

Now then, it WOULD BE fucked up, but the truth is, Suki wasn’t tortured at all, so the whole delusional, tragic “Suki is so emotionally strong because she believed in the man who would come save her even in the darkest of moments!” is honestly nonsense in the end: a girl who was tortured, tormented and anguished by the memories of whatever she experienced in Azula’s hands wouldn’t have retorted to Sokka’s comment with an irritated: “Are you trying to get on my bad side?”

Yet again, Suki is annoyed.

They’re both annoyed by each other’s arguments. 

But their discussion ENDS at this point, and goes forgotten, again. 

Suki isn’t even a quality bickering source for Sokka, because as soon as Sokka rebuffs with a counterargument she doesn’t like, she turns things personal and takes offense. Where he may not have taken her initial taunt as a particular, personal attack, she does interpret his words that way.

AND THEN THEY PROCEED TO FORGET ABOUT THEIR ARGUMENT AND ITS IMPLICATIONS, YET AGAIN :’)

Now then... is all this so terrible? Am I making too big a deal out of small things that shouldn’t be inspected so closely, especially as they were likely written with humorous intent and nothing more? It’s entirely possible!

You see, I don’t exactly love the way romance is handled in ATLA because it’s frankly always flawed and faulty beyond belief. People often have said one of the three canon relationships is better than the others, but at this point I disagree altogether: they’re all written to be flawed and have huge gaps of logic in the behavior of the characters involved. The girls are always shown as prioritizing the boy above everything else ever, and the boys are too often shown leaving them behind, forgetting about their love interests alarmingly frequently, being outright FORCED by the plot to let go of their attachment to them, whereas there’s no such conflicts or situations with the girls, in the least! Implying that it’s fine for girls to be completely devoted to a relationship, to the point where their whole LIVES revolve around the boy they like, but the boy shouldn’t behave the same way and must learn to leave the girl behind or put her aside instead?

... The implicit sexism in this consistent writing element in ALL THREE CANON RELATIONSHIPS is honestly pretty disturbing. I don’t think I need to say much more about it, do I?

Now though, I will, however, point out that it’s relatively good for canon NOT to show Kataang, Maiko or Sukka as perfect relationships because it IS realistic. It’s not pretty, but it is realistic. These characters are children or teenagers who quite often didn’t even have good role models of romance in their parents or peers, let alone even slightly decent childhoods, so for them to be 100% healthy in terms of romance would have been utterly absurd. Therefore, these kids would be expected to make mistakes and then learn from them so their relationships improve over time.

Sokka and Suki’s relationship is flawed, which only lends MORE believability to it, because the characters aren’t warped to fit the narrative, to play them as unmistakably perfect, ideal partners for each other. But those flaws do lend for problems like the ones I pointed out above...

And you see, the ultimate problem is that these characters DON’T learn from those mistakes. They don’t. Mai and Zuko are shown making the exact same blunders in the show and the comics, hell, sometimes even worse ones in the comics. Sokka and Suki still act like they’re totally in love ONLY when they happen to be in the same place and even then? Suki outright ignores Azula’s zapping attack at Sokka in The Search! SHE’S IN THE SAME COURTYARD! But it’s the THREE BENDERS who come to Sokka’s “rescue”, despite he doesn’t even NEED rescuing, since the attack was goddamn meaningless anyhow. 

The point is, however, that Suki is right there, damn it, taking care of APPA. And she’d sooner look after the sky bison that than check on her boyfriend, who was just “attacked” by her WORST ENEMY, WITH WHOM SHE WANTED A REMATCH???

Seriously. What logic is this. What kind of ROMANCE is this. It doesn’t make any sense to me, and if I were a Sukka fan I’d be beyond outraged by watching my favorite relationship written so carelessly.

So, because Yang’s writing isn’t even ALLOWED to move anything too far forward, because Bryke don’t want that, none of these relationships have developed in any interesting ways after the show. AT BEST you could say Kataang definitely act differently in the comics than they did in the show, for better or for worse, so you can say there’s some changes in their dynamics, though those changes aren’t necessarily related to genuine character growth. But Maiko? Same old story. Sukka? Same old story.

What exactly does Sukka do for Sokka at this point? He has someone to make out with whenever they cross paths? Yeah, okay, cool. And? That’s it? For that matter, he could be making out with anyone else just the same. What kind of room for growth does she offer him? Going by how she doesn’t even need him around her, by how she has never needed anything but mediocrity from him, I can’t say there’s anything to be found. Their relationship already dealt with its biggest possible hurdle WHEN THEY FIRST MET. That’s the main growth Suki offered Sokka, and now she can’t give him anything else because he’s way too efficient and learned everything she could teach him right away :’) Paired with this, Suki wasn’t developed enough as a character either, so if she has other regards in which she can teach Sokka a thing or two, we simply don’t know it, and the comics refuse to show it to us too, so up to date, Suki is severely underdeveloped by canon and will continue to be, as far as I can tell.

Which, of course, factors in the next question: what does Sukka do for Suki? Honestly, nothing. If this relationship did something interesting for her character, we’d have tons of things to say and discuss about her, but the truth is all Suki-related discussion tends to have nothing to do with Sokka (her past and growth as a Kyoshi Warrior, her future post-canon, whatever the heck happened to her by LOK’s time... I’ve never seen anyone genuinely pondering anything about her relationship with Sokka beyond “did they stay together or not?!?!”). Suki is at her best when she’s with the Kyoshi Warriors, because it’s the only element of her character that DOESN’T revolve around Sokka. Going by the plot of the Shells comic, she could go travel the world teaching girls self-defense, and kicking the asses of sexist dudes! It’s not really going to deepen her character, sadly, because that’s basically ALL we know about her since the start of the show, aside from her attachment to Sokka. And she doesn’t need Sokka to do this. She could do it by herself just the same.

Literally, just for the sake of giving Suki something else to do, not even for my personal OTP’s sake, I’d gladly see Suki breaking up with Sokka so she can damn explore who she is beyond this relationship? The Kyoshi Warriors serving in the Fire Nation Palace was probably the first interesting development for Suki in canon since she first met Sokka, and even then her role there was never explored fully, let alone was her potentially red-herring budding relationship with Zuko. 

But who am I kidding? :’) not gonna happen. For all I know, they got married in canon and had a perfectly happy life together. A perfectly happy, mediocre life, where neither one has to make the slightest effort for the other, in the least. Taking each other for granted, every step of the way!

*sigh* I can’t want this for Sokka, seriously. I can’t. I love his character a lot, but I absolutely hate how he’s written in this relationship. Most my understanding of how Sokka behaves in a relationship has come from how he behaves with Yue, precisely because, as brief as their relationship was, he seriously appeared to value her above so many other things, to fight for her, to do anything he could to help her without asking for anything in return. And that’s why I write him as I do.

Love can feel different when you experience it with different people, of course, and I’m not asking for Sokka to be written exactly the same in two different relationships... but the difference is just way too vast. I don’t question he cares about Suki, but I do question that he genuinely loves her. This is NOT how someone in love behaves. And frankly, Suki’s behavior isn’t that of a girl in genuine love either. She likes him plenty, is impressed by the things he and his friends have achieved, but is it genuine love? How can it be, when they apparently can’t even trust each other about their personal experiences (Yue in Sokka’s case, spending months as a prisoner in Suki’s)? When his behavior rubs her the wrong way and annoys her when they’re at their most casual? When the bickering he’d likely enjoy having with a significant other just falters after two exchanges with Suki because she takes offense to what he said? 

In conclusion:

Writing: the writing of this relationship is frankly really, REALLY flawed, far more than most fans are willing to acknowledge (whether fans of the ship or of the show in general). They try to make jokes with this relationship, but these jokes end up highlighting serious flaws in this relationship that are never addressed. Also, their relationship is hardly ever treated as something majorly important for Sokka, who constantly privileges his bond with Yue over Suki, which is radically contrasted with Suki, who has no meaningful relationships in the show beyond Sokka. As I pointed out earlier, the writing proposes the boy doesn’t need to revolve around the girl, but the girl DOES revolve around the boy? Absolutely appalling.

Dynamics: beyond their exchanges on their very first episode, their dynamics don’t offer anything unique to their characters. You can replace Suki with any other female character, and Sokka’s struggle to let go of Yue and accept a new love interest in his life wouldn’t change in any considerable way. It didn’t HAVE to be Suki, let alone a Suki whose original personality (sassy, demanding, proud to the point of bordering on arrogant, prone to making mistakes because of this flaw...) was completely hijacked by a new one (perfectly nice, friendly, reasonable, considerate, flirty, not demanding in the least, virtually flawless...). There’s not much Sokka can teach the Book 2-onwards Suki, or much else Suki can teach Sokka. There’s not much they can learn together either, because the writing never offers them new challenges they haven’t handled before. Their dynamics exclusively hinge on Suki being reliable in action situations, weak humor centered around Sokka being a mediocre boyfriend, and making out. That’s all their relationship provides, and frankly, they BOTH can do better than that.

Potential: I don’t think Sukka has much more potential beyond what we already have seen. Their natural chemistry isn’t anything out of this world, it’s FINE, but it’s not exactly something extraordinary that can’t be found anywhere else. And that’s really at the crux of why I don’t ship it or find much enjoyment in it: neither Sokka nor Suki appear to be at their best in this relationship. Suki is outright worse off by this relationship because she went from feminist poster child to a girl who REVOLVES AROUND A BOY. Please, let’s let that sink in? There are better possible relationships for them, relationships that absolutely could explore aspects of BOTH characters that have gone underdeveloped and overshadowed in canon, just for the sake of weak humor and make-out sessions.

*sigh*

Fact is, most the problems with Sukka are a matter of poor writing. With better writing, the relationship could be good, and would be easier to take seriously. But even then? I wouldn’t ever expect this relationship to outshine other possible ships for both Sokka and Suki. If you feature another girl as Sokka’s big, rude “girls are fighters too” awakening... what’s left for Sukka? Speaking from experience, seeing as I outright wrote that: without this factor, their relationship wouldn’t be anything particularly noteworthy. Sokka would respect Suki right off the bat, sure, maybe surprise her a bit because of how unpredictable and unexpected he can be, but there’d be no genuine reason for them to seriously develop feelings for each other. That their entire bond hinges on their first encounter, rather than the growth of their relationship across time, is far from appealing for me in a relationship. I absolutely need more than that to ship something.

I’ve already brought up most these arguments in the past, as well as others I probably forgot to mention, but I can give you one more post to look at (if you want it), specifically about how a certain ship can be a vast improvement for Sokka over Sukka :’D This, I’d hope, will clarify what I mean when I say other ships can offer Sokka far more than Sukka does. I didn’t dig into it here, since I tried to focus exclusively on why I won’t ship this, but that might help expand your understanding of my reasons not to support it. And then there’s also the ship I support for Suki... here are my arguments on that topic too. Admittedly, I was more centered on Zuko in this second post, but I basically already gave you all the arguments why Suki in Sukka doesn’t work for me :’D and there’s a few arguments in there about why Zuko would be a far more interesting love interest for Suki than Sokka has been so far, too. So... that’s that. I hope I gave you plenty to think about :’D

[moviegroovies]

so i know i’m breaking like, this unspoken vow of silence re: the movie by making this post but this IS a movie blog and i did watch the last airbender. and can i just say. holy fucking shit.

y’all know i like a lot of bad movies. knowing that, take me seriously when i say: this is a BAD movie. and not in a good way. i went into it with no expectations except morbid curiosity and i was STILL let down. i wanted to hate watch it, and yeah, i hated watching it, but it wasn’t even fun to hate. i just hated it. 

don’t watch the last airbender.

if you’re like me and you just wanted to know exactly how bad it was, please benefit from my mistakes. read my fun funky rant and then never think of that movie again. put it out of your mind. rewatch boiling rock. love yourself.

anyway.

pretty much the one and only thing i knew about why it was bad going in was that it was whitewashed; that’s like the only thing anyone ever mentions in conjecture with this movie, when they mention it at all. knowing this, going in knowing full well that the casting department did crimes against humanity, i was still shocked and disturbed at the sight of white katara and white sokka. literally... that casting choice was a hate crime. look them up (or check out my last post) if you need to see it for yourself... it’s bad y’all. somehow i had braced myself for white aang, but before i saw it with my own two eyes i couldn’t believe that they would actually whitewash katara and sokka, And Yet. the really stupid thing is that it’s not even “””justified””” IN UNIVERSE; most of the members of the southern water tribe are played by asian actors, meaning that they didn’t even pull a pan and make the WHOLE southern water tribe white, they just made sokka and katara mysteriously “special” in a spectacularly poor judgement call.

actually, that’s another thing. outside the northern water tribe (which is also mostly white... i’m wondering if sokka and katara are white because gran gran--a white woman in the movie--is from the north? anyway it’s a moot point either way because none of them should be white, there are NO WHITE CHARACTERS IN THE SHOW AVATAR, jesus FUCKING christ), most of the extras and background characters are played by actors of color, particularly asian actors, which would be accurate to the show’s canon. maybe m night shyamalan or someone else involved in the making of this shitshow of a movie thought that this would somehow absolve the whitewashing of the main characters, but in reality i’d argue that it makes it even worse; by having characters mostly played by people of color continuously being saved by three little white bitches, the movie goes HARD on the white savior trope, and also just generally uses these actual, living people as exploitative, orientalist set dressing for this 1 hour and 43 minutes of special hell.

with one notable exception: prince zuko is played by an actor of color--specifially, dev patel. (who is himself miscast, considering how zuko and the fire nation are japanese-coded, but the second they opened on that veruca salt looking ass bitch calling herself katara any hope that the makers of this movie gave any consideration to the racial coding avatar introduced went right out the window.) which adds Another layer of racism to this already inconceivably bad fuckup of a movie; how strange, that the movie’s racebending made all three heroes white, but the primary antagonist (as well as the secondary antagonist, zhao, and the mostly-off-screen-but-still-present ozai) is a man of color. what an odd coincidence. hmmmm.

i hate this movie. i do want to note, though, that dev patel’s inclusion was the only thing that actually got me through the whole thing; i have no idea why he was in this film (he’s FAR too talented for the content he was given and no one else in the entire cast went even one sixteenth as hard as he did) but he was its one saving grace. still, though, even he couldn’t save it. he was so cute and he did his damn best with probably the worst script in the history of film... but he was still in THIS film. since the release of this movie, patel has spoken out against his role in it and the world of hollywood blockbusters in general, and to that i say... good for him. 

i was going for zuko though. this time it was like YES baby CAPTURE that avatar. full stop.

so yes, it was horribly miscast, whitewashed to hell and back, and went with a racist white hero/villains of color cast as a backdrop. all of these things, in themselves, are enough to completely condemn the movie, and my work here might as well be done... except to end it there would be to leave one million other glaring flaws unexamined. and i refuse to let any rock be unturned.

because, like, it’s NOT just bad because of the whitewashing. the whitewashing and the other racist elements are huge PARTS of why this is a bad movie, but even if this movie was made with an accurate and un-whitewashed cast, it would STILL be a bad movie, and i need you all to know this. 

starting from the top: they ruined katara and sokka. 

well, they ruined them the second they cast them the way they did. but again, let’s say they cast someone else. let’s say they cast appropriate actors for the rolls, but the level of acting skill and the script they used was the same. even in this case, they would have RUINED katara and sokka. none of the characters in this movie are 100% recognizable (and i’ll keep repeating it: the casting DID NOT HELP), but katara and sokka got hit the hardest and the worst. the things that sokka should have brought to the table (his goofy attitude, his intelligence) were erased, and the “sokka” we were given instead was a jerkass buzzkill who might have occasionally been the butt of a joke, but was never actually intended to be funny in his own right. reflecting on the series, it’s kind of as if we got his characterization from the first episode (before sokka got any development and was, i guess, kind of a jerkass buzzkill) and never strayed from that, which would be bad enough, but i think even episode ONE sokka was more fun and dynamic than White Sokka™. mistakes were made.

but it was even WORSE for katara. katara’s righteous anger was all but erased. SOKKA was the one who broke the avatar out of the ice, and only because they accidentally happened upon him--katara didn’t get to be angry at sokka’s jerkass sexism and unconsciously fuck up an entire iceberg. katara NEVER got to be angry. in fact, most of katara’s moments were taken and distributed between aang and sokka; aang, for instance is the one who inspires the earthbenders to break out of prison. we don’t even see katara train with master pakku, and SHE was the one who actually became a waterbending master when they went to the north pole. in this movie, katara mostly existed to talk about ~hope~ (very ember island players, lmfao) and hug aang when he went into the avatar state. 

by the way, that prison? it’s not the metal platform in the middle of the ocean we got in the show. it’s just... an enclosed village. surrounded by dirt and earth. and the earthbenders never tried to break out until aang came along and told them to? hmmmm.... 

Unfortunate Implications™, but what did you expect. 

other than that, idk. the writing was so fucking bad, y’all. a significant chunk of the plot relies on the “as you know” trope, in which characters have an expository discussion about something everyone present should already be aware of and wouldn’t need to get into. this normally wouldn’t bother me THAT much, if i noticed it at all (exposition is essential, after all, and you only have so much time in a movie, so i guess it makes sense when you’re trying to compress an entire season of a show into one), except like... it’s ridiculous. i couldn’t ignore it, they just hit the hammer so hard. “as you know, this is what the avatar is. as you know, zuko was exiled after fighting an agni kai with his father. as you know...” 

bleh.

after that, i guess all my complaints are a little more pedantic. some smaller things that made the movie unwatchable: the bending motions were super weird and i think sped up? there were perfectly good martial arts moves right there waiting for them, and shyamalan fucked even THAT up in an effort to... what? make it look more “mystical?” bitch i’ll kill you. also, for reasons completely unfathomable to me, some of the names were pronounced oddly despite being said one million times in the show. “aah-ng” “ee-roh” “soh-ka” “ahvatar.” literally... why.

i’ve been thinking “soh-ka” in my head for like two weeks. hideous.

and one last thing, which really DOESN’T matter in comparison to what they did to the human characters, but like... what fucking happened to appa?? why did they do that to him?

don’t watch the last airbender.

[postmodernmulticoloredcloak]

Avatar: The Last Airbender episode 18 ﾉ彡☆.*

Aaaaah look at this

Bless.

They can’t find the Northern Water Tribe but the Northern Water Tribe finds them, so, hey, good enough.

Zhao knows where they’re headed but says they need a massive invasion force to be able to deal with waterbenders in their terrain and literally their element. Will Zuko try it with an invasion force consisting of himself or...?

The design of the ice city is super cool. Sokka spots a pretty girl. Yeah, I’ve seen the memes.

Uncle Iroh is having a good time with some of the crew until he’s not having a good time anymore. I mean I don’t know what’s going to happen but the sight of Zhao is enough to have people not have a good time, so.

Awww they’re finally in a place where they’re welcome and safe.

Zhao is going to take away Zuko’s entire crew... and finds Zuko’s dual swords. Whoops. I mean, I’m pretty sure he already knew it was him that stole the Avatar, but I guess there is no more doubt now. It’s gonna get very personal. I’m loving this narrative structure where there’s a character who is effectively an antagonist to the protagonists while being a protagonist himself but whose antagonist is the general villain and in fact has an even more personal dynamic with the villain. It’s true that Zuko’s entire story is something very original.

Interesting that he’s offered Iroh to join his mission.

What the fuck? It’s forbidden for women to learn waterbending in their tribe? Oh, c’mon. Women learn to heal, men to fight.

Awww Sokka gets a date.

Ah Zhao has hired the pirates! For Zuko-related reasons. Oh boy he wants to eliminate the competition for good, doesn’t he? Which is greatly funny because he’s this great admiral guy against 1 (one) broody teenager. Can he see it or...?

Well, Katara, I’m pretty sure healing is not a bad ability to have. Still sucks about the sexism though. Admittedly I’m not a great fan of the concept of the Sexism Arc(TM) but I suppose it’s a reasonable choice to paint the non-Fire Nation nations as problematic in some aspect or another, because hurr dhurr the firey boys are Evil and everyone else is uwu would make the whole thing flatter.

Oh shit they want to blow Zuko up. No bby :( Now Uncle Iroh thinks his disaster child is dead :((((

Well fuck you too Mr Sexism.

Katara fueled by the Power Of Rage would end the war in one episode.

Awww nevermind Zuko and Iroh have a plan! My baby is hurt but not too badly it would seem. Go fuck Zhao up darlings.

Awww we learn what was the reason their grandmother left. Gran Gran just decided to get the hell away from Sexism Dude and Sexism Tribe. Good for her.

So Mr Sexism decides to train Katara but the Fire Nation fleet is coming...

You could probably tell that the Sexism Arc(TM) is not something I find particularly enjoyable because I barely wrote anything about the Water Tribe part of the episode and this was almost entirely about the Zuko part ^^;

[watchmakermori]

You had an awesome post about some of the reasons you love atla! You said sokka has an awesome arc only rivaled by Zuko, could you expand more on that? I love Sokka and would love to hear more thoughts on his arc!

Sure thing! I think in order to talk fully about Sokka we have to step outside of the narrative for a moment and think about the purpose of his character in the first season compared to the last. While I don’t think he was ever purely a comedy relief sidekick, even in the early episodes, that was definitely his primary function. They had lots of episodes and moments where they showed the strength of his logical mindset - he’s the only one to mistrust Jet, he antagonises Aunt Wu, he helps to plan the defense at the Northern Air Temple, he offers valuable intel during the siege on the North - but for the most part, he is just the funny, sarcastic guy who hurts himself a lot and gets laughed at. 

Sokka is at no point a bad character, but his role and worth expands as the series goes on. In the second series, he is the one to pursue the matter of the ‘darkest day in Fire Nation history’ and find out the date of the next solar eclipse. In the third series, he goes on to plan and eventually lead that invasion, despite all of his anxieties about it. He becomes known for his plans, strategy and intuition, and the group relies on him every bit as much as he relies on them. Outside of the first series (with some exceptions), he doesn’t really get treated as Katara’s idiot brother - his mistakes and lack of foresight become key and specific parts of his personality, usually linked to his intolerance for spirituality and magic. It’s worth noting that all of the other characters lack foresight in their respective ways - Toph’s stubbornness and need to rebel come back to bite her in The Runaway, Aang’s pride and avoidance of responsibility are big themes, and Katara is often naively trusting of people who treat her well (Jet and Hama, for example). This is why the Gaang as a whole work so well - no character is lesser than another, and each character’s flaws are another character’s strengths. 

In terms of how Sokka’s actual personality and outlook develop over the series, his attitude to women is probably the thing that gets talked about the most. In the first season, he’s sexist, dismissive, and disrespectful - by the final series, he overcomes that outlook and has nothing but admiration for Suki, Toph and Katara. However, I would argue that the sexism arc is mostly dealt with by the end of the first series, after his interactions with Suki and Paku’s refusal to teach Katara. He is the one to suggest that Aang teaches her instead, after all. 

What I don’t think gets talked about enough is Sokka’s relationship with bending. In the first episode, he’s highly dismissive of the practice (‘magic water’) and doesn’t seem to want to know much more about it. However, as the series goes on and he spends more time around benders, we see a subtle shift in attitudes - as he comes to understand the power of bending, he starts to feel more inadequate next to it. Then we come to Sokka’s Master in the third series, where he hones his own skills and comes to realise that, even if he can’t bend, he still has worth. Sokka’s arc is underlined by him coming to respect the value of bending, but realising it’s not the only form of power. I actually think they could’ve spent more time on this arc, but what the series does offer is still very interesting. It gives Sokka a depth that none of the other characters - due to the fact that they are benders - could tap into. 

Sokka’s arc highlights that you don’t need to be the best in the world at something to still be important, valued, and loved. I respect so much that Avatar managed to put a normal guy among this group of powerhouses and still make him into an indispensable member of the team. He’s basically Fantastic Beasts’ Jacob Kowalski done right.

[seyaryminamoto]

dont you think you're being a bit nitpicky? some examples. aang and toph got captured by the boulder. sokka was like "omg got the boulder's autograph!" or when he crawled into appa's mouth cause he thought he ate momo. Nobody calls sokka a retard because of those moments. I don't think you can call iroh a sexist because of that 1 june episode I also don't think giving an 8/9 year old girl a doll is sexist. everybody will look bad if you only focus on their negative moments. just my opinion on it

Uh… Uh-huh. I think you may have gotten a little lost in that post, Anon?

Let’s rewind a bit:

“I don’t know if we can label him as a sexist altogether, he doesn’t seem to inherently mistreat women just on the basis that they’re women… but he does have certain behaviors that border on sexism towards certain women, which is bothersome.”

This is literally what I said in paragraph 2 of that post, Anon. No offense, but maybe you’re the one who should be nitpickier so you can read all of what I did say instead of claiming that I outright accused Iroh of being sexist when I deliberately held back from doing so.

“His treatment of Azula never improves, we can’t really say that it’s about sexism entirely”

Again, I said his behavior over Azula may not be outright sexism. Yes, he has a handful of sexist moments, and if you’re not going to call him sexist for those fine by you, I didn’t outright label him that way either. I said there’s scenes, situations, characters that he treats in a way that begs for at least some judgment from the viewers who may want to see ATLA with a more critical eye. Iroh doesn’t treat ALL women poorly, I said it in that post, I’ll say it again if it’ll make you happy. But I do think the doll instance speaks lengths about what he’s expecting any little girl to be satisfied by (meaning either that he knows next to nothing about Azula or that he can’t be bothered to make the same efforts for her that he can for Zuko), and if you don’t want to see that as sexism that’s your problem, but it doesn’t fly with me.

If anything, I do hope you at least acknowledge it’s clear favoritism of Zuko over Azula? Because if you frankly think a common doll that probably any Ba Sing Se girl has access to is on par with a knife from the surrendering General of the city’s outer wall, then I’m afraid we’ll never see eye to eye and this whole discussion will really be pointless.

Alright, on with the next topic:

Newsflash? Yes, there are people who think Sokka is an idiot. They’re generally not being nitpickers by doing so, they just look down on him a lot. These people tend to overlook the full spectrum of his character because of how often he’s used for comic relief and how little action he gets compared with the rest of the cast (and granted, Yang’s portrayal of him isn’t helping either since he seldom gives him any serious scenes in the comics). There are people out there who refuse to take Sokka seriously, they may not call him a retard outright (no idea if they do, honestly) but they will say they think he’s an idiot and not exactly in the affectionate way. So alas, I’m afraid that’s not a good way to go about your point. This happens because I’ve seen it with my own two eyes. Good for you if you haven’t.

You may be expecting more ATLA positivity from me… well, I’m afraid I don’t have as much to offer on that front as other bloggers do. It’s not that my own work is flawless because scarcely any form of fiction will be, but yes, I have the tendency to bring up the things most people overlook about ATLA. I don’t sing praises over Zuko’s development because I find it beyond flawed and I believe it could have been better. I criticize the heroes’ morality constantly because their actions contradict their words at times (and as much as I love him, Sokka is not exempt from this either, although I do think he’s one of the heroes who does it the least).

I have a lot to say against Iroh because, as I said, he’s generally revered and his mistakes, misdeeds, wrongdoings, are either excused or overlooked or turned into funny stuff. I’m pretty sure I’m allowed not to like that. Wherever you go, whatever you do, you bring up Avatar and people will have nothing bad to say about Iroh, EVER. Part of what I do with my analysis/rants is look at the other side of the coin, see? Azula is not as rotten/broken/lost as people think, heroes are not as pure and good and flawless either. Those are facts that can be proved by all their actions. And I’m quite sorry if it makes you uncomfortable for someone to point it out, but heck, I always see thousand-notes posts going around praising so many things that I find questionable about the show. My posts on the same topics, focusing on what I’m dissatisfied by? They get 10 notes on average, maybe a bit more if a bigger blog than mine spreads it around. But that’s it. That’s all. How is it such a cause for concern that I bring up matters that I believe weren’t handled so well by the show, when the widespread ATLA content is absolutely, overwhelmingly positive?

I can understand if you’d rather I don’t throw constant criticism on what might be your favorite show, but just so you know,  I use the knowledge of where ATLA went wrong to guide my own path through writing (well, ATLA and all fictional things I see, really). I’ll make my own mistakes, no doubt, and I’ll learn from them, but I also try to learn from those others have made. That way I may make a little more progress a little faster, see?

So yes, I will bring up characters who are generally shot down, and I will shoot down characters who, as I said, are even canonically “enlightened” when they’ve got sketchy stuff worth pointing out. Why should I talk about the wonders of Iroh’s “foster dad” relationship with Zuko when that’s what EVERYONE ELSE already talks about? Why should I focus on the awful things Azula did when the show did that constantly, portraying how cold-blooded and what an “ends-justify-the-means” person she is at all times?

In the end, Anon, I’m sorry if it makes you uncomfortable but this is how I blog. I was also answering an anon ask, btw, which means I’m not the only one who’s bringing up and thinking about these matters. Some people agreed with me, too, and reblogged the post. Are you going to ask them not to spread the ill word on Iroh too? Because frankly, we may be the minority but our criticism has enough basis for there to be a small but certain group of people who agree that his behavior can be sketchy and questionable. I’m not pulling this out of my ass here.

Now, about everyone looking bad because I focus on the negative? Let me explain myself again:

Whoever wants to say Sokka is only an idiot can do so, but see, doing that means conveniently forgetting every instance where he shows otherwise: what I try to do is look at what isn’t generally in plain sight, or at all of those smaller things that went over the fandom’s head, without focusing all that much on the greatness of each heroic character because that part is in plain sight.

It’s the dark stuff that people overlook for the heroes, and it’s the dark stuff I’ll keep bringing up precisely because they’re also part of what makes a character who they are. Iroh’s instances of sexism add complexities to his character, believe it or not, because they prove he’s FLAWED. The fact that those flaws are not addressed by the show’s narrative is where the real problem of the show resides, and it’s why I will continue to address the matter the way I do, regardless of how many people may be uncomfortable by it.

So no, I’m not saying Iroh is sexist: I’m saying he’s not perfect.

Have a good day.