#unalaaq

[fuzzykidney]

GIVE HIM THE OLE DICK TWIST

* network connectivity problems *

[risingsoleil]

Once they have moved over that rocky patch of insecurities, Lin loves to tease Tenzin with all the supposed lovers and paramours he has. It's deeply amusing to her how they try to discredit him with very vanilla rumors of him romancing someone, when in reality he's an unhinged beast but only with her.

Tenzin, of course, doesn't find any of this amusing. Not the rumors, nor Lin's teasing.

I've had this idea in my head for awhile, and it's perfect for this scenario:

Inspired by this video from tiktok lol

Linzin and their kids go on vacation (around Book 2 when Tenzin is like "bet, go find out how fucked up Unalaaq is") They're near the Fire Nation staying near one of the quieter parts of town, near the beach.

Waitress gives Tenzin extra fruit piece bc they ran out of potato curry appetizer. "Aw, your girlfriend gave you extra strawberries."

Newspaper article on how after all these years, Lin is still not really the First Lady of the Air Nation. "Good thing there are new acolytes coming in. Then you can have some fresh faces to pick as the real First Lady, huh?"

Another article with a photo of him with his hand on another woman's back (She had fallen down and he tried to make sure she didn't break her neck) "Ah, no wonder you came home late that night."

He's so over it and irritated with her because she's been making these kind of jokes all day.

They're all near some stream that has a swimming area with rocks to jump off of. Tenzin already went in the water and is standing underneath the shade, arms crossed. He watches Lin climbing up the rocks.

He feels someone approach next to him and a glance informs him it's Mei.

"You sure it's not cold?" Lin's voice carries over to them as she pulls herself up.

"Yes! It's not cold!" Tenzin answers loudly.

Mei gives him a look, wrapping the towel around herself tighter. "The water's freezing, what are you talking about?"

"I know."

"So you want her to go in?"

"Yeah, she's been pissing me off all morning," Tenzin replies quiet enough to keep the secret between them.

Mei laughed, a new excitement unfolding at the inevitable reaction that would happen. Lin finally reached the top, eyeing the height and water. She remained frozen in her spot for a minute.

"Come on, love! It's not cold! Just jump!" Tenzin encourages.

So Lin does.

Splash!

Her head pops up, lips shivering and a glare burning into him.

"Y-you m-mothe-erfuc--!"

Tenzin and Mei's laughter rings across the water.

"I f-fuckin-ng hate you!" Lin tries to swim closer to the shore. "Get me out! Bitch!"

Mei bends over in laughter at her mother, so Lin's only hope is the liar with blue tattoos. Tenzin shivers as the water claims his thighs and lowers himself, breathing deeply to warm his body as much as he can. He feels Lin and grabs her waist.

Lin's teeth chattered and lips shivered as she slapped his arm, droplets of water splattering around them. "D-don't touch me! Go-o aw-way!!!"

Tenzin starts to pull away, but Lin's hand clutches him. "GET ME IN NOW! GET ME IN!"

He can't contain the laughs coming from him as he helps her stand.

"I'M A BITCH."

"This is what you get for pissing me off today, woman."

[nyamadermont]

Day 18: Ship + Revenge

For @orangepanic ‘s Whumptloktober!

Iroh knew that the craft he was in was too small, too fragile for the depth of water below it. Nearly all of his naval experience came on vessels the size of city blocks with enough mass to blunt the effect of the waves.

He sat, freezing on the small bench, his oar tucked away neatly. Because he was a tidy person and his military training had only reinforced his personal tendencies.

He looked around and decided it was now or never.

He lowered himself over the gunwale, took a deep breath and dove. He knew he didn’t have long, and he might not even be able to swim far enough down.

But he had to see.

If he could not exact revenge on the Equalists, on Unalaaq, he at least had to see with his own eyes.

The ships that had fallen beneath the waves.

[shuunnico]

Finished Korra S2

Rewatched it with a friend who doesn't remember much of the show, so she's basically watching it for the first time. We've rewatched all of AtLA and S1 of Korra prior.

It was BAD. We actually believe Korra S1 is better written than S1 of AtLA, even including the love triangle and deus ex machina airbending. She hoped the trend would continue when I knew it wouldn't.

My friend got so dejected by, I think, the first Wan episode she just wanted to get the season done with as soon as possible to get through it.

The Problems We Had

Korra's character reverting back to the start of S1 for some reason

Mako being an absolute shitheel regarding romance

The fights being more brutal, but characters not getting injuries (mostly happens in the first half of the season)

Basically all of Episode 13 and 14 because NONE of it makes sense

The fog disappearing because Tenzin defeats his insecurities

The animation was notably worse (I know it's because Studio Mir wasn't available for the season, it's still poorly animated)

Way too many callbacks/fanservice. Wan Shi Tong, Iroh, Zhao. Would've been neat if they were reserved about it but in such a poor season, it feels like they're using it to compensate.

Why didn't Desna and Eska turn on Unalaaq sooner?

The judge spilling everything to Korra, even things not directly related to her questions, which just gives her all the answers she needs

Problems Other People Have That We Didn't

Korra is not at fault for losing her past lives. Unalaaq is.

Korra was not an idiot for trusting Unalaaq. She was entirely reasonable to trust him until the point where she turns on him.

Korra was entirely justified in being angry with Tenzin and her father.

The Wan episodes do not destroy the Avatar lore like people say it does. The reveal of bending's origins actually plugs a lore hole in AtLA.

Aang was not 'assassinated' because he was not a neglectful father and his choice to give Tenzin special attention was reasonable.

What We Liked

Basically all of Bolin's side story, especially the final payoff

Everything to do with Varrick

A lot of Tenzin's story in the season

Intelligent/Innovative use of bending and technology

Overall, despite thinking S1 is pretty well written until the finale, S2 was the worst written season out of all 5 we've seen so far.

Yes, we know the writers were caught off guard and told to write the season on short notice. That's the reason and it absolutely sucks they had to do that. But that's not an excuse, the season is still terrible.

Hopefully, S3 will be better because that was really hard to get through.

[circlique]

What exactly issues do you have with TLOK?

Many of the same that other people have, just that Korra as a characters is not one of them, like I said.

But some of the things I didn’t like:

-stupid, unnecessary love triangle

-the Equalists were great and compelling antagonists, but the divide between benders and nonbenders never really got addressed after Amon was defeated.

-Water Tribe Civil War plot was great, and I hate that they abandoned it for the kites. The Avatar and spirits were better left mysterious imo. If they HAD to be included, making both Raava and Vaatu part of the Avatar spirit would have been much better imo because it would have fit the themes of balance and harmony present throughout the rest of the series much better. Light can only exist in darkness, some chaos is good and necessary, etc etc.

-Unalaaq/Vaatu were boring, forgettable villains. Also hated the kaiju fight with laser beams. Didn’t feel like it belonged in the world of Avatar at all.

-season 3 is easily the best season but I still wish there was a bit more buildup to the airbenders coming back. Like, maybe after harmonic convergence kids can be born with airbending instead of people just randomly waking up with it one day.

-season 4 was also pretty good and my only real complaint with it was the mech. Just didn’t feel like it fit in the world. I wouldn’t have minded if it was just limited to the canon and possibly moved by railroad or something.

[fuckyouozai]

How is it even possible for Sokka to have been chief 13 years pre lok (when describing zaheer’s attempt to kidnap korra tenzin refers to him as “chief sokka” not “uncle sokka” which has always felt insane to me) when we know for a fact either unalaaq or unalaaq’s father was chief at that time. Was sokka the last southern water tribe chief before they merged with the north? Why the FUCK would he allow that.

[lostboiking30]

ATLA/LOK Fandom Rant

Olay so I've been seeing a few people on the web discussing how Aang would have fared taking on Korra's enemies and It made me make this exact face. Now, granted, I think the thought itself is an interesting concept and trying to figure out how Aang would have fought them is like...a fun creative exercise, but the reason why I am making this Mako face is because these are also the same people who talk about how much Korra sucks because she got bodied by all her villains. And I'm sitting here thinking, how in the fuck do you think a 12 year old boy would do against a group of radicals who tried to kill the avatar in the avatar state by poisoning them WHEN AZULA LITERALLY KILLED HIM IN THE AVATAR STATE. How would he have handled an underground terrorist organization that wanted to rid bending from the world, when Amon could literally make his heart explode with Bloodbending? How Unalaaq literally ripped Raava from Korra's body? Aang would have been wrecked too. Especially considering how he swore off firebending after misusing it ONE TIME. Like it truly, truly bothers me that people are so quick to take a massive shit on Korra and talk about how much she sucks, but praise Aang BECAUSE he's Aang. Korra is headstrong and brash. Aang was jealous of anyone stealing Sokka and Katara away from him. Aang ran away from his responsibilities. Aang almost didn't complete his chakra paths toward the avatar state because he couldn't let go of Katara. Aang had to be forced to learn firebending and even when he was, he tried to steal Zuko's flame because his went out. Aang is just as flawed as Korra and the double standard is ridiculous. It can't be cool to think about Aang going against Korra's villains if y'all don't think Korra was good enough to go against her own villains. Aang had one big bad. Korra had SEVEN. ASDFGHJKLAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[i-am-extremely-mad]

I'm still a little shocked that @circlique didn't like how I responded to things that some fans hate about TLOK (the comment they left under the post): 

"How did I know this was someone just looking for an argument lol. Agree to disagree." 

I wasn't looking for an argument, I just feel that these things are pretty underrated in the fandom, especially the love triangle, the fact that it actually was a love triangle, not a love angle, as it really is in most cases, as well as the fact that Korra and Asami weren't hated each other and fought each other over Mako... 

Anyway, I'm sorry if they took this as a personal attack, maybe I should have expressed myself better, I really liked their posts and arts, especially that post where they defended Korra and how much undeserved hate she gets.

https://www.tumblr.com/i-am-extremely-mad/722041973501984768/what-exactly-issues-do-you-have-with-tlok

“What exactly issues do you have with TLOK?

circlique answered:

Many of the same that other people have, just that Korra as a characters is not one of them, like I said.

But some of the things I didn’t like:

-stupid, unnecessary love triangle

-the Equalists were great and compelling antagonists, but the divide between benders and nonbenders never really got addressed after Amon was defeated.

-Water Tribe Civil War plot was great, and I hate that they abandoned it for the kites. The Avatar and spirits were better left mysterious imo. If they HAD to be included, making both Raava and Vaatu part of the Avatar spirit would have been much better imo because it would have fit the themes of balance and harmony present throughout the rest of the series much better. Light can only exist in darkness, some chaos is good and necessary, etc etc.

-Unalaaq/Vaatu were boring, forgettable villains. Also hated the kaiju fight with laser beams. Didn’t feel like it belonged in the world of Avatar at all.

-season 3 is easily the best season but I still wish there was a bit more buildup to the airbenders coming back. Like, maybe after harmonic convergence kids can be born with airbending instead of people just randomly waking up with it one day.

-season 4 was also pretty good and my only real complaint with it was the mech. Just didn’t feel like it fit in the world. I wouldn’t have minded if it was just limited to the canon and possibly moved by railroad or something.”

i-am-extremely-mad:

Hmm, I see (I sent that anon question). I already answered some of these arguments: https://www.tumblr.com/i-am-extremely-mad/705097614657470464/fandomsandfeminism-im-still-not-really-over

...but I will answer some arguments here:

“-stupid, unnecessary love triangle”  

I've never really had much of a problem with a love triangle. TLOK is, among other things, a teenage drama, love triangles are typical tropes here.

What I actually loved here is that unlike typical love triangles where the female characters fight for the affections of the male character, Korra and Asami never really hated each other, especially Asami. Korra was only jealous for a couple of episodes and even then the worst thing she could think of about Asami was how she is supposedly prissy: "He's all into that prissy, beautiful, elegant, rich girl." But even then, Korra didn't hide that she also saw her as beautiful and elegant.

And the part that's often ignored is that Korra actually stopped trying anything with Mako after she became friends with Asami, which didn't stop Mako from being a total jerk, especially after Korra suspected that Asami's father might be an Equalist, him accusing her that she only did it so he would break up with Asami. And despite all that, when she was proven right, Korra asked him to go comfort Asami.

“-the Equalists were great...”

As I already said in another post (see link) the Equalists were actually non-benders supremacists (I still can't believe that some people consider them communists, but then again when I see supposed "leftists" supporting authoritarian non-democratic regimes in the real world, yeah...), Amon was just a grifter and most of their arguments were bullshit and full of holes.

Especially when you see how successful non-benders actually are in society, Hiroshi Sato (why would the alleged “communists” work closely with the bourgeois?) being the most obvious example, while many benders barely made ends meet, even if they were famous athletes that people heard about on the radio, like Mako and Bolin. It seems that the social problems were not of an ethnic but of a class nature.

“-Water Tribe Civil War plot was great,...”

Fans don't realize that the civil war wasn't important at all, it was just a distraction to hide Unalaaq's true intentions, to free Vaatu and start the apocalypse.

And I think it was mentioned somewhere that Vaatu wasn't destroyed but just weak and is now in Raava.    

“-Unalaaq/Vaatu were boring, forgettable villains...”

Not much different from Ozai, really. Also, as I already said in another post, Unalag is basically Ozai in reverse.    

I have no problem with “kaiju” fight. I could even argue that the last two Godzilla movies borrowed a bit from TLOK (LOL).

Also wasn't there also a "kaiju" fight in ATLA at the end of Book 1 when the Ocean Spirit took over Aang's body and attacked the Fire Nation fleet? It's strange how people forget about such things when they criticize TLOK.

“...more buildup to the airbenders coming back...”

I have no problem with the idea that some people got airbender powers. Also if newborn children were born with powers, it would be several years before they would show any signs of airbending powers. Not very practical for the story they wanted to tell.

“my only real complaint with it was the mech...”

Absolutely underestimated or better said, completely ignored parallel in TLOK:

UnaVaatu, misuses mystical and spiritual powers for conquest and destruction.

Kuvira with Mecha-UnaVaatu, misuses science and technology power for conquest and destruction.

Also, a foreshadowing that many have ignored, that Mecha-UnaVaatu will be made:

Book 4, Episode 6: "The Battle of Zaofu"

Varrick: "Funny story, Bolin. I first got the idea for harnessing spirit power when I watched that giant Unalaq-monster attack the city from my jail cell. That giant monster set me free!" [Turns to Bolin with a meaningful look on his face.]

Also, Mechs are actually a typical and common part of the DieselPunk genre, and I actually answered that under another post:  

https://www.tumblr.com/i-am-extremely-mad/706005529101762560/if-anyone-thinks-the-giant-mecha-in-tlok-is-absurd

[lxviathancas]

Me as the firelord making threats toward both of the water tribes so that I get to hold a diplomatic meeting with all the water tribe himbos

[that-bi-bitch-writes]

i would have a hard time being a protagonist because im not easily manipulated.

don't tell me sweet nothings they will go in one ear and out the other and i'll do what i want

[thenixkat]

hmm yeah, listening to some vids and like... yeah. Unalaaq would have had a better point if bending was weaker b/c people were less spiritual in the industrialized age. Not stronger

@kariachi: Yeah

Granted, I just view there being more firebenders able to generate lighting as 'the royals stopped hording the information on how to do it' and less 'bending is stronger now b/c this rare skill is more widespread'

like? bending is different and the knowledge of how to do certain things got spread around, I don't think bending is actually stronger in LoK over Last Airbender

@kariachi: Yeah like, having new skills passed around doesn't necessarily make fuckers as a whole stronger.

like? fuckers being able to keep up with the Avatar doesn't mean as much in a setting where folks have the time to learn shit and most of her opponents are fucking adults AND prodigies

@kariachi: Yeah

also that's just what happens when you're crap at writing escalation in power scale and threats

@kariachi: Yeeep

[nyamadermont]

This really put across a point I hadn’t considered before. Zaheer could do so much damage to her precisely because Unalaaq had already cut her off from her past lives. Instead of Aang’s “lowest point” speech, she gets to a much lower point, but is left to pull herself out of it.

Here, she’s not even in his shadow. She’s forgotten, in the background. A similar posture, but in a wheelchair. Instead of his vanguard pose, she is folded painfully. You can even see the beginnings of the wasting she has yet to fully endure.

What an evocative piece.

[circlique]

Just…who in the Avatar writing room thought Unalaaq as the villain was a good idea? An “evil” Avatar, really? His whole deal is he wants to destroy the world because…he’s evil? He doesn’t even have an actual motivation. He’s just evil because he is. He’s not even a particularly good waterbender either so it’s not like he’s an actually scary or imposing villain in that sense. He’s just a cartoonishly evil villain in the worst sense of the phrase, which yeah, it’s a cartoon, but this is a show coming off the legacy of ATLA, a show that has handled complicated topics in the past. They had the whole water tribe civil war storyline going on in the SAME SEASON which they for some reason abandoned so they could pursue this arc about…evil guy wanting to destroy the world? And then they resolved it with a fucking KAIJU fight with LASER BEAMS? It’s just…who drove this change? Why this arc? Answer me bryke.

[nothing-more-than-hot-leaf-juice]

i see that a lot of people pit Aang against Korra so i propose this: if they switched villains, their shows combine to 5 eps max. you know that korra would've bodied ozai the min she walked into the fire nation and bolin would've probably just sent azula/zuko str8 to therapy. aang would've kickflipped both sons of yakone in book 1. katara would've sunk unalaaq before he got halfway to the spirit portal. zaheer & co died at the hands of sokka + suki. toph + zuko would've milly rocked kuvira

goddamn just....let them nap and do math homework or smthn

[lostboiking30]

I know that a lot of people don’t like Korra as a character or as an Avatar. I have seen countless discourse videos and posts about how Korra is inferior to Aang and how she’s weak and gets her ass kicked so frequently. They don’t like that Korra is a deeply flawed character. And I’m not gonna lie. As much as I loved Book 1 Korra when the show was airing, I HATED Book 2 Korra. I hated how headstrong and stubborn she was because I hated seeing her fall into such an obvious trap. My dislike for Book 2 definitely affected how I viewed the rest of the series. It wasn’t bad, but I just didn’t really notice all the wonderful things about the show that I realize now as a more adultier adult (Also for the record-I love book 2 now. It’s so well done and I just didn’t realize it because I was a headstrong young adult going through my own changes. I was in the middle of transitioning and had a hard relationship with my family as a result). And that’s the thing right? Legend of Korra is a show about Transformation. It’s slated more towards adults and the first thing Aang says to Korra when they finally meet, “When we hit our lowest point we are open to the greatest change.” Every season gets harder for Korra. Her identity as the Avatar is constantly(and I mean constantly) threatened. The events of Book 2 happened 6 months after the Equalist Revolution and the Red Lotus hunting Korra down, 2 WEEKS after defeating Unalaaq and ending the civil war. Everyone was blaming her for the troubles of Republic City before the President threw her out. Imagine constantly questioning your identity with the literal weight of the world on your shoulders. She also had to deal with the fact that she was the first Avatar in a brand new cycle, so she couldn’t ask her past lives for help. DESPITE all of this, her growth as a character between Book 2 and Book 3 is wild especially considering the length of time between the events. It’s takes people decades to achieve that sort of growth. One thing about this show that always strikes me is that Korra contemplated suicide at the end of Book 1 and in Book 3 she ended up talking Daw out of jumping off of Kyoshi Bridge. Korra was destroyed mentally, physically and spiritually by the end of book 3, to the point that she left for 3 years and wouldn’t talk to the people who loved her the most. She hid, ran away, got lost in her anxiety and PTSD spirals and almost gave up trying to regain her physical strength. And she recovered from that. Speaking personally, those are not easy things to recover from, nor are they things you can empathize with if you’ve never experienced that intense kind of loss of self. Rebuilding yourself from the bottom up is personally one of the hardest things I have had to do and seeing it so honestly represented in the show means a lot to me as someone who is on their own recovery journey. But this is why I love Korra so much as a character and as the Avatar. She had to redefine that role for herself so she could succeed. This is also personally why I do not like when people compare her to Aang who also had to redefine his role as Avatar so he could defeat Ozai without killing him. They were both powerful and strong Avatars in their own right. There’s no need to compare them. I also don’t like when people try to kill Korra at such a young age. She is 21 at the end of Book 4. I remember being 21 and thinking how grown I was, but she still has so much life to live and so much love to offer. For a series that’s entirely about change, transformation and growth, nothing would break my heart more if Korra dying young was canonized. After everything she’s been through, she deserves a nice long life with Asami, just like Aang got with Katara.

[shalheretical]

I think one of the biggest problems with Unalaaq's character, aside from the fact that he's probably the most one dimensional villain in cartoon history, is that Bryke doesn't seem to understand eastern philosophies very well, and that leads them to think that the Avatar's "extreme good" needs an "extreme bad," when that's not what balance would even really mean in this context.

They've gotten the idea of yin and yang a little mixed up before, but it at least seemed like they understood that there's no real "good vs evil" as far as spirits go, and that it's all about finding balance within yourself and the universe, and humans and nature living in harmony. In LOK, they completely forewent any of that, and just decided to make (firstly) make the spirits fucking pokemon instead of, you know, spirits. The second, is the applied morality to the spirits - they can be 'turned evil,' and as the Avatar, Korra must 'turn them back.' ATLA had seem pretty obvious Biblical allegories, but it became really apparent that Christian theology was the only thing they understood in LOK. Thirdly, they seemed to think yin and yang was also a struggle between good and evil when it just isn't. Anyway, all of these contributed to them thinking, "Oh, there needs to be a Dark Avatar to keep balance, because the Avatar is obviously Inherently Good."

Which is really dumb, since there's been Avatar's who's made mistakes before, but giving them the treatment of "they're so divine and holy, that they can never be wrong," takes away a lot, and also - ironically - does throw things off balance. If they had just kept it that way, s2 could've probably been fine. If they hadn't retconned ATLA's spirituality, there literally would've been no reason for Vaatu to exist. And it's still stupid he exists, even with the retcon.

I would've done it like this: Unalaaq is genuinely concerned about the Water Tribe, yes, especially because he doesn't exactly trust his brother. However, the Southern Water Tribe has been using Northern Water Tribe resources to help rebuild for a while, which has made them basically a territory of the North, so this has caused friction between the North and the South. And when he gets there, he is worried about their spirituality, and thinks that he should probably take the reins because you really do need to appease the spirits, because otherwise, yeah, they might get upset with you. However, he does also want to consolidate power of the South, because it's actually pretty hard to have them be separate but dependent. He invades, the South riots, and the main problem for Korra is deciding who is in the right. She's expected to make the right choice, but just because the Avatar says its right, doesn't mean it is. Unalaaq isn't evil - just in the wrong, and extremist in the conservative actions he wants to take, but because he wants to protect a tribe that he feels is his cousins, his people. He's well-meaning, but misguided, which can lead him down a darker path, especially with his rivalry towards his brother.

It's not perfect, but that's a much better example of misguided extremism than making a literal pact with the devil. You can see his point of view, but you also know the forceful seizure of sovereign lands is wrong. And Korra, obviously, wants both what's best for her people, but also the spirits. That's what balancing actual is for the Avatar, not just punching the bad guys. It's finding solutions that can benefit every part involved, or finding a way to get people to back down, or making sure the spirits' voices are being advocated for. And her character struggle is that she can't just punch her way through problems, but that she has to be a more political/diplomatic Avatar.

I’m just thinking about how much better Book 2 of LoK would be if Unalaq wasn’t the incarnation of evil with a literal pact with the devil but instead was a reasonable if somewhat misguided man with legitimate concerns and issues with his brother.