#unrepentant Aang stan

[themattress]

Princess Azula

First impression - She seems like a cool villain, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to take her that much more seriously than her brother - she seems a little too try-hard in being intimidating, plus that voice doesn't quite click for me. We'll see how it goes with her...

Impression now - To this day, the greatest villainous character in the Avatar universe: legit terrifying but also charismatic, competent as fuck, and heart-wrenchingly tragic.

Favorite moment - Pretty much everything she did in the two-part finale of Book Two: Earth. She'd been improving in her villainy as the season went on, but this was the grand crescendo: she saw the whole board set up before her and turned every piece toward her personal advantage, pulling off a stunning victory that conquered the Earth Kingdom, turned Zuko back to the dark side, and even temporarily killed Aang.

Idea for a story - Azula breaks Long Feng out of prison and makes him her manservant.

Unpopular opinion - Azula antis and Azula stans are both wildly misguided about Azula. She is a victim, directly of Ozai but indirectly of others too, and is redeemable - but she's also a villain and her redemption would take a long time and involve a lot of owning up to how she hurt others rather than just securing amends from people who hurt her....which is if she even chooses redemption at all; it's entirely possible that she won't and will just retire from her life of villainy while remaining unrepentant about it.

Favorite relationship - Her fucked-up relationship with her brother Zuko.

Favorite headcanon - Azula was jealous of Lu Ten when she was younger, as he was an only child who didn't have to compete against another sibling and had a kinder father whom was held in better standing than her own. She got over it eventually, though.

[vanillabutspicy]

I'm curious what got you into Kataang. Thank spirits you love it, but I was just wondering what the catalyst was for you?

Ok I feel like there are 2 parts to this: what made me enjoy kataang, and what made me start to draw and write about it. Aaaaand this is longer than I thought it would be so I’ll continue after the jump:

I enjoy kataang for several reasons. First, because I generally enjoy canon ships. ESPECIALLY if there’s fate/destiny/spirituality tied to their romance. I live for that kind of story.

I also enjoy them because I’m a hopeless Aang stan. Aang always having to explain he’s vegetarian and defending his morals made me as a vegan feel SO. SEEN. HOLY SHIT. And ending the war by spirit bending Ozai which he learned from a lion turtle hrjwkdbfhjridjdjsnwbd the symbolism just kills me every time and I relate to it so hard that I wrote smut about it 😭😂. The first time I watched it I basically said “this is a kids show???” every episode because there’s so much damn WISDOM in it. And then also because of “it’s just you and me right now” like holy smokes.

Ok so I liked them the first time I watched it and that was like 4 years ago so I think everyone was already kind of over it and I had no peers to stan with. Then when it became available on Netflix in the US I watched it again and realized how much Aang reminds me of my husband. And I share some of Katara’s dominant traits. Aren’t the most feral shippers in it for the self insertion? Apparently I am too and I’m just lucky that it’s canon. So when I see Aang do anything from:

to:

and:

...I see the things about my spouse that I enjoy. Sense of humor, dextrous 🥴, strong, kind, determined, capable, goofy, smooth, joyous, unashamed, spiritual, feels like destiny. SIGN ME UP.

I looked for kataang content, but it didn’t take long to see all of it (or at least all of the nsfw stuff). Then I hurt my back and suddenly had a lot of free time because I couldn’t physically do my hobbies for a while. So I started drawing because it’s a sedentary hobby. And I went with erotic kataang because—TMI warning—my injury basically made intimacy impossible for me for several months and I needed an outlet. But also because the relationship shown in ATLA could be so beautiful in adulthood but LoK sort of pissed all over my hopes to see even a glimmer of that. So I wanted to fix it.

Honestly I said this on my IG story the other day but it’s baffling to me how any hetero woman with a sex drive could miss the signs of how Aang would just be the most generous partner I mean— like I’m telling you from experience he’s the ideal type of human for any context.

My back is about 90% better but I plan to keep drawing as long as I have ideas. I used to draw a lot in high school and then I just didn’t for ages. It feels really good to be making art again. Plus, I’ve earned some decent pocket change for it via buy me a coffee, so that’s a neat thing I’d like to keep benefiting from. I think I have more fanfic installments to write as well but I’m even slower at writing so give me some time. I’ll get there slow and steady 🦁🐢

Anywayyyhhhh sorry that this is so long and like weirdly personal but also I’m not sorry because I literally draw and write erotica to put online and strangers give me money for it? And then they sometimes tell me I’m wholesome and caring or thank spirits for my efforts??? The world is wild.

[sokkastyles]

It's me again, back with another fiery hot take for your viewing pleasure. This just in. Aang offering Ozai a chance to end the war peacefully before their fight, and Zuko taunting Azula during it is another parallel between them and really drives home who they are as people. Because Zuko taunted Azula while knowing that she's mentally unstable, and therefore not only is that a wrong thing to do to someone (because it shows that he doesn't care about her and likes fighting her obv, also he's taking advantage of her mental state) but it also makes it his fault that Azula shot lightning at Katara. He got cocky and arrogant, and it cost him, apparently. I would love to know what Azula stans are on so I can get me some of that. Seems like it'd be a wild ride lmao.

Hey, um, did it work when Aang offered Ozai a peaceful chance to end the fight?

Did it?

...

Anyone?

...Yeah, I thought not.

The real parallel is that in both cases, both Zuko and Aang are fighting someone who isn't going to back down. And it is established well in "The Southern Raiders" that Aang's method of unconditional forgiveness does not work against someone who is determined to hurt you and does not ease the pain for the victims, nor should it be the victim's responsibility to offer peace to someone who is entirely unrepentant. Azula also would not have backed down even if the opportunity had been offered, and she is the one who challenges her brother to an agni kai, with glee, saying it was "the showdown that was always meant to be." She has the power to end things any time she wants, she's literally being crowned Fire Lord in that moment. But she chooses violence. She makes that choice. Not Zuko and Katara, who are trying to stop her. Just like Aang tells Ozai that he has the power to end the war and he decides to use that power to keep fighting.

Also, Zuko knows personally that a violent person on a power trip isn't going to stop if you ask them nicely. Many people have talked about the parallels between Aang trying to get Ozai to back down and Zuko, at the same age, refusing to fight his own father.

Oh, and what was Azula, who really, really wants to be mini Ozai, doing while that was happening?

Oh, that's right.

Praising Aang for nearly dying because Ozai didn't want to back down isn't a hot take, it's just using respectability politics to blame the victim.

Also, many people have already pointed this out but I'm going to say it again. Zuko was not being cocky and arrogant when he goaded Azula to shoot lightning at him. His intention the whole time was to end the fight quickly and not involve anyone else. He wanted Azula to shoot lightning at him so he could redirect it. He is not to blame for Azula choosing to shoot Katara, who was not even fighting in the fire duel she challenged her brother to. If Zuko had not acquiesced to those terms, set by Azula, then she would already have had to fight Katara and him. Zuko let her fight only him and then she broke the rule she set by attacking Katara. Zuko ain't the one being cocky here.

And taunting? If Zuko got what he deserved for taunting Azula and being arrogant, Azula should have been struck by lightning a hundred times in the series.

Whatever they're on, I don't want it. It's not even the fun stuff.

[vanillabutspicy]

Anon opinion of you is that your work should be much more widely known but you probably get dinged for being an unrepentant Aang/Kataang stan. (Don't change, pls!)

Thank you anon!!!!!!! I will never change 😤