#we see sokka using both his hands to do stuff like eating and drawing in the show

[miamitu-illust]

he’s a little confused but he’s got the spirit

angsty bonus:

after a long and heartfelt hug he and Iroh had The Talk™ gay edition

[swordgayist]

cultural appropriation in ATLA (hinduism edition)

i’m sure there’s already a ton of posts about this, but whatever, i’m still making one idc. 

ATLA’s cultural appropriation, everyone knows about it, the white people don’t speak about it, and the asian and indigenous people get ignored. we know the cycle. but i wanted to come here and highlight some of the most prominent examples of ATLA abusing hinduism, as i am kinda sorta hindu (i was raised in a hindu household, i go to chinmaya mission, that kinda shit). i might forget some things so keep that in mind.

this is gonna be divided into 3 main sections, since there are different ways that they disrespect hinduism that i don’t wanna lump together.

and i’d say i know a lot about hinduism but that doesn’t make me an expert, obviously, so if other hindus have anything to add and/or correct then please do !! and if anyone else wants to share how their cultures were appropriated then please do that as well !!

so let’s get started shall we?

appropriating hinduism

1) the avatar

we’ll start with the most obvious example: the avatar itself

i know that there are parts of the avatar mythos that are taken from other cultures as well but the idea of the avatar itself is primarily from hinduism.

basically in hinduism, the term dashavatara refers to the 10 reincarnations of lord vishnu (the god of preservation), with avatar(a) meaning form or incarnation in sanskrit, and das(a) meaning ten. it was said that whenever the world was out of balance, lord vishnu would come down to earth in a certain form to restore balance. Each reincarnation is considered a different life with a different story. the avatars of lord vishnu are often considered the saviors of the world.

so basically, the central idea of the show and the actual name of the show is largely based on hinduism.

2) chakras

many different indian religions have a concept of chakras (chakra meaning wheel or circle in sanskrit), but hinduism is the one that primarily preaches the system of seven chakras, the version used in ATLA.

chakras connect the physical body to the ‘subtle’ body (referring more to the spirit and the psyche) by connecting parts of the body to aspects of the mind. the idea is that through different forms of steady meditation you can manipulate the different chakras and allow the pure flow of energy through the body.

the whole idea of chakras on ATLA is that aang has to unblock them all to let the cosmic energy flow through him so that he can go into the avatar state at will. so yeah, pretty much that whole idea was taken from hinduism.

3) terminologies

these are just a few terms that were taken from hinduism. i’m pretty sure there are more that i can’t think of right now but yeah.

“agni” kai 

i’ll be honest i don’t know where the ‘kai’ part is from, i don’t think it’s from hinduism but if it is well fuck me i guess.  ‘agni’ in hinduism is the god of fire, so the creators used it in ‘agni kai’, the name for a firebending duel.

“bumi”

this is in reference to the hindu word for ‘earth’, which is bhoomi. this is also in reference to our goddess of earth, bhoomi devi. also this doesn’t really bother me but i wonder if the creators knew that bhoomi is a name typically used for women (as are most hindi names ending in ‘i’/‘ee’).

in general, concepts like having multiple complex gods (the spirits) who are capable of good and evil and the reincarnation cycle are prominent in a lot of asian cultures, including (and arguably primarily) hinduism.

mocking hinduism

now we get into the mockery of hinduism in ATLA, because it is very much there.

1) whoever the fuck that baboon guy in the spirit world was

now what the fuck was this.

i mean i wouldn’t say this is the most egregious example of them making fun of brown people but lord why did this even need to be there? this random guy from the spirit world has an indian accent ? and is fervently chanting ‘om’ for some reason, and it’s clearly meant to be seen as comical. also portraying brown people as monkeys....... really.

2) combustion man/sparky sparky boom man

when rewatching ATLA in 2019 i actually had no idea that this was a thing, because the last time i had watched it was as a kid and i didn’t finish it.

so lord was i in for a surprise when i saw...

now... now what.

if you didn’t know, combustion man’s ‘third eye’ is designed to replicate the hindu god of destruction, lord shiva. right down to the vibhuti on his forehead (referring to the three line markings around the third eye).

in hinduism, lord shiva’s third eye is used to reduce people to ashes, though as far as i can recall, not very frequently. the primary significance of the third eye is that it represents the ability of higher spiritual thought and higher consciousness.

the ATLA writers take the ACTUAL significance of the third eye, throw it out the window, and then take its destructive abilities to make a super duper cool and dangerous new firebending technique.

and if that wasn’t bad enough, the actual person who uses this technique, and is meant to emulate a GOD who is PRAISED, is a scary, burly, half metal man who is a villain and an assassin. not to mention the design of his facial hair replicates that super duper scary “terrorist” depiction of brown people, particularly of muslims, that white people are so thoroughly terrified of for no reason. 

this is a parody of a god, and they portrayed him as this terrifying, maniacal fucking assassin who, along with p’li, the combustion bender from LOK, is constantly referred to as a “third-eyed freak”. i’ve made this analogy before and i’ll do it again, this is like making jesus into a hitman.

now onto my favorite example...

3) guru pathik

ah, this motherfucker.

i don’t really have any problems with him as a character, i mean hell, must’ve taken a fuck ton of patience to handle aang’s “why would choose cosmic energy over katara” bullshit.

but we all know it, we see it plain as day, don’t even try to deny it.

“guru” literally just means teacher or guide, so i don’t really know why pathik needed to be referred to as “guru” so distinctively from aang’s other teachers and guides, but that’s just extremely trivial compared to all the other issues with this character.

first of all what is this character design? what is he even wearing? if they’re trying to replicate the clothes of swamis and priests and stuff this is already wrong, realized people don’t dress like this. and why the fuck does he have an indian accent? and why was this indian accent done by a non indian (brian george)?

once again, the poor but extremely heavy indian accent is clearly meant to be mocking, if it wasn’t, they wouldn’t’ve gone out of their way to get a non indian person to DO an indian accent, and instead they would’ve just gotten an actual indian person to play the role. 

and oh yeah, the onion and banana juice. because hindus just eat weird shit right.

whether it’s actually weird or not, the show certainly portrays it as weird. and as far as i know no hindu actually fucking drinks onion and banana juice.

ironic because brown people can absolutely destroy white people in cooking. but i digress.

i know what you’re all waiting for. because the guru apparently didn’t have enough fun with guru pathik, so they just had to come back to him in book 3:

where do i begin.

so this is obviously john o’bryan’s super funny and hilarious depiction of pathik as a hindu god.

usually when a god has multiple arms it’s to carry an array of things, from flowers to weapons to instruments, and one hand is typically free to bless devotees (ie. goddess durga and lord vishnu respectively):

but of course white people see this as weird and so they make fun of it, hence guru pathik having multiple arms just flailing about aimlessly (save for the two that are being used to carry the aforementioned onion and banana juice).

then there’s the whole light behind pathik’s head which is usually depicted in drawings of hindu gods to show that they are celestial.

also what the fuck is he holding? is that supposed to be a veena? because this is what a veena looks like:

and i assume the reason this was added was to mock the design of goddess saraswathi, who carries a veena:

but that right there in the picture of pathik looks more like a tambura than a veena. 

and it also just kinda looks like a banjo?

but i guess the animators just searched up “long indian instrument” and slapped it on there. actually no, that’s giving them too much credit, they probably didn’t search it up at all. 

and then the actual scene is pathik singing crazily about chakras tasting good or something while playing the non-veena and it’s all supposed to be some funky crazy hallucination that aang is having due to sleep deprivation. just some crazy dream, just as crazy as talking appa and momo sparring with swords or tree-ozai coming to life.

our gurus and swamis and sadhus and generally realized people are very respected in hinduism, they’re people we look up to and honor very much. and our GODS are beings that we literally worship. and the writers just take both and make caricatures out of them for other white people to laugh at.

4) other shit

before we move to the next portion i just wanna mention there are also smaller backhanded jabs that i can’t really remember now, but one example was when zuko was all “we’ll be sure to remember that, guru goody goody”. or when a character would meditate and say “om” only when the meditation is supposed to be portrayed as comical or pointless. or in bitter work when sokka was rambling on about karma. small things like that. but moving on.

south asian representation, or lack thereof

now i finally get to the “losing” hinduism part. by this i mean the lack of actual representation there is of south asians (the region where hinduism is primarily practiced) despite the fact that hinduism plays such a big role in the show’s world design.

i think it’s safe to say that broadly the main cast consists of aang, katara, sokka, zuko, toph, azula, iroh, mai, ty lee, and suki. 

a grand total of none of these characters are south asian. the writers don’t even attempt to add any south asian main characters. 

there are characters with dark skin, like haru and jet, but a) they’re not confirmed to be south asian and don’t have any south asian features or south asian names, b) they’re side characters, so they don’t count as representation, and c) even if they were south asian and main characters, jet wouldn’t even count because he’s portrayed as a terrorist.

the ONLY truly south asian character we get is fucking guru pathik. so yeah. not representation.

i don’t get how the creators of this show rip off of hinduism (among many other south asian cultures they rip off of), mock indians, and then don’t even have the decency to HAVE a main character who is south asian.

i’ve never gotten a chance to compile all this, and this definitely isn’t all the creators have done, but i hope this was somewhat informative.

[bellatrixobsessed1]

Kissing Dead Pearls (Part 22)

They have trouble getting him to eat, anything they feed him seems to come back up again until they settle for giving him liquid food in small amounts; apple sauces and oatmeals with a fair amount of tube feeding. She doesn’t like the sight of it.

They tell her that she doesn’t need to be here, that she is well enough to go back to the hotel so long as she takes it easy. But she remains at the hospital, at least during visiting hours.

“No one has claimed him yet?” She hears one nurse ask.

“No, not yet.” Says the other.

“And no ID?”

“All of his IDs and paperwork are probably on the ocean floor with his boat.”

The pair enter, a stout man with a clean shaven beard and a fleshy face and a woman, just as stout but rather petite. The man checks over the feeding tubes while the nurse checks over the patient himself.

“Has he woken up at all?” The woman asks.

“Not while I’ve been here.” Azula replies.

Deciding that everything is in order, the doctors step out once more. She looks at the time, she ought to be heading out herself. She waits another few moments before pulling out her phone, it rings several times before Zuzu answers. “Why are you answering father’s phone?”

“He and Jet went for a swim.” Zuko replies. “Do you need me to tell him something?”

She hears the boy stir in his bed. She lowers the phone for a moment before replying. “Just tell him that the sailor is waking up, so I might be here for a little while longer.” She doesn’t wait for a reply before she stuffs her phone back into her purse.

She wanders over to the bed. The boy squeezes his eyes tighter before opening them. They are tired and gentle and a very vivid blue. Azula swallows, they are a very familiar vivid blue. She takes his hand, wondering how it had taken her this long to recognize him.

“Gee…” he speaks, his voice hoarse and weak. “Guess the town motto is true, ‘all waves lead to Port Tui-La.’” He tries to laugh but his mouth is too dry.

She hands him a cup of water and waits for him to swallow before saying, “we’re not at Port Tui-La.” She wants to hug him with a tightness that will assure her that he won’t leave again. Even if she had both of her arms free to use, she worries about pressing on his sores the wrong way.

“Then where are we?”

“A small resort island called, Su Oku.”

“You think that I could get a pina colada with this hospital banquet.” He gestures to the oatmeal.

“I think that you couldn’t keep a pina colada down if they gave one to you.” She replies. It is unfathomably amazing to hear his voice again. To hear those stupid and poorly timed jokes.

“What happened to your arm?” He asks.

“It happened while I was saving you. You ass.”

“Now that’s no way to treat a guy in a hospital bed. That’s not how you…” he pauses for another drink. “Greet someone that you haven’t seen in months either.”

“It’s a perfect way to treat an imbecile who promised to take you out for a birthday dinner and stood you up for months.”

He makes a gesture as if to slap his forehead but thinks better of it at the last moment, “Ah shit, I forgot your birthday.”

Azula could slap him. “We thought that you were dead, Sokka.” She whispers after the humor fades. And suddenly it is overwhelming. The notion that she is going to have to speak with Jet crosses her mind and mixes strangely with joy and relief.

She feels his hand brush against her cheek, a rough and calloused hand. “Why are you crying?”

“I’m not.” She wipes at her eyes.

“Of course not.” He chuckles.

How is she going to tell him about Jet? How is she going to tell Jet about him? But he’s alive, goodness he’s alive. She carefully cups her hand over his. “What happened to your ship and how did you survive?”

“It’s a long story.” He replies, she can tell that he is going to fade out again. “Visit tomorrow and you might get to hear it.”

“Might?!”

He is already out again. She finds herself laughing. Of course he will leave her unanswered. It dawns upon her, as the nurse enters that she probably should have let them know that he was awake.

.oOo.

She finds herself terribly anxious the closer they draw to the hotel. The walk from the hospital isn’t terribly long, she almost wishes that it could be longer. It is a nice day, in the storm’s wake there is a cooler edge to the day. For once her skin isn’t slick with sweat from the walk and jasmine dances within the breeze. “You’re quiet.” Zuko remarks.

“Enjoy your break.” Azula mutters.

“Did something happen to the sailor?”

She shakes her head. “Nothing bad.”

“But something happened.”

“He woke up.”

“And.”

She bunches her hands in her pockets. She isn’t sure why she is so hesitant to tell him. Perhaps it is because she doesn’t want him to slip and tell Jet before she can. “It’s Sokka.”

Zuko comes to a full halt. “What? How?”

She shrugs. She had imagined it time and time again, a reunion, telling Katara that her brother is alive. And perhaps it is because she had truly expected it to be anything but a reality, that it is so hard for her to process that her daydreams have become truth. Truth be told, she isn’t quite ready. “I don’t know, Zuzu. I didn’t that we would actually find him.”

“Well aren’t you, I don’t know, elated?”

She knows that she should be. She should be happy, excited, grateful. And she is, but she is also nervous. It has been so long. He doesn’t know about father, he doesn’t know about Jet, about...she traces the length of the scar on her arm, rather she traces the parts of it that aren’t tucked into the sling. “I am.” She says. “I’m just trying to figure out what to tell Jet.”

“Fuck off, is a good option.”

She elbows him. “I know that you don’t like him but he treats me well.” They pass a merchant selling bundles of hibiscus and bamboos sticks. With the storm well and past, the island is lively again. She spies several bikers and a couple with a picnic basket. There is a child with an armful of shells and a missing sandal, an exasperated woman holds that sandal. Colorful umbrellas are propped open all along the beach that runs parallel with the road. A road that is scattered with palm fronds, branches, clusters of flowers, and other things that the storm had thrown about. She can hear the hum of cicadas and the chatter of birds, mostly seagulls. “I suppose that I should just tell him outright.” That is how she would have wanted it if Jet had fallen for someone else.

“That’s what I meant when I said tell him to fuck off.”

Azula rolls her eyes. “I’m sure it is.” But that doesn’t make it any less daunting, knowing that she has so much to fill Sokka in on. Though she supposes it is, at the end of the day, fair. He has a long story for her and she has a rather long one for him. If he will hear the rest of it after finding out about her fling with Jet. She decides that she will get to that part after talking about how increasingly difficult and lonely things had gotten. She will answer the why’s before sharing what they had led to.

She enters the hotel and holds the door open just long enough for Zuko to get his hopes up before letting it slam in his face. He cusses and she chuckles. It has been a while since she’d got him like that.

“See if I hold it open for you next time!”

She fixes him with a faux pout. “You mean you’d slam the door on your handicapped little sister?”

“I sure would.” He replies.

They reach the hotel room at the same time as her father and Jet. She watches Jet rub his hair with his towel.

“They left you by yourself?” Azula asks.

Katara shrugs. “I could use the quiet time. How was your visit?”

“It was…” she can’t keep the smile from her face. “Surreal.”

“Surreal?”

“He’s alive, Katara. That sailor is…”

“Sokka?” She asks softly.

Azula nods. She has made Katara cry several times throughout childhood, and once as a pre-teen when she’d decided that she was too cool to hang out with the girl anymore. But she had never made her cry with joy and relief.

“You sure that it’s him?”

“He asked me for a pina colada.”

“That’s him alright.” Ozai grumbles. He slings his towel onto one of the racks and makes his way into the bathroom.

“Hey!” Jet calls. “We agreed that I get the first shower!”

“You have things to discuss with my daughter.” Ozai shrugs. “I’ll take an extra long one to make sure that she can cover all of the details.”  With that, the door closes and she hears the lock pop into place.

“He’s alive, Zuko!” Katara springs up and throws her arms around him. “My brother is alive!” She lets go of Zuko and turns to Azula. “You saved him…”

Azula nods. “He better treat me extra special or I’ll throw him right back out there.” She folds her good arm against the other.

“Do you need us to…?” Zuko gestures towards the door.

Azula nods. She waits for the door to shut once more before taking a seat on the bed.

Jet sighs and rubs the back of his head. “I take it, there’s nothing I can do to make you choose me.”

She hesitates before shaking her head. “There’s nothing.”

He blows out through his lips, “the ride home is going to be mighty awkward.”

“It doesn’t have to be.” She answers despite being well aware that she has a solid track record for being awkward as hell.

“Does he know yet?”

“No.” She says. “He will tomorrow.” She just hopes that that will go well.

“Were you using me as a rebound?”  Jet asks.

“No.” She says again. “I was trying to move on…”

“Which is why you went out on a sailing trip to find your boyfriend?”

“I didn’t anticipate anything coming from it.”  

He nods, clasps his hands together and presses them to his lips. “Then why do I feel like I got used.”

“I didn’t use you.” She insists. “If I had I would have asked for a lot more cash.”

This elicits a humored snort. “I’m going to go back to the pool.” He stands. She doesn’t stop him. The soft slam of a door, shut slightly too hard, rebounds around the room. She supposes that he needs to process things. She needs to process things. Good news or not, her head still spins and she finds herself feeling notably drained. She falls back onto the mattress and stares at the ceiling.

[bellatrixobsessed1]

Mutilated Mannequin (Part 5)

Azula still feels out of it, for the better part of her Saturday, she remains in bed, curled up and trying not to think too much. She doesn’t know what she is going to say when she gets back to school with a bandaged nose. She could say that she had fallen or run into something but she isn’t known to be clumsy, quite the opposite. Even if she were, the alteration isn’t subtle. I

She resists the urge to touch her nose, she can’t feel it at all, not even a throb. It is as numb as she was promised.

When she finally pulls herself up, she feels sick. There is some feeling in her nose and it is the sensation of blood. She is glad for the nasal drip pads. She wanders her way to the bathroom, she knows very well that she shouldn’t. That she is only going to bring herself distress.

No less, Azula opens the door, she has to brush her teeth and comb her hair anyhow. She can’t let her hygiene got to shit because of this. Though she doesn’t plan on changing out of her pajamas; she needs at least some degree of comfort.

Her reflection looks tired and weary. Her eyes are as puffy and purple as promised, she can’t wait for that to go away. Beneath the bandages, she can’t see the exact damage that her nose sustains but it does look quite swollen. She swallows and begins brushing her teeth. She doesn’t feel beautiful at all.

She wanders into the kitchen, normally the smell of pancakes would draw her, she no longer has that pleasure. She slides into her chair.

“What happened?” Zuko asks.

Azula only shrugs.

“Your sister is getting surgery.” Ozai cuts in. “The kind that you ought to be getting.”

“I already got rid of the scars.” Zuko argues.

“Not the ones on your ear.”

“I have hair to cover that.” Zuko grumbles, he untucks his hair from behind his ear and moves it to the front. “See.” He crosses his arms. “I said I was done with that cosmetic surgery shit.”

Ozai sets his fork down with a false gentleness. “If you keep talking to me like that you will be in need of it.”

Azula silently cringes on his behalf.

“Your sister knows what needs to be done, she isn’t crying about it.”

Not that he can see, Azula thinks. But she is, she absolutely is. This first operation is already hard to swallow and he has three more lined up for her.  She takes a deep breath and tries to remind herself that she wants this, that it is for the best. That if it goes well, she will finally have a date to homecoming.

.oOo.

“You need to relax, Sokka.” Katara sighs as they near her locker. “The first major debate isn’t until tomorrow.”

“Kat, I don’t have any dialogue prepared! Azula probably has a novella of points ready.”

“She can have as many points as she wants, that doesn’t make her any less cold. People want a friendly class president, someone that they can approach.” Katara pauses. “She might be really organized and extremely smart. But she’s really intimidating and hard to talk to.”

Sokka nods, “then why is she…” he lifts his hand, “and I’m down here.” He holds his other hand beneath the first.

Katara rolls her eyes, “because she scares people. And because her good friends Chan and Yue are up there.” She sighs as she pulls out an armful of textbooks. “You’re going to do fine, Sokka. You may not be the brightest, you’re kind of an annoying idiot, actually.”

“Hey!” He nudges her bicep with his shoulder.

“But you’re really funny and your easy to talk to. People like that.” She glances at the clock. “Oh, crap! I’ll talk to you at home, Sokka!” She wishes that she had more time to let him respond. Such isn’t the case, she sprints down the hall and into her first class of the day. Heaven knows that Zhao is a stickler about people being late for algebra. She certainly doesn’t want to have to solve one of his challenge equations in front of the class.

“Running late?” Yue steps in front of Katara.

“Yeah, so…” she gestures for Yue to move.

“I’ll move if you give me that dorky keychain.”

Katara looks at the adorable rubber duck dangling on her backpack. It is blue in color with a teal beak and a teal hibiscus on its head. “No way!”

“Hmmm...then I guess that you don’t want to get to class that badly.”

“Yue, you know that this keychain is…”

“Important to you? That mommy gave it to you after your first swim meet? You didn’t even win.”

“She never cared about that.” Katara mutters.

“Yeah she seemed nice, it’s too bad that she had cancer.”

Katara balls her fist. She is already going to be late, she might as well add attacking another student to her detention slip. She steps forward.

“Don’t do it Katty.” Toph calls. “I know garbage cans that are worth fighting more than she is.” Before Katara can make the decision to end her flawless record, Toph has her hand and is pulling her down the hallway. “Besides, you only have thirty seconds, maybe forty, if you’re lucky, to keep your perfect attendance certificate.

Katara sighs, but decides that Toph is ultimately right. She bursts through the door just as the bell rings.

Zhao seems to frown and tucks his stack of tardy slips back into his desk draw. “And here I thought that I’d get the honor of giving you your first strike.”

Katara, panting lightly and with a half smirk says, “not this time, Zhao.”

.oOo.

“Oh. My. God.” Yue gasps.

Azula, taking care to avoid hurting herself, buries her face in her hands, partly in embarrassment and partly in aggravation.

“You got a nose job, didn’t you?”

“And what if I did?” Azula grumbles. She feels the table dip as Chan seats himself.

“Holy shit, dude.” He mutters. “Who did you fight?”

“Don’t worry about it.” Azula replies, her voice sounds as awful as face must look. The bruising has faded some, but her eyes still appear purple and yellow in some spots.

“I got you something.” TyLee smiles. She sets an icepack in Azula’s palm.

“Thank you, Ty.” She holds it lightly over her nose.

“Does it hurt?” Mai asks.”

“Not yet.” Azula frowns. She wonders if she should just tell them exactly what had happened. She supposes that it is better for her to do so than for Yue to make a scene of it. She doesn’t have to be wholly truthful. “Look, I was helping Zuzu move some stuff around in his room and he accidently hit me in the face with one of those long wall shelves.”

Yue rolls her eyes. “Did he punch both of your eyes too? I know what plastic surgery looks like.”

“You can’t even spot the difference between your mashed potatoes and your corn.” Azula gestures to her lunch tray.

“But I can spot a nose job when I see one.” Yue crosses her arms.

“Why’d you want surgery?” Mai tilts her head.

“My father wanted me to get it, okay?” She huffs, it isn’t entirely untrue.

“Didn’t he do the same thing to Zuko?” TyLee asks.

Azula nods as Mai mutters, “I had to hold his hand the whole time. But he was extra nice that week.”

“What’s it going to look like?”

“I don’t know, Chan. Can we just eat?” She takes a sporkful of mashed potatoes.

.oOo.

Katara sends Sokka a text, asking him to pick her up from astronomy at around 4:00. She is pretty sure that he doesn’t mind, he’s been itching for any excuse to drive since he got his licence. Even though his pickup truck is a complete beater, he’s been showing it off at every opportunity.

She can’t wait until they actually begin stargazing, she already knows how to use a telescope. Being outside would grant her the freedom to distance herself from Yue. Evidently, Yue is plenty occupied for the time being and from the look of it, Azula isn’t getting any pleasure from her company this evening. Katara observes Azula collecting her belongings and moving to a different table. She can’t tell if Yue and her cluster of ditzy friends have kicked her out or if the girl had simply had enough of that nerve grating voice. Either way around, Azula looks rather isolated.

For a moment, Katara considers sitting by her, she doesn’t really have friends in the club either. But she has little trust for the girl. Her father routinely makes things difficult for Hakoda and Azula herself is ridiculously stand-offish. Besides, she can’t betray Sokka like that. She can’t see herself getting along with someone like Azula anyhow. The last time she’d tried to bond with a member of that family it ended with Zuko trying to steal Aang from her in the most pathetic breakup rebound that Katara had ever seen. No, that family is off limits, she can’t imagine that Azula is a friendly sort of person anyhow.

.oOo.

Azula taps her fingers on the desk, she just wants to look at stars and take her mind off of things. She wishes with all of her heart and soul that Yue hadn’t tagged along. She ruffles through her bag and pulls out her ice pack. She holds it to her nose and ignores Yue’s girlish giggles.

God, she is already giving her a hard time and she still thinks that this whole thing is all Ozai’s idea. She supposes that, at this point, it mostly is. She inhales deeply, she really needs to figure out how to tell her father that she doesn’t want to go through with the next three procedures.

A few droplets of blood spatter on her hand and she remembers that she needs to change the pads. She exucses herself and wanders into the bathroom. She takes another deep breath, feeling wholly uncomfortable doing this by herself. But she’d rather be alone than ask Yue for help. She brings her fingers to her nose, they are shaking. She wonders what would happen if she did this wrong. She doesn’t want to find out.

She bites her lip and returns to the classroom, lingering in the doorway and scanning the classroom for someone approachable. Yue and her cluster of fools are eliminated right away. The only other familiar face is Katara’s, though she doesn’t know the girl that well at all.

Yet, Katara is alone and away from snooping ears. Azula holds her head high and approaches the girl with a stiff, “come with me.” It rests somewhere between a command and a request. Due to her nature, Azula suspects that it sounds more so like a demand.

Katara crinkles her brow. “What for.”

This time she sounds less certain, “I-I need help with something.”

“Ask Yue?”

Azula begins to crinkle her nose and hisses in pain. “No!” She whispers through gritted teeth. “Yue is...not helpful.”

“What do you need help with?”

Azula begins walking away, hoping that curiosity will compel the other girl. She lingers by the mirror, looking down at the pads. There is a thin trail of blood leaking into her mouth. She dabs it away with one of those scratchy school bathroom napkins.

She hears a shuffle behind her. “What do you need help with?”

She motions to the nasal drip pads. “I need to swap them out.”

“How am I supposed to help?”

"I." She pauses. "I don't know, I guess that I just want someone to be here if I do it wrong. I think that you can handle this job."

"Do you want my help or not." Katara replies with a roll of her eyes.

"I wouldn't have dragged you here if I didn't."

"Then, maybe, act like you want me here. Or I'll..."

"No, don't leave." She says a little softer. 

"Let's just do this thing and get back to reviewing the functions of a telescope."

Azula nods and exhales in relief.

[tikixreblogs]

Yes thank you

he’s a little confused but he’s got the spirit

angsty bonus:

after a long and heartfelt hug he and Iroh had The Talk™ gay edition

[miss-chaddy]

I'm a Zutara stan, but I really cried with baby Zuko here

he’s a little confused but he’s got the spirit

angsty bonus:

after a long and heartfelt hug he and Iroh had The Talk™ gay edition

[crazystupidsloth]

THE TAGS!! 🤣

he’s a little confused but he’s got the spirit

angsty bonus:

after a long and heartfelt hug he and Iroh had The Talk™ gay edition

[breawycker]

I love this!!!!

he’s a little confused but he’s got the spirit

angsty bonus:

after a long and heartfelt hug he and Iroh had The Talk™ gay edition

[uaofficialdumpster]

YESSSSSSSS

he’s a little confused but he’s got the spirit

angsty bonus:

after a long and heartfelt hug he and Iroh had The Talk™ gay edition

[chaoticlovingdreamer]

So cool!!!! Awesome art!!!

he’s a little confused but he’s got the spirit

angsty bonus:

after a long and heartfelt hug he and Iroh had The Talk™ gay edition

[heatherfullerrr]

QUICK SOMEBODY HUG HIM FOR ME 😭😭😭

he’s a little confused but he’s got the spirit

angsty bonus:

after a long and heartfelt hug he and Iroh had The Talk™ gay edition

[thesexydancingcrepe]

I LOVE ALL OF THIS 😭💖

he’s a little confused but he’s got the spirit

angsty bonus:

after a long and heartfelt hug he and Iroh had The Talk™ gay edition