do you see my vision

azula as zuko’s evil advisor is so funny to me i actually fuck so hard w this concept. she gives zuko advice and then zuko looks across the room to sokka and sokka just discreetly gives him a thumbs up or thumbs down. one weekend sokka, aang, mai, toph, suki, katara, and anyone else who might have a modicum of common sense all go out of town for like. omashu coachella or smth. and when they come back the entire palace is in shambles, zuko’s just sitting on his throne shinji style, and he’s just like “i’m so sorry….. her advice seemed so cogent….. she made trickle down economics seem so reasonable……. why weren’t you there….. YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE, GODDAMMIT!!!!!!!” while azula slyly sips from a cunty chalice she had personally made just for moments like this.

[saionjifies your zuko]

just some designs mainly created because I wanted to draw hakama and then it spiral out from there

bald zuko under the cute

to jumpstart your lok rewrite posting, i have to ask. lmk if this isn't worded well enough but if lok's plot was coherent all throughout, actually explored the lasting effects of colonialism, do you think it would make sense for hiroshi sato to be the sole "big bad villain" of book 1? and how would that tie into red lotus ideology vs white lotus ideology as the main conflict?

yes actually. hiroshi is very much a facet of the white lotus, a symbol of economic growth under capitalism (he created so many jobs!!!) and technological progress and the liberal dream. like according to him he was once a scrappy street urchin like mako and he worked his way up from a factory job to owning his own factories (I don’t remember what he says exactly lol). but like. he literally owns the means of production of like. an entire city that basically exists as a testament to this neoliberal neocolonial vision of progress as both cynical and a given. so in a subtler show, he wouldn’t be funding a terrorist movement, he would simply be the villain because of what he represents. I think hiroshi could easily have functioned metonymically the way ozai does. the akio ohtori of republic city.

I mean in my vision for lok asami is very much more of an anthy figure whose codependent abuse is actually given the space to be acknowledged and handled with the care that something of that gravity deserves. so her role as korra’s love interest (as it foments from the beginning, because a clearly defined telos is always important in serialized television!) would be as her foil as someone who is similarly trapped and restricted and denied agency despite being immensely privileged and socially powerful, and the abuse she experiences at the hands of her father that she cannot fully put a name to would be the central building tension of the season as korra identifies that violence and then, perhaps even if only subconsciously, connects it to her own exploitation. and so through seeing themselves and their own pain and suffering reflected in the other, they hand each other the keys to their own liberation.

What about cat toph? She deserves to be a kitty too 🥺

hmm I do have some more cat sketches in my drafts so maybe someday I will draw toph too….

AU where the timeline gets reset but Zuko still has all his memories. Now in comic form

The backstory for this drawing

Genuinely asking—what changes would you make to the adult gaang designs? :)

this is such a fun question thank u for enabling me. i mean i draw them as adults sometimes so also check out my /oldergaang tag if u want visuals (altho i also change my designs a lot because my art is nothing if not inconsistent) but if i was just going with like standard character designs like if i could redesign that hideous “old friends” poster for example…

aang: get rid of that fucking. chinstrap. don’t give him white man features because what the hell is that. and let him wear his off the shoulder monk robes from book 3 because he was slaying with that fit. actually the way aang is drawn in imbalance is basically perfect i would retain that design into adulthood. thank u peter wartman for all that u do….

katara: i don’t mind the older katara design (from the little we see of it) but it’s also not nearly as cunty and slayful as i would like. katara is genuinely interested in fashion and loves experimenting with clothes and hair and makeup, i refuse to believe that as she ages and has more resources to tailor her style to her own personal tastes she wouldn’t get a little funky with it. like she kind of just looks boring and uninspired in her older design, and that’s unacceptable to me because she should be hot. adult katara should be the hottest woman you have ever seen in your life. and she should be buff, also. shredded, even.

toph: any signifiers of copness are obviously unacceptable to me. but even more that than, it’s very important to me that older toph is distinctly butch. i think she would cut her hair the second she realizes that there is no reconciliation to be found with her parents and that there is no reason to adhere to those confucian values. and she would wear a lot of sleeveless outfits (sort of like the shirt korra wears in “korra alone”) to show off her biceps and also space bracelet (spacelet) that is her prized possession forever. and she’s just kind of a hot hippie butch legend . period.

zuko: in the old friends poster he literally looks like a lizard so just like. no. wtf. and i like his long hair in theory but i don’t like that it’s styled after ozai and not ursa, i think his hair would be shwoopier and frame his face more. and his robes should be less spiky and militaristic and more designed for comfort because that’s what makes him feel most like his true authentic self and he deserves that. also weird for a guy who is trying to demilitarize the fire nation to wear an armor-adjacent type of outfit. so mainly he’d just look softer and more like his mom.

sokka: i hate buff goatee whitewashed sokka that is some kind of demon. lok did so little with him and yet said so much (all of it egregiously wrong, ofc). sokka would be fairly tall (although not as tall as aang) and have defined muscle but in a sinewy, lanky way. and despite always having enough to eat he’d still look somewhat malnourished just because he’s constantly overworked and exhausted and never takes care of himself. and his ponytail would be longer but he’d still shave the sides. and the older he gets the darker his clothes get until he basically just wears black all the time because at some point he realizes that it’s more advantageous to remain culturally ambiguous if he’s gonna be a cosmopolitan. and he wears glasses (which were a gift from kuei). and sometimes he uses a cane because he didn’t sufficiently take care of his broken leg after the war ended and now he’s paying the price for it. and his cane has a blade inside too, but he rarely ever even pulls out the blade because he can incapacitate someone with just a wooden stick anyway. so he looks like if a nerd was a shadow was about to collapse at any given moment was secretly ruling the entire world. and he’s not in any sort of front-facing position of power whatsoever but he’s actually pulling all the strings from behind the scenes, and it’s exhausting. his eyebags are visible from outer space.

suki: i don’t even think there is a “canon” adult suki character design besides her in her kyoshi warrior armor and makeup but to me casual suki just starts dressing more like sokka. like the loose baggy sleeveless shirts (except in a lighter shade of blue bc kyoshi island colors) and tight pants and boots. it’s a very dykey look already and they’re basically girlfriend twins so their styles would merge even more than it already has within the show itself. like sometimes people think that sokka and suki are siblings because they dress so similarly and give off such a similar vibe and they’re just like “but we’re literally different ethnicities??? and also we are currently making out????”

okay bonus round bc i can’t just neglect them

azula: she cuts her hair really short and as an adult leaves it to shoulder length for the most part because that’s more comfortable for her. like zuko, she also starts dressing for comfort, and for a period in her late teens stops wearing makeup altogether. she gets back into wearing makeup as an adult, but she stops caring about whether or not she leaves the house with lipstick on, and it becomes more about the process for her than the result. she’s comfy and cute and dykey.

mai: sokka is her lesbian style icon so after her first haircut that was inspired by toph’s haircut to piss off her parents, she gets an undercut and starts wearing her hair in a ponytail like sokka. as she gets older she also gets more confident in her body and doesn’t feel like she needs to wear baggy long-sleeved clothing at all times or she’ll die. and she isn’t rail thin as an adult either because she starts letting herself eat more than a single grain of rice at a time. also, she gets a sword.

ty lee: she becomes a kyoshi warrior so she starts incorporating more blues and greens into her wardrobe, but also more oranges and yellows after she embraces her air nomad heritage. and she just dresses very colorfully and has a vast rotation of different cute little outfits. and i think she’d also experiment with different hairstyles once she has the freedom to define herself outside of the aesthetics expected of her. she looks beautiful always

haru: he finally shaves that thang

Chilchuck Sokka interaction

Is this anything?

no this is so real actually. because chilchuck is so fucking sokkacoded it’s hilarious. he’s like if sokka was an infantilized adult instead of an adultified kid. and also if sokka was capable of unionizing, which is of course is not the case because he is truly peerless. they’re both always standing in the corner with their arms crossed like 😒 i am surrounded by idiots…. i love themmm. except what differentiates chilchuck in a major way is that chilchuck actually knows the meaning of a healthy work-life balance and prioritizes his own life despite caring deeply about his friends, which is something sokka does not have the luxury to do because he does feel personally responsible for the gaang’s safety considering they are all younger than he is, but also has no desire to do because he is legitimately suicidal and only sees a purpose in living when he is living for others. so if anyone could get through to sokka and really impress the importance of like, the most basic tenets of self-preservation and knowing how to value your own skills without overextending yourself, or enabling your own exploitation out of some imposed and arbitrary inferiority complex, it’s chilchuck. he has a skillset that sokka values, he has an attitude that sokka can relate to, and he also has a much healthier approach to his work and its value than sokka does and likely ever will. i think sokka would actually get along with everyone in the party, because he enjoys good food so he’d appreciate senshi, he’d find marcille interesting because she’s basically a scientist, and laios would wear him down over time. but chilchuck is definitely “the sokka” of their group, so they’d probably have fun just standing in the corner and talking shit together. lmfao

might be bit of a stupid question, and you may have even discussed it before. if so, sorry for asking again.

but: do you think aang forgives ozai, or does he just show mercy? aang seems to have a clear stance on the importance of forgiveness, however, the final moments of his battle with ozai are visually paralleled with katara's attack on her mother's killer - and katara is clear on the fact the she has not (and will not) forgive him. she just shows him mercy, i suppose.

do you think this sentiment is paralleled in these two scenes? do you think aang manages to actually forgive ozai, or is he just showing mercy in order to protect the values of his culture?

to be perfectly honest, the thought of whether or not aang’s decision to spare ozai is one of forgiveness never actually crossed my mind. you’re right that the issue of mercy is tied to forgiveness in “the southern raiders,” but i always read that issue of forgiveness as far less straightforward than a question of whether or not katara will forgive yon rha, and more so whether katara can forgive herself (and by extension zuko). as aang says, “revenge is a two headed rat viper,” and the reason he’s advocating that katara find room for forgiveness within herself is not because he gives a shit whether the man who murdered her mother will die or not (he doesn’t care if others kill as long as he doesn’t have blood on his hands, as evidenced by his relationship to sokka and toph), but whether katara will be able to live with herself after the fact. and he knows her, so he knows that she won’t.

by sparing yon rha, katara forgives herself for her own guilt in having to carry the burden of knowing her mother sacrificed herself to save her, lets herself rest and simply be a human person instead of dedicating herself to the pursuit of vengeance, to revenge kya’s foul and most unnatural murder. because of course katara has that instinct, and of course katara feels her mother’s death more personally than sokka does, and of course she feels a responsibility to right the wrongs that she (however inadvertently) caused in whatever way she possibly can.

she finally has the skillset and the intel that allows her to carry out her revenge, but in that final moment before she strikes the final blow, she hesitates and drops her weapon, her artform that she has dedicated herself to honing in a way no one alive has ever needed to (with the exception of hama, and even then). it’s a uniquely powerful moment in a show filled with powerful moments (many of them involving katara) because she is choosing herself over yon rha, over zuko, over the memory of her mother.

she lets the illusion that she is the hero of an adventure tale wherein good triumphs over evil fade away and she embraces her own humanity though acknowledging the humanity of her enemies. yon rha isn’t a uniquely evil cackling villain (unlike someone like zhao or ozai), he’s a person, an awful person, but nonetheless a human being. a soldier who acted as the arm of a vast and complex, terrifying machine. and by looking into his face once more, the face that haunted her nightmares, katara is able to see herself reflected in the face of the other, and finally fully realizes a tapestry of the world that can not be so neatly woven.

that is what it means to forgive. when she forgives zuko, it is not because zuko has done anything to earn her forgiveness: unlike with “the boiling rock,” where he genuinely risks his life to selflessly help sokka at his lowest point, he is the instigator of katara’s entire journey, and even though he is attempting to do her a favor because he understands her intrinsic desire for revenge born of guilt and rage and shame, it is not a selfless act (that comes later). but through forgiving herself, allowing herself to relax her rigid worldview of right and wrong, good and evil, she recognizes that even if zuko did do genuinely reprehensible, awful things, it isn’t in her best interest to hold onto that anger, and by allowing herself to feel less personal responsibility and shame over her misplaced trust in zuko leading to aang’s death, she is able to forgive zuko, but only because she had already forgiven herself.

when aang shows ozai mercy, however, the issue of forgiveness isn’t even really the right term for it. he’s not forgiving ozai nor himself, here, but rather powerfully asserting that mercy is not a weakness, but a deliberate choice, and one that is born of incredible strength of character, at that. he’s forgiving his people for “not fighting back,” he’s forgiving his culture for adhering to these pacifist values, and yes, he’s forgiving himself for not being the avatar that everyone expects him to be. he’s prioritizing his people and his humanity and his grief over what the entire human world wanted from him.

and crucially, before the lion turtle showed him his truest path, aang was going to kill ozai. he was resigned to this being his destiny. unlike katara, who fully planned on killing yon rha and only decided to spare him once she saw his face, aang didn’t want to kill ozai from the very beginning, and had to be forced into killing him, rather than being talked down. sokka tells katara not to kill yon rha as gently as he possibly can (and nonetheless immediately gets shut down for it), but then he almost bullies aang for not wanting to kill. sokka considers killing a tool that should be exercised with logical intent, katara considers killing an act that makes a statement, and aang considers killing a taboo that should never be violated. of course, aang’s stance on killing is a very culturally-specific one, which yangchen also adheres to as best she can, but also understands its limits when in the position of avatar. but aang cannot afford to simply be the avatar, because he must bear the burden of his entire people’s legacy.

so at no point does forgiveness for ozai come into play, because aang has no reason to consider forgiving ozai. his decision to take down the firelord is a tactical one, rather than born purely out of a desire for revenge. but he does mirror katara’s decision to spare yon rha in sparing ozai’s life simply because, in both cases, they prioritize themselves and the preservation of their own humanity over submitting to the logic of the men who have destroyed their lives.

if lok adult gaang character designs have a million haters, then i am one of them. if they have ten haters, then i am one of them. if they have only one hater then that is me. if lok adult gaang character designs have no haters, then that means i am no longer on earth. if the world loves lok adult gaang character designs, then i am against the world.

If you're still doing the ship opinions, could you do jet/katara?

I think they’ve grown on me bc when I was a kid I was just like “katara can do so much better 😤” (and that’s true!) but I also think what he means to katara (whether or not he truly lives up to her image of him in her mind) is really interesting. like something that I think is really crucial to understand about their relationship is the fact that the reason she feels betrayed by him isn’t because he’s “a bad revolutionary” but because he treated her like a naive child and lied to her face about his methods, manipulated her into trusting him by exploiting her tendency to dismiss sokka, tried to kill her brother (which is something she immediately understands judging by the way her eyes well with tears as she asks “where’s sokka”), and played her for a fool. “I trusted you, you’re sick and I trusted you.” yes she takes issue with his methods, but she mostly hates that she trusted someone who didn’t deserve it and didn’t truly respect her.

she hates putting her faith in someone and being taken advantage of, especially because it’s one of the points that sokka is especially condescending towards her about, and she always wants to be proven right in their arguments (which is natural, who doesn’t), so the fact that sokka is usually right when it comes to reading people is particularly infuriating. and it’s especially egregious in this circumstance, because katara’s trust in jet over sokka is what directly led to jet killing sokka (or at least, the attempt to). in her pursuit of winning the lifelong argument against her brother, she nearly got her brother killed. so jet is interesting insofar as he informs katara and sokka’s dynamic, and also as he reflects a major part of katara’s psychology as someone who genuinely wants to form connections with others over shared trauma, which is an incredibly noble and beautiful tendency of hers.

I think the way he sweeps her off her feet (literally) is kind of adorable, not because he’s a likable love interest (imo), but because her reaction is nonetheless very cute. the ugly ass hat she makes him after they kissed (offscreen, but canonically) is soo precious to me I think about that all the time (and the fact that aang is also the one who ends up wearing it…. my heart). and her reaction when they reunite later is fascinating, because even though it’s in such a different context and jet is literally brainwashed, katara acts like a scorned lover while sokka (number one jet hater in the world) approaches the situation in a more detached and logical way. it’s clear that her feelings for jet were incredibly strong, and the terror and guilt she felt over nearly letting sokka die at his hands has stayed with her and impacted in a very profound way, whereas sokka never actually felt like he jet had his life in his hands because he always knew that jet was a con artist who doesn’t really pose a threat to him.

but katara actually held a lot of respect for him, and he betrayed that trust and shattered her admiration irreparably. and then, of course, he nearly redeems himself, helps her in a major way, and dies in her arms. she cannot save him, and suddenly whatever could have been is gone not because he failed her, but because she failed him. and it’s subtle, and hardly mentioned, but I do think the trauma of that, in both instances, really informs katara’s perspective in many key ways, if not consciously, then subconsciously. it informs how she reacts to aang’s death only a few weeks later, and it informs her anger at zuko when he betrays her. jet is a key player in katara’s life and how she approaches her relationships going forward, and for that, he cannot be discounted.

[ID: A series of GIFs showing the parallels between Azula introducing herself to King Keui in Kyoshi Warrior disguise and Ozai asking Fire Lord Azulon to make him the crown prince over Iroh. The last GIF shows Azula and Zuko peeking through curtains watching Ozai speak to Azulon.]

“I am your humble servant, here to serve you and our nation. Use me.” // "We are the Earth King's humble servants."

people should never trust zuko as an authority on katara’s feelings, for many reasons, but simply because his claim that her disdain for him is irrational and the only reason she doesn’t trust him is because she arbitrarily conflated him with her mother’s killer is so blatantly erroneous on its face. the reason katara associates zuko with her mother’s death, even though he obviously was a child and nowhere near the scene of the crime, is because the thing that made katara trust him in the first place was due to bonding over their mothers. and katara didn’t even know it at the time, but they had both lost their mothers due to the sacrifices they made to save them (them, personally!) so the potency of their bond was such an undeniably precious and beautiful thing, and zuko didn’t understand its importance.

he squandered her precarious trust and sided with azula in what was one of the absolute worst moments of katara’s entire life. aang died and she was responsible for literally resurrecting him (for a second time). she spent weeks doing nothing but tirelessly healing him in a desperate attempt to bring him back, not knowing if it would work but knowing she had to try regardless. zuko’s blunder in the catacombs directly led to the darkest period of katara’s entire life, at least since her mother was murdered. and that grief, over her mother, still hasn’t faded, because how could it? and in her eyes, zuko exploited that grief, “made” her trust him, and then broke her heart in a matter of hours.

she’s not irrational in her anger towards him, and she’s not conflating his crimes with anyone else’s. she knows exactly what his crimes are, and that’s exactly why she’s so angry. he wants to ignore that aang died, and the part he played in it. he wants to joke about the months he spent tormenting them as if it’s funny now, and not a source of actual trauma. like he didn’t invade their village; like he didn’t tie her to a tree, using her as bait while tauntingly lording her only relic of the mother who died to save her over her head; like he didn’t hunt them across the entire globe in an attempt to kidnap her best friend. katara had every right to resent zuko, and the fact that she doesn’t is a testament to her compassionate, open-hearted nature and her pervading love for all of humanity. and a testament to the power of undergoing mutual catharsis in a journey to avenge one’s mother, and, perhaps, to alleviate some of the guilt, shame, rage and grief of only being alive due to your favorite person’s sacrifice.

when katara forgives zuko, it is not because she “realizes” that she was meant to forgive him all along, like zuko (initially and fallaciously) assumes. it’s because she realizes that the ways in which they are the same outweigh the very real and devastating wrongs he has committed against her. her misgivings are perfectly logical, because who would want to be played for a fool twice by the same person? but her forgiveness speaks to the strength of her character, and her ability to recognize when friendship is more valuable than hostility. because, in katara’s own words, as the one true authority of her own emotions, it is the strength of her heart that makes her who she is.

Another dichotomy style commission! This time featuring the (usually) cool calm and collected Avatar Yangchen from A:TLA! 

some part of me loves to think that Naga feels a special connection to Asami the same way Korra does because Naga is her spirit guide and so she would feel the love Korra holds within her for Asami

thank you for your service 🫡

zuko rly thought the avatar was 100 years old, and he was still fully prepared to fucking kidnap him. imagine if that had actually gone down like zuko thought it would. you’re a fully-realized avatar and you’ve been hiding out for over a century and all of a sudden you get approached by this 13 year old kid who’s like “WHATS GOOD I’VE GOT NO DEPTH PERCEPTION AND I’M READY TO FIGHT GOD” 

azula as zuko’s evil advisor is so funny to me i actually fuck so hard w this concept. she gives zuko advice and then zuko looks across the room to sokka and sokka just discreetly gives him a thumbs up or thumbs down. one weekend sokka, aang, mai, toph, suki, katara, and anyone else who might have a modicum of common sense all go out of town for like. omashu coachella or smth. and when they come back the entire palace is in shambles, zuko’s just sitting on his throne shinji style, and he’s just like “i’m so sorry….. her advice seemed so cogent….. she made trickle down economics seem so reasonable……. why weren’t you there….. YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE, GODDAMMIT!!!!!!!” while azula slyly sips from a cunty chalice she had personally made just for moments like this.