#No wonder sokka starts foaming at the mouth every time he sees her | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ssreeder · 1 month

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HELLO

I didnt see that there was an update until now and i dont feel like discording and i just read the new chapter so here i am with my few main points bc i dont feel like doing a full live reaction👍👍🫶

Seeing Jeeto come into play in any capacity at all makes me feel like a proud parent watching their children grow. Its always wonderful like those are my emotional support middle aged fictional men. I watched them go from conspiracy to getting crumbs to now their "dates" and gossiping together. Youve gotta love it. Those are my children. Im so proud of them. But im also scared because you killed shen so obviously my feeligns mean nothing to you 🙄😒😒. (Im never going to get over that, im going to be 80 years old in some pst apocolypic enviroment with horrors all around me, but im going to be having nightmares about shen. Ill send you my therapy bill) (im going to get a tattoo in his memory istg)

Also its always really subtle but its funny to see your specific linguistical patterns in liab esp because i can never really explain it. Like ill read a random sentence and be like 'yeah that seems like sreeder wrote it' i just think its neat.

I also really loved zukka this chapter. But i always lovr zukka so its not a surprise. But espesially this chapter because its mostly soft zukka.

"Do you think we will stay together" NO Zukko divorce 🔫🔫. 🙅🏻🔥🔥🔥🙅🏾

The 'moving forward' ness of zukka in liab is so nicely written. Like ive been reading liab since (almost) the beginning and it has been a ride and its starting to feel more conclusive and that is SCARY but its also nice because you write it very well and i adore the way you write trauma and the healing of it and the ups and downs and the two steps forward two steps backness. Its very lovely.

I knew ara was going to have a suicide attempt (esque situation (idk if that counts)) i called it i win.

Idc what others say ara will always be amazing. I love her character SO MUCH

i feel like you can always tell the strengths of a writer in the way they write complicated characters and the way you write ara is very telling of that. Like the fragility and also harshness used for her is very realistic and i always enjoy her parts so much.

Like her deciding to move on independant of how zuko or sokka feel about it is and regardless of whether people thinks she 'deserves it' is immaculate.

And thats a good example on your specific strengths as the author of liab (being able to handle delicate situations well, and realistically and make them very thought out and not rushed, stuff like that).

But her 'i need to start getting along with other girls' is great because like,, RHATS SO TRUE. she is genuienlly one of my favorite characters of all time, i could write essays on why i love her. Exquisite.

REHO MENTION 🥳🥳💪💪💪💪

Thats my emotional support woobified early 20 something year old man. I adore him. If 30 people love reho i am one of them, if one person loves reho i am them if 0 people love reho i am dead (rip rehoes 😔) i will defend his (and aras) good names until i die.

Amazing chapter as always 10/10 *chefs kiss* im so excited for the series to finish and see what you do with everyone and the rest of the storylines and such.

Every time I think of Shen’s death I think of your utter devastation & how I wasn’t expecting you to be so distraught over it. I will say I had another commenter lately who was talking about how much they liked Shen & wanted an Iroh/Shen/Zuko dynamic and I kept thinking…. Damn it buddy, you’re going to be soooo mad at me in a few chapter haha…. oops.

ugh my linguistic patterns haunt me and I specifically ask my betas to check for them because I feel sooooo repetitive sometimes especially when there’s a lot of introspection lol. So it’s funny you mentioned that lol.

Omg I remember when I was still on RIA & someone in the server was like “dude I’m rooting for some jeeto.” & I was like oh no how do they know??? I created this fun divide between hakoda and bato just to push Bato into Jees arm!! Don’t spoil it haha, but whatever at least Dentys dead

Awwww thanks for the compliments it means a lot coming from you <3 but also yeah Ara is my delicate dumpster fire who says she going to make her existence everyone’s problem (most importantly sokka because damn girl could just LEAVE but she refuses lol) I love it. She’s fun, and any scene with her expect utter chaos haha.

every time I write Reho in a scene my mind says and the crowd goes wild,,, he’s annoying but I’m glad you like him.

thanks for this amazing ask you’re awesome

#Haha maxxxxx you’re so funny #I am forever a fan of Ara and her ability to harass sokka while constantly saying she’s not going to harass sokka #Zuko: “I just…. Never want to see you again”#Ara: got it ok so I’ll go make friends with sokkas sister and hangout with the water tribe healers and suki and -#No wonder sokka starts foaming at the mouth every time he sees her #I still don’t think zuko has nearly as big of a problem with Ara as sokka does #I truly think she’s just “that bitch from prison”#& sokkas got like 43 fake scenarios saved in his head of how things could have been different or how he would get his revenge #Anywayyyyyy I like Ara she’s fun #& Katara deserves to have some fun!#Thanks for the ask max sorry it took me so long to answer I’m a loser I have no excuses #LIAB #leaving it all behind #ITF #ask #Maaaxx

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turtle-paced · 3 years

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A:tLA Re-Watch: Fine-Toothed Comb Edition

The warning for the last episode was genocide. The warning for this episode is second-hand embarrassment.

Book 1, Chapter 4 - The Warriors of Kyoshi

(0:55) Previously on Avatar, Aang announced that he has Serious Business to attend to before learning waterbending. Zuko made a new enemy in Admiral Zhao on top of his existing problems with his dad, now revealed to have kicked him out of home pending Avatar-capture. Aang learned he really is the last airbender.

(1:48) Zuko’s room still has those broadswords on the wall, in case anyone was wondering.

(2:08) Today we’re focusing on Zuko’s scarred side while he talks about his single-minded dedication to catching the Avatar. In the context of the previous episode and the previously-on, I think this is the scar as the symbol of Zuko’s supposed obligations to his family, rather than scar = bad guy. Which is more obvious on the re-watch.

(2:17) “Uncle, you taught me that keeping a level head is a sign of a great leader.” He’s trying. Not very successfully right now, since he’s got capital I Issues, but he’s trying.

Moreover, it’s a pretty consistent thread with Zuko that he definitely wants to run the Fire Nation and does things to a) secure that outcome and b) prepare himself for the job so he can do it well. It’s an understated but profound contrast with both Aang, who’s already stated outright that he doesn’t want to be the Avatar, as well as with the blind, destructive ambitions of Ozai and Zhao. The latter is something I’ll definitely talk about more later, probably when the show digs into firebending philosophy. For the moment, however, Zuko’s overt desire for the Fire Nation throne hits a lot of genre biases about the evils of ambition. The show puts that out there now…so we can talk about it better, later.

(2:26) Zuko’s anger manifests in overactive candles; Iroh gently reprimands him for the effect (the heat, telling him to open a window), rather than for being angry.

(2:38) “He’s clearly a master of evasive maneuvering,” Zuko says, despairing of ever tracking down the Avatar. Aside from the cut to Aang’s actual methods right now, this one’s a bit of an awwwww moment when you think of the series finale, where the universal response to “we can’t find Aang” is for everyone to look to Zuko, trusting he’ll have some ideas. How things change.

Over in the A-plot, Sokka has the maps. This will also be consistent.

(2:50) Aang stares up at Katara, who’s focused on her mending, and tries and fails to get her undivided attention. This episode makes some important progress in Aang and Katara’s relationship. Now that they’ve decided to be in each other’s lives, now that the novelty’s wearing off, what are things going to look like when the other is an everyday feature? Katara’s got stuff to do and can’t look up every time Aang wants any of her attention. Aang can’t always be after attention, either.

(3:15) Sokka’s sexism is very obviously brought up here. Gotta love Katara hauling him up on it by withdrawing the benefit he gets from her work, leaving him scrambling to apologise. And for his pants.

(3:46) Goal-oriented Sokka wants to keep flying. Aang wants to stop and enjoy travelling. This time, Katara agrees with her brother, pretty understandable given her investment in learning waterbending. Always interesting keeping track of how often the main characters disagree with each other, even over little things - it’s actually pretty often. This is a good thing for the story! Arguing characters are showing the viewers what they want, how much they want it, and how they want to get it.

In terms of timeline, we’re still solidly in winter, and Katara’s projecting arrival in the Northern Water Tribe close to spring.

(3:55) Bad habits from Aang; he doesn’t defend his desire to stay here on its merits, but uses Appa as an excuse. He avoids even this little argument.

(4:15) Plus his insistence that Katara watch him ride the elephant-koi (which sound terrifying). Same thing as the marbles just then, but with the danger level scaled up.

(5:14) This sort of miscommunication, where Katara and Sokka are stuck on shore yelling for Aang to get out of the water and being dramatically misinterpreted, could only happen this early in the series. Much past this point, and Katara in particular would be confident enough to charge in herself and do some rescuing, especially on open water.

(5:48) Having narrowly escaped sea monsters, the gAang get ambushed by a group of mysterious warriors. And taken out quite effectively, too. Again not the sort of thing that would be possible later in the series.

We intentionally don’t get a good look at the ambushers at this point.

(6:13) Not that we’re left hanging for long, as the voice of the person in uniform is clearly female. Three seconds later, Sokka’s blindfold is torn off to reveal - ta-da - an organised, professional team of female warriors defending their home island. We can get the organised and professional thing from the fact that they’ve got uniforms and Suki’s headband clearly being a marker of rank.

In case it wasn’t already apparent that this episode is going to smack Sokka out of the very worst of his sexist ideas about women in combat, Sokka puts his foot in his mouth by asking where the men who ambushed the party are. Nowhere, mate, they don’t exist.

(6:41) Since Sokka can’t stop being sexist for thirty seconds, it’s left to Katara and Aang to talk their way out. Neither of them seem to share Sokka’s patriarchal notions; we’ve already seen that Katara’s an outspoken feminist in her patriarchal society. Aang just hasn’t commented. He simply doesn’t say anything about women in combat, and through his silence conveys that it’s just not all that remarkable to him.

(6:46) Kyoshi Island might be formally neutral and staying out of direct conflicts, but it’s still Earth Kingdom - they’re not worried about generic spies or generic partisans, but specifically Fire Nation spies.

(7:01) Exposition and timeline. Avatar Kyoshi, for whom Kyoshi Island was named, born 400 years ago. Helps us see the enduring legend of some past Avatars, despite the disrepair her statue is in. This is before we got the information about typical Avatar lifespans and who, specifically, came before Roku. Thinking that there were five Avatars between Aang and Kyoshi wouldn’t have been too out there a conclusion.

(7:07) Aang reveals himself as the Avatar of his own volition. Right now it’s just to get himself out of a jam with local authorities, but as we’ll see over the course of the episode, it’s got consequences other than people wanting to kill him.

(7:22) Another example of airbending being proof positive that Aang must be the Avatar. This goes to show just how thoroughly the Fire Nation wiped out the Air Nomads. Airbending is so vanishingly rare in this setting now that people think it’s more likely the kid airbender is the Avatar than a random descendant of a random survivor.

(7:38) Can’t say I like the running joke of the guy foaming at the mouth. But this kicks off the counterpoint to how Aang’s relationship with Katara is settling. The people of Kyoshi immediately give Aang attention. Lots of it. Lots and lots of positive attention. The Avatar is a celebrity.

Aang, for his part, is completely fine with being the centre of attention. He likes the spotlight. This won’t be the last time we see him seek it out, not by a long shot. This episode does some character work for him in this regard.

(7:47) In something of a continuation of last episode’s giant spiritual announcement that the Avatar is back, this montage shows us word spreading throughout ordinary people in the southern Earth Kingdom. From one person to another and eventually to people who’d see Aang captured. Love how the colour palette changes and the Fire Nation horn comes in through the music over that quick montage.

(7:58) Here’s another way Zuko’s season one treatment differs from your Zhaos and your season two Azulas - you see him and Iroh in little domestic moments like this. Zuko’s not in armour, he’s sitting down for a meal with his uncle, he leaves the scene insisting he’s saving his meal for later. He and Iroh are depicted as having lives outside messing with the protagonists. (Villain domesticity gets a different twist in season three, which is heavily into exploring how the war’s messed up the Fire Nation at home, in all senses of ‘at home’.)

Broadsword status: still there. Seriously, the animators left them in for a single shot where they’re only partly in view behind Zuko’s head. They were extremely careful with that particular detail, given that not one but two plot points hang on Zuko having and displaying those swords.

(8:13) Cut to the statue of Kyoshi being cleaned and repainted, showing how the people of Kyoshi are honouring the Avatar. Appa is also getting the spa treatment, lucky Appa.

(8:32) Aang immediately identifies the food set out in front of him as a dessert not usually served at breakfast and starts scarfing it down; Katara looks at it more dubiously. She’s never left the South Pole before, so she’s not familiar with Earth Kingdom cuisine. Aang’s travelled pretty extensively, so he is. Have I mentioned recently how much I love the attention to detail in this show?

(8:41) Sokka, meanwhile, is sulking in a corner. His sexism is depicted here as petty and as more self-inflicted misery, pathetic and self-sabotaging.

(9:15) Again, the pattern. Katara says ‘we’re probably going to have a problem if we stay here too long’, looking at future issues, Aang says ‘nah, we’re fine for the moment!’ Another thing he learns a lesson about by the end of the episode - and he doesn’t repeat that specific mistake.

It’s also noticeable that even as Aang’s clearly glutting on the attention, it’s important to him that he’s making the town happy. He wants the people around him to be happy, even just casual contacts.

(9:25) Katara spells out the moral of Aang’s story this episode. The attention is going to Aang’s head, and he needs to get a grip.

(9:33) Even here in episode four, Katara is noticeably annoyed at girls around Aang’s age fangirling over him, and at how positively Aang reacts to it. Not going anywhere but Kataang, just a question of maturity.

Cue montage of Aang being very popular and doing a bit of showing off (airbending push-ups! An exercise in lifting one’s own body weight with airbending, with sufficient control not to physics oneself flying backwards!), while Katara prepared to move on and looks rather unimpressed.

(10:34) Sokka, who as I mentioned back in episode one, is teenage insecure, walks up to the Kyoshi Warriors’ training area with the clear intention of proving something to himself, I mean, to them. When he approaches, we see the Kyoshi Warriors are moving in unison, again showing us their discipline and professionalism.

(10:42) Incidentally, Sokka totally knows what he’s doing by calling the Kyoshi Warriors’ practice a “little dance lesson”. Condescension guaranteed to raise blood pressure.

(10:50) Suki, who is way more gracious than Sokka deserves right now, apologises for arresting Sokka and friends on suspicion of being Fire Nation spies. Not because arresting suspected Fire Nation spies without a lick of proof is bad, mind you, but because the assumption turned out to be wrong. Compare with Sokka and Gran-Gran wanting to kick Aang out of the South Pole village and into the antarctic wastes without so much as a snack or a blanket. We’ll see this more in the next few episodes, but the Fire Nation’s war damages the ability of Water Tribes and Earth Kingdom to trust any stranger.

(11:01) Suki’s patience is not infinite. When Sokka doubles down on being a dickhead, she gets ready to smack him down. This doesn’t seem like her first experience dealing with men talking down to her and her group, either.

Over the course of the series we’ll see some Earth Kingdom women in some bureaucratic positions with varying levels of power (never a top job), but aside from Toph, I don’t think I can recall seeing any Earth Kingdom women in active combat situations. As a whole, the setting as of the time of the main series seems to be patriarchal. The Earth Kingdom seems to settle into a place between the Water Tribes and the Fire Nation, with sexism being a little less obvious than the Water Tribes’ outright “stay in the kitchen,” and the glass ceilings firmly in place.

(11:31) As you’d expect, the teenager who’s had the opportunity to train their martial skills regularly with other warriors handily defeats the teenager who hasn’t. It’s not even close.

(12:11) In contrast to Sokka’s sexism, Aang’s hanging out with the younger girls of Kyoshi Island, happily showing off the fact that he was a woman in a past life, and not batting an eyelid when one of the girls says Aang was very pretty in that past life.

(12:20) Katara asks Aang to help out with the shopping for provisions; Aang refuses because he booked himself having fun with other people. He still wants Katara to come along, though. Ah, different attitudes to work. Katara picks up responsibilities without being asked, Aang puts the work off. Katara also uses her words to say “watching you show off isn’t fun for me” - she wants to be Aang’s friend, rather than his audience, while Aang’s having a bit of trouble distinguishing the two.

Aang’s issues with attention are also rendered a bit more painful on the rewatch. On first viewing, it’s immaturity, plain and simple. And there’s a lot of immaturity involved here, it’s true. The first impression isn’t entirely inaccurate. With knowledge of ‘The Storm’, the viewer also knows that the reveal that Aang’s the Avatar threw a wrench into his peer relationships, which he never had a chance to rebuild or readjust. The girls of Kyoshi aren’t exactly Aang’s friends, but they are providing companionship and strings-free fun, something which Aang was feeling pretty short of prior to running away. The issue’s more complex than just the attention going to Aang’s head.

For his part, Aang also accurately assesses that Katara’s jealous. She doesn’t want to just sit back and watch Aang, she’s said as much, but it’s true that she also wants Aang’s attention in return. The context of Katara and Sokka’s social decisions in this episode is them trying to work out how to relate to people around their own age, something neither has had to do before. So while Katara doesn’t want to be Aang’s audience, like she said, and she’s not willing to put her goals on the backburner just to keep Aang happy, she’s also on new social ground and not the smoothest about it.

(13:18) Outside the Kyoshi Warriors’ HQ, Sokka is kicking rocks and clearly thinking about something.

(13:35) And here Sokka starts to prove his worth. When evidence and facts conflicted with his worldview, Sokka went with the evidence and the facts - Suki and company are better at fighting than he is. So to improve his own skills, he respectfully requests that Suki teach him.

Realistically, this does not instantly make Sokka the perfect feminist ally, as we’ll see. Even here he’s gone for the “if I insulted you earlier” apology, though I’d tend to be a bit more tolerant when that’s followed up with the blunt “I was wrong,” as Sokka does. Suki, who’s well within her rights to be annoyed at a guy coming back to ask her a favour after insulting her like that, tests Sokka’s commitment by insisting he train in their traditional dress and facepaint.

(14:10) Suki’s explanation further makes it clear that any humiliation Sokka might feel is a Sokka problem, as opposed to her inflicting women’s clothing on Sokka specifically for humiliation value. Her uniform was tailored for women, and it’s also a warrior’s uniform. Nothing to be ashamed of. So if Sokka wants to train as a Kyoshi Warrior, he dresses for it.

(14:17) Like I said, getting the bulk of the point doesn’t instantly make Sokka a perfect feminist - when Aang says “nice dress,” he still can’t hang on to Suki’s point that dressing “like a girl” isn’t inherently insulting.

(14:26) Katara just quietly practicing waterbending in a free moment, nothing flashy, just manipulating small amounts of water.

(14:34) In a transparent attempt to get Katara’s attention, Aang says he’s going to go do something silly and dangerous. Katara’s not indulging these particular antics. It’s a brief fight and definitely a kid fight.

(15:05) Sokka’s fumbling with a new routine and new weapon in new armour is accentuated by the off-key music.

(15:29) The way that Sokka manages to knock Suki down with exactly the technique she was talking about shows how quick a study he can be when he actually tries to learn. They’re probably both right in their little spat here, too - Sokka did get her, Suki probably did let her guard down more than she usually would since Sokka is such a beginner.

(15:45) Back over in Aang’s storyline, Aang’s fanclub is getting bored with the lack of sea monster action.

(16:04) But as the fanclub wanders off, Katara arrives. And there’s the point for Aang this episode. Katara’s not Aang’s fangirl, she won’t always agree with him, they’ll occasionally fight - but she means it when she says she wants what’s best for him, and she’s not going to wander off on him because she got bored.

(16:24) So they end it by mutually acknowledging what they did wrong and apologising to each other. What is this communicating business? Who does that in an episodic drama? And what sort of sea monster attacks after our protagonists have got their emotional act together?

(17:27) This is a lackluster action sequence by this series’ standards, because it’s basically Aang getting whipped backwards and forwards by a giant eel, while Katara stands on shore. The creativity isn’t there. Fortunately, this part of the action sequence is brief.

(17:42) When Katara does manage to intervene, again we can see that she’s not practiced in a fight. Her waterbending does want she wants it to do, blast her and Aang back towards shore and away from the Unagi, but damn that’s a simple and straightforward use of the art. Note also that waterbending was her last resort - she waded out to Aang rather than any waterbending that would let her maintain speed and maneuverability.

(17:56) Zuko shows up here, because the fight scene needed a boost.

(18:10) Where’d he get the komodo-rhinos? Who knows.

(18:35) Katara’s earlier practice drawing water out of a basic bowl here gets a more lifesaving use, as she waterbends the water right out of Aang’s windpipe. The show didn’t make a big deal of Katara’s earlier practice, but here it is, same move!

(18:51) It’s sunset, and Sokka and Suki are still training together. This has clearly not been a miserable experience for either of them.

(19:09) Another instance of Zuko rocking up to a location and just shouting “Avatar! Where are you, Avatar!” No intro. No niceties. Just single-minded shouting.

(19:18) When, shockingly, the Avatar does not show his face at such an eloquent plea to come out and get kidnapped, Zuko orders his men to search the village. Bad things for bad reasons, just trampling over people’s homes and peace of mind for his objective.

(19:40) The Kyoshi Warriors are a match for non-benders, but have a bit more trouble with Zuko, especially when he’s on a komodo-rhino (and apparently knows how to use that fact).

(20:07) In the brief exchange between Zuko and his soldiers and the Kyoshi Warriors, Zuko does not personally set any building on fire. He doesn’t do what Zhao does later this season and trash everything his fire touches. That doesn’t negate the fact that he showed up to terrorise people until the Avatar showed up, assaulted a bunch of people, and that his subordinates weren’t as careful about the buildings as Zuko was.

(20:38) Aang uses some dropped fans to blast Zuko right through a wall, and we get a reaction shot afterwards to note that he’s not happy. Aang doesn’t like fighting and tries not to hit back.

(20:45) Aang glides over the village and gets a look at the destruction, including a look back at the statue of Kyoshi in flames.

(21:10) Aang blames himself for the village getting burned down. Katara says it’s not his fault. Again, it’s a deceptively complex ethical issue for a kids’ show. Arson is on the arsonists, but what are Aang’s responsibilities to random villagers in living in indefensible, flammable locations, when they don’t know Aang’s being chased and Aang does? As a matter of sheer practicality, Aang can flee a lot more easily than most villagers can fight back against the Fire Nation.

There aren’t good, totally fair answers to this. But after this point, if the gAang decides to stop in one place for a while, it’s either a decent-sized population centre, or somewhere out of the way. Not a village.

(21:19) Katara says she reckons Zuko will leave Kyoshi Island alone to chase them, and resigned, Aang says he’ll call Appa. Goodbye, any hope of normal travel! This looks to me like the point where Aang internalised that yes, in the dystopian future he woke up in, being the Avatar means being hunted down by the Fire Nation.

(21:33) Sokka apologises for treating Suki like a girl when he should have treated her like a warrior. Suki gives us the galaxy brain take - there’s no contradiction, she can be both.

(21:52) Appa takes off and Katara’s prediction is borne out. Zuko drops everything to chase them.

(22:11) Aang isn’t happy with just running, though. He feels obliged to do something else to defend Kyoshi when it’s already burning. So he dives back into the ocean and lures the Unagi back out to spray water all over the village.

(22:38) The look on Zuko’s face at being drenched is priceless.

(22:58) Katara gives Aang a hug for risking himself to help others, and the group flies off into the sunset to end the episode.

So, on the whole. This episode doesn’t do anything radical in terms of the plot, but it does provide some character development that needed to happen early. Aang needed to come to terms with being the centre of attention, whether the attention was shallow adoration or a serious desire to harm him without much regard for collateral damage. Katara and Aang both needed to work on maintaining a long-term friendship not based on novelty value. Sokka needed to snap out of that particular form sexism, because the rest of the series isn’t going to be short on female combatants.

#a:tla #fine toothed comb edition

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