One of my favorite "scenes" from my story ^_^ Really great interaction between Miles and my Ash Na'vi OC

Snippet from Chapter 12. Goin' Solo

Story spoilers-- obviously! :P (If you want to see what Zu looks like, check the pinned post on my page!)

The Ash Na'vi warriors were sparring in the 'drill field' in full gear— light armor, but it was armor. Metal chest plates, arm shields, and wielding obsidian spears and long blades. Ta’zem, who Miles hadn’t seen in days was commanding these warriors. Yelling at them in Na’vi, like a drill leader. Miles noticed the sparring was a lot less lethal in appearance than his fight with Ta’zem. Of course it was. The warriors were fierce though. Well-coordinated. Human military like. Other Na'vi, workers not warriors, were carting materials to and from huts and around various stations at the base of the volcano. Wood for the forge fires, jewels for the sculptors, finished products for storage huts, and other materials transfers. Miles continued scanning the floor of the volcano with his binoculars for Zu. He found her. She was at the tree, bent down, resting on both knees in the soft soil immediately around the trunk of the tree. She had her queue, or tswain as its called in Na’vi, connected to one of the low hanging, succulent-like tendrils of this unique-looking spirit tree. He watched her. She looked peaceful, her hands on her thighs, her tail curling slowly. After a few moments she disconnected her tswain from the tree and stood. She then headed towards the drill field where Ta’zem was.

On his ledge, and through his binoculars about two hundred feet below him, Miles watched Zu and Ta’zem speak on the dark-colored, basalt floor of the inside of this dormant volcano illuminated by the sun shining through the volcano's rim above and the glow of the spirit tree. She had a friendly face on, but Ta’zem seemed especially animated in speaking to her, smiling and his tail moving rapidly. They were seemingly discussing the warriors judging by the gestures and observation of their sparring. Ta’zem then walked in close to Zu and gently put his hand on her upper arm. She stood there and smiled very slightly at Ta'zem. Seeing this gave Miles a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach, but he brushed it off. They continued speaking for a few more minutes. 

Suddenly, Miles’ ears reacted to sound behind him coming through the cave. It was a Na'vi worker guiding a draft animal with a cart of materials coming into the cave. Miles was startled and moved enough to accidentally knock some pebbles down the ledge.

Zu, being as sharp and aware as she was, detected this strange event above her. Her eyes and ears rapidly picking up what happened and wondering what caused such. She squinted in suspicion. Ta’zem and the sparring warriors didn't even notice. She watched the ledge and waited and recognized that between the rocks falling and the worker with the cart appearing to move down the ledge it was much too long for them to be connected. In Na’vi she said to Ta’zem, “I will be back.” And she grabbed a spear from the sparring arena and quickly headed up the zig-zagging ledge.

Miles avoided being seen by the man with cart by hiding behind a medium-sized rock that was on the right side of the ledge he was on after the cave ended. The man never even knew he was there, he just casually continued down into the caldera via the path which went left after the cave. Once the man with the cart made it past the first zig on the way down to the floor of the volcano, he stealthily leaned over to observe Zu and Ta’zem again. He didn’t see her though. Where did she—OH SHIT. She was moving fast up the path. He had to leave. He quickly turned around and headed back out the cave to the outside of the volcano.

He knew Zu would catch up to, hear, and see him if he called for Cupcake here. So he continued down into the forest basin deeper past the base of the volcano, gravity taking his legs fast and far downhill away from the dormant cone. Finally. He got to a place of presumed safety from discovery by Zu. There were animal sounds ringing loudly throughout the forest and he noticed that some of the vegetation here was strange even by Pandora’s standards, more fungal-looking than plant and it was a very dark canopy. Ironically, he felt more safe in this dark alien forest than getting caught by Zu. He slowly spun around to take in his surroundings and was about to whistle for Cupcake when right there in front of him, standing rigidly was Zu. The Marine jumped with a jolt from every muscle of his body and couldn’t help exclaim, “WHOA, GOD!” upon seeing her orange eyes glaring up at him. She was standing there, angry, holding the base of her spear in the ground. Her gray blue skin appearing gunmetal under the dark canopy of the forest. Miles just stared at her in shock. Eyes wide, ears back, tail absolutely still.

“Why did you follow me, My-ulls?” she asked firmly.

Miles had no reason to lie, but his brain scanned for ways to say it in a way that wouldn’t make the clearly angered, giant-fanged, warrior princess standing in front of him even more angry.

“I… I asked you where you had been going. You didn't tell me. And I wanted to know.” Miles said, knowing full well this was not at all the best response as it was coming out.

Zu looked irritated. “If I wanted you there or to know about that place, I would have showed you. You are not allowed there.” she said raising her spear and slamming it back into the ground.

Miles was perturbed now. His tail curling erratically at the end signaling his frustration. “Well, I have a mission Miss Zu. And in case you haven’t forgotten, we are giving an update on our mission status tomorrow. I don’t think telling them that our host disappears to a secret place nearly every day that she won’t discuss fulfills that mission. We’ve been sharing everything we can with you. Where's the reciprocation?"

"Reciprocation?" Zu asked inquisitively, but still angry.

"Mutual. Fair exchange." Miles said shortly.

Zu squinted and said, “What I do, show, and share with you is my choice. My choice for my people. You are not allowed there,” she repeated heatedly, this time stepping toward him and baring her large fanged teeth slightly.

“Well, we're not in there anymore are we? And what, not like your glowing damn tree is that unique or special. Practically every clan of you people has one.” Miles said condescendingly, his voice elevated.

This one angered Zu. She made a face like death at him, her orange eyes filled with rage, rage at this ignorant, disrespectful alien, and she tipped her spear close towards his neck. Miles just stood there, chin up, trying to increase the distance between his neck and her spear, looking down at the point of the spear and Zu's eyes. His hands were held slightly out and low, and in reacting to the threat he instinctively became acutely aware of the fastest weapon he could draw—between his AR slung on his back, his side arm, or his knife.

She spoke, “Our tree is special.”

Miles pulled back his lips and bared his teeth with a smirk. “Alright fine, your tree is special. But Miss, we have a job to do here and you can either work with us or—”

“Shhh!” Zu said suddenly, but quietly. Whipping her spear and body around to face behind her. On edge. Miles looked around and listened. It was quiet. None of animal sounds of before. Both his and Zu’s tails were up. Ears alert. The sensed something. There was something here.

All of a sudden out of the brush a giant long snout appeared and snapped at them from a high angle, Zu and Miles just barely dodged out of the way. It all happened so fast, but Miles had seen the head of this animal before. It was the skull on the altar that he saw during the clan dinner. This animal was huge. It was far bigger than an adult Thanator and the size of a large Hammerhead Titanothere. And it was after them! Zu and Miles ran through the brush, this giant creature fast after them. They dodged over and under branches and logs which slowed them, but not this animal, its mass helping it smash through any woody undergrowth.

With this creature right on their heals, they dove under the mangrove-like roots of a giant tree for cover and readied their weapons. Miles slung his AR to the front and fired. This was the first time Zu had seen Sky People weapons be used and she wishes she was under threat of death at the moment to be able to take in the technology. However, Zu knew that even this Sky Person weapon was futile against this creature as it was massive and heavily armored. Miles quickly realized said futility after emptying about half the magazine and the giant predator barely reacting to the bullets landing on its body. Miles grimaced, frustrated, ears leaned back sharply. The most powerful weapon either of them had and it did nothing for them. Miles then, without thinking, put his huge right arm over Zu’s chest, as if to protect her. In a moment, Zu looked at his arm then to Miles, his focus fast on the creature. It seemed like he didn’t even realize he was doing this.

The creature slowed and started walking around the base of the tree, surveying where its lunch was before reaching in its long snout in to get them. Miles was able to get a good look at this animal while it stalked around. It had a long slender body with a deep, tall, long crocodile-like snout, a crown of colorful blue and purple quills on the back of its head, its two queues emerging from them, and a long neck with the quill-like structures continuing down on it. It had dark, spiky, overlapping scutes going down the center of its back and had hard thick, scaly, armored skin, with a deep green tint to it, helping it be well camouflaged with the dark forest's vegetation. It had six limbs like most Pandoran animals, but its posture was closer to like that of a centaur, it had free arms with three massive curved claws at the end of its fingers. It also had a long tail that ended in the same quill-like structures of its head and neck. As Miles was getting a good look at the creature, it peered through a large gap between two of the tree’s roots. Right above them.

“GO!” Miles yelled, pushing Zu’s back to quickly move her, the creature dove into the base of the tree, effortlessly bending the firm the roots out of the way with its sheer mass. Miles and Zu both scrambled out from the roots and ran deeper into the brush, the creature hissing and chasing behind them. It was gaining. The creature suddenly lunged to snap behind them, its head turned sideways and jaws closing horizontally to try and snap them both up, but Miles and Zu instinctively dropped to the ground and missed the closing of the toothy jaws just a few feet above them. They both then rolled the opposite way from one another to get away from the creature’s head and claws which were above them in that moment.

Now they were separated, this giant creature between them. It looked towards both Zu and Miles, then fully turned its attention to Zu. Her orange eyes grew wide with fear, but she oriented her spear towards the beast, and viciously hissed at it, her fangs fully bared. Miles needed to do something. He yelled, “HEY!” and emptied the rest of his AR magazine at the creature's backside. Though he knew this didn’t hurt it, the bullets certainly irritated it and caught its attention and the creature took its eyes off Zu and quickly turned to Miles slashing its giant free armed claws at him. Miles jump stepped backwards and his back caught a tree trunk, and the claws missed him by about one foot. Miles was agile in this body, a well-trained Marine, but still, Marines weren’t trained to fight monsters. The creature went to snap its jaws horizontally at him again, but Miles rolled around the tree and the creature’s mouth closed on the trunk, he could see the ends of its massive upper and lower jaws to both his left and right biting the tree. Miles then ran around, past the creature, some of its huge teeth seemingly embedded in the tree, to Zu and grabbed her wrist to run with her through the forest. The creature turned around and roared and continued its chase.

Miles and Zu ended up at a slightly less vegetation-covered clearing in the middle of the woods. Oh no, they’d be exposed. But they couldn’t turn around, they had to keep going. They ran across the clearing, feeling the primal fear of a predator closing in behind them. Suddenly, they came upon a narrow fissure in the ground and processing it for no more than a millisecond, they measured this as their best option for survival. A place where this huge creature could not reach into. Miles and Zu looked back at the creature barreling towards them, then looked at one another and the fissure. Miles quickly helped Zu down first. He looked back at the creature, just twenty feet away making one last lunge towards him and he jumped into the small crevasse. The creature’s jaws missing him by a hair. He could feel its hot breath on top of his head.

He and Zu landed at the base of this narrow fissure, which was actually a tiny pit cave, barely bigger than the bottom of a well, Zu and Miles practically on top of one another. She made sure to maneuver her spear out of the way and against the cave wall as not to impale Miles when he came down. The creature was desperately, frustratingly trying to stick its snout in to reach them, then trying to grab them with its arms and claws, but to no avail. Miles and Zu were about six feet out of its reach. Incredibly close for comfort, less than a body length, but they were out of reach. The creature put its head in the fissure one last time, roared loudly at Miles and Zu, the volume causing their ears to lean back in pain. And then it left. Off to find an easier meal. Or wait them out.

Both Zu and Miles were on their backs and Zu was leaning against Miles’ left side on top of his huge left arm in the tight space, their legs unable to stretch out fully. They were breathing rapidly and heavily. Adrenaline coursing through their bodies, but beginning to slow. Their tails quickly thrashing around with exhilaration and also elation. After a few minutes of silence, letting the shock and relief of having survived set in, and after their breathing started to slow, Zu started to laugh. Miles couldn’t believe it. They almost died to some giant toothy monster and this crazy Na'vi girl was laughing.

“Oh you think that was funny, huh?” Miles said playfully and he began to chuckle as well. Zu just kept giggling and she and Miles both tried to get up at the same time, but the tight, rocky, dirt-lined space didn’t make this easy. Miles slid back down onto his back and she slid closer into his body, his huge arms catching her. Their mutual giggling stopped.

Zu lowered her ears and looked deep into Mile’s eyes-- Her fiery stare locked with his golden gaze. Miles’ ears leaned back, his jaw clenched, his muscles tensing, then he swallowed, and his jaw went slack. Zu’s lips parted, her large canine teeth revealed. She unlocked her eyes from his and looked at his giant arms, and lightly touched his exposed chest above his tactical vest. She looked into his eyes again. Like a reflex he couldn't control, Miles took his right hand and slowly, gently reached for her face with his huge fingers, moving some of her loose wavy-curly hair from her forehead and softly stroked her gray-blue cheek. Zu then quickly moved her body forward to kiss him. Miles didn't hesitate to kiss her back, lightly holding her pretty face with his huge hand. After this kiss, they both looked at each other with wide eyes, emotions swirling. Zu then leaned up over him and began making her way up to climb out of the pit to see if the coast was clear.

Miles sat back for a moment longer.

What the hell are you doing, Marine??

Read moar!

(ATLA) Earth Kingdom's northern jungle?

While working on the 'The Deserter' episode (ATLA 116), DiMartino y Konietzko had the idea of an Earth Kingdom town whose architecture had been modified by Fire Nation colonists―hence the contrasting roof style between the temple and its surrounding buildings. Jeong Jeong's camp was located deep within the wilds enclosing the colonial town, close to a shallow pond. For this forest, or jungle, the creators got inspiration from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1899), so… is there ivory in this jungle? What's its name? If we translate Heart of Darkness into Chinese we get Hēixīn, which is similar to Hu Xin, one of the earliest Fire Nation conquest during the Hundred Years War. Are this jungle and the colonial town in the Hu Xin provinces? Could be. An isolated tribe lives in the jungle. Little is known about its people, as only the leader―Lin Yee―is named. DiMartino and Konietzko only said they're extremely isolated, having little contact with the outside world and no modern technology. They are masters in lancery and their clothes allow them to camouflage. The clothes appear to be made of dried yellow-green leaves and grass. They go barefoot, and wear bamboo hats called douli (斗笠) in China. If they were of Cambodian inspiration, the hat would be named do'un (ដួន). They have also made rudimentary wooden armor for combat. This tribe remind me of the Xiongnu, a mysterious confederation of nomadic steppe peoples who dominated central Asia for centuries. And since we don't know anything about Lin Yee and his tribe, this is the lore I give them: The Xin people are nomads from the northwest of the Earth Kingdom. They come from the northern steppes of the Taihua Mountains, but the rest of their history is a mystery. Their leader receives the title of Chanyu and for centuries the Earth Monarchs have tried to convert them into a tributary state, but they remain independent. Isolationists and with hardly any technology, they live in the northernmost jungle of the Earth Kingdom, a rainforest covered in wild, majestic and extensive shorelines, wetlands, rocky outcrops and glaciers. Guess this jungle could be inspired by the Chugach forest, which is America's northernmost greenwood. The headcanon name I'd give it would be Xin Wilds, I guess. I really, really love the complex and vast worldbuilding we can discover in 'The Last Airbender', 'The Legend of Korra' and Yee's book. I'll share mor little details and piece of worldbuilding soon!

[ID copied from alt text: Digital drawing of the characters Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste drawn in both their civilian and superhero forms to fit in the Avatar universe. The text labels Marinette as "Avatar Ladybug; Raava" and Adrien as "Avatar Cat Noir; Vaatu." The rest of the text is in a list that says, "Avatars are meant to be partners that balance each other as well as bring balance to the world. Both live in Republic City. Keep being the Avatar a secret in their civilian lives - becomes necessary as the prolific bloodbender Hawkmoth makes his way thru the city trying to capture both Avatars. Marinette's originally fire, Adrien is originally water. Alya teaches Marinette airbending, Nino teaches Adrien earth. Marinette's prev. reincarnation in the cycle was Master Fu, Adrien's was Marianne Lenoir." End ID]

made an au where the avatar chars were in the miraculous universe. now i have done the opposite. o7

The Trick To Writing Filler

(TL;DR at the bottom)

Filler is when you spend a chapter padding the length of your story between plot-related events. Filler chapters have little to no impact on the overarching plot and can be self-contained, and thus in TV shows filler episodes are often reran the most as people unfamiliar with the show can casually watch without being confused without the knowledge of prior plot beats

So with the chapter being largely self-contained and acting outside of the plot, what do you use to make the filler chapter engaging? I’m going to use filler episodes from Avatar: The Last Airbender to provide examples

1. Worldbuilding. Zuko Alone depicts Zuko’s travels taking him through an Earth Kingdom village and becoming acquainted to the family that allows him to stay with them, especially their young son. He learns about what the Fire Nation’s impact on this village has been; destroyed houses, families torn apart, constant robbery and other abuses of power and injustices. And even after Zuko defends the villagers and his new friend, he’s venomously cast out from the village by even the little boy because he outed himself as a firebender. This episode explored the impact of the war on the people of the Earth Kingdom, the victims of war that have no involvement in it and no way of defending themselves from it

2. Character exploration. In The Beach, we learn more about Mai, Ty Lee, Azula and Zuko and how their own traumas and personal upbringings have impacted their personalities. For Zuko this is part of a turning point for him, but for the girls it’s more to understand why they are the people we’ve gotten to know over the seasons, especially Ty Lee and Mai. The episode also serves to showcase how Azula and Zuko are so out of place being just normal teenagers; Azula has no idea how to talk to her peers and no identity outside being Princess Azula of the Fire Nation, while Zuko’s hotheadedness and jealousy issues lead him to lash out and be far too confrontational and controlling for his own good. This episode isn’t really used to develop these characters, or at least not the girls, but instead explains and showcases their behaviours and the reasons behind them

3. Character development. Going back to The Beach, Zuko does indeed receive development rather than just character exploration like the girls do; he comes to understand that he’s not just angry at the world or angry in general, but angry with himself. This is a notable turning point for Zuko’s redemption arc, because he now understands fully that he truly regrets betraying Iroh and sacrificing his new start in life in favour of returning to the Fire Nation. He might not yet be fully decided on turning his back on Ozai, but without this moment I don’t know if he’d have gotten there, or at least not as quickly as he did

4. Relationship development. Sokka’s Master has a C plot of Aang, Katara and Toph all being rather bored and lost without Sokka’s presence. The A plot exploring Sokka’s feelings of inadequacy and uselessness in comparison to such powerful and formidable bending masters being contrasted with the Gaang unable to function without him already speaks volumes about their dynamics, but looking deeper into the C plot also shows how much value Sokka really does bring to the team; structure, planning, humour, a quick wit, strategic moves. The Gaang always supported Sokka and never seemed to view him as expendable outside of the occasional teasing, but having it acknowledged so clearly and plainly that they can feel a little aimless and flat without Sokka and being so delighted when he returns really shows us the kind of value Sokka brings to this team and brings us and the characters to further appreciate it

5. Downtime. The Ember Island Players depicts the characters taking a break to watch a comedic play based on their wacky adventures, only to be largely underwhelmed and displeased by how they’re portrayed. There are no stakes to this episode and barely any plot, just the Gaang taking a breather as they react to a bad play. This chance to relax and watch something inconsequential is just as important to the viewers as we’ve got the show’s finale in the next four episodes, which will be very plot-driven and intense. The Ember Island Players also has the additional viewer bonus of recapping the events of the show right before it all ends, giving the viewers time to reflect on the journey they’ve gone on with these characters. In order for the stakes to feel high and the tension to rise, there has to be downtime where there are low stakes and low tension; if things are intense all the time, the moments that are supposed to feel super intense will just feel average in comparison. Resetting that intensity right before such a big event while still acknowledging the looming threat coming soon will feel like the calm before the storm and allow your audience to soak it all up like the characters are

Wow, did I just go through all that without talking about Tales of Ba Sing Se? I’ll save that for another post if people are interested in more

TL;DR - filler provides a moment to breathe, reset the intensity levels the audience are experiencing and take a chance to step away from the external conflict (the overarching plot) in favour of worldbuilding and the characters within your setting. Small moments can amount to something big, and can help make large scale decisions or plot twists feel more build-up and in-character

Okay, so I had a thought (and I'm about 300% sure I'm not the first one, but I was too lazy to check, I also don't know if canon has adressed this already):

When Wan Shi Tong was dragging the library into the Sprit World, how was Toph able to hold it?

Because Toph learned from the badgermoles.

Let's back up a little. The Ocean and The Moon are explicitly spirits. Fang, Roku's dragon, is able to traverse the Spirit World (and on the Solstice, even the physical world) freely, even though Roku isn't. Appa is spiritually connected to Aang and able to perceive it (with help) and follow the connection to Ba Sing Se.

I think all of the original benders are either spirits, or animals that crossed over from the Spirit World. And all of the bending styles we've seen have distanced themselves from the original sources of bending - even Airbending, because Aang and the historical benders don't fly freely, like Appa. Firebending is fueled by rage, that's explicitly stated, I don't have anything good for Waterbending so the source is firmly trust me bro, and in Earthbending, Toph's moves are based on a different martial arts style (Zhujia/Chugar family kung fu rather than the Hung Gar style used by other earthbenders*) than the other earthbenders we see - there is explicitly something different about learning from the original source. I also think all of the original benders, when crossing over, used their bending to anchor themselves into the physical world. For dragons, fire was life and the sun, for Tui and La, their eternal dance was their life and power, etc.

That's a long paragraph to say that no other earthbender could have held up the library. Toph learned her bending from the badgermoles, not as a fighting style, but as a way of interacting with the environment - the same way they do. I don't think she's necessarily aware of it, but I think that, because badgermoles are spirits that crossed over a long time ago, as Toph learned, she also unconsciously learned a style of bending that is much more spiritual than human-taught bending.

This also weaves nicely into the show's themes of destiny. Aang was destined to find Toph (he saw her in a vision, after all), and Toph was destined to teach Aang. But not only that, Toph was the only person who could have held up the library. She wasn't just holding up a big rock. She anchored it into our world.

And I think that's beautiful.

*BUT NOT WING CHUN THO THAT INFORMATION WAS LITERALLY ONE GOOGLE SEARCH AWAY ALL THIS TIME I THOUGHT IT WAS WING CHUN I SWEAR I HEARD IT SOMEWHERE AND INCORPORATED IT INTO MY BELIEF SYSTEM FOREVER thank you dear person in the tags i don't know if it's polite to @ you considering it was in the tags but thank you srs

Atlantis: the Lost Empire subverts the "White Savior" trope so well and here's my Ted talk tangent

Atlantis: the Lost Empire is just Avatar but with a smarter story. Both films feature a young white man discovering a foreign culture, falling for the culture's princess, and saving the natives' way of life. Both films commentate on the exploitation of indigenous people for their resources. The biggest fundamental difference between Avatar and Atlantis is how the white male leads approach their scenarios. Milo Thatch is a wide-eyed scholar who just wants to learn; Jake Sullivan is a soldier infiltrating the culture so he can exploit them. Milo never had any intention of hurting/exploiting the natives but the people around him did; Jake knew the end goal was exploitation and only changed his alliance when he fell in love. Kida comes to Milo for help and he approaches her with respect not condescension; Jake has to learn the planet and its people are worthy of respect. Milo is attracted to Kida but he doesn't save her so he can get the girl; he saves her to save her people (getting the girl was a luxury and even then, it's obvious they'll take things slow cuz there's more important things than romance like reconnecting the Atlanteans with the lost parts of their culture). The Atlanteans are also not harmless, primitive natives. They had super-advanced technology ie the Leviathan that took out a modern submarine in like 2 minutes while the Navi are overtly primitive, their simplicity treated as a virtue. The Atlanteans were so advanced that they sent themselves back to the Stone Age with their war tech. This little detail keeps the Atlanteans from being hippie-dippie natives who need rescuing and make them a cautionary tale; they used to be greedy, hyper-advanced warmongers and that hubris leaves their race and culture on the verge of extinction. Both the Navi and Atlanteans have spiritual, mystical aspects to them, but the Navi are anti-tech while it's only the rediscovery of their tech that allows the Atlanteans to save themselves. The primitive life we see the Atlanteans lead is not presented as ideal; it is the death throes of a culture, a fatal stagnation at the bottom of the world. When Kida and Milo meet, it's not the typical "more advanced culture taking from the weaker culture" that has come to define first contact between societies. It's quid pro quo: we both answer, we both listen, we both come away with more not one party coming away with less. No one is humbled or talked down to. As for the antagonists of both films (Avatar and Atlantis) the antagonists of Avatar are just cardboard cutouts. The antagonists of Atlantis are just disinherited individuals coming together for a treasure hunt. There's a gag where Milo asks what each character seeks and they all say "Money" but that's not it. They each want to pursue goals unique to them and they need money to do it. When the chips are down and it's either money or NOT dooming an entire lost tribe to death, they choose saving the tribe. The main big bads, Rourke and Helga, have just spent a day walking through a ruined city where people live in the remains of their greatness and think, "Yeah, we are so stealing their technology so we can reenact the fall of their civilization on our OWN civilization. Why? Cuz capitalism." Why am I talking so much about Atlantis but not Avatar? Because Avatar lacks depth. I've watched Atlantis a thousand times on my cheap 2000s-era TV and get pulled in each time but Avatar's just a pretty screensaver playing in the background.

i was rewatching atla as usual and here's something i noticed.

the actual symbols of the 4 elements have their own differences symbolizing how each of the bendings work; water (freedom within the flow of the water), earth (complete control of freedom/discipline), air (full freedom) and fire (freedom within the fire flames)

the swirl, something that each one has, means the freedom of being able to bend, saying that even with their differences they are all connected and are the same.

then we see the symbol that the fire nation uses since the war stared (this is just a guess idk if the fire nation used that symbol before the war, but it feels right to say they did not)

they don't use their element's symbol, they make their own bc they don't want the significance of their actual symbol.

it has no swirl, no freedom and also it differentiates itself from the other nations, not wanting to say that they all are the same. not only that but it's way neater, implying that the fire nation itself is neater or "better" than the rest of the nations.

there's also something really cool I noticed. when iroh teaches zuko fire bending and he's explaining the 4 elements, he uses the "real" fire symbol :)

idk if I'm making this up or if it's canon or if im missing something but i love worlbuilding and trying to find small details

I have come to the conclusion that I am not interested in AtLA spinoffs, but I love prequels. The comics, the next avatar, the adult Gaang story, none of them interest me enough to interact with them, but I am living for every detail the novels reveal. Like what do you MEAN the Fire Lord has a bastard half-brother scheming for power TELL ME MOREEEE

The Memory of Stars, my Avatar Fairytale AU fanfic, is here!

The Knights of Eywa have one mission: kidnap the human princess of Terra and return home so the Na’vi Council can carry out a ritual to restore their connection to the Mother.

When the alchemist’s apprentice Petra Hart is taken instead, tricking Commander Miles Quaritch into believing she is who they seek, they set out on a fantastical journey across legendary lands to the heart of Pandora.

As Eywa’s light fades and two worlds collide, Miles and Petra must work together to overcome the powers working to destroy everything they love… or be torn apart forever.

The incredible artwork you see above was commissioned from the wildly talented @tsukioreo! Please go show her some love.

Writing this story has been, and continues to be, such an incredible experience. I’m having so much fun exploring the whimsacle alternate universe I’ve created, and putting my own fantastical twist on Avatar. I can’t forget to thank my dear friend @mist--walker for her keen eyes and beta feedback.

Also, I’d like to thank everyone who is still here in our little niche corner of the fandom after almost a year. This fic is even more niche, and I truly hope you enjoy it.

Don't you find it interesting that Yon Rha, a former commander of the Southern Raiders, presumably a relatively high position in the navy, was living a relatively poor life after he had retired? Now, it could be that his position wasn't as high as I imagine, but it also makes me think that the common people of the Fire nation don't see much of their country's supposed wealth and glory. That military service is not only a consequence of indoctrination and brain-washing, but also a way to escape poverty and experience socioeconomic security, at least for a while.

Which has interesting implications on internal Fire nation politics, the general perception of the regime, and the level of acceptance towards future reforms.

I know some people are going to really hate me for this take, but avatar is not infact the greatest fantasy story ever. It's a great story and interesting world, though a bit generic, and with a really awkward ending (to do anything interesting with the conflict as to weather or not to kill the firelord, they would have had to set it up earlier).

The reason why everyone thinks it's so interesting and unique is simply because of where it was told. It was a high fantasy show airing on a network of silly little cartoons. It was seen as so amazing because of what it was going up agaisnt. If that exact same story had come out as a book at the same time, it would have been considered pretty good but not the best every, likely blending in with things like wheel of time that had similar stories and tones to it.

The way people treat it like the gold standard of writing, and copy it in restrictive ways, or copy its worst elements, is really starting to suck.

I hope this isn’t too much of a bother but do you have any hcs abt grays time in avatar? Cannon is frustratingly vague about his time there. Have a nice day!

i totally thought i responded to this days ago holy shit its been a minute

I havent read or watched the avatar arc in forever, and refuse to do it again so i played it a bit fast and loose with the dynamic

This gets a bit dark, just a little forewarning

* if you asked the mages that shared his time at avatar, Gray had earned the reputation of someone callous and cold and untouchable, who didnt get his hands dirty

* he used more charismatic techniques to obtain information, or fear, but it was rare to see him physically harm them

* If you asked Gray about his time in avatar, he wouldn’t give you a straight answer, if he gave one at all

* Avatar knew who he was, for an undercover mission he wasnt under a whole lot of cover. He was sent in as himself, his “cover/backstory” was a lot of half truths and a warped narrative

* He climbed through the ranks faster than expected, which caused a lot of rumors and speculation, such as maybe the ‘Higher Ups’ were so enthralled by an ex-light guid member turning over they rushed him through, or he did something so heinous they were impressed, or maybe he slept with them

* there were a lot of rumors.

* Of course, most arent true, Gray just had more to offer than the average person

* In most dark guilds / cults there are ‘trials’ of sort to prove someone loyalty, hazings of sorts

* He had to go through them ten times over

* It lasted weeks, around a quarter of the time spent at Avatar was his ‘initiation’

* There were certain points where Gray thought they might actually break him

* He refused to use his ice-make magic during his time in Avatar, he couldnt bear using Urs magic for something like this

* He developed these piercing migraines from his eyes constantly darting around his surrounding, and he rarely slept

* Avatar wasnt a inherently paranoid guild, but it was protective and unrelenting, being caught as a traitor was terms for a public violent execution

* There were two other alleged traitors in Grays time there, when they were accused they were tortured and executed in front of the entire ‘guild’

* and he wouldn’t allow himself to even twitch in case that set his own death in motion, It just served to further his reputation

* He never told Erza about this.

* Despite his reputation, the untouchable aura he gave off proved attractive to some people, they thinking being seen fraternizing with someone like him would earn them some respect, and given some of the rumors surrounding him, they thought he would reciprocate

* He didnt, for obvious reasons, and he often left the more handsy and assertive with frostbite and frozen to the ground for hours

* He had bi-weekly check-ins with Erza so he could relay his and their progress and so she could gauge his mental state; Gray gave her watered down versions of the things hed seen and endured during the months he was there unless it pertained to what she needed to close the operation

* He and Erza had a system where he would call her and she would help him smuggle out any victims Avatar took for information or as a message

* He had killed once while in Avatar, it was a man they were ‘interrogating’ who couldn’t provide anymore information and they couldnt just let him go, so they entrusted Gray taking care of him while they watched, it was a test to see if he would, it was as fast and humane as killing someone can be but he will never ‘get over’ it

* He can still remember exactly how he looked, how he sounded, down to the smallest detail

* That was what almost broke him

* He didnt draw it out, it was fast and clean, which was another reason for his ‘doesn’t get his hands dirty’ reputation

* He tried to live by the ‘the ends justify the means’ principle, he survived Avatar by doing what he had to, regardless of what that was that was

* He tried so hard to help himself cope with it, but he just couldnt no matter how hard he tried

* Even though he acted annoyed when the rest of his team burst into Avatar and tore down his whole operation, he was relieved, so fucking relieved he didnt have to stay any longer

* The transition after Avatar was, for lack of a better term, fucking terrible. there was a lot of panic and guilt and paranoia and dissociating to get him through it

* He trained his instincts to act to the slightest trouble, which would be fine considering every movement towards him before was trouble

* But hes back with his friends now, with the people who wouldnt hurt him. So instead of being proud of his reflexes all he feels is panic and guilt

* Gray was constantly searching for an exit and always kept one open and in sight, and would forget he was with safe people and lash out if they blocked one

* Months following the reformation of Fairy Tail held a lot of blanks for Gray, his brain in an attempt to finally protect him would have him go on autopilot, dissociate. He did this a lot early on after Deloria but he thought he ‘grew out of it’, clearly not

* His sleep got even worse after Avatar, he thought the familiar environment would help him but it only made him more on edge

* He knew what could happen to them if he let himself sleep at the guild, the thought of something happening while was taking a fucking nap was nauseating enough that his brain wouldn’t let him let his guard down enough to feel tired

* And sleeping at home was out of the question completely, if a dark mage decided tonight was the night for vengeance against him for tearing apart their cult, how could he defend himself if he was asleep?

* This was fine for a while, but when the adrenaline crash of no longer actually needing to be on guard 24/7 and the weeks of no more than half an hour (involuntary) naps caught up to him, it caught hard

* i mean, it was brutal, collapsed at the first moment of relative peace he came across, it felt almost like withdrawal, with a lot of sleeping

* in some ways he feels so fucking angry and almost betrayed by Erza for asking him to go undercover for her, for making him go through everything he did. But he knows if he didnt its possible she wouldve, and he would do it all over again if it meant that wouldnt happen.

* In other way, hes angry at himself for letting himself get to this point, for letting them break something in him like they did.

* He’ll realistically never be able to go back to before, never be able to trust people, his friends, truly and without reservation again

i hate the avatar arc sometimes but it provides such good material

ok but do you guys think that it would be possible for like really REALLY skilled fire benders to achieve the power of mind control?? I mean it would definitely be super hard to do but we already know that lightning/electricity is an existing subtype of fire-bending, and our nerve impulses/brain signals are literally just electrical impulses!!

imagine a fire bender who was so skilled at lighting bending that they were literally able to control the electrical impulses in someone’s BRAIN. this would give them a power similar to water benders with blood bending. and also Azula would absolutely kill to be able to do this.

Reduce, reuse,

Rewatching Avatar 2 and its fucking me up so badly how Jake literally said he had no plan to protect the Omaticaya hiding in the mountains after knowing Spider was captured by Quaritch and the Recoms, and was basically gonna give up to "save" JUST her and the kids....

Like.... how infuriating lol.

Neytiri and her children severed from her people AND her homeland all cuz Jake wouldnt sacrifice JUST himself to protect EVERYONE, including Neytiri and the kids, AND to honor Neytiri's own duty to protect her people and their land as obliged by her faith, her will, her ancestors, her role in the clan, and the wish of her dying father (who's death Jake is partially responsible for)....

The movie is set up to make us feel like what Jake did to protect his family was noble but it was just so selfish to me??? Nothing abt Jake's decision and need to leave the clan to divert the RDA/Recom's attempt to find him in the mountains needed to glue Neyriti, Neteyam, Tuk, Lo'ak, and Kiri to it. Its giving "my wife and kids are my most important assets"; terrible implications given that Neytiri is native-coded, and Jake, despite the permanent avatar body, is still responsible for the gross displacement and death of her clan barely 1 generation removed from the events of the genocide. Jake had a lot to atone for which he did somewhat in A1 by defecting and fighting alongside the Na'vi in the great war. But that atonement was homage and sacrifice to all the Omaticaya people, and by extension, all Na'vi, since he became Toruk Makto and had harbored a duty to protect collective interests of relating clans.

Like, just "wanting to protect your family" would have included everyone in the clan, as the fortress of family is found collectively among the people, who were willing to die fighting for their land and people together. As a warrior, as a legend, as a leader, and even as a father, I'd expect Jake to make the sacrifice of leaving the clan by himself an to honor the passiom of the people to fight until the end for their liberation in war. It would have been rlly hurtful for him to leave and miss out on continuing to lead the clan and raise his family, but responsible and fair, bc he knew the RDA, who returned particularly more powerful and vengeful, mainly wanted his head as the "insurgency leader" and RDA defector, and the Omaticaya were well equipped at that point to defend themselves under Tarsem's and Mo'at's leadership and prior training on RDA tactical warfare (plus Norm, Max, and other humans were still left there to help).

But throughout the movie Jake was portrayed as a force of sensibility among the Na'vi (Neytiri, and among the Metkayina) when they expressed revolutionary suicide and vengence for their fallen, and displacement. And he was seen as justified in risking another clan's stability and safety to let him not only hide from the RDA, but to call so many shots while seeking asylum, including the call to land a metalic helicopter on their land that somehow nobody remembered could be tracked. It seemed that only Jake got to determine if group-sacrifice was noble, necessary, and family-oriented if it directly preserved himself and his interests, particularly the preservation of his role in a nuclear family.

To me, A2 was skid deep on its attempt to portray collectivity, family, and sacrifice. And its was so unpleasant seeing again how Neyriti was practically silent and silenced, only to echo what Jake was thinking when she was the one most affected by the emotional turmoil of the severence from her home, the rest of her family (including the forest), her cultural duties, and her healing.

Truly, I can barely deal w this franchise at this point 😂💀.

sometimes i think about the atla world and its geography and how the world is structure. whenever i see the map i keep thinking that thats just ONE side of the world and that theres a whole other side that was never discovered. and then i remember that according to our history that, as human beings, we all once thought that there wasn’t much to the world than the couple continents, land, and ocean we lived on and owned.

that was until the age of exploration and the “discovery” of the americas as well as several more other places around the world that we realize the world is a much bigger place than anticipated.

imagine new lands containing the numerous possibilities of new cultures and land of other benders and new practices of living. i thought back to that one post talking about creating a land inspired by Ethiopian culture, to my moots/friends adding a latine-inspired earth kingdom town. all those possibilities…

with that being said, i hope to create a tropical tribe of water and earthbenders that live on a group of islands—with the tribe being inspired on precolonial filipino cultures.