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hanadoesstuffwrong · 2 months

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Thinking abt the air nomads:

What if, after the war, once the dust has settled a little, Aang goes back to travelling, hoping that maybe he can find at least some trace of surviving airbenders. As an added bonus, he gets to do more of the exploring and wandering that he had to put on hold.

Toph goes with him ofc. She only just got a taste of real freedom and it was overshadowed by ever-present impending doom. While she's on speaking terms with her parents, she isnt quite ready to be back under their roof on a permanent basis. The rest of the gaang have their individual homes and responsibilities that they get back to, though they join for the odd field trip or adventure when they can.

So anyway, they're touring all over the world and over the years they notice just how displaced so many people have become. EK citizens who barely escaped the blaze but lost everything; FN military now decommissioned with no idea how to carry on; people looking for a new start in the hard-won peace. Maybe it starts with Toph heading back to Earth Rumble, where a group of young runaways scrounge for cheap fights to make a little money.

At each turn they find more and more people with no homes to return to and no family to protect them; runaways escaping the roles the war forced them into. Gradually, Aang and Toph start to see that they aren't so different from themselves. They just want a new start.

So they decide to give them one. They clean up the temples and set up villages in the surrounding areas (helps to be master earthbenders), where people can arrive and stay as long as they need. Travellers and refugees pass through in droves, sometimes choosing to stay and rebuild their lives there, sometimes continuing in their wandering with a guarantee that they'll always have a place to return to should they have the need.

Over time, the lemurs grow in number and even some flying bison calfs (hybrids with a relative species maybe?), can be seen in the skies. Whenever the founders visit, it isn't the same but Aang feels a little more at home.

The first time someone asks Aang to teach him his philosophies, and expresses his desire to become a monk, how can he refuse? Maybe it's a former soldier, somebody who's done terrible things, looking for a path to redemption. So Aang teaches him, and then he teaches others. And though they may not be airbenders, they are as earnest and faithful as any nun or monk Aang knew before. The temples become filled with new faces: Firebenders, Earthbenders, Waterbenders and non-benders all wearing Air nomad orange and yellow.

Aang always feared that it would be his responsibility to have airbender children, and the idea of forcing that on someone he loved terrified him. Maybe that's why he waited so long before acting on his feelings for his best friend, his travelling companion, his fellow-village builder and temple-restorer. How could they have a truly happy relationship with this pressure hanging over them? He wishes he could be content with the new way of things that he and his friends have created. But he knows that he can't be the last airbender forever...

Nobody knows why some children can bend the elements and others can't. Is it blood? Is it blessing? Is it the land in which you're born? Or is it the simple allocation of fates decided by the values and norms you're raised believing in? Is it enough to be surrounded by the culture and beliefs of the Air Nomads? Nobody knows...

All they know is that nobody sees it coming when the six-year-old daughter of two non-bender villagers from the Earth Kingdom and Northern Water Tribe sends herself flying twelve feet into the air with a sneeze.

#oops it became a taang au how did that happen #i just think it wld be neat if the air nomads worked more like irl monks/nuns #not necessarily celibate but still made up of people who choose to follow the way of life #instead of the iffy implications of all monks/nuns having no choice because they were born airbenders #i dunno it's iffy to me #taang #my posts #atla #atla headcanon #do we need to rewatch Ice Age 2 ppl??#repopulation is not a good reason for two people to be together!#avatar: the last airbender #i do also think that given them being nomads the fire nation probably want able to wipe the air nomads out completely #bu they just had to survive in hiding/ in a very diluted form #maybe like the sun warriors do #airbender!Ty Lee my beloved #also wld reflect the themes of unity vs division well if there were more than just airbenders among the air nomads #like how a waterbender can be a ruler of the Fire Nation or a Firebender can run a tea shop in the Earth Kingdom #toph x aang #edited cos someone got upset at my introduction and while i reckon they were willfully misreading i didnt want anyone to misconstrue #to clarify -> any child of aang's wld be an air nomad but there's no guarantee they wld be an airbender #esp if he had a child with an earth or waterbender #and we see how this had a negative effect in canon #hope that clears things up xx

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snikidoodles · 8 days

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aang is such a good protagonist, and obviously upbeat character + sad backstory isn’t a new archetype whatsoever but to have a pacifist main character — one who fights for his values and beliefs to be taken seriously, especially in the midst of a war he's expected to end — is just so intriguing. aang's character arc within atla is one of my favourites, actually! it's less dramatic than, say, zuko's or katara's, but watching him go from a silly kid running from his responsibilities to someone who maintains his optimism and kindness while embracing his commitments as the avatar is very endearing :)

#him keeping his joy and brightness is what makes him so interesting to me #yes i love watching how their environment changes a characters personality and outlook on life #but i also love that despite it all aang remains who he is throughout #i feel like it would've been such an easy out for him to waive his beliefs just this once for the good of humanity #but he didn't!!#he worked hard to find a solution that would adequately solve the issue (the war) while aligning with his pacifism #and ofc his beliefs are so important because he carries the burden of being the last air nomad #i just love him so much #atla #avatar the last airbender #aang

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woahjo · 2 months

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i think all the time about the line "in what year did fire lord sozin defeat the air nation army" and then aang responding "is this a trick question? the air nomads didn't have a formal army" and the implications of the history that the fire nation had been rewriting for a century. the implication that the air nomads (a peaceful nation) weren't brutally ambushed, but rather that they were ready to fight and may have even been eager to do so. absolving the fire nation of some of the guilt in a total genocide and painting the narrative that the air nomads were ready to defend themselves and/or that the attack on the air nomads was anything but a one sided ambush. i think about it a lot.

#this scene in particular actually devastates me in a visceral way #because it is ONLY aang alive now to remember first hand that the air nomads didn't have a formal army #that it was part of their principles and their cultural identity to NOT have one #that the air nomads largely preached pacifism #and he's the only one alive able to refute the history that the fire nation rewrote based on his own first hand testimonies.#almost everyone else who could do that is dead #and of course.. other nations know it was a brutal attack.. but there's something so deeply sinister #about the implication that aang is from the colonies followed by that scene #because it means that this is a conscious effort to indoctrinate not just fire nation citizens... but the PLANET #and aang is literally the only person who can refute it.#MAN.#i love atla

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marchlione · 1 month

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atla writers who write aang like a bratty child in the northern air temple episode instead of seeing the pain of a genocide survivor watching his people's sanctuaries being disrespected and desecrated<<<<<<<<

#atla #avatar #avatar the last airbender #aang #when he sees gliding from a distance he has hope that at least some of his people survived #and then he has to realize that those aren't his people #they're just poor imitations #then he sees these people that from his perspective are treating his culture as an accessory of just some cool trick #and they don't even have the decency to respect the place?#buldozing over it like his people meant nothing?#and aang can't do anything about it because these people are victims of the war the same as his own long dead people #and by the end of the episode he has to come to terms with the fact that there are no other air nomads #but at least their sanctuaries can provide sanctuaries to others #and that these poeple on gliders aren't trivializing his culture or playing dressup with it #they are in some ways keeping it alive as best as they can #treating him like a brat for being understandably (and imo rightly) angry is horrifying

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toph-bi-fong · 3 months

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Accusing Aang as a misogynist is a dumb take, but implicating that the Air Nomads as a whole were misogynistic?!?!

Like- yeah, they lived in what appeared to be gender-separated societies, but they weren’t opposed to intermingling either?

Also- they were like pro LGBT when compared to the other nations.

Like, this is the least misogynistic society in the Avatar universe. Mind you, the NWT thinks women should only waterbend for healing and nothing else.

#making a new post because the other one is long as is #air nomads #airbending #I ID as an earthbender- but I would totally live amongst the air nomads

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junipernight · 2 months

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Some air nomad outfits.

#Yangchen #ATLA #Avatar novels #Character redesign #costume design #air nomads #airbenders #yes I am reposting these in a different format #because no one liked the first post :( and I'm worried i triggered tumblrs scensors some how or just rambled too much #my art

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comradekatara · 1 year

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the only actual plot point in atla I take issue with is aang losing his staff. every other writing choice feels reasonable to me but that decision just feels like an unnecessary measure of cruelty against a character who had already had to sacrifice so much of his culture

hmmm... i agree that that moment is heartbreaking as what was once the tool of a child is now a sacred relic, and he is forced to burn it, but i do think it's nonetheless well-written and thematically significant. the beginning of book 3 shows us aang having to cope with ego death, and burning his staff and hiding his arrow, ie being consumed by the fire nation, are important specifically because he does rise out of the ashes. yes he loses his staff, his clothing, even grows hair for a while, but when he fights ozai with the values of his people, utterly disproving his ethos that air nomads are "weak" and "don't deserve to live in his world" through the prevailing values of the air nomads: pacifism and spirituality, he proves that material possessions were never what made the air nomads who they were, but rather the legacy of his people prevails inside him; his choices represent their teachings, and that even if all their material goods burned, as tragic as it is, his people will continue to live through his spirit. aang rises from the ashes, like a phoenix.

#anna-scribbles #asks #it's obviously sad but i think that's what makes it effective writing #for aang to undergo ego death and for him to rise from that apotheosis with nothing but spirit #like shedding those material possessions is important to his journey as an air nomad #even if that action has a different resonance because he's the last of his kind #aang #analysis #sorry this is kind of incoherent tho im out of it today lol

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problematicsubmarine · 2 months

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Ok so I'm most of the way through the live action ATLA and no it's not perfect, some of the acting is a little oof but overall it's pretty good? The costumes, the sets all the older actors for the most part. Some of the cg needed a little more time and all of these streaming shows could benefit from a few more episodes, but the way they've combined storyline and episodes to try and fit things in in a coherent way, some of the changes they've made I like quite a bit.

Yall trying to act like it's the same level of bad as the movie are actively delusional and need to take of the nostalgia goggles.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #avatar the last aribender live action #netflix atla #netflix avatar #im sorry people bitching about taking Sokkas sexism away as if the Sokkas Sexist arc disnt last a whole like 5 episodes #or bitching because Zuko fights back in the Agni Kai when its clear the intention is him showing compassion to Ozai and being punished #Katara is plenty full of righetous rage #and Im sorry but the OG cartoon NEVER recokened with Katara having to become her own mother #She just continues mothering even after TSR and then becomes Aangs MotherWife in the comics #im not upset about that change #or the general change in dynamics between the water syblings #or the live action showing Azulas impending mental break sooner #and is a good thing I think showing more explicitly how Ozai abuses and manipulates both his children #and people complaining the air nomads fought back like the cartoon #didnt ha e Gyatso ls skeleton surrounded by a pile of fire nation corpses #also #me being totally delusional now #Zuatra endgame #activly in delulu shipping land #am sad about the exclusion of “Ill save you from the pirates” and Zuko having her necklace for what was probably weeks

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hondacarfromcai · 24 days

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so I had this really depressing idea that I decided to make a bot on cai (it's being made rn!!)

But like, as I kept thinking about it, it got more and more depressing ... I had this idea where Aang had a soulmate in the Air Nation, and that he was in the Southern Air Temple – just like Aang. And they were best friends, and of course Aang fell in love with him and he finally realizes it.

So he partially brings it up one day, not being super open that he loves his soulmate because he's worried about how he'll react. And he's also saying it because he just found out he's the Avatar and he's really scared about it, and also scared about his best friend leaving him.

Of course, he tells his best friend that he's the Avatar, and gets really scared that he wouldn't want to be around him anymore like the other kids – but the soulmate doesn't react like that. He's like "of course I'll still be friends with you, it'd be ridiculous not to be"

But then Aang runs away still, out of fear. He gets frozen in the ice for a hundred years. He's woken up by Katara and he finds out the Air Nation all died... everyone...

Including his soulmate... and now he's destined to forever be alone. Without anyone that's truly bound by fate to him... nobody would ever want to be with him as much as his soulmate, but, his soulmate died...

IM SO HEARTBROKEN WHYY!?! WHATS WRONG WITH MY BRAIN 😭😭😭 I SWEAR IM GONNA BAWL MY EYES OUT ANY TIME I THINK ABOUT AANG NOW

IMAGINE THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED THOUGH??

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ash-and-starlight · 2 years

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Okay but. Zukka cheek kisses misunderstandings. Zukka where Sokka goes for a hug and Zuko goes for formal kisses and they accidentally get a hug+kiss instead. Zukka where they get the start side wrong and end up just actually kissing instead. Zukka where sokka goes for 2 and zuko for 3 kisses and they get weird about it. Zukka cheek kisses where everyone around them is confused by how awkward they manage to make it every time.

WFKHSDJSJDB even funnier if they had like an Intricate Warrior Handshake they perfected at age 16 that ends with a strong smack on the ass but this is where their brains shut down completely

#now trying to decide to which nation i’m randomly assigning the greeting kisses lmao #bc the swt has the forearm clasp & the fn has the bow #i don’t remember well tbh but i think the ek has bowing too #so i’m gonna go with the air nomads because aang is the epitome of kissing the homies #and of course he has to get the homies to kiss each other #edit: wAIT THE SWAMP DUDES #(or parts of the earth kingdom could work too bc it’s Huge)#ash replies #ask

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gotticalavera · 1 year

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I think Fem!Aang would be more terrified at the idea of having children.

#She wouldn't have the Air Nomads to help her through the pregnancy...#During the birth of the baby...#... and how to raise her child #Because even if she was surrounded by people who love her...#and they help her... She would somehow feel alone #fem!aang #avatar aang #aanglove #aang love #avatar the last airbender

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star-ocean-peahen · 8 days

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im watching atla with my grandma and it is very much up her alley which is very cute. i think her favorite part is whenever momo does something funny because she smiles the most.

#i did have the passing thought #that maybe the show depicting chinese-inspired villages being invaded by a japanese-inspired army might be. not the greatest choice for us.#but honestly it wouldnt bother her shes a veeeeeeery tough and easygoing person #it did make me upset again at the remake though #because the original show feels like everyone else matters too #they meet so many refugees on the run and towns that are occupied and villages being menaced #the war isnt just a good backdrop for cool fights between the heroes and villains. its a blight on the lives of everyone who lives in this #world.#and the remake seems to be very much “everyone not in the main cast is an npc” (see: watching the genocide of the air nomads happen in the #first twenty minutes of the first episode)#and that feels. personal now.#bc my grandma hid from japanese soldiers. my great grandma risked her life transporting materials for explosives so she #could feed her family #they are people with personhood and individuality who didnt fight in wwii but their stories still matter #and atla feels like its validating that because it says that war affects everyone and the people who suffer from it the most are the ones #who need to have their voices heard #not just the people with the biggest capacity to cause change #so the remake throwing that away just to have more cool action scenes. leaves a bad taste in my mouth.#atla #atla remake salt #atla live action salt #atla salt

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willkimurashat · 1 year

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Because I am an avid ATLA and TLOK fan and because it’s been trending on tumblr today, here’s a LITG crossover absolutely no one asked for but I did anyway lol (soz I’ve no idea if it’s been done before 👀)

Water Tribe

Element of change. Adaptability, sense of community and love.

Benders

S1: Erikah, Jake, Jen, Levi

S2: Hannah, Noah

S3: Genevieve, Nicky

S4: Hazeem, Oliver, Thabi

S5: Dana, Lulu

Non-benders

S1: Cherry (she’s tear-bending)

S2: Elijah, Graham, Ibrahim

S3: Miki, Ciaran

S4: James, Tom

S5: Eddie, Johnny

Fire Nation

Element of power. Desire, will, energy, drive to achieve what they want.

Benders

S1: Allegra

S2: Hope, Lottie, Lucas

S3: Camilo, Harry

S4: Cora, Valentina, Youcef

S5: Arlo, Suresh

Non-benders

S1: Lucy, Mason

S2: Marisol, Blake, Kassam, Elisa

S3: Lily, Rafi

S4: Dylan, Juliet, Lexi

S5: Gabi, Meera

Earth Kingdom

Element of substance. Diversity, strength, persistence, endurance.

Benders

S1: Talia, Reese

S2: Gary, Henrik, Shannon

S3: AJ, Tai

S4: Angie, Bruno, Najuma

S5: Alfie, Finn

Non-benders

S1: Miles, Jasper

S2: Jakub, Arjun, Carl, Jo

S3: Bill, Elladine, Seb

S4: Kobi

S5: Kat, Nicolas, Pete

Air Nomads

Element of freedom. Detached from worldly concerns, peaceful, free.

Benders

S1: Rohan, Tim

S2: Bobby, Priya, Rocco, Chelsea, Felix

S3: Yasmin, Iona

S4: Kelly, Will, Tiffany

#some are based on their personalities some are based on their jobs and some on the ✨vibes✨ they give off #i had no idea where to put some of them #like seb gave me the most headache istg #anyways feel free to agree/disagree/do your own lol i am open to discussion;)#apprently every air nomad was a bender because they were all very spiritual so i didn’t divide them into benders/non benders #avatar the last airbender #atla #tlok #litg #love island the game #litg everyone #litg s1 #litg s2 #litg s3 #litg s4 #litg bombshell #litg s5 #litg eitv

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medicatedcountertop · 15 days

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Hey you know what would've be a cool plot for Korra Season 2? If Korra's anger and punch first vibes had been exacerbated due to all the events in season 2, and deciding to split her anger away from herself in an effort to become more like Aang and to "master airbending" which causes the creation of Vaatu. Because that lines up more with the concept of balancing yin and yang and the issues with cultivating a pure yin or pure yang spirit.

#is this tumblr #i got distracted #atla #legend of korra #second season was just not it mythologically speaking #it can also lend itself to being a stronger reason as to why korra loses all the past avatars #because we have seen aang be dark and chaotic as well #and the fact that she rejected a main aspect of the avatar spirit means that she accidentally rejects the other avatars as well #aang could not find the light of energy bending until he sat with the dark of the past avatars advising him to kill #and had he been in another situation where the air nomads were alive or if he was older #maybe aang would have killed ozai #but he hung onto that light in the dark #and korra has to hang on to the dark in the light

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baelconfessions · 9 months

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"Why do you portray Fire Nation like it knows female equality, it's based on imperial Japan!"

Because you portray the Earth Kingdom as a place where lesbians could run off to and have a job and get paid without a man behind them.

"Based on" doesn't mean it's a copycat, considering the Water Tribes and the less to no cultural aspects we know about them excluding mysogny. I don't see you tattooing Katara's or any other WT woman's face and it is very much a thing. (And it is beautiful and we should do it, really.)

#what if #and i'm really stretching my thoughts here #what if the atla world is as it is because the show's creators are... men?#wow #atla #avatar #avatar the last airbender #cultural differences #fire nation #earth kingdom #water tribe #don't get me started on the air nomads #bael confessing

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pyr0cue · 2 months

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Worst atla criticism is “aang should’ve killed ozai and his pacifism is preachy” he’s 12 and the protagonist in a show made for 12 year olds. What are you talking about

#first they set up the pacifism of the air nomads throughout the entire show #second they talk about aangs struggle to remain connected to a culture he no longer has access to beyond himself #like why are you surprised or annoyed when he doesn’t want to let go of that last bit of culture he feels connected to 😭#they also acknowledge many times that killing him would’ve been ok for anyone BUT aang who is a 12 year kid pacifist #literally every other protagonist says we should kill him #and aang isn’t like no you are all wrong that’s evil he’s like I personally can’t live with killing him because it’s wrong for me #personally to do that’s #like hello it’s a cartoon made for children they’re not gonna brutally murder someone on screen ??#and before anyone says shit about aang and jet #aang was brought back to life (didn’t really die) and jet didn’t die on screen. hope this helps!#atla

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