I do feel like the way Kyoshi was written in the Avatar reboot was lowkey influenced by the fandom's perception of her. Cause like in the original show she's really just portrayed as a pragmatist who's willing to kill if necessary. Like Aang is conflicted about killing the Fire Lord and she's like "well if I were in your position I'd do it but that's just me. Good luck." And then people started making memes where she's like a murderous psychopath who thinks extreme violence is always the solution. And it was funny at first cause it was just exaggerating for comedy but now everyone thinks she was actually like that in the show when she really wasn't. And then in the remake her introductory scene is her angrily yelling at this 12 year old that he needs to stop being a little pussy and be a ruthless warrior or whatever and the only explanation I can think of is that someone in the writer's room maybe looked at a few too many of those memes.

what genres of music do you think the gaang would listen to? what about some of their favorite artists? i think katara would be a big olivia rodrigo fan and that aang would listen to a lot of taylor swift lol

aw come on now be nice to aang. he would have better taste than THAT. i think he would listen to a lot of disco, like donna summer. he would like upbeat funky music that you can dance to. and he’d have a pretty eclectic and varied music taste. like i see him also loving joanna newsom (and not just because divers is about his life). and maaayyybe he’d listen to taylor swift, like one or two songs perhaps, but his ass would NOT be a swiftie.

that said, katara would feel very passionately about her, although whether positively or negatively i do not know. but there is no way she is simply swift-neutral. she would care way too much about pop culture as a phenomenon. i think that even if she really did love taylor swift she’d always preface her name with “famous climate criminal…”

and look, i respect olivia rodrigo, i think she’s a talented performer and makes great songs for amvs (ty lee all american bitch kendall roy brutal nanami vampire, to name a few highlights), but if anything, katara would listen to actual 90s riot grrrl and female singer songwriters, because olivia is simply not as good as her inspirations.

katara would also listen to any music that has a subversive political message or is sung by a woman with eminently powerful vocals. so a combination of punk, folk, some gospel, some heavy metal, and a lot of r&b. also i think she’d listen to very specific shwotunes and defend those musicals with her life.

sokka doesn’t have a music “taste” he has one song that he plays on repeat for weeks until he gets sick of it. sometimes that song is a symphony by beethoven, and sometimes that song is “fireworks” by mitski (okay, it’s often “firework” by mitski). but his one constant is kate bush. he’s fucking obsessed with kate bush.

toph grew up a piano prodigy so she has a lot of opinions on classical music and that’s most of what she listens to for the first decade or so of her life. then she gets introduced to like, tracy chapman and fiona apple through katara and sokka, and realizes that classifying all music with lyrics as “trash” may have been a bit reductive. and when she gets a bit older she gets really into indie rock and begs sokka to take her to concerts. and he doesn’t even really care for the concerts. he just takes her because he knows how much she loves it.

zuko is a mitskigirl thru and thru. i know that ppl say he’d be emo and listen to mcr but that music is too coarse and unpolished for his sensitive ears. he likes music with a beautiful melancholy quality that makes him feel sad yet gorgeous. he also listens to jbrekkie and jay som and other musical equivalents to ocean vuong. he’s literally gaysian what do u want from him.

suki is by far the most into music of anyone in their friendgroup. music is one of her favorite things in the entire world, and if she couldn’t play and listen to music she wouldn’t even want to exist. she’s in an indie folk rock band with her friends called the kyoshi warriors, and they have a lot of followers on bandcamp. she has an incredibly varied and extensive music taste, which is why she’s basically always designated the aux cord. sometimes she’s playing the cranberries and sometimes she’s playing googoosh and sometimes she’s playing otyken. and her taste never misses.

ty lee is one of those freaks who doesn’t really listen to music by choice. instead, she listens to: true crime podcasts, audiobooks (eg, of lacanian psychoanalysis), or sometimes simply has her earbuds in with nothing actually playing so as to seem as if she isn’t eavesdropping on the conversations taking place in her vicinity. but when people ask her what kind of music she likes she just says, “oh, you know…. pop.”

mai is also a mitskigirl she’s even more of a mitskigirl than zuko is (so she claims, although zuko would contest this). she’s very active on spotify because she loves making various playlists for different moods, different vibes, different blorbos from her shows. she likes all different genres, and takes suki’s recommendations very seriously above all.

azula’s two favorite artists are, unfortunately, rachmaninoff and kanye, and that’s all you really need to know about her.

NAtLA first impressions (eps 1 & 2)

Here are my thoughts as someone who has been a superfan of the original series since 2007 (spoiler-free first, then spoilers below)!

Honestly, I'm feeling pretty middle of the road about this adaptation so far. I like a lot of the costuming, and some of the actors are good, while others have felt a bit lackluster. There's also some characterization choices I didn't like too much for certain characters (which I will get into in the spoiler sections below). The score is definitely not as good as the original series - I don't particularly like the new elements of the score, and when themes and motifs from the original score are used, I feel like they aren't used enough. The bending, while better than the 2010 version, still feels a bit fake and clunky, as do a lot of the special effects. There's also a problem with a reliance on exposition dialogue, moreso in the first ep than the second.

Now we'll get into the spoiler section. Don't read below this if you do not wanna be spoiled.

EP 1: "Aang"

What I liked:

Getting to see a bit more of the Air Nomads (which makes the genocide feel even more devastating)

The design of the Southern Air Temple felt very warm and inviting - I liked that there were lots of trees and whatnot

The added details about the Sozin purposefully allowing news of the war to be leaked to the Earth Kingdom to throw everyone off their trail of planning to attack the Air Nomads

Making the comet a special event for the Air Nomads, which brings them all together at the Southern Air Temple for Sozin's attack to happen

I like that Wolf Cove was actually called Wolf Cove (since it's never name dropped in the actual show)

Zuko and Iroh did a good job - I think Dallas is capturing Zuko's energy pretty well, and while Paul's Iroh feels a bit different than the OG, he's still doing a good job

What I was not so keen on:

Yep... I really didn't like that Aang didn't purposefully run away, and instead went to "clear his head" after Monk Gyatso told him he was the Avatar, fully intending to return before getting caught in the storm.

They really weren't kidding about removing Sokka's sexism. Instead of Aang being released bc of Katara's anger at this, they just happen upon the iceberg, and somehow while trying to waterbend their canoe closer she waterbends the iceberg open behind her??

Exposition dump from Gran Gran... and her basically just straight up telling Aang to his face "You're the last airbender! All your people are dead! And you're probably the Avatar too!" It all felt very wooden and definitely a bad change from how Aang realizes he's in the future in the OG series.

I had high hopes for a lot of the actors, and I hate to say it (especially considering Sokka's actor is likely not even indigenous at all), but Sokka has felt like the best actor so far. His lines come across a lot more naturally than Katara's and Aang's often do. Aang is alright, and of course looks and acts the part, but the way he speaks his lines sometimes feels too quick/unnatural. Sadly, I think Katara's acting has been the worst so far - in this episode I didn't see any of the emotion in her eyes that I felt like I should've been seeing. I will say I think she got a bit better in ep 2.

Aang, Katara, and Sokka just don't feel close. They never got time to go penguin sledding, to hang out with the village kids, etc. They still feel like strangers.

Speaking of, I guess Aang went out of the Avatar State by thinking about Gyatso? Again, that distance between him and the siblings (especially Katara) is glaring. Katara in general just seems to lack the spark she has in the OG.

EP 2: "Warriors"

What I liked:

Seeing the Fire Navy port - it felt very SEA-inspired, and that street food looked delicious lol.

Kyoshi Island being run by a woman (Suki's mom). Just makes more sense to me lol.

Suki - I looooved how they portrayed her as this kind of socially awkward character who wants to talk to Sokka but doesn't know how. It makes so much sense with her being isolated her whole life. I also felt like her and Sokka had quite a bit of chemistry.

The final Kyoshi battle was pretty cool

I kinda liked Zhao and Zuko both being at Kyoshi Island

Zuko's desperation to find Aang - he really felt like a kid to me in this ep with the acting choices Dallas made.

Strangely, I don't hate them nerfing the Avatar State a bit by making it to where Aang can only enter it when he's in an Avatar shrine. I didn't even realize it at first but the reason he goes into the Avatar State in the SAT is because Gyatso's skeleton was in Yangchen's shrine. I still prefer OG series Avatar State though.

I like that Kyoshi warns Aang with the vision about the Fire Nation's attack on the Northern Water Tribe. It gives him an incentive to get there faster instead of meandering.

What I was not so keen on:

Zhao seems to be a much less arrogant character here, at least outwardly. I know he was probably a bit cartoon villain-y in the OG series, but this dude just feels like another commander. Maybe that will change as I watch more. He's definitely conniving.

The goofy ass high beam lights from the Kyoshi statue's eyes

Kyoshi's characterization... This Kyoshi feels like the caricature all the casual fans perceive her to be (i.e. violence and strength are the best way, smite my enemies type of thing). I also didn't like how she just kept berating Aang for running away (which is weird that everyone keeps accusing him of this bc this version of Aang literally didn't even run away).

Aang is very driven to master the elements and defeat the Fire Lord in this version, which isn't necessarily a bad thing... But I feel like if anything, they could have at least kept it to where he ran away the night of the genocide, even if they didn't want to show him ignoring his responsibilities to go on adventures in the bulk of the show. A major part of Aang's character arc is him learning to accept his destiny and stop running/avoiding.

Once again, no Sokka sexism arc. This ep in the OG series was very important for him, but that's nonexistent here.

Once again, Katara's acting, while better than ep 1, feels like it's lacking emotion.

Overall, it's obviously better than the 2010 movie so far, and I enjoyed the eps to a degree, but there's still a lot of things that I wasn't super fond of. The changes that they seem to have made so far aren't too extreme yet, and I'm actually looking forward to seeing how far they end up deviating from the original show.

The whole time I was watching, I just couldn't stop thinking about how much better the original show is. I just kept missing the characters I knew and loved. Also, I still firmly believe this world and story truly works best in animation.

Sooooo... Netflix's Avatar the Last Airbender huh...? episode 1 thoughts under cut.

just finished episode 1 and.... I am.... not impressed. It seems like this show fails to understand the core of what made the original series work. It's only episode one and it is severely suffering from an ABUNDANCE of tell don't show. It looks incredible and the sets and costumes are all impressive and wow they even pronounced the names right... (can't believe that's actually a positive point) however none of that matters if they fail to deliver on the storytelling.

First off, I found it quite amusing that Katara's opening monologue was stolen not once but TWICE by other people. First by Kyoshi, then later on Gran Gran. And speaking of Gran Gran I couldn't help but burst out laughing when she just somehow knew Aang was the avatar despite there being literally no reason for her to guess that. She was a wonderful exposition dump tho (I say sarcastically). And more on Katara but this is not the badass that we know and love. She's quiet and meek and doesn't even free Aang from the ice due to an angry rant about sokka's sexism (more on that later). I know it's episode one and of course she's an inexperienced bender but she's still is powerful in other ways. This version is so... nothing.

Next, the show annoyed me when Iroh basically just told Zuko and in turn the audience that Ozai's quest for Zuko to capture the avatar was supposed to be impossible and Ozai wasn't ever expecting Zuko to succeed. Did the writers REALLY not think that the watchers could just... I don't know... PICK UP ON THAT FACT FROM CONTEXT CLUES???? Of course the task was supposed to be impossible. Ozai does NOT want Zuko back home but Zuko is so blinded by his mission he fails to ever see that or accept it. You don't need to tell us! SHOW US! Audiences are not stupid! (also every time I saw Zuko drawing in his little book, I just laughed.)

Also love (hate) how the show removed all of Sokka's sexism because it was "potentially problematic" or whatever.... I guess characters aren't allowed to grow any more. Originally, when Sokka went on a journey away from home, a home where he was taught the "warrior way" and grew up as the oldest man in the village, he was finally exposed to the rest of the world and his narrow minded view expanded as he saw more of the world. Sokka GROWS as a person and becomes an "all women are queens" icon. This is important to his character and Netflix deciding to do away with that plot point is going to severely hurt his character. And once again the show suffered by just outright saying "sokka had to grow up fast." WHY ARE YOU TELLING US THIS? YOU COULD EASILY SHOW IT I PROMISE THE AUDIENCE WILL UNDERSTAND!!!

Finally, I want to just remind people that there is no such thing as filler in a series that is not being adapted from a manga. There was NO filler in the original show. The show was about a journey and they SHOWED that journey in it's entirety. By cutting out the journey and just going to the "important points" you lose time getting to actually know the characters and bonding with them. Then when important stuff DOES happen, its that much more emotional. I felt absolutely nothing watching this first episode except for the occasional mild to severe annoyance.

So ya. The show is already massively flawed and its only episode one. I had a feeling this would be the case from the moment this remake was announced and I find myself once again asking why this was even made. Since... ya know... There is already a show... and the show is arguably one of the best pieces of animated media out there.... so ya..... At least this will once again spur people into watching the original show so that's something.

Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024)

Another version of Bumi & why I like him

Let me preface this with the disclaimer that I'm fully aware that Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender has its flaws. But for me personally, the things it does well are fare more interesting, and so I would like to explain why I like how they changed Bumi as a character within the story of the live action adaptation. I'm bad at keeping it short, so this turned out a rather long post – my apologies. Also: potential trigger warning for mentions of suicidal ideation.

The starting point: Bumi in the cartoon

Cartoon-Bumi in the original series is a character who is very much rooted in the original medium. He lends himself well to comedy, and his challenges for Aang teach Aang and the young audience about opening onself to new possibilities, to think outside the box, to approach obstacles from new perspectives. It's good advice, and Aang takes it to heart and implements it at times later on. The reunion between Aang and Bumi is also sweet, and all in all it's an enjoyable episode.

Aang's position from the live action angle

Now, if the same plot is moved to the live action series (LA), the tone of this storyline is automatically changed as well because we are now looking at it through the lense of the LA. The cartoon is aimed at a young audience and has a big focus on comedy, so we can easily ignore some aspects of the situation that now come more into focus in the adaptation:

Aang just recently has learned that all of his people, the Air Nomads, have been wiped out and he is the last airbender.

Aang also has leaned that as the Avatar it is his duty to restore balance to the world and to defeat the Firelord.

A 100 years old man is challenging a traumatized kid to solve some tasks while his friends are being threatend by death-by-growing-crystal.

As I said – in the cartoon it's fine to think of riding Koi fish as the first order of business, and it's fine to threaten the kids with death because nobody dies anyway. It's fine for the cartoon not to dwell on these things. But the live action series explicilty wants to pay attention to some of these aspects, propbably especially because the cartoon could only address them in very small doses. I'm not saying that the live action always does it well, but the intention is there and it's different to the cartoon.

Aang's trauma and Bumi's response

In the live action, Aang cannot easily put his loss or his responsibilities aside. He is mourning Gyatso and the Airbenders in basically every episode, he is shocked by what he sees of the war in Omashu, and the need to go to the Northern Water Tribe is much more urgent because of Kyoshi's warning.

Would or should Bumi as Aang's friend as he is in the cartoon really pretend he does not know Aang in the LA, and would or should he trick him into believing his friends are in danger of dying? Even if he thinks Aang needs to learn a lesson, is that the right time and the right way to do it? Coming from the perspective of the LA, to me it seems needlessly cruel to threaten Katara and Sokka with death and Aang with the possibility that his friends might die, all while Aang is still dealing with the loss of his people and the fact that he somehow has to save the Northern Water Tribe. I think Bumi would no seem like a nice person or a good friend even if he was copied 1:1 from the cartoon. To me, in this new context it wouldn't make much sense to treat Aang in such a way, just because he thinks that Aang needs to learn a lesson or because it's fun to mess with people.

Fitting Bumi in the new context

Bumi in the cartoon is the episode's obstacle that Aang needs to overcome. If Bumi is to stay an obstacle in the live action, he now needs to have a different reason or motivation to become such an obstacle. A cartoon Bumi who is neither bitter nor angry but rather wants to help and is happy to see Aang can no longer realistically be that obstacle. Rather, I would expect that a wise old man of a 100 years would be more open and supportive right from the start when he meets his young 12 year old friend who just learned that his whole family has been massacred.

So how and why would Bumi still be an obstacle? The writer's answer to that was: because he is no longer wise and friendly, but lethargic and bitter. Why is he bitter? Because he has lived through 100 years of war and had to make horrible choices that still haunt him, and each year the hope for the war and for the suffering to end became smaller and smaller. The Avatar may have been the representation of that hope when the war started – but 100 years later he has become the representation of all the times that Bumi was hopeful but eventually disappointed.

His opposition to Aang in the episode includes three main aspects:

I. Bitterness towards Aang and the Avatar: Bumi blames the Avatar for being absent because the Avatar should have been there to help and wasn't. This isn't a rational reaction though, it's born out of the loss and the bitterness in Bumi's life. It's also personal for him, because Aang was Bumi's friend, and as the Avatar could have helped but didn't. On top of that Bumi resents Aang's disbelief when it comes to Bumi's capacity to care – they are separated by 100 years of lived experience that Aang completely missed and Bumi had to endure. Of course in this case Bumi also ignores the loss that Aang recently (from his perception) has suffered.

→ With this the writers set up a character who is emotionally no longer able to support Aang or take Aang's own situation and problems into consideration. He is mentallypositioned to be an obstacle to Aang, to be inconsiderate, ruthless and actually dangerous.

II. A lesson to learn: Bumi intends to teach Aang a lesson to make him understand why he is the way he is now. He cannot speedrun the last 100 years for Aang, but can give him and example of what his own experience has been in the past and what forced him to stop caring: he shows him what it's been like in the past when you are forced to make impossible choices, and what – in Bumi's mind – awaits Aang in the future.

→ This provides a motivation for Bumi to fight against Aang in all seriousness. Bumi is not playing games, because this has been the harsh reality for him. It rises the dramaturgical stakes of the fight.

III. Losing the will to live: Bumi is tired after 100 years, and that becomes very apparent in the fight. It is a part of a larger theme in the LA that explores what war does to people. In Bumi's case it has made him numb because he wouldn't have been able to deal with the horrors of war otherwise all this time. That is why he does not move a hand when he is about to be crushed – it seems to be a relief, and if it can teach Aang the intended lesson: all the better.

→ With Aang already knowing who Bumi is, this rises the emotional stake of the fight. Aang no longer is fighting an unknown weird old man, he is fighting someone who he believes to be a friend, and even worse: his friend appears to be suicidal. Having to fight and protect Bumi at the same time puts Aang under a huge amount of pressure both emotionally and when it comes to his bending skills.

The resolution: fighting hopelessness with connection

Granted, the ending is not as well executed as it could be. But for me it still carries the intended idea – or at least the idea as I understood it:

War can isolate people. Bumi has been fighting a war, and surely has lost people close to him, or cannot see them because battle grounds have a habit of interrupting travel. We also know there have been spies in the city as well as rebells who are unhappy with Bumi's rule, so it's difficult to even trust the people who are supposed to fight on Bumi's side.

Aang is the counter to all of that: he was able travel to the city because he can fly and cross borders and distances more easily. He is also saved from the predicament that Bumi has put him in because his friends have independently found a way to reach them, and luckily in time.

When he pulls out the gift that Bumi had given him all these years ago, it's very symbolic: the sky bison whistle allows Aang to call upon his friend Appa. And Appa has already saved Aang in the first episode, and will do so again in the episode following Aang's and Bumi's fight.

It's a reminder that for people who have lost the will to live the best hope is the connection with other people. It may seem trivial to those who don't have to struggle in that way, but a reminder of a connection, of friendship, of support or even just shared struggle can be incredible powerful. That's why I believe it is believable for Bumi to give it one more try. After all, the return of the Avatar as a potential powerful ally is also a good motivation to fight back once more.

Random assortment of ATLA AU ideas I'm probably not gonna do anything with but needed to get out there:

AU where Zuko was never banished from the FN due to the people of the FN revolting when they found out. Word of the Agni Kai and the War Meeting had made it's way across the nation and the majority were in favor of Zuko. So much that they were planning a mutiny. Annoyed, but seeing a way out, Ozai orders a tower be made far away from Caldera. Once it's made, Zuko would live there. If they win the war, he'll forgive his son and welcome him back. The tower is built and Zuko is dumped in there. Only one way in and out and he can't open it. The other option is literally barred. Blah blah blah, we get into book 2, Suki has been caught by Azula. She's on her way to prison, not sure where she'll end up. And she's surprised when she's told she'll be keeping the prince company. Because, what prince? And she's put into Zuko's tower. In short, Zuki prison roommates AU but it's not in the Boiling Rock.

No one understands how it happened. Why it happened. They prayed to the moon. So, why did the sun respond and save their daughter? She prayed to the sun. She prayed and begged for him to answer. The one who answered her was the moon. Sun Spirit Yue and Moon Spirit Zuko AU. Bonus if both can bend the element of the spirit that blessed them (firebender Yue and waterbender Zuko).

Zuku joins the Gaang early and poses as Sokka's wife the entire time (fiancee if we go as early as book 1 and up until they get to Ba Sing Se in book 2. Zuko: I must find my darling husband!! I'm so worried about him... Katara: Seriously, what do you see in that guy? Zuko: He makes me laugh.)

The SWT has collapsed. Men have gone to war, and the remaining women, children and elders have split between finding sanctuary in either Kyoshi Island or the NWT OR living a new life at sea as pirates. Sokka becomes well known as a decent pirate. He won't raid someone just to raid them. They have to have something he wants. And right now, his attention was in the rather pretty boy (he assumed it was a boy anyways) onboard Zhao's ship. He'd usually go for maps and plans and even rations when he raided a ship, but this time he's thinking of getting a person. Huh, kidnapping...well there's a first for everything. (Basic summary, the SWT doesn't exist, Sokka is now a pirate, and yes so are Katara and Kanna. Their biggest enemy personally is Zhao, who's hunting down the Avatar (whom they're hiding in their ship). Sokka eventually notices Zuko, who was given to Zhao rather than banished. Blah blah blah, it's easy to tell Zuko hates Zhao, hopefully he won't mind a small kidnapping if it means getting off Zhao's ship (he does but honestly he'd rather be on Sokka's ship, it's a lot cleaner and the avatar seems nice, the bison is a bonus.))

Despite his attempts, Zuko is unable to join Team Avatar. Not able to turn to either side, he runs off and goes into hiding. While on the run, he reunites with Jin and they end up having a heart to heart. Things are confessed but in the end they get together and go on the run together. They open up a secret camp for people like them, on the run from the war. They heal the injured as best as they can and work together to make food that can last a few days. The first time things turn sour is when Jet enters the camp. He's hostile and picking fights until he's given the choice to cool his attitude or leave and hope someone else takes pity on him. Things settle down and he gets close with Jin and Zuko. More time passes by and they're eventually approached by Team Avatar, Aang and Toph both seem pleasantly surprised to see Zuko, but Sokka, Katara and Suki (whom the two water siblings freed from prison alongside their dad) weren't, Hakoda doesn't say anything. Like with Jet, they were given a choice, cool the attitude or leave.

Growing up, Azula always trailed after her mother and older brother. Despite being their father's favorite, Azula preferred their company. Call her overprotective, but like Uncle Iroh and their cousin Lu Ten have told her over and over, they were dragons. And dragons hoard and protect what's theirs. Ursa and Zuko are Azula's hoard, and she wouldn't let anyone hurt them. So, when Ursa disappears, when Zuko gets burned and banished, she decides enough is enough. The war against the other nations has ended, it was time for Civil War. And once she won, she'd bring her real family back. Ozai touched her hoard, it was about time he learned why you should never touch something belonging to a dragon.

Is this how adoption works now?? He just, finds kids lost at sea, abandoned in random places, having run away? Hakoda's not sure why it happened. It started when he found a young girl adrift on a small boat. Her white hair hidden with scarves and her hood. Yue, Princess of the NWT. Ranaway upon learning she was engaged to someone who wouldn't care for her or her people. Then came ex-Prince Zuko, who had been abandoned on an island they stopped to camp at. He'd been living there for about 3 years, maybe longer, he's unsure. But hey, what's another kid? He joins their crew... Fuck his earlier words, he doesn't need more kids. But Hakoda just sighs as a small girl (Toph) follows Zuko aboard. Seriously, is THIS how adoption works now? How's he gonna explain this to Sokka and Katara and his mother? They'll accept Yue no doubt, Toph might also be easy, but Zuko? Fuck, he needs a drink- BATO STOP LAUGHING!!

She didn't want it to end the way it did. She hated what had happened to him. What Ozai did to him while she was gone. What their mother did when she abandoned them. She remembered when Zuko was happy. When he'd smile at her and tell her he'd love her. She remembered the expectations put on him, the extra lessons and how little he was allowed to sleep. She was...jealous for so long. Both of their fire were unique, hers a brilliant blue and his a kaleidoscope of colors. It wasn't fair he was treated special... He wasn't treated special. And she was blind to that. She was blind and the truth was falling apart right in front of her. She hated this. She hated what this war had done to her family. What it did to her. What it did to Zuko. And she hated that she just stood there as her brother was carted off somewhere, ignoring his gaze as he was taken away. She hates everything... (sorta a roleswap between Azula and Zuko but not really?? Both are strong benders, Zuko just peaked later on but not too much later. As the oldest, a lot of pressure was placed on Zuko and thus Ozai's attention was on him as well. Azula, upset with this, did everything she could to upstage him. The two have a good relationship, but Ozai favoring Zuko didn't help and so Azula left to capture the Avatar, stating she wanted a challenge and to prove herself. She got a ship, and set sail with Iroh at her side. Azula eventually joins to Avatar's side and branded a traitor alongside her uncle. Zuko is tasked at bringing her home and despite how much he'd rather join her, Ozai's grip on him is too strong (not in the sense he's loyal to his father, but in the sense that he's too scared to leave). We eventually get to Agni Kai during Sozin's Comet and Azula comes out victorious, but it feels like an empty win because she knows Zuko had lost long ago. This was just the fight that broke him (also yes, Azula becomes the Firelord).

MY ATLA LIVE ACTION S1E2 THOUGHTS

EP1 - EP3

We all know that ATLA’s character arcs and just. character building in general is one of if not its absolute biggest strength. This show has a lot to live up to on that front, and if it can manage it, then that’s all the better. I’ll probably be critical of this aspect in particular, keeping in mind that this is generally meant to be an alternate canon which leads to Some changes in order to fit a shorter form.

Without going too far into it, I’ll say I will continue to be a little worried about the new spin on Aang’s character arc until I can see it play out all the way through. 

I’m also a bit worried about Zuko’s character. He seems a bit more willing to hurt people than in the cartoon, so I think they’re gonna have to play that pretty carefully moving forward. 

There are, of course, some things they’re doing incredibly well. Zhao’s character is On Point, and Suki feels about right too. I also am generally liking how they’re adapting plot points so far. There’s at least one episode from the original cartoon that I can tell won’t be adapted because of something in this episode, and it feels natural enough, I guess. I don’t have too many complaints on that front. 

Stay tuned for episodes 3-8! Live reactions/spoilers under the cut!

really fucks with me to not start with The Monologue

still don’t know how i feel about this iroh yet. is it just bc he isn’t mako? idk it’s like. uncanny valley iroh

also still not a fan of aang being so serious already. hopefully there will be a substantial enough character arc to replace that

katara so far is reading the most like the original to me

MOMO

gran gran. just had a waterbending scroll?? i mean. i guess. bringing back the southern waterbending style. i do think i like the original more in this case, it’s just a little more horrifying to have that style basically wiped out completely. that being said this is definitely a way to consolidate the waterbending scroll episode right? i shouldn’t expect to see pirates?

ok the iroh and zuko dynamic in the marketplace was on point

there is NO unagi, where is she

SUKI!!! suki looks GREAT no notes.

suki’s. mom? interesting.

kyoshi island seems a lot less welcoming to aang, even though they know he is in fact the avatar, which does a lot to remind us that they were supposed to be a neutral party in the war. this is not a bad change

zhao definitely has the right vibes

omg, suki 😭get some queen

okay so we finally get to see aang being a kid for a minute (please just let them be kids sometimes it’s okay)

SUKI IS EATING AND LEAVING NO CRUMBS. love that we still get the classic suki beats sokka’s ass scene

oh,, is that what they’re doing with aang in this series?? not a learning to be serious thing,, he’s learning to deal with the fact that he is powerful and he has to control that so he doesn’t hurt people. that’s interesting, so i’ll reserve judgment until it plays out. it just. doesn’t feel the same

the sukki romance is almost playing out in a more believable way than the cartoon, so that’s pretty great

so like. what happened to avatar roku? is he just gonna be replaced with kyoshi? like she’s a badass and we love her, but. why?

sokka is not hearing a goddamn word suki is saying. he is Too Entranced. i have never been more on board with this ship

how are they dealing with this without the unagi

gotta say the spirit world appearance is really cool. chromatic aberration was a good choice

oh yikes kyoshi that’s a bit harsh. i miss roku

was zuko. about to kill katara?? he would never. tell me he would never.

ok so this is a winter solstice at the fire temple moment. happening now so it doesn’t have to with roku later? interesting.

“only call upon the past avatars when i’m at their shrines” lol okay. fair enough. roku did Not adhere to that in show

zuko’s digging himself a hole with zhao here. bro IMMEDIATELY called the fire lord

ngl i’m loving this iteration of zhao. absolutely despicable vile man. hate that guy. great character. 

liking: SUKI <3, Zhao's characterization, set designs, sokka and suki's relationship

worried about: aang's character, zuko's character

disliking: roku's absence (though i do love kyoshi, god bless), no unagi :(

I've been thinking about Avatar: The Last Airbender recently. You know what's weird? The Four Nations. They're treated as a collective, a natural way to politically and culturally divide the world of Avatar, four units in balance. But they're not, really. They're too different.

Let's start with the Fire Nation, the closest to what you'd expect the nations to be. It's a nation-state in the most literal sense; a group of people who see themselves united by history, culture, and common descent, ruled over by a polity with a strong central government. (Relative to vassalage or something, not by modern standards.) It's pretty much exactly what you'd expect the Four Nations to be from their name, so the fact that it's the only one with Nation in its name is appropriate.

Then there's the Earth Kingdom. Unlike the Fire Nation, it's not really a unitary state. For the most part, the Earth King does not rule the Earth Kingdom like the Firelord rules the Fire Nation. It was overrun with bandits and warlords during the Kyoshi era, consolidated into warring states by the Roku era, and splintered into warring states again in Korra's era as soon as the queen was killed. The Earth Kingdom was kinda united during the Hundred-Year War, but with powerful lords acting independently of Ba Sing Se and occasionally calling themselves kings. It was united in Aang's adulthood, but that's an anomaly. Still, the Earth Kingdom isn't that different from what we'd expect from one of the Four Nations. It's a nation, just ruled by a polity too decentralized or fragmented to call a state.

We come to trouble with the Water Tribe...or, really, Water Tribes. There were times when the Northern and Southern Water Tribes were united under one chief, but it makes more sense to think of them are separate entities. The Northern Water Tribe has cities and armies and a hereditary chiefdom, with the chief's family basically being treated like royalty; the Southern Water Tribe doesn't seem to have any of those, being little more than a collection of villages with no apparent government.

Even if they were culturally identical, those distinct material conditions would make the two tribes' members very different. And they aren't culturally identical. And that's not getting into the Foggy Swamp Tribe. The Water Tribe isn't a nation. It's a collection of tribes nominally united by history and culture, but actually united by Waterbending.

And then there are the Air Nomads. It's hard to get a read on them; we don't see them in the actual show (damn you, Sozin), and the information we have on them doesn't map as cleanly to any real-world groups. They're nomads whose cultures are centered around fixed temples, with no territory and no apparent method of gathering food. They're a self-reproducing ethnic group whose men and woman are geographically separated. For that matter, they're a coherent culture, distinct from their neighbors, despite being geographically separated.

The Air Nomads are only vaguely sketched out, but they're even less like what you'd expect a "nation" to be. They didn't seem to have any central government (before they were reduced to the Avatar's family and his band of Air Acolytes), they don't have any territory to speak of, they barely have any culture beyond their spiritual beliefs. But they're still a Nation, equal to the other three.

The Four Nations have little in common. Only one and a half can be considered a unitary polity, like "nation" suggests. All except the Air Nomads and maybe Fire Nation show regional variation in culture; rural Earth Kingdom communities have more in common with the Water Tribes than Ba Sing Se, and the Northern Water Tribe arguably has more in common with the smaller, coastal Earth Kingdom states than it does with the other Water Tribes.

And there are plenty of polities, cultures, and ethnic groups that aren't considered one of the Four Nations. There are the daofei, the bandits and warlords I mentioned existing in Kyoshi's time. There are groups like the Shang of Yangchen's era or the Fifth Nation of Kyoshi's, who started as a mixture of different nations and coalesced into having a singular cultural identity (and a stronger governing institutions than most of the Four Nations). There are the sandbending Si Wong tribes, the Bhanti Island sages, and those bands from the Great Divide that nobody likes to acknowledge, but they do exist, unfortunately.

None of these groups, except arguably the United Republic of Nations, are treated as significant. They might be self-governing, with a distinct ethnic identity and spiritual beliefs and so on, and have a population that dwarfs the Air Nomads...but they're not one of the Four Nations, so they're not important. Most don't affect matters outside their immediate neighbors (generally just one of the Four Nations), almost none last more than a couple centuries (compared to the millennia that the Four Nations have been recognized as a thing), and just about all of them arguably fit into one of the Four Nations. The Bhanti sages are kinda independent but also kinda part of the Fire Nation, the various Earth Kingdom tribes are all earthbenders and are made to obey the stronger Earth Kings, even the Fire Nation colonies/Republic City aren't completely independent of the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom.

The Doylist explanation is, of course, that the Four Nations are defined by their elements; one nation per element, one element per nation. But they're recognized as an institution in-universe—why else would the Northern Water Tribe assume leadership over the Southern when they were at the literal opposite end of the world? (They tried this before the spirit portal reopened, mind you.) And it's hard to imagine how that could be the case if it wasn't based purely on the elements in-universe, too.

The Avatar is clearly a central pillar of in-universe culture, particularly spiritual beliefs; that makes sense, since the Avatars have always been world-shaping figures, with supernatural powers beyond what anyone else is capable of. They rotate between four groups of people, each of which has a distinct powersets that each can only be inherited by members of that group.

The Water Tribe is seen as a unitary entity not because of any material reality, or even shared institutions, but because those are the people who can be Waterbenders. The Earth Kingdom constantly falls apart because of the difficulties in governing such a large area, and comes back together because Earthbenders exist. The Fire Nation is united by fire. The Air Nomads aren't put on the same level as the Fire Nation because their nation is politically significant, but because their existence is spiritually significant.

The other tribes, the daofei and the Shang, even the Fifth Nation? They might have territory and people, they might have distinct cultures, they might have political clout while they last. But they don't have their own element, and that makes them lesser. Fragile. As long as there are waterbenders, they will be one Tribe. As long as there are earthbenders, their ruler will be the Earth King. As long as there is a single airbender, the Air Nomads will be among the Four Nations.

can earthbenders bend glass like it’s just a molten sand

can bloodbenders:

use it for healing

feel people when they don’t see it

tell when someone’s lying

boil blood

can airbenders:

play with sounds of different frequencies

keep people deaf

make air toxic (or waterbenders spray a substance)

can energybenders control spirits/avatar in avatar state as bloodbenders control people

can’t remember all the questions right now but sub-bending is really interesting topic

Can earthbenders bend glass?

Kyoshi bends glass in one of the Kyoshi novels, so this one is confirmed!

———

Can bloodbenders:

Use it for healing?

My personal headcanon is that Katara’s ability to bloodbend is part of what makes her such a talented healer. I think being able to minutely manipulate blood and tissues simultaneously with the healing water might result in overall greater healing ability. This is also somewhat hinted at in the Kyoshi novels, when a healer lowers the body temperature of injured people to slow down their body processes. Since waterbenders can change the phase of water, that sounds more like subtle bloodbending than straight up healing to me.

Feel people they don’t see?

Not sure about this one. I think this would rely on the assumption that waterbenders can “feel” unseen water like a metal detector or something, and there’s not much to suggest they can “feel” water they don’t already know is there.

Tell when someone’s lying?

I this kind of goes back to the previous question. Waterbenders don’t seem to rely on a “seismic sense” in the same way earthbenders do. I think it makes sense for earthbenders to be able to feel changes to a person’s heartbeat or breathing through the earth, but not so much for waterbenders who don’t have direct contact with the target.

Boil blood?

If they can turn regular water to ice or steam and have been hinted at being able to manipulate human body temperature, I think this is within the realm of possibility. Horrifying to think about though.

———

Can airbenders:

Play with sounds of different frequencies?

There is some evidence that they can manipulate sound waves, but mostly to enhance the volume, which would be the amplitude. We see this when Aang blows the bison whistle so loud it rounds up all the zoo animals in Tales of Ba Sing Se. It’s also touched on in Yangchen’s novel a bit that airbenders can project their own voices very loudly. I think frequency would be quite a bit harder, but maybe a skilled airbender could do it.

Keep people deaf?

As in, stop ALL air movement around them so that sound cannot propagate? It might be possible, but that’s such a high level of precision I think only a master could achieve it.

Make air toxic?

I’m not sure exactly what you meant by this one but I assume you mean something like isolating certain elements? This is a question I find personally fascinating, and we explored this a bit in the Avatar TTRPG I was in. We basically said an airbender COULD isolate elements in the air to remove oxygen for instance, but in order to do so would have to be exposed to ONLY that element first to know what it “feels” like in it’s pure form. It also required an extraordinarily high level of skill and the airbender to invent the technique was banished for it (but still taught it in secret).

———

Could energybenders control spirits / the Avatar in the Avatar state as bloodbenders do people?

I don’t think energybenders could do this but maybe spiritbenders could? But spiritbending still seems like it’s more to placate or anger spirits than control them, but I guess some level of control is needed to placate or anger them in the first place. So maybe, but I don’t think we know enough about spiritbending to know for sure. I do think a very skilled spirit bender could keep the Avatar from entering the Avatar state by suppressing Raava though.

———

I agree, sub-bending is one of my favorite meta topics!

Okay so I have watched like, three Avatar live action episodes so far and here are some quick thoughts on it. (Spoiler alert this is a positive post, negativity DNA unless you want to make me sad)

- Right off the bat it should be noted that my standards for good tv / movies are pretty low these days. Due to the general state of tv / movies, I have been forced to place the bar of acceptability at « I can see what is happening on the screen and the character’s costumes have colours ». NATLA passes both criterias with flying — well, colours.

- Secondly I actually like the way the show handles the character arcs. I feel like people who are complaining just noticed that they changed or toned down some aspects of the character arcs, and were so angry that they straight up stopped paying attention instead of noticing all the new and nuanced things that were added in. Every character is getting an interesting and intriguing storyline, they just don’t look exactly the same as in the original. If that makes you froth at the mouth, may I suggest not watching any adaptation ever maybe? Because huh that’s kind of what adaptations do.

- Unfortunately the pacing is kinda clunky and some of the dialogue is irritating, especially the recurrent thing where a character who would usually prefer to die before speaking about their feelings — or wouldn’t have the emotional maturity to even realize what they are feeling — just turn to the camera and loudly announce « I am feeling this thing! ». However, those two issues are obviously a result of not enough episodes. They had to cram A LOT in eight episodes and that is Netflix’s fault, not the showrunner’s. With eight episodes they basically had the choice between not having the time to properly « show not tell » and therefore having to cut out the character’s more subtle emotional states entirely, or try to work in conversations and monologues in which the characters just straight up say things to each other. So you get Aang telling Appa he’s scared of being the avatar and Zuko actually admitting out loud that he has hope that he might get to go home. It is what it is.

- They clearly ran out of money for wigs tho. Gran-gran’s wig is horrendous and the only thing I cannot forgive.

- Aside from some clunky pacing and gran-gran’s wig tho, everything else has slapped so far. Sokka is PERFECT. Suki was great too. Sad that they didn’t put Sokka in the full Kyoshi warrior getup but it does create an unintentionally hilarious moment where the kyoshi people are all like « um no we don’t have any outsiders in our village, no sir mister fire soldier » and meanwhile this idiot is just standing there all dressed in BLUE

- Aang is also perfect. Zuko is perfect. Katara is doing that thing where you bottle up all your anger inside and never make it anyone else’s problem and just keep smiling and being nice and polite and then you die, which unfortunately seems to make people think she just has no anger? Lmao okay.

- the cgi was hit and miss in the first episode but then got a lot better

- the fight choreographies are ON POINT OMG

- I didn’t remember why I didn’t like Jet (forgor most of his arc in the show) but just remembered I didn’t like him, which made for an interesting ep 3 viewing experience lol

- also Kevin from supernatural?????

- would prefer it if my husband stopped saying « okay Anakin! 🙄 » every time someone gets set on fire but I think that might just be an issue in my household

people be like:

- i want zuko to be the best in everything he deserves it 🥺he's baby,a true hardwoker

-azula doesn't have to be the best at everything😒 there are better than her and that's fine🙂😉

It’s true that Zuko is a hard worker. But not necessarily a smart worker. With his character introduction we see him trying to skip over the basics to do the advanced forms. That’s not how you get good, that’s how you become proficient at being bad. Their is saying that I think applies to Zuko here, “practice makes permanent, not perfect.” I wish we saw Zuko learn to focus on the basics instead of just get magic dragon advice. (Don’t get me wrong Zuko is a good Fire Bender, but he could be better if he practiced better.)

Theirs nothing wrong with people being better with Azula either. But that’s not what they are actually saying. They say Azula should be worse then everyone else. Which is even more annoying because these are the same type of people that say Azula was handed everything and never had to work hard because she was naturally gifted. Being naturally gifted at something doesn’t make you good. The hard work paired with it just means you can get better faster.

Azula is smart. We see that she has great recall of historical facts to the point where Zuko goes to her for that kind of help. She was able to plot a coup in a few days to take down Ba Sing Se. That shows an insane amount of intelligence. She also planned the defense on the Day of Black Sun that saw the fire nation’s strongest adversaries captured.

Azula is a great fighter and her firebending is only matched by Ozai and Iroh, people who have decades more experience and training then her. She has mastered her flames to the point where the combustion is so clean that they burn blue. She has the ability to use jet propulsion to fly, a feat we only saw others do during Sozin’s Comet. Azula is by far a superior bender to Zuko. But in terms of skill and power is equivalent to Toph and Katara.

But Azula is not the best at everything. She is terrible at socializing and maintaining healthy relationship. She enjoys teasing her brother but seems to not know when to stop. She doesn’t know how to use others to help her with her emotions. While she is smart she doesn’t have the creativity of Sokka (do you know how hard it is to come up with new and viable ideas). The Kyoshi Warriors are by far better team fighters then the Dangerous Ladies and the Gaang who generally split up in fights and don’t fight together against a common target.

Azula hatches a plan to set you up with the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors

Part one here (but this post is kind of seperate and you can read this imagine without really knowing what happened in part one)

Azula’s POV

Azula caught Katara by her locker just before school had started. She was apparently too quiet and Katara jumped when she turned to find Azula right beside her. “Jesus Azula!” she gasped grabbing her locker “don’t sneak up on people!”. “I wasn’t, I made my approach obvious to anyone with a smidge of self-awareness...”. Katara glared and Azula remembered why she was here and sighed “but that’s not important....what is, is that I know someone who likes a very close friend of yours and I think we should set them up”. Katara frowned “why on earth would I do that?”. “Because I know they’d make an amazing couple and my friend could make yours very happy, so what do you say?”. Katara paused “who is it?”. Azula smirked “not so fast, you have to agree to help me before i divulge that information”. Katara raised an eyebrow and then thought “hmmm well you only have 3 friends, one is dating your brother, the second is dating you so that leaves y/n, it’s her isn’t it?”. Azula cursed her school for only having 3 people she didn’t dislike and sighed “fine yes but you don’t know which of your friends y/n likes!”. “Well it’s not me Zuko, Aang or Toph. So that leaves Sokka and Suki but as Sokka’s my brother you wouldn’t have described him as a close friend so I bet it’s Suki”. “Ow so when we’re in class you can work out basic math without asking a hundred dumb questions but now you’re a genius?” Azula asked. “I worked it out?” Katara smiled happily “wow y/n likes Suki....now you mention it y/n does always clean up your messes with her....I see it”. “Great, so how will you help me set them up?” Azula asked. 

Your POV

You showed up at school the next day and confidently walked up the path. Mai was stood outside with Zuko and spotted you falling in step with you. “Ready for the worst day of your life?” Mai asked. “Why has Zuko got his ponytail haircut again?” you shot back and Zuko touched his hair “hey!”. “That was a bad day for us all” you nodded solemnly and Mai hit your arm “no, because today is the day we set you up with Suki”. “Ow yeah the kyoshi warrior right?” you asked and Mai rolled her eyes “you can pretend all you want but we know you like her”. You smirked “if you say so” and ran straight into Suki herself. You’d been smirking at Mai and hadn’t noticed Suki was walking right towards you. You were horrified how harshly you knocked into her and worried you might’ve hurt her. “Are you okay?” you cried “I’m so sorry I wasn’t looking where I was going” you explained but Suki just smiled shaking it off “it’s fine, I probably should’ve moved out of the way in your defence”. Suki smiled at you and you were momentarily sidetracked by how green her eyes were. She was wearing a dark green t-shirt too which made them pop even more and you struggled to not stare at them as they seemed to glow. “No it’s all my fault” you replied and noticed Azula stood behind Suki watching you with a smirk. Mai and Zuko joined her both smiling too and you realised this was a set-up. Well they’d started early but it’d take a lot more than a well-timed collision to make you confess anything. “Well i best be going....” you said turning your attention back to Suki see you around”. You stepped away from Suki, smirking that Azula’s first hurdle had been so easy when Suki caught your arm making you jump. “Actually, I was hoping to speak to you?”. “Me?” you asked confused and you saw Katara stood beside Azula and grew worried. If Azula had recruited Suki’s own friends....this could be challenging. “Yeah but I can catch you later if you’re busy?”. “No it’s fine, let’s just go somewhere quieter” you said still determined to take charge of the situation. “Sure” Suki nodded “come on I know a place” and she tugged your arm. You glanced down at her hand around your wrist and looked away quickly. Suki pulled you past Azula and her smirk told you she’d picked up on all the subtle tells you’d been hoping she’d missed. You glared back at Azula and followed Suki down the hall. She stopped at an empty classroom and took you inside before closing the door. She perched on a desk and turned to face you. You tried not to react or look at her and stared around the room “so...you wanted to speak to me?” you asked and Suki nodded “Azula and Katara told me all about your...situation and obviously i was interested”. You paused confused, was it that simple? Azula just told Suki you liked her and she’d ask you out? You didn’t trust luck or Azula’s morality that much so paused “what exactly did they tell you?”. “Well, all about how you’re failing your volunteer requirement and obviously as student president that worries me greatly! You’re one of the school’s top students, to have you not graduate just because you didn’t get your volunteering hours...”. You nodded your head and kept your expression serious but really you wanted to laugh. This had been Azula’s big show? To get Suki to compliment you a bit? She was going to have to try harder.

“Yeah I know I really should get it sorted before it’s too late, I promise I’ll sign up for the next volunteering placement” you smiled “you have my word”. Suki smiled “that’s great to hear because I actually have an idea for one!”. Your smile fell away “you do?” you had a bad feeling about this...

“Yeah, why don’t you temporarily join the Kyoshi Warriors? It counts as volunteering and I can have you start this afternoon after school”. 

There it was, that was Azula’s plan. 

You managed not to wince and just nodded “wow really that soon? Is there no meeting you guys have to hold to decide if I can join...?”. “Well we do if it’s a permanent member but if I explain to the girls that you need your hours i’m sure they’ll understand”. Azula may be smart but she very much underestimated what you’d do to get out of an awkward situation. To avoid being embarrassed and teased by your friends for how you acted around Suki, you could just refuse her offer. Simple.

You sighed and looked up Suki with a frown “Suki this is really nice of you and I appreciate the offer but I can’t take the role”. Suki’s smile faded and she paused “ow why not?”. You winced in apprehension of what you were about to say but said it anyway. “It’s the whole warrior thing, for one thing no Fire Nation employer will touch me with that as my volunteering. Not to mention my parents wouldn’t like me associating with an earth kingdom group and....it’s just not my kind of thing” you shrugged “I hope you understand”. Throughout your speech Suki’s expression drooped more and more and now she stared at the floor her friendly composure gone “yeah I...didn’t even think of that...but I get it, you want to stick to the fire nation... sorry I didn’t mean to imply anything or insult you. I’ll look for anything more appropriate”. Suki’s sad tone was like a knife in your chest and you didn’t trust yourself to do anything other than nod. You didn’t mind risking Azula’s wrath or putting yourself in precarious situations for a prank but making someone feel sad....that bothered you. “i’ll just go now” Suki said trying to offer you a smile but it was clear she was actually a bit upset “sorry again for bothering you...”. Suki walked away and you sighed openly, you drummed your fingertips on the table before groaning loudly. “Suki!” you called and rushed after her. You caught Suki halfway down the hallway and she looked surprised “yeah?”. “Forget everything I said, I want to role”. “You do?” she asked and you nodded your head “I didn’t mean all that I said about the warriors I lied, of course they’re an amazing group to be a part of”. Suki frowned “so why did you say all that stuff?”. You frowned, you hadn’t thought that far ahead....” I was embarrassed” you said suddenly. “My credits totally slipped my mind and you’re student body present, I guess I just didn’t want you seeing me so caught off guard and so I felt awkward accepting your help”. “Why would it be embarrassing for me to see you that way”? Suki asked curiously and you sighed. Why couldn’t she just believe your lie? “Because you’re...I don’t know impressive, I know we have very different friends but I’ve always admired you and didn’t want you thinking bad of me”. Suki smiled slightly “wow I didn’t think you care what anyone thought of you”. “I don’t...usually” you clarified and Suki looked down a blush on her cheeks. You winced inwardly and tried to direct this away from showering Suki with compliments which seemed to be the only thing you were capable of doing around her. “So if you’re still willing to help me, I’d be very grateful”. “Of course!” Suki cried “I’ll meet you after school and take you through your first shift?”. You nodded your head “sounds great” and Suki smiled “cool” and walked away with a small wave. You sighed leaning your head back against the wall the second she was gone. You’d underestimated how much you liked Suki. 

All-day Azula, Mai, Ty lee and even Zuko constantly talked about Suki. Azula recounted your encounter with her so much and added so many additional false details (you did not grab Suki’s waist to steady her or her hand when you walked away) that you actually forgot what did happen. You acted like it didn’t bother you, actually joining in some of the jokes sarcastically but it did make you very anxious for your meeting with Suki after school. When the bell rang you rushed to your assigned meeting place hoping to get there before Azula and the others so they couldn’t follow you. Suki was one of the first people out and she spotted you straight away “wow you’re punctual, a very fine quality in a new recruit” she smiled and you nodded “yeah good first impression and all that, let’s go!”. Suki nodded and started leading you away from the school. You constantly watched for any sign of Azula and the others and only relaxed when you were far enough from their usual route to be safe. “You expecting someone to join us?” Suki asked and you paused. You forgot she was a highly trained warrior, of course she’d notice you scoping out the place. “No, just thought I saw someone I knew...” you lied “so where are we heading”. “The park” Suki said “the girls and I always train there”. You paused, you were aware the Kyoshi Warriors trained in the park but you thought Suki would take you somewhere quieter to learn the specifics first. If you knew where the warriors trained then Azula and the others...you rounded the corner for the park and already waiting was Azula, Mai, Ty lee and Zuko. 

The training to be a Kyoshi Warrior was intense. You weren’t sure what you’d been expecting but it wasn’t to get your ass kicked by Suki while she held a fan. As if sensing this Suki held a hand out to you helping you up off the floor “is this too much for the first session? I have a habit of being pretty intense”. You shook your head massaging your bruised arms “nope this is fine, I’m just not used to fighting in this way that’s all”. “Well you’re a natural firebender so you should pick this up quickly do, don’t worry take a water break and we’ll try again”. You nodded and walked over to your bags. You spotted Azula making her way over and sighed. “So how are you enjoying your date?” Azula asked sinking down beside you and you glared “it’d be less awkward if we didn’t have an audience....”. Throughout the whole thing your friends had been watching you and it threw off your concentration terribly. “Aw well too bad” Azula smiled sweetly “this is payback after all”. You sighed as she laughed and Suki called to you “you ready for another round y/n?”. “Coming” you called before glaring at Azula “if you don’t get out of here right now you’re all dead!”. Azula just smiled “make me” and sauntered away. 

You and Suki trained for 2 hours and you actually got better as time went on. Although part of you thought that was because Azula and the others eventually got bored. Azula, Ty lee and Mai left about an hour in and while the park was full with other people (Zuko and his friends for one) they didn’t bother you. You could focus on Suki better and actually listen to what she was saying rather than trying not to blush. So when Suki called an end to training you were pleased you could actually somewhat hold your own against the warrior and Suki agreed. “You did really well towards the end” she smiled as you tugged your bag over your shoulder. You smiled “thanks...only took me 2 hours”. Suki laughed but shook her head “honestly that’s totally normal so don’t beat yourself up about it. I still think you’re an impressive firebender”. Your heart skipped and you went to enquire what Suki meant when someone called her name. “Hey Suki are you done with training now?” Sokka called. “Yeah why?”. “Well we’re all heading to Zuko’s and thought you could come” Katara smiled sweetly. “Ow are you sure...” Suki asked “I wouldn’t want to impose”. Zuko immediately assured her it wouldn’t be a problem and smiled “you should come, both of you” he said turning his gaze to you with a wide smirk. You went to say no when Suki grinned “fine we’d love to! we’ll follow you”. “Suki I have work I should be getting on with...” you frowned and Suki shot you a smile “after Azula you are the smartest person in the whole school, I think you can take one night off. Plus your friends will be there too! Why wouldn’t you want to go?”. “Funny you should mention them” you replied and Suki frowned “what?”. “Nothing” you sighed “okay let’s go”. 

The minute you walked in you just knew Azula and Katara had told everyone in the room what the mission was. Everyone’s eyes shot to you and Suko. Their looks range from faint amusement to outright devious joy. You sighed rolling your eyes but Suki seemed oblivious waving to everyone. “Hey everyone” she called and their smiles grew. “Hey Suki and...Y/n?” Sokka said pointedly “you two are becoming inseparable”. You glared at Sokka but Suki just smiled “Y/n’s joining the Kyoshi warriors for a while so I was putting her through basic training”. “Is that what you were doing?” Azula asked “it looked like y/n was just getting her ass kicked in a public park”. The others laughed but Suki frowned “y/n performed very well actually, she’s never fought in this style before and I think she did excellently”. You stared at Suki willing your face not to break into a blush and looked away awkwardly. Azula grinned and you felt everyones’ eyes on you. “Thanks, you’re a good teacher...” you said awkwardly “want a drink?”. Suki nodded and you led her away from the group  

You grabbed a drink from Zuko’s fridge and led Suki out onto the balcony. You worked your way around the room effortlessly and Suki smiled as you used a statue to open your drink before doing the same for hers. “I take it you’ve been here a lot then?”. You nodded “I’ve know Azula and Zuko since we were kids so I practically grew up here. I can’t tell you the amount of official business I’ve walked into or the all stuff I’ve broken in this place...speaking of” and you wiped away the marks from the statue you just used to open your bottle. Suki laughed “no wonder I don’t see you around much, you’re here wrecking important meetings and destroying statues”. You nodded but something Suki said stuck with you “why have you been looking for me around?”. Suki looked down a small blush on her cheeks and you smiled at her reaction. “Possibly” Suki shrugged “I’m sure you’re aware you’re sort of an enigma, the rich Fire Nation prodigy, top of every class and charismatic enough to talk the earth king out of his kingdom”. “That’s why you say about me?” you asked moving closer and Suki blushed “well...yeah everyone...me...”. You knew your friends were all keeping tabs on you but you had no idea you could have this effect on Suki and you liked it. “Well it’s very flattering to hear coming from the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors herself, I thought I was impressed with you before today but now I’ve seen you train...I’ll be starting some rumours about you first thing tomorrow” you grinned and Suki smiled “good or bad?”. “A bit of both but the good kind of bad” you teased and Suki looked up at you “I’ll be very intrigued to hear them”. You and Suki were stood rather close to one another and she looked so beautiful. In any other situation you would’ve just moved closer and kissed her, but your damn pride reminded you if you did Azula won. You were contemplating what you wanted more, to kiss Suki or to win and Suki noticed the internal struggle “what’s wrong?” she asked. You sighed “it’s nothing, just a complicated problem I have. I won’t bore you with it”. “Who says I’ll get bored? Try me” Suki smiled and you felt like you were melting. Luckily before you could spill everything Sokka appeared. “Suki!” he called “there you are! What are you going hiding in the corner with y/n?”. You stepped away from Suki and saw the blush on her cheeks. “Nothing...” Suki replied and Sokka smirked “well if it’s nothing can I steal you away for a second?”. Sokka’s tone made it obvious what he thought was going on and you went to correct him when he turned to you.  “Don’t worry you’ll be back together again in note time” he winked and pulled Suki away lightly “you won’t even have time to miss her...much”. 

You rolled your eyes and fanned your cheeks which you were sure were very red. “It’s no use y/n, you’ve been blushing constantly since you walked in” a voice teased and you turned to find the four people you used to call your friends. “You are all insufferable! I’m blushing because you’re forcing me and Suki together like cattle!”. “We finally got to her” Mai said smugly, pleased with your outburst. The others laughed and Azula raised an eyebrow “also if you’re hating it so much why was there a smile on your face every second you were together?”. Ty lee nodded “not to mention how close you were standing”. You rolled your eyes “okay so Suki is hot, you know I like hot girls but that doesn’t mean anything, how many hot girls have I flirted with?”. “How long do you have?” Mai asked and the others all laughed. “And how many have lasted more than a month?” you asked. Silence. “Exactly” you said nodding your head “this is nothing new, you have nothing over me”. Azula smiled “you can try and convince us all you want y/n but we know this one is different and I can prove it”. “How?” you asked and Azula smiled “Sokka’s telling her right now that Haru asked her out”. You blinked “so? Suki probably doesn’t even like him”. Azula shrugged “maybe...but they’re both strong earth kingdom kids with a lot in common, are you willing to take that chance when she clearly likes you back? Just admit you were wrong and go get your girl”. You shook your head “nice try but you failed” and you walked away. 

You helped yourself to some of the amazing food that Azula and Zuko’s house always had and Ty lee came to stand beside you “I think you should tell Suki”. “Ty, I know what you’re trying to do and you can tell your girlfriend it’s not working”. “Azula didn’t send me, I have my own mind you know?”. You nodded “yeah of course...sorry to imply anything different”. “It’s fine but y/n you’re being childish, you like Suki and she likes you! Why not just tell her before she starts something with Haru”. You smirked “because they’re calling my bluff. Even if Suki says yes to the date then they’ve got to convince Haru to go on it and pretend he asked her out! It’s all a big gamble meant to force me to act but I see straight through their lies”. “Y/n it’s not a lie, Haru really asked Suki out”. You paused “what?”. Ty lee nodded “when they told her friends about you Sokka told Haru who asked him to ask Suki out before you could. Azula managed to stall Sokka this long but she can’t do it forever and it’s 100% real”. You swallowed “you’re being serious?”. Ty lee nodded “yes! Once Azula gives Sokka the signal...” she trailed off as Azula made a gesture to Sokka who nodded. “How about we go outside?” he asked Suki “I have something to tell you”. “Y/n!” Ty lee said and your breath increased. You couldn’t decide what to do but if you didn’t act soon the choice would no longer be yours. You watched Sokka lead Suki away from the group and sighed “screw it”. You placed your drink down on the table and followed them. 

You got to them a few seconds later and quickly snuck up on them. You heard Sokka mention Haru and jumped in “hey Suki I really need to talk to you”. She and Sokka jumped and Suki paused assessing how panicked you looked. “Sure just one sec Sokka said he needs to tell me something important”. You panicked and grabbed her arm “Suki it can’t wait please can we talk now?”. Suki paused clearly confused but nodded “sure” and let you lead her away from the house. Sokka went to protest but Suki frowned “sorry Sokka just give me five minutes” and walked away with you. “So what’s so urgent?” Suki asked. You paused thinking of how to say it and Suki laughed “it was so important you forgot?”. “No I didn’t forget I’m just wondering how to phrase it”. Suki paused “why? Is it something serious?”. You nodded and Suki frowned “in my experience it’s best just to blurt it out”. You shrugged, never one to be cautious and turned to her “In that case, would you like to go out with me?”. Suki blinked “go out with you...as in a date?”. You nodded “I like you Suki, as more than a friend and i’d really like to date you”. Suki blinked “seriously?”. You nodded “that’s why I’ve been odd around you recently, my friends found and were working with yours to embarrass me, that’s what all that volunteering and stuff in the park was...they were messing with me”. “Those sneaks!” Suki cried “Katara too?”. “All of them” you nodded. “I will totally kill them later! Wow I had no idea” Suki said thoughtfully “you’re good at keeping it cool”. You smiled “thanks, so...am I totally kicked after the Kyoshi Warrios after one day for asking out the leader?”. Suki laughed “I wouldn’t say so no...but we’ll have to wait for your volunteering to finish before we can go on that date”. You looked up at her “so you’d like to go out with me?”. Suki nodded “I may or may not have had a thing for you for a while...ever since Azula knocked my food out of my hands that one time and you brought me over a new one. You were always so confident and witty...while also being super kind and smooth, the perfect combination”. You grinned “that is definitely an apt definition of me”. “I think so” Suki agreed stepping closer to you “although you seem more nervous than I’ve ever seen you”. Your blush worsened and Suki smiled “is that because of me?”. “Take a guess” you replied and Suki laughed. “So I guess I’ll just make things worse if I kiss you now huh?”. You looked back up at Suki, your confidence returning and shrugged “there’s only one way to know for sure”. Suki rolled her eyes and leant in to kiss you.

You and Suki walked back inside hand in hand and dealt with the rush of questions and congratulations. Suki got crowded by her friends and Azula siddled up next to you. Of course she was very smug “you’re welcome” she smiled and you rolled your eyes “you did nothing, it was all Sokka”. “Ow really?” Azula asked “you don’t think I told Katara, knowing she’d tell Sokka who was friends with Haru, who I knew liked Suki? I know everything y/n, I planned this all”. You smirked “you’re scary sometimes”. “Thank you” Azula bowed and you laughed. “Well regardless our little fight worked out pretty well”. Azula nodded “we both got the girl”. You looked over to where Suki was speaking with Ty lee and nodded before a thought hit you “you don’t think they’ll get the horrible idea to do a...”. “...Double date?” Azula finished “God I hope not”. As the two talked excitedly about something you got a sinking feeling Azula wasn’t going to be happy but seeing Suki smile made you forget all that. The happiness you felt having Suki return your feelings gave you a suspicion you’d do anything to see her smile at you like that again. As if sensing your thoughts Suki looked over and caught your eye. She smiled brightly at you and you smiled back, heart pounding. You were well and truly smitten, the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors was just that good. 

 ___

I really wanna write more Suki but I have the same problem with her as I do, there’s just not enough content of them without it revolving around their boyfriends!!!!

However I am getting the Suki comic for christmas so hopefully that’ll give me more ideas

this is more of a ramble then an ask but I was wondering how u felt about how it’s set up in atla that the world is intristically all connected together and that the ideas of bending aren’t political in nature and they’re taught by the animals in the world but even tho the show talks about how they’re all the same and stuff it never seems to really expand on his ideas and the perfect world seems to just be the four nations living together in harmony without really questioning the systems of having specific elements to nations?

this is a really good question because i've discussed how much i appreciate the way atla illustrates how nationalism is heightened and borders are reified during wartime (perhaps almost paradoxically, considering how colonialism reshapes and removes previous borders) and how resisting that ideology through uniting the nations and dispelling the myth that they are ontologically discrete is crucial to ending the war.... but then lok kind of drops the ball on exploring how that would restructure a postwar world.

i will say that i like how the novels, which explore the world of avatars past, explore geopolitics in a way that challenges the claim that "long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony." we see that in yangchen's time, there is more cross cultural exchange in terms of (im)migration, but there are also sanctions placed on the water tribes and fire nation by the earth king as punishment for supporting an ultimately failed coup. we later see in kyoshi's time how despite there being an alliance across the four nations, there is political unrest within each nation, further problematizing the notion that if the four dominant cultures are internationally allied, intranational peace must also follow.

with lok, they had the chance to imagine a world in which the dominant imperialist power is successfully dismantled, and what that kind of world would look like 70 years after the fact, but the liberal imagination is, by definition, extremely limited, so we ended up with. well. you know. intermingling families without exploring the ramifications of how various politicized traits (in this world, bending even more so than physical appearance) would affect different members (firebending being celebrated as a tool for imperialist supremacy vs earthbending being stigmatized, for example)... a city built on colonial violence, expected to be a melting pot but its oppressive origins are only ever addressed by the fascist villain... even the red lotus, an anarchist terrorist organization, dress according to the international color code.

and don't get me started on the red lotus lmao. they basically have the same ideology as atla's heroes except we're expected to believe that they're unhinged and irrational because they randomly decided that it was in their best interest to kill a teenage girl and held the fragile remnants of a genocided people hostage to do so. zaheer's philosophy is an extremely warped and reductive view of anarchism, but it's also the closest viewpoint anyone holds to the central ideological conceit of atla, which is actually crazy if you think about it.

atla establishes that despite ostensibly insurmountable cultural differences, the world is fundamentally interconnected, and understanding that relationality across humanity as well as the nonhuman world is crucial to achieving balance. lok explores what a world without borders and unjust hierarchies would mean, but comes to some flawed and downright bizarre conclusions. national borders are rearranged but nonetheless affirmed, however the border between the spirit and material realms is dissolved. but also lok declares that actually the best way to fix an unjust hierarchy is just to put "good people" at the top of them and hope that they continue to be nice even once they're given absolute power.

i do personally think that if lok had better explored the conflict between the red lotus (anarchy) and the white lotus (liberalism) as the central ideological clash across the entire show, instead of merely presenting an extremely problematic and illogical liberal value system as, somehow, the only viable method, despite its myriad noticeable flaws from the very first episode, with the smug yet blatantly fallacious assumption that any other framework is inherently inferior, the setting being a neocolonial neoliberal "melting pot" would have made much more sense and worked far better overall. i would still have issues with how they handled the water tribes, the air nomads, the (lack of) fire nation, the characterization, etc etc. but it would have made for a far stronger central plot, instead of what ultimately appears to be a set of scattered, unthorough explorations of various status-quo-challenging ideologies that korra must fight with her liberal arsenal of cops and capitalists. (but i'm realizing now that a scathing critique of the ideological underpinnings of lok may not actually have been what you were looking for in my response. so i'll stop, for now.)

ultimately, i think it's impossible to truly critique atla's approach to this philosophical quandary as a standalone work, since the show ends with the war, and thus the postwar decolonial imagination cannot be truly explored. that is why i am obligated to turn to lok if i want to criticize this idea, but i also feel like critiquing lok is pretty futile at this point, considering i've done so so many times on this blog by this point that i don't think i have anything more to add on to my already expansive laundry list of complaints. but one day i'll write a thorough outline for my vision of a postwar atla. at which point i will explore the secretly radical ideas presented in atla with far more care and nuance than those spineless libs ever could.

It’s time that we had a real conversation about Aang...

For the main character of a television series, Aang somehow almost always finds himself under-rated and dismissed in fans’ posts. You see all these posts and, when they do reference him, it’s usually accompanied by the phrases “immature” and “12-year-old boy.” I mean honestly, in some ATLA fans posts, it seems as if Aang’s name is almost synonymous with the word immaturity--and it’s been that way for years. I’ve always wondered why people discredited him. Was it because they saw his age and immediately ruled him out? Is it an excuse for Katara and Aang to have never happened? Was calling him the most immature character a way to bring up their favorite characters? Or did they simply get conditioned to think Aang was immature because everyone just... said he was? Well, I think Aang’s the most mature character (from start to finish) on the show, and Imma tell you why. 

I think that Book 1 Aang is the Aang that everyone has stuck in their head. We get introduced to Aang in a strange way: he’s a boy frozen in an iceberg, and the first thing he asks is to go penguin sledding. Then he boldly explores a fire navy ship after being told it might not be a great idea. This kid’s kinda stupid, we think. Why does he care about penguin sledding? Why does he explore something he is told not to? Then he stops at Kyoshi Island to ride the Unagi, then he stops at Omashu to ride the delivery service, and then he lets the gang stop at other locations—having mini adventures—without worrying about learning waterbending on any sort of timeline. Why does he choose to explore all these different places at first rather than master the four elements? Doesn’t he even care about being the Avatar? Ah... that’s right. He’s only 12. 

Except surmising his entire maturity (or lack thereof) to the fact that he stops for these adventures means that you are ignoring one glaring detail of the show: Airbender and nomad culture. Aang asking Katara to go penguin sledding instead of what year it was and taking his friends to all those random stops in B1 so that he can explore can not be chalked up to immaturity. Because then you are ignoring an entire culture. We don’t get to see a lot of airbenders, and I think that plays into the problem, but from what we do know, we learn that a critical part of their culture is that they travel. A lot. And experience different cultures. A lot. Think about all the different places he’s referenced going to 100 years ago in the series. Then think about all the friends he’s talked about having in these obscure places—and it always sounded like he visited them more than once. Traveling, experiencing different cities, and meeting new people was a part of him and a part of his culture. He wasn’t being a 12-year-old when he stopped to ride the Unagi or the delivery shoots in Omashu, he was being an air nomad

On a similar note, one of Aang’s most notable traits is saying, “Hey, check this out,” excitedly while doing some air bending trick that seems juvenile--like spinning marbles around or doing an air scooter.  People look at him doing this and his previously mentioned traits and go, “Oh, what a kid.” But here’s the thing: we can’t roll our eyes at his persistent need to show people marbles floating in the air or his air scooter. In the episode “Southern Air Temple,” we see Monk Gyatso—an extremely old, wise air bender—throwing cakes on other monks’ heads, and then we’re told throughout the series that Airbenders were known for their playful nature. Airbenders didn’t use their bending the same way other benders do. For example, Waterbenders might show off their skills by creating a giant wave and being like, “Look how cool!” (See: Katara, like every time she learns a new move.) We know Airbenders have some pretty powerful moves--we’ve seen the tornado Aang created, the air body imprint of Aang that slammed Zuko back--but they don’t show off those moves because they’re so combative and not so fun. They show off the good-natured side of air bending (ex: Gyasto’s staff surfing when he was a child).  So those marble/air scooter tricks can’t be watered down to 12-year-old immaturity. Because he’s not being a kid when he does those things, he’s being an Airbender. People also tend to look over the fact that he is a survivor of a genocide. You need to keep in mind that he is a living relic and the only example left of what his race was. So even later in the series when he continues to show people those tricks, he’s showing them not just for fun, but to keep his culture alive. And what do you think he’s going to show them: a tornado with random objects flying around in it or two marbles flying in his hands? Which is a better representation of Airbender culture?

Also, do not forget that Aang earned his arrows. Airbenders are not just regular benders; they are known for being especially enlightened. You don’t just need to be a master at airbending to get your arrows—you also need to be a master at their culture. Aang was an enlightened boi. Look at all the speeches that he gave as the series continued. He didn’t just magically become wise in the course of a few months because he had to fight the Firelord, he just tapped into what was always there and never showed. The maturity was always there, and the receipts are in the arrows. 

So, I’ve gone over why he’s not as immature as everyone thinks, but why do I think he’s the most mature on the show? It’s because his emotional maturity is freaking through the roof. He’s part of a genocide, his culture is mocked, the few things—his clothing and glider—that he had left from his home were completely destroyed, and he had to do something that severely went against what he believes in. And he almost never loses his shit. In fact, we only ever see him get actually upset (we’re not counting the Avatar state cause that’s a whole different thing) 3 times in the series: when he was telling Katara about how the monks wanted to take him away from Gyatso, the episode when Appa was stolen, and when he was explaining that no one understands the position he is in (in terms of killing Ozai). Think about how much we saw everyone else freak out over the course of the show? About even smaller things.

Katara and Zuko are generally accepted as the two most mature characters of the series. But why? Zuko is continuously snapping at everyone, and, yes, he matured. But he is not completely there yet. He still somewhat believes in revenge (See: Southern Raiders), and it’s only at the last episode of the series that he understands violence is not the answer. And Katara? She acts very mature towards everyone else, but when it comes to her own emotions? She’s a whole basket full of mess. (See: Southern Raiders, again. Or anytime she uses anger as her way to show she’s “passionate.”) A good way to showcase the difference between Aang and these two is realizing that all of them lost a parent from the war and analyzing at how they handled it. (For Zuko let’s focus on the idea that he never really had a father) Katara lost her mother, Zuko his father, and Aang his father, Gyatso. Throughout the series, losing their parent was a huge topic point for both Katara and Zuko so much so that it was as if they thought no one else had ever suffered. (Katara, we see you telling Sokka that he didn’t love your mom the same). Aang, however, acknowledges his pain, tells stories of Gyatso and uses him as an example of what he wants to live up to— eventually coming full circle at the end wearing Gyatso’s beads and an identical outfit. I can’t imagine a more mature way to handle what happened than that.

Basically, what I’m trying to say is, maturity isn’t based on how you have fun, it’s based on how you react to hard situations. And nobody, nobody reacted better in those situations than Aang. So if you watched Avatar and thought it was a story about a young boy maturing, then you misjudged. It wasn’t a story about an immature boy growing up. It was a story of an Airbender becoming an avatar. 

Suki’s Name

Okay, I wanna talk about Suki’s name, because it’s a pretty popular theory that her name means either “like/love” as in the Japanese word 好き (suki) or “moon” as in the Japanese word 月 (tsuki) and I’ve never really liked either of these interpretations. 

I’m gonna get a bit into the weeds with readings of Japanese kanji and the nuances of Japanese pronunciation as I explain why, so strap in~! (And shout out to my Japanese fluent husband who patiently taught me all this stuff and then helped find me a way to write Suki’s name that I think is super cool, which I’ll share at the end. 😉)

A bit of background on Japanese kanji and Japanese names

Alright, so kanji, right? Kanji is one of the three main elements of writing in Japan, and was adopted from Chinese. As such, Japanese kanji generally have multiple readings, or pronunciations. You’ll usually have at least one Chinese-derived reading, as well as at least one reading of Japanese origin. 

You can also have different kanji that have the same reading - so multiple ways of writing the same syllable. 

Because of this, people can get pretty creative with how they write names in Japanese. If I like the way a certain name sounds, for example, I can pick which kanji I want to write it with based on what meaning I’d like to attribute to that name. 

(I touched on this a little bit in my post about how I came up with the names for my Kyoshi Warrior OCs. For example, the name “Ran” can be written several ways, and I debated between using 蘭 (orchid) and  乱 (war, rebellion) because I liked both meanings!)

Thanks for the language lesson, Myarg, but what does this have to do with 好き and 月?

A couple things, actually, but I want to get into a pronunciation pet peeve first (yay!)... 

Tsuki vs Suki

These words aren’t pronounced the same way.

I mean, yeah, they’re similar. They rhyme. But the idea that they’re interchangeable is an idea that only works if you’re not familiar with the language. 

In the word “like”, 好き (suki), the “u” sound is so muted on the first syllable it’s basically negligible, so that the word in practice typically sounds like “s’ki.”

月 (tsuki), the word “moon,” is pronounced with a distinct “ts” at the beginning, and it has the same so-short-it’s-almost-not-there vowel sound in the first syllable as 好き.

Neither of these words is pronounced the way we pronounce Suki’s name, with a clear, emphasized “oo” at the beginning. But if we were going to pick between 好き and 月 for the closest Japanese pronunciation of the name “Suki” it would have to be 好き (”like”) because "tsu” vs. “su” to a Japanese speaker would be an obvious difference.

Okay, so 月 doesn’t work that well, but why not 好き?

I have a couple objections to 好き. 

First is that I find this interpretation of Suki’s name to be really simplistic. There are many ways to write both “su” and “ki,” and many ways to combine them in the name “Suki,” so there’s no reason to limit ourselves to the most common result you’ll get if you Google the word “suki.” 

The second is that, according to my husband, 好き is not believable as a name. It would be much more common to find two kanji, one for “su” and one for “ki”, rather than to use  好き (which is a combination of kanji for the first syllable and hiragana for the second).

Not only that, but the primary writing system in ATLA seems to be (what we know of as) Chinese. Whenever we see something written, even on Kyoshi Island, we see no evidence of hiragana. So, that’s both in our world and in the ATLA world that 好き would be an unlikely way to write Suki’s name.

Alright you naysayer - what do you suggest instead?

Well, my husband and I found a way to write “Suki” that we both thought was super cool. It’s this:

清輝

The first character 清 means purity, purification, that sort of thing; and the second character 輝 means shine, glow, sparkle, radiate, etc. 

But the really cool part? 

That first character 清? One of the more common readings for this character is “kiyoshi.”

Yes, “ki-yo-shi” as in the way everyone pronounces “Kyoshi” in the show.

And what’s even cooler? In the early 1900s there was a Japanese author named Kyoshi Takahama (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoshi_Takahama), for whom “Kyoshi” was actually a pen name. His real name? Was Kiyoshi, written 清 (the same character I used for the first syllable of Suki’s name above). The way he wrote “Kyoshi,” though, was 虚子, which is one of the two ways “Kyoshi” is written in ATLA. 

So 清 can be pronounced “su” as in “Suki” or “kiyoshi” as in “Kiyoshi Takahama,” who went by the name 虚子, which is the same “Kyoshi” as “Kyoshi Island.”

Neat, huh? 

i heard some people don’t know about the Taang/Kummi theory

So this was originally supposed to be a response to an ask I had gotten about this ATLA theory, but because Read More links on Tumblr asks seem to break once you edit them, I’m reposting so that people can actually see the post lol 

For anyone who wasn’t a part of the Toph x Aang LiveJournal fandom in the early 2000s, buckle up, because this bugged me out as a 13 year old. 

Remember the end of “The Swamp” (Book 2, Episode 4)? We find out the swamp isn’t haunted, Huu was just protecting it the whole time, and then he explains to Katara, Sokka, and Aang why the swamp is so mystical and sacred.

The swamp is just one big banyan grove tree that’s grown out over miles and miles. All the branches and trees they see are connected because they’re one big breathing organism. And that extends to life as well. We’re all living beings. We all share the same roots. We all are from the same tree, even if we don’t act like it. Everything is connected! Cool stuff.

But when Katara asks what her seeing her mother and what Sokka seeing Yue meant, Huu explains that “in the swamp, we see visions of people we lost, people we’ve loved, folks we think are gone, but the swamp tells us they’re not. We’re still connected to them. Time is an illusion, and so is death.” So Katara never really lost her mother and Sokka never really lost Yue because the connections we make in life transcend death and time. They’re not gone. They’re still a part of us. The swamp reminds us of this.

Now, to keep in theme with this, we probably would’ve expected Aang to also see visions of people he’s lost and loved before (Gyatso, the other Airbenders, his culture, etc.)

But for some reason, Aang sees...Toph. Someone he doesn’t know.

Huu doesn’t really give Aang an explanation for this, he sort of just lets Aang figure it out for himself. And what we’re left is “okay well if time is an illusion and this isn’t someone I’ve made a connection with yet, it’s someone I will make a connection with.” We’re made to accept that as viewers, but why was Aang’s vision so different? Was it really just to lead him in the direction of his Earthbending Master so that he can continue on with his destiny?

Or was it because, unbeknownst to Aang, Toph actually was someone that he had loved and lost before? Just not in this life. In another life. A past life. When he wasn’t Aang, but rather Avatar Kuruk, the Southern Water Tribe Avatar that came before Avatar Kyoshi.

✨Basically the theory is that Toph is one of the reincarnations of Ummi, the southern water tribe woman that fell in love with Avatar Kuruk and had her face tragically stolen by Koh, the Face Stealer.✨

Stay with me, because it gets way deeper.

Who are Kuruk and Ummi you ask?

We formally meet Kuruk during “Sozin’s Comet Part 2: The Old Masters” (Book 3, Episode 19) when Aang is appealing to his past lives for wisdom with regard to what to do with Ozai. Kuruk was a “go with the flow” (lmao) Avatar and sort of just let things play out and it seemed to work for him. He met a girl named Ummi, they fell in love, they were gonna get married, cool.  

According to the comic books, Koh I guess was kinda off-put by Kuruk’s arrogance? So as punishment this spirit straight up abducts Ummi on their wedding night and steals her face (ultimately killing her). He blames himself, saying if he’d been more attentive and active he could’ve saved her. He tried to kill Koh out of revenge over it, but could never do so. Koh alludes to this when Aang visits him in “The Siege of the North Part 2″ (Book 1, Episode 20) and shows Aang Ummi’s face. All in all, super tragic.

The Avatar never really “dies.” He’s constantly being reborn. The reason Aang is able to consult his past lives for wisdom is because all of his past lives are him. If the point of the swamp is to get you to understand that death is an illusion, then the swamp understands that the separation between Aang and Kuruk is also an illusion. They’re different people but also the same person all at once. They’re still connected.

So, assuming that Aang was no different from Katara and Sokka and was also seeing people that he’s loved and lost in the past while in the swamp, maybe Toph really is someone he’s met and known before. He just lost and loved her in a past life that neither of them remembers back when they were both completely different people.

But wait, what’s the proof that Ummi is one of Toph’s past lives?

This theory hinges on the assumption that the Avatar isn’t the only one who is capable of being reincarnated. So if you keep with that assumption, there are a few moments highlighted by the theory that connect Toph and Ummi.

The most obvious of which is that Toph is blind. Seeing as how Ummi lost her face when she was a human (and Koh still has it), it would make sense that her future reincarnations would potentially have some kind of loss of their senses attributed to, you know, getting your face ripped off. BUT, another detail that is, in my opinion, a little more interesting is one of Aang’s anxiety nightmares from “Nightmares and Daydreams” (Book 3, Episode 9). Specifically the part of the nightmare where Toph is featured looking like this:

(so creepy ;A;) But why does Toph manifest in Aang’s dream this way, devoid of life and devoid of a face of all things?

This dream that Aang is having is over his anxieties/fears over losing his friends. Sokka, Toph, and Katara all succumb to some sort of horrific end in this dream and Aang is unable to save them. It seems like his anxieties over losing Toph manifested through showing us Toph as a lifeless husk with...no face. Maybe when Aang was having this nightmare, some of the fears and anxieties felt by his previous lives were bleeding in. It would make sense that Kuruk’s greatest anxiety/fear would be losing his loved ones as well, after he failed to protect Ummi from having her face stolen.

And if we assume that Toph actually is Ummi (i.e. a reincarnation that Aang subconsciously remembers), it would make sense that Aang would see Toph standing there in the darkness. Her face stolen. Helpless to save her.

And then in ���The Avatar and the Firelord” (Book 3, Episode 6), after learning about Zuko’s lineage and Avatar Roku’s relationship with Sozin, it’s Toph who remarks, “do you really think friendships can last more than one lifetime?”

It’s interesting that Toph would be the one to ask this. And it’s interesting that Aang is the one that reaches out to hold her hand first and tell him that he doesn’t see why that can’t be possible. Because these connections that transcend lifetimes aren’t limited to just the Avatar. They’re apparent in everyone’s lives, no matter who you are. And the fact that Toph and Aang were able to share that brief moment and give each other that reassurance makes sense if you consider that, several lifetimes ago for them both, they were a lot closer than just mere friends.

And are there other connections between Taang and Kummi?

The theory supports some interesting parallels between Kuruk and Ummi’s relationship and Toph and Aang’s relationship. Kuruk and Aang are very similar in that they both avoided their Avatar duties. Kuruk because of his lackadaisical nature and Aang because he was afraid.

Ummi ultimately ended up being Kuruk’s punishment for not being able break from this passivity and actively pursue his responsibilities as the Avatar. But, by contrast, Toph ended up being Aang’s greatest asset with regard to helping him break from his passivity and learn to face things head on no matter how impossible they may seem.

The Earthbending portion of “Bitter Work” (Book 2, Episode 9) is exclusively about this. Aang is passive by nature, hence why Earthbending is such a hard element for him to master. As Toph so eloquently put: “You had a perform stance, and a perfect form, but when it came right down to it you didn’t have the guts.” The whole episode she’s goading him into being strong and firm. She mercilessly lays into him for not being direct. For being a pushover. For not facing his problems. For not standing up for himself. For being passive. The very thing that was Kuruk’s downfall.

But the pushing works because Toph unlocks something very powerful in him. Toph taught him how to be active. To face his struggles head on. To not flinch before responsibility or danger. That moment where Aang stands up to the moose lion and promises Sokka that he won’t leave him alone (that he will be there to protect him, and he’ll stand staunch in the face of danger) is a really important emotional milestone. It’s a role that’s very different from the one that Katara plays in Aang’s life, but it’s no less important.

Katara has always been someone who cared deeply for Aang’s emotional needs, who understood the reasons why he was afraid, why he wanted to run away, why he wanted to avoid responsibility. But Toph was very much someone who took a much rougher approach to Aang. Because Aang needed it. Because Aang’s inactivity also threatened to be his downfall in this life because it got in the way of him mastering the Earth element. Toph and Aang became a victory instead of a tragedy. Toph wasn’t used as a way to hurt Aang, like Ummi was used to hurt Kuruk. Toph was one of Aang’s greatest sources of strength.

And it was their connection to each other -- their connection that transcended lifetimes -- that brought them back together as friends.

And maybe more if you feel like adding a ship to your repertoire.