comradekatara

[comradekatara]

people tend to talk more about the doll iroh gives azula as a spoil of war that directly illustrates iroh’s attitude of colonial paternalism, but there’s something so fascinating to me about how iroh gives zuko a knife that says “made in earth kingdom” on one side and “never give up without a fight” on the other, reducing a call to action, direct resistance through any means necessary, into an abstract, inspirational quote. a weapon that symbolizes the strength of a nation of resist imperialist conquest/colonial occupation is put in the hands of a ten year old who has no way of truly understanding the implications of that slogan. of course, zuko eventually does come to understand, and he does refuse to give up without a fight, as does iroh, but at the time that iroh gives zuko the knife, he is perverting that symbol of revolutionary action & resistance into a colonial artifact, a mere child’s plaything, its blade dulled and its power denied through the act of gifting it to the sheltered prince of the nation against whom they are fighting. yes, zuko has his own fight, and must face his own struggles, and he is largely defined by his persistence, so it’s easy to forget what this knife means within its original cultural context: “made in earth kingdom” isn’t just a dismissive joke, it’s also a grave reminder of who iroh was, what his “gifts” represent, and where they came from.

#analysis #iroh #zuko #there’s smth so sick & twisted to me about how upon receiving the knife zuko immediately playacts his own theatrical death #it’s adorable of course #but it’s also like. this is theater to him. it isn’t real. god….

[comradekatara]

The Gaang take another vacation at the library

#you’re so fucking funny for this #art #katara #sokka #aang #zuko #toph #zuko……. zukoooo #aang’s face too #sokka w his one million scrolls #toph just like. fuck this i can’t read #and katara with her iconic shoplifted waterbending scroll #hashtag shoplifter rights #<333

[comradekatara]

Hello, how would you rank the gaang+fire ladies in a best sense of style to worst of sense of style?

oooh fun! wait, is this modern au or not?? just in case, i’ll do both…

toph is the worst, obviously. she has no sense of style whatsoever. she does have her little pom pom opera headband, which is very cute, and honestly her fire nation fit is the cutest one (sorry katara), but i don’t think she actually gives a shit about any of that, she just happens to slay regardless because she can’t not slay. in modern au she mostly wears large shirts and sweatpants and flip flops, and yet somehow she still looks remarkably good “dressed like a slob” (katara’s words) because she is simply beautiful enough to pull it off.

i don’t think zuko has a bad sense of style, i actually think a lot of his outfits are genuinely cute (i esp love his one tank top in book 1 that’s such a look imo), but like toph, he also isn’t really putting effort in, so it’s not so much a “sense of style” as it is in his nature to serve cunt. in modern au he actively tries to spice up his wardrobe (with katara’s help), but then he never actually wears any of the stuff they bought together because he needs his emotional support favorite cardigan and/or black turtleneck. he can pull it off because he looks cute and cozy, but no is mistaking him for an expert in fashion any time soon.

i always wonder how aang found those monk’s robes in book 3, whether he made them himself, and if so, with which fabrics. so in that sense, he’s actually a diy style icon. but in modern au, he literally dresses like roman roy in the finale, walmart boys’ color block t shirt, so i’m docking points even though, again, he does look adorable and it is a Look in its own right. the light up heelys also add or dock points depending on who you ask.

from book 2 onward, sokka has a nice, simple outfit that is a good cut and a good color without being remotely flashy or complicated, and he accessorizes with weapons, which are both practical and spice up his outfit. “like toph, he also doesn’t give a shit about his looks, it’s just a coincidence that he looks good,” one could argue. but i think he knew what he was doing with that sleeveless top. and besides, he was excited by the fact that his bag matched his belt. in modern au, sokka doesn’t give a shit about style until adulthood, because he and katara just focus on their respective domains and thus katara has the monopoly on fashion, but then he starts figuring out his gender and sexuality and the world of fashion opens up for him. that said, his idea of going crazy is like, wearing a couple rings, so he’s still towards the middle bottom of this list.

azula doesn’t really have a sense of personal style, she just wears what she thinks looks best for her circumstances, and since her goal is to intimidate, she happens to slay. but if she was like, a farmer, she would not be bothering with the winged eyeliner and red lipstick and perfect hair, because that is a product of her environment rather than an internally motivated mode of self-expression. so in modern au, she trades shoulder spikes for shoulder pads, and knee high boots for tastefully high heels, but the effect is the same. respect me, fear me, take me seriously in my navy blue blazer.

suki never really gets to pick her own outfits unless you count the fire nation crop top, which is cute but obviously wouldn’t be her first pick in garb. that said, the kyoshi warrior armor obviously goes so hard and she looks great in it, so she’s a style icon just for that. in modern au, she dresses in a way that is deceptively simple but knows that it makes her look really hot to her target demographic (dykes and sokka). she generally just opts for flannel and cargo shorts, but on days where she’s on a mission, she’ll wear a short sleeved loose button up with half the sleeves undone, some necklaces, and no bra. and she’s a hero for that.

mai’s outfit is actually my favorite in the entire show (like, i would wear it), but there’s something kind of cutesy about her hair style that i feel like was probably imposed on her by her mother. like don’t get me wrong, it still looks good on her, but i can’t see her actually caring to maintain something so elaborate without the presence of external pressures. i can picture modern au mai’s sense of style so perfectly, though. soft flared pants, in a silky fabric; turtleneck tank tops; leather jackets: dark peacoats; dyke boots to stomp around in; mostly in various shades of dark red, dark blue, and black. she keeps it simple and classy, and has the freedom to experiment with hair styles more as well. when she’s alone, everyone is envious of her effortlessly chic steez, and yet, when she is with ty lee, everyone’s like “awww it’s cute that ty lee lets that kind of schlubby girl hang around her.”

ty lee puts effort into her appearance for the purposes of attracting specific results. she knows she’s beautiful, of course, but she also wants to be beautiful in a cute way, harmless and inviting. pink is less threatening than red, showing skin makes her seem vulnerable and desirable, her braid is simultaneously perfect and kind of messy. in modern au, ty lee would similarly be attuned to the cultivation of her aesthetic for a similar purpose. she wouldn’t just wear whatever she felt like, but rather would have an extremely curated wardrobe of outfits that all adhere to the same theme of making her look impossibly beautiful but in a cute and harmless way. idk man. there’s something wrong with her, i think, but also that thing might just be patriarchy.

katara is the only character who canonically takes an interest in fashion for the sake of fashion (iirc), and so that immediately elevates her in my opinion. she clearly cares a not insignificant amount about her appearance, and takes pride in looking good (as she should, because she’s beautiful). i love the idea that she got her book 2 outfit in the northern water tribe and was so excited about getting a new fit that she literally wore it the entire season even though it was springtime and she was sweating buckets. she’s so excited about dressing up in ba sing se, or when they steal clothes in the fire nation, or when she gets to take kyoshi’s clothing in “avatar day,” or when she goes to the spa with toph, or when she’s telling aunt wu about her skincare routine. it matters to her! and i think that as she gets older, and more resources are available, she gets to expand and experiment with her wardrobe more, and that’s really fun for her. and in modern au, she’d also love fashion of course, and would have a lot of opinions on how to participate in fashion ethically. her wardrobe would be kind of all over the place because it’s mostly thrifted, but she’d put so much effort into curating an outfit every day before she leaves the house, and she can go weeks if not months without repeating an outfit, not because she has an unlimited wardrobe, but because she’s really clever and thoughtful when it comes to what she pairs together on any given day. and she sometimes makes her own clothing, or modifies thrifted pieces, and that somehow looks great on her too. my point is, she wins in a landslide.

#yourlocalamoeba #asks #the gaang and #modern au #ish #to no one’s surprise the katara section is twice as long as everyone else’s

[comradekatara]

if it's not too sensitive a topic to ask for your beautiful atla modern au, how do you think the gaang would respond to the genocide that israel's currently inflicting on gaza? thanks!

it’s not that it’s too sensitive a topic, it’s that i find it quite insensitive to attach discussions of current ongoing genocides to a question about cartoon characters from a nickelodeon show. i think that’s in poor taste, and i generally wouldn’t respond to such a question. that said, did anyone else see that “katara and sokka would be z!on!sts” post because i do genuinely think that’s the worst atla post i have ever seen in all my years, and you should know, that’s a VERY EXTREMELY high bar. and i was willing to simply never mention that post to anyone, because it had very few notes and was honestly so heinous that it wasn’t worth responding to, but this ask just made me remember that. despite the fact that this is kind of an insane thing to have to say, um, no, katara and sokka would not be z!on!sts, obviously. they are in the most literal sense anti-imperialist guérilla revolutionaries. whether you think the show handles those politics well or not is a different matter, but that is what they are. it’s important to remember that it’s not a coincidence that zuko gave that speech to ozai on an american tv show during the same administration that invaded iraq under false pretenses. no, it’s not a politically perfect show by any means, but anyone who can’t discern the very basic question of what stance katara (and co) would adopt here is an idiot.

#asks #10000dandelions #NO FOLLOW UP QUESTIONS PLEASE

[comradekatara]

I think Marcille and Katara should do each other's hair.

okay now THIS is an avatar meshi ask i can get behind. i love drawing katara w different cute little hairstyles it is like therapy and marcille literally gets that. im picturing them braiding each others hair in deep concentration when some kind of gigantic monster flies past and everyone’s like “hey a little help here?” and they’re just like “shhh!!!! this is more important!!!!”

#pensive-expression #asks #synthesis #i said previously that katara is straight marcille and i maintain that #katara also just does need an unhinged high femme bestie i think #ty lee doesn’t count. for obvious reasons

[comradekatara]

I actually kind of like you

#this is pretty much the only other yue ship i can get behind #because it’s soooo self-indulgent to [katara voice] me personally #mai #yue #maixyue #art #they would b so crazy good together...... thank u op for the food

[comradekatara]

We know firebending is tied to emotion - Zuko and Azula specifically embody this well (emotion-fueled fire vs emotionless, calculated flame) (making candles shoot columns of fire when getting bad news vs calm enough to produce lightning) and you're getting asks about firebending healing so I thought I'd ask for your thoughts on Zuko's delirium after saving Appa. He's sweating profusely, and in a lot of inner turmoil - do you think that his loss of control of and confusion over his emotions worsened or even outright caused his fever? I can totally see just the turmoil making someone sick on its own without firebending, just wanted your thoughts!

hmmm, yeah I mean iroh says it isn’t a normal sickness, but I think by that iroh mostly means that it’s psychological rather than physical. like what’s happening is that zuko’s body is basically shutting down because he’s anticipating a punishment that never comes so he generates it manually in lieu of receiving it. which, as a sidenote, is why i kind of hate the “lol zuko made one good decision and immediately fainted like a victorian lady” joke, because it’s actually a very potent illustration of the lingering psychological effects of that kind of abuse, and it demonstrates why zuko is so physically afraid of deviating from ozai’s path even when he instinctually feels opposed to it. like in the war meeting where ozai decides to harness the power of the comet to destroy the earth kingdom, zuko is unable to do anything because his trauma acts as a constant reminder of the consequences of speaking out, and he’s afraid, very understandably so. when he frees appa, even if his mind is logically aware that there are no negative consequences to this choice, his body is expecting the blow of actively disobeying ozai’s command in his mission to redeem himself and capture the avatar. and so he experiences a similar reaction that he would have experienced when he was first burned, but it’s entirely psychological. i don’t really know how relevant the question of firebending is to that issue, though, because it’s an understandable response to his situation regardless of whether or not he has telekinetic fire-controlling abilities. so, yeah you could say that his fever is worse because he’s a firebender, but like, what does that add to the conversation? i genuinely don’t know.

#karmaphone #asks #zuko #ozai&zuko #analysis #i have a longer analysis somewhere of this whole sequence #with the dream and everything #idr where it is but im sure if u go thru the ozai&zuko tag u can find it #anyway. im not rly sure what the point of this question is. sorry

[comradekatara]

what’s not clicking

no because it actually is so funny how sokka is unrealistically smart like just. inhumanly intelligent so they had to counteract that by nerfing him in one million different ways. no he can’t bend no his sister never listens to him no he isn’t charismatic or convincing yes he has one million different mental illnesses. every single mental illness known to man, in fact. and that somehow balances out the fact that he is a genius the likes of which the world may see like. once in a century. because does it even matter if he just keeps taking L after L and is so fucking miserable and constantly self-sabotages due to being too insane and neurotic to even function half the time and his highest aspiration in life is literally to be murdered. no, seriously, does it??? incidentally, this it is also the central tension of a little show called . “malcolm in the mildle.”

#wym ?????

[comradekatara]

I know ppl are yapping at you abt Dungeon Meshi so sorry but I’m joining in. Who in the Gaang (or Gaang-adjacent) do you think would enjoy the dungeon most and least? Sokka would be having a grand time, eating cool food and rescuing sisters and learning about biology and doing puzzles. I can imagine Aang on the other hand having a very bad time; even the plants are animalistic so he would feel weird about eating them. He would appreciate Senshi’s care for the ecosystem though.

idk why ppl keep saying that sokka would be laios.... like laios does say that he wishes he could take falin's place and clearly means it, but he also has the mental fortitude to step back and look at the situation more rationally when he needs to. he clearly loves falin a lot, but he's also able to pace himself and acknowledges not to push himself beyond his own limits, so that he can make grand sacrifices when the time calls for it (and even then, he pretty much knew that losing his leg wasn't gonna be permanent). like, my point is, if katara got fucking eaten by a dragon, sokka would not even bother going back up to the surface to the regroup. he would not be able to approach the situation rationally whatsoever. laios wants to take falin's place because he doesn't want to see her in pain (and also because i'm sure there's a part of him that just wishes that he could be a really cool monster too, lol), but sokka would want to take her place because he fundamentally believes that his role in life is to sacrifice himself for her?? and he would feel like he had failed in some grand, existential way if she sacrificed herself for him (but also, falin is not katara, and so katara wouldn't make those same sacrifices either). if sokka was in laios's shoes, he would be acting far more like toshiro, and we know this because "the boiling rock" exists. sokka is someone who is easily motivated by guilt, and feels guilty about basically everything. there's no way he would be enjoying his time in the dungeon if he felt that he had failed the one person he valued most in the world. he barely enjoys doing anything as it is.

that said, if he was simply in the dungeon for work and katara was there with him or safely on the surface or otherwise healthy and intact, yeah he'd probably like the hunting and puzzle solving and the learning about ecosystems. and since magic is something that can be taught, i'm sure he'd also be fascinated by the science behind it and learn as much magic as he can. aang would be fine food-wise because he'd simply pack enough food in advance, which is what most people do anyway. katara would love it because she loves going on any sort of quest-like adventure, and she loves getting to be the hero. she and aang are the resident healers, naturally. toph enjoys it because she likes hanging out with her friends and getting into weird little situations. suki is slashing up monsters with her katana but mainly she's just vibing. zuko is having a bad time unless he has a fixed goal, just like, in general, so he's only going in the dungeon (or anywhere) if he has a very specific reason. people see azula, mai, and ty lee in the dungeon and they're like "that party is way too small they won't last a day" and then they work as such a perfect and efficient team that everyone is just like "okay. i stand corrected." but anyway. if anyone is falin, it's yue.

#catgirl-behavioral-therapy #asks #synthesis #they would be nothing like laios's party lmfao they would maybe eat the chicken part of a basilisk and that's it

[comradekatara]

idk if u have any opinions on this so feel free to ignore if u don’t! <3 ik we saw a firebender do a diagnostic scan on korra & on kuruk but other than that we haven’t seen any other firebending healing

what do u think firebending healing would like?? do u think it’d be exactly like waterbending healing?? or do u think it’d be different?? i’ve always wanted to see it and i’ve always wondered how it would work

i have so many opinions on this actually!!! i mean we know that skilled firebenders can bend preexisting heat as well as generating combustion reactions (ie, flame), so i see firebending healing as similar to waterbending in the sense that they're realigning heat thru qi paths in the body and restoring energy thru heat. i'm kind of gesturing to this abstractly because my knowledge of tcm is limited, but it's actually a more logical form of healing than waterbending healing to me, because it's grounded in actual healing methods and forms of medicine, rather than just being like "the water has magical properties that relieves burns" or whatever (which obv is nonetheless relevant thematically, but not very coherent scientifically afaik). i love the concept of zuko learning healing after the war, and practicing with katara (and aang!). i also just love the idea of firebending healing becoming more popularized in general to indicate the fire nation leaving the mentality of violence and domination behind, and instead embracing more traditionally communal values, healing the wounds their nation left on the world and one another through turning the tool they once used and solely valued as a weapon of mass destruction into a tool for comfort and warmth and life. it's the logical thematic extension of the point of "the firebending masters," and it's very beautiful and important to me to see firebending healing in lok, even if only sparingly.

#willowprk #asks #analysis #ish #lore #zuko #kindof #also anyone who knows more about tcm or biology in general pls feel free to add to this #would love to learn/discuss it more!

[comradekatara]

i don’t normally do this here, but i’m answering this ask anonymously to respect op’s wishes. it’s a very interesting question!

i think the tragedy of yun is fascinating because in many ways it explores the central tension of korra’s arc, but then also magnifies it by revealing that this aspect of his identity which he assumed ontologically elevated him is actually a lie. he’s literally just some guy.

korra grapples with what it means to define her humanity and her agency beyond the box into which she is forced due to her status, but at least she has the luxury of actually being as powerful as everyone assumes her to be. and obviously, this can only really be considered a luxury when compared to yun, because he is cruelly and ruthlessly dismissed and dehumanized once no longer deemed “special.”

he serves no value to the world, to jianzhu’s ends, if he is not the avatar, and so his tragedy lies in the fact that if he cannot live as a fraud, he must be disposed of. he was never simply treated as a human being, because his father figure only actually cared about him as a means to an end, and his friend kyoshi is also the reason he has been so suddenly and violently stripped of value.

there’s this idea that yun seeks revenge because he feels entitled to power and deserving of his status, that he feels that kyoshi was better as his demure servant, and that for kyoshi to be the avatar he always believed himself to be is a perversion of the order he feels owed.

but of course he feels entitled to that power. he was groomed since childhood to be the avatar, and his alternative to that power is living on the street an orphaned child making money off of performing pai sho tricks. and it’s not that he simply basked in this power; no, he took this responsibility very seriously. he was jianzhu’s perfect protege, and so he tied his identity to being the avatar to the point that he had nothing left to give beyond that role.

just because he’s in the wrong doesn’t mean that his pain isn’t understandable, imo. like, just put yourself in his shoes. everything he ever thought he knew was revealed to be a lie, and he was left for dead in a matter of seconds. no one gave him a reason to pause, to consider an alternative. even kyoshi simply told him to let go of his pain, which of course would be an infuriating piece of advice to hear from the person who “won.” even if it’s not her intention, by telling him, essentially, to “get over it,” to simply move on from this existentially significant, defining injustice, she does sound like she’s gloating.

no one ever bothered to put themselves in his shoes, no one ever offered him true empathy. i don’t believe that yun was an entitled brat. i think that, like korra, he was someone who was depersonalized in his role, his image so heavily controlled by outside forces that he lost any sense of identity beyond that role, and was discarded once he could no longer perform it.

to swallow an eye — to reclaim the violence of that dehumanizing gaze, but also to consume it, to internalize it, to project it outwards — was always his fate. so no, i don’t think that there was any way to save him. he was marked for death the moment he was first misidentified as the avatar. his demise was inevitable, because it was born of human error; no one learns anything from their predecessors’ mistakes, they simply repeat the cycle. like all true tragedies, his destiny was fixed for him from the very beginning.

#asks #analysis #yun #kyoshi novels #korra #jianzhu #kyoshi #yun is so good actually…… like tell me u would have ‘let go of ur pain’ and simply risen above #lmfao! i think not

[comradekatara]

one of my favorite niche demographics i’ve observed in my time on tumblr.edu are the dykes who hardcore shipped mako and korra and got really fucking mad and threw a hissy fit when korrasami happened. to this day, i do not understand the logic upon which these people were operating, and i doubt i ever will. god bless.

#2014 was such a time…. #🍾🍾🍾

[comradekatara]

rangi (to kyoshi): the avatar can be reborn, but you can't kyoshi

jianzhu (to yun): you're everything kuruk was not, and I couldn't be prouder

fic inspo

#JIANZHU KILLING KURUK….. FIGURATIVELY METAPHORICALLY LITERALLY. DELICIOUS EITHER WAY #jianzhu #kuruk #art #all ur art is incredible #thank u for ur service op 🫡🫡🫡

[comradekatara]

some fucking post by some fucking guy: everyone always talks about how aang and zuko are narrative foils, but actually the parallels between SOKKA

me: YES???? 🤩🤩🤩🤩

some fucking guy, cont: …and ZUKO….

me: oh. 😓😓

#when will literally anyone but me talk abt aang & sokka foilage in a serious way. we’re well past the point of having that convo #aang&sokka #‘they’re brothers they’re best friends they share a brain cell’ #my latest sokka and aang art deliberately painted sokka’s hands BRIGHT RED and not a SINGLE PERSON in the tags seemed to notice #[logan voice] you are not…. serious people #why can’t you guys get more sick & twisted abt a Y-7 nickelodeon cartoon???? huh?????

[comradekatara]

Toph

#TOPH #TOFFEEE #art #I love this art style #the textures & colors are so good #and she is soooooooo. fucking precious. to me<33

[comradekatara]

no because it actually is so funny how sokka is unrealistically smart like just. inhumanly intelligent so they had to counteract that by nerfing him in one million different ways. no he can’t bend no his sister never listens to him no he isn’t charismatic or convincing yes he has one million different mental illnesses. every single mental illness known to man, in fact. and that somehow balances out the fact that he is a genius the likes of which the world may see like. once in a century. because does it even matter if he just keeps taking L after L and is so fucking miserable and constantly self-sabotages due to being too insane and neurotic to even function half the time and his highest aspiration in life is literally to be murdered. no, seriously, does it??? incidentally, this it is also the central tension of a little show called . “malcolm in the mildle.”

#LIFE IS UNFAIR……….. #sokka #synthesis #casually dropping ‘his highest aspiration in life is literally to be murdered’ like that isn’t the sokka thesis statement #in a post where I compare him to frankie fucking Muniz

[comradekatara]

sokka gets offered the position of chief first because he’s the eldest and (let’s be real) hakoda’s favorite, but he immediately turns it down bc he has no idea why he’d even be offered that position in the first place when katara is right there. and katara is like “i should not be chief it is simply in my nature to rebel against all forms of authority but if I AM Authority then who am i supposed to rebel against now??? huh???” and sokka’s just like “idk. figure it out.” and eventually she relents, but also the second she “takes office” sokka starts micromanaging her every move the way he does with zuko and kuei and everyone in the white lotus, and katara is like “why did you even turn it down if you were just gonna be like this….” and sokka’s like “nooooo trust me. this is so much better. for both of us.” and eventually they learn to strike a balance where she actually takes his advice but also he trusts her to make good decisions on her own. so they’re basically co-running the swt in everything but name, but they’re also both very insistent that KATARA is chief and sokka is simply her second in command (because he knows that distinction is important to her, and he respects that). but then it leads to the kind of awkward situation where because he’s not officially chief of the swt, arnook approaches him and is like “hey i’m getting kinda old, and i don’t really have any official heirs…. can we just say that you married yue so that you can be chief of the nwt once i die???” and sokka’s just like “ummm let me think about that……… no <3”

#‘also have u ever heard of. democracy?’ #postwargaang #katara #sokka #katara&sokka #arnook #arnook&sokka #he’s like democracy…. hmmm…. i heard of that….. once #but he still wants sokka to be chief bc he literally does not trust anyone else #and sokka’s just like ‘id rather die than permanently live in ice venice but thanks tho’