#Atlas Bear

[overzealous-imagination]

So while rewatching Avatar: The Last Airbender recently, I noticed a trend

A number of spirits we see have an animal form, specifically animals we recognize as "normal" for us. For example:

- Wan Shi Tong is an owl and his knowledge seekers are foxes

- Tui and La are koi fish

- Hei Bai is a panda

-The guardian of the mother of faces is a wolf (The Search)

Heck there's even the talking Baboon spirit and the monkey missing its face that we see in the Spirit World at the end of Season 1.

Basically every time we've seen a "normal" animal, they've been a spirit.

My point? I argue that Bosco is a spirit bear that's chilling and living the good life in the mortal world just because he can.

#that's my theory and I'm sticking to it #avatar the last airbender #avatar #atla #spirit world #atla headcanons #bosco the bear #bosco

[mugentakeda]

do you think people would see how katara and aang interacted in book 1 and be like "wow you guys are so devoted to each other!!! how long have you both been friends?" and theyd both be like "just now going on 2 weeks :)" and the people would be like "what"

#they both are so cringefail and weird #like two gummy bears that held hands so hard their hands melted together #their dynamic goes from absurdly close friendship > ?????????? > the most annoying pda couple ever #yet somehow maintain this deranged devoted dynamic throughout that whole pipeline #i swear they remind me of zolu in that way #DEVOTION................... #kataang #katara #aang #atla #avatar the last airbender #alicias art

[redundantz]

Avatar the Last Airbender - Toph x Zuko

#give me a fandom #bear witness to one of my crack ships #they were both my favourites and i thought they were mising a lot of fun interactions #atla #avatar the last airbender #avatar #zuko #toph #toko #sketches #my art #fanart #redundantz art #also i hate that older toph basically wears the same clothes as kid toph #so i kinda mixed a bunch of her outfits

[znsluc]

https://x.com/_nok__1?s=21&t=55HyzerWcN_RxNpgV2Jocw

#one piece #monkey d luffy #borsalino #rob lucci #jewelry bonney #kaku #vegapunk shaka #vegapunk lilith #stussy #vegapunk york #sentomaru #vegapunk pythagoras #vegapunk edison #vegapunk atlas #s-snake #s-hawk #s-bear #s-shark

[macaulaytwins]

female character: *is rude or evil or commits heinous deeds*

me, with stars in my eyes:

#dedicated to #fang runin #alex stern #reina mori #parisa kamali #jude duarte #blue sargent #allison reynolds #camilla macaulay #and every other Mean woman <33333 #yes I know there’s quite a morality difference between blue and rin okay but bear with me #women #evil women #literature #books #my wife is a bitch and I like her so much #the atlas six #the poppy war #tas #tpw #ninth house #aftg #tsh #the cruel prince #the folk of the air #trc #the raven cycle #the secret history #galaxy stern #I’m cringing at using ‘female’ but what else do I do I don’t wanna say woman twice

[attackfish]

So everybody here knows that I'm notorious for being a massive defender of Ursa, and that I have no patience for the "Ursa was a bad mother, she favored Zuko, and was abusive to Azula and abandoned her kids, and made Ozai abuse Zuko," narrative. That narrative is vile, victim blaming, and deeply stupid on a number of levels.

With that out of the way, I want to talk about some really really bad parenting we see Ursa do during the series. And it is to be clear really really bad.

In the Book Two episode, "Bitter Work", Zuko and Iroh have a conversation:

ZUKO: So Uncle, I've been thinking. It's only a matter of time before I run into Azula again. I'm going to need to know more advanced firebending if I want to stand a chance against her. I know what you're going to say, she's my sister and I should be trying to get along with her-

IROH: No, she's crazy, and she needs to go down.

This scene is a favorite of a certain type of Azula fan who wants to paint Iroh as a big meanie who didn't wave his magic redemption wand over Azula the way he clearly did over Zuko. See? See? He's writing her off here and calling her crazy.

This of course misses the context of that scene, which is that Zuko is taking care of a severely injured Iroh, who was injured by Azula, in what looked a heck of a lot like a murder attempt. Earlier in Book Two, in the episode, "The Avatar State", Azula unambiguously attempts to murder her brother after failing to capture him, and he is only saved by Iroh's quick reflexes.

But let's leave that argument aside for today because what interests me about this scene in the context of Ursa's parenting, is the line Zuko says right before Iroh's infamous declaration: "I know what you're going to say, she's my sister and I should be trying to get along with her."

Because in the context of Zuko and Iroh's situation, where Azula has recently attempted to kill Zuko, and just put Iroh into a coma that Zuko had to take care of him during, in which he has only just woken up from, this line from Zuko actually demonstrates some really warped thinking. It is not a healthy response to the situation at all. And his assumption is that a good caring parent figure like Iroh is going to respond to this situation by telling him that Zuko needs to get along with his sister, who is actively trying to hunt him down and capture or kill him.

So why does Zuko think that? What adult reacted that way to Azula's violence toward her brother in the past? It wasn't Ozai. Ozai is not going to use the language of getting along with one's siblings, when he is so bent on setting them against each other. So who was it?

The show answers this a few episodes before this scene, in the Book Two episode, "Zuko Alone." The answer is clear and heartbreaking: It was Ursa.

The scene in which this becomes plain, starts with Zuko and Ursa walking together. Mai spots them and smiles and blushes. Azula notices, and then turns to Ty Lee, and whispers, "Watch this!"

AZULA: Mom, can you make Zuko play with us? We need equal teams to play a game!

ZUKO: I am not cart-wheeling.

AZULA: You won't have to. Cart-wheeling's not a game, dum-dum.

ZUKO: I don't care. I don't want to play with you!

AZULA: We are brother and sister. It's important for us to spend time together. Don't you think so, Mom?

URSA: Yes, darling, I think it's a good idea to play with your sister. Go on now, just for a little while.

And then Ursa leaves Zuko alone with Azula and her friends.

There is a lot here that I want to talk about. I have in fact talked about this scene before, and what it tells us about Ursa's eagerness to reinforce Azula's seemingly kind and loving behavior: [Link], and even touched on why this is in fact an example of bad parenting from Ursa: [Link], but I think this deserves its own post, where we examine exactly what went on here, what this tells us about Ursa's parenting, and how this affected Zuko, and to a lesser extent, Azula.

In those previously linked posts, I talk about how this is clearly a pattern, that Azula has learned to predict and manipulate, and because we know it's a pattern, we know that this behavior on Ursa's part is repeated, and something her children have come to expect from her. Zuko and Azula know their mother wants her children to get along with each other, and love each other and have a good sibling relationship with each other so much that if Azula she plays into that, Ursa will force Zuko to spend time with his sister, and worse, that time will be unsupervised.

So, to be clear here, what Ursa is doing is giving Azula unsupervised access to her brother, against his will, as a reward for Azula momentarily acting nice. Or in other words, Ursa forces Zuko to spend time with his abuser against his will because she wants them to get along.

I think we can all see how that is some grade A terrible parenting.

And it does have negative effects on Azula. I think that we can see her learning how to manipulate people, learning how to lie and get what she wants from people, and that Ursa by giving her what she wants here, is showing her that this is a thing she can do to get what she wants. That is not a great lesson to teach your kid. I think it also feeds into Azula's possessiveness of her brother, and sense of entitlement towards him. She has learned that even the people who love and care about her brother, won't protect him from her. And she has learned that no matter what she does to him, he is supposed to try to get along with her.

These are some really terrible lessons, and we see some of the effects of them throughout the course of the show, so why is it that the "Ursa is a terrible mother" crowd never bring this up? I mean of course we know why, it doesn't fit their narrative. Their premise is not simply that Ursa is a bad mother, or even that her bad parenting explains Azula's behavior.

In fact frequently it isn't even about finding someone to blame for Azula's behavior, so that the responsibility isn't Azula's. (Which, to be clear is not how it would work anyway, because even if Ursa were exactly the type of horrible mother they said she was, Azula was still making the choices to do Very Bad Things, in the same way that just because Ozai is an abusive father, this doesn't mean Azula stopped being responsible for her own actions). It's more about proving that she has suffered enough that she deserves all the sympathy, and is allowed to be awful to other people, including Zuko, you know, as a treat.

The narrative that the "Ursa is a terrible mother" crowd are pushing is that Ursa didn't love her daughter, and thought she was a monster, Azula suffered so much, and it's so sad, and this is why she deserves to do very nasty things to everybody else, and no one should ever hold her accountable. Frequently there is some flavor of, "Zuko had a mother who loved him, you guys, unlike Azula, so he doesn't deserve sympathy, not like poor baby Azula!" Which is a deeply warped thought process on many many levels, but we're not going to go into that here.

The point is, that this type of bad parenting that I am pointing out here, doesn't fit this narrative, because this is not the kind of parenting mistake that a mother who doesn't love one of her children, and thinks that child is a monster, is going to make. This is the kind of mistake that a mother who loves her children very much, and wants them to have a good relationship, and doesn't recognize the threat that one of her children poses to the other, is going to make. In fact, the fact that she does it, proves that Ursa does in fact love her daughter and does not think she's a monster. So it does not fit the narrative these people are spinning, so they will never bring it up as an example of how Ursa was a bad mom.

Of course the other reason the "Ursa is a terrible mother" crowd aren't going to bring this part up is because it would mean acknowledging that Zuko deserved to be protected from Azula, and needed to be protected from Azula, when they were both children, which would go against the whole "she's a poor innocent child" thing they like to spin, and also because Azula is getting what she wants here, and Zuko is the one suffering, which is not going to get Azula any sympathy points.

And for the most part, Ursa was an excellent mother, who did the best job she could in horrible circumstances that she had very little control over, but she wasn't perfect, and she did make mistakes, which makes all of this a wonderful example of how even very good parents can make very bad choices that hurt their children and cause serious long-term damage.

I've talked some about the long term damage that Azula faces from this, learning about manipulation, and developing some really nasty entitlement issues with regards to her brother, but Zuko's long-term damage is if anything worse.

When we put this together with Zuko's line from "Bitter Work" quoted earlier, we can see that Zuko learns what Azula learns from the other angle, which is to say that he will not be protected from Azula by anyone, and not only will he not be protected, but he does not deserve to protect himself. Not only can he not defend himself, but he can't even protect himself by avoiding her. That's not allowed either. And in the face of her cruelty and violence towards him, it is still on him to make their relationship work, and to be clear, he should absolutely be making their relationship work. And the adults who love him are going to tell him this, no matter what Azula does to him.

I for one am really glad that Iroh is there to say no, that's a terrible idea, and you do not need to keep trying to get along with your sister who is trying to kill you. And it's significant that throughout Book Two, Iroh consistently protects Zuko from Azula, and teaches him what he needs to fight back.

#Atla Ursa #Uncle Iroh #Zuko #Azula #avatar the last airbender #posts i created #azula needs her own warning #i ship iroh/tea #zuko is a dweeby little turtleduck #mother bear ursa

[luzho]

lee from the tea shop is at his fucking limit

inspired by @erisenyo's last tag on this post proposing zuko as a line cook, instead of a waiter, in the jasmine dragon! and i instantly thought "oh i HAVE to put zuko in carmy's place", which you guessed it!! is very stressful..... based specifically on this still from S01E05 by @/neverscreens. this was a CHALLENGE, but i might do another one of sokka losing his cool too hehehe

#my art #zuko #atla #zuko fanart #atla modern au #ugh i hate calling it that MODERNISM IS LONG OVER BOOO this is contemporary au anyway #yeah no idea how to fucking tag this. do u guys like this?? i like how my drawings keep recreating film stills:))) #atla fanart #the bear au

[represent-asian]

New tattoo reveal! ✨️

#me #mine #my face #tattoo #new tattoo #gay #queer #gay bear #hairy chest #appa tattoo #atla

[dorkspine]

Goodbye to peak Mickey Mouse cartoon.

#mickey mouse #mickey mouse shorts #rottmnt #gravity falls #regular show #winx club #clarence #atla #the legend of korra #tmnt 2012 #my little pony friendship is magic #star vs the forces of evil #the owl house #amphibia #adventure time #she ra and the princesses of power #we bare bears #ok ko let's be heroes #steven universe #I haven’t felt this sad at a cartoon finale since MLP #cartoon #disney #nickelodeon #cartoon network #rainbow #hasbro #netflix #meme

[weepynymph]

evermore / zutara

I really liked the black a white version I made of this before I decided to add colour to every second one so here you go.

#zutara #zutara edit #this song is extremely them #atla #avatar the last airbender #zuko #katara #zuko x katara #katara x zuko #my edits #my gifs #im in one of my phases where everything looks better in black and white so just bear with me

[naensut]

GIF by sarcasmcloud

found family

#i think about these moments a lot #does that make them my roman empire? #the world could always use some more found family #found family and emotional whump #atla #zuko #uncle iroh #treasure planet #long john silver #jim hawkins #the last of us #joel miller #ellie williams #the bear #richie jerimovich #carmy berzatto #nimona #ballister boldheart #netflix atla #lockwood and co #lucy carlyle #anthony lockwood #george karim #found family #emotional whump #whump #gifs #avatar the last airbender

[waywardbananawolf]

We all agree that Azula only received conditional love from her parents. RIGHT?

#azula #azula avatar #Ozai is just Ozai #Ursa is not a bear mama to Azula #atla #ursa #ozai

[writebecauseyoucannotbreathe]

Aang: All life is sacred.

Uncle Iroh: It would be wrong for me to go against my father and brother directly. I refuse to challenge them to an Agni Kai.

Zuko: *avoids hitting Ozai with redirected lightning*

Ozai: *puts Iroh in prison instead of executing him*

Avatar Roku: *Spares Fire Lord Sozin's life*

Ursa, on her way to murder her aging father-in-law in his sleep:

#atla #avatar the last airbender #aang #uncle iroh #zuko #ursa #azulon #avatar: the last airbender #avatar the legend of aang #bryke is like ursa is a MOTHER she is baby #more like mother grizzly bear #aang is here because he married into the family via azula #roku #avatar roku #azula upon murdering the avatar and going for a beach party afterwards while sozin was consumed with guilt: what like its hard #seriously the family could have just run away but Ursa was like finally I have a reason to kill my in law

[gooberscollage]

Some Coloring Pages :)

Avatar: The New Master Activity Book, Unicorns Coloring Book, Fun with opposites coloring book, Lil' Bratz super coloring and activity book

#collage #art #collage material #magazine #1990s #90s #2000s #early 2000s #2010s #atla #avatar #avatar the last airbender #bratz #y2k bratz #appa #bear #unicorn #kidcore #agre #sfw agere #coloring page #coloring book

[attackfish]

I had a brain wave tonight. Given how much older Iroh appears than his brother, I have always thought it was very likely that Iroh was either an adult by the time his brother was born, or very close to it. And what we see if Iroh's adult past paints him as a military leader who led from the front, and was not afraid to spend years on end in the field. So it's not improbable that he might have been only rarely present when Ozai was growing up.

Ozai bitterly resents his brother, who Azulon clearly favored, while scorning Ozai. He privately denigrates his brother and later blames him for Zuko turning on him in a way that shows he likes to blame Iroh for things. Ozai's picture of Iroh has much more to do with what it's useful for Ozai to believe about his brother, then it does with who Iroh actually is. This would be much easier for Ozai to do if for most of his life, he were able to project what it was useful for him to believe onto an absent Iroh.

It's a whole lot easier and more comfortable to maintain a psychologically useful image of someone if they aren't there to contradict it. And this has fascinating implicatations for the other two people we see Ozai most eager resent and blame, Ursa and Zuko, both of whom he banishes. And even better, when Ozai banishes Zuko, Iroh goes with him.

This must have been the most mentally comfortable Ozai has ever been in his life, with all of them safely gone and unable to break his useful images of them, but still alive so he could resent and blame them as needed. And this offers a plausible unconscious motive for Ozai to do something as stupid as sending his accomplice in murder and treason, a potential heir to his throne, and an alternate claimant to his throne, who also just happens to be an accomplished military leader, out from under his direct control.

#ozai #uncle iroh #atla ursa #azulon #avatar the last airbender #posts i created #noodle lord ozai #i ship iroh/tea #mother bear ursa #zuko is a dweeby little turtleduck

[allgremlinart]

going to be honest I respect Iroh fuckers way more than Ozai fuckers. not because Ozai is evil or for any moral reason but because Ozai A) has ugly creepy abs with disturbing lack of body hair and B) his facial hair is HORRIBLE. barely even a goatee its literally just. a runway strip to perv town. I guess if you're into that...

#atla #Iroh's shitty guidance counselor energy isn't for me personally but I understand the old bear draw