#I won't let Katara be good at weapons. it's enough

[obsidiancreates]

OH RIGHT THE ATLA 2012 CROSSOVER AU

OKAY I TOTALLY DIDN'T FORGET ABOUT THIS I SWEAR (I'm lying).

So the basic plot is that Our Turtle Boys are sprits given physical form and sent to the physical world to guide/help The Gaang. Splinter is another Spirit who comes to them sometimes, gives them advice and lets them know "You have brothers out there, with tasks of their own, and someday these tasks will bring all of you together." They grow up alongside each of the Gaang that they help guide, so all they know of their brothers is They Exist and the occasional dream with a brief glimpse. They can all bend. They all have their canon names, given to them by Splinter.

Mikey is left for Monk Gyatso to find, and knowing that The Avatar is set to be an Airbender next the monks conclude Mikey must have been sent to protect whomever that will be. Mikey and Aang, both mainly cared for by Gyatso, grow up as brothers (Mikey's an older brother for once, good for him). They're inseparable. They prank together, train together, and Aang is so excited to someday meet the brothers Mikey talks about having out there. And when Aang runs away? Mikey's right there with him, not just a spirit guardian, but a brother who'll follow him to the end. Or, into an iceberg for 100 years.

Leo is left next to Sokka's crib. The Tribe have no idea why they've been given this spirit until, well, they lose everything. When all of the men leave to fight the war, they feel better knowing a spirit is staying behind to help protect their families, even if that spirit is only a child. He and Sokka train with each other a lot, and are equally protective of Katara. Leo's actually not great with bending, he tends to prefer his sharpened tusk weapons, but he'll do a little practice with Katara when she asks. There had been hope that as a spirit he'd be able to train her as a full Waterbender before it was realized he's at her same level of skill and knowledge. He and Sokka are super close, raised basically as twins, and are a planning duo to be feared. When they find Aang, Appa, and Mikey, he and Mikey instantly know "It's my brother!!!" and go right for tearful hugs! It helps Sokka feel safe enough about Aang to bring him back home (he's a little worried, and has been his whole life, that when Leo has his spirit brothers he'll abandon Sokka. Instead Leo is bragging about Sokka to Mikey, who is looking at Sokka like he's the powerful and amazing spirit, and Sokka realizes he won't be replaced before they're even at the village). Leo does get better at bending as they go, like Katara, but never as good as she gets. He's more a regular weapons guy.

Raph appears on the doorstep of the Beifong Manor years before Toph's birth of course, and his arrival baffles them. They fear he's a sign of trouble to come, and when Toph is born blind they think "This is why. He was sent to protect our helpless daughter." But no, he knows right away "She's gonna be the strongest and the best at earthbending ever," and no-one believes him. Including her, for a long time, until she runs away and comes back and says "We're going to start training together." He doesn't even hesitate to agree with the biggest grin. He has complete unwavering confidence in her, always there at The Rumble cheering her on. Splinter has to visit him often, because he constantly makes plans for the two of them to run away and Splinter reminds him "You must stay on this path, for your brothers, for your missions. If you stray, all will be lost." When he does finally meet them he's ecstatic, until he learns they're with the kid who just cheated to beat his little sister. That's the first fight the three have, their introduction to his temper and his protectiveness. And oh boy, if he and Toph aren't twins in temper... an attitude. And a resort to physical violence even on people they like. They're a lot to handle together. Raph is a very strong Earthbender thanks to training against Toph, not quite on her level but better than a lot of other Masters.

Donnie was left outside of Ursa's room in the palace. Ozai thought this spirit a strange happening, but allowed her to keep it to see if he could find use for it. Donnie was mostly raised alongside Zuko, but he always tried to reach out a little bit to Azula when he could. They were never close, though. He almost stepped in when the Agni-Kai happened, but Splinter warned him not to. "As terrible as this is, it is the path that will lead to salvation. I know it is painful, but you must let this happen." By that point in time he had already proven himself to be a genius and was put to work designing weapons and vehicles (though he never gave them his all, and tried his best to balance Convincing Progress with Holding Back). Splinter's intervention is what kept Donnie from falling to the same propaganda and false narratives Zuko and Azula believed, so he trusted the older spirit and didn't interfere. After a heated argument, of course. Literally. He was also told not to leave to go with Zuko, and thus he stayed behind and ended up being appointed to Azula's side. He's her advisor-in-training, essentially, expected to help her run the Fire Nation someday.

He can't wait to meet his brothers and topple the empire with them, but until then he puts up a convincing enough front, though he can't hide that he's more softhearted than would be preferred. But his advice is always sound, logical arguments backing up requests to send food or medical aid that just make too much sense to dismiss ("Their mining will more than double in speed and efficiency if they're provided another portion of rations each every day, which means we could roll out way more of these vehicles than we originally planned for." Things like that.) He meets his brothers in Omashu but doesn't join them yet. I'm deciding between that being because he's unable to talk to them to let them know he's not on Ozai's side actually, or if it's because he is able to meet them in secret and explain but Splinter says he can't join them yet. Either way, he doesn't join them until Zuko does. He keeps trying to get Azula to be a better person through "subtle" methods, and she keeps trying to "subtly" make him more cold-hearted. Neither of them are making much progress, really. He's an excellent Firebender, of course, and if he wasn't known for his mercy in the palace he'd be as widely feared for it as Azula is.

Sorry for giving Donnie the most/two whole paragraphs, uhhhhh he's my favorite.

Aang still has his big showdown with Ozai the same way, the Turtles don't defeat him, they're there as guides and protectors, not The Big Heroes.

This AU doesn't have any of the TMNT villains or humans, but if I were ever to add April and Casey I'd say they come after Aang defeats Ozai. Casey's an Earthbender who thinks Toph is the coolest ever and meets them in a post-Ozai trip to Ba Sing Se, where he instantly hits it off with Raph and Toph and everyone is like "Oh god there's three of them now." April is from a small Fire Nation village where she and her dad secretly helped fleeing defectors and refugees. She has a strong connection to the spirit world for a non-Avatar and used it to help the escapees in any way she could, be it helping figure out if lost family are still alive or just hiding before people checked the houses.

I don't think I'd include any of the romance stuff but it'd also be funny if I did because I think this Donnie flirts not dissimilarly to Azula. Instead of a stalker incel type he's a "I don't know how to compliment her without comparing her to weapons and lava and fire. I sound like I want us to destroy stuff together but I really just want to go on a quiet picnic. Casey help me- Casey flirts by throwing rocks at people. He's throwing rocks at me. I'm even more confused and lost than before."

REASONING FOR THEIR BENDING ALIGNMENTS:

I mean, do I even need to explain Mikey and Leo? I don't think I do.

Raph is an Earthbender because A) he and Toph are so similar and I wanted him to be her big brother so badly and B) I think it fits a lot better personality-wise than fire if you look at more than just his temper. Earth is a strong, steadfast element. It's the most protective element, the only one that can defend truly effectively against all 3 other elements. Like his sai are mainly defensive weapons that can be used as offensive ones, Earth is a very defensive element that can also be used for offense. He's also the physically strongest, something typically shown to be an Earthbending trait. And while his temper is easy to spike, when he's not lost to it he tends to be the most level-headed and, heh, grounded.

Donnie is a Firebender partly because they are the obvious choice to allow for his technical skills and advancements to be fully taken advantage of, but also because I think it fits his personality the best. Firebenders are very passionate and ambitious. While Donnie might not pressure himself to be perfect in combat like Leo does, he definitely applies that pressure to himself when it comes to his science, a pressure of perfection we see Zuko and Azula deal with as well. He's also the most emotional of the brothers, something that again seems to be a consistent trait with Firebenders. Raph may have the most temper, but Donnie is most easily swayed by his wider range of emotions and has more trouble keeping himself present and grounded, which again we see in Zuko and Azula more than once, letting emotion guide them more than they might want to admit. It's also a similar environment to the show in the sense that there's incredible expectations and pressure put on him to create useful and powerful machines and inventions with very little thanks in return (yeah I'm a little salty on his behalf, EVERYONE EXPECTS HIM TO DO EVERYTHING AND GET MAD WHEN HE CAN'T). Fire also has a similar movement theme to his bo staff, in my opinion, with a lot of movements focused on sweeping attacks from a good distance, focused jab-like movements to send concentrated streams of fire, and a lot of precision expected and required to hit the right points. Plus Firebending is the only bending that comes totally from within, and with a character who's greatest strengths come from within (not only his genius mind but his kind and soft heart) it seems thematically fitting, especially considering that where Raph's own soft heartedness manifests as staunch protectiveness, Donnie's tends to manifest more as striking out (his first thoughts with Timothy once they're at the lair together aren't "Keep this kid out of trouble," but "Show this kid how to give trouble back.").

But yeah! That's the AU! :D I haven't watched ATLA in years so I hope I remembered most of what I mentioned accurately enough.

#tmnt 2012 #tmnt 2k12

[hello-nichya-here]

Can you shortly explain why you think that Aang sparing Ozai's life was the right way to 'end the conflict'? Thanks

"Shortly" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Anon, have you met me?

1) IT'S AANG - Aang tried to be friends with Zuko the very second he did something good for him FOR SELFISH REASONS and then refused to let him freeze to death right after the fucker kidnaped him, he was terrified of firebending because he accidentally lightly burned Katara and then vowed to never use it again, didn't hate Teo's dad despite the fact that he was making weapons for the Fire Nation (he kind of had no choice, but still, YIKES), hated going into the Avatar state because he wasn't in control of his own actions, tried to reason with that Earth Kingdom dude who was literally about to bury Katara alive, had a friendly conversation with Iroh and asked his advice even though the guy spent all of book one trying to help Zuko capture him, had no animosity towards the guy that tried to start a fight with him at school, still believed that Sozin had good in him just like everyone despite knowing that the guy killed his past incarnation and commited genocide against his people, befriend Zuko despite him being Ozai's son AND having tried to capture him AND having betrayed him AND sent an assassin after him, and in the Southern Raiders he explictly brought up the fact that he forgave the sandbenders for stealing Appa AND the Fire Nation for the genocide of his people when trying to talk Katara out of killing her mother's murderer. Aang being willing to try to reason with Ozai AND spare his life even after the fucker still insisted on being trash isn't a "cop-out" so the protagonist won't have to kill, it's literally just Aang being Aang.

2) Killing Ozai Would Prove Him (And Sozin) Right - During the big epic battle in the finale, Ozai stated the obvious: he doesn't believe the Air-nomads were worthy of having ever existed because they were "weak" for refusing to kill. Solving the war through pacifism essentially proves him wrong and makes it very clear that the air-nomads, their culture, their values, and their teachings were just as important to the world as all the other nations (including the Fire Nation). Sometimes violence and even taking lives is necessary, but that doesn't mean these are the ONLY solutions to everything ever - even to a literal war.

3) Aang Suffered Enough - Aang was excluded by the other kids when it was revealed that he was the Avatar, lost all of his loved ones except for Appa and Bumi (who were both kidnapped), had to deal with the trauma of knowing he was the last of his people, had to deal with the guilt of having "failed" the world and "allowed" the genocide of his people, the war, and the demise of the dragons to happen (those things were in no way his fault), had to readjust to a living in a completely different world, saw all of his friends nearly die a bunch of times, was kidnapped weekly, almost died a bunch of times, did die once, and had to deal with the pressure of being the last hope for the world even though he is just a deeply traumatized 12-year-old. Do we really need to add "Had to kill a man despite being just a kid AND having been taught/expected to be a pacifist his whole life?" (I know there's no way people didn't die on situations like when he merged with the ocean spirit, but there's a difference between "Accidentally, involuntarely caused someone's death" and "Intentionally killed someone" even if it's in self-defense/justified)

4) Killing Ozai Could Make Him A Martyr - The Fire Nation is far from being a fair society. It is built around the idea of becoming more powerful no matter the cost, and the Fire Lord is basically seen as a God that decides what is right or wrong. Pretty much everyone is collectively surrendering to the natural weakness of every firebender: letting fire consume and destroy everything. Ozai dying in battle against the Avatar of all people CAN be told as a story about a messianic figure punishing a wicked man... but it can also be "The Fire Lord that died for his nation and was so strong only the Avatar could defeat him!" Ozai being just some guy wasting away in prison takes away that image of a man that has absolute power. Which brings us to my last point...

5) Ozai Would Prefer Death Over Losing His Bending - He would especially hate being alive just because the last airbender decided to go for some cruel mercy and let him spend the rest of his life knowing his "failure" of a son "stole" his crown (add in Azula finding happiness and cutting him off from her life and I'll be able to sleep at night)

The energybending thing WAS rushed and the "doubt" of whether Aang really would kill Ozai was dragged on for too long, but Aang sparing his life is the ONLY thing that makes sense, both thematically and considering the characters involved.

#asks #aang meta #ozai meta #bitchlord ozai #energybending #avatar meta #atla meta