Show the world you've got that fire
Feel the rhythm getting louder
Don't you feel better when you're dancing?
I was so, so happy to get the chance to commission @le-poofe to draw my favorite duo. There's so much life in this, I'm so happy
439 notes
·
View notes
A planet with four sophont races and a sharp technological gradient.
The water peoples expanded along one landmass’s coastline and gulfs, and became the first to weave and construct permanent settlements.
The earth peoples had learned to genetically engineer the plant life growing around them, designing species for tasks like intercommunications, medicine, construction, and travel.
The air peoples spearheaded aviation technology for the planet, and had been on the precipice of an industrial age upon contact.
The fire peoples were the last to be contacted on their isolated continent. Some ancient Firish art depicts the aircraft of the more advanced other civilizations. They rely on two symbiotic species to move, emote, and manipulate with.
Due to the evolutionary gaps between the races, natural languages are usually incompatible. Tactile and sign are the most popular shapes for intermediaries to take.
While signs and touches have been quickly modified to include a simplified form for the fire peoples’ single arm to express, the full expressive potential of Firish emotion does not have an outlet in common language, and full physical accommodation for their symbioses in public spaces is unheard of.
503 notes
·
View notes
not to beat the "sokka's misogyny" disk horse even further into the ground, but while i agree with the take that sokka being sexist logically doesn't make sense, i would go further to say that the water tribes themselves being sexist is both illogical and thematically contradictory.
the flaws of each nation in atla have always been linked to their element, and specifically what those elements represent. fire is the element of power; power, left unchecked, leads to imperialism and authoritarianism. earth is the element of substance and stability; stability, prioritized too highly, creates and justifies the rigid class system and rampant corruption of ba sing se. air is the element of freedom; freedom, taken too far, becomes irresponsibility and abandonment.
meanwhile, water is the element of change... therefore the water tribes cling to antiquated ideas about gender roles instead of adapting with the times (especially when the times involve a fucking war going on).
not only is this unrealistic, it also breaks the thematic pattern of the nations' flaws being virtues taken to extremes, and how this dovetails into the show's overall message about the importance of balance. if we're keeping with the pattern of virtue and vice being two sides of the same coin, then the flaw of the water tribes has to be related to change. and here is where some of the (badly executed) ideas in the comics and legend of korra could have come into play: change, left uncontrolled, can lead to progress... but at the cost of tradition and spirituality.
(imagine a nwt cut off from the world and forced to rely solely on itself, ingenuity and creativity flourishing out of sheer, desperate need. imagine a nwt where waterbending is nothing more than a tool, used to build and defend and maintain a fortress always at risk, its spiritual origins slowly lost to time. imagine a nwt more military than community, whose architecture and technology far exceed anything the world has ever seen, who look down upon their less advanced sister tribe, and see no need for the avatar - after all, where was he when they had no one but themselves for the last 100 years?
when warned that the fire nation is coming, they show no fear; they have held strong on their own for the last century, bolstered by their weapons and wits, and will continue to do so. you need the spirits, aang implores, and is met with derision, for there is no place for spirits in a society always chasing more, greater, better. the spirits have not helped us before, avatar. why would they now? we are all we need.
when the moon spirit falls, unprotected and forgotten in an abandoned, rundown spirit oasis - so do they.)
not only would this fit better thematically, it would also ensure that the nwt's flaw plays a role in its own downfall. where the fire nation's warmongering resulted in the poverty and suffering of its own people, and the earth kingdom's corruption led - at least in part - to the fall of ba sing se, the misogyny of the water tribes is never shown to negatively impact them in any way. the north isn't defeated by the fire nation because they relegated half the population to healing. the south doesn't suffer raids or lose their waterbenders because they (supposedly) didn't let women fight. this lack of narrative punishment means that - outside of a few girlboss moments for katara - the sexism of the nwt isn't significant to the overall story whatsoever.
furthermore, while the ba sing se arc last almosts half a season, and the fire nation's actions drive the entire show, this supposed systemic oppression of women shows up for one episode in the first season before disappearing entirely. pakku is reminded of his lost love, magically turns into a feminist, and somehow the entire tribe follows suit? no one else protests, not even the other students or the chief?
and yet, though there are still no female waterbenders other than katara, or agency for kanna in her relationship, or any indication that women stopped being forcibly betrothed - the entire issue is simply swept under the rug and never brought up ever again in the show. i understand this was a children's cartoon made in 2005, and that even having female characters openly speak about and challenge misogyny was a radical feat for the time and genre, but the reality of patriarchy is that it's structural, sustained and immensely difficult to resist - if the show was going to depict that resistance, it should have done so with greater depth and nuance, as it did for many of the other difficult topics it tackled.
ultimately, handwaving misogyny away like it never existed is far more disrespectful to katara's character, her fight against injustice, and the girls who saw themselves in her, than simply toning it down or removing it could ever be.
132 notes
·
View notes
I was at a weird camp at an ocean place and people were dying left and right and I was just calm about it? At the end the main building caught on fire and I looked up at the fire and went, “Huh, that looks fake” despite hearing screams from inside.
239 notes
·
View notes