#Ozai is a terrible parent | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

zvtara-was-never-canon · 6 months

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you once said that the ZK do not allow the canonical Zuko to show real, sometimes ugly signs of trauma. can you write more about this? because that's what I always felt when I came across their terrible takes, but I couldn't express it.

Gladly! But first, I need to mention the sign of trauma that Zuko usually lacks - and that, for some reason, the fandom insists defines his character:

Fear

Don't get wrong, I'm not saying Zuko never experienced fear. We all saw that poor boy on his knees, crying, begging his father not to hurt him.

But in "Zuko Alone" we also see 10-year-old Zuko get bitter that only his younger sister was expected to show off her firebending skills, and deciding that he would go against his father and demonstrate his own skills to the Fire Lord - that despite the fact that he knew Azula was better at it than he was. Even when it goes wrong, he is upset, but doesn't look afraid of the consequences.

That same episode shows Azula mocking him for playing with knives despite not even being good at it, and even though the fandom insists she was his worst fear ever since he was a child, Zuko responds with a "Put an apple on your head and we'll see how good I am." That little guy has exactly zero chill.

Let's not forget why he was banished either: Despite being considered too young to be in that war meeting, Zuko demanded to be there, eventually got his way, and despite having been told not to say anything, the second he hears a general suggest using their own men as "fresh meat" to lure the enemy, Zuko speaks out against it. And at the start of the Agni Kai, he looked 100% ready to fight a grown ass man with battle experience - until he saw it was his father/Fire Lord.

Let's not forget his Agni Kai with Zhao, which was his idea and that he actually won - and before that, he openly calls Ozai a fool, to which Zhao points out that banishment clearly not teach Zuko to watch his mouth. Or the time he openly challenged Azula in Ba Sing Se and they only didn't fight then and there because Azula knew she'd have the advantage by using the Dai Li. Hell, at the start of that very season, after she tried to lure him to a trap, Zuko's first reaction is to charge at her, fire-daggers in hand. That boy is the definition of "Fuck around and find out."

He has also done things like choosing to save his uncle from earthbenders instead of chasing Aang, crossing a blockade and going into actual Fire Nation territory even though he legally is no longer allowed to do that, and helped rescue Aang from Zhao as the Blue Spirit. It shows us that Zuko doesn't have an issue with temporarely deviating from his mission because of something HE deems important even though his father doesn't, openly disregarding Ozai's orders, and even basically saying "My father will have the Avatar as a prisoner only if I'm the one to capture him"

And, of course, on the day of the eclipse, Zuko grabs his swords and directly threatens Ozai, telling that bastard to sit the fuck down, shut up, and listen to his list of reasons why he sucks as a parent, ruler and person.

Zuko is brave. Unbelievably so. He is fierce, proud, and impulsive to the point of getting himself in situations that he should have known would not go his way (like fighting a waterbender in the snow, in the full moon) because he is very much a "act first, think later" kind of guy. So the fandom's insistence that he is constantly paralyzed by fear is a gross over-simplification of how his trauma affects him.

We only see him genuinely afraid of Ozai twice. During the Agni Kai itself, and then again when he WANTS to speak out against his father's plan to burn the Earth Kingdom to the ground, but can't bring himself to because he remembers what happened last time he spoke out against that kind of horrible thing during a war meeting, at that very room. It took something THAT triggering to make him cower before a challenge.

However, fear wasn't the only reason why didn't speak out during that moment, and that takes us to the first "ugly" sign of trauma that the fandom as a whole likes to pretend Zuko wasn't repeatedly shown to experience:

"My father is right about me, actually"

Zuko doesn't think Ozai was wrong to disfigure and banish him. How could he? Nobody in that entire room stood up to at least try to support him, not even his uncle - who also once said "Why would your father have banished you if he didn't care about you?" because, surprise surprise, nobody in that family knows how to help someone through trauma because they're all dealing with their own shit. Even his crew, who WAS sympathetic to him after finding out how he got that scar, were still 100% willing to not only support Ozai, but risk their lives for him.

Zuko isn't just trying to heal from abuse, he is trying to heal from victim-blaming, and to go against YEARS of indoctrination that say the Fire Lord can do no wrong. That's part of why it was so difficult for Iroh and others to help him: Zuko didn't believe that he needed or deserved help.

And that is also one of his three major unhealthy coping mechanisms. Claiming that HE needs to prove himself to Ozai, that HE needs to make up for HIS mistakes, not the other way around.

It might seem strange that this could be a way to cope, but look at it this way: If it WAS his fault instead of Ozai's, then that means his dad is not an unfair, abusive piece of shit that is unbelievably cruel and impossible to please. Zuko just needs to accomplish this mission of capturing the Avatar and everything will be fine, they'll be a normal family again, and he won't have to be afraid of someone he thought he could trust.

It was like Iroh said: Things are never going to be the same ever agin, but the Avatar gives Zuko HOPE. And that hope that his abuser will one day have a change of heart and be a loving father to him again is both what allows Zuko not to give into despair - and what keeps him trapped in that awful situation.

Misplaced Anger

Another "unpleasant" sign of trauma that Zuko has is how he clearly has an anger problem. Sure, he's a moody teenager with a short fuse, but we see over and over again that he tends to blow things way out of proportion, and that when faced a fact or opinion he doesn't like, he is quick to lash out at someone with VERY cruel words (see him calling Iroh a lazy, shallow, jealous old man in "Avatar State", or calling him crazy and saying if he wasn't in prison, he'd be sleeping in a gutter in "The Headband").

Through the entire show, many people faced Zuko's wrath - Iroh, Aang and friends, his crew, Azula, innocent people of the Earth Kingdom, Mai, Ty Lee, that one rando that talked to Mai, and even Zuko himself.

The one person that usually escapes said wrath is, ironically, Ozai. In "Zuko Alone" he refuses to believe his father would ever be capable of harming him, in "Avatar State" he snaps at Iroh for doubting that Ozai really changed his mind about the whole banishment thing.

He is mad at Aang for being too difficult to capture, and at Zhao for stealing his one chance to come home. He never stops to question if it's fair that his father had him chase someone that was presumed dead, aka an impossible task, as the condition to bring him home. He also never addresses how he feels about the reason WHY said banishment happened until the Day Of Black Sun.

He is mad at Azula for lying to him and trying to take him home as a prisoner. He never gets mad at his father for not only wanting to lock him away forever because ZHAO screwed up at the North Pole, nor how messed up it was that he put Azula in charge of said mission.

For fuck's sake, in the day of the eclipse, we find out that Zuko legit believed his mother was DEAD - and the entire circumstance was shady as hell and put Ozai in a very bad light. Yet Zuko still wanted his love, still wanted to be a "worthy" son.

He HAS to direct his anger at other people, otherwise he'll realize that no, his father, the adult that was meant to care for him, is a complete monster.

Everytime Zuko lashes out at other people before confronting Ozai, he's basically acting like someone who is drowning and, in a panic, is trying to pull the nearest person under so he can try to breathe. It is one of the most accurate and honest representations of trauma and abuse, and it makes me SO mad when people erase it in their fics because "poor, innocent, helpless turtleduck that can do no wrong" makes Zuko look like less of a dick - and also completely strips him of his agency.

And that isn't even the thing that fans ignore the most. That "honor" goes to the simple fact that Zuko, as expected of a child raised to believe the Fire Lord can do no wrong, decided that Azula had the right idea and that the best way to avoid being a victim again was...

Copying His Abuser

Zuko has REPEATEDLY let his "inner Ozai" out through the show.

He is all manipulative by not letting the pirates know he was chasing the Avatar who was worth A LOT more than the scrowl they'd get as a reward for helping him, and by using Katara's necklace as a way to try and get her to say where Aang was.

He repeatedly steals stuff from innocent people (including some who helped him, like Song) because, in his own words "These people should just be giving stuff to us" - aka he's very much an entitled prince.

He betrays his uncle by joining Azula in Ba Sing Se, leading to Iroh being thrown in prison. He also doesn't give a shit when Katara says "I thought you had changed!" and he sends a freaking assassin after the Gaang. Even him refusing to tell Azula that there was a chance Aang could still be alive works both as a "Zuko doesn't trust Azula to not use that against him, and for good reason" and "Zuko did not even stop to think that, since Azula was the one who killed Aang, him coming back also puts HER in danger, because he's too focused on his own problems to notice anybody else's."

More importantly, he rejected a chance of a ceasefire with the Gaang three times (The Blue Spirit, The Chase, Crossroads of Destiny), much like Ozai refused his shot at ending the war in the finale before his battle with Aang, and not only did he challenge Zhao to an Agni Kai and seriously consider burning him, he also threatened one of his crewmen by saying he'd "teach him respect" - which we found out later that episode was what Ozai right before disfiguring poor Zuko.

For fuck's sake, Ozai was literally designed to look like an older Zuko. One without a scar, one that was never banished, one that never had to see first-hand all the death and suffering war brings and reflect on the role he plays in it.

Finally, we have the war meetings in "Nightmares And Daydreams", in which Zuko doesn't speak out against his father's completely inhumane plans to deal with the Earth Kingdom. When talking about it with Mai, he says "I was the perfect prince, the son my father wanted. But I wasn't me."

That is the turning point for Zuko for a reason. It's him finally being forced to acknowledge that, to become Ozai's ideal son, to earn his (conditional) love, to not be his victim he has to be just as bad as he is, just as cruel, just as unfair - and we see in Azula's breakdown how Zuko likely would have ended up if he accepted that path.

But he didn't, and that was not easy because even though it was the morally correct choice, it'd require him to sacrifice everything - his title as a prince, his right to be in the Fire Nation, his relationship with Mai, his (extremelly complicated, sometimes good, often awful) bond with Azula, the "easy" way to get literally anything he wanted at everyone else's expense, and, of course, accept that his father was never going to love him, was never going to change, and was never going to feel sorry for abusing him.

Erasing such a central conflict of his character for the sake of denying he ever did anything wrong is, ironically, removing one of Zuko's most noble character traits: his inability to just live with himself after doing something horrible. There's a reason he is in deep conflict even after getting everything he wanted after the fall of Ba Sing Se - he knows he doesn't deserve it after what he's done.

If you ignore his mistakes and the horrible consequences it had for other people, you also ignore Zuko's growth. This puts him more in the position of a good guy being held hostage by the evil villain, not of a troubled child that redeems himself as he matures.

No flaws, no mistakes, no growth, no arc.

Trauma Doesn't Just Go Away

This one is, by far, the bad trope regarding Zuko's trauma that Zutarians are the most guilt of: assuming that if he just gets enough comforting hugs (mainly from Katara), all of his inner turmoil will suddenly be healed. No more sadness, no more fear, no more of the ugly traits they never acknowledge in the first place. Just a happy, fully recovered Zuko.

But that's just not how these things work. Having the support of a loved one helps victims feel better, but it won't magically make everything okay. Trauma is a really difficult thing to handle. There's good days, bad days, relapses, bad habits that are difficult to move past from. And not only are there cases in which people take YEARS to recover, there are also cases in which they never fully heal, and instead just learn to live with that burden that is still very much present.

I understand the desire to show in fics and headcanons that Zuko will eventually be fully healed and happy, but the way Zutarians make Katara act as not just his girlfriend, but as basically his therapist that needs to find miracle solutions for every single one of his problems, comfort him whenever any minor inconvenience happens until he's gotten enough hugs to be magically okay doesn't just reveal how hypocritical they are, since they insist Kataang is about Katara being Aang's girlfriend/mom/baby-sitter, but also that they legit do not understand a damn thing about trauma and how it works.

Which takes me to:

How Mai Actually Did Right By Zuko

Poor, poor Mai. She gets blamed for "bring out the worst in Zuko", for not being "supportive", for being too cold and unemotional, for not "seeing the real him" - yet she's one of the characters that CONSISTENLY help put Zuko back on his track.

She offers him emotional support and lots of signs of affection over and over again - telling him not worry when they're arriving at the Fire Nation, pointing out she doesn't hate him when she says she's beautiful when she hates the world, explicitly saying she cares about him in The Beach, being incredibly sweet and loving to him during all of Nightmares and Daydreams, and then again in the finale by helping him get dressed up and acting all cute as they get back together.

But she also holds him accountable when he screws up. She doesn't let him use his difficult life as an excuse to be a jerk and calls him out when he's being unreasonable, or when she feels mistreated/like he's making a mistake (see The Beach and Boiling Rock Part 2).

But since the fandom loves to completely erase Zuko's mistakes AND to not let go of a stupid ship war, this completely changes the context, making Mai out to be this awful, bitchy girlfriend, when in reality, she did a great job handling Zuko - sometimes even better than the fan favorite and mentor figure Zuko had through most of his arc.

Uncle Iroh Fucked Up

Before all of you try to kill me, let me make one thing clear here: I love Uncle Iroh. He is one of the most awesome characters in the show, and I fully believe he was trying his best to help Zuko.

But he is still a human being that makes mistakes, and he was raised in the same dysfunctional family Zuko was, meaning he often had NO IDEA how to handle his deeply traumatized teenage nephew/son.

Him spending all of book 1 trying to help Zuko capture Aang so he could go back to living with the guy that disfigured him is already bad enough, but we also have the episode "Avatar State" in which Iroh asks "Why would your father banish you if he didn't care about you?"

Obviously he only did these things because he didn't want Zuko give into despair and depression - but he is still, at best, ignoring the issue, and at worst actively making excuses for Ozai's abuse of his own son. This backfires on him spectacularly, as Zuko sides with Azula over him both in the first and last episode of the season specifically because he believes that appeasing Ozai is the right thing to do, as he was only banished "for his own good."

But THE biggest mistake Iroh made when it came to helping Zuko was his refusal to accept that no, Zuko was never going to be happy by living a quiet, simple life in Ba Sing Se - even after Zuko explicitly said as much to his face.

Obviously, to some extent, Iroh HAS to make Zuko accept that he won't ever be able to come back home after Ozai literally ordered Azula to capture him, but he could have tried to find some kind of middle ground with Zuko, since being a waiter clearly wasn't making him happy.

"Oh, but what about how Zuko started acting after his metamorphosis? He was so happy about working on the tea-shop with his uncle, and that was supposed to reveal his true self!"

Yes, it was supposed to do that. But we saw how Zuko acted after actually dealing with his trauma and redeeming himself. He was obviously in a much healthier place, both mentally and spiritually, but he was still moody, still sarcastic, still as proud as ever, and even Iroh recognized that he was meant to be Fire Lord.

Zuko's arc has a lot to do with identity, with how he sees himself. At that point, the only thing he still had in life was his uncle - so he was acting like him, because there seemed to be no other role model, no other path. Seeing that weird, cheery, relaxed, always-seeing-the-good-side-of-things version of Zuko was honestly unnerving.

And Iroh thought that Zuko basically giving himself the Lake Laogai treatment was okay because he following in his footsteps, doing what helped IROH heal and change - he didn't realize it was never gonna be able to do the same for Zuko.

The very second Azula shows up, even when she's being hostile, Zuko drops the facade, because she's a reminder of both his old life and what he thought his future would be. And when she offers him "redemption" Iroh tried to advice Zuko against joining her by saying "The redemption she offers is not for you" (as in not for someone who is doing better and doesn't need to return to the Fire Nation) and "It's time for you to choose. It's time for you to choose good." How is it a choice if Iroh is explicitly saying which option Zuko cannot pick, essentially making the decision for him?

Iroh didn't just get the way to help Zuko wrong - he didn't realize his nephew didn't believe he needed help. They were not on the same page at all, and that contribuited to Zuko betraying him.

Though, thankfully, it ended up being for the best, as Zuko found his own way to redemption by himself.

Conclusion

This fandom as a whole tends to not understand Zuko at all and just eat up a bunch of fanon while pretending to be so intellectual, which I very much resent it for.

#anti zutara #pro maiko #pro mai #zuko is not an awkward turtleduck

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prying-pandora666 · 4 months

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Imagine If Zuko Had…

Just imagine if Zuko had messed up. Imagine he had acted just a little too much like Ozai and recognized his mistake.

Imagine if in response, he abdicated the throne in disgrace and ran off to live in the woods alone. Completely isolated.

His relationship with his wife? Failed. His daughter? Estranged. His uncle, sisters, mother, etc? All gone from his life.

He spent years of his adult life into old age alone in the woods away from anyone who cared about him and ashamed of how terribly he had failed as Fire Lord.

Would anyone consider this a good ending for Zuko? Let alone a happy one? Would Zuko cracking jokes or saying he’s fine this way convince you? Or would it seem like he’s trying to justify the way he’s wasted his life in solitude and disgrace?

If that all sounds horribly unfair to you, then why is it okay for Toph?

Because Toph Did…

Toph in ATLA has a very clear motivation for running away from home and joining Aang’s group. Her family stifled her and kept her isolated from the world. All she longed for was freedom and for a family that loved and accepted her as she was.

In the comics, she extrapolates upon this further, talking about how traumatizing it was to be captured in a tiny metal cage. How much she feared being forced to be something she’s not, being imprisoned and having more pressure and pain applied to her to try to change her by force. And worst of all, she feared becoming like her parents and passing on that same pressure and pain to others.

So why in the world was her fate in LOK the very thing she feared most?

As Police Chief, her very role is locking people away and trying to force them to behave differently. At times applying pressure and pain to force conformity. Imprisonment is an inextricable part of her job.

And she betrays her own convictions this way to what end?

Her relationships all fall apart and her daughters feel neglected due to the demands of the job. Toph finds herself re-enacting exactly what she told Zuko hurt her most about her parents: “They gave me everything except their love”.

Only to eventually find herself in a situation where she must choose between the stifling rules of her job or throw her daughter into this same system of punishment to try and change her by force. So she chooses her daughter, selectively not applying the law; an act of corruption and nepotism. As such, she resigns in disgrace, ashamed of her actions.

She is estranged from both of her daughters. She is alone and isolated. She lives in the swamp like a hermit. Away from the world. With no one to accept her as she is.

How in the world does anyone justify this as a fair or happy ending for Toph? When I see people celebrating cop Toph or swamp Toph, making memes about how badass she is or calling other fans idiots for pointing out how terrible of a writing choice this is for her character, it really makes me wonder if these fans don’t really care about Toph as a character at all beyond the aesthetics of how cool she can be.

And that makes me really sad because the same is clearly not true for characters like Zuko.

Entire dissertations are written about Zuko’s wants and needs vs his experiences in the world.

When it comes to Toph? She gets boiled down to “she likes to knock heads and boss other people around.”

Even by Bryke themselves.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #avatar #Zuko #Toph #Toph Beifong #lok #legend of korra

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euryvices · 3 months

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As someone who has never even touched ATLA (anime), and has only ever seen the movie, let me give you a list of reasons why i absolutely adored it :

aang is literally a kid in this one, like he's a child hero and golden boy, and god, doesn't your chest hurt a little from seeing all that youth pain and pain? don't you feel raw?

katara is a total badass. i know some of the anime fans don't like how she's different, but i look up to her so much and she's younger than me canonically. i would die for her. i esp like the fact that she saw jet, liked him, but the second she realised he was kind of a cult-leader she went fuck that shit im out

ZUKO IS A SMALL BABY I WANT TO PET HIM HE'S A SMALL CHILD HE IS MY SMALL CHILD HAVE YOU EVER FELT SO TERRIBLY ABOUT SOMETHING THAT YOU WISH TO EXIST IN A TIME WHERE YOU COULD HELP IT HEAL

sokka being a playboy/summer-fling/taylor swift's james from the love triangle coded kinda guy makes so much sense. in the movie he was obsessed with one (1) girl and that never made sense to me. like okay bby pop off monogamous king??? but i definitely feel that sokka is not the kind of person (esp in this time of his life) to be a one-woman guy. also i want to see him get in trouble for it sorry idk

iroh is zuko's dad and none of y'all can convince me otherwise.

i am so obsessed with jet he's literally babygirl. sebastian ATE TF UP!!!!!!

the complexities of monk gyatso being a friend and sort of a parental figure. how aang brought out his childish side, and how life is so terribly aching and huge with grief. how it's palpable in every room. and how love is an intimate boyfriend to time's cruelty and god why can't we let there be tenderness? this isn't fair.

FLUFFY!!!!! BIG!!!!! DOG!!!!! I LOVE APPA!!!!!! HES SO CUTE!!!!!!

ozai is more despicable that any father ive read about or even my own. i wish him all the most terrible forms of daily death.

absolute brilliant fucking chad actors (sorry for using the f-word and c-word) they're absolute g's. i love every single one of them and their ability to act and their personalities and also THEY HAVE A BIG WATER BISON THAT LOOKS ADORABLE HOW ARE YOU NOT HAPPY (SORRY FOR USING THE B-WORD)??????

Rant being over, I respect y'alls opinions fr. I get that seeing somethings change or become different in a new iteration of your favorite work is tough. But let's remember the amount of effort and time it takes for these actors, sets and even storyboard artists to work on these things!!!! Life is so terribly short, why must you fill your time with dissatisfaction? Find the things you love about the new show!! Find the positives!!!

also azula is so luke castellan coded

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spop-romanticizes-abuse · 2 months

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i'm glad more people are pointing out the flaws and bad writing in spop, and the toxicity in c//a's relationship. however, i do want to remind y'all to not get too biased.

i've seen a few people victim blame catra when it comes to her relationship with shadow weaver, and that's a really shitty thing to do. catra was a terrible person but the way shadow weaver treated her wasn't her fault.

i know that a lot of us like shadow weaver as a character, myself included, but she was still an abuser. she still physically and emotionally tortured a child for no real reason, because abusers don't need a reason. it's all well and good to point out catra's abusive behaviour but what shadow weaver did to her was not her fault.

i've even seen people implying that catra deserved to get abused or that shadow weaver abused her because she was disrespectful or didn't try enough during training. this is a really fucked up take. catra being disrespectful doesn't justify shadow weaver's abuse, that's like saying that adora deserved to get abused because she stood her ground against catra sometimes.

and catra didn't have to attend the horde training, none of them deserved to be groomed into child soldiers. the horde wasn't an environment any of them chose to grow up in. of course, catra's inferiority complex can seem a little hypocritical considering the fact that she never tried to do better, but i can understand the idea of wanting to give up because you're a slow learner or not naturally gifted in something.

also, catra seeking out shadow weaver's validation isn't bad writing or catra being stupid. it's pretty common in abusive relationships, actually. take zuko, for example. he's the example of a well-written character that we all turn to so for once, i'm gonna compare him to catra in a positive light.

ozai was actively abusive towards zuko but he still desperately wanted ozai's validation and approval. this is the result of being raised by an abusive parent. you feel like you have to earn their love, even when you're upset or angry at them, you secretly feel like it might be your fault.

i have to admit, the light spinner episode still makes me feel really bad for catra. the way she asks shadow weaver why she got abused really resonated with me, because i feel like catra secretly blamed herself for the way she was treated by her mother.

she might have told adora that shadow weaver was a horrible, manipulative person but i think deep down, catra had the classic dilemma of hating shadow weaver but craving for her love at the same time. she wanted to believe that shadow weaver might see some potential in her, the same way she did with adora. it's easier said than done to be like “well if you know that your parent is abusive, why don't you just leave them?” or “why did you let them manipulate you again?”

basically what i'm saying is: let's be mature about this whole situation. of course none of this justifies catra's actions and of course she deserves to be held responsible for her abusive behaviour and her war crimes. but let's not cross the line and start being insensitive towards abuse victims. catra did a lot of shitty things but being abused by shadow weaver wasn't one of them.

#spop #she ra #catra #tw abuse #rant #long post

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midnightpink · 3 months

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this love burns so yellow (becoming orange and in its time, exploding)

read it here on ao3

Ten months after Zuko is crowned at seventeen, he faces his first coup.

by: meliebee

Words: 18,767, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Collection: Zuko_angsty_and_cuddly, avatar tingz, Best of: Avatar The Last Airbender, AtLA <25k fics to read, escapism (to forget that the world is a burning hellscape), Best of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Essentials, zukka, Civil War Avatar, Creative Chaos Discord Recs, ive been here since i was twelve and these r the fucking best, ✧ Favourite Fanfictions ✧, Zukka comfort fics, Lumi's library of favourite fics, Psychologeek top picks, Avidreaders ATLA completed faves, My heart is full, ♥️Avis'_Favorites♥️, Happy Fics, superior atla fics, Fics I like, Qqqqqq115, like fresh water during summer, Behold the Sacred Texts, My Cabbages!!!!, my baby firelord zuko, Ridiculously well written fics

Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Major Character Death

Categories: F/M, Gen, M/M

Characters: Zuko (Avatar), Sokka (Avatar), Toph Beifong, Mai (Avatar), Katara (Avatar), Aang (Avatar), Iroh (Avatar), Ty Lee (Avatar), Suki (Avatar)

Relationship: Mai & Zuko (Avatar), Toph Beifong & Zuko, Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)

Additional Tags: teen and up for the language because toph and zuko are a bit feral and that's canon, Ozai (Avatar) Being a Terrible Parent, like... really, Zuko (Avatar)-centric, Toph Beifong and Zuko are Siblings, they adopt each other. forcefully, Firelord Zuko (Avatar), Zuko (Avatar) Needs a Hug, he gets many. because he deserves them, Gaang (Avatar) as Family, Gaang (Avatar), Slow Burn, like... a Slow Burn TM, I started writing this wanting to write angst and somewhere along the line it turned into healing, Hurt/Comfort, Zuko's Scar (Avatar), the main character death is NOT one of the gaang !!, Fluff and Angst, Mutual Pining, Mai/Ty Lee (Avatar) - Freeform

#atla #zuko #sokka #toph beifong #mai avatar #katarta #aang #uncle iroh #ty lee #atla suki #zukka #fic rec

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highfantasy-soul · 1 month

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What's your take on Hakoda in NATLA?

We didn't really get to see much of him - only about 5 minutes and viewed through Sokka's limited view of the conversation with Bato and Sokka's interpretation of him when he was young - but I like what they've done so far.

I think there's a lot of room for the writers to delve into the idea that Hakoda wasn't as hard on Sokka's inventions as Sokka thought he was - a lot of times young people put a lot more weight into their parent's passing comments than the parent really meant (then they incorporate that misunderstanding into their entire personalities) so Hakoda being worried that he'll have to leave Sokka behind so young during a time of war could really have accidentally instilled some toxic masculinity issues into Sokka that we saw him learning to abandon this season.

I also think that people are blowing his convo with Bato out of proportion - he didn't confide those fears with Sokka, he confided in his best friend in private. Parents, especially ones who are about to have to leave their children so they can go off to war - a war that might end up coming to their home with their children, are just people. They have fears and hopes for their children to somehow be ready for this war when they know it's a terrible situation, but a situation that can't be changed right now. Parents are allowed to be terrified their child didn't ace the test that would indicate how well they might survive. They're right to be afraid of putting the weight of responsibility on a 13/14 year old. They're also right to be able to have a gut negative reaction to how their kid performed on a test. That doesn't mean that's Hakoda's end feeling about it, but it's a legitimate fear to have in the moment.

So I think that the way they handled Hakoda in the live action set up a lot of interesting places they could go in future seasons - Sokka's perception of how his dad views him was so important to his character arc this season and I think it'll be a valuable lesson to kids and parents alike when they delve into that relationship more and actually see Hakoda's side of things - and when Hakoda sees how Sokka took Hakoda's parenting.

It's a super common thing for kids to confront their parents about stuff in their childhood and the parent to be gobsmacked and think 'I had no idea that's what you were taking from that interaction' and with how they've deepened Ozai and Iroh's characters and how their interactions with the world impacts the children around them (unintentionally or intentionally), I think they'll carry on that depth and nuance with Hakoda.

#natla #avatar the last airbender #netflix avatar #atla #hakoda #ask high fantasy

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linnoya-writes · 10 months

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Aang actually *was* a Terrible Dad (and we should stop making excuses for him).

One thing I cannot get over is how people say that Aang actually wasn't that terrible of a father, and I keep hearing the same excuses to his behavior: he didn't grow up with conventional parents, he had to focus on bringing back his air-bending culture, Katara was already a natural parent and was totally okay being the housewife/mom who let Aang off the hook with most of the serious parenting duties... ugh....

Anyway, I have three points to give:

1) Aang may not have grown up with conventional family structure, but he certainly knew enough about the world (being a nomad his whole life pre-war) to understand what a healthy family dynamic looked like. He knew enough about Toph's dad and Zuko's dad to understand what a poor father figure looked like. Aang also spent time with Hakoda, in ATLA season 3, to see the characteristics of a good father -- and this doesn't even include the time he spent traveling with Sokka/Katara alone and noticing how their dad's absence was affecting them. I put a lot of emphasis on Katara, here, because she makes it very clear in Season 3 that her father leaving the family was devastating... and this girl would want a partner who understood those feelings and do absolutely everything to keep the family together. It's what she did throughout the entirety of ATLA-- Katara was the glue that kept everyone close -- and you would think Aang would pick up on those cues, rather than let history repeat itself after he had his family with Katara. Imagine how awful it must've been for Katara, watching the man she married ultimately go off with their air-bending son on these cultural excursions, and not even consider that their two other kids might want to learn about air bending culture anyway. They're a bi-cultural family, after all, right? Wouldn't that have been a prime example for the new world, showing a blended family being together and not separate? Just let that sink in for a moment.

2) Many people say that any misunderstood family dynamics between Kya, Bumi and Tenzin came to a peaceful conclusion in LOK season 2 with a happy family portrait. Here's the thing-- a posed, smiling family portrait doesn't necessarily indicate a healthy family unit. I'm also making note of LOK Season 3, when Bumi admits that he finally feels more connected to their father after he magically gets Airbending, and also that scene when Kya/Bumi arrive to the Northern Air Temple and the acolytes are shocked to hear that Avatar Aang had other children besides Tenzin. I mean... how much effort would it take, exactly, for Aang to just mention to the temple monks and acolytes that he had two other kids? Was he embarrassed to tell them they weren't air benders? Was he ashamed? In any case, he was the Avatar and he should've demonstrated pride for the children he had regardless of their bending ability or lack their-of. It goes without saying that, while Aang did grow up differently and had many priorities being the Avatar and the Last Airbender... he still made some conscious choices about how little of a "family man" he wanted to be. Aang clearly favored the air-bending life and didn't process that he was also raising a family that was part WaterTribe (perhaps because many of their customs clashed with his air-bending way of life... but that's another conversation.)

3) Yes, Bryke are notorious for writing examples of poor father figures (Ozai/Unalaq/BeiFong/Yakone/Hiroshi) and I'm also here to tell you that they're known for writing women who lose agency and turn devoted-doting-domestic-docile once they get with their man. Pema from LOK is a good example-- all we know about her is she literally gave her life to be an air-acolyte and carry Tenzin's children (the only backstory we get is Pema secretly pined for Tenzin until it became too much and she had to say something), and be the good housewife and mother to those air bending kids. We know nothing about this woman's individual wants or needs outside of motherhood. Another example is the backstory of Yakone and his unnamed wife who-- after giving this man two sons, completely disappears from the narrative and is not aware Yakone is abusing his kids. And she's still exists, because Amon refuses to go with Noatak so as to not abandon their mom. Their mother was so unnecessary as a character after she had the kids, she became this oblivious/silent character in the background who let her own kids get abused. Another example is Unalaq's wife-- again, about a father using his two kids like his henchmen and the mother isn't even in the picture. We know she exists because after Unalaq gets destroyed... Esna turns to Desca and says "what're we gonna tell Mother?" It may have been written as a subtle joke... but the underlying sentiment is still there.

I'd say my favorite example is the fate of Fire Lady Ursa-- a woman once determined to protect her children that she was willing to commit murder and treason -- ends up choosing to forget those same children and instead wipes all her memories of them entirely to start a quiet domestic life with her childhood sweetheart, a man who very much knows the life Ursa left behind and has the power to decide what truths he wants to tell her about the world and live like there wasn't even a bloody war happening. (Don't even get me started on how The Search disappointed me. Oy).

Perhaps Aang and Katara -- even without intent -- might have fallen into that formulaic pattern when Bryke wrote out the first two seasons of LOK, because that was during the time The Promise, The Search and The Rift comics got published, and Katara's character was definitely becoming that unquestionably-loyal/no fuss/devoted girlfriend to Aang where she would go with everything he decided and sadly sit in a corner while Aang got all the praise and attention and never considering her feelings. Bryke picked up on these mistakes, however, because in the later comics like North & South and Imbalance, you can see them giving Katara some leadership moments (particularly when Aang isn't around) and Aang more of a mature, considerate approach with Katara, saying things like "I'm sorry I just left you to fight alone like that!" and "You're always asking me if I'm okay. Now it's my turn-- are you okay?" The effort was definitely there to make Aang and Katara look somewhat more compatible than they let on. But things didn't really seem that promising in Legend of Korra... as Katara's character arc gets breadcrumbs of acknowledgement regarding what she did for the world outside of Aang's narrative.

It seems like Katara's badass individual characteristics were written second only to whatever she needed to be for Aang, including being the primary parent to his non-airbender kids while he focused on the air-bending culture.

In any case-- I'm almost certain Bryke will be bending over backwards to "fix" all of these flawed elements of Kataang and Aang as a father figure in the upcoming animated feature films, because if there's anything Bryke likes to do... it is "tell" us that Aang was a great guy and there absolutely was no other better person for Katara.

#avatar the last airbender #kataang critical #katara of the southern water tribe #katara deserved better #aang critical #atla #bryke critical #bryke projected their feelings about a woman's place pretty indiscreetly when they wrote their romances #katara

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the-genius-az · 16 days

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Azula in this turns most of what she feels into anger, a quiet and cold anger, but anger nonetheless (she's taught that anger is what fuels firebending, and she needs to be the strongest firebender in history).

Azula is my blorbo, my little dragon, half of my fic ideas have her deeply traumatized, terribly injured or just actually dead.

Azula loses her pack, her destined mate and her cub. So she dresses up as the Kemurikage and basically goes out there taking orphan cubs and raising them with other people that lost as much as her. They're an unofficial pack (because neither her or the other alphas can claim a pack after their trauma), hurt adults taking care of children so these pups will never be hurt like them. See, I can make it heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time.

I'll send a different ask about the whole "Mai loves or doesn't love Azula" of this AU (and actually of all the AUs where Maizula is a thing but Mai still betrays her).

The Boiling Rock is the worst day in Azula's life, poor girl.

Here's the thing: it's as happy as I can give Azula in this context. Because she'll never be "normal", not with childhood trauma, war trauma, asylum trauma. She's inherently a tragic character, her happy ending can be bittersweet at best.

Mai is pretty hurt, but she can understand. She knows that Azula even giving her a chance is much, much more than what she deserves after the boiling rock. So then Azula marries her, is willing to have a couple of kids, be present and ask for nothing but the possibility of Mai not leaving her again. Despite her bad days, despite the past, Azula is a good parent, a good mate, and Mai is thankful that Azula is in her life.

The thing with Zuko is that even breaking the bond, there's still something there, deep down. Zuko was the first person Azula claimed, the first person she wanted to protect. She still loves Ozai, after everything. She still loves Zuko, after everything. It's unconditional, her love is unconditional. All you need to do is exist. And Zuko regrets for the rest of his life for not loving her the same way, for being the person that abandoned her pack twice and being the reason she's so closed to having a pack again.

Yes. In this Aang is the first to come around and understand what she feels, since he also lost his entire pack (I'm not sure what he is, but losing a pack does affect anyone). The circumstances are different, but it's the same sense of broken emptiness. They meditate together a lot, silently grieving together. Aang is the closest to someone she feels safe around. A less tragic version and they'd be platonic mates, bonding over loss and mutual peace.

(I just really like post-war Azula befriending Aang.)

My name's Ash with A of "Angst" ☺️

- Ash 🔥🍌

Azula is my blorbo, my little dragon, half of my fic ideas have her deeply traumatized, terribly injured or just actually dead.

I'm like you! I am the same! everyone can check it! 🎶

So she dresses up as the Kemurikage and basically goes out there taking orphan cubs and raising them with other people that lost as much as her.

I can already imagine the first time Mai saw her Alpha dressed as a kemurikage, maybe that was why they had a second puppy.

See, I can make it heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time.

I saw, shut up now. 🤧

Mai is pretty hurt, but she can understand. She knows that Azula even giving her a chance is much, much more than what she deserves after the boiling rock.

How did Mai feel when she saw how Azula accepted her again?

I bet in shock.

Despite her bad days, despite the past, Azula is a good parent, a good mate, and Mai is thankful that Azula is in her life.

What does Azula think of Mai? I know she loves him enough to accept him.

But I want to know about those good days, where both love each other regardless of the past.

After everything. It's unconditional, her love is unconditional. All you need to do is exist.

Ha! What does Iroh think about his niece and her OBVIOUS unconditional love that not even he and his beloved nephew have?

They meditate together a lot, silently grieving together. Aang is the closest to someone she feels safe around.

They meditate a lot together, they cry together in silence... they get drunk together while listening to bands, they almost get high on marijuana... it's difficult. 😮‍💨

A less tragic version and they'd be platonic mates, bonding over loss and mutual peace.

In this and that version Mai gets a little jealous, but she doesn't make a fuss because Aang is the other side of Azula's coin.

My name's Ash with A of "Angst" ☺️

Now I understand everything...Pay me for therapy, Ash! I'm not asking you, I'm ordering you!

I cried for two hours! and I wasted a lot of paper! My face hurts from crying so much, ash! 😭

#Azula #Mai #Maizula #Azula x Mai #Mai x Azula #ABO #omegaverse #atla #avatar the last airbender #Azula Alpha #Mai Omega #Someone get Azula and Mai away from Ash! It's a danger to my heart!#You'll pay me Ash!#Mai and Azula deserve to love each other without having a tragedy!#Why do you always want Maizula to have tragedy? Can't they just be happy and gay with each other!?#Please...happiness...I want Maizula to live happily.

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mdhwrites · 8 months

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Considering you've criticized Owl House for trying to give Amity and Hunter abusive homelives for explaining their antagonistic behaviors initially and praise Amphibia for not trying to give Sasha having bad parents for her behavior, what do you think of how Zuko's redemption on Avatar the Last Airbender? Considering they also do the redeemed person had a terrible homelife with him having an abusive father in Ozai, what did you think of how they did Zuko?

Zuko is AMAZING. The big difference between TOH and Avatar with this arc is easy too: Avatar doesn't use it as an excuse and they don't brush it off. It's merely where everything began for Zuko and changing from that point is HARD.

Zuko always had a choice. He could always give up the quest for the Avatar and live a peaceful life. Even Iroh is pushing this from literally episode 1. It is Zuko's choice to chase the concept of honor that his father and his culture pushed on him. We feel that scar on his face by his determination. We feel the priorities of the fire nation by him constantly trying to prove himself. By trying to go alone to prove he's strong or do what he thinks will bring him honor.

It takes an ENTIRE BOOK for Zuko to start even questioning this stuff. We understand the weight of his decision to cut his hair and try to just live peacefully with Iroh because we saw the struggle he had to even consider giving up the warpath. It's not even easy for him then as he still wants to resort to the old ways and constantly has it reinforced what those old ways cost. The fear it put in people. The pain his culture has brought. It constantly reinforces the question that Zuko eventually has to answer: Is the Fire Nation's definition, and by extension his father's, of honor actually honorable? Is it the definition he wants to live by.

And then arguably we get the most important part of his arc... His 'victory'. He gets that parade back home. He gets everything he has wanted for so long. The only price he has to pay is that he will never have any other definition of honor than the Fire Nation's. And that is no longer a definition he desires and so despite having love, family, stability, etc. like that, he leaves to do good, even if he himself knows that it will be hard because he is so trained and used to being bad.

The length, dedication, questioning and cost of his arc are all deeply compelling. The show doesn't hold back on the fact that he was genuinely a member of the fire nation and what that meant.

Besides their first appearances... When do Amity or Hunter feel like a product of the Isles or their parents? Amity admittedly gets ONE more with Covention but that's it. Both of them very, VERY quickly give up on even the concept of being villains (Hunter at the START of his second major appearance, before anything has coerced him to think otherwise, is already rebelling against Belos teaching by looking into wild magic) and what is the price and actual arc of turning good for them? How difficult is it for them to actually get away from the lessons instilled upon them?

I already mentioned Hunter but Amity first brings up her parents in Understanding Willow where she talks about them controlling her friends and the like... And then immediately embraces Willow back into her fold as if her parents won't care. Two episodes later, she will destroy her ENTIRE friend group that her parents put onto her. Then, her NEXT APPEARANCE after that has her parents make their first proper appearance and... Then Amity, in an episode she's barely in, rejects them outright because Luz is pretty. It's not that she condemns their morals, how they look upon life, etc. like that. It's just "Hey, I'm being selfish too because I want my own friends." Which with how she entirely ignores actually trying to reconnect with Willow for half a season comes across much more like it's purely because Luz was going to die. Either Gus or Willow and she wouldn't give a damn. She'd get to console Luz then! Because Luz is all it took for Amity to change, it came easily, and it's all she cares about afterwards.

She NEVER loses it like Zuko does during the first part of Avatar's finale because Zuko actually cares about something. He is going to push back on them because he didn't change for Aang or Katara, he changed for himself. He is still the same person with that diehard fire in him that isn't gone just because he's a good guy now.

Hunter has a lot similar complaints but with much more of the severe need to address his moral issues. After all... How many witches did Hunter murder as the Golden Guard? Or led to their execution? It makes Amity's active choice to bully Willow for YEARS when she didn't need to seem almost quaint but both facts are swept under the rug just as easily. It's why one could claim the Golden Guard is not the same character as Hunter because they both require severely contexts to FUNCTION.

But we cannot do that. Hunter did take away people's rights. He did hunt them down. He was a member of the Emperor's Coven. He held its beliefs as fact... And we never see them question those beliefs. The closest is Hollow Mind where he spends the entire time telling Luz she's wrong, even as facts are presented in his face until proof that Belos will kill him is presented to him. At which point, the decision isn't "I don't believe in your ideals and regime, I'm going to rebel" like Zuko's but instead "Oh fuck, I'm going to DIE if I don't turn good." In fact, it's the opposite case for Zuko because the boy was effectively guaranteed to live a cushy life if he DIDN'T turn good.

And so once again, we have another turn to good that happens too easily, too quickly and mostly selfishly AT BEST. Even when Hunter fights of Belos' possession, it's all about how it's nice to have friends and have fun rather than, you know, it being wrong to persecute an entire class of people just because you don't like them. In neither case do the characters act like they've actually changed or learned anything. They were just flipped to good and that's that.

I also might not be so butthurt about it if not for the amount of TIME this stuff takes and how TOH itself takes itself so seriously so often. It obviously wants to have these arcs be a good deal and is willing to spend an exorbitant amount of time on them, to the point where they start causing Luz to not have time to spend with characters like King or Eda, and yet they're also not exploring anything. They're not saying anything. It's just... There. On the most shallow level.

So yeah, if I haven't made it clear: I don't dislike the trope of bad parents leading to bad children who are eventually redeemed (in general, I think there are VERY few tropes that are inherently bad). There's a lot that can be done with it and it is a good explanation for how a young person can be so angry. You just, you know, actually have to do something with it instead of using only the surface level elements and expecting to be rewarded for it. Worse yet if you try to pretend that it took literally agency from the character when they clearly weren't actually that indoctrinated to have a lack of free will or so much fear as to not consider any other option.

And no, I don't blame the shortening. By Eclipse Lake for Hunter, and WELL before S1 even finished for Amity, both characters were obviously already 80% of the way to good people, if not already there for Amity. The show just had no patience and no willingness to explore its own concept and that ALWAYS sucks. It's the worst part of the writing for My Adventures With Superman too. *sigh*

So yeah, don't scapegoat, actually explore your concepts and don't erase your characters during their redemptions. Then maybe you can try to claim to have a character as good as Zuko.

======+++++======

Grain of salt here: Some of this is second hand because honestly, a rewatch of Avatar doesn't sound like a bad idea. It's been a while to put it mildly BUT just the structure of Zuko's arc is infinitely better than how most people do redemption arcs honestly so I think the thoughts still stand despite that.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

#toh critical #Zuko #hunter toh #amity blight #character arcs

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anonymous-gambito · 2 years

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It's weird that fans expect the child characters fighting a war to have the same perspective and contextualize certain events the same way that we, adults watching the show, would. Like, you really expect these 12 to 16 year olds with the weight of the world on their shoulders to react to the story of Ozai burning Zuko's face and banishing him the same way that we do?? They would obviously see it as a terrible thing for a parent to do to their kid, but they wouldn't, they can't, be like "He was just an itty bitty 13 year old baby!! He should be playing with his friends and stealing sweets from the kitchen!" Like... C'mon.

... Okay, maybe Aang, who was born in a world without war, would be able to see it this way; but it wouldn't be this Uniquely Terrible Thing, since all of them were hurt by the war and were forced to grow up too fast in their own way. It would pretty much be "Yet another terrible thing".

Now Azula. I've seen people framing Azula shooting Aang with lightning as "How could anyone do that to a sweet little kid?! What a monster!" and like?? Aang is a child to us, but to Azula, who's only 2 years older than he is, Aang is just an extremely powerful opponent. By her perspective, they're equals, and they're enemies on opposite sides of a war. People kill in wars. A child soldier isn't going to look at the other child soldier and like "They're just a lil kid Uwu"

#atla #zuko #azula #aang #gaang #the gaang

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ariihen · 3 months

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some thoughts on netflix's adaptation of atla:

kiawentiio was done dirty cause she has so much of katara's bite and sass in her interviews

u can really tell the writing is the series' weakest point because the actors have what it takes to bring those characters to life but they'll only be able to do so much with the script and direction they're given

the wigs are SO ugly. yue had it the worst imo. she deserved better

suki was perfect

LET SOKKA WEAR DRAG U COWARDS

why the fuck are ppl just bending without bending forms and stances. why is aang able to fly without needing to lose his earthly tethers

why are they randomly cutting and pasting scenes in weird places

why is the swamp scene combined with the spirit world????? that was important in setting up toph's introduction????

the fact that the writers knew it made no sense for katara and sokka to end up in the spirit world with aang so even the characters said it and they just handwaved it bc plot lol

so much exposition. clearly the mark of a good story is when the character have to TELL u everything that's happening 🫠

the writers are such big kyoshi stans

like why is she taking other characters' roles

why is gran gran doing katara's intro

iroh and zuko are cute

zuko's choreo is so good

zhao is still a dumbass

his death is unsatisfying. what happened to getting fucked by the spirit world if u fuck with it. where's the ocean spirit dragging his ass to its demise. why is iroh providing his sentence

mai and ty lee are doing nothing but have terrible wigs and give exposition on ozai's motives that they somehow knoe about

aang: *gets told there's no easy way out in being the avatar*

also aang: *gets told everything he needs to know*

badgermoles are empaths now????

bumi they nerfed u

aang they nerfed u

gyatso u deserved a cooler fight to the death they really nerfed u

it's so fucking stupid that aang has to be in shrines to talk to his past lives

kinda cool they go into more detail of the past avatars' lives ig. even if only slightly

katara vs pakku was so lackluster

these bending fights are so lackluster unless ur zuko ig

no srsly how are some ppl just bending without forms. like sozin in episode 1 roasting that dude by just holding him

jun exists only to flirt w the dragon of the west and good on her, me too girl

what's the point of sokka getting suki's fan if he's not even gonna use it...

there's no stronger relationship than sokka x momo

oma and shu are gay i think. love that for them

why tf did aang spend this entire story not even trying to pick up another element. katara literally offers to learn with him a few times and he just didn't feel like it lol

OG azula was impressive and scary. netflix azula feels more like the eldest asian daughter trying rly hard to get her parents' approval. idk she's just alright

so much expositions

ok sure let's have time sensitive plot A not conclude in one episode, have it stretch to the next episode, and still only rush in concluding it at the very end in the backburner of plot B. let's just handwave the fact that those people definitely should've died in like the three days it takes them to resolve plot B

the cabbage merchant is cabbage merchanting

effects are good

#atla #netflix atla #netflix avatar the last airbender #atla spoilers

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zvtara-was-never-canon · 4 months

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This person genuinely thinks that Aang would be a better character if he kidnapped a baby?? Or would be more interesting?? Honey, why would he do that. That's not him being boring, that's just him not committing an actual, terrible, crime. Alos it's his show, it's literally called 'Avatar the Last Airbender' of course he's going to get more episodes focusing on him, it's his show???

"Aang being a main character limits him to being a role model'' by brother in Christ, this a Nickelodeon show. Even Zuko is a bit of role model, in the sense of him being a way to teach kids "Just 'cause you're hurting doesn't mean it's okay to be a dick to others. Please apologize if you ever hurt someone."

Also Aang DOES make morally questionable, and downright incorrect, choices that the narrative address. Fleeing when the other airbenders want to send him away, hiding the map to Hakoda from Sokka and Katara, trying to learn firebending before he's ready and then vowing to NEVER use that bending again, trying to trigger the Avatar state, wanting revenge on the sandbenders, shutting off emotionally to not deal with his pain over losing Appa, refusing AND accepting to ignore his love for Katara to fully master the Avatar state, his innitial refusal to continue pretending he is dead to hide from his enemies, the Ember Island kiss, and even his refusal to kill Ozai (before the actual Deus Ex Machina happens).

Aang is challenged all the time. He grows all the time. He is allowed to be wrong all the time. Yall are just mad he was the protagonist instead of your favorite.

And while I agree Sokka didn't have much of an arc, I disagree about Toph never growing even if there were some issues with her storyline. She went from someone who was terrified of accepting help from others as that had always meant "lose all agency" her whole life, to someone that consistently relies on her friends. She went from uncooperative because "she carries her own weight" to being a team player that even offers her friends emotional support. She even makes the first step to reconciliate with her parents.

LOTS of characters had arcs (Iroh, Jet, Mai, Azula, and even King Kuei- that's how stories work. The reason some of these were handled better/given more or less screentime is because Bryke insisted on having only three seasons, even though the show clearly needed a fourth. It had nothing to do with "the problem of having a protagonist" - that's not a problem if you're a competent writer with enough time.

Also, if you see Katara in the FIRST DAMN EPISODE talking about how much she wants to learn waterbending AND how grateful she was to be allowed to be a kid again, yet you're suprised to see her become such a badass whose happy ending is helping end the war and thus be allowed to be a kid again because "she's just Aang's love interest", that says a lot more about YOU than about the show.

Avatar's writting has problems, yes, because no work of fiction is perfect because no writer is perfect. But the overwhelming majority of complaints from some fans come not from acknowledging those flaws, but from a complete inability to understand some REALLY basic storytelling stuff that the show handled with excellence.

That's what happens when you're too focused on what you want to see to actually look at the story playing out in front of you: you miss incredibly obvious things that the writers made as easy to follow as possible since the show is aimed at 7-year-olds.

#anti zutara

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that-ari-blogger · 7 months

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How Brave Does Character

Brave is my favourite Pixar film, and one of my favourite Disney films. A lot of the reason behind this is how impeccably the film does characters, by which I mean everyone in this film manages to be both a caricature and a very real person at the same time.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD

So, let's start with the side characters. The terrible triplets are fun, but I'd like to focus on the clansmen.

These are so interesting. They are, of course, archetypes. They are the overbearing fathers who hate each other and their three sons, but these are remarkably realistic people. They aren't limited to specific actions, and they bring about the nuances in each other through acting as foils for each other.

And, yes, these nuances are used for comedy a ton of the time, but they aren't just that, they develop over time. Their competition between each other actively changes them.

Although, here's something fascinating. The sons show a completely different demeanor when not under the pressure of their parents. Young Macintosh (Right) relaxes and loses his uptight demeanor, Young MacGuffin (Middle) comes completely out of his shell, and Young Dingwall is, well he doesn't change too much, but he is noticeably more aware of his surroundings when not around his father.

The sons befriend each other and develop a rapport. They do this before anybody else in the entire story, proving that harmony between the clans and between individuals is possible.

Fergus and Elinor follow the same line of thinking, but they bring about different sides of each other through understanding. Both characters feel their freest when they are around each other. Elinor is more open to talking out her emotions around her husband, for example. And it is important to realise this, because when she gets turned into a bear, this dynamic gets shifted notably.

Finally, there is Merida, and her relationship with her mother. I keep bringing up these characters in contrast with each other because that is how character gets displayed. If a person is only in the same situation over and over again, you only see one facet of that character.

So, Merida is an aromantic character. This is important to understand because it is part of the driving conflict of the film. Merida has no interest in marriage or love, and her mother cannot accept that. The story explores the search for these characters to understand each other, and while it centres on Merida's confrontation with consequences and fate, Elinor coming to terms with her daughter's identity. Essentially, the story is derived from character conflict.

But these characters also reveal elements of each other through both their conflict and their teamwork. They reveal each other's inability to show accountable through their conflict (Merida insists everything is not her fault, and Elinor is pathologically incapable of directly answering a question), but they also show each other's adaptability and are catalysts for each other's growth.

Brave is a character drama first and foremost, so all conflict is driven by characters butting heads with each other. I say all conflict, and there is one character I am yet to mention.

"Last time I did this was for a prince. He demanded I give him the strength of ten men, and he gave me this for a spell. A spell that would change his fate."

Mor'du features what I like to call the Firelord Ozai school of character writing. He isn't a character, he's a force of nature, an evil thing to overcome. But he is a person, and everything about him can be inferred by the relationships he has. In this case, the thematic relationship between him and Merida. Both wanted to change their fate, both separated themselves from their families in a rage. Merida was able to reconnect with her mother, you can assume by Mor'du's ursine appearance that he was not able to do the same.

Even in the shot above, Mor'du the character is in shadow, because the nuances of his identity don't matter. The important part, and the part that the light highlights, is the axe. His actions are what's important, specifically the actions that mirror Merida's, and we can learn everything we need about him from that narrative symmetry.

At first glance, all the characters in Brave are archetypes. The rebellious teenager, the strict mother, etc. But it is through interactions with each other that these characters become people. And that is reflected in the theme of the film. It is only through each other, that you can express yourself freely and change for the better. Otherwise, you are floundering with the same choices, and you can never, ever, change your own fate.

I might put up another post soon about Brave's use of Scottish mythology and how that works with the theme of fate, so if you're interested in that, stick around.

#rants #character analysis #literary analysis #literature analysis #brave #disney brave #merida

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