#atla squad

[linuseer]

I'm tired of people defining Aang as this boring little vanilla guy. Aang helped Katara destroy a factory. He participated in Toph's scams. He shrugged off Katara's theft of the waterbending scroll and heartily laughed at her jokes about it. He was delighted by the Painted Lady ruse. He mastered airbending at twelve and the avatar state at thirteen. He snooped around the old ship after Katara said it was booby trapped and dared her to follow and stepped up to take the blame when it went badly and then surrendered himself to protect the village because he knew he could hand everyone on that ship their asses and escape. He outright lied to two communities that had been bickering for a century to get them to stop. He egged on Katara when she decided to throw hands with Pakku. He wants to ride every big animal in the world ("they don't like being ridden but that's what makes it fun" -unhinged take). He has sick burns for everyone which are doubly funny because they're almost always unintended as such. He threw a clandestine dance party in the nation that banned dancing and thought he was dead and wanted him dead. Before that he corrected and argued with teachers, beat a bully without lifting a finger and then brought his teenage friends to pose as his parents. The whole Bonzu Pippipadaleopsicopolis the Third thing. The being idiots with Sokka in Ba Sing Se thing with the bowing and the busboys disguises. He rightfully asked "what's cosmic power compared to a girl". Let's add all the badass stuff he does as a bender and as the Avatar up to and including energybending and the conversation with Koh the Face Stealer. That time in The Chase when he finished the fur trail and then decided to just sit down, sleep deprived, to wait and face whoever it was chasing them. Aang is one of the funniest and coolest characters I've ever seen and he deserves more respect. Absolutely unhinged kid with immense powers and the world is lucky he's goofy and has a good heart.

#aang #atla #avatar the last airbender #imagine snarky dark aang #aang defense squad #pro aang

[the-avatars-fury]

hand-holding

so anyways, do you think toph decided to move to the swamp only after aang passed away?

#seems like she needs a lot of hand-holding too #avatar the last airbender #atla #the legend of korra #tlok #aanglove #aang defense squad #taang #toph beifong #aang #mine

[kitkatperce]

rip aang you wouldve loved fidget spinners and an adhd + autism diagnosis

#atla #avatar the last airbender #avatar aang #aang #atla aang #autistic aang #adhd aang #🤗fav character;atla #aang appreciation #aang my love #pro aang #aanglove #aang defense squad #audhd aang

[m-r-moth]

who should i add to the giant group pic?

the silly little cats have gotten out of hand, i love them so much

(for the rest just search the catla tag on my blog)

#CATLA #art #atla fanart #avatar the last airbender #but make them cats #them right now: from left to right #mean girl trio: #mei #tai li #zuzu 1 #azula #the gaang #suki #sokka #katara #aang #zuzu 2 #zuko #toph #momo and appa #white lotus squad: #uncle iroh #king bumi

[bluespiritshonour]

Water Siblings and Fire Siblings as Foils

Katara and Sokka are peak sibling rep: they bicker, they hurt each other, they take turns being the voice of reason while the other goes batshit crazy—and they'd die for each other.

And very clearly Sokka's daddy's boy and Katara's momma's girl: and for most parts, they seem to be content with that dynamic.

Look, parents have favourites, let's establish that first: don't come at me for it.

But in a healthy environment, where all of the kids’ emotional needs are met irrespective of which kid gets along with which parent, they're less likely to tear themselves apart yearning for parental affection.

Sokka and Katara's family was a normal one, a healthy one—as healthy as one can be in a war ravaged world—and Sokka and Katara are normal siblings. Even after their mother died Katara doesn't seem to care much that Sokka gets more time with their father. And everytime she brings up their mother Sokka gets this weird look on his face, which, I think is later explained by the fact that he feels guilty that he doesn't even remember what their mother looked like. And it's not because Katara seems to know more about their mother despite being younger.

Neither of them grudge the other for having been close to one of the parents—let's call it ‘being close to’ instead of ‘dad/mum loved you/me more’ because that's what would come up with Azula and Zuko.

One can say that Azula's daddy's girl and Zuko's momma's boy... Except it isn't like that.

Azula wasn't loved by her father; neither was she close to him. If anything she had the illusion that she's close to him. But children can sense when they aren't loved, which can explain why she took her mother being close to Zuko so hard. Because she didn't get that from her father and isn't she supposed to be daddy's girl? But dad's good to her; mum... isn't. Dad lets her do what she wants... As long as she obeys him or she'd end up like Zuko.

For Ozai, both his children are pawns. He uses Azula to abuse Zuko, which in turn is to get at Ursa. And honestly, Ursa was a bad mum and an abuse victim and not the villain are takes that can co-exist.

A lot of mums in primarily patriarchal cultures end up abusing their own kids while trying to protect them in an environment where they themselves hold little power.

Ursa and Hakoda can be compared in this.

Katara haters can look away: she isn't whiny. And even if she is, well, she takes responsibility when no one else does so I guess she deserves to complain if that's what it takes. Katara is extremely mature. When she was mad at Hakoda, she still had the critical thinking skills to point out that yes, she understands why he left. He had to! She doesn't blame him for that, it wasn't his fault that there was war going on—but it still hurt!

And what does Hakoda do? He hugs her and apologises. He doesn't defend himself, because he doesn't need to. She understands! She said she does and he doesn't insult her by making excuses. He acknowledges and validates her pain.

Unlike Katara, who grew up in a healthy family with parents and grandparents and a whole community—Azula was isolated and under the influence of Ozai. And she was so young! If you remember being that young, you'd remember thinking that parents are always right. You don't realise that parents make mistakes too—and while her emotional needs weren't being met by Ozai, she turned to Ursa—but Ursa was at her wits end trying to undo the damage of Ozai's abuse on Zuko.

If she had given attention to Azula, Zuko, who thought that Azula was perfect and already had father's approval would have gone off rails—and since she didn't... Azula went off the rails.

Which was exactly how Ozai would want it. I don't like the comics much but it made sense that Ozai would hold both the children as bargaining chips against Ursa. Ursa made her choice, or rather, the illusion of her choice and Azula had to pay for it: the real reason Zuko could turn over a new page while Azula couldn't was because from the very beginning, Zuko had his mum and uncle.

Azula had no one!

Like Hakoda had to go to war and leave his children behind, Ursa had to choose between Azula or Zuko; Ozai orchestrated it as such.

But while there were people to pick up Hakoda's slack, there was no one to guide Azula. Sokka and Katara raised each other and they had Gran Gran.

Zuko and Azula were constantly pitted against each other by a war-mongering father.

I don't like this unrealistic expectations that fandom has of a family where both the siblings not only love each other equally, they also process emotions similarly (see: the Sokka vs Katara debate on how they both react to trauma) and parents who love all the kids equally.

Katara and Sokka are normal and realistic in the way that they are both different people: they process grief differently. Katara takes up responsibly and grows up too fast, it takes a toll on her and she's vocally expressive. She turns her grief into anger. Meanwhile Sokka internalises it in a survivor's guilt kind of way.

There's also gender involved in the way both pair of siblings interact. It's more subtle for the fire siblings than the water sibling. Plus, Suki makes Sokka drink his respect women juice, please y'all don't call Sokka sexist. That was character development for him which was addressed. I could make another post for gender and A:TLA.

And they both love each other dearly and they're okay with the fact that one is daddy's boy and the other is momma's girl. It's okay.

In contrast Zuko yearns for his father's affection and Azula yearns for her mother's. And while Zuko feels inadequate, for Azula it's “behave or you'll end up like your brother.”

She also learns to derive a sick sort of pleasure from watching Zuko suffer—which is entirely her father's doing. Because in rare moments when she doesn't have anything to gain by getting Zuko into trouble...she actually kind of looks out for him. It's extremely rare and sprinkled here and there to show us the Azula that could have been.

And I don't think Zuko really realised that Azula was abused too—not until he lets go of his father. Until the final Agni Kai. What I love about it is that despite portraying Azula as Zuko's tormentor for 3 seasons (and she was his tormentor) they did not frame the Agni Kai as some epic good vs evil shit.

Because from Zuko's point of view Azula was perfect. He's out here vying for his father's affection while she gets it freely. She's so lucky!—until he lets go of his father and realises what a monster he was... And he also realises that father never really loved Azula either...

They didn't say as much in words. But the final Agni Kai is proof enough. Zuko doesn't rejoice bringing Azula down (technically Katara did it). At this point, I guess, he realises that Azula's a kid too. Even younger than him—that their father couldn't care less about either of them.

Okay. I really do think that Zuko suddenly becoming invested in Azula's redemption would make sense after the Agni Kai. I also read this Twitter thread by Aaron Ehasz where he says he had plans for Azula's redemption and it was fantastic.

So yeah. Without being overt, the water siblings and fire siblings are contrasted by each other. Which is why I don't like the comics trying to do this brother-sister thing where they put Sokka and Katara and Zuko and Azula in back-to-back panels like... Even if I'm a huge supporter of Azula-deserves-redemption I didn't like those panels in the comics.

P.S. don't pit Sokka and Katara against each other. You aren't Ozai. They're different people who process trauma and loss differently and hence, react differently.

Adios.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #ink rambles #katara #sokka #zuko #azula #azula deserves redemption #katara defence squad

[jade-kyo]

Mai truly is for us emotionally repressed girlies like

Her whole character arc is like she’s emotionally repressed and was never allowed to express herself so she puts up all these walls and acts like she doesn’t care about anything and is so closed off.

And then her whole arc culminates with her loudly and proudly declaring the love she feels so deeply for Zuko. she expresses just how deep these emotions go, she is willing to die for him. Because she cares so much. Her emotions, her care, her love are so strong that they overpower her fear. Not just her fear of Azula but her fear of expressing herself, of stepping out of line, of standing for what she believes in. Which at this moment is Zuko- she doesn’t even fully understand what he’s doing, but she knows she trusts him more than anyone else. More than the fire nation propaganda and brainwashing, more than Azula, more than her parents. She knows Zuko has a good heart, she loves him for it, and she trusts it.

And that trust and love empowers her to finally express just how deeply she feels.

I don’t know if I’m articulating this very well but as someone who has always struggled to express myself Mai is just so fucking good and powerful to me.

#jadey speaks #atla #avatar the last airbender #mai atla #maiko #pro maiko #zumai #zuko x mai #mai x zuko #Mai #pro mai #mai defense squad #atla mai

[vlackevil]

Reasons why Kataang is a terrible ship:

1- They support each other

2- Aang always bring the best of Katara and support her in their worst times.

3- Katara always stay Aang side to help him.

4- They understand each other.

5- They have a healthy relationship

6- They blush each other when they think about kiss each other

7- They are the best dancers

8- Katara trust in Aang

9- Aang trust and show respect for Katara call her “Sifu Katara”

10- And they love each others.

That is the reasons why Kataang is a terrible ship.

Thanks for your time.

#kataang #pro kataang #katara and aang #aang and katara #avatar the last airbender #atla #avatar #otp #aang x katara #april fool's day #kataang defense #kataang defense squad

[punkeropercyjackson]

This is mostly a Zutara shippers problem(ofc it is,they're the root of everything wrong with the fandom and it's been like this since the 2000s)but i've seen it happen often enough with other shippers and it is replacing Aang's place in Zuko's life with whoever they ship him with.I want you to read this and internalize it:I don't care who you think Zuko is in love with because it dosen't matter no matter what-AANG is his best friend.Not Katara,not Sokka,not Jet,AANG.He's the one who saved him from his own inner darkness and Ozai's clutches,he's the one he looks out for the most,he's the one he has the most positive opinion on,he's the one he has the most fun with,he's the one he trusts the most and he's the one he'd choose over anyone else if it came down to it.Not a single one of these things is romantic for them and that's the point.Zuko's number one is Aang and not because he's his s/o but his brother and you have no right to erase his healing journey that's one of the best in all of western media so you can make it about his dating life instead,as if abuse victims can only get better if they 'settle down'.Fuck outta here with your amatonormative and lowkey ableist too bullshit

#aang and zuko #zuko #aang #aanglove #aang defense squad #pro aang #pro zuko #anti zutara #zukka #jetko #katara #sokka #jet atla #autistic aang #transfem aang #trans zuko #autistic zuko #punk katara #dadko #atla geekery #the gaang #💌 #summerposting

[bastart13]

Continuing with my Avatar generation swap, here we have a group of teenage assassins coming after Korra

Ming-Hua, now a combustion bender. Zaheer, a spiritually-attuned wanderer, P'Li, a lavabender, and Ghazan, their plant (and blood) bender.

I will not apologise for Ghazan. He grows into... all of it.

#avatar #atla #lok #ming-hua #p'li #zaheer #ghazan #legend of korra #au #avatar swap au #character design #art #p'li is so tall it's wild to draw a line up #i refuse to let them die this time #and unlike azula's squad their love is undying #i'm possibly too attached to these guys for being villains

[candle-scm]

reunion at ember island

#atla #avatar the last airbender #zukka #zuko #sokka #atla fanart #digital art #my art #artists on tumblr #the strangely close gossiping in ur ear to smooching pipeline #what if we were in our late 20s at ember island on a trip with the squad #and we kissed..... #haha jk jk #unless

[dukeofdelirium]

“can’t we just respect each other??” stop calling Aang an abuser toward his wife and kids by using his status as the sole survivor of a genocide to do so and then maybe we will consider it 🗿🍷 but until that happens I think not, because I don’t have to respect someone like that <3 hope this helps

#Aang #pro Aang #aang defense squad #avatar the last airbender #atla #pro kataang #kataang

[loveontherocks]

Aang antis are so corny lol like THIS is the guy you’re choosing to constantly hate on?

#atla #avatar the last airbender #aang #pro aang #aanglove #aang defense squad #I just don’t get it

[the-avatars-fury]

do you ever think about sokka and aang?

do you ever think about how sokka, although he was a little annoyed with him in the beginning, would always help aang out? how sokka, despite aang being the avatar (the most powerful being in the universe) always thought of fighting alongside him, even before katara did?

and do you ever think about how proud he felt for helping this boy in every way he can, how happy he felt for being simply included (something that he wasn't before by his dad and the other men in his tribe)?

and do you ever think about how aang played a huge part in sokka's journey of getting to terms with his self-image as a man and as a warrior? how that goofy and gentle boy whom he once ridiculed actually ends up being one of the main sources of his newly found confidence?

do you ever just think about sokka and aang?:)

#avatar the last airbender #atla #aanglove #aang defense squad #sokkaang #sokka #aang #mine

[i-am-suffer]

#atla #avatar the last airbender #atla mai #atla zuko #atla maiko #avatar maiko #pro maiko #maiko defense squad #atla ships #ship dynamics #relationship dynamics

[forevermore05]

I know the EIPs nonconsensual kiss is the most talked about. However, DOBS bothers me just as much. But I never see a lot of people talk about it. And I wondered why. I was talking to someone that I brought this up because it was bothering me and they told me: well, that's because Aang could have potentially died and he wanted to do something about his feelings before anything bad had happened. I begrudgingly gave into the idea, however, that kiss still bothered me. I understand that there could have been a potential where he could have died. However, that is not an excuse for out of the blue kiss someone when there has been no mention of feelings before that. Even if there were mentions of feelings that's not consent (there wasn't). Their dance in that cave is not consent. Anything that gave Aang the idea that it is ok for him to kiss Katara is not consent. His entitlement and affection for her are not consent. Just because you are going to do something life-threatening and you could die does not mean you force yourself on a person and she does not have to like it (by the look of her expression she did not look happy). She does not have to like your dying fantasy or be an object of it without her consent. Imagine, if Katara did not end up with Aang this scene would have been torn apart. But everyone's lucky that she did so it's not problematic (Sarcasm). I just hate how the scene is so normalized. Because when I watched it to write this, it was insane, Katara's dialogue "I've seen/watched you grow up, You're not this little goofy kid anymore" (it's like the writers were implying the mental age difference) drove me insane. I don't care if you say she blushed when these kinds of things happen of course you're going to get embarrassed and flustered. I have an immense amount of hatred for this scene. It was just never discussed enough. The Zutara community is the only safe place to do it.

Head Canon time (to make us feel better after this post): If Zuko ever found out about Aangs non-consensual kisses. I think Zuko would tear Aang apart.

#avatar the last airbender #katara #zutara #zuko #zuko x katara #anti aang #anti kataang #I scared myself watching that scene #katara deserved better #katara defense squad #atla critical #bryke critical #The reception on this post better be worth it

[simps4aang]

DISCLAIMER : I AM NOT INSULTING ANYONE WHO DOESN'T LOOK LIKE THAT OR IN ANY WAY SAYING THIS IS WHAT A "SUPERIOR GUY" LOOKS LIKE. I AM SIMPLY DESCRIBING THE SO CALLED "BEAUTY STANDARD".

#aang #aanglove #atla #avatar the last airbender #atla memes #pro aang #aang defense squad #beauty standards