#ch: katara

[katrara]

the women who made me - [ 2/?] cartoon queens >> katara

“I know sometimes it hurts more to hope and it hurts more to care.”

#love her sm I changed my url #katara #ch: katara #atla #avatar the last airbender #sokka #aesthetics #graphics #cartoon edits #atla edit #mine #zutara #kataang #waterbending #water tribe

[isabelpsaroslunnen]

I watched the first Netflix ATLA episode!

[spoilers below the cut]

The dialogue is frequently clunky (especially poor Aang's), some of the costuming (especially in the Southern Water Tribe) is middling cosplay level of convincing, and I would have preferred to keep more of the humor of the original (this is particularly felt with Iroh).

Still, I liked it more than not, particularly Aang, Katara, and Zuko, who are all really compelling (Sokka's arc is flattened in a way that does not quite work IMO and his actor doesn't do as much with it). I love Zuko's Avatar murder wall, some of the bending looked really cool, and I'm curious how the other episodes will play out now that we've gotten through so much of the expository heavy lifting (hopefully).

The choice to show the Air Nomad genocide playing out is neither a hit or a miss for me. The original handles it with a fairly light touch and a lot is accomplished through implication and through Aang's feelings about it. In some ways, I think it's possible that its centrality to Aang's arc and motivations will benefit from the impact being front and center from the first episode (the airbending children being backed into a corner with the clear indication that they all got burned alive after Gyatso died certainly makes for a different experience of it). In other ways, it feels a bit condescending and Sozin is so muahahaha that it doesn't hit as hard as it could have done. It functions as intended but in a somewhat unwieldy way, I guess. Gyatso is fantastic, though.

I did appreciate that Katara's flashback to Kya's death was such a brief fragment—it's not clear from this show alone what she's alluding to or what happened, but we get a sense of what it means for Katara, which I did like.

Reading over what I've said, it sounds pretty meh, but I actually did have a good time watching it and the cast (and presumably direction) carried it off fairly well. So I'll definitely keep watching.

#text: avatar the last airbender 2024 #ch: aang #ch: katara #ch: zuko #ch: gyatso #sff recs #with some reservations but still

[vannahsunshine]

katara

“i will never, ever turn my back on people who need me!”

#series: atla #ch: katara #katara atla #atla katara #avatar the last airbender #atla #my mbs #katara moodboard

[lavilicious]

War Games Chapter 26 be like. Everyone say thank you, @lovelyelbowleech

#zukka #atla #zuko #Katara #war games #wargames #war games fic #meme redraw #Avatar The Last Airbender #my art #fanart #fan art for fanfic #digital #sketch #laviis art tag #its for ch 26 #but this goes for zukka in general i think

[shiraiza]

Katara’s crown in The Blue Spirit

#atla #avatar #avatar the last airbender #Katara #Sokka #avataredit #atlaedit #atladaily #gifs #ch: gaang #atla: book 1

[a11sunday]

[HAND] Sender takes receivers hand so they don't get lost in a crowd. / nico robin and katara !

with the festival underway, swarms of people began filling the plaza. smaller children scurried past them , even adults pushing through to get to the main attractions.

the archaeologist feels katara's smaller hand fit into hers, gaze darting down to meet the younger's. with a gentle smile, she squeezes katara's hand once, bringing her in to stand a little closer as the maneuver the crowds. " what would you like to do first? " ( @linghung , meme. )

#robin will die for all of those kids #and she adores katara < 33 #linghung #ch: nico robin. #inbox messages. #( queue. )

[sorrowmarked]

katara starter for @de2thletter's yue.

It wasn't that Katara was ungrateful for a chance to learn to heal from water bending masters. She was! Healing was useful! She'd seen it herself when she'd healed her burned hands. It was a wonderful thing, but it being separated by gender just seemed ... well it seemed stupid. Boys could learn to heal. Girls could learn to fight. Wouldn't it better that everyone was trained in both?

"I'm not saying learning how to heal isn't great," Katara said, "I'm just saying you've never once wanted to learn how to fight?" She asked, looking up at the older girl. "I mean you could keep yourself safe, keep your people safe!" She said. "There's no reason for the boys to learn to fight, and the girls to learn to heal, that's just ..." well she didn't want to call it dumb, but it was. Katara caught herself before it slipped out. "It doesn't make sense. You know I've mostly taught myself, I could teach you a few moves if you wanted."

#de2thletter #ch: yue #muse: katara

[unorthodoxx-page]

Super small bonding moment for ch 7. Felt like sharing. Now let me focus on finishing this thing, I need to stop distracting myself 😭😭

Unedited:

“Don’t tell him I said this,” Leo grins, “but he’s stronger.”

Katara blinks, “He is?”

“Most older brothers are.”

She thinks back on Sokka. Of a straight back, boney shoulders, and thin arms holding her up when dad left. She’d cried that night and Sokka never cried again. He gathered all the wailing children the next day and set them on task to protect the village. She’d resented him then, for his perceived callousness, but now. “Yeah,” she says, voice thick. “They are stronger aren’t they.”

#rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt #ao3 #fanfiction #fanfic #crossover #tmnt #ao3fic #tmnt donnie #tmnt leo #tmnt mikey #tmnt raph #crossover fanfiction #avatar the last airbender #atla #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles movie #atla fanfic #a tale of spirits

[quillthrillswriting]

it's that time again...next ch of "the teenager in the iceberg" sneak peak!!!!!

kinda CW??: discussions of the air nomad genocide, loss of loved ones

⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩

When he opened them again, all Katara could see were glowing eyes, blazing bright. Blazing with anger. 

She barely had time to think before the wind began to whip around her and Sokka, sending leaves swirling. Sokka ducked under a couple larger branches that had broken off of the nearby fruit trees, dead and unused. Trees that had probably supplied the fruit for the Air Nomad’s traditional pies over a century ago. Aang’s tattoos and eyes were blazing blue now, glowing so brightly that it hurt to look over at him. Sokka ducked behind a stone, hoping it would provide cover as he beckoned to Katara to do the same.

But Katara refused.

Aang needs my help, she told herself as she pushed against the winds Aang sent in every direction. Aang needs my help. She repeated the mantra over and over, until she’d finally pushed past the grassy, bone lined field and gotten within what she hoped was Aang’s hearing distance. 

“AANG!” She shouted up at him as he began to levitate, a sphere of air and rock encircling him. She barely even recognized him this way, anger distorting his features, his muscle defined by the light emulating from him. All she could see was that rage and anger and pain, and all she wanted was to get close enough to pull him out of it. With the winds picking up the way they were, Katara struggled to stay on the ground. Still, she had to. Aang needs my help. She felt a hand at her back, and Sokka was there, trying to help get through to Aang.

She cleared her throat, calling out to him again. “AANG! Please, I know that you must be feeling grief, and guilt, right now beyond anything anyone could imagine." She coughed, the winds stirring up dust that caught in her throat. "You may be the last Airbender, but your people, their love and teachings, live on through you. They wouldn’t want this for you!”

Sokka joined her. “They wouldn’t want you to succumb to grief and rage!” He shouted. “Believe me, I get why that would be tempting, but… they would want you to work with those who care about you make sure no one has to experience this again.”

Katara nodded frantically, looking back to Aang. “Please, Aang, come back to us. We care about you!” She exhaled shakily, looking away for a moment before looking back. “Please, come back to me.”

For a second longer, Aang stayed there, hovering in the air, until the light coursing through him abruptly shut off, and he began to fall to the Earth like a shooting star.

⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩

♥ check out the two chapters of this (ongoing) fic & my ao3 here! ->

⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩

not sure if you want to check it out? check out the lovely reader's comments!! (i love all of u comment ppl<3) 🤭

#atla #katara #sokka #aang #kataang #<- because thats how it reads when u age aang up hehe... #avatar the last airbender #avatar aang #zuko #iroh #fanart #atla kataang #atla fanfic #atla fandom #ao3 #writing #ao3 recs #ao3 works #ao3 link #ao3 writer #confessions #fluff #eventual romance #kataang fanfic #aang aged up au #older aang #prince zuko #atla zuko #sassy aang #quillthrillsatlafic

[dealbrekker]

I wrote this quite literally 10 years ago. Her birthday is coming up and everything. I'm proud of this story and that I finished a multichaptered fic. I only ever did one shots.

There are things I'd change and work differently, but I'm still pretty in love with this and figured I should reintroduce her back into the wild. It would be crazy if anyone on here ever read it back then...

Begging all your pardons for the epilogue in advance lmao.

Hope it's enjoyed ☺

Amidst a time of peace and a dimming marriage, Fire Lady Katara journeys back home to the Southern Water Tribe to reconnect with her people. While there, she meets a nomadic firebending artist whose scar is as striking as his work. As the moon wanes and her visit ends, the stranger molds an image of his life much different from what history knows to be true. AU.

#zutara #katara #zuko #atla #avatar the last airbender #dont judge my old fics otherwise lmao #most were written when i was a teen #or do judge lol idc its been over a decade #yeesh im old

[geotheraider]

Vermillion Seas Cardinal Skies: Chapter 11 - The Sword, The Man, The Legend

After liberating the small village of Jang Hui, Sokka feels pretty bad. In this chapter, he realizes his potential, Zuko discovers an important piece of his past, Aang reveals some secrets, and we get a training session!

Hello reader-friends! The funny thing about these chapters is that the ones I write on planes tend to be longer. This is absolutely no exception to that rule. I remember back when I posted chapter 5 saying that I wanted to limit the number of extra long chapters. Welp, looks like the shorter chapters are an exception to the average ch length here. Oh well, I don't think you're complaining!

As always, a massive shoutout to @achillmango for her incredible editing capabilities.

The sound of metal sword on metal sword clashing in the background almost entirely drops away from her ears at the seriousness of Aang’s expression. “Katara, have you ever felt really strongly for someone?”  Wow. Right now?  This isn’t where she expected this conversation to go, nor the place to have it.  She turns her gaze away, and answers noncommittally, “I– uh…I guess I have.” She looks up toward the branches of the tree and notices the midday sun shining beams of golden light on them, Its warmth is comforting yet something about this feels wrong. The light flickers against the slow-drifting pollen in the air.

Without further adieu, please enjoy Chapter 11 - The Sword, The Man, The Legend on AO3!

#zutara #atla #zuko #katara #zuko x katara #geotheraider writes #avatar the last airbender #atla fanfic #fanfiction

[reyxa]

can't we just get oolong? ch. 4

AO3

title: can’t we just get oolong? author: Reyxa rating: T summary: au where zuko and iroh settle in ba sing se post-banishment. when a pretty water bender start frequenting the jasmine dragon, zuko’s world turns upside down.

Chapter 4: Ginseng

“Zuko!”

“Wh–” he jolts awake, smacking his head on the doorframe of the teashop’s backroom as he whips around. “What, Uncle?”

“You’re falling asleep standing!” Iroh presses a large cup into Zuko’s hand, a wide grin etched into his face. “Stayed up quite late, did you?”

Zuko rubs the smarting pain out of the side of his head, chugging down the drink in his head. The sleep weighing heavy on his shoulders lifts a bit as he drinks. He’s had his fair share of sleepless nights, but none so tumultuous. His brain is foggy with thoughts of Azula’s oppressive presence in the city, and the way Katara’s fingers had brushed against his wrist as she undid the knot of her necklace.

Grinning, Iroh slides the cup out of Zuko’s hand and places it on the table. He places a large hand on Zuko’s shoulder. “You are lucky, waterbending inspires inner harmony. You could learn much from her, Prince Zuko. I hope she bends you into shape!”

Iroh laughs just as loudly as Zuko groans. “I’m never gonna see her again anyway, leave it alone!”

His uncle continues laughing. “Go take some rest, Prince Zuko. Can’t have you drooling into the tea, can we?”

~

Katara awakens to pain shooting up her spine, rattling her teeth.

“Wake up, lazy bones!” Toph’s grating voice, accompanied by the reverberations of her earthbending cleave into Katara’s consciousness. “It’s past noon!”

“Ow!” Katara yelps, rubbing her lower back as she clambers up from the hardwood floors of their apartment. “Toph!”

“Oh good, you’re up! You’ve got plans tonight,” Sokka passes her a piece of parchment. She squints at it, an extremely detailed drawing of some kind of bear-creature swims into view. “A party!”

Katara rubs her eyes and blinks again at the parchment. ’Please join us this evening in celebrating the Earth King’s bear, Bosco.’ “Bear?”

“Are you feeling okay, Katara? You slept in more than usual.” Aang frowns at her while he feeds Momo.

Last night floods back into her memories. She still isn’t sure how smart it was to reveal their whole journey here to someone from the Fire Nation. The banished prince, no less. But she remembers his breath brushing gently against the nape of her neck, the shy tone of his voice as he had invited her back.

“Katara?” Aang pokes her. “Maybe you should rest tonight. You seem out of it.”

She laughs nervously. “I’m fine! Just… adjusting to Ba Sing Se life, that’s all! So, the Earth King will be at this party, huh?”

“You and Toph will go in as noblewomen and get the Earth King’s attention! Me and Aang will sneak in and Aang will dazzle him with his Avatar-ness and we’ll be on our way out of this city.” Sokka snatches the invitation from her. “Then it’s bye bye Fire Lord!”

‘We’ll be on our way out’. She musters a cheerful smile. It’s better to put distance between herself and Zuko as soon as possible, she tells herself. Can’t have another Jet situation, she’s learned her lesson this time.

read on ao3

#ramblins #my writing #atla #cwjgo #zutara #zuko #katara #yeahhh ive revived my 4 year old zutara fic

[chocomd]

Too Caught Up 

Rating: G

Genre: Romance, Kataangst, Canon Divergent AU

Chapter: 1 of 3

Summary: After their dance in the light of a Fire Nation cave, Katara discovers how she really feels about Aang—but he doesn’t seem to feel the same way about her. Or, if things went a little differently after the Kataango.

Ch 1 written for @kataang-week​ Day 2: Injured

Read on AO3

————–

Chapter 1

Everyone at the dance party was having a good time—everyone except Katara.

When the band opened the evening, Katara found her foot tapping to the beat. The Fire Nation students huddled together at one end of the cave as Aang tried to convince them to dance. He was so sincere, so determined to get them to come out of their shells, that Katara couldn’t help smiling. And when he showed off dance moves as effortlessly as airbending, she watched with open-mouthed awe along with everyone else.

In the half year they had traveled together, the grace and daring of Aang airbending never failed to thrill Katara. But Aang dancing was something else entirely. Aang dancing was airbending and movement mastered in one body. He didn’t just follow the rhythm and the steps—he ducked into the Phoenix Flight and trotted the Camelephant Strut just as naturally as breathing.

Several gravity-defying demonstrations later, the students finally started moving. Everyone was loosening up in spite of themselves and their stiff school uniforms. Soon the cave was filled with laughing and whooping as people swayed and stomped and staggered to the music.

Aang’s idea of throwing a dance party for the Fire Nation students had seemed questionable at first, but it was turning out to be a smashing success. The Fire Nation kids were getting a taste of freedom, and Aang was having a blast. He more than anyone deserved a break to just have fun.

So why was Katara unhappy?

Continue reading on AO3 

#kataang week #kataang week 2023 #kataang #kataangtag #kataang fanfic #aang #katara #atla #atla fanfic #Avatar The Last Airbender #chocomd #chocomd writes

[bruhstation]

a few questions about the avatar au: 1. what are the roles of everyone? is lady aang, thomas katara, percy sokka, gordon zuko and henry toph? 2. what bending power does duck have? 3. how will the last agni kai play out?

yessss a question for the avatar AU…. :D a bit of rambling ahead because I am incredibly autistic about this new AU of mine. I've also answered your second question through the first question, if you don't mind :)

like I've mentioned before, this AU is set in an alternate universe where the air nomads are still alive and there's no hundred year war. there's still conflict though. this isn't really an "X in Y's place" AU -- I'm fitting the ttte/cstm characters in the atla universe. I'll tell you what the steam team is doing in the AU! (art of some of them here)

thomas is a young, amateur waterbender from the southern water tribe. he spends most of his time hanging out with edward and percy. he always gets into trouble -- stuck on ice floes, buried underneath snow, and drenched in water after a failed waterbending attempt. this was also one of the ways he encountered lady, which is after an avalanche near a cave. thomas proposed the idea that all four of them travel the world together and find bending arts teachers for lady ("I need to train too and become a really great waterbender!")

edward is a waterbending master from the southern water tribe. although he still has a lot of fire in him, he displays little interest in fighting and spends his free time brewing tea and writing in his journal. despite not revealing much about his past prior to living in the south pole, he teaches thomas waterbending and is some sort of father figure to him. edward's respected by a lot of tribespeople, though they tend to poke fun at him for being too old. after the formation of team avatar and getting his two old friends to join (after visiting the earth kingdom and fire nation consecutively), they said that edward is able to bloodbend, but edward entertained the silly idea by saying that "he's too old and small for that". he is also VERY quick and agile in chi-blocking techniques.

henry is a strong yet sickly, cynical yet gentle earthbender from gaoling, earth kingdom. after noticing the rising tensions in politics in ba sing se and witnessing how corrupt the dai li has become after a life-threatening accident, henry resides in the quieter part of the earth kingdom and manages his own flower/tea shop. after team avatar witnessed his immense strength in apprehending bandits wreaking havoc in his shop, lady asked henry to get on board the team. henry initially refuses, not wanting to get caught up in any weird life-threatening avatar business, but after being convinced by edward, he eventually folds. thomas does notice that his teacher acts awkward around their team's newest earthbending teacher.

gordon is the youngest son of a nobleman from the fire nation. he had a disgraceful agni kai -- stemming from a difference in political beliefs regarding their family and their relations to the fire nation army -- between him and his older remaining brother, scott. gordon lost, but not officially, as scott refused to scar him, disgracing both him and gordon. he then ran away to the boonies of the fire nation where he honed his lightningbending skills -- his signature bending arts -- in order to restore his pride. he first met team avatar when he challenged lady in an agni kai (gresleys loooove their agni kais) until edward had to chi-block him before he even launched an attack. as prideful as ever, gordon believes lady needs a firebending teacher (true) and joined team avatar. he doesn't seem too thrilled to see his old distant friends on board with him, though.

james is an ember island theater actor who believes he deserves more than what he's paid. he's very passionate about acting but is dissatisfied with the scripts given to him. team avatar encountered him when he was playing gordon in one of the plays (and horribly butchering his character). james joined because he wanted to learn more about their journeys and thought that he's essential to lighten up everyone's spirits. james is still his vain self and once told lady that being the avatar isn't THAT hard but he's a genuinely caring person. he's also the "bard" of the group and has some sassy yet well-meaning pick-me-ups. his favorite songs to cover are "girls from ba sing se" and "secret tunnel". also he and gordon once got drunk off cactus juice and the group never let him live that down.

percy is a nonbender from the southern water tribe. he's a known charmer for both his cute-ish face and determined personality. his mother was duck's sister, an earth kingdom noblewoman, while his father is a south pole tribesman. since there's no hundred year war in this AU, percy trains as a south pole tribe warrior just to guard the south pole village. since there's no threat (until d10's army invaded because he heard that lady is there), he spends most of his days helping out the tribespeople with whatever task they have or getting himself dragged into thomas' antics, including being the avatar's playful "bodyguard" in their world-cross journey.

toby is a waterbender from the northern water tribe and is the first person to be recruited in team avatar after they had left the southern water tribe. he was initially mavis' (the north pole princess) caretaker and one of the waterbending masters, but after an attack from d10's fire army, she turned into the moon to preserve waterbending. toby then joined team avatar out of guilt but found himself to be entertained by thomas and percy's antics and lady's curiosity about the world outside the air temples, which gives him hope for the youth. toby also has a strong dislike towards the fire nation army and the earthbending soldiers, particularly the dai li, and is well-versed in the militaristic structures of the two big countries and their weaknesses.

duck is an earthbender from one of ba sing se's noble families. he's really loyal to his city and the earth kingdom itself. although many people consider him charming and intelligent, he's really adamant about following laws, though this is mostly because of his family's influence. the little western (don, doug, oliver, toad) is kinda his body guards/personally recruited soldiers that work for him loosely and their primary target is to watch over diesel, a suspected spy from d10's army. duck senses that d10 is planning something bad for ba sing se. this is also his reasoning to join team avatar (despite initially distrusted by the strike trio). even though he doesn't always follow them around, he provides updates regarding the fire nation and earth kingdom.

and that's all for the famous 8!

as for the final agni kai, I'm still thinking about that one. at first, I was thinking the final agni kai wil be between spencer and gordon instead of between scott and gordon because the two brothers never genuinely hated each other while the two cousins are seconds away from blowing each other up. but, in what reason would spencer be working with diesel 10? why would he side with a nonbender who wants to abandon the old ways of bending and bring forth a new era in an extreme way? then I thought of spencer just being a massive fire nation glazer (and having thrown scott in jail or injured him) and how his dislike for team avatar turned into hate after they freed the prisoners from the boiling rock prison (including hiro). I'll get back to the idea later because I LOVE gresley family drama

thanks for the ask, anon! this was really fun to answer :]

#asks #anonymous #ttte avatar au #this was A LOT to type out but real fun. I love infodumping hashtag real hashtag girl

[bard-llama]

WiP Wednesday: Outtake from A Second Chance at Family

I don’t think this snippet fits into the actual story, timing-wise, but I thought it was a fun idea, so enjoy Zuko’s crew asking the Gaang wtf they did to Zuko (Post Ch-3).

Being chased by the Fire Nation was nothing new. Being chase by soldiers that answered to Prince Zuko wasn’t even new.

The new thing was Zuko not being here himself. A good six soldiers were pursuing them, and while five of them wore those freaky faceplates, the guy who seemed to be giving the orders was that same soldier who followed Zuko around with a frown. So these were definitely Zuko’s soldiers – and yet, no Zuko.

Sokka was maybe a bit too stuck on that point, because he led them running around a hill – and abruptly found himself facing a dead end.

“Uh oh,” Aang said quietly, turning back towards the soldiers with his arms at the ready.

Katara sent Sokka a nervous glance and he tried to smile reassuringly, but he was just as worried. They’d done pretty well so far – but did they stand a chance facing six fully trained firebenders with their backs against a wall?

Aang pulled out his bison whistle and blew it frantically. Appa was their only real hope here.

Except when the firebenders surrounded them, they didn’t fire. Instead, one of the shorter soldiers stepped forward and pulled off her helmet. Because it was a woman behind the scary faceplate and Sokka didn’t know what to think about that.

“What did you do?” she demanded, hands on her hips. Very abruptly, she reminded him of Katara when she knew he’d done something wrong.

“Nothing!” he squeaked out automatically.

“What do you mean?” Aang asked, looking cautiously hopeful that they wouldn’t have to fight. 

“The Prince has been off since that port with the pirates,” another soldiers said, and the voice was surprisingly high. How many of these soldiers were women? Why the fuck was Zuko putting women in the line of fire!?

Well. He was Zuko. He probably didn’t care as long as they bowed appropriately. 

“What did you do?” another soldier demanded. 

“Uh.” Sokka winced. He didn’t actually feel guilty for leaving Zuko in that pit, but he knew Aang thought he should be. Even though Zuko had literally been chasing them since they’d left home. Even though he was literally trying to bring Aang to the Fire Lord!

“What do you mean?” Aang asked again, face twisted with concern. “What’s wrong with Zuko?”

“What isn’t?” Katara mumbled under her breath. Thankfully, Sokka was the only one who heard – and he wholly agreed.

#atla #wip wednesday #time travel

[erisenyo]

Hey there, can I ask how you come up with your OC names?

Anon I am THRILLED you asked because I am about to dump so much in-my-head-only worldbuilding on you, so much more than you probably needed or wanted lol.

As always this is not short, and forgive in advance the butchery I’m about to do of like, all of phonetics and linguistics.

OKAY so generally speaking, when it comes to names I have a set of foundational building blocks/general guidelines for the various countries and I work from there. These are based on phonetic characteristics of the canon names we see, and then from there I'd start layering in additional fun along groupings I've noticed around gender or class or family lines or whatever if I want to take the worldbuilding that deep.

So for example, with the Water Tribes…

We have Sokka, Katara, Hakoda, Bato, Kya all from the South, so I pick out...

Hard K or T sounds being quite common

Primarily A and O as vowels

Vowels being between consonants (ie, being single vowels)

Names being 2-3 syllables

In the North, we see Yue, Hahn, Agna Qel’a, Arnook, Kanna, Pakku...

Some similarities with the Ks and hard Qs

Now we see some softer ‘gn’ and ‘hn’ and L sounds, and the addition of P (which makes Bato’s “B” and Sokka’s “S” stand out)

Some ‘oo’ instead of ‘o’ vowels (so double vowels)

Hahn and Yue with no hard consonant sound at all (and both upper class!)

So that gives us some basic starting blocks to start building up names that sound like they fit within the Water Tribe culture in terms of sounds, as well as some potential regional and class differences to start working with! (Maybe Q sounds are only in the North, and upper-class people have soft consonant names, for example.)

Similarly in the Fire Nation…

The royal family is Zuko, Azula, Ozai, Azulon, Sozin, Iroh, Lu Ten, so...

A lot of Z and K sounds

(Male) names that end in N

A lot of two-syllable names (with the emphasis on the first syllable)

A lot of riffs on each other (Sozin and Ozai, Azulon and Azula, Azulon and Zuko)

Iroh and Lu Ten stand out as having fairly distinct names comparatively, with the “oh” ending and the softer "Ir" and "Lu" starts

Chan, Zhao, and Ruon-Jian are the other upper-class guys we see, which gives us...

short syllables again

N endings (for men) agai

The ‘two word’ name again (so Lu Ten's name naming structure is used elsewhere)

The introduction of “Ch” and “J” and “R” and double-vowel sounds (ao, uo, ia)

We also see Roku and Kuzon...

So very similar names to our royal bunch with those Ks and Zs and oku/uko and uzon/ulon sounds

Also older names from 100+ years ago, and commoner names

Mai, Ursa, Ty Lee as our upper-class ladies gives us...

short syllables again

‘two word’ names again

M sounds!

Mai and Ursa both don't have a hard consonant stop

Some phonetic/vibey similarity with “Mai” and “Ty”

And adding in Chit Sang (another commoner!) (presumably!)...

Another two-word name

Introduces the ‘ng’ ending

Leverages a lot of the consonant sounds we already saw

Uses an “it” usage of the "I" vowel (vs Iroh’s I)

So pulling it all together, in addition to those foundational consonant and vowel sounds, we also see that the royal family has a distinct naming convention that may be rooted in archaic naming styles.

And we can start to build out some ideas around gendered naming, family/honorific naming, and some potential class/pre-unification culture differences, as well as some space to speculate about why Iroh and Lu Ten’s names are so different from the rest of the royal family, too (as well as the ammunition to suggest that Zhao comes from a family of suck-ups lol)

Moving onto the Earth Kingdom (where I truly went wild)…

We start off with Toph, Haru, Long Feng, Kuei, Jet, Bumi, Poppy, Lao, and there's a lot of varability here!

Generally, the names are one or two syllables and start with a consonant

We see more double-vowel pairs (uei, ao), perhaps in the upper class but just as many single vowels

Consonants are hard or soft, and don't seem to group like the Water Tribe or FN royals did around particular sounds

Names end in vowels or hard sounds or softer 'ph' and 'ng'

Those guardrails are fairly wide and broad for feeling out distinct-sounding names, but it makes sense given how huge the Earth Kingdom is and its history of war, displacement, movement, etc.

So for a fic like That Love You've Been Looking For which was super EK-centric and focused on worldbuilding, I ended up breaking it down into broad regions and leaning into place names as well to help articular some basic rules:

In the southwest (Gaoling, Toph, Lao, Poppy), I decided that there’d be a mix of single and two-word names, and that the ‘ph’ ending would be used by women and the ‘ng’ ending for men

On the western coast (Haru, Omashu, Bumi), I went with primarily two-syllable names that follow a ONE-two pattern (PA-lo, BU-mi, CHE-lu, HA-ru) and went with mostly softer consonants

In the north (Ba Sing Se, Si Wong Desert, Long Feng), I went with short multi-word names where each part would be a single syllable

And in the center I was kind of pulling it together from what was left, but I went with names that end with an ‘an’ or ‘in’ sound and echoed some of the place names I was using

So we have some building blocks for the various regions, this time that we can use to indicate where someone’s family could be from and to give each region a more specific feel.

For Kyoshi...

I generally lift the Earth Kingdom rules, but view it as more of a trade-center and melting pot (Suki could fit in WT or FN rules), so it's deliberately a lot looser and with more variation.

And everywhere has a Lee/Li, so none of these rules are hard and fast, and I imagine too that there’s a ton of cultural mixing and fads and trends and whatnot in naming across various regions.

A quick note from a process standpoint--

This approach is very much not trying to find names within various existing real-world cultures. If I'm writing ATLA canon-world, I tend to stick to the idea of leveraging real-world contexts as a base rather than a strict guide. Something I wanted to flag, as there are other ways to go about OC naming that lean much more heavily into researching the naming conventions of various cultures throughout history, thinking about translation and name meaning, etc.

And also, if I need a lot of names, I'll often use the Fantasy Name Generator and look for names that either fit or that I can tweak into the above 'rules.' (Otherwise I accidentally start giving people ship names lol, RIP to Mailee, Maizula, and Yutara, you lived on under new personas)

I also don't always dig as deeply into the way names can signify class or status or whatnot, either. It can be very fun, but sometimes you just need a one-off name so your POV character looks like they actually interact with the people they nominally see every day haha

#asks and answers #anons really teeing me up #atla #world building #fic writing #I like getting into gender and class stuff (or the noticeable lack of it) with names #It can be really fun to play with in the background to signal things about a culture or particular character