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loopy777 · 1 year

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Always love your headcanons :) now that we have official news of the new ATLA movie in 2025, what are your predictions?

Thank you!

To summarize what we know, here's a list of everything I've seen:

Teaser Image

Character Descriptions

Timeline Placement

Unfortunately, the source for all of this is Avatar News, which sometimes jumps to conclusions too quickly and presents them as probable facts. However, this is all very basic information, so I feel safe speculating on it.

The big question is what this movie is about, both in terms of plot and theme. The plot could be anything, but the image has some buildings in the background that look more 'classical' than the Republic City architecture, so my guess is that the gAang are on the move again, as they should be. It raises the question of what is drawing the whole gAang back together if not their pet city. I can see Toph joining just for some excitement, but if Zuko is involved, it must be some big, nation-spanning concern. So it's probably going to be suitably epic for a theatrical release movie.

I'm leaning towards Spirit Troubles of some kind, but given my pedigree, that's probably not a surprise. I'm leaning away from a threat that could start/restart a war, especially involving the Earth Kingdom, as that was the plot of several of the Gene Yang comics, and I think those highlighted how poorly suited the gAang cast is for that kind of thing. Going after bandits or a warlord or something doesn't really feel like it would merit Zuko's direct involvement, even if they pull in Long Feng as a renewed threat to clean up that dangling plot point.

The only non-Spirity thing I can think of that would be both epic and pull in all these characters is something involving the Order of the White Lotus. The Red Lotus was the best plot in LoK, and having a rogue OWL member or faction might somehow pose a threat to international stability, but trying to limit knowledge of the OWL (if that's still a thing at this point in time?) could lead to Zuko getting involved directly rather than sending subordinates.

Of course, the big question is who else is going to get involved with our main cast of characters. With Zuko in the movie, will we see something with Mai? I've pointed out how conspicuously absent she's been from any media that might finally resolve The Dread Breakup Subplot, and it was recently pointed out to me that she's been getting some non-story attention lately. Could that be build-up to an appearance and subplot in this movie? I think it's hard to say. Mai isn't listed in the cast profiles, but it could be they already have an actress in mind for the character, or maybe she's just a very minor character only making a glorified cameo. But if so, why is she being held back in other media? Perhaps simply because she'll be prominent in tie-in material to the movie, rather than the movie itself- you know, a prequel comic that reveals how she and Zuko get together, putting a foundation beneath her appearing as Zuko's fiance for one scene or something.

Suki and Ty Lee, sadly, are less likely to appear. Sokka's love life was never elaborated upon in LoK, so it's wide open for them to do anything with it in this movie, but I think they'll lean towards either continuing to say nothing about it or just mention Suki without showing her. Leaving Mai out of the adventure is easier if she needs to hold things down in the Fire Nation, but it would take a lot more explaining for why the Kyoshi Warriors don't help out if they appear in the movie. Having too many characters running around is a common writing pitfall, and while it can be made to work, it's easier to keep extraneous characters out of sight and out of mind.

But how can we be sure if Suki and Ty Lee are extraneous if we don't know the main theme of the movie? Well, the focus is on Aang and Katara. And I'm predicting that they're being pulled away from Republic City, their home and base. And, if this is going to be a movie released into theaters, I'd hope that it would be more than just An Adventure Aang Has As An Adult. This is America, not Japan, and for better or for worse we don't make theatrical features out of what are essentially extended random episodes of a long-running cartoon. So I'm thinking it has to a turning point for Aang, at least emotionally.

And I'm guessing it's this specific turning point.

(And check out that reply beating me to this prediction months ago. XD)

But yeah, I feel like the only big thing left for Aang -- at least in terms of a bankable cinematic adventure -- is to restore or rediscover enough Air Nomad culture enough to really get the Air Acolytes off the ground. It can leave the origin in the comics alone (basically, random culturally insensitive kids who form an Aang Fan Club and then pressure him into creating a cult they join) and just jump into the idea that there are existing people called to Air Nomad culture and Aang's leadership, but he doesn't have much to offer them beyond internships while he does Avatar stuff. But the movie's plot kicks off and Aang discovers that it's tied to some repository of Air Nomad culture or knowledge or just a herd of sky bison or lemurs, and so he has to act to save some of the last vestiges of his culture, and in doing so he finds the inspiration to create the Air Acolytes we see in LoK, including a reclamation of the Temples. Perhaps the threat even involves the Northern Air Temple in some way, caused by them messing around with stuff they shouldn't have.

You could even swing it so that this is why Zuko is personally tagging along, that the Fire Lord helping to restore this bit of the Air Nomads is importantly symbolic. The importance of this to Aang could also be why Toph is on the quest (in her cool new cape), since the comics have established that she doesn't go on all his adventures anymore now that she has responsibilities. If desired, this could even be tied into a "Is it time for us to expand our family?" subplot for Kataang.

That's about as much as I can speculate based on what we know. I'm sure this is 99% likely to be all completely wrong, and it's possible that teaser image is nothing but some concept art that doesn't even reflect the final product. But the main thing I'm looking for with this movie is its justification for existing, since the backstory between AtLA and LoK actually feels pretty boring, and AtLA made its Coming Of Age arcs so epic that it's hard to imagine these characters not feeling like their lives peaked before they even hit adulthood. So that's what my speculation has tried to cover.

I'd probably also be satisfied with a random adventure, though, as long as the story is good and the movie looks amazing. I've seen two of the My Hero Academia movies in theaters, after all.

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seyaryminamoto · 7 years

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Who do you think are the most overrated characters in ATLA?

What a controversial question xD Well, probably under the cut, for the best.

DISCLAIMER: if you adore any of the characters on this list, this is NOT an attempt to attack you or your peers, merely criticism on how the fandom behaves regarding certain characters.

Undeniably, the #1 overrated character is Iroh. A lot of people give him much more credit than he’s due, and he’s much more problematic than he seems on first sight. No doubt he has his fair share of good points, but he is far from perfect and he definitely isn’t the soul of the show for me, despite it seems he is for a lot of people. Proof of how overrated he is? His mere reappearance in LOK made people who had dropped the show return to it just because of him. Because SOMEHOW Iroh being there makes it all better.Truth is, no, it doesn’t make LOK all better. But how to argue with people who adore Iroh and refuse to see his faults?Iroh is not all wisdom, and he’s definitely not infallible. He’s also not the strongest firebender ever, sorry not sorry to burst that bubble but it’s a fact. Iroh was very questionable at many points in the show, and his relationship with his family is very complicated to say the least. Assuming he’s the only pure and good person in the Fire Nation Royal Family just because he was nice to Zuko is one of the fandom’s biggest mistakes and one of my biggest gripes with this character’s interpretations. Not because Bryke decided to sanctify him in LOK, and make him the franchise’s most enlightened character of all, does it mean he really was that perfect. A genuine analysis of who he is and what he did during ATLA can prove as much. So… Iroh is very overrated. Very. I’m certainly interested in hearing about his past, as any fan would be, but I do think there are far more important things the show and comics should deal with than expanding on Iroh’s life. People who would rather hear about his past than about the grown-up lives of the Gaang (… or about Azula’s uncertain future) really baffle me as Iroh’s endgame is clearly what the show gave us. Do we really need to know more about his past than we need to know about everyone else’s futures? I’d like to know more about his past, as I said, but it is far from a priority for me compared to every other main character on the show.

Zuko would be my #2, of course, only because Iroh’s fans tend to be louder and more annoying when you get them going. But the constant praise to Zuko’s development, and ESPECIALLY the praise to his extremely flawed redemption that still leaves a ton of room for him to improve, and that also made him worse in many ways, makes me roll my eyes more often than not. That recent viral tweet about him getting the best redemption arc in the history of TV makes me wonder how much TV did that person watch at all. If Zuko’s the best redemption TV can do, I guess we’re really facing a terrible time for television shows.Mainly, Zuko is overrated because, just as Iroh, he’s credited for a ton of things that aren’t true. There’s a lot of problems with his character that go unaddressed, and a lot of people are happy to describe him with a lot of praising adjectives that I have no idea what relation they could possibly have with his character. Proof of the messed-up understanding fans have of Zuko can be found easily in fanfiction: have you ever wondered why Zuko’s characterization varies so drastically from fic to fic? Whether fics trying to portray him in a good light or in a bad one, more often than not it feels like people are portraying him as who they think he should be, and not who he really is. Having a grasp on his character is difficult, way more difficult than many people believe, but it’s on great measure because of how hard so many people have it to actually see his flaws for what they are.I am not saying loving Zuko is a terrible thing, it isn’t, but some people love and praise the idea of him, and not who he really is. Careful, less biased inspection of his character can reveal he leaves a lot to be desired for a man who changed his ways and became the ruler that would bring peace to a nation he hardly knows or understands. His character development is a rollercoaster, and that’s mainly because of how deeply flawed he is: but you ask the fandom and he’s a cinnamon roll who never did anything wrong, or at least, whose every misdeed can and should be blamed on everyone but him. Because he is perfect, and so is his character arc. So, overrated, or misunderstood character? Hell knows, but the fandom really has turned me off Zuko’s character altogether.

The third most overrated character would be Toph, who, for all her great traits, often gets praised as a fully rounded character when, uh… to put it bluntly, out of the five top-billed Gaang members, Toph is the one who evolved the least. Her growth was exclusively about developing more bending skills, about becoming a stronger fighter, but she has some serious personality flaws that are never explored the way they should be. She barely ever faces consequences for her wrongdoings, which are often framed as funny, and when she’s in the middle of serious conflicts, she is absolutely never in the wrong, just as it is with her every conflict with Katara. In the end… she barely grows in anything but power level. Yet you look around and find a ton of people praising her as the greatest character of the franchise. While I see the appeal, and in her case I like her a lot better as a character than either Iroh or Zuko, I also think she’s not given a chance by the story to actually grow, and that stunted her as a character. Which doesn’t seem to bother anyone because she’s praised for anything and everything to no end. I appreciate her comic relief moments, the message she gives in regards of disabilities, but the show could have made better use of her character and didn’t, and nobody really seems to notice or care.

This one’s going to get me stoned I’m sure (if the first ones didn’t already :’DDDD) but my #4 goes to Kyoshi. Yep. You read that right.Kyoshi is no doubt a hardass, I’ve seen a ton of people praising her as the greatest Avatar of all. There’s a million Chuck Norris-esque memes with her, presenting her as the most unstoppable force in the Avatarverse, and you see people everywhere dissing Avatars like Kuruk, for being so lazy, or Roku, for not being decisive, blah blah blah, and saying she’s awesome for being 100% the opposite of that.What these funny people fail to notice, or maybe they simply don’t know the Avatarverse’s timeline, is that Kyoshi allowed Chin the Conqueror to take over the entire Earth Kingdom and only made a move against him to save HER island. She didn’t act until then, allowing Chin to take over whatever the hell he wanted to take during his rebellion, which, as far as I know, was practically the entire continent, with only Kyoshi Island and Ba Sing Se as exceptions.And the whole thing to help the Earth King to deal with the Earth Kingdom’s problems, by creating the Dai Li for his protection? It happened AFTER Chin died, she didn’t even do this to save Ba Sing Se from him because this is posterior to Chin’s mad quest. She did NOT act to protect the Earth Kingdom from a raving, rising tyrant until it affected herdirectly, and didn’t involve herself with the politics of HER OWN NATION until after they had boiled over and the Earth King had a peasant revolt in his hands. If she couldn’t be bothered to move to save her own people until the last moment, what guarantees that she did anything to help anyone else? How is she that great an Avatar?Sure, people think that, since she actually got involved in worldly events no matter how late she did, she was better than Roku or Kuruk. But in Kuruk’s favor he apparently had no war to deal with, and his wife’s loss is an unexpected tragedy for him. Roku actually kept Sozin at bay for years, and Sozin only dared act openly with his conquest of the world once Roku was out of the way. Kyoshi had a major war brewing in her nation and her best idea to deal with it was to split off her island so she wouldn’t have anything more to do with it. Because a separatist mentality is the best way to handle your Avatar duties (the greatest illusion is the illusion of separation, anyone?). Seriously, if Chin had been standing just a bit futher back? If he hadn’t fallen to his death? He probably would have taken Ba Sing Se later anyways and Kyoshi would’ve been chilling in her village until she noticed that the Earth King was dead. Oops.Long story short, Kyoshi is considered way too great for the reality of her actions and decisions. The fandom’s concept on her duty as an Avatar is absurdly messed up, and as cool as her character design is, as great as her displays of power were, she was actually a pretty bad Avatar if you get objective about what she allowed Chin to do for so long. So in my very humble opinion, the fandom’s circlejerk around her is more than undeserved.

I was planning on making this a top 5, but tbh I don’t think anyone else gets acclaim to the extreme in the way these four do. Everyone else seems to have a more moderate fanbase, or at least enough detractors that the people who praise them don’t come off as loud and annoying as they do for these four.

I’m not saying loving any of them is wrong, but there’s such abundance of praise for them, often for things they never even did, let alone for values they never represented, and yet they get interpreted by the fandom in whichever way the fans decide they like best. And somehow, the fanon interpretations grow more popular than what’s really there… which is truly annoying because these characters are fine the way the show actually portrayed them. They’re flawed, they make mistakes, their actions can be judged, they’re far from perfect: yet the fandom would have you believe otherwise.

#wingsfreedom #if I get an onslaught of hate for this you're responsible okay (?)

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