#like the thing is I’d be okay with aang and katara’s children having issues with the way they were raised

[survivalove]

hope this is an okay question to ask but if there's anything you would change about katara and aang's children (i mean like how they're written), what would it be?

uh I think I talked about this briefly before but I can expand on it:

I would make Bumi the airbender from birth and not Tenzin but with the same personalities. It’d be interesting if Korra had to train with Bumi but he was AWOL (being a nomad) so she had to live with Tenzin to train with his kids (who are actually airbenders). I think it would add a lot more substance to the “what it means to be a mixed kid” issue that LoK has and also give Korra and Tenzin a stronger reason to be in conflict in the beginning. Then I’d probably have Bumi come up later in the story like season 3 when the red lotus captured the air kids. In a perfect world, harmonic convergence isn’t a thing, but if it was I’d probably have Bumi leading the new air nation ‘his way’ and him and Tenzin fighting over what it means to be an airbender too.

um I don’t really have a problem with Kya in canon. Some of my headcanons are that she butted heads with Katara a lot, especially because their personalities are so different. Part of that resentment for Aang is because she wished she could’ve been the one to spend time with him because they’re so similar. Aang would have brought them close together and make Kya see where Katara was coming from growing up.

and I basically already talked about Tenzin, but to add some more, I would still have him leading the air acolytes and living in Republic City because Bumi couldn’t be bothered to be tied down to any one place. “it’s not the air nomad way” he says. And maybe if shitty harmonic convergence has to happen then, Tenzin could become a bender, sort of like Zaheer but, you know, actually good lol.

#lok critical #cloudfamily #bumi ii #kya ii #tenzin #my asks #kataang

[dyketoph]

not to complain about lok’s absolute slaughtering of the characterizations of the gaang again but bryke’s decision to make aang a bad father is awful not only because it’s completely inconsistent with aang’s character but because it’s also completely inconsistent with katara’s character. like aang would love and respect all of his children and wouldn’t just focus on the child that was an airbender but if you really wanna insist he did, if katara caught even a whiff of favoritism you cannot convince me that she wouldn’t have fucking mcmurdered him

#like she absolutely would not stand for that. not even a little bit. #like the thing is I’d be okay with aang and katara’s children having issues with the way they were raised #no parent is perfect; I can definitely see the kids of two of the most important people in the world having to deal with problems #that other children wouldn’t have to deal with even if their parents were otherwise great #but the decision?? to portray aang as only really paying attention to tenzin because he’s an air bender??? REALLY grinds my gears #like that’s just straight bullshit #even when taking into account the fact that airbdenders had the highest percentage of benders in their population #(bc they were more spiritually pure or whatever which also stinks of bullshit imo) #like there were still.... non-bender air nomads. and they were STILL AIR NOMADS #like even kya being a water bender shouldn’t have affected this; she’s still half air nomad #you cannot and will not convince me that mixed families didn’t exist before the 100 year war #anyways I choose to ignore this part of lok 😌 it simply isn’t canon #personal #also sorry I’ll be back soon I’m just all over the place rn lol

[zuzuslastbraincell]

For the salty ask game: 6, 10 and 16? <3

6: Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?

I never used to like kataang or maiko much, but I’m good with the former and really like the latter now.

while I’m still not a big fan of the kataang (without wanting to write an essay: ember island players ruins it for me), I’ve softened on it a lot largely just from seeing the content for it on here. they’re just honestly very sweet? I don’t know if it’ll last for practical reasons, but the idea of aang & katara offering each other hope from the beginning and until the end is just lovely. 

as for maiko, I absolutely love the strength of mai & zuko’s dynamic (platonic or romantic) just from their boiling rock interactions alone. I feel like a lot of early s3 maiko very much demonstrates that they have some communication difficulties to work through together (thinking about the beach in particular here, but also the ‘are you cold?’ scene, as well as the break-up via letter interaction, that’s the big one) and in a sense mai represents part of zuko’s ‘ideal’ life as a perfect prince that he realises that he has to break from in the first half of s3, but I’ve come around to the idea that if they spent some time working through their communication issues they could really have something lovely? I do also think mai deserves a short break from the stifling culture of nobility/time to explore herself first, but after that? totally could work. like, i’m personally really attached to the gay zuko headcanon and always have been but a lot recent mutuals are maiko shippers and i’ve become very attached to maiko as well because of them (in parallel universes of course).

16: If you could change anything in the show, what would you change?

so many things....

1. less racist, more sensitive worldbuilding. crucially better south asian rep, clear south asian rep. this also means including removing the caricature of guru pathik and changing the design of combustion man (and p’li) not to include a reference to shiva. the show’s philosophies and vocabulary owes so much to south asian culture and the lack of representation in that aspect alone is shocking.

2. references to the fact that there are some air nomad survivors / descendents in hiding in various and that being a late s2 / s3 subplot. (maybe aang is still the last airbender tho? but certainly his culture won’t die with him). the culture isn’t perfectly preserved / has changed with time and enduring hardships, some things have been lost, but there are still survivors clinging on, proud. maybe it’s this community that helps with him the avatar state, not a random guru? or they could help him with his s3e1 dilemma about ‘blending in’, as many of them have discarded certain aspects of appearance in order to hide? i feel like this could add so much to aang’s arc in the latter half of the show.

3. better writing of the white lotus, with the white lotus as a international resistance org that operates in all nations, that uses old man’s pai sho club as a front. they’re introduced as opposing the dai li in ba sing se, as trying to organise resistance in secret, have ties to some local revolutionary/radical factions as they have a long standing rivalry with the dai li (& part of the reason the dai li side with azula is to crush the white lotus and resistance to their reign). iroh is not grand lotus but merely gets recruited in s2, as part of a redemption arc.

4. a subtle iroh redemption arc where iroh realises he cannot simply be passive and perhaps let the treasonous thought ”hm, maybe it would have been better if the avatar fought sozin” cross his mind - he needs to take a more active role in opposing the fire nation, and he joins the white lotus. i think he also needs to reckon quite specifically with the cost of the siege of ba sing se, he needs to make amends to those hurt from it on both sides - be confronted by fire nation defectors who left after the siege because why were their deaths less important that his son’s? as well as encounter how the siege left scars on the lower ring, in a less visible way (untrained lower ring residents formed resistance militia and generally died in huge numbers; plague and starvation greatly affected the lower ring, etc.). no iroh as a moral authority here - he’s morally grey trying to become good. also he doesn’t stick around in ba sing se, he realises the jasmine dragon, as lovely as it is, isn’t true redemption either, and at the end of the series he stays in the fire nation.

5. leading into point 3 (and 4): in s3 the gaang encounters and works with grassroots underground resistance in the fire nation. i think this is a better message than ‘oh the fire nation is a soceity ridden by class division that exploits its poorer / less privileged people and its own environment as long as it doesn’t affect the elite, and turns even its most privileged children into traumatised child soldiers and is indirectly hurt by its own colonialism and imperialistic culture, and that’s deeply sad’ - i think a better message is ‘the fire nation is a society with all those problems and you can do something about it. you can stand up. even though that’s scary.’ this resistance group is around for day of black sun (in fact they’re vital to it) and then you see a key member in boiling rock too.

6. no combustion man. honestly? weak writing. would much prefer zuko attempting to ‘stealthily’ track the gaang on the false premise of a ‘welcome home tour’ where he slips out under night to try and chase them down - this would mostly be alluded to in a few scenes. i also think this would get zuko to realise how much the fire nation itself has been hurt from war. i think the main early s3 plot points e.g. the beach episode still happens, as does the war meeting. i feel like zuko would need extra firepower to be a decent s3 threat - maybe he takes mai and ty lee with him? zuko ultimate lesbian ally takes bored lesbians from the palace for a knife throwing chi blocking field trip kjfshdj i’m joking. but seriously we could also have a combustion bender on board as well as a potential new character (i’m imagining someone like a younger p’li if i’m honest, same age range as zuko), as long as they have a character beyond being a scary assassin. maybe they defect early to the resistance group before the day of black sun, tell zuko they should too (but zuko doesn’t listen)? that’d be rad.

7. the existence of grassroots resistance would basically allow for the series to end with zuko being offerred the crown, but deciding to give it up / end the royal line. rather than a power vacuum, or iroh, the existance of resistance means there are clearly people (i.e. adults) who can fill that space. maybe this is a bit optimistic of me but i would just love to set up a scenario where zuko doesn’t become a boy-king of an imperialist nation and where absolute monarchy doesn’t continue, where there’s a clear shift in system. i understand the narrative power of zuko acknowledges he has inherited wealth and power that has been gained through exploitation and imperialism, and dedicating his whole life to undoing the damage his family has done, but i think he can do this without being the fire lord? in fact not being the fire lord is a good first step. zuko finds another way of doing exactly this.

8. talked about this a lot recently but better toph s3 representation & greater ties to the earth kingdom. also, i’d just appreciate a lot more flavour from the earth kingdom as a whole, and more prominent characters from there?

9. okay i’m not sure there is quite honestly space in the narrative for an azula redemption clearly on screen in as much depth as zuko’s but 1. i’d like iroh not to treat her horribly, thanks, and maybe even try to reach out to her at appropriate moments, maybe we see him (comically) say a lovely warm hello during her s2 appearances, maybe we see her play pai sho with him in s3 while he’s in prison in return for some secret info he’s not actually giving her while he’s not-so-subtly suggesting she should defy her father (but it’s too little too late, he already *chose* zuko in her eyes, and perhaps he did and is only just beginning to realise that) 2. i would like some hope and optimism at the end for azula. her breakdown is truly tragic but it feels like pain for pain’s sake in a sense - i would have loved for the finale scene with zuko & ozai replaced with a scene where someone visits azula and tells them they’ll be there for her and/or they love her. perhaps iroh, perhaps zuko (though i think that one would be more complicated obviously). i would love a post-finale scene where iroh sets up a tea shop somewhere in the fire nation where we see azula out the back, finishing up wiping down/mopping the patio, and before aang goes inside to say hi to his friends, we see them bump into each other - azula bows deeply, a clear apology, and aang accepts it. then we see azula runs off to go hang out with some friends before we follow aang inside as he encounters his own friends.

basically i’d rewrite a lot of s3. i’m dearly, dearly attached to s3, especially the second half, which has some of my favourite episodes of the entire season, but i think it’s flawed.

#drowning-in-cacophony #long post #sorry this ended up being REALLY long

[luuuna-rambles]

Avatar Review: 1x10 Jet

Ah yes, that guy everyone on the Internet seems to hate. I bet this episode is going to be a joy

How can Sokka easily identify fire nation animal traps? Sure, he hates the fire nation, but that doesn’t really seem like intel a boy from a very small village would have

We have never heard Sokka’s voice crack like that, until they felt like making a joke about it

Also, I’ve looked it up, and Sokka is older than Katara. Why is she saying that because his voice cracks, he shouldn’t be leader? He’s older than you, it doesn’t even make sense as a joke!

Also, the idea that they should walk to avoid being spotted seems like a perfectly reasonable suggestion, why is it resulting in an argument about who’s ‘boss’?

To be honest, I’m on Sokka’s side here. Which is not something I thought I’d ever say when I started this show

Aang? Leader? Come on Katara, that kid acts like he’s on a sugar high or a sugar crash 100% of the time

Honestly, I feel like Katara would be the best leader, but she’s not even brought up as a suggestion

Aaaaand now we’re talking about whether or not Sokka has ever kissed a girl. this is a really weird conversation to start off the episode

However, when would Sokka have ever had the chance to kiss a girl, Katara? He had literally never met any girls his age other than you until he started travelling with Aang! It seems like a really odd statement to base... anything on, really

Couldn’t this transport argument have been sorted out democratically, instead of just whining about who’s in charge?

Ffs, stop bullying Sokka! His worries make sense. Have you forgotten what show you are in?

Well that seems to be the total opposite of a deus ex machina. How did they not hear the fire nation camp before they were right on top of it?

And why do these fire nation peeps go running off after three random children?

Why are they trying to kill three random children?

So... I assume this is Jet? Did he just kill that guy?

Why has he got a twig in his mouth? One wrong move, and you’re choking on that

Why is Jet the only one with a semi-reasonable name in this group? Why doesn’t he get a stupid name like, I dunno, twig boy?

I’m sorry, pipsqueak is the only funny name? He’s standing next to someone who is literally called ‘the dude’!

Also pipsqueak looks about six. Why are they letting someone that young fight firebenders?

Oh, har har, the big guy is pipsqueak. So that makes tiny boy ‘the dude’. Why?

So... why didn’t the Gaang thank Jet and crew, and immediately leave? They do have places to go

Jet, ffs, take that stick out of your mouth, it is not working aesthetically or practically

Moderately funny joke, but why does this random fire nation patrol have a whole crate of jellied candies?

Jet, letting three random children into your secret hideout really doesn’t seem like a good plan

Are none of these group member’s spider senses going off why they see a kid jump twenty feet in the air with ease?

Yes show, we got that there was a romantic connection without the pink filter and floaty music

I forget sometimes that this show is for kids. Subtlety just went out of the window there

They think the fire nation can’t find them... up a tree? Don’t they just need to look up?

So, do we ever get clarity on what the hell actually happened with Katara and Sokka’s mum? I assume we do, but right now it just seems really random

I’m sorry, but I really can’t take Jet seriously with that stick

Okay, so the small child is ‘duke’, not ‘dude’. It said dude on the subtitles, though...

Why is Sokka so pissed? Yeah, Jet took his kills, but wouldn’t he be happy to see some people resisting the fire nation?

Also, this episode gets worldbuilding points, ding ding ✨✨

Who are these random other people watching up a higher tree? Clearly they are part of this group, so why weren’t they in the fight?

I feel like Jet should be more surprised that he has the literal Avatar sitting a place away from him at dinner

Hell yeah, look at Sokka being a valued member of the team!

Okay, I’m starting to see people’s issues with Jet

What the fuck was that?

How did you even know he was fire nation? Cause he was wearing red? You’re wearing red! And no one ever seems to care that Aang wears Airbender orange or Sokka and Katara wear water nation blue!

Katara is being incredibly naive here. Sure, she has a crush, probably her first crush actually (Aang is a child, he doesn’t count), but she’s always been shown to be the level headed one

Hell yeah, Sokka, let’s stealth this bitch out!

Wait, so this blowing the dam thing happens on Jet’s first episode!? Why do they not kill him the next time he shows up?

‘They don’t understand the demands of war. Not like you and I do’. Okay, that line make no sense. Sokka has been against every single one of your plans, while Katara and Aang have agreed. What made you think they’re not up to it? It’s not age - there is a six year old standing right next to you!

I feel like waterbending with water you can’t see should be more of a challenge. They both just get it first try

Katara, haven’t you know Jet for like, a day? How would you have any idea what he would and wouldn’t do?

What is Jet trying to do? He already has Aang’s staff, so he can’t leave. Is he seriously trying to kill the avatar?

I feel like Jet’s turn to kinda antagonist would have a lot more weight if we knew him first. Say, instead of all the bs with Bumi, we meet Jet episode five, they team up to take down something something fire nation something and, deciding that the avatar is the best hope the world has, Jet gives the Gaang the kit and money? Then what happens here would hurt a lot more

It would also explain why Katara trusts him so much, if they’d had a whole episode to bond

Holy shit, they actually did it

That took some guts

I’m really not sure why I’m surprised - they already did genocide episode 3

How dare you hurt cabbages like that?

Oh, wait, never mind, everyone’s fine

So that lasted about five seconds

We don’t see any fire nation soldiers with the group of survivors. Where did they go?

On the other hand, Sokka gets some appreciation for once, which is nice

Thoughts:

So it says quite a lot about this show that I genuinely thought they were going to kill a bunch a innocent people, including children. But the fact that they didn’t suggests they’re gonna have some kind of redemptive arc for Jet. Which is odd cause, from what I know, they don’t. Still a good episode, I’m enjoying Sokka more and more, and we get some more sweet sweet worldbuilding

#luna watches ATLA #Avatar The Last Airbender #atla #atla 1x10 #1x10 #jet #sokka #katara #aang

[bloodbenderz]

final post on azula

i actually think that the writers handled azula in a really accurate way bc of course azula’s not going to be a perfect victim (they made a point of not making ANY of the characters perfect victims) she was groomed to be an emotionless monster! of course empathy and kindness won’t come as easily to her as it did for zuko, who was nurtured by iroh and ursa and never had no one except his father. and thats okay. thats how things are sometimes. trauma damaged her in irrevocable ways, and she did bad things. thats what happens.

but the response of the fandom is really appalling to me. she was a child, at the end of it all, just like any of the other characters. she was a child soldier, brainwashed and trained to a breaking point. and all people can say is either “she was pure evil and didn’t deserve chances to recover or to be redeemed” (as if anyone was talking about redemption at all; the issue of azula’s redemption is frankly far from the point) or “she was pure evil and thats why she’s a good character” and that’s black and white morality and poor analysis. 

avatar is literally all about dismantling the idea that black and white morality is applicable in every situation. arguably, that was part of the point of zuko’s defection and ultimate redemption: he was fire nation, and he’d done bad things, and there were bad things about him, but he had good intentions and he finally came to peace within himself about all the bad things of himself and his past in order to emotionally heal and to finally act on what he knew was good. think about hama: will we say that there’s a certain point where she’s bad and a certain point that she’s good? where do we draw that line? when she was in prison she was good, after she got out she was bad? no. that’s not how people work. she, too, had good intentions, and trauma twisted her up so badly that she hardly knew what good meant anymore. to say that hama shouldn’t be put in the good box or the evil box doesn’t mean to excuse the atrocities she committed, it just means to think of her with the nuance that the writers gave her. this leads straight into another point: generalizing as “pure good” or “pure evil.”

atla has incredibly nuanced characters and to call any of them “pure good” or “pure evil” is to do a disservice to half of the message of the show in the first place and to completely misinterpret the characters as they are. aang is an incredible example of this. of course he’s good, of course we love him, but i’d never call him “pure good.” why? his goodness is about the choices he makes. he makes bad decisions sometimes, he treats his friends badly sometimes, he has bad reactions to things, just like anyone else. but he struggles to do the right thing all the time. he’s been hurt by the war just like anyone else, and to him, it takes maybe a week for the world to go from peaceful and easy (both morally and materially) to a war torn world that’s nearly impossible for anyone to live in as a truly good person. he struggles. he’s not “truly” or “purely” or “inherently” good, and to call him that is to discount everything he went through. to call azula “truly” or “purely” or “inherently” evil does the same thing: it ignores everything she’s been through and simplifies an incredibly complex character.

my final point is maybe the simplest one, but really shouldn’t be overlooked. every main character has gone through indescribable horrors during their formative years. aang saw the bones of his slaughtered people, knowing he was a century late to save them. katara was forced to take on the burden of caring for her entire community at 8 years old, and had to learn that being a girl means being always caring for those around her at the expense of herself. sokka’s father pushed a “man of the house” role on him, and sokka felt deeply and indescribably helpless to protect those he loved for his entire childhood. toph was isolated and silenced and forbidden to befriend or even speak to anyone outside of her family because of her parents’ ableism. suki trained to be a soldier, and from a very young age, headed up a group of soldiers younger than she and led them to war. zuko was subjected to physical and mental abuse at the hands of his father, constantly being told that he was not good enough unless he was a capable fighter. azula? nearly the same situation as zuko. we dont have many solid canon scenes that show her being physically abused, but if zuko wasn’t good enough to even claim his father’s name if he wasn’t a capable fighter, what makes you think azula would’ve been treated any better? ozai made it clear he wanted ONE thing: a fighter, a general, someone that made him look good on the battlefield and the palace. why do you think that someone he successfully shaped into that role would’ve been happier or healthier than someone ozai failed with? azula was raised in an abusive environment, with no support from her mother or uncle, and trained to believe that she was worthless unless she was serving her father, just like zuko. the characters go through these things during their formative years. as children, they’re scarred with these things. we give zuko and katara and the rest of team avatar a lot of leeway (as we should) because of the horrors they’ve been subjected to, the mental issues they must be dealing with. it just makes no sense for us to leave no sympathy for a young traumatized girl, who was the only one for whom the show began and ended in tragedy.

azula was a very complicated character, and i won’t tell you you have to like her. i’m certainly not excusing her behavior toward ty lee, mai, and zuko. however, i do beg of anyone who has read this far to take into account the same things you do when you think about any other character. azula added a lot to the show, both in depth and in being iconic, and i think it’s important that we think about the show and its messages about morality when we think about azula.

#this was supposed to be one paragraph.. #but whatever i think it needed to be said #if i get any more azula bullshit im linking them to this post smh #azula #essays