#mcogpedro

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One thing I always like to do with characters is to look at what their name means. So here it goes:

Esteban: crown, garland. A variation of Stephen, of Spanish and Greek origin. Derived from the Greek name Stéphanos, meaning "crown" or "garland”

Zia: Coming from the Arabic name Ziya, it means "splendor" or "light”

Tao: of Chinese and Vietnamese origin. From a Mandarin surname, Tao has multiple meanings, such as “ceramics,” “pottery,” “pleased,” and “large waves.” Tao also means “the way” and is rooted in Taoism, a philosophy that connects people and the world through harmony. A common translation in both Chinese and Vietnamese is “peach”

Mendoza: The name Mendoza means "cold mountain", derived from the Basque words mendi (mountain) and (h)otz (cold) + definite article -a (Mendoza being mendi+(h)otza). The original Basque form with an affricate sibilant (/ts/, Basque spelling ⟨tz⟩) evolved in Spanish to the current form.

Juan: Juan is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of John. The name is of Hebrew origin and has the meaning "God has been gracious." It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking countries around the world and in the Philippines, and also in the Isle of Man (pronounced differently)

Carlos: The name Carlos has its origins in the Spanish language and can be traced back to the ancient Latin name Carolus, meaning free man. This name gained popularity in the Middle Ages and became particularly associated with the powerful rulers of the Carolingian dynasty, such as Charlemagne.

Pedro: Spanish form of the name Peter, means "stone" or "rock". It is derived from the Greek word petros, which also means "stone".

Sancho: deriving from the Spanish language, carries the profound meaning of holy or saint

Laguerra: it’s not a real last name, but it’s similar to Laguerre; French and West Indian (mainly Haiti) nickname for a belligerent person or for a valiant soldier from (Old) French guerre ‘war’ with fused feminine definite article la.

Isabella: Italian and Spanish variation of Elizabeth, which comes from the Hebrew name Elisheba, meaning "devoted to God" or "God is my oath.".

Fernando: Spanish and Portuguese origin. Coming from the Germanic name Ferdinand, it translates to “adventurer” or “bold voyager”

Gaspar: Typically masculine, it is derived from the Old Persian kaspar, meaning “treasure” or “master of treasure”

Gomez: Spanish origin and means "son of Gome". Gome, a given name, derives from the Visigothic word guma, which translates to "man". It's a patronymic surname, indicating descent from someone named Gome

Ambroise: The name Ambroise, a French variation of Ambrose, means "immortal" or "divine". It is derived from the Greek word "ambrosia," the food of the gods, believed to grant immortality. The name Ambroise is also connected to the Latin Ambrosius, which also signifies "immortal"

Athanaos: couldn’t find the name, but I found a similar one. Athanasios (Greek: Αθανάσιος), also transliterated as Athnasious, Athanase or Atanacio, is a Greek male name which means "immortal". In modern Greek everyday use, it is commonly shortened to Thanasis (Θανάσης), Thanos (Θάνος), Sakis (Σάκης), and Nasos (Νάσος).

Michel: French form of the Hebrew name Michael, means "who is like God?". It's a common given name in French-speaking countries and also appears as a surname in various regions. The name's popularity is linked to the biblical figure of the Archangel Michael

Nostradamus: The surname "Nostredame" (often romanized as Nostradamus) comes from the French phrase "Notre Dame," which translates to "Our Lady" in English. It refers to the Virgin Mary.

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my favourite idiots

The way Mendoza starts off by yelling at them all the time and slapping them and punching them to becoming besties

No but the way Pedro and Sancho are mendoza’s best friends but Pedro and Sancho are their own best friends …

If you get what I mean

I always wonder why he hired them. Out of everyone

I mean Mendoza. The quiet, observant, intelligent, manipulative solo act. Decides to hire these 2 idiots. They’re stupid, unserious, complain a lot, cowardly and can’t shut up

Maybe that’s the exact reason WHY he wants them

Because ok think about it. Mendoza is smart. And he’s smart about people. He knows who needs on his team. He knows how to get people to trust him

But why hire someone in the first place? That means he’d have to split the reward in the end? But Mendoza knows that trekking through the wilderness is not something a man can do alone. Especially with the responsibility of young children. So splitting the gold at the end is a sacrifice you need to make

So Mendoza realizes he needs to hire people to do the boring physical labor stuff. His job is to be the smart guy of the team. And of course in exchange he offers everyone protection

So he needs people that’s for sure. But what type of people? It would be in his benefit to hire smart, strong people like him right? WRONG. Mistake number one. You hire smart guys, guys even smarter and stronger than you, and you get outsmarted! He can’t run the risk of having his team turn against him

that’s why he chose them. They’re not smart enough to take the kids and find the cities on their own. Cause they need Mendoza. Once again, Mendoza makes himself indispensable. So smart huh

And besides, they’re too afraid of Mendoza to go against him. That’s why he chose stupid, weakish and cowardly guys to work for him

but that’s not enough. Because what’s stopping them from just running away and abandoning him? I mean ok they wouldn’t survive but they could just give up

It’s because of: motive. Mendoza picked people who would stop at nothing to get a bit of gold, like him. Their obsession with gold is what keeps them loyal to Mendoza, who’s filled their head with promises of wealth

It’s a recipe for success

And it all happened off screen

[queats]

More mcog thoughts cause I’m bored: If they had a pet what would it be

- Zia: a snake. She gives me weird reptile girl vibes. Also it would be funny if everyone was terrified of the snake despite it being harmless (probably)

- Esteban: an iguana. Don’t ask me why idk I just. I just feel like it fits him. Not to mention that one scene where he’s holding an iguana like a puppy. If not an iguana specifically then maybe some sort of reptile idk. Also reptiles are cold blooded, so they need to rest in the sun to get warm….. hmmm…… interesting …….

- Tao: well he already has a pet. Parrot. But if he has to get another. Twould be a rabbit = sacred animal for his people = idk fun and energetic

- Mendoza: a cat. Cause idk. Cats do well on ships right. Also I can totally see him feeding a random stray cat that comes to see him and then slowly adopting it. Isn’t that what happened to him and the kids anyway. Also he just gives me cat vibes

- Isabella: a hawk or some raptor. I think it would be cool if she had a trained bird that could help her in missions. Like a messenger pigeon but wayyyy cooler cause it can attack people and steal stuff

- Pedro and sancho: they find a small mouse on a ship one day and they know they should kill it but it’s soooo cute so they keep it

- Ambrosius: an owl. Cause idk they’re scary and smart and uhhhh can be symbol for evil

- Gaspar: a dog. But like a HUGE one. He gets it so it can hunt Mendoza or something but instead of attacking him it just. Jumps on him and licks him so yeah. Also reference to Mendoza being killed by a dog in the book

[queats]

Mcog analysis pertaining to Mendoza’s death scene:

Ok gonna do this in chronological order. So scene starts off with the crew realizing they’ve been stalked by Zares. Now at first Mendoza doesn’t look too surprised to see him. He tells the kids to hide and goes up against Zares.

Interesting point NUMBER ONE.

When he’s walking up to him, he sharpens his sword on the rocks, giving it a sharp edge. This is IMPORTANT. In the cartoon, we see the tip of the blade often enough to know it’s round. Not pointy at all. But now he’s making it sharper. I think the round tip shows his unwillingness to use the sword for killing or for harm. Only protection. Think about it. Protection = shield = round. So the sword is round. But now it’s sharp. Meaning Mendoza is willing to maybe even kill someone now. And he’s doing it while walking up to Zares, firstly to make himself look more threatening I guess? (Cause he’s shorter than Zares JAJ) but also so Zares knows he means business. Anyway

interesting point NUMBER TWO

Zares tells Mendoza “I owe you an apology. 3 against one, it was not enough” revealing to Mendoza that Zares was the one who sent assassins after him. But he already suspected that. Anyway Zares then says that he came to kill him and the sailors himself. Remember. Up till this point, Mendoza never fought Zares. And now Zares is saying that 3 men aren’t enough to take Mendoza down, so he needs to do the job himself. MEANING Zares is more powerful than 3 men. Which is something that should worry Mendoza. But it doesn’t really. Not yet. Anyway after that, Zares calls Pedro and Sancho “buffoons” to which Pedro, who was hiding behind an old brick wall, yells out “You’re the buffoon!” For some reason. Mendoza turns around to look at him. Like broooo what

interesting point NUMBER THREE

In this fight, they show us that distraction can basically be deadly. So Mendoza being briefly distracted by Pedro’s yelling gave Zares the opportunity to reach out and grab him. Obviously Mendoza evades it at the last second. 2 things here. 1) why did Mendoza turn around? I mean yeah if someone yells you’re gonna turn. But your enemy is RIGHT in front of you and he TOLD YOU he’s gonna kill you 😭. Idiot. Anyway 2) why did Zares decide to grab Mendoza? I’m guessing that since he came all this way with the sole purpose of killing Mendoza, he probably had thought of HOW he’d do it. I mean murder is usually planned. And not to mention that Zares didn’t wanna surprise attack. He could’ve. But he didn’t. He made himself visible to ALL of them. He wanted them to see him murder Mendoza. Oof. He probably wanted to see mendoza’s face while he killed him or something. Anyway back to grabbing. I think maybe his plan was to choke him to death. Because 1) it relates to darth Vader, whom I think Zares is inspired by and 2) it’s a slow painful death, and it would be difficult for Mendoza to fight back. But anyway. That’s not what happens. And then the fight begins.

Interesting point NUMBER FOUR

I’m not gonna talk about every tiny thing cause uhhhh boring. Just a few aspects of the fight in general. So Mendoza uses strategy a lot in fights. He also observes how people fight to use it against them later on. But Mendoza never fought Zares before. And he’s never seen him fight. He has no idea what to expect. So he can’t specialize his attacks ya know. As the fight goes on, he realizes that 1) Zares is very very strong and 2) his normal fighting style won’t work on him. You see Mendoza in the sequel is very “need to properly duel because honour bla bla respect bla rules bla bla” but that doesn’t work here. It’s a fight to the death. Mendoza quickly runs out of tricks. Uh oh

Interesting point NUMBER FIVE

So what does he do to compensate? He hits hard and as much as he can. You know when you’re in a hurry and the elevator isn’t coming so you boom boom boom assault the button as if it’s gonna make it come faster. 😭 basically he’s losing. But he CAN’T lose (we’ll see why later on) so his only plan is to just. Hit as hard and as fast as he can. Hopefully it’ll do something, right? Now visually, we see Mendoza is starting to get tired. This is important actually. Cause Zares can see that. He can see Mendoza doesn’t have much time left, he’s close to the goal. But Zares? We cant see his face. We don’t know if he’s getting tired or if he’s chilling. Mendoza is looking weak here. And based on his erratic fighting, he is losing it. And the voice actor did a great job, cause you can hear Mendoza panting and grunting a lot more than he usually does in fights. All to show that my man is STRUGGLING. That much is certain. He tries swinging like crazy, trying to reach Zares’ head, at least that should do something right? Oops Zares caught his sword….. and breaks mendoza’s hand. Oh no. He has him exactly where he wants him. On the ground, semi-helpless, easy to kill. As Zares bids him farewell, Esteban jumps in and…. Distracts him… For a second. Once Zares is done dealing with Esteban, he turns to finish off Mendoza but. Oh no. He’s gone?

Interesting point NUMBER SIX

Well Mendoza tries a sneak attack which doesn’t work. Let’s cut this up in pieces

1- he’s now holding his sword in his left hand. Love that little detail. Obviously he’s right handed, so this makes it a bit harder for him to fight now

2- he’s running up to Zares, from behind. Perfect! Stealthy?

3- no, not stealthy, because for some reason, he starts yelling like crazy. Ok I get it. When you’re mad. And you’re fighting. You will yell out. But still man. If he hadn’t yelled…

4- Zares hears him, turns around and catches the sword immediately. Oh god now we don’t even have a sword

Tiny detail to note: Mendoza goes for the head. With a lot of energy. He was going to kill Zarès. Slice his head. Like. Completely on purpose. That’s the first time we see him do that. Man was NOT playing. Anyway now I think this is the start of mendoza’s downfall

Interesting point NUMBER SEVEN

So Zares throws him through a brick wall, almost knocking him out. Then he grabs him and throws him to the edge of the cliff. So I want to talk about Zares first. So we know that he really, really hates Mendoza (to the point of obsession). That’s why he’s taking time killing him. I mean, first they fight. He knows Mendoza isn’t strong enough. But still. He gives him the luxury of THINKING he can make it out alive. Then once Mendoza is losing it, he throws him around. Those are the bigger injuries. Cause the fighting didn’t do much. Idk why but Zares loves throwing him around?? Ok I do know why. Cause Zares has uh a height complex, which is why he made himself to be so tall JAJ. And Mendoza is naturally tall, but shorter than Zarès. Anyway Zarès loves throwing Mendoza around cause, I mean, he’s so small! Like throwing a rag doll JAJ. And I guess it’s very fun and satisfying for him. Mendoza barely opens his eyes and boom he’s being grabbed again. He could kill him now. But he doesn’t. (This happens in season 4, where Mendoza is weaponless and Zares could kill him easily, but decides to throw him around first. See the pattern?). Also if it takes a long time to kill him, it’s more fun! Speaking of killing

Interesting point NUMBER EIGHT

Now it gets REALLY fun (for me. Not for Mendoza). He’s like super close to the end. He’s now accepting that he’s going to die. Oof heavy topic. But! He’s not the only one here. The kids are watching. And the kids are scared. I’m gonna focus on Esteban. Up till this point, he thought Mendoza was invincible. He would ALWAYS make it out alive. No matter what. Mendoza is the strongest man he knows. He CAN’T die. But now….. it doesn’t look too good. Why isn’t he getting up again?? Why isn’t he fighting!! He has to!! Come on get up!!

interesting point NUMBER NINE

Back to Mendoza. He also knows the kids are here. He knows they’re watching him. Expecting him to do something, anything. But he can’t. It’s over. So he looks up at them. And this ONE look is what this section is about. First, it seems as though he’s almost ashamed to meet their gaze. And rightfully so. He failed. His one job was to protect the kids. Once he dies, Zares is going after them. Once he gets what he wants from them, he’ll kill them. The kids are doomed because Mendoza couldn’t protect them. He knows all this. And feels shame for it. But that only lasts a tiny bit. Even in this sorry state, he’s STILL looking out for the kids. He can’t protect them, but he can tell them to “run away”. That line. Ohhh that line gives me chills. The way it was delivered is just perfect. The way it sounds like he’s STRUGGLING to speak. The way it’s so quiet? The way all his confidence is GONE. This man is AFRAID. Or even TERRIFIED. This is his last effort to try and fix things. But it’s not enough. His voice is shaky. There’s no more of that calm and commanding persona he had carefully crafted and wore in front of the kids. This is completely different. The kids see it slip. They know it’s serious. And that’s terrifying. (I mean it’s not only that? He’s on the ground, battered and broken. That is a blow to one’s ego. No one wants their kids to see them beaten up. And no one wants to see their dad on their knees at someone else’s mercy)

Interesting point NUMBER TEN

As the music indicates, we’re now reaching the climax. Mendoza bares his teeth, ready to face death as bravely as he can. But then. Another distraction? Pedro and Sancho try to fight off Zares but um doesn’t work. They get thrown off the cliff. But thankfully, Mendoza, who’s almost dead, catches them. Now they’re in the worst situation possible. Mendoza’s pinned in place. He can’t pull them up. He can’t run away (his friends will fall to their death). He can’t even try and fight off Zares (both hands are occupied, either let go of Pedro and Sancho or all 3 fall). So he’s defeated. All 3 of them will die and the kids will follow soon. Oh yeah and it’s all his fault for being so damn weak 🙄 ok no but. Upon realizing all this. Mendozas not sad anymore. Now he’s angry. I mean Zares is ruining everything. He’s killing him and his friends!! So if he can’t give one last punch or swing of his sword, he’ll do the next best thing. He curses Zares with a succinct “damn you, Zares”. He uses his last moments. His last words. To damn Zares. Now this is an

interesting point NUMBER ELEVEN

I made this connection early so I’m gonna write it down here. I think there’s an interesting link to be made with the title of the episode. It’s called “La fresque des yeux maudits”. The reason they came to this place was to look for the fresco. They do find it (after Mendoza dies) but it’s not the real one. So it’s kinda like Mendoza died for nothing JAJ. Ok they don’t find the fresco but they do figure out its location. But anyway the link I’m making. Mendoza damns Zares. But the WAY he just looks at him. With so much. Idk hate and anger. He doesn’t need to talk to curse him honestly. I think there’s a lot of focus on Mendoza’s eyes in this particular scene. Normally I notice the eyebrows but here it’s the eyes that got me. So yeah yeux ✅ and maudits ✅ both there. It’s probably not the right way to see it but I like it either way. But that brings me to

Interesting point NUMBER TWELVE

The death scene itself. So yeah Zares smashes the ground and Mendoza and his friends fall to their death. Oooof. This clip also plays in slow motion, which means it’s important and filled with details they want me to notice. Well firstly, while he’s falling, Mendoza looks behind him. Now why is that? Well maybe he wants to see Pedro and sancho. Ok. Or he’s looking at WHERE he’s going to land. And Mendoza sees something which makes him smile to Esteban. Something that convinced him “oh wait, I might not die, I’m still in the game hah! Don’t worry”. But Esteban doesn’t see that. All he sees is Mendoza falling.

Interesting point NUMBER THIRTEEN

I’m calling this the “aftermath”. Now we’re basically going full circle. Esteban and his friends are freaking out! But Esteban is the one who’s really going through it. He screams. He cries. But nothing can stop the inevitable. Zia blocks Esteban’s view of the edge of the cliff, almost to snap him out of it. She tells him through tears that they should leave, Mendoza and the others are dead and there’s nothing we can do about it. After some time, the kids reunite with Ambrosius and try to figure out where they should go next. But Esteban isn’t having it. He’s adamant that Mendoza survived. He says “they’re alive. I know it. I feel it”, much to Zia and Taos protests. In their eyes, no ordinary man can survive such a huge fall. But Mendoza isn’t some ordinary man, well not to Esteban. Remember I said this before. Mendoza is invincible. He’s the superhero of the story. He “cannot” die, as Esteban says. So he goes off stubbornly to look for him and the sailors. Zia decides to go along too, if nothing to keep him company. Now what’s interesting is Esteban says that even if they’re dead “we can’t just leave them there”. But Zia and Tao DON’T want to go back, it’s like they don’t even want to retrieve their dead bodies cause it’ll hurt too much. I mean you’d have to bury them, no??? But they don’t even want to do that. Makes sense. They’re kids

Interesting point NUMBER FOURTEEN

Finally, Esteban is in luck. He discovers that Mendoza and the sailors are indeed alive. And if they hadn’t gone back to look for them, they probably would’ve died cause uh yeah. So Esteban’s um intuition helped out a lot. But the interesting thing here, is how Esteban just FELT that Mendoza was alive. Although he was delusional, he ended up being right. Now back in season 1, when Esteban found out his real father had supposedly died, Mendoza and Zia were the ones to try and convince him that “hey maybe he survived somehow”. Later on, when Esteban finds out that the priest they met was his dad, he again thinks that “oh no he’s dead”. But this doesn’t happen with Mendoza. Even when Esteban SEES Mendoza die, he delusionally believes he could’ve survived. Does he really think Mendoza survived? Or does he desperately WANT him to be alive? Or maybe he NEEDS him to be alive. That’s why Esteban and mendoza’s connection is so much more important than Esteban and his dad.

[queats]

Alright, here’s my pitch for a cities of gold x Atla Au:

The avatar cycle has been disrupted for several years because the avatar would die young or stuff like that. They’d die before anyone would learn they were the avatar. So no one knows where we’re at in the cycle. Like is the next avatar a boy or girl? Earth bender or airbender? No one knows. For a long long LOOONG time it seems like there’s no avatar at all. So slowly the whole concept of an avatar just becomes a sort of myth (like the cities of gold ;)). That maybe the avatar existed long ago, but not anymore. But that doesn’t mean people aren’t looking. But I mean. Generally speaking. People would go. Eh he don’t exist , it’s just a fairytale.

Anyway. Long ago. 4 avatars decided to build 4 cities. Each city is based on an element. Each city contains information that will help the avatar master each bending. And of course there’s like magical treasures in each city. As you can see, the role of the Nacaals is replaced with past avatars. And there’s 4 cities instead of 7 cause or else it’s too much.

Now we’re in the time the story is set. Some people, who believe in the avatar and the cities of bending create some scientific association (order of the hourglass) to study the history of the avatar, is it really a myth or did they really exist? The founding members of the order are:

- Ambrosius (fire nation? Not sure yet, non bender)

- Dr laguerra (earth kingdom noble, non bender)

- Athanaos (water tribe? Not sure)

Some things happen bla bla and these 3 guys go through a pretty bad break up

Now we get closer to the current story. So 12 years before our story begins, Athanaos decides to venture to those uhh fire tribes that taught aang and Zuko the dragon dance. Do you remember them?? Idk their name. Anyway. He’s in search for info about the cities just like in the show. Once he’s at the there he falls in love with a priestess (fire bender). Now the people soon find out and are not really happy that a fire priestess is having a baby with a water tribe guy. And so they’re like yeah we’re gonna kill you and the dumb baby (Esteban). But let’s not fear, cause the priestess prays to the sun to protect her child and in doing so idk she gives up herself and turns into the sun (like yue turning into the moon) and therefore Esteban literally becomes the child of the sun, get it. And he’s the avatar of course. Obviously no one knows that yet, he’s just a baby. Athanaos takes baby + sun medallion and escapes. However his little ship gets stuck in a storm and starts sinking. Thankfully, a fire nation ship was passing by and a young sailor (Mendoza) manages to jump in the ocean and save baby Esteban. You know what I’m talking about. Now the plot could go this way OR it could go another way. Instead of the people wanting to kill Esteban’s parents, let’s say that the fire nation attacks 🔥them the very moment Esteban is born cause uhhh they wanna kill all the dragons?? But wait let’s say in this world the dragons are actually huge golden condors. All condors die except one that escapes. But then the mother’s sacrifice and the father’s escape with baby Esteban is still the same.

Anyway. Back to Mendoza saving Baby Esteban. He makes the sun come out by bending the clouds or whatever. But they assume he’s like a fire bender? Or something ? But no one realizes he’s the avatar cause uh at this point they still think the avatar is a myth. Mendoza then brings the baby to the fire nation where he’s raised by some uhhhh Atla equivalent of priests and taught basic fire bending. The whole child of the sun thing still happens

Alright now we go 4 years before the story begins. Zia is living her life in water tribe (and she’s water bender). Until one day. Fire nation attacks. They’re looking for zias dad cause he knows info about the cities. Unfortunately they don’t find him, and they kill. Everyone in the village. They find Zia and decide to bring her with them. They give her as a gift to the queen of the earth kingdom cause the fire nation wants to have like, good political relations with earth kingdom ya know. They give gifts and Zia is one of those gifts. So she spends the next 4 years as servant in earth kingdom

Anyway. Now we’re at where the story begins. Fire nations secret intelligence discovers that the current avatar is a young water bender and wears a weird medallion on their neck (maybe they have scientists that calculate plausible avatar cycles idk). The fire nation realizes their mistake: the girl they gave away to the earth kingdom 4 years ago is the avatar (cause water bender + medallion + kid)! Now, the fire nation doesn’t want the earth kingdom to have someone as powerful as the avatar on their side, gift or no gift, so they plan to steal her back and bring her to the fire lord. Gomez and etc are in charge of leading a covert mission to kidnap Zia and bring her back to fire nation, without earth kingdom finding out, cause that would mean war or something. Also it’s secret cause no one knows the avatar exists.

Anyway enter Mendoza (navigator of the fire nation fleet) He finds out about all this mess and manages to get hired to kidnap Zia. From the royal palace. And he succeeds cause duh. Now he remembers how the avatar is supposed to be wearing a medallion. Zia wears that medallion. But then he remembers a kid he saved 12 years ago, who also wore the same medallion…..

In a small fire colony, Mendoza encounters Esteban. They have the same interactions as the show so I’m not gonna repeat all that. He wants Esteban to come along the trip cause he thinks Zia will be easier to manage if she has a friend + he’s curious about the whole medallion business + the thing about the cities. Who cares. Invent your own reasons. Esteban comes along cause he wants to find his dad, who, according to Mendoza, has a link to those mysterious cities

On the ship. Esteban and Zia meet. Bla bla. Same stuff happens. No one, including Esteban, knows that Esteban is the avatar. They think it’s Zia. Zia keeps telling everyone she’s not the avatar, but no one believes her. They think she’s lying to protect herself. Also almost no one knows that Zia is on the ship cause as I said, it’s a very secret mission. Only like. Gomez and Perez and Mendoza know.

(Little parenthesis about Gomez. I’m giving him a bigger role in this show. Also he’s a fire bender cause I think that would be cool. Gaspar is exactly the same as in mcog and is basically Gomez side kick)

Anyway they get into a storm and Mendoza tries to navigate them to safety. But the ship is taking a beating. During the mess, Zia gets in danger and Esteban bends water to save her. That’s when they (Esteban, Zia, Mendoza) realize HE’S the avatar, not Zia ! Which makes sense cause uhhh he’s a kid + water bender + has a medallion = which is what the avatar is supposed to be like.

But it’s too late for anyone to react. Cause then the ship cracks. Mendoza and the kids stick together. Everyone else gets on lifeboat.

Now the exact same things occur. Mendoza and the kids and pedro and sancho crash land on a seemingly uninhabited island. They meet Tao, sole survivor of a civilization who were very close to one of the previous Earth Avatars. He’s got a lot of knowledge about the avatars and the cities, confirming their existence. Also his island is named after one of the previous earth avatars. (The same way Suki comes from Kiyoshi island). So like we could call it Rana’Ori island.

Meanwhile. Gomez has failed his mission. The Fire lord is not happy. To save himself, Gomez puts all the blame on Mendoza. He tells fire lord that really, the whole thing was mendoza’s plan, that he stole the avatar for himself cause he wanted reward all for himself. So Gomez gets a chance. He has to bring back avatar (alive) and Mendoza (dead or alive) cause he’s a traitor now

So now ensues a worldwide manhunt for the avatar and the traitor.

Worldwide? Yes because somehow, the earth kingdom finds out that they had the avatar under their nose this whole time! (Uh oh, sounds like there’s a spy on the loose…) And they never knew! What’s even worse, is that the fire nation had the audacity to sneak in the royal palace and steal someone! Of course the fire nation is trying to make itself look good so they put the blame on Mendoza saying “uhhh we had nothing to do with that, it’s him who decided to kidnap her, we never asked him to do anything”. So yeah to avoid political stuff, they just designate Mendoza as the scapegoat unfortunately

Back to our team. Tao tells them about the cities and the avatar. He tells Esteban that he needs to travel the world and find all 4 cities so he can master bending. Esteban agrees, and he mostly wants to go on the trip cause he hopes to retrace his father’s steps (since his father was doing research on the cities) and maybe find him. He doesn’t really want to be the avatar. Zia also wants to come cause she wants to go back home to her dad. Tao wants to come cause 1) tired of being alone in village and 2) he needs to help the avatar fulfill his destiny or something. Mendoza agrees to help the kids. Although he’s more interested in the cities cause ya know gold + treasure + whoever finds the lost cities would go down in history. Obviously he doesn’t tell them his real intentions. Also mendoza’s real goal is to bring the kids back to fire nation and restore his honor cause right now the whole fire nation kinda hates him. Whatever he can have many goals I’m not sure yet

(So they go on adventure like in mcog. They find Solaris. They find condor. And since we’re in Atla, I think the condor should be a real animal they can ride and not a ship (like Appa). And the condor would be Esteban’s spirit guide. As for pichu. He’s just a little guy like Momo)

Everyone’s looking for the avatar cause they realize that if the avatar is going to the cities, they’ll find them if they also look for him. Logically

Now gonna explain just WHY everyone wants the cities so badly. Example. If the fire nation finds the fire city, they could use that knowledge to strengthen their army of benders, and become unstoppable. But it doesn’t stop there. They don’t want the OTHER nations to find their respectives cities, cause they don’t want their enemies to become powerful duh.

Now it gets complicated. I was thinking to adapt all 4 seasons. Hear me out. So I think Isabella could be in this Au. Now I think it would be cool if she were an earth bender + spy for earth kingdom. And she’s supposed to track down the avatar obviously. Also I think she’d be like. Highly respected and come from rich family with ties to the royal family ya know. She’s accompanied by her uncle, Ambrosius (he’s a non bender but he’s still strong cause he has his metal suit). Now I’m not sure about this but I think it would be cool if Zarès were manipulating the earth king or something (I mean he does that in the show a lot)

I think the order of the hourglass could still exist. They’d be searching for the lost knowledge of the past avatars (so basically the 4 cities) just like in mcog. Only here. Ambrosius tries to murder his friends. Athanaos escapes and ends up in fire place where baby Esteban is born. Fernando is manipulated by Ambrosius and basically sent to his death. Idk the details yet. Also, because I want to create drama, once Fernando dies, Ambrosius tells Isabella that it’s Mendoza who killed him. This helps Ambrosius cause 1) now that her dads dead, she’s gonna be more attached to Ambrosius (more willing to work for him no matter what) and 2) if she thinks Mendoza killed her dad, then she’ll stop at nothing until she gets revenge for it, and Ambrosius wants Mendoza to die. So basically whenever a bad thing happens, everyone blames Mendoza for it

Also about Ambrosius’ motivations: essentially, he’s a non bender, but believes that, with technology, he can recreate the natural powers of benders. By using the knowledge from the cities, he might be able to give himself all the powers of the avatar. Hence the metal Zares suit, which would have a flame thrower and uhh water bending and air bending and earth bending you get it. Also by getting close to the avatar he can also learn how bending works

Anyway Isabella tracks down the team but at some point learns that Ambrosius lied to her. This causes her to switch sides and maybe she even teaches Esteban earth bending. Idk if I’d put Mendoza and Isabella romance. Not sure. Idk. Maybe.

As the adventure progresses, the kids learn to trust Mendoza cause he’s so helpful + he saved their lives so much + he stops anyone from trying to kidnap them. Wow what a great guy. But they don’t know his real plan

At some point in the show. Maybe midway or near the end. Mendoza had to make a choice to either hand over the kids to the fire nation (+ be pardoned for all the crimes he apparently did) or go against the fire nation and stick with the kids. Well he decides to betray the kids. Damn plot twist

He arrives back in fire nation as a hero everyone like damn you found the city + the avatar wow you deserve promotion or something. At first it’s great, cause, I mean, Mendoza gets everything he’s ever wanted, right? Yeah maybe. But then, slowly, he starts feeling real guilty about it. So much he can’t take it anymore. So he’s like. Man idc about the fire nation I need to save my kids. He goes to help them but they do not want his help at all!! They’re like man you betrayed us!! We knew you never changed!! And now Mendoza has to try and prove to them that yes, he’s changed and yes, he really wants to help them without getting anything in return

Now for the cities themselves: uh so we’re gonna have one city per season I guess

- water: I think it could be like an ice palace thingy with an ice statue of a previous avatar that they have to melt down etc idk

- Earth: would be made of sand (think wan shi tong’s library) + It also has rana’ori’s tomb so that’s fun

- Air and fire idk

Also the cities still collapse, they only collapse once the avatar has learned everything from the city. Then the city emerges again once the next avatar needs to use it etc

Some Atla plot lines that could be adapted:

- Zia pretends to be the avatar to protect Esteban and she’s brought to the fire nation, only for them to quickly realize that she’s not the avatar at all. They send her to the boiling rock (remember that prison) cause she lied about who she is. I mean technically they’re the ones who were so convinced about her being the avatar 🙄 anyway then Esteban and Tao try to break into the boiling rock to save her (like Zuko and Sokka trying to face Suki and hakoda)

- Beach episode

- Ember island players episode

- The library that sinks under the sand episode

Now some small details:

- Tao‘s weapon is a crossbow + he also still has his encyclopedia

- Zia has no weapons and instead water bends

- Esteban starts off with his dagger but slowly stops using it cause he learns bending

- Mendoza is an expert swordsman for some reason + navigation skills + just generally being a master manipulator and liar, but he can’t bend anything

- Isabella got her earth bending but also whip + sword + gun

- Ambrosius has his potions + the Zarès suit

- Gomez gets a sword but also fire bending

- Gaspard has a sword and maybe gun

- It ends with everyone teaming up and defeating the fire nation woohoo

- Look idk if Ambrosius ever joins the team or he just watches from the shadows. Maybe he joins once Mendoza leaves? Idk

- Basically if we want to be specific. Esteban is aang. Zia is Katara. Tao is Sokka. Mendoza is like Zuko but backwards in a way. Isabella is like the anti Azula but with the same trajectory as Zuko. Ambrosius is evil Iroh 😭 is Ozai Gomez? Idk anymore

Also based on the countries/continents that they visit in mcog, this is their Atla equivalents:

- the new world: some are water benders (like Zias village) some are fire benders (think the mayans)

- China: mostly earth benders. The shaolin monastery people (tian li) are air benders. Also the people in Tibet are air benders

- Japan: fire nation

- India: probably air benders

- Ormuz: earth benders, more specifically, desert/sand benders

- Africa: depends on the tribe honestly. Some would be fire or earth or water or air idk

- For the European countries I honestly don’t know…. But it’s not really that important though