#(literally. she lives in the south pole)

[blueiscoool]

How Hadrian’s Wall is Revealing a Hidden Side of Roman History

A party invitation. A broken flipflop. A wig. Letters of complaint about road conditions, and an urgent request for more beer.

It sounds like the aftermath of a successful spring break, but these items are nearly 2,000 years old.

They’re just some of the finds from Hadrian’s Wall – the 73-mile stone wall built as the northwestern boundary of the Roman Empire, sealing off Britannia (modern-day England and Wales) from Caledonia (essentially today’s Scotland).

While most of us think of Pompeii and Herculaneum if we’re thinking of everyday objects preserved from ancient Rome, this outpost in the wild north of the empire is home to some of the most extraordinary finds.

“It’s a very dramatic stamp on the countryside – there’s nothing more redolent of saying you’re entering the Roman empire than seeing that structure,” says Richard Abdy, lead curator of the British Museum’s current exhibition, Legion, which spotlights the everyday life of Roman soldiers, showcasing many finds from Hadrian’s Wall in the process. A tenth of the Roman army was based in Britain, and that makes the wall a great source of military material, he says.

But it’s not all about the soldiers, as excavations are showing.

A multicultural melting pot

Hadrian, who ordered the wall to be built in 122CE after a visit to Britannia, had a different vision of empire than his predecessors, says Frances McIntosh, curator for English Heritage’s 34 sites along Hadrian’s Wall.

“All the emperors before him were about expanding the empire, but Hadrian was known as the consolidator,” she says. He relinquished some of the territory acquired by his predecessor Trajan, and “decided to set the borders” – literally, in some cases, with wooden poles at sites in Germany, or with stone in Britannia. Where those poles rotted thousands of years ago, the wall is still standing: “A great visual reminder” of the Roman empire, says McIntosh.

It’s not just a wall. There’s a castle every mile along, and turrets at every third-of-a-mile point, with ditches and banks both north and south. “You can imagine the kind of impact that would have had, not just on the landscape but on the people living in the area,” says McIntosh.

And thanks to the finds from the wall, we know a surprising amount about those people.

Although historians have long thought of army outposts as remote, male-dominant places, the excavations along the wall show that’s not the case. Not only were soldiers accompanied by their families, but civilians would settle around the settlements to do business. “ You can almost see Housesteads as a garrison town,” says McIntosh. “There were places you could go for a drink and so on.”

The Roman rule of thumb was not to post soldiers in the place they came from, because of the risk of rebellion. That meant Hadrian’s Wall was a cultural melting point, with cohorts from modern-day Netherlands, Spain, Romania, Algeria, Iraq, Syria – and more. “It was possibly more multicultural because it was a focus point,” says McIntosh, who says that the surrounding community might have included traders from across the empire.

Soldiers were split into two groups. Legionaries were Roman citizens from Italy, who had more rights than other soldiers and imported olive oil, wine and garum (a sauce made from decomposing fish).

They worked alongside auxiliaries – soldiers from conquered provinces, who had fewer rights, but could usually acquire citizenship after 25 years of service.

Soldiers carved their names and regiments on stones to show which part of the wall they built – around 50 of them are on display at Chesters fort.

But the wall shows that women and children were equally present.

McIntosh says that pottery brought to the camps – from the Low Countries and North Africa – shows that the soldiers “brought their families, who cooked in traditional style.” Archaeologists have found what seems to be an ancient tagine for North African-style cooking.

A tombstone from Arbeia fort for a woman named Regina shows she was a freed slave from southern Britain who was bought by – and married to – a Syrian soldier.

Another woman buried at Birdoswald fort was laid to rest with chainmail that appears to be from modern-day Poland. “Perhaps she married someone in the army,” says McIntosh, who calls the wall a “melting pot of people from all over the world under the banner of the army.”

“They brought their own religions, as well as worshipping Roman gods and adopting local deities,” she adds. At Carrawburgh, a temple to Mithras – an originally Persian deity – sat near a spring with a shrine to a local water spirit.

‘Wretched little Brits’

Some of the most extraordinary finds from the Roman empire are coming from one site on Hadrian’s Wall: Vindolanda. Here, archaeologists have found a wealth of organic remains because of what curator Barbara Birley calls the “unusual conditions onsite.”

At Vindolanda there are the remains of at least nine forts over 14 levels. “When the Romans would leave, they would knock down timber forts, and cover the area with turf and clay, sealing the layers underneath,” she says.

“Because it happened so many times, the bottom five or six layers are sealed in anaerobic conditions, so things don’t decay. When we get down there, we get wooden objects, textiles, anything organic.”

Vindolanda has the largest collection of Roman textiles from a single site in western Europe, as well as the largest leather collection of any site in the Roman empire – including 5,000 shoes, and even a broken leather flip-flop. “We probably had a population of 3,000 to 6,000 depending on the period, so 5,000 is a lot,” says Birley. For Abdy, the shoes evoke the conditions of the wet borderlands. “Women’s and children’s shoes are hobnailed – you needed it in the mucky frontier dirt tracks. They’re very evocative.”

There’s even a wig made from a local plant, hair moss, which is said to repel midges – the scourge of Scotland during the summer. A centurion’s helmet is also crested with hairmoss – the ancient equivalent of spraying yourself with insect repellent.

The first woman to write in Latin

One of the most famous finds is the trove of wooden writing tablets – the largest found anywhere.

“They give a snapshot of what life was actually like,” says Birley. “We understand so much more from written correspondence than from ‘stuff,’ and, archaeologically, it’s the stuff that usually survives – things like metals and ceramics.

“These were written in ink, not on a wax stylus tablet, and we believe they were used for what we’d put in emails: ‘The roads are awful,’ ‘The soldiers need more beer.’ Everyday business.”

The tablets – or “personal letters” as Birley describes them – were found on the site of a bonfire when the ninth cohort of Batavians (in the modern-day Netherlands) were told to move on.

“They had a huge bonfire and lots of letters were chucked in the fire. Some have been singed – we think it may have rained,” she says. One of them calls the locals “Britunculi” – “wretched little Brits.” Another talks about an outbreak of pinkeye. One claims that the roads are too bad to send wagons; another laments that the soldiers have run out of beer.

Among the 1,700 letters are 20 that mention a woman called Sulpicia Lepidina. She was the wife of the commander of the garrison, and seems to have played a crucial role. There’s a letter to her from another woman, Paterna, agreeing to send her two medicines, one a fever cure.

Birley says it’s similar to today. “If you’re a group of moms, still today we say, ‘Do you have the Calpol?’ It’s very human.” For Abdy, it’s a sign that women were traders. “She’s clearly flogging her medicines,” he says. “It’s really great stuff.”

Another tablet is an invite from Claudia Severa, the wife of another commander at a nearby camp. It’s an invitation to a birthday party. Under the formal invitation, presumably written by a scribe, is a scrawl in another hand: “I shall expect you, sister. Farewell, sister, my dearest soul.”

Presumably written by Claudia herself, it is thought to be the earliest example of a woman’s handwriting in Latin.

Without the organic finds – the shoes and the letters that indisputably belonged to women, unlike jewellery or weaving equipment – it’s difficult to prove conclusively that women lived in significant numbers. Vindolanda “illustrate the missing gaps,” says Abdy. For Birley, they prove that women were as crucial a part of army communities as men. “Before the Lepidina tablets were found we didn’t really understand the interactions between the soldiers and their wives,” she says. Another tablet is written by what is thought to be a Spanish standard-bearer’s common-law wife, ordering military equipment for her partner.

“The Vindolanda collection is showing that there weren’t just camp followers and prostitutes; women were part of everyday life, and contributing to the military community in many ways,” says Birley.

Abdy says that Hadrian’s Wall is interesting because the resident women span “all classes of society,” from Regina – the dead freedwoman, who would have been “bottom of the heap” – to the trader Paterna and the noblewoman Lepidina.

And of course, there’s the wall itself.

“In the Netherlands and Germany the finds are often stunning and better preserved – you go to museums and are bowled over. But in terms of structural remains, Hadrian’s Wall must be among the best,” says McIntosh, modestly, of her site.

Abdy agrees: “I can’t think of many symbols so redolent of imperial will than that wall.”

By Julia Buckley.

[evilcarmona]

Fem!Sokka AU

So, I thought a little about this AU.

(For starters, I don't speak english, so, well.. ehe)

To begin with, she is at least 19-20 years old. I would like to make her older, because I like to draw beautiful adult women, but then the plot will not work. The age of all older ATLA teenagers has been raised. The age of the younger ones does not change.

The story is the same. Initially, Sokka is a man. He probably remained the only boy in the tribe for longer. This may affect Katara, as he has been her parent figure for longer than in the canon. In general, I believe in Sokka's parental vibes.

He's also a little more mature. Responsible, strong. But still a sexist. Father said that he was the only warrior of the tribe. Then he left them and went away with other men for many years. It couldn't end well. On the other hand, living among women affects Sokka more than he thinks.

So, about after Kiyoshi Island, gaang stops at the shrine of a female warrior. This is not Kyoshi, because I don't want Aang to feel that he is indirectly to blame for the situation. In general, Sokka offends the spirit with some kind of sexist comment. The Spirit takes revenge and curses him. Sokka falls into a magic pond. Poof! He's a woman. Aang has talked to the spirit, and the spirit is ready to cast spells on the water in the pond again. But she won't do it for two years. Lol

So, Sokka can only put up with it. Saving the world is more important than a little curse. Somewhere in the background, Zuko is trying to figure out where gaang took this beautiful woman and where they put that beautiful man. Really, where did he go? (Uncle Iroh is very funny)

The fact is that during the journey, Sokka realizes that he actually feels good. He likes it. In addition, he likes to be beautiful and do hairstyles.

Besides, becoming a woman, he feels the injustice of the situation at the north Pole more acutely. Sokka understands that putting someone in a frame because of gender is unfair. He and Yue become friends. Sokka kicks Khann's ass. And he also kills Zhao before the disaster with the Moon happens. Yue deserves to live.

In the future, Sokka thinks a lot. He supports his sister and Toph more than anyone. In fact, he used to have his father's vibes. Now it's the mother's vibes. Vibes of the coolest mom in the world. She can cut off the offenders' heads with a halberd. Literally.

In fact, I have nothing to justify the halberd with. I love halberds as much as I love women in sexy dresses. A lady may have small hobbies)

Okay, maybe Sokka decided to explore more weapons. She loves her boomerang, but does not refuse to develop like a warrior. Halberd is clearly defeating bending, haha. Maybe Sokka will be given some cool nickname on the battlefield. The Moon Witch? Heh

(Somewhere far away, Hakoda and the South Pole fleet are wondering what kind of Moon Witch is this? They will be surprised)

Perhaps before they meet after Ba Sing Se, Hakoda meets someone who has met the gaang before. Someone: You have two wonderful daughters! Hakoda: What?

So Zuko comes to gaang and asks where the boy has gone. The explanation was awkward because Zuko barely had time to accept that he was bi. What does it mean that the two people who make his heart beat faster are one person?

I forgot to tell you! Just because Sokka was bewitched by a spirit doesn't mean that Sokka trusts Aunt Wu! It's a matter of pride, lol

So two years go by, and you know what? Sokka does not ask the spirit to lift the curse. He's fine as it is.

[xjulixred45x]

Platonic! Korra Gang x Chef! Reader

This is the Request of @chantillymoon i hope You're doing good with your Cooking, i'm sure it's fantastic😋! I hope this give you a little motivation💞

Genre: Headcanons

Reader: neutral

Warnings: none, pure fluff

Korra

Korra probably met you in the events of book 1 (did you see the Gala where Mako went with Asami? one of those), you were in food service.

and since Korra was a bit moody and in a new city, you were friendly with her and they got along quite well. You tried to entertain her a little with your cooking (like the chefs in certain Asian places, if you're a firebending master or something like that, even better).

Thanks to this Korra was going to see you when she needed to talk and generally let loose a little. You guys became friends pretty quickly.

If you have your own place, Korra tries to promote you when she interacts with important people and the topic of Catering comes up.

She firmly believes that your food is much better than the holidays food honestly. especially those of Unalaq.

I have a feeling that in the water tribe, especially in the south, there is not a very complex gastronomy thanks to literally living at a pole.

It's a more personal hc, but I think Korra grew up eating mainly fish and its variables (maybe rice and vegetables)

Obviously, she ate more things in her training to be an avatar, but it's not like it was food as such to "eat" but rather those for nutrition purposes.

so when she becomes a friend of yours (cutie) and you give her VERY varied and VERY delicious food, she is delighted.

like “FINALLY something that is nutritious and TASTES GOOD!”

Besides, you cook a lot of variety, so Korra doesn't know where to choose. but she has a big appetite, so it's not unreasonable to think that you probably won't run out of leftovers with her.

If you're stressed about a particular recipe, she may try to help you by giving you a hand with things in the kitchen that she knows she can't screw up, like reading you the recipe book or handing you things, all while trying to joke with you to relax you and make you laugh.

If you want a definitive break, flour war! Whoever ends up completely white loses and Naga will have to clean it up!

Now, apart from improvised or high-survival food, Korra doesn't cook shit, she doesn't know how to handle herself very well, so seeing you be so fluent in that habit is something new for her. Of course, she was used to her parents cooking. but not at your level, so there's a lot of excitement on Korra's part about how you learned all this.

If you try to teach her, can she go either very badly or...decent? which cannot be said whether it is good or bad.

Since at first Korra may even, trying to make things easier (or imitate you, if you use your elemental control to cook) use her avatar skills in the kitchen, which since she has no experience ends very badly 😅 with muddy dough everywhere.

or even with BURNT water in some way??

but after a few attempts and several burnt bouls, Korra gets the hang of it and manages to start improving her cooking skills!

She can make simple meals now at least.

but she always prefers yours, you make them much more delicious, according to her.

Korra is not going to tolerate any destructive criticism of you, who does she have to hit?she's going to scare them with the fucking avatar state🤣😅

Sure, she can TOLERATE constructive criticism because it's not malicious, but she doesn't understand why people eat your products if they're not going to like it anyway?

do not understand.

In general, Korra encourages your vocation a lot and encourages you to try new things with her :3

Asami

Asami knows you because of Varrik, he needed as many staff as possible, including the kitchen, so he hired you as soon as he liked one of your meals without thinking about it.

Asami needed a break from all of Varrik's antics, so she went to the staff areas for a while (without realizing it) and you noticed her state.

So you talked to her while you prepared something simple for her to eat and get energy back.

It was kind of nice, since you didn't feel intimidated by her or what had happened with her father, a breath of fresh air, so you continued seeing each other after that (in a platonic way).

Asami is used to eat in High Quality and/or fancy places before this, and still doing it.

which most of the time is not bad, on the contrary, it usually produces rich and delicious food.

but there are also times when for some people (ahem VARRIKahem) it just needs to be prettier and tasteless to be considered "gourmet" and even if it's not high quality food, Asami sometimes misses the feeling of having a normal meal. .

That's when you come into her life, her bubbly friend, to make things way better.

Asami probably never had a home-cooked meal as such (no, it doesn't count if CHEFS make it for you Asami) so it was a new experience for her. In the good sense.

Instead of eating aesthetically impressive but disgusting food, with you I could eat things that were really modest but that TASTED GOOD.

If you are having problems like not finding someone to give you more advanced cooking classes, don't worry! Asami will give you a hand with her contacts and help you find a good tutor.

If you already have your own place, rest assured that Asami (and in general the entire Avatar team) will come to see you and buy you food often no matter what you sell.

Even if you have any financial problems with the place, Asami has your back and helps you as much as possible. You may even become a constant Catering associate for the company!

Asami also tries not to let her friendship with you affect you so directly, especially when scandals arise with her father.

He goes to you for advice when they go out to eat, your food gives him a certain feeling of peace after all, so when you both go out he can be with a cooler head.

It's a feeling of familiarity that she hasn't felt in a LONG time.

You can definitely see Asami especially liking food with meat or more complicated things, but then again, he also really likes it when you make really simple things, like pasta or pizza, for example.

She says that it is because "you do it with love" and it is partly true, that you put so much effort into the preparation makes it much more special and she appreciates it a lot.

but in general I think she doesn't usually give you negative comments.

I mean, if you happen to screw up some food and it tastes REALLY bad, you know it just by looking at her face, even so she will never give you a "bad" word so to speak, she use very sweet constructive criticism and still assure you that you did a good job.

and you can also guarantee that if there is a particular food that she likes, she will pay you to make a couple of reservations for her ;) she can't help it! She loves how you cook!

If someone tries to criticize you in a non-constructive way and is simply Bullying you, she will directly kick their ass and deal with the consequences then why would someone be mean to a little sun like you? It doesn't make sense to her.

In general, a friend who supports you financially, emotionally and psychologically is always willing to give you a hand in the kitchen.

That's right, don't let her cook☠️ she may hace good intentions but she'll burn everything.

Mako

OMFG he LOVES THE FOOD YOU MAKE FOR HIM.

Now, let's get a little sentimental.

Mako and Bolin growing up on the streets probably never really had much to eat, not to mention they probably didn't eat every day.

especially Mako, I imagine that he probably even gave what little they had to eat to Bolin.

It's a habit for him.

So when he meets you and you give him a taste of your food, for FREE, he thinks you're too good to be true.

but he appreciates it very much.

but seeing how much his opinion matters to you. warms his heart.

For the same reason you could feed him the most disgusting thing you could cook and he would eat it like a big child.

He will tell you the truth, but he doesn't leave a crumb.

For the same reason, I have two possible versions of how the two of you met and became close friends.

One, the one I like the most, is that probably when you were younger and trying to cook on your own, Mako and Bolin tried to steal your food, failing miserably.

But from then on you started leaving food scraps on your window for them to grab so they wouldn't die of hunger.

Thanks to this little by little they began to interact more and even began to help you to apply seriously in the kitchen!

and the other possibility is that he knew you thanks to Pro-control, being the one who will be in charge of the food at the events.

In this scenario at first he would be colder but eventually either because of Bolin or because of your adorable personality, you end up liking him.

other than that he can see that you can't swing a fly, and that you're REALLY passionate about your job, so he respects you a lot for that.

We all know that Mako is more of a tough guy or expresses that he cares through actions, so he shows that he cares by showing interest in your hobby and helping you as much as he can.

But when he already has a stable job and can give you a hand.

When something specific goes wrong, he tries to cheer you up in an unconventional way, such as telling you something about his work to distract you a little or even inviting you something to eat to de-stress.

Maybe even Mako himself has learned to cook from you, of course, he is not at the same level but when you are very stressed or tired he has your back.

and when you manage to do what you want, he sincerely congratulates you, he knows that you deserve it after all.

Similar to his other friends and Bolin, Mako is quite protective of you, especially if you can't control any elements.

It's like the dynamic of "Sunshine + Sunshine protector" basically.

It also tries to help you accept criticism well, which is necessary to improve after all.

Although of course, if there is someone who is telling you shit just because and without really wanting to help you, give them the names, they will not tolerate it.

In general, he is a friend who is a bit rude but who defends you, appreciates you and supports you in your tastes, hobbies and career. regardless of how You two met.

He knows that you are as good a person as you cook well, and you are a VERY good cook ;)

Bolin

Again, HE LOVES THE FOOD YOU MAKE FOR HIM.

Bolin, similarly to Mako, has two possibilities for how he met you.

one more painful than the other.

the first, in which he knew you for trying to steal something from your leftovers when he was little, in itself, living on the streets of a republic city is not nice.

but at least you took pity on him and started leaving him leftovers. which left him EXTRACTED because (according to him) YOU COOKED AMAZING. even if at that time you were just practicing.

Even if you try to tell him that he was probably just saying that because it was his first meal in god knows how long, he still thinks the same thing.

and the second way, unlike his brother, is that he simply found you working somewhere he likes.

Maybe even with his amorous nature, at first he had a crush on you, but over time he realized that it wasn't what he really felt.

In general he is your personal cheerleader.

No matter how many times you fail to make a particular meal, Bolin eats it like his life depends on it. unlike Mako, he doesn't have the heart to say anything even remotely critical of your food :,)

He's also the kind of friend who constantly gives you ideas for new recipes. some good, some not so good, and some quite extravagant.

ex: some dessert based on Pabu.

It breaks Bolin's heart to see you sad when you don't get a particular recipe, but he will immediately move on to a session of giving you compliments and reminding you how you made other recipes to motivate you.

I can definitely see him recommending you to the important people he hung out with when he worked with Varrik, both to do you a favor and to be able to see you in those moments when Mako couldn't pay attention to him.

Bolin's favorite food is definitely desserts. cakes, cupcakes, pies, candies, anything that is sugary.

and if you get to practice making animal food (like for Pabu) Bolin is OVER THE MOON.

I can see Bolin trying to learn cooking things with you, both to spend time together and to be more independent, to help Mako out.

Apart from that, he would have the opportunity to try more of your food :D but he makes a great effort to listen to your advice and follow the instructions you leave him.

The results are quite promising! along with Mako, he is the best cook of the group (hc personal).

Similarly to Asami, he seeks advice from you when he feels left out of the group and doesn't know what to do.

Normally you prepare something hot for him so he doesn't feel so bad. It would probably be his second favorite food of yours, hot soups. In general they remind him of you, a warm and comforting presence.

Bolin is more passive when it comes to criticism and when it is constructive he makes sure to remember it and even writes it down so as not to forget it and thus apply it in his own attempts.

but eventually you can better distinguish between constructive and destructive criticism.

and when someone like that shows up, no matter how strange it may seem, they usually just ignore it. He wants to believe that he is better than them after all...

...only to launch Pabu on the attack in defense of your honor. Although well, didn't you see it coming?

He is generally a very sweet friend, he does not distinguish in social class or how or how long the two of you have known each other. He is convinced that you have genuine talent for cooking.

and he is very willing to show you that you have that talent and support you through everything.

Conclusion: They all love your food but they love the person behind that food more and how you support them in difficult times :,)

Shares, reblogs, and comments are very welcome!

Thank you very much for this Request ❤️❤️❤️❤️

[oneatlatime]

Lake Laogai

This Lake had better have Appa in it. With little water wings on.

Skipping the commentary as usual.

The Previously On section suggests that a whole lot of plot threads are about to crash into each other. Strap in folks.

Lefty Sokka!

Beat up Sokka quota fulfilled by his sister's critique of his art skills. It's not like he had paper to practice with at the South Pole.

Sometimes I forget that Aang is 12, then he does something like attempt to rescue his pet from a nefarious city-wide conspiracy of silence with lost cat posters.

"Good tea is its own reward." That means no, he isn't paid enough.

Remember what I said in my last post about Iroh bringing too much attention to himself?

"senior executive assistant manager" someone on the writing team has worked retail I see. Nothing like meaningless promotions with no raise attached! It's right up there with employee pizza party.

I have to pause here and point something out. This whole scene with Iroh? This is an adult fantasy. I don't mean dirty, I mean this whole scene was put in specifically to appeal to the adults who got roped in to watching this kids' show by their children. A rich man walks through the door of your shitty retail job, immediately spots your natural greatness, and offers you a much better paying job with unlimited creative freedom and a better house to go with it? Find me a burnt out retail worker who hasn't conjured up this fantasy five times a shift.

And so the plots come crashing back together. This won't end badly.

"patience really pays off" I checked. He waited literally three seconds.

Shout out to Toph in the background playing catch with a ball she can't see. Casual flex of epic proportions.

Remind me never to go to Lake Laogai. Sounds like it's lousy with Ju Dees.

So the Ju Dees don't know about each other? Because she seems honestly confused. Does Ju Dee think she's the only Ju Dee? What happens if two Ju Dees run into each other in the street?

Posters are illegal but I haven't heard a peep about recarving a bunch of fields into a zoo.

This is maybe the second time Aang's blown up over Appa. Frankly he deserves more blow ups about the whole situation.

I don't think knocking down walls will help find Appa, but I applaud Toph's spirit.

They took out a whole wall and then exit by the door anyways. That's funny.

I really hate this guy, but I have to admit that he may be the first truly competent villain of the series.

'The Jasmine Dragon' also lets anyone with half a brain know that you're Fire Nation. Try the Jasmine Badgermole instead.

Zuko really can't catch a break, huh? He wasn't happy being a tea server, but at least he was resting. But every time he gets five minutes to himself, the main plot reappears to drag him back into the action, whether he wants to or not. Although he hasn't figured out that he doesn't want to be dragged back yet.

Every line of dialogue in this scene is a good point. Zuko's right, Iroh's right. The Zuko's right again, then Iroh's right again.

YES YES YES GET HIS ASS

That was satisfying!

I'm not understanding why Sokka is the voice of reason here. Is he incapable of holding a grudge? He's the one that had all the animosity with Jet to begin with. Shouldn't it be Aang who wants to hear him out?

Toph is a living lie detector now? I can't think of an example off the top of my head, but I'm sure that could have come in handy previously. Any other incredibly useful skills we should know about?

Jet is oddly defensive for someone who claims to know he did wrong.

Ever get so excited that your spine malfunctions?

Sokka just has a metre long map in his pocket. Good friend to have in a pinch.

Avatar first! Katara is rude to an old person!

I'm going to have fun with Toph's new ability.

Toph, you have never been more right. It is the worst city ever. You are really shining this episode.

I know this is a serious scene, but I need to point out that Jet's guyliner is on point.

This shot is jarringly out of place. I think it's because it both black and white, and live action. Those have to be real clouds.

So the Blue Spirit can talk after all. Careful, your Zuko is showing.

Wow Zuko is good at sewing. And fast too.

Sokka is having far too much fun with this whole 'prompt Jet's memory' thing. Maybe he does have a bit of a grudge after all.

Katara can reverse brainwashing now too? Everyone's levelling up this episode.

This scene with the planks is a very cool and disorienting visual.

Didn't have 'the gaang breaks into a brainwashing facility' on my ATLA bingo card.

Pretty.

OMIGOD IT'S AP- did Zuko just break the fourth wall?

Everyone always forgets to look up.

So this fight is going to be Toph v. all of the Dai Li while everyone else tries not to get in Toph's way.

That's a boat.

Toph could probably take all these guys out faster if she wasn't having to constantly break off to save everyone else from them.

The Dai Li prancing up walls is a really cool visual. It's very Ty Lee of them.

I love watching her work.

Why don't you let Long Feng escape? He's no longer threatening you, and you're down there to rescue Appa. Just let him go.

The security on Lake Laogai is a joke.

Big words from someone who also had no plan whatsoever at the North Pole.

Zuko knows that Iroh's right. He knows, and that's important. I don't think Iroh is saying anything that Zuko hasn't thought and then hurriedly pretended to have never thought about before. It's why he says 'stop it' rather than being completely confused as to what Iroh is referring to.

Poor Appa's like 'can you have a crisis of self after you free me please?'

'You've chosen your own demise." No. You chose it for him. That's some top tier deflection/victim blaming right there.

Longshot can talk!

That's one hell of a set up and pay off re: Toph's lie detecting abilities.

Poor Jet. A double tragedy: to be likeable only when you're brainwashed, and to dedicate your life to wiping out the Fire Nation yet being killed by the Earth Kingdom.

Hi Appa. It's about time buddy.

Shockingly in character for Appa's first actions to be to single handedly save the Gaang from a threat.

You skip that bastard like a stone.

Everyone go and listen to the sound Appa makes when he spits out Long Feng's shoe. It's delightful.

I am framing this.

And this too.

I can tell there's some shmymbolism here, but it's gone right over my head.

Final Thoughts

Appa is back. The Gaang has Appa back. I have Appa back. Ok. I can relax now. With any luck, this means we can leave Ba Sing Se.

This episode felt like City of Walls and Secrets, Part 2. I think it was a good decision to have a couple of episodes between the two, but I think there would be some tonal whiplash if you binged this section of season 2. Which wouldn't have been a problem for a show designed to air once a week, so it's a moot point.

So Zuko freed Appa from his chains, and presumably pointed him in the direction of a door or something. Or maybe not; Appa has a ridiculously hard head, he could have busted his way out. Either way, Zuko broke the chains. Thanks Zuko!

In season 1, Zuko finds the Avatar the world had lost. In season 2, Zuko finds the Sky Bison the Avatar had lost. So in season 3, Zuko will find something Appa has lost. I wonder what that will be?

Jet being killed by the Earth Kingdom is so deliciously ironic, and tragic, yet very in character for the Earth Kingdom's approach to this war. It's also literally this:

Smellerbee and Longshot have really gotten the short end of the stick over and over this season. They were the only ones to decide to stick with Jet. Presumably they were the only ones who believed that he had had a legitimate change of heart. And they were kind of wrong. They get to Ba Sing Se only for Jet to immediately backslide way past even where he was at his worst in Season 1. He completely discounts and dismisses their legitimate concerns for his methods and his overall health. Then Jet gets arrested and disappears for two (?) weeks. So what do they do now? Get jobs? Steal so they don't starve? Then suddenly Jet's back but he doesn't even remember them. Then suddenly Jet's dead. The whole point of coming to Ba Sing Se just died, in a way that shows very clearly that their desire to help with the war is not welcome at all in the city. So what now? Do they leave and try to fight in the war from outside the walls? Do they settle down and try to forget about the war? Things did spiral completely out of Jet's control once the Dai Li got involved, but you have to admit that he's left his only remaining friends up a creek.

Sokka had some good jokes but was oddly ok with this episode's events. Toph had some great lines and got to shine with a new skill that any writer with half a brain will bring back in future episodes. She felt like the audience substitute this episode, which is usually Sokka's role. Toph was episode MVP for sure. Poor Aang took a bit of a back seat this episode. Zuko finally hit the crisis point, and may well have made his first indisputably correct decision of the series. But, as previous episodes have gone out of their way to show me that Zuko being good always goes badly for Zuko, I'm sure freeing Appa will somehow come back to bite him.

Iroh's question of "who are you? And what do you want?" was Zuko's entire character arc this season. He took a shot at answering the "who are you?" portion in Zuko Alone, and sort of halfway got there before messing up at the end of the episode. As for the "what do you want?" Zuko will tell you (often and repeatedly) that he wants his honour back. But I think he just wants to go home. The thing is, I strongly suspect that the home Zuko wants to return to hasn't existed since his mother left, if it ever existed at all. Which means that while "who are you?" has an answer Zuko can work towards, "what do you want?" has an answer that is kind of impossible. So Zuko is going to have to learn to want something new.

RIP Jet. Your life was fucked to Hell long before you were old enough to try and salvage it. You'll probably be missed by more people than you strictly deserve. War sucks, amirite?

[aangarchy]

Netflix atla live action s2 predictions

Literally just spitballing here

Aang mastered waterbending off screen. Shocker

Pakku still goes off and marries Kanna in the south pole but we don't get an explanation as to why

Katara doesn't get special healing water from the spirit oasis, instead she gets mary sue'd in becoming the most powerful healer alive capable of bringing back the dead and then for some reason that capability never comes back again

Aang murders general Fong on screen while in the Avatar state

General Fong is also played by Daniel Dae Kim but with a different beard and wig

Suki immediately joins the gaang

Appa never gets kidnapped

Serpent's pass, the swamp, the chase and the drill all get skipped (or drastically shortened), but Avatar Day is gonna get included bc these writers have a bias for Kyoshi

*hands netflix 5€ under table* Sokka canon bisexual?

Jet's not getting brainwashed, instead he gets hired by the dai li to assassinate Zuko and Iroh. Don't ask netflix why the dai li couldn't do that themselves tho

Kyoshi is going to be the one to teach Aang abt the Avatar state

Zutara bait and somehow at the same time also Zukka bait

Sokka can't get high off of cactus juice bc we need to sanatize this version as much as possible which means we can't even imply the use of drugs anymore

Tyzula bait

Toph uses echolocation like a dolphin

Palpable sexual tension between Zuko and Jet

Suki gets bending Somehow idk

[wolf-tail]

General Frustration With Helluva Boss

Sometimes, dealing with Vivziepop media is exhausting. One one hand, you have the violent irrational hateboner for anything and everything she's ever touched that a lot of people, especially on tumblr, have. It feels less born out of actual criticism and that weird flavor of "ouroboros snake eating it's own tail" cringe culture that a lot of people (mainly tumblr users) feel for anything that reminds them too much of their middle school selves. Like, ya'll picked Hazbin over South Park in the "worst cartoon ever" pole. South Park, the show that made antisemetism cool to hundreds of white tweens. That South Park. Yeah, that flavor of criticism is about as helpful or productive as bullying the kids in your local dead mall's Hot Topic.

On the other hand, you have the people who act like Viv and her team are incapable of wrongdoing and that any direction their projects going is the direct word of god and criticism of any aspect of either of her shows is a literal war crime.

I belong to neither camp because I enjoy my ability to critically think.

They're a long, LONG shot from perfect but there are things to like about both shows. Unfortunately, there's even more to criticize.

The Hazbin/Helluva fandom has a reputation for being childish, (often because a lot of them are actual children who have no business watching either show), whiny, and media illiterate. A creator can rarely if ever be blamed for the stupidity of certain members of their fanbase, though. Given the inane and frankly ridiculous misinterpretation of the character of Stolas by fans who are dead-set on viewing him through the most red-tinted "Ron the Death Eater" headass lenses, if I were a writer for Helluva I'd be tearing my damn hair out. But, sometimes, I wonder if Helluva's writing encourages the kind of dumbassery it's fans are prone to, mainly, with the latest short.

As soon as I saw the thumbnail, I knew what was coming. I tried to stay hopeful, I tried to think that Viv and her team wouldn't do this, but my expectations for this show are probably wayyyy higher than they should be.

The Helluva Shorts are Viv's little way of having her cake and eating it, too. With the plot of the full episodes being almost completely dedicated to more drawn-out character driven emotional beats, the shorts are allowed to maintain the monster-of-the-week mercenary assassination type plots, where I.M.P. has a target to kill and a specific goal to overcome for the episode. (Short 1 is an exception, and strangely the best out of all of them. It helps develop Millie's almost completely flat character and prioritizes her over the male characters she typically gets shafted for.) Short 3, Weeaboo-boo, is the weakest short by far, something even hardcore fans of the show would agree on.

To spare everyone the misfortune of having to watch it, let me summarize:

I.M.P.'s latest target is Emberlynn Pinkle, a twenty-something college student living at home with her parents. Her case file actually gave me some hope for this short, as the reason I.M.P.'s client wants her dead is over bullshit and inane shipping drama, something I sadly have experience with. I thought this short was going to critique the kind of nonsense the worst types of fans (like the ones outlined above) get up to, but instead, it just took one big look at fandom culture as a whole, and like a woman-hating redditor obsessed with powerscaling, decided to spit in it's face and call it a whore.

Emberlynn is portrayed as a sickeningly cliche charicature of female fandom, a horny loser burdening her parents, obsessed with sex, who writes dumb and lame fanfics about her dumb and lame self-insert oc. She feels like she was an attempt at a tounge-in-cheek little self-depreciating humor bit about fandom, but feels stale and mean-spirited.

She's a loser weirdo for being a monsterfucker, despite half the jokes in the show being about weird kinky sex. She's a horned-up creep for getting exited about being hunted by a demon and thinking he's here to have sex with her, despite that being THE LITERAL FIRST THING STOLAS DOES WHEN BLITZ BREAKS INTO HIS HOUSE, the only difference between him and Emberlynn being that Stolas has a tragic backstory, and is a man. Blitz kills her and sends her to hell, where she gets a sickass demon form I might add,

and is nothing more than a stalky, obsessive fangirl.

...

Do you ever wonder why creators hate their female fans?

We've already done this same song and dance with Supernatural, but I expected Vivzie, a woman herself who's made jokes about the kind of misogyny women in her field of work experience, to not treat female fandom with the same "icky girls ruin everything with their stupid horny bullshit" sentiment that the Japanese incels on 2chan who came up with the word fujoshi. But I expected too much from her I guess. How the fuck did The Amazing World of Gumball handle fanfic culture in a genuinely funnier and kinder way than she did!?

Viv is just doing what she does best, creating a female character with interesting potential and the teeniest weeniest bit of something resembling body diversity in her cast of stick figures, making her annoying, and letting her rabidly misogynistic fanbase trample all over her. She did it to Mimzy, and funnily enough, Emberlynn kinda looks like her.

This short sucked complete ass, and is just more proof that Viv sucks at writing female characters. I'm disappointed, she did Emberlynn and Mimzy so damn dirty.

[longing-for-rain]

Katara ain't even the last southern waterbender. The post-ATLA material shows that there were other waterbenders in the SWT all along but they were in hiding or couldn't be contacted because the South Pole is too big and communications broke down during the war.

It would be more revolutionary for Katara to end up with a SWT boy so they could rebuild their tribe together and help pass down customs, but Katara doesn't know ANY southern water tribe boys her age except for her brother. Bryke literally couldn't be bothered making any other SWT boys Katara's age, so she has no viable romantic options left apart from Aang. Katara herself was even SUPPORTIVE of settler colonialism if it meant the outcomes could benefit the future mixed kids she would have with Aang. Kataang being "revolutionary", my ass. 😭

I also think it's kindaaaa ironic that someone going on about how "revolutionary" a particular romance is supports Maiko and literally has the url of "Fire Lady Mai" when the Fire Nation monarchy should have been abolished because they gained their power through eugenics over the centuries by breeding the royal family with noble lineages to produce the world's strongest firebenders, and Mai was literally a colonizer who never learned that colonization was bad and becomes the queen of the nation she colonized in the name of. Lol um, okay.

That response was…something, for sure.

I agree, if we’re taking the “Katara has a duty to marry a specific kind of man to fulfill a duty to her people” angle, then yes, someone from the Southern Water Tribe would best fulfill that.

But what I have an issue with is the whole idea that who she marries should be dictated by a sense of duty. Or politicized in general. That’s just a classic misogynistic narrative (so unsurprising to hear from a kataang fan) that a woman’s relationships is not about what she wants, but rather, what would be for the greater good. That is not a healthy basis for a relationship. A relationship shouldn’t be political; it should be about you as a person and who you love. And ultimately I think that’s why Zutara is so hated, because ultimately it does represent placing love above the greater good. Some people view this as traitorous and selfish for a woman to do, but couldn’t be me. Katara, and all women, are not wrong for choosing love. We don’t live very long and love is one of the most beautiful things to experience. We have a right to experience it.

However, I disagree that Katara supported settler colonialism, assuming we’re talking about The Promise here. What she believed was that families shouldn’t be separated and lovers shouldn’t be kept from one another just because their ethnicities are different. She brought up the children to convince Aang to reconsider his stance on enforcing racial segregation (too bad certain fans didn’t get the memo). Also, Zuko wasn’t even trying to recolonize that province; he and Katara only supported their right to self-determination. That’s the opposite of colonialism.

[kawaiichibiart]

You voted for it, let's develop my Kya Lives AU

For those who haven't read through it, my Kya Lives AU explores the idea of Kya being kept alive in the FN as Ursa's servant, rather than in prison. While she could have been locked away, they didn't want to give her that luxury. It was also because they wanted her be around when the real last SWT waterbender was found. They'd be killed and Kya would be forced to watch as they die. That way she'd see her failure before she, too, was ultimately killed. This is also why, when they find out she isn't the real last SWT waterbender, she isn't killed on the spot.

From there, she Ursa develop a mutual companionship, which turns into a cautious friendship, neither woman wanting to lower their guards at first. After all, while both are nonbenders, both must have skills elsewhere that should be taken seriously.

Time goes on and the search for the last SWT waterbender becomes an afterthought. The FN has a war to win, chances are they might have killed the last waterbender from the South Pole and not known. Kya's living on edge, careful when she speaks of her family and home to Prince Zuko who has taken an interest in it.

And then Prince Lu Ten dies. The Siege of Ba Sing Se fails and Prince Iroh goes "missing" after he pulls back his men. Ozai goes to present his children to Azulon, and we know how the rest goes. Azula overhears Azulon tell Ozai that he has to feel the pain of losing a firstborn son by losing his own, she tells Zuko Ozai is going to kill him, Ursa intervenes and kills Azulon after making a deal with Ozai so he can become Firelord. Not the best retelling of what happened, but you get the idea.

This where we once again, leave canon behind. Because they're sorta friends now, Ursa tells Kya about what she plans to do and offers to make a deal with her. Help her get her children out of the FN, and she'll help her go home. It's risky, but Kya jumps at the chance to go home. She gets Zuko, Ursa gets Azula, and they get the fuck out as fast as they can.

At first, things are tense. Azula is fully blaming Zuko for what happened, fighting with her mom, demanding to be returned home, and snapping at Kya whenever she tries to intervene. She's upset she got dragged along, because had she been asked, she would have preferred to stay in the FN with her father.

Zuko is also blaming himself, knowing, whether his father was actually going to kill him or not, he should have just not let Azula get to him. They're on the run because of him. For once Azula has to be right, right?

Ursa and Kya are just trying to get by. They'll separate the two kids whenever their fights get bad, and will take turns watching them as one of them goes gets supplies. It isn't an ideal situation for either of them, honestly why they hadn't split paths earlier is lost to them. Would they split once they find a ship? Would Ursa and her kids literally follow Kya to the South Pole and see to it she reunites with her family? (yes)

Both women have wanted posters up. Posters that paint Kya as a witch, a savage who caused Ursa to kidnap the Crown Prince and Princess. Posters that paint Ursa as an usurper. Since she took the kids, the deal she made with Ozai is essentially void. Her murdering Azulon soon becomes public knowledge and Ozai "worries" she plans to kill his "heirs" as well. This makes traveling more difficult, as know all four of them need to be heavily disguised.

And because they have to be so careful now, a journey that, at longest (like extremely long) it should have been roughly half a year to a year. And it takes them longer. They're doing what they can to get by, but they have several points in time where they have to stop and lay low.

The three FN Royals use fake names (Noriko (obviously), Lee (again obviously), and I haven't chosen one for Azula yet, but part of me really wants to choose Loh for the irony). Kya ends up going by Mera.

As time passes their relationship evolves. Azula and Zuko still fight, but Azula no longer blames him for what happened (he hasn't stopped blaming himself yet). Their fights are moreso petty (not the word I was looking for but whatever, I can't think of the right one) fights (one called the other a name, one was being annoying, one kept making faces at the other, etc.). Kya and Ursa have settled into their friendship. Their journey to the SWT has slowed significantly, and they've lived in several places temporarily, but they do, eventually, reach the South Pole.

Once there, they have to track down Kya's tribe, which in itself is, thankfully, an easier journey. It takes them about a day to find someone who recognizes Kya. And, while weary of the 3 people with her, they lead all 4 of them to the tribe.

Kanna is overjoyed at Kya's return, and upon being asked where Sokka and Katara are, tells her about the Avatar. How he returned and was found by her children. That they left with him to stop the war. And Kya's heard the rumors. But she didn't want to consider the Avatar was traveling with her kids. She'd hoped they were home, safe.

But they were gone, they left to help the Avatar, and as proud as she should (and later would) feel, worry takes a front seat in her mind. Her children were the one thing she hoped to see when she arrived. And they weren't there. She ends up sitting with Kanna, listening as she tells her about what had happened while they were gone. The men had left to help fight the war, something she'd suspected would happen. She knew there a chance Hakoda wouldn't be around when she returned. She'd hoped her family was waiting for her, that Hakoda, Sokka, Katara and Kanna would all welcome her home. That, maybe only her husband would be absent. But only Kanna was there. And while, yes, the rest of the tribe welcomed her home, it's not the same thing. Kanna does her best to reassure her that things will work out. That she'll see all of them again.

If you're wondering about Ursa, Zuko and Azula, yeah they're just sorta...standing there. They don't know what to do. Or rather, Ursa and Azula don't know what to do. Zuko thinks he has the solution.

While some Kya and Kanna go about helping the FN ex-royals settle in, Zuko takes note of where the canoes are. That night, he leaves a note, takes a canoe, and leaves in hope of finding Sokka and Katara. And maybe the Avatar. Maybe. (Queue another mother becoming worried sick, because what the fuck?)

Through his random, whatever the fuck you wanna call it, luck, Zuko manages to survive and arrive in the Earth Kingdom. And we enter the second half of the AU which focuses on Zuko looking for, and eventually joining, the Gaang. The first one he finds is Sokka and that's by pure chance. Sheer luck. And Sokka becomes the first between him and Katara to learn Kya is still alive. That she's home. And he's learning this through this boy, this FN boy who spent a few years living with his mom. This boy who had heard stories about him and his sister. Heard his mom speak about them with so much love and decided he had to meet them. It's a bit overwhelming but...mom's home. Waiting. Waiting for him. For Katara. Maybe even for this weird boy.

Katara, takes this revelation differently. Since Zuko isn't their enemy here (that role belongs to Zhao), her animosity towards him isn't because he's chased them around. It's because, all this time, all these years she's spent blaming herself. Believing she'd gotten her mother killed, that her mom died protecting her. Her mom had been alive this entire time. Telling a FN boy, no, the FN Prince, all about her and Sokka. And while she knows chances are Kya couldn't leave without being hunted or being followed, she hates that she apparently bonded with members of the Royal Family. It wasn't fair. It's not fair. He has no right talking so fondly of her mother. He has no right saying her hugs were comforting. That she told the best stories. He had no right being close to her mom.

Katara is hurting, so a lot of what she says comes out because of that. Things she doesn't mean. Things she knows aren't important or will matter in the end. But she watched as her mother was taken away. As her betrothal necklace was ripped off her neck and tossed in front her crying daughter. Told she might as well have a last reminder of her mother. Her mom was gone and it was all her fault. If only she hadn't been a bender. If only the NWT actually helped them. If she'd just been born earlier or never at all. She doesn't mean what she says.

She knows her mother loves sharing stories, of course she'd tell a little boy if he asked for one. She knows her mom's hugs are comforting, she's been held in one every time she hurt herself, like when she pricked her finger on a needle, or when she got scared, such as the time she accidentally broke the ice under Sokka's feet and he fell through. Her hugs were warm and loving.

She can't help but feel hurt. And it takes her time to apologize, not for how she feels, never because of how she feels, but because of how she let those emotions made her act. For the things she said out of anger. Not just to Zuko, but to her brother, to Aang and Toph.

But she spent 6 years blaming herself and she still blames herself. And she can't help but just feel afraid. She's scared Kya blames her as much as she blames herself. That, when they go home, her mom will look at her in disdain. With nothing but hatred, any love she had for her daughter gone. It's so, stupid, but...

And Katara does eventually become friends with Zuko. The two take to talking, listening as the other vents. She thinks he's a moron for deciding to look for them via a fucking canoe (and now understands her brother's constant prayers to Yue to help him deal with this, he wasn't asking for more crazy benders even if they were cute, and wow was that a way to find out her brother liked boys). But it's also kinda nice, that it was solely because of Kya's stories and worry for them that he decided to look for them.

Not like she can get rid of him, they all got attached.

I've written a lot, so the rest will be in bullet points, feel free to ask about this AU, relationships (the only one I was sure I had planned was Zukka or Zukki):

Kya definitely wanted to leave earlier but wasn't sure how to go about doing so

Because they left the night Azulon left, Zuko doesn't have his scar

That being said, he gets captured in Ba Sing Se with Iroh and upon arriving home, gets one chance to reveal where his mom, sister and Kya are at. When he refuses to say, Ozai burns his face and ships him off the Boiling Rock, which is where he meets Suki for the first time.

Katara's guilt is something she's been hiding for a while. So when Sokka shows up with Zuko and says their mom is alive, that he was told by the FN boy next to him, her emotions slowly begin to break through the wall she built until it broke and she let everything out on everyone. She was hurting and wanted everyone else to feel hurt so she used her words to do that. And while she knows she was wrong to speak to them in the way she did, she was not going to apologize for how she felt.

That also being said, she's genuinely afraid of reuniting with her mom, because she can't help but think of it going wrong. She keeps imagining what her mom will say. How she'd look at her. And when the day comes she can finally see her mom again, she's the last one to do so.

Azula does, eventually, track down her dumdum brother's new friends. She'd hoped he was with them and was more than a little pissed when she learned he got captured by Zhao (I can't remember it correctly, but I think originally I had her catch up with all of them, so prior to Zuko being caught, but I like this more).

Zhao just barely made it out alive. First was his escape from the NWT and his failed siege. The next was when Ozai gave him one last chance to redeem himself. Now he's on his last chance. And he was sure he redeemed himself. He killed the Avatar, he caught the traitor Iroh and brought Prince Zuko home, who then revealed himself as another traitor. His last task? Find Ursa and Azula and the savage woman. Hopefully before the two women corrupted her as they did the Prince.

That's all I'll be sharing for now. A lot of it is things I've written before, some of it is changes I've made and some of it's new. This AU will still go through changes and I do want to go over the relationship between characters, so feel free to ask for certain ones!!

[umbraastaff]

There are two figures silhouetted against the iceberg's eerie glow. Both humanoids. The first is curled over the second protectively, and the second seems to be reaching back, trying to do the same.

Barry contemplates this for a minute. He's for sure not powerful enough to bend the ice apart, and even if he was, there's no guarantee he could do it without hurting them. Assuming they're alive, anyway, which is a long shot in itself.

But he's out here alone, and this floating mass of ice might float away if he leaves it alone to go get help. So, feeling a bit like an idiot, he starts whacking at it with his club.

A few hits later and he's being blasted in the face by pressurized air. Oh, shit, the ice was hollow. With that knowledge, he smashes through more of it, to where the two figures have now fallen limp to the ground.

They're nearly identical, and they've both got long ears, like… elves. Like air nomads.

He hovers awkwardly over both of them, trying to figure out what the fuck to do. They are both comically underdressed for the weather, in elven wear designed for the light, free movements of airbenders, not for the warmth needed by earthbound (icebound) peoples. But he can see their breathing, so shallow and fragile; they're both going to die if he doesn't do anything.

Barry pulls his coat off; adrenaline lets him ignore the frozen air for now as he starts shifting them so he can get it underneath, keep their backs from lying flat against the icy ground. But as he lifts the first one, she groans, and he startles, jostling her slightly.

Her eyes fly open, and she punches him in the gut. It's definitely not at full power, being in an awkward position and half-frozen, but she clearly knows where to aim: the breath is knocked out of him, letting her shove him away and scramble to her knees.

Then she sees her twin, and she grabs his shoulders. "Taako! Taako, wake up," she hisses desperately. Her eyes only flick over to Barry once more, making sure he's staying back. Slowly, Taako comes to.

"Five more minutes," he says faintly.

"No! Get up! We're at the fucking– what pole is this?" She asks Barry sharply, pupils in slits.

"The– We're– South pole," he says, wide-eyed.

"We're at the south pole!"

That seems to wake Taako up more; he sits up of his own volition, at least. Then he twists and stretches a little, and hops to his feet with unnatural dexterity: the grace of someone being lifted by the air itself. A staff flies into his hand from the ground. "Who's this clown?"

"I don't know, I literally woke up five seconds before you. Where's my staff?"

She climbs back into the broken iceberg to look around, and Taako looks at Barry. "So what's your deal, Bluejeans?"

"Barry– I'm Barry," he says. "I'm, like, I live here. What were you doing in a fuckin' iceberg?"

Taako shrugs flippantly. Lup stands triumphantly, a bright red umbrella held up above her head. "Fuck yes!" It's in impressively good condition for apparently being frozen in this iceberg for however long. As are both of the elves.

Lup looks down to see Barry gathering his outer coat up from the ground, and her gaze softens a little in realization of what he must've been doing with it. "You should put that back on, dude, it's cold."

"I mean– I've still got thicker clothes than you without it, s-so–" Barry starts, clearly shivering. He tries to hold it out towards either one of them, but she shakes her head and nudges it back to him.

"We're good, but thanks. You should get that on before you get pneumonia."

He clearly doesn't find that a satisfactory explanation, but he can't find the words to object in the moment, either. He awkwardly starts pulling his coat back on.

"Barry, yeah? I'm Lup," says the one that isn't Taako.

"You're elves, right?"

"Uh, yeah," says Taako, ears a-twitch. "What, you can't tell?"

"Uh, how… How long were you guys in there?"

Lup frowns, turning to Taako with a furrowed brow. "Uh, like… a few days? However long it takes to float here from the Southern Air Temple? Speaking of, they're probably suuuper worried, so as cute as you are, we should probably be getting back–"

Barry's too shocked to even react to being called cute. "There's people there?"

"Yes?" Taako says; even he's letting concern color his voice now, though his ridiculously large hat covers most of his expression.

"Why wouldn't there be?" Lup asks, rounding on Barry as her expression hardens.

Barry covers his mouth with a hand.

[definitely-not-captain-america]

Spoilers for the first episode "Aang" of the live action ATLA under the cut. I'll always put spoilers under the cut so as to not ruin it for anyone who has a life and hasn't seen it yet

Content warning for depictions of fantasy violence and death.

I think the animated series starting with Katara and Sokka was a good choice, but I like this one starting with Aang in his original time. It's cool to see the air temples full of people, and Aang is better humanized beyond the "goofy 12 year old who never takes anything seriously," which is partly true but not fully accurate to his character.

The genocide happens so early on so it's impossible to not talk about that right away too. We literally watch firebenders burn airbenders alive, so there's that. I do have mixed feelings about the genocide. On the one hand, I think it's a little tasteless showing it, especially the amount of people who will watch it, sympathize with it, but then not do a thing to support the genocide in Palestine right now. At the same time, I think it's important to show it. It shouldn't be an easy topic, it's supposed to be devastating and horrifying and I think the scene was the right amount of graphic for that. Not to mention the allusion of Sozin killing those kids after he killed Gyatso.

Like others have said, I don't really agree with them cutting out Sokka's sexism. It was a major growth in character for him, and it's important to show young men growing up from things like sexism and maturing and apologizing after you're proven wrong. Still, the casting is incredible so far and all the actors definitely feel like their characters, so that's good too.

Onto Zuko and Iroh (I'm literally writing all this as I watch the episode). I see people say Zuko's scar should've been a lot uglier, for lack of a better word, and I agree. It's small, it doesn't look like it has much texture, and his eyebrow is still there. It's a burn scar, and burn scars never really look pretty in the nice, aesthetic way they made it in the live action. Of course, animated Zuko was always hot, but for the scar to be a point of shame that the audience can really understand, I think it should've looked worse. (Sorry for my brusque language. I don't mean to say that burn victims are ugly and horribly disfigured. Zuko's scar is just so far from a burn scar that it's mostly just aesthetic in the live action.)

Also, and it's so early in the show, but so far Iroh has a bit of a tough love thing going on and I kind of like it. We all love the gentle, tea-loving, proverb-using old man who probably-definitely committed war crimes but is now a big softie who regrets his actions, but I kinda like what may be happening here.

Their village in the South Pole is beautiful, and I'm glad they have more than just like 12 people living there. It's still obvious that all the men went off to war, and I always kinda hated how empty the village was. Plus, like I said, it's still really pretty, so we get to see how there was a culture there that's been somewhat lost.

I love Aang and Katara's conversation about them growing up fast. I think it's a little easy to forget how young everyone is in the animated series — everyone who's not Aang anyway, because even sixteen/seventeen is very young and we can forget that when everyone is drawn to be muscled and attractive and without any real baby fat.

I don't really like how Appa looks, but I typically hate all CGI animals because their fur always looks weird. He isn't terrible, it's just a serious case of uncanny valley for me so it's just not my thing.

I kinda like that Katara goes off to the ship on her own before Aang. We get her gentleness and a lot of her uncertainty, but we also see her conviction and the fact that she'll do whatever she wants if she believes it's for the right reason.

Right along those lines, I really love how evident Sokka's role as the child soldier/child leader is. Katara mentioned that he was told to watch the village since he was 13, and he's doing what he can. He has no idea what's right, he's just doing everything he can to hold things together and keep people safe. Aang calling him the bravest person he's ever met was so wonderful and exactly the validation Sokka needed to hear but probably never did. It also helped him come to his decision to help Aang, which was awesome.

I also love the reckless abandon we see with Zuko and the other firebenders. Sozin entered the Fire Nation into a world of divine right and basically the American Dream of conquering and doing whatever you want because they're in charge, they have the right, so they can. I also love the slight juxtaposition of Aang and Iroh's short encounter where Aang asks why the war was started. I just really like all the character interactions so far.

We also really get to see Zuko being young. His desperation when Aang escapes, the anger and fear he experiences. It's all very realistic and I'm glad we get more of that in this one.

I can't quite figure out if I like the costumes and the setting a lot. I don't like CGI heavy movies because they never look real or good to me, which is something I care about. I'm also not a good judge of whether CGI is good or not. I end up comparing everything to Narnia or Babe the Pig, both of which were pretty incredible, and nothing has been to those standards since.

In that same vein, I can't tell if I like the bending or not. It's not terrible, but the hand movements always look a little off to what ends up happening (which, I understand why, I just think it could been a little cleaner). Though that's probably just a byproduct of this being a live action, and the animated will always be better for bending. That earthbender in the beginning just took so long to earthbend, and I've always appreciated that earthbending is like, the heaviest and there's a lot more force that goes into it, but he was taking too long for me.

I 100% love this cast. So far they've all been very true to their characters while also being slightly new interpretations, which I like. I can't wait to see how they develop throughout the show, especially Katara, who I think goes through the most amount of growth in the show in a fairly short amount of time. Aang is still playful but also a bit more grown up, Sokka is still sarcastic but also focused on being a leader, Zuko is young and scared and angry and desperate to prove himself. I'm really happy with this actually, because it'll be easier for me to forgive the parts I don't like because these actors are so good.

That was very ramshackle and haphazardly thrown together. Oh well. This is starting out better than I expected and I'm excited for that.

[chaoticevilbean]

I've seen takes about swearing amongst the Gaang, including:

Zuko knows how to swear, but doesn't bc of Iroh

Zuko doesn't know how to swear bc Iroh is scary and the crew valued their lives; Aang swears profusely, inadvertently teaching Zuko some new ones

Zuko knows a lot of swear words from living amongst ex-soldier sailors

Aang is too precious to handle swearing

Toph knows a lot of words bc she was in the Earth Rumble VI

Toph grew up sheltered, so she doesn't know any, but starts using them the moment she learns

Sokka and Katara never learned bc it was seen as a masculine thing, and all the men left, so there wasn't much if any swearing

Now I have my own headcanon: Sokka and Katara know every swear word in the book. Reasons? Kanna.

Kanna, who literally ran away from home and sailed to the farthest thing from it bc she didn't want to get married to someone (props, but also a very big thing, like, why not stop in the Earth Kingdom?).

Kanna, who sent her waterbending feminist granddaughter and her feminine-but-wouldn't-admit-it-yet overprotective grandson to the North Pole - where they would undoubtedly run into her ex.

Kanna probably taught Hakoda every curse and swear she could. She probably invented some. She's old enough to know some that might never have been used during her son or grandchildren's times. She probably traveled around before settling in the South Pole.

Aang teaches a few the siblings didn't already know, but it's not much.

The only reason people never hear them swear is because Sokka said that the Avatar shouldn't swear and then Katara said that wasn't fair, so they all promised not to swear in front of anyone but each other.

When Aang stubs his toe at the Western Air Temple and finally lets loose the stream of profanity he's been holding back since Toph came along, there are mixed reactions.

Toph is obviously peeved they didn't teach her.

Haru and Teo have to inform The Duke about when to use each word, and why he shouldn't tell Pipsqueak where he learned some.

Zuko tries to tell Aang that perhaps he shouldn't swear in front of Sokka and Katara - thinking they'll be uncomfortable - only to be interrupted by the siblings breaking their own promises (if Aang does it, they're all allowed to) as they get into a screaming match over who makes the best stew.

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

A popular move in zutara fics: to bring Katara (with or without Zuko, it doesn’t matter) to the South Pole at some point to show that she doesn’t feel at home there anymore.

I know the fanfics’ authors just want to convince the readers that Katara will not suffer missing her home while living constantly in the FN, but for me… it just feels more sad. Like the authors themselves took Katara’s home away from her and then turn to us smiling: “Don’t worry, she’s be fine, it’s not a big deal, actually!”.

IMAGINE constantly saying shit like "Zutara fans are the only ones who are genuine Katara fans" and "Aang doesn't respect/understand Katara's culture and would demand her to leave it behind for his sake, something Zuko would never do" and then pulling something like this. Self-awareness whomst? And let me guess, some of these also use "The water tribe is sexist" as a way to justify why Katara no longer feels at home there?

Katara's connection to her culture remained strong through literally THE ENTIRE SHOW - and that elements of her culture that were "lost" to her were a direct result OF THE WAR ZUKO'S FAMILY IS RESPONSIBLE FOR!

In the first episode, we see that she wants to properly learn waterbending - something she can't do in her own tribe, because, again, Azulon, Zuko's grand-father, had every waterbender captured (and eventually started just killing them - leading to the death of Kya). Those raids also made her dad end up leaving to fight against the Fire Nation, something Katara understands, but will later be revealed to be deeply hurt by because she wants her family to stay together, and she couldn't help but resent her father a little/lot for leaving their home.

Still, with that much having been taken away from her, when Aang is banished and she says that if he leaves, she's leaving too, the very second Sokka asks if she's really gonna choose someone over her own tribe and family, Katara is visibly shaken and it's clear she wants to take back what she just said (but she doesn't have to, because Aang does it for her, because surprise surprise, Aang never expects her to make such a huge sacrifice for him). Only when his identity as the Avatar is revealed and Katara would be allowed to leave with him for a while, and come back home later, does she look 100% ready for this mission - mission that is to teach them BOTH waterbending, as Aang explicitly says "We can learn it together!"

During her talk with Haru, he mentions how earthbending makes him feel close to his father again - and it's pretty clear the same goes for Katara. And what's the point of that entire episode? Katara helping people be able to use their bending again and come back home after being captured by the Fire Nation.

When Aang is a better waterbender then her (at first), Katara is visibly jealous. When she meets Jet, she relates to him because of how the Fire Nation took his family from him, and in the end of the episode she's deeply ashamed of herself because she trusted this stranger more than Sokka, her own sibling and part of her tribe. She is about to cry when she thinks Jet might have hurt or killed him.

When the Gaang runs into Bato, it's clear that Sokka and Katara are thrilled to be around someone they knew their whole lives. Aang however feels left out, as that is not his culture, he doesn't have a connection to it, and now he fears that his friends, the only family has left, will give up on their mission. So, he hides the map to their father - only to then feel like shit because the others find a way to include him in what is very much a water tribe thing, and so admits what he did. And both Sokka AND KATARA are heartbroken and furious, and decide to leave Aang because they don't accept anyone or anything preventing them from being with their family.

They then get captured by Zuko - who is taunting Katara with Kya's necklace, the last thing she has of her mom, in the hopes that this will make her reveal where Aang is. Naturally, Katara doesn't like that one bit. Aang then, of course, shows up, the trio defeats Zuko yet again, and once they are all on good terms as they believe Aang learned his lesson, he gives Katara the necklace back, without expecting anything in exchange.

Sometime after that, they finally get to the North Pole, where Katara shows she's absolutely ready to throw hands with Pakku for trying to say she can only be a healer, not a fighter. We then find out Gran-Gran moved to the Southern Water Tribe because it was NOT sexist like the North, Pakku stops being a dick, and when he decides to go help the South Pole recover from all the damage the Fire Nation did, Katara is unbelievably happy.

Another moment that makes her very happy is in season 3, when she meets Hama and says it would be an honor to learn about her culture from someone who lived in the South Pole before the Fire Nation destroyed it. There's also her reuinion with her dad after Sokka rescues him from the Boiling Rock, and then in the finale when he says Kya would be proud of her.

There's also "little things" like, you know, her ditching the Fire Nation clothes the zutara fandom loves to see her in, and going back to her blue clothes and having hair-loopies in her hair, because whenever she doesn't have to be undercover anymore, she makes damn sure anyone who sees her know which culture she belongs to.

She has been through a ton of trauma, was at odds with her dad for a while, spent months away from the South Pole, has literally crossed the entire world, and met people with very different cultures, and she STILL thinks of the SWT as her home and wants nothing more than to be allowed to be with her family again.

Plus, let's mention the obvious since Zutarians love ignoring it: In "The Swamp", she has a vision of her mother and is overjoyed when she thinks that, against all odds, Kya is still alive - and is heartbroken as she's reminded of what she lost. And who does she say took Kya away from her during her talk with Zuko in Ba Sing Se? Oh yeah, the Fire Nation. She echoes that sentiment again, in The Southern Raiders, when Azula attacks the group, who then decides to split because the writers didn't know what to do with that many characters, as Katara straight up says to her dad that THE FIRE NATION CAN'T SEPARATE THEIR FAMILY AGAIN!

Back to Ba Sing Se for a moment. During that talk with Zuko, she also says that, for the longest time, when she thought of "the enemy", she pictured HIS face. Fitting considering he attacked her tribe, threatened to burn people if he didn't get the Avatar, and was constantly hunting her, Sokka and Aang (who she considers family) down. He then proves she was right to think of him that way, as he helps the Fire Nation basically win the war AND allows Azula to kill Aang.

All of that makes her hate Zuko's guts, hence her very clearly threatening to kill him in book 3 if he ever stepped out of line again, and being very antagonistic to him in some scenes, and telling him that if he wants her forgiveness he should find a way to bring her mother back - not because she's unfairly "projecting her anger at her mom's murderer onto him" like Zuko said - but because she sees him, his family and his nation as the cause of everything that went wrong in her life AND SHE'S RIGHT! Then becoming genuine friends later doesn't change that.

But SOMEHOW Zutarians see ALL OF THAT and conclude that Katara would no longer feel a connection to her tribe once the war was over, and would instead want to move to the FIRE NATION and would actually feel at home there?

If THEY are the real Katara fans, I don't even wanna know what a Katara hater would look like.

[droppingartintotheinfinite]

watched the first episode of the live action atla adaptation and took notes:

-what is this opening. who are these people. am i expected to care about this random earth kingdom man because i really don’t

-opening fight is kinda meh :/

-sozin looks weirdly… nice? like he has “harmless old man” vibes. i don’t actually dislike this casting choice i think there’s a lot of potential to having him look friendly and approachable even as he does war crimes

-seriously did someone in the writer’s room watch rogue one before coming in and then go like “HEY I KNOW WHAT WE SHOULD ADD” WHAT is this plot doing here

-where is katara’s opening narration. like i get they aren’t adapting one to one but that’s such a loss. the opening cutscene from the original series was so good

-WHERE THE FUCK IS THE GAANG SERIOUSLY. WHY ARE WE STARTING WITH RANDOM EARTH KINGDOM MAN AND SOZIN

-all of these people are so fucking sweaty what is this

-sozin’s outfit is appropriately fuckable

-“my sights… are set… higher… because… it is… our time…” “[screaming]” wow very emo

-KATARA IS HERE!! MY BEST GIRL

-why did they change the narration. this is objectively worse.

-oh no this isn’t katara is it… dang :(

-air temple looking neat. why are we here tho. where are katara and sokka

-why is everyone watching aang jumping around like he’s a fucking celebrity. have they never seen an airbender before in the fucking air temple

-at least they say aang’s name right. step up from shamalalalam or whatever his name is. of course that bar is so low the devil declared it a tripping hazard, so

-these people do NOT talk like actual humans. have these writers never had to write natural exposition before

-genuinely what was the point of that first scene. WHAT does it add

-“when yangchen died the next avatar was born into the water tribe” what, does aang not know this. my fucking god this exposition is shit

-aang didn’t know he was the avatar?? and then didn’t immediately get an ego about it when gyatso told him??? who is this and what did you do with my BOY

-the acting isn’t bad but the lines are so shit it’s hard to tell

-aang is NOT sufficiently goofy

-appa’s kind of ugly :(

-TEAM ROCKET’S BLASTING OFF AGAIN (<— my unfiltered reaction to sozin going jetpack mode)

-unnecessary airbender fight scene. i think this is literally just here to look cool and honestly? 6/10

-aang just fuckin… wandered off? instead of willfully running away? bro you can’t take my boy’s agency like this

-i want a video of appa’s va making those noises into the mic. come on netflix do it it’ll be funny

-WHY is everything so WET all the time

-20 minutes in and i have yet to see the south pole. literally none of this is necessary to the story. you could cut all of it and nothing would change

-HERE SHE IS. FINALLY. IT’S HER

-no funny boat scene with sokka? insert no bitches megamind here

-oh they still have a boat scene. unfortunately it sucks ass

-WHERE IS PISSED OFF KATARA DECIMATING AN ICEBERG BY ACCIDENT

-seriously. they’re removing all the good scenes to fit more unnecessary action and/or melodrama filler in

-shitty zuko cameo

-WHAT is that scar. why is it so small. did he fall and get a scrape on his face? looks more like a scab than anything. 2/10

-baffling why the iceberg even reacted to katara when she’s apparently so fucking incapable she can’t even lift a water orb. they’re massacring my girl

-why does sokka want to leave this random child to die

-kanna!

-“it can’t be… this… is an airbender…..” i am rolling my fucking eyes

-iffy on this iroh so far but i’ll reserve judgement

-tumblr was right. zuko’s actor is absolutely putting his whole pussy into this. he can have rights

-how are NONE of these jokes landing. even the ones they directly crib from the original just… lose all impact

-why is kanna saying the intro dialogue randomly with no prompting. seriously these writers are SO. FUCKING. SHIT

-every emotional beat in this comes off more wooden than a fucking tree

-seriously. everything i could say about this just boils down to the wooden writing, unnecessary and poorly executed exposition, the action scenes shoehorned in for no discernible reason, inability to create any impact from anything ever, and the removal of all the good scenes from the original in favor of more unnecessary poorly written TRASH

-oh one more thing actually

-AANG TEACHES KATARA TO WATERBEND. GET OUT??

-basically

-they took all the good stuff out to fit in more melodrama and action, but their writing (and directing. and acting) is too shitty to actually sell said drama and their fight scenes are mid at best

-3/10

[survivalove]

the thing with hama is that at this point, she doesn't seem to really "care" about the water tribe. obviously she does, that's her home, and who she is. but it's changed so much, and she's become so deep in her revenge that i can't see her ever assimilating fully back into her home. the people there are desperate for some sort of peace, and hama doesn't want nor care for peace, she wants revenge. I kind of wish somebody would explore this idea more because yes a lot of people would have sympathy for what she's suffered, but I can imagine a lot of people, like sokka, would not like her (especially if you consider the fact that from the southern water tribes point of view, she attacked katara and sokka, two children of the tribe and that the majority of these people have never met hama). idk I think this is a very fascinating concept to explore bc it shows a more realistic side of the war in that some people, even if they thought they wanted it to end, can't live without it because of the traumas they endured. and like you said, the swt is a majority nonbenders society and one that's inherently changed. hama comes from the southern water tribe before most of the raids, and back then the culture was more closely linked with the northern water tribe. as the raids went on, water benders were lost, the culture developed to fit these conditions. we see in north and south that a lot of people do not like northern intervention, and changing the south pole to fit its standards, and since hama was from a time where cultural wise the south mimicked the north a lot more, I can imagine that would also be a point of strife

same, I think it would be a great concept to explore in a fic since it would bring up a lot of contention among the tribe (because I do think there will be at least a few people like kanna and hakoda who will advocate for her rehabilitation) but also between sokka and katara. at the end of the day, katara is a waterbender and she has this power, she and sokka both know what it feels like to be bloodbended but she’ll never be in sokka’s place where he literally couldn’t fight back against it at all if he wanted. i think sokka would hate her and would to hate to have to live with her in his home where he’s supposed to feel safe and I don’t blame him.

also katara once again feeling like an other because she’s the only other bloodbender in the tribe and most people don’t know that she’s bloodbended after that either. and what if the tribe decides hama can’t come back? what does that say for someone like katara who’s done the same thing?

the water tribe post war is truly one of the most underexplored parts of canon (!!!) i just imagine aang being invited to the council meeting trying to reconcile all these conflicting ideas lol. knowing him he’d probably want to give hama a chance but it’s not up to him. and it’s be a great problem for hakoda to reckon with too because as you said, most of the tribe is not going to want her back, and the swt is a democracy at the end of the day.

the southern water tribe in hama’s time does seem to be very different, aesthetically and culturally, from the north tho so that’s probably where i disagree. i think it’s more that she will miss her friends and everyone she knew. the presence of northerners would probably upset her the most. that being said, I think hama would want to go to back. I mean she fought hard for her tribe (another way the swt and the nwt is so different) and it’s not their fault she got taken so i don’t think she will hold any malice in her heart upon arrival. but i do think it will be a rude awakening for her to realize everything is so much different than it once was, once she gets there.

if i were to write the story, i’d probably end it with hama living on the outskirts a few miles away from Wolf Cove, where she can’t be a threat to anyone but still be close to where she grew up.

ugh the potential character development for katara, sokka, hakoda, kanna, hama and even aang for a story like this is literally limitless. sigh

[jasminedragonart]

I adore you atla art sm!

But that korra au? 🫥

Please don't take this as hate or anything, I'd just like to know your thought process behind that AU if possible! ❤��

Why is zuko not dead? Katara would've ended him. Why the hell is sokka even talking too zuko?

My gosh the way this fandom cuddles zuko is so fucking annoying, I enjoy zuko, but fandom zuko isn't zuko at all. 🧍🏽‍♀️

Idk I've read AU's in which aang is killed off early on (and there's so many of these au's, literally for what?), and imo are terrible!

None of these characters would be the same without aang. Why does part of the fandom seem to dismiss aangs part of the story?

I'm not coddling him at all. Season 1 Zuko is a villain for sure. But in the au, Katara would have definitely tried to end him except her bending would be gone by that time probably mid fight since Zuko isn't stupid enough to not defend himself.

I also recognise that Sokka would have been murderous as well, but Sokka would probably be by Aangs side as Katara fought Zuko. He would see that the face being gone and no burn scars couldn't be Zuko's fault and they knew Aang was venturing into the spirit world. While Sokka is quite passionate hes also a strategist. He would have recognised the position they were in with the Avatar literally dead and want answers for that as well as safety for him and Katara. Once she loses her bending it's definitely negotiation mode with Zuko. Especially because Zuko is a powerhouse in season 1, he fought Zhao and won, he has dual blades and is shown to frequently defy the laws of physics in his escapes. Sokka would probably try and use Zuko for free passage back to the south pole, except then Zuko would drop the bomb hes worthless to the fire nation without the avatar.

What I don't include in this au in the pieces I've drawn is that their next best idea is to pretend the avatar is still alive but gone into hiding. Sokka takes Zuko prisoner to stop him from grabbing, Zuko goes along with it because he's literally dead either way and hes not sure what happened to his uncle. They escape on a boat since Appa and Aang are tied together meaning Appa is gone. With no waterbending and now no moon the balance is upset, spirits are out etc...

Zuko is handy basically. Sokka recognises this and I believe he would put survival over vengeance until they got home.

By then? Bonding maybe? I mean, Zuko is pretty harmless without the Avatar to chase. Especially with all the fire nation politics that would erupt from Zhao conquering the north pole.

I hope this answers some of your questions. I, for one, also hate when Zuko is made nicer in some fandom spaces. He's only nuanced because we see his growth as a character and he only becomes who he is in season 3 because he has to hit rock bottom. He is literally living put a tragedy in the first 2 seasons. Thematically anyway.

I like season 1 Zuko because of the potential he has to become the character he is in season 3 not because he's season 3 Zuko wrapped up in a tragic story.

If you guys want more of that au I suppose I could draw more... 👀

[delta-pavonis]

U for the alphabet ask meme!

Three favorite characters from three different fandoms.

(I am not doing Sandman because that is like the focus of almost my entire Tumblr and let's have this be interesting! Also, I cannot separate Dreamling. They are one character. The end.)

1. The "been my fav since I was a kid" character: Storm (Ororo Munroe) from the X-Men comics and animated series (her portrayal in the movies has been meh at best). She has been my favorite superhero since I was literally like 7 or 8 years old. There is just something about her regal take-no-shits attitude and how her powers literally put her in sync with entire planets. (She can attune to planets other than Earth, too!) Also, who else gets to whore (extremely affectionate) around with Wolverine, Gambit, Black Panther, AND Nightcrawler? Yeah, you read that right. Oh, and PEAK badass moment when she got pissed at Emma Frost in one of the early issues of X-treme X-Men and just picks up a fucking broken off metal pole, pins Emma (now with diamond skin) to a wall with hurricane winds and... ah, just read it yourself:

2. The "this is how I got into fanfic" character: Lestat de Lioncourt is a little shit and I love that for him. No, I haven't seen the most recent series. Which I am still sad about, but also I am quite happy with the Lestat that lives in my head, riding his motorcycle while listening to Bach's Goldberg Variations in his headphones (actual scene from The Vampire Lestat). I wrote my first fan fiction (just for myself, which never saw the light of day) in IwtV fandom. God, I haven't thought about those fics in FOREVER. I actually wrote a Lestat/OFC/Louis fic that had double penetration before I actually knew that DP was a thing that exists in reality. I was literally making it up as a fantasy. So, while it was not on purpose that my handle can be abbreviated to DP, I am ENDLESSLY tickled by the fact that it can. (So is my spouse.)

3. The "character I would saw off a limb to get more of in fandom or canon" character: Ash Tyler from Star Trek: Discovery. I love him, your honor. He has one hell of a Tragic Backstory™️ with a fascinating plot arc who becomes a goddamned space spy and is hot as absolute fuck. I would climb the actor who plays him, Shazad Latif, like a goddamned tree if I got with 50 miles of him. Just look at this man:

You mean I am stupidly attracted to a British actor of South Asian descent with big brown eyes, long-ish black hair, and sporting facial hair? *shocked Pikachu face*

(No, really, if I end up writing a sequel to Ten Forward it is going to be a Hob/Dream/Ash sandwich, guaranteed.)