#Hama

[comradekatara]

i read somewhere that, after the war, zuko at least hands hama over to the swt instead of keeping her in fire nation prisons 'till the end of her life. Which is nice, I think. But I'm also curious as to how that would work out.

Most notably: how do you think it'd go down if she were to meet Pakku? given they both have some sort of connection to kanna's life, the idea of them being forced to interact even once entertains me very much. like, old waterbending master pakku—white lotus member—who has grown up in a patriarchal society and actively forbidden women from training to fight, under the precedent they are somehow ontologically weaker, fragile, and belonging in the healing huts... THAT guy, meeting his former fiancé's old friend: (or current wife's if you go by canon, which, eugh) A woman who not only fought in the front lines but ended up becoming one of the most skilled, creative, and deadly waterbenders in history. How would he react when finding out that a woman came up with blood bending? How badly would Hama mind-fuck him?? Because I'm confident they'd hate each other's guts-- no way she'd tolerate him,,,

And on a similar note—how would Kanna feel upon reuniting wirh Hama and discovering what she put Katata through, in your opinion? Idk, I'm just full of puppetmaster thoughts today. Hama is incredibly interesting and I wish she wasn't handled so much like a Halloween Specisl creepy witch, (even though katara herself is handled and written pretty well in this episode, i think. but i digress.)

i mean obviously i think about this all the time. i personally think that zuko hands hama over to the swt upon katara's request, and she and aang personally deliver her on appa (sokka is not there, for the very deliberate reason that if he knew what they were doing he would very vocally disapprove). and so katara is sort of retraumatizing herself by doing this, but she also feels like it's necessary specifically because she needs to be able to look hama in the eye and tell her why they're not actually the same (especially now that she actually did bloodbend someone in cold blood). katara has the love and support and safety to step back from her anger and her pain and her grief and hang onto her own humanity and allow herself to be the bigger person even in moments of abject rage and acute trauma, and hama doesn't. hama is a victim of her circumstance, and that's part of what makes her so uniquely terrifying to katara, because katara has that same capacity to make people hurt, she has the same tools at her disposal, and she has the same justifications to exercise that power. but unlike hama, she hasn't actually been pushed past her limits. sometimes she can see the cliff's edge, and sometime she even teeters on the line, but hama was fully just shoved off without a parachute, and that's really what separates them above all. i think katara should be allowed to acknowledge that and forgive herself for that, even if hama doesn't directly apologize to her (although in my mind she does, and it's not enough, but it's also so much more than katara ever expected to hear). even if it is too late for hama, katara deserves to heal.

frankly, i don't really give a shit about pakku or his reaction to hama. i also don't actually think that he thinks woman are ontologically incapable of being talented waterbenders of whatever; he's a pretty worldly guy, the reason he clings to these traditions isn't born of the belief that they're grounded in logical evidence like sokka's is, it's because he believes in the preservation of a system that benefits and valorizes him. pakku thinks katara belongs in the healing huts because he comes from a culture that dictates that women belong in the healing huts. like, he might also subscribe to the bioessentialist logic that women are better healers and men are being fighters, but that honestly doesn't really matter, because (unlike sokka) his epiphany lies not in the fact that woman can fight, but in the fact that his role in upholding these systems has actively driven his loved ones away due to his cruelty. he decides to be kinder, to women and in general, because he realizes that being an asshole has negative consequences. but frankly, who cares what he thinks of hama. realizing that your sister tribe in the south deserves aid and protection after being subjected to a century of genocide is kind of too little too late imo. unlike katara, sokka, aang, or kanna, who can approach this situation from the perspective of being a genocide survivor who even remotely understands hama's trauma, pakku really has no place in this conversation to me.

as for kanna...... god. hama/kanna reunion is genuinely one of the most heart-wrenching concepts to me in all of atla. as a sidenote, hama/kanna fanfic goes so hard every time. there's a total of like 15 fanfics for them on ao3 (last i checked) but they're all sooooooo. fucking delicious. tide locked........... ugh. anyway. i cannot fathom kanna's reaction upon learning that her closest friend once upon a time is not only alive, but also a convicted felon, for crimes including but not limited to manipulating her granddaughter, violating her (and sokka's) bodily autonomy in cruel and perverse ways, and forcing her to participate in that mode of violence in a way that traumatized her forever. even if you don't read them as former lovers (although it is indubitably better that way) it's so gut-churning. kanna lost so many people over the course of her life, and to learn that one of them has returned but in the worst way possible must be mind-boggling and distinctly unreal. like how do you even process that. first, how do you process how much pain she must have went through to become the kind of person who is capable of doing this, and then, how do you process the knowledge that the person you once loved most in the world irreparably hurt the person you now love most in the world? obviously she would always prioritize katara's safety over anyone else's no matter what, but god. kanna has led such a fascinating and impossibly difficult life, and it's not over yet.

[mugentakeda]

we were girls together

[narrativelysignificantturtleduck]

the whole "the white lotus would be the gaang if aang unfroze early" thing is dumb and makes no sense for multiple reasons (bumi's like 50 years older than everybody else, iroh & piandao & jeong jeong were busy being baby imperialists) but the worst part is that it means everyone's sleeping on the actual most logical early emergence au: hama cracking open the cold boy

[from-the-coffee-shop-in-edoras]

Y’all, I am being forced back onto my LOTR Háma soapbox because people have now tagged me in several posts that I consider to be Háma slander!

Forget the movies for a minute and look at the books. Háma is NOT a dummy. He knows who Gandalf is, and he knows what a wizard can do with a staff. That’s why he flags that the staff should be considered a violation of Meduseld’s weapon ban in the first place. But the fact that he subsequently allows Gandalf to bring the staff in does NOT mean that he suddenly and inexplicably changed his mind about the status of the staff or was tricked into doing so. Look at what he says:

“The staff in the hand of a wizard may be more than a prop for age,” said Háma. He looked hard at the ash-staff on which Gandalf leaned. “Yet in doubt a man of worth will trust to his own wisdom. I believe you are friends and folk worthy of honour, who have no evil purpose. You may go in.”

He says very clearly that 1) he knows the staff can be dangerous; 2) in this situation, he’s going to use his own judgment rather than worrying about what the rules say; and 3) his judgment tells him that Gandalf is a good person who won’t do anything evil. Nowhere in there does he say that he’s decided the staff itself isn’t a potential danger. He’s decided that Gandalf with the staff isn’t a danger. He trusts Gandalf not to use the staff to hurt anyone or harm anyone’s interests. And he was right!!!

So this is just a reminder that literally every single thing Háma says or does in the books is right and righteous:

✅ (Politely) calling Aragorn on his BS about refusing to leave his sword outside because Háma is no pushover

✅ Trusting Gandalf to bring the staff in because he’s an excellent judge of character and knows that good will come of that choice

✅ Giving Éomer his sword back even though he hasn’t been ordered to do so because, again, he knows who is good and who is bad and always wants to help those who are on the side of good

✅ Nominating Éowyn to be leader of the Eorlingas because he isn’t afraid to challenge antiquated ideas about gender roles

✅ Telling other skeptical Rohirrim to trust in Gandalf’s leadership because Háma is wise enough to see past the elements of Gandalf’s behavior that others find unsettling

✅ Giving his life in the effort to protect and defend others

In summary: Háma, Captain of the Guard and Doorward of Meduseld, 10/10 no notes. He is perfect.

[lady-arryn]

THE LORD OF THE RINGS costumes appreciation: ― Rohan armor feat. Hama (costume design by Ngila Dickson and Richard Taylor)

[die-auster]

I love the idea of a villain from the Water Tribe. I love the idea of a female villain – an old woman, not a young good-looking girl. I love how dark this story is. I love that the ending is not happy. I love how strong and determined and creative Hama is – and how those great qualities turned into craziness.

And this is a commission ;) Is there anyone who is interested too? I would love to draw side characters and rare pairings. They deserve more love and attention.

If you feel like it you can support me on my Ko-fi.

[theweeklydiscourse]

Interesting how Hama is sent back to a Fire Nation prison at the end of “The Puppetmaster” when imprisonment was exactly the thing that caused the conflict of the episode. Imprisonment was the cause of the problem, yet was somehow also seen as the most acceptable solution to it. At the end, an inhabitant of the town tells Hama: “You’re going to be locked away forever.” Which cements the idea that the best response to Hama’s transgressions is to lock her up…again.

This is what I mean when I say that Hama’s episode is an example of ATLA’s anti-resistance propaganda. Ultimately, Hama’s senseless violence against random Fire Nation citizens is viewed as more depraved and horrifying than the genocide that was wrought upon the Southern water benders. And before anyone tries to twist my words, I’m talking about what this means NARRATIVELY and the kind of message that it sends as well as the biases it reflects.

In a show where even Fire Nation soldiers and guards get to have moments of humanity, Hama (a victim of genocide and oppression) is treated as a frightening monster whose depravity knows no bounds. Characters who participated in the Fire Nation’s conquering efforts are ultimately seen as worthier of humanity than the characters who were victims of it.

It’s not just that Hama does bad things, it’s that the show portrays her as crazy and villainous for her reaction to the violence she suffered. Hama’s actions still could have been morally wrong, but they could’ve approached the issue in a way that didn’t treat her like a monster and allowed her to be sympathetic.

[atla-recluse]

I can't be the only one...

who felt like it was implied by the show that lightning bending was somehow a more "evil", "impure" or "cruel" form of bending in line with what bloodbending was made out to be, based on who we know was skilled enough to do it (Azula, Ozai, likely "past" Iroh). Am I?

I feel like that definitely could have been a bias that they chose to lean into, based on what we learned up to and past the point of lightning bending's introduction as well as bloodbending's.

Hama being an unforgiven-antagonist to the Gaang means that bloodbending was going to be framed as an especially awful form of combat from the start. (A form that seems to get implicitly compared in-show to a physical or spiritual violation.) Likewise, Iroh describes lightning bending as "cold fire".

Lightning? Cold? The surface of the sun would beg to differ.

The previously mentioned three from the Fire Royal Family are also the only ones we see and know of doing the skill. Two of them are show antagonists (Azula, Ozai). The other technically starts as an antagonist but eventually becomes someone that we're now supposed to believe views his past self as though they would have been a wrongful enemy of the Gaang and of world peace itself (Iroh). Meanwhile our poor, good-hearted, awkward turtleduck (*snickers*) Zuko, just can't seem to learn how to do it. Even when the time period of LOK comes, he's implied to have still not learned how.

Also, if we are to assume that no forms of firebending were looked down upon in Fire Nation culture, especially post-dragon extinction, then it makes even more sense that a form of firebending that's "harsher" wouldn't be disapproved of and would even be preferred over other forms for that very reason.

Now if true, that leaves the question of "what makes it worse than other forms of firebending?". I'd argue nothing, really. It seems, at worst, to only be faster and more deadly than other forms of fire bending. Like icebending compared to regular waterbending. A cherry on top for Azula seems to be that she looks fantastic and elegant when she aims her fingers at someone/something, and for Ozai, that he can prepare his shots extremely fast.

Of course, it could also have been the other way around and it was the characters that learned the ability who were having something implied about them, not necessarily the ability itself. Maybe even both.

[juniperhillpatient]

I have such mixed feelings about The Puppetmaster & I have similar mixed feelings about Jet (the episode) though I didn’t talk about that this rewatch because I was too busy being excited to see Jet (the character).

I do love that ATLA’s continued theme is that everyone is complex, even villains & that people can do good things for bad reasons & bad things for good reasons & nothing is black & white. And I’m not totally opposed to the narrative criticism of violence toward civilians in a war particularly because at the end of the day ATLA is a children’s show & it is going to have some simple messages like to be kind - something I think a lot of adult fans forget in our analysis.

However I’m bothered I guess by the way Hama & Jet’s stories…. End? We don’t need to talk about my hatred for Lake Laogai & the way Jet’s death is handled (or not handled) in the aftermath right this second. I have about 8 million posts about that. I want to highlight the way Hama’s story begins & ends.

It really bothers me that Hama’s backstory is fucking BRUTAL. I mean she was the LAST Southern Water Bender. Take that in. Do you ever think of all the water bending moves & forms Katara will never learn or understand the history of fully because that art & knowledge was lost? It was stolen & ripped away along with all those lives. And Hama was tortured in prison for years. And yet. And yet. The story is framed so that what we remember is that blood bending is spooky & evil.

I would have loved if the show just once more showed a situation where bloodbending was necessary & Katara used it to show that this form was important to learn for the story. I would have loved if Hama didn’t have to go back to Fire Nation prison & that’s framed as a good thing.

There are slight modifications to Hama & Jet’s stories that I think would help with the rather insidious message that ends up coming across that victims of colonial violence better be careful so as not to fight back the Wrong Way & be discarded / executed / put away (as they deserve).

[comradekatara]

[mugentakeda]

some random atla sketches

[transuncletaylor]

If Katara is the spitting image of Kanna as said by Yugoda, do you think Hama felt a little sense of home when she saw Katara's face?

[copaganda-clobberfest]

WELCOME

TO THE FIRST ROUND OF THE COPAGANDA CLOBBERFEST!

“You know that trope? That one trope *Everyone* hates? The trope in which a well meaning antagonist to our heroes, one looking out for the good of a certain community, suddenly does something horrible and drastic to make not only them, but the ideology they stand for the most villainous of all?”

NOW IS THE TIME TO BATTLE THEM OUT! Like Ken dolls, fighting for survival! Like your Polly pockets discarded in the closet, we’ll see which of these bitches jumped that slippery slope harder! Whose character did numbers on y’all, and blew up a bunch of grandmas and babies and hospitals with it!

ROUND ONE

HAMA from AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER vs AMON from THE LEGEND OF KORRA

Hama propaganda:

“A waterbender from the southern water tribe who was captured by the fire nation when they invaded her home. After being put through inhuman conditions to prevent her from waterbending, she learned to bend her captors’ blood instead to escape. She then lived undercover in the fire nation, for decades, before meeting the gaang. Then out of nowhere it’s revealed she’s behind the disappearance of a bunch of fire nation villagers and she tries to forcibly teach katara bloodbending so she can carry on her actions. And for what?? That doesn’t even make any sense!! She could’ve been at least targeting soldiers or officials but nope all of a sudden she’s actually the villain torturing innocents because she can and i guess that’s what happens after she goes through all that ???? ??”

“if iroh can get let off the hook for being a former fascist war criminal, hama can get off the hook for imprisoning people. hama was taken from her homeland, interned, and forced to watch all of her fellow waterbenders die in prison. the gaang's solution to her doing the same thing to members of the nation that wiped her people out? RE-INTERN THIS TRAUMATIZED ELDERLY SURVIVOR SO SHE'LL DIE IN PRISON LIKE THE REST OF HER PEOPLE. hama should be allowed to go home and see her few surviving friends and family again.

bloodbending wasn't just a cool evil new ability, it was a metaphor for generational trauma. that's why hama was so insistent that katara learn it: it was the final legacy of all those people who the fire nation purposefully exterminated, because it was the only thing that saved hama from that same fate. it was the only form of southern bending katara could inherit, because it was all that was left of them.”

Amon propaganda:

“his whole thing was that nonbenders are discriminated against in the avatar-verse, which isn’t all that wrong. except instead of fighting for something like more nonbender representation in government or, y’know, a n y t h i n g reasonable, he decides the way to solve this is clearly to take away people’s bending until… what?

honestly, I never was clear on if he had an actual plan

take away the bending of everyone in republic city? the world? stop at korra? who knows!

anyways. he decides it makes pErFeCt SeNsE that to solve the problem of nonbending discrimination (I honestly don’t think it was as oppressive as he claimed) by taking away peoples bending ability

which is akin to someone stealing your entire identity and for many, livelihood

but the real kicker is

the way he does it

IS BY BENDING

AND NOT EVEN REGULAR BENDING BUT A SUPER SECRET RESTRICTED ILLEGAL FORM OF BENDING

which is EXACTLY the kind of thing he fearmongers about when he says venders have too much power

so his whole platform of “I am one of you (nonbenders), chosen by the spirits to correct this inequality” is complete and utter baloney”

Always feel free to rb with more propaganda :)

[w1ldfeatherxx]

I hate the fact that bloodbending was demonized and made illegal in LoK. Bloodbending could've been insanely useful in medicine, it could've saved lives. Just because something sounds creepy and has been used to hurt others, doesn't mean it's inherently evil or problematic. If a part of waterbending is considered "problematic" enough to be forbidden, why not ban all kinds of bending altogether? You could suffocate people with airbending the air out of their lungs (remember Zaheer from LoK?), you could burn people alive with little effort using firebending and hell, you could pulverize people into fine paste just using earthbending. Compared to these, death by bloodbending sounds rather quick and merciful.

[the-badger-mole]

What are your unpopular opinions? Which characters or plot lines do you think deserved better?

For me, I wanted more development for Suki and Toph and their relationships. (I preferred Aang with Toph)

Personally, I think Toph could do better.

As for my thought on which characters deserved better, I think Jet and Hama deserved way more empathy from the narrative than they got. Jet reminds me of Nat Turner. I don't totally agree with everything they did, per se (I have an annoyingly soft spot when it comes to kids), but I understand completely and I do not judge. That's another reason why I hated Aang's lil' speech in TSR. "YUUU s0UnD lYk3 J33EEttT!!!!" Well, Jet had a point, Aang, so shut up. He deserved a better resolution to his story.

Hama also deserved better. I don't blame Katara and the others for allowing her to be arrested again. What else could they do? They couldn't allow her to murder people who likely had nothing to do with her suffering. But I think Hama also deserved more empathy from the narrative. What she did was...morally questionable- after all, there were a lot of Fire Nation citizens struggling under the weight of the war, too- but it came from a place of so much pain and brokenness, I can't imagine many people wouldn't have turned out at least as vengeful as Hama. I wish Katara and the others had been able to send her home. I wish there was at least a line in the epilogue about POWs in the Fire Nation being sent home. I wish Katara had gotten a chance to come to terms with what she learned from Hama and understood that it wasn't inherently evil knowledge.

I'm going to be a bit controversial here. While I do love stories where Toph and Suki get more plot devoted to them, within the context of the show, I think they got plenty. They had enough development and complexity that we care about what happened to them (which is personally, more than I can say for Aang). They weren't super core characters, though, especially Suki, so it makes sense that they didn't get more stories centering them. Although, I would gladly sacrifice that stupid, hacky Footloose pastiche episode that added nothing to the story for a Toph and Zuko field trip episode. I think Toph and Suki would've benefited from a sequel series that followed the Gaang post war. There would've been more space for stories about Toph's complicated relationship with her parents and Suki's backstory after the war.

[epictones]

Jet summer series #6. @ceehaz's Hama.