#aang

[friedoats]

How did i only just now notice this...

ID: Katara and sokka in swimgear. in the first image, sokka is searching for something in the water. his hair getting wet. katara leans over to him saying "don't you think, its time for a haircut?" in the second image sokka rose form the water, a dog-shark creature in hand, swinging his hair in Katara face splashing her. smugly he says "no <3". End ID

i know its winter! i know it likley snowed by now on the northern hemilsphere! but... on the southern side is summer time right??? so... its fine.... this is fine!!!

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!!! please do not use or repost this artwork without permission!!!

[memopmiff]

Omg you’re also an azutara AND kataang truther??? ILY!!! Would love to see ur take on kataang someday.

ILYTTT!!! I drew adult kataang for an art trend sometime ago but it’s not really in my usual art style. But yes azutara and kataang 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️���

[beifong-brainrot]

*grabs your shoulders and shakes you* On god, Aang and Yue would've been such besties if given the chance

Like I don't think we talk enough about how these two parallel each other in interesting ways.

Like they seem to be the only two characters in atla (other than the other Avatars) to be so deeply intertwined with spirits, to have a huge chunk of their lives dictated by said connections. Their statuses led to their isolation, and them having to bear responsibilities much beyond their years, ans are deeply spiritual people.

Yue: I feel faint. Aang: [Cut to Aang. Holding his head with one hand.] I feel it, too. The Moon Spirit is in trouble.

They're also the only characters who really have to reckon with the idea of not being fully human. In fact, the siege of the North is a moment where Yue literally gives up her humanity, and one could argue that Aang does so as well, to an extent. Merging with a grieving spirit for a short point, leaving him very traumatised and terrified of the Avatar state.

And Yue appears to Aang in his lowest point, and encourages him, in a manner even Roku isn't able to.

Roku: If anyone is to blame for the state of the world, it is me. I should have seen this war coming and prevented it. You inherited my problems and my mistakes. But I believe you are destined to redeem me and save the world. Aang: I don't know. Moonlight shines onto Aang as Yue's spirit appears above. Yue: You already saved the world. And you'll save the world again, but you can't give up. The storm ends. The spirit of Roku disappears, while Yue's spirit descends toward Aang. Aang: [Determined.] You're right. I won't give up.

And I find it so devastating that we didn't get to see them hang out more. Like they would be so powerful. Though maybe, with Aang being the spirit bridge, and Yue being a Spirit, they might get to interact a little. Yue deserves it. I bet it gets lonely being the moon.

[m1samores]

freddy fazbear

[booklover223]

I KNOW I just reblogged this BUT I have a fic rec that you may or may not love that explores this concept and more! Amazing world building and lore. Unfortunately this is (still hopefully) a WIP book one Water is complete; but I’m hoping and praying for book 2!

There are 45 chapters; 164,409 words

https://archiveofourown.org/works/41366457

I think about Azula shooters often and their common refrain of "if Azula hadn't had a mental breakdown, she would've won" and I'm here to tell you that no, she wouldn't have.

There is no universe in which Azula was winning that fight with Zuko (or Katara, for that matter).

Azula spent so much of Book 2 being built up as this deadly terrifying force against whom the heroes are badly outmatched that it can be difficult to catch exactly how quickly Zuko is advancing.

Back up a bit to Book One. For the fearsome exiled crown prince of the Fire Nation, Zuko's not that impressive a firebender. He's not bad by any stretch, and he's able to lay the untrained Sokka and Katara flat pretty easily. Then he gets in the ring with Aang, who is an airbending master, and the difference between a regular bender and a master becomes apparent when Aang literally puts his ass to bed:

People have attributed this to the fact that no one's fought an airbender in 100 years, but I think it's also worth noting that Aang (a 12 year old from a pacifist nation) has probably never fought anyone before. Like, ever. And yet the second Aang thinks "okay, I'll attack back", the fight's over.

Zuko's got the same genetic predisposition for firebending talent that Azula does, yet it never seems to manifest because of his mental blocks. At the beginning of the series, he's already so beat down that all he really has is conviction, pride, and anger, so even with training from Iroh (the firebending master, thank you very much), he struggles. Yet throughout Book 2, when he has no time to train because he's on the run, he actually seems to advance faster. The fact that his bending is literally tied to his character arc (as his morals become tangled and he has to fight off aforementioned mental blocks) is pretty brilliant. Like, by the time of the Crossroads of Destiny, Zuko getting his ass handed to him by Aang is a pretty consistent feature of the show--he just can't match wits with him.

Hell, at the beginning of the series, he and Iroh (again: the actual firebending master) launch a combined power surface-to-air attack...which Aang casually swats away into a nearby ice wall. Come the Crossroads of Destiny, however, and Zuko by himself launches this bigass fireball that blows through Aang's defenses.

Zuko advances so quickly that it's scary. That prodigious talent is in him even if it doesn't come through as cleanly as with Azula. Who, by the way, was busy about to get flattened by Katara some few dozen feet away, until Zuko took over and then effectively stalemated her himself.

All of this in retrospect makes it abundantly clear why Zuko's firebending seemed to skyrocket so much when he learned true firebending from the Sun Warriors: it was really the only thing left. He's hard a hard road learning how to fight waterbenders, earthbenders, and airbenders, and even if unconsciously, he's applying the philosophy Iroh taught him about augmenting his bending style with aspects of other styles (see also, the waterbending-like fire whips he uses in the above gif). Once he actually understands fire and how it works, he's got it mastered. Hence why any gap between him and Azula effectively disappears as soon as their next fight--before her friends have betrayed her and her stability goes out the window. There's no real sense of urgency to their fight at the Boiling Rock prison. True, Sokka's presence with the sword helps, but Zuko doesn't look remotely worried and he counters Azula's every attack perfectly.

All her life, Azula only ever learned fire. She was taught by the best people the fire nation can employ, so she knows all the cool tricks, but she's still poisoned by the corrupted firebending practiced in the modern ATLA timeline. Unlike Zuko, who managed to get the basics if nothing else from Iroh (fire comes from the breath, and can be used to survive as much as to kill), Azula has always used fire as a weapon and a means to hurt others. She has no true knowledge of the craft, meaning she's got the same weaknesses as Zhao, she's just better disciplined to the point she can make up for it.

Zuko's victory was a given considering Azula's complete loss of control by the time of Sozin's comet, but even had she been in a perfect mental state, she'd have lost, because in many ways Zuko is simply the better firebender.

And that's the truth of it.

[queen-morgana91]

This is the official ig account i'm dying

[biboomerangboi]

Favourite part of ATLA book one is Zuko running around convinced he’s dealing with a genius who is a master of evasion, a being that is so powerful it stopped aging and possibly invented time travel to hide from the fire nation, literally he’s following a world class mastermind here and he hasn’t slept in 5 days because of it.

Then boom it cuts to Aang stopping at his favourite places to play 100 years ago in an attempt to woo Katara who is being subtly wooed and trying to act like she’s not because she’s an adult (14) and Sokka is in the back chewing his own hair off trying to organise his colour coded schedule that Aang has messed with for the 400th time.

[knightofthenewrepublic]

[murglor]

I've been seeing some stuff about Aang and trying to "repopulate" the Air Nomads (through his family) come across my feed. I don't think I have much to add to the conversation. What I do have, though, is a... potential head-canon? A post-canon AU idea? Something like that. I love the idea that Ty Lee has Air Nomad ancestry. Her acrobatic and leaping abilities are frankly abnormal. Her eyes read as grey in some scenes; the shape of her head/face are quite similar to Aang's. And why wouldn't there have been intermarriage and migration between the nations before (or even during) the 100 years war? She makes a lot of sense to me as an untrained/instinctive airbender. So let's start making some further assumptions. (1) Imagine a post-canon world where the Fire Nation has shed its imperialism and is seeking to repair the harm it has done to the rest of the world, which I think is more or less canon, including doing what it can to protect/preserve Air Nomad culture. (2) Imagine that that Azula recovers from (a) her Fire Nation / imperialist indoctrination (which we are told Zuko, Mai, and Ty Lee all do) and (b) her mental illness/trauma, and thus (c) becomes generally aligned with Zuko and the Gaang (3) Imagine that Azula is a lesbian (pretty heavy subtext to many readers and my own personal interpretation of Azula) (4) Imagine that Azula pairs up with Ty Lee at some point post-canon (not insane, it's far and away Azula's most popular ship and one of her most positive / closest interpersonal relationships in canon) In that world, where Azula has been "redeemed" and Zuko is both Fire Lord and closely connected with the Gaang... wouldn't it make sense for Aang to be the biological father (donor) of Azula and Ty Lee's children (carried by Ty Lee)? It potentially uncomplicates succession (since Azula's children are not, biologically, descended from Ozai, reducing their claim); it has as high a chance as any pairing in the world of yielding airbender children; and it places kids with Air Nomad ancestry into the Fire Nation royal family as a living symbol of the post-100 years war vision of the nations living in harmony.

[kataangfanartarchive]

By mmonzart on ig: “The day they got engaged.”

[fuzzychildchopshop]

tea time

[biconickyoshi]

Gonna start posting some comic pages that I recently made for some scenes from the latest chapter of my fic, The Avatar and the Fire Prince!

He continued flying, not certain of where he was going to land. Eventually, he spotted one of the many large monorail stations that overlooked the Lower Ring, and gently landed on the station’s rooftop, sullenly gazing out at the warm glow of the maze-like city streets below him.

Are you out there somewhere? Aang wondered, slowly sitting down and pulling his knees to his chest. Why can’t I find you?

He thought back to the last time he had seen Zuko, in Misty Palms. That image of the firebender had been seared into his mind now. Would he ever get to see those golden eyes, that sweet smile, ever again?

“Just… stay safe and take care of Iroh, okay?” Aang had said. 

“Aye-aye, Avatar,” Zuko had replied.

Those were the last words they had exchanged before Aang had left. 

Would they end up being the last words they would ever say to one other?

He bit his lip as he felt the sting of tears begin to well up in his eyes.

Why? he questioned internally, curling in on himself and hugging his knees tighter as he choked back a sob. Why didn’t I just tell you?

[beifong-brainrot]

Slowly gearing up to an adult Kataang kinda-redesign, so have some headshots I did as practice lol Along with several facial hair ideas for Aang that I probably won't incorporate into the final design but I think they're goofy and funny.

[zuko-always-lies]

What makes a villain's fate "deserved" in the context of ATLA

Aang: [Cut to Katara, Toph and Sokka from the behind, as Aang speaks.] Roku was just as much Fire Nation as Sozin was, right? If anything, their story proves anyone's capable of great good and great evil. [Cut to an aerial shot of the hardened lava wave.] Everyone, even the Fire Lord and the Fire Nation have to be treated like they're worth giving a chance. [Shot cuts to a close-up of Aang's face.] And I also think it was about friendships.

There's little more common in fiction than villains suffering deserved, karmic fates. However, ATLA is a show which heavily focusses on the themes of redemption, which argues that everyone deserves being given a chance to do better. In this context, a villain's fate can only be truly karmic if they were given a chance to do better and rejected it. We can see this play out in the series.

Zhao

Zhao wants to kill the moon to become a legend. The heroes and Iroh explain to Zhao why this is a very bad idea, and nearly convince him, but ultimately he kills Tui anyways. Thus, when the Ocean Spirit kills him in retaliation, it feels appropriate and karmic.

Zhao is even given a second chance, if he's willing to put outside his hatred of Zuko, but he refuses to. That makes his fate even more appropiate

Long Feng

Long Feng fits this idea less well, but it's still there. When he explains that he's really in charge of the Earth Kingdom, the Gaang tries to tell him about the eclipse, but he refuses to listen, leading to their continued efforts to contact the Earth King personally. If he had just put aside him "no war in Ba Sing Se" rule for five seconds and promised to help them, he never would have faced his downfall. And, of course, he responds to losing power by allying with Azula, a sworn enemy of his nation, before trying to backstab her. His end is appropriate but perhaps not fully karmic.

Zuko

Zuko is someone who manages to avoid a bad fate in canon. However, given how many chances at redemption he gets that he rejects, how many chances the heroes give him, if he had rejected redemption yet again and suffered a very sad, tragic fate because of it, it would have felt very appropriate and karmic within the confines of the story.

Combustion Man

He's basically not a character, so this concept doesn't apply to him.

Edit: As @boomerangguy has pointed out, even Combustion Man has someone try to reason with him.

Ozai

Even though Ozai is the big bad of the series, the concept still applies to him. It's important that Aang gives him a chance, and it's important that Ozai rejects that chance. After that, Ozai's fate feels fully appropriate.

Azula

Azula faces one of the saddest fates in canon, but it doesn't really work within the themes of ATLA. Azula is a bad person who does some really bad things, but she's mostly just doing what she's supposed to. She's serving her father, her Firelord, her family, and her nation and following the path a young Fire Nation royal is supposed to. She lacks the sheer egomania of Zhao or the selfish corruption of Long Feng.

But she is never given a chance, never given a choice, either by the narrative or by the heroes. She is never shown kindness by the heroes. She never has her life saved by them. No one ever tries to reason with her or tell her she can pick a different path. No one ever tells her they don't want to fight her or that they wish they could be friends with her. She, through her actions, tells her brother she doesn't want to fight him, but he never really reciprocates.

In the end, she tells one of the heroes, her own brother, that she wishes things could be different, and he tells her to get fucked, instead of offering his hand the way he did for Zhao.

This is why Azula's fate can't be karmic, in the context of ATLA. She was never given a chance to chose otherwise.