#and like. really bad for zuko kind of way

[blluespirit]

ch: zuko and katara setting: post-southern raiders note: very ramble-y and not my best work - mostly vibes but oh well. enjoy! (or don't! im not the boss of u)

Katara realises later that Zuko thought she would kill Yon Rah. He was ready for it, he was waiting for it. She didn't think about the expression on his face once she turned away from first the Southern Raiders commander, and then Yon Rah, but she thinks about it now. Still, he never said anything to her, even when he hung back after she walked away from Yon Rah, trying to resist a temptation to do something, say something - he still didn't say anything.

She wants to ask him what he thinks.

That realisation alone is a strange one. She never thought she'd want to seek out Zuko's genuine opinion on anything, let alone something as personal as this. Still, she knows what Aang would say - that violence was and is never an option - but she doesn't fully accept that. Ozai doesn't deserve to rot in some cell somewhere for the threat of escape to linger over everyone's heads. He deserves nothing. Only the darkness of whatever lies beyond.

Maybe Aang isn't entirely wrong, but sparing Yon Rah also didn't feel good, or right, but the thing is, she's not sure killing him would have felt any better. The more she contemplates it, the more she runs in circles around herself.

Maybe there isn't a right answer. Maybe she needed to do it just to do it at all. To see him cower in front of her and beg for his life. To remove the fear of the monster that killed her mother that settled in the back of her mind and settled there like a stone. He is not scary to her anymore. He is nothing at all.

Katara thinks about Zuko and Aang. What does it say about them that one would do almost anything to stop her, and the other would do almost anything to give her what she needed - even if that meant cold-blooded murder? Zuko let her decide on her own terms - even if he thought she'd go a different path. He still accepted that.

She can't discount that he would've helped her do it if she'd asked. He nearly broke the commander's neck on the ship getting answers from him - all for her.

It leaves her breathless in a way she can't describe; more so that he also seems content to leave this wherever Katara wants to leave it. She's sure he'd never mention it again if she wanted it to be that way.

She eventually finds him skulking out the halls of his old holiday house. There's a gaunt, haunted expression on his face that Katara wants to probe, but she backs out at the last second. His eyes soften when they see her - grateful for the distraction.

The light struggles against the drapes, leaving only tendrils of light to soften an old carpet and harden Zuko's expression. She doesn't give pleasantries.

"Do you think I was wrong?"

She expects him to answer quickly, but he hesitates.

"I think he would have deserved it."

Katara bristles. "So you do think I was wrong."

He frowns, takes his time again.

"I think you did the right thing for you. If you'd killed him, it would just be another thing to haunt you."

The fight dies out of her as quickly as it rose. She stares at him and he returns it.

"If I asked you to help me do it, would you have?"

"I - yes." He looks down at his feet, shuffling. "I've never directly killed someone. But I would have helped you."

She doesn't know how to thank him, or if she even should for such a declaration.

It's a shock to her system - as if being plunged into arctic water - that someone would stand by her in such a way. Not judging, simply carving the path. What Katara decided to do at her destination is her decision alone.

"He -" Katara starts, unable to say his name and Zuko's gaze turns sharp, as if he knows what she will say next. "- may have deserved to die, or deserved to live and suffer. The world does not suffer consequences for my action or inaction."

Zuko breathes deeply. She can feel the heat of fire brewing in his exhalation.

"If Aang can't kill Ozai..." her words soften, but the persistence darkness around them weighs them down anyway.

Zuko leans back slightly, just enough so a strand of light burns his face, igniting old scar tissue in a brilliant orange. His eyes turn to the window.

"He's the Avatar," he says. There's a pain in his voice Katara can't help but notice. "He doesn't have the luxury of choice."

[elvisqueso]

.

[robbinghisdick]

I'm plagued by the thunderbolts, have some randomly assorted headcanons

Ava, Bob, and Yelena yell cucumber instead of "bless you". They especially like yelling it at John because he finds it dumb and annoying. Bucky and Alexei are confused.

Ava and Yelena end up getting really close. Neither of them have had friends since childhood, so it's nice to connect with one another. They bully John together 💕

John gets his kid for the weekend. While he was a distracted father, he still knows HOW to take care of a kid. None of the others besides Alexei do and he can't believe how incompetent they are. Alexei likes John's kid because toddlers are easy to impress lmao.

You know the "life changing field trip with Zuko" thing from ATLA? Life changing field trip with Bucky. One way or another, Bucky either comes to an understanding or gets closer to the others on the team. Bob was thoroughly startled to find out that Bucky wasn't scary, just socially awkward

No one but John and Bucky knows how to cook. They don't even cook WELL, just passable. How everyone else has made it this far on take out and frozen meals is beyond them. Ava and Yelena go "how hard can it be?" And now they're yelling at Alexei to follow the recipe as he insists that he knows better and this will taste WAY better. Bob is quietly ordering pizza.

If things turn into a genuine screaming match on the team, Bob going "can we please calm down?" Makes everyone very bitterly simmer down because they know this a bit triggering for Bob

In general, I think they start to learn one anothers triggers and start being more mindful of them. Barely even consciously, but they've all felt that void inside them and don't like being the reason someone else feels it again.

Everyday Bob is blown away by what's happening around him and what's happened to these people. Like, while Bob had a rough life, it was a "normal" kind of rough. No experimentation, no super powers, no government plots. Just a normal guy dealt a terrible deck in life. He's spent the vast majority of his life with no powers.

Ava, Yelena and Bob decide to hang out one day as normal people. They are very bad at this and they come home with torn clothes and a cat.

I'll stop yapping for now, I just love them

(Edit: I yapped more)

[tsumuus]

my masterlist !

navigation

don't be afraid to send me requests!

(♥) = my personal favs

(!) = most recent; posted in the last week

NEW ! ₊✩‧₊˚ 555 follower event ! ˚₊✩‧₊

haikyuu

random texts w/ random HQ boys; parts i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. vii.

the bachelorette | multiple character series

birds of a feather | kotaro bokuto

about you | toru oikawa

best friend | atsumu miya

looking out for you | tadashi yamaguchi, kei tsukishima

in my mind | hajime iwaizumi

right side of my neck | i. ii. iii. iv. | keiji akaashi

reflections | atsumu miya (♥)

it was always you | atsumu miya

olympic beach volleyball | toru oikawa

it'll pass | atsumu miya

first date headcanons | toru oikawa, hajime iwaizumi, issei matsukawa, takahiro hanamaki (♥)

first date headcanons | tetsuro kuroo, kenma kozume, lev haiba, yaku morisuke

crushing on you headcanons | tetsuro kuroo, daichi sawamura, wakatoshi ushijima, shinsuke kita

crushing on you headcanons | kotaro bokuto, asahi azumane, hajime iwaizumi, kiyoomi sakusa (♥)

crushing on you headcanons | atsumu miya, toru oikawa, keiji akaashi

lost love | tetsuro kuroo blurb

adore you | shoyo hinata blurb (♥)

risk | kiyoomi sakusa blurb

forbidden | kotaro bokuto blurb

bothersome | atsumu miya blurb

rivals | osamu miya blurb

i wish you were sober | rintaro suna blurb (♥)

phone works two ways, yk | atsumu miya blurb (♥)

cuddles | keiji akaashi blurb

meet cutes | shoyo hinata, tobio kageyama, kei tsukishima, tadashi yamaguchi

meet cutes | atsumu miya, osamu miya, rintaro suna, aran ojiro, shinsuke kita

more coming soon...

mha

random texts w/ random mha characters; parts i. ii.

katsuki bakugou smau but hes got a little crush on you

pr manager | katsuki bakugou

how much i really liked you | tenya iida

pleaser | denki kaminari (♥)

disloyal | katsuki bakugou

physical touch | katsuki bakugou (♥)

grumpy x sunshine | katsuki bakugou

ready | shoto todoroki (♥)

dreams | katsuki bakugou (♥)

dreams part two | katsuki bakugou

one of your girls | katsuki bakugou

miscommunication | katsuki bakugou (!)

first date headcanons | izuku midoriya, katsuki bakugou, shoto todoroki

american high school au headcanons | katsuki bakugou, shoto todoroki, izuku midoriya, eijiro kirishima, denki kaminari, hanta sero, tenya iida, hitoshi shinsho

rainy day | katsuki bakugou blurb (♥)

untitled | katsuki bakugou, eijiro kirishima blurb

falling behind | katsuki bakugou blurb (♥)

falling behind part two | katsuki bakugou blurb

untitled | katsuki bakugou blurb

my kind of woman | shoto todoroki blurb

awkward | neito monoma blurb

accidentally in love | katsuki bakugou blurb

crush on his coworker | izuku midoriya blurb

you know me | hanta sero blurb

he wants you so bad | katsuki bakugou blurb (♥)

enough | eijiro kirishima blurb

enough part two | eijiro kirishima blurb

sleep | katsuki bakugou blurb

words of affirmation | eijiro kirishima blurb

touchy | mirio togata blurb

cuddles | shoto todoroki blurb

sick reader | katsuki bakugou blurb

meet cutes | tenya iida, hanta sero, eijiro kirishima, denki kaminari

brothers best friend!bakugou (!)

more coming soon...

atla (cartoon and live action)

crushing on you headcanons | zuko

more coming soon...

legend of korra

first kiss | bolin

more coming soon…

last updated: 10.17.2024

[sunnyknight-original]

What Kind Of Monster Was He?

A @forgettable-au fan (colored) animatic

MINOR BLOOD WARNING!

*Was he the kind to do too much, or not enough?

…OK, SO WHAT HAD HAPPENED WAS-

I had planned to finish this into a full fledged animation, but a lot of the parts I did end up finishing just didnt live up to what I imagined…I waited for more motivation to happen, but it just didnt so HERES THE COLORED ANIMATIC CAUSE IM REALLLY HAPPY WITH WHAT I HAVE and ive sat on posting this for like a 2 weeks 😭 which is an eternity in my time

Im gonna post the unfinished “finished” part on my side account @o-sunny-day though! and probably have people yell at me cause it actually isnt that bad AND IT TOTALLY ISNT I just… art. You get it. ENOUGH YAPPING! ITS TIME TO YAP!

except not yet, MORE BACKGROUND INFO HUCDHUC- but its background info on explaining the lore…

The explaining is much less expansive than in Dear My Dear just because I didnt work on it long enough to think every bit of it through. This is just a clean, nicer looking, and colored version of the very first storyboard.

I usually think about and put more effort into the little stuff while making the FINISHED bits since ive had so much more time to think about that in all the preppin n sketching.

BUT I liked the explaining format I did for Dear My Dear so im sticking with it!

The main idea for this was to do a study of Wingdings’ character from what we’ve been given, mainly focusing in on the expectations he puts on himself because holy shit the lyrics for this works so stupidly well it makes me mad LOOK AT THIS???

its ridiculous. i love it. I didnt know Jack Stauber helped write Forgettable AU???? woww!!! ANYWHO thats the gist of it, not much context is needed past that. Onto the sillies!!!! (per usual excuse the shitty quality of the pngs idk why Tumblr does that-)

Did you know love? Will you rest in peace?

Wingdings and Sans holding hands as kids, before turning to a casket like appearance for adult WD. The flowers hes holding are pretty important too, Marigolds to represent grief, Lilys, new life, and Forget Me Nots for this lovely little line I found when looking up good flowers to use-

“a promise to always remember” ….stop that.

That actually also has a double meaning in this case too. 1, ofc the forgetting of Wingdings. But ALSO Wingdings forgetting something himself. Forgetting who he is. Almost like a Zuko ATLA situation.

Did you have a family?

Who knows where theyre parents are, but this is HAPPY TIME and we’re gonna assume they were so awesome and very kind but had to leave or went to a farm in the sky for whatever reason.

The colors here I had a lot of fun with. Their parents had warm colors but the boys have cold, still with warm accents. Its said they more or less raised each other being very independent as shown in the second part with them running out the door by themselves.

How was the view from the shelf? Did you ever believe in yourself?

Before, we started with the beginnings. The good things, the only thing Wingdings cares to even recall. Now we’re seeing his life really start to turn upside down- making first contact with The Player :D

He’s hesitant to reach out, but is intrigued, before getting a rushing revelation of his reality and how it isnt “real”

Rather than feeling crushing existential dread, he more feels pressured to be BETTER, to figure a solution, to do something. Thats what white represents here

WHAT KIND OF MILK WERE YOU?

We then switch to more examples of how Wingdings is taking this pressure (not well) The soft tones of yellow that were shown before, turn to way brighter, intensifying that feeling that he should be fine, he should be happy, drowning in success of being the Royal Scientist.

But he just desperately wants to just go back to a time of nice coldness.

The warm vs cold tones in this I had so much fun with, coldness is supposed to represent hostility usually, while warm is nice and happy. (same with Black and white. Scary, relieving,) But these points often contradict each other, its hard to tell what you’re feeling vs what you’re supposed to be feeling. Just like Wingdings!

WHAT KIND OF LIFE DID YOU LIVE THROUGH?

The white lab coats, the expectations, theyre on all of them. But Wingdings has essentially become his expectations.

He questions what life he wants to live, one being himself and alone (speaking in wingdings) or not himself and with company (speaking in a “normal” font) Still, he frames it in past tense as he believes theres no going back now, based on what he knows.

“One of the last happy moments they had together” stop that. (i cant find a link to when that was said but I know it was once, about them taking a photo together….)

DID YOUR LIFE RUN RICH WITH CALCIUM?

Calcium….bonesss :3 Hehehehdhehfhehehheheheh still dont know why he has holes in his hands so we’re movin on

DID THEY LAUGH AT YOU OR DID YOU LAUGH AT THEM?

Compared to the childhood Wingdings remembered, heres the sadder, bleaker, more realistic version. He always thought they were laughing at him but… maybe they werent.

DAIRY BELOVED. YOUR DAYS ARE GONE,

It doesnt matter now though. Because in the NOW, Wingdings has become consumed by his expectations of himself, seeing this has the “only option” to do the only thing that he feels will give his life meaning and purpose, establishing connection with THE PLAYER

But the grocery list goes on…

And yet life continues on without him, and his room is transformed into a more livable space now that someone is…living in it. Always hurts so much making the differences between Wingdings and Papyrus’ room. It feels like making something out of the man Wingdings COULD HAVE been. Because honestly thats just what Papyrus is,

Thank you to my bestie @fruitytrip for helping me with all of my art in general but especially the storyboarding on this :3 <3

[rockpaperimpala]

So about Netflix's the Last Airbender....

I am literally so confused you guys. You made me think I would HATE this show. And I LOVED it. Me. Known perfectionist and hater.

Katara was lovely. Yes, she started as a more soft spoken character than her cartoon version, but she was still passionate and hopeful throughout, just visibly unsure of herself. I think people were thrown off by this actress' natural way of expressing herself, which is Different from animated katara for sure, but not bad. Then she spends the whole season growing in Confidence and Fire. I Adored her fight with Paku, it really did feel like a payout of the whole season's development, and the bending kicked ass!

The Bending Kicked ass!!! The martial arts was fun and fast and creative and exciting! It looked SO good. That alone would be enough reason for me to watch and enjoy any show.

Zuko's actor was fantastic. He really captured the rage and confusion of this 16 year old banished prince. And there were so many Added moments between him and Iroh wich to me enriched their relationship. Like YES! This is why I'm watching, to see more of them, to see things done a little differently.

Iroh facing the consequences of his actions at Ba Sing Se!! That's what I'm here for!

Zuko's relationship with the men on his ship! That's what I'm here for!

The Extra layers we get to Ozai manipulating his children!

Also no one is talking about Admiral Zhao, who I had SO much fun with. I feel like they slightly fleshed out his character in a really dramatic way, really developing the hubris and frankly insane grasping ambition of someone who would kill the moon. I completely enjoyed this wilder, less controlled version of him, who comes up through the season from basically nothing and no one!

I am OBSESSED with King BUMI and his anger and disillusionment with the world! Like this was SO real. Living a hundred years of futile war would do that!!!! It is one of my favorite changes to the whole series. This new layer of emotion and character depth is what I'm here for!

Sokka was SO funny. He literally had me laughing out loud so often. That actor GETs Sokka, and GETS the way his humor is delivered. And is also able to tap into the more vulnerable side of him. People said he was "obsessed" with leadership. WHAT? That is a young person trying desperately to do his best and to try and find his place in the world, to figure what he has to offer. I loved his pride at hearing the Mechanist say that he would make a good engineer, and the sweetness of the moment that Yue's father says that he can be a hero without being a warrior. Sokka does so much growth in this series, in understanding himself and life.

And his chemistry with Suki was adorable!! I even like him and Yue (who was a totally unexpected sweetheart, despite her terrible wig)!! Like he has that same ability that Sokka has in the original to Connect with people.

Aang was great! He WAS fun loving and sweet and funny. I don't know what you guys wanted. Cartoons are always bigger and more exaggerated than live action. People's eyes swell up an, birds fly around their heads, and there are funny sound effects. That larger than life quality is the strength of animation! You have to look for different strength in live action. Like the SUBTLETIES of the acting choices. This little actor brought so much kindness, innocence, and strength to Aang.

And I FELT his frustration at being asked to do this at 12, his fresh hope anytime it looked like someone more experienced would be able to help him and no one did, and that's why he didn't learn waterbending this season, because he kept waiting for an freaking ADULT to show him the way, to help him carry this immense burden, but every adult he meets asks him for help instead, asks him to carry it himself, and then the finale hits and he realizes that there won't be any adults helping, he does have figure this out himself, and he makes the hard choice, takes on responsibility more than his years and offers himself to the ocean spirit, and he might have been lost entirely if not for Katara!

And that counter running theme to the show pays off: that he doesn't have to do it alone. He may not have more experienced guidance, because the adults have let him down again and again, but his friends will be with him, and they will figure it out together!

This is there throughout the series! Katara tells him this about learning waterbending, when he says he still wants to wait. Bumi tells him this in the palace at Omashu, and Aang sees the faith he has in his friends repaid!

I like these changes! And the show still found time for silly fun adventures and character building moments.

The show was never going to be the animated original. That is already a Masterpiece, and it frankly did NOT need to be adapted at all. I did not WANT a live action adaptation. I was adamantly convinced I would hate it. But the changes that they netflix show gave are what I Iike most about it. If I want to see Zuko say "you rise with the moon, I rise with the sun," I will go watch the animated original, because that version is perfect. And now, if i want to see Zuko say "Lu ten would have been proud to have you as a father," and see iroh pull him into a tight hug, I can watch this live action version, which is very good too. I'm going to disagree with most of the people on here and say that the Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender, DOES capture the heart of what we liked about the original show. It's spirit, fun, excitement, and characters. And the changes made are the reason we should be watching.

[zuko-always-lies]

It really occurs to me that Zuko's treatment of Song and her mother is uniquely bad

So Zuko and Iroh are in hiding, and Iroh poisons himself out of his own stupidity. Iroh is in real trouble and quite likely dying, so the two of them head to a clinic in an Earth Kingdom town for help. There, Song saves Iroh's life and heals him, for free. She then invites Iroh and Zuko home for dinner because she can tell they're in a bad place. And after that, she very directly offers Zuko empathy. Zuko's reaction to all of this: let's steal an ostrich-horse from her!

I repeat, Song saves the life of Zuko's beloved uncle/surrogate figure for free, she feeds Zuko and Iroh for no other other reason than her own kindness, she offers him sympathy, kindness, and emotional support, and Zuko's responds by going "I should steal something really valuable and expensive from her!" And, as far as we knows, he never even thinks about her ever again.

I think we need to understand that Zuko's behavior here is probably uniquely bad, even by the standards of ATLA antagonists. ATLA includes many absolutely awful villains, including some people who are far, far worse than Zuko, but I don't think there is another character in ATLA, no matter how evil, who responds to "x has saved the life of beloved family member" with "let's steal from x out of convenience."

If placed in identical or near identical circumstances, I don't think there's a single other person in the entire series who ends up stealing Song's ostrich horse at the end. Zhao doesn't do it. Azula doesn't do it. Long Feng doesn't do it. The Warden doesn't do it. Sozin doesn't do it. Ukano doesn't do it. I don't even think Ozai, as awful as he is, does it. Probably most of these characters, despite how terrible they are as people, do the opposite: they make some sort of vague promise to reward Song for her kindness (once they've achieved world conquest, of course) before they go on their way.

In general, Zuko is very, very far from being the most awful person in ATLA, but along this one particular axis, at least, he might be worse than any other character we ever encounter.

[ittsybittsybunny]

ATLA Live Action Series Review:

The Good

Aesthetically this show felt right. Sure sometimes the outfits didn't quite feel lived in, but I always felt like I was watching a fantasy world with decent effects and interesting design. Also, I really enjoyed the sets!

Bending: Yes some of the fights feel very quick, but the bending looks cool. It is certainly better than 10 benders lifting one big rock. I can honestly say the opening bending fight scene gave me so much hope for this show.

Kyoshi Warriors: I loved seeing them in live action, and I thought Suki's performance was great!

Omashu: I think the mashup of the mechanist made sense since that is an important character overall and I would hate to see him cut. However, both Jet & the secret tunnels felt sloppily thrown in.

Northern Water Tribe: I really loved the way it looked, and appreciated the two episodes we spent here. I think Yue gained more agency in this interpretation, and why shouldn't the moon spirit be a waterbender. Also, episode seven felt the most in tune with the original show's spirit.

Zuko: I think he was one of the most fleshed-out and best parts of the show! Dallas Liu really captured Zuko's spirit, and the scene between him and Aang in episode 6 was wonderful!

Soundtrack: Hearing the original soundtrack bits is always great, and when I first heard the ending music I was so excited.

Is the show perfect, no - but I wouldn't mind a season 2.

The Bad

Pacing: Turning 20 episodes into 8 was bound to lead to some cuts...but oftentimes times things felt too quick or disjointed. I think there were editing problems contributing to this for sure, but sometimes things skipped around too much without a clear purpose as to why. Also, why bring in plots from later seasons when you barely have enough time already?

Writing: This show definitely suffered from exposition dumping, though it did get better as time went on. I think the biggest example of this is actually opening in the past rather than the present. We do not get to learn along with Aang that the world has changed, instead, we get to learn that 100 years have passed....which doesn't hold the same tension or worldbuilding.

Clunky Dialogue: Along with exposition, clunky dialogue is another example of bad writing. I think sometimes I felt like the acting was kind of meh in the beginning, but then over time I began to realize it had far more to do with the lines characters were trying to deliver. The actors themselves are not bad, just cursed with awkward writing and lines that feel out of touch with the setting they're in.

Main Trio: I don't entirely know that I believe Katara, Sokka, and Aang are friends as opposed to 3 people stuck together to save the world. Aang feels a little too somber for a young kid running away from his responsibilities, Sokka is protective, but not exactly the heart of the team, and Katara is sort of just there until the last two episodes. Where is her struggle, her desire to learn so strong she steals from pirates? Also, while Gordon Cormier did a great job, Aang does zero waterbending on his own, is overly serious, and tells Katara not to fight. Where is his desperation to protect his friends? It feels like they all lost emotional depth.

Tension: Bringing Ozai, Azula, and Zhao out in the beginning immediately causes us to lose the realization there is an even bigger bad. Part of why Ozai is so terrifying is he is a primarily silent villain until the third season when we finally see the face of the "big bad evil guy" behind it all. Yes, they add to Zuko's backstory, but again, they are revealing the villains too early. Azula is the antagonist of season 2 and one of my favorite characters, so I hope they do more with her in the future. Finally, Zhao is supposed to be an example of the uncontrollable nature of fire unrestrained, instead, he comes off as vaguely threatening with the supposed true power being Azula.

Characterization: While all characters are bound to lose something in a shorter show, it still felt like certain characters were more mutilated than others. I am sure there are 100 different opinions on who, but I think the biggest victim was Katara.

Katara: Katara manages to go from a complete novice to a bending master in what feels like a matter of days. The journey feels short, and that makes the results feel largely unearned. Katara is one of the strongest personalities in the show, determined, kind, and fiery. In many ways, she is the unpredictability of water - equally dangerous as it is necessary to live. She is the child of a war who lost her mother, forced to grow up too soon, and even raised her older brother. Yes, Katara often gets stereotyped as the mom friend, but overall she feels underutilized in this show. We really don't see enough of her journey until the very end.

Iroh: Iroh was always comedic but most importantly wise. Even when Zuko is trying to give himself advice, he mimics Iroh. Instead, he seems to be used more as comedic relief without the underlying experience. He just doesn't feel right. Also, he kills Zhao instead of Zhao getting himself killed - which is less about Iroh and more about the writing than anything.

Ozai is weirdly a little too nice. Yes, he burned Zuko and pits his kids against each other, but he feels toned down in a show claiming to be more mature than the original cartoon.

Azula is perhaps more realistically worried about losing her status as the golden child, but she is also missing the cruelty she and her father share. I understand worrying about making your character cartoonishly evil, but the Fire Nation is currently a deeply nationalistic empire trying to control the world. Where is the deep-seated belief that they are better than other people, not just trying to bring balance to the world? There is a line between creating complexity and toning down the very real evil inherent in this plan.

Roku: I can only say what the fuck was that. He was barely there, and not the serious master to Aang's youthful exuberance.

The Ugly

Show, Don't Tell: The show's single biggest issue seems to be speeding through story parts by simply stating things. Instead of allowing the audience to discover, trusting that we are smart enough to understand, let's just blatantly say things like Zuko is the only reason the 41st division is alive to their faces. Even though in the context of the story Ozai literally already said that.... it's the division, the division for Zuko, Zuko's division.

Thematic Misunderstandings: I think this show makes several minor changes with major implications, such as airbenders actively fighting the firebenders, when airbenders are known for their pacifist nature and the lie of an Airbender fighting force is actively propaganda. Similarly, Aang very quickly accepts his role as the avatar and doesn't even run away in the beginning. Without this conflict between his desire to be a carefree child and the fact that the world needs him - the show loses a key aspect of Aang's character. Also, the obsession with downplaying the avatar state as something dangerous feels like a disservice to the tradition, connection, and strength of the avatar, which can be permanently destroyed as the trade-off for that kind of power. It's dangerous for the balance of the entire world, not just because it's powerful!

The Agni Kai: Zuko's fight against his father is one of the defining moments of Ozai's cruelty, not just because he is willing to fight his child, but because Zuko tried to do everything right. Zuko shows deference to his father, apologizes, and most importantly refuses to fight! The determination not to upset his father and still be grievously injured and banished is a hugely important theme for the fire nation and Zuko's life as a whole. He tries to do everything he is supposed to and only regains his father's acceptance after he "kills" Aang. Zuko's struggle between moral vs. social right and wrong in contrast to his family is hugely important to his character.

-----

TLDR: ATLA was a fantastical animated television show that was never afraid to show character development and flaws. When you turn 20 episodes into 8, you are bound to lose something. You hollowed out the middle, leaving the shell of important moments and events without ever wondering if all the times in between formed the true spirit of the show.

Rating: 6.5/10 It's perfectly fine and worth a watch. Not a disaster, but certainly falls flat of the original.

[boomerangguy]

Flameo Hottake

After browsing some insightful analyses (A, B, C) on Ashes of the Academy, I’m starting to wonder if the ATLA writers — from Bryke to Hicks — are incapable of executing a transformative character arc (i.e. turning a Good Guy into a Bad Guy or a Bad Guy into a Good Guy with minimal reliance on off-screen explanations).

Sure, Zuko got a “redemption” when he switched sides at the end of the series…but in terms of behavior/traits, he acts the same way in Book 3 as he does in Book 1 — just fighting as a Good Guy. He’s still short-tempered, rude, and resorts to violence as a matter of impulse. If you watch Sozin’s Comet and then restart the series with The Boy in the Iceberg, you won’t say, “Wow! Zuko sure came a long way! He’s completely unrecognizable!” Because other than the ponytail, he’s very much recognizable. Same guy, really.

Anyway, back to Ashes of the Academy. Ursa’s dialogue at the start of the comic frames the (ostensible) conflict: the Academy changed Azula for the worse, and it could very well do the same to Kiyi. Except…we aren’t shown any of that. There is no flashback corruption arc for young Azula, and Kiyi doesn’t start to slide in that direction either. Apparently, Azula is a Bad Guy — always has been. And Kiyi is a Good Guy — always will be. It’s like they’ve been…flattened.

That’s a problem which other franchises might be able to tolerate better, but given Avatar’s thematic emphasis on the ability of anyone to change, the writers seem awfully determined to cram every major character into either a Good Guy Bucket or a Bad Guy Bucket then ignore established canon and previous characterization to justify why they always belonged in that bucket.

The handling of Mai’s past, especially her friendship with Azula, may be the best example of this. In ATLA Book 2, Mai is an antagonistic villain. She’s not nice. She does not have noble motives. She is clearly a Bad Guy, albeit a cool one. So writing her in AotA as if she was truly a Good Guy all along, just pretending to be friends with Azula to please her father — an explanation which makes no sense in broader narrative context or given that Azula is an insightful ‘people person’ who would’ve sniffed that out sooner or later — is utterly incoherent. (Oh, and Mai was never into the Fire Nation imperialism thing either, making her about one in a million lmao.) She belongs in the Good Guy Bucket now…so she was always a Good Guy? She never aligned herself with the Bad Guys because she, too, was once a Bad Guy? That seems to be how they’re operating.

The same is true for Azula, just inversed. How did the Academy make her worse? ‘Worse’ implies that she was better before she attended, so are we shown that moral regression anywhere in the comic? Or was she always an irrationally cruel psychopath, a la The Bad Seed? At this point, we’ve seen too much of her humanity and vulnerability for them to sell us on that — even as recently as the Spirit Temple comic — but AotA pushes her in The Bad Seed direction again, contradicting itself (Ursa’s dialogue) and, more egregiously, Azula’s characterization in the original series. I’m starting to hear Oprah’s voice in my head: “You get a retcon! And you get a retcon! And you get a retcon!”

Who’s next? Well…I think we can guess…

As the ATLA story creeps and bounds (first in the comics, soon with the Adult Gaang Movie) towards the LOK timeline, they’re going to have to confront a bigger problem: How did Zuko, the teenage usurper of his father/sister’s widely popular regime, manage to completely reorient the ideologically imperialistic Fire Nation? That’s kind of a big deal. It’s the major overall conflict throughout many of the comics, and he’s (understandably) not seeming to make much progress. But just from a writing perspective, if they can’t show a couple of small children being twisted by a bad school system, how could they possibly pull off the moral redemption of an entire nation?

All this to say…

…prepare yourself for the whole Fire Nation to get retconned into the Good Guy Bucket. They were always good people! They didn’t want imperialism! They weren’t warlike! It was all Ozai and Sozin! Azulon? Who’s Azulon?

Seriously, though, it’s coming — unless they manage to get some competent writers who know how to effectively move a character from A to B.

[hazashiovo]

G’day! Could I bother you for some Zuko hcs of him falling for a girl next door kind of girl during his time in ba sing se? If you still write for atla. Or with bolin if u don’t! (Can’t remember the name of his fav place rip)? Thank you so much!

I do write for everything that's on my list, especially Zuko ;)

Zuko x fem reader

When zuko first settled in Ba Sing Se with his uncle,he didn't expect an oddly friendly girl to take initiative in talking to him.

His cold demeanor didn't push you away from him,it really got him wondering, especially since he has a pretty bad image of himself.

Once he started leaving his guard down around you,that's when his feelings started to accumulate.

You would come to his uncle's tea shop almost daily, leaving a small present for Zuko. Maybe some rice cakes, or some cute little drawings. Just a way to show your affection for the boy.

You never asked about his scar,you didn't want to make him uncomfortable by bringing back unfortunate memories.

And he really appreciated that, he doesn't really like nosey people.

His uncle ships you two. Iroh also gives Zuko dating advice about how to talk to you,how to act and Zuko pretends he hates it,but secretly absorbs single thing Iroh says.

Each time you went out with Zuko was an amazing experience, learning new things about him.

Now let's say one day you didn't visit Zuko at all,which got him worried.

The next day same,wich is unusual,if you'd be busy the day before,you would visit and tell him,it's just something you do.

So he gets suspicious,and comes to your house to see if you're okay,only for your mother to tell him you've been attacked while making a delivery, everything you had was stolen.

Your parents would welcome Zuko inside to come see you.

He enters your room to see you lay in bed,hurt,but nothing very serious,just some cuts and bruises over your arms and so. He's bad at comforting,but he makes sure to tell you it's not your fault.3

And he is FERAL. After talking to you,Zuko asks your parents who did it,in which they say some raiders who have been bothering your family for a long time.

Safe to say,you never had problems with those people again.

He was close to you while you were recovering, bringing you your favorite tea,and claiming his uncle made him do it.(Which is bulshit).

Soon enough you got back to your usual routine,even spending more time with Zuko.

After you got better,he asked you out. Deciding that it's useless to waste more time on dwelling,and that he has to speak his heart.

After he confessed,you jumped on him, kissing him like there's no tomorrow.

And like that,he started dating you. He felt like never before,you gave him this warm feeling in his chest,and when you were not around he would be gloomy.

Iroh was so happy Zuko found himself a nice lady. And since then, it was unusual for you to be seen without Zuko,or him without you.

At one point in your relationship,Zuko spoke about the burn mark on his face,and what his father did you him.

Yes, he told you he's the prince of the fire nation,but he also told you he left that in the past. You trusted him with your life,and you made sure to let him know it.

He was so happy that you didn't judge him for what he did,and that made him trust you a lot.

.

.

My first Zuko request!

[sokkastyles]

I cant help but notice that quiet a lot of people who dont like Zuko and/or Uncle Iroh happen to be Azula stans. Now I am the last person to put everyone in a Box because that sucks so I want to make clear that I am not putting every Person who like her with these Kind of people.

But it gives me an icky feeling when they somehow make Azula the victim and Zuko the abuser when it was very clearly the other way around (never read the Comic but in my humble opinion there is nothing Zuko could do or say that would even be close to the abuse he suffered from Azula).

Also somehow giving Iroh crap when All he does during the show is protecting Zuko from Azula and only calling her crazy and she needs to go down after she almost kills him

Kinda a rant but I just blocked one of these Zuko hating Azula loving Accounts because due to the Zuko Tag they repeat to show up on my feed and it was nagging at me.

I would love to hear your thoughts on that matter. (Sorry if you already talked about it)

I don't like putting people in boxes either, but the tumblr fandom is infested with Azula stans, and what I've found is that if you scratch almost anyone with a bad take, they will turn out to be an Azula stan. Funnily enough, when people say the fandom is toxic, they don't mention this. But it isn't a surprise that people who are fandom bullies with victim complexes overidentify with a character like Azula and that they dominate the conversation. They even have been known to use sock puppet blogs to make themselves seem like their numbers are larger than they are and that many people agree with their opinions. It's just a shame because she's such a great character, but the discourse around her has been shaped by these people.

When Azula stans say that Zuko or Iroh are really the abuser, they're engaging in classic DARVO behavior: deny, attack, reverse victim and offender. It's a common abuser tactic to make the victim think that they are actually the abuser or that they have some kind of mutual abuse dynamic. I've read The Search, where most of those accusations against Zuko come from, and as badly written as that comic is, it pretty accurately depicts this kind of abusive relationship. Azula accuses Zuko of mistreating her because she no longer has complete power over him like she did before. Ozai also does the same thing to Zuko in The Promise. And the kicker is that even from her diminished position, Azula still has psychological power over Zuko, which is how she's able to convince Zuko that he's mistreating her in the first place. Zuko believes Azula because he's been subjected to this crap his whole life and is terrified of being like his abusers. Essentially, the reason he falls for Azula's attempts to convince him that he is like her is because he is not like her. Azula is able to convince Zuko to let her go free and trusts her under the guise of giving her "dignity" when she's actually been lying to him and manipulating him the whole time, along with insulting and degrading him and putting him and his friends in danger.

Iroh's great sin is that he won't let Azula harm Zuko, yes, but also, like Zuko, the reason he is hated by these people is because he got redemption and Azula didn't. Sometimes he is more hated than Zuko because he's an adult and didn't change until well into adulthood, whereas we should give Azula leniency for being a kid. What these people fail to realize is that all the leniency in the world will not make Azula change, and she has never expressed any indication towards redemption.

Whenever people are like "but Iroh did bad thing," I just don't know what the argument is here. Is it that nobody should ever change for the better?

Nope, the real problem is that Zuko and Iroh changing for the better highlights how Azula didn't. That Zuko did what Azula couldn't gives the lie to the "she's just a kid" excuse, and that Iroh did what Azula couldn't gives the lie to the idea that her age means she's more likely to change her ways and that we should judge her on that.

It is true that it's harder to change the older you get, but that only highlights that redemption has to be chosen, it can't be forced. Anyone can change no matter who they are or what they've done, but Azula simply hasn't and doesn't think she needs to.

It's also very easy to imagine a redemption for her and use that idealized fantasy to judge the characters who actually got redemption in canon. But this is just more of engaging in abuser-logic fantasies.

It's not shown a lot, but there is evidence in atla that Ozai also thought he was a victim, and used that to defend his own abusiveness, even sometimes directly to the son he burned. He had to teach Zuko respect, didn't he? His own wife committed treason, didn't she? Nevermind that Ozai manipulated both of these scenarios so that they would come out in his favor. He certainly thinks of himself as the victim and that's the reason he won't change. Iroh knows this, too ("I've never known my brother to regret anything"), which is the other reason Azula stans hate him. He sees right through Ozai and he sees through Azula when she lies and manipulates, too.

[emma-o-yt]

We need to talk about Ursa

Edit: Just discovered more of the defunct lore. Nice to know that she is indeed a privileged Fire Nation loyalist. Roku and his wife were high born, only makes sense she would be too. She and Ozai were in love for real. They call her a wonderful mother yet say she has a favourite and spends most her time brainwashing her children to be loyalists like her. This actually aligns with what I said, she chastises Azula twice for her disloyalty and then for implying that her beloved husband has bad intentions. It mostly comes down to differences of opinion on what constitutes a good parent. Bryke things Aang was a good father but many in the fandom do not. I don't mind her being sweet, you can easily interpret her actions like that.

Now, I want to focus mainly on the cartoon as a lot of opinions about Ursa were formed before the comics came out and most people have only watched the cartoon.

First of all, most fandom beliefs about Ursa are headcanon, there is no evidence to back that up. This is a major problem I have with fandom where they treat fanon as canon. As for why these headcanons exist, well it's because Zuko likes her. That's all.

What we do get comes in Zuko Alone mainly. Her first scene has her feeding turtleducks with Zuko. When Zuko hurts one of them, her reaction is shock. She doesn't chastise him for it, keep that in mind and we know that she's not against chastising her children for perceived wrongdoings. She just laughs and says that moms are fiercely protective of their young, foreshadowing for later. This does not show her as kind.

We do have her push Zuko to play with Azula when he doesn't want to. Either because she wants to keep the peace or because she falls for Azula's manipulations.

The next time we see her, she's excited to hear from Iroh about the war and laughs as he says he might have to burn the city down. This shows her as very loyal to the Fire Nation as she cheers at the fact that many people are dying, being gravely injured and/or getting traumatised. In fact, two of the three times she gets angry at Azula are for Azula's disloyalty? Don't believe me?

The first is when Azula gives the hypothetical that if Iroh died, then Ozai would be Fire Lord. The next is when she disrespects Azulon by calling him grandfather instead of Fire Lord and denying the lie that he's in perfect health. Why is this disloyalty? Because Azulon has the same opinion. He rips Ozai apart for suggesting that he deny Iroh his birthright for grieving his beloved son. Funnily enough, I sometimes see people martyr Azulon as well for loving Iroh.

The last time is when she gets the most mad at Azula is for implying that Ozai would do something bad to Zuko. You can say that she's mad at Azula for trying to scare Zuko but I believe the former has more evidence. Remember, Azula was just parroting what Ozai said before. Ursa goes "what's wrong with that girl?" As in, she is not willing to acknowledge Ozai's bad influence. She'd rather confront her nine year old over her husband. That's a bad mom right there.

Continuing on her relationship with Azula, Azula states in The Beach that her own mother thought she was a monster. Even if Ursa didn't believe that, the fact that Azula felt so deeply wounded by her mother is enough to criticise Ursa for. Making your child feel unloved makes you a bad mom.

As for the hallucinations, remember this is just Azula's headspace. This is how Azula really feels, there is no proof Ursa ever felt this way. A simple reason why Azula had Ursa say this is because she didn't agree with the way Azula was going about as we see in Zuko Alone. She also feels betrayed by her mother, and she's just been betrayed by everyone. Azula is breaking down because fear didn't work this time. There is no proof that Ursa ever criticised Azula for using fear to her advantage. The worst Azula does in her flashbacks is repeat what Ozai says. Other than that, she's the equivalent of a schoolyard bully. She pushes Ty Lee for being better than her then plays a mean prank on Mai and Zuko because she knows they have a crush on each other.

"I love you Azula, I do." That's probably meant to be true. We never see it on screen of course but the fact that a Fire Nation loyalist like Ursa betrayed her own country, her own Fire Lord, to save her son makes me feel that it's likely.

As for her and Ozai, the only thing we see of them is that she's way too defensive of her dusty, so much in fact that she hurts her own daughter for his sake. Did she marry her out of love or was it arranged? We don't know? Did Ozai abuse her? We don't know. Zuko states that they were a happy family once and even fondly remembers playing with Azula despite not wanting to in Zuko Alone. This suggests that something happened between that time.

What we do know is that she was born into a high class family and was a descendant of Roku. We don't even know if she's a bender or not. She agrees wholeheartedly with the FN's atrocities. Is she a part of the war efforts? A diplomat? A spy? We don't see Ozai do anything in Zuko Alone either but we do know that the FN is fairly equal for men and women.

The fandom only martyrs her so much because Zuko loves her and she in return.

As for the comics, a lot of woobifying of Ursa came before them and many people haven't read them and still feel this way. The comics also contradict the cartoon many times, everyone is out of character, etc. Luckily, she is a bad mom there too. I hate the comics, I rated The Promise a 0/10 after all lol.

That's it. Stay diligent folks.

[thanakite]

As I get older the more I consider it a smart choice by Avatar to have Aang and Katara's along with Toph's kids moderately messed by being raised by them

Now to be clear, I ALWAYS thought this was a good idea but as I got older it truly sinks in as a good decision and now I can also fully articulate WHY that is

Because realistically, yes, Aang, Katara, and Toph are all amazing people and amazing characters but MOST if not ALL parents fuck up their kids at least a little bit

Raising a kid is difficult and not a one size fits all thing, and while there's all kinds of advice out there, there is only so much you can do overall

Realistically, Aang and Katara and Toph WOULDN'T be the absolute best parents in the world, Aang didn't have parents in that way and Toph's parents seemed to teach her more about the type of parent she DIDN'T want to be and little about the kind she actually wanted to be (at least as far as we see), Katara is the one most likely to be a good parent seeing as she essentially acted as a mother to Sokka but her mom also died when Katara was young and her dad left soon after, and while she filled a parental role for Sokka she was still his sister first and foremost which does still result in a different dynamic and there is the added issue of them being close in age muddling that as well, so while she does likely have good ideas of how a parent should be she also likely has bad habits formed from essentially raising her brother on top of the issue with all 3 of them being very prominent political figures who all could have been considered prodigies in some shape or form (and really a lot of this could apply to Sokka and Zuko as well, but we see nothing about Sokka's kids and little about Zuko's (we see the most of Zuko's grandkid in Iroh, who seems to be a good and relatively stable guy but I would be completely unsurprised to find he's mentally messed up somehow as well) which is not an easy thing for the children of such people as it puts a lot of pressure and expectations on you (or of course the opposite where no one expects anything from you, but neither option is great for a person's mental health)

So yeah I do think that it's important to acknowledge that even people you'd think would be great parents can mentally fuck up their children just by trying to do right by them, and that it only gets worse if you don't care to even try to do better, because it acknowledges to children (as Avatar was for kids and LOK was more directed at teenagers (who are also children still) that parents aren't perfect and they mess things up, but sometimes they are trying their best and it just isn't good enough and other times they could try harder or do things differently because when/if you become a parent yourself you will have to decide what to take on and what to cast aside from your relationship with your parents and figure out how it applies to the person your child becomes in time and how that's different from your expectations, so showing that someone who you see as a hero and good person from the first show can still struggle with that is smart coming from both ends of the relationship, AND made sense with the characters as we understand them from what we are given

[blackbullet99]

Debunking The Stupidest Pro-Zutara Claims.

Howdy y’all.

If you follow me, you know I’m a Kataang truther and a Zutara hater. I always thought Kataang was cute as a kid, but I honestly didn’t appreciate how mutual and well developed their relationship more until I was older. By contrast, I didn’t think much of Zutara initially, I knew it had a huge following and I kinda got why, they have a very interesting dynamic that drastically changes and them becoming friends is heartwarming, but I never got the hype. Then I saw this…

And I was utterly baffled at the mischaracterization, media-illiteracy, Zuko dickriding and Aang demonization on this post. Let’s have a look…

See what I mean about the Zuko dickriding and Aang demonizing. You compare one scene of Zuko making tea for everyone in Book 3, to Aang showing off in Book 1. Need I mention that Aang later apologized for getting big-headed by the end, and later episodes show that Aang (and the rest of the group) all work together. Right off the bat and we get this dumb Katara/Cinderella narrative.

Not another Dadko. Momtara I kind of get, but Zuko is not a father figure. Zuko himself is still young, still growing, still capable of being immature. The first moment isn’t even a parental thing, it’s more Zuko stopping Katara from confronting Aang because he somewhat understands Aang’s frustration of being unsure and conflicting about a huge decision, because he’s been there not long ago.

Comforting someone when they’re worried or grieving isn’t parental responsibility, that’s being empathetic and good friend. Katara comforts Zuko when he’s worried about comforting Iroh and these people lap that scene up.

“Aang acts like Katara’s son” is such a baseless argument. Ignoring the fact that Aang canonically has romantic feelings for Katara and vise-verse, the first moment was a one-off joke about Katara being motherly, the second was also a joke where Katara PRETENDS to be Aang’s mom and her brother’s husband, the last moment is Katara telling Toph how she TRAINS Aang because she’s his Sifu and so it Toph, does that mean Toph is also Aang’s mom?

Let’s go over this for the umpteenth time: Aang kissing Katara was wrong, it was bad, we should’ve seen him apologize, but he immediately regretted what he did, he knew he messed up, he’s not a sexual-assaulter, blah, blah blah. The problem with this is that these are both completely different situations and also Zuko had to be told to get off Katara, so not only is this point meaningless, but it doesn’t even support Zutara.

This has gotta be one of the dumbest arguments here, Aang has always seen Katara as an ally and dear friend first and foremost since day one. Admittedly Aang was somewhat possessive here, but him nodding mean he literally though Katara was his possession, more so him thinking Katara returned his feelings (which she did). But throughout the entirety of the show Aang sees Katara as not only an ally, but a friend, a fellow waterbender, Zuko only saw her as a friend and ally near the very end of the show, before that he simply saw her as a peasant in the way of his goal.

Again, both of these are completely different contexts and both Aang and Zuko were pretty adamant about how Katara feels about them. Zuko frustratingly confronts Katara about why she’s mad it him, he wants to earn to trust and sleep deprives himself so he can resolve this as soon as she wakes up. Katara asks why Aang is so crestfallen, he explains part of the reason, Aang (while being somewhat pushy) wants to know how Katara feels before he confronts Ozai in life or death.

Both are different situations and really I wouldn’t say either is better than the other.

Okay, there’s a lot wrong with these points, lemme go over them as best as I can.

Aang has put his needs over Katara’s several times, just to name three: he gave himself so the Fire Nation would spare her home, was willing to forgo his own Waterbending because Pakku wouldn’t train her, willingly put aside mastering the Avatar State because SHE WAS IN DANGER!

Aang understands the importance of Katara’s family, he leaves so as to to come between Katara and her family when she threatens to leave, he brings back her necklace knowing how much it means to her.

In both of mentioned Aang instances, he realized he was wrong and he and Katara reconciled, the first instance was out of a misguided attempt to set things right after he was killed, and the former is something Aang would never do again, in a later episode he actively takes Sokka to his father and Aang is content for he and Katara to go their separate ways for a while. I find it utterly hypocritical to be a Zuko dickrider while bashing Aang for mistakes he regrets, apologizes for and learns from, you know who else does that?

Once again, THE CONTEXT! In the first scene Katara mentions her mother’s death in a more matter of fact way to explain to Aang that the Fire Nation have killed a lot of people including his own. Aang however in a state of denial dismissed the idea of his own people being killed. In the second scene Katara lashes out at Zuko for all the trouble he caused and Zuko after going through some development prior empathizes with her in a way to get Katara to understand he means no harm.

Aang also empathized with Katara’s loss. In this same episode, he himself says he knows what it’s like to feel the pain and rage Katara feels, specifically when he found out all his people were dead and encouraged Katara to confront the person who caused said pain.

I REALLY HATE making a Katara centric episode about shipping, I really do, many people say Zuko was right Aang was wrong, or Aang was right Zuko was wrong. Neither side was entirely right or entirely wrong.

Zuko was right to take Katara to confront Yon-Rha and this was when he truly began to understand what Katara had been through and see her as an individual, while Katara comes to see Zuko as a friend and forgive him, however he had no idea what Katara was going to do and didn’t think of toll this would take on Katara if she did end up choosing violence.

Meanwhile Aang not agreeing with Katara and confronting her isn’t a bad thing, he understands just what it’s like to lose someone close to you and to feel unbridled rage and hate, he’s been there, he also knows Katara isn’t cold-hearted and she could come to regret seeking violence. He actively encourages Katara to face Yon-Rha without killing him, which she does and as Zuko says he was right about what Katara needed. But as Katara points out she didn’t forgive Yon-Rha, forgiveness wasn’t the right choice, and you know what, this is something Aang accepts.

These points in particular really highlight the stupidity and hypocrisy of the OP. For one, as we can literally see Aang ignored his training specifically because Katara was in danger and he wanted to save her, this is no different from Zuko sacrificing himself to save Katara, in fact Aang has put his life on the line for Katara multiple times. Furthermore OP gets on Aang’s case for leaving Katara to fulfill his duties in the Book 3 premiere, but then praises Zuko for leaving Mai to fulfill his duties. They’re literally praising Zuko for doing the same stuff Aang’s doing and whining about Aang whether he chose to ignore his duties to be with Katara or if he leaves Katara to fulfill his duties, you can’t win!

Okay, screw this guy, this has nothing to do with the Zuko saving Katara, OP just wanted to bitch about Aang not wanting to kill Ozai as if this supposedly makes him selfish even though Aang is literally facing Ozai to save the world and is simply trying to find a peaceful solution, it’s like the theme of this show was lost on this dude.

This was the creep who made weird comments about Katara’s appearance wasn’t it.

I really don’t get what this final point is trying to prove. The first scene is Katara happy that Zuko is alive, the second is Katara happily gazing at Aang, who never at any point tried to change Katara, at all. Point me to one scene, one moment. If this is about how Katara looks, she doesn’t look that different, at the very least, her eyes are slightly bigger in the second pic because she close to someone she loves, but even then it’s a lot of whining from this guy about nothing.

Case in point, this is when I realized Anti-Kataang Zutara shippers have are media-illiterate morons with not a single good take, fake-fans who only care about mischaracterization for the sake of a mid middle-school ship.

Maybe I should make a counter post about what Katara gains from Kataang.

[letteredlettered]

Hi!! Out of curiosity, which MDZS character do u think about the most and why?

The answer is, without a doubt, Wei Wuxian.

Part of what makes WWX special to me is he feels really archetypal and yet the archetype doesn't actually appear in most of the western media with which I'm familiar. The archetype may be super common in eastern media or perhaps, more narrowly, Chinese media, but my point he feels singular to me and therefore interests me, and I'm familiar with mostly western media. The comparisons in this post are all comparisons to western media, since that's what I'm familiar with, and I tried to pick popular examples so that people would understand what I mean.

Wei Wuxian is a protagonist who does bad things. Very bad things. We see that in plenty of western stories, but it's less common in western fantasy. That is, you can read a million stories about professors sleeping with their students and making a very bad muck of their lives; you can watch Breaking Bad and The Sopranos, but more often in western fantasy you're going to have a Good Guy who does good and Bad Guys who do bad.

But, okay. There's certainly a significant portion of western fantasy in which no one is a Good Guy, and everyone is a little corrupt: Song of Ice and Fire, Interview With the Vampire. Wei Wuxian feels very different to me than the protagonists of these media, because Wei Wuxian is trying to be the Good Guy. He's well-intentioned. He is willing to stand against all of society to defy corruption and protect those who are weaker than himself. That kind of protagonist isn't very common in the kinds of "dark" genre fiction that are about the corruption of humanity or the political intrigues of society. If they exist, they're usually martyred and disappear from the narrative because they are too good for this world, too pure.

But the point of WWX is that he is not too good; he is not pure. He is good; he is brave; he is righteous; he stands up for the little guy--but he is also over-confident in his own ability. He overreaches. And people die because of it. Lots of people. And then, after he accidentally murders people due to losing control, he goes mad. The Nightless City massacre occurs not due to an accident but because WWX is careless and angry. He kills a lot more people then.

I will say that western fantasy is full of characters who turn to "the dark side. The threat of "going dark" has become, in fact, an integral part of most portrayals of the hero's journey. But in the media with which I'm familiar, when someone does go dark, they become the villain. They are not allowed to live, or if they live, they must still be vanquished. Star Wars is a quintessential example: Luke Skywalker is tempted by the dark side but resists; he is the hero. Darth Vader is tempted by the dark side and gives in. Even though he turns back at the end, he must still be eliminated.

Of course, there are plenty of villains who reform in such stories and then manage to survive. I think you could say that once resurrected, WWX is reformed in this way. He knows he lost control. He knows he hurt people. He's very sorry about it, and while he still has a drive to put his hand in to help others, I can't imagine him coming to the point where he would lose control again, and I also do not think he has the kind of anger or resentment that would allow him to be so careless and wanton with his cultivation again.

So, in this sense, WWX holds the place of a reformed villain, like Zuko or, say, Angel, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. One thing to note about both of these examples--Zuko is shown to be "on the dark side" because of the family and culture in which he was raised, and also, he was a child. Angel was "on the dark side" because he didn't have a soul. That is, the excuses for why these reformed villains were ever villains at all exonerate them to some extent.

Meanwhile, WWX was a villain because he was full of himself. Like, it's still understandable why WWX was a villain: he sacrificed all the power he had for someone he loved; he still needed power to protect his own life when he was being tortured, and this took him down a dark path; he needed even more power to help the world fight corrupt fascists; he was villainized by society even before he became an actual villain because that society feared and desired his power; he was literally ostracized and rejected by his own family for doing the right thing. But in the end, it wasn't like he had no other choice when he caused the death of JZX. He didn't feel like he had another choice to save the Wens, but if he had not been so over-confident in his ability to control himself, JZX would not have died. And while I find the massacre at Qionqi Pass maybe excusable considering the pressures WWX was under, WWX goes mad after that. Also understandable, but there is no way in which the massacre at Nightless City is excusable. There's just no way to say it wasn't his fault.

Okay, but there are some reformed villains in western fantasy who really were villains because they just made some wrong choices. They were arrogant like WWX, or they were petty and small, or they had a sucky childhood but nothing that should've led them into darkness. These characters do exist, but I find them few and far between (and I will fully admit here that maybe I just haven't read enough western fantasy to come up with enough examples). When they do show up, they are not usually the protagonist (Snape); they more often play side roles.

And the point with these guys is that they did bad things because they were not well-intentioned. Their intentions change, and therefore their moral alignment changes. But WWX was always trying to do good. It's only at the very end that he is no longer trying, and he loses his mind partly because all of his efforts to do good have flown up in his face. I just feel like I never get to see someone who was honestly trying to help people so earnestly, and fucks it up because he was trying to do too much. The closest example is Xie Lian, and I think we can all agree Xie Lian never becomes anything close to a villain.

However, now comes the trait that really does make WWX different from any other protagonists I've ever read, and most I've seen on screen: he is all of the above, a reformed villain who was well-intentioned throughout his descent into villainy, who doesn't brood.

Everyone I mentioned above--Zuko, Angel, Snape--are all very serious people who are consumed by their pasts. If they're not dour or bitter, they're still unable to be light-hearted or carefree. Meanwhile, WWX is the definition of light-hearted and carefree. He has a lot of regrets and some guilt, but he really doesn't dwell on it. Like, he fucked up. He died. How else can he atone? He knows he can't make it up to the people he hurt. Might as well move on and not get in their face about it.

In general, WWX's personality is unusual for the kind of hero he is. While it's true that the wise-cracking, smart-talking hero is a staple of western fantasy (Iron Man, Spider Man), these aren't the kind of heroes who can make the serious mistakes that WWX makes--or, though they do make mistakes that lead to the deaths of countless bystanders, they are never really confronted with the enormity of those crimes. I know that some people will say that WWX is not confronted with them either, that his crimes are not dealt with seriously enough in the text. I admit that I was very surprised that WWX blames the death of JZX on JGY during the final showdown in the temple. In the end, however, I think there are enough questions about whether WWX is actually a Good Guy that the story of MDZS seems quite different than, say, many western superhero stories, in which yes, superheroes do bad things and make mistakes, but are still ultimately our heroes.

But the other thing about WWX's personality that is unique for such a protagonist and also further distances him from heroes like Iron Man is this: WWX is pathetic. He's allowed to be pathetic, on quite a few occasions. He pretends to be a child. He pretends to be a damsel in distress. He purposely harasses and teases others in a way that is actively annoying to them. He's laughable. The closest parallel I can think of to how deeply WWX is willing to abase himself and annoy the fuck out of others in Deadpool, but the thing about Deadpool is that he is ultimately comedic. You know you're going to laugh if you're reading a Deadpool comic or watching one of his movies. Also, while Deadpool is a badass, need I remind you that WWX is the most powerful and the most feared person in the entire world, perhaps in all of history. The fact that WWX is as powerful as he is and still throws himself on people he likes and pretends to weep is only matched by Luo Binghe, but LBH is different in that his willingness to be pathetic is a tactic of manipulation. Meanwhile WWX is pathetic for fun; he likes to annoy people; he's ridiculous; he's laughable.

He's also lovable, but imo, like Deadpool and like LBH, I don't think we're always supposed to find him charming. We're supposed to recognize that these characters sometimes go too far for a joke. We're supposed to be annoyed at times, at least imo.

But in the end, we are supposed to like WWX. We're also supposed to feel really sorry for him and sympathize with him for what he did. He's an enormous woobie, while at the same time he massacred thousands and then laughed it off. Who does that? Who does it like the Yiling Lazou? When you add in the fact that he's super gay, but all his gay fantasies consist of farming and eating Lan Wangji's cooking and talking about fishing and keeping house, I'm just left asking, Wei Wuxian, who the fuck are you? Who the fuck can match you?

This is why I spend so much time thinking about this character. I can't actually wrap my head around him, and frankly, the way MDZS is told doesn't help. MXTX actually does not really get into WWX's head very much once he starts his path of demonic cultivation, and while we get some insights as to what is going on with him through flashback and his dialogue at the time, I am still somewhat in the dark about why he made the choices he did.

The only character I've ever encountered who even comes close to WWX is Spike from BtVS, and WWX is still on another level.

Lastly, I'll say that the relationship between Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng is another thing I have never witnessed in western media. It is so complex and interesting to me that I could make a whole post on it, which is why even though the answer to your question is by far Wei Wuxian, if WWX didn't exist, Jiang Cheng would win this question by a landslide.

[discordiansamba]

anyways some more spitballing about the zuko time travel AU, in no particular order

they kind of. forget to tell Toph about the whole 'Li is a time traveler' thing. or that his name isn't actually Li (and they're so used to calling him that/being called that that it doesn't even strike a chord in her earth sense) right up until they actually run into Zuko again.

Toph: wait. hang on. does Sparky have a twin? because Angry Ponytail over there feels a lot like him.

everyone else: uuuuuhhhhhhh

(they do tell her after that)

Zuko's cover story as they travel is that he's a Fire Nation deserter, because it's a little more believable than the truth.

when they cross paths with Jeong-Jeong, Zuko leaves a letter for Iroh with him. he thinks a lot about what to say, but he just settles for the absolute most important part- that Zhao is planning on killing the moon spirit, and that if nothing is done, he'll succeed.

(Iroh would recognize that handwriting anywhere.)

they can't put the genomite rings on Zuko in Omashu because he climbed up into the rafters when they weren't looking and he is not coming down. Bumi thinks this is really funny.

they don't have to travel to Crescent Island on the solstice so Roku can tell Aang about the comet because Zuko can just tell them about the comet. only he does this in the most blunt and matter of fact way possible. because he's Zuko.

sokka: why didn't you warn us about (thing happening)! you're from the future!!!

zuko: you didn't tell me!!!!

eventually there will be a point in which there are two Zukos in the Gaang. Sokka decides that while he loves his older brother very much, that is entirely too many Zukos.

(one day, in Ba Sing Se, Zuko will look in the mirror and recognize himself as Li.)

Zuko: okay. bad news. you have to let yourself get captured by Zhao and taken to Pohuai Stronghold, because if you don't, I don't know when he'll capture you and where he'll take you.

Aang: awww man.

Zuko: good news, I can get the frogs Sokka and Katara will need to suck on while you're gone.

Katara: the WHAT