#avatar

[spookybokchoy]

Avatar- The great wave off the Northern Water Tribe Commission, Parody of Hokusai's great wave off Kanagawa

[unknownuser20-04]

MAI 🔪🖤

[petricorah]

zuko doesn't know yet (thanks for coming to the stream!)

the followup to this [id in alt]

[guess1mjustheren0w]

Moment of silence for Teo

“Aang and Katara dont make sense together” Explain this then 🤨

[marigoliad]

Performing Miracles

too damn lazy to color this properly The dawn of Yangchen - Chapter 16

[ponytailzuko]

[id: four digital drawings of kavik from the shoulders up. the first is a portrait from the front, the second is from the side, the third is a more cartoony smug face, and the fourth is a cartoony crying face. end id]

i looked at a reference

[atlaculture]

Avatar Closet: Book 1 Korra

Korra has so many looks over the course of the show.

[storm-and-starlight]

I've always been under the impression that the major culprit behind Zuko's "weakness" as a firebender is his own frustration and impatience: when he gets angry, he's prone to slipping up and forgetting the basic foundational skills that would actually let him become a master (partially due to his own character flaws, partially due to Ozai Fuckery)

Even just in s1ep1 The Boy in the Iceberg, where Iroh is training him in firebending he notes that Zuko's issues are a matter of impatience, not necessarily true lack of skill.

ZUKO: Enough! I've been drilling this sequence all day. Teach me the next set! I'm more than ready! IROH: No, you are impatient. You have yet to master your basics. Drill it again!

Zuko has "yet to master his basics", which is kind of strange to me given that he's 16 and has clearly been training in firebending since at least 10-11, as seen in the flashback sequences in s1ep7 Zuko Alone - but in those same flashbacks, we get this scene.

OZAI: Now, would you show Grandfather the new moves you demonstrated to me? (Azula demonstrates) She's a true prodigy! Just like her grandfather for whom she's named. YOUNG AZULA: (to Zuko) You'll never catch up... YOUNG ZUKO: I'd like to demonstrate what I've been learning.

Azula, as the prodigy, performs a presumably quite complicated firebending sequence and then goads Zuko into trying to do it, even though he's clearly not ready. It's not a question of power or fire generation ability - even in the opening "salute" section of the sequence, he's much shakier than she is on the forms, but he tries anyways and doesn't make it. This is probably where that tendency came from. He was clearly pushed as a kid to keep up with a sister he couldn't possibly keep up with, but never had the patience to actually drill the basics of firebending enough to actually learn, so he pushed too hard and too fast and ended up doing significantly worse for it.

In the Agni Kai with Zhao, we see the consequences of this - he's losing pretty badly up until Iroh reminds him of the importance of his basic stance.

IROH: Basics, Zuko! Break his root!

And right from that moment, the camera focuses not on Zuko's firebending, but on the movement of his feet and the strength of his stance, which allows him to drive Zhao back and eventually win -- and which gets mirrored beautifully in the Agni Kai with Azula, with that same grounded stance as seen in OPs gif, but also in another close up of his "root" during the first set of attacks, where he's slipping backwards until he takes a stronger stance.

to

I think that this is a cool callback between the two Agni Kai's, but also a cool callback to the things Zuko's learned from Iroh - patience, focus, and not to get so frustrated that you end up becoming your own worst enemy (because pre-s3 Zuko does that A Lot).

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.

[lehua1011]

Avatar Yangchen

[avatarkyoshit]

Yangchen is really special

[beautyofattolia]

[fanonical]

the atla universe must have the best sailing ever - if you just get an airbender and a waterbender, you don't even need a calm sea or a good wind!

[theoneandonlylobster]

Fire Nation + text memes (by me)

[beifong-brainrot]

I saw this post about mako. What are your thoughts:

“in books 1&2 he comes off as an entitled prick. It's taken years for me to get over how much I disliked him in the first two books.

The way he only treats Korra with respect when he finds out she's the Avatar, the way he talks about both her and Asami as objects for him to make decisions about, the cheating, the gaslighting Asami when she calls him out for cheating, PUSHING LIN BEIFONG. Man I'm getting mad just thinking about it all lol.

Honestly I guess I understand? Mako comes off as a little mean in the first 2 seasons, especially the Book 1. And yeah I can get why some people would be annoyed by that.

But then I also kinda wanna give Mako the grace that he didn't really get as an 18 year old kid who grew up in an incredibly volatile enviornment, with probably very few positive role models in his life.

I think Mako's initial hostility towards Korra feels so upsetting to us, because we are seeing him from Korra's perspective. So we are immediately like 'dude what's your problem'. But like, let's put ourselves in Mako's shoes here.

He's about to go into a match, to essentially do his job, and his horny brother is bringing unknown women into the dressing room, and we can infer this isn't the first time he's done so. And frankly, he's not actively hostile, just vaguely dismissive, at least from what I remember.

If we wanna take this a step further, we need to also remember that Mako and Bolin do have a past with some dangerous people, so maybe strangers shouldn't be welcomed with open arms. His priority is keeping himself and Bolin safe and afloat, and he doesn't trust others, with, from his perspective, good reason.

I wouldn't say Mako's attitude towards Korra changes drastically when he learns she's the Avatar. I guess he could be a little mollified by the fact that she's probably not someone dangerous. But he's still snarky and aloof when Bolin is teaching her to probend.

Mako : [Aloof.] Not bad. Korra: [At Bolin, gesturing at Mako. Irritably; slightly down.] What's it take to impress this guy? Mako : What? I said "not bad". [Close-up of Korra pouting at him. Cut back to Mako shaking his head; annoyed.] You know what, it's getting late. [Overview shot of Mako sauntering off with his hands in his pockets.] I think I'm gonna turn in. You kids have fun. Nice to meet you, Avatar Korra.

You know, I assume the "treating Asami as an object" thing is referring to this conversation Mako and Bolin have?

Bolin: So, what do you think of Korra, in a "girlfriend" sort of way? Mako : She's great! But I think it makes more sense for me to go for Asami.

And yeah, I guess you can see this as a more utilitarian view of his relationships with Korra and Asami. But, this is the least charitable interpretation possible. I think it's more likely that Mako cares deeply for both Korra and Asami, and has probably never had to deal with this type of conflict before. Add to this that Asami is literally the reason the brothers can take part in the championship and potentially better their position in life, Mako probably feels not only a lot of gratitude, but also probebly would be wary of upsetting her.

And after he commits to Asami, he still has feelings for Korra. But, Mako seems quite averse to conflict, despite being a bit standoffish. He doesn't want to date within the team, as that could cause friction within the team. He doesn't want to rock the boat by switching from one parter to the next.

Now, the cheating? Yeah, he should've absolutely pushed Korra away and probably told Asami. But once again, he has some feelings for Korra, so momentary lapse of judgement. And, once again, he doesn't want to cause drama in the group by informing Asami of the kiss.

Is it objectively a bad thing to do? And awful judgement of a situation? Cowardly? Yeah.

Do I get why he acted the way he did? Yeah.

And, to Mako and Korra's credit, they did not do anything afterwards. Was there emotional cheating? Um, I guess you could say that, but that's shaky.

I also think we tend to act like Mako's very emotional reaction towards Korra getting kidnapped is purely due to his romantic feelings to her.

But like, also, he's an 18 year old who lost his parents tragically at a young age and then became the primary caregiver to his younger brother for 10 years, holding sole responsibility over his loved one's wellbeing. And we don't think that one of his first close friends going missing (when she's already a traget of an extreminst terrorist organisation) wouldn't get the anxiety beans cooking?

And "push" is the overstatement of the century. He nudged Lin and she immediately gave him the space of like 2 meters like the mimosa plant of a woman she is.

Like, even Mako didn't seen to genuinely acknowledge his doting on Korra as romantic, probably because he's used to focusing his attention on someone's wellbeing.

Asami: I've noticed how you treat Korra. How you acted when she was missing. You have feelings for her, don't you? Mako : What? No! She was taken by a crazy bloodbender! How did you expect me to act?

I wouldn't really define this convesation with Asami as gaslighting. Is it well handled on Mako's side? No. He's being very evasive, and doesn't want the confrontation of discussing his and Korra's kiss with Asami.

I genuinely think he cared for both the girls, but he also most likely didn't know how to handle both romance and conflict. Mako is a character who very much built himself around taking care of others, and at the beginning of tlok, he is still very clearly in that mode. Like He's just trying to live off measly sports with his brother and then literally god barges into his changing room and then Henry Ford's daughter hits him with a motorcycle and suddenly he's cornered in a love triangle cut the man some slack.

Like, don't get me wrong, Mako's flawed, but so is the rest of the Krew. They're messy teens, and that's ehat makes me love them. Singling Mako out feels unnecessarily mean, since he has a lot of good reasons to be the way that he is. Like mans is just trying to survive.

[atlaculture]

Terminology: Katas

Okay, so I've been reading some Avatar fics here and there, and I notice the fandom generally uses the term "katas" to describe a set of specific movements in a martial art. This term is Japanese in origin.

It feels a little weird to me, since ATLA uses only Chinese martial arts. However, I'm also aware that many East Asian concepts were introduced to the English-speaking world via Japan; for example, soybean curd is known in English as "tofu" (Japanese), rather than doufu (Chinese) or dubu (Korean). Once a term's usage becomes common enough, it comes to be viewed as simply an English word for an Asian thing (see the tofu example).

It's been almost two decades since I've practiced a purely East Asian martial art, so I can't remember if that's the case with katas (型). To all my martial arts practitioners out there: Is the word katas used by instructors that teach non-Japanese martial arts? And, to my Chinese-fluent followers, how do you feel about the use of kata to describe a set of movements? Do you prefer a more neutral English term like "movements", "forms" or "sets"? Or would you rather people used the Chinese term taolu (套路)?

This post isn't to call out any fanfic authors or to demand that people stop using the word kata. I'm genuinely curious about the status of it as common language. Dictionary.com has kata in it, so I guess it is the official English term for "set martial art movements".

For the record, I'm fine with words taking on new meaning in another language. For example, we refer to Chinese martial arts as "kung fu" in English, but kung fu simply means "skill acquired through hard work" in Chinese. Like... This blog could be considered kung fu. The actual Chinese word for martial arts is "wushu" but, in English, that refers to kung fu done for performance rather than combat. I actually think that's a very useful distinction, even if it's different from its culture of origin.