#but of course. lok IS supposed to be a continuation of atla

[ecoterrorist-katara]

The only stereotypically masculine thing about Aang…is his romantic arc

There’s a really popular post on Tumblr called “Avatar Aang, Feminist Icon.” The thesis is basically that Aang, unlike his female teachers and friends, is actually not a badass. He listens, he defers, and he respects women. He seemed to have no problem with Katara’s crush on Jet, despite his own crush on her. He chooses love and kindness and friendship and pacifism. He’s not tall and handsome as hell or buff. He wears flower crowns!

And I agree! This is Aang for most of the series and I love those qualities (though I do think the bar is in hell if those traits make a character a feminist icon, as opposed to a person who simply sees women as human beings). Anyway, I just think there’s a glaring omission. And that’s Aang’s romantic arc in season 3.

Bryke managed to take the worst of both worlds: Aang’s romantic arc retains the male-centricity that make most romances so problematic, while retaining none of the characteristics that make problematic romances compelling to women.

Aang falls in love at first sight with a beautiful girl. For the majority of their friendship, he remains respectful and supportive. As his crush hits an all time high, however, it gets distinctly more stereotypical: he kisses Katara at the invasion, and when she didn’t want to talk about that kiss, he firebends at her (the fact that this comic is canon, and was published years after ATLA’s conclusion, only demonstrates that the creators still don’t understand critiques of their romance). Aang considers Katara “his girl” and becomes furious (“I would be in the Avatar state right now!”) when the actress version of Katara didn’t like him romantically, and then he kisses her again — this time explicitly against her wishes. Throughout the show, people reassure him that she will come around, continuously reinforcing the idea that Katara is “his” and he just has to be patient. And even though Ka/taang is supposed to be endgame, we never hear directly from Katara how she feels, even though we’re no strangers to her opinions and feelings on other topics. It’s almost like the creators wanted Katara’s feelings to be a mystery because we’re meant to resonate with Aang. That’s…a male-centric, action hero romance.

In addition, the friendship dynamics between Katara and Aang feel pretty gendered. The distribution of emotional labour between Aang and Katara is quite skewed: Katara takes care of Aang much more than he takes care of her. She’s the one responsible for calming him down from the Avatar State. She’s the one who cooks for him and performs a whole lot of domestic chores. Post-canon, Katara’s storyline revolves around Aang, and she’s treated as his accessory and the keeper of his legacy instead of her own person, to the degree that she’s not even recognizable in LOK anymore. A beautiful, badass, independent woman who dedicates her energy and intelligence to a man’s needs? Wow, that is definitely something I’ve never seen in media geared towards men!

A lot of gushing about Aang’s lack of stereotypical masculinity seems to also hinge on how Aang is not conventionally attractive, but that’s…not true. Aang may not behave like James Bond, but he has plenty of admirers. Meng and On Ji liked him even without knowing that he’s the Avatar. Post-series, Acolytes descend en masse to steal Katara’s man. And of course he grows into a tall, buff dude. Aang’s romantic arc is not about becoming attractive to women, or finding a woman who loves him despite his looks. His romantic arc is about getting the girl who’s hard to get, because she only sees him as a friend or a little brother / babysitting charge.

Bryke do not deserve the credit for creating a “feminist icon,” not when the only stereotypically masculine traits they gave him are in relation to his romance arc. It honestly feels more insidious this way, because it’s like, “see? You don’t have to be masculine to reap the benefits of performing masculinity” — the benefits being, of course, “getting” the girl you want.

[thestarfilledsea]

Whispers and Twigs

Words: 2,956

Next Chapter

AO3 link

—Summary—

Macaque ends up in the same forest Mk does in the “impossible delivery” episode after seeing Wukong with Tripitaka on the journey.

If you’ve ever watched ATLA or LOK you’ll remember episodes about a swamp that shows you visions in order for you to work through your hurt. So he doesn’t attack Wukong because forest therapist pog. Anyways the forest gives him a house (it’s magic chill)

But just because you’re an emo hermit doesn’t mean you don’t crave noodles sometimes and hell yes they deliver! Unfortunately for the noodle delivery boy, Mr Tang and Mei had told him scary stories about a cryptid that lived in the woods where he was supposed to deliver noodles to. They called him... “The moonman”

——

“The forest takes care of her children”

“She will set them free”

“From bushes to bones and wishes to stones, but lost to the world you’ll be!”

Mk hummed the children's rhyme under his breath as he walked deeper into the looming woods.

The old rhyme seemed so silly to him now that he knows the story behind it. He like many others had learned it as a child from the other kids on the block singing it, the rhyme itself was created centuries ago to keep children wary of wandering into the thicket alone.

Who knew it would actually have some truth to it?

The first time Mk had ventured into the deep forest, it was to deliver noodles. Coincidentally, it was the day after Mei had brought up the folktale of a cryptid hilariously called "the moonman"

"The moonman? Really??" Mk had managed to spit out, trying to recover from the impromptu laughing fit.

Mei crossed her arms, leaning back on the counter of the noodle shop, sunlight warming the shop in all its domestic glory. "Laugh all you want, but just wait until he drags you to the plum blossom house."

"Uhm.. what's that?"

"How do you not know this story? I was told it repeatedly as a child!"

"Oh yeah! I think I remember you used to have a reoccurring nightmare about being taken to the 'plum house' when we were kids"

“Shut up.”

Tang set his bowl down from where he sat next to the two. “You’ve never heard the story of the shadow of the Hushed Brook Wood?

“Is that the moonman?”

“That name for him is a recent development” Tang chuckled “But yes, he is the moonman.”

“Then no, I’ve never heard it.”

"Alright." Tang sighed, readjusting himself in his seat. "Listen up"

"Legends say that the hushed brook wood itself is magic, and will show you your worst fears in an attempt to make you lose your sense of direction.”

Mk made himself comfortable, almost missing the smug look on Mei’s face caused the knowledge that Mk was easily freaked out.

“Only once you're completely lost, a cloaked man with a purple lantern will appear from out of nowhere, and offer you a path home. Sometimes, he'll lead you to the edge of the forest from whence you came. Those are the lucky times.

Other times, specifically if you're injured, he'll take you to the plum blossom house. And don't bother trying to hide even a paper cut from him, he can smell your blood from a mile away."

Mk started fidgeting with the sketchbook that rested in his lap uncomfortably. Tang of course continued nonetheless.

"You'll know it's the plum blossom house if there's a plum tree just outside of it, except it's not a normal fruit tree. Rumor has it that the tree always has flowers, ripe plums, and leaves, even in the dead of winter.

When he inevitably drags you inside, he'll heal even the deepest cuts in seconds with magic herbs, but now you're in his debt. He'll offer to teach you magic as a way for you to take over his role as the Moonman to dissolve your debt, but you must refuse. Otherwise..."

Tang paused dramatically, obviously enjoying the freaked out expression on Mk's face.

"When you die your soul will be bound to him and the house, yet another soldier in his army of the dead. Forever cursed to do his bidding." Tang finished dramatically.

There was a pause before Mk slowly reached the bowl in front of him. "great story guys...I'm going to eat my noodles now-"

"But the worst part?" Mei interrupts, pulling her jacket as far over her head as she could in an attempt to look scarier.

"What?"

"The worst part is if you do manage to make it out of the plum blossom house. He'll follow you! You'll see him in dark alleys or shadowy corners. He'll give you night terrors, he’ll never give you peace, biding his time for either the new, full, or half moon, when he has enough power to turn you into a raven, cursed to wander the deep forest, never able to leave again." Mei gestured as if she was bowing to an applauding audience before taking a bite from her bowl of noodles.

Mk took a bite himself thoughtfully. "Okay, genuine question. if we're doomed either way why not learn the magic?" He asked through a mouthful.

"Because being bound to the house is an objectively worse fate. You're stuck there for eternity or until he dies. Can you imagine being a shadow for centuries? I'd rather be a bird." Mei explained like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“I will give you that” Mr Tang agreed, “I would rather be a bird with a natural lifespan. Then I could eat berries and sleep all day.”

Mk had laughed agreed at the time

But Mk was not laughing when he got a delivery order that went right into the hushed brook woods. It loomed before him, almost inviting him in.

After trying to call Mei and Tang and getting no response, he stood just outside the dark forest, debating whether or not telling Pigsy that he was too scared of a folktale to deliver the noodles was a bad idea.

It was a spectacularly bad idea and he knew this. He just wanted to delay the inevitable even if just for a few minutes.

He had faced DBK! He was Monkey King's successor! He shouldn't be scared of some folktale.

But he undeniably was.

Groaning in resignation, Mk hopped onto his cart and started down the path into the deep woods.

The cart putted down the old trail, only accompanied by the smell of rotting wood and the evening dew resting on moss.

The shafts of early moonlight lit the path before him, dappling the ground in a dim luminance.

Mk didn’t notice when his grip tightened on the wheel, but he did notice when the it was coated in sweat.

Gross. He used his shirt to wipe it clean, trying not to think about the trials to come.

He’s okay.

Probably.

Mostly.

Not really.

Silhouettes of branches danced in harmony in the moonlight, not unlike shadow puppets. It made a chill go down his spine.

He felt like he was being watched. Watched by a thousand eyes. Maybe it was the trees? It felt like more than that. A judgement? An assessment? He felt like he was being tested.

He should’ve brought his staff with him. Why didn’t he bring his staff with him?

Narrowing his eyes, he took a deep breath. He’s got this. He’s fine.

He was less fine when from the corner of his vision a tree had a face. Slamming on the breaks he whirled around to face it.

The tree did infact have a fanged face, glowing no brighter than the moonlight surrounding him, but nonetheless glowing.

There was a moment of silence before Mk decided to start the cart once more, not taking his eyes off the tree.

He didn’t have the chance to even press on the gas pedal before the entire grove of trees around him grew their own faces.

“Oh shit!” Mk cursed slamming his foot on the accelerator and driving on.

The trees however, kept the pace. The faces appearing as fast as he drove. Mk tried to concentrate on not accidentally taking the wrong turn reasoning that if he delivered the food fast enough, he could leave quicker.

That moment however, was when the whispers started.

Whispers of conversation long gone, that he never thought he’d have to think about again.

Arguments, specifically ones that happened before he moved into his apartment thanks to Pigsy.

Jumbled words of anger were all merging together in a harmony of hurt. Mk felt his stomach drop when Monkey King’s voice joined the chorus.

Shaking his head he slammed on the breaks for the second time that night, stepped out of the car and screamed at the top of his lungs,

“I am just trying to deliver nOODLES CHILL.”

The action left his throat stinging, but surprisingly, the whispers stopped. There was a moment of silence that almost felt awkward before the faces faded into nothing.

“Huh. Okay. That usually never works in horror movies." Mk muttered to himself in disbelief.

Shaking off the rest of the panic, he sat back down. Steadying himself before he once more started driving. Now 110% done with this forest and everything in it.

The peaceful drive continued, the crickets singing made everything a little less scary but he was on high alert.

Everything returned to normal!

Until when driving over a hill, what sight greeted him but the path ending, and an ancient arching root acting as the only way onwards over a ditch.

“…you’ve got to be kidding me.”

He was going to have to walk the rest of the way.

“Really?!” He wailed to nobody in particular. The only acknowledgement he got was a raven taking flight, disturbed by the noise.

He sighed in resignation. This guy better have tipped well.

Gripping the bag of noodles, Mk moved towards the root bridge. This is literally the one situation where his years messing around on the playground with Mei has a practical use.

After minutes of nerve-wracking balancing later and wishing so badly that he had brought his staff and swearing that he’d never leave it home again, Mk pulled out his phone and switched on the flashlight, it couldn’t be too far now.

And it wasn’t! The gps said that the destination was just around the corner. Getting one last burst of energy, he bounded up the trail as quick as he could while balancing the noodles.

A babbling stream is what caught his attention first, his eyes were next drawn to a small wooden bridge that curved over the brook. Next it was to a curved iron lantern post with a lit lantern welcoming him.

The path then turned towards a house, it felt comforting, like a much needed light after hiking through darkness.

He felt his shoulders drop, feeling safer here than out in the middle of nowhere. Stepping towards the bridge, he glanced up at the tree beside him.

His heart dropped into his stomach.

There, right next him, was a plum tree. With flowers, fruit, leaves, and it was not plum season.

Mk started slowly backing away from the tree, the formerly inviting house now looking horrifying in his eyes even though nothing had changed. Leaves danced at his feet, the wind seemingly pulling them towards the house itself. Pulling him. An invitation.

He could just leave. He honestly probably should.

But if Pigsy saw that he got within fifty feet of the destination and turned back he would never hear the end of it.

Mk's back hit a tree and there he stayed for a few moments, mentally preparing himself. He hadn’t even realized he was backing away.

"I can do this. I have to do this."

Hearing reassurance out loud even if it was from himself seemed to help his nerves. Gripping his shirt in some form of comfort, Mk slowly made his way towards the house.

Oh god this is the plum blossom house. Mei and Mr Tang were right.

He was going to get moonmaned while delivering noodles.

All too soon, his shaky legs had brought him to the porch. Accompanied by leaves that were also pulled towards the house by an unseen tide.

The door itself had different chunks of stained glass that let light drift from the inside to the porch. Aside from that, Mk noticed a carving in the wood that looked like a crescent moon that surrounded the ornate doorknob. It felt purposeful. Like it had a meaning that he couldn’t grasp just yet. After taking a shaky breath and going through the stages of grief in three seconds flat, Mk knocked.

"Uh..Pigsy's noodles?" He forced out, his instincts screaming at him to be quiet and hide.

There was a shuffling and Mk felt someone's footsteps approach, his heart was beating a mile a minute and he prayed that the "Moonman” wouldn't notice him trembling.

The doorknob turned and the door slowly creaked open with the most stereotypical haunted house sound effect. If Mk wasn't so scared, he would've found it hilarious.

Then stepped out someone that for a split second due amount of fear and desperation coursing through his body he mistook for Monkey King.

He appeared similar but different. He was indeed wearing a cloak...thing? it had sleeves with patterns of smoke at the ends and—Oh my god he has six ears.

"Hey. Sorry 'bout the long journey, I left you a tip. Anyways you can-“

The monkey seemed to notice Mk's slacked jaw and silence. When the stranger actually looked at Mk for the first time, several small expressions crossed the other's face.

They both stared at each other for a moment, the strangers tail flicking in what Mk had come to know from his time training under the Monkey King as nervousness.

"Are you the Moonman?" Mk finally burst out.

The stranger looked confused for a moment like Mk had just called him the dumbest name on earth. (Which to be fair, it was)

"Am I the what?"

"The Moonman! He's a cryptid that lives in the plum blossom house." Mk explained suddenly feeling stupider by the second.

There was a moment of disbelief and it seemed the stranger was going through the stages of grief and maybe an existential crisis in front of him.

"That. Is the weirdest possible thing anyone's ever said to me."

Mk opened his mouth to apologize but was cut off.

"But! I am intrigued. Give me my food and we'll talk more."

—

That was the first time Mk met Macaque. Since then, the two had become friends. Macaque was the last order on Mk's route and always tipped nicely. Mk liked the company and found that he made tea as good as Sandy's, which is a hard feat to accomplish.

He had learned over said tea, that Macaque already somehow knew that Mk was training under Monkey King. When asked how he just chuckled and said,

“You ever heard of true sight? It was a pretty easy connection to make to an old friend.”

(Mk later made a note in his phone that you could potentially recognize similar auras with true sight, much to Mr Tang’s delight.)

Macaque himself had been half horrified half amused when he found out people had been telling stories about him. In exchange for Mk telling him the stories about himself, he sent the boy back home with a small basket of plums.

You wouldn't believe the look on Mei's face when Mk told her that the plum she was currently eating were from the Moonman's backyard. Of course, she didn't believe him, but still refused to venture into the woods when Mk had tried to prove it.

When Mk returned for the second time, he worked up the guts to ask questions.

Starting off with "is the forest was actually haunted?" To which Macaque laughed and shook his head.

"Thank heavens, I guess I really did just hallucinate."

"Oh no, that was real. Just because the forest isn't haunted doesn't mean it's not magic."

"What"

Macaque then explained that the forest used to be holy lands for a temple of monks centuries ago. The forest itself was blessed by the wind and stars to heal what had been broken, and is very powerful.

The monks would spend one night alone in it after years of training to truly purify themselves of any hurt that had been left unresolved, through the forest making them confront it.

"Then why did I only experience mine for a few seconds?" Mk asked, setting his cup down on the porch step.

Macaque looked a little awkward, swishing his tail once...twice…three times before responding.

"I sort of asked the forest to not do that to you?"

"Why?"

"I wanted noodles and if my delivery guy worked through all his deepest traumas the food would've gone cold."

"Oh."

"Do you want it to happen to you?"

"Hell no."

Macaque shrugged. "Then the forest will wait until they think you’re ready or until you

physically need to get rid of what's bothering you to move on. It won't do it unless the hurt will hold you back, or steer you the wrong way, Not unless you ask."

There was a pause

"But why did I see it to begin with if it's not going to do it now?"

"The forest likes to scare people off if they don't know who they are."

Mk hummed thoughtfully, drawing swirls in the dirt with the stick he had found on the way to the PBH.

"You said you knew Monkey King?"

"Once upon a time, yes."

"How come he's never mentioned you?"

Macaque sighed, leaning back on the steps. "It's...complicated. He most likely thinks I'm dead."

"What? Why?"

"We had a fight, years ago, and I ran off. It's how I found this place to begin with." He explained, gesturing to the various trees that surrounded them.

"Well, I could help you reconcile if you want." Mk offered.

"...Maybe later."

"Later's good enough for me, but in the mean time, I have one last question."

Macaque twitched his ears with the silent gesture of ‘go for it’

"Do you have any embarrassing stories about him?"

Macaque straightened up, a spark in his eyes Mk had never seen before

"You're going to want to write these down kid, where do I even start?"

[asocial-inkblot]

The Three Queens and Baby Korra

(The title’s just an allusion/joke. Shoot me.)

Correct me if I’m wrong (I know I could be) but out of the entirety of the ATLA and LOK series, we witness three official female leaders in total: Earth Queen Hou Ting, Commander Kuvira and Fire Lord Izumi.

EQ Hou Ting is every horrific stereotype about female leaders, and women in general, imaginable (and probably how Bryke wanted Azula to be written and interpreted). She’s greedy, cruel, temperamental, hateful, vain, self-absorbed, demanding, irrational, egotistical, preoccupied with appearances/status, etc. I think her sole purpose was to show how much more insidious the Earth Kingdom’s monarchal rule and police state politics had become, but with the added bonus of getting to represent the evil witch-queen of Bryke’s nightmares. Her death was also, dare I say, extremely violent and arguably uncalled for. But she’s in the same coffin as P’Li and Ming Hua there.

C. Kuvira is...well...a dictator, to put it nicely. Irregardless of how she may view herself and her actions too. She was lawfully chosen as the leader of the Earth Kingdom after the EQ was murdered by wannabe anarchists and Suyin rejected her chance to take the spot, sure. But after reaching incumbency, she immediately set out on a mission to ‘right the wrongs’ of the EK’s shortcomings and solve international drama plus world hunger by turning the whole planet into one big gulag-plantation under her authority. Neither her reasoning, fears or her childhood give much illumination for the decisions she makes (and of course don’t excuse them) but we’re supposed to accept that they do. (I say this while acknowledging that she wasn’t completely wrong to want the Earth Kingdom to be ruled by a strong, unyielding person that would actually make improvements for the betterment of others.) Worse yet, it’s been theorized that she was supposed to replace Azula in the hearts of many Azula fans and be the in-spirit ‘Azula Redemption’ that we still haven’t gotten. Furthermore, they continued her arc in the LOK comics that, amazingly, are reportedly worse than LOK at developing believable, consistent 3D characters. She was adopted into and raised within the still well-off Beifong family but her sister Opal was apparently mean to her for some reason? Well, that’s very unfortunate, but does not make me sympathize with her anymore than I already may have in the tv series she was conceived for. Azula’s unfinished story stays superior and imo far easier to be understanding over. Why keep trying to rewrite Azula into these other characters when the real deal is already around anyway? Why are they being bitter and headstrong over her, even now? Will Azula ever get to just try on the Fire Lord’s headpiece?     All in all, Kuvira gets off basically scot-free with no repercussions (despite Suyin of all people hilariously promising that she’d get exactly that) or even a chance to actually make up for what she and her accomplices did. Her arc continuation as far as I can see, is basically just filler that does no justice to her character or that of others. All this and she’s allegedly a personal favorite of Bryke—that they may even have called ‘attractive’ at one point—which may reveal a lot about why they placed so much focus on her post-series that other just as enrapturing characters did not get. There’s a huge amount of bias present around her.

FL Izumi is Zuko’s daughter and it’s a wonder that we were given even that much information on her. In the entire series she spoke an astounding three lines. Three. All of them on the same topic, and in response to a man with far more influence on the story than her inquiring why she’s adamant about not bringing the Fire Nation into another war. As if the last war the FN was in didn’t last a century and finally end less than a century ago. She had her lines wasted on that exchange.

All this to say that we watched the entirety of two series, with no positive, extremely influential female leaders being truly represented. Two of them are very negative figures. One is downright nasty albeit less ‘conquest-thirsty’ than another. One operates as basically a silent figure in-show. Only one has a profound effect on Avatar Korra, and the feelings the two share in that one important scene seem to be forgotten just as quickly as they come. All three were meant to be forgettable in their original appearances.

Side Note: I think Tenzin’s presence at those meetings is purely symbolic.

[zukkacore]

Whitewashing in AtlaLok: the Western & Christian Influence on s2 of LoK

Ok, so i’m not a big brained expert on all things indigenous or even all things asian but I do think bryke's christian & western worldview seeps so far into season 2 of LoK that i think out of every season it’s by far the most unsalvageable out of everything they’ve ever done in the Atlaverse and is a very insidious kind of whitewashing. I know that sounds hefty but here’s what I mean

For the record, I’m a mixed filipino person & while there is religious diversity among filipinos, more than i think ppl realize or that the catholic majority is willing to let on, when we were colonized a large percent of the population was indeed forced to convert to catholicism so that’s my background, & i don’t know everything about taoism or the what the tai chi symbol represents but the way Bryke westernize the concept of Yin and Yang is honestly… kinda bewildering. They get so many details about yin & yang wrong?? & Yes, it’s possible they could’ve been trying to create their own lore that differentiates itself from the traditional depictions of Yin & Yang, but in the end i think it doesn’t matter b/c the lore they invent is a very obviously western interpretation of the concept of “balance”.

The most important and honestly worst change they make is that concepts of “light” and “dark” are completely oversimplified and flattened to represent basically “good” and “evil” (which, the light and dark side are a bit more complex than representing just “peace/order vs. Chaos” like the show might imply but we don’t even have time for that, but is funny how they get the genders wrong. Like. Traditionally, light is usually coded masculine and dark is usually coded feminine, but never mind that, that’s just a tangent). This really simplifies the nuance of the s2 conflict and makes it a lot less interesting, not to mention just—misrepresents a very real religious philosophy?

And for the record, a piece of media going out of its way to do "the show, don’t tell" thing of stating in the text that “oh, light and dark are not the same thing as good vs. evil” without actually displaying that difference through the writing is just lip service, and its poor writing. A lot of pieces of media do this, but i think s2 of LoK is particularly egregious. The point of this philosophy of balance is that you aren’t supposed to moralize about which side is “good” or “bad”, or even really which one is “better” or “worse”. Even if the show states the concepts are not interchangeable, if the media in question continually frames one side (and almost always its “chaos/darkness”) as the “evil” side, then the supposed distinction between “light vs. dark” and “good vs. evil” is made moot. And besides the occasional offhand remark that implies more nuance without actually delivering, Vaatu is basically stock evil incarnate.

This depiction of conflict as “defeating a singular representation of total evil” isn’t solely christian, but it is definitely present in christian beliefs. And I think those kinds of stories can be done well, but in this case, in a world filled entirely of asian, Pacific Islander & inuit poc, to me it feels like a form of subtle whitewashing? B/c you’re taking characters that probably wouldn’t have christian beliefs, and imposing a christian worldview onto them. Not to mention removes what could have been an interesting conflict of any nuance and intrigue… and honestly, sucks, because I do think s2 has the bones of an interesting idea, mostly b/c there are potential themes that could’ve been explored—I know this b/c they were already explored in a movie that exists, and it’s name is Princess Mononoke! It has a lot of the same elements—tension between spirits and humanity, destruction of nature in the face of rapid industrialization, moral ambiguity where there are no easy or fast answers and both sides have sympathetic and understandable points of view. (Unsurprising b/c Miyazaki is Japanese & Japanese culture has a lot of influence from Buddhism, Taoism, Shintoism, etc)

Bryke’s western & christian worldview also totally seeps into the characterization of Unalaq, the antagonist of the season which is a real problem. I’m in the middle of rewatching s2 right now and what struck me is that….. Unalaq comes across kinda ecofash AND fundamentalist which is 1) seems like an odd combination but maybe it really isn’t? 2) i think is a really tacky choice considering that the water tribes take the majority of its inspiration from inuit and polynesian indigenous cultures.

I honestly forgot abt this but Unalaq gives this whole lame speech abt how the SWT & humans as a whole suck b/c of their lack of spiritual connection & it was really eerie to me b/c "humans are morally bankrupt and they must be wiped out/punished for their destruction of the environment" is total ecofash logic bc it blames all of humanity for damage caused by those in power—be they capitalists or whoever. It’s a worldview that blames the poor and powerless for something they have no say in, and has real eugenics undertones bc with every implication of culling, there has to be someone who appoints themself the job of culling—of who is and isn’t worthy of death.

This belief also struck me as......... kinda christian in it's logic as well which is WEIRD b/c once again........ their cultural inspirations are DEFINITELY not christian...... The whole "man is inherently evil and must spend their whole lifetime repenting/must face punishment for it’s wickedness" thing and the way that christianity treats humanity as born with original sin or inherently corrupt—as well as above or separate from nature are really stronger undertones in Unalaqs worldview....... which isn't really an indigenous way or thinking.

I'm generalizing of course but from what I have seen from the indigenous people who speak on this is that (feel free to point out or correct me if i’m mostly generalizing abt Native Americans and not other indigenous cultures & there are some differences here) is that while native tribes are not monolithic and do vary wildly, there are a lot of common threads and that reverence and respect toward nature and your surroundings is an important tenant of indigenous beliefs. (I specifically remember the hosts on All My Relations saying essentially that we humans are a part of nature, we are not separate from it, and humans are not superior to animals—I’m paraphrasing but that is the gist of it)

So, yeah, I think it’s just really distasteful to write an indigenous character who is characterized in a way that’s way more in line with a christian fundamentalist & wants to bring about a ragnarok style apocalypse end of the world when that isn’t really a tenant of our beliefs? (btw, the way the end of the world is framed is also kinda fucked up? If i were being charitable, I could say that maybe s2’s storyline is a corruption of the hindu depiction of the end of the world, but even that sounds mildly insulting for reasons I won’t get into b/c i am Not The Expert On Hinduism. I will say that once again, the framing of the concept is all wrong, the show views the idea of apocalypse through a very western lense)

To wrap this up, I think the depiction of Unalaq could *maybe* work b/c he is the antagonist, so someone who strays from the NWT cultural tradition in a way that makes his view of morality more black and white wouldn’t be a *horrible* idea for the bad guy of the season. Especially because the introduction of capitalism to the A:TLA universe could probably cause a substantial shifts to… idk, everything i guess, b/c capitalism is so corrosive. Like. Sometimes people are just traitors. I do think it would be interesting to portray the way capitalism manifests in a society without white christians. Like… I do think there are a lot of ways secular christianity and capitalism are interlinked. But Unalaq is not portrayed as an outsider, he’s portrayed as hyper-traditionalist in a way that’s vilified? I guess rightly so, he does suck, but it’s just hard to conceptualize how a person like Unalaq comes to exist in the first place. In the end, I don’t really think it makes sense, in a world without white people, I don’t really know where this introduction of black and white christian morality would even come from in the avatar world?

TL;DR, Bryke applying western christian morality & world views to non-white characters in a world where white people have NEVER existed to affect our beliefs is a subtle form of white-washing. It imposes simplified “good vs. evil” world-views & cultural beliefs onto its characters. Any attempt to represent or even just integrate our actual beliefs into the A:tla lore are twisted and misrepresented is a way that is disrespectful and saps out any nuance or intrigue from the story, and alienates the people its supposed to represent from recognizing themselves within the final product. And Finally, on a more superficial story level, these writing choices clashe with the already existing world of ATLA--and is honestly just poor world-building.

[my-bated-breath]

Do you think Aang‘s absentness and favoritism in lok was ooc for how Aang’s character arc ended in ATLA, or a natural progression of it? It’s sad thinking it may be the latter. Aang was set to continue his character arc growing into a fully realized Avatar w/7 chakras spiritually opened by letting go of his attachment to Katara, and replacing it with his pure selfless love that doesn’t expect romance in return. Instead, he ends the series w/out learning from his mistakes. Aang deserved better :(

While I think Aang’s absence and favoritism in LoK may not have been the natural progression of his arc, it is an easily justifiable one. In ATLA, both Aang’s love for the Air Nomads and his love for Katara are idealized so he never learns to see the value in all four nations as an Avatar truly should. Of course, he certainly develops an appreciation for each element as seen in Bitter Work and The Firebending Masters, but his understanding of how all four elements relate to each other is shallow at best - because Aang never recognizes the Air Nomads’ flaws.

We see him desperately cling onto the Air Nomad’s philosophies and sayings without truly understanding them; we see him clinging onto the Air Nomad’s idealized image instead of reconciling their legacy (that is to say, the soul of their beliefs rather than the surface of them) with a war-torn world where they have all passed. And although the common interpretation of Aang’s attachment to Katara being his expectation of her returning his feelings, I believe it’s more complex than that. After all, if Aang’s love for the Air Nomads is reborn in Katara, then it only follows that he idealizes her as well. But perhaps the selfishness to this attachment is not that he expects love from her, but he expects this caricature of Katara - compassionate, pure, and good. Except Katara is more than kindness and love; she is also grief and rage, but Aang dismisses these sides to her as well. I expand on Aang’s idealization of Katara in much more detail in this post here, if you’re interested.

So what does this theme of idealization have to do with absence and favoritism? Well, it means that Aang does not - cannot - perceive the balance that he himself is supposed to be maintaining, favoring a perspective whose very core he does not understand either. In the world Aang imagines, Katara would be accepting of him and accepting of her role as “the Avatar’s girl” and not much else. In the world Aang imagines, Bumi and Kya are his children, yes, but they are unable to grasp the Air Nomads’ traditions in the way only an airbender can do so. In the world Aang imagines, only Tenzin is capable of carrying on the Air Nomad’s legacy image - so Tenzin is the one child who can receive Aang’s attention, but at what cost to his identity?

So fixated on the past, Aang never learns to grow into the future.

[boltwrites]

Iroh II with treat please 💗💗💗

trick or treat!

 20 - modern au: halloween party

A/N: this is the dumbest thing i think i’ve written so far but i love it so much. also, it’s actually NOT a modern au, it’s a “if the atla/lok universe had halloween” au, which i think is just as cool

ok so this is adorable

picking out costumes with Iroh. he walks out in a really horrible white wig and an ancient looking set of white lotus robes. you raise an eyebrow at him

“and who are you supposed to be? the oldest and most unkempt member of the white lotus to ever live?”

Iroh genuinely scoffs at you, offended. “of course not! Jeong Jeong, the firebending master who deserted the imperialist fire nation army and joined the white lotus, the day that he stormed Ba Sing Se with - “

he pouted when he saw you trying not to giggle, walking up to him and patting his cheeks

“sweetie, I love how much you love old military history, but no one at my sister’s halloween party is going to understand who you are, and you’re going to pout the whole night”

Iroh pouted harder at you

“yeah, like that”

“besides,” you continued, “how could we even make that into a couple’s costume, huh?”

“i already worked that out! you would be Piandao, the master swordsman, and Jeong Jeong’s - “

you had to put a hand over your mouth to keep from laughing. spirits, Iroh could be an absolute dork sometimes.

“babe.” you shook your head, and he deflated, sighing. “you’re right. this is a costume fit for a military function, not your sister’s party.” you bit your tongue, thinking of how Iroh’s United Forces friends would react to his costume

“what about this!” you asked, holding up a poster. on it was the newest couple on the silver screen - Zhihao, the swashbuckling hero, and Yaling, the princess he had rescued from a fearsome sea beast. 

Iroh raised an eyebrow. “you want to be pirates?”

“...kind of,” you explained. Iroh raised both eyebrows now, fully interested

you two did end up going to the party based on the movie. Iroh was, of course, the stunning Zhihao and you were - 

the sea beast. the perfect excuse to annoy your sister and have some silly fun with your boyfriend

you two won best couple’s costume, after all

[captain-azoren]

Legend of Korra books 3 & 4

Finished rewatching books 3 and 4 of Korra. Here on my thoughts on them and the series as a whole after seeing it again after so many years.

I think books 3 and 4 are pretty solid. Aside from a few flaws, I think 3 is the overall best with the best pacing. I think a big issue with book 2 was that it was trying and failing to juggle a very big cast and multiple subplots that made it feel like a mess. That’s not an issue with 3 or 4, where every character has a relevant purpose and plot threads come together more naturally. 

4 does this a little bit worse as I think the plot kind of starts and stops a couple of times, but it’s not terrible. Kuvira’s build up as a villain is very shaky when compared to Amon and Zaheer, but still better than Unalaq’s arc going down the drain. It really does seem like the worst parts of her villainy are told and not shown (those being the reeducation camps and slave labor). I think they could have shown at least one of these camps instead of just seeing the escapees that Varrick and Bolin meet.

I still think the Red Lotus are the best antagonists in LoK just for having the best arc overall. They had Amon’s intrigue, stayed consistent in their motivations like Kuvira, and they have the most dimensions overall just from the little bits of interaction we see of them. What’s more, they didn’t disappoint me in the end.

The Colossus I didn’t mind or find out of place. It just doesn’t bother me when the show has had Koizilla and giant drills in AtLA. I can understand how the mechanics of it work as well. I didn’t feel like my suspension of disbelief was broken considering everything else. I think fans who dislike it are more bothered by it breaking the setting further away from fantasy and into sci-fi.One question though, why does a spirit energy canon need a rifled barrel?

Mako is a much better character in 3 and 4 because he’s finally allowed to be someone other than a love interest. His interactions with Bolin can be really fun and it’s kind of a shame how often they’re separated. I also noticed on a rewatch that he does make a good detective, having good perception and coming up with ideas. It’s better than the pro-bender he started out as and probably his best strength. 

I think I actually like Mako now whereas before he was the most forgettable, and I think he deserves some looking into. A lot of the hate comes from him being put into really tough spots where he just can’t win. Mako goes from being extremely aloof to being a loyal but beleaguered straight man to the group.

Raiko I feel similarly to Mako. I think he’s another guy who keeps getting put into tough spots with no easy solution. He doesn’t really deserve hate either, and honestly probably made the best decisions he could as a president (I know from experience how bad they can be...) Him being hated and voted out in the comics seem like Bryke was over correcting, something they seem to do a lot.

Suyin I have mixed feelings on. She really does seem like someone Bryke really wanted fans to like and agree with, but they shilled her a bit too much and at the expense of Lin. Su’s apology to Lin at the end of their dispute felt kind of half-hearted, and despite being justified, the whole thing is framed as Lin being the one in the wrong, stuck in the past, unable to move on after Su had changed. We don’t see Su change though, and Su keeps acting like what she did wasn’t that big a deal, so it falls flat.

What’s more, Su continues being a big presence into book 4, and I think I have to agree with Kuvira that Su should have at least done something to help the EK out. It really does make Su come off as kind of a cowardly hypocrite who’s so afraid of looking like a dictator that she doesn’t even try to help. She doesn’t want to be treated like royalty or an authoritarian, but if you look at Zaofu the place is already set up like a small kingdom, with the Beifongs being the divine bloodline descended from Toph, the strongest bender to ever live. Su is a queen in all but name, and if she was so afraid of looking like a dictator she could have just given up the power like Kuvira was supposed to have done. Su just rubs me the wrong way from start to finish, and it’s partly because the show doesn’t challenge her or make her change. It just expects us to see her as being right, and she just isn’t.

Bolin being a lava bender I remember being really excited for, because it was something I predicted when I first saw it years ago. I don’t have a problem with how he discovered it. It’s not the best way I’d like see someone discover a new power, but I think it’s better than when Korra finally got airbending (though that didn’t bother me too much either). It just kind of made sense to me and finally gave something else to stand out besides comic relief.

The air kids got better in 3 and 4 too. Meelo got less annoying, Jinora was more fleshed out, and I actually really like Ikki in book 4.

Now Korra and Asami. I think Korra is maybe at her most static in book 3, but her arc in book 4 is the most interesting as she had to build herself back up. I don’t agree with some of the things that are just told to the viewer, like how she needed to learn from her enemies. At the finale Korra says she had to suffer to learn compassion, but it’s not like Korra wasn’t a compassionate person already. Korra’s arc seemed more centered on dealing with trauma and finding her purpose in a world that seemed hellbent on telling her she wasn’t needed. I don’t know if that was some kind of meta commentary, but it does work.

I do like Korra’s overall development from where she was in book 1. If I had to put it into words, I think her story is about trying to fulfill a role that she’s been groomed for her whole life, trying to live up to expectations, pushed into doing what others want her to do, failing those things, then finding the strength and resolve to achieve success on her own terms, even if it’s not what everyone wants. Korra gradually learns to stop being a tool for world leaders to use to keep order or power. It’s not always done well, but it’s there.

It’s nice to see her and Asami be friends after the love triangle stuff. It’s kind of surprising, but they didn’t really interact all that much in the first two books all things considered. Asami doesn’t change a whole lot throughout the series, but her reconnecting with her dad at the end felt satisfying.

I’ll be honest, I never really saw Korrasami happening and didn’t view much of their interactions as being romantic in nature. I think only the letter writing and their reunion seems a little shippy, but not very obvious. That said, I can buy the two of them finally realizing they might be attracted to each other at the finale, as a beginning to their relationship. The real problem is that shippers and even Bryke overhyped this moment up as it being ENDGAME rather than treating it as what is was, a spark of attraction. Korra and Asami aren’t in love yet, they’re just going on their first official date.

I do like them being together though. It seems a lot healthier than other potential relationships, and let’s be real here; Asami NEEDED something to make her happy because holy shit has she be through a lot by the end of the series. Dumped by Mako twice, almost lost her company and lost her dad after she forgave him. Give the poor rich girl a break.

So, final thoughts on the series as a whole; it’s not as good as AtLA, but that’s mostly on the execution. LoK was messy and had issues, but it did eventually smooth things out after a lot of course correcting. There are things I don’t like, but not enough for me to write it off, and it has plenty of strengths that make it deserving of a watch if you keep an open mind. 

I remember ThunderCats 2011 getting a lot of flak too, and that’s one of my favorite shows ever despite its glaring flaws, so I really can’t work up the energy to trash LoK. I know plenty of people can connect to it even if I don’t, at least not fully, and I honestly do believe that overall LoK’s strengths outweigh its flaws, even if it can be inconsistent and unpolished.

LoK may take place in the same world as AtLA, but it is a very fundamentally different series, and beyond a few very core basics of storytelling I think it’s a little unfair to compare the two. It’s not the masterpiece it could have been, but at the end I still enjoyed it. I might have more thoughts later, but these are what I have for now.

[vomara]

I'm curious of your thoughts on this, if atla took place during modern day (aang still having been frozen in an iceberg for 100 years, the whole storyline still happening etc.) What differences do you think there would be? Especially on the world. How would bending affect their world as well?

hm, this is a really intriguing question. i wrote quite a bit on it, whew -- this clocks out at over 1k words. all under the cut.

i suppose you'd first want to define "the modern world". are we assuming this takes place in our universe, or in theirs, at a point in time where their societies approximately mirror our own? personally, i'm going with the latter -- as much as it might be interesting to set a modern day au in asia, ATLA unfortunately has blended many asian cultures enough to make them inseparable. sticking with the ATLA world with a sort of modern spin is for the best. (it'll also likely be more western, as i am speaking from that particular perspective.)

ATLA itself doesn't take place too long in the past -- from fire nation technology, the show likely takes place only about 200 years prior. this tracks with LoK, which is essentially the 1920s. thus, in this case, aang is born during what approximately appears to be LoK, on the surface, but without republic city.

so, aang lives in the southern air temple, one of the few remaining spiritual havens of the world, and he goes through his early childhood like he did in canon, with barely any differences. he gets declared avatar, he gets upset, he runs away and freezes himself into an iceberg.

the fire nation attacks and wipes out the air nomads soon after. in this world, the fire nation is still imperialist. canonically, ATLA draws parallels between the fire nation to both PRC and WWII imperial japan. while i refuse to directly posit them as one or the other, in this case, they would be more like the latter, with a strong flavor of american imperialism. i suppose the ensuing 100 year war would be a war of attrition, where the fire nation wears at the rest of the nations over the course of decades, slowly gaining colonies, fostering economic dependence, crippling opposing political institutions, nurturing civil war, arming both insurgent groups and tyrannical governments. (in this world, the firelord and the the grand secretariat of ba sing se are on very good terms. but there are whispers that they've recently started to fall apart.)

aang wakes up to a world that looks quite like ours, near the southern water tribe. the SWT in this au is even more of a parallel to inuit and aboriginal cultures. fire nation imperialism has eaten away at their territory, resources, culture, and people. at some point, they started ignoring the SWT, and so in this au, the SWT is very similar to canon, with the exception of maybe a few more pieces of technology. do they have electricity? one generator, powered by water, not enough to provide heating for anyone other than the elderly. do they have phones? two phones, which they charge very, very rarely, and most of the time, they take a rowboat out into the icefields to piggyback their signal from the southernmost reach of the earth kingdom.

the majority of earth kingdom is almost as industrialized as the fire nation, and in the urban areas, slums and skyscrapers stand side by side. omashu, under the rule of king bumi, is a bit better, more like singapore. besides the large urban centers, the sprawling rural areas remain very similar to how they are in canon, with additional technology. they mostly have electricity, phones, and the internet. there is more extensive cultural mixing throughout the earth kingdom. ba sing se, like in canon, is a propaganda state, and they enact this through extensive censorship. even outside of ba sing se, most media is owned by the centralized earth kingdom government (though, again, the exception is omashu). king kuei, like in canon, is only a figurehead, and the monarchy itself no longer has weight in the earth kingdom.

other societies, such as the NWT are also readapted into this world. the NWT is fairly urbanized, but still manages to retain a sense of antiquity. it appears nearly identical to the NWT in canon, and they have little to no electricity -- and yet they thrive, regardless. however, to maintain their own culture, they limit their own access to the outside world. as a result, they are woefully unprepared when the fire nation attack them both by air and water.

overall, the four nations have likely become less discrete, with the exception of the NWT. we currently live in a very globalized world, with significant economic interdependence, so this is just an application of this into ATLA. thus, as aang, katara and sokka travel the earth kingdom, heading north, they meet people of more mixed cultures than in canon.

prince zuko, in this au, is still banished, and it's in disgrace that he receives a rickety, past-century ship, barely retrofitted to the modern era. his father could clearly afford to give him better, but he chose not to. in addition, prince zuko isn't just known throughout the ports, nor is his banishment kept quiet. everyone and their mother can recognize him -- he's been shown on tv since he was a kid. there are rumors on internet forums about why he got banished, some good and some bad. as a result, his presence is more incendiary than in canon. he's practically an underground celebrity. this makes it a lot harder for him to retain anonymity later in the series, and the same can be said of general iroh, although most images of him on the internet and tv are pre-lu ten's death, so most assume he should look younger.

anyway, i could go for a lot longer, but for the sake of brevity, i'll skip to bending. since bending is a natural aspect of the ATLA world, it evolved alongside modernization. however, there are less benders being born nowadays. in the middle of concrete cities, only the toughest earthbenders continue to manifest their bending. in the fire nation, fewer powerful benders are being born. the connection that people have to their own elements have been worn away at by the alienation inherent to modern society. the continued destruction of the environment, and the killing of both badgermoles and dragons contribute to the decline of bending. (this is why toph is even more exceptional in this modern au.)

yet institutions for bending remain. earthbenders still hold earth rumbles, firebenders still challenge others to agni kai. however, bending is more strictly regulated in day to day life. in some cases, the bending energy is redirected from fighting to social productivity -- earthbenders are employed in construction, lightningbenders can work at electricity plants, etc. as aang and katara confront these new applications of bending, they are... confounded. it seems that most benders don't even enjoy their bending anymore; it's simply a tool to them. for aang and katara, who were raised to find joy in their bending, this attitude is stifling. the reason both toph and zuko become aang's teachers, then, is because they defy this bending attitude. for toph, she truly loves bending, as an extension of herself. for zuko, fire lives and breathes alongside him, and within him. their particular style of connection to their own bending make them aberrant, and eventually help place them as aang's teachers.

[beckytailweaver]

Avatar: The Last Airbender (fic stuff)

Since I’m trying to work on something (ANYTHING!) and I seem to be in an Avatar mood of late, I’ll throw this up here.

These are fics, potential fics, and mostly-concrete ideas that have existed in the back of my closet for a very long time, since the good old days of watching ATLA when it was shiny and new and cool. Most of them are also so old that LOK didn’t exist yet or was in its infancy.

Note: These are mostly gen fic. If pairings come up they are not the central goal of the piece; they will be mainly canon as it existed at the time the fic was outlined. Treat them like the scenery (no ship war drama allowed in my workroom, that’s what stopped me participating in the fandom years ago).

I’d kinda like to put some feelers out and see what folks think would be most interesting to work on.

Read on:

The End of the Circle Post-canon continuation, my oldest ATLA fic, conceived and outlined before comics or LOK existed. Does some headcanon worldbuilding based on what was available at the time of the original series. Dragons and spirits and legends coming to life, oh my!

Status: outlined, some scenes written, firm endpoint, world built.

Summary: Roku warned Aang that he could not die in the Avatar State, or the cycle would end. Azula’s lightning killed Aang in the Avatar State. To their good fortune, Katara’s spirit water was able to bring Aang back to life, but there are Consequences—for the Avatar and for the world.

Wild Fire Canon AU/semi-rewrite. Also born before LOK was a thing so Druk doesn’t exist. It borrows some concepts from the idea of Toph and her badgermole family. It breaks some TLA canon around the edges but it’s all in good fun.

Status: outlined, many scenes, ending fully plotted.

Summary: The young Fire Prince was burned and disowned by the Fire Lord, cast away and abandoned on the hostile shores of the Earth Kingdom before his kindly uncle could aid him. Disfigured, angry, and lost, young Zuko finds solace in the wilderness when he is taken in by a most unusual protector: A dragon.

Phoenix Legacy Not-a-time-travel “time travel” fic. It was born after seeing Season 1 of Avatar LOK and...kinda liking it but not? (I mostly lost interest in LOK after S1.) And wanting to add some more classic feel to the season. No information from subsequent seasons was used to outline it (thus there is no Druk) but recently I have gone back and “fixed” Zuko’s daughter (giving her the correct name and appearance), and added her nameless daughter (Iroh II’s sister) for lulz. Basically a rewrite of LOK Season 1 with a TLA character along for the ride to shake everything up, because at the time I was disappointed that there was only Katara and no other Gaang members out there kicking the new Avatar into shape.

Status: outlined, a few scenes written, ending plotted; not to be a rehash.

Summary: A phoenix cannot die by fire—it can only be reborn. When Ozai claimed the title of Phoenix King, he had no idea what sort of spirit he might be invoking. When he lost his ancestor’s war and his crown, the spirit’s blessings were unknowingly conferred upon his heir: The hapless Fire Lord Zuko, determined to bring his nation to peace. Seventy years later, there’s a tragic explosion in a tea shop in Republic City, and exiled traitor Fire Prince Zuko wakes up to an unfamiliar world full of unfamiliar faces. The last thing he remembers is an Agni Kai under a Comet, catching lightning to protect a friend.

The Prince’s Prisoner Another ficling born before the comics or LOK were really a big deal and/or I didn’t know about them. Basically during TLA S1, rather than fleeing Prince Zuko’s clutches, Aang decides to remain his prisoner. The original reasoning for this was a kind of modified Peggy Sue: Aang effed up his final battle with Ozai for reasons, his soul is sorta sent back in time to do-over from his iceberg wakeup. The problem is that this is not a perfect process and he doesn’t actually remember everything, only some very important faces, feelings, and concepts. The idea of Zuko as a dear friend/teacher/trusted person is one of these things. Thus, in defiance of all visible logic, Aang trusts S1!Zuko with his life and keeps his promise to go with him. In spite of his Water Tribe friends continuously trying to rescue him, Zhao continuously trying to capture him, and Zuko himself continuously trying to avoid being befriended by his ticket home. (”I’m your prisoner, not anyone else’s.”)  Intended to be a funny and heartwarming friendship/journey story taking a different angle at the series.

Status: tentatively outlined with very few scenes skeleton’d out, season 1 definite, endpoint undecided but can continue throughout the series. The premise mechanic is a bit flimsy; it’s less concrete since it’s supposed to be fluff, angst, and friendship.

dragon!Zuko AU fic Everybody has to write one of these, it’s like a law. Here’s mine: Ozai’s cruelty during the Agni Kai with his young son invoked the wrath of Agni, bringing down a magic from a time before memory and no one knows if it’s a blessing or a curse. When Zuko’s face burned, the fire didn’t stop there, and when the flames went out a young dragon was left on the floor of the arena. Uncle Iroh came to his rescue before the rest of Court could gather their wits, and then had to get him on a boat and out of the Fire Nation before Ozai could decide whether to make him into a pet or a trophy. Part 1: Rather than going on a mission to hunt the Avatar, Zuko and Iroh are on a road trip to keep Zuko alive and secret from the world (Ozai wants to usurp his brother’s title of Dragon). Iroh and his crew end up raising this stubborn angsty dragon prince; since he can’t turn back into a human he has to come to terms with being a dragon most of the time (which can’t talk), and he can often be Very Dramatic about it. Part 2: Years later, there’s rumors of the Avatar’s return and Zuko (who has sort of learned to take a human shape again) sees an opportunity to spare his own life and go home by offering his father a bigger prize than a dragon’s head...

Status: very general outline, some scenes conceived and a general plot/endpoint. Part 1 is in the 3 years pre-canon, Part 2 is during canon, including the grumpy dragon hiding out in Ba Sing Se.

Years Gone/Avatar kids AU S1/pre-canon rewrite. Some whim of fate cracks open Aang’s iceberg three years early (a storm, a passing boat, pure chance?) and he tumbles out into the world in the same year that Prince Zuko was banished. Despite befriending some Water Tribe children who would love to go adventuring with him, he’s got to get home to the Southern Air Temple and that’s where he runs into young, angry, raw-wounded Prince Zuko on his first visit. The tiny chase ensues up and down the entire temple. Aang will of course be friendly but escape. And this begins a probably-ill-advised adventure with a lot of kids who are entirely too young to be camping across the world on a bison (but it’s exciting!), chased by another kid entirely too young to be leading a manhunt. The Comet is three years away so there’s plenty of time for adults to tear their hair out over this. Zuko is a tiny ball of determination, rage, and tears. Aang feels bad for him and tries to make with the befriending even as he’s dodging the fire tantrums. Occasionally during adventures Zuko just gets scooped along for the ride in Appa’s saddle, no one’s sure how these weird truces get called, but Iroh sips tea and directs the crew on a new heading and they’ll pick up their prince at the bison’s next stopover most likely after the kid pendulums back the other way and remembers he’s trying to nab the Avatar again. So Zuko spends 50% of the time yelling and chasing the Avatar and 50% of the time sitting in Appa’s saddle learning tentative smiles and being offered berries and seal jerky, all the way from the South Pole to the North. (It’s slightly terrifying to realize that Aang and Zuko are currently the oldest kids in the party and are actually in charge of this terribly irresponsible expedition.)

Status: general outline, a couple of scenes written, particular S1 plot points, no endpoint yet. Possible bonus content: Toph and/or Suki come along for the ride because why not.

The Blacksmith of Ba Sing Se This is a very old Lu Ten Lives! story. Lu Ten always knew Uncle Ozai envied him, but secure in his position he didn’t really care about it until he took an arrow in the back during the final battle of the Siege of Ba Sing Se. With unknown assassins among his own ranks and no safe place to retreat in the melee, the wounded prince decides to fake his own death by hiding in the rubble, and then swapping clothes with a slain Earth Kingdom soldier half crushed in the ruin. At first, it’s only to get to safety until he can get to the bottom of this. But Lu Ten is picked up by the EK medic teams after the surprising withdrawal of the Fire Nation troops, and ends up spirited away into the heart of Ba Sing Se—where he discovers that it’s hard to escape. He also discovers a whole new world, and a whole new perspective, and, keeping out of the authorities’ notice, eventually manages to make a life for himself as Chang the Blacksmith, a humble craftsman with a wife and kids. This...is much nicer than war, death, and Court politics. Years later: refugee Zuko walking home from his job at Pao Family Tea Shop runs across a little boy crying over his broken toy in the dusty street...

Status: nebulous outline with a few particular sketched scenes. Takes place mostly in Ba Sing Se, outcome indeterminate. It could be mixed with the Lineages concept from below.

Lineages / not Ozai’s kid AU Not really a concrete plot so much as a campy idea from long before the Avatar comics blundered through Ursa’s backstory. There was a phase in the fandom (I think the Search comics drew off of that) where it was popular to imagine almost anyone else than Ozai as Zuko’s Secret Real Dad (the boy deserves a better father) and Iroh was often selected as primary candidate. (I know, Iroh is already the real dad and stepped into Ozai’s cold empty shoes like a pro.) Me, deciding that I had to be different, decided to offer up Lu Ten on that altar. Justifications: Iroh and Ozai looked to have a pretty extreme age difference and there was no solid age for Lu Ten at the time of his death, but his picture looks mature enough. Deals with family secrets and the political issues of muddying the lines of inheritance in the middle of a war. Also takes a crack at Ursa having a clever hand with Azulon’s last will and testament on Ozai’s behalf, with provisos.

Status: nothing really more than a vague concept without enough plot to stand on its own. Without a viable framework, it could work better/well folded into The Blacksmith story, above.

I’m open to opinions and/or asks about these. Trying to get a spark going! (I need to be working in a fandom, ANY fandom at this point! ^_^;; )

[auspicious-goblin]

an apology to korra

I re-watched the first season of Legend of Korra and man I did not give the show enough credit the first time around. I was caught up in the fandom hype and watched it every time it aired, but there were a lot of things I didn’t like about it that I held on to. 

First of all, I was not kind enough to the development of Korra’s character. I think the writers did a great job in the first season of giving her all those hot-headed, impulsive qualities, while using Republic City as a backdrop to introduce new fears that Korra had never known before (public opinion, Amon, growing responsibilities that can’t be solved with fists). I had a lot of qualms with the love triangle and how awkward it made me feel while watching it. I DO think Asami crashing into Mako on a motorbike as a plot device was kind of ugh, but honestly, the love triangle was developed pretty true to the messiness of teen emotions. The tensions did not last as long as I remember, although I do think Mako was a dick to Asami when confessing to Korra before resolving things post-Amon fight. 

The pro-bending at first was a problem for me too, with its quick 30 second matches, but now I’m seeing that it couldn’t have been easy for a twenty minute episode to show an entire match (this isn’t shonen anime). The animators and writers made the game simple enough to follow without thorough explanation to give us some nice bending moments in a city whose rules and structure made bending limited, as we saw with Korra’s arrest in episode one. 

I also thought the whole “Amon taking bending away” was a gratuitous cash and grab from last season to work as the main point of conflict. BUT HONESTLY. It’s really interesting to think about. There’s a post I read on this site that was like “the best villains are the ones you can see yourself agreeing with” and Amon is really compelling in that way. Benders DO cause pain. They cause war. They were very much segregated from each other in a way that caused problems in atla (Ba Sing Se getting away with brainwashing). And for Korra, whose entire identity has been nothing but bending, being the avatar, and learning to fight, the threat of her bending being taken away is great opposition for her. It’s a terrifying thing. I also had this gripe that he “didn’t really do anything to her” throughout the season, but this re-watch showed me he did do a lot of damage. Even though he physically didn’t get to Korra right away, he planted a seed of fear psychologically, and as his power grew, Korra’s confidence diminished. I was pissed the first time I watched when she got ambushed by him and he didn’t take her bending or hurt her, but he did make a good point—taking away Korra’s bending would have made her a martyr, so he scared the shit out of her instead. With blood bending up his sleeve, of course he’d be confident in his ability to capture her again. 

Also, chi blocking gloves for non benders is such a good idea and I did not appreciate the poetic justice. It raises a lot of questions about how non benders should be able to defend themselves. And why shouldn’t they? The “cabbage corp” we discover is in cahoots with Amon, which is an awesome tribute to the non bender in atlas, and shows that non bending bystanders have more power. 

I was also that jerk that was disappointed that three elements had already been learned by Korra at the start. But how is that fair? She’d been discovered early by the White Lotus, already bending three of the elements, though rudimentarily, so of course she’d have more training and structure than Aang did. Why would the writers want to continue with an episodic “how is she going to learn this next skill” when that was the main premise and drive of atlas? I was very unfair to Korra. Also, Aang had trouble with earth, but learned it within one episode. Korra has to have an ongoing battle season one to learn air and spiritual connection (although her spiritual reconnection at the very end of season one is rushed and a plot device to give every character a happy ending). 

It’s great that Korra favors fire, not only because it shows that the avatar doesn’t have to stay loyal to their “origin” element, but because in atla Aang and Katara didn’t always face up against fire on their journey, and Zuko wasn’t an ally until the last ten episodes or so of the series. Fire bending in the hands of the protagonist is cool! 

Don’t get me wrong, the show is not perfect. I wish Korra hadn’t done Bolin like that. I wish there were more QUEER FOLKS (not just Asami and Korra kinda getting together at the end of the series. Like clear representation throughout. Although I’ll be re-watching the rest of the series to get fresh eyes on that particular development). I wish some things were more polished. For example, it would have been AWESOME if Korra had been able to get Amon to waterbed in a fight BEFORE Tarrlok revealed it in a backstory. Seeing it in action would have knocked my socks off, but Tarrlok’s boring narrative reveal is less exciting. Naga being able to break the metal bars of the cage that was holding Iroh and Bolin was a bit implausible as well. The ending is pretty rushed as far as the revelation with Amon, Korra losing bending, her and Mako reconciling love (and forgetting all about Asami and her feelings which is bleh) and Amon & Tarrlok’s death. There should have been some foreshadowing or preemptive seeds planted sooner in the show. Like Korra losing her bending sooner. Or no love triangle (Asami should have been a lesbian pining for Korra! I stand by this). It might have made the ending more well-rounded. Or more scenes of Korra attempting to reach her spirituality! She didn’t have to work for it at all, and in the end she can just magically restore others’ bending. I can understand her past avatar lives giving her bending back, but the avatar state is supposed to be ultra hard mode.

Anyway. Point is, before LoK season one, I re-watched avatar the last airbender and realized it’s so hard to compete with in terms of the time the writers had to plan the story and execute it. I was not fair to Korra, her writers, and her animation team. 

[araeph]

Conversation with prune-balled-blog

{NOTE: This is unedited, so please excuse spelling and grammar errors. With one exception--colons, which automatically bold anything in chat, have been replaced with [colon] where necessary to preserve the original formatting. Also, this is NOT an invitation to harass prune-balled-blog. Please do not @ him about this.}

prune-balled-blog: Sorry for the confusion. Should asked this. Do you know WHO talked with Aaron Ehasz?

Should have*

araeph: There are various tumblr and message board users who claimed to have talked to him. Some on the Kataang side[colon] http[colon]//araeph.tumblr.com/post/152660740000/web-archive

Some on the Zutara side[colon] http[colon]//araeph.tumblr.com/post/159119946362/kataraandzuko-terminaschosenone

But I don't know any of them by name.

prune-balled-blog: Thanks for the reply.

araeph: You're welcome. [smiley]

prune-balled-blog: It's all fake by the way. Aaron confirmed it on an Reddit AMA. The whole "Season 4/I had a different vision" thing was debunked.

Also, this for good measure.

[two screenshots inserted of reddit AMA]

araeph: Yes, I saw that post. However, what he said was the studio asked him to think up ideas for Season 4 and that he discussed them with Mike. So he did come up with ideas for it, even if they never went into production.

I also would call The Legend of Korra daring and beautiful. I just don't think it was any _good_.

prune-balled-blog: But those ideas were never outspoken.

It's all smoke and mirrors.

araeph: You mean, he never spoke to anyone else about Book 4? We don't know anything about who he did or didn't talk do between the period when Nick asked him to think up suggestions and the time when Bryke shut it down.

Of course, neither do we know that he said any of the things he allegedly said in those tumblr posts. [smiley]

prune-balled-blog: It's very easy to infer that he said absolutely nothing to anyone about anything.

He certainly would have gotten into more detail, but he didn't.

araeph: It's certainly possible. But nothing is certain.

prune-balled-blog: I mean, i would say the chances of Unicorns existing are pretty low.

araeph: How do you know he would "certainly" have gone into more detail?

prune-balled-blog: Because he seems to know of "Fake interviews", and i'm sure he would been able to go into further detail explaining that he didn't discuss any details of a possible Season 4 with some random. My point, is that had those claims been true, he would feel the need to address them further to clear further confusion. But his post implies the entire shebang was a ruse.

prune-balled-blog: There's no need to speculate any further. It was all a big hoax made by Zutara shippers putting Aaron on a pedestal to expand on their agenda. And people who didn't like Korra.

araeph: I think the opposite is true. If he'd said, "I never discussed it with anyone but Mike, and all the interviews from fans are fake," that would have been easy. He said there were some fake interviews out there, and that he did discuss it with Mike, and that's all we know.

Since it was suggested at the studio level, no it was not a hoax, and no one ever put Ehasz on a pedestal.

prune-balled-blog: I'm going to have to disagree with you there.

prune-balled-blog: And oh, yes they certainly do.

araeph: That's fine if you disagree.

prune-balled-blog: Look everywhere. People praise Ehasz as the sole reason why Avatar was good only because he was head writer.

prune-balled-blog: This whole thing reeked of angry fans methodically building a boogeyman because they were unhappy with how things went for their favorite show.

araeph: Actually, it's more of a process of elimination.

Before I saw Legend of Korra, I too thought Bryke were the be-all-end-all of Avatar.

Then LOK's writing let me down, and I started realizing there were people with power to influencing the writing of ATLA.

prune-balled-blog: You don't have to go through the motions. I know exactly your point of view.

araeph: Maybe it was Tim Hedrick or Joshua Hamilton? But they went on to make Voltron, and while that show was good for a while, it's headed off the rails now.

prune-balled-blog: Yeah but were we REALLY shocked when things didn't turn out perfect? Any show would have a stark difference in quality had an army of writers left a project.

araeph: Yes, it would.

prune-balled-blog: Assuming Korra would be just as good as Avatar, due to some naive 'understanding' that Bryke is the "end-all-be-all" is just silly.

araeph: Since almost everyone outside the fandom knows Bryke as /the/ creators of the show, and since they were the executive producers, it actually makes sense.

It just happened to be wrong.

prune-balled-blog: All you had to do was look at who was in charge, and marginalize your expectations accordingly.

prune-balled-blog: Actually, not entirely. It's dumb to assume two guys from Rhode Island (?) who had no prior experience running a show or writing a script, that they would churn out gold a second time without the 15 or so extra writers on board.

Not to mention a missing Head Writer.

What this fandom did to Bryke was shameful.

They kicked them in the dirt and spat on them for making something they wanted.

Aaron was a talented guy, and likely a massive contributor to what made Avatar a great piece.

prune-balled-blog: But what people did to demonize these poor guys was a complete and utter disgrace.

araeph: If you think fans (most of whom have no experience in television) should have known better than the studio heads who banked on EXACTLY the churning out gold a second time premise that we did, I don't know what to tell you.

araeph: Bryke aren't poor, and they're not victims.

prune-balled-blog: Would you forgive a thief for committing a crime because he didn't know stealing was wrong? This should be pretty obvious, no?

They certainly aren't villains.

araeph: Hahaha, so people who are ignorant of the details of television production are comparable to thieves?

prune-balled-blog: And if you think so, you're delusional.

araeph: Let me make this simple. Bryke accepted the credit for being the overall creators of the show.

prune-balled-blog: It was a hyperbolic example. Should have been obvious.

araeph: They got the accolades, so they get all the criticism for not living up to expectations.

araeph: Thievery is not an exaggeration of not delving into production details from a medium you're not an expert in.

prune-balled-blog: That's bizarrely unfair.

araeph: It's called "with great power comes great responsibility".

prune-balled-blog: I know. I saw Spider-Man.

And honestly, the people who spread this bull online should have listened to Uncle Ben.

araeph: How much power do a bunch of online fans really have, compared to successful showrunners who can snap their fingers and get a press release into the news?

prune-balled-blog: A lot, actually. For example, when Microsoft announced the Xbox One, they had a slew of controversial shit under their belt. After 2 days of nonstop harassment from fans, they reneged on that deal. And boom. Huuuuge change.

The internet is a powerful tool.

prune-balled-blog: Granted, that was a good change. Considering Microsoft went out of their way to enslave gamers wallets and playful freedom.

araeph: True. But for every example like that, Microsoft as a thousand other unpopular practices that they continue with no matter how many people complain.

araeph: I don't know of Bryke ever admitting to changing something about the way they took care of business, just because people complained.

prune-balled-blog: I would happen to agree with that. But the bottom line is that the internet is a tool.

prune-balled-blog: My main point is this. Pleading ignorance to how a show is made is not a serviceable answer for what fans have said/lied about with Bryke. That's all.

araeph: I disagree. When a show is marketed by creators like Bryke as a true successor to their previous work, and they make NO attempt to tamp down expectations themselves, they can't blame people who are not industry professionals for believing the hype that THEY and the studio they worked with spread far and wide.

araeph: And if your argument is, "Well you should have known better than to believe what they said," then you can't also make the argument of "poor Bryke" if the latter were intentionally misleading and exaggerating.

prune-balled-blog: What they said? No, i said you should have been able to infer you miiiight just be getting something a taaad bit different if you only saw they were returning, and no one else.

araeph: But this is exactly the problem. You're blaming fans for not reading between the lines, and not Bryke, who put out those very lines, despite the latter having vastly more power and experience at their disposal.

araeph: They, as showrunners, had a greater responsibility to inform fans of what LOK would really be like than the fans had to research and acquaint themselves with the intricacies of making television.

prune-balled-blog: Let me ask you something. Is it probably a fair/good idea to create a fake hoax that basically claimed Ehasz had been at odds with Bryke the entire production, claimed a Season 4 was supposed to be made, and that he had different plans for Korra had be been involved?

Bryke said Korra was going to be a sequel in the future, with a new Avatar. They were also the only confirmed writers. You can infer A LOT from that.

araeph: If any (or all of those interviews) are hoaxes, they should be condemned and the people who made them up should be criticized for it. I personally still believe there was some tension, but stating my opinion, even if it's based on speculation, isn't dishonest unless I pass it off as fact.

prune-balled-blog: That's fair enough.

araeph: As for what they said about Korra ...

http[colon]//comicsalliance.com/the-legend-of-korra-michael-dante-dimartino-bryan-konietzko-interview/

:I really love when Korra arrives in Republic City and sees Aang's statue for the first time. There's a moment where she's almost in a trance. She's in awe of Aang and also wants to become as great an Avatar as he was. The Legend of Korra is a little like that for us. We know we have a big legacy to live up to, but hopefully this series will be even better than the original."

[cyborg-squid]

Ramblings #2

Ramblings #2: TAZ ending and Wheel of Time and Critical Role

i’m like really nervous about the TAZ ending because I really really don’t want it to end. i know the show won’t be over, they’ll be doing some new game or something like that after the Balance Arc is over, but i really don’t want THB’s story to end. weirdly enough, it feels a bit similar to Wheel of Time ending. when i finished it, WoT had been over for a little while and technically it had already ended and i was just finishing it, but it’s been like 3~4 months since i finished it and i’m still really emotional about it. it’ll be different with TAZ, since i’ll be having the ending alongside all the other fans and WoT holds a very different place in my heart than TAZ does (it took me like years to get through WoT and some parts of it were a slog but the parts that were good were great (it’s weird compairing it to TAZ on that level because TAZ doesn’t have very many ‘bad’ parts and pretty much every moment is baller) and it was 14 books long and occupies a whole shelf on my bookshelf but it feels very impactful to me, more than just a good piece of entertainment and it’s great that i’m affected by that at my age (19) because you always hearabout the books people read as kids being the ones that influence who they are, and also as soon as i finished it i found a bunch of great heavy/power metal songs that sound kinda like fantasy ballads or tavern songs, and also it’s over over. like, the theme of cycles and rebirth run throughout the series and each book started with the same line and it’s is so so so fucking sad to me that it ended with them saying that it’s completely done and while the cycle will continue and the wheel of time will turn, we’re not gonna see any more. and at least the TV show that hopefully will eventually come out, whether it’s good or bad, will it least help slake my hunger for any more Wheel of Time content) and this long parentheses made me lose track of the sentence but i essentially want, after the Balance Arc is over, some great heavy metal songs or tavern songs about it. 

Also, Critical Role! man, i still really like it, but the most recent episode was really fucking boring. and i thought VM’s story would have been over like 10 episodes ago uggghh. like, the characters are fine, but it feels like they’re retreading the same old ground over and over again. and everyone gets upset over a character death, but they’re never gonna die! they have always come back! and i know there’s reasons for that and the actors don’t want to let go over their favorite characters that they’ve played for years, but it makes for bad storytelling. the only moment that came close was Scanlan’s departure. IDK if it’s just Sam Riegel’s comedic genius, but Scanlan and Tary have been some of the best things in Critical Role to me recently. It might be because they were sort of new situatuons, with a departure more shocking and heartbreaking than a death, and the introduction of a new character, which changes up the group dynamic and we get to see his development and backstory firsthand rather than just hearing about it. VM has been really...unrelatable for a while (though that might just be most of the other D&D shows/campaigns feature more murder-hobo style characters rather than like actual heroes) since they started off at a high level and have only gotten higher and started off also as big well known heroes and have only gotten more popular and heroic. no offense to Liam or Vax fans, but i think he’s probably my least favorite character. my favorites are probably Scanlan and Grog, though that might be cause they tend to be more comic relief. I wasn’t a huge fan of Grog originally, because the low-intelligence barbarian feels a bit overdone, but he’s grown on me, especially after the Battle Royale where he beat pretty much everyone. I know a lot of these problems aren’t really anyones fault and are just the result of playing D&D in front of an audience (for example, them going through Elysium was really boring to me the descriptions seemed to go very long but that was necessary more for the players than for the audience) and can’t be helped, but I just really wanted to vent. I still love it, though it has been kind of preempted by TAZ at the moment

I’m dreading the TAZ finale but the Critical Role finale can’t come soon enough. I am really looking forward to their new campaign, with new characters we get to witness from the beginning, in terms of group dynamic, power level, social status, and backstory, and to see the players show off some different styles of  roleplaying and acting. On a side note, I really love half-elves but CR almost has too many half-elves. In the new campaign, I’d like to see more tieflings, dragonborn, and maybe some dwarves. And more class diversity! I know a lot of them have multiclassed, and Scanlan is a good caster, but they really need a proper spellcaster. And maybe they could try out some of the Unearthed Arcana stuff, like they did with Tary’s Artificer class. The current CR campaign feels stuck in the same ol’ same ol’ , and I feel their are a lot more possibilities in the new campaign. 

I really just fear being as emotionally hurt by the TAZ ending as I was by the WoT ending. WoT had a very happy ending, with pretty much everyone surviving (with a few very sad exceptions) and the protagonist even cheating death, but most of the sadness comes from having to leave this amazing world I eventually grew to love over the course of 14 books and not getting to see what happens next. I would have preferred to see a book set in the same world but 100 or so years in the future (like Alloy of Law but not like Legend of Korra (I couldn’t watch LoK because while we get to see the world ATLA characters made, it hurt to see some of them alive and in it while others aren’t. In Alloy of Law it’s different cause pretty much all the characters from the previous books are either dead and figures of legend and revered or are gods/demi-gods and involved in the mysteries of the Cosmere.))and just sort of see the tale of a new Dragon and see what world the WoT characters left for us. Becuase it’s whole thing is that it’s not supposed to end and the Wheel of Time will always be turning and the Light will always be fighting against the Shadow and it’s somehow both very fitting and antithetical at the same time to have an ending like that. Also I imagine that some of the WoT characters would now be Heroes of the Horn as well. The TAZ ending will also sting, even though the “show” will continue, the Balance Arc will be over and they’ll be moving on to new games. While I may not exactly miss the world of TAZ I will really miss the characters and their story. Now it might have an epilogue with a “And the all lived happily ever after” moment (which I would work for the nature and story of TAZ but for other works I would prefer an ending that fits and is thematically coherent with the rest of the narrative than one that is just “happy”, like you wouldn’t expect Game of Thrones to have a happy ending but I’ll be satisfied as long as it fits with the rest of the series) that might kind of help with the metaphorical pain. And i kind of betting that they will probably have something like that, given the nature of the show, their characters who they’re very invested, and their fanbase. actually now sort of talking it out i’m less nervous about the TAZ ending than I was when i started the post and it probably won’t hurt as much as the WoT ending and at least we’ll be getting more content afterwards. 

jesus i spent like an hour on this and it’s so fucking long wow