#esp as it relates to aang

[comradekatara]

iroh’s always like “destiny is real, but also no one knows what their true destiny is for sure, but also it’s genetic and ontological and immutable, but also you can choose who you want to be, and fate is a tricky thing, because it’s divinely ordained, but also, it’s fake, and you cannot escape your birthright, prince zuko, but also i am going to escape my birthright by moving to another country and opening a teashop, byeeeeee!!!!” and then people wonder why zuko is so fucking confused all the time.

[lovegrowsart]

i'll be honest every time i see atla fandom defend characters' unacknowledged flaws/mistakes/underdevelopment using some comic panel or another i have to laugh, as if bryke constantly relying on extratextual material to atla and tlok to try and fix the holes they write themselves into isn't a massive indicator they're generally quite bad at writing a good and cohesive story on their own/when they insist on complete creative control 🫠

[woodlaflababab]

Aang's forgiveness @ Zuko always hits me so hard and I think it's because it's more than forgiveness. I think Aang truly understands where Zuko is coming from on an almost painful level.

I mean like, if someone told Aang there was a way he could go back home, that there was a way to bring back all the people he lost, how much would Aang be willing to do for that? How much of himself would he lose and sacrifice just for that chance?

Also, when Zuko comes to ask to join them the second time, he says "I've been through a lot in the past few years, and it's been hard. But I'm realizing that I had to go through all those things to learn the truth. I thought I had lost my honor, and that somehow my father could return it to me."

This sounds like the mash up of a few things Aang has said, from when he met baby Hope, "I've been going through a really hard time lately," (a hard time that has led to him doing things he regrets) and when he woke up after Ba Sing Se "I need to redeem myself. I need my honor back." (An idea that led to him making a bad decision) Aang knows that it has been the process of going through these struggles that have made him who he is.

And then to quote some tags from @theavatarandthefirelord from this post "#he's thinking about their relationship esp since their moments in The Storm/The Blue Spirit #also the way aang sees himself reflected in zuko as well #primarily with him burning katara but also moments like in The Desert #and losing control in the Avatar State"

Aang also relates to Zuko's anger issues. He intimately knows the mindset that leads someone to do bad things and, unlike the others (for example Katara) Aang also understand the guilt and regret that comes after it, the same guilt and regret Zuko shows in this scene.

Zuko doesn't just explain himself, he explains Aang as well.

I love the forgiveness trope that's so often featured in this ship, esp in fics, and part of why I love it is because it's not blind forgiveness, it's 'I've been there, and I could've gone down similar paths given different circumstances, to forgive you is to forgive myself'

And I just think that's so beautiful.

[princessmotif]

to me, zuko’s relationship with toph is so antagonistic on his behalf because she’s the one member of the gaang (outside of suki who he simply doesn’t consider to be in the gaang tbh) who he least empathizes with, at large and in relation to her trauma. the reason for this is that unlike aang’s, katara’s, and sokka’s traumas which he sympathizes with + connects his trauma to in various ways of arguable aptness, zuko is uncomfortable with the striking closeness of toph’s trauma to his because of how class and privilege factor into their both of their trauma. aang, katara, and sokka are not privileged in any real way, esp not one that reminds him at all of his situation re status and privilege.

zuko finds aang, katara, and sokka's trauma relatable on a level that makes him feel equally victim of the fire nation; that's why he draws lines between kya being murdered in an ongoing genocide to protect katara and ursa, who was certainly not anti imperialism from anything we've seen of her, disappearing to protect him from his abusive father and grandfather. both situations are unpleasant and involve maternal sacrifice, but one is a domestic ordeal while the other is an act of racial violence and genocide. the connection exists, but the context is radically different. still, zuko likes that he can draw those parallels between his trauma and katara's. it allows him more room to feel like a better victim and arguably a bigger one in the context of the war, despite the fact that his status means he did in many ways benefit from his family and country being the perpetrators of it and his own personal role in it throughout books 1, 2, and 3.

i will give the obligatory disclaimer that zuko is a child soldier and he does side with the oppressed in the end, but he himself is not oppressed by the fire nation's genocidal war as a fire nation prince, let alone when he is the fire nation crown prince. he is someone who directly benefited from this war. yes, his father was abusive, yes, he was exiled for 2 and a half years, but he was still afforded many privileges because of the war. that does not negate his domestic suffering or his political exile, but those privileges still came about because of the suffering of others, including the gaang.

this is a nuanced situation. it is extremely complex and hard to accept the simultaneous truths at play here, even for adults, let alone for an extremely traumatized, black and white thinking 16 year old boy. zuko needs to be a victim in the context of the war as well as his family to alleviate his guilt about his participation in it prior to joining the gaang. he needs to relate his trauma to theirs. i will say that he doesn't ever seem to attempt this with suki nor does she offer her trauma to him, but that's more about both the writers and zuko not caring much if at all for her as a person.

but toph receives clear rejection from zuko when she tries to relate to him. her attempts to endear herself to him and to open up to him are shot down. why? surely toph suffered because of the war too. she's from the earth kingdom. but she never suffered a personal loss that zuko respected or related to. toph is not given any dead relatives. she was abused but not in a way zuko would understand, and her abuse did not negate that she lived a relatively comfortable life for being in the earth kingdom during the war. she was rich, she was cared for, she was shielded by privilege in many ways. while zuko is of course far richer than toph, he doesn't want to confront that reality. he doesn't want her privilege to make his obvious. he needs to focus on his suffering, his abusive father, his struggling to fit in as heir, and his time in exile and poverty. he can't accept the idea of those struggles coexisting with his privilege, so he can't accept the idea of toph's either. she has to just be whining about nothing. she has to be a nuisance not to be taken seriously. otherwise, he has to turn and face things about himself he doesn't want to be true.

could he grow to care about her and face his own privilege in the future? sure. but he doesn't in canon.

[ultfreakme]

Nah Zutara is def happening. Two of the writers (Omashu and Into the Dark) are Zutara shippers and liking Zutara content all the time esp about Kiawentiio and Dallas. The Netflix accounts are pushing Zutara like crazy. Albert Kim is an enemies to lovers enthusiast and said that the original endgame ships are up in the air.

I am trying so very hard to be objective about this and so I am going to tell you what I'm seeing in the nicest way possible but I'm really sorry if I can't:

I've checked the official Netflix account, I follow it on twitter, nothing afaik. The closest I found was picture sets but they did it for Dallas and Gordon, Dallas and Ian, Elizabeth Yu and Kiawentiio too, and obviously Gordon and Kiawentiio, all the duos. There's a video clip of Kiawentiio throwing out a question card about if Katara likes Zuko and their first immediate reaction is laughing (and not in a way that's confirming it- like Dallas was about to clap and Ian gave a thumbs-up, not encouraging and they conclude it with saying a lukewarm 'no kinda well' likely because it's spoilers for season 3).

Kiawentiio right after an interviewer mentioned Zutara, she said and I quote ; "What Avatar are you watching?"

Albert Kim on Kataang:

It's being delayed to S2 because the age difference looks way too obvious in live action. It's still happening, just later when the actors look closer in age. They heavily hint towards future Kataang by comparing Aang and Katara to Tui and La on-screen (Yue saying the ocean will forever search for its counterpart while panning between Aang and Katara whos is reaching out for him, and Sokka and Yue where Sokka's begging Yue to stay- it's very on-the nose).

The OG show also had creatives who like Zutara, they inserted bait for it in the chibi shorts but nothing came of it in any canon and everything is steadfastly for Kataang. Heck, currently the cast are pushing Zukka all the time, doesn't mean it's going to be canon(Dallas Liu and Ian Ousley saying "hey ship our characters!" word-for-word does not equal Zuko and Sokka are going to date for real in the show).

It's disappointing that fanon ships aren't canon, but that's just what you sign up for when shipping fanon. You are not going to to get what you want, neither am I.

Kataang is the heart of the show, nothing will take that away and I think it's best to just, make peace with that instead of looking too hard into behind-the-scenes and cast stuff hoping THIS is when it's going to happen(I play along with the Zukka bait because it's funny, not because I think it's going to be real).

Also, writers liking Zutara content? Fine, do you, have a blast! It DOES get weird when they're sincerely promoting Dallas and Kiawentiio as an item though because they met when she was like 15 and he was 19/20, and now she's 17 while he's 22 now. She's a child, he's an adult pretty much their entire work relationship. That's really freaking weird. EDIT: Dallas and Ian, who are the actual adults in the cast have been actively redirecting all ship-related conversations towards themselves and their characters because they CAN handle whatever flame wars erupt from that, meanwhile Gordon and Kiawentiio are children so they shouldn't even be in the discussion as actors when it comes to the fictional ships.

[strawberrytalia]

ask game! 🥰💚

top 5 foods? (hard lmao)

top 5 non DC characters?

OOOH LETS GOOOOO

Top 5 foods!

Thai red curry is such a comfort food for me omg. I mean I love Thai food in general (esp shrimp Tom Yum Soup) because it’s like not TOO spicy for my whitewashed Bengali ass, but it’s sooooo good and flavorful

Caprese Salad, or even caprese sandwiches. Summer vibes iykyk, and omg I love basil. Pesto is also my fav condiment (if it counts) so all of that combined is 💯

Aloo samosas! Esp when my grandma makes them homemade. We use flour + water to make the dough, then fill it with spiced potatoes and fry them. Not the healthiest lmao but def my fav cultural food!

Shawarma!!! SUCH a comfort food omg, I have so many good memories tied with it, and also it’s an easy food solution bc it’s always halal lol

Tteokbokki (korean rice cakes)!! I love Korean food, and this is 100x better than ramen I promise 😫 Its SO GOOD

Top 5 non-dc characters!!

1. AANG

HE MEANS EVERYTHING TO ME!!!! 🥺 I love him so so so much!!!! He’s always been my fave in ATLA, he’s so sweet and kind and GOOD, he’s not perfect but he tries his best and he lost everything and he’s been robbed of his loved ones and culture but he doesn’t give up GRAHHHH

2. TOHRU

MY ANGEL. MY DARLING. MY BABY TOHRU. I love her so much!!! I’m not exaggerating when I say Tohru improved my mental health more than therapy ever could. She makes me want to be a better person lol and i know that sounds crazy but fruits basket fans know what I mean 😭🫶 Heartwrenching in the best way possible. She’s so selfless and compassionate.

3. DIANE

UGH Diane is so relatable and real, and she’s probably the fictional character i’m most similar to. I loved her story in the show so much, and I really love how 3-dimensional she feels.

4. Billy Butcher

Okay no more nice characters lmao, we’re going to the opposite of the spectrum. THIS MAN IS SO FUCKED UP 😭😭😭 but he was also my favorite part of The Boys fr. I find him interesting in like a social experiment way lmfao. He’s also so funny in the worst way, and I really love the chaotic element he drives into the show, even if it ends up horribly.

5. Aragorn

I know what you’re thinking, Zaina why are there two white men in your top 5 😭 I was trying to think of a good mix of media or else it would be all anime. Anyways…I love pr much everybody in LoTR, but he’s special to me and he always has been.

[ungirthed]

want to make a place for my thots of anything with no viewers if i remember to come on here. i cant believe i keep having to make these since i end up getting followers and interacting. but i'm an adult with shit to do irl and things to fight and this fandom is almost 20y old so idt i will do that. lol. just finished atla like 20y too late cos my parents hated me and my bro watching tv growing up. journaling/blogging thots!!! ugh. i wish i didnt hve adhd and dyspraxia lmao gonna split them up so i dont get overwhelmed reading my bullshit. if u stumble upon this it doesnt make sense sry

politically a lot of critique that i have to think about. character and plot wise it was pretty good and tight esp for a kids show. amazing female characters. can't wait for the bi agenda from LoK but i may take a while for that. p much i have to say these are great characters and i could talk a lot about them but i'm shocked at what i took away with regards to the romantic rships from the show and the characterization via it.

re love lines:

i wish kataang was written better in the show (MY opinion if any1 stumbles upon this). i don't ~ship~ zutara bc i am an adult and even back then no cos who cares lol but i see the appeal and am attracted to that. i do think we have to retire the trope of the "both sides but falling in love" not because it isn't possible but because post 10/7 (free palestine) i don't think it's worth it to look at it this way anymore. until someone proves themselves not worthy of death because of the resistance fighting back then they NEED TO PROVE THEMSELVES IMMEDIATELY. no more of this i'm in a concentration camp but he's a nazi bullshit. no more i'm a slave but he's the slave master's son (i mean in this case u could have been related but no1 listens to me!) it's repetitive, reductive, and untrue.

that being said: i just never care about the typical bildungsroman love story. you see the One Person bc i guess the kids tasked with saving the world have to be monk-adjacent (in aang's case quite literally) bc understandably theyre so fucked up lol. but it's always sooooo boring to me esp if it's f/m.

katara is such a complex character and mae whitman brings a wisdom to her voice that can be frustrating to connect with for me but her character arc, her strength, her MIND, her heart, and her fists. i think ppl probs like zutara the most when shes' going batshit and no one can understand aang's perspective. but aang is one of a kind and the cutest smartest sweetest loser ever. not my fav char but i love him. he's like if i had a younger brother and not an older one lmao.

of course they're (kataang) together. they were meant to be from the moment they saw e/o and that stupid cave kiss...this is why you don't wait until 32 to watch this lol.

but nothing surprised me and it was meant to be the way it was written. that's also why i find it understandable but shocking people in the universe and apparently outside of it were surprised at aang's turmoil over ozai. like are you joking? he's a 12 year old vegetarian monk. which: i loved his vegetarianism and obviously he was going to be but very casually they put in a line that hints as to why he would be and why many of us are...so i am dedicated to it again.

so wrt that and zutara...the episode where he's with her with the dude that killed her moms and his support of her i can see why people like them. the cave ep obviously but this show is veryyyyy free with affection i noticed and there's some jealousy but they all get over that pretty quickly. i read some of the comics and i could see different rships happening and i definitely think this world lends to queerness (me personally i love monogamy but a certain type lol so not rly interested in much poly but i do like a throuple) but i could see most being bi+ or having identified as that in the past, or labeling themselves but nto limiting. that's just an aside for meee...

so like katara was being katara. i could see suki and zuko being romantic but also a deep friendship that could be deeply affectionate either affect or physically or both bc that's who these ppl are. katara is a very intense person and that's part of why she can be annoying. that's part of why they ALL can be overwhelming. theyre intense, traumatized, repressed kids and teens with mostly good hearts (or just a person so disconnected from herself but also a fascist so u know. her going nuts lol)

hmm what else oh yea. so i came away with maiko......gjpasig the show was paced and plotted well. i am a libertarian communist (anarcho-commie) so MANNNNN i wish they did better on that front but again i must remember i am 32, ancom, and the world is diff. but anyway lmao so team avatar is who i would want to spend time with but i got so interested in mai and ty lee (mailee...). that beach ep conversation was so good, that whole ep, their argument. it was extremely teenage and showed how fucked up they all are. how confused and fucking lost and pathetic. how small their lives are. how boring....so mai...

[fuckyouozai]

rewatching atla & lok and tbh bumi being the "unserious"/"class clown" sibling makes sense to me. he was the first born, & based on the photo of he and his siblings as kids, is significantly older than them. if katara & aang had him young.. think of all the strife they were dealing w/ in a post ozai world. plus, the trauma of their own respective childhoods. i could see bumi sensing how stressed they were & wanting to keep things lighthearted. plus the worlds disappointment, people were probably rude af, in learning that aang's first born wasnt a bender. even with how supportive aang & katara were, i could see how that would make him feel like he needs to prove himself. the kataang kids & dynamic is so interesting to me.

guau i've had this blog for 7 years and this is my first ask lol. i tend to agree, i think that lines up with my views on bumi: https://www.tumblr.com/fuckyouozai/716141332609056768/once-again-thinking-about-how-bumi-was-born-when?source=share

esp if you consider that aang too has this tendency to avoid to push away the hard scary stuff so bumi sort of picks up that habit from him (paired with the fact that aang canonically has Perhaps Trauma Related Nightmares and i think he continued to have them as he gets older, which bumi would see and want to help alleviate by keeping the mood light)

i think overall re: bumi kya and tenzin lok sold me on their personalities, bumi being the class clown kya being the responsible one who also picks up and ditches sometimes and tenzin being the fuddy duddy annoying one (LOL) all tracks with their childhood. it's just that it makes no sense to suddenly turn around and make aang neglectful of kya and bumi that is just. not the aang we know

so yeah. agree. read my fics they've got plenty of young bumi

[army-of-mai-lovers]

in which I get progressively angrier at the various tropes of atla fandom misogyny

tbh I think it would serve all of us to have a larger conversation about the specific ways misogyny manifests in this fandom, because I’ve seen a lot of people who characterize themselves as feminists, many of whom are women themselves, discuss the female characters of atla/lok in misogynistic ways, and people don’t talk about it enough. 

disclaimer before I start: I’m not a woman, I’m an afab nonbinary person who is semi-closeted and thus often read as a woman. I’m speaking to things that I’ve seen that have made me uncomfy, but if any women (esp women existing along other axes of oppression, e.g. trans women, women of color, disabled women, etc) want to add onto this post, please do!

“This female character is a total badass but I’m not even a little bit interested in exploring her as a human being.” 

I’ve seen a lot of people say of various female characters in atla/lok, “I love her! She’s such a badass!” now, this statement on its own isn’t misogynistic, but it represents a pretty pervasive form of misogyny that I’ve seen leveled in large part toward the canon female love interests of one or both of the members of a popular gay ship (*cough* zukka *cough*) I’m going to use Suki as an example of this because I see it with her most often, but it can honestly be applied to nearly every female character in atla/lok. Basically, people will say that they stan Suki, but when it comes time to engage with her as an actual character, they refuse to do it. I’ve seen meta after meta about Zuko’s redemption arc, but I so rarely see people engage with Suki on any level beyond “look at this cool fight scene!” and yeah, I love a cool Suki fight scene as much as anybody else, but I’m also interested in meta and headcanons and fics about who she is as a person, when she isn’t an accessory to Sokka’s development or doing something cool. of course, the material for this kind of engagement with Suki is scant considering she doesn’t have a canon backstory (yet) (don’t let me down Faith Erin Hicks counting on you girl) but with the way I’ve seen people in this fandom expand upon canon to flesh out male characters, I know y’all have it in you to do more with Suki, and with all the female characters, than you currently do. frankly, the most engagement I’ve seen with Suki in mainstream fandom is justifying either zukki (which again, is characterizing her in relation to male characters, one of whom she barely interacts with in canon) or one of the Suki wlw pairings. which brings me to--

“I conveniently ship this female character whose canon love interest is one of the members of my favorite non-canon ship with another female character! gay rights!” 

now, I will admit, two of my favorite atla ships are yueki and mailee, and so I totally understand being interested in these characters’ dynamics, even if, as is the case with yueki, they’ve never interacted canonically. however, it becomes a problem for me when these ships are always in the background of a zukka fic. at some point, it becomes obvious that you like this ship because it gets either Zuko or Sokka’s female love interests out of the way, not because you actually think the characters would mesh well together. It’s bad form to dislike a female character because she gets in the way of your gay ship, so instead, you find another girl to pair her off with and call it a day. to be clear, I’m not saying that everybody who ships either mailee or yueki (or tysuki or maisuki or yumai or whatever other wlw rarepair involving Zuko or Sokka’s canon love interests) is nefariously trying to sideline a female character while acting publicly as if she’s is one of their faves--far from it--but it is noteworthy to me how difficult it is to find content that centers wlw ships, while it’s incredibly easy to find content that centers zukka in which mailee and/or yueki plays a background role. 

also, notice how little traction wlw Katara ships gain in this fandom. when’s the last time you saw yuetara on your dash? there’s no reason for wlw Katara ships to gain traction in a fandom that is so focused on Zuko and Sokka getting together, bc she doesn’t present an immediate obstacle to that goal (at least, not an obstacle that can be overcome by pairing her up with a woman). if you are primarily interested in Zuko and Sokka’s relationship, and your queer readings of other female characters are motivated by a desire to get them out of the way for zukka, then Katara’s canon m/f relationship isn’t a threat to you, and thus, there’s no reason to read her as potentially queer. Or even, really, to think about her at all. 

“Katara’s here but she’s not actually going to do anything, because deep down, I’m not interested in her as a person.” 

the show has an enormous amount of textual evidence to support the claim that Sokka and Katara are integral parts of each other’s lives. so, she typically makes some kind of appearance in zukka content. sometimes, her presence in the story is as an actual character with layers and nuance, someone whom Sokka cares about and who cares about Sokka in return, but also has her own life and goals outside of her brother (or other male characters, for that matter.) sometimes, however, she’s just there because halfway through writing the author remembered that Sokka actually has a sister who’s a huge part of the show they’re writing fanfiction for, and then they proceed to show her having a meetcute with Aang or helping Sokka through an emotional problem, without expressing wants or desires outside of those characters. I’m honestly really surprised that I haven’t seen more people calling out the fact that so much of Katara’s personality in fanon revolves around her connections to men? she’s Aang’s girlfriend, she’s Sokka’s sister, she’s Zuko’s bestie. never mind that in canon she spends an enormous amount of time fighting against (anachronistic, Westernized) sexism to establish herself as a person in her own right, outside of these connections. and that in canon she has such interesting complex relationships with other female characters (e.g. Toph, Kanna, Hama, Korra if you want to write lok content) or that there are a plethora of characters with whom she could have interesting relationships with in fanon (Mai, Suki, Ty Lee, Yue, Smellerbee, and if you want to write lok content, Kya II, Lin, Asami, Senna, etc). to me, the lack of fandom material exploring Katara’s relationships with other women or with herself speak to a profound indifference to Katara as a character. I’m not saying you have to like Katara or include her in everything you write, but I am asking you to consider why you don’t find her interesting outside of her relationships with men.

“I hate Katara because she talks about her mother dying too often.” 

this is something I’ve seen addressed by people far more qualified than I to address it, but I want to mention it here in part because when I asked people which fandom tropes they wanted me to talk about, this came up often, but also because I find it really disgusting that this is a thing that needs to be addressed at all. Y’all see a little girl who watched her mother be killed by the forces of an imperialist nation and say that she talks about it too much??? That is a formational, foundational event in a child’s life. Of course she’s going to talk about it. I’ve seen people say that she doesn’t talk about it that often, or that she only talks about it to connect with other victims of fn imperialism e.g. Jet and Haru, but frankly, she could speak about it every episode for no plot-significant reason whatsoever and I would still be angry to see people say she talks about it too much. And before you even bring up the Sokka comparison, people deal with grief in different ways. Sokka  repressed a lot of his grief/channeled it into being the “man” of his village because he knew that they would come for Katara next if he gave them the opportunity. he probably would talk about his mother more if a) he didn’t feel massive guilt at not being able to remember what she looked like, and b) he was allowed to be a child processing the loss of his mother instead of having to become a tiny adult when Hakoda had to leave to help fight the fn. And this gets into an intersection with fandom racism, in that white fans (esp white American fans) are incapable of relating to the structural trauma that both Sokka and Katara experience and thus can’t see the ways in which structural trauma colors every single aspect of both of their characters, leading them to flatten nuance and to have some really bad takes. And you know what, speaking of bad fandom takes--   

“Shitting on Mai because she gets in the way of my favorite Zuko ship is actually totally okay because she’s ~abusive~” 

y’all WHAT. 

ok listen, I get not liking maiko. I didn’t like it when I first got into fandom, and later I realized that while bryke cannot write romance to save their lives, fans who like maiko sure can, so I changed my tune. but if you still don’t like it, that’s fine. no skin off my back. 

what IS skin off my back is taking instances in which Mai had justified anger toward Zuko, and turning it into “Mai abused Zuko.” do you not realize how ridiculous you sound? this is another thing where I get so angry about it that I don’t know how useful my analysis is actually going to be, but I’ll do my best. numerous people have noted how analysis of Mai and Zuko’s breakup in “The Beach” or Mai being justifiably angry with him at Boiling Rock or her asking for FUCKING FRUIT in “Nightmares and Daydreams” that says that all of these events were her trying to gain control over him is....ahhh...lacking in reading comprehension, but I’d like to go a step further and talk about why y’all are so intent on taking down a girl who doesn’t show emotion in normative ways. obviously, there’s a “Zuko can do no wrong” aspect to Mai criticism (which is super weird considering how his whole arc is about how he can do lots of wrong and he has to atone for the wrong that he’s done--but that’s a separate post.) But I also see slandering Mai for not expressing her emotions normatively and not putting up with Zuko’s shit and slandering Katara for “talking about her mother too often” as two sides of the same coin. In both cases, a female character expresses emotions that make you, the viewer, uncomfortable, and so instead of attempting to understand where those emotions may have come from and why they might be manifesting the way they are, y’all just throw the whole character away. this is another instance of people in the fandom being fundamentally disinterested in engaging with the female characters of atla in a real way, except instead of shallowly “stanning” Mai, y’all hate her. so we get to this point where female characters are flattened into one of two things: perfect queens who can do no wrong, or bitches. and that’s not who they are. that’s not who anyone is. but while we as a fandom are pretty good at understanding b1 Zuko’s actions as layered and multifaceted even though he’s essentially an asshole then, few are willing to lend the same grace to any female character, least of all Mai. 

and what’s funny is sometimes this trope will intersect with “I conveniently ship this female character whose canon love interest is one of the members of my favorite non-canon ship with another female character! gay rights!”, so you’ll have someone actively calling Mai toxic/problematic/abusive, and at the same time ship her with Ty Lee? make it make sense! but then again, maybe that’s happening because y’all are fundamentally disinterested in Ty Lee as a character too. 

“I love Ty Lee so much that I’m going to treat her like an infantilized hypersexual airhead!” 

there are so many things happening in y’alls characterization of Ty Lee that I struggled to synthesize it into one quippy section header. on one hand, you have the hypersexualization, and on the other hand, you have the infantilization, which just makes the hypersexualization that much worse. 

(of course, sexualizing or hypersexualizing ANY atla character is really not the move, considering that these are child characters in a children’s show, but then again, that’s a separate post.) 

now, I understand how, from a very, very surface reading of the text, you could come to the conclusion that Ty Lee is an uncomplicated bimbo. if you grew up on Western media the way I did, you’ll know that Ty Lee has a lot of the character traits we associate with bimbos: the form-fitting pink crop top, the general conventional attractiveness, the ditzy dialogue. but if you think about it for more than three seconds, you’ll understand that Ty Lee has spent her whole life walking a tightrope, trying to please Azula and the rest of the royal family while also staying true to herself. Ty Lee and Azula’s relationship is a really complex and interesting topic that I don’t really have time to explore at the moment given how long this post is, but I’d argue that Ty Lee’s constant, vocal  adulation is at least partially a product of learning to survive at court at an early age. Like Mai, she has been forced to regulate her emotions as a member of fn nobility, but unlike Mai, she also has six sisters who look exactly like her, so she has a motivation to be more peppy and more affectionate to stand out. 

fandom does not do the work to understand Ty Lee. as is a theme with this post, fandom is actively disinterested in investigating female characters beyond a very surface level reading of them. Thus, fandom takes Ty Lee’s surface level qualities--her love of the color pink, her revealing standard outfit, and the fact that once she found a boy attractive and also once a lot of boys found her attractive--and they stretch this into “Ty Lee is basically Karen Smith from Mean Girls.” thus, Ty Lee is painted as a bimbo, or more specifically, as not smart, uncritically adoring of Azula (did y’all forget all the non-zukka bits of Boiling Rock?), and attractive to the point of hypersexualization. I saw somebody make a post that was like “I wish mailee was more popular but I’m also glad it isn’t because otherwise people would write it as Mai having to put up with her dumb gf” and honestly I have to agree!! this is one instance in which I’m glad that fandom doesn’t discuss one of my favorite characters that often because I hate the fanon interpretation of Ty Lee, I think it’s rooted in misogyny (particularly misogyny against East Asian women, which often takes the form of fetishizing them and viewing them only through a Western white male gaze)  

(side note: here at army-of-mai-lovers, we stan bimbos. bimbos are fucking awesome. I personally don’t read Ty Lee as a bimbo, but if that’s you, that’s fucking awesome. keep doing what you’re doing, queen <3 or king or monarch, it’s 2021, anyone can be a bimbo, bitches <3)

“Toph can and will destroy everyone here with her bare hands because she’s a meathead who likes to murder people and that’s it!”  

Toph is, and always has been, one of my favorite ATLA characters. My very first fic in fandom was about her, and she appears prominently in a lot of my other work as well. One thing that I am always struck by with Toph is how big a heart she has. She’s independent, yes, snarky, yes, but she cares about people--even the family that forced her to make herself smaller because they didn’t believe that their blind daughter could be powerful and strong. Her storyline is powerful and emotionally resonant, her bending is cool precisely because it’s based in a “wait and listen” approach instead of just smashing things indiscriminately, she’s great disabled rep, and overall one of the best characters in the show. 

And in fandom, she gets flattened into “snarky murder child.” 

So where does this come from? Well, as we all know, Toph was originally conceived of as a male character, and retained a lot of androgyny (or as the kids call it, Gender) when she was rewritten as a female character. There are a lot of cultural ideas about androgynous/butch women being violent, and people in fandom seem to connect that larger cultural narrative with some of Toph’s more violent moments in the show to create the meathead murder child trope, erasing her canon emotionality, softness, heart, and femininity in the process. 

This is not to say that you shouldn’t write or characterize Toph as being violent or snarky at all ever, because yeah, Toph definitely did do Earth Rumbles a lot before joining the gaang, and yeah, Toph is definitely a sarcastic person who makes fun of her friends a lot. What I am saying is that people take these traits, sans the emotional logic, marry them to their conception of androgynous/butch women as violent/unemotional/uncaring, and thus create a caricature of Toph that is not at all up to snuff. When I see Toph as a side character in a fic (because yeah, Toph never gets to be a main character, because why would a fandom obsessed with one male character in particular ever make Toph a protagonist in her own right?) she’s making fun of people, killing people, pranking people, etc, etc. She’s never talking to people about her emotions, or palling around with her found family, or showing that she cares about her friends. Everything about her relationship with her parents, her disability, her relationship to Gender, and her love of her friends is shoved aside to focus on a version of Toph that is mean and uncaring because people have gotten it into their heads that androgynous/butch women are mean and uncaring. 

again, we see a female character who does not emote normatively or in a way that makes you, the viewer, comfortable, and so you warp her character until she’s completely unrecognizable and flat. and for what? 

Azula

no, I didn’t come up with a snappy name for this section, mainly because fanon interpretations of Azula and my own feelings toward the character are...complicated. I know there were some people who wanted me to write about Azula and the intersection of misogyny and ableism in fanon interpretations of her character, but I don’t think I can deliver on that because I personally am in a period of transition with how I see Azula. that is to say, while I still like her and believe that she can be redeemed, there is a lot of merit to disliking her. the whole point of this post is that the female characters of ATLA are complex people whom the fandom flattens into stereotypes that don’t hold up to scrutiny, or dislike for reasons that don’t make sense. Azula, however, is a different case. the rise of Azula defenders and Azula stans has led to this sentiment that Azula is a 14 y/o abuse victim who shouldn’t be held accountable for her actions. it seems to me that people are reacting to a long, horrible legacy of male ATLA fans armchair diagnosing Azula with various personality disorders (and suggesting that people with those personality disorders are inherently monstrous and unlovable which ahhhh....yikes) and then saying that those personality disorders make her unlovable, which is quite obviously bad. and hey, I get loving a character that everyone else hates and maybe getting so swept up in that love that you forget that your fave is complicated and has made some unsavory choices. it sucks that fanon takes these well-written, complex villains/antiheroes and turns them into monsters with no critical thought whatsoever. but the attitude among Azula stans that her redemption shouldn’t be hard, that her being a child excuses all of the bad things that she’s done, that she is owed redemption....all of that rubs me the wrong way. I might make another post about this in the future that discusses this in more depth, but as it stands now: while I understand that there is a legacy of misogynistic, ableist, unnuanced takes on Azula, the backlash to that does not take into account the people she hurt or the fact that in ATLA she does not make the choice to pursue redemption. and yes, Zuko had help in making that choice that Azula didn’t, and yes, Azula is a victim of abuse, but in a show about children who have gone through untold horrors and still work to better the lives of the people around them, that is not enough for me to uncritically stan her. 

Conclusion    

misogyny in this fandom runs rampant. while there are some tropes of fandom misogyny that are well-documented and have been debunked numerous times, there are other, subtler forms of misogyny that as far as I know have gone completely unchecked. 

what I find so interesting about misogyny in atla fandom is that it’s clear that it’s perpetrated by people who are aware of fandom misogyny who are actively trying not to be misogynistic. when I first joined atla fandom last summer, memes about how zukka fandom was better than every other fandom because they didn’t hate the female characters who got in the way of their gay ship were extremely prevalent, and there was this sense that *this* fandom was going to model respectful, fun, feminist online fandom. not all of the topes I’ve outlined are exclusive to or even largely utilized in zukka fandom, but a lot of them are. I’ve been in and out of fandom since I was eleven years old, and most of the fandom spaces I’ve been in have been majority-female, and all of them have been incredibly misogynistic. and I always want to know why. why, in these communities created in large part by women, in large part for women, does misogyny run wild? what I realize now is that there’s never going to be a one-size fits all answer to that question. what’s true for 1D fandom on Wattpad in 2012 is absolutely not true for atla fandom on tumblr in 2021. the answers that I’ve cobbled together for previous fandoms don’t work here. 

so, why is atla fandom like this? why did the dream of a feminist fandom almost entirely focused on the romantic relationship between two male characters fall apart? honestly, I think the notion that zukka fandom ever was this way was horrifically ignorant to begin with. from my very first moment in the fandom, I was seeing racism, widespread sexualization of minors, and yes, misogyny. these aspects of the fandom weren’t talked about as much as the crocverse or other, much more fun aspects. further, atla (specifically zukka) fandom misogyny often doesn’t look like the fandom misogyny we’ve become familiar with from like, Sherlock fandom or what have you. for the most part, people don’t actively hate Suki, they just “stan” without actually caring about her. they hate Mai because they believe in treating male victims of abuse equally. they’re not characterizing Toph poorly, they’re writing her as a “strong woman.” in short, people are misogynistic, and then invoke a shallow, incomplete interpretation of feminist theory to shield themselves from accusations of misogyny. it’s not unlike the way some people will invoke a shallow, incomplete interpretation of critical race theory to shield themselves from accusations of racism, or how they’ll talk about “freedom of speech” and “the suppression of women’s sexuality” to justify sexualizing minors. the performance of feminism and antiracism is what’s important, not the actual practice. 

if you’ve made it this far, first off, hi, thanks so much for reading, I know this was a lot. second, I would seriously encourage you to be aware of these fandom tropes and to call them out when you see them. elevate the voices of fans who do the work of bringing the female characters of atla to life. invest in the wlw ships in this fandom. drop a kudos and a comment on a rangshi fic (please, drop a kudos and a comment on a rangshi fic). read some yuetara. let’s all be honest about where we are now, and try to do better in the future. I believe in us. 

[zukka-pegged-by-suki]

ok so guys, remember that “my father always says azula was born lucky, i was lucky to be born” line? yeah, now explain to me why tf are we even considering OZAIs words?!?! like some people use this line as an argument against azula when its literally what OZAI SAID?!?!!?!!?!

Zuko’s good and bad luck, as well as Azulas. Was either of them lucky? Let’s see.

Please read all of it before drawing assumptions.

Zuko’s luck:

- has mums care and affection

- has irohs care and affection

- can get away with being a softie as a child, because he may get disregarded and called weak but lets be honest, azula wouldnt have been able to get away with his behavior because she didn’t have firstborn privilege (which is a thing while azulon lived) or mummy’s protection like he did.

before anyone comes at me i’ll expand a bit on the firstborn privilege. as first born he was instantly considered more important by the masses since birth, that might’ve changed later but before neither could bend that much was still a fact. which means azula wouldn’t really have any recognition for anything unless she surpassed him in every way, which is what became her goal especially when ozai became the one who spent more time with her rather than ursa, anyways lets continue.

- constantly receiving second chances; iroh, the gaang minus katara, katara, azula (even if not from the “good” side), ozai (no matter the intentions, this much is true), iroh again, mai, the entire fckng world.

- he had a guide and help throughout his long healing and learning process.

Zuko’s bad luck:

- Unloving father

- Mummy disappears

- Doesn’t train that hard and surprise surprise, is worse than azula. Because if he had really trained hard, he would’ve at least known the formations wether he was able to firebend with them or not, but he was just clearly trying to copycat azula while tripping over because he didn’t have that much experience doing it. This is something no one can change my mind about. How tf did he expect to excel if he didn’t train enough. This wasnt about luck but hard work which he didn’t put in, too busy playing with mum and the little turtleducks. And I do not hate Zuko, I really love him but this is just a fact and he’s too fixed on blaming everyone else for his own mistakes and problems (esp Azula). Like, im sorry to break it out to you honey, but Ozai hates you because he’s an asshole, and that’s his own fault, not Azula’s.

- Scar and exile time, we all know this.

- Ugly haircut because of dishonor

- Finally achieving his goal of regaining his “honor” but realizing it wasn’t what he wanted only when he was already at the Fire Nation palace having all the glory from Aang’s presumed death.

- Katara’s distrust after his betrayal (bc who would’ve expected that to happen /s)

- Getting zapped in an attempt to save Katara.

I mean except for the things related to Ozai, most of this was all consequences from his own actions.

And I’m sorry but I don’t understand the fixation he has with having Ozai’s love. Unlike Azula, he has had his mother’s love and his uncle’s love. He knows what real love looks like and he has never really seen anything that could imply Ozai likes him, while he has Iroh treating him like he’s his actual father.

I’m not invalidating his traumas in any way and terrible things did happen to him, but why is he so obsessed with Ozai and why would he choose him over Iroh, he’s 16 and has been with Iroh since age 13, he was also with Ursa for the majority of his childhood, make it make sense.

Azula’s luck:

- Uh she was born rlly smart i guess

- She had some natural talent and knew to train hard to shape it to perfection, as well as studying a lot about war tactics and shit ig

- Ty Lee and Mai loved her and she loved them back

I mean as far as luck goes, that’s it. Everything else was achieved on her own merit and even if she had no scar, her traumas are just as valid as Zuko’s, neither is worse or better, we do not compare traumas in this house and they were both terrible.

Azula’s bad luck:

- Bad mother (i’ll make a post on why Ursa sucks)

- No second chances

- Mum never said goodbye just like she never said “i love you” lol, except in that one hallucination

- Never has had any real help to heal (i’ll make a post on why the asylum was a trash idea that would’ve never worked)

- Can’t fully trust anyone, not even herself, or will be punished for it

- The only people who loved her, Mai and Ty Lee, “betraying” her (check out my post on that, its under #jinta’s commentary)

- Ozai psychologically abusing her all her life

- Some characters may have been lonely, but she was genuinely absolutely alone. And she knew it.

- Hurt and self-hatred channeled through anger like Zuko did sometimes when he had that shame shave ponytail, but with her, its all the time.

- Even his abuser abandons her

- Everyone hates her but forgives Zuko, Mai and Ty Lee. And it’s so annoying because all Mailee did that Azula didn’t was swap sides almost at the end, if the excuse is that they were being manipulated well Ozai was manipulating Azula so what’s the excuse.

- Is always believed to be lying but usually isn’t (check out my azula always lies post)

- Has a mental breakdown and nobody gives a shit?! Like the first think Zuko thought of was “ooh she’s slipping lemme take advantage of that”

- Has nothing and no one, yay

- Gets thrown into a stupid asylum but not rlly because there are no comics in ba sing se

While Zuko had Ursa and Iroh to protect him and stuff, she was victim of Ozai’s manipulation and psychological abuse all her life.

So when we know Ozai said she was lucky, why tf is anyone taking his word for it??!

Plus when Zuko was born they didn’t know how he would be and Azula didn’t exist so there was no way he could’ve been lucky to be born.

Zuko was very unlucky, but he was also lucky.

Azula was just unlucky.

edit: as bellatrixobsessed1 said, azula had the illusion of luck.

[rolandtowen]

hi!! i know you’ve posted some analysis/description of some of the music used in atla (which i LOVE, esp your post about the music in The Headband)! i was wondering if you have any posts about the music used during the final agni kai between zuko and azula or if not, if you have any thoughts on it?

helloooo I absolutely do!

My favorite analysis from another creator is this one, which examines how the musical themes in Avatar build to the final agni kai:

I personally believe that the choice to make the final agni kai strings only was the perfect choice. Stringed instruments are found across different cultures, meaning that any kid who watches this scene is somehow able to relate to what's happening here musically.

I mentioned in my Fire Nation/Gamelan post that using a very specific style of music and instrumentation was a key part of what makes the worldbuilding of Avatar so good. The reverse is true here. This final battle and conflict between siblings has been stripped of cultural connotations, and I think that's what helped it to resonate with every person who's seen Avatar.

I also love the fact that it contrasts so much with Aang and Ozai's battle. That battle is scored as a final level boss battle, whereas the music for the final agni kai...is sad. Because it is sad. Two abused and manipulated siblings are competing in a death match. The final agni kai acts almost like an anchor for the finale, reminding the audience to not get so caught up in rooting for Aang that they forget how very real and tragic the 100 year war is.

[comradekatara]

You've mentioned Zuko's "inability to kill" before, so could I ask you to elaborate on that?

sure. zuko is banished for, essentially, committing treason. he says to ozai that he was banished for "speaking out of turn," but simply speaking out of turn is not actually why ozai banished him. zuko said that people shoudn't have to die for the sake of further empowering the fire nation, and that goes against their nation's entire ethos. zuko lacks, as azula puts it, that "killer instinct that is just so fire nation."

while zuko does set fire to suki's village in his quest to capture aang, and you could argue that he may have committed other such acts offscreen, we never actually see him outright kill anyone. unlike zhao, who kills the moon, and azula, who kills aang in a manner that would have ended the entire avatar line had katara not revived him, zuko threatens and intimidates and harms, but when it comes down to it, he does not actually kill, because he simply cannot.

he threatens to kill zhao, and if he had killed zhao, no one in the audience would fault him for it. zuko does not even burn him upon winning their agni kai, going against custom; zhao calls him a coward for it. zhao tries to kill zuko on multiple occasions, including when he blows up zuko's entire ship. but, when the ocean spirit is dragging zhao under, zuko still extends his hand in a futile attempt to save zhao. contrast this scene with sokka arguing to leave zuko for dead in the same episode. he legitimately does not have a problem with letting zuko die, because, as he says, zuko would do the same thing to them (at least, sokka seems to think so).

sokka kills combustion man, toph kills yu and xin fu, and neither of them have any regrets. conversely, katara cannot kill yon rha, and aang cannot kill ozai. like sokka and toph, they are justified in killing these men, perhaps even more so (since yin and xin fu did not actually attempt to kill toph, "only" kidnap her), but they ultimately choose mercy. like zuko on kyoshi island, aang and katara's actions, such as blowing up the factory in jang hui, may have had indirect casualties (i don't count aang being merged with the ocean spirit because he was not truly in control), but they are never able to kill directly, because when faced with another human being, regardless of how much they may hate them, their pathos prevents them from delivering that killing blow.

zuko, as a foil to aang and katara and the deuteragonist of the narrative, is also someone whose instincts prevent him from being the cold-blooded killer his nation expects of him. it is why, unlike the rest of his family (including iroh), he is unable to produce lightning; he is too sensitive to become the perfect weapon his father wants him to be, which is why azula's reveal is so thrilling and terrifying to the audience, because she is what ozai wants in a protege, unlike zuko, who try as he might, fails at embodying the fire nation values of ruthlessness and power at any cost.

[parcai]

do you have any thoughts about toph? maybe her backstory, running away, bending, relationships with the gaang, idk anything toph?

having her call a perhaps more "feminine" boy (even tho he's literally not lol) twinkle toes was certainly a...choice 💀

making her aang's age was really fun + a good choice imo. it's just fun to see her be one of the better teachers for aang (imo at least) and also just straight up be a metal bending crazy prodigy 😭 entertainment off the charts in that sense.

i also think making her 12 was smart bc i think we should have more female characters that are immature and act like kids are just straight up stupid and stubborn at times 🤩😭 ik you've seen me talk abt this a lot, but i'm sick and tired of the female characters being written into mom-like roles and being serious and wise and girlboss when women aren't inherently more mature than men or nonbinary friends but are rather just forced to take that role to babysit the male protags. which is. gross and boring lol. so YEAH man!!! toph doing stupid shit that'd piss me off if i was there too, fuck yes!!! she's 12 let her BE twelve holy shit 😭💔

speaking if gender, i like that she's not stereotypically feminine OR masculine. 🤔 in fact i like that abt the whole show in general, but toph is def one of the handful that it esp. stands out in. she has little kid crushes on both zuko and sokka LMFAO (which like yeah i think most kids in her position would feel the same) but then she also goes and beats up people in arenas and encourages violence ndhdkdhsk and wears dresses and speaks all properly and then probably cusses (except it's nickelodeon but those r the vibes u feel?) and feels insecure abt appearances idk bro u know what i mean

her backstory is fun to me also bc i think it's super relatable for the intended demographic and even the older demographic that continues to enjoy it after their childhood. that whole idea of not having autonomy over your life resonates w a wide range of people, and her using defiance and pushing away from restraining environments is an important counterpart to sokka/katara who were shoved into responsibility and are super close w their families. (in general atla does an EXCELLENT job w making points from pure juxtaposition). while sokka/katara/others teach that family is important, toph reminds of the importance of trusting yourself first as well and knowing your own limits. i think that's an often underrated and overlooked concept, esp. in children's media.

i'm not physically disabled obviously but i've seen people talk about how it's a good starting place for expanding rep in that particular minority and i can see why. there is little belittling and babying off disability alone and i imagine that's super empowering. plus her connection w the earth is just straight up cool, even without the blindness, and her sense of humor is MDHDKSHSKSJK her + sokka = peak jesting at all times. her making blind jokes just really makes her whole personality 10x better 💀

i LOVE that she's one of the more nuanced characters, ESP. in the gaang (besides aang and before zuko joined). like TRUE earth in the elements and in horoscopes and religions and whatever else, right and wrong are always interlaced and to be the best you have to operate in shades of grey. toph making a case for zuko and then also for iroh, toph unafraid to criticize ignorance in the gaang, toph hailing from the rigid earth kingdom and understanding that cruelty is not always indicated on the surface, toph KNOWING that she rubs people the wrong way by hating and loving everyone equally. fucking legend behavior. fuck them up my dude!! 😤💖 put them in their place!

obsessed w seeing her interact w either aang or katara at all times. those were her best gaang relationships hands down

[guileheroine]

everyone in atla is a victim of imperialism some way or other but the way that some ppl are so much more interested in how zuko is a victim of it than how aang is is interesting. like i love zuko and it’s fine to be more interested in him but harping on that aspect in particular, finding awe and endless wells of sympathy in his journey with imperialism so much more easily... i think there’s something to be said for the fact that a mostly western audience can relate more to the journey of unlearning and the internal conflict that comes with it (zuko) rather than having to exist with the very material loss, what-ifs and damage done, esp through a spirituality that can seem understated or simplistic if you’re unused to it (aang)

but a moral 180 isn’t an inherently more profound arc. and the at the end of the day, one is a member of the imperialist ruling class squaring with familial abuse and propaganda, and the other is the sole survivor of genocide. so i do feel some type of way when ppl laud the representation of imperialism in atla but have a superficial take on aang 

[androidemotions]

neurodivergent gaang hc time!

Aang

ah yes, my url adhd aang !!! 💛💛💛

[ID: a screenshot of Aang smiling sheepishly as he speaks with his eyes closed and a hand raised to his head. In the background Sokka is struggling against a large fish while standing in knee-deep water. End ID.]

- picks up a million hobbies for 5 seconds each, he gets into all his friends interests with them for a little while before getting distracted, he also just sticks his nose into anything he thinks is interesting and wants to try it out for himself, he has tiny bits of knowledge about a myriad of things but not usually an encompassing knowledge, tho he’s good at a lot of them he just doesn't have the patience to put the time into a lot of them without already being invested.

- loves to show-off, he loves to show off all sorts of little talents he has bc he thinks theyre really fun and also he likes ppl liking him, he wants to give them a reason to, which brings me to our next point:

- rsd (rejection sensitive dysphoria) hes very very rejection sensitive, if ppl arent actively paying attention to him he really starts to get into his head and think he’s not wanted even if that’s absolutely not the case. he subconsciously thinks other people are naturally likable while he has to work at it and so he’s always trying to get people to like him, which makes him really good at making friends and he has a lot of them. as he gets older he def gets better about managing his rsd and thinking rationally when it comes to ppl that care about him, and knowing they’re not gonna drop him just bc theyre not actively paying him attention

- stims galore, he’s v hyperactive and stims all the time bc of this, whether this is tapping his feet, stimming with a toy or dancing in place, he loves music to stim to as well, and dancing whole-heartedly is a great way to get out his energy when he’s feeling hyperactive. he also stims with pacing, twisting his hands together and rocking when he’s feeling anxious.

- i just love him, i love adhd aang a lot and i related to him so much as a child with undiagnosed adhd, i headcanon he def would also struggle in school esp as he got into middle school where the classes kept changing and he would have to switch gears when he just got himself focusing on one subject, he’s smart and good at a lot of stuff but he really does not do well with grades/school stuff and it causes a lot of distress and rsd flair ups for him at times, and similar to sokka he would kinda be known as the ‘class clown’ type, but where sokka is joking about what’s going on and engaging w/ it to focus, aang tends to be very off topic because his mind is wandering. he needs more engaging teaching methods to help him pay attention.

and my addition to the adhd gang badges:

[ID: a cropped screenshot of Aang leaning out from beside Toph who is out of frame. He’s smiling brightly, with his brows raised as he looks towards the viewer. The text on the image reads, “this post made by ADHD Aang gang.” End ID.]

toph is next (here’s the link!)

previous: sokka & katara 

[beyond-far-horizons]

BFH watches LoK Epi 5/S1

This episode recap is brought to you by Flameo Instant Noodles - the noodliest noodles in the United Republic!

Okay so the Love Triangle/Diamond/Rhombus thing is in full swing. Sigh. Can Amon bust in already? Where my chi blockers at?

I agree with Bolin. 

Okay let’s get this out the way and btw I respect everyone’s right to ship and let ship, I hate fandom hate and ‘discourse’ so I won’t be debating people’s opinion here, this is just a little tongue in cheek hot take. 

The thing is I actually still like love triangles and angst sometimes and I can really relate to a lot of this. I had crushes, I been both the friendzoner and and the friendzonee. I’ve even had the awful experience Bolin had of walking in to see my crush who’d expressed intense interest in me, in the arms of one of my friends (whilst surrounded by a lot of my other friends at a poetry retreat no less - it gets weirder don’t ask!)

(Also hate how Bolin’s pain is played for laughs and feminised to underline this. I know he’s the Sokka of the group but this is an awful experience for anyone esp when it involves your brother!)

A lot of criticism has been thrown LoK and Bryke’s way about the romance and yes I can see why. I also know that this was aimed at teenagers and romance is that messy. It’s just...I still wish it had been done better. I especially wish that  - 

a) Mako had been more mature about things

b) Korra hadn’t led Bolin on (easily done in that situation)

c) Korra hadn’t heard the fateful phrase ‘I’m confused’ and thought it was a green light for a Surprise Kiss TM (which is a trope that needs to die unless the couple is in a committed relationship), because Korra that worked so well when you were Aang (oh wait, yeah it did in the end didn’t it? Ugh.)

TW for mentions of being pro-Zutara for anyone that needs it! (Again not an invitation to debate, just my opinion ^^)

I’m also going to get the fandom elephant out of the room that Makorra was supposedly written to be the sop to Zutara fans and shows why Zutara wouldn’t have worked because they would argue all the time. But the thing is Zutara and Makorra are very different ships with very different characters and build-up apart from being a waterbender girl with a firebender boy. But while I love Zutara and love the potential of Makorra, I really don’t like the immaturity and rushed advancement of Makorra at present. I would prefer if they were going to have it to go into the one-sided crush of Korra that then develops into mutual appreciation later. Also if Korra likes dark-haired firebenders then she needs to wait for General Iroh II to get on the scene cos daaaaaayum I’ve seen the cutscene of the rescue later on and he is literally Hotman Hot Stuff (what is with the level of attractive people in this show? Not that I’m complaining!)

(He’s even doing the Zuko chin thing!)

My heart goes out to Bolin, I really want him to find someone who appreciates him, but having had friends like that crushing on me when I saw them as brothers it felt really uncomfortable to watch.

At least they were able to get over it and remain friends. Also Korra is now being friendly to Asami. I hated the advice you should ‘just go for it’ when your crush is in a relationship because it’s disrespectful to them and their partner. Friends all round for now - yey!

LOVED the Watertribe restaurant, reminded me of a beautiful local restaurant in Hokkaido with food I still dream about to this day. Also noodle appreciation! I haven’t felt this sated since my Naruto days ;)

Also this guy - what’s with his face??? O_o

Separated at birth?

Love Korra’s reaction (private lessons indeed!) and her use of the Naga Attack TM. Tahno’s Glee style gesture to reject her and regain his street cred was hilarious!

Looking forward to getting back into the meaty political stuff next chapter. I wish they were exploring the worldbuilding element of discrimination of non-benders more so that Amon wasn’t just coming over as a power hungry populist in Dr Doom cosplay.