#noatak master list

[cherries-lostgirls]

Rehabilitation Chap. 1

Summary: Mai, Daughter of Fire lord Izumi, sister of General Iroh ll, next in line for the throne. She spent her life perfecting her image. As a young child her brother Iroh was very adamant about not wanting his claim to the crown. All the expectations fell onto her, so she became the perfect child. A fire bending prodigy, A respectable lady. She even started a rehabilitation program in honor of her grandfather. Everyone can change, though the latest “recruit” is starting to become a hassle.

Noatak, better known as Amon. He knew what he was made for, he knew that he needed to eradicate benders. Nothing will stop him. He’s thought out every little thing, the avatar, the police, his brother, his task force. However he didn’t think of the fire lord princess. That would prove to be his downfall. His downfall right?

A/N: Dual POV

Series Masterlist

I stepped off of the boat, cracking my neck, and arms in a stretch. I looked at the big towers, and busy streets. Republic City.  This place was much different than the fire nation, and yet nothing seemed too impressive. A car pulled out in front of me, revealing a white lotus member. 

“Princess Mai, please if you’ll come with me.” I got into the car, and kept quiet while the man started to explain what I was doing here and my duty. I had already heard it from my mother, and grandfather. 

“You are to represent the fire people of the city while you serve in the council. You must do what you believe is best for the fire benders of this city.” I raised my brow and looked at him. “What of the non-benders?” They were people of the fire nation just as much as fire benders were. “Our president deals with the non-benders of the city. The council is of benders in the city.” Talk about segregation. I kept my mouth shut however. I didn’t come here to change the system, only to help run it until my mother finds a new representative. 

We parked in front of a big hotel. Best money can buy. I followed the white lotus member into the building and kept my pace matched with him all the way to the elevator. He clicked the number 20 and placed a card into the slot. I watched as we passed each floor, starting at one. 

“The city has been dealing with complications. There’s this–.” 

“Don’t say anything else. We don’t need the world knowing our business.” I cut him off, mentally facepalming. How’d he become a part of a “Secret society.” The man kept quiet the rest of the elevator ride, and I had expected to walk down to my door, however instead I was brought to a room that looked to be more of a house. 

“So the elevator is a door to the place I’ll be staying in. Great.” What kind of idiot designed that? 

“Rest assured you are safe here. Only a card can get to this floor, and it’s this one right here.” I grabbed the card from his hand, rolling my eyes. Do these people not know how easy it is to override an elevator? I walked over to the kitchen island, placing my duffel bag on it. 

“Run me through the problems now.” The man was quick to respond. “There’s been what some people call the equalist, a revolution against benders. Their leader Amon has yet to be seen or captured.” 

“I’d like to talk to this Amon, set up a meeting.” I started to walk to what I believed was the bedroom. “I-I but no one has seen him!” I opened the door, and just before I closed it, “I wasn’t asking. The longer you wait, the more his revolution grows.” With that I closed the bedroom door. 

– 

“You're late.” I spoke to Tenzen. I waited by the Air temple island docking area and helped tie the ferry to the pole. “My apologies, I ran into some problems.” I gave a lazy hum, and eye’d the water tribe girl next to him and the kids. “Fire Princess Mai, this is Avatar Korra. She will be staying in the city for her air bending training.” 

Korra stuck her hand out, a smile on her face. “Nice to meet you! I’m Korra, though he just said that.” I grabbed her hand, shaking it, “Mai, pleasure to meet you. I don’t mean to sound rude, but I have matters I need to speak to Tenzen about.” 

Korra took the kids, and when I deemed them far enough I turned back around to Tenzen. “Tell me everything you know about this ‘Amon.’” The air nomad sighed, “Recently there have been speakers all over the city speaking about this Amon. All I can really say is he doesn't like benders.” I nodded my head. 

“I’m staying at four element hotel, if you need to speak to me, send someone or just stop by.” 

“Korra will be having an announcement tomorrow, the city needs to know their avatar is here.” I gave Tenzen my assurance of me being there. I walked to the edge of the dock and propelled myself into the air with my flames. When I finally landed back onto the ground I sighed in relief. I got into the car waiting for me and gave the driver my destination. 

I stared out the window as it started to lightly rain. My eyes caught a glimpse of a man on a roof. I didn’t get a chance to get a better look because we turned on the next road. 

– 

“Hello, I’m Korra. Your new Avatar.” Korra said into the mic. I watched as a bunch of people started to ask questions. I didn’t bother listening to them, or to her response. Instead I made a mental image of all the dirty looks people sent Korra’s way. I watched as someone slipped away from the crowd, a look of panic and disgust on their face. Bingo. 

While Korra went on about a speech talking about Avatar Aang. I slipped past the sentry guards, and made my way over to the man. I followed him into the alley, and was quick to slam him against the wall. “You're one of those equalist, aren't you?” His eyes widened. 

“No, no I’m not.” I tilted my head, then looked at his uniform peeking from his hoodie. “Right. Look, I won't arrest you.” Hope flickers in the man's eyes, and for a moment I wanted to snuff it out. “R-Really? Do you support Amon too?” 

“No, and I’ll let you go but you’re going to do something for me.” I smiled for the first time coming to this city. You know what they say; you want something done right, do it yourself. 

– 

Amon POV

“The Avatar won’t be answering anymore que–.” The air nomad was cut off by my lieutenant. “What are we going to do about this, Amon?” I looked over to him, “The avatar has arrived earlier than expected. This means, were going to have to put things in motion quicker.” I looked at the door as knocking cut off my discussion. 

“Come in.” Without missing a beat the door opens and a recruit walks in, nervous.  “B-boss, I got some uh, some news.” Spit it out then. I hardened my glare, my eyes piercing his behind the mask I wore. “You see, I attend that whole Avatar thingy. And uh well you see–.” 

“Get to the point.” My patience was wearing thin. “The fire lady, the one that was just sent from the fire nation. She cornered me and told me to bring you a message.” 

“She wants to talk, and she gave me this paper.” He handed me a sheet of paper, sealed with red wax. I ripped it open, and turned away from the men in the room. 

Think it’s time we talk. Avatar Aang’s statue,  three days from now at night. Don’t be late, and if you don’t show up, I will hunt you down. It’ll be as easy as you reading this. 

A meeting huh? I’m not one to back away from something. If we talk it’ll be on my terms. This fire princess will see that soon. 

…

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[sapphic-azulaa]

Moments that get me the most emotional in LOK

I’ve been rewatching LOK a lot because it gets me really emotional, so I’m just living in that world. Here are some of the moments that get me the most emotional

1. Has to go to Korra in S4 healing with Katara. When Korra scream out “You can’t even heal me! … that came out wrong”. And when Katara says “I don’t know, but won’t it be interesting to find out”. That’s immediately tears every single time.

2. The season finale of S3 when everyone is at the air temple for Jinora getter her masters tattoos. Watching everyone try to celebrate Jinora, and show their concern for the Avatar…immediate tears. Happy tears and sad tears - it’s dehydrating. Tenzin has so much pride in his daughter and the avatar. And Jinora looks so much like Aang!

3. S1 ending with the a murder suicide. When Korra hears the story of Tarrlok and Noatak/Amon she says “That’s the saddest story I’ve every heard”, and she’s right! But then it get sadder with their murder suicide. When he says “It will be just like the good old days…” and he blows up the boat. I can’t believe Nickelodeon put that on tv. Honestly, one of the saddest tv moments ever.

There are so many more emotional moments in this show I will definitely keep adding to this list. This is just my personal list for moments I know will immediately start making me tear bend

[catie-does-things]

Patterns in Given Names in the World of Avatar

Or, Naming Your Avatar OC’s: Beyond Baby Name Lists

Naming an original character in any fantasy setting can be a tricky business. Do you use a real name? Do you make one up? Either way, it has to sound like it fits into the established world - but you don’t want it to sound too similar to the names of canon characters, either. In this post, I will offer an analysis of canon names of major and minor characters in Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, looking for discernible patterns in the names of each of the fictional cultures of that world, and offer some suggestions based on my own experience for how to choose or create names for original characters in that world.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with using a “baby name list” for inspiration or even taking a real name from one of the cultures the show is based on and using it. But since the fictional cultures of the show are not complete carbon copies of real cultures, just picking a name from a list of Inuit or Japanese names won’t always give you one that actually fits in with the Avatar world. And maybe you’ve seen enough Water Tribe OC’s named Nanook (I’m guilty of this one myself) and want to get a little more creative. In that case, welcome to the advanced OC naming class.

And yes, there will be color coded spreadsheets.

Methods and Goals

To get a feel for what sort of names will sound like they fit into the world of Avatar, we of course have to look at the names of canon characters. For our purposes, I chose to exclude characters who only appear in spin-off material such as the comics or Kyoshi novels, and only look at the given names of characters from the two shows, Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. I have sorted the characters by nation, as well as into cultural subdivisions where applicable. LoK characters from the United Republic of Nations have their own category, since in most cases we do not technically know the specific cultural origin of those characters’ names - though based on the patterns below and other context clues, we can make a reasonable guess for many of them. Characters whose names appear to be nicknames or pseudonyms (such as Longshot and Lightning Bolt Zolt) have also been left out. 

The aim of this analysis is to look for phonetic and other patterns in the names of each cultural group within the world of Avatar. We will be looking at the names as spelled using the Latin alphabet, since this is how most fan fiction is written, and how the character names are given in official material, but keep in mind that within the world of the show, all nations use the Han Chinese writing system, so names or syllables spelled differently in the Latin alphabet might be represented by the same character in-universe, or vice versa.

Finally, my guidelines and suggestions for how to choose or create OC names are just that: guidelines and suggestions. These are not rules. It’s your OC, you do what you want.

Without further ado, let’s start looking at some names.

The Water Tribes.

We don’t have quite the sample size for Water Tribe characters that we’ll see for some of the other nations, but 28 names is still plenty to look at. Notably, we have far more male (18) than female (10) names, a pattern we will see repeated without exception. Draw your own conclusions.

Water Tribe names appear to mostly be two or three syllables long, with most of the one syllable names being from the Foggy Swamp Tribe. Hahn from the Northern Water Tribe is the only other one syllable name. Two syllable names are the most common with 19 names, which is about two-thirds of the total. Three syllable names account for 5 out of the total 28, or less than one fifth - still, this makes them more common than names of the same length in any other nation, and more common than one syllable names in the Water Tribes, especially if you exclude the Foggy Swamp. If you’re looking to use an authentic Inuit or other Arctic indigenous name for your Water Tribe OC, I would be wary of names longer than three syllables, though, as we have none of these in canon.

Consistent with Inuit names, we do have a lot of /k/ and /g/ sounds. The letters K and Q are pronounced the same in Water Tribe names, though in Inuit they represent different sounds. 18 out of the 28 names have at least one of these sounds, with /k/ being far more common than /g/ (17 vs. 2 names). Of course, having the letter K in your Water Tribe OC’s name is by no means necessary, and especially if you are creating a lot of Water Tribe characters, you probably want some variation.

The digraphic consonant sounds /ch/, /sh/, and /th/ are almost totally absent, with the exception of one name from the Foggy Swamp, Tho. The /r/ sound is also never found at the beginning of a name, and the /j/, /l/, /w/, and /f/ sounds are totally absent. The /v/ sound is absent from all given names, but notably appears in the surname Varrick not included above.

Regarding gender differences, both male and female names can end in -a, but this is much more common for female names, with 3 male names compared to 8 female names having this ending. Notably, this accounts for all but two of the female names, and all of the female names end in a vowel. Consonant endings appear to be exclusively masculine, with final /k/ sounds being common, whether spelled with K or Q (8 out of 18 male names), though masculine names can also end in vowel sounds.

There do not appear to be major differences between the Northern and Southern Water Tribe names, however the three names we have from the Foggy Swamp Tribe are definitely distinct - all one syllable, and all open syllables ending in vowels. These sound more like Earth Kingdom names, as we’ll see, which makes sense given the location of the Foggy Swamp.

To my knowledge, only handful of the Water Tribe names are authentic Inuit names, and they are all characters from LoK: Desna, Yakone, Noatak, Unalaq, and Tonraq, or 5 out of the 28 total names. Yue is an authentic name, but a Chinese one. The main Water Tribe characters such as Katara, Sokka, and Korra all have invented names. So yes, you can pick from an Inuit baby names list (and Nanook does fit the patterns we see above), but you are by no means limited to this.

The Earth Kingdom

Since the Earth Kingdom is the largest of the nations, it makes sense that we have the most names to look at here, with 79 names total, including 56 male names and 23 female names. I’ve included Jet with a question mark, because he may be using a pseudonym like the rest of the Freedom Fighters do, but his name is also plausible as the one his parents gave him. Macmu-Ling, the name of the haiku master in Ba Sing Se, may also be a surname, but this is unclear given the limited information on the character.

One syllable names are much more common in the Earth Kingdom, accounting for 30 out of 56 male names and 10 out of 23 female names. This is roughly half of all Earth Kingdom names, or 40 out of 79. Two syllable names account for 34 out of the 79, or about 43%, with three syllable names being rare overall, just 5 names or 6%. Overall, Earth Kingdom names tend to be shorter, which is consistent with a basis in Chinese, Korean, or Vietnamese names.

Unlike with Water Tribe names, there do not appear to be specific sounds that stand out as distinctively Earth Kingdom. Notably, nearly all names begin with consonants, with only 6 names beginning with a vowel, and always A or O. All of the consonant sounds found in English are represented in at least one name. The /ch/, /sh/, and /th/ digraphic sounds are all present, though not abundantly common. The Earth Kingdom being large and diverse, this greater diversity in names also makes sense.

There is evidence of unisex names in the Earth Kingdom. Wu is used by both a male and female character (Prince Wu and Aunt Wu), and the name Song which is listed as female above we will see again as the name of a male earthbender in Republic City. Other names could also be unisex, but as most are only used by one character, we have no way to know. The only noticeable gendered pattern seems to be that several female characters have English names, which I separated into the fifth column above. This seems to be exclusive or near-exclusive to Earth Kingdom women. Jet could also be interpreted as an English name, but as previously mentioned, this is possibly a pseudonym anyway.

The few named characters we have from Kyoshi Island all have authentic Japanese names, or at least names taken from the Japanese language - oyaji is an affectionate term meaning “old man” or “father”. Kyoshi is distinct from the rest of the Earth Kingdom in many other ways, including a history of isolationism which Japan also has. As for the sandbenders, we only have two names, but Ghashiun stands out as rather distinct in its spelling. Visually, the sandbenders resemble the Tuareg people of the Sahara region, so that might be the direction you want to go if you’re looking for authentic names to use for your sandbender OC’s.

The curious name Macmu-Ling is based on the surname of the writer for the episode she appeared in, Lauren MacMullan.

Fire Nation

We have 13 female names and 33 male names, for a total of 46 known Fire Nation names. 

Two syllable names are most common, with 20 male and 6 female names, accounting for 26 out of the total 46, which is more than half. 15 names have one syllable, which is about one third of the total. Only 5 names have three syllables, or just one tenth, and once again there are no names longer than that. 

The letter Z stands out as appearing in 8 names, while it’s much more rare in the other nations - though notably the Z in Zhao is pronounced differently than in the other names. Also worth noting is that all the names with Z other than Zhao - that is, all the names where Z is pronounced as it would be in English - are names of members of the royal family, with the exception of Kuzon. The digraphic sounds /ch/ and /sh/ are both present, but /th/ is not. Other absent sounds include /v/ and /w/.

The Fire Nation gives us our only example of gendered variants on the same name with Azulon and Azula. This implies that the -a ending is generally feminine, though we only have two female names that use it. Ilah ends with the same sound, albeit spelled with a silent H. There is also one masculine name, Yon Rha, that ends in -a, though with a different pronunciation (/ah/ vs. /uh/). The -on ending may also be masculine or generally masculine, but again, only two names use it. Female names are also more likely to end in the /ee/ sound, whether spelled -i or -ee, with 6 of the 13 female names ending this way. Only two male names end with this sound, and one of them, Li, is unisex. 

In terms of basis in real world cultures, the Fire Nation often gets heavily identified with Japan in fanon, because they are an island nation with a history of imperialism, but what we see in canon is much more of a blend of Asian cultures, like the other nations. Some names, like Izumi and Roku are Japanese in origin, but some are also Chinese or Chinese-based such as Chan and Lu Ten. And as with the Water Tribes, the main characters like Zuko, Azula, Iroh, and Ozai, tend to have invented names. (Zuko especially would be odd as a Japanese name, since the -ko suffix in Japanese is feminine.) The name Ursa, curiously, is Latin - the feminine form of the word for “bear”. So while you certainly can use Japanese names for your Fire Nation OC’s, as with Inuit names in the Water Tribe, you’re not limited to that by any means. In fact, based on what we see in canon, I would say that if you’re creating several Fire Nation OC’s, you should have about an even mix of Japanese, Chinese, and invented names.

Air Nomads

With only 13 names, of which 9 are male and 4 are female, this is the smallest sample we have for any of the nations - understandably, since the Air Nomads are all but extinct for most of both shows. We’re even technically assuming that all of Tenzin’s children have Air Nomad names, but this is probably a safe assumption.

Two syllable names are still most common, with 9 of the 13, or about three fourths of the total. There are three names with three syllables, or a little less than one fourth. Aang has the only one syllable name.

With so few names, it’s hard to draw firm conclusions about phonetic patterns. The -a ending is seen on one name for each gender, as is the -i ending, and the -o ending appears on two male names and one female name. The -u ending only appears on one male name, but given the small sample size this doesn’t necessarily indicate a female Air Nomad name couldn’t have the same ending.

We do have clear and distinct real world basis for several Air Nomad names. Tenzin and Gyatso are both taken from the religious name of the current Dalai Lama. Rohan is an Indian name, and Laghima is a Hindu term for the spiritual power of becoming weightless. (Coincidentally, Rohan is also a French surname, but it was presumably the Indian name that the show meant to reference.) Pasang is a Nepali name, though a female one as far as I can tell, whereas it is used for a male Air Nomad. Tibetan, Nepalese, and Sanskrit names would thus all be good places to look for inspiration for your Air Nomad OC’s - though again, don’t feel limited to that. Chinese inspired names would also fit in, and Aang, like all the main characters, has an invented name.

United Republic of Nations

This group of character names, all from The Legend of Korra obviously, has to be considered differently. While we can make educated guesses as to the fictional ethnicity of most of these names, the fact is that many of these characters may be of mixed heritage and we can’t say for sure what the origins of their names are. In the chart below, I have color coded the names according to my best guess for nation of origin, rather than by gender. Names left in white, in my opinion, could be either Earth Kingdom or Fire Nation, and nothing about those characters gives us further clues.

With 31 names, we do have a decent sample size. Presumably Mako is a Fire Nation name and Bolin is Earth Kingdom, and based on the sound they do seem to fit in with those nations respectively. Raiko has a question mark because it is unclear if this is a given name or surname, but it does seem to follow the Zuko and Mako pattern and thus be most likely Fire Nation in origin. We also have the name Yasuko, for a character who is supposed to be of Fire Nation descent, using the -ko suffix on a feminine name.

Ginger and Buttercup I have designated as most likely Earth Kingdom because they are English names, and as we previously saw, only Earth Kingdom women seem to have names of this variety. Pema is presumably of at least partial Earth Kingdom descent based on her green eyes - this is also a real Bhutanese name. Characters like Lu, Gang, Daw, and Chung are all shown wearing green, and have one syllable names of the kind which are most common in the Earth Kingdom.

Hasook has a very distinctively Water Tribe name, and is of course a waterbender. Tahno and Ming-Hua are both waterbenders as well, though their names are less distinctively Water Tribe. These could simply be less typical names from one of the two polar tribes, or they may have Foggy Swamp Tribe heritage. (I believe this was a popular headcanon for Tahno, at least.) The possibility also exists that they have mixed heritage and may have Earth Kingdom or even Fire Nation names in spite of being waterbenders.

Conclusion

Like everything else in the world of Avatar, the names of the characters are inspired by and based on many real world cultures, primarily Asian, but no one fictional nation in the Avatar world corresponds exactly to a real world culture. When we look for or create names for original characters in this world, we want to respect the real world basis of these fictional cultures, but simply picking a Chinese, Japanese, or Inuit name from a list may not always jive with what we see in canon, in addition to running the risk of being a bit stereotypical.

With the canon patterns outlined above, fan fiction writers and fan artists should feel free to expand their search for names to other Asian, Arctic, or North African cultures, such as Thai, Burmese, Nepalese, Yupik, Aleut, or Berber names. Baby name lists can be helpful, but are often dubiously reliable, especially for non-Western cultures. Personally, when I want to give an OC an authentic name, I prefer to use Wikipedia to find real people from the culture or cultures I’m drawing on. I’ve joked about my own tendency to pick names of Japanese, Chinese, and Korean saints for my fan fiction, but searching for Wikipedia lists or categories of artists, philosophers, or scientists from a given culture can also be useful.

Wherever one chooses to look, name lists are best treated as a starting place - a name from a given real culture won’t necessarily fit into a given Avatar culture, and a name from a certain Avatar culture does not have to come from any particular real world culture. Fans should also feel free to invent names of their own, as the creators of Avatar did. Of the 20 major OC’s in my story Fate Deferred, half of them have real names or variations on real names, and the other half are invented.

And if you want to have a female Earth Kingdom OC named something like Jasmine or Crystal - these are also perfectly in line with canon.

[fortunatelychaoticphantom]

What is your opinion on the portrayal of bloodbending vs that of energybending in atla? It might be a stretch but I think because energybending is solely used by Aang, it is not thought of as "evil" as the way bloodbending is.

That might be the most perfectly succinct way to describe the difference between the two bending forms that I have ever seen.

A part of the fact that Aang does nothing to gain the ability to energybend and instead it is simply bestowed upon him at the last second as a cop-out to making a choice, is that this technique, its cost and its consequences are not at all discussed in any form. In “The Puppetmaster” we got an entire episode dedicated to the way water can be harvested from practically anywhere, including the human body, and what it means, with the disturbing visuals of dead Fire Lilies and crumbled sucked-dry trees to drive the point home

and this comes as an extension to the already established manipulation of water in plants that we saw in “The Swamp” and the creative water sources in “The Runaway”. In “The Old Masters” and “Avatar Aang” we get, like, what? a combined 30 seconds of explanation of how energybending works? only it’s more of an inspirational quote than an actual explanation... Honestly, we still don’t know how this works or why it works and why is Aang able to preform this technique in the first place.

Considering the horror narrative of Hama’s story and the atrocities that she committed*, it’s obvious why bloodbending was framed in such a dark and heavy light when it was presented. The fact that is was never touched again except to be used when Katara was at her “darkest” in “The Southern Raiders”, shows what the creators think about this ability. It’s ridiculous to think that in thousands of years of history not a single waterbender besides Hama has ever bloodbent**, or that there is no existing traditions, discussions about it’s possible use in healing, or even taboos about this subject in Water Tribe cultures. But, anyway, the writers just tossed this ability aside and declared it “forbidden” in LoK, so that kids will know just how bad bad bad this bending form is.

Energy bending, on the other hand, never got this treatment, even though it is absolutely horrifying???? and lacking any redeeming quality that I can find like with using bloodbending for healing??? They didn’t bother to go into the depths of horror that is energybending in AtLA, but boy oh boy did they try to in LoK. But instead of actually talking about energybending they did a pretty sinister thing (in my opinion), that feels like it was specifically made so as not to taint the purity of the technique and its wielder, and just copy-pasted the implications of energybending onto bloodbending.

LoK’s first season actually tried to touch on the pain and devastation of what it means to be stripped away from your bending abilities. And even though it was far from perfect and never fully explored or resolved, at the very least they showed us that side. We see how drained and sad that pro-bending player (don’t remember his name) was after losing his bending, we see how heartbreaking Lin’s power-stripping was and what a sacrifice she had to make to ensure that the last airbenders in the world will not lose their abilities, we see how broken Korra is after losing her own bending, even though she still has airbending, and the very very much implied suicidal thoughts that it brought to her. We understand that taking someone’s bending has gravitas, has deep emotional implications. But... we can’t talk about energybending in a bad way, right? So...

HEY KIDS! Did you think ebergybending was a random ability that did whatever the plot needed it to do with no plausible reasoning or explanation? Well! From the people who brought you the Magic of the Pointy Rock, we re-introduce you to bloodbending!! But now! It can take your bending away! For some reason! We don’t know why! It just does!

**Bryke at some point, probably**

So beside shifting the entire discussion from one technique to another, even though only one of them actually does the thing we are talking about, they went so far as to make sure we don’t suspect for a second that what we see is actually energybending, showing Amon/Noatak always positioned behind the person he strips, using only one hand on the forehead

instead of Aang’s position in front of the person, with two hands, one on the forehead and one on the chest (don’t even get me started on what a horrible ending this shit was. I swear if I see one more literal deus ex machina in this franchise I’m gonna scream! oh wait, this is just season 1...)

(Sorry for the low quality of photos. I don’t have LoK for obvious reasons so I had to screenshot these from youtube)

So, in summation, yeah you’re absolutely right. Energybending is specifically and methodically portrayed in a positive way, even when it shouldn’t be, especially in light of and in contrast to bloodbending, a form that gets far too many beatings and more than it deserves, for reasons that I don’t understand at best and I don’t think I want to understand at worst (the fact that this is a Katara-centric ability and her lack of statues in LoK, its connection to Katara’s very much existing brutal and belligerent tendencies that are continually ignored and swept aside for the “dream girl” image, the connection between bloodbending and anti zutara rethoric in tsr... this list isn’t pretty)

----------

* I still don’t understand how Hama’s victims were alive. She kidnapped just one person each month, but the cave was full of people. Did she feed them? cleaned their potty buckets? like what was the point?? to make them live through the pain that she had to live through as a prisoner? how is this sustainable for one old lady? this makes zero sense and drives me crazy to this day. There should have only been one living person, the most recent that was kidnapped, and just skeletons around them. That would have been more logical. And it’s not like skeletons weren’t shown on the show... sorry, I’m rambling (and haven’t seen the episode in years, I hope I remember it correctly).

** Toph’s metal bending is a little different, since obviously metal had to be invented at a certain point so no one could attempt to bend it before that. Human bodies on the other hand have been more than available and full of water since the dawn of humanity, and I doubt there hasn’t been a single waterbender powerful enough who could sense the presence of water in people and, I don’t know, tried to talk to someone about it? also, waterbenders are healers?? they actively know the human body, not just coincidentally? how did no one talk about this before?? and regarding metalbending again, It’s not entirely unreasonable that Toph really was the first to bend metal, since of course there has to be a first in everything. But honestly if you ask me it’s a little... weird. But this is very much off-topic.

[daydreaming-scribe]

(Possibly) Unpopular LoK opinions

A point that might reappear multiple times in this post: The Gaang not acting like how they did when they were children/hormonal teenagers is not Out of Character behavior.

The Gaang not being ideal parents is not bad writing. In fact, existing in the spotlight and trying to manage running the entire world makes it more likely for them to be imperfect parents.

Aang is the sole known survivor of a genocide, and on top of that he was the Avatar, expected to run around the world and solve everyone’s problems. He also grew up in a culture with no traditional family structure and where everyone was an airbender, so the person most directly responsible for raising you was your airbending master. Sue him for internalizing this behavior and prioritizing the child with airbending, over the two without.

Also, for those who want to argue that Katara wouldn’t allow this: She grew up in a culture that was almost entirely the opposite. Maybe she was cool exploring the world and going on adventures when she was young/didn’t have children, but she definitely would want to raise her kids inside a semi-traditional household.

Zuko having a singular named child who appears for maybe three minutes in which time she does not indicate she had an imperfect childhood is not solid evidence to say he was the best parent of the Gaang.

Lin might’ve been an ass the whole time she was in Zaofu, but Su should’ve been the the one to apologize to her. Sure, holding a grudge for thirty years is not healthy, but when the grudge is for a family member permanently scarring you and the person on the other end faces no consequences, you should get an apology.

The Red Lotus and Kuvira were both better villains than Amon/Noatak. Neither of them had to hide behind a fake persona, a fake backstory, a mask AND fake burn scars to get their ideals across.

Say what you will about Unalaq, but he’s the only major villain who didn’t try to finish Sozin’s work and kill off the surviving Air Nomads. (But also on a related note, despite Kuvira being Earth Kingdom Hitler, she only nearly killed the airbenders because they were attacking her robot).

Kuvira as a villain wouldn’t be so strongly thirsted after if she wasn’t light-skinned and presenting as white. That said, I still would go straight for her.

I just realized this yesterday watching a tiktok video and it partially inspired this list but: Mako is the less fun brother because he and Bolin lost their parents at a young age and because there was no one left to care for them, so he had to be not only a protector but a parental figure to Bolin.

Also ACAB but Mako gets so much hate for being a cop but Bolin gets a pass for being a part of a fascist military force.

Again ACAB but arguing that Toph would never be a police officer, much less the Chief of Police, because of her rebellious nature as a child is stupid and I might make a longer post about it because there are too many reasons to list.

For a pretty rigid magic system (and yes, bending is a magic system), there wasn’t really a solid/satisfactory explanation why Bolin couldn’t figure out metal bending other than “some people just can’t do it”. 

The ability to astral project being a subsect of airbending and not just something the Avatar, or otherwise anyone with a high level of spirituality, could do, is a bit of a retcon.

Asami’s amazing but she’s just a little too perfect, probably to compensate for being the only non-bender. She’s smart, rich, a skilled fighter, and much more emotionally competent than the other three members of Team Avatar. Like, does she have any character defects?

[hayleysayshay]

TOP 15 DADDIES IN ATLA AND TLOK

Forgive me fandom, for I have sinned

This series has some proper hunks, right? Here is another arbitrary list with regards to our favourite middle-aged hotties, right?

15. Bumi

Ancient Daddy could rock your world

14. Old Aang

The Daddy to cause all Daddy-issues.

13. Amon (Noatak/ without mask)

Think of the uses for bloodbending that aren’t evil, though? Yes, obey Daddy.

12. Unalaq

Daddy-confusing-motivations-just-make-me-more-mysterious-and-sexy

11. Jeong-Jeong

Deserting-Daddy. That rough hobo look is really something, isn’t it?

10. Iroh II

How old are you meant to be, Daddy?

9. Tarrlok

Yes, extra pony-tails Daddy. 

8. Hakoda.

Cheekbones Daddy. Seriously, what are those.

7. Varrick

He’ll ask you to do the thing, Daddy. 

6. Piandao

Daddy, Master of Sword.

5. Amon (but with Mask)

We all know the mask is the main appeal, okay? Secretive, revolutionist Daddy.

4. Toph Beifong

Don’t argue with me on this. Chief of Police, Metalbending, won’t-take-your-fucking-shit, Daddy.

3. Tenzin

My god, just- they went all out on this random shirtless scene. Tenzin is the old, wise daddy. He’d take care of you. Blowing you away, Daddy.

2. Tonraq

Beefcake, good Dad and hot as fuck. He’s a leader. He throw spears and waterbends. And those eyebrows. Hot Dad, Daddy.

Also has a shirtless scene from when he was younger, and look at how well Korra turned out, so we know he’s probably still got it

1. Ozai

Okay, burn me to a crisp, Daddy. They always say evil is sexy, and theres something about his impecable facial hair and well-toned form. He is power incarnate, the Ultimate Daddy.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS:

1. King Harrow

Get on your knees, daddy- wait, wrong fandom

2. Iroh, but from the Movie

Look, ATLA Iroh isn’t a Daddy. But Movie Iroh? Sure thing. There’s something about the hair, man. I know the movie is bad but, fuck. Forbidden Daddy.

[airspeedprime]

Here is my brief thoughts on power levels of Avatar characters. This is by no means meant to be set in stone, I definitely need to spend more time to construct my lists.

Note/ I don’t bother to account for techniques like energybending and spiritbending since they basically require you to have won the fight already to pull off. Similarly with Jinora’s astral projection, if she uses it she loses the fight, an amazing technique, but not a combat ability.

Tier 0 - Unfair in general to use in “Who would win” scenarios

-Any Avatar allowed to use the Avatar state defence mechanism or in control

-Slightly below Avatar State but just as unfair is Yakone and Amon/Noatak and their psychic bloodbending with no moon restriction ability. This is an instant win condition in any reasonable fight, Avatar state is the only consistent counter. We know this technique has huge range and power, it basically requires any opponent to win with a quick opening strike or fight from extreme range and we know both characters are powerful waterbenders beyond just bloodbending so they have range also.

-Slightly below those 2 is Tarrlok who cannot psychic bloodbend, but can bloodbend without the full moon. He just has to use his arms unlike his father and brother

Tier 0.5 - Unfair just because of how specific things need to be

-Bloodbending in general because it requires the moon for the fight to happen and the technique to come into play, but in general if the moon is out Bloodbending is again more or less an instant win except against the Avatar or the psychic bloodbending family line.

Tier 1 - The best of the best they will win against any lower tier character

-The Avatars with the restriction of no Avatar State. It varies based on the Avatar, but we have to assume that any who have mastered the 4 elements are incredibly skilled in combat. Their ability to use 4 elements gives a huge advantage even if they face a bender who is better than them at that  one element. 

-Combustion Benders and Lavabenders. These characters with rare and powerful abilities are kept out of unfair tiers because their appearances for the most part seem to always highlight the double edged nature of these techniques. Lavabending is just as destructive to yourself as your opponent and you are either out of control to a degree like Ghazan or have to control it to much to make uses of the sheer power like Bolin. Combustion Bending has the obvious chakra blockage issue as well as both characters with the technique not being the most agile/mobile nor do they seem to use normal firebending enough (ie overly specialised). Combustion Man is potentially the only 1 of the 4 I would put in a lower category.

-Notable masters of an element. Characters like Toph, Bumi, Iroh, Katara are in this tier. The prodigies and best of the best with 1 element. Their raw power, connection to their element, experience and skill is second to none.

Tier 2 - Very powerful characters who only fall to the best in 1 on 1 situations

- Characters like Lin, Su, Mako, Zuko (Where he currently is in the comics, his potential would be in Tier 1), Tonraq, Ming-hua etc

- The absolute best non-bender fighters go here. Piandao for me is one of the few examples here. I think Sokka and Suki in their prime would probably be in this tier but as he is in the comic now not quite.

Tier 3 - Strong benders, but not yet masters.  Top level non benders.

- Meelo, Ikki, Haru, Kai, Opal, Zhao

-Ty lee, Mai, Hakoda, The Lieutenant, Jet

Tier 4 - Average benders, reasonably skilled non benders

-Daw, Malina (Based on what little bending we see of her)

- The Duke, Pipsquak, Sneers etc

Tier 5 - unskilled benders

-I suppose Kiyi having just discovered her ability is at this level, otherwise it is just characters who don’t have full control over their element and can just barely use it to fight.

[cherries-lostgirls]

Rehabilitation series Masterlist

Summary: Mai, Daughter of Fire lord Izumi, sister of General Iroh ll, next in line for the throne. She spent her life perfecting her image. As a young child her brother Iroh was very adamant about not wanting his claim to the crown. All the expectations fell onto her, so she became the perfect child. A fire bending prodigy, A respectable lady. She even started a rehabilitation program in honor of her grandfather. Everyone can change, though the latest “recruit” is starting to become a hassle.

Noatak, better known as Amon. He knew what he was made for, he knew that he needed to eradicate benders. Nothing will stop him. He’s thought out every little thing, the avatar, the police, his brother, his task force. However he didn’t think of the fire lord princess. That would prove to be his downfall. His downfall right?

Warnings: Mature content. Killing. Gore. Sexual Content such as candle play. ETC.

Tropes: Enemies to Lovers. Opposites Attract. Slow-burn. Forbidden Romance.

A/N: Amon/Noatak is 19 while OC is 18 in the beginning. Please keep this in mine! THIS IS IMPORTANT

Chapters

Chapter One.

And More

Aesthetics

Playlist