#suki of kyoshi island

[ash-and-starlight]

a bit late but @zukki-week day 1 // domesticity!

[vladimpale]

very very late day 3 of zukki week 2023: "wait, we're dating?" @zukki-week

(click for only slightly better quality bc i can't guarantee it will look good if you do)

[comradekatara]

Would Sokka, Suki and Zuko form a band? And would they call it boiling rock (but Zuko still gets on stage with like... a grand piano or a violin or smth to make it more emo) ?

zuko plays the tsungi horn, sokka plays …

this thing . and suki probably plays the pipa.

sokka writes the lyrics (they just flow out of him, he has a gift!), zuko edits the lyrics to be more poetical by employing more allusions and using more symbolic language, and suki sings (she’s the only one who can sing while she plays, but also, i genuinely doubt zuko or sokka would have nice singing voices anyway).

the idea of them calling their band the boiling rock is so funny it’s like the ultimate fuck you.

and most importantly, iroh gets to see his dream of zuko playing the tsungi horn during music night finally realized.

[lesbian-honey-lemon]

not me ignoring anything that happens in the comics or Legend of Korra just so I can write a post-canon Zukka fic about Zuko, Sokka, and Toph being idiot kids on a mission to find Sokka’s sword

[hitemwiththeoop]

i kinda just want someone to write a fanfic about the gaang reacting to the live action, if you want to make it canonesque like, doing it like it was another play like the one at ember island,,,imagine

aang getting angry because he didn't get to kiss katara at the cave and instead they make her more interested in jet and he begins saying things like I BET IF YOU HAD BEEN WITH HIM IN THE CAVE YOU WOULD'VE KISSED HIM. katara angry at her characterization like WHY DON'T I SPEAK UP??? I WOULD'VE THROWN HANDS and to sokka WHY DID THEY MAKE YOU ACT LIKE THE MORE MATURE ONE BETWEEN US, I HAD TO WASH YOUR SOCKS BACK AT THE VILLAGE. everyone absolutely confused at the fact yue was a spirit fox. Zuko criticizing himself ozai and azula like wth and why do i have drawings of the avatars and a journal about them, they make me look so obsessed, and sokka like, actually, i think that was spot on. suki and sokka cringing at the scene where she stared at him shirtless and him getting angry because they didn't make him dress up like a girl

[dreamchasernina]

What is sexist about them looking at each other in the live action shot? /gen

What’s sexist is instead of Suki humbling Sokka after he disrespected her and doubted her abilities because she’s a girl, now she teaches him because she likes him. Because of course, she’s never seen a hot man before and is all heart eyes for him and when she trains him she just can’t keep her hands off of him.

In the OG Suki taught Sokka a lesson in humility, how gender has nothing to do with being a warrior, how he’s behaving like a complete ass, and then when he apologizes and shows her respect, THATS when she decides to train him. And that’s also when she starts liking him, when she sees he’s able to admit how wrong he was and change his world view and treat her like the warrior she is. Not because “omg look at that hot guy, I gotta have him”.

[atla-suki]

i love this pic bc not only does he look stunning but his skin tone is also not washed out!!!! too much art of sokka/katara/WT characters w their skin all light and washed :/ but look how good sokka looks here! common avatar generations W

[bluespiritshonour]

Okay so apparently Netflix removed Sokka's sexism in the Kyoshi Island episode...

...which also explains why he wasn't wearing Kyoshi face-paint in the stills.

Because if he was never sexist to begin with, then there's no need for him to change—he doesn't get to dress ‘like a girl’ and feel brave and courageous instead of ashamed. When Suki says ‘it’s a warriors uniform’ and Sokka stands proud and tall in the dress like—

Sokka was the only male character who's sexism was addressed by the narrative. Suki kicked his butt and he drank his respect women juice, like, guys! He learned!

And they just took the whole thing out. It means we wouldn't even get the “I am a warrior and I'm also a girl.”

That was what sold me on Suki’s character tbh. I'm mad. I'm so mad—but, okay, I should wait till the show drops. Then I'll start complaining in the earnest.

[sarnai4]

Cake and Eat It

I really like Avatar the Last Airbender. That said, I'm not under the belief that it's perfect and has no hopes of every being improved. So, I wasn't opposed to it getting another live action remake in show form to explore some areas more. Unfortunately, the changes that were made (in my opinion) were often to the detriment of the story. Ultimately, my main issue was that the Netflix show wanted to have its cake and eat it too. On one hand, you need to separate it from the original to accept it. You're not supposed to think, "Azula's fire isn't blue like it's supposed to be. I hate this." It's its own thing and wants to be that; however, it wants you to say, "Oh no, Momo! I don't want you to get hurt because I remember all of the fun moments in the cartoon!" It contradicts itself.

In the Kiyoshi Island episode, we're supposed to laugh at Sokka for getting shown up by Suki. Why? Because he was being sexist? He wasn't really. We're meant to remember what he did in the cartoon and use that to influence us. Before, Sokka basically mocked the warriors and was rightfully shown that he should respect them. Here, he acknowledged both Suki and himself as warriors. At worst, he was pumping himself up for no reason, but he never put them down. Suki showing up the person who clearly isn't as skilled makes her seem a little harsh and then having him slink off with his tail between his legs doesn't make it as impactful like when Sokka in the original went back, apologized sincerely, and asked to be taught.

Later in the same episode, I didn't really buy that Aang gave them hope either. We saw him running with some younger kids once, then spend time with Kyoshi. The cartoon had him spend days basking in all his Avatar glory with his fan base. It makes sense that they'd be happy to have him there because their island was named after one of his past lives. This one doesn't have that happen, yet we're still expected to believe that the kid they didn't want who caused them as much danger as they expected would somehow make them happy and hopeful.

For Omashu, we're supposed to believe that Sokka and Katara have this sibling tension, but they haven't. I remember listening to their argument, wondering what they were talking about. Sokka was saying how Katara is constantly naive, but we didn't see that. We saw them argue in the cartoon because Katara took on the mother role despite being his little sister and Sokka took the protector role despite being a child. It put them at odds at times, but they still loved the heck out of each other. I don't believe it simply because they say to.

We're supposed to feel bad for Aang when Bumi is angry with him since he ran away...but he didn't. This scene was impactful in "The Storm" because Aang knowingly left, scared of the responsibilities. How can I be mad at this child for trying to clear his head and just having bad timing? It makes Bumi look cruel for no reason and doesn't give Aang the appropriate amount of guilt he reasonably would have felt in the cartoon.

So, going forward, I hope that they don't rely so much on the original. There are changes I did like, but when they try to cut out scenes and act like they exist because they did in the cartoon, I feel like that's cheating. Don't ask me to remember character moments from the cartoon in order to feel something here. If they didn't bond here, I won't use their bonds from before to color my perception.

[balanceoflightanddark]

Avatar the Last Airbender Netflix Episode 2- "Warriors"

Well, things took a bit of a downward turn.

It started off reasonably well enough. Aang buries Monk Gyatso and gives him a proper send-off. Again, I do like that his bond with Gyatso is a driving force for his character. Even introduces new stuff like his initial problems with training with Katara since he never trained with anyone outside of Gyatso before. Particularly since an ongoing subplot is his inability to control his bending abilities sort of caused him to latch onto his father figure. While I'm not exactly on board with "other kids being afraid of Aang" before he was revealed to be the Avatar, I do think it feels like an extension. Like maybe once he gained control, he made friends again like in the cartoon.

Thus, without Gyatso there to guide him, he feels more lost. Particularly with his duties as the Avatar. So he has a good solid foundation to go to Kyoshi Island this time around since he feels he needs the wisdom of a previous Avatar in order to find his place in the world and whatnot.

...we'll get to Kyoshi's "wisdom" in a moment, but for now, just know that I'm not a fan of how she was handled.

Now on to the Kyoshi Warriors, who are fan (Azula snickers) favorites for obvious reasons. On the one hand, I do like that they addressed how their isolationism has caused problems for Suki and the island. That lack of contact with the outside world has left them with little options other than keeping their heads down while the Fire Nation basically stomps everywhere else. Again, this feels true to the original series. The Fire Nation preyed on that disunity between the Nations to get such a huge advantage. Divide and conquer so to say. Hell, we see that in action with Zhao pushing Zuko to work with him to capture the Avatar instead of being a lone wolf and chasing after glory like Zuko has been doing (only thing done well with Zhao in this episode if I might add). This is in contrast with Suki's mother being reluctant to harbor Aang, Sokka, and Katara, wanting them to leave as soon as possible. You get why wanting them to leave is a priority, but you also know that you can't exactly run forever and keep your heads to the ground without fighting.

...and here's where I start to run into problems.

Let's start with Sokka and Suki for starters. I know a lot of people were angry about Sokka not being sexist this time around. I was not, but probably for different reasons than most. The idea of sexism in the Water Tribes is based on Native American stereotypes. For a series that's supposed to be about anti-colonialism and breaking those very stereotypes, that's a big red flag. With that in mind, I'm not against Sokka not having it.

I will get to the sexism thing later though, around when we get to Pakku and the North, but toning it down here was not the issue.

What IS is how Sokka's struggle with leadership is portrayed here. Again, this is a reasonable extension of the original series and I have no problems with it. Hell, I could see it as a pretty good developing point for Sokka. Problem is...I don't think it went far enough. Sokka is presented here as being aware of his inadequacies as a leader and a warrior. Yet, he's not really challenged either. Suki doesn't really do a whole lot aside from ogle him and tell him he's better than he think he is. Which sort of falls into the trap of Suki being reduced to Sokka's girlfriend in my opinion. I know she has that subplot of wanting to see the outside more and all, but then we have scenes where it's implied that she's too hard on Sokka for beating him?

Okay, let's take a step back for a moment. Removing the sexism angle, part of Sokka's flaws in the original was his pride. He thought he could take Zuko when he obviously couldn't. He demeaned the Kyoshi Warrior despite them beating him. The whole purpose was that he was using his pride to cover up his insecurities about being a nonbender and his doubts about being a leader. Yet at the same time, it was that pride that prevented him from actually confronting his flaws and growing as a person. Suki's purpose in the original was to help him swallow his pride, and thus allow him to grow to become a better warrior. He adopted her customs with humility, and he became a better fighter as a result.

Here? Nothing. He doesn't even adopt the Kyoshi Warrior uniform (which considering one of the problems plaguing the world is division amongst allies is a HUGE missed opportunity), nor do we learn of their values outside of protecting people. Which in a 45 minute episode, boggles the mind about how they couldn't fit that in. Instead we just get a more generic "you're better than you think you are" without deconstructing why Sokka needs that message. He doesn't really learn humility here, just that he needs to be better. That doesn't really address his problems outside of slapping a band aid on it.

Speaking of bad advice...Kyoshi.

I HATED what they did with Kyoshi. I understand that she's not the most compassionate Avatar, but it feels like they ran with her "murder" portrayal the fandom gave her. Her advice to Aang about being a warrior was accepting that things will get bloody, but he shouldn't run from his duty. Yeah. Right. Apparently the only way to fight fire is with fire I guess. Her message of "being merciless" is the exact same doctrine the Fire Nation runs on. Something that is highlighted when Zhao threatens to burn civilians. And it doesn't even make sense from her perspective since she takes down Zhao's soldiers without killing any of them.

Forgive me, but while Kyoshi is somewhat correct that things will get worse, the answer isn't to get meaner and more ruthless as a result. Which honestly comes as a surprise since they bothered to include her backstory from her novels, but forgot that part of her journey was realizing that she needed to be more than some ruthless thug and instilling fear lest she run the risk of becoming like Jianzhu. And she should've known that tearing down a scared kid for running away won't do any good since SHE was a scared kid who initially ran from her duty as the Avatar. It just made her look like a colossal hypocrite.

sighs

Sorry. Kyoshi in the original and in the novels was one of my favorite past Avatars. I'm just insulted they basically made her fanon self canon when she's more than that.

Finally...Zhao. I'm not a fan of how he's the one to burn down Kyoshi Island instead of Zuko. Mainly because it made him look like a colossal idiot. He knows there's an Avatar running around and he only brings A SINGLE SHIP? What's more, he knows about what Kyoshi Island was doing and presumably knows how formidable the Warriors are. Why wouldn't he bring back up in case things heat up? His men don't even outnumber Suki's!

What's worse is that they got some of him down okay. He was wily enough to figure out that Zuko was looking for the Avatar and where Aang was on few clues. So why's he that incompetent here since by all accounts, he should know better? Was the message here that the Fire Nation aren't as powerful as they appear, so Sokka and Aang just need to man up and fight? Then how the hell did the Fire Nation get so close to winning the war in the first place?

...yeah, this episode was a bit of a step down. The kid playing Aang continues to help carry this thing, but honestly, if they can't even get one of the past Avatars right and deconstruct the ruthless attitude of the Fire Nation where it should be needed in this case, I'm not feeling confident for the third episode.

[rorysreallyrandom]

I read a fanfic the other day and it had me thinking.

I whole heartedly believe that whenever Suki is trying to justify some kind of gratuitous violence she looks at aang and says something like

“Kyoshi would agree”

Or, “Right, Kyoshi?”

Because she knows full well he has connections to his past life and knows even better that Kyoshi would 100% approve of said gratuitous violence. And she definitely found ways to show Suki her approval.

Plus we know Suki and Kyoshi are buddies bc of the comic, “Suki, Alone”

Thank you for coming to my TED talk

[vladimpale]

vacation on kyoshi island

[comradekatara]

i appreciate the irony of suki being the only member of the gaang who we dont see commit crimes, and yet she is the one who gets sent to supermax.

[prodogg]

Im asking myself how many people have the Kyoshi Warriors already fed to the Unagi before Aang, Katara and Sokka arrived to the island.

[r0semultiverse]

Okay so Avatar shrines are the exception. Still wild. Aang having weird gender feels after becoming & being possessed by a strong avatar lady is my headcanon now!

I know I’m overthinking it, but couldn’t they just make or find a small mobile avatar shrine & take it with them everywhere?? I mean we see something like that in Zuko’s ship in his room. 👀 I mean I’d rather see Aang figure out his power on his own & with his friends, but I figure I would bring that up again. Just carry around an emergency fuck you button basically. Lmao

[fioleespring]

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