#swamp bender

[joyouzz]

LU/ATLA: Hyrule

Nation: Earth Kingdom

Bender: Water Bender

Sub-Bending Skills:

• Healing

• Plant Bending

• Blood Bending(???)

Hyrule grew up in the swamps of the Earth Kingdom. Growing up, Hyrule began to travel outside of his swamp home.

When traveling, he adapted to the dangers of the world, a feature that can be seen through his clothing. Keeping details of his swamp cultures yet also gathering more Earth Kingdom clothing.

I refused to draw a shirtless Hyrule and threw his pants and a proper shirt. Hyrule keeps some elements of his culture’s clothing, like the arm bands, wood board, and leaf hat, but adds more to it to blend in.

Wild absolutely has a traditional swamp clothing set.

Here are some other details about LU/ATLA Hyrule:

• Hyrule grew up in the humid swamps, therefore never encountering ice

• No ice = No ice bending

• Instead, swamp benders bend plants such as the vines around them

• Debating if Hyrule should learn blood bending, on one hand it be flipping cool for him to learn a powerful ability to use only in the most desperate situations

• But on the other hand, would it fit Hyrule?

• When Hyrule was six, he discovered he had healing after he fell from the trees and scrapped his knees pretty badly

• Ever since then, Hyrule offered to heal the people of tribe whenever someone gets hurt

• No matter how big or little the wound is, he would heal it

• This led him to passing out when he was ten after a group of tribal warriors came back injured, exhausting himself too much

• When Hyrule was thirteen, he joined his tribe in warding off spirits and unwelcome visitors

• To keep the swamp and their people safe, the tribe creates a swamp creature using plant bending

• Much like what happens in Avatar: The Last Airbender

• This keeps the tribe safe however it also spreads a rumors that creatures that live in the swamps are cruel spirits wearing Hylian skins to blend in

• At the age of fifteen, Hyrule left the swamp for the first time when he was wandering the swamp

• This creates a desire to explore the world and see what wonders are outside of the swamp

• Try has they might, his tribe tries to discourage Hyrule by saying it’s too dangerous

• When the tribe realizes their words will not stop Hyrule, at age sixteen, Hyrule leaves the swamps and sets off

• Least to say the first weeks were terrifying

• Between being mistaken for an ‘forsaken swamp spirit’ and running into hostile earth benders, Hyrule was thrown into prison for ‘stealing’

• In his cell, Hyrule met an old kind man who too was wrongly accused

• There, Hyrule learned of war torn countries and how many people nowadays were too wary of any strangers in fear of bandits, Yiga in disguise, or angry spirits

• It is also there, where he learned the dangers of being an water bender outside of the tribes after he bender in front of his elderly friend

• Learning of how water benders were kidnapped from their homes, sold off to the Yiga Clan, other cruel governments, wealthy men for protection, and as war prisoners was horrifying

• Hearing the ruins and dangers of this world, Hyrule saw no choice but to break both him and his new friend out of prison

• If someone told Hyrule he would be leading a prison break years before, he would just throw a wave of water in their face

• Yet there he was, following his friend to his home in a cave after successfully leading a prison break

• In his way of showing how gratitude he was for being rescued, the old man gifted Hyrule a sword

• At first, Hyrule declined the gift, only accepting it after the old man explained how not only could it help defend Hyrule but also to help disguise his water bending abilities

• Continuing his journey once more, Hyrule had a new mission

• While yes, his prison time showed him the horrors and cruelty of the world, it also showed him that good people like his friend are in the world, suffering due to cruel greedy people

• It only fueled Hyrule into exploring more of the world, meet the good people who are out there

• It fueled him to help those who are suffering, no one deserves to be falsely accused or be captured from their homes and forced into a fight against their Will

• Even at the mere thought of anyone from his tribe being captured and traded around simply because they are a water bender makes Hyrule shiver

• His entire life, Hyrule grew up hearing about how the Avatar was suppose to bring peace and balance to the world

• He is no Avatar, but that does not mean he is just going to sit aside and watch as people suffer knowing he could do something

• Taking his new sword and waving his friend goodbye, Hyrule took off

• But first, he must commit a crime

• One pair of pants, shirt, and a good pair of shoes later and Hyrule is off

[atla-fashion]

Swamp Bender fashion

Jean Paul Gaultier Spring/Summer 2010  

[amcattos]

© LIA 2023

Commission

Jacat Meowre.

A third commission! This one is for the fantabulastic botanist Jacob. Thank you for your part in what was the best, most beautiful PowerPoint presentation ever. We couldn't have done it without you magically going from 6 to 3 minutes of talking time. Also, thanks for making me lose my mind in class because of LinkedIn's suggested replies.

[muffinlance]

The feral cat gator of a 13 year old freshly scarred Zuko being forcibly adopted by the foggy swamp tribe! Bonus points if they willfully ignore the fact he's a firebender and treat him as a very strange waterbender bending-wise

It was Earth Kingdom ships that drove the metal one onto the reefs, so when the little thing came crawling up through the marsh spitting and hissing and dressed in red, they knew it weren’t no earthbender. No matter how much mud it had tripped in, trying to find where the ground stopped sucking at its feet.

“Wow-ee,” said Old Earl, “that sure is one way of keepin’ off the ‘squito-chiggers.”

And they all watched from Big Earl’s porch, sitting or rocking, as them bugs came for the all-you-can-eat and ended up on the bar-b-que.

“Sure is some weird bending,” said Little Earl, who was taller than Big Earl, but when they'd been twelve and they’d wrestled for the title it hadn't been Little Earl who’d won.

The little thing looked maybe twelve, too. And he was little little. But he had that same look like he was going to shove someone’s face in the mud until they said otherwise, as he stood there all panting and dripping and just realizing they’d been watching him this whole time.

“It’s firebending,” the one-kid mud-wrestler said, as bugs kept pop-snapping into flames around him.

Old Earl cupped a hand over his ear, like he couldn’t hear. And he kept doing it, while the kid got louder and louder about that bending of his, but quieter and quieter about looking at them like they were his next bugs.

“Oh, firebending,” Old Earl said, nodding like he’d only just got it, when the kid had stomped straight up to his chair. “Right, right, Old Jane’s got fire-water-bending, too. Why don’t you take him to her, boys.”

“It’s not-- ugh,” shouted the kid, but maybe he only had the one volume. Certainly only had the one volume for stomping, even though stomping was what got a fellow’s shoes shoved down so deep in the mud they’d be seeing them again as mole-shrimp hats. Not that the kid had shoes. Neither did Earl, Earl, or Earl. ‘Cept for Fancy Earl, but he’d gone off to Ba-Singing-Se, to be fancy.

Anyway, Old Jane was the best at turning anything and everything into fire water, which was the kind of thing a fellow called his or her liquor when they wanted fancy folk to keep right on walking. Was really good for making shouty little firebrands take their naps, too, which let Old Jane get her glowing mitts all over that fresh burn of his. And the love-bites from the shark-wrasses that had probably been half the reason the kid had come a-shore all a-shouting in the first place.

“Nope,” diagnosed Old Jane, when the kid woke back up. “That’s just how he talks. Mother was a screamer-bird, I’d say.”

“You take that back about my mother,” screamed their screamer-bird, who had pretty good hearing for someone who’s ear had lost the same fight as his eye. Anyway, Old Jane had done the best she could about both, and nothing was on fire that shouldn’t be, and she had that extra quilt she’d been working on that needed a body under it

And the waves and the shark-wrasses had all the rest of the kid’s crew

So sure enough they set their little screamer-bird up with a nest and let him cry loud as he wanted.

Anyway, if there was one thing Earl Earl Earl and Jane knew, it was how to make a joke so good the other person didn’t even know it were a joke.

“Firebending,” their little fledgling shouted, and waved his arms around, like all that fire pointed at no one was going to get them startled off.

“A-yep,” nodded Old Earl. “That there is some fire-water-bending. Just like Old Jane.”

Old Jane wasn’t the kind of gal who showed off, but she wasn’t the kind who missed no cue, either. She swirled a lick o’ liquor out of her latest barrel and twirled it ‘round and straight into her mouth, and when she spit it out, it looked so much like the little bird’s breath-o’-fire that he didn’t even notice the spark rocks she kept on her fingers as jewelry. No one did, ‘til they’d seen the trick a few times.

The kid’s mouth hung open so low and so long, a moth-tick flew in. That was some kind of life lesson, that was. The swamp was good at sending those.

The Earth Kingdom sent troops a-stompin’ through, losing boots and scaring catigators out of their sunning spots left and right, askin’ all rumbly about those fires they’d spotted, and if anyone from that shipwreck had made it on shore, and talkin’ about how there’d be money in it for them if they made that last answer a “yes,” sounding like Fancy Earl and all his talk about commerce and living standards.

“Got a few parts of them ship people in the lagoon,” Big Earl said. “Probably still floatin’ if you want ‘em. But we better bring the shrimp-minnow nets, ‘cuase they’ll just slosh on through the turtle-sturgeon ones.”

“...No thank you,” the head stomper said, like sayin’ polite words made a fellow a polite man. He’d tracked those boots of his right up onto their porch without so much as a scuff on their mud rug. Even the kid had used the mud rug. “And the fire?”

“Oh,” said Little Earl, with a grin, “that was Old Jane.”

And she did her trick again, only less tricky, so they could see the spark rocks real good. “You boys want some fire water?” she offered. “It ain’t blinded no one who wasn’t already headed that way.”

They didn’t want any, which was grand, ‘cause she hadn’t really been offering.

When the last of them had gone stomping off back to the kind of land that let people stomp it, it took them two whole hours to lure out the catigators from under the porch. And their little screamer bird, too.

“...Why didn’t you turn me in?”

“What?” asked Old Earl, cupping his ear.

“Why—”

“What?”

“—didn’t—”

“WHAT?”

“—you—”

“Speak up, boy,” Old Earl said. “I never heard such a quiet child.”

And boy, did that set their bird back to singing.

[little-fandom-gal]

My favorite thing about Avatar (well, one of them) is all the sub-cultures we see. Like, sure there are only four recognized nations in the world, but in those nations there are lots of other people running around doing their own thing. You have sand benders out in the desert. Omashu is a single-city kingdom in the Earth Kingdom with a unique mail system not seen anywhere else. The Sun Warriors have been in hiding for so long people thought they were extinct like the dragons, but both have just been chilling in the mountains. Kiyoshi island and the unique, non-bending style they’ve developed. The swamp. Like, all of it, all the glorious aspects of the Swamp Bender culture.

They didn’t have to add these people to the story, but in doing so they make a seemingly small world expand in such wonderful ways. It makes viewers feel like the world is as fleshed out as our own with our varieties of cultures and makes us wonder what other people could be out there we just didn’t see in the series (the existence of Swamp Benders has always made me wonder if there’s a rain forest somewhere where the people have a similar vine-swinging technique, or if there’s an underground earthbending culture somewhere similar to the Sun Warriors). This show is great, and it always proves that even the smallest details and characters can have lasting impacts on the story as a whole

[onefail-at-atime]

Okay.

BUT what if.

WHAT IF the live action actually does well?

What if Netflix decides to renew it?

What if they decide to do more than three seasons?

What if they lengthen Aang's journey of mastering the elements while building on the story of the resistance within the Fire Nation?

What if they decide to do more than three seasons and we get to see more of the Southern Water Tribe Warriors?

WHAT IF WE GET MORE TIME WITH THE SWAMP BENDERS?!

What if they extend the story arc for the preparation to invade the Fire Nation?

WHAT IF WE GET MORE OF THE WHITE LOTUS?!

Nobody would have to accept anything from the live action as canon (except for Oma and Shu because they're badass lesbians now) but would it be great to see some more world building?

Personally, I'd love to see more about the resistance within the Fire Nation and more of the resistance in the Earth Kingdom.

Optimism and positivity, my friends. 💚

[bestepisode]

Vote on the second half of the season here!

Propaganda is encouraged!

Voting has closed on this round. Vote on the next poll here!

[batcavescolony]

ATLA!AU where the Gaang leave the Northern Water Tribe cus they wouldn't teach Katara so they end up in the swamp a bit earlier. Now unlike the North the swamp benders are happy to teach their cold water kin and her avatar friend bending! (+added spirit stuff with the tree)

[room-temperature-orange-juice]

Slightly warm take but I think it would’ve been funny is Korra was a swamp bender. Like. What if she was some Tarzan ass- Florida woman lookin asshole. The white lotus finds her eating bugs with her bare hands. She’s taken to republic city to ‘civilize’ her, but she only doubles down on the Florida women vibes. Examples include:

- eating a hotdog while being shot at, then approaching the person trying to shoot her (actual Florida man story)

- hanging onto the roof of a moving truck for 50 miles ‘just because’ (Florida man story, although I think he was trying to take a selfie in the original?)

And I feel like she’d join an underground fighting ring because why not. She routinely wins by biting people.

[fanfic-gremlin-ft-trauma]

an argument with my friend yesterday made me want to give a little reminder. i mentioned that there were no white-based people in avatar, he disagreed, and listed the characters with paler skin as his ‘proof’. i lectured him and now he knows better but still;

people with pale skin aren’t always white, none of the characters in avatar are based off of the white race. Aang isn’t white, neither is Zuko, or Mai, or Ty lee, or azula, or anyone in the franchise. of course, the Inuit based characters are definitely not white either, but what bothered me was the subtle prejudice that made my friend think pale skin=white.

i know this fandom has issues with racism, and it’s been addressed, but this interaction really reminded me of how small misconceptions can make a jarring difference, so I’ll say it again.

none of the characters in avatar are based on white people.

[original-sheepsandwich90]

[joyouzz]

LU/ATLA: Sketches Pt. 1

Heh heh heh. 😈

Sketch of Swamp Roolie. Work in progress.

Look at these ugly things. This is why I hate shoes.

[reticenceofladyeva]

Flutterbats and Catagators

Katara directs them into what he expects to be the densest part of the swamp as the sun begins to go down, but then the trees clear and there is a large, flat space with a blazing bonfire in the center. Men and women dressed in odd leaf clothing, holding skewers with large bugs, gather around, taking turns roasting their prey. Aang swallows thickly, but then Katara is running as fast as she can toward a man tending the fire.

He's remarkable in that he isn't wearing leaves like almost everyone else. His sleeveless tunic is a dark burgundy, and it looks like it might have been expensive once. He has shaggy, black hair that falls into his face, but as she throws herself at him, Katara tangles her hands in it and kisses him fully on the mouth, and then Aang can see a large, angry burn scar covering the left side of his face.

[fantasykiri5]

Hey in the events of an Avatar AU, do you guys think Adaine would be a waterbender (ice, frost, blue theme) or a lightening speciality fire bender? (Witch bolt/lightning bolt reminiscent, only element to conjure bending material out of thin air which is like magic, fire could be blue)

[blenderheadill]

I've been rewatching avatar, and I had a thought...

Foggy Swamp Avatar

He's an Earthbender, but he grew up as a waterbender and just NEVER KNEW until he had more than water and mud to bend.

[cowgremlin11]

my roommates and i have been on an atla binge (emmett hasnt seen the show and we had to fix that) and now. im thinking about. atla + lackadaisy. of course thinking about my blorbos first

earthbending viktor and either a firebending or non bending mordecai. im leaning towards a nonbending mordecai cus that just suits him more.

not only earth bending viktor- but metalbending viktor. like i said to @lycheeloach he gets so mad he metalbends a car into a pretzel