#the agni kai

[the-badger-mole]

People trying to convince us that the framing of Zuko taking the lightning for Katara at the Agni Kai wasn't romantic feels like the lowest stakes form of gaslighting. Why are you trying to convince me I didn't see what I definitely saw? What do you get out of that? Especially since there are non-romantically framed examples of Zuko saving other people? The artists and writers definitely knew how to frame that moment so it didn't read as romantic, and yet....

[tadpole-art]

Little turtle duck :)

[sofiialyt]

final Agni Kai !

for Vatra Artbooks Avatar book 🔥

[yourhighness6]

Ugh I will always love the concept of Katara using blood bending to revive Zuko after the last agni kai, mostly because it makes no sense to me that Zuko was able to bounce back so easily after being struck by lightning, but also because the way the show treats bloodbending is just odd to me. It was a defense mechanism created by a traumatized victim of some of the most devastating parts of colonization, and although I understand that Hama was supposed to symbolize the "bad parts" of waterbending and was important for Katara's growth in realizing that the world isn't entirely black and white, its still disappointing to me that the show never explored the gray areas of blood bending, especially since that episode was, as I stated above, about understanding the gray areas of the war. Katara using blood bending to revive Zuko would add so much to the last agni kai in demonstrating that she has truly realized that "good" and "evil" are relative concepts, and Zuko being saved by both a defense mechanism of a survivor of colonialism and a type of bending used to terrorize his people would have even added to his arc, as the narrative required him to save and subsequently be saved by the physical embodiment of everything his family sought to annihilate.

[m-r-moth]

they are both zuzu, fight me

-it’s your turn to do the dishes today!

-no, yours! i fucking did them yesterday!

*double death stare*

AGNI KAI

[cathianemelian]

Agni Kai

[endless-nightshift]

Something Something Avatar The Last Airbender was fundamentally about showing the horrible long-lasting effects of both war and violence in a grand sense (the way people suffer under fire nation occupation including the air nomad genocide and the state of the southern water tribe) but also a personal sense (zukos entire arch) and the show goes to great lengths to avoid glorifying war, often specifically choosing only depict the aftermath of terrible violence while not graphically depicting the violence itself.

And I think it's a profound misunderstanding, maybe even an insult to the source text to continually depict gratuitous death and violence as a focal point of the live action.

[babybluemohito]

I just feel like he blushes a lot

[sihtriggyr]

Zuko saying “there’s something off about her, I can’t explain it but she’s slipping” when Azula literally looked like this is still so funny lmao

[supreme-leader-stoat]

You ever think about how in The Headband, we're introduced to a side of the Fire Nation that's had its culture whittled away by a hundred years of imperial wartime propaganda. And how perhaps the most damning expression of this is that students are forbidden from dancing. And so Aang, maybe the only person on the planet who still truly remembers the Fire Nation of old, from before the war, brings it back to them.

And then we get to The Firebending Masters. Zuko's entire young adulthood has been spent using his anger towards the Fire Nation's enemies, his drive to capture the Avatar, as a crutch. And now he doesn't have that crutch anymore. So he and Aang set out on a pilgrimage, going to the birthplace of firebending itself, in search of answers. In search of a way to express the power of fire that isn't fueled by rage or smothered by fear. And they find a dance.

[parkiebearr]

I can’t stand them just get together already

[nerdpoe]

Little Zuko and little Azula love Lu Ten. They love Lu Ten so much, they successfully smuggled themselves into Lu Ten's baggage when Lu Ten left to go fight.

Lu Ten, meanwhile, finds out that his little cousins snuck along for the ride way too late.

He knows they're gonna lose the fight.

He isn't about to let a couple of little kids die like that, murdered by Ba Sing Se soldiers too hyped up by war.

He may have been prepared to put his own life on the line, but he's not sacrificing Zuko or Azula's. But he also knows that if he flees the field with them, then Ozai will absolutely use that as an excuse to "punish" his own children.

Lu Ten does not want to know what that punishment entails. He is, in fact, more terrified by whatever it may be than the literal war raging outside his tent.

So.

So.

He swallows his pride for his country, his love for his father, and his dreams of being a successful general.

He grabs the kids, fakes his death, and runs.

[dyingroses]

Avatar: The Last Airbender + AO3 Tags

[winter-tospring]

The Agni Kai between Ozai and Zuko was one of the smartest, best additions to the show. I see people complaining about Zuko "fighting back", as though that's a bad thing or takes away the victimhood of his situation.

Zuko is prepared to fight someone else. Then his dad steps in. There's already a ton of pressure, and now confusion overwhelms, because wth why would he fight his dad and HOW. He doesn't want to fight him. But this Agni Kai's point is for honor, to prove himself to him, and a) he is firstly DEFENDING himself from his dad who is the one who starts fighting him hard. (throwing fire at him?? Hello??? Is he just supposed to take it??) b) don't you think Ozai would think worse of him if he didn't do anything at all? And don't you think Zuko takes that in consideration pretty quickly as his dad attacks him?

It's clear Ozai will fight. Now Zuko looks confused and scared during the fight, rightfully so, and he tries to figure out how far this will go. My wife keeps saying that he is sparring (and that y'all don't know about sparring, lol), and that doesn't mean you have to hurt your opponent, not the way Ozai intends. Zuko engages defensively, and then fights his father, hoping that's enough to show him that's he's good at this, that he's skilled. It doesn't have to go as far as Ozai takes it, it COULD just be sparring. Zuko COULD jusy try to show him what he's learned and hope his dad is pleased enough. Isn't that what he keeps trying to do anyway? Get his approval? Both he and Azula. Unfortunately, we know that's impossible.

The unfolding of this Agni Kai drives home the cruelty of Ozai in an even more intense way to me. Because no matter how well Zuko fights, it's not about skills, it's about how far he's willing to go, that's what Ozai is judging. The mentality behind it. Zuko isn't willing to hurt his father when he could, he holds back! That is his "weakness". And the way Ozai punishes this by doing what Zuko refused to do - burning Zuko where Zuko could've burned Ozai - that is a horrible reminder of this "failure" to go far enough, and the consequences it entails.

Zuko's scar now isn't just random placement, it has meaning behind it beyond the basic cruelty of Ozai hurting his child. It directly references Zuko's "weakness". Ozai showing him how it's done directly on his face, serving as a constant reminder that he couldn't be the strong one, so he got hurt by the one who was willing to be.

The sequence of Zuko holding back and Ozai NOT holding back but purposefully pausing and choosing to punish him this way was mind-blowing. Such a powerful, terrifying moment that makes Ozai feel even crueler than in the OG.

I don't think Zuko not engaging in the OG is bad at all, it virtually gets the same result; but I also don't think it's bad for him to decide to engage. It doesn't take away anything from the point, for me, the way it plays out in the live action takes it further. It examplifies Zuko and Ozai's relationship and Zuko's efforts - never enough - perfectly.

[vidduality]

SPOILERS for Episode 6 of the Avatar Live Action series

AKA why this episode makes me SO grateful for this adaptation (re: the Zuko flashbacks and the Agni Kai).

----

Wow.

I admit, I was really worried at the idea that Zuko might potentially fight back in the Agni Kai against his father in the live action. I expected to HATE it, and it's certainly a bold change, but it fits in SO WELL with why Zuko is the way that he is (and why he works so hard to push down his empathy whenever Aang tries to reason with him).

The Agni Kai - Zuko obviously did NOT want to fight his father. He still tried to apologize and beg for mercy, but in the end he was just too terrified of his father to disobey a direct order.

But when Ozai left him an opening to see what he'd do with it, Zuko couldn't bring himself to actually land a blow that might burn him. Making his lack of ruthlessness the weakness that Ozai ends up mutilating him for - even straight up telling Zuko that compassion is weakness and then demonstrating by holding his own child down and lighting him on fire - adds a layer of depth that only enhances the original scene (and in another stroke of genius, we see Ozai nearly in tears himself. He's convincing himself of this lesson as well as Zuko, which was likely passed down to him by his own father). Honestly, this to me is even more heartbreaking than Ozai burning him for refusing to stand and fight. Zuko did everything his father asked and he still failed, because his family has distorted what it means to be honorable and believes Zuko's capacity for mercy to be a shameful weakness unbecoming of an heir to the throne.

The 41st Division - And here come the waterworks. Assigning the very people Zuko was hurt so severely for trying to save to his ship as it's being cast out of the fire nation (presumably forever, with the Avatar not having been seen in 100 years) is SUCH a brilliant addition. His crew resents Zuko for being stuck on this impossible mission with this bratty, angry child. And Zuko is too ashamed of his "weakness" to explain why they were assigned to him.

I can totally see Zuko's hurt at their lack of respect making him even more angry (especially after everything he went through to save them from being sacrificed), and his seemingly irrational anger at them just continuing to make them resent him more in a neverending feedback loop of anger and disrespect that's been growing and festering for 3 years.

Which makes the scene at the end when Zuko's crew finally learns about how he saved their lives (as well as why he's obsessed with the avatar, why he's banished, what his scar means and why he's trying so very hard to rid himself of empathy, even if he can never quite manage it when it counts) so much more impactful. I SOBBED when the 41st Division stood at attention and showed him their utmost respect and loyalty, possibly for the first time since they've been on that ship. Zuko's soft "what's going on?" at finally being honored by his crew is just imprinted on my brain.

The seed of the idea that his compassion may NOT actually be what was shameful about his banishment afterall can finally begin to take root.

I just, damn, I love this episode so much.

[velnna]

Moments before tackling your younger sibling down over the remote