#the zhaang child has been found. i make the rules

[ohmygodtheywereparabatai]

A [gay ass] Thought

Ever have three simultaneous epiphanies about the new rarepair you’ve latched onto? Fun, right?!!

(Please disregard if Zhao/Aang “Zhaang” isn’t in your circles of interest, this isn’t really intended for an audience… ya Ray trying to blow off steam by writing.. rough day 😮‍💨)

ephifancy 1. The moment Korra’s airbending kicks in

Why this one? Well, Tenzin establishes her weak point as a lack of spiritual understanding ~ making airbending her weakest element. So it’s curious that it should come sweeping in as a blow of brute force all the same, knocking Amon off his feet and freeing Mako from his grip.

The slow-mo toss of her arm is something, but the way she shouts “No!” as if she’s about to lose someone very important to her…? Maybe a similar moment was what defined Aang’s airbending in a form stripped of all grace and subtlety ~

Probably not out of worry for anyone in the Gaang, since they’re more than capable of fending off the enemy… but a hapless, blundering idiot dragged out of the Fog of Lost Souls? Aang’s job is to worry. That shared instant of don’t take him from me could be what finally bridges Korra’s airbending with that of the last airbender. (yes, him. played the pronoun card 😏)

epfefenee 2. Aang’s kids… are kinda messed up

RIP. Sacrificing (let’s say.. slightly altering) the tale of a hardworking father trying his best to balance the world along with his family for Aangst ✨

First you have Tenzin, whose memory of spending quality time with his siblings is sorely inaccurate, specifically called “foggy” (hint hint wink wink winkity hint hinty wiNK WINK—) by Kya.

Now, Tenzin may be getting on in years, but before that instance he’s never shown less than a timely, well-oiled aptitude… which can only mean this stemmed from someplace offscreen, and the answer is even rounded to his early childhood. In Aang’s (deserved, yet harmful, as the show tells us) devotion to teaching his only inclined son the ways of a lost culture… could he have thought ‘oh, two birds with one stone’ and taken Tenzin with him on premature journeys into the less idyllic spirit world? Prisons and vicious cycles of punishment, AKA Zhao’s casa - leaving him the high-strung, overbearing, questionably retentive man seen in Book One. Foggy memory indeed… and poor guy :( Aang bby the bad decision-making is rubbing off on you

*Tenzin also does exceptionally well in the Fog of Lost Souls compared to the others. A sign of some classic Mithridatism behind the scenes?

- Then you have Bumi, the man of Wild Stories with questionable credibility… but how unlikely are these stories, really, seeing the sort of happenings and creatures that inhabit the spirit world?

Could Aang have lugged two children along while he was seeing Zhao, giving Bumi that teensy spiritual push to receiving airbending later on? From his arch nemesis the shark-squid to his traumatizing brush with cannibals, not to mention the impossible escapes with silly means ~ they come off as the result of an overactive imagination, real plight bearing visible scars, or a disturbing mix of both.

- Kya… Good news! I’ll leave her alone. I guess she got away - the gays win! Likewise to Aang’s passion for raising an airbending child after a hundred-year upset, Katara would delight in teaching a spunky water girl after growing up alone in her tribe. Not as much time with Daddy; safer with Mommy! (Unless I come back to this tyke later… :3)

efishinthesea 3. Korra’s personality

This one is purely my baby… but Aang resonating so closely with Zhao that his reincarnation adopts most, if not all, of his traits and character?

🥺

Oh, how could I even begin to elaborate without melting into an incoherent puddle of rainbows?

You get it, don’t you guys? Spirit-y logic that I can’t physically synthesize when the keys are blurring with my happy tears? Two men connecting in the afterlife, navigating tough roadblocks, finding each other over and over again as their emptiness is fulfilled in ways they could have never imagined? When they finally pass on, finding rest as simple as each other’s company?

Leaving fingerprints on souls, borrowing and receiving energy in a friendship or love like the most wholesome alchemy… eventually building up to an imprint that revives itself in ~ as - Aang’s next life? Like Zhao finally gets his second chance.