#tlok thoughts

[ragnarssons]

yknow what the atla live action made me realize? how heartbreaking it is that korra was revealed as the avatar at a much much much younger age than anyone else, aang included! like i don't even understand how aang would allow his successor to have to face this reality he's had to face too young himself! maybe he didn't allow anything, maybe the white lotus did their own thing buuuuut it's still so sad! korra was 4 years old, her whole life has been "being the avatar" and not being korra. which i understand it's the point of her journey in the show and she kinda revealed herself lol but i mean these goddamn adults couldn't let this baby grow up before training her??? like sure i think at the beginning it was more her having teachers helping her, but then she got locked up in that compound "for her protection" before she was even like 10 years old! just that, ever since she was 4 years old, people have been wanting to brainwash her, kidnap her or kill her, ffs! so "for her own good" she basically grew up in a prison. heck more than aang (who was dead, obviously), how did katara and zuko even allow that???? any of the atla protagonists who have had to endure growing up too fast... like ugh. just, sad.

[moon-axolotl]

[unpersoniverse]

the many faces of Asami Sato

[limnatid]

Yall better wish me a happy birthday right now.

Here’s a sneak peek to sweeten the deal 💋

[hysteriafossil]

guess who finished tlok tonight and immediately had this come to him in a vision!!!!

[daughterofchaosstuff]

~Avatar The Last Airbender (Book II: Earth)

[lilrobinbird]

A small fanart for Korra oneshot w/ korrasami and a special guest by @ozais-lobotomist

Read it here !

[jade-of-mourning]

sorry sometimes i think about mako and my heart hurts so much. this kid raised himself and his brother on the streets in homelessness and utter poverty from eight through fifteen, promptly after seeing the violent death of his mother and father. he turned to the triple threats because they couldn't survive as a pair of wretched kids without any adult support, and the environment forced him to turn into the exact character that killed his parents in a terrible twist of irony. and after sheer-fucking-luck hits and they aren't homeless anymore, their livelihood wavers on the outcome of what's a literally game to everyone but them; and after things are finally starting to look up and their team is going places and things just might be okay, his gradually stabilizing world unceremoniously expands and everything goes to shit.

and the city that chewed him up and spat him back out, ruined him as a child and took away his ability to stay afloat in a true sense of normalcy as an adult — when it's on the verge of destruction and falling to pieces before his eyes, he gives himself to save it with the full expectation to die. he went from the kid who didn't and couldn't care about anything outside of himself and his brother, to finding redemption for his younger self in his police work despite its injustice against him, to willingly sacrificing himself to a world that had never loved him.

he's a desperate people pleaser, socially and emotionally stunted for the adult he had to be as a kid, unable to navigate interpersonal relationships easily yet still trying his damned hardest. he's intensely and entirely devoted to the things that matter to him and for so long it was only him, bolin, and ensuring their survival — yet by the end, that devotion has expanded to protecting the rest of the world. he starts out entirely self-reliant and ends in trusting the people he cares about to know their own needs, to be able to take care of themselves, to be okay without him despite having spent so much of his life defined by his role in others' well-being.

just. what the fuck i'm such a big fan of this fictional guy and i'm unashamed about it at this point. also let him cry please (if you won't i'll do it i'll let him cry)

[allgremlinart]

whatever. build ur own ideal old woman blunt rotation I guess

[yikes-kachowski]

In a similar vein to my mako post lol, here's genderbent wuko.

I just love Desi clothes for women 🥺 they're so pretty. Also I love women. So obviously I had to do it to em

I characterize mako in fringe way I think so I don't expect people to be that enthusiastic about it.

Also those squiggles represent tattoos okay? Even aang stans get tired of drawing full body tattoos okay?

[persnickety-doodles]

I started watching this F1 racing show on Netflix and since I’m always thinking of them… 😏

[yurimoons]

what pet names do you guys think Korra and Asami use for each other? I’m partial to just ‘babe’ or ‘baby’ obviously but other than that i’m not quite sure. I think Asami definitely calls Korra ‘honey’ but at the same time can’t really imagine it the other way around.

[wilcze-kudly]

I have so many issues with Kuvira's redemption in Ruins of the Empire but what always felt kinda shitty to me was that it seemed like she came to her 'redemption' kinda.... out of nowhere?

Arguably the point where she "owns up" to her mistakes, is never truly shown to us.

It's shown that she doesn't really have much regret or consideration of the people she's hurt.

What's odd about it is that a good chunk of her victims were right there! Barring Su and Baatar Jr, who one could argue had their stories with Kuvira at least kinda wrapped up. But they weren't exactly the characters I wanted Kuvira to realise she'd wronged.

Opal, Huan, Wei and Wing were betrayed, imprisoned and almost died. Similarly Bolin was manipulated, used, threatened and imprisoned by Kuvira. Asami lost her father. Mako was physically scarred and almost died. Wu was almost kidnapped and forced to fear for his life several times, becoming Kuvira's main target.

Basically the entirety of the cast of the comic are Kuvira's victims to some extent. However, Kuvira is pretty callous and dissmissive of those she'd hurt through most of the comic.

Which I enjoy, it's in character for her and it would be fun to see her realise her mistakes. And she does, it seems.

However it does feel a little jarring how she goes from dismissing and being indignant at every single criticism levelled at her to this:

I also do find it kinda irksome how vague her apology is. It kinda feels like a YouTuber apology lmao. She wasn't "wrong", she was cruel, xenophobic and manipulative, among other things.

And I realise it would be hard to fit a whole ass apology tour into the comics but would it kill ya to give us at least a few scenes of Kuvira realising she done fucked up. It just feels a but unsatisfying to see her go from full on denial to acceptance of her crimes off screen.

And Opal is treated as unreasonable for being petulant towards Kuvira, however she's extremely justified in her anger and pain.

But yeah, Kuvira's story should've been treated much more carefully and given more time to unfold.

[orangepanic]

Voices in the Night

Ikki couldn't sleep. The moon was too bright and there was a hummingbird moth that kept tap tap tapping at her window and her head was too full of thoughts. So up she went, using a cushion of air to glide down the hallways so her mother wouldn't hear her steps and be cross.

Once outside the moon was even brighter, like a big wheel of sky bison cheese. Ikki couldn't see the hummingbird moth though. What she did see was a butt. A butt with dangly legs hanging out of one of the open windows.

"Hello, Mr. Butt!" she chirped. There was a yelp and then a man tumbled out into the bush. When he stood he had sticks in his spiky brown hair. "Oh, hi Mako," she corrected.

"Shh!" Mako pressed his finger to his lips like a teacher. His face was all red and his shirt was unbuttoned. "I was only, um, looking for... yeah." Then he took off running across the grass.

"Bye Mako!" Ikki whispered, waving. He was funny. No wonder Korra liked him.

She turned and walked the other way around the residence. A lot of people had been staying on the island lately to help her dad with what to do after those scary Equalists and making a new council and stuff, so she wasn't surprised to see a flickering light on in one of the detached residences.

"I'd never leave you unsatisfied," said a low voice, followed by a wet sucking sound. "Until tomorrow then." The flickering light bounced a bit until it was outside, where it resolved into a tiny flame carried in the hand of a young man Ikki had known all her life.

"Hi, Iroh!" she called. "Can't sleep, too?"

Iroh jumped like someone had blown air up his pants. The flame in his hand winked out. When his eyes finally settled on her she saw him sag in apparent relief.

"What are you doing out of bed, munchkin?" he asked quietly, jogging over. "It's late."

"There was a moon and a hummingbird moth and Iroh, what are all those red smudges all over your mouth? Were you kissing? Oh it'd be so romantic! Who were you kissing, Iroh? Was it a princess? Are you gonna make her a princess? Where's your belt? Are---"

Iroh clapped a hand over her mouth and steered her back in the direction of the house. "I wasn't here," he whispered in her ear. "There's extra candy in it for you tomorrow if you can remember that."

"Mwhf frn nu---" Iroh released the hand over her mouth. "Okay, goodnight General Not Here, I like rock candy, the apple ones, and I hope it was good kissing and that you go home and have good dreams about your princess where you get married and I'm invited and you fly away on a dragon together into the sunset and have lots of babies."

Iroh rubbed at his mouth with the back of his hand, blushing. "Go to bed."

Ikki waved at his back and started back to the front door. The idea of candy made her remember there were leftover sweet buns in the kitchen which no one could tell her she couldn't have if they were asleep.

Suddenly a dark shape detached itself from the shadows of one of the far buildings. Ikki stopped in her tracks. There were no more Equalists, her father said, and no bad guys coming to get them. Still, something about the way this person moved screamed "bad guy" all the same. He wasn't walking so much as slinking. A slinky bad guy slinking away from who knew what badness.

Ikki opened herself and sent a jet of air at the man's back. He stumbled with a grunt and wheeled on her and he was old! Old like her daddy was old, with wrinkles and bushy eyebrows and a stripe of white down the middle of his gray hair like a skunk bear.

"What are you doing, kid?" he growled.

"We don't want any Equalists," Ikki said firmly, hands on her hips.

The big man's posture relaxed. Then, of all things, he laughed.

"Me, neither, kid," he said. "I hate those buggers."

Ikki snorted. Buggers. Like bugs. "So why are you slinking?"

"Visiting an old friend," he said. He rubbed at the corner of his mouth and smiled. "We're getting reacquainted. I like doing that on your island. It's fun for me. Do you know what irony is?"

Ikki did. "It's what auntie Lin bends."

A grin cracked across the man's craggy face. "She sure does bend alright," he said. Then he shook his head with a sharp laugh and started off in the direction of the ferry. Ikki wondered if he was going to meet Mako and Iroh for something. Maybe they were having a tea party.

[tasteless-lemonade]

wait how old is iroh ii

[hou-ting-dynasty]

I doubt that Wu had friends before Team Avatar. He was likely isolated in his youth, and would surely be aware of how his royalty influences his relationships. He can never be sure whether or not someone has an ulterior motive, an intention to ‘befriend’ him for the sole purpose of gaining money or status.

In ‘Reunion’ (4x07), when Wu says to Mako, Asami and Korra that “you guys are the greatest friends a guy could have,” he is being actively excluded and has been consistently belittled and rejected from the start.

This isn’t without reason — Wu is pretty insufferable at the beginning of Season 4 (I still love him, of course) — but I always wonder about that passing comment. Is he trying to convince himself that these people are his friends despite their very loud dismissals, or does he genuinely believe that true friendship is exactly how Team Avatar treated him?