#toph is my third favorite avatar character

[lilbagdermole]

Toph's Characterization, ATLA Comics - A Dissertation

Chapter One - The Rift (Part One)

I'm going to start with the third entry of the 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' Comic Series because Toph's characterization isn't too off-putting in 'The Promise' (though it still had many infuriating panels that I'll get to in the future) and she isn't present in 'The Search'. So, we'll start off with 'The Rift' - the first and only Toph-centric comic, despite being a fan favorite character and one of the main characters of the show.

And, the very first panel with our favorite Earthbender is a slap to the face to Toph's character arc as well as her personality:

Toph Beifong is questioning whether or not Earth Kingdom citizens can united alongside Fire Nation citizens.

This is coming from the first member of the Gaang that warmed up to Zuko when he presents himself in the Western Air Temple (and willingly went to speak to him, despite everyone's disapproval).

This is coming from the same person who willingly sat down for a cup of tea with Uncle Iroh. And even after discovering he was a member of the Fire Nation Royal Family, she still thought and spoke highly of his character (Aang does state that Toph mentions that Iroh gives great tea and advice).

This is coming from the same person who travelled across the Fire Nation, observed how their is good in evil; fought beside the Fire Nation Prince to stop the war and even reassured him that HE WAS GOOD when he doubted himself during the Ember Island Play!

Obviously, Toph may have her doubts and concerns given they're discussing the government of a Fire Nation Colony - territory that once pertained to the Earth Kingdom. And yes, hostility and dissatisfaction may be a legitimate concern. However, it's the way she phrases her sentence that irks me. It almost seems as though Toph is doubting the possibility of genuine unanimity forging between the two different Nations. And it's really off-putting because Toph had never ONCE, during her screen time on ATLA, questioned the possibility of blossoming friendships with people of the Fire Nation.

It's also a lesson Aang teaches her in 'The Avatar and The Firelord':

Toph: It's like these people are born bad

Aang: No, that's wrong. I don't think that was the point of what Roku showed me at all (...) Roku was just as much Fire Nation as Sozin was, right? If anything, their story proves anyone's capable of great good and great evil.

And now, we commence my substantial hatred for the portrayal of Toph's manners:

Yes, in the original series Toph does have a few scenes (that I can recall, three) where she does something that is generally un-ladylike and bad-mannered. But, I cannot understand what it is with Bryke and their obsession of depicting Toph being rude and gross in almost every other scene.

In 'The Promise' we had a few other scenes and 'The Rift', not fifteen pages in, and we get these two scenes almost back-to-back. And, it no longer correlates to Toph's want to disconnect from her pompous upbringing. This is how Bryke choose to write their "tomboy" coded characters, and it's disrespectful.

We don't see any other female character do these types of actions. Not Katara, not Suki, not Ty Lee, not Mai, not Azula. Toph is exclusively the only character that acts this way. And it really leaves a bad taste in my mouth once you come to terms that Byrke associate "tomboy female characters" with unhygienic, gross and rude behavior. You can write Toph desiring to abandon her rigorous upbringing and be less traditionally feminine without portraying her this way. It's just perpetuating a very nasty stereotype that's already been constructed with this type of media.

And don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with depicting female characters doing things that are considered unladylike (example: burping, picking their teeth, etc.). But, how come no other female character acts this way? We never see none of the other traditionally feminine characters, such as Katara or Mai, act this way. Like I said, it's feeding into a very weird and harmful stereotype.

Oh boy.

So, we enter the central conflict between Aang and Toph.

To contextualize this, whilst Aang is explaining the Air Nomad Traditions to the air acolytes, he ends up saying "That's just how it's done." and it triggers Toph's past childhood trauma growing up secluded and misunderstood by emotionally neglectful parents. I actually really enjoy that we're exploring Toph's past and her own traumatic experiences; it makes her a more compelling, relatable and human character and gives her personality a lot more depth.

However, it's what comes next that infuriates me to my core (and the reason why I wanted to write this monstrosity of an analysis). Toph becomes arrogant, rude, insensitive and disrespectful to Aang and to his culture.

It's just odd we never explore this trauma beyond this. The trauma that Toph has, while interesting and a great set-up for some internal character work, it's utilized solely to progress the conflict (and once it's resolved, Toph's inner struggles are abandoned). And it's odd that this traumatic event in her childhood is the setup for her sudden and spontaneous love for the future and her avoidance of her past.

It's even odder when you remember that in the original series, Toph never wanted to flee her past. She loved her parents and felt remorse for leaving them. She just wanted them to understand that she was a capable fighter and see her beyond her blindness.

For you to understand my disappointment in this particular characterization, we first have to analyze Toph during ATLA. Throughout the two seasons where she is present, Toph had never once disrespected Aang's culture or his spirituality. On the contrary, she seemed amazed with the Western Air Temple the moment she sensed it's architecture beneath the cliffs: "Wow ... it's amazing!"

Aang reassured her that friendships carry on throughout lifetimes (and it comforts her);

When he's meditating, she's the only one remaining quiet:

Season 3, Episode 6: The Avatar and The Fire Lord

Katara: Do they have bathrooms in the Spirit World?

Sokka: As a matter of fact, they do not.

She's always showed nothing but respect for Aang, his culture and his duties as the Avatar and last airbender, yet, now, for some reason she is characterized in such an unflattering and antagonistic light. And it's crazy to me that Toph is suddenly someone who resents the past and is all about the future... since when has this been one of her defining character traits?

It just... keeps going... And it's so sad to see. This just makes Toph so unlikeable and this just isn't the same Toph we got to see in the animated series. And it what world would Toph Beifong choose a random dude she just met over her friends, especially her FIRST FRIEND (Aang)?

AND NOW SHE IS LYING TO PROTECT THIS RANDO BECAUSE HE ADMIRES HER?

In what world would Toph do this? And don't tell me this is because Toph is enamored with Satoru. Toph, canonically had a crush on Sokka, yet she never did anything stupid nor disrespectful for Sokka; she never compromised her morals or beliefs to protect Sokka.

And I cannot fathom Toph being this unbothered by the pollution. True, she was never a big environmentalist in the main series; however, I would like to believe that Toph would advocate for the protection of her element, especially given she is so in tune with nature: Badgermoles taught her how to bend, she sees through earth, her element is centered around nature... I just can't rationalize Toph being this indifferent to the lack of care for the environment.

Sigh... Here's a little montage of Aang's ability to maintain inner peace:

Season Two, Episode Eight 'The Chase': Aang lashing out on Toph despite Toph being the only one to justify how Azula, Ty Lee and Mai kept finding them.

Season Two, Episode Eleven 'The Desert': Yelling at Toph and blaming her for Appa's kidnapping, despite Toph being unable to see nor protect Appa, because she was protecting her friends.

Season Three, Episode One 'The Awakening': Aang being so frustrated that the world thinks he's dead that he flies away at sea, during a storm.

Season Three, Episode Seventeen 'The Ember Island Players': Literally get's so infuriated with an unreal depiction of his relationship with Katara that he forcibly kisses her, because immaturely possessive and quote: 'Overreacting? If I hadn't blocked my chakra, I'd probably be in the Avatar State right now!?

'The Promise' - Part One: After Katara is held by Zuko and he enters the Avatar State.

Yes, Aang sure is in tune with his inner peace.

It's also hilarious that they really think Toph is the one provoking the earthquakes when she's the best earthbender alive and is more in tune with her bending then any other bender there. I mean, I get it we have to shove the "everyone loves and defends Aang" but not even Sokka came to Toph's defense? Katara?

Another thing that really rubs me the wrong way is that Toph was literally pushed into Aang's life because she "waits and listens" - yet, here, Toph is anything but patient. She's explosive and reactive. During ATLA, whenever she fights, she always has a moment afterwards where she listens to the other person. The best examples are with Katara in 'The Runaway'. She's actually considerably patient if you actually analyze her character throughout the series and isn't as hotheaded as she's portrayed here.

Not everything in this first part is horrendous. I do enjoy that we get confirmation (that unlike a certain canon couple) Aang and Toph are able to have their squabbles and then talk things out to understand one another's perspective.

We also get to see them work together despite being at odds. And, just like in the animated series, they work in really great harmony and comprehend the other without saying many words. I really enjoy that we get to see them put their differences and disagreements aside and work like a unite when it's called for. That is something that I really enjoy about Taang and their dynamic.

We also get a lot of cute panels with Toph and Aang - and man they are a really good looking couple. In a later analysis, I'll get more into depth on their relationship in this comic (and her relationship with her friends), but for this initial part it wasn't too badly butchered.

And's that's it for the first part of this analysis.

[seyaryminamoto]

hello! I really like your meta about Zuko, and I'm so glad that I finally found a person who also thinks that Zuko in book 3 is a much worse person than he was in the book 1. I always thought that something was wrong with me, since literally no one sees this obvious fact for me! But I would like to ask you: What do you think about Katara in book 3? the fact is that she was my favorite character in books 1 and 2, and the way she was written in book 3 upset me a lot. it seems to me that they spoiled her character, but I can't explain why. Please share your thoughts!

Glad you've enjoyed my extensive meta on the fandom's fave, haha. I did write a lot about him, always nice to know my thoughts on the subject are still deemed relevant.

As for Katara... well, I have thoughts on her, too. My experience with her character is quite similar to yours, I'd say, because I too felt a lot better about her character in the first two seasons of the show compared with the third. I don't usually give this a ton of thought, but after your ask, I figured I'd try and figure out what exactly went down with her that made people like us feel so uncomfortable with Katara's portrayal at multiple points of Book 3...

For starters, I'll say I vibed with Katara a lot when I started the show for reasons beyond her being a great character or being written wonderfully: she could very well have been written mediocrely and I would have loved her anyway simply because I ran away from anime to ATLA in an era where anime kept shoehorning incest undertones into every sibling relationship, even in shows that didn't have that as a core subject. It happened at least twice that I can remember, I kept seeing people raving about shows where it WAS the core of it (I still do not understand the Oreimo deal, like, the minute I read that show's title I puked in my mouth and knew I'd never watch it), and I just needed... safety from that concept, I guess?

So when I went into ATLA, and the first sibling relationship you're exposed to is Sokka and Katara, two siblings who very much act like siblings? I was thriving. It was thrilling. I felt so refreshed that I think I didn't care much about the flaws of Book 1, despite my inability to sense direction for most of it, because thank the universe, it was a sibling relationship that made sense to me!

With that as an opening, I'd say that, initially, I thought Katara was fine for most of Book 1. In Book 2? She fell off the radar for me a bit simply because other characters are introduced that just appeal to me so much more than she does. I vibe better with characters like Azula, who tend to be the type of female character I just LOVE, and with characters like Toph, she's a tomboy, I was a tomboy (... was? x'D maybe I shouldn't use past tense...), so I gravitated much more towards those two by no real fault of Katara's core personality traits. Back in Book 1, there aren't as many main characters, so you don't have a lot of variety to choose faves from. It's not that strange, I think, that once the cast broadens, people's interest in certain characters can scatter too.

But then Book 3 happened, and I just couldn't enjoy Katara outside of episodes where she wasn't that important. The Katara-centric episode of Book 3 stand among my least favorite episodes of ATLA altogether, and among the least likely episodes I'd ever want to rewatch. I literally skipped over The Painted Lady in my first rewatches of the show, every bit as much as I skipped The Great Divide or Avatar Day, both of which annoy me a lot in the first two seasons. The Puppetmaster? Not even close to being an episode I could enjoy. Even the Runaway, that's supposed to be Toph-centric, ends up making me count down the minutes for it to end and I'm not even going to get started on The Southern Raiders and the absolute can of worms that episode is...

So, with all this being said, if we peel this particular cabbage open little by little...

After mulling it over, I've grown to suspect that Katara has major inconsistency issues since day one that most people don't particularly like to acknowledge, and that flew over most of our heads from the beginning of the show. She's pretty much portrayed to us as an empath, someone who has so much heart that she can't help but feel everyone's pain and suffer with them all the time. The fandom 100% acts like that's who she is (while also obsessively adultifying her unnecessarily, and forcing her into the mom!friend role, which... we'll talk about that later)

But this is also the same character who, when her brother banished Aang from the Southern Water Tribe as early as in episode 2, protested in a very particular way once Aang was gone. Which one of these statements sound more accurate to Katara's character, and a suitable protest for her to proclaim upon witnessing this injustice against Aang?

"Aang is alone! How could you send him away on his own? He could be in danger, Sokka! He's just a kid!"

"The Air Nomads are gone, Sokka! Where do you think he'll go? He doesn't have a home to go back to and you just sent him away!"

"You happy now? There goes my one chance at becoming a waterbender!"

If you ask the fandom? They'll most likely think that her reaction was either #1 or #2.

Surprise surprise: it was actually #3

I'm not saying she didn't show empathy towards Aang while Sokka was ranting at him, because she did. I'm not saying she wasn't willing to be banished along with Aang until Sokka asks if she'd choose pretty much a total stranger over their family and tribe, because she was. She absolutely did all those things.

... So why would she focus only on how he represented her one chance at becoming a waterbender once Aang is gone?

This feels off to me. I've never particularly liked that line. And you could absolutely say that Katara has every right to be mad at losing her chance to reclaim an aspect of her culture that she cannot connect to, but the way it was framed here? It absolutely makes Katara look more selfish than she actually was. The wording is not good. The show doesn't emphasize, at this point, that bending is such a core and crucial part of their culture and that Katara feels a major responsibility in being the ONLY person in the South Pole that can keep it alive. So it just comes off as a child's tantrum. Sokka's concerns were 100% valid too, even if he went about them while being a jerk (he is, indeed, an older brother...). He wasn't even wrong in the end about how dangerous Aang was to their tribe, since Aang's mishap with Katara on the ship gives away his position to Zuko, and it results in Zuko ramming a huge ship into their home and nearly killing people in the process. But you DON'T see the show fully framing it as though Katara and Aang did something wrong -- it was an honest mistake. We know it was. Sokka is framed as unreasonable for being so paranoid even though later events in the very episode prove he wasn't.

And that's... the crux of the issue with Katara's writing. If you ask me.

There are far too many instances where Katara makes mistakes that she's not held accountable for, that she doesn't apologize for, that run against the core logic and principles of her character and they either get shrugged off or overlooked. There are far too many situations where she acts out, and is a jerk at her jerk of a brother, even unprompted on occasion, and it's supposed to just be funny. One particularly stood out to me when I revisited it a few years ago, I can't really remember what for (maybe when I was writing Jeong Jeong's arc in Gladiator and I had a look at the fishing village...?), but it's the famous flashback episode in Book 1: The Storm.

The scene in question is... humorous. Supposedly. Katara is trying to buy fruit in the market but then realizes they have no money to pay for it. Not only does Katara piss off the vendor, but the vendor actually takes her rage out on Sokka once she realizes these kids won't give her any business: he gets kicked in the rear, as the transcript's description says. No one protests the woman's violent reaction, not even Sokka. Katara most certainly doesn't do it. But that's not all there is to it: Sokka doesn't hold what happened with the fruit vendor against Katara, they have a conversation on how they have no money and no food... and Katara offers him the golden ticket solution to their problems:

"You could get a job, smart guy."

Am I too feminist for thinking it's insane that Katara expects her brother alone to get the job? That she's not saying the THREE of them should get jobs? She and Aang are BENDERS! That's an asset most people aren't likely to find in any would-be employees in the central Earth Kingdom! So... wouldn't it be logical for all of them to do it? But no, instead, Sokka alone has to get the job?

And yes, I know, Sokka is the provider, Sokka is the protector, Sokka would do ANYTHING for his sister and the people he loves: you ask the fandom, though, and that's Katara instead of him. Moments like these simply do not exist in the fandom's eyes and, if they do, they're just excusable because Sokka is boring/weird/annoying/insert-demeaning-nonsense-here and Katara is a queen who can do whatever she wants.

Then, the consequences arrive once Sokka gets a dangerous job on a fishing boat and nearly gets killed in a storm. Aang is the one who shows concern about the potential storm when the fisherman's wife brings it up: from all I can see in the transcript, there's nothing from Katara. Sokka says they told him to get a job, so that's what he's doing, and there's no manifestation of concern from either of them about maybe joining him on this fishing trip to ensure he's safe. Instead, Aang is haunted by his past and Katara goes with him when he leaves, which, yes, is very important for context on the Air Nomads and Aang's life... and yet we don't really NEED for this scene to be Katara and Aang only. It could've included Sokka too. The plot of the second half of the episode would change? Likely. They could've come up with another idea, and not shown us a Katara who doesn't show concern for her brother's safety or any remorse when her unfair demands or expectations from him could result in catastrophic outcomes :') yes, she worries about Sokka's safety once the storm hits, but there's no sign of her feeling responsible for Sokka being out in the storm at all. No apology. Which is ironic, because Zuko apologizes to Iroh in that very same episode, hence, an apology from Katara to her brother could have mirrored that side of the story well, and they REALLY loved doing Zuko-Gaang parallel scenes like that, so it would have fit perfectly! Didn't happen, though.

Point being... Katara's compassion and empathy are not absolute. It's important to keep in mind is that they don't need to be! But precisely because she falters with them in moments where she REALLY shouldn't, with people as important to her as her own brother? It becomes very difficult to believe that she's the empath the fandom is convinced she is, and that the show's narrative tries to push her as.

The real reason why her failure to show compassion to Sokka in "humorous" situations feels so unnerving isn't because she's a typical little sister who takes her brother for granted (which is a perfectly logical/believable behavior!): it's because there are no consequences for it. Maybe at some point or another there were? But I for one can't remember many instances where Katara failed Sokka and it was framed as her fault and her responsibility. Let's look at other Book 1 instances that exemplify what I mean:

She freezes him to the deck of Zuko's ship, which puts Sokka in MAJOR danger, and she just tells him to hurry up as if it weren't her fault that he's frozen in the first place. We don't even see her making efforts to thaw him out of there when she IS the waterbender so it seems logical that she should be able to help with that (and if she's too inexperienced to do it? The least she can do to help her brother out of a dangerous situation is to TRY???). But apparently it's funny that she doesn't help him when it's her fault! So this is fine!

She endangers the entire group over the waterbending scroll, which, of course, the pirates had no right to have anyway and it's reasonable that she'd want it for herself... but she antagonized a group of fully adult, dangerous, potential murderous pirates, against Sokka's constant warnings that they shouldn't pick that particular fight. As far as I can remember? Her apologies on that episode are exclusively about how she hurt Aang's feelings by being jealous over his greater talents as a bender. Basically, nothing for Sokka, no apology for not listening to him about danger, making it worse when the very final moment features Katara proudly telling her brother that she won't steal things... unless it's from pirates. So lesson not learned because it's funny, again, to never acknowledge that Sokka has a point.

She actually cares about Sokka's fate in Jet! But the thing is... the narrative doesn't frame that as Katara's fault. Because it's not. Jet made his choices and he did awful things and he captured Sokka, lied and gaslit everyone, because he had a goal to fulfill and he used Katara to make that happen. As angry and upset as Katara is, it's not exactly shown that Katara is sorry for having trusted Jet when Sokka could have ended up paying a deadly price for it. She's angry at the betrayal, even in Book 2 it's constantly framed as though Katara is upset at him as an ex-girlfriend would be upset at her ex-boyfriend for lying to her rather than, you know, being pissed at him for nearly killing her brother + an entire village. My point is, the narrative framing never holds her responsible for Jet's choices. Which, again, she's not. But she IS responsible for her own choices... and one of those choices was disregarding Sokka's warnings about Jet. THAT was her fault, and her responsibility. She jumped to conclusions and assumed that Sokka was bitter and jealous that Jet was the charming cool leader Sokka could never be. There were no apologies to Sokka over that, either.

I could go on, and on, and on. The truth is, I bring all this up to show with solid evidence that Katara's writing was always a little... unstable. Weird. Disconnected from logic in many regards, I'd say. It's not logical/compatible to tell us that this character has the BIGGEST heart of the entire cast when she fails to show that heart to none other than her own brother, who is inarguably the person who she knows best and with whom she should share the closest relationship, even as her friendship with Aang grows and thrives. That makes no sense, thematically speaking.

Is it meant to be comedic? Yes, every bit as much as Iroh sexually harassing June was done for comedy's sake. That's not an excuse for characters behaving in ways that are thematically contrary to what they're supposed to be portraying... and along with that? No excuse for them facing zero consequences for that behavior. Which is, in fact, my main issue with these flaws from Katara: I have no issue with the writing choices in the scenes I listed just now! I take issue, however, with the lack of follow-up and consequences that you can BET, 100%, would have befallen Sokka if it had been him instead of Katara acting that way. He faced consequences even for things he didn't do, for comedy's sake: he wouldn't have gotten away with disregarding Katara's safety as often as Katara did with him, no chance at all.

Ultimately, these scenes in Book 1 are kind of ignorable in the larger scheme of things (or at least, that's how the fandom has always acted). Not a lot of people take any of this as major proof of characterization for Katara. You won't see a lot of fic writers showing her acting like this. Canon, though, often would go down this route for funsies, and the comics certainly did it plenty too, that I can remember. Part of the issue here is that, as funny as it is, it also makes Katara feel stale as a character, as does the Sokka-Katara dynamic, at large, because there's no progression for it. That's probably my greatest gripe with the Great Divide, believe it or not: it fakes being an episode where Sokka and Katara are going to be confronted over their conflictive tendencies, and the ONLY potential development in that basically-filler episode SHOULD HAVE BEEN Sokka and Katara learning to be a bit more harmonious and respectful of each other? ... And that's just not what happened at all. The status quo remains exactly the same after that episode, and it continues to be like that until the end of the show.

The real reason why Sokka and Katara are deemed the healthy siblings is because, of course, compared with the other main set of siblings in the show, these two appear to get along wonderfully. But the truth is, their relationship is not as dynamic as it deserved to be. And that's part of why Book 3 ends up failing in ways Book 1 might not have, while having similar flaws: Book 1 is when you're still getting to know these kids, and that's why I find its flaws far more forgivable than anything that comes later. When there's basically no development for that connection at all, Book 3 winds up falling flat with characters like Sokka and Katara and the bond between them.

All this being said... I'm not saying that Katara is terrible in Book 1. I still stand by the fact that I really enjoyed her character in many instances of this season, there absolutely are situations where she sasses Sokka that still make me crack a smile, and genuinely humorous situations that don't paint her in a questionable light over her lack of concern for her brother's safety. Her fight to earn the right to be trained as a waterbender is deeeeeply flawed but it's not her fault, it's more the misogyny of the writers/creators that decided that a betrothal necklace from his past would make Pakku unlearn all his sexism and get over his bullshit right after beating up a girl who was fighting tooth and nail to make him acknowledge her. That he only acknowledges her because he wanted to marry her grandmother is... uh... fuckboi behavior even when he's well over 70 years of age? XD

So, yeah, Book 1 still has my favorite Katara of the entire show even though I REALLY wish she wouldn't get away with things that other characters wouldn't get a pass for (... well... other than Zuko...). I can't enjoy her as much as I enjoy other characters because I really don't like it when characters aren't held accountable for serious mistakes they made.

Moving on to Book 2, though, and leaving behind my greatest gripe with Katara's Book 1 writing (lack of direct consequences/self-reflection on her part), Book 2's biggest sin when it comes to Katara is the beginning of the "mothering" trope. I honestly did not feel motherly vibes from Katara towards anyone in Book 1. Sokka is very often the one playing the responsible role, while Aang and Katara are seeing the world, practicing their bending, doing reckless and fun things. The entire thing about Katara being the mom friend started in Book 2 when she suddenly becomes the epitome of responsibility (well... kinda) when Toph joins the group. She still does sketchy stuff with zero consequences (I'll forever complain about how ice is not cold in this show, the kids she froze to the wall may have been dicks, but freezing someone alive that way should have resulted in serious health repercussions, just as ANY case of freezing someone alive should have, ffs, be it Zuko in Book 1's finale or Azula + Katara in Book 3's...), but once Toph is part of the group, she becomes the cool girl who's "one of the boys", and now Katara is "the mom". This dynamic gets forced into the story pretty much right after Toph joins the group. And after that? It doesn't really change for the better often. There are only a handful of instances where Katara wasn't acting wholesome and comforting and kind and compassionate in Book 2 (... particularly with Sokka, ofc), but the point where her dynamics, even with Aang, start to feel motherly is definitely Book 2.

And this adds to the issue, in the end: Katara's appeal as the main girl in the show is suddenly gone because Toph is here, and she's a way more unique character that the writers definitely were having fun working with, probably more fun than they had with Katara. So they had to find a new niche for her, I'd dare guess. Thus, instead of actually building up an awesome and solid friendship between Katara and Toph, they mostly just clash and collide. Toph is basically the ONLY character who gives Katara grief and isn't framed as in the wrong for it, which is its own set of issues (namely, Toph not being challenged enough by the narrative, which stunts her character growth), but among many things, we suddenly get shown that Katara is a girly girl who likes makeup and she ropes Toph into this when nothing we've seen so far suggests that Toph would be comfortable with that. Katara pushes her into doing things because they're the "girls of the group"... and it doesn't often look like Toph's feelings on anything are important when Katara is pushing her around for whatever purpose. I'm not saying Toph hated the spa day, she certainly had fun eventually, but even when the comics made a "Katara and Toph's day out" story, where Toph got to choose what to do for once, the story devolved into Katara's show anyway, and things concluded with Toph deciding they're better off doing girly things together when they want to hang out because Katara is just too intense for the things Toph would like to do.

This isn't even in the show, but it's basically a response to Tales of Ba Sing Se to try and even out Katara and Toph's one-sided dynamic, where Katara calls the shots of their entertainment... and even then, Toph doesn't really get what she's looking for. But Katara does get that out of Toph because all she wants is a girl to do girly things with and Toph provides that in the end, no matter how much of a tomboy she may be. Toph might just want a friend who loves the things she loves, and who knows, Katara could be that person! But the story never leads her in that direction so we never see that happen. And that's why that particular friendship never really... clicked for me. Their dynamics don't really feel enjoyable to me as they were written in the show, even though they very much could have been.

That's one thing I'll always give ATLA: the character potential and synergy they captured with that cast could be absolutely incredible. Team Avatar is so iconic because they really could work well off each other. A lot of teams in other media just aren't this good (... one of my main reasons to not enjoy Voltron and drop it in season 1 was my absolute failure to find any synergy between those characters, it felt like they all hated each other and I honestly did not enjoy their dynamics in the least), but Aang, Katara and Sokka have great synergy due to their different personalities in Book 1. Same when Toph joins them in Book 2. Zuko ABSOLUTELY could have been better in the group than he was if Book 3 hadn't devolved into the Zuko Woobifying Show by the second half, where the only writing priority was making him friends with everyone, and making them all feel sorry for him and have compassion towards him. But, broken down to his core traits, Zuko's personality would have resulted in solid chemistry with everyone else's if they'd gotten off that agenda anyway! So ultimately, ATLA has a big win in this respect that a lot of TV shows would LOVE to recreate but they simply haven't struck the right kind of balance in character traits.

Hence why the way they wrote Toph and Katara's dynamics kind of feels like a betrayal to me. Those two could have been a lot of fun, they have EVERYTHING it takes to be entertaining characters with not a ton of things in common and yet building a solid friendship that hinges on their differences. I've seen a fair few examples of that kind of dynamic in other media, and it absolutely would be possible with Toph and Katara. It's really unfair that they couldn't capture their dynamics in such a way that both characters would SHINE, rather than constantly resorting to conflicts between them that never seemed to truly be resolved.

So: Toph should not be a problem for Katara. She should enhance her character and doesn't because of writing failures. One of the core failures is "mom friend Katara", of course: there's nothing inherently wrong with Katara stepping up and taking care of people she loves, but there's something very wrong with it when she's suddenly portrayed as this motherly figure when she's doing things that Sokka had been doing just fine in Book 1. Main reason why this is the case? Sokka got dumbed down to full-time class clown for whatever reason in Book 2. While he has good moments, a lot of times they went WAY overboard with making him a source of comedy this season and that, too, contributes to mom friend Katara. Since Sokka is being so meh? We even feel relieved that Katara is there to keep things together because nobody can expect the other three to do it, right? But... Sokka was doing it in Book 1. And there's no real development to explain him NOT doing it anymore once Toph joins in besides "Katara is now the mom friend and Sokka is just here to be funny". It's not organic development: it's forcing tropes that just don't fit. And while Katara's mothering doesn't feel as unpleasant as it could here, it ultimately forces a new interpretation and portrayal of her character that honestly isn't all that interesting, most of all when the other characters are constantly portrayed as "more fun" while she's just here to keep them in line.

It just isn't the same Katara we met in Book 1, and it shows in spades. Book 1 Katara would have been hyped to join Aang and Toph in chaos while Sokka screams at them to behave themselves. Book 2 Katara is the one trying to keep the other three in line, and there's genuinely zero development that led things to that stage. It's not organic storytelling. There's no growth that leads to that, and so, it feels off.

But the core problem of all these flaws in Book 1 and Book 2 is that they roll together and snowball into something far greater that then proceeds to just... disrupt everything we thought we knew or understood about Katara. We've been told she's a kind person above all else, someone who cares about people close to her, someone who embodies hope and strength and love...!

... And then Book 3 starts, and we're actually facing a Katara who shifts into a wholly different person with the speed of a whiplash that we're left not knowing who tf this is anymore.

"Mom friend Katara" absolutely comes back in Book 3, why lie? She takes care of people, she tries to provide, she tries to be nice and sweet and then also enforces discipline on Toph (particularly) when she's being irresponsible!

But the reason why The Runaway is such an unpleasant episode is because Katara's behavior is dialed up to a thousand, and the conflict between her and Toph feels WAY too similar to what it was when they were barely getting to know each other in The Chase. Why are they STILL clashing over such things? There are occasional glimpses of friendliness there in The Runaway, sure! But they're not so strong that you actually feel like that friendship supersedes their conflicts and their propensity to bicker and argue and hurt each other. Toph blatantly calls her out on her mothering and fully canonically confirms that Katara is The Mom Friend™. Where Toph is annoyed but eventually complies with doing what Katara wants to do in Tales of Ba Sing Se, this time Katara makes a huuuuuge fuss over Toph's misbehavior and her scamming Fire Nation people. And you could argue that Toph has every right to do it, or that Katara is right to be worried, just like Sokka used to worry about such things in Book 1...

But what we get is a stale dynamic that repeats the same problems we saw in Book 2, as well as Katara coming off as rather hypocritical because she, too, did dangerous shit and picked dangerous fights where she shouldn't have, and ignored everyone who told her not to do it: she gave Toph that kind of grief over things Katara was willing to do back when Toph wasn't in the group (see the pirates thing), and she will try to stop Toph from having fun on her own terms when nobody has ever tried to stop Katara from doing that in hers. Of course, any Katara advocate would read this and go "you're missing the point: Katara was sad and upset that she was being LEFT OUT! That's why she was so mad about this!" Then the irony of the matter is that this argument STILL reflects poorly on Katara. She gave her friend a tough time, called her a wild child and a crazy person, went through her personal belongings because "she could tell Toph was hiding something from her", so she fully disregarded Toph's privacy... all because she couldn't say "Wait, you guys went scamming Fire Nation people? Damn, why didn't you wait for me! I would've gone too!", and there you go, problem solved! Katara's not left out anymore!

Yes, of course, that's not how it WORKS, people can struggle to identify what they feel...!

... And now it's my turn to say that that's not the point.

The point is that Katara said and did hurtful things to her friend. Things she eventually regrets, yes, but that she didn't have to do at all. This is the same person who fed Appa a bunch of food that made it look like he was sick, all be it to keep the group from leaving the Jang Hui river village so she could go out of her way to heal the injured and sick without telling anyone what she was doing. That, too, was a choice she made with no concern regarding how the rest of her team might feel about it: was she doing something nice? Sure! But it's not fundamentally different from Toph doing whatever she wants with zero regard as to Katara's feelings on the matter. Katara KNEW she was stalling their journey and that Sokka wanted them to move on: she didn't care about his feelings or priorities, and the story eventually frames Katara as being in the right for feeling that way. Here, she's in the inverse scenario, only it's with Toph rather than Sokka, and instead of realizing that she, too, has made choices that were irresponsible/dangerous/risky and STILL went all out with them, down to fighting whoever opposed her choices? Katara just doubles down until she, again, breaches boundaries and overhears Toph and Sokka's conversation, WHICH IS ANOTHER CAN OF WORMS DUE TO THE SOUTHERN RAIDERS FOLLOW-UP...

The thing is, Katara as a mom friend is not even a good thing. It's not conducive to fun or interesting storytelling, not in Book 2, not now. It doesn't make Katara a more interesting and dynamic character. The way she's portrayed isn't so she looks tragic for taking this role, it's all about forcing these kids into tropes that don't necessarily add up to who they have been so far. Katara's mom friend status is NOT treated with any compassion. It's not handled as a sore, difficult subject outside of the ONE conversation Sokka has with Toph that Katara overhears. And it's not centered on Katara's tragedy, on how she overcompensates for her mother's absence, it's centered on Sokka accepting her as a motherly person and encouraging Toph to do the same thing. The people who saw further depth in it probably haven't looked at the script itself in a long time: you CAN see more to it, but that's not the point of the scene. That's not where it's going. And the fact that such a tragic situation is what conduces Katara to take up the mom friend role actively makes it look like... she shouldn't have it. Why would she be the mom friend if she's just overcompensating for Kya's death? If she's taking up responsibility by thinking that no one else will (a blatant lie because, again, in Book 1 there's NO SIGN of this behavior and it's Sokka who's in a role of responsibility compared to her), it suggests that EVERYONE ELSE ought to step up and stop "relying" (and Sokka very much uses that word) on Katara being the mom friend. It's not a healthy thing. It's a coping mechanism that seems to be actively damaging Katara: and the story doesn't acknowledge it that way.

So... "mom friend Katara", dialed up to a thousand in Book 3, absolutely has a connection with why her character loses its sheen by this point in the story. There's no attempt to deconstruct this coping mechanism by Katara. No indication from the rest of the team that maybe Katara should get to be a kid just like them and stop being so uptight (even though VERY often she's not that uptight but the show very much tries to pretend she is). It's Katara's initiative to do a scam, it's not Toph or Sokka or Aang who think she needs to join in on the fun, she basically inserts herself in it. So basically, those three take the route of saying "that's what she's like, we just gotta bear with it", instead of actually helping her. If we'd seen that? Mom friend Katara would actually be a fun element to witness deconstructed by the story. And I'm not blaming either Katara or the other three for this:

This is EMINENTLY a writing problem.

Mom friend Katara is not a good trope. It could be if the point was to help her break free from it. It's not. It's simply weak writing that can't handle two girls with proactive, aggressive personalities and a ton of agency, a lack of creativity in realizing how much potential there could be in making Toph and Katara the absolute best of friends. It's seriously a disservice to the two of them that this trope literally blooms over Toph joining the show and then NEVER gets resolved or chased away. And when you have characters like Sokka or Aang kind of joining the bandwagon of "yeah, Katara's a mom!" when the two of them traveled with her in Book 1 and she WASN'T that at all? It makes matters infinitely worse.

So, if you ask me? This is the first thing that makes Katara feel more unpleasant than ever before in Book 3.

The second thing is even worse.

We return to accountability, as well as to illogical flow of thought when it comes to the writing of Katara: in Book 1, we see a hopeful girl who never speaks ill of her father or betrays any manner of displeasure or distrust towards him. No sign of her being conflicted by what Hakoda is doing: the focus is entirely on Sokka's feelings on the matter once it finally comes up in Bato of the Water Tribe, and Katara is a secondary matter, if even that.

This would be fine if Hakoda hadn't come up at all as a subject throughout Books 1 and 2. If Katara had never had the potential opportunity to see her father in any of these instances and had backed out from them for bigger reasons than... plot reasons.

For reference: she's excited, just as Sokka is, when Bato says he can bring the kids to meet their dad again. They're HYPED. We see no sign of Katara being upset at Hakoda for leaving at this point. The only portrayed reason why she and Sokka decide not to go see Hakoda is because they think Aang needs them more and they decide to forgive him for hiding the map. Katara, from the get-go, is not as angry at Aang for hiding the map as Sokka is. Clearly, Sokka wants to see Hakoda far more intensely than Katara does: even so, there's no sign anywhere here that implies that Katara harbors resentment or dissatisfaction towards Hakoda.

Book 2 gives us a similar situation: Katara declines going to see Hakoda and offers to be the one who stays in Ba Sing Se so Sokka can go see Hakoda himself. Sokka is soooo thrilled and thanks her and calls her the best sister ever and Katara very much says she is, indeed, the best. Which she's allowed to, worth noting, I'm not saying her reaction to Sokka's praises was bad, it's actually funny: but what I AM saying is that she knows how much this matters to Sokka and that's why she makes the offer she does. It's also VERY convenient! Because logic dictates that, if Sokka stays behind, he realizes the Kyoshi Warriors aren't themselves far faster than Katara does (even though, to be fair, Katara didn't really have much time to realize it at all), and we wouldn't have Aang suffering over Katara's imprisonment because the one in chains would be Sokka and then Aang might just go "oh okay it's just Sokka, I can go cosmic if it's not Katara"

... yeah I'm being sarcastic I actually don't think Aang wouldn't have saved Sokka, but they very clearly had Katara stay behind first and foremost for this specific purpose...

But Katara's acknowledgement that this is a good thing for her brother makes you REALLY wonder how much of a secret grudge she was supposed to feel towards her father at this stage of the story. The truth, in my opinion? She wasn't actually supposed to resent Hakoda as she did, let alone quite so harshly.

My sister personally told me that she thought Katara's anger at Hakoda was a fine storytelling choice when I told her I didn't like it. She told me Katara herself most likely didn't realize how hurt she had been by her father's leaving, that it wasn't until she was around Hakoda again that she understood she resented him at all, and that she had a lot more pent-up rage and frustrations than she had EVER acknowledged, and they burst out frequently in Book 3. Which, you know, is one possible explanation that tries to make this whole thing more palatable. From a human standpoint? This is valid.

... From a writing point? Not so much.

A Katara who struggles to understand her heart (which... is odd, tbh. As far as they portray her, Katara tends to know exactly what she's feeling, why she's feeling it, and she acts on her emotions rather than brains more often than not) would be portrayed as confused over her own rage at Hakoda. She would not have been written as a snappy teenager who hates her dad. She would have snapped at him and then apologized by reflex, unsure of what's come over her. We would see Sokka trying to mediate between them too, probably asking Katara what's her deal, and she would have no idea how to explain it. Katara would be avoiding Hakoda, knowing she loves him, not knowing why she seems to hate him now, afraid of saying things she shouldn't. Every time she snaps at him, she should worry about what she did, she should fear for Hakoda's feelings, she should reflect on what's going on inside her heart...!

... But that doesn't happen. And that knocks SO HARD on the concept of empath/compassionate Katara that it basically turns her into a whole different person.

As I've said countless times so far: it's not about Katara being perfect. I don't WANT her to be perfect. But I DO want the show to acknowledge that she's not. I want the flaws to REALLY read as flaws. I want other characters to react to those mishaps on Katara's part, and I want HER to reflect on what she's doing and realize she's messing up, just as she does when she hurts Aang's feelings in the Waterbending Scroll, which is most likely the best situation where Katara actually owns up to the exact mistake she made and feels genuine, palpable, obvious remorse for it. But when you feature Katara lashing out at Hakoda, and everyone just staying quiet because "uuuuh, awkwaaaard...", it feels off. Aang asks Katara, outright, what's her problem with her dad! And Katara goes "What? What problem?" She's acting like she's not even aware of the fact that her behavior is out of place, basically gaslighting Aang into pretending that she didn't do anything rude or mean to Hakoda. Aang literally saw it with his own eyes and is the ONLY person to bring it up.

To make matters worse? Katara has been with Hakoda for WEEKS. It's not like they just crossed paths two seconds before Aang opened his eyes. The implication is that she's been behaving like this, or her behavior has been deteriorating towards Hakoda with no one worrying about it or trying to make her reason with it. for that long. Sokka didn't do anything. Hakoda just took the teenage rants and left her alone because that's what she wants. And when the one person brings up that she's not acting like herself? Katara pretends nothing's wrong and acts like everything's fine and she's not acting any differently from herself. Whether she actually is just lying to Aang or ALSO lying to herself is a matter of debate... but what it suggests is she's unwilling to confront the gravity of her choices and how she can be hurting her father with them.

This is NOT to say that Katara has no right to be angry about Hakoda abandoning her in the Tribe. She has every right to be upset and feel forsaken. Their mother died, and Hakoda left with all the men of the tribe, and Sokka was left behind, tasked to protect everyone, and Katara apparently felt responsible for the whole village too: as valid as Hakoda's quest to fight in the war might be, it's not out of this world for Katara to harbor frustrations and resentment over what happened.

What IS out of this world, and particularly, not appropriate to her character, is that her way to convey those feelings was something she gave herself to, completely, only to reason with it once Aang was missing so that the episode would conflagrate her problems with Aang and Hakoda into the same thing.

This is basically a dark expansion of what we've seen in Katara's treatment of Sokka since Book 1: where it was typically "humorous" when she was a jerk to him and paid no price for it, this time it's not humorous. This time, you're supposed to see her being a jerk and then go "aaaaw, poor dear," even if you're not supposed to get mad at Hakoda because he is very much a decent dad. The show was trying to have its cake and eat it too with this situation, because Katara DOESN'T apologize to Hakoda for being unfair to him: HAKODA APOLOGIZES TO HER. Hakoda acknowledges the pain he caused Katara and the damage his leaving has wrought upon his children by apologizing and explaining how much he missed them... but Katara does not acknowledge the pain she inflicted on her father by acting out when he wasn't doing anything wrong. Is this teenager behavior? You could chalk it down to that, but that's precisely why teenagers can be a pain in the ass! And that's very much how Katara is being portrayed if she's unwilling to acknowledge she acted out and hurt someone she loves!

Her problems and resentment towards Hakoda magically go away after that single conversation. After this? She loves him. No hard feelings left. If her problems with Hakoda were this deep and difficult to navigate and work through, either she bottled them up in the rest of the show and stopped them from affecting her father... or she just got over it that quickly. Which would be very unrealistic because Hakoda apologizing for leaving doesn't change the damage Katara suffered through because he was gone. A single apology doesn't fix everything that people read into Katara's deep anguish in this scene and episode. And yet that's very much how the show portrays it: Katara is 100% fine in every single other interaction with Hakoda she gets past the first episode of Book 3. Does that make sense? Is that good writing? No, actually: it's literally digging up a problem, making it up last minute with zero lead-up to it, where the ONLY way to read "lead-up" is to pretend that Katara always had ulterior motives to avoid going to see Hakoda, even though we NEVER were shown that she was hiding anything, something that could be VERY easily shown in the story if they'd always had this in mind. The truth is that they didn't. They made it up for this episode, forced it in there, didn't even write it right because nobody reacts to Katara's behavior reasonably except Aang, and she gets away with it without even having to apologize. That's... not good form for any character, let alone Miss Responsibility and Empathy, is it?

This is why it's such a problem that Katara acted as she did towards her father. It's not because this is an unthinkable flaw: it's because there's very much no lead-up to it, kind of like there's none with Korrasami's big reveal in LOK's finale. It's because there's no follow-up to it either. It's because we don't see Katara living up to her supposed core character traits, where she should have a realization that her choices and actions and behavior have hurt someone else, someone she cares about. None of that happens.

And I will say: it's different when it comes to her clashes with Zuko and her reactions to him in the second half of Book 3. This is basically the MAIN thing the fandom gives her grief for and I hate them for it: she has every right and reason and justification to show no empathy or compassion towards a person who, as far as she could tell, took advantage of her compassion in Ba Sing Se, of Aang's compassion frequently across Book 1, and paid them back for all of it by joining forces with Azula and showing no concern to help Aang when Azula almost killed him. I am no fan of Iroh's... but Iroh jumped in to help Katara and Aang escape, at risk of being captured. Zuko stood beside Azula and did NOTHING to help those two leave. He showed zero concern for Aang's survival. He saw his sister potentially murder someone and had ZERO REACTION. So, no offense but full offense: Katara's unwillingness to trust Zuko is JUSTIFIED. Not only is it justified? It's CORRECT. It's the only writing choice that makes sense. Sokka getting over it relatively quickly feels off to me, no matter if the Boiling Rock adventure isn't as bad as others might be. Aang not holding a grudge for too long kind of fits because it is Aang... but Katara being that mad at Zuko? That's 100% fine. It fits. It works. And anyone pretending that what I said about Hakoda applies to how she treated Zuko is just completely biased in Zuko's favor.

Katara and Zuko do not have a secret magical powerful soulmates bond in canon. Their one instance of bonding comes after multiple instances of the exact opposite thing. Katara and Sokka were 100% down for leaving Zuko to freeze to death in the North Pole, and the ONLY reason why Zuko survives is because Aang can't let that happen to him. It's AANG'S compassion that saved Zuko. Katara felt none, AND SHE DIDN'T HAVE TO FEEL ANY. Let's not forget that!

Moving on to Book 2, Katara actually makes her first offer of kindness to Zuko and Iroh in the Chase when she offers to heal Iroh after Azula's attack. Zuko's reaction is to lash out violently and yell at her to leave: who, exactly, would feel inclined to think this poor beautiful sad boy just needs love when you OFFER HIM kindness and his reaction is, in a manner of speaking "go fuck yourself I'll handle this on my own"? And it's worth bringing it up because it feels like the fandom is hilariously misled into thinking the Gaang magically knows what Zuko is up to and how he's growing and evolving, as if they were part of the audience: they're not. The last time Katara saw Zuko before Ba Sing Se is literally when Zuko refuses her help. We're also talking about Fire Nation people: Katara has every right and every reason to believe that Zuko is refusing her help, not out of personal, internal strife he's dealing with and has no idea how to handle... she very much can read this as "inferior Water Tribe peasant, you will not heal my uncle with your wretched waterbending!" Because... let's be real, that's what Zuko looked like to Katara across Book 1. She has no real reason to think he's any better or different from that until their catacombs scene...

... And he stabs her in the back and joins Azula there. Right after "bonding" with her.

So let's be VERY clear on that respect: Katara has no real reason to forgive Zuko. She has no real reason to feel empathy outside of the show constantly trying to push that she's kind and compassionate with no boundaries, even if she forsakes that kindness and compassion at random whenever the plot requires it. But her death threats to Zuko? They're completely fine by me. I'd be pissed if she had acted any differently, and if anything I hate how easy Zuko had it to befriend everyone but Katara.

... Not to say I'm happy with how he befriended Katara either, but anyway...

As this isn't Zuko meta, we're not going to get into the true core glaring issues in The Southern Raiders, because ultimately, that episode paints Zuko in a disgusting light that his fans are constantly gaslighting themselves about. He was not beinga heroic good dude helping someone he connected profoundly with. His behavior leaves so much to be desired and proves he hasn't unlearned a lot of toxic things he had internalized. He didn't unlearn them in this episode, either. But the GREATEST sin Zuko commits in this episode, without a doubt, is bringing Katara on a journey that ultimately did NOTHING for her. The only person benefitting from it was Zuko himself. I've seen people pretend that Katara finally found closure: she did not do such thing. She learned what kind of scum killed her mother, but she did not forgive him nor did she kill him. Closure would mean peace. Katara did not find peace with the situation. She's shown troubled, sitting at that pier, miserable, when Aang talks with her, she's STILL angry. That's not closure. It never was.

What it was, however, was the journey where Katara thanked Zuko and forgave him because..! Uh... because...

... Why, exactly, did Katara forgive Zuko here?

He brought her to her mother's killer: she found no closure from it. In fact, she learned the VERY disturbing truth that she hadn't realized so far: HER MOTHER DIED SPECIFICALLY TO SAVE HER. Her mother sacrificed herself for Katara's sake. She CANNOT find peace with this reality in a single afternoon because holy shit, who would? Katara KNEW her mother had died. It's not until Yon Rha tells her what happened that she understands what happened in the igloo. Katara herself, her waterbending skills, and the target she painted on her own back because of something 100% out of her control, something that is NOT evil and that the Fire Nation was hellbent on destroying, are the reasons why Kya was murdered. This is DISTURBING SHIT to deal with. And the show completely sidelines this revelation and the dark impact it could have on Katara, which, seriously, is HUGE, way worse than what happened with Hakoda, because it very much could have triggered a profound self-hatred by Katara towards her own skills because how tf could her bending cause her mother's death?! Not to mention the obvious: who was that source? Who told the Southern Raiders that there was a waterbender? Who the hell is responsible, beyond the Fire Nation, for her mother's death?

There's A LOT to unpack here.

And none of it matters because Katara is just supposed to forgive Zuko for exacerbating and worsening her trauma regarding her mother's death :') funny how that works.

This IS the point where Katara should make a display of darker sides of herself that she didn't know or understand. THIS is where Katara turning dark like Aang did after Appa vanished would make PERFECT sense. With this revelation about Kya that's beyond disturbing: not with Hakoda... and certainly not with Sokka.

The cusp of Katara's worst is, by far, her behavior with her brother in the Southern Raiders. I know a million excuses have been made for this moment: my problem is NOT the fact that she lashed out at him as she did and said something DEEPLY hurtful. It's the fact that KNOWING, SEEING HE'S IN PAIN...

... does not matter to her one bit.

Instead of a trite scene with Zuko spouting shit he does NOT mean (aka "violence wasn't the answer... but lol go kill my father okay??"), we deserved a scene with Katara and Sokka talking this out. People pretend it's fine as it is: it's not. Katara has spent the ENTIRE show disregarding her brother's feelings in a myriad of ways: this time, it was way more painful and way more hurtful and SHE KNOWS IT. It's not funny. She's not amused. She's not being a shithead little sister. She's ANGRY. She's UPSET. She has every right to be! What she DOESN'T have a right to do is hurt her brother DELIBERATELY and then escape every consequence from doing that.

There's very much no way to spin that moment into making Katara a decent sister. There's no way she remains true to her core values of being empathetic, kind and wholesome when she will insidiously, vindictively hurt her brother this way. And what I said earlier about her overhearing Toph and Sokka in the Runaway? It actually gets a follow-up in this scene: Katara telling Sokka that he didn't love Kya as she did is basically her WEAPONIZING the information that was NOT meant for her as her alleged evidence that Sokka didn't care about Kya as much as she did. As if his inability to retrieve Kya's memory was NOT a manifestation of trauma, as if it were something he's FINE with! He's not! How guilty must he feel for that? Does that matter to Katara at all? Why... nope. Because all that matters at that point is her own rage, her own feelings, her own fury. Which is, then, entirely against the character we've been told she is.

The lack of apology or follow-up to this horrible moment will never stop being one of the absolute biggest misfires in one of the WORST written episodes of this show. Yes, I said it. The more I ponder The Southern Raiders, the more I realize it's an immensely flawed speedrun to establish a friendship that simply doesn't add up. Katara and Zuko becoming friends after this journey requires some wild, absurd leaps of imagination that, boiled down to basics, don't make any sense. There's no reason for Katara to decide she'll forgive Zuko after she regains enough clarity. Why does she forgive him? Because he proved he'd rather make her happy than defend his nation anymore? Ironically, at no point does Katara show any appreciation of the fact that Zuko is setting aside his firebending supremacist attitude completely for her sake. So maybe that's not it.

Ah... is it because of how he, and he alone, was ready to help her go on this journey of revenge...?! Why, ironically, the only reason why ONLY Zuko goes on this journey is incredibly artificial and fake: this IS intended as Katara's "field trip" with Zuko. None of the field trips make sense, from a logical standpoint, as duo journeys. I've mentioned it to a few people: Sokka and Zuko could have brought Toph with them to the Boiling Rock, a metal location where her abilities would be VERY useful, used her as a false prisoner and turned her in as a captured ally of the Avatar's, who 100% will bait him into coming here to rescue her so that the Fire Nation can get him next! A cover as strong as that one might actually get them further along on that rescue attempt than what they did in canon. But this CANNOT BE... because it was Sokka's field trip with Zuko so nobody else is invited, even if they're very much not doing anything else (as is the case with Toph). Aang? Why didn't everyone join the firebending discovery with Zuko and Aang? They weren't doing ANYTHING in the Western Air Temple at the time. They very much could have gone with them too. But they don't. And that's exactly why Katara's trip works exactly as it does: it's the solo journey with Katara and Zuko, and the ONLY way to make it work is to show Sokka and Aang completely opposed to the concept of finding Yon Rha. I'm not saying I think Sokka and Aang would have been on board if they're allowed to remain IC... but they could have wanted to go on this trip with Katara regardless of not agreeing with what she wanted to do. Hell, as is OBVIOUS: Kya is Sokka's mom too. His opinions, his feelings on this subject, should matter just as much as Katara's do, and fuck anyone who pretends otherwise. These two are NOT supposed to be the well-known unhealthy siblings Zuko and Azula, who each got one parent in their corner and therefore the other parent treated them like they were worthless or a monster. Hakoda and Kya were parents to BOTH their children, and any narrative or interpretation that attempts to say that ONLY Katara's opinion on Kya matters is immediately ruled out, for me, as absolute bullshit spouted by someone not worth listening to. Point blank.

Also, the fact that Zuko USES Sokka to gain this information about the southern raiders, and then doesn't even extend the chance to Sokka to join them? When Sokka is basically his new best buddy? That... does not make sense. It basically portrays Zuko as a disloyal asshole who takes advantage of his friends for his purposes and tosses them aside, disregarding their feelings whenever it suits him.

So Sokka's treatment at the hands of this episode is just deplorable. Both Zuko and Katara are HORRIBLE to him... but Katara is our focus here, she's actively hurts Sokka and then proceeds to not care. Because that's how she has operated so far, and that's how she always will.

Hence: we have a long, long tradition of Katara not treating Sokka fairly all across the show. The reasons why it's not a fair or balanced relationship at all is because Sokka typically pays the price for being a dick to Katara: either she inflicts the punishment herself, such as when he's disrespectful in the Drill and she smacks him with the slurry, or the narrative inflicts some magical punishment instead that CONSTANTLY proves that Sokka is not allowed to be a dick without facing consequences for it. Does he ALWAYS learn the lesson? Sure he doesn't! But the consequences for it NEVER stop. He doesn't get away with being a jerk to his sister. That's forbidden. But Katara? She's allowed to get away with it every single time! And the reason why it gets worse and worse is because we went from relatively silly/comedic things, in which Katara did not apologize because "it's funny that she didn't apologize", to NOT funny things at all, such as this scene in Southern Raiders. Even just a troubled glance at Sokka, or a slight hesitation after seeing how hurt he is, would be enough for me: there's NOTHING. She doubles down and keeps charging ahead. Zero thoughts or concerns given to her brother.

If this isn't why you have issues with Katara, well, I don't know why it might be the case in your case x'D But I absolutely attest that the combination of "mom friend", "selective compassion particularly when it comes to her brother" and "absolute imperviousness to consequences for her mistakes" are the things that fully caused my initial appreciation of her character to shift into ambivalence and then into full blown dislike once I reached Book 3.

Worth noting: THIS IS A COMPLAINT ABOUT THE SHOW'S WRITING. Boiled down to basics, written by any more competent hands, I don't think Katara would have acted the way she did often, ESPECIALLY in episodes like The Awakening or The Southern Raiders. I categorically refuse to write Katara in my stories as someone who gets free passes for EVERYTHING she does. I also refuse to portray her as the mom friend, particularly in Gladiator. There's a lot of depth you can give this character! So much you can do, so much worth exploring... and canon just settled for stunting her and then only bringing her out to play in ways that make her unpleasant, not particularly bright and extremely resistant to character development even after allegedly learning lessons (see how her initial behavior around Hama, who shows red flags often, isn't all that different from how it was with Jet? There's only a handful of moments where it looks like Katara MIGHT be wary, and yet they're quickly overcome by her excitement, which Hama manipulates in her favor until she does the bloodbending reveal). So I'm NOT saying Katara had no potential... but I am saying the show itself failed her, big time, because of how she was written. A quick glance through the transcript of the Puppetmaster to confirm my memories that Katara shows no sign of concern over Hama when Sokka finds her suspicious reveals that, after Hama shows them her comb and that she's from the Southern Water Tribe, Sokka, and Sokka alone, apologizes for suspecting her of being sketchy. Nothing from Aang, even though he was part of it too. Nothing from Toph, either. And certainly nothing from Katara. Only Sokka apologizes. As usual.

So... what does this tell you? What does this tell any of us? That Katara's development is... erratic, at best. That it's not linear isn't a bad thing, but that it contradicts itself non-stop, that her core traits come and go willy-nilly as the plot demands it, that her motivations to do things (like forgiving Zuko) don't add up to her experiences or to any lead-up we've witnessed, is most certainly not good.

If I were to rewrite ATLA, the main characters I'd want to rewrite into making a lot more sense than they do, and making their arcs actually logical, are Zuko and Katara. I'd definitely add a few rewrites for Iroh, particularly to make him WAY more accountable for shit than he ever was, and to show he's not universally loved and shouldn't be, since people would have very reasonable grievances with him. I'd also rewrite a handful of things with Aang, too. Toph, full-stop, deserves a growth arc of her own beyond getting stronger and getting used to having friends. Girl has the range. They just never let her explore it. And of course, I'd change a fair few elements of Azula's writing as well. But I feel like no characters would warrant a deeper intervention than Zuko and Katara, precisely because they constantly fail to live up to all the stuff people keep pretending they're flawless exhibits of.

And this is one more issue we've got going on with Katara:

The fandom ABSOLUTELY has been unfair to Katara. A lot of people hate her for no reason. A lot of people who potentially have unexamined racism making their hearts' choices for them and they despise her just because she dared not have fully-white skin. A lot of people pick completely ridiculous things to get angry at her, such as people who HATE HER because she's "rude to Zuko". Just, fuck off. That's about the stupidest reason to hate this character and stupid reasons for that have been heard plenty.

But Katara's fans have become... reactionary. They appear think that any criticism to her character NEEDS to be fought off with "she was right tho" or "she has every reason to act this way" or "she's HUMAN she's allowed to make mistakes you heathen!! That's what a flawed character is like!"

Here's the kicker, though: if you have justifications and excuses for every little unpleasant thing Katara EVER does? You're basically taking a dump on her character yourself and saying she IS flawless.

Flaws in characters are bad things that cannot be justified. They can be funny! They can be annoying. They can be infuriating. But they're things that inconvenience other characters, that hurt them, that show they're not above or beyond doing harmful things! All of what I listed in this crazy long post are Katara's flaws. The reason why I don't like the way these flaws were handled are all the things I already have talked about: no accountability for flaws is basically saying that these flaws don't matter. No follow-up, no lead-up, means Katara is allowed to be as much of an ass as she wants to be and nobody cares: THIS IS NOT FAIR. This is not how ANY character should be written. This is the core reason why I've spent years feuding with Zuko and Iroh: they get away with shit they should NOT get away with, EVER. They're not held accountable for so much they should be. This happens to Katara too. particularly in her dynamcis with her brother. And when people see those flaws and just start listing reasons why it's actually okay? All you're doing is dehumanizing these characters to pretend everything they EVER do is fine.

Also worth noting... character flaws are the way characters grow. If a character is DEEPLY flawed, you know what kind of work you have cut out for you as a writer. If you're writing a story heavily steeped on character development? Then those flaws are VITAL to the work you have to do in order to develop these characters!

But when Zuko is unnecessarily violent and you're told "it's because his culture and family are!", you rightfully assume that as he drifts away from Fire Nation ideology, Zuko WILL grow less violent. Then, you watch how he picks an unnecessary fight with Aang in the finale because everyone's being lazy, an EXTREMELY violent fight at that, and you contrast his earlier behavior with it and... where's the difference, exactly? How did he grow or learn better if violence is STILL his immediate reaction to anything he doesn't like?

Thus, when Katara's flaws get overlooked, ignored, disregarded? What kind of development does Katara get, if none of her flaws are addressed in a way that makes it look like she's genuinely learned any lessons? At least, none of the worst, biggest, glaring flaws were addressed. None of the things that she SHOULD be troubled by and that she shouldn't be happy with herself over, especially after seeing how she hurts people with her actions. This isn't cool. This isn't a fun way to write a character. And it's so glaringly unpleasant when you can so very easily contrast this with the well-known terrible flaw Sokka displays early on: sexism! And then he gets his ass kicked by Suki and he learns to respect the Kyoshi Warriors... and we never see him displaying that particular flaw again. THAT is what growth looks like! What can we point to with Katara that remotely compares to this? That she accepted Zuko? Yeah, no, that sincerely could not count any less. Her personal arc CANNOT be about Zuko. That she got over her mom's death? She didn't. So that's not it either. That she helped Aang save the world? So her personal arc was about Aang and not herself? Was her whole role in the story to play Aang's cheerleader, then? Because if that's it... she was doing that just fine at it since day one. She's the only person who faithfully believed the Avatar would return well before Aang turned up in her life, if the first episode's introduction is to be believed.

So... what, exactly, was Katara's arc? If it's just her waterbending skills, then she's as stunted as Toph, unexplored and underdeveloped and left to just strengthen her fighting skills while Aang and Zuko and Sokka are getting full character arcs, even if very lowkey but very much effective in Sokka's case, where they develop and grow (or they should) into the men they're supposed to be to end the war! Why don't Katara and Toph get similar arcs? Why aren't they challenged on a level that actually provides them with lasting, solid, provable growth, where you can look at them where they started out and see how they ended up and conclude their journey was beautiful?

I insist... writing. Weak writing. Failures to understand/develop characters properly. And of course, lack of accountability in storytelling. I wrote that one focusing mostly on Zuko... but it's very much applicable to every character who fails to own up to the things they should and deserve to face consequences for.

Anyway... this is what I'd say about Katara atm. I'm not 100% sure this is everything because I might have overlooked some stuff that also made Katara's character kind of backfire (while I'm no Kataang hater, I 100% agree that the ship should have been written better too, and after writing them whenever I have, it's honestly kind of ridiculous how such an easy ship could get fucked over so badly by weird writing choices...). Whether you agree with these assessments or not, ultimately, there are valid reasons to feel offput by Katara and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Most of all when you DID appreciate and cherish the character once before, but her fans just jump to the conclusion that you must be a mindless hater to think she's anything but flawless (this, while claiming they love that she's flawed, then they proceed to reveal they have no idea what a flaw is...).

(final note: SORRY IT TOOK ME FOREVER TO ANSWER! Super lengthy answer to make up for it, I hope :((( sorry)

[ilikepjo24]

There's a post going around Tumblr about the color palette of your name (I saw @prodogg do it) and I tried it but my name has a very boring color palette so I did Atla characters instead.

Aang:

Okay! All of them are very bright colors that represent Aang's bright attitude and there's a dark shade at the top row which brings to mind the flaws of his character. Personally, I feel like that dark brown represents the guilt Aang feels for leaving. We also have some yellow and soft red, which are the colours of his outfit. There's some light grey that reminds me of his eyes and pretty light blue and beige, breezy light his element. We have some blue, some yellow, some green and some red. True Avatar core right there.

Katara:

Ohhh~ So many pretty blues! Blue eyes, blue clothes, blue nation, blue element and so on. Once again, I feel like the dark color in the third row represents the more bitter parts of Katara personality. Her small moments of jealousy, spite and harness. I also like how all the blues are different shades, some coming close to grey, others close to green and some being pure blue. The variety of shades really shows what I well rounded character she is.

Sokka:

Oh my... That's unexpected... There's only one shade of blue! But I can see some pretty browns and greys in there that are in his colour palette. I wonder why there are so many greens... Probably because he's one of the only characters that are grounded to earth 😂 maybe even a bit too much, seeing how he's always suspicious and doubtful. There are also some snow-like colours in here, which is fitting, seeing as he's from the Water Tribe 😎.

Suki:

That's a very interesting palette... The brown colours remind me of the Earth Kingdom, but there's a snowy white in there, probably because of how close Kyoshi Island is to the Southern Water Tribe. There's also a bit of green in there, even if it's greyish, and I couldn't help but notice those dark shades of red... Is it because she relocated in the Fire Nation after the war, and is currently working as Zuko's bodyguard? I also see a few really dark shades in those top corners, although I'm not surprised. Suki is a warrior through and through, and sometimes warriors have to do some ugly things to protect their homes.

Toph:

No surprises here! I like how Toph has more dark shades than other characters, since she's more in touch with her "dark side" after participating in secret wrestling matches and pulling all those scams. Many shades of green and brown, like her element and her country. But there's also some very light greens in there, so light that they could pass as white or grey, which is unlike the usual Earth Kingdom greens. I wonder if it's because she uses her bending in a much different way that all the other earthbenders, which makes her special. Or it could be because that's the color of her eyes.

Zuko:

That palette is an interesting one for sure. There are so many dark colours in here! And as we all know, the Prince of the Fire Nation didn't have a very happy life, or a very bright attitude. There's a dark brown-red in here and a dark blackish green, along with some blues and greys and a brownish gold. I wonder if it's because of his travels to all the four nations during his search for the Avatar. And I'm loving the references to the Blue Spirit with all those blues in there. Zuko's second, secret persona is a big deal for his character, since all the times we've seen him wear that mask, we've also gotten hints for his future redemption and friendships.

Azula:

Ah, there we go. My favorite girl! Right of the top we have some dark shades, fitting for s true vigilante. There's some brown-ish gold abd black, which brings her hair and eyes to mind. A pretty shade of red, for a true Fire Nation Princess. The lack of blue surprises me, seeing as her fire and her lighting are both blue... I guess the website must believe that she is much more than her bending. And there's quite a lot of green I see... Probably because her peak as a strategist and warrior was conquering Ba Sing Se and bringing the Earth Kingdom to its knees, all while wearing the iconic green Kyoshi Warrior uniform and the even more iconic green Earth Queen outfit.

[ok-boomerang]

Hello, I hope you're doing well.

What are some of your wingman Aang headcanons? How do you think he would show his support for Zutara?

Hi to an excellent curator of zk content! ❤️

I think my biggest Wingman Aang headcanon is just that Aang grows as a character, lol. This looks like him actually embracing the themes of the show. E.g., I read a fic in which Aang was hurt when he found out about ZK but still immediately defended them against critics, saying something like, “Katara’s mother was killed because of Zuko’s family, but Zuko turned his back on glory to help save the world. If she can forgive him and they can find love together, then that gives me so much hope for the future of the world." How beautiful is that?!

A character like Aang coming onto the scene in 2005 was BIG. IS big. A kind, sweet, vegetarian kid—Aang was a boy hero who exhibited a lot of feminine traits, and hoo boy that just doesn’t happen in Misogyny World (read: the world). Unfortunately his character arc ended in the pointy rock and toxic masculinity, but it didn’t have to be that way.

But I digress: to my headcanons!

- Aang lets go of his unhealthy attachment to Katara in s3 (which is what helps him access the avatar state lol, not the pointy rock).

- Sometime after the war, Aang notices that ZK seem like they like each other and would be a good couple. He’s a little hurt at first, but is ultimately happy that Katara is happy. He realizes that Katara’s happiness is more important than a silly crush.

- SO Aang joins Toph and Suki in their Zany Schemes (TM) to get ZK together.

- (Their intentions are good, and they try, but they do NOT actually help anyone)

- For example, Suki locks ZK in a room together hoping they’ll sort out their feelings. This happens just before ZK are meant to present together at a Four Nations Summit. Suki and Aang had forgotten about this. Toph had not forgotten, but thinks speeches are boring. Instead of talking about their feelings, Zuko and Katara break through a wall to make the speech in time, causing very expensive fire and water damage to a foreign building.

- Suki and Aang write fake letters to Zuko and Katara from each other confessing their feelings (à la Sokka and Aang in "The Runaway"). Toph sends them and accidentally mixes them up, so Zuko gets the letter intended for Katara supposedly written by him, and Katara gets the letter to Zuko supposedly written by Katara.

- Turns out ZK had been dating all this time but were waiting to tell their friends

- When Aang finds out about ZK becoming official, he gets choked up about his “two best friends” and "two favorite people" falling in love. Toph and Sokka begin protesting behind him but Aang is too overwhelmed to hear them

- Aang is perfectly content being a third wheel, which is really nice for ZK at first because they still want to hang out with their friends. But it takes Aang some time to understand that they don’t want to hang out with him ALL the time 😂 I can see Katara asking Zuko if he’d like to grab dinner at a fancy restaurant and Aang being like “oh yeah I’m free, is it that noodle place?” Or like when Toph asks what ZK are doing for the solstice Aang looks at ZK and is like “Idk guys, what are we doing?” (He just loves hanging out with them so much!)

- Aang, of course, officiates the ZK wedding. I can’t see anyone else doing it because Aang will say all the flowery stuff about balance and love that I think a wedding needs

- And Aang, as is a popular steambaby headcanon, is a doting uncle and loves to yeet the steam babies into the sky. 🥰

- Bonus Aang Alone headcanon unrelated to ZK: Bc our lil dude needs to repopulate the Air Nomads, he’s like should I just sleep around? Aang struggles with this bc he wants true love and a family. Then he falls in love with someone (idk, pick ur fave) and they’re like “I don’t mind if you sleep around just to repopulate the Air Nomads. But…what if you just started a sperm bank?” Which is how Aang founds the Republic City First National (Sperm) Bank and fathers more than 100 children. (Sorry, I just thought of this crack I'm treating seriously and needed to share)

This was fun (and oops got very long)! Thanks for the ask!!

[s0sorry]

Avatar Shipping VENT/RANT (sorry to be that person)

I know this dead horse has been beaten to hell and back, BUT……I want to say my two cents about Kataang and why it’s so important to me (and why Zutara still gives me the icks to this day). When the show originally aired I was probably eight or nine so romance was the last thing on my mind. I gagged and closed my eyes at every kiss/romantic scene in the show, no bias, I hated every couple. I’m also ashamed to admit that by the third season I didn’t like Katara….like at all.

I didn’t like Katara because she was emotional and it seemed like she cried ALL. THE. TIME. And I behaved very similarly to Toph, I stomped around bare foot, picked my nose, hated girly things and other internalized misogyny and I’m not like other girls shit (those last two things apply to just me not Toph). But I had a lot and I mean A LOT of emotions, and just like Katara I cried all the time, I was angry and hurt and sad, but unlike Katara I was told to stifle those feelings. To cry was to be soft and weak and if I wanted to survive in my house I couldn’t do that. If I cried it was considered a manipulation tactic by my dad, so when I saw Katara reacting to conflict like I did and watched her be rewarded and loved, I hated it. I hated her, but not really.

This all ties back to Kataang and Zutara, I swear.

As I continued to grow up I would rewatch Avatar reruns a lot, but rarely would they show season one episodes. By the time I was 13/14ish (Katara’s age) I had begun dealing with the unwanted attention of boys and men a like and as the oldest of four kids I was expected to be a grown up by the age of 12. I hated it all. I hated taking care of my younger siblings and I hated the way men yelled at me from their cars as I walked home from school, the way senior boys prayed on my best friend when we were freshman. I was supposed to be an adult so young and I was angry, depressed, and so beyond hurt all the time. I still am.

So when I’d go onto the internet as a child and saw overtly sexual pictures of Katara and Zutara I was thoroughly disgusted, but I didn’t know why. (I didn’t even ship Kataang at the time). It all made me uncomfortable and I didn’t know why.

Of course now I know. I was a child looking at a heavily sexualized children. Katara and Zuko are children, something I wouldn’t realize until I watched the show as an adult. And that’s one of many reasons I don’t like Zutara. They’ve always been grossly over sexualized in medias and as a someone who has been grossly sexualized as a child and adult of course I hated it. Now I know not ALL of the fan art of Zutara was sexualized, but still I grew up on the internet in the late 00’s/early 10’s and I didn’t know the ins and outs so I came across a LOT of gross and often p*rnographic art.

As an adult rewatching ATLA Katara is one of my favorite characters. She reminds me of who I use to be, who I could have been…which explains why I hated her when I was younger (I’ve dealt with a lot of self loathing over the years). Rewatching the series on Netflix allowed me to watch all three seasons as many times as I wanted. I’ll never forget rewatching the Boy in the Iceberg and hearing Aang say to Katara the words I desperately needed to hear as a child:

“You still ARE a kid.”

It made me cry. And that’s when my appreciation and love for Kataang grew. I loved watching these two kids journey across the world together and see their relationship develop over the three seasons. The way Aang always viewed Katara in lovestruck awe and the way Katara found hope and happiness in this boy. They were just two kids who cared deeply for each other, they were two kids trying to cling to the little childhood that hadn’t been destroyed by the world around them and they found that in each other. As someone who has always had to men/boys in my life constantly wanted me to be this hyper sexual version of myself, and being someone who was force to grow up too soon, Kataang resonates deeply with me.

They get to just be kids together, because that’s what they are. Kids. This isn’t even really an argument against Zutara (though I could make many arguments against it), it’s more of an argument against how it’s always been portrayed. Katara is a child, Zuko is a child and the only one who seems to remember that is Aang. Zutara has always been based on the sexualization of two children and because of that I can never get behind it.

[akocomyk]

I can still remember back when I was eleven years old when every weekend at around 10 a.m., I’d change the TV channel to Nickelodeon to watch the next adventures of Aang and his friends.

Yeah, it has been one of my favorite shows since I was a kid until now—almost 20 years later.

Considering that Avatar: The Last Airbender shaped a lot of my childhood and it influenced the way I conceptualize stories in my head, you can say that I’m a huge fan.

I’ve just finished that live-action adaptation produced by Netflix.

And… it wasn’t bad. It wasn’t good either.

I mean, I don’t mind the changes and all that. The mere fact that the two are very different mediums, they have less episodes to work with, and that they clearly have a different target audience, odds are, drastic changes were bound to happen.

My problem is the storytelling and the cringeworthy dialogues. It felt like they took parts of the animated show, disassembled them, then weaved them together to form half-baked story that lacked cohesion. That’s why I found it difficult to have any emotional attachment to the characters.

Despite that, it was not irredeemable. There were some things that I really liked still. First of all, the performances of Dallas Liu and Gordon Cormier who played Zuko and Aang respectively. Their portrayals were my favorite.

I also love the additions to the story, especially those that were taken from the comic books and we never actually got to see in the original show—like Koh’s backstory. I didn’t mind seeing Azula and her friends this early as well, and I thought that it wasn’t really much of a bad decision. The problem is: the expense of these additions is the omission of certain elements that made up relevant plot lines in the original show.

Was it worth it? To be honest, I feel quite indifferent. But I won’t be like one of those fans who nitpick every single aspect of the show without accepting the fact that adaptations such as these can’t be a hundred percent accurate because they have limitations and other goals to meet.

In any case, the show is still binge worthy. I mean, I was still hooked to it despite seeing all those issues. So I guess… on that part, they did a pretty good job.

And I’m still hoping to see Toph in live action. So yeah, I’d still wait and watch for the second and third seasons once they come out.

[avrelia]

I posted 2,396 times in 2022

118 posts created (5%)

2,278 posts reblogged (95%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@silvain-shadows

@virologistandpotato

@ninolovers

@sdwolfpup

@femmedplume

I tagged 1,853 of my posts in 2022

Only 23% of my posts had no tags

#atla - 413 posts

#atla mai - 182 posts

#zuko - 168 posts

#atla maiko - 94 posts

#art - 87 posts

#avatar the last airbender - 81 posts

#katara - 74 posts

#aang - 68 posts

#dracula daily - 62 posts

#stranger things - 56 posts

Longest Tag: 125 characters

#i am voting for democrats ever since becoming us citizen but what would it take them to actually accomplish something useful?

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Beach Wars

So, The Free Comic Book Day happened and I have one. It is not a very exciting offering, and, it seems, it is unfinished, but really< I am quite happy with it.

Because this is exactly what I want from Atla and TLoK comic stories: characters are having silly fun. In this case, elderly matriarchs Katara and Toph relaxing on a beach together and pulling their descendants and innocent bystander Avatars into their prank war. Bring it on!

Story and Art by Meredith McClaren

See the full post

92 notes - Posted May 11, 2022

#4

I was tagged by @bacchanalium

Favorite color: Blue, specifically this shade

#0000FF

Currently reading: I have just finished Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao, the book that is about as intense, insane and amazing fun as I was lead to believe. Before that I re-read Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, which was my favorite read of 2021, and a very satisfying re-read now. And now I am looking intensely at How Story Works by Lani Diane Rich, hoping to read it next.

Last Song: Six Feet Under by Kissin’ Dynamite, because I’ve just watched the third episode of the Peacemaker, and this song kicked me in some sensitive place, and I had to listen to it several times to get this song out of my brain.

Last Series: I’ve just finished the Expanse, the last season and everything. I probably should start the books, but these days long book series scare me.

Sweet, savory or spicy: depends on a mood and circumstances. Usually, I prefer savory and a bit sour. But with my tea I would have something sweet or nothing at all.

Currently working on: Several unfinished fics, several unfinished original stories. Also I am trying to delete all the unnecessary and double photos I have collected over the past… fifteen years?

Tagging: @attackfish, @robb-stark, @yen-yen282, @yogi-bogey-box, @idkmybffgill, @poolsidescientist, @krastbannert, @ljf613, @avayarising, @catraboobwindow, @virologistandpotato, and of course anyone who wants to do it

107 notes - Posted January 21, 2022

#3

133 notes - Posted August 28, 2022

#2

See the full post

252 notes - Posted February 15, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

One moment that I think is underappreciated in Mai and Zuko relationship is their playfulness with each other. We see it in the picnic scene, and in the Mai’s house scene, and in the reunion scene. They are so different from their usual state, like they enter a happy bubble when they are together, when they can finally relax and don’t think about that pesky reality and its problems, and just be carefree.

And sure enough it doesn’t work for long, because reality is there, and its problems intrude quite rudely, often literally, personified by Azula, but their happy bubble is real, too.

They don’t pretend being anyone else, just themselves that no one else can see. So the possibility is there, for Mai and Zuko, when they manage to integrate all the different parts of themselves and deal with the reality, and to communicate better, to keep that playfulness not as an illusion, or a throwback to their childhood, but a part of their adult relationship. So that’s how I prefer to write them.

300 notes - Posted April 14, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[when-did-this-become-difficult]

I want you to know that I reblogged the ask game in part to see if I could get you to do it and then I could ask you questions! I am very devious. ANYWAY! 🥺 Is there a certain type of moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels?🎢 Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉❌ What’s a trope you will never write?🤩 Who is your favorite character to write?

@nerdsandthelike Thank you, I profit from your deviousness! Maybe it's a little narcissistic, but I really do love an ask game, particularly an ask game about my writing.

🥺 Is there a certain type of moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels?

Yeah, I think there's an embarrassingly obvious pattern in which I am dead obsessed with characters having late night talks. Particularly outside, particularly in golden light. Tired, contemplative, maybe a little tentative, with emotional currents running underneath. That is my SHIT!

🎢 Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?

Hmm. A bit of recency bias here, but I feel like one of my Richie x Reader conversations goes all over the place emotionally (but like, in a way that makes sense given the characters) in the space of one conversation?

but like in terms of just being straightforwardly batshit, I did an Avatar: The Last Airbender, Chronicles of Narnia, and Six of Crows crossover fic in which basically all the magical girls attacked a naval shipping location in order to decimate the slave trade, and Toph ends up tearing two huge metal gates end to end and throwing them into the sea. So that was wild. Enjoyed that very much.

✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉

Had to do it in third person to get thru without blushing as;lfkjasd;kfdjas

"This person may not always be able to execute what they want, but once in a blue moon they TRY to fully execute exactly what they want deep down in their heart, right down to the itty bitty details, and that's cool."

❌ What’s a trope you will never write?

a/b/o, probably? It's just not my scene, no disrespect.

🤩 Who is your favorite character to write?

Ooh I hate this for me, but I think to this day it's still Tommy Shelby. Am I gonna write more of him? Probably not! But there's just such.......................I have such a history with writing him. He's not just a character to me, he's an era. I feel like I actually know him and have the authority to make Choices about what he'd do and say and I am hingéd about it. Etc etc etc.

ask me fanfic writer questions!

[krokonoko]

god whenever I log on and I see a new series / movie / whatever getting announced for the new Avatar extended universe, I seriously shit my pants, that’s how scared I am.

I have enough gripes with how the universe and its characters have been handled in the continuation comics, LOK, hell, my problems with the writing started all the way back in the third season of ATLA itself...!

what more is there to ruin about Aang’s character. how much more fundamentally can they misconstrue him. (same goes for Toph, actually.) how much more can they sideline Katara. or Sokka, for that matter. when is the blatant Zuko favoritism gonna end.

how many more stories revolving around dumb political schemes and intrigues are they gonna write before they understand that what people liked about ATLA wasn’t the politics...!?

it’s so hard, cause I’m not a hater, I really am not! I loved book 4 of LOK and Ruins of the Empire was a fantastic comic series. there’s always these little nuggets of awesome shining through, just for them to dump another story on us about Aang being a boring charmless stickler.

prayer emoji I just. really wish at least a couple of the new shows are good. I just wish they could install some of the love I had for these characters in me again, instead of misconstruing them more and more with each new addition to the universe.

[trojantoast]

Heartlines - Zutara Week 2018  Day One - First Kiss

“Oh what a thing to choose

But, no

In some way I’m there with you 

up against the wall

on a Wednesday afternoon 

Just keep following the heartlines on your hand”

- “Heartlines” by Florence + The Machine

#zutaraweek

@zutaraweek

There comes a certain point in every housewarming party for someone in their mid twenties that a threshold is crossed. After that threshold is crossed there can be no turning back. At this particular housewarming party, that threshold was kissing games with an empty bottle of alcohol.

Katara stared at Sokka, who held the bottle of firewhisky aloft.

“Everyone in a circle on the floor.” he commanded with an authority that was not a far cry from the tone he used on the Day of Black Sun.

“Sokka, what are you doing.” Katara rubbed her temples, she had already had far too much to drink and a game of spin the bottle with this crowd did not sound appealing in the least. One person in their little party was her brother, the other was her brother’s wife, one was the avatar and her ex boyfriend, one was the greatest earthbender on the planet who Katara wasn't sure had brushed her teeth in the last year,another was pink clad acrobat and her kyoshi warrior girlfriend  and Zuko.

Katara glanced around the room, no one else seemed to have a problem with this except her. Well, and Zuko, who Katara was pretty sure hadn’t heard the beginning of the conversation and looked very confused.

“Sokka are sure this is a good idea.” the waterbender eyed her very drunk brother.

Katara stumbled forward as a hand slapped her back. “It's fine Sugar Queen, it'll be fun.” Toph gave her a wide grin and Katara grimaced. Katara wasn't so sure.

“So how do you play this.” Aang inquired innocently. The group had gathered on a mat on the floor of Sokka and Suki’s new home on Kyoshi island,  in a loose circle with the whiskey bottle on its side in the middle of them.

“Well, young, naive twinkle toes, this game is called Ten Minutes in the Lower Ring.” Toph started confidently she leaned back on a couch behind her, one leg resting on the other’s knee and her head tilted back.

“No,” interjected Ty Lee. “I thought it was Eight Minutes by The Docks.”

“Wait, I thought it was called Six Minutes in The House.”

Katara heard a groan next to her and she turned to see Zuko pinching the bridge of his nose. “What are you all talking about? I've never heard of any of these games.”  

    “Yeah I'm confused too.” Aang looked around the circle.

    Suki chuckled. “ Well Aang, and Zuko, on Kyoshi we call it Seven Minutes in Paradise, spin the bottle is another name for it, those other names reference to the pleasures one experiences in a harem.” she said it so nonchalantly Katara couldn't help but smile.

“What is this game?!” Aang's shocked voice made Katara out-right giggle.

“Well,” Suki continued, “its a kissing game, one person spins an empty bottle and they have to spend seven minutes in a room alone with whoever it lands on. Alone, as in,… making out.”

Katara didn't like how Aang’s eyes immediately turned to her, she looked away. They had only broken up afew months ago, it had been a very long (and painful) relationship for her.

“In the South Pole we called it Seven Minutes by the Fire.” Sokka said out of the blue. His bravado had faded a tad and now he shamelessly stared at Suki.

This was so weird.

“ lets stop blabbing and get to playing.” Toph chimed in. Zuko groaned again.

    It was katara’s turn first and she found that her heart beat quickly as she considered her options. The only person that it wouldn't be incredibly painful to spend seven minutes with was probably Zuko and Ty Lee’s girlfriend (Katara was pretty sure her name was Nim Mae). Nim Mae wouldn't be too bad because Katara didn't know her and Katara could easily purge the incident from her alcohol hazed mind, and Zuko, well, Zuko was complicated.

    Katara rested her fingertips on the cool glass and gave it a spin. For a moment the room was silent as the bottle spun but Katara’s heart began to hammer as it slowed, finally it came to a rest between Aang and Zuko. Katara wanted to crawl in a whole and never come out. But seemingly of its own accord the bottle shifted over to Zuko and the room let out a sigh of relief. Except for Zuko, he inhaled deeply and a blush rose up his neck.

    “Up and at em you two, the bottle’s word is law.” Toph said almost to cheerily.

Katara looked over at Zuko who’s dark hair was a little mussed up and his gold eyes burned, he gave her a small smile.

    “The bottles word is law.” Katara repeated.

    Zuko and Katara found themselves in a small closet off one of the main hallways. The only thing in it was a bucket collecting leaking water from the roof. The room was quickly filled with their body heat and Katara could smell Zuko from her position leaning on the back wall.

He smelled really good, like spices. He leaned up against the door frame.

“So have you ever played this before.” Zuko asked awkwardly. Everything about the past fifteen minutes was incredibly awkward.

“No have you?”

“Nope”

“So do we just…?”

“Yep.”

There was a beat of silence where Katara worked up her courage and she crossed the foot of space between them meeting his lips.

When their mouths met, energy coursed through her body; hot and heavy. They broke away after first contact and there was another beat of silence as they both reflected on the threshold they had just crossed. Things would never be the same after this seven minutes in the closet.

Their lips met again.

This time more passionate. Zuko pressed Katara against the wall lifting her up on her toes. She threw her leg over his knee and straddled his thigh. She felt his hands roam up her sides as her tongue sneaked into his mouth. Her gut churned and Zuko braced himself with one elbow above her head. Katara tilted her head a little and she felt Zuko’s teeth brush her lip. They separated another time to catch their breath. The waterbender and the Firelord’s chests heaved in rhythm. Katara saw his eyes glint in the darkness. He brought his head closer until his heavy breathe was on her neck.

“Why have we never done this before.” Zuko murmured. Something light fluttered around in Katara’s chest. She pressed her mouth to the exposed skin above his collar as Zuko began to kiss her neck.

“I don't know.” Katara said, an uncontrollable smile spreading across her face. “But we sure were stupid”

    Toph couldn't help but grin as she sat in the circle back in the living room, listening in to the two’s “little moment”. She would tell Katara later that the bottle cap was metal.

So I'm finally able to contribute to Zutara week! barely. I’ve had a really long week and my life has been super busy but here I am. an hour late to the first day of ZK week. but I hope you all enjoyed and I'm already working on tomorrows prompt (Letters)

[non-plutonian-druid]

have an atla centaur sketch dump! try and guess who my favorite character is lmao, i didn’t make it incredibly obvious or anything

my apologies to anyone who knows anything about horses bc im sure most of this is not actually how horses work, and even more apologies bc the ID describes them as “brown” and “dark brown” etc on account of I didn’t feel like googling horse coloration

[ID: four images with 2 to 3 sets of sketches on each, of various characters from Avatar the Last Airbender as centaurs, all wearing their canon outfits slightly modified to fit. The sketches are colored but not shaded and the sketch lines are very messy. End ID.]

Longer ID below the cut

[ID: In the first image, there are three sets of sketches; Katara and Sokka play-fighting, Yue standing facing mostly forward with her hands folded, and Aang trotting facing completely forward with a grin on his face. Katara and Sokka’s horse bodies are both dark brown with darker tails, while Yue’s is white at the torso but transitions with lots of small spots to dark brown on her legs. She has lots of feathering on her legs, much like a Clydesdale, and her tail is white. Aang still looks like a foal, and his fur is light gray with darker gray spots. His tattoos continue down his back and to all four of his hooves.

In the second image, there is a sketch each of Mai, Azula, and Ty Lee. Ty Lee is rolling delightedly on her back, all four hooves in the air. Her fur is white with large splotches of reddish brown, and her tail is the same brown as her hair. Mai is lying down while she leans her head on one first, elbow propped up by something not drawn. Her fur is a reddish black, with a white splotch on her chest, and her tail is slightly darker. Azula was lying down but is in the process of getting up, looking angry. Her fur is a bluish black, her tail slightly darker.

In the third image, there are three sets of sketches, two of Zuko and Iroh and one of Yue. In one, Zuko shouts at Iroh while Iroh smiles and sips his tea. In another, Iroh hugs a very disgruntled-looking Zuko. In the last, Yue lies down in profile. Zuko’s fur is a bluish black and his tail slightly darker, just like Azula, while Iroh’s fur is a dark gray with darker gray splotches. Yue’s design is the same as in the first image.

In the fourth image, there are two sets of sketches. In one, Toph attempts to elbow Zuko despite her human shoulder only reaching his horse shoulder and her head only reaching his waist. She is leaning into him as they both walk facing forward, and Zuko is looking at her and lifting his arm out of her way, amused. Toph’s fur is a light tan, and her legs are slightly lighter, while her tail is the same color as her hair. In the other, Zuko and Zhao are fighting their Agni Kai. Zhao is rearing on hind legs over Zuko, who is circling under him. Zhao’s fur is a lighter, redder brown than Sokka’s and Katara’s, and has white socks and a white underbelly. End ID.]

[swordgayist]

cultural appropriation in ATLA (hinduism edition)

i’m sure there’s already a ton of posts about this, but whatever, i’m still making one idc. 

ATLA’s cultural appropriation, everyone knows about it, the white people don’t speak about it, and the asian and indigenous people get ignored. we know the cycle. but i wanted to come here and highlight some of the most prominent examples of ATLA abusing hinduism, as i am kinda sorta hindu (i was raised in a hindu household, i go to chinmaya mission, that kinda shit). i might forget some things so keep that in mind.

this is gonna be divided into 3 main sections, since there are different ways that they disrespect hinduism that i don’t wanna lump together.

and i’d say i know a lot about hinduism but that doesn’t make me an expert, obviously, so if other hindus have anything to add and/or correct then please do !! and if anyone else wants to share how their cultures were appropriated then please do that as well !!

so let’s get started shall we?

appropriating hinduism

1) the avatar

we’ll start with the most obvious example: the avatar itself

i know that there are parts of the avatar mythos that are taken from other cultures as well but the idea of the avatar itself is primarily from hinduism.

basically in hinduism, the term dashavatara refers to the 10 reincarnations of lord vishnu (the god of preservation), with avatar(a) meaning form or incarnation in sanskrit, and das(a) meaning ten. it was said that whenever the world was out of balance, lord vishnu would come down to earth in a certain form to restore balance. Each reincarnation is considered a different life with a different story. the avatars of lord vishnu are often considered the saviors of the world.

so basically, the central idea of the show and the actual name of the show is largely based on hinduism.

2) chakras

many different indian religions have a concept of chakras (chakra meaning wheel or circle in sanskrit), but hinduism is the one that primarily preaches the system of seven chakras, the version used in ATLA.

chakras connect the physical body to the ‘subtle’ body (referring more to the spirit and the psyche) by connecting parts of the body to aspects of the mind. the idea is that through different forms of steady meditation you can manipulate the different chakras and allow the pure flow of energy through the body.

the whole idea of chakras on ATLA is that aang has to unblock them all to let the cosmic energy flow through him so that he can go into the avatar state at will. so yeah, pretty much that whole idea was taken from hinduism.

3) terminologies

these are just a few terms that were taken from hinduism. i’m pretty sure there are more that i can’t think of right now but yeah.

“agni” kai 

i’ll be honest i don’t know where the ‘kai’ part is from, i don’t think it’s from hinduism but if it is well fuck me i guess.  ‘agni’ in hinduism is the god of fire, so the creators used it in ‘agni kai’, the name for a firebending duel.

“bumi”

this is in reference to the hindu word for ‘earth’, which is bhoomi. this is also in reference to our goddess of earth, bhoomi devi. also this doesn’t really bother me but i wonder if the creators knew that bhoomi is a name typically used for women (as are most hindi names ending in ‘i’/‘ee’).

in general, concepts like having multiple complex gods (the spirits) who are capable of good and evil and the reincarnation cycle are prominent in a lot of asian cultures, including (and arguably primarily) hinduism.

mocking hinduism

now we get into the mockery of hinduism in ATLA, because it is very much there.

1) whoever the fuck that baboon guy in the spirit world was

now what the fuck was this.

i mean i wouldn’t say this is the most egregious example of them making fun of brown people but lord why did this even need to be there? this random guy from the spirit world has an indian accent ? and is fervently chanting ‘om’ for some reason, and it’s clearly meant to be seen as comical. also portraying brown people as monkeys....... really.

2) combustion man/sparky sparky boom man

when rewatching ATLA in 2019 i actually had no idea that this was a thing, because the last time i had watched it was as a kid and i didn’t finish it.

so lord was i in for a surprise when i saw...

now... now what.

if you didn’t know, combustion man’s ‘third eye’ is designed to replicate the hindu god of destruction, lord shiva. right down to the vibhuti on his forehead (referring to the three line markings around the third eye).

in hinduism, lord shiva’s third eye is used to reduce people to ashes, though as far as i can recall, not very frequently. the primary significance of the third eye is that it represents the ability of higher spiritual thought and higher consciousness.

the ATLA writers take the ACTUAL significance of the third eye, throw it out the window, and then take its destructive abilities to make a super duper cool and dangerous new firebending technique.

and if that wasn’t bad enough, the actual person who uses this technique, and is meant to emulate a GOD who is PRAISED, is a scary, burly, half metal man who is a villain and an assassin. not to mention the design of his facial hair replicates that super duper scary “terrorist” depiction of brown people, particularly of muslims, that white people are so thoroughly terrified of for no reason. 

this is a parody of a god, and they portrayed him as this terrifying, maniacal fucking assassin who, along with p’li, the combustion bender from LOK, is constantly referred to as a “third-eyed freak”. i’ve made this analogy before and i’ll do it again, this is like making jesus into a hitman.

now onto my favorite example...

3) guru pathik

ah, this motherfucker.

i don’t really have any problems with him as a character, i mean hell, must’ve taken a fuck ton of patience to handle aang’s “why would choose cosmic energy over katara” bullshit.

but we all know it, we see it plain as day, don’t even try to deny it.

“guru” literally just means teacher or guide, so i don’t really know why pathik needed to be referred to as “guru” so distinctively from aang’s other teachers and guides, but that’s just extremely trivial compared to all the other issues with this character.

first of all what is this character design? what is he even wearing? if they’re trying to replicate the clothes of swamis and priests and stuff this is already wrong, realized people don’t dress like this. and why the fuck does he have an indian accent? and why was this indian accent done by a non indian (brian george)?

once again, the poor but extremely heavy indian accent is clearly meant to be mocking, if it wasn’t, they wouldn’t’ve gone out of their way to get a non indian person to DO an indian accent, and instead they would’ve just gotten an actual indian person to play the role. 

and oh yeah, the onion and banana juice. because hindus just eat weird shit right.

whether it’s actually weird or not, the show certainly portrays it as weird. and as far as i know no hindu actually fucking drinks onion and banana juice.

ironic because brown people can absolutely destroy white people in cooking. but i digress.

i know what you’re all waiting for. because the guru apparently didn’t have enough fun with guru pathik, so they just had to come back to him in book 3:

where do i begin.

so this is obviously john o’bryan’s super funny and hilarious depiction of pathik as a hindu god.

usually when a god has multiple arms it’s to carry an array of things, from flowers to weapons to instruments, and one hand is typically free to bless devotees (ie. goddess durga and lord vishnu respectively):

but of course white people see this as weird and so they make fun of it, hence guru pathik having multiple arms just flailing about aimlessly (save for the two that are being used to carry the aforementioned onion and banana juice).

then there’s the whole light behind pathik’s head which is usually depicted in drawings of hindu gods to show that they are celestial.

also what the fuck is he holding? is that supposed to be a veena? because this is what a veena looks like:

and i assume the reason this was added was to mock the design of goddess saraswathi, who carries a veena:

but that right there in the picture of pathik looks more like a tambura than a veena. 

and it also just kinda looks like a banjo?

but i guess the animators just searched up “long indian instrument” and slapped it on there. actually no, that’s giving them too much credit, they probably didn’t search it up at all. 

and then the actual scene is pathik singing crazily about chakras tasting good or something while playing the non-veena and it’s all supposed to be some funky crazy hallucination that aang is having due to sleep deprivation. just some crazy dream, just as crazy as talking appa and momo sparring with swords or tree-ozai coming to life.

our gurus and swamis and sadhus and generally realized people are very respected in hinduism, they’re people we look up to and honor very much. and our GODS are beings that we literally worship. and the writers just take both and make caricatures out of them for other white people to laugh at.

4) other shit

before we move to the next portion i just wanna mention there are also smaller backhanded jabs that i can’t really remember now, but one example was when zuko was all “we’ll be sure to remember that, guru goody goody”. or when a character would meditate and say “om” only when the meditation is supposed to be portrayed as comical or pointless. or in bitter work when sokka was rambling on about karma. small things like that. but moving on.

south asian representation, or lack thereof

now i finally get to the “losing” hinduism part. by this i mean the lack of actual representation there is of south asians (the region where hinduism is primarily practiced) despite the fact that hinduism plays such a big role in the show’s world design.

i think it’s safe to say that broadly the main cast consists of aang, katara, sokka, zuko, toph, azula, iroh, mai, ty lee, and suki. 

a grand total of none of these characters are south asian. the writers don’t even attempt to add any south asian main characters. 

there are characters with dark skin, like haru and jet, but a) they’re not confirmed to be south asian and don’t have any south asian features or south asian names, b) they’re side characters, so they don’t count as representation, and c) even if they were south asian and main characters, jet wouldn’t even count because he’s portrayed as a terrorist.

the ONLY truly south asian character we get is fucking guru pathik. so yeah. not representation.

i don’t get how the creators of this show rip off of hinduism (among many other south asian cultures they rip off of), mock indians, and then don’t even have the decency to HAVE a main character who is south asian.

i’ve never gotten a chance to compile all this, and this definitely isn’t all the creators have done, but i hope this was somewhat informative.

[allnewalldifferentwildspider]

Zuko & Katara's Relationship Dynamic

This is like the third or fourth time I've tried to write up this post so please bare with me.

Oh wow. That video. Hopefully everyone has seen it now. Not only did it articulate arguments I've been making for years, but it also brought up ideas I had never thought of or noticed before. Watching that and watching the second half of Book 3 again (because it's my favorite) made me want to redo my zutara dynamic post.

I'm going to be using the tiny bits and pieces the show gave us to see how Zuko and Katara's relationship looks and how it would look if they gave us more because...Bryke really fucking hated zutara. I mean, I guess they did.

Katara is compassionate; Zuko is empathetic

A lot of anti-zutara arguments have said that Zuko and Katara could never be together because they would constantly fight and hate each other and it end sooner than later. Not only does this actually describe maiko, but that argument would need to ignore the characters' actual character.

One of Katara's biggest character traits is how compassionate she is. She has a drive to help others and ease their pain. Whether it's getting Aang out of the iceberg or healing a Fire Nation fishing village, Katara will go out of her way to help someone in need.

Katara: No. I will never ever turn my back on people who need me.

Zuko is very emotional and passionate person. As much as he tried to hide it to appease his father, Zuko does want to open up and connect with people. Unfortunately, aside from his uncle, most of the other people he knows are like Zhao and Azula. Not the most understanding of crowds. But because of this he can pick up what people are really thinking and feeling. Think of it as a defense mechanism he developed growing up around people like Azula.

Get these two kinds of people together and you get the crystal catacombs scene. Katara lashes out at Zuko until she breaks down. When she does Zuko opens up with empathy since they have something in common. This creates the beginning of an understanding between the two. Zuko uses that to finally open up to someone who isn't his uncle and Katara listens and reaches out to help. Contrast to the first episode of Book 3 when Zuko tries to voice his thoughts and concerns to Mai and she...doesn't really care.

Something similar happens during The Southern Raiders. Zuko figures out that Katara is taking out her anger of being separated from her father by The Fire Nation onto him and even connecting her mother's death to him.

It's not the first time Zuko has done this either. He easily figured out that Sokka was planning on going to The Boiling Rock. He does it again during Sozin's Comet when he tells Katara that Aang needs to figure out what to do about Ozai by himself.

There's a noticeable pattern of behavior by the time Sozin's Comet arrives. Zuko voices his concerns about meeting his uncle again and Katara is right there to help him through it.

Zuko's empathy combined with Katara's compassion creates almost a cycle of understanding and emotional vulnerability that the two can't really get with anyone else. One notices the other having concerns or problems and goes to give comfort by words or by actions.

Zuko still has a temper but so does Katara

Even after Zuko's fever dream character change thing, even after The Day of Black Sun, he still has it in him to yell at anyone who commits even the slightest transgressions against him:

Aang: That one felt kinda hot. Zuko: Don't patronize me. You know what it's supposed to look like. Aang: Sorry, sifu hotman. Zuko: And stop calling me that!

Sokka: So all we have to do is make Zuko angry. Easy enough. *pokes him with his sword* *annoying laugh* Zuko: All right! Cut it out!

Maybe it's the firebender in him or maybe he really is just like that. Basically if you annoy him, he'll let you know. What people sometimes overlook is that while it takes Katara a bit longer, she also gets worked up when people upset her.

Toph: What's the matter? Can't handle some dirt, Madame Fussy Britches? Katara: Oh, sorry, did I splash you, mud slug?

And remember, it was Katara getting angry at Sokka that even broke the iceberg that revealed Aang.

Katara: Ugh, I'm embarrassed to be related to you! Ever since Mom died I've been doing all the work around camp while you've been off playing soldier! Sokka: Uh... Katara? Katara: I even wash all the clothes! Have you ever smelled your dirty socks? Let me tell you, NOT PLEASANT! Sokka: Katara! Settle down! Katara: No, that's it. I'm done helping you. From now on, you're on your own!

The point is that it is both Zuko and Katara that are very passionate and emotional people. One of them isn't emotionally dominating the other because they both wear their emotions on their sleeves.

This also comes in to play when they set goals for themselves. When Zuko sets a goal, he puts everything into it. Katara is the same way. The difference is that Zuko's drive sometimes gives him a one-track mind while Katara is more flexible. Like for example Zuko being so focused on finding Aang before Sozin's Comet that he ignores Toph's story about her childhood versus Katara wanting to go to the North Pole but taking time to stop and help whoever they come across.

This passion also fuels their values and how strongly they stand by their beliefs. I already put The Painted Lady quote up above but Zuko's morality is what is making him so angry at himself during The Beach. He knows what he did was wrong, but he couldn't face it yet.

Sometimes their emotions get the better of them, but it's only because they are passionate about what they're doing.

Their natural teamwork is amazing

I can't provide a lot of clues in this bit because it's more of a visual thing. Just consider how flawlessly their plans worked during their attack on The Southern Raiders. Especially when you consider that it was a stealth mission so they barely even said anything to each other during and it still went incredibly well.

You could see it again during their mock battle with The Melon Lord. Sokka must have noticed because he paired them together to deliver some "liquidy-hot offence." And they pulled it off, again, without having to say anything.

They've only been a team for a few weeks(?), days(?) but they act as if they've been doing it for years.

They trust each other's judgment

Piggybacking of the previous point, Zuko and Katara have only been a team for a while but there seems to be a level of understanding in terms of judgement. They both know that whatever the other chooses is going to be a well-thought out decision. Maybe it's because they see each other as the mature members of the group even though Sokka is the same age as Zuko? I don't know.

Aang disappears right before they embark on their fight against the Fire Lord, and out of nowhere, Katara puts Zuko in charge.

Zuko: Get out of the bison's mouth, Sokka. We have a real problem here. Aang is nowhere to be found and the comet is only two days away. Katara: What should we do Zuko? Zuko: I don't know. Why are you all looking at me? Katara: Well, you are kind of the expert on tracking Aang.

and that wasn't the first time in that episode that she went along with one of Zuko's decisions

Katara: Aang, don't walk away from this. *She begins to walk towards him as a hand touches her shoulder to stop her from doing so.* Zuko: Let him go. He needs time to sort it out by himself.

As a lot of people have pointed out during the entirety of The Southern Raiders, Zuko never gives a suggestion on what he thinks Katara should do. Aside from making it a stealth mission, he follows her lead the entire way.

Katara teases Zuko (and he lets her)

The fun one. This one has two parts: pre and post The Southern Raiders.

Before The Southern Raiders, Katara was tolerating Zuko. She was still angry with him about the betrayal at Ba Sing Se. Getting little jabs at him was the only thing that was really helping her from loosing her cool around him.

Katara: I'm sorry. I'm just laughing at the irony. You know... how it would have been nice for us if you lost your firebending a long time ago? Zuko: Well it's not lost. It's just weaker for some reason. Katara: Maybe you're just not as good as you think you are. Toph: Ouch.

He just finished yelling at Aang and Sokka but all he does is glare at Katara. She does it again, but to be fair, he kind of set himself up for it.

Zuko: It's a sacred form that happens to be thousands of years old! Katara: Oh yeah? What's your little form called? Zuko: ...The Dancing Dragon.

Then comes post The Southern Raiders and...yeah, she's still picking on him and he still lets her. Granted it's a lot more playful this time around.

Zuko: They make me totally stiff and humorless. Katara: Actually, I think that actor's pretty spot on. Zuko: How could you say that? Actor Uncle: Let's forget about the Avatar and get massages. Actor Zuko: How could you say that?! (Cut back to Katara wearing a satisfied grin on her face and she looks to an expressionless Zuko as he slouches in his seat.)

I love pointing it out every time. She teases him and he does nothing about it.

Katara: Er, no. I was looking for cooking pots in the attic and I found this. Look at baby Zuko! Isn't he cute? Oh lighten up, I was just teasing.

And she admits it!

-

So what can we take away from this? From what little time they were given together (thanks, Bryke) it seems that Zuko and Katara really understand each other on an intimate emotional level. They can sense when the other is distressed and offer comfort. They're both passionate in and out of combat, for better or for worse. They're comfortable with each other as if they've known each other for years even though it's such a short time. Katara also likes to add a little bit of playfulness in there with Zuko letting her have her fun, again, showing how comfortable they are with each other.

I do think their relationship could have gone to romantic sooner than later if you would have given it a bit more time. Like first half of a hypothetical Book 4.

To me, at least.

[itradora]

atla small town/highschool au

 this is an idea that popped into my head so here are some short things abt characters in my modern au

aang -

new freshman exchange student that’s moved in with katara and sokka’s family from some unheard-of place. he clicks with katara and her friends quickly, but it takes a while for sokka to warm up to him. he also builds up a reputation at school for being a very fun guy who tries to participate in literally everything and join every club ever, and to also have a lot of skill in the arts and knowledge of history.

aang chose religious studies for his elective. aang also tries to start a vegan club, but due to his freshman status no one will let him. he also ends up “fostering” a stray greyhound-pitbull mix and a stray american curl cat. he names the dog appa and the cat momo. 

aang also causes a bit of trouble around town, especially when he starts a feud with the local cabbage vendor. despite his failure in starting a vegan club, he does start an online anonymous peace group outside of school, where he uses the alias “the avatar”. 

katara - 

sophomore in highschool and brother of sokka. she lives in a small apartment in the south end and shares a room with her brother. the main adult in the house is gran-gran, since their dad is away working most of the time. her best friends are suki and toph.

katara is also the vice president of her school’s student council, and is in all honors. she also joins aang’s peace group as the second member and uses the alias “the painted lady”. 

katara’s status as student council VP omits her ability to be in any other electives/clubs, but she has stated before that if she could, she would most likely take a women’s studies class or social sciences class. 

since student council business takes up most of her out-of-school time, she doesn’t have many extracurricular activities. however, when she does have time, she is most likely practicing violin, doing homework or working as a waitress.

sokka –

sokka is a junior in high school, older brother to katara and boyfriend of suki. he takes a while to warm up to aang and is unsure of him. sokka is also the ex-boyfriend of yue.

sokka is a very chad, sorta-popular man at his school. he’s on the swim team and he’s decent at it. sokka is the 2nd oldest working adult in his house, and he has a job at the sports gear store. he is most often found there, at the gym, or hanging out with his friends. sokka will also find himself occasionally volunteering to teach martial arts to young kids locally.

he manages to keep fairly average grades and picked economics for an elective. while he has expressed interest in going down a political or economical career path, he sees himself joining the military like his dad.

sokka also enjoys the arts. painting, drawing, sculpting, etc are some of his favorite private hobbies. the only people he’s ever shared his work with are his family, suki and yue. he is aware he is not the best at it.

 toph -

a freshman and one of katara’s best friends. she and katara met when they went to the same summer camp and exchanged contact info.

since her parents are overbearing and anxious about her disability, toph is often trying to get out of the house and distract herself from them as much as she can. going to school events, friend’s houses, camps and sometimes running away are things she does a lot. she almost always says yes to an invite.

she and aang become best friends very quickly, most likely due to their same age, and can often be found playing video games together or studying.

toph is not the best at school, though she is a very smart kid. she’s not failing any of her classes-her parents forbid it-but she simply doesn’t try that much. toph only seems to enjoy her engineering elective, as it’s the class she tries the most in and has the highest-grade in.

she joins aang’s peace group as the third member with the alias of “the blind bandit”.

suki –

junior in highschool, best friend of katara, boyfriend of sokka.

suki is very skilled in martial arts and sometimes help sokka with volunteering. she is also the captain of her local volleyball team, the Kyoshi Warriors.

she keeps very high grades and is in all honors classes. she chose women’s studies for her elective. in her free time suki can be found practicing volleyball or working at the jasmine dragon.

suki and katara met through sokka, during their freshmen year and katara’s last year of middle school. they became friends quickly. 

zuko –

junior in highschool that lives with his father ozai and sister azula in the west end. every other weekend he and azula will visit their mother, uncle, stepdad and half sister in the east end.

his school peers would classify him as a bad boy. he’s not. he’s more of quiet, brooding kid with a scar and RBF that follows azula around, and he doesn’t talk much around other people unless he’s asking for something. very socially awkward. that is a given.

zuko manages alright grades, having an elective of economics and is most likely to pursue a career in business or politics. he is not part of any clubs or extracurricular activities at the moment but his uncle encourages him to join the pai sho club. when visiting his family in the east end, he is found working at his uncle’s teashop The Jasmine Dragon.

azula –

sophomore in highschool and younger sister of zuko. she is president of her school’s student council and, while being fairly antisocial, has a friend group consisting of her, mai and ty lee.

while azula does carry the same social awkwardness as zuko, she has a lot more reputation and her personality makes it easier for her to get around. she is the ringleader in her friend group. azula keeps perfect, 100% grades and is planning to take over her dad’s business when he finally retires or dies. she doesn’t have many afterschool hobbies but she does hang out with her friends a lot and is often found shopping.

ty lee –

sophomore in highschool. ty lee is azula’s right hand woman and is her best friend, and also a friend of zuko.

being skilled in acrobatics, is the head cheerleader for her school and does gymnastics over the summer. she is known for being a very sweet and kind person in comparison to azula, and for attracting a lot of (mainly unwanted) attention from boys.

she keeps average grades and has a theatre elective. ty lee wants to pursue a career in which she can be away from her family and indulge in dance and acrobatics.

in her free time she is most likely practicing or daydreaming about running away to join a circus.

mai –

mai is azula’s left hand woman (idk if that’s a term but it is now) and is a friend of zuko’s.

mai is not currently associated with any clubs or sports. she mainly keeps to herself and is her school’s main resident goth. mai keeps high grades and used her elective on psychology.

outside of school she can be found holed up in her room practicing knife tricks or hanging out with friends.

yue –

ex-girlfriend of sokka that kinda just disappeared one day?? some people think she died, others think she went abroad, others think she moved. yue was mainly known for being an astronomy+astrology nerd. her departure to wherever she went hit sokka really hard.

okay thats it for now!! i am open to feedback and suggestions and i probably will change things, so if you have any ideas or crit, pls give

[luimnigh]

So, I’m just gonna go through the Reddit AMA that happened today (December 2nd 2020), and compile the answered questions that I personally find interesting

Taking part in this AMA was Eddy Rivas, RWBY co-writer; Eugene C. Myers, write of After the Fall, Before the Dawn and Fairy Tales of Remnant; and Violet Tobacco, illustrator on Fairy Tales of Remnant. 

(Not all questions and answers are repeated here verbatim, if you want to check the exact wording, please use the link above.)

This is gonna be long, so I’ll place a cut here:

Eddy Answers:

JNPR Birthdays: Someday. They’d rather reserve that information for the show or other materials, but they felt it was well past due to learn RWBY’s birthday. 

Who is the girl in the photo in Theodore’s office?: “That’s something we’ll come back to later.”

Mercury Thoughts: He’s reserving them for later in the Volume, though he does find some people’s takes on his character “interesting”, but can’t say why just yet. 

Thoughts on the Em/Merc/Hazel dynamic:  “As for the Merc/Em/Hazel dynamic, moooooore to come. I've always enjoyed that little trio in the midst of these bananas villains.”

Are we ever gonna get an origin for Dust, even a biased one?: “Yes, more than likely.”

Are Ghira and Kali’s bands in each other’s colours “wedding bands”, and is this a faunus/huntsman tradition? (The asker also notes that Tai has a red armband):  “Different cultures/kingdoms have different ways of expressing their bonds to other people, and there's not even really a set standard for that across the board. Most often it comes to incorporating it on their clothes/person in some way, usually through color.”

Do the Gods have actual names, or are they only known by their titles as God of Light and God of Darkness?: “Certainly the Two Brothers might have other things that they are known by!”

Does the women who first followed the Infinite Man have a name as well? “Ozpin was choosing in the re-telling of that story to keep those things pretty general/vague -- more than likely to keep it from being perceived by the audience as truth.”

Things created by the Staff of Creation have no ontological inertia: a created object will disappear once the Staff is used again.

The Grimm in Before The Dawn were attracted to the amped Auras because “large flare-ups of Aura (the soul, which goes hand in hand with emotions) would read similarly to the emotions that Grimm are naturally drawn to.”

Remnant Holidays: “There are certainly different holidays in Remnant, many of them similar to our own. This is the kind of thing we always want to save for the screen or other materials if we can help it!”

Semblance Rules: “Semblances can basically be anything, we just make sure there is some kind of check on it -- take Tock, for instance, who could become invulnerable but it's going to lead to her Aura breaking. I wouldn't say there's a hard and fast rule against a Semblance being transformative, but it certainly would be uncommon.”

It seems Ironwood did issue an arrest warrant for Robyn, but the Council offered her safe passage to Atlas and Schnee Manor, in order to put Ironwood off-balance. 

Is Nicholas Schnee dead or is he still alive?: “Yes.”

Production of the 2D shorts on various Fairy Tales has been impacted by the pandemic, but more details are “hopefully coming soon”.

Sage is not connected to the AceOps, despite being based on an Aesop. There are more characters based on Aesops besides them. 

Beacon’s Academic Year: “It's fairly similar to our own semesters.”

The events of the books will impact the main series, but they want to fit them in in such a way that non-readers won’t feel like they’re missing out.

Will we ever find out more about Summer/how she died?: “It certainly seems like a pretty important thing for the show to touch on :)”

RWBY’s favourite fairytales: “We'll get to this.”

Eddy says we will learn more characters’ sexualities. 

Will We Ever See Roman Again?:  “I will say that Roman is a very fun character who has obviously made an impact on everybody. There will always be a desire to go back to that well.”

Aura would block a Lightsaber.

Cinder did not get any of the Spring Maiden’s power when she used her arm on Raven.

Is there is a link between semblance and magic?: “Yes.”

Are the Gods All-Powerful?: “This is a tough question to answer, but a very good one. I think it's something we'll actually learn more about... later.”

THE GOD OF LIGHT ALONE MADE ALL FOUR RELICS.

Eugene Answers:

At one point, Eugene, not knowing the ships of the fandom, named a location “Arkos”. His editor had to tell him why he couldn’t use it.

What inspired you to choose memory erasing and telepathy for Yatsu and Fox respectively?: “For Fox, it came about honestly because he had never spoken on the show, and I wanted to provide a canon reason for it, and then it just opened up so many interesting possibilities. For Yatsu, it probably started as I thought about Edward and Augustus and what might fit in thematically; and again, it fits in with Yatsu's more meditative nature, and I like the fact that his Semblance isn't based on physical strength.”

“”From my perspective, it was very important to me to not contradict anything in the series past or future, help expand on things that haven't been covered in the show yet, and help lay the foundation for things that may appear in later volumes. The RWBY writing team is terrific to collaborate with, answering all the questions I had as much as they could, and of course they review, approve, and correct anything needed to fit the show's continuity and its tone.”

Does the Chill have a physical form?: “I envisioned the Chill as being incorporeal, living in the shadows.”

Can you save someone from the Chill?: “You could save someone from possession, if you acted quickly.“

The books tell us Coco has an older brother, Toma; and a younger brother, Mate; as well as a third brother, Van. Eugene confirms Van to be younger than Coco.

He wishes he could have spent more time on Scarlet and Sage.

Favourite OC: Rumpole. Favourite Show Character: Penny

Fox’s Personality: “People often compare him a bit to Toph, who is my favorite Avatar character, so I think that influenced his character. Plus, the voice in your head would have to be the one that says things you shouldn't say aloud. That's Fox.”

If he gets to make a third novel, it would be SSSN-focused.

“I believe it took SSSN several months to reach Vacuo from Haven, partially because they weren't in any hurry, and it's a long way. And then the main events of BtD take place a month or so after AtF.” 

Before the Dawn takes place before Volume 8.

Violet Answers:

What are some of your artistic inspirations?: “Arthur Rackham was the biggest inspiration throughout. The grungy, rough nature of his work was very helpful in merging my style with something more traditional to match the fairytale feel needed for this book.“ 

[eulaties]

how i view each a:tla character

hoo boy this is a long one

sokka:

- highkey smartest guy on team avatar

- but with aang they're like the equivalent of the my two braincells meme

- boomerang, ponytail, and space sword guy

- comes up with the best nicknames and jokes

- best friends with aang

- his sexism literally saved the world

- but dw he drinks gallons of respect women juice a day now

- has the baddest gf suki who could kick his ass at any given moment

- wanted momo for a week (why??)

- sokka walked so eboys could run

- roasts zuko constantly

- officially known as mr wang fire

toph:

- baddest bitch don't mess with her

- small but will not hesitate to kill you

- I AM MELON LORD

- I emit a super sonic wave from my mouth in order to see

- AHHHHHHHHHHHH

- let toph say fuck

- secretly misses her parents

- her way of showing affection is beating you up

- "do you think friendships can transcend lifetimes?"

- literally so badass she invented a new form of bending

- the greatest earthbender alive

zuko:

- zuko, you're gonna get a kick out of this... YOUR HONOR WAS IN MY SLEEVE THIS WHOLE TIME

- undergoes the best character redemption arc of all time change my mind

- his scar is on the wrong side

- WHY AM I SO BAD AT BEING GOOD

- lowkey emo

- "im never happy"

- hes always happy around his goth gf mai tho

- got his life ruined by ozai, fuck him

- uncle iroh is now his dad, ozai who?

- bad at making jokes but he tries his best

- once his anger got stripped away he just became a socially awkward person

- awkward legend

- hello, z u k o here

- gets accepted into the gaang™ and gets a new family :)

- his friendship with aang is everything

- pretends to be annoyed by aang but secretly treasures their friendship

aang:

- powerful af and can literally take your bending away

- but honestly hed rather everyone be happy

- epitome of a cinnamon roll

- he deserves the world

- mentally strong af as well, i mean he had to cope with a GENOCIDE in the third episode

- "some friendships are so strong they can transcend lifetimes"

- unashamedly so in LOVE with katara

- gushes about her all the time

- peppy

- in touch with his ~feminine~ side

- his smiles and laughs are contagious

- so freaking friendly its impossible to hate him, i mean how could you

- hes so friendly he seems like hes flirting but hes not, thats just how he is

- has the best eyebrows

- friends with everyone

- showers appa and momo with the affection they deserve

- best friends with sokka

katara:

- the mom friend™

- absolutely WHIPPED for aang god she loves him so much

- everyone looks up to her. literally was the only thing keeping the group together at some points

- has a big af temper tho

- will cut a bitch

- when shes pissed off shes pissed OFF

- dont fucking hurt the people she loves or she will COME for you

- her power crawl is everything

- can literally bloodbend or heal you, your choice

- denies any relation to sokka whenever hes being stupid

- her outfit in the fire nation SLAPPED

- regularly schedules sleepovers with suki and toph (although she has to drag toph to the sleepover)

- what if we kissed? 😳 in the cave of oma and shu 👉👈 haha jk jk... unless

suki:

- sexism is no more

- takes down sokka's sexist ass easily

- strong af dont underestimate her

- sweetest gf tho

- loved the atrocious sand sculpture sokka made of her

- kidnapped a prison warden all by herself

- honestly underrated

- appa likes her

- singlehandedly saved sokkas and tophs lives

- in kyoshi we stan

iroh:

- the wisest character ever

- guides zuko into the right direction

- "i was just worried that you lost your way"

- zuko and irohs reunion made me SOB

- makes the best tea and owns a successful business, the jasmine dragon

- LEAVES FROM THE VINE FALLJNG SO SLOWLY

- IM NOT CRYING YOURE CRYING

- r.i.p mako 💔

ursa:

- went to get some milk 9 years ago and never came back

azula:

- the prodigy kid that all parents compare you to

- got groomed by ozai from an early age

- favorite child

- loves power and intimidating others

- top of the food chain

- can absolutely BREAK you with a snap of her fingers

- badass but not in a good way

- dont play beach volleyball with her she'll absolutely destroy your career

- wow, your outfit is so... sharp. careful, it could puncture the hull of an empire ship and leave hundreds of soldiers to drown at sea! because... its so sharp.

- mental health slipping after she gets betrayed by her two best friends

- got that quarantine bangs haircut

- honestly the last agni kai was really sad

- just wanted to be loved by ursa

- certified insane

ozai:

- ruined zuko's and azula's life

- career literally got ended by aang

- nothing else to say fuck this guy

ty lee:

- an absolute ray of sunshine

- her aura has never been pinker

- got the happy ending she deserved with the kyoshi warriors

mai:

- deadpan snark

- goth

- will cut a bitch from afar with her throwing knives

- you miscalculated

- I LOVE ZUKO MORE THAN I FEAR YOU