#yangchen defense squad

[survivalove]

yangchen is really the perfect foil for aang the more I think about it.

one working to end a world war before it starts, the other working to end a world war after 100 years

one committing to any means necessary, the other committing to their spiritual code above all else

one plagued by the reputation of the avatar before her, the other plagued by the faults of the avatar before him

but they also have a lot of similarities too:

disguises, lying

avoiding violence whenever they can

informed of their responsibilities long before they turned 16

I love how fc yee shows the divergence of their paths by highlighting the differences in their personalities and methods to solve essentially the same problem.

i love seeing yangchen lose so much of herself accomplishing goals she set for herself while seeing aang stay true to himself while trying to live up to the expectations of the world around him.

someone reading legacy of yangchen made me understand aang more than i ever did watching the show. couldn’t ask for a better character foil.

[kyoshi-lesbians]

So I just finished Shadow of Kyoshi and that hurt and I guess I'm on Kuruk defense squad now which I never thought would happen.

welcome to the club babe!

i mean who couldve predicted that the Go With The Flow Avatar atla fans were introduced to 15 yrs ago had such a tragic story?

I'm personally obsessed with how his & Kyoshi's stories add to the theme of each generation inheriting the past generation's mistakes. They both struggle to overcome self-blame for problems that started long before they were equipped to handle them.

And Kuruk turns out to be a good guide for Kyoshi. He teaches her the importance of relying on her friends and Kyoshi wouldn't have survived the fight at the end of the book without them, and i think that's beautiful!

[survivalove]

it's pretty horrible thinking about how airbenders/air nomads are treated in canon (and as a result by the fandom). they were just existing peacefully for 1,000s of years, and sozin felt the need to wipe out their whole civilization because he saw them as weak (i know he mainly did it because he wanted to kill aang, but he also didn't want the air nomads to exist anymore). then throughout atla aang has to no only hear disrespect towards his people from randoms, zuko, who's supposed to be his friend, mocks his culture right to his face.

then in tlok the earth queen captures the new airbenders in ba sing se to use for her army. i know those people aren't air nomads, but there's something so sinister about airbenders, who have historically been know to promote non-violence/pacifism, being forced to fight.

then of course a certain section of the fandom hates aang for staying true to his culture and not killing ozai. it would honestly be laughable if it wasn't so sinister.

it’s sad really.

and then you have yangchen used as a scapegoat to undermine aang’s pacifism when her books actually show how beautiful air nomad culture was (and tibetan buddhism is) and how much she loved her culture, despite being a walking contradiction herself.

i mean like it or not, the canon and the fandom are largely reflected by the writers themselves. most of the 20-something of them being yt western men. and the writing shows it (along with the underdeveloped female characters, entire water tribe, etc.) aang and the air nomads never had a chance 💔

it’s actually so funny to me how the creators have gone on record saying their favorite characters are korra and zuko (and it shows) yet there are people that think a buddhist genocide survivor is the self-insert of a yt 40 year old american man. lol.

[survivalove]

if i speak on how kyoshi handled the fire nation royal family’s corruption in her second book and the long term effects it had after her death… like a certain genocide perhaps. it would get very ugly

but y’all wanna talk about yangchen and some spirits ijbol

[survivalove]

same anon here -> i've read both the kyoshi & yangchen novels and that's fucking insane to me like ok by that logic we should also wholeheartedly hate on roku for leaving aang to deal with the hundred year war— oh wait! it's just fucking misogyny! although i guess i shouldn't be surprised by this anymore considering this is the same fandom who will see korra lose her past lives and instead of be rational people & think "oh wow thats a bad writing choice" will instead be like "korra's a bitch and shes the WORST avatar ever"

and yes like you said it's not as if yangchen just fucked off and let spirits be trampled on by humans without a care in the world 😭 she reasoned with said humans more than once but they'd continue what they were doing as soon as she left (even after their own children were put in danger)

it’s the annoying people that go “actually yangchen did xyz” whenever someone compliments her. they’ll fully admit to not even reading her books and to be fair i don’t think most of them like kuruk that much either, they just to have a woman’s name in their mouth 🙄

the korra thing is also annoying and i didn’t even know people liked roku 😭