hc that suki picked up on sokka’s “suki!” thing and now says “sokka!!” every time she sees him (even when it’s been less than an hour apart) (sokka loves it)
I have this headcanon that Toph has a tougher time fighting other benders. With earthbenders it’s easier, she can sense where pillars of stone and walls are, but it’s the flying bits she has to listen for and judge the person’s stance to tell where it’s going.
Obviously, she’d have the hardest time with an airbender–its air. It has no vibration she can sense and Aang is so light footed she has tough keeping track of him, so she has to listen and feel the minute changes in the air.
Waterbending and firebending–when taking water from a standing pool, Toph could feel the vibrations in the ripples against the shore, but water makes a streaming sound that’s very distinct and easier to track. Ice spikes would be harder to listen for, lacking this sound. Firebending is the same, it makes a whooshing sound and it roars but it can move so quick when wielded right that Toph only has a split second to erect her defense.
And that Toph can do all these things, listen and feel, in what seems like mere SECONDS is astounding to me. I love Toph so much.
This flashback in ATLA, Azulon becoming enraged with Ozai for disrespecting Iroh and the recently deceased Lu Ten, is usually interpreted as Azulon then ordering Ozai to kill Zuko. I disagree with this for two reasons.
1: We don’t actually hear Azulon say that, it’s only referred to by Azula (who was around seven or eight at the time and might have misunderstood what she heard) and by Ozai, years later, when he is taunting Zuko on the Day of Black Sun. Neither Azula nor Ozai are reliable narrators.
2: Azulon is, at the time of this flashback, the ruler of the Fire Nation who has just lost one of his only two grandsons and heirs. What kind of monarch loses one heir and then turns around and demands the death of another, especially when losing Zuko would hardly bother Ozai?
My interpretation of this situation is Azulon ordered Ozai to give Zuko into Iroh’s care, replacing Lu Ten as Iroh’s heir, neatly removing any argument Ozai had about Iroh’s line having ended. Ozai of course would never accept this. He either lied to Ursa, claiming Azulon wished Zuko dead, or outright told his wife he’d kill Zuko before seeing him get ahead of him in the line of succession, thus manipulating Ursa to help him assassinate Azulon. I think this theory makes far more logical sense than ‘Azulon ordered the murder of his nine-year-old grandson’.
