zutara-foreverx:

fournationsmeta:

This is one of my favorite theories behind atla and I wanted to share my own breakdown of it. 

SO the raids on the SWT began in 40 AG. They continued until each and every waterbender from the Southern Water Tribe had been captured. (Note: captured) 

Worth noting is that Hama refers to herself as the last waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe. 

Here’s where the conspiracy gets juicy. Hama was the only one who managed to escape. She created bloodbending to get out of the prison. And she says herself that she’s the only one who escaped. This could be for one of two reasons: 

1. All of the other prisoners had already succumb to the conditions or been killed 
2. The remaining waterbender prisoners were murdered after Hama’s escape

The second option is more plausible. Hama displayed a dangerous, powerful, unknown form of waterbending and overtook a Fire Nation guard’s body. She had him unlock her cell and fled. If there were remaining waterbenders in the prison they would have been killed out of fear once Hama escaped. 

They Fire Nation couldn’t risk anyone else in their prison possessing this power. So they were all murdered because of Hama’s escape. 

Look at Hama’s reaction to hearing that the raids continued. A kind of casual “oh, you poor things.” Hama knew that the raids continued because she escaped. All of the waterbenders had already been caught! The only waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe that was known at that time to be free or alive was Hama. 

And she knew better than to return to her home, where they were sure to come looking for her. She stayed and hid right under their noses because she knew they were going to tear the world apart trying to track her down. She was too dangerous. 

When Yon Rha comes to the Southern Water Tribe in 94 AG Katara is still a child. Their tribe has been in shambles for years at this point. Katara is the tribe’s last hope and they’re a tiny tribe at that point in time. Do you honestly think that word of a child waterbender would have made way to the Fire Nation? 

Do you think that the Water Tribe would ever release that information willingly? I don’t. I think that the Southern Raiders had no idea that another waterbender had been born into the Southern Water Tribe. 

Why else would Yon Rha have accepted that an adult was the waterbender he was looking for? The intel didn’t say that a new waterbender was born, the intel said that there’s one waterbender left. The Fire Nation already knows about the last waterbender of the SWT. She escaped. And they’re still trying to find her. 

The Fire Nation is adamant about finding the last waterbender because they’re looking for Hama. Hama, who can control people’s bodies. Hama, who managed to escape a high-security Fire Nation prison without any water. Hama, the only waterbender to best the Fire Nation. And the only one left. 

Kya offers herself up as prisoner to Yon Rha. Because she knows that the past raids meant that the Southern Raiders took the waterbenders prisoner. But that has changed. 

Whywould their procedure have changed? Why did they stop taking waterbenders as prisoners? Because of Hama. They stopped taking waterbenders prisoner after Hama’s escape. 

Tl;dr the Southern Raiders were never looking for Katara, they were looking for Hama. 

Wait but wouldn’t Kya have been way too young to be who they were searching for? I mean she appears to be in her twenties or at most early thirties in Katara’s flashback and Hama appears to be around 70 or more when she meets the gaang less than a decade later and she had clearly been out for several decades by then and was at least a teenager when she escaped…as long ago as it had happened, wouldn’t it have made more since to go after Gran Gran at that point?

I see your point, but I’ll offer this as counterpoint: we have seen how woeful the Fire Nation’s communications are. (Ex. the one ship’s captain complaining about the lack of communication between ships in the first episode of Book 3) So there’s a possibility that Yon Rha never was told an age. Just that there was a dangerous waterbender on the loose. Who knows how long he had been at this post, even? This may have been his “pet project”, like Zhao suddenly deciding to take the Avatar on as his, when he joined the Southern Raiders. Something to make him sound good, a notch on his belt. It may have been what pushed him to retire? 

And who in the Fire Nation, when they get the report, is going to ask him “Oh btw, how old was she?” Most likely, they would just check off the box of “Southern Water Tribe Bender dead.” and that would be the end of it.

At least, that’s how my brain works. lol.

It’s time that we had a real conversation about Aang…

For the main character of a television series, Aang somehow almost always finds himself under-rated and dismissed in fans’ posts. You see all these posts and, when they do reference him, it’s usually accompanied by the phrases “immature” and “12-year-old boy.” I mean honestly, in some ATLA fans posts, it seems as if Aang’s name is almost synonymous with the word immaturity–and it’s been that way for years. I’ve always wondered why people discredited him. Was it because they saw his age and immediately ruled him out? Is it an excuse for Katara and Aang to have never happened? Was calling him the most immature character a way to bring up their favorite characters? Or did they simply get conditioned to think Aang was immature because everyone just… said he was? Well, I think Aang’s the most mature character (from start to finish) on the show, and Imma tell you why. 

I think that Book 1 Aang is the Aang that everyone has stuck in their head. We get introduced to Aang in a strange way: he’s a boy frozen in an iceberg, and the first thing he asks is to go penguin sledding. Then he boldly explores a fire navy ship after being told it might not be a great idea. This kid’s kinda stupid, we think. Why does he care about penguin sledding? Why does he explore something he is told not to? Then he stops at Kyoshi Island to ride the Unagi, then he stops at Omashu to ride the delivery service, and then he lets the gang stop at other locations—having mini adventures—without worrying about learning waterbending on any sort of timeline. Why does he choose to explore all these different places at first rather than master the four elements? Doesn’t he even care about being the Avatar? Ah… that’s right. He’s only 12. 

Except surmising his entire maturity (or lack thereof) to the fact that he stops for these adventures means that you are ignoring one glaring detail of the show: Airbender and nomad culture. Aang asking Katara to go penguin sledding instead of what year it was and taking his friends to all those random stops in B1 so that he can explore can not be chalked up to immaturity. Because then you are ignoring an entire culture. We don’t get to see a lot of airbenders, and I think that plays into the problem, but from what we do know, we learn that a critical part of their culture is that they travel. A lot. And experience different cultures. A lot. Think about all the different places he’s referenced going to 100 years ago in the series. Then think about all the friends he’s talked about having in these obscure places—and it always sounded like he visited them more than once. Traveling, experiencing different cities, and meeting new people was a part of him and a part of his culture. He wasn’t being a 12-year-old when he stopped to ride the Unagi or the delivery shoots in Omashu, he was being an air nomad

On a similar note, one of Aang’s most notable traits is saying, “Hey, check this out,” excitedly while doing some air bending trick that seems juvenile–like spinning marbles around or doing an air scooter.  People look at him doing this and his previously mentioned traits and go, “Oh, what a kid.” But here’s the thing: we can’t roll our eyes at his persistent need to show people marbles floating in the air or his air scooter. In the episode “Southern Air Temple,” we see Monk Gyatso—an extremely old, wise air bender—throwing cakes on other monks’ heads, and then we’re told throughout the series that Airbenders were known for their playful nature. Airbenders didn’t use their bending the same way other benders do. For example, Waterbenders might show off their skills by creating a giant wave and being like, “Look how cool!” (See: Katara, like every time she learns a new move.) We know Airbenders have some pretty powerful moves–we’ve seen the tornado Aang created, the air body imprint of Aang that slammed Zuko back–but they don’t show off those moves because they’re so combative and not so fun. They show off the good-natured side of air bending (ex: Gyasto’s staff surfing when he was a child).  So those marble/air scooter tricks can’t be watered down to 12-year-old immaturity. Because he’s not being a kid when he does those things, he’s being an Airbender. People also tend to look over the fact that he is a survivor of a genocide. You need to keep in mind that he is a living relic and the only example left of what his race was. So even later in the series when he continues to show people those tricks, he’s showing them not just for fun, but to keep his culture alive. And what do you think he’s going to show them: a tornado with random objects flying around in it or two marbles flying in his hands? Which is a better representation of Airbender culture?

Also, do not forget that Aang earned his arrows. Airbenders are not just regular benders; they are known for being especially enlightened. You don’t just need to be a master at airbending to get your arrows—you also need to be a master at their culture. Aang was an enlightened boi. Look at all the speeches that he gave as the series continued. He didn’t just magically become wise in the course of a few months because he had to fight the Firelord, he just tapped into what was always there and never showed. The maturity was always there, and the receipts are in the arrows. 

So, I’ve gone over why he’s not as immature as everyone thinks, but why do I think he’s the most mature on the show? It’s because his emotional maturity is freaking through the roof. He’s part of a genocide, his culture is mocked, the few things—his clothing and glider—that he had left from his home were completely destroyed, and he had to do something that severely went against what he believes in. And he almost never loses his shit. In fact, we only ever see him get actually upset (we’re not counting the Avatar state cause that’s a whole different thing) 3 times in the series: when he was telling Katara about how the monks wanted to take him away from Gyatso, the episode when Appa was stolen, and when he was explaining that no one understands the position he is in (in terms of killing Ozai). Think about how much we saw everyone else freak out over the course of the show? About even smaller things.

Katara and Zuko are generally accepted as the two most mature characters of the series. But why? Zuko is continuously snapping at everyone, and, yes, he matured. But he is not completely there yet. He still somewhat believes in revenge (See: Southern Raiders), and it’s only at the last episode of the series that he understands violence is not the answer. And Katara? She acts very mature towards everyone else, but when it comes to her own emotions? She’s a whole basket full of mess. (See: Southern Raiders, again. Or anytime she uses anger as her way to show she’s “passionate.”) A good way to showcase the difference between Aang and these two is realizing that all of them lost a parent from the war and analyzing at how they handled it. (For Zuko let’s focus on the idea that he never really had a father) Katara lost her mother, Zuko his father, and Aang his father, Gyatso. Throughout the series, losing their parent was a huge topic point for both Katara and Zuko so much so that it was as if they thought no one else had ever suffered. (Katara, we see you telling Sokka that he didn’t love your mom the same). Aang, however, acknowledges his pain, tells stories of Gyatso and uses him as an example of what he wants to live up to— eventually coming full circle at the end wearing Gyatso’s beads and an identical outfit. I can’t imagine a more mature way to handle what happened than that.

Basically, what I’m trying to say is, maturity isn’t based on how you have fun, it’s based on how you react to hard situations. And nobody, nobody reacted better in those situations than Aang. So if you watched Avatar and thought it was a story about a young boy maturing, then you misjudged. It wasn’t a story about an immature boy growing up. It was a story of an Airbender becoming an avatar. 

sokkastyles:

alleinimdunklenwald:

sokkastyles:

I’ve written before about Aang’s trouble with understanding the reality of violence, and one thing I’m thinking about is that he never really learns to take Katara’s healing seriously as a result.

In the episode where Aang accidentally burns Katara, Aang feels incredibly guilty, and he is confronted with his own recklessness and the danger of firebending. He feels so guilty that he decides never to firebend again. At the same time, Katara discovers that she can use waterbending to heal, an ability previously unknown to the group.

The episode presents an important lesson about personal responsibility and consequences, but the problem is that due to Katara’s healing, the focus shifts from Aang having hurt Katara to Aang’s pain over hurting Katara. Katara then has to comfort Aang over her own hurt, and Aang’s feelings take precedence as a major plot point as Aang has to spend a large part of the series overcoming his mental block over firebending, since he is the Avatar and must firebend eventually. The episode ends with Katara healing Aang’s singed arm after his battle with Zhao, further positioning Katara as the healer of both Aang’s physical and emotional wounds and the carrier of his burdens.

Katara later uses the spirit water to save Aang’s life, but because Aang is not forced to deal with the consequences of violence on his own, because Katara is always there to carry that burden for him, he is dismissive towards Katara’s healing abilities in the series finale.

Aang: [to Zuko] So, have you ever redirected lightning before?

Zuko: Once, against my father.

Aang: What did it feel like?

Zuko: Exhilarating … [Flashes back to the moment for a few seconds.] but terrifying. You feel so powerful holding that much energy in your body, but you know if you make the wrong move, it’s over.

Aang: [Chuckles.] Well, not over over. I mean there’s always Katara and a little Spirit Water action, [Turns to Katara.] am I right?

Katara: Actually, I used it all up after Azula shot you.

Zuko: You’ll have to take the Fire Lord’s life before he takes yours.

Aang: Yeah, I’ll just do that.

This conversation is there to remind the audience that Katara’s resurrection of Aang was a one-time deal and to highten the stakes of the finale, but it also tells us a lot about the characters involved, specifically about Aang and Zuko’s views on violence.

I’ve seen a lot of people try to paint Zuko as violent in relation to this conflict of interest with pacifist Aang, which extends from “The Southern Raiders” to the finale, but it really began as early in book one. Aang jokes about using the spirit water because the plot never really forced him to face the ramifications of being without it. And, despite Aang’s growth in learning firebending and learning not to fear fire any longer, which also goes with learning to use it responsibly, his discussion with Zuko about lightning bending reveals that he still sees things as not as serious as they are. He asks Zuko what lightning bending feels like, because he’s interested in the experience. He doesn’t seem to process what Zuko says about who he bent lightning against, doesn’t react with shock to hear that Zuko’s own father shot lightning at him, but treats it as a kind of game. Zuko’s response was that it was exhilarating, but also terrifying, and that the consequences for failure are death. Aang then brushes this off. Katara tells him that there is no more spirit water, and Zuko again emphasizes to Aang how serious the situation is and says that Aang needs to kill Ozai. Aang again brushes Zuko off.

Now, while I also don’t think that killing Ozai would or should have been the only way, my point here is that there should have been some acknowledgement here that Aang’s stance on this is naive. He does not take the situation seriously and is dismissive of what his friends say. And while Zuko does advocate for violence against his father, he also knows the consequences of failure. Zuko had to redirect lightning from his father, and had to face violence from his father before that.

Zuko’s relationship with the spirit water and Katara’s healing is also different. Zuko is offered healing from Katara, and accepts it, but is interrupted. Before that, Zuko told Katara that he had come to accept his scar. The context makes it clear that although Zuko wants to be healed, he knows that he doesn’t need it. His wound is a scar, and has long since healed, although that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t still carry around that hurt. But he ultimately doesn’t need Katara to take it from him, and her doing so would have diminished his ability to make the right decision for himself.

When Katara heals Aang in the same episode she offers it to Zuko, it is a life or death situation, and was the result of Aang’s botched attempt to follow Guru Pathik’s advice. I’ve written before about how this moment is one I felt had a lot of missed opportunity, as the conflict for Aang is glossed over in favor of Katara once again taking up the role of Aang’s caretaker.

Katara ends up saving both Aang’s and Zuko’s lives, but her healing of Zuko at the end of the series is so much more meaningful because Zuko knows the consequences of his actions, he knows he might not come out of the fight alive, and he doesn’t take Katara’s presence there for granted. I’ve seen some people say that Zuko chose Katara to go with him to fight Azula because of her healing powers. And although that is certainly true from a plot perspective, I don’t think Zuko was thinking about her healing him if that possibility were to come up. The conversation I quoted above shows that both Zuko and Katara are aware of the finality of what they are facing. I think he chose her for her combative skill. I also think he chose her because they are alike in this way, having made the journey together in “The Southern Raiders.” Not because of their shared “darkness” or propensity for violence, as some people might say, but because both of them have faced violence, knew the consequences, and had to make hard choices without themselves being corrupted. Katara chose not to harm Yon Rha just as Zuko chooses to defeat his sister while trying to cause as little damage as possible.

I love that Zuko and Katara’s relationship has this emphasis on personal responsibility, and both of them end on an equal playing field, saving one another’s lives when neither was guaranteed. Both of them end up doing the impossible to save the other, Zuko redirecting lightning with an improper stance and Katara healing him even without the spirit water. The term “deus ex machina” gets thrown around a lot, usually in a negative way, but here we have two examples of how a problem can be solved by a seemingly impossible occurrence while making it seem believable and also serving the narrative and character’s arcs. In contrast, Aang refusing to face the reality of his situation and getting the ability to defeat Ozai from the lion turtle seems like a cop out because he never has to learn the lesson the show seemed to be setting him up to learn.

It doesn’t help that Zuko and Katara (as well as Sokka) have experienced loss, violence and death right in front of their eyes. Or that pain was inflicted on them by other people in this very timeline and conflict. These people are still alive hurting other people.

Aang wakes up like a fish out of water from a place were the world was still okay. Him finding out that he is the last Airbender and that all of his nation has been genocided is brutal. But it happened while he was completely absent, he never had to experience how visceral this conflict was. No fellow monk was burned to a screaming pile of crisps in front of his eyes. There was no gratuitous bloodbath or the never-ending stench of burning human flesh he had to experience. I think partially he still lives there in his head. In the past. At least his mindset and morals do.

If he would have been there when the slaughtering was happening I think he would be much less naive when it comes to what you have been written. He would be more like Zuko, Katara or Sokka. I also love how near then end in the “let’s go and watch theatre” episode, everyone in the group knows pretty much that the Firelord has to die. Zuko sarcastically makes a joke to Aang that maybe Ozai will change if Aang shows him his baby pictures. And naive Aang totally takes this joke at face value until Zuko throws a strong “What the hell. NO! That’s not how it works!” in his face.

Only with Aang being immediately frustrated and giving out some weird ultimatum like behaviour at the group who grew up suffering from the conflict. “If I can’t find a way to neutralize him without killing him then there’s no way!” Then asks them to give him a better solution. Thing is, they already have a solution for him. You can’t live peaceful next to a neighbour who wants your death and destruction. You need an army and be it just to defend yourself.

“What am I supposed to do
If I want to talk about peace and understanding
But you only understand the language of the sword
What if I want to make you understand that the path you chose leads to downfall
But you only understand the language of the sword
What if I want to tell you to leave me and my beloved ones in peace
But you only understand the language of the sword”

Aang after all this time, after this big journey, after experiencing the death of the moon spirit at the hand of a misguided violent Fire nation General, more so after experiencing the suffering and darkness that his friends - his most trusted and important allies, who are his strength and his home - still talks about his morals right in their face. That must be pretty painful and exhausting for them.

“But my teachings!” he says over and over again as the world burns and screams. Knowing fully well that he is the Avatar, the only Avatar, with the power to stop Ozai. It’s like he is blackmailing his very world he was born into to protect and everyone who lives in it that it has to happen on his terms or it won’t happen at all. On top of that Aang gets Deus Ex machina’ed every time his “Pacifistic believes” won’t suit the violence he has to inflict to save and protect. Deus Ex machina means in his case the Avatar state. And it always gets triggered by outside forces. He then gets in a possessed like state where crushes fire nation metal ships full of soldiers, probably killing them, or is finally able to use force against Ozai and fight back instead of being on the defensive.

He then gets out of this battle trance, because at this point it’s his battle trance and nothing else, to do his Aang thing or just to collapse from being exhausted by it. He depends on his previous reincarnations to do what he has to do. To protect, to save. Because there won’t be peace or healing otherwise. It’s like he has this nice gift to switch his brain out and go on auto-mode when he needs to do something that hurts him for the greater good. For his duty and just to stay alive. Zuko, Katara, Sokka and everyone else that has to fight back against the fire nation don’t have this luxury. When they kill it will be remembered by them and they do it while they are being fully aware of taking another live. Both the Avatar state and what the others have to do can be very traumatic, but the people who aren’t the Avatar never have a self-activating panic button to safe them from a dire situation. They die or they defend themselves - with their own hands.

Oh and while Aang is still a teen, so is the rest of his group. And they understand that you can’t just be tolerant forever. The fire nation won’t stop with nice words and gestures. Aang already got burned by running away from being revealed to that he is the Avatar and then ending up in some sort of cold sleep. During his time being asleep his people got butchered and it’s canonically established that he feels guilty for running away that day. He thinks if he had stayed he could have used his avatar powers to protect them. But even that never gets fully used to him acknowledging the true reality of this violent war.

These people are still alive and hurting other people

I think that’s a salient point that is important when we talk about this conflict in TSR or in the larger sense of Aang’s conflict. Katara doesn’t become interested in going after Yon Rha until she learns he is still alive, and doesn’t know he is retired until she meets him. Zuko tells Katara about him after he realizes that he knows who did it. This is very different from Aang’s situation where the people responsible for the genocide of his people are already gone. It happened a hundred years ago. The Fire Nation as an entity is still out there represented by Ozai, but that fight is less personal because the people who personally wronged Aang are no longer living. Before Katara knows about Yon Rha her mother’s death is a similar situation in that it happened long ago and she does not have to think about the man who did it still being out there. But once she does know, she says she HAS to confront him. I think it is similar with Zuko, once he realizes he has this knowledge, knowledge that he has because he used to be one of the enemy, he feels like it is his duty to share it, because (as he thinks) the guy who did it is still out there committing atrocities. The fire nation has to be stopped, but that is a less personal and more difficult fight. But this guy who hurt Katara specifically can and should be stopped right there and right now, and since they have the knowledge and means to do it, shouldn’t they act on it? Don’t they have a duty to do so?

I think that this could and should have led to a discussion about duty and what the avatar’s duty exactly should be in this situation. Should the Avatar use his power’s for violence, and when is doing so necessary? When should violence be avoided? With great power comes great responsibility, and previous episodes set up that conflict nicely but dropped it here in favor of tone deaf moralizing about how revenge corrupts. It’s a good question because you can even ask about the ethics of Aang blaming himself for not being there to potentially go Avatar state to prevent a war that hasn’t even happened yet. Would that have been an ethical preventative measure? At what point is using that power irresponsible. Those are good ways to frame this conflict around the topic of violence that don’t put the onus on victims to constantly turn the other cheek. And Zuko tries to impress this on Aang, too, because he knows Ozai and he knows what happens when you refuse to fight. Which is why he tells Aang that he needs to kill Ozai before Ozai kills him. Zuko himself finds a nonviolent means to redirect his father’s violence, literally, but he also knows very intimately what happens if you refuse to fight a person who is determined to use violence against you. He is viscerally worried about Aang being hurt, which he tells Aang and Katara, because the same thing happened to him.

outpastthemoat:

there’s a little detail that i didn’t notice about “the blue spirit” when i first watched it.  when zuko returns to his ship after his misadventures at ponhuai, avatar-less and honorless and still puzzling over aang’s speech and having made an enemy of zhao and probably severely concussed, iroh is there on deck.  

music night happened the previous night.  and yet it’s morning when zuko returns, and iroh is still playing the tsungi horn on deck.  

iroh waited up all night for zuko to come back.  

it’s such a small detail, but speaks volumes about their relationship.  iroh not only allows zuko to sneak out in order to free the avatar in order to preserve his chance at regaining his honor, iroh actually subtly encorages zuko to free aang from ponhuai, even though he clearly knows that there’s every possibilty that zuko will be caught by zhao and iroh will not be able to save him.  

as the guardian of a teenager, iroh’s influence over zuko is limited.  iroh must allow zuko the freedom to chase after the destiny he thinks he wants, iroh cannot always protect zuko or keep him out of danger, iroh cannot even demonstrate affection to zuko in the way he would clearly like to because zuko is too hurt and guarded to be able to accept it from him - 

- but iroh can wait up for him.  

iroh can sit up all night, just to make sure that zuko gets home safely.  

and it is such a striking element of their relationship, because I waited up all night for you becomes the unspoken love language by which they communicate caring and affection for each other.  

iroh waits all night for zuko to return safely from ponhuai stronghold. iroh stays up while zuko sleeps on the ferry and waits up for zuko to return home from his date with jin. iroh sits up all night watching over zuko when he is sick and feverish.  

and it’s not one-sided, because zuko waits up for iroh.  

zuko waits up all night watching over an injured iroh after azula blasts him with blue fire.  zuko sits up all night waiting for iroh to wake up when they reunite at the white lotus camp.

and this gesture becomes so important to zuko that it even becomes the way he demonstrates caring and concern for the members of the gaang.  zuko waits up all night in appa’s saddle, knowing that sokka is planning a rescue mission.  zuko waits up all night for katara to wake, knowing she needs to confront her own deeply-felt anger before she can understand and let go of it.  

and this even is the gesture by which aang first demonstrates friendship to zuko.  after zuko is knocked out by an arrow to his blue spirit mask, aang sits up with zuko for the rest of the night until zuko wakes up, just to make sure zuko is all right.

and the concept of sitting up all night for you is such a poignant contrast to zuko’s memory of his mother, who vanished out his life in the middle of the night, waking him up for a last goodbye.  

it’s pretty clear that iroh sitting up all night with a sick child was far from an unusual occasion.   i think it was probably really important for zuko to be shown, again and again and again, that he has someone who will be there when morning comes.  

one parent left zuko in the night - but one parent will always wait up for him to come home.  

A DEFINITION NOT FOUND IN THE DICTIONARY
Not leaving: an act of trust and love, often deciphered by children.
-The Book Thief

atlaculture:

As promised, the Air Nomad cultural analysis that won the survey. Get comfortable, because it’s a rather lengthy post.

We’re all familiar with that iconic Avatar opening: Four masters bending their respective element in front of two Chinese characters. The characters used to represent the “culture” of air are “气和”, with “气” meaning “air” and “和” meaning “harmonious”. Literally telling the audience, “Air is Harmonious”. This is all very appropriate, as the Air Nomads were pacifists.

However, I’d like to focus on the specific character “气”, because it carries so much more metaphysical weight in Chinese culture than simply being another word for “oxygen” or “gas”. “气” is pronounced “chi”. And yes, this is the same chi we hear mentioned constantly throughout Avatar. Chi does literally mean “air”, but that conception of air also encompasses breath, life energy, and spirit.

This is why the Air Nomads were portrayed as deeply spiritual and universally benders. A lifestyle dedicated to understanding the spirit is synonymous with understanding the qualities of air. Because, in this world based heavily in traditional Chinese culture, your spirit is interconnected with the air and energy around you; which ties in nicely with the Avatar State and just about everything Guru Pathik tells Aang.

This also helps to explain why Aang mastered energybending so quickly. The energy in energybending likely refers to the same “气” that also encompasses air. So while I do take some issues with how airbending was handled in Legend of Korra, I will say that the spiritual projection that Jinora does actually makes some sense when you consider that “气” can mean both air andspirit.

And, for anyone wondering, the more scientific and literal word for air in Chinese is “空气”. The decision to write “air” simply as “气” was a purposeful choice to add to the ancient and mythic quality of the series.

outpastthemoat:

there’s a little detail that i didn’t notice about “the blue spirit” when i first watched it.  when zuko returns to his ship after his misadventures at ponhuai, avatar-less and honorless and still puzzling over aang’s speech and having made an enemy of zhao and probably severely concussed, iroh is there on deck.  

music night happened the previous night.  and yet it’s morning when zuko returns, and iroh is still playing the tsungi horn on deck.  

iroh waited up all night for zuko to come back.  

it’s such a small detail, but speaks volumes about their relationship.  iroh not only allows zuko to sneak out in order to free the avatar in order to preserve his chance at regaining his honor, iroh actually subtly encorages zuko to free aang from ponhuai, even though he clearly knows that there’s every possibilty that zuko will be caught by zhao and iroh will not be able to save him.  

as the guardian of a teenager, iroh’s influence over zuko is limited.  iroh must allow zuko the freedom to chase after the destiny he thinks he wants, iroh cannot always protect zuko or keep him out of danger, iroh cannot even demonstrate affection to zuko in the way he would clearly like to because zuko is too hurt and guarded to be able to accept it from him - 

- but iroh can wait up for him.  

iroh can sit up all night, just to make sure that zuko gets home safely.  

and it is such a striking element of their relationship, because I waited up all night for you becomes the unspoken love language by which they communicate caring and affection for each other.  

iroh waits all night for zuko to return safely from ponhuai stronghold. iroh stays up while zuko sleeps on the ferry and waits up for zuko to return home from his date with jin. iroh sits up all night watching over zuko when he is sick and feverish.  

and it’s not one-sided, because zuko waits up for iroh.  

zuko waits up all night watching over an injured iroh after azula blasts him with blue fire.  zuko sits up all night waiting for iroh to wake up when they reunite at the white lotus camp.

and this gesture becomes so important to zuko that it even becomes the way he demonstrates caring and concern for the members of the gaang.  zuko waits up all night in appa’s saddle, knowing that sokka is planning a rescue mission.  zuko waits up all night for katara to wake, knowing she needs to confront her own deeply-felt anger before she can understand and let go of it.  

and this even is the gesture by which aang first demonstrates friendship to zuko.  after zuko is knocked out by an arrow to his blue spirit mask, aang sits up with zuko for the rest of the night until zuko wakes up, just to make sure zuko is all right.

and the concept of sitting up all night for you is such a poignant contrast to zuko’s memory of his mother, who vanished out his life in the middle of the night, waking him up for a last goodbye.  

it’s pretty clear that iroh sitting up all night with a sick child was far from an unusual occasion.   i think it was probably really important for zuko to be shown, again and again and again, that he has someone who will be there when morning comes.  

one parent left zuko in the night - but one parent will always wait up for him to come home.  

Ty Lee and Mai’s fighting style being effective against benders (Ty Lee with her chi blocking, Mai with her knives pinning hands down) subtly tells us their distrust against Azula. They know Azula’s dangerous and they’ll one day need means to defend themselves, and if it wasn’t for the fact they were at Boiling Rock, surrounded by prison guards, they could’ve escaped. Regardless if they see her as a friend, the way both Ty Lee and Mai quietly guard themselves against Azula effectively speaks to the depth of their characters and motivations so that it comes as a shock - but not unexpected - the moment they chose to betray her.

So I had an epiphany about Gyatso tonight.

I was trying to wash my hair and my brain said:

Monk Gyatso was surrounded by the bodies of Fire Nation soldiers when they found his body. But how? Like how did that happen? Weren’t they all hyped up on the comet?

His clothes aren’t burned either!

If the firebenders killed Gyatso on sight…wouldn’t they be alive? If they just killed him…there wouldn’t have been any soldier casualties, right?

Well!

Y’all.

Gyatso said “I’m going out on my terms and I’m taking you with me” and sucked all the air out of the room, killing himself and a bunch of comet-overpowered firebenders in the process.

Fire can’t live without air; they’d be powerless.

That’s such a power move I cannot fathom it. I’m a Gyatso stan now.

I’m answering asks tonight I SWEAR send em if you got em

Seeing a screenshot of one of my tumblr posts on my insta explore page

sokkastyles:

Zuko telling Jin that he and Iroh were in a traveling circus seems like a one-off joke at first, but now that I think about it, we do hear about traveling circuses specifically in the Fire Nation and its territories. Specifically, we hear about Ty Lee joining the circus, which is an easy frame of reference Zuko might have.

The other time we hear about circuses is also of Fire Nation origin, in “The Deserter.” Most of the information I found on this comes from the wiki, which says that the Fire Days Festival that Aang and co. attend is a traveling show that includes firebenders that is meant to bring Fire Nation culture to Fire Nation occupied towns in the Earth Kingdom. So, this could be a conceivable reason why a pair of Fire Nation citizens who are firebenders might be traveling in the Earth Kingdom. So, really, if Jin thinks Zuko is a juggler and guesses that he is a firebender, she might be able to come to that conclusion as well (despite Zuko’s terrible juggling.)

Zuko also might have come up with that alibi because it was something he had an interest in, given how he also recalls other examples of Fire Nation arts, like going to the theater as a child, and the blue spirit mask having special significance for him.

It’s also the typical fantasy of an unhappy child, and since he actually knew a kid who joined the circus because of not wanting to be compared to her siblings, this might have actually been something of a secret fantasy, a life he could have had if he were someone different.

counterpunches:

aangarchy:

justlookatthosesausages:

tiktoksinspo:

Irefuse to believe this did not happen in canon

Aang consistently forgetting he’s the most powerful human alive will never not be funny to me

#this is hte most perfectly captured rendering of aang and sokka’s dynamic asl;dkgalskfjas#they’re both smart in the exact way that cancels one another out into pure chaotic stupidity@fiddleabout

jakeenglish:

The fact that both of zukos abusers used lightning against zuko and instead of learning to use lightning himself like he could have he learned how to redirect the lightning and let it pass through him and then straight clean out of him… Do you ever think about how that is literally physically representing how instead of absorbing his father and sisters abuse he lets it pass through him and instead of soaking it in and letting it destroy him he redirects it away from himself… I just want some peace in my life

I wanted to test out this claim about Katara and Aang’s relationship not being as one-sided as people say it was, so I created a version of the “Bechdel Test” to use while watching each episode of ATLA… to see if Aang put as much effort in being there for Katara as she did to him.

I now use this prompt for whenever people ask me why ZK came off as the healthier relationship compared to KA in ATLA:

PART I

1) Throughout the series – meaning, the 8-9 months they travel together – how many times do Katara and Aang talk to each other?

2) Of those times, how many are positive and constructive conversations with a non-combative/dismissive outcome?

3) …about Katara’s emotional obstacles, wants or needs?

4) And does the conversation end with a consensual hug or lip-kiss?

PART II

Okay– so, same questions, except now it’s Katara and Zuko, in the span of only 3-4 weeks they travel together after mid-season 3.

What I’m getting at here is that in the entire span of the show, Katara put on 10/10 effort in getting to know Aang, demonstrating that she cared about his needs, but at best, Aang put about 0.5/10 effort in getting to know Katara as a person (meaning, the person outside of what she did for him.)

This comes off as a very one-sided relationship because Aang says and insists to people that he loves her, but doesn’t really show that he wants to help her through her own inner struggles, or listen to her wants/needs.  Aang builds this perfect “dream girl” in his mind– so much so, that whenever she gets angry, Aang gets uncomfortable, or flees, or downplays her combativeness.

Katara builds this guarded wall to herself and has to learn to deal with her issues on her own, never approaching Aang for advice the way he does for her. In “The Waterbending Scroll” in season 1 – she doesn’t express to Aang that she was jealous of his gifted skills with waterbending or talk about how it’s okay to be bitter at someone who excels at something you’re passionate about and eventually let that go and continue working hard– Katara instead keeps those feelings to herself, pretends that she doesn’t want to use the scroll again, and then sneaks away to try and learn Waterbending in secret (which puts the team in danger).  The same behavior occurs with “Painted Lady” in season 3– Katara doesn’t express to Aang how she believes they should stay in the village to help more, despite whatever schedule Sokka has for them.  Instead, she secretly plots ways to extend their stay, then sneaks away at night to help the village on her own in disguise (which puts the team in danger).  From the start of the series, to the end of the series, Katara deals with her own inner conflict and feels like she has to sneak away from the group in order to fulfill what she truly wants.  Before Zuko shows up, Sokka is the one who seems to understand her needs (and encourages it in episodes like “Imprisoned”) but Aang remains oblivious on how to help or approach Katara in that mature, comforting way.  It’s always the other way around.

Compare all of this to Zuko, where it only took 3-4 weeks starting at the “Western Air Temple” for him to show to Katara that he cared about heras a person– not just as the one protecting the Avatar, but about her past trauma and needs.  Zuko didn’t have to care about getting on Katara’s good graces; he didn’t have to worry about making friends, if his whole intent was to help Aang/The Avatar with fire-bending.  But Zuko still made the effort.  Katara dismisses him, pushes him away, yells at him angrily, but Zuko calmly and persistently approaches Katara to show that he’s not the same person who betrayed everyone in BSS, even if it means going to great lengths to help her find peace.

The hug that Katara and Zuko have after she forgives him for that betrayal feels incredibly earned, because it feels like these two characters who had been at odds for the longest time are finally on the same page.  Never was Zuko’s goal to “win Katara’s heart” or to idolize her as a “Dream Girl”– Zuko merely wanted to earn his place at the table with the Gaang and prove that he was a loyal friend to Katara, someone who saw her as an equal, a partner.  Zuko puts in the effort to face her (with all her rage) and understand her, and she eventually approaches him warmly in the same way when they meet The White Lotus.

To me these were the strong breadcrumbs of a healthy, long-term relationship.

PART III - Take-Aways

So, as someone who’s been a girl all her life with a decent amount of relationship experience (good and bad)… I want to say to all the boys out there relentlessly pursuing the “girl of their dreams:”

-If you truly care about this girl, don’t just assume that the time and affection she gives you (in words, hugs, kisses on the cheek) entitles you to her.  

-Don’t just declare to the world that you love her and assume she feels the same.  Get to know her as a person, first.  Learn what it is that she wants for herself, how she feels about things she is dealing with internally whenever she comes across as “having it all together.”

-Listen to what the girl is saying (not just through words, but also actions and body language) and respond accordingly.  If you feel like you don’t know how to listen or respond, do your homework to understand where she is coming from… learn to see her perspective on things so you can be emotionally available to her in a mature open-minded way.  This will help for any moment she does feel that she can trust you enough to approach you with her feelings.  Listening to her and getting to know her is the best way to realize whether or not you can also be there for her, and it’s best to have that ready before going for a kiss or any indications that you want a relationship with her.

-After all of this… if it’s apparent that she only sees you as a friend, or is confused about her feelings, or just not ready for a relationship for whatever reason… respect that!  Don’t pry or push or guilt-trip or threaten her into having a relationship.  Love is not about possessiveness, but about selflessness… about meeting the person half-way, about accepting each other and all the baggage that comes with them, the drama they would have to deal with together in the present moment… believing that these feelings are enough to get through it all. (Suki and Sokka are a wonderful example of this, as they were still willing to openly admit their feelings despite the context of the war).

-True love is knowing when to give someone space, and accepting the possibility that in the end, this girl might not feel the same way about you… and you still being okay with that outcome. In the end, if you really love and care about this girl, you will want her to find happiness with someone– even if that someone is not you.

I hope you will find this useful. :D

odonata523:

rainaramsay:

dorksidefiker:

erisenyo:

familiarboomerang:

azu1as:

softlygasping:

Concept: Zuko sending izumi to a regular school so she could have some semblance of a normal childhood, she doesn’t realize completely yet that she’s the crown princess and that she’s any different from her classmates. One day teacher sends home permission forms for s field trip and asks parents to help chaperone and izumi BEGS zuko BEGS him to chaperone the trip and zuko cant say no so he works around his schedule to go on this field trip with izumi and the rest of her classmates are like wtf wtf wtf the firelord is here??????

Izumi’s teacher:F-Firelord Zuko?

Zuko: It’s Lee, actually.

Zuko: The Firelord’s scar is on the other side

Every child in the class: * holds up a picture of Zuko they made out of noodles * No it’s not!

Zuko, standing beneath an official portrait of himself without realizing it: No, I’m pretty sure it is

And the tradition of Life Changing Field Trips with Zuko continues.

I think my favorite part of this is the implication that Zuko just. Sometimes dresses in green and goes out and does stuff pretending his name is Lee. And no one knows how to stop it so they just let it happen. Like. You know this is your sovereign standing in front of you, you know he’s lying, but what are you going to say? What’s the accepted polite wording for “excuse me sire but you are absolutely full of shit”? There’s nothing you can do but go along with it. also “Lee” makes really good tea, so eventually you just kinda roll with it.

Why hide this in the tags??

captain-azoren:

Thoughts of a former Zuko stan

This may come as a surprise, but I used to be a huge fan of Zuko back when Avatar first aired. To make a long story short, I identified with Zuko’s redemption arc and struggles very, very strongly as I was also going through my own sort of redemption at the time. I was devastated when he joined Azula in BSS, because it felt like I was hopeless.

On that note, I also viewed Azula the same way Zuko did, in a way. She represented all the terrible, snobby people who had been tormenting me and lording their power and status over me. While on some level I thought she was cool, I could not really get over how the way she treated other, especially Zuko, reminded me of how I was treated, and so I also kind of hated her.

It has been a long time since then, however. I don’t really identify with Zuko anymore, at least not nearly as strongly. I do, however, like Azula now after a long time of just thinking about how my own bias and the show itself made me hate her, and if she really deserved that.

I think it was n entry on TVTropes that described how if Azula was as evil as Ozai, she would not have broken down like she did, because she would not have been so hurt by her friends’ betrayals. From there I ended up reading more analyses on Azula’s character from her fans, not the ones who just liked her for being a cool, evil badass, but the fans who identified with her on a level I had not, fans who in some way admired her for being such a talented young woman, and they were saddened by her fall.

And as weird as it is, the artwork in The Search and Smoke and Shadow by Guri Hiru really helped turn me. As troublesome and as badly handed Azula was in the comics, her expressions while she was under stress and hallucinating really got to me. These days, I’m starting to understand the potential mental illnesses I’ve suffered in secret over the years, and I just can’t help but want to see Azula saved from that kind of suffering.

All that said, I’d like to lay out all of what I used to believe about Zuko and Azula when I first watched the show, and how my opinion has changed since.

To sum it all up, I basically saw Azula as having much more agency than she actually had, and I identified too much with Zuko to really see his own flaws. I thought that Zuko was a completely good kid who was only doing bad things because Ozai messed him up, and I assumed Azula was bad all on her own without being influenced by Ozai. I thought that she had Ozai’s attention and approval because she was naturally a bad kid, rather than that behavior being fostered.

I used to think that Azula’s downfall was karmic justice, and meant to contrast with Zuko’s growth, but I can’t call it karmic if she had little choice. I used to see her pragmatism as another facet of how dangerous she was, rather than as a sign of restraint and a sign she had her own lines she didn’t cross. I used to think that Azula needed to be humbled and kicked off her high horse, that she was an elitist snob and Zuko was the everyman underdog that could prove otherwise. I see now that Zuko, while in a tough spot, was still mostly a privileged royal compared to Aang, Katara, and Sokka for most of the series.

I had a lot of specific takes, and maybe I’ll list them later as I think of them, but I think you get the idea. I might go through each episode to help me remember what my old opinions were.

Retun to Omashu: the trade and the real motive behind Mai’s decision

Mai’s introduction:

Mai : There really is no fathoming the depths of my hatred for this place.

Michi: Mai, your father was appointed governor. We’re like royalty here. Be happy and enjoy it.

Mai revealing her restricted childhood issues:

Mai: What do you want from me? You want a teary confession about how hard my childhood was? Well, it wasn’t. [Close-up.] I was a rich only child who got anything I wanted … as long as I behaved [Cut to shot of the sky.] and sat still, and didn’t speak unless spoken to. [Close-up of Zuko.]My mother said I had to keep out of trouble. We had my dad’s political career to think about.

Azula: [Side-view of campsite.] Well, that’s it, then. [Close-up.] You have a controlling mother who had certain expectations, and if you strayed from them, you were shut down. That’s why you’re afraid to care about anything, and why you can’t express yourself.

Mai: [Frontal view.] You want me to express myself? [Stands up and yells.] Leave me alone!

Mai’s mother emotionally repressed her daughter’s self-expression since childhood until teenager years and it’s something was established from Mai’s very first appearance. The fact Azula’s trying to understand this after Mai’s confession reveal that Azula knows nothing of Mai’s issues as much as Ty Lee was even if they have different opinion on their friend.

Michi always raised Mai’s on the principle “don’t cause trouble; think about your father’s career” so I think this play a pivotal role in Mai’s choice in the deal with King Bumi and Tom-Tom, when Azula questioned the fairness of the deal they’re making. Reminder Azula is the Princess, reminder that the Princess just scolded her father Ukano, the newly-appointed governor of Omashu for not living up to Ozai’s trust a.k.a the Fire Lord. Reminder that Azula worship her father “and there’s no more "Omashu”. I’m renaming it after my father: the city of New Ozai". Reminder that Ukano worked hard to reach to this level in his career, reminder that Ukano’s career is what her mother raised Mai to think about even at the expense of her emotional expression.

Conclusion in Mai’s mind: Mai would cause more trouble to her father’s career by choosing Tom-Tom over the King of Omashu after he already made all the citizens leave, thus making Ukano 100% unworthy of his hard-earned title as the Governor of Omashu in his very first day and the Fire Lord would sack him in no time.

Mai chose to keep the King of Omashu to protect her father’s career. It’s what Ukano and Michi raised Mai for all her life, after all. They only reap what they sow. Their sentiment wouldn’t win the pivotal role in Mai’s decision, not when their emotional bond is underdeveloped with their firstborn, logically-driven daughter whom they emotionally repressed all these years for the sake of her father’s career.

P.S Inspired by my previous post.

Mai’s issues and her inability to bond with Tom Tom in ATLA

I’m not writing this post to demonize Mai like some shippers like to, I’m sure Mai would come to love Tom Tom over time, but we have to look at how Kuan and Michi treated Mai which eventually made it difficult for her to bond with her younger brother for the time being:

Mai was a lonely kid for 15 years, we’ve seen on-screen in Retun to Omashu episode that Michi shut down any emotional expression from Mai and telling her what she should feel instead and (during Mai’s upbringing) telling her daughter that she should only sit silently and not cause any trouble. You see that even in Zuko Alone flashbacks when Azula and Ty Lee were playing together, Mai was sitting silently besides the tree and doesn’t know how to reach out to her crush. It’s normal for a child to be talkative and active, but Michi and Ukano neglected her emotional needs and raising her to be silent, obedient, sitting in the background and “perfect” kid in every way. As a result, Mai had trouble not only in expressing emotions but how to process them too, so in The Beach she only know how to reacts with anger (tbh admittedly Zuko’s behavior was crossing a line but still…).

So, when Azula said exchanging an important Earth King to a kid is unfair deal, Mai agreed with her logically because she’s, on top of being emotional repressed, is a mind character just like Azula is. However, that doesn’t mean she will leave Tom Tom either, she attacked the one who hold him directly after the deal was called off, so she sees why the King should be kept but that doesn’t mean she will leave Tom Tom either now he’s within hands reach.

Maialready decided to leave to Azula’s mission in a heartbeat when they met, and that when Tom Tom was already missing. I’ll not put it past that Mai was capable of bonding with her childhood friends more than Tom Tom largely because they were present since her childhood and Ty Lee and Azula were fun and active who offers escapism from the restricted life she grows in. So she likes to spend time with them more.

Mai was also only 15-years-old kid and, typical of a teenager in this period, she was acting rebellious against her patents at that point in time.

Also, I think Mai was somewhat jealous of Tom Tom since he’s exposed to the love that Mai barely remembers ever getting.

As I said before, I’m sure Mai would come to love Tom Tom over time. Despite being aloof and blunt Mai’s a caring and very forgiving person by nature.