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comradekatara · 5 years

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in an ideal fic, what ships would there be and how would they interact? gm ☀️☀️

goodmorning! well, it’s 3pm now, but i love the sunshine emojis 🌞

obligatory disclaimer that i have mixed feelings about fanfiction as a medium. i much prefer reading paradise lost to the bible, but pride & prejudice & zombies does nothing for me. i think it’s similar to how when staging a play that’s been done a million times before, changing the setting must reframe the text on a thematic level for that staging to be necessary, and thus, good.

a lot of fanfiction, to me, whether published or lost to the archives of the internet, attempts to reframe the text without actually understanding the text. i realize that not all fanfiction exists to explore the text in the first place. sometimes it just works as good shorthand to explore one’s (often sexual) fantasies. you already know these characters––oh, and now they’re fucking.

so in that regard, i can’t exactly fault these authors for not understanding the text. i can fault them for other things, certainly, but thematic relevance was clearly not a goal in the first place. it’s the difference between a ship existing in a work of fanfiction to further the themes, and a fanfiction written for the sole purpose of exploring a ship.

with all that in mind, here’s a bullet-pointed list of fanfictions i would read should they exist and be well-written, but definitely do not exist and are not well-written because i have the appropriate amount of faith in the fanfic community (and that is... very little)...

a really long story from mai’s pov elapsing from her childhood to at least a year into zuko’s reign. the climax of the story is the turning point at the boiling rock wherein ty lee betrays azula. the first act is the buildup to all of that, and the second act is the fallout. the main ship being mai/ty lee, obviously. oh and at one point towards the end, mai and sokka play pai sho together. that is of the utmost importance.

a story told almost like an epic poem (perhaps with the structure of one, but still in prose) about suki’s adventures throughout the show’s chronology and then spanning afterwards as well. we learn about her backstory, what she got up to in the months in between seeing sokka. it’s usually quite bleak, as she is mostly helping refugees before getting kidnapped by azula, tortured for information, and then thrown into a horrific maximum security prison! but it’s not all bad. and seeing as suki is the protagonist, it would never make for a bad read, either. the main ships are sokka/suki and suki/ty lee. because duh.

azula, in the years spanning the depths of her recovery, going on hikes with toph. basically each segment is just the next hike with toph, in chronological order, and it tracks her development just through how much she is willing to divulge, and what toph would say in response. she grows a lot. unsurprisingly, toph makes for a great therapist. no romantic shipping of any sort, but azula & toph would share a really fascinating bond.

sokka and iroh playing pai sho. sokka and asami playing pai sho. (AU?? or are they in the spirit world?? idk lol) i suppose korra/asami would be present because korra’s all “kick his ass babe” and sokka/zuko would be as well because wherever sokka and iroh are together, zuko must be too. and of course, he is very invested in the outcome of this game, even if he does fall asleep at one point. i guess you’d have to make up the rules of pai sho, at least vaguely, seeing as there are no official rules, but isn’t it a lovely idea?

chell’s AU wherein azula and zuko run away together as children and join the gaang. just gonna link to it here. (read it if you know what’s good for you.) i don’t think there are really any ships, other than azula’s one-sided crush on suki, because azula does not have time to care about other people’s love lives (and it’s from her pov) but sokka/zuko is alluded to, if i remember correctly.

my AU that simply exists as an excuse to have sokka be a lightningbender. here.

a whole fucking novel of an AU wherein instead of being tasked to capture the avatar, zuko was simply left to die in the southern water tribe. he expects to either freeze to death or be eaten by wolves or, if he’s lucky, be killed instantly by the people there, but instead, sokka and katara take him in and he grows up in the swt, and goes with them when they find aang three years later. then of course shit goes down once azula shows up, and it’s all a whole thing! since it’s from zuko’s pov, the primary ship is sokka/zuko, obviously.

epistolary between firelord zuko and chief katara of the southern water tribe. none of their letters are remotely diplomatic, and mainly serve as gossip with only the occasional reminder that they are, in fact, world leaders. no ships.

sokka’s life postwar that kind of just details all the cool shit he did. shrug.

idk whether this counts as atla or lok, but i would read a chronicle of kya/izumi dyke drama in a heartbeat and am not ashamed to admit that.

ty lee and azula’s very complicated dynamic from alternating povs. i just think their respective feelings towards each other are super interesting. especially the night at the beach and the turning point at the boiling rock, though all the moments leading up to that are just as important. the ‘ship, though, would be mai/ty lee. (y’all know theyre my favs, right)

the katara cinematic universe is its whole own post, so i’m not even gonna discuss that here.

and then of course, our somehow very in-depth highschool AU (i don’t know how we got here, either) that could be its own series of young adult novels if written by someone with that kind of patience and focus (so to be clear, not me). hopefully, it would be imbursed with that painfully authentic sensibility american vandal (rip legend) had, while also being a bit too earnest, the way all coming of age stories are––but charmingly so. it might even be a series of vignettes, short stories from various povs that all come together in a painfully hilarious tapestry. azula begins studying for the SATs freshman year. mai sarcastically quips at anyone who deigns to speak to her. also she’s dating zuko, so that’s great comedy fodder of course. katara runs for student body president against azula. sokka and zuko land themselves in detention and they find a way to escape. toph joins the science club just because sokka runs the science club; things explode. stuff like that.

i used to say i’d want a kyoshi backstory, but now we have one, and i simply have yet to read it. oops.

oh and this is lok, but i’ve always wanted more on mako & lin’s dynamic. i just think they’re really cute together. (to be clear, not romantically. ew)

i think the avatar universe is also just rife with fascinating lore, though, and you could pretty much write anything, set in any time period, that complies with canon and– hopefully– enhances it. for example, i would love to read a story that incorporates the physics of their universe into its thematic framework. i really liked the stuff with the lionturtles, for example.

oh, and of course, a sokka/zuko vignette that’s just them going to see a production of king lear and then discussing it afterwards. that fanfiction exists for an audience of one, but you did ask me, so...

#asks #anon #AUs #i rly dont know how to tag this lol #but uh #i hope this satisfied ur question??

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rin-the-shadow · 4 years

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Origin Stories and the Avatar

I know a lot of people apparently really loved the two-parter “Beginnings,” but I really would have preferred not to find out the origin of the Avatar. I guess you could say it’s a matter of scope. I would really rather not have known, and been left to speculate based on the stories that were passed around in both the Last Airbender series and the Legend of Korra.

I personally assumed that the original Avatar had been delegated by the spirits to intercede on their behalf in the human world, to make the connections which other humans couldn’t see apparent. This was admittedly somewhat influenced by my experience viewing works like Princess Mononoke, where gods/spirits became corrupted due to the violence against them and succumbing to hatred due to the destruction of their land, and had to be appeased lest their rage curse someone else. A lot of this headcanon comes from spirits like Hei Bai, who became violent when his forest was destroyed, and was pacified when presented with proof that his forest would survive and return, and the rampaging Ocean Spirit, who bore a bit of physical resemblance to the Nightwalker, and attacked people who did not show proper respect when the Moon Spirit was killed. A lot of the conflict in Mononoke comes from the inability or refusal to find a balance between the humans’ need for survival, and the spirits’ need for their forest as part of their own survival.

The other major influence on my interpretation was Spirited Away, where characters like Haku and the River Spirit lost things like their connection to the physical world or their original forms due to the actions of humans against their environment. This was again because of Hei Bai and the way his form physically changed when he lost his forest. Much like the spirits in Studio Ghibli works, they didn’t really operate according to the same black-and-white morality the humans did, but there were impacts when their worlds were harmed or otherwise disrespected. So the Avatar’s role exists as a means not only of maintaining balance between different human cultures, but also between humans and spirits.

But that doesn’t have to be the only answer as to how the Avatar could have come to be. I’m sure plenty of other people had their own ideas for how it could have been which were completely different from mine. I’m sure more people will come up with their own ideas as they watch the series on Netflix for the first time. But that’s exactly my point.

The idea that we could never truly know how the Avatar came to be was a fascinating aspect of the story, and offered a lot of different possibilities. By nailing down one specific answer, those possibilities are no longer endless. They’re defined and set. There’s no more mystery, since now we’ve been told.

And I felt like the original Last Airbender series was great about not needing to provide explicit answers to everything. We don’t know how Koh came to be or why he’s the way he is. The stories about learning water-bending from the moon could just as easily have been a folktale passed down to explain the nature of water-bending, even though it is also established as very likely being a literal story as well, given Toph states she learned earth-bending from the badger-moles, and Zuko and Aang are shown learning/improving their fire-bending under the teachings of the dragons. We don’t necessarily even know if Oma and Shu were historical figures, or just a legend made up to explain the lights in the tunnels near the city of Omashu.

While I personally wouldn’t have written the Beginnings two-parter at all, I wonder if the story of Raava and Vaatu could have worked in a similar fashion to the story of Omashu, if it was used as a story to explain the necessity of balance. The idea of needing to balance action with inaction, knowing when to mediate versus when to take decisive action (as we see with Kiyoshi killing Chin the Conqueror, if indirectly). There might have been literal spirits of chaos and order, but they might also just be a story that people tell to explain a difficult concept. It could arguably also have been a nice callback to what King Bumi was talking about when he mentioned the different kinds of jing, particularly neutral jing and the idea of waiting and listening to know what to do. But at the same time, this is just an idea in its very early brainstorming stages, and by that I mean I had it maybe thirty minutes ago.

My point is, a literal explanation over the course of two straight episodes, claiming that both are necessary but never demonstrating it, was not the only way it could have been done, and that maybe, some answers are better left to the viewers’ imaginations. I don’t dislike The Legend of Korra by any means. The Beginnings two-parter is not a favorite of mine and probably never will be, but there are still plenty of other great stories within the series which I do like. Flawed stories, sometimes rushed, sometimes not seemingly sure of what they want to say, but good stories nonetheless.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #legend of korra #beginnings #beginnings negativity #i think?#rin rambles #rin overanalyzes stuff #and makes too many studio ghibli connections #again i do like legend of korra despite some gripes with the writing at times #i just...don't see why we had to lift the curtain for this one #and think that sometimes it's better when the wizard is just a wizard #if you get what i'm saying

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seyaryminamoto · 4 years

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Hiiiiii - read your Iroh and Ursa metas, loved them. Might I ask if you've any equally Hot Takes on the fandom's favorite punching bags - The Great Divide and Avatar Day?

Uuuuh well.

If the hot take is expected to be “they’re GREAT episodes!”, I… I’m afraid I’ll disappoint :’D I dislike them both, but who knows? Maybe my reasons for disliking them are different than other people’s?

My problem with The Great Divide is a little personal: that was the first episode I ever watched of ATLA, and if only I’d caught another one, anything slightly more plot-relevant than that, I might have become a fan of the show much sooner. I watched it, found certain things entertaining, others not so much, and concluded ATLA was a “monster of the week” show masquerading as a show with a plot. Which… made it less interesting to me, by mere logic. I was also very much a teenager back then, and while I still had decent instincts as far as storytelling was concerned, they weren’t as polished as they are now. So I didn’t really see much of ATLA worth my while in The Great Divide, and so, from a personal point of view, it’s not at all amongst my favorite episodes.

Upon rewatching the show in full, I was more forgiving of the Great Divide, not only because I understood the show’s dynamics better, but because ATLA actually has other episodes that, while featuring occasional relevant information and characters, could also feature not-so-relevant developments later on. So it’s not just Avatar Day and the Great Divide: the Fortuneteller, while a pretty liked episode, is honestly about as lacking in plot-heavy developments as those two are. Yet most people like that one :’) why’s that? Shippy reasons? Weeeell…

The truth is, if you ask me, that the Great Divide and Avatar Day and the Fortuneteller are episodes that allow the plot to slow down. This wasn’t so good in the early stages of Book 1, where slowing the plot too much actually made you forget there was a plot altogether… but when you watch the show as a whole, those moments of less tension, featuring Aang resolving problems and saving lives of completely ordinary people, were actually pretty good for what they were. That, in particular, is something I missed in Book 3: Team Avatar minus Zuko certainly do their best to help common people here and there through the first half of Book 3, but Zuko never does (and then when Zuko joins them, they never really do that again). What would I give for an episode where Zuko actually had to reason with the harm the war has caused not only to the Earth Kingdom, but to his own people… frankly, that oversight from the writing department is still absolutely absurd to me.

So, my problem with the Great Divide and Avatar Day isn’t that they weren’t plot relevant. My initial problem with the Great Divide, like I said earlier, was personal. But there’s also the feeling that not enough growth for the main characters takes place in these episodes: Aang resolved the Great Divide’s problem in the goofiest way he could. It was funny, creative and helpful, and kind of unexpected for your kind-hearted hero to lie to deal with a problem… though it also makes the situation more complex because of that, since he’s doing something ethically incorrect to establish peace between warring tribes. He did an objectively bad thing… for good purposes. So… it’s complicated, but it’s cool. It’s not half-bad as a concept that the show could explore.

Nonetheless, you can’t feel a HUGE, PALPABLE CHANGE in the relationship between Sokka and Katara after this episode. You really don’t. They spend the bulk of the episode at odds with each other, and they set aside their problems later… but everything they do, post-Great Divide, really doesn’t look like they learned a lot from their clashing, such as how to see things from each other’s POV or being more fair with each other… I, at least, don’t feel much of a change. No idea if other people see it differently, but they continue to clash pretty wildly later on, particularly in Book 3. So, did they learn something at all? If not… then the episode does end up feeling rather pointless because it doesn’t feel like the characters really are impacted by what happened in it, right?

And that, beyond anything else, is what makes these sorts of episodes feel like filler content: The Ember Island Players WAS filler content, absolutely, but you have scenes such as Zuko talking to Toph about Iroh, or Aang and Katara’s catastrophic rejected kiss, and it feels like SOMETHING happened in the episode even if in general it didn’t do anything plot-heavy. But aside from these small scenes that offer characters a chance to make at least a little progress (whether forward or backwards…), you even get a chance to see how the Fire Nation views the war, how they see themselves, how they see their Fire Lord. Even there, the show is giving you information that helps in the worldbuilding of the show. This is absent in The Great Divide, where the two warring tribes are never seen or heard of again, and they’re not exactly relevant because of that. Do they add some diversity to what we ought to perceive of the Earth Kingdom? Yes. Is it useful for anyone other than the rare fic writer who decides to use these characters for something? (never really seen it but I bet it has happened) Honestly, no.

Now, Avatar Day is annoying to me for another personal reason, even if it connects with some of what I said above: I HATE the way Sokka is characterized in this episode. I have more than enough qualms with how he’s characterized for many episodes in Book 2, but this one takes the cake.

Sokka is usually sharper than everyone else, helpful, resourceful, even when no one is really acknowledging it. Often he’s the voice of reason, the one who figures out what’s going on (such as in the Cave of Two Lovers, where he realizes the tunnels are changing, just to name one thing), but Avatar Day decided to feature him obsessing with acting as an investigator, and he kept stopping Katara from making the big reveals because HE had to do it, and she just rolled her eyes at him all along (from the get-go too, since she goads him into investigating by spurring his ego and yet she still is shown visibly annoyed when he starts raving about how he figured out the seal jerky thing back in the Water Tribe). All of this is to make Sokka a punchline of the “Katara is the smart one” joke that doesn’t even work when you take the rest of the show into account :’) so… this particular thing will ALWAYS rub me the wrong way with Avatar Day.

From this episode, I do like that Aang has to deal with people who hate him because he’s the Avatar. I always complained about how LOK basically had everyone swooning and adoring Korra even if they hated her, everyone constantly in awe of her prowess and talent, and those who DIDN’T like her were constantly shown as unreasonable jerks, such as the kid who throws that snowball at her, and we’re supposed to feel bad when she calls Korra the worst Avatar ever :’) we are REALLY expected to feel bad and to dislike the kid… when we literally watched Aang dealing with a mob that sentenced him to boil in oil for his past life’s crimes, and who burned effigies in his image. Right. A spiteful little kid is so very harmful, so heartbreaking, so jarring. Wow.

What I like about Avatars dealing with people disliking them, be it for solid reasons or for stupid ones, is that it feels REAL. Because it makes sense that people wouldn’t have an unanymous opinion of the Avatar as the savior of all the world, it makes sense that there’d be people who are jerks because they don’t like him on principle (or lack thereof). It’s normal, natural, completely common in human beings to just see something popular and go “MEEEEH I’VE SEEN BETTER”. And that’s what Avatar Day gave me, as far as worldbuilding is concerned.

As for more worldbuilding, Avatar Day certainly offered more insight on Kyoshi, but while most people found that fascinating and the insight in question absolutely wonderful because oh woooow she bends LAVA, I found it damning instead. If you need to know why… feel free to read this post (seeing as you like my controversial opinions you might even enjoy the whole thing x’D). While there’s some new novels now about Kyoshi that shed more light on who she was and how she did the things she did, I have certain gripes with some of the ideas I’ve heard those novels bring up. All in all, though, they shouldn’t change what canon brings forward with Kyoshi’s behavior with Chin: just in case you didn’t read that ask, I’ll say that my problem isn’t that she killed Chin, if anything, my problem is that she only killed him when he only had two places left to conquer.

She wouldn’t sit passively while he took her home. Because, uh, that’s the only place the almighty Avatar had to defend, I suppose.

Basically, Chin pulled a Kuvira with no opposition because the Avatar apparently didn’t care to involve herself in this particular problem until he was knocking on her door. Seriously? Best Avatar ever? Oookay then…

So, my favorite Gaang member, turned into a bad joke and unable to tell he’s been turned into a joke + the birth of a fandom-wide circlejerk around a character because she bent lava, nevermind the implications of her disregard for a tyrant’s conquest until it reached her doorstep + the worst point of Zuko’s theft spree = I don’t like this episode :’)

Avatar Day’s only redeeming quality for me, like I said, is Chin Village’s Avatar-hating ways, but ONLY as a concept. Even so, I wish they’d tackled that particular matter far more seriously than they did, because sure, Chin Village’s villagers were damn stupid, but hating the Avatar because she killed someone they idolized wasn’t exactly a far-fetched motivation. Where you’d think this could even serve as a sort of parallel between Zuko and Aang, where they both find themselves as the new heirs of their respective, long legacies, legacies full of people who did good and bad things, and the ones being held accountable for those bad things are THEM, however unfair it might be…? The show just turned the whole damn thing into a joke. And that’s just a real waste of screentime. I’m not against ATLA’s comedic episodes at all, not as a concept, and I really like the show’s humor in general… but this episode absolutely could have used less of it, especially when offering an opportunity for Aang to actually find out that his past lives aren’t at all as idealistic and righteous as he might have thought they were, or, at the very least, he could have reflected on the fact that they didn’t necessarily share his principles and beliefs. But nope. Missed opportunity, right there.

In short… I suppose people dislike Avatar Day because of similar reasons why I do, I can’t say for sure. I assume people dislike the Great Divide for its filler-nature and general irrelevance to the show, and that’s pretty reasonable? But in my opinion, the problem with so-called filler content is that it ought to be used to expand on characters, to further develop them, they should be a chance to slow down and offer introspection during a brief chance that opens up when heavy plots give the viewers, and the characters, a chance to pause and breathe for a while. Both Avatar Day and the Great Divide fail at this particular wishful standard I impose on fillers, though. And that, along with my personal reasons, is why they’d be part of my personal “least liked episodes of ATLA” list, if I were to make one. It isn’t to say there aren’t a few redeeming qualities in both episodes, I hope I made that clear… but that’s not enough to offset the negatives in this case.

Also, I brought up the Fortuneteller too as an example for a filler episode that actually doesn’t achieve much, same as these two don’t. I actually enjoy this episode quite a bit? The animation is really good and smooth here. But that’s neither here nor there :’)

The Fortuneteller certainly emphasized Aang’s crush on Katara, it also expanded on Katara’s character by showing how she’s so quick to believe fortunetelling, as opposed to Sokka, who absolutely doesn’t believe any of it. This generated a ridiculous but fun dynamic between the three characters through the episode, and it added Meng to the mix as well by featuring her as the girl Sokka misunderstands Aang is pining over. There’s a lot of silly comedy, but it’s in a much nicer way (in my opinion) than the one presented by Avatar Day, especially as it emphasizes elements of the character’s personalities: Sokka’s unwillingness to believe in spiritual nonsense, DESPITE he has already been caught up in Spirit World shenanigans, Aang’s hopeless pining over Katara and Aunt Wu’s encouragement for him to find his own destiny instead of being trapped by whatever she told him, and Katara’s obsession with asking Aunt Wu about EVERYTHING in her life up until the point where she finds herself considering that the super powerful bender she’ll marry could be Aang.

In general, this episode does handle its filler qualities as best as possible. But, and this is a problem I’ve seen brought up by other people before, it’s also an episode that features Katara pondering maybe Aang could be her one true love… only for the next episode to absolutely forsake that plotline and go for a wholly different subject. Which is, of course, fine… the problem is, we could’ve had Katara treating Aang slightly differently if she found herself thinking of him in a new light. That she didn’t treat him visibly differently, if anything, makes it look like right after her “He really is a powerful bender…” reveal, she just went “NAAAAAH, no way it would be him” and just decided to push aside all romantic possibilities with Aang until the Cave of Two Lovers. Which, considering Kataang is the endgame couple, is honestly another fumble by the writing department, as following up on this development would have easily silenced all those detractors of the ship who have interpreted the whole show under the tried and tired guise of “but she’s just mothering hiiiiiim!”.

One great thing about romance is watching it grow steadily, gradually… and when you have such big moments you ought to follow up on them, to a fault. It didn’t even have to be acknowledged in any massive ways, but it could have been acknowledged by featuring Katara wearing the necklace Aang weaved for her during later episodes, or something like that. But… there’s nothing palpable. Nothing serious. And this isn’t to say Kataang is lesser for it, but it would have been greater if the next episode had addressed the pending elephant in the room instead of going around it and pretending it didn’t exist at all.

So, while the filler in ATLA in general is better than the frequent fillers from anime, for instance, or than fillers in certain liveaction TV shows… it’s not quite perfect, let alone is it always top-tier writing that, while slowing down the plot, allows proper character introspection and growth. I really do like the Fortuneteller, as usual Aang’s work to help of those who need him is probably my favorite thing about his character and it shows in spades in this episode. The comedy is really great here, and I love the way Sokka is portrayed here… as opposed to how he’s portrayed in the Great Divide and Avatar Day, where not only does it feel like he didn’t grow at all, it also feels like he’s reduced to slapstick comedy with zero respect for his character. So… yeah. I don’t really like those two episodes, not out of any genuine disliking of fillers for what they can be, but because, as far as chances to slow down plot and developments go, both Avatar Day and The Great Divide really didn’t do it the way I would’ve wanted them to.

#anon #... so tumblr didn't just change #it changed without dealing with problems #such as when you put a read more in an ask #and then post it #AND IT EATS UP THE READ MORE #so you end up plastering an insanely long post on everyone's dashboards #I am very sorry #*bows*#anyways #sorry if i disappoint #but I hope the answer is comprehensive enough

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jianswordbi-sokka · 5 years

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I LOVE THE ILLUSIONIST THAT MOVIE WAS AMAZING!!! please tell us more about ur au 👀👂👂👂

OKAY SO!!!! If you’ve seen the Illusionist, this won’t really be news to you since the plot wouldn’t change that much, and if you haven’t than spoiler alert I guess but I’m going to talk about it anyways at length so here goes:

-The story takes place near the turn of the century.

-Zuko and Sokka meet when they are young. Zuko, the son of a duke and Sokka, the son of a cabinet maker, seem an unlikely friendship, but they quickly grow close despite their positions in life.

-Sokka had a chance encounter with a travelling magician as a child, and is fascinated by the art of deception, and learning the mysterious ways of the illusionist. Zuko, on the other hand, is simply fascinated by Sokka, and his devotion and determination.

-However, Zuko’s power-hungry and controlling father forbids them to see each other. It’s not prudent for his son to be seen with a peasant such as Sokka.

-Despite this, the two meet in secret for several years whenever they can, and they fall deeply in love. Sokka crafts a locket for Zuko, one that can only be opened in a secret manner. The two talk about running away together, and imagine a future where they could be together without fear of being discovered.

-Unfortunately, they are discovered. When Ozai learns that Zuko has been seeing this peasant boy behind his back and against his wishes, he is furious. Zuko tires to run, to be with Sokka. He makes it as far as their secret meeting place, where Sokka is waiting for him, but he wasn’t fast enough. They try to hide, and Zuko begs Sokka to make them disappear like he had always talked of learning, but he can’t. They are found, and separated. And Zuko is severely punished for his actions. Sokka knows he can’t stay anymore, and leaves to embark on a journey on his own.

-By the time he returns, many years have passed, and in that time Sokka has become a master of his craft, and a wonderful performer. Ozai hears of this mysterious stranger and his art, and decides he and his family should attend one of his shows themselves, not knowing the illusionist’s true identity.

-Towards the end of the show, Sokka asks for a participant from the audience, and Ozai volunteers Zuko. When he makes it up on stage, though he’s older and dressed much finer, and certainly some tragedy has befallen him since Sokka had last seen him that has left his face horribly scarred, Sokka recognizes him instantly. Zuko is not quite so quick.

-Ozai asks to meet him after the show, and, determined to show he can prove how each trick is performed, asks for a private viewing at their family’s home. Sokka looks at Zuko, promising to prepare something special. Perhaps, even, to make him disappear. And everything clicks for Zuko.

-Zuko summons Sokka to meet in private the next day. The two reminisce, and reconnect, and it’s then that Sokka learns Zuko is to be married to the princess and heir to the throne of the country, by Ozai’s arrangement of course. Sokka is not convinced that Ozai has his son’s best interests at heart, or that he does not have his own nefarious purposes, and Zuko doesn’t deny this.

-Sokka does perform privately the next night. During the performance, he humiliates and undermines Ozai’s authority, angering him, and Ozai order’s him expelled from the city.

-That night, Sokka receives and unexpected visitor. Zuko has ridden in secret to Sokka’s home to confront him. He is furious with Sokka for so stupidly endangering himself. Zuko insists that they were and still are friends, and he only wants to help, but Sokka claims that isn’t true. Zuko, in return, demands to know why Sokka even bothered to make himself known then? All Sokka can think to do in response is kiss him, and he does, and Zuko kisses him back. Sokka undoes the buttons of Zuko’s shirt, revealing that Zuko still wears the locket Sokka made for him, even after so many years apart, and they know their love is true.

-They lay together late into the night, talking of the time that has passed, and what has befallen them, and Zuko reveals his father’s plans: that once he is married to the princess, Ozai plans to overthrow the current king and seize power for himself, with Zuko’s position legitimizing his claim to power. Sokka urges him to call off the engagement, and to run away together. But Zuko knows his father’s wrath, and that as long as they are alive he will hunt them. Despite this, they hatch a plan to be together.

-Within days, Zuko confronts his father, telling him he is going to call off the engagement, and will no longer be a pawn in Ozai’s game. In a drunken rage, Ozai pursues the fleeing Zuko out of the house to the stables. The next morning, all that is found is Zuko’s horse, it’s neck soaked with blood, and Zuko is gone.

-A search party is called, and in the end, it’s Sokka who finds Zuko’s body. The doctor determines he died of blood lose, from a horrible wound to Zuko’s throat, likely made by a knife or a sword. Sokka is convinced Ozai is to blame, but he is not arrested or even investigated.

-After a period of mourning, Sokka begins a new kind of show - one where he raises spirits. It begins innocently enough, but soon he raises a spirit that could only be Zuko. Though he makes no claims that these spirits are real, the people who attend his performances are more than convinced.

-Frightened of what he might have Zuko’s supposed spirit say, Ozai orders Sokka be arrested if he raises it again. He does, but before Sokka can be arrested, Zuko reveals he had plans to disobey his father and leave. He also laments that, while he had been wearing the locket Sokka had made him when he died, I was now somehow lost. The police try to apprehend Sokka, but before they can, he finally performs his greatest trick, and disappears.

-The chief inspector, never completely convinced of Ozai’s innocence, and knowing his very public history of violence, returns to Ozai’s stables that night after hearing what Zuko’s spirit had said. There, he finds not only Zuko’s locket, but also a jewel which matches a missing stone from the hilt of the sword belonging to Ozai. There is another stone missing, and he recalls the doctor having found such a gemstone on Zuko’s body when it was discovered.

-He uses this evidence, and the knowledge he has of Ozai’s treasonous plans, to have Ozai arrested for his crimes, but when Ozai is confronted, he takes his own life before the imperial guard can arrest him.

-The case is finally closed, but Sokka’s whereabouts are still unknown, until a child hands the chief inspector a package in the street. Inside is the explanation to his favorite trick from Sokka’s show, and when he checks his pocket he realizes it is a distraction, and that Zuko’s locket has been stolen. It’s then he knows that everything, everything this whole time, has merely been another illusion.

-Knowing they could not simply slip away, Sokka and Zuko planed to fake Zuko’s death. Zuko drugs Ozai, so he will not remember the true events of that night, and plants the evidence damning his father before slipping away. The doctor who pronounced him dead is the only other person who is in on the truth, and helped Zuko to escape after he had been found. Since that day, Sokka had been biding his time until he could put the final nail in the coffin of Ozai’s fate. Now, they were finally free to be together, and all that was left to be done was take back the precious locket, and disappear one last time.

-At the far off end of the railway, Zuko waits for Sokka in a cabin in the mountains, where they are finally reunited, and live their lives long and happy, undisturbed by the ghosts and horrors of their past.

In this scenario, in addition to Zuko, Sokka, and Ozai, I think Iroh would be the chief inspector, with Katara as Sokka’s long-suffering manager, and Aang the doctor/friend that assists them with their plans.

#atla #zukka #sokka #zuko #asks #long post #I know this is incredible long and basically just a rehashing of the plot but #it's still fun to think about #also if you haven't seen the movie you should #I would watch it just for the music and costume design ALONE #I think it's very sexc of you to indulge my ramblings and ask me about this anon so thanks #god will someone PLEASE draw some art of this for me???#I deserve it #miranda talks

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fictionalenneagrambti-blog · 7 years

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Avatar: The Last Airbender | Sokka [ENTP] [6w5]

Loyal | Cautious | Skeptical | Cynical (x)

ENTPs are inspired innovators, motivated to find new solutions to intellectually challenging problems. They are curious and clever, and seek to comprehend the people, systems, and principles that surround them. Open-minded and unconventional, ENTPs want to analyze, understand, and influence other people. (x)

Ne [Extroverted Intuition]: Sokka is known as the “idea guy” of the group (“The Drill”) as he is able to devise a plan for seemingly any situation. He is quickly able to figure out that “darkest day in Fire Nation history” was during the solar eclipse (“The Library”), although his ability to make rapid connections between concepts sometimes has a downside, causing him to jump to ridiculous conclusions, such as when he fears that Appa ate Momo (“The Phoenix King”). He can be indecisive, debating with himself for several minutes whether he should buy a bag that he wants, but which is expensive (“The Blind Bandit”), as well as second-guess himself: “If I had just cut my losses at the invasion, maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess” (“The Boiling Rock, Part I”). He is quick to change his opinion about things, such as when he realizes that girls can be warriors too after meeting Suki (“The Warriors of Kyoshi”). Sokka also has a playful and creative side; he loves creating silly nicknames for everything, is able to come up with haikus on the spot and off the top of his head (“The Tales of Ba Sing Se”), and serves as the comic relief of the group thanks to his clever remarks.

Ti [Introverted Thinking]: “Giant light beams, flying bison, airbenders... I think I've got Midnight Sun Madness. I'm going home to where stuff makes sense” (“The Boy in the Iceberg”). Sokka values logic above most other things and is reluctant to believe anything based in superstition. He is constantly questioning everything and is extremely frustrated by the people who rely on a fortuneteller to dictate their lives as he can easily “prove Aunt Wu’s predictions are nonsense” through logical reasoning, which leads to one of the townspeople calling him “Mr. Science and Reason Lover” (“The Fortuneteller”). He can’t always understand Katara and Aang’s feeling-based decisions, telling Aang: “Yeah, this makes a lot of sense. Let’s bring the guy who is constantly trying to kill us” (“The Siege of the North, Part II”). Unlike Aang, Sokka would be willing to allow Zuko to freeze to death because in his eyes, Zuko is the bad guy and bringing him along would only cause problems. Sokka is also highly fascinated by how things works, taking an interest in all of the mechanist’s inventions at the Northern Air Temple (“The Northern Air Temple”). Sokka is excellent at coming up with inventive solutions to problems, deducing how the hot air balloon works despite just having recently learned about it (“The Northern Air Temple”).

Fe [Extroverted Feeling]: Sokka is typically very expressive with his emotions; it is easy to tell if he likes or dislikes something: his anger at the fortuneteller and the people who blindly believe her (“The Fortuneteller”), his booing of Toph and Aang and cheering on of The Boulder (“The Blind Bandit”), and his excitement at his on-stage portrayal at the play (“The Ember Island Players”), to name a few. His feelings occasionally do betray him and he can fall victim to emotional manipulation, such as when Azula taunts him about Suki during the invasion, causing the team to get caught up and waste time (“The Eclipse”). Sokka has something of an ego, but he can also be insecure about his own abilities. He fears that he is less worthy than the rest of the Gaang because he can’t bend and needs reassurance that he is valued (“Sokka’s Master”). He has a need to follow in his father’s footsteps, to live up to his expectations and make him proud by keeping his promise to him to protect Katara and the Southern Water Tribe (“The Avatar Returns”, “The Invasion”). Sokka tends to value the group consensus more than any personal ethics; despite his personal distrust of Zuko, Sokka is willing to allow him to join to group so long as Aang agrees (“The Western Air Temple”).

Si [Introverted Sensing]: At times, Sokka can be stubborn and closed-minded. It takes a while for him to change his opinion of Aang, whom Sokka sees as intervening in his responsibilities as the protector of the Southern Water Tribe (“The Avatar Returns”), and of Zuko, who in the past had attacked him and his friends (“The Western Air Temple”). Throughout most of the show, Sokka holds a long-standing grudge against all things Fire Nation and firebending because of what the Fire Nation did to his family and how they terrorized the Southern Water Tribe. Sokka’s plans don’t always quite work out the way he would like them to because he tends to overlook details that undermine them.

Enneagram [6w5]: Sokka’s practical and dependable side comes out primarily through his enneagram. He is often the one responsible enough to convince the Gaang to stay focused so that Aang can master all four elements in time, suggesting that they don’t waste time helping a single village (“The Painted Lady”) and telling the group: “This is great and all, but don't we have more important things to worry about? We should be making plans” (“The Library”). Sokka is also paranoid and skeptical of practically everything, to the point of being mistrustful of birds in the Fire Nation: “We’re in Fire Nation territory. Those are enemy birds!” (“The Headband”). He is frequently frustrated by Katara’s blind optimism, which clashes with his realistic/pessimistic approach to things. In addition, Sokka is extremely loyal to his family and tribe; he trains as a warrior to protect them and to prevent his home from ever being attacked again, essentially trying to become an authority because he doesn’t trust anyone else to do the job.

✘✘✘ I’ve seen Sokka typed as an ENTJ, but he is far too indecisive and flexible to be a dominant Te and auxiliary Ni user. The only time that he really shows anything resembling Te is in “The Painted Lady,” in which it is said that he has apparently scheduled every single aspect of the Gaang’s lives. However, I think this is an inconsistency on the part of the writers as Sokka is typically much more easygoing and is willing to allow time for fun detours, and the whole control freak thing is never again mentioned before or after that episode. I believe his tendency toward planning and his occasional practicality is far more likely a result of his 6w5 enneagram. What could be seen as Te is probably a combination of inferior Si + 6w5, which is also why Sokka can at times resemble an xxSJ.

#avatar the last airbender #sokka #mbti #enneagram #entp #6w5 #char: entp #char: 6w5

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