#atla writing critical

[myimaginationplain]

On one hand, I think that Kiyi is actually a wonderful idea for a character; you can get a lot of interesting stories out of inserting this innocent, guiless little girl into such a fraught & complex pre-existing family dynamic.

However, some mind-numbingly bad storytelling decisions surround Kiyi's existence in canon. Ursa's magical amnesia chief among them; it is so goddamm boring to take a character with as much baggage to chew on as Ursa has, only to make it so she has to grapple with literally none of it.

No Ursa looking at baby Kiyi & mourning for the two babies she was forced to leave behind, grieving children who are still alive. No Ursa looking at Kiyi grow up & seeing Zuko & Azula in her, equally as happy as she is afraid for her. No Ursa trying to give Kiyi as normal & happy a childhood as she can, while constantly looking over her own shoulder, praying that she won't be recognized. No Ursa hearing wild rumors about her older children's whereabouts & actions, not knowing what to believe.

No, instead of any of that, we just get Ursa becoming a blank slate who can now go off & live a blissfully ignorant happily ever after with her (equally blank) high school sweetheart, forgetting the very children whom she risked everything for in the first place. And that sucks.

Also, if I were writing Kiyi, I'd just say fuck it & make her Ozai's kid. That's a thousand times more interesting.

#I've been toying with the thought of sitting down & writing a non canon compliant post-atla fic #about where ursa was during the show & what she was doing #& honestly I think I'm gonna do it. because the potential was so wasted #atla #avatar the last airbender #kiyi #ursa #the search #atla comics critical #is that a tag people use? idk

[yourhighness6]

Is Katara "Motherly"? - The Discourse

The whole "is Katara motherly" discourse is a little annoying to me because for one thing its impossible to deny that in canon she acted motherly towards Aang, Sokka, and Toph, with Sokka even saying at one point when he thought of his mother Katara's was the face that came to mind.

But the other problem is that this fits into the shows themes so perfectly of children being thrust into adulthood and enormous amounts of responsibility too easily because of war and the subsequent (or end goals of) genocide, cultural genocide, and colonization. Katara's motherly characteristics are of the show's own making, they're right there in the text and their there for a reason, and although they weren't given enough attention as they should have been, there is no doubt that this is treated as, not exactly a tragedy, but as something bad and debilitating to Katara and her teenagerlike need to goof around with her friends.

But for whatever reason, the fandom seems to think that this characterization is fan made. Katara is supposedly forced into a motherly role by the fandom, particularly the zutara fandom, when in reality it is the show that does this to her. And the whole idea of momtara and dadko is that Katara doesn't have to be the mom anymore. She doesn't have to be the one solely responsible for the chores and the cooking and the emotional labor. She has a partner, and equal, who is willing to put forth the time and energy to assist her in what she feels obligated to do, and to tell her to go sit down sometimes before she burns herself out.

Could the other kids besides Zuko do this? Of course. But as we've already established, everyone in the gaang besides Suki shoves Katara into a motherlike role. Is this their fault? It's hard to say. Toph at least has a heart-to-heart with Katara about it, and Sokka's idea of her as a mother largely stems from trauma.

But my significant problem with Katara's motherly traits comes with the fact that there is no real closure to that arc in the "Runaway". Toph and Katara talk mostly about Toph's parents, and Toph tells Katara that she thinks she is capable of having fun. But other than that, there's nothing. The boys don't have to come to terms with the fact that Katara does not want to be seen (solely) as motherly or put in that position. Instead, the show gives us a few colorful explosions and subtlety implies that it is a little bit Katara's fault that she is seen that way. But again, that's not the fault of the zutara fandom or a reason the trope of momtara and dadko is problematic. It seeks to acknowledge these character traits in Katara, which a lot of kat@angers refuse to do, and give her a way to work past the trauma that caused them and help her adjust to a more healthy amount of stress and pressure on herself for a kid her age.

#the random desire to write in conclusion at the end of these #katara #atla #avatar the last airbender #zutara #anti kataang #the gaang #zuko #toph #sokka #suki #aang #bryke critical #anti bryke #atla meta #katara meta #zutara meta #katara deserved better

[lovegrowsart]

it's pretty wild to me that people don't see that aang running off to save katara in CoD is his luke in empire strikes back moment, where he runs headlong into his want and attachment and he's narratively punished for doing so and not learning his lesson - aang runs after katara despite guru pathik's warning, like luke runs after leia and han from yoda on dagobah despite yoda's warning; similarly, as a result, things go to hell in ba sing se like they do on bespin - aang enters the avatar state before he's ready and gets killed, and ba sing se falls to the fire nation, luke fights vader before he's ready, loses a hand, and symbolically commits suicide after vader tells him he's luke's father.

the difference between their character arcs is that george lucas and co. actually went thru with luke's hero's journey and understood the fundamental difference between attachment and love, whereas I don't think bryke understood this difference and then dropped this from aang's arc pretty much completely and replaced it with aang digging in his heels into his want and attachment and he gets rewarded with energy bending from a lion turtle, the avatar state from a random pointy rock, and his forever girl from the self-indulgent white men that couldn't bring themselves to give their hero a compelling character arc that meant he might not have gotten everything he wanted at the end.

#the wasted potential of aang's arc gets to me so bad #the narrative and thematic set up is entirely there and they just shove it in the bin lmao #it especially irks as someone raised buddhist and dealing with writers that invoke these themes out of a fascination #with the religion and philosophy but then a complete unwillingess to actually commit to what those themes require of the character arcs #anyway sorry to say it #but zuko's arc does a better job embodying buddhist themes than aang's does in the end #despite all misappropriated aesthetics to the contrary #aang critical #but its really the writing like i LIKE aang i love his potential i hate how self indulgently he's written by the end of the show #atla critical #meta* #holly talks bs #also yes it would've been better narratively for aang katara zuko to the go the way of luke leia han #even if katara couldn't have been revealed as aang's surprise secret twin lmao #the thematic conceit of the triangle is the same in that luke and aang get over their infatuation with the first pretty girl he sees #and becomes the hero he needs to be #meanwhile hanleia and zutara are saving each other and being cool and kissing #anyway

[saijspellhart]

Sokka’s sexism was not an important growing point for his character - an Essay

I’ve seen all the discourse online about people up in arms about the toning back of Sokka’s sexism in the Netflix ATLA. (Almost everyone I have spoken to have brought it up as a reason to hate the Netflix ATLA) I think that anger is knee jerk, and misguided. It never mattered WHAT the Netflix adaptation was changing, people were always going to be angry about it. They could have announced Momo is a girl now, and people would have raged. Momo being a girl would have changed NOTHING about the series, but people would have been outraged.

Just like I believe Sokka being sexist or not being sexist really changes nothing in the scope of the story, themes, and is not the character growth people claim it to be. Hear me out. Let’s break it down and think about it in terms of themes and character development and how it affects the entire plot.

Sokka is introduced as being cartoonishly sexist in the very first episode of ATLA. As a device simply to make Katara rage. He keeps this trait for a grand total of 3 episodes until episode four when a girl whoops his ass and his sexism is cured forever onward. In the span of a 30 minute episode Sokka’s sexism was given a what for and through that he was transformed into a better man?

Imagine if Zuko’s mental and emotional journey had been solved in a 30 min episode, and wasn’t a lessen he had to repeatedly fail and try and fail and try time and time again. Imagine if Katara’s waterbending journey, or obnoxious controlling nature was just solved in a 30 min episode and not something she struggled with and fought for the entire series.

But let’s say his sexism is super important as everyone claims. Let’s explore it.

When is it challenged ever again in the entire series?

When Sokka leads the invasion on the Fire Nation, there aren’t a bunch of women in that army. He leads an army of men.

When Sokka needs to find a sword master to teach him the art of sword play, it’s a man. He never needed to overcome sexism to accept a non-traditional master.

Nearly all women, sans Toph and Katara, that have any long lasting influential moments in Sokka’s character development are women he has a romance with. Woman whose motivations and agency rely on a man.

The Kyoshi warriors that kicked his ass? What of them? Sokka has to rescue Suki from prison. It’s not tackling some gender equality issue. Suki is a woman in distress and Sokka is the man who comes to rescue her. (Cute and romantic, but hardly tackling a gender cliche.)

Do the Kyoshi warriors ever engage in any actual battle that matters to the plot and win? Not really. Instead the important role of the Kyoshi warriors is to be nurturing to Appa while he’s lost. A traditionally female role. And to provide a way for Azula to overtake Bah Sing Sei. (Don’t get me wrong, I love the girls, but the show never again utilized them in a way that challenged sexism.)

Sokka didn’t need to overcome sexism to respect Azula. Azula commanded and earned all the respect she needed. Sokka didn’t need to overcome sexism to respect Toph. Toph earned his respect by kicking the ass of everyone around him.

At no point in the rest of ATLA was Sokka’s sexism ever challenged after episode 4. It never helped him become a better leader because he never had to lead women whose respect he needed to earn. It never helped him develop his warrior skills. It didn’t affect the plot and his growth as a character any farther than getting a hilarious butt whooping in the fourth episode.

Sokka overcoming sexism wasn’t well written, it was a GAG. A goof. Ha ha funny, man got his butt beat by women and was forever cured.

If we really think about it seriously, as character growth, people who have had sexism so rooted into their beliefs don’t just overcome it because one woman broke the status quo and kicked their ass. That’s lazy writing. It was lazy in the cartoon and it would have been extra lazy in a show that had even less time to explore the issue.

Sexism, if they REALLY wanted to tackle it as a serious issue, should have been a problem Sokka had to challenge several times, and have his preconceived notions proven wrong and dismantled. It should have made him a better leader, or a more respectful fighter.

Instead it’s treated like a joke.

The Netflix ATLA decided to tone it back with Sokka, because from a writing standpoint it made more sense thematically for Katara to challenge sexism with the Northernn water tribe. They didn’t have the time or the budget to poorly tackle the issue of sexism twice, so they focused tackling the issue where it mattered to the plot and where it mattered to KATARA’s character journey more.

I’m tired of people screaming how much they loved his sexism and how the Netflix adaptation is rotten without his sexism. It’s not a lack of media literacy that it was cut. It was media literacy that led to it being cut. A writer recognized when the message was important and when it wasn’t.

That’s all I got to say. You don’t have to agree with me. But these were my thoughts on the matter.

#netflix atla #avatar the last airbender #AtlA #live action avatar #essay #sexism #Sokka #understanding character growth and writing #a critical look at writing

[theotterpenguin]

there’s a post floating around here claiming that sokka is the only person keeping the atla kids alive and it very much reminded me of how the labor that women perform is often undervalued and overlooked. (and this post is not meant to be targeted towards op at all, but rather is speaking towards a general trend that i’ve noticed in the atla fandom)

i recently rewatched atla and it’s surprised me that the fandom interpretation is that only sokka is worried about the group’s lack of food/money, particularly in book 1, because katara worries over the exact same things and is usually the one backing up sokka. in “the warriors of kyoshi,” sokka reminds aang that they need to make it to the northern water tribe soon and stop making pitstops, and katara agrees with him. when they stop at kyoshi island, katara reminds aang multiple times that it’s risky to stay in one place for too long. in “the waterbending scroll,” sokka worries over how little money they have left after aang wastes money on a bison whistle, so katara takes charge of keeping track of the money instead, and she also reminds aang that they need to practice waterbending, not focus on having fun. in “the storm,” katara realizes they’re out of food and says they need to go to the market, then sokka gets a job so they’ll have more money for food. in “the king of omashu” and “the deserter,” sokka worries that aang will be discovered, and katara agrees so she suggests that they wear disguises. in “the cave of two lovers,” sokka says they need to focus on getting to omashu without getting sidetracked, and katara agrees. in “avatar day,” sokka and katara buy food/supplies together while aang waits for them. 

despite sokka being seen as the pragmatic sibling, both katara and sokka are pretty united in their practicality and trying to keep their mission on track. katara only makes exceptions on a couple occasions when she values standing up against injustice even more than sticking to the plan, such as freeing the imprisoned earthbenders or helping the fire nation village as the painted lady. and the way that i've seen people use katara’s passion for social justice as a way to argue that she’s “irresponsible” seems a bit disingenuous considering that she sees it as a moral duty to help people in need (and let alone everything else she does on the day-to-day to help the group).

(“the library” is in fact the only episode in the entire show that i can remember where katara disagrees with sokka and says there’s no harm in having some fun in their downtime. and as soon as sokka finds out about the existence of the library he’s also fine with taking a break from their mission lol. despite what the fandom thinks, it’s not the norm).

and while there’s a lot of focus on sokka’s mapping/planning skills, there’s also so much that katara does so much behind the scenes that isn’t as explicitly acknowledged. “the chase” tells us that katara, aang, and sokka all contribute pretty equally to setting up their camp while traveling. in “jet” they all help pack up camp, in “the great divide” sokka sets up their tent, katara collects firewood, and aang gathers food. and yet even though they all seem to contribute pretty equally to setting up camp, we are shown so many scenes of katara doing extra chores while the others are preoccupied with something else. in “the southern air temple,” katara packs up their supplies while sokka is sleeping, then again packs up everything while sokka’s eating the food momo gave him. “the warriors of kyoshi” episode implies katara is the only one mending everyone’s clothes, and while sokka is getting his ass kicked training with the kyoshi warriors and aang is entertaining his fan girls, katara is shopping for food and supplies.

in “the painted lady,” the group all goes shopping for food together, but it’s katara who cooks dinner for everyone (shown twice in this episode). in “the runaway,” katara’s at camp cooking for everyone while they’re off tricking a gambler to make more money. sokka, aang, and toph buy food/supplies, then leave them with katara to sort out while they go have fun in the village (and sokka gets to buy his messenger hawk). and katara’s the one seen as a “buzzkill” for worrying about their safety. this pattern continues in “the western air temple” and “the firebending masters” where we see katara cooking and serving food to the group, but there aren’t scenes of them doing other chores.

and of course, “the desert” is an entire episode dedicated to katara keeping the group alive. and that’s not even to mention the countless amount of emotional support that she gives to her friends, often putting other people’s needs above her own. sure, katara might not be the person with the map or the master plan, but that doesn’t mean her contributions are any less important.

sokka’s character arc involves growing into a strong leader and strategist, so it makes sense that the fandom often likes to focus on the moments that go into building this arc, the moments where he does take the lead and is responsible. but for katara? it’s just something required of her and of most female characters. taking on extra responsibilities is something to be admired in men, but just expected of women. 

and to be clear, i’m not saying that sokka is not responsible, he definitely is. i just find it interesting that some parts of this fandom have a skewed perception of katara’s role in the group, often claiming her to be the “irresponsible” or “immature” sibling while poor, exhausted Dad!Sokka™ is the only one keeping these silly kids alive. sokka and katara both had to grow up too fast, they’re both kids who are very mature for their age and took on adult responsibilities far too young (though in different ways). acknowledging the sacrifices katara made and the labor she took on to take care of others isn’t diminishing sokka’s character arc, it’s something he even admits in the show himself. and i love their relationship because even with such a complicated family dynamic, it’s so clear how much they love and support each other.

#sokka #katara #katara analysis #atla #atla fandom critical #“katara is the silly irrational girl while sokka is the mature dad who stepped up” do y'all even hear yourselves #i have a lot of thoughts about how the way that the fandom misinterprets sokka & katara's relationship #as like a reactionary mechanism against the potentially sexist writing of the source material #but that'll have to wait until another post #my post #my meta

[demaparbat-hp]

Even if zuko has a plan to end the war, making katara work amongst people who likely hold racism towards her and aided and supported the genocide of her people is still weird, especially since zuko benefits from the fire nations oppression of people throughout s1 when hunting the Avatar. Not good choices to make in a zutara au :/

Believe me, I've made these arguments against myself over and over again.

I know I'm putting Katara in an extremely difficult and unjust position in this AU with—from an outsider's point of view—little to no reason other than "I just wanted to see her in Fire Nation armor and kicking ass" and no consideration for the context. I'm not trying to somehow forgive nor redeem the Fire Nation's actions in war just because...well...just because. Not at all. People who've read Soundless (or any other of my wips, really) know that's not the case. On the contrary—I always do my best to see the war through a realistic, mature lense. And that includes everything that makes the Fire Nation so terrible in the first place.

That being said, there are some things I considered when deciding to make Katara side with them (even if her true motives lie elsewhere) in this AU. And they are not excuses. Just, different layers of context.

First of all, she was desperate. By this point in her life, her mother was dead, her father had left to fight the war, her brother followed behind a few years after, and she was left filling the empty spaces when, by all means, she wasn't ready for the responsibility. She had been feeling helpless and hopeless for years, and ached to do anything to help her people beyond doing chores and taking care for the children.

Let it be known that Aang's apparent betrayal comes from a place of trauma and misplaced anger on Katara's part. Much like how she put the Fire Nation's sins on Zuko's shoulders in S3. She is not on the right here, but this is her natural way to process and understand grief. There are many different aspects of her development as a child involved in how she views the Avatar—and, by extension, Aang—but more on this later.

Katara was young, and reckless, and she had just been "betrayed" by the first person who ever looked at her and saw more than the perfect caretaker she was forced to be. She was not in the right state of mind to make a decision like that and, to be honest, she couldn't have predicted the consequences. She saw a clear path to contribute to the end of the war, and by La she would take it.

On Zuko's end, you might argue that he should have known better than to let her join him and, well, you would be right. But there were many things about Katara's trauma response and state of mind that—unless he had known her for a long time—he couldn't have known. He will definitely blame himself later on, when the racism and cruelty towards Katara begins, and especially when word reaches her family at sea.

It's Katara's job to smack some sense into him from time to time and tell him that, yes, he should have tried harder to stop her (and she would probably be better off because of it) but what's done is done. And, by all means, the decision was hers to make. If anything, it's their fault, not his alone.

Now, Katara doesn't suffer the entire AU. That would just be cruel.

Zuko's crew was handpicked by Uncle Iroh, so you can expect dissidents, traitors and a few White Lotus agents who were smart enough to keep their true opinions quiet. There are...mixed opinions in that bunch, of course, but that's expected and, to be honest, rather easily dealt with. They are mostly honourable people just doing their best to end the war from the inside.

The real problem comes when they cross paths with, say, Zhao's fleet (or Hakoda's, let's be real).

And you may ask why Zuko is hunting down Aang, then, if he's secretly a goody-two-shoes himself... I'll explain that later in depth, so stay tuned.

In short, I know the decisions I've made, as a creator, are debatable at best, and downright blasfemous at worst. But they're deliberate.

I want the readers to feel conflicted about Katara's choices in this AU. I want people to have mixed opinions about the war, the (apparent lack of) morality, the characters, you name it!

I'm not trying to glorify a victim of war joining the side of the ones responsible for her people's genocide, even if it's just for show and she's actually set on destroying their government from within. Not at all.

Katara made a stupid, horrible decision, and she's going to suffer the consequences. But she's also going to fight to reach her goals, because she's stubborn like that.

I know most people may have a little trouble understanding where I'm coming from, because they don't have all the information necessary to make a full opinion.

I'm really thankful for these kind of asks. They let me explore these concepts and AUs in depth, and see what you think about them. I'm only human—my opinions are not infalible, nor The Right Ones, and this is a kind of discussion that I love to have.

So, keep the asks coming!!!

#dema answers #atla #zutara #zuko #avatar the last airbender #katara #hunters au #Katara joins Zuko AU #zutara au #zutara fic #Sorry for making this so long. But I loved writing it and thinking about it from a different pov #So thank you again for not shying away from making these kind of questions #It's always good to see things from a critical perspective #Please share your opinions about these themes! It's doesn't matter how different or seemingly nonsensical they may be. #Every single one is important #And the more asks the more I get to share and think about this AU #So it's a win win situation

[godmademeinmspaint]

Going to say this now even though I barely post here::::: Adaptations are never meant to be a 1:1 recreation of the original source material. The goal is never to recreate the exact same experience in a different format, the whole point of remaking something in a different format is to make something new.

I don’t understand why people are out here acting like the new Netflix ATLA walked onscreen, shot the original with a 44 and declared itself the new ATLA. I’m not saying you can’t criticise anything about it or any other adaptation, I just think a lot of people need to remember that an adaptation that gives you the same experience and explores the exact same themes and doesn’t elaborate on or look at things in different angles would be utterly pointless.

#honestly disappointed with how a lot of people are treating the cast of child actors #like even if you don’t like the script writing you don’t need to come after the kids #maybe the fans just have trauma from that terrible movie and don’t know how to cope with an actually decent adaptation idk #while I agree that a lot of live action remakes of animated media are unnecessary that doesn’t instantly make them bad yk #avatar the last airbender #Atla #netflix atla #netflix avatar #avatar live action #natla #natla positivity #natla review #natla critical #avatar analysis

[peony-pearl]

While I'm not the biggest Maiko shipper, I can def see there's a lot of heart and passion behind their relationship if it was given more chance to blossom outside of Zuko's emotional trials (no fault on him or her they were bundles of trauma and hormones tied up in warrior mindsets trying to please their parents)

I like to think Zuko made sure their next trip to Ember Island post-war was much more calm and relaxing, now that he's not a big ball of stress and self-loathing, and they can look to the future with hope now that they're on the same page.

#atla #Mai #Zuko #Maiko #None of what I say about Maiko is really meant to be anti I just think their writing was sloppy but like #I get it I totally get why people love this ship #and the more I interact with it the less critical I am about it bit by bit #my art

[fromtheseventhhell]

Zutaras are really the original self-insert, "we understand the story soooooo much better than everybody else" girlies and they just never moved on

#anti zutara #no offense to anyone who ships it and follows me but I'm so over the shipping wars of this show that aired almost 20 years ago 😭 #at some point you guys are gonna need to hang it up cause there's a sequel series and these people are married with children like... #we get it if you were Katara you would've chosen Zuko but guess what?! you aren't and need to stop projecting onto her #the pretending to care about Katara is what really gets me cause she's never even implied to have romantic feelings for him #or vice-versa + it ignores her anger towards him and how long it took her to forgive him + rightfully so #criticizing the writing for Kataang is one thing but turning around and shipping Zutara while doing so is crazy work #ship it if you want but please stop pretending it makes more sense when both Zuko and Katara have their own separate romances 😭 #love how people have to age Aang down + infantilize him and erase Mai to make it work but sure it's the better option #stop erasing Katara's arc and development just to claim that Aang brings her down when she's been a bad-ass since season 1 #reducing her arc to that ONE moment with Zuko and ignoring all of her other development just to prop up a ship is nasty #Katara isn't a reward for Aang and she sure as hell isn't one for Zuko stop belittling her like that #if y'all didn't watch ATLA when you were 12 and think Zuko was cute this ship wouldn't even exist #thinking about that post that said the writers /pandered to dudebros/ like we all weren't children the delusion is crazy sdfssdfsdfsd #also seeing AANG of all characters getting whacked for a ship...please get a life and stay away from him #antizutara

[zuko-always-lies]

What was, in your opinion, Avatar's biggest mistake in writing?

That's a tough question, in part because ATLA is an extremely successful show. If they had fixed some of the flaws that I perceive in their narrative, perhaps they would have been less successful. Certainly the show's Zuko woobification and Iroh hagiography contributed to the popularity of the show, yet I hate those.

That being said, I think we can narrow this down to a few options:

Zuko's lack of clear development or arc in Book 2. I think this really damaged his overall arc a lot and made it so that Book 3 had to be too jammed. But again, most fans really love Zuko's arc, so what can we say?

Iroh and the entire Order of White Lotus being written like they were. But again, fans love "War Santa," so what can we say?

Azula being demonized to the degree she was. She was ultimately clearly intended as a sympathetic character by the writers, yet most of the fandom went away with the impression that she "a demon in human form." The unfortunate thing is that you would need to change only a handful of scenes to make her look much more sympathetic, so the writers really screwed up there.

Adding on the #3, allowing Azula to clearly express her motives would have been great.

There's generally an extreme lack of female benders in the show, which is really unfortunate and easily fixable.

The entire series finale is a massive, massive mess which would require a lot surgery to make sense and not make just about every character look terrible. You could write an entire long post about it.

Writing Suki like they did. It's very clear they never figured out a backstory or wrote a character treatment for her, and she's extremely thin for amount of screentime they give her.

This is a personal indulgence and not really a writing issue per say, but I would have loved to see more interactions between Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee.

You asked for one single issue and I gave you eight. Hopefully that satisfies you, even though I didn't quite answer your question.

#ATLA #atla critical #avatar the last airbender #writing issues #Azula

[sneezypeasy]

Original Script Analysis, Part 2: The Southern Raiders, The Finale, and What I Think About it All

Link to Part 1

So folks, when it comes to literary analysis, there are two categories that textual interpretations typically fall under: the Doylist explanation, and the Watsonian explanation. 

Watsonian explanations will contextualise an issue solely within the bounds of the story it is told in, so the answer to any question will be, essentially, “in-universe”. Imagine interviewing a character in the story, and asking them, “why did x happen” or, “why did y character decide to do z”. The answer you get will be a Watsonian answer.

Doylist explanations, on the other hand, are explanations that take into account things the characters themselves wouldn’t “have access to”, so to speak. These explanations often touch on writing concepts like theme, character arcs, tropes, setup and payoff etc, sometimes even referring to “real-world” motivations, intentions, or constraints that the creators were working with (or against). If an explanation or an answer to a question doesn’t sound like anything the characters themselves could have come up with, it’s probably a Doylist explanation.

I’m going to give an example from Titanic that I hope isn’t a spoiler to anybody at this point given how much this film has been memed to shit:

Jack dies at the end of Titanic. Now, why did he die?

The Watsonian says: He died because there was no room on the door.

The more intelligent Watsonian says: No there WAS room on the bloody door you smooth-brained koala did you even watch the fucking movie? They tried to get them both on there, the door just couldn’t hold the two of them because of something called BUOYANCY you fucking idiot-

The Doylist says: Jack died because it was the culmination of his character arc, and because he and Rose symbolise the class disparity of the victims of that tragedy; Jack is the poorer third class, and Rose is the rich upper class. Upper class women were the likeliest demographic to survive the sinking of the Titanic, and lower class men were the likeliest demographic to die. Jack had to die and Rose had to live; it’s symbolic. 

Here’s another example: on the r/DeathNote subreddit, someone asked why L fell off his chair in such an exaggerated and dramatic fashion upon hearing that shinigami could be real. The top comment provides a detailed Watsonian answer, followed by a Doylist one:

Basically, Watsonian commentary is consistent with how the characters, in-universe, might explain/contextualise something. Doylism explains how a plot point or character decision serves a purpose beyond what the characters themselves would be able to conceptualise, whether that’s narrative payoff, authorial intent, or even marketing/executive decisions/budget constraints.

Why am I explaining all of this? Because I want to play a game with you guys.

You ready?

The name of this game is: Why, in the original script of The Southern Raiders, is Katara somehow asleep while LITERAL BOMBS ARE GOING OFF AROUND HER(!!!)

Is it:

A) Katara trained herself to sleep through Fire Nation raids and bombs from a young age

B) Katara is just generally that deep of a sleeper 

C) Elizabeth Ehasz wanted an excuse (any excuse, really) to force Zuko and Katara to interact (because this is their episode, after all-)

Yeah, maybe I’m just unimaginative but I’m pretty sure it’s C. I’d love to hear your best Watsonian take for this one though (please, go nuts, lmao)

Like all the other changes we’ve seen, nothing has been done to the dialogue, which plays out how it does in the show:

I’m sorry I just can’t get over this 🤣🤣 “Character A and Character B hate each other/are not talking to each other/are currently in the process of biting each other’s heads off, now let’s come up with some ridiculous excuse to make Character A and Character B play nice and help and warm up to each other” is a pretty solid fanfic trope but I think this is the first time I’ve seen “MAKE CHARACTER A SLEEP THROUGH A FUCKING MISSILE ATTACK” utilised for this specific purpose.

Logically I understand why this was changed for the show, but I’m ngl, I’m slightly sad we didn’t get to see this version. 🤣🤣🤣

Interestingly, Katara doesn’t catch Zuko after he gets blasted off the war blimp - the script doesn’t specify anyone catching Zuko, it just says that he “lands safely on the bison” (sorry, I thought I wrote this one down in full but I only wrote down that quote, my bad 💀).

(It does make me wonder though, whether the storyboarders/animators looked at the “Katara sleeps through bombs” bit and were like.... “ok how about no, but we’ll give you ‘Katara catches a skydiving Zuko’ instead, fair trade?” 😂😂)

Continuing on from that, I have to say that even with the voice lines unchanged, Elizabeth Ehasz’s vision for Zuko and Katara’s deepening connection and understanding continues to trickle through this episode at various moments:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Katara sobbing as she recounts her trauma? Zuko getting teary himself hearing about Katara’s grief and love for her mother? Katara visibly relaxing as a result of unburdening some of her feelings onto him? Zuko pulling Katara back and making sure she’s okay before she ploughs on ahead?

😭😭🥰🥰

And then of course, there are times when Elizabeth’s subtlety is not so subtle at all (here you go, you guys have well and truly earned this one):

Welp. I can tell you I wasn’t expecting to see that - at all. I came to the WGF hoping, maybe, to find some small crumbs - tiny clues that might give a slight nudge to the rumours that Elizabeth Ehasz was a ZK shipper, and that shippy subtext viewers may have picked up in TSR maybe wasn’t entirely lacking in substance.

I wasn’t expecting to find a page where good ol’ Elizabeth had a zutara fangasm all over her own writing 🤣🤣🤣

On the hug itself, Elizabeth’s notes were very brief:

I was a touch disappointed not to see any more fangirling, though after that serotonin boost up above I really couldn’t be too greedy. 🤣

Zuko and Katara’s scenes together in Sozin’s Comet and the Agni Kai are generally the same as what we see in the show, though I thought you guys might like to read the lightning scene anyway:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This might be a good time to mention that I had the pleasure of working alongside @korranguyen on one of the two days that I visited the WGF. If you found the descriptions of Azula’s downward spiral in the Agni Kai uncomfortable to read, you might appreciate her essays here and here.

Unfortunately folks, we are indeed near the end now. And we know how the story ends:

Wins, eh? Interesting choice of words there. Almost makes it seem like there was a competition? Like there were, oh I don’t know, other contenders?

Now there’s something else which I think some of you may find very interesting about the script of Sozin’s Comet Part 4, and I will get to that in due course, but for now I want to discuss the way the ships were treated by the show writers and creators. As I summarised earlier and as you probably noticed yourself from reading these scripts:

From season 1 up until Day of Black Sun, the writing was heading towards a Kataang conclusion. And development-wise, it wasn’t too shabby! There was a clear and steady progression. Maybe a little subtle, from Katara’s side, but nowhere near as ambiguous as in the show. And again maybe this is just me, but I wouldn’t have been frustrated with it either, if it was shown like that.

After Day of Black Sun, the writing takes a weird turn. Kataang takes a nosedive while Zutara gets a ton of positive development (reconciliation, forgiveness, synchronicity and cooperation* anyone? lmao), which is canon in the show too but it’s… even more pronounced in the script? Aang is more aggro, Zuko and Katara are more tender/vulnerable with one another, they don’t scoot away at the suggestion that they like, like each other – and these are the final drafts? What the heck were y’all writing in the first drafts?? (No that’s not a joke actually, I wanna know 😭)

Kataang “wins”. Wins?!? I thought y’all said there was never even a contest!!**

Okay, time for some speculation/theorising on my part. To me, it seems like, at some point after writing the “Kataang” episodes but before actually animating and producing them, and before writing the later episodes in season 3, and perhaps even right up until the writing of Sozin’s Comet Part 4, there was a collective (if not unanimous) decision to “keep things open”. The question is: why?

Did the writers disagree, or was it just shipbaiting? Or was it some combination of both?

If no-one else, Elizabeth Ehasz is quite clearly a Zutara fangirl; I don’t think anyone can deny that after reading the way she writes these kids 🤣 That paragraph does not read to me like a writer casually (or grudgingly) obeying directions to shiptease because it’s what the producers wanted, it reads like a writer unable to stay professional about how much she loves this one fucking ship. (We feel you Lizzie. We feel you.)

So was there actually some discord in the writer’s room about which direction to take the romance arcs? @zutarawasrobbed​​ pointed out that given the narrative decision to hinge Aang’s internal struggle and character arc around the need to “let go” of an “attachment” to Katara, (some?) writers may have seen a potential in deconstructing Kataang to fulfil this arc. This is especially possible if, after writing Crossroads of Destiny and/or seeing audience feedback to that episode, Zutara was increasingly beginning to appear as a viable alternative.

I mean, even by Sozin’s Comet, it doesn’t seem like they’d figured out how to resolve Aang’s whole “blocked chakra” situation –

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aang “somehow” just happens to untangle what had previously been set up as an internal struggle, with the conveniently timed activation of some “chi bending nonsense” (and reverse-glowing arrows and “such things”).

Uh huh.

(To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty -)

Of course, the other possibility is that most of the way through writing the script, and maybe about halfway through animating it, the creators simply recognized a clear potential for shipbaiting, and this is at least somewhat to blame for the hot mess that is the romance arcs of ATLA.

My personal theory is that writer disagreement did happen, and is at least partially why we ended up getting what we got. The fact that both ships are specifically referenced and granted “approval” so to speak, by different writers, and one of them ends up explicitly “winning”, sort of cinches it for me. Either way, the show was clearly pulling in different directions at different parts and under different creators, and in my opinion the scripts support these rumours.

One thing is for certain: whether this was just shipteasing, or actual production hell in the writer’s room, it is my opinion that Zutara AND Kataang were both robbed.

Kataang had a decent romance arc written out for it, and even if there may have been issues reconciling it with Aang’s internal conflict set up in the Guru and/or with the over-arching themes of the show, it would have been all right in the end if they had just kept it the way they originally wrote it. I can’t really see any but the most die-hard anti-Kataangers being mad about it, and Kataangers themselves would have loved it. They had a fine romance written out and they ruined it. If they did so because Zutara was being seriously considered as a possible outcome, then it’s just all the more frustrating that Zutara never ended up happening in the end. They put a lot of effort into sinking a perfectly serviceable ship and ultimately it was all for nothing. (Or worse, purely for shipbaiting). Just sad.  

So, that’s my thoughts on that. And that concludes this essay- oh wait.

Right... there was that thing I kept mentioning about Sozin’s Comet Part 4. 😈

*Ahem.*

So you know how I said all these scripts were final drafts?

That’s because they are - except for two episodes: Sozin’s Comet Part 4, and Jet.

Unlike the other scripts, which have all been labelled “As Broadcast Drafts”, these two scripts are ADR drafts.

What is ADR, you ask?

According to @lady-of-bath​, who works in the screenwriting industry, ADR stands for “Automated Dialogue Replacement” and is used when a script has gone through a process of re-recording or re-dubbing, because for whatever reason, the originally scripted and recorded lines are/were unsatisfactory.

(This is also something you can verify yourself actually, even if you don’t live in the LA area: when you search up ATLA in the WGF database***, even though you can’t access the scripts you can access basic details such as, the date the draft was finalised, the name of the writer, and - whether it was submitted as an “ADR” draft or an “As Broadcast Draft”.)

I even emailed the library to ask about this distinction as well:

So if I understand this correctly, all the ATLA scripts you can find in the guild were first submitted, and then lines were recorded, and then changes were made to the script that didn’t involve dialogue replacement, and then it went through animation and post-production and ended up being what you now see on screen. This is supported by the fact that A) I definitely found some changes, but B) the changes I did find were all in the action lines/shot descriptions etc.

All the scripts submitted to the guild went through this process - all of them, except these two scripts.

These two scripts were not final drafts; I guess they might be more accurately termed “final final drafts™”, because they were submitted after some(!) lines were re-recorded, (changed? added onto? cut?!?) and the script was then updated to reflect these changes that had been made in post-production.

Which just begs the question: what lines had to be re-recorded??

What did the final draft look like before this???

(Might it possibly contextualise why Dante Basco and Mae Whitman apparently both thought Zutara was going to be canon?)

This is conspiracy fodder galore, lmfao. Pardon the dramatics here for a moment, but with enough tinfoil-hatting this could easily turn into the Zutara fandom equivalent of 18½ missing minutes of Nixon tapes. 🤣

Anyway, that about sums up my detective effort on this whole thing. I did find some more tidbits which I’ll likely post in a Part 3/Epilogue type thing - mostly small changes (most of them not really zutara-related) that I found interesting or funny enough to jot down; I’ll be making a compilation of these for your reading pleasure as soon as I can. ^^

One last bonus for you guys: the “I’ll save you from the Pirates” scene:

I must confess, I never really read this scene as romantically framed or “shippy” when I first watched it. But the way it’s written here looks like it’s taken straight out of a fanfic. “Right into the arms of Zuko”? Oh no. (Oh yes.) Oh me oh my. 🤣

*Also, someone needs to write a Mr and Mrs Smith Zutara AU titled “Synchronicity and Cooperation”, I’m saying it now, this is my official decree. Write it, folks. We need it.

**Screenshot taken from: https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Avatar_Extras_(Book_One:_Water) (Under “Goofs”)

***I hope that link works, if it doesn’t, just navigate to their Library Catalogue and search up ATLA yourself. 

Edit: There was a minor typo in one of the passages - it originally read “Katara has a lot of energy and momentum, and Zuko pulls her back and STOPS her before they read the door” instead of what it was supposed to say (“before they reach the door”, lol). The typo should be fixed now 😊

#zutara #atla #atla original scripts #writer's guild foundation #the southern raiders original script #sozin's comet original script #kinda??? #tin foil hat bonanza #buy one sherlock hat get one free tin foil hat #lmao #long post #text post #meta #bryke critical #kataang critical #this was fun guys #now go forth and write more metas #and more fics #enjoy!!

[longing-for-rain]

Oh man… the people mad at how I portrayed Aang in Purple Haze would lose their minds if they saw the current WIP that’s been bouncing around in my brain (and my google drive).

#soon? #WIP graveyard is watching me I know #fanfic #my writing #zutara #atla #aang critical #canon critical

[highfantasy-soul]

I had my issues with natla but I do think certain users are a bit to hostile towards people who like it and being angry about it or towards people that like it after a month just seems silly to me . I cooled down after a few days and and thought eh it's ok I like zuko x iroh a lot . . I noticed fandom in general is just angry its always angry .. the idea of letting people enjoy things does not compute in this fandom.

I think it's due to this trend of moralizing our like/dislike of every piece of media nowadays so if you disliked something, there must be a moral reason - it's not acceptable to just...not enjoy the way someone did something. By extension, that means that anyone who DID like the thing must be an IMMORAL person liking a ethically horrible thing! It leads to people not being able to just let people like a thing, but actively lying about said thing and making their position the morally correct one.

On this site whose main purpose is to gush about stuff we like for years and years, it's odd to me when people are so bound and determined to stand against that enjoyment.

#natla #avatar the last airbender #writing #atla #netflix avatar #natla positivity #media criticism

[survivalove]

one day we’ll talk about how extremely xenophobic the atla fandom is in how they justify the original cast’s horrible writing in the (more western 😃) sequel series by demeaning and degrading the cultures that they’re based on

starting with: aang being a bad dad makes sense because he grew up with monks and didn’t have a biological father

how utterly disgusting and weird. but honestly i just feel bad that so many of you have been brainwashed so effectively

meanwhile zuko is, according to the fandom, a good father and that makes sense despite his biological father being abusive for his entire childhood

but watch they will bring up iroh as if aang didn’t have gyatso

watch how they will complain about toph being a cop despite her last canon appearance being a 12 year old just like aang

watch how they will criticize katara and sokka’s (lack of) character development while claim that aang was written perfectly.

#atla #pro aang #pro gaang #their writing was terrible all around and it’s ok to admit that #making concessions for one character and not the rest frankly makes you a hypocrite #and do you not see how aang being an alleged deadbeat reflects on katara who you claim to like so much #pro katara #anti atla fandom #lok critical #defending a whole tv show is crazy #anti bryke #love how the creators suck until it suits you also #yt men making an entire franchise on the backs of asiatic and indigenous cultures was a MISTAKE #packaging it to a western mostly yt audience was an even bigger mistake

[whereserpentswalk]

I know some people are going to really hate me for this take, but avatar is not infact the greatest fantasy story ever. It's a great story and interesting world, though a bit generic, and with a really awkward ending (to do anything interesting with the conflict as to weather or not to kill the firelord, they would have had to set it up earlier).

The reason why everyone thinks it's so interesting and unique is simply because of where it was told. It was a high fantasy show airing on a network of silly little cartoons. It was seen as so amazing because of what it was going up agaisnt. If that exact same story had come out as a book at the same time, it would have been considered pretty good but not the best every, likely blending in with things like wheel of time that had similar stories and tones to it.

The way people treat it like the gold standard of writing, and copy it in restrictive ways, or copy its worst elements, is really starting to suck.

#196 #my thougts #worldbuilding #writing #avatar #avatar the last airbender #atla #atla critical #avatar critical

[theotterpenguin]

what’s your take on zutara being “you’re the wind, i’m in the water”. i’ve heard k@t@@ngs saying it’s clearly about their ship bc their elements are air and water but isn’t that a very surface level of understanding of the lyrics?

anon, i adore you for this ask because i love chemtrails over the country club (and lana's music in general).

i'm not surprised that people would try to apply this song to katara and aang because yes, at a surface level it's relevant to them for obvious reasons (water vs. wind), but i agree that the lyrics have far more depth than this.

first, we have to look at the context of the lyrics within the song. "you're in the wind, i'm in the water" presents a romanticized view of the separation of two lovers, just as the two elements brush past each other but never become one. this theme of separation is seen throughout the rest of the song as lana contrasts the privileged bubble of suburbia with the harsh reality of society, the darkness lurking behind a beautiful front.

likewise, zuko and katara have similar character arcs that revolve around an awakening to the harsh truths of society. zuko learns that the beauty and the power of the fire nation is just a facade, hiding the extreme cruelty of its colonialism and imperalism that has hurt all people (which goes hand-in-hand with zuko unlearning the abuse from his father, the personification of the fire nation itself). katara's arc involves a similar type of awakening, as she unlearns some of the dichotomous thinking she's held around the fire nation. her experiences with jet, hama, the sexism of the northern water tribe, the fire nation village in the painted lady, and even zuko show her the complexities of the war and teach her that people aren't always as simple as "good" or "evil." essentially, both zuko and katara undergo parallel character arcs that fundamentally change their worldview, reflective of the theme of chemtrails over the country club.

additionally, the "wind" and "water" that symbolize the separation of the two lovers in the song is also reminiscent of zuko and katara's journey - the two characters that have been pitted against each other from the beginning of the show, their opposing goals of protecting the avatar vs. capturing the avatar, daughter of the chieftain of the southern water tribe vs. prince of the fire nation, and the two characters that end every season finale in an climactic fight scene (first on opposing sides, then on the same side). and if you want an even more bittersweet perspective, there's also the fact that they are doomed by the narrative, two lovers who never end up together in this lifetime, fated to be separated.

if we want to look further into the song, i've also seen the lyric "nobody's son, nobody's daughter" being superficially applied to aang and katara as they have both experienced loss, but again, in the context of the actual show, it's katara and zuko who are repeatedly paralleled with this connection of losing their mothers and being separated from their fathers. katara discusses her grief over losing kya with haru, jet, and aang, but it's only her and zuko's connection over this that carries actual narrative weight in the story. and katara is the only person that zuko discusses the loss of his mother with. so it only makes sense that all of these narrative parallels culminate in the southern raiders, an episode vital to katara's character arc in which zuko is a crucial supporting character. you could also argue this ties in with the overall theme of separation in the song - being separated from your parentage and having to forge your own path.

finally, as a fun little addition, one of the other lyrics in the song is "my moon's in leo, my cancer is sun." and hmm, who are the two characters we typically associate with the moon and sun? (hint: "you rise with the moon, i rise with the sun"). but wait - it goes even deeper than that. i am most definitely not an expert on zodiac signs, but according to some basic googling, leo (a fire element) is typically ruled by the sun, while cancer (a water element) is typically ruled by the moon. by switching up what elements we typically associate with the signs, lana is reflecting on the duality and the unpredictability of herself like how she reflects on the duality of society earlier in the song. and similarly, zuko and katara undergo dual character arcs bound by elemental symbolism. despite being a waterbender, katara also personifies the element of fire - the element of passion, power, and will - as she stands up against injustice and refuses to back down from a fight. and despite being a firebender, zuko's arc also personifies the element of water - the element of change and adaptability - as zuko's perception of himself, his father, and the fire nation changes over time. they are both water and fire, both moon and sun, both yin and yang.

#zutara #zuko x katara #zutara analysis #atla #my post #my meta #anti kataang #kataang critical #my asks #i'm sorry this took so long to answer anon! #writing this post almost convinced me lana wrote this song for zutara #i think it just goes to show how well written zuko and katara's parallel character arcs were #i've seen many a tiktok bashing zutara shippers for posting zuko and katara to these lyrics and arguing that k//ataang fits better #and ugh... it's just such a superficial analysis to compare just based on the elements of wind and water