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#i was originally going to do toph instead of sokka

cy-cyborg · 28 days

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Toph Beifong doesn’t hold up as disability representation - Disability in the Media

[ID: A screenshot of Toph, a twelve-year-old girl with black hair in a loose, green and tan short-sleeve shirt and shorts, cheering in an arena. Next to text written in a rough, blocky font: "Disability in Media - Toph Beifong Doesn't hold up as disability representation" /End ID]

Avatar the Last Airbender is one of my all-time favourite TV-shows, and Toph is still easily one of my favourite members of Team Avatar. I was a few years younger than Toph when the show first started airing, and being a disabled kid who was into martial arts, constantly being dismissed by my able-bodied opponents and teachers, meant that I connected very strongly with her right from the get-go.

But upon my last couple of rewatches of the series, I began to come to the realisation that my opinions on Toph as a shining example of good disability representation were... well, pretty heavily influenced by my nostalgia for the show and that many aspects of Toph's character just don't hold up today. Which, honestly is fair, the show is nearly 19 years old (if it were a person in my country, it would be old enough to drink) and I think it's pretty ridiculous to expect every part of every character from an 19 year old show to age well. So today I wanted to talk about the things I think Avatar the original Last Airbender did right with Toph, where I think they missed the mark, and what changes I think would need to be made to Toph to make her work for a modern audience.

So let's start with why I think Toph doesn't really hold up as "good disability representation" today, and the elements of her character that just haven't aged as well.

For me, one of the biggest issues I noticed upon rewatching the show, is how often we are told (often by Toph herself) that she is blind, but how infrequently we are actually shown it's impact on her life beyond her bending or outside of jokey contexts. Outside of her bending, we only ever see her blindness impacting her ability to do things like read or write, otherwise, she functionally has full vision -so far as the audience is informed - with the only exceptions being when she's in the air or water (e.g. on Appa or in the submarines) or in loose soil (e.g. the desert). Having places and circumstances where she doesn't have access to her power that allows her to "see" was a step in the right direction, but I do think it would have been better if her seismic sense wasn't quite as accurate, even in the most ideal of circumstances.

But why? Well, I think Suki explains it really well, long before Toph is even introduced. when Sokka says "I should have seen you as a warrior instead of a girl" Suki stops him and says "I am a warrior, but I'm also a girl". Being a warrior and a woman are both important parts of Suki's character, and only recognising her as one or the other means ignoring a big part of who she is, and the same is true for Toph. Being blind is a big part of toph's character that has informed a lot of her life, but so is being a warrior and bending master. Many people see Toph as a warrior or fighter, but ignore her disability, but both are important. She's disabled, and a warrior, and those things don't cancel each other out, the same way being a warrior doesn't diminish Suki's status as a woman.

When the show was still airing though (and even still today) it was very common to see non-disabled fans of the show exclaiming that they honestly forget that Toph is even blind sometimes, with many people going so far as to say that she's not even disabled (and that this was a good thing). While I do think some of that comes from the fact they weren't used to seeing a disabled character as both disabled and an active participant in these kinds of stories, I do think this mostly happened because of the show's lack of, well, showing the impact of her blindness on her daily life and allowing her earthbending and seismic sense to erase the effects of her disability to some extent. It's much harder to forget a character is blind when it impacts their daily life in ways that are shown to the audience. This doesn't have to be in big, showy ways mind you, showing things subtly but consistently works way better than one "very special episode" type setup.

In the show as it is though, the seismic sense functionally gives Toph a perfect image of her surroundings until it's just not available anymore for *plot reasons*.

[ID: A black and white shot of Toph and how she sees the oponent she's fighting, with shockwaves radiating from him towards her to indicate how she's interpreting the scene. Her foe has jumped into the air and now has his hand dug into the ground of an arena, about to launch rocks towards her. /End ID]

In many ways, her picture of the world is better and clearer than what the non-disabled characters can see, leading to this feeling of her disability being erased. It may have been better though if the seismic sense could give her a general idea of big things in her immediate vicinity but she still missed the finer details, functioning at least a little bit more like a tactile/earthy-vibration version of the limited sight some legally-blind people have in real life. Things like a person's position, movement and overall pose would still be "visible" to her in a general sense, as well as big things in the environment (including things underground, since there are a few plot-points that require that), but smaller things like details about objects and creatures, people's facial expressions or what they're doing with parts of their body that have no direct contact with the ground (like their hands) is less clear. On top of this, she may struggle to detect smaller, lighter objects or creatures that realistically wouldn't cause much of a vibration at all. creatures as small and as light as Momo and Hawky for example might be detectable, but "fuzzy" to her, and anything smaller might make enough of a vibration to tell her it's there when it moves, but not enough for her to be able to tell what specifically it is without some other cue (such as sound). There are a few moments in the show that seem to imply this is what they were initially going for, but it's not really consistent, and is directly contradicted in her debut episode, "the blind bandit" when she explains that she can even "see" something as small as the ants off in the distance.

[ID: A shot of Aang, a twelve-year-old bald boy with an arrow tattoo on his head, dressed in a yellow and orange outfit, standing with Toph at night. In the foreground is an anthill will a trail of ants, which Aang is looking for. /End ID]

With an adjustment like what I'm suggesting though, she still serves her narrative purpose of teaching Aang the importance of being able to wait and listen - possibly even more so, as her needing to wait and collect more information in order to get a clearer image before striking, would back-up what Bumi tells Aang that he needs in an earth bending master. It would also still help to illustrate the connectedness of the world, a theme Toph continues to embody heavily in The Legend of Korra, while still showing the ways her disability impacts her more frequently.

When I talked about the "super-crip" trope a while back, I mentioned that one way to avoid the more harmful elements of the trope (where the character's disability is erased by their powers) is to use the ability in question more like a mobility or disability aid than a straight-up cure. The power should help them, but shouldn't make their disability redundant. People are creative and we would find ways to use a superpower or magic to help with our disabilities if it were available in real life, but what's the point of including a disabled character if you're just going to functionally erase their disability? For a character like Toph, I think this is the kind of approach that should be taken with her. Her seismic sense still helps her, but it's not a perfect replacement. (Ironically, I did use Toph as a "good" example of that trope, but I do think after this last rewatch, for the reasons I'm discussing here, I might have to backtrack that a bit).

I considered giving an alternative approach here, to keep the sensitivity of toph's seismic sense as it is in the show as is, but giving it draw-backs such as making her susceptible to sensory overload similar to what autistic people experience. However, while replacing one disability with another can work for some characters and stories, I don't think it's the best adjustment to make for Toph or any blind character, largely thanks to this also being a trope. The "blind (or d/Deaf) person who's other senses become super-human to make up for it" trope is very common in fantasy, sci-fi as well as older martial arts films, and while I'm not really the best person to cover it, I do know that members of both the blind and deaf communities have expressed a lot of frustration with it. Toph already falls into this trope quite a bit, and any suggestions I could make would have just dialled that element up to 11, and fixing one problem with another is never a good idea.

Another thing that actually did bug me for a while, even before my most recent rewatch of the show, is how Toph is treated on the rare occasions she does point out something won't working for her. There are a number of times where Toph advocates for herself and points out that something The Gaang is doing isn't accessible to her or sets a boundary to do with her disability, and she's either left behind, her concerns are brushed off or she's ignored entirely. The three most noticeable examples of this are in the Episodes "The Ember Island Players," "The Library," and Toph and Katara's segment of "Tales of Ba Sing Se."

In the Ember Island Players, Toph complains that the seats they have for the play are too high up and too far away, and she's unable to "see" what's happening on stage. Her friends don't really take any notice of her though except for Katara who tells her not to worry, "I'll tell your feet what's happening."

[ID: A shot of Katara, a fourteen-year-old girl with long brown hair and blue eyes, sitting with Toph, who is sitting with her arms crossed, annoying in a theatre seat. Both Toph and Katara are wearing red and gold, fire-themed outfits. Katara is looking at something off-screen. /End ID]

My problem here is that this particular kind of situation is something that is familiar to a lot of disabled people. Even the least independent disabled people I know get annoyed when their access needs or requests for accommodations, even among friends, are ignored and their pushback is brushed off with "don't worry, I'll just help you!" It's one of the first things that many disabled people tell non-disabled folks wishing to be better allies to us: you offering help instead of actually accommodating us isn't a good thing. We don't want to rely on others if we can avoid it, because honestly, non-disabled people often aren't very good at actually helping or in this case, relaying information to us without training and more often than not, it just results in us being left out. I find it very hard to believe a character as independent as Toph would accept that without any protest, especially considering that is pretty much exactly what ends up happening (even if the show didn't really acknowledge it). Katara never actually conveys anything about the play to Toph, except when she's attempting to throw Toph's words back in her face when she asks for clarification about the actor playing her - which ends up backfiring on her.

[ID: A shot from the same location as before, this time Toph has a huge smile on her face and is leaning on the balcony excitedly while Katara is leaning towards her, annoyed by her reaction. /End ID]

While it would have been better if Toph was actually listened to, it would have been…fine? if a justification was given for why they had to sit there (e.g. to avoid being recognised), if Katara had actually described the play for her. This wouldn't have been ideal, but it would have been better at least. In real life, many movies, TV shows (including this show's sequel series, The Legend of Korra) and other forms of visual media have an Audio Description track that does exactly that. If they weren't going to move for Toph to be able to see better, having Katara describe the play could have introduced kids to the fact this is an option. but instead it's brushed off, and I'll admit, it left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, even back in 2006.

The Library is a bit more forgivable in my opinion, since Toph is still new to the group, but in this episode, she states that she doesn't want to go inside the spirit library because she isn't able to read and therefor there wouldn't be anything for her to do. However, it still would have been nice to see her friends consider this at all before they actually arrived. They could have (and should have) still gone, but some acknowledgement that they at least thought about the inclusion of their disabled friend would have been nice.

[ID: A shot of Aang, Katara, Sokka and another man are talking while looking down at a map on the table. Meanwhile, Toph is sitting on the other side of the table, completely disinterested as she sips from a large ice cup with her feet up on another chair. /End ID]

Alternatively, I do feel like Wan Shi Tong, a self-proclaimed all-knowing-spirit or his assistants would have been able to point her in the direction of something to interest her, since he does imply books aren't the only form of knowledge he collects.

The reason I mention this though is two-fold. In real life, disabled people are very often left out of "fun" group activities, whether that be in formal settings or in casual ones, like hanging out with friends. If the episode had been framed as "the Gaang learns about the library and decides to track it down," I might have been less critical, but it's specifically framed as something that at least starts out as a kind of break for the team where they all take turns picking out fun things to do so they can rest, and Toph's access needs not being considered at all until they're already there hits a bit close to home, especially since they just end up leaving her outside. Secondly, there's also a stereotype that disabled people (and especially blind people) don't belong in academia and places of learning, such as in this case, libraries. This stereotype is about as old as the concept of organised institutions of learning, and definitely isn't unique to AtLA, but the assumption is often that disabled people wouldn't be interested in more formal methods of learning, so it's not worth accommodating us. With blind people in particular, when I've seen this in media, the premise is often "well I can't read anyway so why bother?" which Toph definitely falls into here with no push-back against the trope.

[ID: A close up of Toph and the rest of the group, Katara, Sokka and Aang standing in a desert. Toph shrugs, looking bored, while the others looks confused and surprised with the exception of Katara, who looks mildly annoyed, standing with her hands on her hips. /End ID]

It does make sense that she would have been resistant to going in, and I'm not saying this episode should have turned Toph into a bookwork akin to Wings of Fire's Starflight (another blind character) or anything. But there was a chance in this episode to push back against some of these assumptions, and I think it's a shame they missed it. How cool would it have been if Toph had mentioned not feeling welcomed in more formal learning spaces because of her disability, which was just reinforced by the way her old earthbending instructor and her parents treated her. She decides to go inside the library anyway as "backup" in case something goes wrong, grumbling about it the whole way down. Wan She Tong starts his introduction mostly the same way, saying humans aren't welcome and Toph makes a snarky comment about it. Wan She Tong, equally offended that this human thinks he, the all-knowing-spirit, wouldn't have considered something, shoots back with an annoyed comment about humans being so self-centred. He explains that spirits come in all shapes and sizes, and not all of them have eyes, but they can still access his library. She's not the first sightless being in his study, and he-who-knows-ten-thousand-things knows this too. Once everyone is permitted entry, one of the knowledge seekers shows her to a series of slates about a lost earthbending form that she can actually read (or at least, "see" the pictures on) because it's carved. Or instead of a slate, it's a series of statues outlining the form, similar to what Aang and Zuko find in the episode "The Firebending Masters". Perhaps this form is something that helps her develop metal bending later on, and lays the groundwork for Toph becoming interested in teaching in the comics.

And finally, Toph and Katara's segment of Tales of Ba Sing Se. Katara convinces Toph to go get a makeover with her as part of a girl's day. Overall, this segment of the episode is pretty nice, and I liked that they showed that a person's gender expression (in this case, being a tom-boy) doesn't mean they can't like things outside of what we usually associate with that. Tom-boys can like girly things on occasion, and vice-versa, and I think this is an example of an episode that would seem a bit ham-fisted today, but honestly, was needed in 2006. However, there's a throw away joke where Toph says "as long as they don't touch my feet," and it immediately cuts to show spa workers filing down the calluses on her feet in a way so painful several staff are required to hold her down.

[ID: An image of Toph in a bath robe being held down in a chair by two spa workers while a third scrubs at her feet so hard that she is sweating. Meanwhile Toph is fighting against the two holding her down and has a facial expression like she is in a great deal of pain. /End ID]

this might be a minor thing in the grand scheme of the show, but it's still another example of Toph's boundaries about her disability and her access needs being disrespected by her friends, which the show just doesn't acknowledge it at all. People ignoring Toph's wishes about a part of her body she depends on in a much more direct way that others do is played off like a joke in a montage of otherwise enjoyable and goofy activities and this is a very, very common experience in disability circles.

There are a number of other, much more minor issues that show up with Toph as well, such as the fact she's the only one of the main cast who never has an on-screen (or on-page) relationship. not in the original show, not in any of the comics and not in The Legend of Korra. Again, it's not a big issue on it's own, especially because in AtLA, she's young enough where it's possible that she was just not interested yet, and she does have kids in The Legend of Korra where she mentions a relationship with a man named Kanto (Lin's father). So it is implied she does have some form of relationship eventually, but the issue is that it's never shown on screen or on the page. This feeds into a wider pattern in media of disabled characters being the only ones in their respective cast not given on-screen romantic relationships in stories, and so I still think it's worth pointing out, especially since the creators have had a lot of opportunities to correct that by now.

Toph is also portrayed, pretty much undeniably, as the best earthbener in a way that, at times, comes across almost like the creators felt like they need to compensate for her being on the team "despite" her being blind. This trope is one that I think Toph, at least partially, helped to popularise with the current generation of story tellers: The Disabled Savant. In this trope, disabled characters aren't really given the same room for growth as other characters; they aren't permitted to be average or still learning, they start good and get better. If they do progress, they often become the best, which is the case for Toph. To be fair, everyone in the The Gaang is the best at their respective skill by the end of the first series, which is why I say this is a minor point. She dose, however, have the least amount of on-screen growth in skill out of the whole team. Katara starts out barely able to lift any water at all, let alone actually bend it. Sokka is skilled with weapons from the start but does get his butt handed to him a number of times by others with more experience than him whom he learns from throughout his story arc. Zuko spends most of the early-to-middle of the show having things "blow up in his face" (to use his own words) and being belittled by his family of prodigies. While Aang is an airbending and, to a lesser extent, waterbending prodigy, he fails at pretty much everything else for a while before he starts to find his confidence - especially earth and firebending, not to mention the entire situation with locking himself out of the Avatar state. Toph is the only one who doesn't seem to fail or struggle all that much from a combat perspective. She does grow and improve in her bending (she invents metal bending after all) but she never has any moments where she really messes up or even struggles in combat all that much compared to the others.

All of these points and criticisms I've mentioned are not necessarily big in and of themselves, but when looked at together, they build up to create some issues with how Toph is depicted and how the people around her treat her disability

So that's it then? Toph is bad disability rep and Avatar should be "cancelled"?

God no. Like I said at the start, I still adore Toph and Avatar as a whole, but the show is a year away from being two decades old, it's bound to have some elements that don't hold up and I think it's worthwhile discussing them, specifically because I love the show and it's characters. Despite all the negativity I've brought up, I do think there are a lot of things AtLA did well with Toph too.

I've mentioned a few times that we rarely see how Toph's blindness impacts her life outside of her bending and combat abilities, and there's a reason I made that specification. Unsurprisingly, if you know much about the show's development, the ways in which Toph’s blindness and seismic sense impacts her bending and fighting style is one area where the show really does shine, and I still think that is worth a mention. The various types of bending are based on different styles of martial arts, specifically, different types of Kung Fu. Most earthbending in the show takes heavy inspiration specifically from Hung Ga, but Toph is different. Her bending heavily references Southern Praying Mantis Kung Fu, something unique to her within this world.

The reason for this (outside of simply wanting her to be visually distinct) was because the show’s creators made sure to consider what limitations Toph might have and what parts of the more common earthbending styles wouldn't work for her. Since her connection to the earth was critical in order for her seismic sense to work, they decided on a style that would keep her feet on the ground more, prioritised strong stances with minimal jumping and put more focus on attacking with her upper body. While not an intentional choice, the style they went with for Toph, according to the show's head martial arts consultant, Sifu Kisu, was supposedly developed by a blind woman in real life, at least according to legend. The creators also made further adjustments to the style with the help of martial arts consultants and just watching Toph fight is evident that a lot of love and care was put into the decisions made on that front.

I also appreciate that Toph's disability wasn't off-limits to joke about.

[ID: A picture of Toph waving her hand in front of her face with an exaggerated smile to remind the others she's blind. /End ID]

As I already mentioned, they didn't land 100% of the time, but lot of shows are afraid to use disability as a source of jokes, which would have felt weird and out of place in a show like Avatar. I see this hesitance in real-life too; people get extremely uncomfortable when I joke about my own disabilities and I've heard several people and even disabled comedians talk about the same observation. My last video on Tik Tok that got outside my usual audience was a joke about my prosthetic leg, and every single stictch and duet I received was people saying some variation of "I'm such a bad person for laughing!" "I'm going to hell!" or just straight up asking if they're aloud to laugh. If I didn't want you to laugh, I wouldn't have posted the joke! But joking about disability does make it more approachable. Despite how often Toph and the others made blind jokes though, outside of the one instance I mentioned earlier, they never felt mean-spirited or like they were punching down. Even when a very sleep-deprived Katara was intentionally trying to be.

I think it's also worth keeping in mind the context of the media landscape when Avatar The Last Airbender was airing. Today, characters like Toph are very common, so much so there's a whole trope about them (super-crips) but at the time, having a character with a major disability be a main character in an action-orientated kids show like Avatar was really rare. She wasn't the first of course, but a lot of the time, if they were included, they were almost certainly sad and depressed, wishing for a cure or they were designated to the roles of "Guy in the chair" (which is a character, usually a tech person, who helps from the background), inspiration, scary villain fake-out (or other variations of "creepy" character) or the actual villain. Having a character that was not only comfortable in her skin as a disabled person, who didn't want or need to be "fixed" or "cured" to be directly involved in the story, and who's main obstacle (at least in season 2) were how the people around her treated her, was pretty ground-breaking at the time (pun not intended) and went against the most prevalent stereotypes of it's day.

And I really want to emphasise that. For many Millennials and older Gen Zers, myself included, Toph was the first character that didn't tell us we were broken and needed to be fixed in order to be part of the group (even if they slipped up with that messaging occasionally). Prior to seeing Avatar, I honestly thought there was something deeply wrong with me for being happy with my life (a reminder, I was 10 years old when this show first started airing), because every other disabled person in the media only ever talked about how much worse their life was because of their disability, how much they hated it and how much they hated themselves. Many outright said that they wished they had died rather than become like me. Toph wasn't the first to go against those tropes, but she was the first example of a disabled character who wasn't like that many people my age saw. Did she do it perfectly? Hell no, but personally, back then, I was happy to have a character who maybe over-corrected and took things a bit too far than another sad character talking about how lives like mine weren't worth living.

I also deeply appreciated that Toph did struggle with her independence, at least initially, and where to draw the line with accepting help. Because of how much she'd been coddled and overprotected as a little kid, she saw any attempt at people being helpful and working as a team as them trying to baby her. It was very on the nose, but I liked that the show gave her an episode just dedicated to realising that it's ok to accept help. Again, this is a bit of a story telling trope today, but having the disabled character realise that it's ok to accept help, and to do it without talking down to them or saying that them wanting independence was bad, was a refreshing change compared to what was around at the time.

[ID: a zoomed out image of Toph, standing before her parents with Aang, Katara and Sokka standing behind her. /End ID]

While I think the show's creators could have benefited from consulting with disabled people and specifically blind people the same way they brought in consultants for the martial arts featured in the show, it's very clear to me that the intention behind Toph's character was good, and that actual effort was put in to make sure they depicted her well, even if some of it was a bit misplaced. It's also worth noting that the groundwork for a lot of my suggestions is already in place, they just didn't follow it all the way through. Overall, I'd say Toph was good for her time, and she's what was needed in the 2000's, even if she doesn't hold up as well today. I also think it speaks to how far we've come in terms of disability representation. When I first started engaging with the online fandom directly, almost no one, even other disabled people, argued that Toph wasn't good representation, because honestly, the bar was on the floor and we were just happy to have something different. But now there are options, and the standards are higher, and that's so, so good. It means that people, even in the media, are starting to listen and be more thoughtful about their depictions of disability than we were in 2006.

And finally, I want to really quickly mention The Netflix adaptation of Avatar. A few people have asked me now what I think they should do with Toph when they get to her, and what my predictions about the show are. I'm not going to talk about my predictions here, because this post is already way too long and that's not what this is about, but I don't think the suggestions I made today would necessarily work in this particular remake, primarily because of the tonal differences. Some adjustments definitely could, such the other characters doing a better job at listening to Toph when she points out inaccessibility and them actually considering her in the first place, but others might be harder to balance. The original show could get quite dark and serious at times, but it was primarily a light-hearted adventure story for kids. From what I've seen of the live action remake though, they're more heavily leaning into those serious elements - for better or for worse, and as such, trying to tone Toph down in the specific ways I mentioned might not balance out as well as it would in the original show. At the very least, the specifics would need to be different. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what approach they should take, that's not really the point of this post, but I did want to quickly address it to avoid confusion. My suggestions today were specifically on how to approach the cartoon version of Toph for a modern audience, and were not meant to be read as suggestions on how her live-action counterpart should be depicted.

#writing disability with cy cyborg #Wow I had a lot more to say about this than I thought (I think this is my longest post to date lol)#writing disability #disability representation #writeblr #writing #Avatar #avatar the last airbender #atla #Long Post #toph #toph beifong #the gaang #Animated Avatar #disability in media #fantasy

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turboacek-blog · 3 months

Text

Random: I wouldn’t mind Katara x Zuko and Aang x Toph in the Netflix adaptation

So with the Netflix live-action Avatar series coming out soon, I figured I should get this thought out the way

Back when it was first announced I remember they said they were going to slightly age up Katara so that she would be essentially Zuko’s age and Aang would still be 12 (112) basically instead of her being 14 she would be 16 like Zuko

And people speculated that it’s because they want to do Zutara (Zuko x Katara)

Amongst a number of other changes that’s has been revealed in the pre show premiere life cycle like the recent info they’re getting rid of Sokka’s sexism

I’ve mentioned it before but I’ve became neutral on remakes and reboots and such

Which includes changing things from the original is fine as the original still exists

It’ll be ininteresting how they handle it as the original show had a sizeable focus on Aang liking Katara and I can see it shifting to just being friends but it would also change a lot of scenes involving the two as the Gaang's dynamic is the way it was because one of the threads is that Aang and Katara had the romance aspect

And without it, you will need to sell their friendship in a different way which can be fun with a more platonic take but I think it has to be done well as Aang getting upset he can hurt Katara with fire bending or just the Haru and Jet situations are different if there isn’t a potential romance brewing

And might be worse if it’s fully one-sided as in Aang still has a crush but Katara doesn’t like him in that way at all, which ties into the other ship's angle

Katara x Zuko

It can work, I don’t think the people who shipped them were just crazy fans putting two characters together, there’s evidence

But without the Aang influence, it can be weird if not handled well let alone how they handled a character like Mai

Aang x Toph

I think when people mention this, it’s mostly because she’s the only one who would likely still be in his age range meaning she's the most realistic option if Katara and side characters are off the table

And you can pull it off I think, from Aang being Toph’s first friend, and the mentor-student dynamic can be tweaked plus they also have an opposites attract dynamic like Zutara. And reshift the crush Toph had on Sokka and Zuko to Aang it's possible

I just think it’s a case of they would have to truly commit and not tease too much / if it gets some backlash don't double back to the original canon pairs as you would basically be a season behind

Like don’t still do AangxKatara stuff if they are really going to do ZukoxKatara as the endgame

2/2/24 edit:

@vibee2001 let me know the Katara aging up was a rumor and she's more than likely still going to be 14, while Sokka and Zuko are aged up 1 year so most of what I said doesn't matter lol

But since they have said it's going to lean more into the drama genre I think a lot of what I said can still be applied to leaning towards drama by having different pairings and such and the general they are making changes to some elements of the story like characters

#avatar #avatar the last airbender #atla #zutara #aang x katara #zuko x katara #aang x toph #netflix #netflix avatar #aang #avatar aang #katara #zuko #toph beifong #taang

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crystal-lillies · 2 months

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General thoughts after watching Season 1 of Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender (spoilers may be present)

It's not bad. It's weird, but it's not bad.

No one asked for this.

No one asked, but we got it anyway. So what did we get?

It's not a 1:1 remake. I don't think, despite everything people have worried and griped about before the show's release, anyone wanted that either. It doesn't retain the same character arcs for everyone. Not just Sokka, but everyone.

At the same time, they still have arcs.

They're weird, they feel weird, because this show does what the Shyamalan movie doesn't, and makes an honest effort to capture the essence of the animated show, of the characters, of the world, and there is respect in its efforts.

There are musical motifs from the original. The set designs are out of the original. Many scenes are shot exactly like the original as homages.

And yet, storylines are merged together, elements from later seasons are introduced earlier, character interactions happen differently, character motivations are presented differently, and that feels weird.

We know the motions but when we the audience try to follow them, the show changes its direction and pulls a weird flex out of left field.

I won't say I agree with every major and minor change made, but I'm not enraged or disappointed in the same way as I was (and many of us were) after seeing the movie.

Instead, I'm more inclined to see where these new threads intend to go, and how the story we all know and love can be told in a different way.

Roku had barely a presence in this season, whereas in the original, he was more or less Aang's spiritual teacher. Instead, we've felt more from Kyoshi and Kuruk and Yangchen, and Aang has felt lost in his spiritual journey as well as his physical one.

Ozai, who was just a shadowy one-dimensional nightmare for most of the original first book, is now a more fleshed out figure, but one of confusing motivations. It's not the tonal whiplash of the movie, of the Ozai who legitimately worried and cared about Zuko's well being while also having still scarred and banished him, but one who is playing a 4-D chess game with his kids as the pieces and doesn't care who wins so long as one does.

I don't think it was the right call to have Zuko fight back in the Agni Kai before getting burned, but it gives a different dynamic to Zuko and Ozai's relationship that he's not the towering, shadowy Mark Hamill terror Zuko cowers before.

This Zuko seems legitimately convinced Ozai cares about him and all it takes is the Avatar to win his full love back, whereas there's still bitterness in the OG Zuko of book one. He knows Ozai favors Azula over him, he knows he's had to struggle well before being banished.

I also think not casting Dee Bradley Baker was a mistake. But they have time to correct that mistake.

All the kid actors, being green, of course do not stand up to expressive and gorgeous animation with brilliant voice acting. But they are all giving it their best, and I think they have what it takes to grow into the Book 3 Team Avatar if they get the chance.

The music got to me a number of times, particularly the instrumental renditions of "Leaves From the Vine."

Do we need this show? No absolutely not.

We have the original ATLA, and we always will. It's a timeless classic of our generation. Nothing could ever compete with it or ruin it.

However, I do feel like this adaptation is worth giving a chance to stand on its own. It may be far from perfect, but after watching it through, I legitimately want to see where it goes from here. I want to see this cast grow and change in their own ways. I want to see Toph in live action. I want to see Ba Sing Se. I want to see the new directions this story chooses to take to end up in the same place at Sozin's Comet.

But that might not happen if Netflix decides to cancel it, and I think that would be a shame.

I really do think it's worth seeing this show through, for better or worse.

Overall, as a show, I would give it a modest 7/10. (With individual elements skewing higher or lower throughout)

I don't like that it's only 8 episodes, but that's been a trend of other streaming shows also, across platforms, so I cannot fault NATLA alone for that.

You don't NEED to have seen the original to understand what's happening or get key details (unlike SOME adaptations have been doing recently). You can get a complete picture with just this. Is it as pretty or vibrant as the original? No. But it is still a whole picture (or, could be, with all three seasons).

It has great effects, sets, props, choreography, good music. It has SUKI. And JET. and JUNE. And THE Cabbage Man!

AND OMA/SHU ARE LESBIANS! I mean, I see that as an absolute win.

#flowerspeak #long post #atla #avatar the last airbender #netflix avatar the last airbender #natla #netflix atla #I do think two more episodes could have been added for breathing room and more show element inclusions that were mentioned offscreen #but that's a problem I've had with streaming shows as a whole. lacking necessary breathing room #we used to get shows with 20 to 22 episodes each season #and now we are lucky to get double digits at all per season #but overall. i truly enjoyed my watch. and i do want to see more #natla spoilers #Netflix atla spoilers

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atlafan · 1 month

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Jordan, ik you probably don’t want to have a whole conversation about this but I recently watched Drew Gooden’s video on the live action atla series (it just affirmed that I definitely don’t want to watch it lol) but it did inspire me to do a rewatch of the original and ughhhhhh it’s so incredible😭😭 all the little characterization details are SO rewarding and so good. Zuko’s small acts of kindness, even early on in book 1, just show that he’s always been Ursa’s son and help set up his arc for the rest of the show. Going after the captured Iroh instead of tracking the Gaang in Winter Solstice. Saving his crew in The Storm. It just shows you that at his core he believes in doing the right thing, and that’s a huge part of why his overall arc pays off so well. It’s the same with all of them—seeing Sokka put on his war paint and his battle regalia (in ep 2 or 3 I think) to confront Zuko in the village…it shows you that he takes such pride in the responsibility of being a leader and a warrior, especially in his dad’s absence. Yet when he gets to Kyoshi, we see the humbled side of him, and that he’s devoted to learning and respectful of the masters in their craft (whether it’s the Kyoshi warriors or Piandao or even the mechanist) and wants to learn what they have to teach him. Even Jet, who is always a very complicated character for me, is so compelling and so real. He’s suffered horribly and unfortunately has let that radicalize him. Tbh it reminds me of when anti war groups in the 60s would bomb places and things like that…the mission is “peace” but you’ve let your mission turn you into a violent radical who doesn’t know the difference between right and wrong anymore. I KNOW I don’t have to tell you lol but all the little details of this show, from design to writing to performances, are just incredibleeee and I’m so happy it exists.

GISICKAKAAK what a fun message to wake up to!

Yes I am simply pretending the new series doesn’t exist because I know it’ll just piss me off if I watch it. And I know myself well enough to know I am just not mature enough to separate the original from the new, so yeah I won’t be watching and I doubt I ever will. The one thing I am mature about is that I don’t “hate watch” things anymore lmao

I think this is why zuko is like my favorite character. I feel like he was the first character I was ever like “no, that’s actually my son” when I got older. He is so fucking complicated and so not at all what you think he’s going to be. He’s not just the antagonist, he’s Aang’s foil. They parallel each other in so many different ways. There’s a scene in book 3 where Aang literally says, “I need my honor back”, and it cross fades from one side of his face to the other side of zuko’s!!

All of the characters have incredible arcs. They all learn something about themselves, and they actually use that to grow and get better. Remember, these are literally children who were thrusted into adulthood, forced to grow up way too early. Katara is a nagging mother, but she also remembers how to be a kid and have fun and laugh. Sokka is a sexier idiot, but what teenage boy isn’t? He unlearns so much behavior, and even though he still feels like he’s the leader of the group, and in so many ways he is, he learns that it’s okay to let someone else take the lead, that he doesn’t always have to be right or in charge. Toph learns that she’s loveable for who she is, blindness and shoeless and a badass.

Aang and Zuko obviously have the most difficult arcs. Aang has to come to terms with the fact that he ran away, and a mass genocide of his people ensued. But if he hadn’t left, he would have died along with the rest of them. Like it or not, it was fate that he froze himself. And most avatars get told who they are at 16 and are given all the time in the world to learn the other elements. Aang was 12…and then had to learn the other elements in less than a year. I would argue that he didn’t necessarily master all the elements in that year. I think he learned enough about each to get by, and I’d like to think he took some time afterwards to really master them. He still relied on his air bending a lot. Whereas if we look at Korra, she did a lot of fire bending even though water was her natural element.

And my baby zuko…I could go on for days about him. My tortured emo son. He overcame so much. He cried, he learned to laugh again, he learned how to be young again. He hated being in the slums of ba sing se, but he also went on dates and got closer with his uncle like he never had been. He was such a sweet little boy. The storm always makes me cry. Zuko alone always makes me cry.

I could go on! I always wanna talk about avatar so never be afraid to come to my inbox about it!

#atla #avatar #avatar the last airbender #zuko #katara #aang #sokka #toph #uncle iroh #the gaang #gaang #prince zuko #zutara

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zuko-always-lies · 2 months

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re:zuko and the gaang: I was asking the first question, but i’d be interested in ur answer to the second as well

Why do I think Zuko befriending the Gaang was poorly written?

Because it was. More seriously, instead of organically growing together with the Gaang, Zuko gets handed a series of tailor-made adventures designed to get each member of the Gaang in turn to like him. These are confined to the members that are pissed at him (which is why Toph doesn't get one). For poorly defined reasons, the rest of the Gaang never comes along. The trips range from OK in conception (the dragons) to making Zuko and Sokka look like absolutely massive idiots (Boiling Rock) to making Zuko look like an absolutely terrible person (Southern Raiders).

Oddly enough, Zuko seems to be much more interested in befriending the Gaang than he is in what he's supposed to be doing, teaching the Avatar firebending and ending the war. That does not make him look particularly good. Nor does the fact that he seems to forget about the friendship part once the "life-changing fieldtrip" is over, treating Sokka and Aang horribly afterwards and neglecting Toph.

It's all very odd, like the writers were trying to speedrun Zuko becoming friends with the Gaang. Which is what they were trying to do.

The original plan was for Zuko to join at the start of Book 3. They changed that, for good reason, but now they only had half as much time to incorporate him into the Gaang. And nearly half of that time was going to be dedicated to the finale. So they had to speedrun things.

Also, I think the writers had become too enamored of Zuko's character at that point, which led to poor writing and an inability to write him objectively.

#Zuko critical

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flowersadida · 4 months

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I believe that ATLA shouldn't have a main character.

Basically the only thing that holds this story back is the centralization on Aang.

The role of the main character greatly limits Aang in terms of moral choices; he cannot behave differently than a role model. Take the episode "Return to Omashu" for example. Have you ever thought that the baby very successfully fell into the hands of Aang and his family very successfully offered a ransom for him? I mean, this is one of the many deus ex machina that prevent Aang from doing wrong but interesting things. After all, if he had kidnapped the baby or himself offered a ransom for him, he wouldn't have been the pure and innocent angel that authors always try to show us as.

Removing Aang from his pedestal will remove the need for his moral purity, as well as convenient scenario moves for his safety. And he, like the others, will be capable of doing controversial things.

This will give the rest of the characters a free hand, especially Katara. After all, she won't be someone’s prize and a damsel in distress, she'll be able to reveal herself to the full extent of her capabilities. The same goes for Toph and Sokka.

In general, if you think about it, besides Aang and Zuko, only Katara has a character arc, and even then it’s unplanned, because she was originally invented as Aang’s love interest. Sokka doesn't really go through much of a journey after Princess Yue's death, and Toph doesn't really develop as a character. All this while they had the potential to do so: Toph could improve as a bender and friend, and Sokka could go through a complex emotional arc and learn normal martial arts outside of bending.

It would essentially be a story of several arcs without highlighting any particular one over the others.

But since the series vehemently singles out Aang, it simply doesn't pay attention to others. And everyone is fine, because the characters are charismatic, which means everything is ok.

No, it's not ok, because in many episodes it's very difficult for Aang to maintain the bar of quality as the main character ("The Great Divide" or "Avatar Day"), and in such moments, instead of filler, the series could simply develop other character arcs. Thanks to this, the feeling that Aang has to wait for end-to-end episodes to continue his arc would disappear, and his surroundings wouldn't be pushed behind, but would simply fully develop.

It would be possible to put Katara in the role of the main character, but she doesn’t need it. She's a great character even without centralization, but she's rather hampered by having to stand in Aang's shadow.

Therefore, I believe that there shouldn't be one main character, there should be several of equal importance.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #atla critical #atla meta #aang #no hate #this is just analysis #katara #toph #sokka

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psychicpinenut · 13 days

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netflix atla review

i decided that i wanted to see it through anyway so i finished the netflix atla. here are the things that made me want to hurl rocks at my tv (i might not remember a lot of things because i stopped watching after ep 4 and only continued this week so this might get rambly as i try to recall things)

let me start on the cast. no offense to these kids but my god. one of the things i hate the most is when you can tell an actor is acting. the whole time you could see that they walk up to their mark, stop there and recite the lines like they're in a high school play. and i get that they're young and probably don't have too much experience but i just keep thinking about the original voice cast who were children as well at the time of recording and they're some of the most talented actors i've ever heard. but then again i know they had to not only find people who resemble the characters but can do martial arts and act. so whatever, i hope they'll grow more during this. the only actor i liked was dallas liu who is the oldest of the main cast (i believe he was around 20 when they filmed this) which is probably why he doesn't have a chronic case of child acting.

constantly making up and/or changing lore:

why can aang only speak to past avatars in their shrines?

roku is sidelined in favor of kyoshi (who for some reason is extremely aggressive towards him) who can see into the future apparently because she gave aang a vision of the northern water tribe being destroyed instead of sozin's comet coming.

aang somehow being "lost" to the ocean spirit at the end which is ???

sokka and katara can enter the spirit world with aang

koh keeping his victims like some fucking spider and only gives them back after aang gave some stupid totem back. they also brought him so forward that he doesn't tell aang about tui and la which was the entire fucking point of looking him up in the first place

yue is a fox? in the spirit world?

wan shi tong is there also in the spirit world

i'm guessing they're already abandoning the ancient library storyline because they already intoduced wan shi tong and zhao was shown that he found out about tui and la from the fire sages in roku's temple. which is going to be interesting because that's where sokka finds out about the solar eclipse but i guess they'll come up with some other solution like toph can sense the moon moving through her feet or some shit

tui and la becoming mortals for only one night?

zuko having extensive research on the avatars should mean he knows that roku is his great grandfather but we're either leaving that one out or he's just not good at research

they took out sokka's sexism, thus eliminating any chance of character development, in favor of putting in actual sexism perpetrated by the show itself. suki is made into this small town girl, rapunzel type of character who needs sokka, the man, to bring the world to her and expand her mind. and then instead of sokka being grateful to suki for teaching him, she's the one that's thankful for ... going there? and bringing the world to her? because strong women mean they can punch right?

constant references to book 2 in the first season

they made so that aang didn't actually run away from his responsibility as the avatar - which is a pretty important part of his arc as that guilt follows him through the entire series - but that he only took a little trip to clear his head. which makes everyone accusing him of disappearing seem dumb and unfair

which leads me to bumi. why the fuck would bumi be so pissed at him? the whole episode he's antagonizing him and yelling at him to go do his job as the avatar meanwhile he's holding him hostage and making him do his challenges. like let him go so he can do his job maybe?? stupid

the entire ep 3-4. they really just shoved like 5 episodes together into one which i get because they don't have time to do everything but they did it so badly and the messages from each episode disappeared in favor of the CGI fight scenes.

like what do you mean sokka barely even got to interact with jet? that's the episode where sokka is proven to have good instincts and leadership because he saw jet for what he was.

why are teo and his dad here? what about aang's massive grief over the industrialization of his wiped out culture?

why would jet try to kill bumi? they completely obliterated the moral dilemma of jet wiping out a fire nation village because he sees that as justified even though he's killing civilians who happen to be fire nation.

for some reason they had sokka and katara go through the secret tunnel which is kind of fucking weird. i don't mind if they cut the kaang romance line but it is going to be interesting once it comes to the earthly attachments and some plotlines that revolve around aang having a major crush on katara. also what do you mean the badger moles sense "emotions"? toph is about to sense people's emotions in her feet and learn bending that way

they mary sue'd katara. she's bad at waterbending until she isn't and suddenly she's a master just from self taught basic waterbending she learned from the scroll gran gran gave her?? which is another thing they robbed us of because katara going to great lengths to steal the scroll shows how determined she is and desperate to learn waterbending but here she just gets handed the scroll. she's timid and lukewarm the entire season, the only time i can recall her even raising her voice is when she's arguing with sokka over jet. she gets mad at pakku for not letting her fight which is stupid because girl who is gonna stop you? go and fight?? you should be getting mad at pakku for not even trying to teach you waterbending. then she brings the entire untrained female population to the fight because girl power™. despite all of this, she's proclaimed a master without any actual training and beats zuko's ass purely because she's So Good. like at this point she shouldn't be able to hold her own against zuko without the full moon's help because as soon as the sun comes up zuko easily overpowers her ("you rise with the moon i rise with the sun"). which didn't happen here because she's a self proclaimed master now apparently

aang didn't bend a single waterdrop the entire season. it's book 1: water. it's called water. where's the bending aang? too busy doing another stupid walk and talk

stripped of iroh telling zuko he thinks of him as his son

stripped of one of the rawest lines i've ever heard on television: "my father says she was born lucky, he says i was lucky to be born"

which leads me into azula's character. they brought her in earlier just so her role in the whole season can be her groveling at ozai's feet, seeking his approval, trying to outdo zuko. which is insane cause she already outdoes zuko by a mile. she's a prodigy. they make it look like ozai favors zuko over azula which is so fucking insaaaane it made me so mad. she already knows she's better than zuko, she doesn't need her father's approval. also why isn't her fire blue.

iroh being the one who kills zhao. this one pissed me off so badly because in the original, as the ocean spirit takes hold of him zuko reaches out to zhao to try to save him.... that man tried to have him KILLED. and zuko still tried to save him. but zhao's arrogance didn't let him take his hand and that was his demise. that single act tells us so much about zuko and they just??? took that out??? so iroh can just murder him?? instead of it being the ocean spirit's revenge for killing its partner? instead of giving us that glimpse into who zuko is as a person? i'm going insane

don't even mention the fact that zuko fought back against ozai during the agni kai. he was literally banished because he refused to fight him. he got the scar because he refused to fight him. that's who zuko is!!!! and then they show us that he, a 13 year old boy who is still fairly inexperienced at bending, could have defeated ozai but he chose not to?? i'm sorry???

during the meeting where he spoke out against their plan, they made it look like he only spoke up because the general taunted him and not because he thought what they wanted to do was morally wrong.

now tell me which line hits harder: "compassion is a sign of weakness" or "you will learn respect and suffering will be your teacher". yeah...

yue bringing sokka to the spirit oasis to heal momo?? it was so fucking stupid and unserious that they were cradling a cgi lemur that i was in tears of pain. i almost gave up there

sokka constantly talking about wanting to be a better warrior and bossing katara around but doing absolutely fuck all to prove himself was insane. sokka was just standing around the whole season making bad jokes (cause wow they made sokka unfunny somehow) and flirting with women.

there was no goofiness or lightheartedness to aang. he took everything so fucking seriously it actually hurt to watch because they blew things out of proportion that didn't need to be. why was he so afraid of his normal bending power? not even his avatar state power but just his airbending. constantly angsting over his responsibility and how he's failing as the avatar. jesus fucking christ.

since zuko never stole katara's necklace, june had to use some fuckin random fabric she found on one of the trees that could've belonged to anybody??

zuko was able to capture aang after june found him instead of getting his ass whooped and paralysed so when zhao basically forces him to hand aang over to him, it's easier to guess who the blue spirit is as zuko makes a whole scene about it earlier

truly the one thing i really liked was the addition that the 41st division was the crew he protected at the war meeting

circling back to the first episode where we start out in the past and we get to see the whole genocide of the air nomads instead of finding out along with aang. we also get to see how he ends up in the iceberg so we don't get his story paralleled with zuko's backstory like in the storm. i mean whatever but the aang and zuko parallels were always dear to me.

hated zhao's actor. instead of him being intimidating and scary, he was acting like a frat boy and talked like tom cruise's character in magnolia. just simply annoying

jet telling katara to just stop being sad about her mom and she stops being sad and suddenly she can bend again. and later when he tells her she can bend because he helped her, she straight up denies it because it was "all her" like i gotta disagree there cause no, it was definitely him who helped you.

icing on the cake was when zuko walks into a bar and the patrons there reference like 4 storylines that they skipped over

so anyway... that's all i could think of at the top of my head and i hope they fuck up less in the upcoming seasons god willing

#long post #pine rambles #natla critical

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sapphic-agent · 14 days

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i love your team avatar rewrite! can you talk more about kids?

You don't know how happy this makes me🥹 I'll break it down like they're OCs (even though the only technical OCs here are Tyro, Suma, and Lian).

(Link to the original Gaang post: https://www.tumblr.com/sapphic-agent/747738712838995968/rewriting-the-gaang-in-lok?source=share)

Kya (major changes to canon):

She/Her

Earthbender (Lavabender)

Firstborn child of Katara and Haru

Green eyes, brown hair; resembles Katara the most

Temper like Katara, but lacks her caring and nurturing nature. Blunt and to the point like Haru. Can come off as rude, but that's not her intention. Her mouth got her in constant trouble as a child. Loved probending as a child and looked up to Toph

Probender (later Manager of the Probending Arena)

Lesbian

*Notes: I like canon Kya just fine. But similarly to Katara, I feel like LOK really just didn't bother to do much with her. She's mainly there to give Tenzin a reality check and reaffirm that Aang was a shitty father. So I really just built her up mainly from scratch. You can resonate her with canon Kya or think of her as a completely different character. Katara was always going to name her first daughter Kya, so to me it makes no difference. Also, I made her a lavabender instead of a metalbender to match her temper*

Tyro:

He/Him

Nonbender (Chi-blocker)

Firstborn and only son of Katara and Haru (middle child)

Blue eyes, brown hair; looks a lot like Sokka

Calm demeanor like Haru, but empathetic and softhearted like Katara. The most sensitive of his siblings, but also the nicest. Learned Chi-blocking from the Kyoshi Warriors after visiting Kyoshi Island for the summer. Very interested in law and politics from watching his mom

Attorney, President of Republic City

Sexuality undetermined, closest guess is pansexual

*Notes: Tyro loves his sapphic aunts (Mai and Ty Lee). I like to think of him as that friend that's always there for you, even when they're going through hell (but not parentified like Katara). Why did I make him president? I don't know*

Suma:

She/They (I know I wrote daughter, but she doesn't mind being referred to as daughter or sister by her family)

Waterbender (Healer)

Youngest child of Katara and Haru

Blue eyes, brown hair; looks like Haru (same complexion as his mother)

Finds it hard to understand emotion, doesn't pay attention (spaces out when people are talking, can't focus on classes that don't interest her in school, etc.). Comes off cold, even to her family. Most assume they don't care about anything. It was a shock when she chose to become a Healer, but her patients usually love her

Healer at the Republic City Hospital, Head Healer at the Republic City Hospital

Aromantic

*Notes: Suma is probably way closer to canon Kya than my Kya is. But they're also a lot less emotionally invested in people than Kya. They're definitely on the spectrum in case you couldn't tell*

Lin Beifong (basically the same as canon):

She/Her

Earthbender (Metalbender)

Firstborn child of Aang and Toph

Green eyes, black hair; resembles Toph

Grouchy, tough, and a hardass like Toph, but has a strong sense of fairness like Aang. Bosses her siblings around. Butts heads constantly with Suyin because of this. Studied under her Aunt Suki to become an officer

Republic City Police Officer , Republic City Chief of Police

Bisexual

*Notes: As you can see, I didn't change much about Lin. The biggest thing is probably that she didn't become a police officer to impress Toph, she did it because of her own sense of justice. I love that for her*

Tenzin Beifong (basically the same as canon):

He/Him

Firstborn son and second born child of Aang and Toph

Airbender

Gray eyes, black hair; resembles Aang

Tries to be calm, but has a short fuse. Feels like he has to live up to being the only Airbending child of the Avatar. Can be distant with his family because of this, especially Aang. Finds it hard to connect with his siblings

United Republic of Nations Councilman

*Notes: Tenzin is way more of a black sheep here than the golden child in canon. Him and Aang having a hard relationship because of the expectations placed on him is one thing I'm very proud of. I think he feels like he has to be this perfect son and feels like he can't approach Aang about it. And Toph is a less than understanding person, so he can't really talk to her either. His biggest regret is never opening up to his father before he died. So he suffers in silence (lmao)*

Suyin Beifong (basically the same as canon):

She/Her

Third child of Aang and Toph

Earthbender (Metalbender)

Brown hair, green eyes; resembles both Toph and Aang (has the complexion of Toph's father)

Free-spirited and fun-loving like Aang, but extremely stubborn and hates rules like Toph. Very clever and innovative, a troublemaker as a kid. Clashes with Lin heavily due to her issues with authority and competes with her. Leaves Republic City (of her own volition) to travel the world and creates Zaofu and the Metal Clan

Leader/Founder of Zaofu, Head of the Metal Clan

Demisexual

*Notes: I'll be honest, I love Su and think she's over hated in canon. Maybe it's because I see a lot of myself in being the youngest child and having a bossy and condescending older sister. But anyway, her backstory is one of my favorites in the show, so that's why I didn't feel the need to change it too much. Also, her choosing to travel the world similar to how the Air Nomads did is a nice touch with Aang being her father. Although, a fight with Toph might have been what made her leave, I'm not sure. Demi because I can't see her loving anyone she doesn't share a deep, personal connection to like Bataar*

Bumi Beifong (slight changes to canon)

He/Him

Youngest child of Aang and Toph

Nonbender

Gray eyes, black hair; resembles both Toph and Aang

Extremely intelligent ("mad genius"), but absolutely can't take anything seriously. Prankster, the bane of Lin and Tenzin's existences. Looks up to Aang and is very close with Su, drives Toph crazy. Very interested in combat, war, and strategy

Soldier in the Second Division of the United Forces, Commander in the Second Division of the United Forces

Gay

*Notes: Nothing you guys say or do will ever convince me that Bumi isn't a man kisser*

Lian:

She/Her

Only child of Sokka and Suki

Waterbender (+Chi-blocker)

Blue eyes, auburn hair; looks like Suki but has Sokka's complexion

Playful personality, loves bad and corny jokes. Easygoing for the most part, but knows when to get serious. Trains with the Kyoshi Warriors like Tyro does

Firefighter, Chief of the Southern Water Tribe

Pansexual

*Notes: I love Lian a lot. It's so weird that Sokka of all characters didn't have kids. Out of everyone, I would think it would be Toph. So I obviously gave him one with Suki. I don't think I said so in the Gaang post, but yes she's a Waterbender. Also, why are both her and Tyro pan? The Kyoshi Island affect, it's something in the water*

Izumi (basically the same as canon):

She/Her

Only child of Zuko and Jin

Suspected Firebender, unconfirmed

Amber eyes, brown hair; mostly resembles Jin

A calm, rational person. Loves history. Painfully non-violent because of that history. Her heart is to the Fire Nation and repairing the damage her country has done. She also has a deep love for Ba Sing Se because that's where her mother is from. Some might call her reserved before they get to know her, to her friends she's one of the nicest people ever

No one knows if she's actually a Firebender or not, she's never confirmed or denied it even to her closest friends. Doesn't feel the need to. Looks at it like a political strategy; no one can say she's favoring benders or nonbenders. She is a master swordswoman, though

Archeologist, Historian, Fire Lord

*Notes: I decided not to choose if Izumi's a bender or nonbender. I like the theory that she keeps is secret in canon as a political move. I don't know if they kept it vague in canon on purpose, but I like it that way. I kind of based her off Nico Robin from One Piece*

That's pretty much it for the Gaang Kids! I'm pretty proud of how everyone came out. Hope this satisfied you!

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talleryn · 2 months

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I see a lot of people getting upset that Sokka wasn’t really sexist in the live action and therefore doesn’t have as much room for character development.

This is how I see it: Sokka is still putting down the women in his life, but although it doesn’t necessarily come from a place of overt “women are weak” misogyny, he’s still being prejudiced. It’s just coming from having to live up to his father instead of fragile masculinity.

When Hakoda left, he put Sokka in charge of protecting the village, which then put a lot of pressure on Sokka. This is especially obvious after the ice dodging flashback where we see Sokka realising he’s not living up to his father’s expectations. He has big shoes to fill and when he sees people like Katara and Suki, who are competent and can really hold their own, he feels like he’s failing to be the protector his dad wanted him to be. The only way he feels like he can be that protector is to put other people down into a position where he can then be the one they’re depending on.

Like I said, I don’t think it’s overt sexism per se, he’s just insecure about going into the big wide world and finding that his sister is coming into her own with her powers, which doesn’t really leave him room to be the “protector” of the family.

I actually quite like the new take on it and even though it’s different to the original show, it’s fresh and fun and it’s thrown a few things in I didn’t expect. I do hope we get a season two as well, I really want to meet Toph and see Ozai’s Angels in action.

#shitpost #brainrot #ramble #atla #atla fanbase #atla brainrot #atla shitpost #live action atla #atla sokka #avatar live action #avatar the last airbender #sokka #sokka avatar the last airbender

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the-power-of-stuff · 2 months

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bestie whats your opinion on this vid? it got me Angry. ANGRY! https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=64wpVnM6dlE4b9kc&v=cglBnKGWlP4&feature=youtu.be

Ahhhh yes, this video! I've seen it floating around in the tags but hadn't watched it until now.

I guess my opinion on this overall is that it's a little...unimaginative? I mean, it makes valid points about how the writers hadn't originally planned for Suki to be in the show beyond "The Warriors of Kyoshi," and how she doesn't interact much with the other members of the Gaang. But to me, that's where the fun of playing in the fandom sandbox comes in! Reading between the lines, over-analyzing little details, and finding space for our own interpretation of the events to thrive.

For instance, how many days did the group spend together on Ember Island? Do we really think Suki wasn't hanging out and bonding with anyone else that entire time? What about all the time they spent running around looking for Aang and Iroh right before the comet? Like, they went all the way from Ember Island to Ba Sing Se! That's basically a trans-continental road trip! Road trips are prime bonding opportunities! There's no way Suki wasn't making new BFFs while they were stuck in Appa's saddle all night.

What's the point of trying to prove that Suki didn't actually earn a place in the Gaang when instead you could imagine Suki and Katara connecting over the similarities in their fighting styles? Or Suki and Toph playing pranks on Sokka together? Or Suki and Aang getting emotional with one another while discussing Appa's rescue?

Same with the assertion that Sokka and Suki break up for good... First of all, I don't put much stock in "proof" that relies on material that's auxiliary to the show, the consumption of which isn't necessary to understand and fully enjoy the original source material. This stuff is basically professionally-published fanfiction. But even if it did hold the same "canon" weight as the original show, again, there are still a multitude of ways to interpret what's in the book. And what's not in the book.

Let's say that when they're both ~40, Sokka is back in the Southern Water Tribe and Suki is on Kyoshi Island. So what? From this one scenario, I can still spawn a million different universes in my head wherein Sokka and Suki end up together. I guess I just don't really see the point in claiming that there is an ultimate truth to Sokka and Suki's relationship in this fictional universe, when instead you could write thousands upon thousands of words finding different ways for them to fall in love with each other over and over again. *whistles innocently*

So, yeah... Is Suki part of the Gaang? She is if we let her in! (yes) Where is Suki? Wherever we want her to be! (in Sokka's arms)

I'll leave off with one counterpoint to something said in the video. There was a claim that Sokka only thinks about Suki when she's right in front of him. Otherwise, she's not on his mind at all. To argue this, I would like to present exhibit A: "The Swamp." Sokka has his vision of Yue, and afterwards he tells Aang and Katara, "I think about her all the time." Do we have any evidence of this? No. He hasn't mentioned Yue since his brief conversation with Arnook at the end of the season 1 finale. Does that mean he was lying when he said, "I think about her all the time"? Of course not. Something we know about Sokka is that he tends to keep his emotional cards pretty close to the vest. He's demonstrated that he is capable of thinking about Yue constantly without Aang, Katara, or we the viewers being aware of it. Therefore, it stands to reason that the same could be said of Suki. And I would go so far as to say the fact that Sokka immediately starts crying when Azula mentions Suki while taunting them on the day of the eclipse? Means she's been weighing on his mind an awful lot. Cuz that boy doesn't cry so easy. Not even when Yue died.

#answered asks #sukka #sokka #suki #does this count as analysis?#probably not #also i have beef with translating suki's name as beloved #as is stated in the video #but that's an entirely different rant #thank you for the ask!!

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atla-suki · 5 months

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sokka’s treatment in lok was astonishing tbh but i’m actually glad he was dead by the time the series started bc toph being a cop??? aang being an awful dad???? they would’ve ruined him and suki’s characters lbr.

as far as any possible kids go idk we didn’t meet suyin till book 4 we barely saw izumi i think they just didn’t want to make the new series be a atla reunion plus lok was only meant to be one season so they were making that shit up as they went along lmao. and back in 2012-14?? they didn’t know themselves what happened to sukka lmao.

sokka and suki are definitely the type to break up bc of long distance but then find their way back to each other a few years later especially as they settle into their roles in life.

while bryke definitely neglect suki and sokka to some capacity also they do have a soft spot for suki after bringing her back. many don’t consider her to be team avatar but they’ve stated they do so idk ! she shows up a lot in the comics which have obv been created post-lok and it’s been said that they’ll utilise it’s plots and characters in shall see in future projects (crane fish town becoming republic city maybe??? where suki currently is working?? and sokka later lives!!)

i’m p sure suki will be in it at some capacity anyway and that there’ll stick with jennie as she’s one of the few asian og va’s. she’s doing a lot of work atm for avatar studios.

also random but i literally found out today that it’s not bryke-confirmed that mai and zuko end up together. it was a comment on a panel by the old comic writer. it’s not technically canon. izumi is the spit of mai anyway but hmm! interesting!!

btw btw suyin’s father was def a sandbending outlaw who toph had a secret relationship with that couldn’t be public bc of her role as police chief x

oo big ask ok let me break this up into different paragraphs …

fist point - one thing i will admit about lok is that it fell short in incorporating the original characters into the new series in an interesting way with enough verisimilitude (realistic-ness) that it didn’t feel like they were just throwing a popular character into an episode for the sake of it. such as the whole ‘aang is a bad dad’ thing because they under-utilised him as a mentor figure to korra and instead focused on his supposed favourite son (i have thoughts on this re. aang NOT being a ‘Bad’ dad but i will make another post on it if u are interested (or have i alr made one? i’ll make another one.))

i have to agree that they would’ve probably done something shitty to sokka or suki if they were included. especially with the entire first season of lok being about bender/non-bender equality… i can just imagine they’d make sokka say something dumb about the equalist movement being 100% Bad instead of him actually supporting some of their completely valid arguments. idk. i’m sad there’s no sukka but at the same time…. quit while ur ahead yk.

second point - sukka long distance relationship is so real ESPECIALLY during their first few years together. i can see them just kinda calling it off because of commitment issues due to their work, etc. but not ever really losing feelings. they’d be endgame tho🥰

i can absolutely see suki being in upcoming projects! especially since she and the other kyoshi warriors expanded their reach across the nations - it would be hard to ignore them completely if we’re assuming they’re including comic canon into the universe. i hope jenny returns!!

third point - yeah! how crazy that maiko as izumi’s parents isn’t canon confirmed… though she’s so clearly mai’s daughter. i wonder if mai’s role will be expanded in upcoming projects / if she’ll be featured more. hmmm.

fourth - would honestly prefer this to the theory sokka is her father lol. it kinda baffles me that TOPH became a cop.. not bc she opposes authority - there’s something different about enforcing it than there is having to follow it. i can see toph in authoritative positions, and she fits them well. but i think it baffles me moreso because why would toph even work as a COP? isn’t that boring as hell for her?? go do something awesome like probending or professional underground fighting (adult blind bandit anyone?? this would make a good fic) or literally just construction idk i feel like toph isn’t a Hard Worker type that would want to be stuck in such a rigid career.

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the-badger-mole · 6 months

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Writer ask: 2, 9, 15? For “All the Things That Are and Will Be”

2: What scene did you first put down?

One of the first scenes I wrote was one that didn't actually make it into this fic. At least not as I originally wrote it. It was based on one of the first episodes of Golden Girls, and Aang shows up at Toph's place (it was Zuko's place originally). Aang had come to complain about how Emiko doesn't do the things that Katara did (cook, clean, organize his life, etc), and telling her that he regrets their divorce. Katara lights into him, having had time to really process her married life with him and how much he took her for granted. She tells him that the worst insult was that he didn't even tell her to her face that their marriage was over, instead having a lawyer deliver the news, and how much it hurt that it was a stranger telling her that her life as she knew it was over. Then she says she's glad he's there because now she gets to have something that he tried to take from her- the opportunity to say goodbye. Obviously, A version of this scene exists in the story, but not this specific one.

9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

Yes, aside from the scene outlined above, a few things were going to be different originally. First of all, the decision to kill of Sokka came after I'd begun outlining this story. I didn't want to do it at first, but having him gone fit my purposes better. (Plus I was able to include that nod to Rose and Charlie). Second, Sochiro was going to propose to Katara, and the back end of the story would've been completely different. I never got around to actually writing that version, though. When I started plotting it, I didn't love where it was heading, and I decided I'd rather give Katara a good, mature mutual parting than have Zuko burst into the wedding ceremony to declare his love. Finally, I had originally intended to have Su-Yin and Izumi make appearances in person, but at that point, I had so many characters to keep track of and nothing really for the two of them to do.

15: What did you learn from writing this fic?

There is an audience for Older!Zutara. Down the Road is surprisingly (to me, at least) my most popular fic. I hope that if nothing else, it'll inspire other writers to consider writing more fics with Katara and Zuko older than their 30s.

Send me more asks

#atla #zutara #ask game

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atla-genderbender · 2 months

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ATLA Gender Bender: "Sanaaq"

Sokka -> Sanaaq

I am not sure what the name origin is for Sokka. Sanaaq is a feminine Inuit name that is phonetically similar to "Sokka".

If Sokka had been born a girl, I think she would be a tomboy, although less of a tomboy than Toph. Her story involves coming into her own as a female warrior.

Ever since she was a small child, "Sanaaq" took after her father, wanting to become a warrior just like him. Her father and mother didn't mind this when she was a small child. But after the war took her mother's life, things changed. When Hakoda left to go to war, "Sanaaq" followed him, wanting to join him in battle. Hakoda tells her to stay behind, because it's the men's job to go to war. The last thing he tells her is to look after her brother, which she takes very seriously.

At the start of Book 1, "Sanaaq" is a bossy older sister who is constantly nagging "Kannik" to stop waterbending and learn warrior training. But her brother does not listen to her, for he is neither interested nor adept at the skills she tries to impart on him. It doesn't help that she's just his sister, not his parent. Since her little brother stubbornly refuses to learn warrior training, "Sanaaq" takes it upon herself to teach herself how to hunt and use weapons of war. Using her brother as an excuse, the real reason she trains herself in these masculine activities is because she just enjoys doing them. As the series progresses, Sanaaq would come to realize her controlling attitude towards her brother is the result of her repressed desire to learn how to become a warrior herself. As she leaves the Water Tribe, she would come to accept this part of herself and strive in earnest to become a female warrior. She would also accept "Kannik"'s decision to take up waterbending instead of warrior training, putting an end to her nagging.

I imagine that the distribution of gender roles would be more even between Kohara and Sanaaq, where Kohara would take on more of the tasks traditionally assigned to women, while Sanaaq would take on more of the tasks traditionally assigned to men. Unlike Katara, I don't think "Sanaaq" would do a very good job at filling the void left by her mother. She would be the type of older sister who makes her younger brother do undesirable chores, like cleaning. I think "Sanaaq" might be a bit more mature than "Sokka" at the start of Book 1, but by Book 3 they would be comparable in terms of maturity. "Sanaaq" would still be a sarcastic, comedic relief character who suffers a lot of physical comedy.

I've been picturing Janet Varney as the voice of "Sanaaq".

OUTFIT DESCRIPTIONS:

1: Book 1 Outfit

"Sanaaq"'s braided hairstyle is meant to be more masculine in appearance than "Katara"'s, where her hairline vaguely resembles the hairline of a warrior's wolftail. I think it is conceivable that she would wear a hairstyle like this, since there is greater variety in the hairstyles worn by girls of the Southern Water Tribe.

2: Book 2 Outfit

3: Sanaaq's Fire Nation disguise

4: Sanaaq's Fire Nation disguise, after cutting her hair during "Sanaaq's Master"

I think it would be cool if "Sanaaq" cut her hair short while training under Master Piandao. She would sport a warrior's wolftail during the Day of Black Sun and Sozin's Comet, but would grow her hair out after the series finale.

5: Sanaaq's battle outfit, worn during the Day of Black Sun and Sozin's Comet

6: Sanaaq's battle outfit, with helmet

7: Book 3 Outfit

In the middle of Book 3, "Sanaaq" realizes that she can no longer remember her mother's face, recognizing that "Kannik" did a better job of filling her mother's void than herself. She gives "Kannik" the pendant from their mother's necklace, trading it for a piece of her brother's necklace.

8: Comics Outfit

Her comics outfit is meant to make her look like a yosakoi dancer.

#sokka #atla genderbender #atla #avatar the last airbender #gender bender #genderswap #rule 63 #genderbend #my art #my headcanons

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folkloristico · 11 months

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I don’t mean to sound like a hater, but while I think the first look at the ATLA live-action looks good, I can’t stop but thinking… was it really necessary?

I know the answer as to why we have this upcoming project is money, same reason why they keep trying to milk old hits by turning them into live-action (Disney is doing it, Netflix is doing it—everybody is doing it), but you can clearly see the double standard here.

Across the Spider-Verse hasn’t even been out a month now, and while it’s been globally acknowledged as one of the best superhero movies ever, people are already talking about which actor they would cast to play Miles and the others. Which begs the question, why is no one talking about translating the MCU, or any other franchise really, into animation? It always boils down to animation being lesser than. And I really, really, really hate this narrative because the thing about art is that it should be daring, it should push people to try out new things instead of replicating the same formula over and over just because it’s safe.

“But live-action movies can be a way to further explore some dynamics and—” yeah I don’t buy that. Sure, some live-action movies do add flavour to the original piece of media, but that’s not why they do that. The narrative is always going from animation to live-action, and never the opposite.

Katara, Zuko, Aang, Sokka, Toph, and the others already have amazing storylines. While I do think some things could’ve been handled better or given more care, I believe that what it’s done is done, and you can always keep expanding on the world-building and the lore by pushing for new animated movies. Which they are doing, actually, but I know those won’t be getting the same attention as the live-action because, you know, people just assume that live-actions = adult content while animation = child stuff, so of course live action > animation. Which is just sad.

#i really don’t mean to sound like a hater #the kid who plays aang looks really sweet and if anyone turns to insult him or any of the cast they’re just a pathetic loser #i don’t hold any sort of grudge to the people working on the project #it’s just… atla was fine as it was #i hate capitalism i hate that everything has to look hyper realistic to be considered art #‘atla is just a cartoon!’ yeah and it fucking tackled important topics way better than shows like got did lmao #but got had the naked ladies and the sex so ofc it must be mature right?#atla #atla live action

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zuko-always-lies · 2 years

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I’ll be fucking honest with you: it’s fucking pretty clear that Bryke, who had the final creative control, were always planning on Kataang. The unaired pilot already strictly hinted at Kataang. The original series bible had Book 2 feature a love triangle between Katara, Aang, and male!Toph while saying nothing about a relationship between Zuko and Katara(strangely, it also says nothing about ships in its segment on Book 3).

ATLA continually hints at Kataang throughout all three seasons; I don’t necessarily like this writing the best, since I don’t really like doing “will they or won’t they” for the entire length of a show and then only having characters get together in the last five seconds, but that’s a me thing. Within the structure of television, it was painfully obvious that Aang and Katara were going to get together, especially since the writers offered no potential alternative partner for Aang, the main protagonist.

By contrast, “Zvtara”-baiting moments were incredibly rare (well, unless you want to count the rapey ones) and were limited comedic moments focused on the absurdity of the ship, with June claiming that Zuko was after his girlfriend instead of the Avatar being one example. “The Ember Island Players” clearly mocks Zvtara, one episode after the episode that Zvtarians claim totally proves their ship was intended to be canon. Katara and Zuko are never shown to spare one thought for each other in the long interval between “The Crossroads of Destiny” and “The Western Air Temple.” Once Zuko joins the Gaang, the series becomes a rapid fire set of “Zuko goes on a field trip with someone to get them to like him,” with no time or interest to spend on introducing and developing an entirely new ship. “The Southern Raiders” isn’t particularly different from “The Firebending Masters” or “Boiling Rock Parts 1 and 2″ in this regard, with the most time actually being given to Zuko’s relationship with Sokka! Toph and Aang are written as the members of the Gaang most understanding of and compassionate toward Zuko. It’s also notable that the writers had Zuko not join the Gaang at the end of Book 2 since they thought he wasn’t ready, obviating the opportunity to have Zuko and Katara together for a full season.

It’s interesting to also discuss Mai. Some sort of childhood crush between her and Zuko is hinted at twice in early Book 2, long before Zuko and Katara have any significant non-hostile interaction. It’s not clear what exactly the writers were planning on doing with this, especially with Zuko not planned to return to the Fire Nation with Azula until late in the writing of Book 2, but the crush between Mai and Zuko looks very much like a chekhov's gun that some writer expected to go off eventually somehow.

You can ship Zutara all you want. I don’t hate the ship, and I think Zuko and Katara could be a nice couple. Some of the people involved with the show probably thought that Zuko and Katara could be a nice couple, most notably Dante Basco. However, it is abundantly clear that, for whatever reason, the vast majority of creative decisions made were on the premise that Aang and Katara would end up together.

#Kataang #Maiko #anti zutara #Anti zvtara

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