#meng

[starlight-bread-blog]

The Fortune in The Fortune Teller

This is an isolated look into this specific episode.

The Fortune Teller is the 14th episode of book 1 of Avatar: The Last Airbender. It is famous for supposedly developping the show's romantic subplot between Katara and A\ang. The episode does two things: A\ang attempts to flirt with Katara, and Katara is finally willing to consider him as more than just a friend.

However, I believe that this episode could have masterfully foreshadowed the pair not getting together in the end. In this essay I will detail how each step the episode takes towards a Kat@ang endgame is actually foreshadowing the opposite.

1. Katara and the Nature of Destiny

In the beginning, the Gaang meets a person getting attacked by a bear. He is acting incredibly passive, simply dodging the bear's attemps at his life. Then, A\ang and Appa interfere to help the man. When the Gaang questions him on why he was so passive, he says it's because the Fortune Teller told him he'd have a safe journey. They then have the following exchange:

The man's logic is obviously flawed. If the Gaang didn't interfere, if the man continued to passivaly dodge, the bear would have attacked him. Fortune and destiny come from agency – from actively shaping them.

However, Katara is delaited at the prospect of seeing the future. Her and the Gaang go to meet the Fortune Teller, Aunt Wu. Aunt Wu tells her she'll marry a very powerful bender. Later, she comes back asking more details about her future husband. Remember her excitment, fantacising about her future husband:

After that, Katara becomes somewhat reliant on Aunt Wu's prophecies. She goes as far as to ask her what she should eat.

And she obeys her "prophecy", despite not wanting to. She became like the man from the beginning. She knowingly follows the fortune even though it doesn't make sense. She had given up on forging her own destiny.

Although by the end of the episode, she is no longer in this state of reliance, she still believes in the prophecies. Then, Sokka says that A\ang is a very powerful bender. This reminds her of what Aunt Wu said about her future husband. I don't want to cherry pick, so I took 4 different pictures of her face when she realizes A\ang might be the powerful bender she is to marry:

With the look in her eyes, with her mouth tilted down and with the ominous music, this could easily be read as disappointment. Especially when remembering how she fantacized about the powerful bender earlier in the episode. She doesn't smile, but looks concerned. As if she doesn't want this. Earlier in the episode, she says this:

A\ang is like the papaya. The fortune says he's right for her, but Katara doesn't want him. Now, she isn't like the man, passively dodging the bear attacking her. She shouldn't sit and wait for the prophecy to come true point blank. She has the agency to shape her own destiny and not to choose A\ang as her future husband.

2. A\ang, Meng, and First Crushes

In this episode we're introduced to a girl named Meng. Aunt Wu told her she'd end up with someone like A\ang, and so she developped a one sided crush on him. Throughout the episode she attempts to talk to him, all to no avail. Because A\ang is not interested in her.

Interestingly, her one sided crush is directly paralleled to A\ang's crush on Katara.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Exhibit C:

Please note that in exhibits B and C in particular, there is an emphasis on the other party not reciprocating their feelings.

In this parallel the show draws, A\ang is Meng, the younger, shorter one the one who is in love; and Katara is A\ang, the older, taller one who... *checks notes*... doesn't reciprocate.

But in the end, A\ang and Meng have a heart-to-heart.

Sometimes you'll like someone, and they aren't going to feel the same way, and even though it's hard, it's okay. They're young, just kids having a crush. A\ang responds to this with "I know what you mean". Because he, just like the audience that watched the parallels, knows that Katara likely doesn't return his feelings.

———————

In conclusion, The Fortuneteller could have been brilliant foreshadowing to Kata\ang not being the endgame couple, and it would have done so through beautiful, mature lessons about first loves and destiny. Thank you for reading.

#anti kataang #zutara #atla critical #anti anti zutara #pro zutara #zutara analysis #zutara evidence #zutara forever #zutara meta #zutara nation #zutara should have been canon #zutar #zutara supremacy #zuko x katara #katara x zuko #katara #meng

[modelchili]

Dune Spice Harvester model kit- full build video: https://youtu.be/iNiDAYOwQM4

#dune #arrakis #spice harvester #meng #model kit #scale model #complete

[comradekatara]

for tbe atla people who has had in-universe fanfiction written about them (along the lines of tina belcher who came from bobs burger belcher)

your asks are always so strange (both in content and wording) that I end up having to read them like 5 times before I can begin to parse them. anyway I love that you cite tina belcher instead of just. rpf. like the literal terminology for this phenomenon that we do very much have at our disposals. so I even can’t tell if you’re asking “who would have rpf written about them” (which also presumably differs from historical fiction about past avatars or smth like that) and “who would write freaky friend fiction (like tina)?” i’m gonna go with the latter bc it’s way funnier.

i think that girl meng would definitely have written some….things…..about aang, iykwim. zombie apocalypse au, enemies to lovers, there was only one bed, etc etc.

i can also just kind of see jin doing this (abt lee from the tea shop or otherwise) i can’t explain it she just has fujoshi vibes. like, whenever ppl talk about how jin, zuko, and jet should have all been friends in ba sing se, i’m usually like “uhh… why tho….” but now i see why. it’s so that she could write jetko rpf about them.

for therapeutic purposes mai probably writes a lot of really cathartic short stories about her entire family, the entire royal family, and ty lee all falling into a sinkhole. but then mai saves ty lee from drowning at the last minute, which teaches ty lee to appreciate her instead of that stupid sinkhole bitch azula (this is all pre boiling rock, obviously).

at one point mai and sokka find a notebook of really angsty fanfiction about the blue spirit and they’re like, “oh my god this is amazing we gotta show this to zuko, he’ll get a kick out of this,” not realizing that zuko actually wrote it himself as a way to work through his identity crisis. he’s just like, “yeah….wow….so cringey, right? but also, kind of incredible how this writer articulates the struggle of the bisected self in extremis so beautifully……right? you guys think so too?” and sokka and mai just look at each other and silently go, “okay…. we may have made a mistake…..”

when katara was a child she would make up stories in her head about finding the avatar and befriending him and having him fall in love with her due to her courage and beauty and (hopefully, someday) waterbending talent and they would defeat the firelord together and live happily ever after. but thankfully she never wrote any of this down, because paper is a very scarce commodity in the southern water tribe and even she knows better than to invoke gran gran’s wrath on that. she never tells aang. although at some point (in sworn secrecy) she does end up telling zuko (assuming that he’d understand considering he also devised fantasies of finding the avatar to cope with his miserable existence), and he laughs for hours.

during their time together in the nwt, yue’s diary gets filled with all kinds of lurid fantasies of sokka killing hahn (in increasingly brutal ways) and sneaking her out of the palace so that she can join team avatar and they can be together forever. of course, whenever they talk about it, she’s just like “yes I love hahn he is great and I love my people and I would never leave my home” so sokka’s just like “okay girl you do you.” but then during the siege, yue actually sees sokka kill a man, and she’s suddenly so conflicted because all her self-indulgent fantasies were a bit too real (and in reality, he’s way more efficient about killing people than he was in her fantasies, almost like he’s done it before….) and she has no clue how to feel about it. anyway, thankfully, yue has learned how to hide her diary really well at this point, because if arnook ever found those particular pages he would’ve tracked down sokka and killed him without hesitation.

ok bonus follow up to the fujoshi jin writing jetko rpf au: eventually they find it (or maybe she’s bold enough to just straight up give it to them. you know what, she might be) and read it. jet’s like, “uhhh…. jin….. i’m not gay. you know that, right?” (he’s actually been hitting on her for… a while now…) and zuko’s like, “okay well i might be. BUT NOT FOR HIM!!!”

#bigpansy #asks #you always get me to write the darndest things #I don’t even know how to tag this #the gaang and #but not really? #meng #jin #jet #zuko #mai #ty lee #sokka #katara #yue #arnook #mai&sokka #maixtylee #sokkaxyue #katara&zuko #tis the thing itself! #(sorry jetko truthers) #(you know I had to do it to em)

[longing-for-rain]

Wired Different — Chapter 1

A post-canon Zutara AU, in which Meng’s latest crush is the Fire Lord and she forms an unlikely friendship with Katara after being unknowingly thwarted once again.

Rated M for heavy themes.

Read on AO3

#zutara #meng x kei lo #meng #katara #zuko #atla #avatar: the last airbender #fanfic #mine #avatar the last airbender #fan art #fic: wired different

[iminaworldofpureimagination]

#aang #kataang #zukaang #sokkaang #azulaang #ty-lee #jet #meng #ji and aang #teo x aang #atla ships #zuko #katara #sokka #toph #azula

[peony-pearl]

It's Meng my precious daughter Meng

#atla #Meng #atla Meng #my art

[zuko-always-lies]

Yeah, I know the last few are a bit far out, but I had to include them for the sake of completeness.

Note that I did not say who the Firelord is in this scenario...

Please put your reasons for voting as you did in the tags!

#ATLA #ATLA polls #ATLA poll #Fire Nation #Firelady #Fire lady #Katara #Mai #Ty Lee #Toph #Yue #Suki #Jin #On Ji #June #Smellerbee #Song #Meng

[whatthe4355]

So, I got a big new toy. I was expecting bad news so this is my distraction.

Aerial for scalial. And when they say pre painted, they aren't fucking around

This is all the unpainted runners

And this is the painted ones

Follow up post when I finish unbagging the painted stuff, with runners n stuff

#neon genesis evangelion #neon genesis rei #neon genesis manga #meng #model kit #mech #mechs #mecha #toys #eva unit 00

[hostilecityshowdown]

#meng #haku #macho man randy savage #jim neidhart #wwf #[ colour commentary ] #i'm so. face blind. if i mistake anything in general just yell at me lmao #i love the group shots :')

[the-air-nomad]

A predestined match

You were one of Toph's students and also one of her best friends. 

So when the Gaang decided to take a trip to Makapu Village for Aunt Wu to read Zuko, Suki and Toph's future, you were invited. 

You didn't have high expectations but you liked to laugh at Sokka. It was clear that he hated that village with all his heart.

You arrived in Makapu in the evening and camped in the forest, and the next morning you set off for Aunt Wu's house. 

She was happy to see Aang and Katara again and to meet the rest of you but she wasn't too happy to see Sokka again. 

You laughed seeing how much hatred the two looked at each other and accidentally bumped into someone.

 You apologized and helped the girl up from the floor. 

You looked at each other blushing but were interrupted by Suki who was impatient to know her future.

While Aunt Wu was reading Suki's future, Meng brought you snacks. She congratulated Aang and Katara on their new relationship and winked at Aang. Aang blushed and Sokka chuckled. 

You, Toph and Zuko started talking about superstitions and the supernatural. Although Zuko fully believed that there were signs foreshadowing certain events, you and Toph were skeptical. 

your debate was interrupted by Meng who complimented your big ears which made you blush.

 Your friends started to laugh heartily. 

You thanked the girl for the original compliment and complimented her hair. She blushed and started playing with her tails. 

You chuckled, in your defense the girl did seem cute. 

You invited her to sit next to you. 

While Aunt Wu was reading your friends' fortunes, you continued to talk to Meng.

Finally it was your turn. 

Aunt Wu said you picked the love bone. You threw it into the fire, and the fire rose up to near the roof, which worried you a little.

 Aunt Wu looked at the flames with a frown and told you that you recently met your future wife, that she is not a bender but has a gift given by the spirits. 

When you left the room, you noticed that Aang was helping Meng spy on you.

You rolled your eyes at their silly excuses. 

You looked at Meng with an evil grin and told her that a future fortune teller should be able to guess what's going on in the room without spying.

 And then it hit you. 

Meng had received the gift of fortune-telling from the spirits and you had met her today. 

Meng blushed and told you stammering that she knew it was you since she saw your ears. 

Aang ran off to tell the others and you asked her out trying to look disinterested.

Although I do not own the characters from avatar the last airbender, this work belongs to me! I sincerely hope you liked it. please rate it and leave a comment! follow me to see my next posts! Don’t forget that the request are open💖💖💨 

You can buy me a coffe if you want to support my work :  buymeacoffee.com/TheAirNomad

#meng #meng avatar #avatar #Avatar The Last Airbender #aang #gaang #xreader #avatar x reader #aunt wu #katara #katara x aang #kataang #Zuko #suki #sokka #toph #toph beifong #reader #earthbender reader #metalbender reader #atla #atla x reader #meng x reader

[ididgettomeetyou]

#kataang #zukaang #jetaang #sokkaang #azulaaang #taang #teoaang #meng #on ji

[rpfd]

I know I wanted to try something different with how I colored this Haku drawing, but hell if I can remember what it was. So here’s Haku, with something changed, hopefully you dig it!

#procreate #pro wrestling #digital art #wwe #Wcw #meng #haku

[championshipwrestling]

Toughest man in pro wrestling, a genuine badass.

#meng #haku

[longing-for-rain]

Wired Different — Chapter 2

Zutara/Katara & Meng character study, post-canon

While it’s a relief to finally have everything out in the open, Katara is already beginning to feel the weight of the crown. She’s conscious of all the eyes on her—many of them hostile. She’s also conscious of how much more closely the Kyoshi Warrior guards watch her, which brings both comfort and nervousness.

She’s just finished speaking with a well-wisher when she sees Meng approach with a man in tow.

Katara doesn’t have to ask to know it’s Kei Lo; Meng is practically clinging to his arm and her face lights up when she reaches Katara.

Read on AO3

#zutara #katara #zuko #meng #atla #art #fanfic #fan art #kei lo x meng #mine #fic: wired different

[origamidotme]

Raccoon - Meng Weining by Rui.Roda https://flic.kr/p/2nZMTkx

#origami #papiroflexia #papierfalten #raccoon #meng #weining #owm3 #world #marathon #2022 #p

[the-badger-mole]

It’s sad that Katara got punished by the narrative for liking boys other than Aang meanwhile Aang being purposely dismissive towards Meng because she was awkward and wasn’t as pretty as Katara was more than okay. Like of course he wasn’t obligated to like her back it’s just obvious the writers sympathized more with a boy in that position than a girl. A petty part of me imagines Aang later running into Meng and find out she truly blossomed and having near forgotten about him completely.

I would love to see Aang have a string of toxic, unsatisfying relationships until one day having an epiphany that he is the problem and then has to do therapy with his past selves to figure out how to be better. Meng would probably be one of his last relationships before he decides he and himself need to have a talk

#anti aang #atla #meng #aaeng #she dumped him in this scenario #story wheels are a-turning... #i have ideas!