#the very next season gives us toph azula mai and ty lee who are all distinctly motivated and important

[pippastrelle]

The misogynistic pitfall of anti-misogyny morals (ATLA and Artemis Fowl)

[Note: everyone both suffers from and upholds misogyny no matter what. It's everywhere and in everyone's subconscious biases. People of all genders make the world a better when they take that effort to listen to others' experiences and recognise we're all human.]

‘Show, don’t tell’ is one of the most fundamental rules of writing because nothing takes you out of a story like battling with what you’re reading for the right interpretation. It forces you to back out of the reading experience and re-process everything.

This is where the pitfall of anti-misogyny morals lies in otherwise very well-written media like ATLA and Artemis Fowl.

In the Book 1 finale of ATLA, the protagonists arrive in the Northern Water Tribe where Katara is told she cannot learn martial Waterbending because she is a girl. Katara and the other protagonists revolt against this and the episode ends with Katara being able to join the boys’ class. Similarly, in Artemis Fowl (Book 1), Holly Short is the first female Recon officer. She revolts against surrounding male officers who tell her she should not be in Recon because she is a woman and she continues despite it.

Surely, the interpretation is meant to be “Don’t exclude or look down on people just because they’re girls/women”. However, what do they actually say about girls/women at large?

In ATLA, we don’t see any other girls discuss their inability to learn martial Waterbending, either for or against. We don’t see any other girls join Pakku’s lessons even after he acknowledges Katara as a master. When the Fire Nation invade, we don’t see the women’s healing or general Waterbending skill come in handy. The interpretation you could reasonably come to is no girl or woman in the Northern Water Tribe wants to learn martial Waterbending or has anything to contribute with their Waterbending.

In Artemis Fowl, we learn of one other female officer in the LEP: Lili Frond. But Short balks at the idea of her being in Recon because she’s a “bimbo”. In other words, Frond cannot be Recon because she is unintelligent in a specifically feminine way. Of course, this could reveal Short’s biases. She’s been so degraded for being a woman, she’s internalised that femininity is not appropriate for her profession. However, Frond only ever appears in reference to her rising ranks because she’s an attractive woman riding her family’s coattails. We never hear of other female officers trying to follow Short’s lead or involve any other female fairy. The other prominent female characters in the book are Juliette Butler, who’s a distractable teenage maid that Short mind-controls, and Angeline Fowl, who spends the book catatonic in grief over her husband’s disappearance. Minor roles. The interpretation you could reasonably come to is no woman advances in the LEP on her own skill or has anything to contribute in the central kidnapping plot.

When you set up an anti-misogyny plot in a piece of media that doesn’t lend much agency or interest to other girls/women, it becomes an issue of ‘telling’ not ‘showing’. “Girls can do anything” becomes “Well, Katara and Holly Short can do anything”.

#atla #the last airbender #avatar #artemis fowl #holly short #katara #people can be very good writers but forgetting to acknowledge the other half of the population gives it shaky foundation #importantly avatar got much better in this regard #the very next season gives us toph azula mai and ty lee who are all distinctly motivated and important #lok got even better by involving a lot more women in the plot (rather than just girls) #but this was why i wasn't fundamentally against making root a woman in the film (if only the film hadn't thrown out the rest of the book) #holly can still battle misogyny and have it be a part of her arc with other female officers around her #root was already established as not geniunely looking down on holly as a female officer but feeling the need to push her to appease others #you've also got non-recon staff who could be involved a la foaly

[thevictorianghost]

If you could rewrite legend of korra and make it your own(or just in general better) how would you do it? The villains would stay the same and korra and crew are the same(personalities you can definitely tweak a bit. I would definitely not have any love triangles and make korra and asami happen in the beginning) how would you do it with your ships being canon as well?

Okay so I’ve never actually watched LOK. I’ve heard A LOT about it through watching countless video essays on Youtube and reading Tumblr posts about it. I know the who, the what and the how, I just haven’t wanted to watch it because, even though it looks cinematically gorgeous, the story was written by Bry/ke and there’s a LOT of it, worldbuilding and storywise, that I just can’t bare to watch.

So here goes. This got long. Enjoy!

1) Remove the Decopunk world. 

A Decopunk world is a world where technology is 1920s-ish, but very advanced. We have cars, tanks, radio, bobs and faux bobs, cloche hats, short skirts, nice suits, etc. I adore Decopunk. The 1920s are one of my favourite eras. An optimistic way of looking at the world, partying, illegal alcohol, the remnants of the Great War... I love it. I really do. But it doesn’t work in the pre-established world of Avatar. It brings elements that are far too imperialistic and colonial in nature (which prompted the comics to be imperialistic and colonial in nature, with the Northern and Southern Water Tribe, you can find many posts about that), which came along hand in hand with the Industrial Revolution, as this article puts it so well. Please read it, it’s awesome.

Why did they feel they had to denature Avatar’s world? They already had everything they could possibly want. 

The Fire Nation could be more Steampunk, which is a little less advanced than Decopunk (First Industrial Revolution vs Second Industrial Revolution) because there were elements of Steampunk in the Fire Nation Army (such as the tanks, the navy and the dirigibles). But it could be for them only. It could show us how Zuko transformed the Fire Nation from a war industry to a steam-powered country. This could be the new way to channel firebending (and please, no more “anyone can do lightning bending”, you don’t need lightning bending to get electricity and it makes  Zuko, Iroh, Ozai and Azula weak in the show!). 

We’ve seen waterbending used in clever ways in the Northern Water Tribe. How could Katara’s waterbending and Sokka’s engineering influence the Southern Water Tribe to make them use waterbending more? Canals, waterfalls, waterways, etc.? In new and different ways? Could the Southern Water Tribe use hydroelectricity, but in a clean, sustainable way? Why does the Southern Water Tribe port look so... mundane? 

The Earth Kingdom already had a working train system in Ba Sing Se. And the postal system in Omashu. Toph could have taught earthbenders how to follow the Badgermoles way and dug tunnels throughout a nation in peace. Then boom. Subways. But instead of machines pushing the people along, you can have benders do it. Instead of messenger hawks, the postal system could run through the entire kingdom instead of just Omashu and be much more efficient. The Earth Kingdom could be praised for its fast postal system that could, maybe, work as telegrams.

I’ll come back to the Air Nomads.

Those are just examples from the top of my head. I don’t mean “never allow technology to “””progress””” (I use that word veeeeery loosely because it has huge imperialistic undertones). I mean instead of trashing the fun parts of bending to make way for Decopunk technology that doesn’t need bending, work with it! Get creative! This worldbuilding feels... too easy. When Avatar: The Last Airbender was praised for its worldbuilding.

I adore Decopunk. I enjoy it far more than Dieselpunk and it’s much less known that Steampunk. But it has no place in the Avatar world.

2) That doesn’t mean “remove Republic City”.

First of all, it should honestly have a better name. It’s kind of like naming a city “Democracy City”. Which is way too on the nose. Harmony City sounds better, and that’s the first thing that came to mind. Anyway.

I really like the idea of a city being built in the spirit of Iroh and the White Lotus. To allow the Four Nations to live together in harmony in one city. But why is Republic City literally New York City with an “““Asian””” flair? What is up with that? I know New York is the MOST Decopunk city ever (you can’t encounter anything Decopunk without seeing New York, with its Art Deco buildings, the Harlem Renaissance, the Prohibition, etc.). But they do NOTHING with it! They just take New York, change some names, add some Asian flair, and call it a day. 

I don’t want 1920s New York for Republic City. I want Zootopia.

What happens in a city where all the Four Nations are represented? How does Water, Earth, Fire and Air work together? Big cities tend to be quartered in neighborhoods, so each neighborhood could be a smaller version of their nation. We could have a Northern Water Tribe next to an Earth Kingdom next to... you know what I mean? Each neighborhood could be a small-scale introduction to the nation for Korra first, then you can send her to that nation afterwards!

Which leads us to this.

3) Have Korra follow a traditional Avatar’s journey. 

I really don’t know why they decided that Korra would learn three elements before the age of sixteen (when that’s the age Avatars usually START their journeys) and then only have her learn Airbending during the entire show. Wasn’t the structure of each Book being about Aang learning one element at a time a good structure? Why go out of their way to NOT do that? Why was it the White Lotus’ prerogative to train the Avatar in the first place, too?  

So let’s have Korra know waterbending first (and show Katara teaching her, please!), then she can learn Earth, Fire and Air. By going to the Earth Kingdom, to the Fire Nation, and to the Air Temples. This could help develop each nation and show us how they have grown through the years. And it could lead Korra and the audience to figure out that there’s not only Aang who has had children to represent the Air Nomads, but there were other Air Nomads who survived the genocide and we can actually see the Air Nomads as a thriving culture.

So about Republic City. As I said, we could keep it. But now that Korra is going on a traditional Avatar journey, you could have, say, one episode at the beginning and one episode at the end of each season taking place in Republic City. To show us how each Nation’s neighborhood works and as an introduction to Korra before she actually takes the plunge to travel to that nation. 

Please! Build upon the Avatar world at large more! Come on!

4) Stop it with the love triangles. 

Many have talked about the Mako, Korra, Bolin and Asami love triangles. I’ve read once that they don’t exactly feel like friends, they’re only colleagues who share the fact they all dated Korra at one point. Which is sad. Knowing that the Gaang is so beloved because they’re such GOOD FRIENDS first!

So work to build strong, healthy friendships first, THEN start thinking about romance if you have to. And please, if you want a ship to be endgame, don’t have it so you have to confirm it on Twitter. 

Don’t.

Oh! And also. Bolin and Eska’s relationship was unhealthy as all hell and treated as “funny” and “comic relief” because a woman was being emotionally abusive to a man. That’s terrible. Please don’t do that.

5) Don’t let Katara fall to the side like she did. 

Many, MANY before me have talked about how Katara got the short end of the stick in LOK. Where’s her statue? Where’s her recognition as the Greatest Waterbender in the World? Why is she day in and day out in the healing hut, when she said “I don’t want to heal, I want to FIGHT”? Does she even have a waterbending school? Or is that completely fanon? Why does she allow Aang to take one of their children on life-changing field trips while leaving their other kids behind? Aren’t they also Air Nomads by birth??

It’s okay to worship the old Gaang because, well, we all love them! I do love Aang, even if I give him a hard time a lot, but I love the character. I just don’t like the way Book 3 Aang was written. But some characters shouldn’t have everything while others have nothing. Aang is LITERALLY THE STATUE OF LIBERTY. But where was Katara’s statue? And also, what happened to Suki?? What happened to Mai or Ty Lee, too?? Or even Sokka?? He died some time ago and... that’s it??

Which brings us to this.

6) Zutara, Taang, Sukka and Mailee.

I’ve seen that picture of Toph, Aang, Sokka and Katara being edited with Zuko and Katara next to each other, Toph and Aang next to each other, and a (suddenly alive!) Suki next to Sokka. I think that’s so good! It feels so healthy!

Not all relationships that started when people were kids work out. Sokka and Suki seem the strongest relationship at the end of the show and they’re probably the only ones I could see working out in the end. Sokka could become the Southern Water Tribe Chief and Suki could become his Queen when she’s retired from the Kyoshi Warriors.

Katara and Aang would be lifelong friends, of course they would be, but I don’t really see them lasting. Aang was twelve when they started dating. They’d date a few years, then they’d decide they want other things. That’s a good thing to show kids!

I’ve written many metas about Zutara, but Ambassador then Fire Lady Katara would show a changing world, where the Fire Nation, now no longer a war industry but a Steampunk country, is moving forward, with Zuko literally marrying a woman the Fire Nation tried to wipe out. They would be equals and leave an equal mark upon the world. Together.

Toph and Aang would be amazing together. They’d be a great team, working in the Earth Kindom, helping rebuild the old Temples when the Air Nomads came out of hiding, and bringing peace around the world. I don’t think they’d be a conventional relationship. They’d do their own thing for a while, find each other for a while, work together on some projects, then continue doing their own thing. Aang being the Avatar who travels the world and Toph teaching metalbenders and working with the King in Ba Sing Se and Bumi in Omashu and wherever she’s needed. I think Toph would be much more fulfilled than what we’ve seen of elderly Katara. She doesn’t have Katara’s abandonment issues (I’ve talked about them here) and she’s more independent, I believe.

I know I haven’t talked about them much yet, but I want Mai and Ty Lee together in the end. Badass ladies challenging their respective stereotypes and create a new world for themselves. Mai could find herself away from the Fire Nation court (I don’t know what she’d do, but circuses love people who throw knives, don’t they? She could be a circus performer for a while), and I think Ty Lee, in this version, could work at the circus and with Aang to rebuild the Air Nomads. I love the idea of Ty Lee being a descendant of the Air Nomads.

All of them should be shown creating Zootopia-like Republic City. Because of course they should be! They’re the Gaang!

So yeah, that’s how I would see the world of Avatar grow beyond the borders of the original show! :)

#atla #avatar the last airbender #anti-lok #anti-bryke #zutara #sukka #taang #mailee #darkcrowprincess

[captainkirkk]

✩ WEEKLY FIC ROUND-UP ✩

A collection of fics I’ve read (/reread) and thoroughly enjoyed in the past week-ish from all kinds of fandoms and genres.

BNHA

walk a mile by beeclaws

Hitoshi joins class 1-A and immediately gets hit with a body-swapping quirk, because of course he does.

passing through fire by achievingelysium

Aizawa finds himself in a street with little memory of how he got there. Then he discovers Midoriya, beaten and bruised, who claims Aizawa protected him—but as Aizawa regains pieces of his memory he realizes Midoriya may be lying, and he's the one who's done his own student harm.

darken your door by beeclaws

Aizawa tries to go get popcorn and instead gets an uncomfortable encounter with a student's estranged father.

what we deserve by bwyn

 “He said I needed to be faster changing the strength of my quirk output.”

“Like Midoriya?”

“Yeah.”

“That bar is so hiiigh,” Ashido groans, which, true, there’s no higher bar than the kid they’d taken to calling Small Might behind his back.

The scream of Mineta cartwheeling through the air serves as Kirishima’s cue to step up next. Kaminari rests a hand over his heart, mirrored by Ashido and Sero.

“May your soul find peace,” says Kaminari.

***

A few have noticed a change in Bakugou's attitude, and that maybe it's thanks to Midoriya.

Miraculous Ladybug

Shellter Chat by Bridgetinerabbit

A peek inside Adrien's school bag gives Nino some very unexpected insight as to what makes his good friend tick, but leaves him in a very delicate position. He never expected to strike a deal with the Kwami of Destruction, but now he and Plagg are working together to relieve some of Adrien's (and Chat Noir's) burdens for his own good. But being Adrien's guardian angel isn't as easy as it seems; other secret identities start falling apart, and there's no telling where the falling dominoes will stop.

Natsume Yuujinchou

Spirit Of The Seasons by Otaku6337

Natsume might be a human, but he's still a spirit of the seasons, and his family revel in it.

(A compilation of different reasons for canon variations - all in little stories comprised largely of fluff and comfort.)

Yuri on Ice!!

talk crap get smacked by lazulisong

The entire hockey team falters, faced by Katsuki's dark eyes shaded by his inky eyelashes. It's very effective. Mila's going to find out what mascara he uses.

"Did - did someone pull a prank on you?" says Katsuki. His Russian isn't terrible, but between his soft voice and his frankly adorable accent, half-American and half-Japanese, he sounds like a little lost lamb.Series

Harry Potter

Somnia by silver_fish

From the time they’re eleven years old, Ron is always there to help him find his peace in those dark and lonely hours of the night. Turns out, Harry has helped Ron find his too.

ATLA

The Old Master by SpaceWall

Iroh discovers he can heal after Zuko’s Agni Kai. The fact that he’s a waterbender can only mean one thing, really. At sixteen, he would have been a terrible Avatar. As an old man, he is both totally unprepared and absolutely unflinching.

Speeding Like a Dead Comet by queenbaskerville

 Zuko and Azula show up at Boiling Rock to free Mai and Ty Lee. Suki and Hakoda are a bit of a surprise.

Especially Hakoda. They haven’t seen each other since, well—since the first time it was Zuko who was the prisoner.

Friends Don't Let Friends Fake Date Each Other by naggeluide

Toph demands that Zuko fake date her. This goes just about as well as can be expected. Sokka steps in to show them how it's done, and this goes a bit better than expected.

Unchained Melody by AvocadoLove

Sokka is a man of science, and science says ghosts aren't real. So, he can't be dead... Right?

Too bad science can't explain why the only person who can see or hear him is Prince Angry Jerk.

#this one is longer than usual because it's overdue #should've posted it a while back but i keep running out of spoons lately skjdkfjr sorry yall #my posts #fic recs #weekly fic round up #atla recs #hp recs #yuri on ice recs #ny recs #ml recs #bnha recs

[idk-my-aesthetic]

more of my au where zuko and azula are good siblings/ continuation of this post

mostly bc @zarakem is a nice person who said they were interested in hearing more :) 

- most of it follows cannon ish w/ alot of like. stuff i already went over buttt 

- they win the day of black sun, but ozai escapes and starts prepping to attack. they don’t actually get a chance to even find him, he bolts b4 they can 

- they’re pretty sure he’s gonna attack on the day of the comet (which they’re right about) so they’re trying to train and prepare 

- both azula and zuko are very very stressed but showing it in diffrent ways. azula by going back to her more.... difficult side bc it’s her defense mechanism, and zuko by overworking himself to an insane degree 

- obvi their freinds + kit + iroh are like ‘please take a fucking nap’ 

- they basically go w/ aang and iroh on a life changing feild trip to. get their shit together so they go to the sun warriors to calm/understand their inner fires yada yada

- ozai shows up w/ all his supporters, a signifigantly smaller army but one that uses more tactical attacks + fun firebender powered machines that were stored at some nearby decommissioned army bases

- so most of the gaang + ty lee and mai are dealing w/ the ground attack, minus aang, Azula, and zuko

- zuko and Ozai have a proper Agni Kai. Ozai cheats and Zuko’s hurt, but Azula steps in to take his place and take Ozai down

- it kinda mirrors their first fight with him, with very injured zuko saving Azula in the middle of it and a third party stepping in. Though this time aang is mostly just healing zuko bc they had some time after the day of black sun.

- anyway after he’s dealt with there’s a bit of a question about who should take the throne. In the end zuko technically takes it but it’s pretty common knowledge that he and Azula basically co rule. (Plus Iroh deals w/ minor issues bc omfg these are children why are they running a country-)

Anyway that’s the MAIN plot I missed!! But I have more stuff in a less chronological order :)

- the fire siblings chilling w/ and getting used to Iroh is a Process. They’re not used to parental figures, even the gaurd (aka kit) is more like a much older sibling. (I started to say smthn like this on the last post and managed to forget half the sentence. *sigh*)

- the gaurd who saved them gives up her name for spiritual purposes after they desert and simply goes by “gaurd” for a while until the ppl start calling her “the kitsune” so she starts going by kit/kitsune

- note: kitsune are mythical fox creatures in Japanese mythology. (They’re what the 9 tails Pokemon is based off) they don’t have an inherent connotation with fire but they can, and there are generally characterized in 2 main ways. Either as malicious tricksters or messengers of the spirits (that are occasionally known to be benevolent, faithful guardians). Just figured I’d give some background into the folklore bc they’re not as well known like dragons and their hoards or pheonixes and their healing power :)

- alotttt of people end up with small crushes on Azula. Including Katara, Yue, suki, ty Lee, and mai. It’s just the lesbian energy.....

- azula ends up w/ mai and ty lee (at the like. Very very end of everything) and has no real interest in anyone else but katara’s small crush does make aang a little jealous

- all of that is mostly just like cutesy plaid for laughs type stuff- I have negative-infinity interest in making any real love triangles

- Azula and zuko join them in season 1 so please. Please imagine them at the North Pole b4 the siege of the north. They’re so cold. And yet so mad at all this sexist BS. Azula cheers Katara TF on when the whole Pakku thing happens while poor Sokka is holding Zuko back bc he 100% tries to intervene just in a protective big brother way

- zuko and Sokka are really dumb idiots about the huge crushes they have on eachother. Zuko is so jealous around Yue while also being grumpy at himself for being jealous bc Yue is a lovely person and he likes her a lot. Sokka doesn’t even like Yue they’re just mlm wlw solidarity

- they get their shit together in the cave of two lovers. Instead of aang and Katara being on their own it’s the two of them. Azula gets stuck with the hippies and it goes about as well as you’d think

- Azula 100% sudgests kidnapping Toph after Toph’s parents kick them out (b4 Toph runs away). Both zuko and Sokka seriously consider it

- Azula also pulls a knife on bumi during their dinner with him

- Zhao is still after them in season 1 (though he gets defeated at the siege of the north) and they have History bc Zhao has been trying to kill zuko and Azula for a while. They don’t even bother disguising themselves to raid the stronghold, and like half the base defects to join their supporters the next day

- as the day of black sun is nearing and they’re trying to gain troops Sokka insists on disguising them. Yes he dresses as wang fire. Zuko refuses to kiss him for as long as the beard is stuck to his face

- the gaang knows from the start that zuko and Azula are the prince and princess but finding out why they deserted is.... rough buddy

- though ppl that don’t know include Hakoda, who gets to join up preparing for the attack on the day of black sun to find out that not only have his kids been traveling with the prince and princess of the fire nation, but also his son is dating said prince

- ba sing is mostly skipped,,,,, but there’s this whole plot involving assasination attempts and the dai lee a few months after the war ends so. It’s dealt with eventually?

- mostly bc zuko goes there for political talks and while he and Sokka have ackward small talk with the king and bosco, Azula, ty Lee, and mai are dismantling the entire dai lee on their own. Not that it’s particularly difficult

- I feel like there’s probably more but I’m big tired

#atla #zuko #azula #pheonix prince dragon princess au #lonh post

[bullshittierlists]

I see no god up here other than me

Ty Lee- Ty Lee is best girl and I find it hard to argue with that statement. She’s just so bouncy and cute and honestly really powerful for not being a bender. I mean, the ability to paralyze someone on contact, much less being able to pinpoint specific parts of the body to paralyze, it’s just incredible. She was so cute in that beach episode because all the guys hit on her, which of course they do, have you seen how cute she is? I’m not super on board with her backstory, but it wasn’t a huge part of her character, so it’s fine.

Sokka- The man, the myth, the legend. It’s been said before, but the only reason Sokka couldn’t bend is because the creators knew he’d be too powerful. That’s the same reason he has to put his hair up. Also, he’s totally bi, change my mind.

Jet- I have several friends that watch this show and that watched the show before me. They all knew that I’d like Jet because he’s a “backstabbing traitor” despite their hatred of him and I guess I have a trend of liking those characters. I jokingly agreed with them and was excited to meet him. Little did I know just how much I would fall in love with him. A lot of my friends say that it’s just because he’s cute or he’s a sad boy, but there are honestly so many reasons to love him. I absolutely adore psychology and deep-diving into the minds of characters and his mentality is so intriguing. You would think this would lean me more towards Zuko, then. But Zuko gets so much focus that his psychology is always precedent, right front and center. But Jet doesn’t get that spotlight. I originally liked him more because he was under-appreciated, but now I realize just how amazing he is. At a very surface level, his actions are bad. He’s trying to murder innocent people for the sake of getting rid of a few fire nation soldiers. But as soon as you look deeper into his intentions, you can clearly see how badly he wanted to do good. These types of characters are always the saddest, the characters who think they are helping the world by destroying it. They legitimately think that the actions they are taking are the right ones even when everyone around them thinks otherwise. Other examples of this type of character are JD from Heathers and even Hector from Castlevania to some extent. Yes, he acknowledges that he will be sacrificing innocent lives. But he also knows that he will be saving lives in the future by going through with the dam plan. There’s so much more I could say about him, but I’ve been rambling for long enough.

Zuko- There’s nothing I could say about Zuko that hasn’t been said before. I already gushed about Jet for entirely too long, so have this instead: Sokka and Zuko have a wonderful relationship and I think that both parties could have benefitted greatly from being together romantically. Thank you.

You’re the best

Iroh- What can I say? He’s a good old man with lots of wisdom that we should all take to heart.

Momo- Some of my favorite parts of the entire show were scenes with Sokka and Momo just vibing. There should’ve been more emphasis on Sokka’s relationship with the animals in general.

Appa- I was really excited when Sokka started flying on Appa without Aang the first time, because I thought that meant that Sokka had created a really unique bond with Appa and was the only other one that could fly him. I was mistaken and incredibly upset.

Teo- He’s just a cute boy. I like his goggles.

Hey, I think you’re pretty cool, I like you a lot

Azula- Oh boy. There’s so much here to say, but she’s been analyzed to death, so I won’t go on for too long. As much as I would’ve loved to see Azula on the “good guy” team, I’m really glad she didn’t get a redemption. Not her, specifically, but more the villains in general. Zuko’s redemption was marvelous and there’s nothing that will ever top it, but if Azula had also gotten that redemption, his would’ve been downcast. It would’ve showed that anyone’s capable of a redemption and that he wasn’t special, he was just lucky to have that change of heart. Which maybe that’s still true, but at least with the ending we got, we give Zuko that spotlight. But back to Azula, she’s pretty cool, as the category would suggest. The Girl Gang (Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee) were a treat to watch and I instantly fell in love with all three of them as soon as they were introduced. Then they had to change to the Gayng once Zuko joined and I still loved all of them.

Longshot- It was super powerful when he spoke for the first time in Jet’s “death” scene. That was the first time he had said anything and he made it count. He helped show how even thought Jet is a “bad guy” at the surface level, he was still good enough of a leader and a friend for his group to stay with him in his ultimate time of need.

Suki- She’s badass. That’s about it. All parts of The Boiling Rock were my favorite episodes and they featured her pretty heavily in the back half. And I was not complaining.

Toph- Again, badass.

Aang- He’s the main character. I don’t have any super negative things to say or any super positive things to say. So he’s just here.

Kuei- I know he doesn’t do anything, like at all, but I can’t get over him and his bear.

Yue- When I started watching this show, I knew about some of the ships and I wasn’t super into it. Which was weird, because I’m always super into shipping. I wouldn’t have watched some of my favorite shows if it weren’t for the shipping aspect. But I just couldn’t get on board with it in this show. Aang and Katara felt kinda forced and weird, Sokka and Suki was alright, but I couldn’t quite get into it. But when I first saw Sokka and Yue interacting, I was enthralled. I was in love with their relationship and I thought it was so cute. I was genuinely excited to see where their relationship would go. But you know what happened next.

Mai- When I first met Mai, I loved her. She was an emo girl that just didn’t want anything to do with anything. Obviously, I still love her, but just slightly less. Something happened to her in the third season, and though I can’t pinpoint quite what, I have a feeling it was Zuko. I’m not a huge fan of Mai and Zuko’s relationship and I’ll possibly elaborate on that in a future post, but it really felt like the worst possible scenario for both of their characters. I do like Mai and Ty Lee together, but the shipping doesn’t really have anything major to do with it. She just dropped in quality a little in the third season and became a love interest instead of a character.

Kyoshi- Peace was never an option.

I remember you

Cabbage guy- This is normally the type of character I’d put at the top of the list and use as a joke to pretend like I especially enjoy the joke characters. Sometimes I do, but this list’s tone was a little different than usual, so I figured I’d put him where I really thought he should go. He was funny, sure, but I don’t religiously follow him like I do Ty Lee and everyone else in the top tier.

The other characters in this tier are in no particular order. Most of them are here just because I remember seeing them a little bit, but I don’t really remember much about them or I remember just not caring.

You are literally the worst. Actual scum. Leave this planet and never return.

Haru- This is more directed towards his newly-grown facial hair. He was so cute in his first appearance and then he had to do that. Even Sokka’s “I flirt with everyone” bisexual ass thought it was grody.

Hama- Nothing against her, personally, bloodbending’s just gross.

Zhao- He’s a typical villain. I can appreciate that, I just don’t like him.

Katara- This will take some explaining. It’s unpopular, but so is everything I say. I think of Katara in about the same way I do Allura. She was bearable in the first season, annoying in the second, and flat-out awful in the third. I understand that characters should have flaws, and I appreciate when they do, but her flaws aren’t necessarily treated as such. The worst offender I can think of with her is when she accused Sokka of not missing their mom as much as she did. This broke my heart. Seeing Sokka’s depressed face as he realized what his sister thought of him. He had been seeing her as sort of a replacement for their mom, but she accuses him of moving on without a second thought despite how much effort he puts into remembering her. This obviously isn’t the only bad thing she’s done. Another huge offender is when she assumed losing her mom was worse than Aang losing his entire nation. And then the show just keeps moving like she’s justified in thinking that. She’s done so many other things that caused other characters to halt in their development or causing the plot to just stop completely. Most of her actions are nonsensical at best and harmful at worst, but the show portrays her as always being a caring motherly figure. She does act like that at times, but we still need to acknowledge when she doesn’t.

Ozai- Literally the same as Zhao except he hurt Zuko physically AND emotionally.

#bullshittierlists #atla #avatar the last airbender #was a little confused why I wasn’t getting any notes and then I realized I didn’t leave any tags #sorry to everyone who likes Katara #but it needed to be said #tier lists #ty lee