#yes zuko was a threat but still

[comradekatara]

If you're still doing the ship opinions, could you do jet/katara?

I think they’ve grown on me bc when I was a kid I was just like “katara can do so much better 😤” (and that’s true!) but I also think what he means to katara (whether or not he truly lives up to her image of him in her mind) is really interesting. like something that I think is really crucial to understand about their relationship is the fact that the reason she feels betrayed by him isn’t because he’s “a bad revolutionary” but because he treated her like a naive child and lied to her face about his methods, manipulated her into trusting him by exploiting her tendency to dismiss sokka, tried to kill her brother (which is something she immediately understands judging by the way her eyes well with tears as she asks “where’s sokka”), and played her for a fool. “I trusted you, you’re sick and I trusted you.” yes she takes issue with his methods, but she mostly hates that she trusted someone who didn’t deserve it and didn’t truly respect her.

she hates putting her faith in someone and being taken advantage of, especially because it’s one of the points that sokka is especially condescending towards her about, and she always wants to be proven right in their arguments (which is natural, who doesn’t), so the fact that sokka is usually right when it comes to reading people is particularly infuriating. and it’s especially egregious in this circumstance, because katara’s trust in jet over sokka is what directly led to jet killing sokka (or at least, the attempt to). in her pursuit of winning the lifelong argument against her brother, she nearly got her brother killed. so jet is interesting insofar as he informs katara and sokka’s dynamic, and also as he reflects a major part of katara’s psychology as someone who genuinely wants to form connections with others over shared trauma, which is an incredibly noble and beautiful tendency of hers.

I think the way he sweeps her off her feet (literally) is kind of adorable, not because he’s a likable love interest (imo), but because her reaction is nonetheless very cute. the ugly ass hat she makes him after they kissed (offscreen, but canonically) is soo precious to me I think about that all the time (and the fact that aang is also the one who ends up wearing it…. my heart). and her reaction when they reunite later is fascinating, because even though it’s in such a different context and jet is literally brainwashed, katara acts like a scorned lover while sokka (number one jet hater in the world) approaches the situation in a more detached and logical way. it’s clear that her feelings for jet were incredibly strong, and the terror and guilt she felt over nearly letting sokka die at his hands has stayed with her and impacted in a very profound way, whereas sokka never actually felt like he jet had his life in his hands because he always knew that jet was a con artist who doesn’t really pose a threat to him.

but katara actually held a lot of respect for him, and he betrayed that trust and shattered her admiration irreparably. and then, of course, he nearly redeems himself, helps her in a major way, and dies in her arms. she cannot save him, and suddenly whatever could have been is gone not because he failed her, but because she failed him. and it’s subtle, and hardly mentioned, but I do think the trauma of that, in both instances, really informs katara’s perspective in many key ways, if not consciously, then subconsciously. it informs how she reacts to aang’s death only a few weeks later, and it informs her anger at zuko when he betrays her. jet is a key player in katara’s life and how she approaches her relationships going forward, and for that, he cannot be discounted.

#but I made him this hat…….. #asks #twitterpat #katara #jet #sokka #jetxkatara #katara&sokka #analysis #I don’t like jet but I do love the idea of him #so thankfully. we also have hama <3

[evilprincesss]

as i said while discussing iroh as a character, despite the comics being a mess, i feel confident saying that at the end of atla, zuko not only realizes that azula has been harmed too, but he rightfully blames ozai for that harm (although ozai is not solely responsible for traumatizing azula).

as big of a win as that is for the possibility of the fire hazard siblings healing their relationship (zuko absolutely has to take the first step there in my opinon; azula would not be willing to at this point, and their relationship has been unbalanced in terms of care historically), their relationship is still quite tragic even with this realization.

there is no way that zuko actually understands what ozai did to azula. he doesn't even know what ozai did to azula. yes, he knows that ozai abused azula, but zuko only understands and knows abuse as he endured it.

there's also almost no way that azula is going to tell zuko about it. not only would she not want to discuss something so vulnerable in a serious or honest manner (see the way she discusses ursa in the beach), but she's also just had a serious psychotic break. it's very possible that she's not fit to see zuko at all right now, let alone discuss her trauma with him even if she wanted to.

so zuko is left to fill in the blanks about the how of azula's trauma. given his pattern of relating other people's trauma to his even when it's not actually the same (i.e. how he relates katara's trauma about kya being killed during the fire nation's genocide against her culture to his own trauma about ursa's disappearance after committing high treason), he would come to understand and conceive of how ozai abused azula through his own experience with ozai's abuse. while zuko's abuse was clearly always an implicit threat dangled over azula's head ("you can't treat me like zuko!") and ozai absolutely used some of the same tools against her that he did zuko, zuko was ozai's scapegoat child while azula was his golden child. their abuse did not look the same, it did not function the same, and it did not impact them the same.

it's also unlikely that he has the perspective at this stage in his own healing process to apply any of his (false) perceptions of azula's trauma to how it would have shaped both their childhood and his perspective of azula. he probably doesn't even realize just how deeply his perspective of her is colored by ozai's abuse of them both.

furthermore, since he's accepted his recollection of their childhood (which is not his fault. he is a victim of abuse who did not have the means or opportunity, as a young child, to see beyond ozai's more obvious abuse of him, which he couldn't even admit, to notice ozai's more subtle abuse of azula), he likely can only conceive of azula's childhood trauma in two ways:

as the byproduct of his own trauma, existing not because of azula's own traumatic childhood experiences but because of her witnessing his, such as the agni kai

as the product of his exile, occurring because he was no longer physically there for ozai to abuse and thus had to find a new target in azula

the former seems less probable given his belief that azula enjoyed his pain when they were children, so he would likely think that she was abused not when they were younger but exclusively after his exile began.

this isn't even touching on how zuko's perception of ursa and iroh clouds his ability to see how they both harmed azula too. that muddles things a lot more since zuko struggles with black and white thinking.

i think azula and zuko could heal their relationship with time and mutual effort, but as long as she refuses to confide in her brother and as long as he assumes she should experience and respond to trauma the same way he has, they're doomed to remain static in relation to each other.

#atla #zuko #azula #fire hazard siblings

[jewish-skitter]

The type of person you are. Animorphs 22: The Solution, Chapter 1/Worm, Monarch 16.13/Animrophs 22: The Solution, Chapter 4/Worm, Cell 24.5/Avatar The Last Airbender Season 3 Episode 5: The Beach.

IMAGE IDs: A series of screenshots.

The first is from Animorphs. It reads: "If David had hurt Tobias, I would... But what was the point in making threats? I didn’t need to make threats. I knew what I would do. So did Jake. That’s why he’d sent Ax for me."

The second is from Worm. It reads: "I took a step forward, then made myself take another. 'It doesn’t have to be you,' Tattletale told me.

'No,' I told her.  'I think it does.'" The third is from Animorphs again: "<Ax? Tell me something. When Jake sent you to get help, why did you come for me and not Marco or Cassie?> <Prince Jake was specific. Get Rachel.> <Did he say why?> Ax hesitated a moment. Then he said,<Jake told me Tobias was probably dead. I said this was a terrible thing. And Prince Jake said, 'Yes. If David’s killed Tobias, we may have to do a terrible thing, too. Get Rachel.'> I don’t know how that made me feel. I’m not a person who obsesses over her feelings. You know what I mean? Some people can’t stop “looking inward” constantly, and that’s not me. But it definitely made me feel strange. Jake had called for me specifically. Because he wanted someone who would do precisely what I was planning to do. Like I say, I’m not big on feelings, but something about that felt wrong." The fourth is from Worm again: "It was Tagg, dead. I’d killed a man, and I had done it with my power, which somehow felt more intimate than the gun that killed Coil.  My power made the bugs an extension of myself, and I’d used them to murder the man.  It was little different from wrapping my hands around his throat and squeezing, or biting him in the throat and tearing deep enough that he couldn’t survive. I couldn’t bring myself to feel anything meaningful about it.  I wanted to.  I wanted to think of his daughters, apparently college students overseas, and his apparently loving wife, and the fact that I’d just taken a member of their family from them, much as my mom had been taken from me.  I wanted to feel terrible, to cry, but I couldn’t bring myself to.  I felt bad, but not as bad as I should have."

The fifth is from Avatar the Last Airbender and is the only one that's not text. It's a close up on Azula's face as she looks down, somewhat vulnerable. The dialogue reads: "I don't have sob stories like all of you. I could talk about how mom liked Zuko more than me, but I don't really care. My own mother thought I was a monster. She was right, of course, but it still hurt." END IDs.

#animorphs #worm #atla #webweaving #web weave #webweave #web weaving #quotes #taylor hebert #azula #rachel animorphs

[firelordazulon]

stardust ; zuko × reader

requested?: yes!

summary: being zuko's childhood friend wasn't easy but the stars have always been with you

wc: 671

warning(s): n/a

The stars of Ba Sing Se shine brighter than they ever did in the Fire Nation—brighter than it ever did in the three years you spent on the sea. Where the streets of the Earth Kingdom were quiet, you sit on the metal roof of a random building you chose blindly trying to make out constellations you don’t know the name of. 

You close your eyes under the warmth of the stars. The slight breeze ruffles the Earth Kingdom clothes you’d comped a while ago. They aren’t as comfortable as your old Fire Nation attire, but it saves you from being a target everywhere you go. A relaxed sigh escapes your lips and your eyes open, falling on the person sitting to your left.

To this day, you still have the Agni Kai imprinted in your memory. Too young to watch it thanks to smothering parents, but not too young to witness the outcome thanks to them being too worried to care about your whereabouts. Upon hearing that Fire Prince Zuko was banished from the Fire Nation, you’d slipped through the cracks of overprotective parents and onto the ship through the late Prince Iroh’s protests.

And after all these years, it never leaves your mind: how it was nearly two weeks before you were able to see him—gauze covering most of his head and another week before the first time you saw your dearest and closest friend without his bandages. It was the mark of the deepest betrayal one could receive—one from your own father. 

Though growing up beside the royal children, you’ve come to terms that his relationship with his honor is something you’ll never understand but only something that you can be beside for. When Iroh offhandedly said something about Zuko getting out the house more and throwing you a knowing look, you just had to succumb to the youthful rush that has flowed through you the last month you’ve stayed in Ba Sing Se.

Without the threat of Princess Azula on your backs and Zuko’s seemingly disinterest in the Avatar, you take it upon yourself to bask in the moment—to pick up where your childhood was cut short. 

Iroh’s comment led to you dragging Zuko through the night life, stopping at every kiosk out of pure curiosity. And though he tried his best to be grumpy, with the way you cling to his arm all night, he hid his blush with snide comments that you saw right through due to him tripping over his words nearly every time. 

And here you go, convincing him to climb some random building to get a better view of the stars until the owners come to yell at you or the Dai Li tell you to stop loitering, not that he needed much convincing because you’re you. While you feel the warmth of the stars, the moonlight shines down on your friend like a spotlight.

He looks so pretty, his short hair slowly over growing to meet his eyebrows, dressed in neutral colors you’d never thought you’d see him wear, where the light catches his golden eyes where you swear you see stars in them, too. 

You decide to become bold and test the waters, leaning back so that your hand brushes his ever so lightly until it lands just next to it. You don’t dare to look his way as you do this, but you hear the sharp inhale from his that makes your heart skip. 

And when you grow a larger pair and place your hand on top of his is when you two finally look at each other. It’s dark, but stars twinkle as no words are exchanged. Neither of you pull away so you look back into the night sky. You feel his eyes linger on you for a second, then your fingers are intertwined with his. 

The moonlight warms your skin, but not as much as your hands together warm your heart. And the stars smile down on you just as an identical one adorns your lips. 

#zuko x reader #atla x reader #avatar the last airbender x reader #zuko imagine

[captain-azoren]

I want someone to tell me what "non-evil" thing Azula was supposed to do when Aang was going into the Avatar State that wouldn't have been incredibly incompetent or out of character or made no sense in general.

How would you have written Azula in a way that makes her less evil but keeps the story the same? Just make her smirk less?

I see a lot of talk about Azula's agency and the choices she makes, but if she's trying to win, why would anyone expect her to anything differently?

And before anyone starts, this is not making excuses, this is trying to understand where the character is coming from.

Azula sees Iroh as a traitor and a disgrace. She legitimately hates him. Of course she's going to do a lethal sneak attack on him. Zuko betrayed her, their family and their nation. He also hates her. Azula had no reason to like him, so why is it so hard to fathom she wants him dead by the end of the series?

Azula isn't going to feel remorse because she believes she is the good guy, or at least that the Fire Nation winning is for the greater good. And newsflash, so does the vast majority of the FN. If any other loyal soldier in the FN had to make those choices, they likely would have done the same.

Nearly every single FN soldier had been trying to kill these kids. That includes Zuko. Zuko was literally RIGHT THERE fighting Aang and Katara in the crystal catacombs, but he doesn't get called evil or heartless all because he was too incompetent to strike a killing blow on Aang while he was powering up and then later expressed regret.

Except Zuko only regretted betraying Iroh. Need I remind people Zuko hires a damn ASSASSIN to kill a 12 year old in the next season? If you think Azula coming the closest to killing Aang somehow puts her at a higher grade of evil than 99% of the villains who attacked the Gaang, you have moral myopia and are full of shit.

Azula isn't going to bat an eye at killing Aang because Aang being a child is secondary to Aang being the single greatest threat to her goal. You cannot reasonably expect her, within the circumstances, to politely ask Aang to surrender. You cannot expect her to just lay down and accept defeat when her level of skill, her tactical cunning, and her upbringing under Ozai all point her towards shooting Aang in the back.

Why shouldn't she try to kill Zuko and Katara? She's the enemy and he's a traitor. She hates them and she's pissed. This isn't some moral event horizon.

Azula hates Ursa because she felt neglected and that Zuko getting more attention was unfair. It might be a misunderstanding, but as a child it isn't Azula's responsibility to sort things out.

Azula has arguably the least agency due to her age and having the most oversight by a powerful adult, so yeah I'm not letting that go.

I'm not saying Azula isn't bad. She has a pretty unpleasant personality and dies some shitty stuff. But it's only some, and on the whole she isn't even particularly bad compared to the other villains in the franchise. Is the smirking bad? It is only if you consider having nasty thoughts to be a crime. A bad sign, but just a sign.

But that's all it really ever boiled down to, isn't it? That damn smile of Azula's that shows you just how much she enjoys hurting people. Well the fact is, no matter how much Azula seems to enjoy her actions, no matter how little remorse she shows, it doesn't make her actions any worse than if she had a cold, emotionless or angry frown. It makes her unpleasant, yes, but ultimately you have to judge people on their actions and less on their thoughts and feelings.

No matter how conflicted Zuko was, he still stole that girl's horse when he could have kept walking, hard as it was. No matter how jolly or enlightened Iroh was, he still waged war for decades.

If you expect me to forgive Zuko and Iroh for all their wrongdoings just because they turned things around, then I'm going to hold Azula to that same standard and say that, smirk or no smirk, her actions are, not excusable, but forgivable.

And yes, I do sincerely believe that Azula caused less harm to the world than Zuko and Iroh in the months she was actually active. I understand that conquering BSS was bad and burning down the EK would have been an actual atrocity, but I also understand that conquering BSS was something the FN as a whole was aiming for and burning the land have zero objections by any of the FN military.

Azula also suggests it to keep Zuko from saying something stupid and to get on Ozai's good side. I do not believe she suggested burning the land because she sadistically wanted to kill thousands of people. Azula probably thought it was a brilliant tactic for stampings out the last few rebellions for good.

Is it bad? Yes, it's very fucking bad, because Azula doesn't understand the sheer gravity of what she's saying or the devastation of Ozai's escalation. But that's true for everyone in that room but Zuko. It isn't JUST Azula, it's the whole damn Nation.

You know what Azula does that's just plain mean? Destroying a sand castle. Taunting Zuko about Ozai going to kill him is pretty cruel. Azula probably could have found a nicer way to get Ty Lee on her team.

But don't give me any bullshit about Zuko being Azula's abuse victim. It was a toxic rivalry. And I guarantee you if Zuko had gotten the upper hand on Azula sooner he would have done what he could to humiliate her, because he hates her out if envy, not just because she's mean.

And why should Azula be nice to Zuko, who is always belligerent and angry towards her for being better? That is how she sees him, in her eyes Zuko is the bad sibling who needs to be humiliated and taught a lesson because he's stubborn and entitled and spoiled by their mother who loved him even when he failed, unlike their father who gave attention when it was deserved and earned.

Yes, that's a fucked up way of seeing things, but that's how Azula sees it, that's what she believes is right, and you shouldn't expect her to know otherwise because she IS 14 and has no exposure to anything else.

Azula DOES regret some things, she regrets always having to use fear to control people, but as the series itself spells things out, it's literally all she knows, it's all that she thinks she's even capable of from her failed attempts at being normal in the Beach.

Azula doesn't think she has a choice,band if you don't think you have a choice, then THERE IS NO CHOICE. There is NO opportunity or chsnce to change without guidance, and what so many dumb casuals and antis just don't GET is that Azula really doesn't know right from wrong. That these supposed second chances she's getting to change her ways are utterly pointless if she lacks the wisdom to see them as choices.

None of us are excusing Azula, because that would defeat the purpose of wanting her to finally understand for herself what she did wrong and to get better, but we can't blame her for everything either.

Just because what she did wasn't right doesn't put her beyond forgiveness. The right thing to do would be to trying and actually guide her and help her, not just throw second chances at her and be shocked when she makes another bad decision.

This is a hard pill to swallow for some of you, but a victim is a victim, and no matter how bad or abusive they are, a victim NEEDS HELP. So get over your hangup and do something useful, and if you can't do that, then stay out of the way and let someone else help.

I'm sick of people trying to convince me to forsake a kid, no matter how cruel or messed up she is. Stop telling me to give up hope, stop telling me to keep fighting to save that one little kernel of goodness buried deep down.

I've been doing this shit since I was a teenager, both for myself and for actual people who made bad choices. Even if Azula laughed at Zuko's pain or was willing to kill, she deserves to heal from her abuse as much as she needs to right her wrongs. Fuck anyone who thinks it's okay for her to suffer.

#azula #rant

[sokkastyles]

I saw some Azula fans saying that Mai and Ty Lee were not afraid of Azula. About the scene where Ty Lee tries to stay with the circus and refuse Azula, they also added:

"The fact that Ty Lee tried to refuse at all shows us that she isn’t just 24/7 terrified of Azula.They’re genuinely friends. Azula would still be scary regardless because she’s their princess in a highly militarized society.Zuko does this too, threatening people including his Uncle to get his way constantly. It’s clearly a common thread between them and not at all unique to Azula.Yet no one accuses Iroh of only supporting Zuko out of fear."

I'm just here thinking that the power dynamics between Iroh and Zuko are very different from the dynamics between Azula and her two friends. I'm sure you've probably talked about this topic before, but what do you think about the idea that Azula and Zuko threatening people to get their way is a "common thread between them"?

There's multiple things I want to address here.

First of all, you are absolutely right that the power dynamics are different. There IS a commonality between Azula threatening people and Zuko threatening people, and it's that both have learned that same entitlement that comes with being royalty of an imperialistic nation and both were raised by Ozai.

But one of the major differences is that we know that Zuko's natural inclinations are towards empathy, and we see him as a more empathetic child in contrast to Azula. His behavior towards Iroh and his men at the beginning of the series is a direct result of being burned and banished, and feels like he's trying to imitate what he's supposed to be, just like he imitated Azula at the turtleduck pond when he was little.

Zuko's threats are also never taken seriously, which is another reason why it feels like imitation rather than something he would really carry out. Iroh is not cowed at all when Zuko threatens him, his men call him out, and Zhao laughs in his face. Zuko technically outranks all of them and could use his authority against them, but he has neither the will to do that nor really the desire, whereas Azula's quick readiness to deliver threats plus the way people much older than her react to her with fear shows that she is ready to carry those threats out at a moment's notice.

I'd also point out, with Ty Lee, that being afraid or someone doesn't mean you never say no to them ever, and I find it extremely hypocritical that people deny the obvious fear Azula's victims show of her and say they weren't abused because they weren't quaking in their boots 24/7, and then turn around and insist that Azula was terrified of Ozai offscreen, even though she never shows fear of him ever, lies to him, and screams at him that he "can't treat her like Zuko." Yes, Azula and Ty Lee were friends, but you can still be abused by someone you care about. Azuls stans, in particular, should know this, since they love to talk about how Azula was abused by Ozai. And I'm not denying that she was, just saying that if you are going to talk about abuse, you need to recognize how Azula abuses others as well and not apply double standards to her victims.

#azula #zuko #iroh #ty lee #abuse cw

[attackfish]

Could you do some more of the Dai Li brainwashing Azula and Mai?

Continued from: [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], and [Link].

1. Let's remember, Azula and Mai were not the only parties to be brainwashed by the Dai Li in this AU. Ty Lee was too. She held onto herself in an act of remarkable self-posession and deception, but she only found a way to escape after she had gone through the brainwashing process, and the Dai Li discounted her as a threat. She has found her way to help, and to Katara's waterbending healing, while Azula and Mai are still captive, but she was definitely brainwashed, however unsuccessfully, as well.

2. Her escape has some pretty serious consequences for Mai and Azula. While before, the Dai Li did not view them as capable of escaping, and left them in a cell with a single guard, now they are separated, put into chains, and left in their cells under heavy guard, as if they had never been through the brainwashing process. If one of them escaped, what might her two compatriots be capable of? Not much, but the Dai Li don't know that.

3. Spare a little sympathy for the Dai Li. Yes, they impose crushing authoritarian control on the people of Ba Sing Se, but they're caught up in the same authoritarian system too. And now a couple of guards and the people in charge of brainwashing the fire princess and her companions have really screwed up. This is the second worst screw up in Dai Li history, and these guys are going to be held responsible for it. And as secretive and controlling is the Dai Li are, something tells me that they are not the kind of people to forgive and forget, and the consequences for this kind of thing aren't a nice little firing. Everybody is waiting for Long Feng to return to power, and then shit will go down.

4. The Dai Li have had a really bad week, okay? The Avatar and his group of children, actual children, discovered and broke into their hideout, and they had to trash the place, then these same kids told the Earth King about everything and got Long Feng arrested, and they've been having to sneak him out of his cell, and this all constitutes the worst screw up in Dai Li history, and then this little girl escaped them, and everything is just a nightmare. But maybe, this isn't so bad. They can recapture her. Probably fairly easily. She can't have gone far, and she has to be pretty conspicuous. She doesn't have any allies, anywhere safe to go, and her mind will not be working right. She should be easy to find. They can clean this up before Long Feng ever has to know.

5. Meanwhile of course, Ty Lee has in fact found allies, and while she might currently be sobbing uncontrollably on Zuko's shoulder, her brain is her own again, and she is fully capable of making plans.

#ty lee #dai li #long feng #azula #atla mai #avatar the last airbender #posts i created #do you want to ask a question it doesn't have to be a question #five headcanons #mai doesn't hate you #azula needs her own warning #there is no war in ba sing se #circus freak is a compliment

[oneatlatime]

Season 1 Zuko & Iroh Thoughts

Zuko

zuko is a villain when he's trying, an asshole when he's not. He's not even very effective! He's bad at being a bad guy, and when he isn't actively being a bad guy, he's just an unpleasant person. -Do I have enormous sympathy for him? Yes, especially after The Storm's backstory revelation. -Is he in an enormously awful situation? Yes, although he's not the only character in an enormously awful situation, and others in situations as bad are doing far better. -Do I like who he is as a person? Nope. Not at all. He's an unpleasant scoundrel. He's an ass. He does have some useful and arguably good qualities - he's driven, has (some) planning ability, is bonkers at swords, and occasionally remembers not to be a dick to his uncle or his crew.

I don't deny that a lot of what I dislike about him is caused by the difficult extenuating circumstances that apply to him. But, even if all those difficulties disappeared, I feel like I wouldn't find his base personality appealing either. That being said, I don't know if I've glimpsed the "real" Zuko yet. I don't think there has been an episode yet where he doesn't have a reason to be on high alert. But in episodes when he's not actively pursuing the Gaang, he's yelling at his crew or his uncle.

He does seem to have a (deeply buried) inner core of decency and lines he won't cross, unlike Zhao. After Sokka and Katara helped Aang escape Zuko's ship back in episode 2, he didn't go back and destroy the southern water tribe. Zhao would have. Zhao never would have accepted Aang's deal to protect the tribe in the first place. But rather than making Zuko an appealing character, this inner core of decency just makes him a less effective villain. It's too small to make him someone to root for; it's just big enough to have enough of a restraining effect on his villainy to make him seem pathetic compared to other Fire Nation villains.

At the end of season 1, my question regarding Zuko is this: why does any fan like him? You can't root for him as a villain, because he's not callous or suave enough to be a badass, crazy enough to be entertaining, or competent enough to be a threat. You can't admire him when he's not actively in villain mode, because he's a disrespectful shouty little butt. My very limited knowledge of this show before I watched it did include the tidbit that Zuko had a big fanbase. Why tho?

Iroh

Iroh obviously has something deeper going on. Which I find confusing. He obviously doesn't have the same 'burn the world' zeal as Zhao, and in fact is more interested in defending the world as a whole than advancing Fire Nation interests when the chips are down (see him defending the moon fish). I think he still supports the Fire Nation cause; I think he would be more actively discouraging Zuko's Avatar hunting if he didn't still support/believe it.

It was Zuko's ship they were on, so Iroh doesn't have command over or responsibility for Zuko, which means that he can't just tell Zuko what to do. But he's shown himself to be someone capable of subtlety (at least the amount of subtlety required to get something past Zuko). And he's shown himself to be capable of teenager wrangling. So I'm forced to conclude that the 'something deeper' that is going on with Iroh is the fact that he is either currently on the fence about, or slowly drifting away from, Fire Nation ideals. He can't actually disapprove of what the Fire Nation is doing, otherwise he would have taken advantage of the last three years of totally uninterrupted contact with his nephew to start steering him in an anti-war direction.

So either Iroh has only the slightest anti-war leanings at the moment, or it took literally every second of Zuko's last three years at sea to recover from getting half his face blown off. While I can believe that the injury was slow to heal (especially the psychological side), one of the first lines that Iroh says in episode one is cautioning Zuko against getting his hopes up about having found the Avatar because there had been countless red herrings previously. Which implies that they've been actively Avatar hunting for a while.

So my question is this: if, as I am being led to believe, Iroh does not fully support the Fire Nation war, why has he not, at any point over the last three years at sea, attempted to sway Zuko into thinking the same? I could understand not wanting to rip the rug out from under Zuko if they were a few months into their banishment, but after three whole years, is it not borderline irresponsible of a guardian-ish figure to allow their charge to keep believing in something they suspect may be untrue? Surely in the three years since banishment, Zuko has seen enough destruction caused by the Fire Nation for him to start putting the pieces together himself?

That being said...

I'm meh on Iroh; I actively dislike Zuko. But Zuko + Iroh? That's good stuff. Their dynamic is exponentially more than the sum of its parts. Their interactions are believable and entertaining. Of the first ten episodes, my favourite is The Winter Solstice Part 1: The Spirit World, in part because of their odd couple dynamic. Zuko is only tolerable when he's bouncing off Iroh. Iroh is at his best when he's in Zuko wrangling mode. I forget that I dislike Zuko when he's having a non-shouty interaction with Iroh. And then he goes and talks to shouts at someone else and I remember why I dislike him.

I do think Zuko is an ass on a very fundamental level, but I also wonder if he plays that up when he's around people he's not comfortable with. Take Zuko and Iroh's interactions when Zuko is stowing away on Zhao's ship to the North Pole. Quiet, controlled, genuine, almost as much left unsaid as is spoken aloud. They obviously have a deep understanding of each other. And they have mutual respect, although Zuko would never admit it. Now compare that to Zuko and Katara interacting in the Spirit Oasis when Zuko is trying to kidnap Aang. The jerk tendencies are turned up to 11. Which wasn't actually necessary, and probably detrimental since Zuko's one liner announced his presence and took away the element of surprise.

So maybe Zuko isn't that much of a jerk deep down. But since Zuko is not the main character of this show, we're pretty much guaranteed to only see Zuko in the context of interacting with others in the cast, where he will be a jerk. So whether or not he is as much of a jerk as he appears will be irrelevant, because we'll only see him in contexts where he is at maximum jerkiness, if that makes sense?

Honestly I don't even know if Zuko and Iroh will be in season 2. Zuko is on the box art for my season 3 DVD, so I guess he comes back at some point, but by the end of season 1 he and Iroh are no one and have nothing. The days of them being a threat, even a nuisance, to the Gaang are over. What can the writers even do with these characters now? Where can they possibly go?

#atla #avatar: the last airbender #season 1 #zuko #iroh #avatar the last airbender

[balanceoflightanddark]

There's been something that's been bugging me a little...okay, a LOT about the post-canon and arguably canon treatment of Azula. Or rather, her treatment in comparison to her father, Ozai.

Mainly...I think Ozai gets off waaaaaaaaaaaay too easily while Azula gets crapped on much more by the narrative.

"Now wait a minute. How is getting debended getting off too easily?" I'm not saying Ozai got off scot-free here. I'm saying that in this particular instance, his treatment is a lot lighter.

This arguably has its roots in canon, particularly Book 3 where the final showdown was approaching. They brought up baby pictures of Ozai, had Aang mentally wrestling with whether or not he should kill Ozai, and Iroh refused to fight his brother, but encouraged his nephew to fight his sister. Again, this in of itself isn't bad. It establishes the conflict of trying to redeem the Fire Nation after all they did while humanizing and Aang's struggles with doing something seemingly unspeakable for his age and morals. Iroh comes off as the most questionable, but this isn't immediately a problem.

It's when we get to the comics where the issues start to kick into overdrive.

Let's do a comparison shall we? Ozai is locked into a cell that, while he's debended, is still visited frequently by Zuko who admits he was right. By contrast, Azula is locked in an insane asylum, restrained 24/7 in a straitjacket, and is only visited once just so Zuko can get something from her for his own benefit. Not to mention Azula gets a ton of abuse throughout both the trilogies she stars in, but Ozai just sits comfortably behind bars.

Hell, there's a movement to restore him to power...and Azula still is treated like the bigger threat. She gets labeled a terrorist, while all Ozai gets is a finger-wagging from Ursa, a woman he couldn't give a crap about.

And if it can't get any worse, there's Legacy of Fire. Whenever Iroh speaks of Ozai, he speaks in regretful tones, showing grief that things didn't work out between the two. But Azula? He showed nothing but disdain, disgust, and blamed her for Zuko's abuse at the hands of Ozai. EVEN THOUGH SHE HERSELF WAS A VICTIM OF SAID ABUSE!

And, just to put the nail in the coffin, there's a family tree.

Ozai is treated with some dignity, but Azula? ...

I'm sorry but...what?!?

Why is Ozai getting so much leniency here?!?! No matter how bad Azula got, Ozai was canonically so much worse that he blew her actions out of the water! Say what you will about Azula taunting Zuko, Ozai was the one who scarred his face and humiliated him in front of the entire Nation. When did Azula ever reach those levels?!

And are we forgetting this is the man who tried to BURN DOWN AN ENTIRE CONTINENT JUST TO STROKE HIS OWN EGO?!?! Yes, Azula brought it up, but there's a big difference between saying something and actually doing it.

I just don't get it? How come Azula gets so much crap flung her way by the fandom and the creators when Ozai, who is objectively far worse than she will ever be, is treated with more dignity and respect? Why is the abuse victim treated like a monster when the abuser keeps getting off easy like this?

I just...this is...this is disgusting. It legitimately is. I don't care if Ozai doesn't have bending anymore. That doesn't excuse any of his bullcrap, and his daughter shouldn't be thrown under the bus, tortured, or whatever while he gets to live out his life in a comfortable cell.

#azula #princess azula #azula deserved better #anti atla comics #atla comics critical #atla critical #anti legacy of fire #ozai meta

[theivorybilledwoodpecker]

I feel like if the cartoon Jee had tried to share the dirt on Zhao, Zuko wouldn't have reprimanded him.

I get that this scene was meant to show Zuko as an idealistic teenager still seeing the Fire Nation and its values through rose-colored glasses, and also show he was honorable even toward enemies. But I think making this the first time Zuko met Zhao very much changed the dynamics.

In the original, it's immediately clear that Zuko and Zhao have a bad history. The entire episode slowly builds up to the rage we see in the agni kai.

I don't think Zuko would gossip with Jee. But he would definitely smirk and try to hide his amusement.

That being said, I also think the original Zhao would be unlikely to fail so many times. I mean, yes, even persevering in the face of failure takes strength. But Zhao is very much portrayed as more of a threat in the original.

#Zuko #Zhao #lieutenant jee #avatar the last airbender

[yellow-faerie]

Tell us about the fires of agni 👀

[From this post of my current WIPs, if anyone is curious ;)]

Ah yes, (one of) my Lu Ten lives AU which finally has a name!

The basic premise is that Lu Ten gets really, terribly injured at the siege of Ba Sing Se and ends up being returned to the Capital to recover; meanwhile, Firelord Azulon refuses to let Iroh return as well and so Iroh deserts with the intention of returning anyway and absconding with his son but ends up having a journey of self-discovery where he realises that the Fire Nation is shit, actually, and he has a new goal of Reformation TM.

In the capital, Lu Ten is recovering and also watching Shit Go Down TM as Ozai is a piece of shit. Too injured, he can't do much while everything happens very similarly to canon. Ozai says that Iroh is a traitor for leaving (which Azulon may grudgingly agree with) and that his line should take the throne; but then Azulon is like...Lu Ten is still alive and I like him more than you, to prove that you are actually still loyal, I want you to kill your daughter (and remove a potential threat).

Azula overhears - so does Ursa - and then things Go Down, as Ursa leaves the Capital after protecting her children in the best way she can.

Now Lu Ten is the only reasonably responsible adult in the area and he's like...twenty two, he should not be put in charge of children.

He gets on better with Zuko, but he is probably closer with Azula; he sees a lot of himself in her, especially the pressure that she obviously feels that she is under (although the pressure on him as a child was a little less intentional). He also has Complicated Feelings TM over his own father.

He has a fiancée drifting about, and there will definitely be a few more OCs of varying importances, but the end result of the palace is that when Zuko is banished, Lu Ten goes with him at Ozai's request, and Azula sneaks aboard too - for character reasons I have yet to properly establish, but the point of this fic is that the three potential heirs to the throne are on a ship, in the middle of the ocean, and they are varying degrees of angry at pretty much everything.

And have some shit to deal with.

Iroh is doing White Lotus shit everywhere and making up for War Crimes TM while Mai and Ty Lee are in the Capital being specially trained as Ozai's special operatives since his daughter ran away and refuses to appear again. He gets married again and probably has a baby kid with the poor woman, because both his heirs are currently Missing In Action and he can't have that (but, then again, he might also think that this means he won't be usurped because he's a bit doolally)

Lu Ten might be a nonbender, or he might be a prodigious firebender, I vacillate between the two ideas on the regular. Either way, he definitely know all the theory and he and his fiancée (her name is Hai Lien and she's one of the Imperial Firebenders and I could talk about her All Day) train the two younger firebenders.

Then plot happens? The vibes are vague, they keep coming across the White Lotus because Iroh is definitely keeping tabs on them. Season 2 is probably where the canon diverges properly - they end up on the run from Ozai who wants the both of them dead as he has his new heir and doesn't see the use in having any of them still alive, and they are both Convinced TM that they can be the one their father wants back.

Ty Lee and Mai are the ones sent after them, lead by Ozai's new wife - no name yet, just a terrifying bender with a lot of power and little precision; there is a lot of accidental arson that she does not feel sorry for - and like, the amount of effort they put in is Very Minimal; all of Ozai's attempts to make them loyal agents of the Fire Nation have made them go actually, no, not this thanks and loyalty to their old friends outweighs their loyalty to him.

Which means that Ba Sing Se goes hella different. First of all, the Jasmine Dragon still exists but Iroh created it like two years ago as a place for the White Lotus to meet up and this is where the fam all meet back with Iroh.

Second of all, no betrayal. Azula's not there to be all manipulative, it's only Long Feng and the wife who is a) not an emotionally significant figure for either of them and b) evidence that Ozai has really moved on from them - so when she's like you could come home :) neither Zuko nor Azula need Iroh to convince them not to go (although, I've been playing around with the idea that one of them might choose to go - either Zuko because he wants to believe his father, or Azula because she wants to believe her father - and the other staying but I shall see when I get there).

The walls still fall but I think Aang probably doesn't die - unless I make Ozai's wife go apeshit (as in, crazy firestorm that will Kill Everything which I might do) - and the Gaang gets the bedraggled remnants of the Fire Nation royal family (although Iroh peaces out to go do White Lotus stuff - noteably before getting told about the Day of Black Sun because I still want that to fail? I love AUs but I hate diverging too much apparently lol

Anyway; Lu Ten and Hai Lien stay with the Water Tribe fleet while the others go off with the Avatar. Things follow along as they do; Lu Ten and Hai Lien get captured by the Fire Nation after the failed invasion but they escape together, helping out a few other prisoners as well, if either Zuko or Azula go back to the Fire Nation (an idea I'm tempted by just so that the Gaang has a reason to know about the airships) then they return soon after the invasion.

The finale: Fire Fam feat. Katara go off to defeat Ozai's wife (left behind to Defend the Homeland). Lu Ten and Hai Lien meet the others at the airships, having used their escape to hijack one and cause chaos.

Zuko gets crowned because Iroh is like I sure as ain't having that, and Lu Ten is like...I have never wanted something less in my life (which is the end to some of his arc, where he's trying not to let everyone else's pressure get to him, kinda, it's very vague), but they're all very supportive to him, he has a whole family of people ready to help rule the country, he's just the guy officially in charge.

Ozai's in prison; his wife is either dead because accident or dead because she refused to be put in prison; the baby they had is probably barely a year or two old at this point so they are raised almost entirely by their weirdo family.

If I continued the fic, I'd probably rewrite some of The Search, so that Ursa hasn't lost her memories and now that the war is over, she returns to the palace. There's a lot of hurt feelings but they make up and they gain a Proper Parental Figure in her.

Also Kiyi exists because I think she's cute, but Ikem might not because I did not vibe with him. I kind of like the idea of Ursa and Hakoda hitting it off but nothing much happening because separate responsibilities, they just make sure to see each other a bit.

Anyway? Those are the vibes? That's kinda the plot?

There's a lot more character in between the lines, and I would like to add more of the Gaang to it because they're great; I also would like to make a disclaimer that Ozai's wife is not like Azula lite, just to replace her because she's good in this fic.

When I added her, I was slightly worried that that was how she would come across but I think she's very much a separate character - Ozai married her for her raw power but she is young and simply doesn't have the discipline to control it, showing a very important lesson about the uncontrollability of fire; she is also an avid imperialist, beyond the societal imperialism built into the Fire Lord system. Again, vibes - hopefully when I do eventually write this, she doesn't come off as Azula lite.

As for the other OCs! The only important ones I can think of now are Hai Lien (who is there through most of it as she is both a) an avid defender of Lu Ten as a person (either because she's in love with him or they're besties) and b) an avid defender of Lu Ten as the True Heir to the Throne, which is an entire thing going on - she goes through her own anti-imperialism arc herself as they're travelling, which probably ends in her joining the White Lotus; Lu Ten doesn't because he is determined to retire before thirty, that becomes like his entire life goal) and also the little sibling, but they probably become more important in a post series fic/writing.

I honestly don't have much for them, other than that they exist as a necessity for what Ozai is doing.

Anyway, once again, these are the vibes! Specific questions are very welcomed, I get far too distractable and I can miss this in my descriptions.

Here's a little snippet from what I've written already:

Lu Ten doesn’t wake up so much as drift through different states of consciousness until he’s more awake than not.

Everything hurts – a stabbing, rough pain from every slight movement he makes – so he focuses on his breath. Each one comes in deep into the stomach and out with a slow control, a pattern that’s been ingrained from a decade and a half of training under the Dragon of the West.

There’s a soft gasp beside him and he realises someone is holding his hand as it’s squeezed.

“Lu?” Hai Lien whispers, almost disbelieving, and Lu Ten forces his eyes open.

It’s dim, the candles few and each a cool red, but he has to squint all the same to get used to it. It takes him a moment to gather his wits about him, before he realises that this isn’t the eight person tent in the siege camp that he had begun to call home but is instead a cabin within a navy ship.

“You’re awake,” she says, disbelief shining in her dark eyes as her voice shakes. “You’re - oh spirits.”

She runs a hand through her hair (the one not tangled with Lu Ten’s upon the sheets) which is down and more dishevelled than he thinks he’s ever seen it.

“Oh-” She stands from her seiza at his bedside to call through the half open door. “Hey, go get the healers, tell them his highness has woken.”

“Hai?” Lu tries to say as her expression starts to get frenzied; if the dark bags beneath her eyes are anything to go by, she must be exhausted, but he could tell that just from how she was acting. He wants to tell her to go find somewhere to sleep, to get rest for both their sakes, but just trying to say her name alone hurts.

“No, no, don’t try and speak,” she says, her attention focussing entirely on him as she strokes back a lock of hair. “Just...try and stay awake for me, while the healers come. They’ll need to do some more tests, work out what they missed while you were...out of it.”

He wants to nod, wants to agree in some way but the longer he stays conscious, the more everything starts to blur together and hurt.

“And no dying either,” she continues, her voice getting wet with uncried tears, “I don’t want to write to your father if you do.”

So his father was still alive.

Oh that was good.

Everything is too fuzzy in his head to think straight, he can’t even work out why or how he’s even here.

There was a battle, that was right. They were taking advantage of the breach in the wall to take more of the agrarian zone and push into the lower ring and he had been distracted-

And he’d had tea and Pai Sho with his father the night before; he’d been planning the conversation for weeks, pacing anxiously around camp with Hai Lien at his side, but he’d been a coward in the end and didn’t manage to tell him the truth.

The door to the cabin opens and two healers file in.

“Your highness!” One exclaims, their voice wavery and thin over the rushing in Lu Ten’s ears, and Hai Lien’s warm hand in his falls away.

The healer’s fingers are cold, is the last cognisant thought he has before he falls back into the streams of unconsciousness.

#thank you so much for the ask :) #I love talking about my fic probably even more than I like writing my fic #It's so much easier to just vomit ideas onto the page than trying to create a cognisant narrative lol #anyway this fic is dear to me I have thought and developed this a lot over the years #Lu Ten Lives AU #Lu Ten #Fire Nation Royal Family #OC: Hai Lien #AtLA #Avatar #The Fires of Agni #Ask #Ask Game #Anonymous

[comradekatara]

Hi! Been reading through your blog, and I really appreciate the nuanced way you discuss the themes and characters in atla. So I was curious about your thoughts on a take I’ve seen floating around (that I feel conflicted on).

I’ve seen people argue that, particularly in season 3, Zuko’s perspective and arc are prioritized at the expense of (all the characters, but especially) Aang’s perspective/internality.

For example, in the Western Air Temple episode, any complicated feelings Aang might have about Zuko’s role in his death and in the fall of Ba Sing Se (two events that shaped Aang’s struggle at the opening of the season) are hand waved, entirely untapped and unexplored. Everything that Zuko did in Ba Sing Se goes unmentioned in the episode, to facilitate the necessary next step of Zuko’s journey (joining the gaang), and the episode is primarily framed through Zuko’s POV, exploring his fears regarding whether the group will accept him and his desire for redemption through them.

Similarly, the focus of the succeeding episodes is on integrating Zuko into the group, leaving little space to expand on/build up to Aang’s central conflict for the season, meaning it’s crammed into/abruptly introduced in the very final episodes.

I think there is some merit to this critique (Aang aside, I also would have liked a bit more space for Toph in this final season too, her fraught relationship with her parents feels like a thread that’s left hanging). On the other hand, I think that one of Aang’s strengths as a MC is that he doesn’t overpower/dominate the entire narrative, and that other characters (Zuko, Katara, etc.) are allowed just as much significance and importance within the story, so…idk. Would appreciate another perspective, sorry for the long ask :)

forgive my slightly reductive claim, but I actually see each season as belonging to a different main character. book 1: water is very much katara’s season. she is the narrator who introduces us to the world, the catalyst for the inciting incident, and the entire journey to the north pole is her idea, her goal, her quest to master waterbending. most episodes in book 1 center on katara, her escapades, her blunders, her triumphs, her adventures; aang is also featured prominently, of course, but she’s by far the hero of this story.

then book 2: earth shifts focus, and focalizes aang instead. katara has achieved her primary goal of learning waterbending for a master, and now she’s mostly just along for the ride. she still has episodes where she is central to the plot and truly shines (eg, the chase, the desert, lake laogai) but she’s mainly playing second fiddle to aang, who has to contend with his position as avatar and the immense power he wields, learns earthbending (his most personally challenging element), suffers inconceivable loss as he grieves appa, the triumphant joy of their reunion, works through his emotional state with the guru, and finally, his defeat at the hands of azula. book 2 is, first and foremost, aang’s season.

so it stands to reason that book 3: fire is zuko’s. zuko has been focalized before, most prominently in the episode “zuko alone,” but this season is not about zuko in isolation, but rather his integration. the goal zuko has been striving for and the changes he has undergone and lessons he’s learned in the previous two seasons all culminate here, finally realizing the character arc they’ve been laying the groundwork for in the background of aang and katara’s journeys. so of course zuko is prioritized in zuko’s season. of course episodes like “the beach” barely even focus on the gaang whatsoever, with their only sparse scenes just there to establish combustion man as a threat.

and it’s not that we don’t get the gaang’s pov in “the western air temple,” because we very much do. we see them respond to their defeat at the invasion, we see them argue over whether to let zuko into the group, and yes, we do see katara acknowledge what happened in ba sing se, very emphatically, I might add.

and the following episode is literally about aang. yes, zuko is still the character whose point of view is centered the most, but it’s also a direct response to aang’s conflict in “the deserter,” and it provides a crucial aspect of not only zuko’s character development, but also aang’s. then, the episode after that is all about sokka. zuko features, of course, but he knows this is not his journey and he is happy to follow sokka’s lead. it’s a necessary episode as it marks the apotheosis of sokka’s arc. then, “the southern raiders,” which serves as katara’s apotheosis. yes, zuko is the one who orchestrates the plot, but but it’s katara’s emotional journey every step of the way. “the ember island players” is equally about aang, katara, and zuko’s horrified responses to this play. and then in “sozin’s comet” aang, katara, and zuko are each given equal weight in their final moments in the narrative.

i don’t think that aang’s central conflict feels rushed or abrupt whatsoever, because it was already addressed as far back as in “the avatar state” when he expressed fears regarding the scale of his power and the damage it causes. aang’s conflicting duty to the world as the avatar and duty to his people as the last airbender has been established time and time again since book 1, and is especially focalized in book 3 in episodes such as “the awakening” and “the day of black sun.” even a sort of dismissible episode like “nightmares and daydreams” centers his point of view and elucidates his anxiety.

but aang, katara, and zuko have always been positioned as a sort of prism that narratively refract and reflect one another, ever since the very beginning. each season focalizes one while still giving the others the necessary space to grow and develop, but if zuko does feel like the protagonist of book 3, it’s because it’s his season, and that doesn’t minimize aang or katara’s importance, because he is reflecting them each step of the way, just as they are reflecting him.

and as a sidenote: toph’s fraught relationship with her parents is actually explored sufficiently, in my opinion, via her dynamics with the rest of the gaang. her conflict with her family is resolved through finding unconditional and mutual support through her friends, and both her tension with katara as explored in “the runaway” and her vulnerability and faith in sokka (especially in “sozin’s comet”) illustrate how toph still struggles in some key ways, but has also grown so much since first escaping her abusive home.

#alphatwin999 #asks #analysis #katara #aang #zuko #I need a tag for like…. their triangle #and #toph #I guess

[eponastory]

The latest chapter was shocking.

Was this really planned out, or were you going for shock value? I almost quit reading it.

It's still good but that was crazy.

The answer is... yes. It was planned.

Originally, this was the point where we would finally have a confrontation with Aang. But I changed the outline because it made no sense for Aang to be on Kyoshi.

But, if you were paying attention, I was actually building towards this moment for a while. It seems so sudden because of the way I introduced it. And while I know readers my not like the serious topics I throw in, I do state that I do not shy away from real-world subjects. This also brings me to if the subject is brought up in the source material numerous times, then why do others need to shy away from it.

Through the first part of the story, the audience as well as the characters, are introduced to a bloodbender. The only things they know about this bloodbender is his names and the stories they hear about him from other characters. Zuko and Katara know only what Azula and Ila told them. Nothing more. So, because of this threat, Zuko thinks it's best to help Katara understand her bloodbending abilities better. Because in his mind, if Tulok can take Azula's bending away, he's a serious threat. The clues are all there.

So when we get to said event where they group sees exactly what Tulok can do, but he is long gone, they are just as shocked as you are. Especially Suki and Sokka. Zuko doesn't react the same way because he has delayed reactions. He's overstimmulated emotionally to where he feels numb and has to worry about everything external. So you are feeling exactly what they are feeling. Which is what I intended.

Trust me, I don't like writing this stuff as much as it looks like I do, because it gets me emotional, too. I use that to my advantage.

And for those wondering about the subject... it's in the realm of genocide and mass murder.

I did put a warning about it. So it was not totally out of the blue.

#writing it allows for human emotions to be felt #zutara #zutara fanfic #zutara fanfiction

[zuko-always-lies]

“Undeserved Kindness” and ATLA

There are many characters in ATLA who show kindness to others who have done nothing to “deserve” or “show they earned it,” to even their own deadly enemies. Sometimes this kindness has great personal costs.  Often this kindness fails to achieve its objectives, and it rarely leads to the “undeserving” recipient changing their behavior for the better. However, it always serves to illuminate the character of the giver of kindness, to demonstrate what kind of person they are.

Let us take Aang’s treatment of Zuko, for example.  Aang saves Zuko in “The Blue Spirit,” even though Zuko has spent the past half-season trying to capture him. This doesn't earn Aang any rewards. In the short term, what this gets Aang is Zuko trying to burn his face off, and it unclears how much, if at all, this episode of kindness plays in Zuko eventually switching sides. But do you what? Even if this action had brought no long-term rewards, even if Zuko had never switched sides or if he had died somewhere in a ditch in the Earth Kingdom, Aang saving Zuko would still demonstrate Aang’s kindness and compassion.

Let’s turn to Aang saving Zuko in “The Siege of the North.” This doesn’t lead to Zuko changing his behavior. As far as we see, he never even acknowledges the Gaang had saved him, and he not only attempts to capture Aang at least once after this but straight up tries to kill the entire Gaang in Book 3.  But again, Aang demanding that they save Zuko, despite everything Zuko has done to him, demonstrates what sort of person Aang is.

We can turn to Zuko offering to save Zhao in the same episode, which I think might be Zuko’s most compassionate moment in the show. Zhao is an awful person and just tried to kill Zuko, and likely would again if given the chance.  He doesn’t take Zuko’s hand, and it’s doubtful that Zuko could have saved him anyways. Yet Zuko offering and Zuko trying to save even a mortal enemy says something fundamental about Zuko, just like Zhao refusing Zuko’s offer says something about Zhao.

We can say much the same about Katara offering to heal Zuko’s scar.  Zuko has done nothing to deserve this kindness and has repeatedly done awful things to Katara and her friends, but Katara still feels empathy for him and acts compassionately toward him. Does this lead to any sort of positive result for her? No, and I don’t think scene played any real role in Zuko switching sides. Does this scene still say volumes about Katara? Hell yes.

We can turn to Azula apologizing to Ty Lee in “The Beach.” Azula manages to accomplish her short term objective of making Ty Lee feel better, but this doesn't fix her relationship with her friend or solve the toxic dynamics underlying it. Nor does this net Azula any long-term benefit. Still, this scene says a lot about who Azula is.

And the same can be said for Ty Lee’s decision to of her own volition volunteer to help Azula learn how to flirt. Does this fix her relationship with her friend? No. Does it even end up netting Azula a boyfriend in the short term? No. But it still says a lot about who Ty Lee is as a person.

Finally, we can turn to Azula generally being kind to Zuko in “The Beach”(although there are moments when she’s a bit of a jerk to him, she’s generally pretty nice). Does this fix Azula’s relationship with her brother? No. Does it lead to Zuko showing the slightest shed of kindness to her? No.  Does this prevent Zuko from taking actions which have strong negative impacts on her? No. Does it say volumes on who Azula is as a person, her relationship with her brother, and how she wants her relationship with her brother to be? Yes.

And now we turn to Iroh’s treatment of Azula. Many people claim that he was totally justified to hate her because she was a threat to Zuko, or claim that he couldn’t have “saved her” anyways. That misses the point. Iroh not demonstrating the slightest shed of empathy or compassion toward (and it would have been so easy for the writers to imply that he did) his abused child soldier 14 year old niece says volumes about him. Iroh not demonstrating any regret about what had happened to her says volumes about him(and the show very clearly showed that he felt a lot of regret on how bad his relationship with Ozai had gotten).

#Aang #Zhao #Katara #Zuko #Azula #Ty Lee #Iroh #anti-Iroh #Aang managed to show kindness and compassion even to mortal enemies #Iroh doesn't manage to show the slightest hint of empathy toward his own niece

[tuiyla]

NATLA Ep. 1 "Aang" thoughts

It might not be the Avatar but it's still an Avatar show which means I'm giving it the respect of not doing anything else while watching, so I'm not gonna liveblog, as such. BUT, I do have many many thoughts after just episode 1 so before I proceed I'm gonna digest a bit and do a word vomit of those thoughts. Maybe I'll get around to a more in-depth and critical examination later after watching the whole thing but for now, a few thoughts here and there. Spoilers inbound.

The opening

The first huge difference is of course how the whole thing kicks off. Trust me, despite having been a huge ATLA fan for over 15 years I'm not trying to approach this in a way where I automatically shit on everything the new show changes. It's a different era, different medium, different audience. Well, in a way. So some changes are outright necessary and, in some cases, even good! Therefore I don't automatically roll my eyes because we don't open with Katara's narration and the Southern Water Tribe. Modern audiences, Netflix audiences are more fantasy savvy than Nick's target audience in 2005 so it makes sense to open with the war's beginning. I'll even take the Sozin scene, though it feels a bit wrong, in a way, to introduce a character like him so early on. I wanted to say, without much sense of threat, too, but it's not live action movie Ozai levels bad and we do get our arguably most brutal scene when Sozin straight up burns an earthbender from pretty much inside out. This level of violence is something I'll perhaps get into more in another post but long story short, I think it's the right amount. This ain't a Nick cartoon anymore but it's also not gratuitous. What it is, is war.

Part of the opening is the intro, of sorts, a twist on the beloved opening sequence as narrated by Katara. The twist itself, I'm okay with, but I have Feelings on Kyoshi being our narrator that are again for a more in-depth look. In short, it makes no thematic sense for it to be the Avatar from before the last to narrate this. I know Kyoshi is the fan favourite, pun intended, but that's all the justification they have. If anyone other than Katara, who is done dirty by taking her narration away btw, it should be Roku. You know, the actual last Avatar? Having it be Kyoshi is fan service as much fans are symbolic of her. Bad pun, I know. I haven't seen ep 2 yet but do tell me we're shifting to Katara, pls pls pls. Another gripe I have is the title, "Aang", since the OG show has such beautiful symmetry with its first and last ep titles but this is a nitpick. Also, nothing to indicate that this is the season of water? Titling the seasons after the elements matters very much.

And then, just when I think we're jumping to 100 years later, we meet Aang. I'm already going into more detail with thoughts here than I intended but I just do not like how we drag this on and on. Show Aang's backstory and the details of the attack later, mid-season. Yes, like the original did it, because the original did it for a reason and that's to not info dump in the very first episode and have sloppy exposition that would have felt more natural had it been delayed for later. We don't need to know everything about the world and the role of the Avatar right away. I do like how the Aang and Gyatso relationship was established but we didn't need All That, and we could have had the vast majority if not all of this as a flashback later on. Random idea, but maybe even in the episode where Zuko's backstory is covered. I'm really innovating here, I know. I'll explain why this was too much in another post, maybe, but for now I'll say the positive that I do think these scenes are done well, I just don't like their placement. And I don't like what we're doing to Aang's ch in terms of his responsibility and role so far, such as him not actually wanting to Run Away run away, but I'll wait and see where they take him for the rest of the season.

Wolf Cove

Omg what, the Southern Water Tribe? Finally. The ch who started off the whole thing in the OG appears 21 minutes into this episode, almost the length of an entire ATLA ep. So far, the sibling dynamic is Fine. Again a bit too heavy on the exposition but what can you do when you cut Katara's opening narration about their family and tribe. Some things I take issue with include the way Katara breaks the iceberg open, i.e. lack of feminist rage and in general her lack of strong presence in this first installment. It feels like they're trying to give Sokka more but you can showcase Sokka without making it feel like Katara is less of a presence, less of a driving force, and frankly more of a kid than she is in the OG. I do like her and the actress, her interactions with Aang and role in the story just feel lacking so far. And then they actually include her intro word for word, just said by Gran Gran! Like yeah we know Katara tells the story like Gran Gran told her but damn, straight up theft.

I'm also not satisfied with Kanna's place in the story. Her breaking the news to Aang feels flat and devoid of the tension that was present in the OG where Aang and Katara put two and two together on their own. Also no goodbye to Gran Gran? No big sendoff to her grandkids? No speech about destiny? Disappointing. What is done well is the sense of dread when the Fire Nation ship arrives at the village and Zuko's whole entrance, that's good. But again, he and Iroh give away way too much way too early about his mission and banishment and such. You guys, you have a whole season to get into it, why rush. I have a fear as to why they're rushing but we'll see. It just feels like a rookie mistake to try and shove so much into the first ep. We get it, the world is so much bigger and these chs so much richer than they first seem but that's the point, the audience will watch and learn as the season goes on. Just because Avatar has all this lore way beyond the first installment doesn't mean we have to go back to Wan and explain everything before we can head to the North Pole. I joke and exaggerate, but there were times I rolled my eyes at the dialogue. Again, not Shymalan levels bad but that is not where the bar should be.

Overall

I have less to say about the Southern Air Temple as it is quite brief, all things considered and because we already got so much of it before even making it to the present. I do think it's funny people thought the live action would let the story breathe more just because the eps are longer because look, here we are, three 23 minutes eps shoved into less than an hour with expanded stuff from the very beginning. This is not it breathing more because there aren't 20 eps to work with. They have a lot of content to get through and as a viewer you can feel it, which doesn't bode well. The whole script does have this first/second draft smell which is sus, when this thing has been in development since at least the end of 2018 and the OG eps it's based on just turned 19. Yeah, that's right, nineteen.

As for things like the visuals, the costumes, the acting, the score, bending, I think it'll make more sense to pass a judgement at the end of the season. Besides, what I'm most interested in is the script and I don't pretend to know much about things like costuming. First impression, it looks good. CG is a bit stifled at times but I like how oversaturated it often is, especially with the nations' colours. It's probably the closest we'll ever get to Avatar in live action and I'm okay with that, since I still believe they should stick to animation anyway. But yeah, good. Nothing mindblowing and bending so far but I'd also rather it didn't try to razzle dazzle with just flashy CGI and no substance. As is, there's not too much substance so far anyway so I'm waiting for subsequent eps to be more confident in what they're doing, whether that's building on or steering from the source material.

#natla #natla initial thoughts #netflix avatar #aight lemme simp after suki now

[waterfire1848]

Katara: It's my fault Zuko died. I wasn't supposed to be so close to the arena during this 'agni kai' or whatever it's called...but I was...and he saved me...so it's my fault that he died.

Thanks for the ask anon!

Sokka: It's not your fault. You did everything that you could. Azula's the one who blasted him with lightning, not you.

Katara: But, she wouldn't-

Sokka: Yes, she would have. Even if you weren't there, Azula would have still tried to hit Zuko with lightning and he would have still died. The only difference would have been that Azula would have been another threat we'd have to deal with, but, because you were there, you stopped her.

#incorrect quotes #katara #zuko #ask