whatever your opinion about aang not killing ozai, I think we can all agree that ozai would have literally rather died than live the rest of his life as That Guy Who Got The Shit Kicked Outta Him By A 12-Year-Old Pacifist Monk.
me: aang is a very powerful avatar and the fact that he was able to mostly-master all the elements at such a young age means he would be a terrifying opponent!
also me: avatar roku’s spirit spends at least 30% of his time haunting ozai, slapping trash can lids together & yelling “you got beat up by caillou”
yknow what? mr. firelord i am inviting you to meet me in the fucking agne kai pit and i do not care that i am not an expert firebender and will be facing you with nothing but my wrath and my 2 fists i am going to die historic + i WILL go down calling you a bitch and a chode. thank you in advance.
i wonder if korra had always known she was bisexual or if she saw asami one day and thought lmao ok if i was straight at one point i’m not anymore
i have this headcanon that when she was younger and found out katara was married to her in her past life korra would get excited and be all “does that me you’re my wife?” and then if someone was rude to katara young korra would yell something like “don’t talk to my wife like that!” and just basically assume being with women was okay simply because she’s already been with them in past lives
I love seeing the lok fandom on my dash simply for cute shit like this man
prince zuko got you all out here thinking every dark haired antagonist boy is gonna do right in the end when zuzu was the exception not the rule
I really wish it weren’t though? I think it’s really telling that a lot of people like redemption arcs because we want to see people be good despite their pasts. The fact that there are so little redemption arcs in media is very upsetting because it just sends the message that people can’t change which we know is not true. I absolutely don’t mean this for characters like Kylo Ren though lol
Redemption arcs are hard and Zuko’s was successful for a couple of reasons:
1) Zuko wasn’t the worst character in the Fire Nation. From really early on it was shown that, compared to Zhao, Azula, and other Fire Nation leaders, Zuko was consistently more noble. He tried to be a good person and do the right thing, even when doing so led to him suffering for his actions.
2) Zuko suffered for his mistakes. He suffered when he turned away from Iroh, he suffered when he betrayed Iroh, and he suffered even after his face turn. There were consequences for his mistakes; he didn’t get off scot free because his childhood was hard. He was still held accountable by the narrative and made to take responsibility for the wrongs he did.
3) Zuko made tangible amends to the people he hurt. He rescued Hakoda, helped Katara get closure, and became Aang’s firebending master. He put in work to make up for the things he did and rebuild bridges with his new allies.
Most redemption narratives fail because the guilty party is guilty of much greater crimes than failing to capture the hero, never works to make amends, and never suffers for their mistakes. You wanted to see Zuko redeem himself because he had the capacity, wanted to do the work, and paid dearly for his mistakes.
The Avatar series could potentially make 2 more shows after Legend of Korra with an earth nation avatar and a fire nation avatar and I for one would not protest.
Avatar could come full circle and do another show about the next Air Nomad Avatar (someone who was different from Aang) and even another one about the next Water Tribe Avatar and so on and so forth and I would not protest.
Avatar could do another show about another Avatar centuries before ATLA or another avatar thousands of years after and go out of order and tell any story in any era they want and I would not protest.
I think Azula is one of the most enigmatic, fascinating and fantastically well written characters that has ever graced our screens.
I also think she is rather misunderstood by people that just write her off as “the crazy Fire Princess”
Whilst she is being painted as the villain, we get the slow burn of why she is that way.
From a young age she was a Fire Prodigy which caught the eye of her Father. Who began grooming her for war and Royal duties,
Azula showed cruelty as a child and acted out to gain her mothers attention as it was the in which way she gained attention from her Father so in her head, why wouldn’t the same work for Mother.. She also did not know that her Mother wished her goodbye, as she was asleep and so grew up believing Ursa didn’t care. cementing the feeling that Ursa favored Zuko over her.
Her Father manipulated, physically punished any who defied him, or for any infraction. Anything less than perfect was not tolerated. Azula would have witnessed this as he berated Zuko for his apparent lack of skill, pushing herself to strive for perfection.
It seemed Azula received little, if no loving , nurturing affection at all
Failure, again something Ozai would not tolerate. Azula spent her whole life expected to accept the responsibilities of an Adult. andd be exceptional in every way The only way she could gain any sort of attention (not affection) from Ozai was through success.
He sent Azula to Ba Sing Se genuinely not expecting her to succeed where others had failed.. Remember, Ozai never took on a fight he would personally lose and also set Zuko the impossible task of finding the Avatar.. He constantly gas lit his daughtter
Yet time and again, she delivered. She was a genius military strategist, yes manipulative and sometimes cruel, keeping in mind she was raised to believe that she was better than anyone else, and had accomplished things due to her sheer brilliance which would only bolster that ego, She played games of wits with those around her because she was genuinely bored and more than likely the most intelligent person in the room.
She threatened punishment, she never killed unless in the heat of battle. She figured out a way to take over Ba Sing Se with relatively little bloodshed
We must also remember , she was 14!
If we think back, she had no one to socialize with as a child. until she attended the Fire Academy for Girls meeting Mai and Ty Lee . At Ember Island we see how painfully socially awkward she is at the party, completely out of her depth as she has no idea how to interact with people her own age or without using her position as Fire Princess to bully them into submission, hence sparking the jealousy towards Ty Lee.
A reaction of a teenager that has had the epiphany that nobody likes her, for her, something she has always suspected and a whole litany of insecurities, inadequacies , she lashes out, and surprisingly apologies.
Namely because it’s Ty Lee! (who seems to be the only person who genuinely gives a crap about her)
We also see Azula’s compassion towards Ty Lee,
Which brings us to the Boiling Rock and where things really begin to unravel. Azula stops a torture routine, understanding intimidation works better.
Mai makes the choice to save Zuko. but it’s Ty Lee that does the interesting thing.
(Some people tthink she chooses Mai over Azula, I think she chooses Azula over Azula)
Ty Lee stops Azula doing something not a single one of them would ever come back from. If Azula had gone through with it, she would have become the Monster she already thought she was..
Ty Lee saves Azula from Azula by stopping her doing something she would later regret. Again Azula shows compassion by having them imprisoned rather than executed.
Now back tot the betrayal, what Ozai would see as bad judgement on his daughter’s part. He once more brushes her off and shuts her out of meetings and his plans, she is no longer his confidant, to someone her craves her Fathers approval, she feels as if she is being cast aside, adding that to the betrayal of her friend who made her feel powerless by chi blocking her, this is devastating.
She has no one! She has no Uncle Iroh! She is surrounded by sycophants and neophytes.
She has no friends, no one she can trust or rely on, she has never been on the receiving end of any sort of love (that she can see, ) She will never forgive someone stopping her from doing the unforgivable.
. She is a a paranoid teenage girl, with abandonment issues, trust issues, a perfectionist, child soldier, with no support system, who has had her last vestiges of trust annihilated, she is lonely, and had it drummed into her to never show weakness in any shape or form.
Her whole world collapses around her in a matter of weeks. Everything her Father built her to be, his weapon of war, her purpose for being. Every breath leading to this mapped out destiny, means nothing as its gone.
Leading to the heart wrenching, scene between her, Zuko and Katara. Azula’s mental break down was one of the hardest scenes to watch and you would have to be a cold stone bastard not to have that tug on your heart strings.
This multi layered character, this poor child is not just having a tantrum. Its Pain, its loss, its fear of disappointing her father. Its her world being turned on its head. Its the humiliation of her defeat by a ‘dirty water peasant’ Its the howl of someone who finally cant do this anymore.
Is really is one of the few villains on tv that you genuinely feel for!
She needs a huge hug!!
(p.s I do think Ty Lee genuinely liked Azula and wasn’t half as dumb as she lets on, she was kinda afraid of Azula but knew she could turn her into a boneless fish any time she wanted. Was also hoping with the comics that Azula would eventually chill the hell out, maybe find herself a nice wife n find somethihng to do at court)
there’s some lava bending going on there…. so she separated the ground down to the mantle layer (magma chamber)? then floated that chunk on lava then air bended it over?
This is often cited as the single most powerful feat in bending in the entire franchise, and I’m inclined to agree. Kyoshi Island also manages to wind up quite a distance from the mainland–let’s assume it’s still on the continental shelf, otherwise MY GOD–and is large enough to sustain a reasonably-sized village with agriculture. Unless there’s an earthbending equivalent of the great comet going on, this is nuts.
Avatar Kyoshi also lived to 230 years old.
All of this begs the question to me–what the hell was up with her? Did she get a spirit-world power boost or something? These things are all very much outside the norm, even in a world of such extraordinary people.
What’s everybody’s theory on this?
She was just that strong
My thought has always been that Kyoshi was one of the few Avatars that was completely at peace with who and what she was. Every other Avatar we’ve seen – even the best of them like Aang and Korra – are conflicted over what they have to do and how they do it. Guilt and self-loathing over their responsibilities and actions, regret over what they could have done better.
Kyoshi, however, never doubted herself. Even without being arrogant, she always saw that what she did had to be done. She took what were the only options. You see this even in the advice she gives to subsequent Avatars: Be decisive. Be final. Commit.
Because of that, she was one of the few (Maybe only) Avatars who was able to completely encompass the powers available to them. No part of her subconsciously didn’t want to use them. There was no hesitancy buried so deep that she even didn’t realize it, Unlike Aang, or Roku, or Koruk, or Korra, or Yangchen, or even Wan, she was able to give herself over totally to whatever she was doing and hold nothing back.
That’s why she was able to accomplish feats of bending and skill that no other Avatar could equal: Because she, alone of all the Avatars, had she SHEER CHUTZPHA to do it.
other avatars ask “can i do it?”
kyoshi says “of course i can.”
Believe in yourself like Avatar Kyoshi believed in herself. Encompass the spirit of Avatar Kyoshi. I am a bad-ass and I WILL JUST DO IT
memeotional 