(ID: The icon is over a light bluish-grey background, and shows Korra in profile holding a phone to her left ear with a focused expression. She has brown skin, blue eyes, and her season 4-length short brown hair, and is wearing a sleeveless blue tunic with white trim and dark blue armbands. /End ID)
If you have any ideas for prompts (like 'family' or 'pirate au'), please suggest them here! In two weeks, there will be a form to vote on submissions to chose the top 12 (2/day, free day sunday)
(ID: A gif of Kyoshi from the opening credits. Over a green background are Chinese characters translating to “strong earth.” She lifts up a boulder before throwing it in the viewer’s direction, then turning to her right, twisting her arms and lifting up another boulder before kicking it offscreen. /End ID)
Summer Kyoshi Fortnight 2021
A fortnight dedicated to our favorite dust-stepping, glass-bending, 6-foot tall avatar🌄 The event will last from July 11th to July 24th, with 14 different prompt days to allow for as much unique content to be created as possible! Works for previous events will not be accepted, as the intent is to inspire new content, and late works will be accepted until August 1. While the event is focused on Kyoshi, more general Kyoshi novels content is also encouraged, please make sure it adheres somewhat to the prompts!
Prompt List
Day 1 (July 11) - Heritage and Fans
Day 2 (July 12) - Air Temples
Day 3 (July 13) - Flying Opera Company
Day 4 (July 14) - Childhood | Jianzhu’s Mansion
Day 5 (July 15) - Kyoshi and Yun
Day 6 (July 16) - Found Family
Day 7 (July 17) - Kyoshi and Rangi
Day 8 (July 18) - Air Bison and Travelling
Day 9 (July 19) - Justice and Consequences
Day 10 (July 20) - Ba Sing Se | Fire Nation (must relate to events taking place in these places during the novels)
Day 11 (July 21) - Modern AU
Day 12 (July 22) - Mentors and Guidance
Day 13 (July 23) - Legacy and Impact (content post-Kyoshi novels, for example how she impacts the world at the time of ATLA)
Day 14 (July 24) - Free Day! (if your work does not fit the above prompts, feel free to post it for this!)
Ozai dies while Zuko is still in recovery. The investigation is relentless, but a killer is never found, until the new Fire Lord Iroh finally, in a mournful tone that only some believe, puts a stop to it. There are rumors of foul play on his end. No one dares to speak them.
What they don’t know:
Iroh is sitting by Zuko’s bedside, unable to look at the bandages around his eye without shaking, when Azula enters clean of blood but for the still-wet splatter on her clothes. She doesn’t acknowledge his presence at all, as she coos her to her brother’s unconscious body, “You’re safe now, Zuzu. I took care of it.”
No other words are exchanged in the room that day. Azula is eleven years old and cleverer than everyone in the palace, with friends as protective and dangerous as her, and Iroh has never seen eye-to-eye with her niece, but he at least understands this.
the way I’m zuko’s age when he was fire lord I’m- anyone who tries to argue that he wasn’t too young to rule a nation please take one look at me and picture me in that position I would literally make peanuts illegal bc I don’t like their attitude and that’s just surface level shit. I would ruin the economy. Don’t get me started on international relations
on a serious note a series that does a good job of showing this and the impact it would have on zuko is the to build a home series by @tomnooklesbian it’s written so well and also GENUINELY upset me (but like in the good writing sense)
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
@bakodafleetweek
Day 5 Coming Out | Coming Home
Bato stands at the prow of an earth kingdom trading vessel, leaning forward like somehow it will make the boat move faster. He feels someone come up behind him, and a hand gently sets upon his lower back.
“We’ll be there soon,” Hakoda says, voice only just loud enough for Bato to hear over the wind.
“Soon can’t come soon enough.”
Do you know of a fic that you love, but that you feel needs more attention? Send me an ask or a dm with the name of the fic and I’ll create a post complete with a brief review for it!
hey all, it’s been a while! I’ve been on a brief hiatus and I’m getting this blog up and running again, the layout’s been revamped a bit as well. Submissions for fic recs are definitely welcome, as are requests for fic rec lists!
written for @katara-week Day 4: Revolution and Resistance
Katara had always been stubborn. Always willful, never silently disagreeing, always ready with a retort like water that leaves the shore only to come back in a wall of fury and destruction.
okay i’ve technically already answered this but i think it’s pretty interesting so let me elaborate
what’s cool about lavabending is that we now have a Not LOK Example of it because of the new toph comic! so i can actually use that!
the following will basically be my very loose analysis of sorts, as well as observations and connections to be drawn between haru, tyro, and the lavabending presented in the toph comic. i won’t really be using LOK as a reference, because i want to focus more on lavabending as it applies to the atla timeline, as they’re asking about an atla character, but i do recognize and acknowledge the lok lavabenders (ghazan and bolin i believe?).
i’ll put it under a read more for people who haven’t read it yet as i’ll be including comic pages for reference but anyways! time to answer your question:
Could Haru Theoretically Accomplish Lavabending?
so to start, let me recap the comic briefly-
for those who don’t know, there’s this new character introduced in the toph’s metalbending academy comic named sun who turns out to be a lavabender.
this is important because it shows that lavabending isn’t actually as New as we thought (which is a fair assumption given that our first example of a lavabender was bolin from lok), it’s just pretty uncommon and this kid just happens to have it, using it during underground the earthbending spats he participates in, as shown below:
[ID: a 4-paneled page from the Avatar: The Last Airbender comic, Toph’s Metalbending Academy.
the first panel depicts a hand slamming against the ground, dust swirling around it with a sound effect for emphasis.
the second panel depicts an earthbender, sun, wearing green and brown earth kingdom clothing, posed close to the ground, palms pressed against the ground as smoking lines of red lava begin to trail away from his hands.
the third panel depicts sun in the same pose as before, standing behind a surging wave of lava loudly erupting from the blackened earth, aimed at his opponent, a man dressed in blue and brown water tribe clothing, who stands in fear with his arms raised. there is a crowd of onlookers watching the two from behind a barrier of steel boxes, all dressed in various green earth kingdom and red fire nation clothing.
the fourth panel depicts sun on a red-tinted panel, bearing a focused expression as lava surrounds the outer edges of the panel, illuminating his face from below, highlighting his serious expression. his irises are tinted orange. End ID]
here, we can see one of the techniques used for lavabending- there is heavy use on being connected to the ground, though the actual bending seems to stem mostly from the hands, with the stance fueling the movement. it’s also interesting how the lava comes out in the form of a literal wave that is similar to the “earth waves” we’ve seen before, but in liquid form. though sun is touching the earth, the bending is focused on moving the earth/lava away from him.
probably because, yknow. it’s lava. you generally can’t touch lava. (also, how he hasn’t killed anyone with it, i don’t know, especially given that he apparently can’t control it)
i thought this was interesting, because we’ve seen this “wave” move before; in fact, we’ve seen this technique before:
[Image ID: three screencaps from the episode Imprisoned, from season one of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
in the first screencap, four earthbenders on a metal rig, dressed in brown and grey prison uniforms, are shown raising a wall of coal, raising their arms above their head and standing on one leg. there is a pile of coal in the background, which katara is standing on. a small group of more earthbenders watch from a distance.
in the second screencap, an old bearded man, tyro, is shown slamming his palms against the floor in a bent stance, one leg poised behind him while kneeling with the other. he is wearing a brown and grey prison uniform, and bears a focused expression, mouth open in mid-yell. his son, haru, who is wearing a dark green headband, as well as another earthbender, are shown standing behind him, dressed in the same prison uniform, palms facing downwards, fingers pointed inward. there are other earthbender prisoners watching in the background, standing near a pile of coal.
in the third screencap, a wave of black coal quickly descends upon a group of dark red armor-clad nation guards, with pieces of coal flying off in different directions. the front line of five guards are defending themselves from the flying coal, standing with their arms raised to protect their faces. two of the guards in the back stand in firebending poses, holding a fist out while keeping one arm close to the chest. End ID]
look at tyro- he and sun’s stances are nearly identical! the palms hitting the ground, the same exact stance, the resulting chaotic wave motion of coal. this could very well be chalked up to an earthbending technique copied from the show, but it’s still important to note that tyro knows this, as it’s something directly applicable to lavabending. there is a focus on both body movement, but also hand movement especially, as evidenced by the following comic page:
[Image ID: a singular panel from the Avatar: The Last Airbender comic, Toph’s Metalbending Academy.
in this panel, sun is depicted in a bent stance, standing on light brown earth with one foot behind him. he is wearing green and brown earth kingdom clothing. his arms and hands are raised, curling his fingers towards himself as he braces, closing his eyes. red and orange lava flows from the ground below him, surging out like a wave, breaking out of the lower half of the panel. the sound effect “russsh” is behind him, depicted in a similarly red and orange lava-like font, with the top half of the lettering bubbling and rising away. the lower half of the lettering is black, giving it the appearance of cracked lava rock. End ID]
this is another stance we’ve seen before, albeit not in imprisoned. it’s actually on the cover of this very comic, as toph’s standing like this. since we’re talking about haru, though, i won’t include it. but the focus is still the same- raising and pushing the earth/lava away from the user, which haru does a lot of.
my friend @the-hot-zone has already made an EXTREMELY in-depth analysis on haru’s bending style which i will link here, and i highly recommend reading it. it’s entirely supplemental to this, but it does help a lot with understanding where i’m coming from, especially when i mention earthbending and firebending styles.
because i think that, given that haru’s style is so mixed with earth and firebending styles, he could easily pick up lavabending, which is, quite literally, a mix of earth and fire. the control needed to, well control the lava, though, would probably have to be taught by a waterbender, given that lava is a liquid and moves as such, and is known to be hard to control, similar to water.
there’s actually one final point i want to make, though, and this is moreso speculation than anything, so take this at face value:
lavabending is the result of focusing on and tightly compressing earth, which generates friction, thus producing lava.
i know that there are examples of earthbenders manipulating preexisting lava (i.e. kyoshi making kyoshi island) but we see lava being generated within the earth itself, as shown by sun in the above panels. and guess who specializes in compressing earth, specifically earth away from himself?
[Image ID: a set of four screencaps from the episode Imprisoned, from season one of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
the first screencap shows haru’s hand on an orange forest background. he is shown levitating two rocks, which spin over his palm.
the second screencap shows haru’s hand, now closed into a fist, with sand streaming out of it.
the third screencap shows the prison rig, with tyro and haru standing offscreen in front of a pile of coal, bending and compressing pieces of coal that levitate between their outstretched palms.
the fourth screencap shows the same as the third screencap, but with the coal solidified into a solid, jagged rock. End ID]
haru and tyro, but mostly haru. we see him reduce solid rock to sand in one hand. we see both of them work together to turn lots of individual coal pieces into a huge solid lump of coal. we can see that they’re capable of compressing earth this way from a distance- who’s to say they can’t go farther? who knows what they can do once they get on solid ground?
so. keeping in mind that tyro uses very similar movements to sun, analyzing how sun’s lavabending technique works, knowing that haru uses similar bending movements as firebenders, and knowing that both haru and tyro specialize in bending compression and manipulating earth away from them, i propose this to answer your question:
tyro could, theoretically, be a lavabender, and there is a high possibility that he could teach lavabending to his son, haru.
i think it would be really neat if tyro was a lavabender, especially given that he’s the leader of haru’s village. they’d probably want a strong earthbender to be in charge- if he was a lavabender, then that adds more to being its protector, given that he led the resistance when the fire nation did eventually come for the village. even when they were “outnumbered ten to one”, as haru put it.
it would be a dangerous skill that the fire nation most likely hasn’t seen before, and would explain all the precautions they take with locking up the earthbenders. in fact, they send six fn guards to arrest haru, a singular earthbender- if they knew he was the son of a lavabender, or that lavabenders existed in the village, it would make sense that they would send so many just to subdue one.
furthermore, tyro teaching haru how to lavabend would be so cool, especially given the techniques haru already knows. he could utilize it in new ways that tyro’s probably never heard of or seen before, especially given that the technique is so rare. haru being able to even learn it also makes sense with this concept- tyro being able to lavabend and then his son also being able to lavabend makes sense.
i might make a separate post on this, solely because i have so many thoughts, but for now, there’s your answer.
tl;dr: yes, i think haru could, theoretically, lavabend. i also think his dad, tyro, could lavabend, and, after breaking out of prison, he would teach this ability to his son.
Would you happen to have any resources and/or input explaining why giving blue/green eyes to characters of color is generally a bad idea? Im trying to gather some sources and you always have very good input so I figured i'd ask but please don't feel obligated!
Hello, sure!
I can give my input.
For me personally, it’s just an emphasis on nonwhite features not being seen as beautiful or desirable, especially if said character is black or brown. It’s as if to say, the character can be black, but we can’t make them too black, or we can’t give them features that are unique to black people, so we give them blue or green eyes to add more Eurocentric features. Because that is what makes white audiences comfortable.
Green/blue eyes (and even light brown and hazel eyes) are typically seen as prettier than dark brown eyes. Dark brown eyes are usually seen in black, native and Asian communities and therefore like our skin color and other features, are deemed ugly. So when white creators make characters of color, but can’t be bothered to also portray features on us that are usually stigmatized, it is still racist. It is still pushing harmful ideas that brown eyes aren’t beautiful, and people of color in fantasy, sci-fi or any setting can only exist with some form of white features.
Dave Filoni—who did star wars and avatar is terrible at this. Nearly all his prominent black, brown and coded characters have blue eyes.
From avatar—all the water tribe ppl have blue eyes and brown skin. He clearly takes from Inuk culture however, not only does he not give them brown eyes, but is also very colorist and basic in his portrayal of them (But that is another discussion). Add an extra layer to Yue, who had white hair and blue eyes, that made her seem more beautiful.
I would like to point out that a lot of POC from Palestine, Syria, Turkey, etc have eye colours that range from hazel to blue to green, so it certainly isn’t an impossibility. But it becomes a problem when you’re not also portraying brown and black features as beautiful, and conflating the occurrence of lighter features among POC.
The majority of POC have dark eyes and dark hair, and if making your character stand out means giving them lighter eyes then maybe your character isn’t all that outstanding to begin with.
I knew a girl who was a flame
She played her whole life like a game
Went all in, each time the same
And in defeat cried tears of shame
Please have mercy, mother mother
So sorry I am not my brother
Please forgive me, father father
That I didn’t make it further
I knew a girl love by a the sea
A heart full of strength and curiosity
But this world wasn’t as it should be
And she had two eyes to see
They don’t have mercy, do they, mother ?
Not for us not for one another
There’s no forgiveness, is there, father?
Just too much blood spilled in the water
I knew a girl that could break stone
But still remained trapped in her home
Carried all this weight alone
And when they noticed, she was gone
Keep your mercy, mother mother
Don’t know why I even bother
Screw your forgiveness, father father
Go sacrifice it on your altar
I knew a girl who was born to fight
She knew darkness, but her eyes were bright
A warrior for what was right
And in the face of death she cried
I won’t ask them for mercy mother
Not today and not any other
When I die, forgive me father
This is all I had to offer
I am once again cursing you with my writing but like…the girls from Atla..they make me feel things
the imperialist apologia surrounding azula’s character in this fandom is both fascinating and sad. i feel like girls especially girls of color are so deprived of seeing female characters with complexity, darkness, power and charisma onscreen, and have also been variously repressed by patriarchal cultures in our own lives, such that we see a character like azula - she wears armor, she commands respect, she uses spycraft to bring grown men to their knees, she’s powerful and her power is respected, she pursues an enemy of her nation with ruthless efficiency, she’s witty, clever, ruthless - and we think that’s what freedom looks like. but it’s a very clever, very slick lie. azula’s “freedom” only extends as far as she’s useful to the imperialist nation headed by her father. her power and status is directly tied to depriving other women - hama, katara, suki, the kyoshi warriors - of their freedom. her being bold enough to kill the avatar is jaw-dropping, until you pause to think about what the avatar represents - peace, hope, union, the right of all people not just the powerful to live free and fulfilling lives - and realize azula’s path to power is paved with compromising her own humanity and the humanity of women who aren’t born into fire nation royalty.
tldr; we’re so deprived of images of powerful, complex women that when one comes along it’s hard not to clutch that image close to our chest and protect and cherish it and lash out at anyone who contradicts it (and there is definitely a deep streak of misogyny in fandom when it comes to azula’s character), but this is how hegemony works. by co-opting our ideas and dreams so that we can only imagine our own power and freedom at the expense of others.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with creating a world that includes only people of color and no white people, especially for representation sake. But there is something wrong if you’re a white person and you basically say “let’s create a world, full of traditions from various reasons of Asia, and the Middle East, Indigenous cultures—and we won’t include white people for good representation, but we won’t include black people either, because for some reason black people or black coded people shouldn’t exist in a world that is void of white people.” Its just very odd to me, that you obviously have very real black influences (well known black voice actors, fighting styles based off of black people, (i.e some of zuko’s styles), black martial arts instructors, cultures and regions where black people could exist) but you just don’t have black people. It’s very strange that you as a white creator decide to make a world void of whiteness, to represent people of color but you don’t think to put black people in that world.
It’s almost as if to say that black people are the same as white people as far as being represented, and therefore, they don’t have to exist just like white people.
Like, Avatar clearly takes influence from the real world but also does its best to represent nonwhite cultures. But it is essentially a world where the only non white culture that doesn’t get to exist is like—black people and that just rubs me the wrong way that, that was okay.
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