Mostly Zukka @baby-turtle-duck - Tumblr Blog

one of my personal favorite dichotomies in atla is how iroh, once the top strategist and highest-ranking general of the fire nation, now directs all his energy and considerable tactical experience towards attempting to keep his teenage nephew from throwing himself into life-threatening situations AND IROH REGULARLY FAILS TO PREVENT HIM FROM DOING SO.

he lead a six-hundred day siege and now iroh can't keep up with a sixteen-year-old armed with two swords and a passionate deathwish. zuko's motto is "act first, think never" and he's running rings around his uncle. it's like!!! who's gonna come out on top, iroh's west point education vs. zuko's deep and abiding commitment to always choosing the stupidest possible course of action, and zuko manages to win every single time

deactivated-user-00008915842310

y'all are straight up EVISCERATING that boy in the tags

likealittleheartbeat

I love that zero relationships are made stronger through conflict in avatar the last airbender. War and oppression only serve to tear relationships apart in the show. I’ve already read some great pieces on the show’s depiction of colonial family dynamics. But the friendships and romances reflect it, too. There are no brothers in arms, no romances ignited because someone is leaving tomorrow for the battlefront.

As far as romantic relationships: Sokka loses Yue and twice has to leave Suki for their duty to the greater good. Katara is too overwhelmed with the conflict to invest in a relationship with Aang, and her first romantic feelings towards a boy are transformed into betrayal when Jet lies to her in his pursuit of justice. And even Zuko twice leaves Mai to pursue his “destiny.” And that’s just the kids. The adults are similarly submerged in devastated romance. We see so many single parents throughout the series. Many have lost their partner to the fire nation army. Some have incarcerated partners like Haru’s mother. Enlistment separates partners, too. And even the most dominating force in the world, Firelord Ozai, loses his partner in his desire for power.

Friendships are similarly prevented from blossoming within a culture of domination. Azula is the most evident example, with her friendships founded on obedience rather than mutual affection blowing up in her face. Zuko, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to have any friends. Those oppressed by the fire nation establish their friendships in moments of safety, when the threat of violence is temporarily absent. “Do you want to go penguin sledding with me?” That’s the beginning of a friendship. They do not become friends fighting together. That is allyship. Look at The Blue Spirit. Zuko and Aang can fight together for a common cause, but this is not the shape of friendship. Even relationships between different marginalized groups are fraught with tensions founded in the imperial violence they’ve confronted. When Aang visits the Northern Air Temple, he is distraught over the desecration of the temple by the earth kingdom refugees. The violence they’ve each faced puts them in conflict with one another rather than providing a possible sense of kinship. It’s even more complicated when it comes to befriending across the lines of the oppressor and oppressed. Despite their affinity for one another and aligned goals, Zuko and Aang cannot truly establish their friendship until the system of domination is eliminated. Friendship is a dynamic between equals, and ATLA asks whether you can actually be friends across these lines if society refuses to be equitable. Friendships and romance depend not on conflict to deepen them but an active peacefulness.

When people talk about Avatar writing relationships poorly, I think maybe consider that the relationships weren’t actually supposed to be building up in any kind of traditional way in the show. I think ATLA was precisely focused on relationships being broken and sometimes even empty because of conflict. It’s only the last episode that’s meant to show the beginnings of things, the consummation of hope. For the first time there’s the possibility for these relationships to mean something rather than almost inevitably ending in tragedy.

“Let no one mistake us for the fruit of violence—but that violence, having passed through us, failed to spoil us.” —Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

non-plutonian-druid

have an atla centaur sketch dump! try and guess who my favorite character is lmao, i didn’t make it incredibly obvious or anything

my apologies to anyone who knows anything about horses bc im sure most of this is not actually how horses work, and even more apologies bc the ID describes them as “brown” and “dark brown” etc on account of I didn’t feel like googling horse coloration

[ID: four images with 2 to 3 sets of sketches on each, of various characters from Avatar the Last Airbender as centaurs, all wearing their canon outfits slightly modified to fit. The sketches are colored but not shaded and the sketch lines are very messy. End ID.]

Longer ID below the cut

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juliasgoodusername

the gymnastics team at the Royal Fire Academy For Girls is like weirdly competitive......

correct-gaang

Ty Lee: What do you think butterflies taste like?

Sokka: They taste bad

Everyone:

Ty Lee: How do you-

Sokka: I ANSWERED YOUR QUESTION, THAT’S ALL YOU GET

capt-snoozles

ty lee ft. me still being too lazy to draw background // dragon mai au

mai seeing ty lee for the first time (while shes stealing from her circus)

zukkacloud9-deactivated20231022

zuko has zero reference point for sexism. like he KNOWS it exists and he’s vaguely aware about the concept but he also like. doesn’t know

he grew up with azula, who can shoot blue fire and lightning, mai, who throws KNIVES for fucks sake, and ty lee, who can break your body down until it’s useless. he’s told that his own mother killed his grandfather. his next women friends outside the Fire nation are katara, an extremely powerful waterbender with a lot of rage deep inside her let’s be real, and toph, who will not hesitate to crush you with rocks. and then he goes to the boiling rock and meets suki, who he sees scale the building, take out like eight guards, and kidnap the warden all by herself. and she isn’t even tired

as far as i know zuko can see a woman murder someone and go ‘hm. that’s normal’ and move on

sebsketchs

idk if you’re still accepting requests but if you are,, i literally cannot stop thinking about the mailee drawing you did for valentine’s day and i would love to see more mailee in your style 🥺💕

a pair of mailees for the soul 🖤💖

ash-and-starlight-deact

more Izumi doodles but this time she’s babey

elyfonart

Get a best friend who is willing to do anything to help you with your problems, big or small <3

nonbinaryyue

ponytail zuko my beloved

[Image Description: A pencil drawing of Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender. He’s wearing his season one armour and looking to the left. His expression is serious, and his ponytail blows in the wind. The art is dated December 12th 2021. End Image Description]

pink-bumble-bee

Quick question for service dog owners:

I work in retail at a dog friendly store, so whenever we see dogs we offer to give them a treat. Is that appropriate to do with service dogs? I know that we're supposed to ignore service dogs so they can effectively do their jobs, but I don't want to single out their owners by not offering something that I've given every other dog

cearamorran

Zukka neighbors AU, enemies to lovers 100k+

while it's not the same story i got the idea from @kurisu-80's neighbors AU comic, which i definitely recommend checking out, i think about it a lot

your-royal-momoness

Sokka: this is how you’re spending your time and money?

Zuko, putting tiny raincoats on turtleducks: they live outside Sokka, they need this

azulasnailtech

Sokka: Raincoat manufacturers haven't spent thousands on R&D trying to emulate the waterproof qualities of turtle-ducks just for you to put their tiny coats on turtle-ducks!

erisenyo

#.azula (who has stock in the raincoat company): then why did they make the coats turtle-duck sized? (Via @azulasnailtech)

Azula, who recently pitched to the raincoat company board the idea of raincoats for messenger hawks: Sokka, do you think Hawky is feeling cold and neglected?

azulasnailtech

Sokka: You know I just knit Hawky a bison fur sweater. YOU KNOW THAT!!

erisenyo

Azula: And why happens to bison fur sweaters when it rains, Sokka. What about the rain?

azulasnailtech

Aang, five weeks later, completely unprompted: Azula, it really hurt Appa's feelings when you suggested that his fur couldn't keep warm in the rain. Appa has flown through hundreds of rain and snow storms. Thousands, even!

erisenyo

also this is how we come full circle on fashion designer Sokka he and azula’s brand do collabs and it’s everything I want atla (via @your-royal-momoness)

And this is the segue into them both drinking cactus juice one weekend and living their best lives while Zuko frantically tries to wrangle them

your-royal-momoness

#They come out of it inexplicably covered in bison fur (no Appa in sight) and full of IDEAS (via @erisenyo )

Coming to Ba Sing Se Fashion Week: The Ice and Fire collab!

Their event even has little themed cactus juice boxes served to guests

azulasnailtech

Reviewers be like "I don't know if this was the most brilliant, avant-garde runway show I've ever seen or if I'm just tripping balls."

your-royal-momoness

Zuko: you drugged people at your fashion show?!

Sokka: it’s called an artistic license Zuko

Azula: how does it feel to be so uncultured

erisenyo

Zuko, stomping into his next international meeting with a jug of cactus juice and a cactus crown and the latest fashions hot off the Ice and Fire Runway: I'll show them uncultured...

azulasnailtech

Sokka: Is it nepotism that every time the Fire Lord or Avatar wears our designs, we get a surge in sales?

Azula: No, it's nepotism that we always let them buy pieces from our newest line before fulfilling our pre-orders.

Sokka: Oh, good point.

Sokka: I can live with that.

your-royal-momoness

Aang has a jewelry line under the Ice x Fire brand and it’s primarily flower crowns and friendship bracelets. They sell out in hours.

Sokka usually decides Zuko’s outfits since mans cannot be bothered to color coordinate anything other than red with more red. And if Sokka purposely dresses the firelord in whatever Ice x Fire garments aren’t getting the attention Sokka thinks they should and inevitably boosting sales once people see it on a world leader? Well, that’s just business baybee

erisenyo

Zuko: But the flower crowns die after a few days

Sokka: That's the ephemeral nature of life

Zuko: I could make one from any field I walk by!

Azula: That would be a knockoff, Zuzu, no one wants one of those

azulasnailtech

Fire Lord Zuko trying to make his own competing line of flower jewelry just to prove that it's not hard or worth the money only to flop because his colour theory is shit 😭😂

erisenyo

Zuko: But red and slightly darker red *always* go together! And there aren't any black flowers!