Flying around the World of Avatar

ATLA fan & natla hater

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

The most handsome heshang(monk) in Chinese guzhuang dramas.

Cnetizens: Now I get why all the demons were so obsessed with Tang Seng in the journey to the west

[atlaculture]

What I imagined an adult Aang would look like.

[eating-like-appa]

Other example: Liu Xueyi as Wuxin from the Blood of Youth.

[atlaculture]

Cultural Fashion: Aunt Wu

Okay, I officially retract my previous post about Aunt Wu’s head dress.

By pure accident, I’ve stumbled across the real inspiration behind Aunt Wu’s character design: jūnihitoe (十二単) robes. Junihitoe robes are a style of formal court dress first worn during the Heian period by noble women and ladies-in-waiting in the Japanese Imperial Court. Nowadays, this style of dress can be seen on hina dolls and members of the Japanese royal family during important ceremonies. Although much less elaborate, Aunt Wu’s clothing shares a similar silhouette and many design elements with junihitoe robes: wide sleeves, thigh-length coat, and a long skirt split down the middle to show off an underskirt.

Paired with the ceremonial junihitoe robes is the ceremonial hairstyle called osuberakashi (大垂髪), meaning “great bound hair”. Osuberakashi is a hairstyle meant to show off the impressive length of a woman’s hair; the hair close to the scalp is styled into a large bouffant while the remainder of the hair is tied into a low ponytail. The bouffant is decorated with traditional hair accessories or kamiagegu (髪上げ具): the crescent-shaped accessory is a decorative hair comb called a hirakushi (平櫛) and the circular accessory is called a hirabitai (平額). The ponytail is decorated with colorful hair ties. Aunt Wu’s hair possesses all of these characteristics and accessories, although her hirabitai lacks the decorative prongs of the original— probably for ease of animation.

I don’t think there’s any particularly deep reason for why they chose this style for Aunt Wu. The overall junihitoe aesthetic looks elegant, important, and long-standing— an image that Aunt Wu tries hard to foster. I guess we could headcanon that Aunt Wu might originally be from Kyoshi Island, since her cultural inspiration is the same (Heian-period Japan).

Fun Fact: Wigs emulating this traditional hairstyle are available online. They’re called marukamoji (丸髢).

Like what I’m doing? Tips always appreciated, never expected. ^_^

https://ko-fi.com/atlaculture

[tedcruzisthezodiackiller]

[mrpochatok]

Let’s have a small treat we all deserve ✨

Just a sketch I am probably not gonna finish 😭

[akiizayoi4869]

Ozai: can create dual lighting without the need to do the circular motion with his arms, unlike Azula and Iroh.

Iroh: literally says in the finale that he didn't think he could defeat Ozai.

Fandumb:

I swear, Iroh could be on a poll for "who is the strongest waterbender" and still somehow win.

[beifong-brainrot]

Ok @i-put-the-ass-into-sass and @justlikedsstuff the floodgates are open.

Imagining all the Beifongs, not just Toph having extremely sensitive seismic sense.

Just i imagine it's a very strong experience, strong enough to literally replace a sense. I imagine that it can be incredibly overwhelming for people who use it alongside other senses, eg. not replacing a sense like in Toph's case. I also imagine that the younger you learn it, the bigger difficulty you have 'turning it off'.

I like to imagine it can cause migraines and overstimulation in frequent users. But being unable to use it can cause anxiety and distress, as losing any other sense would.

Lin and Su knowing when their mother is lying about coming back home before dinner.

Su listening to her mother and sister's heartbeats and wishing that they'd just speak what was on their hearts.

Lin hearing Tenzin's heart speading up when he would look at Pema and not her. Lin having difficulty walking and keeping herself balanced after losing her bending to Amon, feeling literally blinded. Trying to keep it together in front of Amon and the Equalists but having a panic attack the moment she's alone because she can't feel anything, she can't feel anything, she can't feel anything

Su being hesitant to teach Huan and the twins seismic sense, because she knows how difficult it is for children to handle. But of course, they're stubborn little things and they start learning by themselves.

Its a very rare ability, but it comes surprisingly easy to the Beifongs. Though the cost is thay children are made to deal with senses sharper than their little minds are meant for.

I always headcanon that Huan has a particularly well developed seismic sense, which is the reason he's so testy and emotional. He can feel almost everything around the house (think dolores from encanto lol) and he has difficulty processing the overwhelming amount of stimuli. He tries to express it through art and he wears thick soled shoes to block it all out.

The twins are quite the opposite. They lean into it, so much so that they refused to wear shoes when they were younger. They were also heavily affected by being suspended in a wooden cage after the family's capture. To this day they feel incredibly anxious if seperated from it for too long.

Thinking about Opal and Baatar Jr not getting the sheer magnitude of feeling everything around you like that and thinking that their siblings are just being dramatic.

Thinking about the Beifongs pulling up their feet or trying to touch the ground as little as possible when stressed or overwhelmed. Or walking barefoot if upset or unsure, to get that connection.

Thinking sbout sensing heartbeats. Hearing the moment something or someone dies for the first time. Is it an animal, a random baby bird killed by an alley cat, a beloved pet? Or is it a person?

Lin killing a criminal in the line of duty. It wasn't her fault, technically. She did everything right, she defended the civilians he was holding hostage. But she tried to block the bleeding, hearing his heatbeat get slower and slower, until it stopped completely. How empty her head must've seemed when she could no longer hear it. How visceral the guilt must've been.

Arguments must be difficult. You can feel when you hit a nerve, sense the other person's anger, tell when they go completely cold towards you.

You can never lie, not to your family. No little white lies that make day to day life easier. No secrets. All blunt honesty and beating hearts filling your ears.

You immediately know when you've said something wrong. When you've hurt someone's feelings. The guilt is instantaneous. The slight skip of someone's heartbeat is like a slap to the face.

You know when someone's lying to you. You know they're lying when they say they'll be back for dinner. You know they're lying when they tell you they'll hang out with you tomorrow. You know they're lying when they say that they love you.

Do you call them out?

Or do you keep the peace, grin and bear it?

Can you even lie to yourself, or will your own heart betray you to yourself?

You know when a sibling is crying down the hall, know that they will be witness to every intimate moment you have, as the you will be to them.

Like there's so much to do with seismic sense. I want it to be less of a gimmick and more of a deep psychological experience. Like it is in all its essence a sense. It's probably a big part of its users lives.

[akiizayoi4869]

Also, the complete erasure of Azulon in this comic is sending me🤣 you're really saying that Sozin and Ozai made contributions to the academy, making sure that the children were being taught the "correct way" and Azulon was like "fuck them kids"? Lmao ok

[sarahkrolokfan]

Welp....

The more I think that new ATLA comic the angrier I get.

Aside from stupid retcons like Mai never really liking Azula and only befriending her because of her father despite how she acted in the series. Yk, Mai, who was actually happy to see Azula... She definitely faked it! No, no, you see, Mai, who as a kid willingly expressed her anger at Azula when she played that game with her and Zuko just really wanted to suck up to her. Yeah, expressing anger at a girl you are trying to suck up to - good retc... I mean writing! (especially since it was the only time we actually got to see little Mai and little Azula interact in the cartoon)

But Azula... oh God, where do I even start. Aside from obvious demonisation (at this point they could just replace Azula with literal demon and nothing would change, she is given 0 humanity) I just hate how the bloody comic tried to paint "Everyone will betray you" as something not only she already believed as a child but also as a common belief in Fire Nation????

I am sorry but what? Look, I get royals advising their children to be wary and all but aside from that.... this is so wrong on so many levels:

A) "Trust noone, even your friends will turn on you" is something that so deeply resonated with Azula because of who SHE was and because of HER life circumstances. She felt as if her mother, whose love she desperately wanted, loved Zuko far more and even disappeared from HER life forever just to protect her brother (an ultimate act of showing favoritism - at least according to Azula), her uncle also preffered Zuko over her, her brother, who she deeply loved, betrayed both her and her nation AFTER SHE ESSENTIALLY GAVE HIM THE THRONE and in the end one of her friends betrayed her for her brother (who her mother and uncle already "chose" over her) and the other betrayed her for said other friend. "Everyone betrays me" is Azula's theme, giving her this ideology before she goes through any of the events that show her (according to her) that she is unloveable, imperfect and unable to control others just undermines the whole point of her character, her perfectionism, using fear as a means of control and her eventual fall into madness.

B) This just sucks from worldbuilding perspective. Yes, royals advising their children to be wary of some other kids makes sense. But being wary of every single other kid all the time is nonsense. Assuming it were truly a FN value that war wouldn't be fought for 100 years. Yes, Fire Lord is the most important person who makes all the decisions but that level of mistrust among royals in court would be disasterous. Also, it just isn't in the spirit of militarism. Fire Nation is supposed to be highly militaristic nation - you know what is in complete opposition to that? The message of "Don't trust your comrades!"

And finally... an Agni Kai. Look mate, if an Agni Kai was fought every time a child insults other child's honour, it would be fought 10 times a day and not "3 times while I was a student". There was a reason it was such a big deal in the series and why Zuko fighting in one as a child was so cruel (also cos Ozai was his dad), if it is also used to settle down arguments between 8 year olds because one called another's father a traitor it would just be both stupid and highly impractical.

Also personal but I really wanted more Maiko....

[integer115]

Two key problems with the Ashes of the Academy.

Replacing the theme of imperialism with the theme of comic book villainous evil.

The ideology of this school does not revolve around declaring the Fire Nation exceptional, deserving to guide and judge other nations. Not around the idea of ​​the Fire Nation's superiority over others, at least in the style of "we bring civilization and railroads to these savages, but they do not understand their happiness and we have to fight them." Not around the veneration of the monarch and the sacralization of his image as the personification of the Fire Nation itself. Not around the more mercantile side of imperialism in the spirit of "they have so much land and we have so little and it is unfair, so let's restore justice and take their land for ourselves" or "if we do not exploit other people, then we will have to exploit our own people." Moreover, the ideology of this school directly contradicts the ideas of national unity in the spirit of "we are all part of the Fire Nation and fight for a common cause" or "we are all subjects of our monarch, we are one family and he is the head of our family". The key point of the ideology, because of which the whole "conflict" exists, is:

That is, the fundamental element of the ideology of the Fire Nation, according to this comic is absolutely sick individualism. And this directly contradicts everything that any imperialistic, militaristic and similar systems in principle represent. It is impossible to create an army from individualists who only think about how to stab their ally in the back, from paranoids who strive to betray their friends before they betray them. Such people are generally almost impossible to govern, because there will be no guarantee that the order will be carried out. No monarch will support such an ideology, because he will not want to constantly worry about the safety of his power. The only war that such a society can wage is a war of everyone against everyone. Such a society is in principle incapable of building any empire. At most, it will be a very short-lived union of highwaymen. Therefore, no empire of the past relied on such a crazy ideology. A society with such morality can function only in fantasy. For example, in the world of the Forgotten Realms, where the dark elves live with exactly this kind of morality. You can also remember the Dark Eldar from Warhammer 40,000. Simply put, this is a fantastic ideology of chaotic evil villains.

But now we know where Azula went at the end of the Azula in the Spirit Temple. She went to conquer Menzoberranzan!

2. Lack of understanding of the objectivity of reality, that is, subjective idealism.

The metaphor is clear - children know nothing about the "real world" and evil propaganda defines their nature… Ooooh! Scared? Absolutely not. Reality doesn't work that way. A trivial example: in the comic itself there is a character named Hong. Her brother is supposed to go to the front lines and she worries about him. In the comic itself, this topic is reduced to idiocy about traitors from the colonies. But if you think about it, is this the only influence of war on the life of one specific child? A war that has been going on for a hundred years? Imagine, entire generations were born, grew up, lived and died during this war. Grandparents, parents, brothers and sisters - all of them are somehow involved in this war. Someone died in battle, someone became disabled, someone survived and brought back memories of difficult battles and trophies reminding of victories. Stories that family members tell each other, rumors that children tell each other, songs and music triumphant march of the Fire Nation civilization. Holidays and parades, days of mourning and rituals of honoring the fallen. War is reflected in the clothes that people wear introducing new fashion, in the kitchen determining the choice of dishes, war is reflected even in children's fairy tales. War is everywhere, even if there are no battles in the capital of the Fire Nation itself. Even if this academy only told about unicorns that eat rainbows and poop butterflies, it would not change the children's into pacifists. Because the world around them objectively exists.

These two problems can be combined into one - primitivization. Primitivization is the scourge of these comics.

PS. And just one more thought. If Ukano is such an opportunist whose main goal is to settle down in a warmer place, then he should not have rebelled against Zuko, but on the contrary, he should have forced Mai to quickly marry the Fire Lord and thus make the family stronger and richer.

[zuko-always-lies]

What did Zuko think was going on at Azula's Coronation Ceremony?

Cut to the plaza, the location of the Fire Lord's coronation, where only Azula and the Fire Sages are present. The scene cuts to the front of Azula, who is kneeling down on the plaza steps. She is seen wearing Fire Lord robes with her armor underneath. Standing behind her are Fire Sages, one begins to hold the headpiece over her head. Fire Sage: By decree of Phoenix King Ozai, I now crown you Fire Lord ...The sage suddenly pauses and looks ahead. Azula turns her head to face him. Azula: [Somewhat annoyed.] What are you waiting for? Do it! Appa is heard in the distance off-camera, and Azula turns back around to see Appa landing in the plaza courtyard. The scene cuts to a frontal shot of Appa; Katara is seated on Appa's saddle, and Zuko is standing on his back. [this is where my pictures are from, about] Zuko: Sorry, but you're not gonna become Fire Lord today. [Jumps off Appa.] I am. Azula: [Laughs.] You're hilarious. Katara: [Jumps off of Appa to stand beside Zuko.] And you're going down. The Fire Sage is just about to crown Azula the new Fire Lord, regardless of what Katara and Zuko have just said, until Azula signals with her hand for him to stop. Azula: Wait. You want to be Fire Lord? Fine. Let's settle this. Just you and me, brother. The showdown that was always meant to be. Agni Kai! Zuko: [Seriously.] You're on

It seems like Zuko couldn't physically hear the whole "By decree of Phoenix King Ozai, I now crown you Fire Lord" part. He was too far away. And he doesn't know that Ozai has declared himself "Phoenix King," either. Not even Azula knew that until Ozai went and did it, and there's no way for the Gaang to find out. They never mention it at all. So Azula being coronated as Firelord but it not representing her ascending to being supreme leader of the Fire Nation wouldn't even enter Zuko's head.

So Zuko shows up, and he sees a Firelord coronation ceremony being conducted without the usual audience in apparent haste, and being conducted even though the current Firelord (Ozai) is still alive and well, at least as far as he knows. It must look to him like Azula is trying to take advantage of Ozai's absence to usurp the throne for herself. Katara is probably not sufficiently familiar with the Fire Nation royal family and its traditions to catch onto the nuances of the situation, but "Ozai appointed Azula Firelord" is not something that would make sense to Zuko. He probably only found out the truth after the Agni Kai.

All of this potentially puts Zuko's actions before and during the Agni Kai in a very interesting light.

[integer115]

There are a whole host of questions about this whole scene.

Why doesn't the whole city react to these fireworks? Where are the guards? Where is the army? Where are the officials? Where is everyone? Like Azula banished the whole city? Is this a joke??? The Hundred Years' War is underway. The capital is on fire. The heir to the throne is in danger. Hello!

What did Zuko want to achieve anyway? Let's say he and Katara defeat Azula, so what? The two of them against an entire country of which they are enemies! What did Zuko expect? That the entire army would simply not pay attention to what was happening? That the entire outcome of a century-long military campaign and the entire system of governance of a huge empire would depend on a duel? A duel that doesn't even matter because Azula is not the ruler of the Fire Nation!? A duel that he didn't even win because Azula was defeated by Katara!?

The ending of the Third Book is a placeholder. The show needed a fourth season, not this.

[bebss29]

🌊

[atlaculture]

Cultural Comparison: Varrick & Zhu Li's Wedding

Row 1: Singapore (1910s). Shanghai, China (1920s). Shanghai, China (1927), Hong Kong (1930s).

Row 2: China (1910s). Southern China (1920s). Canton, China (1926), China (1910s).

One of the reasons I haven't covered LOK is that its 1920s setting is inextricably tied to the increased Westernization of Asia in the early 20th century. However, since there is no Europe-parallel in the Avatarverse, there's also a degree of speculative fashion history in its designs: How do you untangle turn of the century aesthetics from America/Europe?

I can't do my usual fashion breakdown where I discuss how faithful a design is to its cultural inspiration, because the show isn't trying to explicitly be 20th century America--- this challenge of trying to be aesthetically 1920s without being too "white" is another example of LOK's ambitions being far loftier than ATLA's, resulting in a less cohesive show.

For example, pretty much all of the female clothing in Republic City emphasizes an hourglass figure, which is completely at odds with the willowy silhouette that women wanted in the 20s. And these pin-straight silhouettes were a direct response to the hyper-curvy figures pushed during the Edwardian era. However, none of this context would exist in a purely Asian and Indigenous-inspired setting. Hence, the dilemma of this blog when it comes to breaking down LOK.

Instead, I'd like to just showcase some Asian bridal fashion from the 1910s-1930s. It's really interesting to see the different ways that people chose to incorporate Western fashion. Some chose to fully embrace the whole ensemble, others incorporated western fabrics and textures to traditional clothing, and a few simply took a shine to certain accessories. I gotta say, I love their wedding veils.

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

braiding hair with hairpin by 禾禾编发

[atlaculture]

Some hairstyling inspiration for anyone designing an OC.

[changeling-droneco]

Honestly learning about food and culture keeps leading to a lot of interesting revelations like of COURSE Sokka won’t shut up about meat, as someone based on the Inuit people his diet would be 99% meat and his body would be a lot worse at getting proper nutrients from vegetables and grains and the like. Like it’s also the “haha sokka likes meat joke” but he and katara are likely not getting anywhere near as much nutrients from not meat meals, especially because when they do get meat, it’s a lot leaner then they would be used to. Katara is just likely better at bottling it up then Sokka. Sure, they would be used to eating some plants, like foraged berries, but their bodies are much more adapted to heavy fatty meat based diets.

[die-auster]

Some "if Yue is alive and went travelling with the Gaang" designs.

With a ton of text about cultural inspiration.

The main book 2 look

I wanted to show cultural differences between the tribes, so Yue's look is sort of Mongolian. There were Mongolian-styled hats in the Northern tribe, and Yue's dress under the coat looked like a Mongolian deel (thanks @atlaculture for all these posts about clothes and everything else!), so it's not much against the canon information.

So she's wearing a deel again with a second layer - there are chinese actors on photos as far as I know; I hope it's okay. One-shoulder silhouette refers to later Aang's clothes because Yue is still kind of a spiritual person (she wasn't a fighter, so I want her to have some other useful talent – not a bender or healer like Katara or a non-bender warrior like Suki). Violet, pink and white were originally her colors, no changes here. Three blue characters would be too much for a group of five, and total white is not practical at all. I like to think that violet color shows high rank in the Avatar universe; in the original series it was only worn by princess Yue, Kanna, the chief Hakoda's mother, and by king Bumi.

Yue's boots here are mongolian gutals/gutuls (the collage is already big, but I used them again for one of Book 3-looks).

Her hair become simpler – just two braids and a hairpiece, to match her previous decorated hairdo. I guess if she's travelling with the Gaang she's not that much of a Moon Spirit anymore (maybe she returned the part of the moon spirit that saved her and was healed other way?), so I decided to forego the moon-referring part. Also it will be easier to do by herself since she has no servants now... The headdress I took from modern Mongolian dancers; the front part is crescent-moon-shaped.

The Ba Sing Se dress

I fell in love with this Ao Dai dress, it's simple, long and elegant. But... it's mostly Vietnamese… and I'm afraid that it's modern and not historically accurate. Also it does not really go together with other Ba Sing Se dresses :( because I did not want to just copy-paste some background look. But there is at least one dress with a tail, thigh high slits and a standing collar on the dress underneath, so... I guess my choice is not that bad? The tail makes her look more royal. The fan is the same which Toph and Katara had. For the palette I chose Yue's white color with EK greens and warm yellow/ochre to match Katara and Toph. The hairdo is copied from the series; I chose one with the tassel on the right, to refer the NWT/Korean accessories.

The Fire Nation disguise

A confession – I don't like FN clothes. I wasn't sure if I would be able to do it properly, so I almost copied that attire (left one) – asymmetry, as a Thai touch, which again matches Aang's Invasion Buddhist-like clothes. The palette keeps Yue's signature white, with some pink of a warmer shade, as they wear it in the Fire Nation. And the "royal" long skirt, 'cause she's still not a fighter. The look is simplified so I could not keep zigzag ornament on her longyi skirt, therefore I moved it onto the top part.

I used Thai dancers jewelry and... flip flops? idk how they are called in Southeast Asia (don't like Sokka and Katara's FN shoes at all, why the design is so complicated?).

For covering her hair I used a turban, inspired by Myanmar turbans; a white one, so if some hair will show, it won't be too noticeable. Also Yue could still be easily recognised on screen/page by her white head. The long end of the fabric on her right resembles burmese hairstyle silhouette.

The Invasion-and-till-finale look

For her dress I used a deel (again); the sleeveless jacket is an hommage to her original design and has some Korean vibes, like Toph's Ba Sing Se dress (at least I hope so). Katara and Sokka's season 1 looks have Korean influence, so I guess it's okay. Gutals are from her Book 2 main look. I have a soft spot for them.

My favorite thing is her hair :)))) It's a mix of Inuit/Mongolian braids and a hairpiece, also from the Book 2 look. This time there will be more braids. Two on the front – I wanted to keep them from her original hairdo, but now they are braided together (I saw this on the Alaskan Inuit/Eskimo women photos). On the back there are five, inspired by a Mongolian hairdo for young unmarried girls, who wore multiple braids. I decided to make five, because Alaskian Inuit language uses this amount for counting and with two front braids it'll make seven, which is a lucky Mongolian number. And in theory a limited number should be easier to animate.

The post-canon noble look

After the final battle I thought Yue will come back to Agna Qel'a and become a more active political figure. I chose a white kuspuk (blue color is still for Katara and Sokka), showing that she is ready to lead her tribe after this journey, not the passive perfect princess she was before. "She is associated in canon with the masculine yang of the yin and yang and the moon which, in most Inuit and Eskimo cultures, is considered masculine as well. While white kuspuks are associated with men and specifically family patriarchs, a feminine kuspuk in white makes plenty of sense for Yue's character" – @mostly-mundane-atla helped me a lot with the cultural meaning of the clothes (I am so grateful!). Also it's an hommage to her total-white Moon Spirit look. And I changed her hair again to Greenland updo with two tied braids on the front – more complicated than the simple braids she wore during the journey. It looks formal.

NWT is less Inuit-inspired and has a strong Mongolian touch (to make them look more "modern"? dunno) but I guess the formal wear for the spiritual princess could refer to older traditions. Which should be the same with SWT, 'cause SWT was originally a part of NWT – or so I heard. For example, Kuruk, the NWT Avatar who lived about 400 years ago, has nothing Mongolian in his look.

All the looks are simplified to match the style of the original cartoon. I know there should be more details and embroidery, but my goal here was to draw something (at least theoretically) applicable for animation. And no Hahn's betrothal necklace of course.

Also I want to mention here other great Yue designs, since they are the inspiration behind the overall idea of the post – the moon looks and "Yue joins the Gaang" outfits by amazingly talented @chiptrillino.

P.S.: an important note

This is my first attempt ever to design outfits that could fit the world of A:tLA. I am not Asian or ingenious, not an expert in their cultures or costume history at all, not a professional character designer. I am just a fan who tried to create designs with respect to real cultures and people. Nothing here was supposed to be offensive in any way. If something still is – please inform me so I could fix it as soon as possible.

I hope, as a fan, I have the right to draw fanarts looking for an inspiration in the cultures that inspired the original cartoon.

If you see mistakes in my post, be it in drawings or a text, also feel free to tell me. I will deeply appreciate it.

[atlaculture]

I love these! My favorite is Yue in the fabric parka. :)

[chiptrillino-art]

(ID in ALT text)

continuing with the whole... cleaning up and posting old sketches from the beginning of this year

you may also like: zuko, sokka, ty lee, the SEA (khmer) and japan inspired ones are based on @ranilla-bean fic the iconoclast.

(i think its the last one i have)

[pandaofsecrets]

In the show, Ozai's name is written with two characters that roughly translate to "full of arrogance", but was most likely chosen for its similarity with Mandarin 火災 (huǒzāi), meaning "conflagration", or more literally "fiery disaster". Iroh's name, meanwhile, sounds like a shortening of the Japanese name Ichirō (sometimes romanized Ichiroh), meaning "first son".

Azulon literally named his sons "firstborn" and "disaster".