In LoK's fifth episode, Bolin takes Korra to a Southern Water Tribe restaurant called Narook's Seaweed Noodlery. Judging by how thick and green the noodles are, they most closely resemble wakame udon noodles. Wakame, also known as "sea mustard", is a type of edible seaweed (kelp) native to Northeast Asia and udon is a chewy Japanese noodle made from wheat flour. Wakame udon noodles are made by kneading wakame paste into udon dough. The result is a vivid green noodle with a mild and savory flavor. This style of noodles is a specialty of Japan's Awaji Island, although you can also buy dried sea mustard noodles from Korea.
Since seaweed is a popular ingredient in both East Asian and Inuit cuisine, it makes sense to feature it in a Water Tribe dish. Since Kyoshi Island is inspired by Japan, my head canon is that the dish was introduced to the SWT by Suki. Since nations were able to more easily trade after the war, wheat flour became common enough for Southern Water Tribers to start putting their own spin on the dish, such as using species of kelp native to the Arctic. I'd like to think that seaweed noodles came to represent the SWT's post-war culture and prosperity.
As for the broth and toppings, perhaps five-flavor soup with some stewed sea prunes?
Hello! I've reappeared! Though might end up gone for another few eons after this... Who can say but any mystics out there or a very well trained ichthyologists who specialises in human coelacanths
Anyhoo, a modern version of the boys! I adore giving them accessories. I was thinking of bringing some orange and yellow into the image for the Air Benders, but feel that the splash of colour might change the mood of the piece.
(disclaimer: not proofread and unpolished, more a live blogging-kind of commentary, but I have to get this out of my system as fast as possible) OMG, I genuinely forgot that Iroh sexually harasses and assaults June in Book One. I remembered the Bato episode, but I had no recollection of that B-plot. Fuck me.
So, Iroh repeatedly initiates flirting/unwanted sexual attention despite her disengagement and is also one of the clients hiring her to pay off the debt for the demage her shirshu left on Zuko’s ship. That counts as sexual harassment. However, at the end of the episode, this woman is incapacitated by venom paralyzing the nervous system temporarily and the man whom she’s laboring for to repay debt (the former crown prince of the Fire Nation, btw) exploits her vulnerable physical state to force physical access on her body.
Zuko even goes, “Uncle? I didn’t see you get hit with the tongue” and Iroh shushes him, continuing cradling her on top of him, while June’s face distorts in anger. We get visual confirmation that this intimate bodily contact is happening against her will. The writing wants us to know that that isn’t incidental awkward positioning but actively sustained through Iroh. Against June’s will! The “comedy” depends on these two elements.
The earlier unwanted advances establish his sexual interest and her lack of reciprocation. The intimate touch (this is a kid’s show; cradling June’s body on top of him is about as explicit as the show can get. So, I wouldn’t brush it away as harmless contact, just because it isn’t more sexually explicit because it physically can’t depict more) is a deliberate escalation and violation of June’s boundaries and consent.
Considering how much condemnation Ozai’s domestic abuse is drawing, I think the show shouldn’t give Iroh a pass just because he’s the nice uncle. Mind you, this happens years after his alleged moral awakening!
I mean, sure, the presence and comedic treatment of non-consensual sexualized body contact can be explained historically. A lot of media a few decades ago was much more comfortable with misogyny and disciplining, borderline punishing, abrasive, confident, conventionally attractive but inconveniently uninterested women as a punchline, but that doesn’t change what occurs diegetically. The joke is that he’s getting away with touching/holding a woman who’s not consenting and would stop him if she could move. The joke is that he knows she doesn’t want it but does it anyway with a smirk. Her humiliation is part of the joke!
Come on… if you show a man gleefully exploiting physical vulnerability for sexualized intimacy, show him fully aware that what he’s doing is against June’s will and consent, and establish that he has a past as celebrated and successful general, enthusiastically contributing to imperial and genocidal conquest, but apparently, he’s still comfortable with sexually harassing and exploiting this woman post-moral reckoning the extrapolation/inference of far darker and more sinister implications are very viable.
Seeing ATLA pop up on my dash (specifically a post about Hama) reminded me of an old idea I had to explain why Hama only recently started murdering random Fire Nation people. Because it sure sounds like SOMETHING happened recently to make the change, rather than Hama moving around from place to place making people everywhere suffer.
Simply put: Hama had a family while hiding out in the Fire Nation territory. And then the family died because of the Fire Nation, underscoring the loss of family and community.
She found another survivor who escaped from a different prison. Hurt and traumatized, but alive. The other person was too scared to draw attention back to the Southern Water Tribe by heading home because what if what if what if someone else got home. Time passed as Hama and the Survivor found solace in each other; they don't have home but they have each other and that's enough given the journey home and safety there being too long and uncertain. (Maybe they eventually had kids? Whether they were drafted or fled, they're gone but hopefully alive.) The comb the Gaang finds is assembled from pieces each managed to hold onto - let's face it: the thing is HUGE for something supposedly hidden in her hair for years, and it'd be poetic if it was a whole remade from clutched fragments.
... and then one day a local boy from the village - one SO PROUD of the Fire Nation (so fearful not to be) - somehow realizes that Survivor is A Foreigner. Not the full extent of the truth, not even thinking that The Foreigner is dangerous in themselves or a spy or anything like that... just that somehow someone who "doesn't belong" is living in the Nation and there'd be trouble if anyone was found "harboring" them.
Local Boy was spoonfed propaganda until he choked on it, paranoid and fearful of any hint of Not Fire Nation / Perception of Treason and the problems that'd result if someone more volatile finds out.
So Local Boy abducts Survivor, ties up Survivor in a cave, and goes home panicking over what to do and how to solve the "problem". Survivor's trauma is back in full force over the imprisonment so they're blind to everything but the fear and the darkness. A week of misery results in their death.
Local Boy is panicking worse now. He doesn't think Hama knows what Survivor "really is", and is too scared to open up to friends or family. So he goes to the nice innkeeper who always has a smile for the kids and is so nice such a nice auntie that of course she'll know what to do.
Hama coaxes Local Boy to lead her to Survivor's cave. Sees what happened. And something in her breaks, but she's still smiling sweetly as she turns to Local Boy with assurances that she knows just what to do. And she does: Local Boy is the first victim of her revenge. Made to suffer exactly how Survivor suffered: fear, darkness, no water, no food, no idea if anyone is looking, not even Hama's presence to give some solace that he's not alone.
And then she turns on the rest. Hama has so much wasted time to make up for.
... but I thought the whole idea would be too bleak and struggled with workshopping the community and why no one would've suspected Hama if her spouse/livelong friend was the first to vanish.
Hello and welcome to the A:tLA Rarepair Terato-tober event!
This event is a month long, spanning the entirety of the month of October 2026, and will be devoted to any and all forms of content celebrating the Rarepair ships of A:tLA, this time with a monstrous twist!
Content can include but not limited to fanfiction, fanart, moodboards, edits, music videos and playlists.
Prompts:
Week 1 - Pursuit Predator, Tongues of Torment, Knot-ty times - October 1st to October 6th
Week 2 - Fur and Fangs, Love is Blind, The Doctor Will See You Now - October 7th to October 12th
Week 3 - Tipping the Scales, Eyes in the Dark, Verbal Training - October 13th to October 18th
Week 4 - Blood Drinking, Tentacles or Tails, Behave or Deprave - October 19th to October 24th
Week 5 - Wings of Want, Born to be Bred, Sensory Savant, FREE SPACE - October 25th to October 31st
The rules for entries are as follows:
-Must be 18+ to participate, as we will be accepting NSFW entries (make sure to tag appropriately for content warnings and put under a read more)
-A rarepair must have 300 or less fics on ao3 to be considered acceptable.
-For this event we are excluding any Canon Character x Reader submissions.
-We will, however, accept Canon Character x OC submissions.
-All content is acceptable, please be courteous of other people’s submissions and do not leave hate or discourse in the comments and tags. This is a celebration of rarepairs and encouraging more content for rarepairs in the fandom. If you don’t like something someone made, just keep scrolling.
-When submitting your content, make sure to tag us @atlararepairmonth
I used to kinda laugh at the whole "Zuko's so dramatic, he did one good thing and passed the fuck out with a fever for several days" thing
But then i had an anxiety attack so bad that it actually made me feverish for a whole ass 24 hours and i'm like "damn, it really does happen just like that, huh?" Lmao
turnnoffyourmind
yousharknotpass
gummygunk
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
kianamaiart
