seen from Germany
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Russia
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from China
seen from Malaysia
seen from Germany
seen from Germany
seen from China
seen from China
seen from China
seen from Germany
seen from China
seen from Malaysia
seen from Germany
seen from Germany
It's always "Azula is so evil, she smiled when her father burned Zuko", okay but have you ever noticed that she was wearing makeup in that scene?
"The fuck? How is this relevant? Cornplating ahh" SHE'S ELEVEN. Mind you the Agni Kai wasn't some sort of special event like a coronation or a wedding that you doll yourself up for, this was her everyday look.
Azula was straight up one of them Sephora kids before they were a thing and we need to talk about that
As much as I love TLOK, there are some things about it that I will never forgive or like like the fact that they reduced Katara to a HEALER!!
That girl is a fighter through and through and yes, she likes healing and would definitely heal others. Something that wouldn't happen would be her just sitting and healing people instead of just going and fighting villains. I get that she's old and in her 80s but Bumi was 112 and Pakku was also a really old man when they fought firefighters during Sozin's comet and won. So don't tell me that the best waterbender in the world that worked hard so that she could learn waterbending, fought people, and when Aang's being a good person stuff didn't work so she froze people to get answers would just sit back and become a healer that doesn't fight.
Like there's no way that she just sat and healed injured people during the civil war when her water tribe was under attack instead of skillfully taking out Unalaq or just sat back when the red lotus escaped and were going to take out P'Li. She would've gone with Tonraq and Zuko and fought along side them even if she lost, she would've fought. THE KATARA IK NEVER BACKS DOWN FROM A FIGHT.
So you mean to tell me that the moment where Zuko's dad saved him from drowning as a toddler that I've been hearing so much about, that Ozai tells after his defeat was a metaphor for how Zuko always second-guesses himself about whether or not he's doing the right thing all the time?
You're telling me Ozai tried to use this story of a kid feeling bad for a crab that a bird is trying to eat, while simultaneously feeling bad for the bird who is hungry, to try to encourage Zuko to do whatever he wants regardless of others feelings about it?
You're telling me this story about Zuko trying to do the right thing and getting so stuck between doing right by both the crab and the bird, gets swept away and almost drowns has never been brought up by any artist or writer I've seen mention/depict this scene?
Like as if that one story isn't a metaphor for Zuko's entire character? Him trying to do right by his people and being banished and burned for it. Him second guessing what is right based on what his father wants, rather than what his people want. Him continuously struggling to do what is right because he can't decide who is the most right. Him almost siding with Team Avatar in Ba Sing Se only to immediately give in to Azula's wishes as soon as she puts pressure on what he believes is right. Him being torn in The Promise between wanting to do right by the colonies, but also feeling like he's becoming his father.
Look anytime "what bender would your nation be?" Discussions show up in ATLA
I get infuriated over the fact they make Philippines Fire Nation
We couldve been water tribe and a mix of swamp and Earth Kingdom sub territory
They keep limiting Water Tribe as only winter polar adjacent cultures
When thats not the case, a country can be water tribe if its water locked
Islands
Seafaring culture
Someone considered Pacific Islanders Maori is water tribe
Which makes sense they are spiritually so connected to oceans
Then some guy says
It’s so weird because they could also be air benders because of how nomadic they were
Me: umm no, i think seafaring is a waterbender thing we arent monk nomads, we travelled seas
Waterbending isn’t just ice. It’s tides, rivers, monsoons, tropical islands, sea travel
Philippines is known to suffer from floods and hurricanes and monsoons
Water isn’t just snow and ice. Water is adaptability. Islands. Trade. Typhoons. Fishing cultures. Migration
Filipinos have a fluid identity. Archipelagic cultures are naturally tied to tides and currents. Fire Nation feels too industrialized and centralized
Visayans and Badjaos were known for being crazy good at sea diving and precolonial naval tacticians
And maritime navigation
We adapted to survive disasters that involve water
And our mangroves our rainforests
Those are swamp bender environments
A Filipino linguist points out
Tagalog, literally means water people
People of the river
Taga Ilog
Kapampangan
Because from the word "pampang"
Which is shore
Shoremen
Ilaya is upstream in English
Ilawod is downstream
We are sea people
We are water people
We eat rice
A water plant
We eat fish a water animal
Separated by islands and tribes
But the rivers connect us
Same as how we share the ocean with Inuits, Polynesians far away
We feared and respected the ocean and its beasts
Yknow how many crocodiles are in our rivers
We also got whalesharks who are like gentle gods
Water tribe isnt just igloos, tents or animal fur
Its also, Austronesians, sailboats and river houses on stilts. And what we have in common is fishing, communal ties that our ancestors even used to eat in one chiefs house
Its proven that Northern Water Tribe is also inspired by a bit of Himalayan Tamil culture
I get it follows the pattern of cold country water tribe
But i find it interesting they really arent homogenous cultures
I get Southeast Asia makes up a percentage of Fire Nation too
So thats the reason its tricky
But i rather associate it to industrialized regions of Asia
Earth Kingdom is Central Asia, shares China with Fire Nation, its pre industrial China. More ancient dynasties, steppe cultures, still has ethnic variety, even covers the deserts and Middle East
I think Philippines is a mix of Swamp, earth and water benders depending where they are
Luzon and Mindanao is a very wide land
Luzon known for its crops also the rice terraces can possibly be a worldbuilding idea our earthbenders got smart to just plant on mountains by molding it into stair structures
Sustainable architecture
Tbh i think earth kingdom and water tribe can coexist just fine
But tbh i have no idea what civilizations Fire Nation really has
Bro even Japan can be water tribe durinf Yamato period
Early Yamato Japan was heavily maritime, clan-based, spiritually animistic, and dependent on sea routes. The later association of Japan with Fire Nation aesthetics comes more from:
imperial militarism,
industrialization,
centralized monarchy,
and modernization imagery.
Fire Nation is also heavily visually Thai, Burmese , Cambodian yknow. Mixing it with Han Chinese
Even tho Thailand also has its own swamp river culture
Its heavily fire nation
Thet are Heavy on the Chinese cuz it has so many minorities
It mirrors Fire Nation having various visual identities too that are vaguely mentioned
Just seen as part of Fire Nation
And dont ever talk about the battleships to consider that as seafaring culture
Sure it involves boats
But its steam powered
Modernity and no enthnocultural history at all
It was created to expand territories
Not integrated to their cultural lifestyle
Simply military naval power
Probably even took the sea warfare tactics from those nations that have deep maritime culture
Reminds me of when the Visayans managed to terrorize Spanish galleons with guerilla pirate warfare
But they returned with steam battleships
Idk man just cuz we have volcanos and FN covers SEAsia no way youre just erasing our deep sea based culture to identify us with fictional colonizers
ⓘATLA RANT: We don't hate these guys enough.
ـــــــــــــــــــﮩ٨ــــــــــــــــــــﮩ٨ــــــــــــــــــــﮩ٨ــــــــــــــــــــﮩ٨ـ
⚠︎Spoilers for City of Echoes novel, The Rift comic trilogy and Jet: Rebels and Rhinos comic, I guess.
Rant below.
Disclaimerrrrr!!! This post is about ATLA both the series and the new movie. No, I have not watched the leaks. But, I have heard things and I’m having opinions. If you haven’t seen the show, this post will contain spoilers! Additionally, this post is about shipping. I’m sure you can guess which ones. If you’re cool with all that, then keep on reading.
Okay so now that that’s out of the way… the fuck is up with Zuko not having a scar from where Azula attacked him?! That was such a massive part of the show!! Even without the shipping aspect of it. He saved Katara and took the hit on his own. That was still a huge plot point for his character development.
Aang still has his and he was healed by spirit water!! Did Zuko have like fancy cosmetic surgery or some shit?? I also liked the fact that Zuko and Aang had really similar scars, inflicted by the same person, I thought it was lovely storytelling and I can’t figure out why you’d erase it.
“If ATLA were a school au Zuko would be the bad boy with good flirting” nah, it’s Aang. Although it may not seem like it at first, it’s 100% Aang. Him commiting eco-terrorism with Katara, him trolling a school bully WHILST GETTING SAID BULLY’S GIRLFRIEND TO LIKE HIM- dunking pies on monk’s heads with Gyatso, etc….it later on becomes clear that it’s Aang who is the cool kid of school with good flirting skills.
Just a reminder that Ozai is quite literally the biggest FLOP in Fire Nation history. Like his reign was by far the shortest (not including Azula since she was never actually crowned) and had some of the biggest military losses compared to his forefathers. The fact that most of the time he just sat his ass down in his royal palace while his FOURTEEN YEAR OLD daughter conquered Ba Sing Se and Omashu. To sum it up, Ozai is heartless dickhead bastard and he should be thankful that he was fighting a 12 year old air bender pacifist instead of literally any other avatar.
