Me describing Baatar as "horse coded" on a discord stream and folks going "Um, please explain that?" because I genuinely forget sometimes people can't hear every thought I have about him and have no context for what I just said.
To explain:
Big, awkward, anxious, needy, capable of irreparable damage without really knowing or meaning to. Surprisingly fragile for their size like if they trip and fall over there is genuine chance they could just die. If their tummy hurts a little bit they could die. They will bite your fingers off if you do not feed them properly. They look like dinosaurs when you shave their hair.
Horses - Afraid of things they shouldn't be: plastic bags, small puddles on the ground, stationery flower pots
Baatar - Afraid of things he shouldn't be: things that were on sale, low thread count bed sheets, Great Value brand items.
Hi anon! My answer is a very complicated one. Yes and no.
I like The Legend of Korra for giving me canon kataang, cloudbabies, and more of the characters I know and love from AtLA. I like some of the concepts they tried to tackle, and a lot of the new characters. I liked Avatar Wan, and seeing Iroh in the Spirit World of course, and I LOVE the airbabies. I am one of those people who gets SO into a world that I immediately need more of it when I finish the original piece of media, so it was lucky for me that my family and I watched AtLA for the first time during the pandemic so that we could *immediately* watch LoK after. We then bought and read all the comics (which I also have mixed feelings about, I admit). So for that reason, I am very glad that LoK exists so I could be fed.
HOWEVER (and I'm going to continue under a cut because this got long):
I don't like the way they made the cloudbabies (and other mixed-race characters like Mako and Bolin) all "pick a side." I could write a whole essay on this, and am slowly working on a fic about it but, as a mixed-race person myself, that didn't sit right with me. That's not how families or racial identity work. They would have grown up learning about and celebrating BOTH sides of their (nearly extinct!!!) heritage. They would have eaten foods from both nations, worn clothes with BOTH colors, etc etc. As the head of the modern Air Nation I can understand Tenzin's appearance, though I wish he had worn some small nod to his Water Tribe heritage as well (even just a bracelet or a blue sash/belt or something). Kya and Bumi's outfits bothered me though.
I'm not a big fan of the way LoK treated Aang, either. For what it's worth, I LOVE that every single one of the characters in AtLA were complex, multi-faceted, and nuanced. I love that no character was perfect, and that they all had (somewhat glaring!) flaws. However, given the gaps in age between the cloudbabies (and especially between Bumi and Tenzin), there is absolutely NO way that Aang didn't take the others on a family vacation *ever.* Aang would have had YEARS to bond with Bumi before any of his siblings were born, much less Tenzin, and Bumi would have been out of the house only a few years after Tenzin came into the picture. I have a much younger sister, and I know how that goes. I got lots of attention from my parents/grandparents for a while, and then I left for college and my sister got more. It's not favoritism it's just how families work sometimes. Obviously Aang would have had to spend an extensive amount of time with Tenzin to work on his airbending, on top of his Avatar duties, but that's different from just not taking family trips (and need I remind anyone that Aang is a NOMAD. I HC that he and Katara were still fairly nomadic when Bumi was born even and didn't settle down on Air Temple Island for a little while yet).
ALSO we were robbed of Aang mentoring Korra the way Roku mentors Aang throughout LoK (and the comics). Honestly I was wary of watching LoK because I knew it meant Aang had passed away and I was going to be sad, but I was looking forward to seeing him in that role, and then... it never really happened (other than that very brief "When we hit our lowest point, we are open to the greatest change" line.
I'm also not the biggest fan of how they changed the Spirits/Spirit World and the lore, but those things bothered me less than the character-centric issues. I know Nickelodeon messed with things, too, so I won't even get into the plotlines. Overall I'm glad LoK exists. I like it enough that I've seen it multiple times (at the request of my kids but still). It gave me canon confirmation that Aang and Katara got married and had babies, and that's all I really needed. I can (and do) fill in the rest with fic. Thanks for the ask, anon! Sorry it got long.
There are some beautiful parallels between Mako and Suki and the sacrifices they make, and I haven’t seen anyone mention it so this is my contribution. When Mai, Ty Lee, and Azula find Appa and the Kyoshi warriors, Suki puts herself in between Appa and Azula. When Azula jumps over Suki’s katana and bats it away, Suki realizes she’s not going to win this fight. But she calculates that she can buy enough time for Appa to escape and hopefully find Aang on his own. To an outsider, such a sacrifice for one lost sky bison seems a bit steep, but to Suki, it’s the most important mission she’s ever carried out. Unfortunately, this sacrifice has greater consequences as Suki is separated from the other Kyoshi warriors and can't protect them. She is taken to a high-security prison somewhere in the Fire Nation. She has no idea if Appa ever finds Aang.
When Kuvira marches into Republic City with a deadly spirit weapon mounted to a giant mecha suit, Mako is on the front lines, fighting alongside the avatar. Mako and Bolin’s job is to shut down the spirit vines giving the cannon its power. They manage to incapacitate the engineers, but the shutdown sequence doesn’t work. They appear to be all out of options. With the spirit vines intact, Kuvira still has a chance at victory. The weapon must be destroyed by any means necessary. And so, ignoring the protests of his brother, Mako decides that the only way to destroy the spirit vines is with lightning. He doesn’t need Bolin to tell him how dangerous it is to use lightning in a room full of supercharged spirit vines. He already understands the magnitude of lightning and the damage it can cause under normal circumstances. But this is the only way.
Both Mako and Suki are confident in their fighting abilities. They tie their abilities to their own survival and the survival of the ones they love. Both can sense defeat when it’s on the horizon and both have exceeded in self-preservation. That is, until they are called upon to make a choice. Someone else might consider Appa fighting along side the Kyoshi warriors could lead to a positive outcome. Someone else might consider that Korra or the Airbenders have another way to take down the giant mecha suit. Not Suki and not Mako. Optimism won’t cloud their tactical judgement. The only hope for Appa is for him to escape now. The only hope for Republic City is for Mako to destroy the spirit weapon now. The costs will come later.
Neither gains any glory from these acts. Suki gets sent to the highest security prison in the Fire Nation alone. Mako gets his arm fried. Both Suki and Mako grow up too fast. They are very protective of their people only until they meet the avatar and find greater purpose. Yes, they are willing to sacrifice themselves, but more importantly, they are willing to sacrifice their role as protector and caretaker. If Suki doesn’t make it, then who will protect her village? If Mako doesn’t make it, then who will look after Bolin? All they can do is hope their sacrifice will play off in long run to help the avatar succeed.
But in the end, both are rescued by someone very important to them. Sokka breaks Suki out of prison and Bolin comes back for an unconscious Mako. Neither have ever asked for thanks or recognition for their sacrifices, but it doesn’t matter because they are seen and loved by the ones who matter most, the ones worth protecting. And that’s all they could ever ask for.
Season One of The Legend of Korra Thoughts, Because a Lot of People Said I Would Probably Hate It and I Actually Really Liked it Overall
Before I even finished Avatar: The Last Airbender, I had a few people ask if I planned on watching The Legend of Korra as well. When I said yes, I received a lot of warnings that I probably would not enjoy the show very much. While I cannot claim I enjoyed it as much as A:TLA, without judging it entirely based on how it lives up to its predecessor, I thought season one of LOK was pretty good. It is definitely not without things I didn’t like as well mind you, but the same could be said for A:TLA in that regard.
What I Liked:
I love all the main characters, and almost all the supporting characters. I think Bolin is my favourite, (although I’ve been warned he gets done dirty in subsequent seasons, so I’m bracing for that,) with Korra being second. I like that instead of just trying to make "A:TLA characters 2.0″, they all have their own unique personalities and backstories.
The relationships between the characters—aside from the gratuitous and dumb love-square (see, What I Didn’t Like)—were great. I especially loved the brotherly moments between Mako and Bolin; I’m a sucker for positive sibling relationships. Tenzin becoming a mentor figure for Korra also stood out... and surprisingly, Amon and Tarrlok.
Speaking of Amon and Tarrlok, I found them both to be interesting antagonists. Their backstory also pulled at my heartstrings despite everything, although not without complicated feelings on the implication that what they went through with their father made them into villains. In the end, it’s just plain a tragedy how things turned out.
Just like A:TLA, a lot of the fight sequences are simply beautiful to watch. There’s no other way to describe it.
What I Didn’t Like:
The love square bullshit between Korra, Mako, Bolin and Asami was just that: bullshit. Nine times out of ten I hate love triangles, let alone love squares, or whatever. What only made it worse was that between all of them, the only chemistry I really liked between characters was Korra and Bolin’s very brief dating. I found the entire thing only clogged up what already felt like a very rushed season, since there were only 12 episodes.
I hate Republic City. This is something I can’t help but compare to A:TLA - the fact that the entire show takes place in one location, and a boring city at that, is so. Boring. Is this or is this not supposed to be an adventure genre? One of the coolest things of A:TLA was Team Avatar travelling to different locations. Hell, I felt like Ba Sing Se overstayed its welcome by the time the season two finale came around, but an entire season of LoK in the same dumb city makes that look like a brief stay.
I personally don’t inherently dislike the technological advancements in the world since A:TLA. What I do dislike is, what I feel like at least, lazy worldbuilding in the technology itself. There’s no creativity; it’s all just exact replicas of old fashioned cars, radios, etc. from real life. What happened to things like the vertical climbing tanks from the Fire Nation, and centipede tanks from the Earth Kingdom? But I kinda wanna make a separate post about this sometime, so I’ll leave it at that.
Of course there’s other things I liked and disliked too, but those are the big ones that come to mind. And the things I enjoyed outweigh the things I didn’t.
Now, I’ve gotten tenfold the amounts of messages saying season two of LoK is really, really bad. So even though I enjoyed this one, I’m still nervous to start the next. But we’ll see how it goes.
I'll truly die on my Baatar/Asami besties agenda like they're both smart, rich bitch, engineers who come from family money, you CANNOT tell me they wouldn't have the absolute most Donatella-by-LadyGaga coded friendship of all time. Even when on opposing sides they still go to brunch to gossip, talk the latest in fashions, architecture, and innovations, while also waging subtle psychological warfare on each other trying to get information from the other. And when things actually get serious and everyone else is throwing hands the absolute WORST thing they could do to each other is say something like "Brunch next Tuesday? It is OFF." or "Oh and your outfit. A bit tacky wouldn't you say?" and the other would take ACTUAL PHYSICAL damage from that LOLOL worse than if they'd literally fought each other hand to hand, it's so serious for them.
Then weeks later at some social/political gathering they are standing next to each other not making eye contact and be like "I am NOT talking to you. However-" and then proceed to gossip like nothing happened askdjf please I need their friendship so badly it's my FAVORITE. Korra and Kuvira are standing there looking at the two of them talking in their upper class gucci prada versace-ass language and are like "what the fuck are they even saying?"
I saw a post about giving your fav fictional characters minor physical ailments and I admittedly have a couple for Baatar lol
Aside from his obvious eyesight issues, he's also very prone to ear infections but they only really started as he got older. Tangentially he'll get a swollen lymph node on the back of his neck from it, or from just sleeping with his shoulder near pressed to his ear.
He has pollen allergies as well as grass allergies.
He has the tendency to hold his neck at a slight angle when he's not focusing on his posture- which he's usually very diligent about, especially when at a drafting desk, so he gets neck aches from that a lot.
The usual body pains that come with being an engineer, particularly his back and his knees, though he stays pretty fit and active to combat that, he does have the bad habit of cracking his back and thus it bothers him still. He'll also get sore in his elbows, more so on his dominant arm, and I like the idea he eventually takes to wearing compression sleeves for both his elbows and knees.
He grinds and clenches his teeth. Hard. Primarily when he's sleeping and when he wakes up and releases the tension his teeth ache.
Oh goodness, I do love talking about why I like him I cannot lie! (foreshadowing for the length of this, I come back to ominously warn retrospectively..)
Honestly even back when the show was initially airing, he was a character I always liked. Being big into anime in middle and high school I was 100% a "megane man" enjoyer lol which is just to glasses men XD (they get a special genre title because they are apparently very popular in Japanese anime communities which honestly, based) so that was the first thing (not to mention he's voiced by Todd Haberkorn who I knew from anime dubs since he's in so many).
But okay so what I find compelling about Baatar. I think he had such potential to be a very interesting character and one that could have been really put to use in the story. He had such interesting groundwork to me, especially in tandem with Kuvira. You can always trust me to stan the troubled eldest sibling lol, in Baatar's particular case I call it "eldest sibling inferiority complex" (idk if anyone has coined that phrase but I'm claiming it until proven otherwise) but it's something I relate to a lot. Baatar being the first "heir" essentially of the metal bending capitol of the world, founded by the metal bending daughter of the inventor of metal bending itself Toph Beifong, and he isn't a bender in any regard is something I think about way too much, I don't care whatever way you slice it I know that must have SUCKED for him because he was just.. inherently kind of a disappointment? Like he came into the world with the "Oh, shame he isn't a bender." tagline on his life. And then the brother he gets soon after IS a metal bender which I can imagine practically felt like an instant replacement because he wasn't "enough". Ofc that may not have been why Su and Sr. had Huan but I can see Baatar feeling that way. Then the twins ofc have metal bending and Opal later on gets air bending and he's just pushed further and further into irrelevance in the family. Like history will always talk about the Beifong family, the inventors and masters of metal bending, Suyin's younger sons all being prodigies in their own right, her daughter later being blessed with air bending, but what would ever be said about Baatar? He was just "the one who was a non-bender". I thought so so much about how being in a position like that would feel. And even the framing of the writing of the show itself always felt so dismissive of him. When Su is introducing all her kids he gets the least mention, no one ever says his name even, he only has 3 scenes in the entirety of season 3 and only in 1 is he even animated. It just always felt rather sad to me, he really was in line to just become the Beifong family's forgotten son.
I've talked about how I wish something had been said with Baatar and Huan and how starkly contrasting they are. Baatar feels trapped in his father's shadow with nothing of his own, not his own name, nothing of his own to leave an impact with and just quietly relegating himself to the background, meanwhile Huan is so obsessed with his self expression and individuality. I can imagine Huan seeing Baatar and how miserable he was when they were younger and not wanting to end up like that so he takes a hard turn into the opposite direction.
I really think Baatar was the perfect character to bring back the discussion of disparity between benders and non-benders, from a villain standpoint of course, because he is a character who- even from his seat of clear privilege, still has to deal with the effects of it. Like the world of Avatar really is for benders and non-benders are just allowed to live in it. I don't think Baatar actually wants bending, I actually think quite the opposite. I think he just doesn't want to be seen as lesser than for not having it, and prove that he doesn't need it in his life. That's why I love the setup of his relationship with Kuvira so much. I genuinely think the two of them were accidentally written and created so perfect for each other and the writers just.. did it by sheer accident and didn't even notice and thus squandered them completely. They give each other exactly what the other needs. Kuvira wants acceptance and to feel genuinely wanted which Baatar gives her, and Baatar wants recognition and to feel appreciated for who he is and that's what Kuvira gives him. She is one of the most skilled metal benders in the world but grew up in a family that didn't want her or care about her (ignoring Ruins entirely, Ruins of the Empire my beloathed), and Baatar grew up in one of the richest families in the world, the family whose whole identity is metal-bending, born into the lap of luxury but was still written off somewhat because he was a non-bender and thus the family legacy really didn't have anything to do with him. And when Su takes Kuvira under her wing they're both living in what is considered a "utopia" but are both still unhappy because they always feel "outside" of it, and they are able to relate to each other in that way and validate each others' feelings. Having Kuvira choose him- someone considered very remarkable choosing someone most consider very unremarkable, and him being the first person to ever genuinely truly want her and all of her is my Roman Empire, it is the hill I will die on. Like idk how the LoK writers had all that literally right in front of them and chose to do nothing with it, it bothers me so much lol.
Baatar descending (ascending truly in my opinion lol) into his villain era when he is finally away from home because he is reacting out of spite, paranoia, and existential dread because this is his chance to be known for something in his own right and not for anything to do with his family and slowly becoming the instrument of his own destruction is my bread and butter, I love it so much. I hate the fanon that he left Zaofu only to pad after Kuvira, I truly think he saw his one chance to leave with someone he cares about and financial stability and took it. I don't think he's very altruistic, like if I'm being frank I don't think he gives a hoot or a holler about the Empire itself LOL like he is absolutely here to support Kuvira and help her achieve her goals but to him the Empire is just something he can cultivate to facilitate himself and his needs. It's more of a symbiotic relationship to him where he'll always prioritize himself but will do what he needs to to keep the host happy. I do think that when he initially left he DID have good intentions they just were also very self serving, and then as time went on he leaned further and further into the self serving and see's himself as "doing the right thing for them because it is the right thing for me so no one can get mad :)" lol like yes darling, you are the moment, give us everything and nothing. I love love love the thought of him really leaning into the fame and attention because he's actually getting recognition, people are interested in what he's doing, he has the facilities to work on things he wants to work on, and can really just do as he pleases. One thing you will not see me do is say that he was trying his best for the Empire's sake the whole time lol like the man truly was out here in his Applause by Lady Gaga era. The idea that he does in fact do good for the people but for selfish reasons is just so funny to me. He's like "Do you think I'm out here bringing running water and irrigation to rural towns out of the goodness of my heart? No bitch, I'm just not about to get giardia in the name of freedom." LMAOO like yeah he is a little bit wretched but I'm still stanning, I'm still streaming, my shower is working so I have to thank him. Like I do genuinely find the idea of "guy who is doing good things for selfish reasons but is still doing good things regardless" very interesting to think about. Like what does it matter where his heart is at if he's still doing humanitarian work because it provides him in return with accolades and material wealth lmao. In his case though I can see him melting a bit when he sees the good impact his work can have but he has to keep up his big sassy bitch face bc he has a reputation to maintain.
Also withing the Empire era, that is like my peak Baatar contemplation era because wow it was so rife with potential for him. A non-bender being second in command of what was probably the biggest military force in the world at the time must have been an insane line for him to walk. Because all his authority is superficial. Because Kuvira gave it to him and for almost no other reason. No matter what he does, he will always be weaker than the weakest bender inherently, but he still has to command respect because everyone KNOWS THAT. Him walking through their camps he literally has his life on the line at every second because anyone could just decide to kill him at any moment for no reason and there's nothing he could do to defend himself. So he has to be smart, he has to be scary, he has to be mean, he has to be intimidating because if he doesn't he has nothing else to shield himself with. He can't let his anxiety over it show either because every bender would be able to hear it through the ground. The idea of Baatar having genuine anxiety regarding benders all his life is something that is so important to me. Even in his own home, his heart rate couldn't be something that was private. I love to hc that he quickly learned to become an Azula tier liar like you could never catch him lying because he needed to learn how otherwise his own emotions couldn't even be private. Aiwei could never catch this man and he hated it so much lol Baatar loved every second of it. He would just say lies to Aiwei's face and they both would know he was lying but Aiwei couldn't ever really know and it made him so mad.
I really do think a lot of what Baatar does comes from a place of genuine hurt, and wanting to feel like he has some form of control in his life and he expresses it through anger because his anger is the only power he feels like he has but he lets it eat away at him until he just has this void in him that will never be satisfied. He wants his family to understand how he feels, why he feels so hurt, and for them to acknowledge it, but he needs them to realize it themselves without him saying it because if he has to tell them then it must not be real. Plus how could they understand when they're free of the experience that makes him feel this way. They'll never know that feeling of being a disappointment on arrival. Opal did, but she's beyond it all now. Thinking about his relationship with his father, I think he actually loves his father so much, he was a daddy's boy from day one and still is, he wants his father to feel similarly as himself, not the anger but just acknowledge that "yes, the world really does revolve around benders, and it's okay that you feel scared and unnerved by that reality, there's nothing wrong with your feelings it's okay for you to have them" but his father doesn't feel that way and Baatar takes it as almost a kind of betrayal. In his mind he needs that shared experience because it tells him that if someone else feels like this then his feelings are real and he isn't just making shit up, he can feel that way even if he never acts on it, just knowing someone else feels the same. He doesn't go about it in a healthy way at all and I am by no means defending his actions or blaming his family for everything bad that he's done, you'll never catch me doing that, Baatar 100% engineers his own downfall by choosing to feed into his anger for catharsis. The fact that he did everything he ever did because he didn't want to be forgotten by history, only to get his wish, he'll indeed be remembered forever, but remembered as the engineer of monstrosities is the perfect poetic irony to me and his most perfect kind of villain arc in my eyes. He is so consumed by his anger and paranoia. His fear of being forgotten by time because to him being forgotten means there was never any point to his existence to begin with.
Also okay yes let us briefly discuss my buff Baatar lol I do have reason for it I swear! So okay yes, I do that for me because I love big beefy glasses men okay, sue me, i am indeed an animal in that way. But also I do think it just kinda makes sense for him??? Like he is someone with some clear anger issues and exercise is in fact a very good way to relieve anger and stress. I think it's funny that he just gave that a try because he needed to vent his anger on something and it became his primary anger management and now he's just massive lol but also this is also him making a statement of like "I can take my body even this far but I'd still always be at an inherent disadvantage", he'd have a lot of reasons for doing it- his own vanity, his self-esteem of always feeling unimpressive or unremarkable, wanting to feel like he could in even the smallest way be something of a protective force for Kuvira. Plus him having the kangaroo effect on people between seasons 3 and 4 is so funny, where when people think about kangaroos they're like "aaw cute lill hoppy fellas c:"(season 3) and then they actually see a kangaroo and are like "bitch what the fuck is that"(season 4) lmao like have you seen how jacked kangaroos actually are? Everyone is like "Yeah we know what Baatar looks like" and then they see him for the first time in season 4 and are like "Who the fuck is that?" LMAOO Also yeah he just looks nice that way to me.
God I just scrolled up this to see where I was at and this ended up way longer than I intended alksjdf I'll stop myself here I'm so sorry, I just truly cannot Shut Up about this man. He genuinely means so much to me. For so long I didn't talk about liking him or did any art of him because in the early days of the fandom and even relatively recently, the hate for him was so... vitriolic and cruel it genuinely made me so uncomfortable. I'd see rare pieces of fanart of him and the comments would always have people expressing their hate for him in them, I've even gotten comments like that on my own art. It really has always baffled me tbh, even the writers and Bryan himself are not shy about talking about their hate for him, one of the s4 episode writers called him "the worst character in the entire franchise" and it just hurts my heart so much. Like they wrote him already down and just continue kicking him while he's there like they weren't the ones who put him there. In that way Baatar's spite and anger feels almost all encompassing as corny as that sounds. I just love angry sad men and Baatar is the angriest saddest man of my heart haha if he has no fans I am dead. I really cannot express how much it means to me to hear that people have become to like him more because of my portrayal of him, I've even had people who used to hate him tell me they love him now because of me and I truly could cry about it, I really could.
Silly little Baatar headcanon that I love is that he LOVES receiving medical treatment LOL like growing up in Zaofu where if you didn't feel well your options were to meditate or receive acupuncture, as soon as he was out- any time he'd have even a mild ache he's like "Oop- well looks like I need to see a doctor!" and he's excited because medical science fascinates him and he likes experiencing it. It feels real to him, especially with tangible numbers and data he can see and have explained.
And for all intents and purposes he's incredibly healthy but if he has the opportunity to receive medicine or even get just a minor check-up he's very excited about it :'D
This would also completely exclude any kind of healing from a waterbender. He would reject that so fucking fast, his leg could be broken and he'd say he'd rather have surgery. This in particular comes from his almost manic rejection of needing "assistance" from bending in any way. Like to him it's a point of pride in himself as a non-bender to do things in a way other non-benders have to. So for things like medical treatment in his mind he's like "There have been people having to treat themselves without bending for centuries, I can manage just as well as them." So he's more than happy to pop pills or take an injection because he believes in the science behind it, it was something he was denied for so long so he became very fixated on it as it was this nebulous concept that was outside of his reach and he could only learn about it from afar. He doesn't even necessarily see himself as particularly fragile, he likes feeling like he's supporting a practice that he is very interested in. He wouldn't go so far as to submit himself as a test subject for a new speculative type of treatment, and I think a lot of wholistic herbal remedies would even put him off, like he needs the mass production World Health Organization approved drugs LMAO
And lastly I think on Kuvira's end she'd somewhat compound this bc while she doesn't perceive him as fragile either, he is the one thing she can't stand to lose so the threat of that makes her take minor stuff very seriously even when he doesn't. So Baatar's readiness to submit himself to medical treatment is also to give her peace of mind (even though she doesn't consider it as absolute as Baatar does but it's something) but in Baatar's mind he's like "See, this doctor who studied medicine for decades said I can take this medication and I'll be fine. :)" because to him he wouldn't ever argue the science behind it. So it's meant to be reassuring from his perspective.
Anyways yes more thoughts about my favorite silly man. Engineering would be his profession, but medical science would be his hyperfixation if that makes sense.
