#or zuko

[shadelorde]

unpopular opinion but season two Korra deserves the world she is DOING her BEST while being ACTIVELY MANIPULATED

[thebluesunflower44]

look all i'm saying is that if someone looked at me like that, i'd fall in love on the spot

[the-badger-mole]

You know what? I’ve figured out that I don’t actually dislike Aang. I just dislike how his arc was handled.

I hate them both.

I admit that a lot of my dislike of early Aang is retroactive, but Aang as a character was consistently self-centered and unempathetic from the first season. He was always awful, but it was easy to overlook because what 12 year old isn't at least a little self-centered? But he never grew past that. I even can't give him the benefit of calling him OOC in the post ATLA canon because his worst traits were there from the beginning. But since Bryke went so hard making him a Gary Stu, they couldn't have anyone calling out his flaws or show him facing negative consequences for his actions. Having him addressing his short-comings and growing past them would mean admitting he wasn't perfect from the beginning and we can't have that now, can we? Aang turned out exactly how I would expect someone who is given everything without really putting in work for it to turn out.

His arc is a joke, frankly. I've had people try to justify his arc to me by saying it was supposed to be a flat arc, but Aang didn't even address that there was a part of the problem that was his responsibility to find a solution for. He doesn't question his part in ending the war until the second to last episode! And even then, he doesn't find the solution; the solution finds him. He only needed to be the one to take down Ozai because the plot demanded it. He didn't have to work for the solution. He didn't even have to master the Avatar State- which he didn't, seeing as he still relied on Katara to stop him from magic murdering people when he got pissed off in the comics.

Even Aang's losses ultimately mean nothing to him. His being struck by lightning was more Katara's moment than his. He lost on the DoBS and the next episode he wanted to screw off and go play after Katara and Sokka's father had just sacrificed himself to save them. That turned out to be Sokka's moment. Aang's attitude is never even really addressed. So what was the point of him even being there? Aang doesn't do anything to forward the plot. He is only there so the others have something to do and problems to solve. Aang is so passive and useless in his own story, that he could be replaced by Appa and convenient map. He's a McGuffin who somehow got promoted to the main character.

ATLA is a masterclass on how to go so hard on writing a Gary Stu character that he becomes irrelevant to his own story.

[elysmi]

There’s nothing I want more in life than to be part of Team Avatar. Imagine all the jokes I’ll make with Toph and Sokka, Katara’s mom vibes, Aang’s hugs and Zuko’s edginess.

Literally goals.

[parcai]

i get that katara's just a kid and i tried so hard to like her s1 and 2 but 3 is just unbearable. she's a great bender but everyone else is just a kid too she's getting on my nerves 😩

[foxy-knowledgeseeker]

I haven’t been on Tumblr long, so maybe this has been said, but I personally haven’t seen anyone bring up what being Firelady would have really meant for Katara’s life, so I’m going to say it. I don’t believe Zuko ever would have purposefully limited Katara’s freedoms (it is obvious by the end of the show he has immense respect for her), but no amount of good intention from Zuko can change the nature of a monarch’s responsibility to their people. Katara becoming Firelady would make her a public servant to the very country responsible for the near total genocide of her kind. She would be a figurehead in a nation full of people with bigoted mindsets that are the result of one hundred years of propaganda to develop prejudice against her culture. I don’t doubt Zuko was effective at ushering in the era of peace and love he promised at the end of the show, but I can’t believe the transition away from the Fire Nation’s history of imperialism and ethnocentrism didn’t take time. It is likely Zuko spent the majority, if not all, of his reign working hard to overcome that history. I love Katara’s character, and I wouldn’t want her to spend most of her adult life serving as a Firelady for a nation that would probably hate her. I wouldn’t want her responsibilities as Firelady to keep her away from being an active participant in her own community. Does she deserve to live her life serving a people that have been conditioned to believe her culture inferior to theirs all so her presence could “teach them a lesson” about their prejudice? I don’t think so. 

A relationship with the Avatar, an air nomad (who is well-traveled, values freedom, and is also a waterbender), and someone who is also a victim of a Fire Nation genocide just feels like it would afford her much more freedom to become an important figure to her own people and provide much more opportunity for healing from the trauma of the Fire Nation’s war. And even if you think a relationship with Aang wouldn’t work out for any number of reasons, I still think Katara would have been better off with someone from the Water Tribes or even the Earth Kingdom before spending her life married to someone with such a huge responsibility to the people who caused Katara so much anguish. But those are just my thoughts. I love Zuko. I love Katara. I love Aang. I love all my ATLA babies. I just had this thought and wanted to write it down because I am reading Red, White, and Royal Blue, and I think it sucks how much being a world leader can impact someone’s personal life because of prejudice.

[fulltimeshitposter]

Toph : I'm so small and bitter I'm like a human espresso