okay because i always go back and forth, if you had to take the og five paladins (keith, lance, shiro, pidge, and hunk) and assign them as one of the ATLA gaang (aang, sokka, zuko, toph, and katara), who would you assign to who?
Thank you for the ask, Sharpie! I love getting asks! :D
As for your question, this is a tough one.. But this is what I came up with!
Lance is Sokka, ofc. Even though Sokka is a bit more responsible due to being the oldest instead of one of the youngest, both still have that fighting spirit, the need to prove themselves, protectiveness over their loved ones, are associated with water and ice, and experienced the brief color switch from blue to red in their respective shows. Oh, and both of their ethereal white-haired girlfriends died and traumatized them <33
Keith is Zuko, hands down. (Is my Zukka shipper side showing? Yeah? Oh well.) It’s not just cause of the red and the face scarring, trust me 🙏 Both of them are socially awkward recluses with absent mothers, yet again with a thirst to prove themselves, who the fandom fawns over, and they both decide to learn how to wield swords to fight against a corrupt empire that they are related to by blood. Oh yeah, and they’re hotheads associated with fire who wind up becoming leaders.
Pidge is perfect for Aang. I promise that it works, okay? Aang is basically like a more chill version of Pidge who resolved his family issues way faster because his family was dead instead of lost in space. Both are mischievous, both are super smart, they’re dedicated to their cause and are way too young to be involved in literal war, and they have little flying sidekicks that follow them around. Petition to make Pidge the Avatar in a fic and then have the whole fic revolve around the way the cast’s slightly different personalities would alter the original ATLA plot, I beg
Hunk is Toph. Does this work? Not at first, but stay with me. Toph and Aang feel like two sides of the same Pidge-shaped coin, but there are some ways we could fit Hunk into Toph’s role beyond his affinity for earth/rocks. Both Hunk and Toph give off unrecognized genius energy to me, similar to Lance and Sokka. His weapons in VLD are also always heavy-duty and it’s clear he possesses a lot of muscle and brute strength, which fits the physique we see in a lot of the earthbenders in ATLA. Both of them also seem to be used more for comedic effect rather than the story really delving into their incredible intellect (I’m glaring very pointedly at the VLD writers) due to their loud voices, tendency to joke about things, and their insane strength.
That leaves Shiro as Katara. Honestly, I regret nothing with this decision. Both Shiro and Katara are the moms of their respective groups, they have the ability to shut Lance and Sokka up with the Mom Glare, they both bond with their respective fire-related social pariah, ensure that the group doesn’t die on a daily basis, and overall value their friends more than themselves (though that last point is less applicable to Katara in quite a few cases) Mainly it boils down to Parent Friend energy, but I’m sure there are more similarities between them that I’m just missing right now while writing this.
Again, thanks for the ask! Writing this was a lot of fun and I hope you like my answers :]
