#water tribes

[biconickyoshi]

Finished the cover for Book 2 of The Avatar and the Fire Prince! My favorite part about this one was getting to draw Yue 🥰🌙

Book 1: Air Cover

[obsessionsandme]

* oops accidentally posted before finished before- now it’s finished

One point of discourse that pisses me off is the whole- oh look the Fire Nation has women warriors while the Water Tribes are barbaric and sexist. It’s like - look at real life and history. There are so many countries and peoples that had roles for women and other genders outside the norm that would be seen as progressive. Many of these countries and cultures are now considered less progressive than “Western countries” because poverty due to war and colonialism (partially) eroded some of these values and traditions along with the imposition of old-fashioned Western values. Like c’mon, if you don’t have this basic idea in place, you just have a more liberal racism where you still speak down to all non-Western cultures and people. It especially pisses me off with the Southern Water Tribe because you can see so clearly how they were decimated and submitted to a genocide- you can’t scold them and hail how cool the Fire Nation was for having girls commit war crimes (yes- including Azula. She’s an interesting character but I think we give her too much compassion sometimes and forget that she very much did car crimes). It’s the same bullshit you see in current day society to justify horrific acts of war and genocide (Iran, Palestine) and you’ve gotta break out of this stupid thought process.

[zuko-always-lies]

Thinking about population and ATLA

These are a few random thoughts:

Apparently the "pre-contact" Alaska native population is estimated to have been around 100,000 people. We don't know how the size of the South Pole landmass compares to Alaska, and Alaska might be more varied in climate than the South Pole is, but any number between ~50,000 and ~300,000 feels reasonable for the pre-genocide South Pole. At the start of the series, it's probably much smaller, maybe at 10 or 20% of what it was pre-genocide.

I really have no idea about the Northern Water Tribe, other than that the population should be significantly larger than Southern Water Tribe but still much smaller than the Fire Nation. I assume they have many settlements and we only get to see their largest and most significant one.

The Earth Kingdom should have a massive population, in the tens or hundreds of millions.

The Fire Nation is obviously the second largest in terms of population. One thing to keep in mind is that during the industrial revolution, the population of industrializing countries tended to drastically increase. I think 10% to 20% of the Earth Kingdom is reasonable?

The Fire Nation colonies is another question. I think they could easily make up another 10% of the Earth Kingdom's population just by themselves, or even more, but only like 10 or 20% of their population is Fire Nation colonialists.

The Air Nomads present another set of difficulties. I think we're meant to think their population is pretty small, so maybe like 50,000 to 200,000 for the nomads themselves? However, they also rule over a large expanse of apparently reasonably nice territory in the temperate zone. The land area they control on their islands seems not much smaller than the Fire Nation itself. Maybe the Air Nomads banned everyone from settling there, or maybe there was a large subject population living there?

[pumpkinspiceshiplover]

Seven Havens Cataclysm

I've been thinking....what if we're viewing this cataclysm thing all wrong? Most theories I've seen about the cataclysm are some big singular event that just wipes out everything.

But if it was less of large bang and more of a slowly creeping destruction?

It happens during Korra's lifetime. Energy Storms form over small villages and empty forests unfolding outwards. Cities become in uninhabitable and spirits flee for refuge, but the storms keep coming.

Maybe this could even be when some of the Havens start being built. Maybe others don't come until years after.

Korra investigates the source of the disaster. She travels into the spirit world.

She never comes out.

Energy Storms ignite rapidly, tearing through the planet faster than ever before. The Poles melt. Volcanos explode turning the Fire Nation to ash. The Earth Kingdom quakes and tremors shaking it to its core. Air Temples are blocked off by self sustaining tornados.

City-wide evacuations happen.

Less than half survive.

The world learns to run from a danger that can follow you anywhere.

They blame Korra-the Avatar.

Details of her story are lost to time but message remains the same.

The Avatar destroyed the world.

It's in this era, Pavi is born.

[theduckeminence]

Oop the girls are fighting

[akiizayoi4869]

New show that's focused primarily on the water tribes? Sign me up.

[biisaiyowaq]

ATLA AU Prompt - The Boy in the Eastern Air Temple (pt 1)

Monk Gyatso caught Aang before he ran, convinced him to stay — at least until the storm ends, for Appa’s sake — and thus, the Avatar was never lost to the frozen waves of the South Pole. That one moment changed the course of the war.

After a heart to heart with Gyatso, who comforted Aang with wise, fatherly monk advice and many promises to stay in touch, the young Avatar leaves the Southern Air Temple to complete to his final stage of airbending mastery at the Eastern Air Temple. He then spends the next 9-10 months traveling to the Northern Water Tribe and then the Earth Kingdom, learning the basics of the next few elements in the cycle to a backdrop of war rumors and grim teachers. He keeps in contact with Kuzon and Bumi, some of the few friends he has other than Momo and Appa since he moves around so often and was isolated from his fellow Air Nomads back home due to his Avatar status.

He is just starting on his firebending training with the Sun Warriors — revered sources who happened to live with two of the many dragons that existed in the world — when Sozin’s comet hits.

The Air Temples are hit hard, the Western and Southern Temples are almost entirely destroyed. The Northern and Eastern Temples are partially protected from large invasion forces by the bulk of Earth and Water Nation territory that stands between them and the main Fire Nation military force.

Monk Gyatso is lost.

Aang enters the Avatar State for the first time.

His firebending training suffers, between his anger and resentment and the frantic pace the war brings to everyones lives. He struggles to see the peace and life of the element that took so much from him. His relationship with Kuzon suffers as well, though he knows an everyday citizen is not privy to state secrets such as invasion plans. He leaves the Sun Warriors and heads to the Northern Air Temple, the smallest and least fortified one that needs the most help. Everyone begins plans to evacuate to the larger, more fortified Eastern Air Temple. He sees the effects of the genocide of his people up close and in real-time. There are no skeletons, only bodies and fresh graves. Bandaged Nomads with weeping eyes and weeping wounds.

The Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes do not take much action, they are not being targeted after all. Anti-Air Nomad propaganda slowly spreads. Aang continues to reach out and raise support whenever he can, but an Avatar that has yet to reach their teens is not a particularly persuasive political force. He does still have the friends and contacts he made while training, and they help. The Earth Kingdom grants the Air Nomads safe passage and assistance while traveling through their land though.

Kuzon leaves home in search of Aang, joining the military to get more intel on troop movements and state secrets so he can one day help warn his friends of attacks before they happen. Bumi leaves home to go to the Northern Air Temple and assist Aang with their defense and evacuation since the Fire Nation is intent on taking out the Air Nomads to wipe out the Avatar while he is young and inexperienced.

In the Caldera, plans are slowly laid for the next stage of the invasion: the weakening of the Water Tribes so that the next Avatar is untrained and ill-equipped to take any real action. Kuzon slowly rises through the ranks, sabotaging where he can but overall keeping his head low and his ears open. He knows something big is brewing and the unwarranted attack on the Nomads was not the end goal. He has not spoken to Aang in months, and Bumi has been hard to locate since he left Omashu. The other boys are unaware of his status as a soldier or his reason for being there.

To be continued.

[yourhighness6]

This is such a random thought but is it just me or were we cheated out of seeing the first conversation between the water tribe siblings and the members of their sister tribe in "The Waterbending Master". Like, it probably would have been hilarious for one considering that they would have to explain that yes, this is the avatar, yes, he is alive, yes, they are just kids, yes, they are the chief's children. Besides that, this is the first time the Southern and Northern tribes have had contact with each other for probably at least a decade. We were robbed