#yugoda

[theduckeminence]

Avatar fandom stop villainizing/demonizing the NWT (impossible challenge!!)

[avatar-legends-confessionblog]

I love Pakku. I think he's a great compelling character and I'm really interested in his relationship with Kanna; i am equally invested in Kanna and Yugoda and Hama, but I feel like saying I love Pakku is a much more contentious point lol

X

[yellow-faerie]

Who wants to hear my thoughts on Kanna, Pakku, Yugoda and Hama? I have been having...so many thoughts and you actually can't stop me

[kyoshi-lesbians]

during white lotus meetings kanna, hama, yugoda, aunt wu, and the herbalist spend their time chilling in the back of the room trash talking pakku (loudly), cracking jokes, comparing knitting patterns, and bragging about their grandchildren

[crashingmeteorz]

the northern master yuetara au

continued here.

so the gaang gets to the north pole and pakku refuses to teach katara. katara dejectedly attends her healing lesson as suggested, sits it through despite the voice inside her screaming to fight, and tries to pay attention because she knows this could be useful, maybe.

halfway through princess yue stops by, asking yugoda something innocuous but also very obviously looking over at katara from the moment she walks in.

“hi, princess yue,” katara says politely, because this girl is not being subtle At All, and yue blushes a little. “oh, katara,” she says, “how nice to see you here. i didn’t know you were a waterbender.”

“yep,” is all katara says, because this right here isn’t exactly the kind of waterbending she’d hoped to be doing.

“princess yue is one of our most accomplished healers,” yugoda says proudly. “since you two are so close in age, it might be nice to practice together.”

“what a wonderful idea!” yue says very quickly, before katara can even consider the suggestion. “katara, let’s meet on the center bridge tonight.”

“if you’d like,” yue adds shyly, realizing how eager she’d been. katara smiles appreciatively - she may have grown up in the south, but she can recognize another girl lonely for a friend anywhere. “that’d be great, thank you princess yue. really,” says katara.

that evening katara waits at the bridge as she’d been told, arms crossed, leaning unhappily against the railing. she knows yue will probably be very knowledgeable, and the princess seems incredibly kind, but she’s also a northern girl, which probably means she thinks a woman’s place is in the home, bla bla bla.

yue arrives so quietly katara almost doesn’t hear her, and before katara can greet her yue says “were you followed?”

“umm, no?” katara responds in confusion, looking around. “but, i mean, we’re in the center of the city princess-“

“you don’t have to call me that,” yue tells her. “just yue is fine. there’s a place we can go to practice, but we can’t arouse suspicion. walk quickly, but don’t rush.”

so obviously katara’s very confused but she trusts yue implicitly, the same way you trust the librarian who reads children’s books in funny voices, or the bus driver who always waits when they see you running for the bus, because yue radiates kindness and selflessness.

they get to a small round door, and yue says “this is the most spiritual place in the entire north pole. even master pakku can’t enter without the chief’s permission.”

“fortunately,” she says, and for the first time since they’ve met katara sees a playful glint in her eyes, “i’m the chief’s daughter.”

once they’re inside katara is overwhelmed by the lush beauty of the spirit oasis. she shrugs her coat and inhales the fresh scent all around her. she doesn’t notice yue removing her own coat, stretching her fingers, counting her breaths.

“i heard how badly you wanted to learn from master pakku,” yue says. “i’ve been there, too. i’m the princess of the north, but if we were ever invaded, i wasn’t permitted to defend my people. i felt like such a failure.”

katara moves to stand beside yue, empathetic. as the last waterbender in her tribe, it felt like a personal shortcoming that she’d never learned how to keep her culture alive.

“master pakku has known me since i was little. he always thought i was a such well-behaved child. he never thought anything of it when i’d sit and read near his classes,” yue says. she gets into a stance katara recognizes, and suddenly princess yue is bending the water in the stream below, this way and that, now into a whip, now into a bubble, now snow falling gently around them.

“yue,” katara says breathlessly. “you’re - you’re incredible!” yue blushes. she takes katara’s hand.

“would you like me to teach you?”

katara says yes.

a little au i thought of after talking with @earringsokka who, as i’ve already told them, is Big Brain. the water tribe girls deserve all the love.

[negromouthandafro]

So Katara fought Pakku and inevitably lost because he’s a master and she’s an untrained genius. The thing that made Pakku teach her was Kanna’s flight from the North. 

But what if, instead of Pakku’s change of heart, Yue and the other healers did it.

What if they go on strike until Katara gets taught. Nothing but life threatening injuries. No broken bones, no food poisoning, no cuts. If there’s first aid for it, don’t even look at Yugoda’s students. 

Also, what if all this time, Yue had been running Hahn round the rafters trying to frustrate him till he gave up on the proposal. Lowkey rebellious princess. Then, seeing the strike and the healers that saved her life be sectioned off to do unappreciated work. She sees the building tension, she makes her tense father a deal. An out that allows him to save face. 

She’d be married by the next full moon if Pakku teaches the Southern girl. 

It sets up her self sacrificial nature. Connects her to Katara. Provides a more nuanced look at the type of power women wield in patriarchal societies. AND allows more female characters to have an impact on a plot about sexism.

The final shot of the episode would not be Katara and Aang learning from Pakku, but Katara walking away from the day’s lesson and towards the healing huts. She steps in, the little girls and teachers move the practice dummy out of the way and line up. Katara slips into a starting stance and they imitate her. She teaches them. 

I think a lot of marginalized people believe the only way to move forward is to inspire the oppressors to let their power go. Tug at their empathy. Make them stand in solidarity with you cause your arguments are airtight and super smart. Media, our cultural storytelling supports this take.

But so many rights movements are about organizing with other disenfranchised people, wielding what little power they have and standing in opposition. Be cozy just enough to optimize allowances but it's stopping the city that makes things happen, not charming the powerful.  

No more being friendly, I don’t want Pakku to let Katara learn. I want all the women of the North to force it. And after all that struggle, I want Katara to pay it forward.

[transuncletaylor]

Kanna knows the North is not her home. When the pain of staying outweighs the pain of leaving, she takes her courage and her strength and her love and builds herself a new life on her own terms.

Yugoda Loses a dear friend, choosing instead to devote her life to healing and teaching. Sometimes she wonders if Kanna is happy, at peace with her life in a way she never was in Agna Qel'a, and if they will ever see each other again.

Pakku lets his betrothed slip through his fingers, and the hurt makes him cold, entrenched, and bitter. Until a young bender from the south shows up with a familiar glint in her eye and an even more familiar necklace.

Hama guides a ship into port, not knowing it carries the woman who will become her anchor, her lifeline. When she is snatched away and forced to become someone else - someone cruel - she wonders if she could ever bear to let Kanna see what she has done.

Things Unknown but Longed for Still by neighborhoodcatgang

[ID: pictured is Kanna on our left and Hama on our right. They appear to be young, in their 20s and sitting inside a Southern Water Tribe house on a white and grey fur rug. Kanna has her hair styled like book 1 Katara and wears a blue and light purple overcoat trimmed with white fur. Hama sits with one knee up and her arms resting on the knee. She has long brown hair and a similar overcoat with white trimmed fur. The two women are looking at each other with soft smiles.]

[azuzula]

ALL I KNOW IS PAIN