Your Local Wingman Toph

Ev | She/Her | aka evcentric-shitposts | ATLA Years Old | Multishipper but I especially like Zukka and QPR MaiLee | We respect everyone here this is a safe space take discourse elsewhere :)

[birdblogwhichisforbirds-deactiv]

Two more weeks of gender!

[legendoftherisingtide]

This post is the only thing that reminds me a year has passed. If this didn’t start popping up in August every year then I would believe it’s still May

[miamitu-illust]

Nice going ruining Aang’s day.

inspired by this post!

bonus:

none of them know how to appreciate a joke

[nothing-more-than-hot-leaf-juice]

Toph: Rich people should get robbed at least once a week 

Aang: Why? 

Toph: Builds character.

[tisthequenchiest]

Aang: But Toph your parents are rich.

Toph: Did I fuckign stutter

Aang: (->:^O)

[azapofinspiration]

Zuko: She’s right.

Aang: But your family is -

Zuko: That’s how I know.

[yourlocalwingmantoph]

Katara: So what are we waiting for Toph?

[m-feys]

OK NEURODIVERGENT GAANG TIME BC I WANNA

these hcs are kinda halfway set in a modern au bc thats my context for this ! (gonna split it up so its not as long bc i drafted the original and it was LONG) water tribe siblings first !!!

Sokka

adhd/autism king 😌

[ID: a screenshot of Sokka standing on a raised stone platform with a map of the Fire nation hanging behind him. He’s holding his arms stiffly by his side with a wide-eyed look on his face, brows raised as he has his mouth open, saying something. End ID.]

- schedules to survive, he likes to know what hes getting into and if you try to change plans on him without warning he’ll be very resistant

- smart kid who doesnt study, oh he tries, oh boy does he try, he ends up reading the same sentence over and over until he gets distracted by drawing something, working on the blueprint for his latest invention, or with researching something completely unrelated to what he’s mean to be studying. then he tosses and turns all night because he’s stressed by not having studied, but when he actually takes the test he makes a 105, despite there not even being a bonus question, he just answered the essay question so well the teacher gave him an extra 5 points

- special interests?? we got em!!! classic weaponry (think swords, boomerangs, but also, like canons and catapults and shit) engineering/physics, art/drawing, strategy games. he tends to hyperfocus within his special interests, so like for a week he was hellbent on building his own full sized trebuchet, much to the dismay of Gran Gran who just wanted to grow her tomatoes without them being crushed by said full size trebuchet

- (also he plays all types of games probably, but he def plays those ones where you take over the world, like the ones online and azula also plays them too and they end up being rivals, while not actually knowing who the other is outside of their usernames)

- he also talks a lot in his classes/is like the ‘class clown’ and ppl think this is him not focusing but engaging this way actually helps him focus way more than sitting silently, a lot of teachers dont understand it but the ones who do are actually paying attention and realize that he’s generally talking/joking about their current topic

- some observations (this shit is all canon babey!!!) - sokka is great at being a leader and communicating in groups he’s in but he really really struggles in front of crowds, one-on-one and sokka can talk well, joke and stuff but as soon as he’s separate from other people and everyone is just listening he clams up (solar eclipse pt 1). he also loves to joke and make people laugh, and a lot of the time he misinterprets stuff because he’s autistic but he also will realize this and do it anyway because he thinks it’s funny and he likes laughing with his friends (idk if this happens in canon but i do this and sokka does too bc i said so :^). He also takes up the protector/comforting role but despite his best intentions he can sometimes say insensitive stuff and not even realize what he’s done to upset people (when he happily told aang ‘the whole world thinks your dead!’) works best when he feels needed, if he feels unnecessary or like something doesnt matter he struggles to complete it (i feel like the beginning of sokka’s master rlly demonstrates what i mean here), and this goes both ways, he will put too much value into certain things that he cares about and can get his priorities mixed if he’s focused too much on what he believes matters more than what might be most pressing (zuko destroyed his suki sculpture, oh right bc he was attacking aang)

Katara

she also has adhd/autism, (so do both Hakoda and Kya 💙)

[ID: a screenshot of Katara, Hakoda, Sokka, and Bato. Hakoda has his hand on Katara’s shoulder as they both look at Bato who is saying something, she has curious look on her face with her brows raised, while Hakoda looks exasperated. Sokka beside him his also looking curiously up at Bato, with one brow raised and the other furrowed. Bato has a neutral expression on his face as he speaks. End ID.]

- palms sweaty thoughts spaghetti, she tries to be practical bc she thinks someone needs to be but really her brain is like a runaway train, she sees something that needs doing and is like, guess ill do that now! and drops whatever she was doing first. she can get very anxious because of this because all the thing that need doing start to pile up because theyre all in her brain at once. that and as much as she tries to be practical she’s very impulsive, getting help from other people really helps alleviate this stuff

- interacting w ppl, when she was only part of her own smaller community she had a lot less toll on her, bc she knew everyone and was used to them, as she meets more people she gets really frustrated with how many people seem to refuse to say what they really mean. Katara is very straightforward herself and she says what she means, so even tho she gets more and more perceptive when interacting with new people, she resents how much she has to work just to decipher what people really mean half the time.

- caring for ppl, with people she cares about communicating is much easier bc she knows them, so she’s very open about her feelings around these people, and she can be hyper empathetic at times, but then sometimes she will say SUPER insensitive stuff off the cuff because she’s just very impulsive and she might regret it after the fact but she really struggles with apologizing because being wrong makes her feel like ppl are going to reject her

- perceptions, she knows what’s expected of her by the world, but she really rejects the idea that she has to stay in her role. still, she has internalized a lot of these expectations and tries to perform them, even when she sometimes struggles. beyond herself, she’s very certain about what she knows is wrong and has a strong moral code, she sees something wrong and she wants to fix it.

- she’s awful in school, not because she’s not smart, but she’s smart in ways that society does not appreciate. she doesnt care at all about all the worksheets and math she’s never gonna use, and all the history that got distorted, she’s much better at learning stuff on her own and she will go on deep dives of subjects she cares about and is super knowledgeable abt them.

also:

[ID: A cropped screenshot of Sokka with his arms extended outwards, palms flat as he gestures. He has a slight grin on his face with his mouth open to speak, eyebrows raised and looking at the viewer calmly. He’s wearing his usual blue tunic with the Earth Rumble XI belt along with his earth kingdom bag hanging across his chest. The text on the image says, “This post made by ADHD Sokka gang. End ID.]

[ID: a cropped screenshot of Hakoda, he has a serious expression on his face as he looks ahead. The text on the post reads, “This post made by ADHD Hakoda gang.” End ID.]

from this post (part of what inspired me to write these out) @meteor-sword​ now just katara needs one 😄

adhd aang next, i will finally live up to my url (will edit with a link when i post)

[meteor-sword]

[m-feys]

[ID: a cropped screenshot of Katara holding a water bending scroll and smirking with one eyebrow raised. The text on the image reads, “this post made by ADHD Katara gang.” End ID.]

[yourlocalwingmantoph]

I’ve always had that ADHD/Autistic kinship with Sokka :D

[shrimp-piss]

okay, sokka’s favorite item of clothing is short overalls/overall dresses.

[yourlocalwingmantoph]

reblogging this to remind myself to draw it

[unalaq]

i literally have so much respect for sokka like if i were travelling the world with three insanely powerful middle schoolers i would have gone insane.

[bluberry-spicehead-deactivated2]

*eyes the cactus juice episode*

[aimingforstable-deactivated2020]

Unpopular opinion but the more I’ve come to love Avatar: Last Airbender, some of the characters I feel most passionately about are Ursa, Jet, and Hama. Like you guys really just threw them all under the bus and blame them for shit, but if you can forgive the fire nation royals then why are you so hard up to hate/blame their victims? Part of it’s definetly the writing (and part of it is internalized colonialism) but yeah if you can forgive and love Uncle Iroh, who was a literal war criminal before he had his spiritual awakening, then you need to think about why you think it’s funny to hate Jet, or dismiss Hama as an evil witch, or blame Ursa for Azula’s issues. Each of those characters went through severe trauma at the hands of the Fire Nation elite, and just because they responded by wanting revenge/wanting to get away, rather than fitting into a forgiveness-based-heroic narrative, fans overwhelmingly hate on those characters. Like yes, Jet and Hama did harmful things, which isn’t cool. But it’s like people are so quick to forget Iroh’s past, or Zuko’s shitty harmful actions, but because culturally we are so uncomfortable with the idea of oppressed people wanting revenge, Jet and Hama are hated for their harmful actions, instead of getting a chance to move on and heal. And Ursa– oof– was literally FORCED to marry Ozai and bear his children, AND I SHOULDN’T NEED TO SPELL OUT FOR YOU WHAT THAT MEANS, and people have the audacity to whine about how Ursa wasn’t a good enough mom to Azula!! Excuse me, the woman may never have even wanted to have children! Like yes that’s sad for Azula, but can you have a shred of compassion for a woman who had her entire life and identity and choice taken from her? Or are you so quick to squash women into unrealistic expectations of fulfilling their motherly roles, that you completely forgot that she was forced to have children? Ok I’m done. I try not to engage in fandom much because it’s not my thing to be so invested, but Avatar is a really beautiful show and I’m frustrated by how these characters are routinely hated on in what I see of the fandom. 

[kyoshi-lesbians]

that these characters were all victims of a colonizing nation is so important to remember when discussing them. that, and that a group of writers could have portrayed these characters as genuine revolutionaries working more for liberation than revenge, but chose to make them “evil”.

jet and hama could have both been genuine resistance leaders against the fire nation, and Ursa deserves to have her abuse and trauma at the very least acknowledged.

so yeah! if we can think critically about the colonizers of the show who made mistakes and have sympathy for them, we can put these characters into context and at least have sympathy for them too

[sokkahugs]

okay but aang and sokka preparing their proposals together and the whole time they’re just giving each other terrible advice like “oh yeah my sister would love it if you put the necklace on an otter penguin” or “there’s no way zuko can say no if you set your hands on fire”.

of course, their attempts to practice their plans result in ridiculous speeches, overdone gestures, and a whole lot of stuttering and knocking each other over. they both claim to be experts when they’re “coaching” but fail miserably when actually practicing.

eventually, toph and suki catch them during their brainstorming, and suki asks if they should tell the boys to take it down a notch so they don’t scare off their betrothed. toph just puts a hand out to stop her and says thoughtfully, “no… i want to see what they come up with.”

[rizadyke]

Fuck mbti what’s ur boba order, star sign, and the a:tla/lok character you project onto probably a little too much !

Mine is peach green tea with tapioca, pisces (scorpio rising n cancer moon!), and Korra 😌

[yourlocalwingmantoph]

I’ve never had boba, Taurus Sun, Aquarius Moon, Libra Rising, and definitely Sokka. Got that ADHD vibe and under appreciation amiright folks

[autisticzukka]

I just saw your post about Mai and Ty Lee being kinda similar to Zuko and Sokka in the whole autistic/ADHD ppl understand each other. And I just wanna day that the phrase ‘min/maxed in slightly different ways’ has me DYING bc that is so accurate and I just love it a lot

lkjhlkj thanks i’m glad it vibed with you! honestly the best way i’ve found to describe it. as someone with adhd & autism im obviously dual classing with a stat set suited to nothing. it’s going how you would expect

[comradekatara]

Can we hear more of your thoughts on katara as the leader of the southern water tribe?

pretty much immediately after zuko’s coronation, katara makes the executive decision to never set foot in the fire nation again. (she eventually does return on occasion, but exclusively for diplomatic purposes. if zuko wants to see her, he can bring his ass to the south pole.) she’s sick of traveling the world. she misses her family.

when she returns home, she is greeted by her tribe, and almost immediately she’s like, “hey look what i can do!” and erects a giant functioning fountain in the middle of their tiny, war-torn hamlet. with sokka’s help, they design and build an entire infrastructure, constructing a new city reminiscent of their tribe’s pre-war glory, while also using more innovative methods to accommodate non-benders, seeing as katara is still their sole bender (and non-benders deserve equal accessibility regardless). 

eventually, word that katara has returned home reaches the northern water tribe, and women who were banned from learning advanced bending make the trek to the south pole, where katara is more than happy to teach them. that said, she is furious that the northern water tribe won’t. if she had assumed that one fight was enough to settle sexism, she was of course mistaken. just because one individual proves herself doesn’t mean that pakku and the rest of the council of crusty old men are just going to shift their entire worldview. so she goes up there and fights for it. 

katara has unique power and a commanding voice, and she uses it to implement change in her society. she refuses to live under patriarchy, and though she is “just a teenage girl,” she has proven herself as one of the most powerful people in the world, and even the most stubborn members of the southern water tribe are compelled to listen. 

under katara’s tireless efforts, it takes only a matter of years for the southern water tribe to be a thriving society once more. (it helps that whenever she feels like it, she writes to zuko, “send me money bitch,” and he is obligated to comply.) but when sokka states that katara will soon officially take over as chief (a notion which feels incredibly obvious to him) katara’s like “wait what?” 

the idea of being chief bemuses katara, because if she’s in charge, how is she supposed to rebel against the establishment? sokka’s like “well there would be no need to rebel if the establishment was actually good,” but katara refuses to listen to him. then aang and zuko basically just tell her the exact same thing, and she’s like “yeah okay sounds legit.” 

as chief, she makes sure to listen to every single member of the tribe who wants to make their voice heard. she holds frequent town hall meetings where everyone voices their complaints and she responds to each of them (they take forever and sokka thinks it’s horrendous). she also personally responds to all her letters, and has open office hours every week. she knows everyone by name and eschews all formalities whenever she can. when zuko visits and bears witness to this he is shocked that she has yet to drop dead from exhaustion, but katara is all, “what, like it’s hard?” 

and of course, she is also their resident healer, construction worker, and waterbending teacher. by the time korra is ready to start training with her (which is about three years old, mind you) katara is like “shit, i’m old as balls,” and decides to just teach korra full-time (and maybe do some healing on the side). after all, she has many wonderful proteges who can pass on the art of waterbending to the next generation. korra, on the other hand, quickly proves a full-time job. 

which is fine with katara, because she adores korra. how could she possibly fault korra for being strong-willed and in awe of her own power? korra loves the art of bending almost as much as she loves the thrill of fighting, and katara also just loves how loud and kinda bratty she is. she’s strong, and she knows it, and she takes no shit. and whenever korra, who loves katara far more than she reveres her (which is a nice breath of fresh air for katara, who has gotten used to being treated like a living legend instead of a human person), yells at katara, katara need only remind herself that this shit is what sokka put up with their entire childhoods, and she can’t find it in herself to be mad at korra at all. 

ultimately, katara’s legacy in the world was concentrated but deeply, deeply impactful. after inciting global revolution, she realized that she deserved to go home, at which point she completely rebuilt and reshaped the southern water tribe – not just physically, but culturally too. she became the world’s greatest waterbender at fourteen and passed along her mastery to countless pupils, most of whom were women. she showed the world a new way to lead, and inspired rebellions among those who felt they deserved change. and she played a key role in shaping two different avatars’ legacies as well. who else can say the same?

[turtleduck-vibes]

why does the wiki article on mai sound like it was ghostwrote by azula

[ID: An image of Zuko holding a seashell out to Mai. It is captioned "Zuko attempting to impress Mai with his doltish gift." /END ID]

[ID: A screenshot of a wiki article. The text reads, "control and her father's political career meant that she could not stand out as she wanted to as a child. Azula summarized this, saying that a controlling mother was why Mai was afraid of caring about anything and could not express herself. Mai snapped at Azula's attempt to be an emotional mediator, demanding to be left alone. When" and the last sentence is underlined. /END ID]

au where after the war ends, azula takes up writing passive aggressive biographies of everyone involved

[bluberry-spicehead-deactivated2]

hot take but i think ur atla blog icon says a lot about u

ppl who have sokka icons r a little bit more laid back but probably on the smarter side and have dad humor

suki icon havers are generally icons

katara icon havers take no bullshit but deep down are gentle af. but they could cut a bitch tho

s2 zuko icon havers are the most chaotic and switch into all caps super easily

s3 zuko icon havers are just tryna vibe and have a lot to figure out but theyre more calm than the above category, they do tend to go super emo tho occassionally

s1 zuko icon havers r here to shitpost

if u have a toph icon ur probably incredible and we dont really deserve u but we r glad u r here

aang icon == underrated blog, nuanced wholesome takes

[turtleduck-vibes]

bro,,, vibe check my turtleduck

[bluberry-spicehead-deactivated2]

some additions:

comic zuko icon means you have strong opinions on zuko's hair and live for angst (thanks wife for the take @fyrelordzuko )

turtleduck icon havers r very very cute but if you start them off on a subject they will absolutely go off. u r not ready. quack quack motherf*ckers. they have the range

minor background character icon havers? sometimes u confuse us and uve suffered a bit in life but ur a real trooper and we r proud of u

subtype of s3 zuko is fire lord zuko and if thats u then ur extra emo and ur responsibilities weigh u down if u need a hug you know where to find me

[yourlocalwingmantoph]

You don’t deserve me? Please. I don’t deserve y’all.

[sleeping-ranna]

reblog this if your icon could kill a man

[comradekatara]

imagine having to travel the world with your little sister and two twelve year olds who are all extremely powerful, traumatized, and stubborn, and you have very tangible goals with real stakes but to get them to do anything you have to know how to apply a very delicate touch. and you have to do that for months with absolutely no one to vent to. the fact that sokka didn’t lose every single shred of sanity he had is a testament to his fortitude and strength of character. im just saying.

[comradekatara]

and then the second you’re about to spend a nice, romantic evening with your awesome girlfriend who is your peer, zuko fucking barges in and demands you describe to him in vivid detail how your mother was murdered. like that won’t kill the mood. smh

[roach-works]

everyone always goes on about how katara had to grow up too fast and was so motherly for being a very young teenager and that kind of thing has real psychological consequences but like also: goddamn, sokka was a fifteen year old boy who had the care and feeding of three deeply wounded kids who each had the capacity to kill him on accident, plus zuko. water tribe culture might have some rigid, sexist bullshit to get past, but holy shit does it apparently raise good boys. 

[piss-bong]

2020 for me has just been "am I stressed because of a global pandemic and an increasingly fascist far-right government, or am I just struggling to exist under capitalism" and I'm really getting tired of it

[hollypunkers]

imagine Sokka and Aang, absolute best friends forever, introducing themselves to people as brothers and when people (inevitably) ask how they’re related, Aang explains brightly, “I married his sister!”

Sokka, smirking, throws an arm around Aangs shoulder and adds “And I married his great-grandson!”