ok so i screenshotted this moment because i thought it was pretty cool
the first time we get to see all four elements working together for a common enemy, blah blah blah, but i started laughing because
sokkaâs fucking boomerang. sokka threw a fucking boomerang at princess azula, renowned lightning bender and heir-apparent to the throne of the fire nation.
and sokka threw a boomerang at her.
I said it once and i say it again.
Azula considered Sokka to be the biggest threat in this group and countered him first. What this picture miss is Sokka sanding nearby. All members of this group unleash their attack at same time, but Azula reacts to boomerang first. If you watch this part in slow motion, you could see that Sokkaâs boomerang was the first thing that would hit Azula and may even incapacitate her making her unable to continue to fight. So she had to counter in first. She deflected it with well placed shoot.
Then and only then, when there is no immediate threat, she starts to create her blue fire wall to counter other elements.
Lets think about this. How hard should you have to throw something to make it move faster that any elemental attack? Either all elemental attacks are slow or you are pretty strong. That said nonbenders with good aim and strong hands could easily overpower benders if they timed it right.(Aang got captured by Yuan archers who are all nonbenders.) Azula knew of this and acted according to it. She is talented bender and you may think that she should enlist other benders to help her track and capture Zuko, Iroh, and later avatar, but instead she uses her nonbender friend to help her.
Even if you have no bending you can still fight⌠and win.
Letâs not forget that on the Day of Black Sun, Sokka was the one in charge and Azula was no idiot Azula knew that.
When Aang, Sokka, and Toph all confronted Azula, she proceeded to make them chase her and waste their time. Azula is not only talented, sheâs sly and smart as hell. WHO WAS THE ONE WHO SAW THROUGH THAT BS CHASE?
Sokka.
NOT ONLY THAT but after Sokka explains to the Gaang that Azula is just baiting them, Azula actually verbally attacks Sokka. Not through fighting, but through words, knowing not only that an intelligent person like him could only be brought down with emotions BUT that Sokka was the leader and if she could get him the stay, Aang and Toph would follow his lead.
Azula knew Sokka was their strength and took him down. WOULD SHE DO THAT IF HE WASNT A SIGNIFICANT THREAT TO HER!!??!
No. She wouldnât waste her time and energy on someone she didnât think was capable of actually getting in her way.
WHEN SHE GETS HER FIREBENDING BACK SHE HAS THE OPTION OF ATTACKING BADASS METAL BENDING TOPH AND THE FUCKING AVATAR
WHO DOES SHE ATTACK?!?!
Azula never underestimated the power of non benders especially an intelligent one like Sokka. Sokka was a huge threat to fucking Azula on multiple occasions.Â
Remember that.
Look at this spot on fucking discourse. LOOK AT IT.
Just thought Iâd drop thisÂ
into the debate as well, (instead of actually fighting him she backs off, and who blames her? Sokkaâs club looks like it could shatter bonesâŚ).
Along with this:
Scenes with Azula confronting Sokka are few and far in between but they paint a pretty interesting picture, donât they?Â
I mean, Azulaâs friends/most trusted warriors were two non-benders. Mai was an expert with thrown weapons and Tai Lee was the only chi blocker shown in the first series, and she was able to take down half a groups of earth nation soldiers like that. Azula knows that non-benders are dangerous and she sees sokka for the genius he is
Sheâs knows she can take bending, she can redirect fire and sheâs fought Katara a lot- but unlike Zuko she was probably never trained with weapons, she knows she has no defense to a sword or a club, and she knows that one of Ty Leeâs biggest advantage is that people underestimate her
Hey sorry it took me forever to reply! Iâm always happy to meet other people that love her as well because I spend likeâŚâŚwayyyyy too much time arguing with people about her and itâs nice to know there are others who can hashtag relate.
Azulaâs character is IMO the most misinterpreted aspect of ATLA by far. Sometimes I wonder if it has to do with some kind of disparity in how the audience views men vs women (IE: certain traits like assertiveness or cunning are seen as positive in men but negative in women) and people insist on seeing her as inherently evil because they cant imagine a female possessing those traits while simultaneously being a complex human being with a plethora of thoughts/emotions/experiences that inform her behavior. Like, thatâs just a hypothesis but itâs alarming how gung-ho people are about insisting she is evil incarnate when she is a 14 year old girl struggling to cope with the exact same abusive environment her brother is lauded for overcoming. It would take me too long to hash out all my feelings on the subject so Iâll just link you to a few comments Iâve made about her on the avatar subreddit, my username is Hokally:
Also I know some of yall are gonna dig through my comment history so just to save yall some time – 90% of the shit I post is about low brow reality tv like Teen Mom and there is literally nothing juicy in there whatsoever because im a boring bitch. Bet.
âairbenders are able to warm themselves with only their breathingâ
ok so this explains why katara and sokka were bundled up in parkas galore while aang was just walking around in his little jump suit like it was a perfect summer evening. Iâm so glad this was cleared up. I literally thought Aangâs optimistic attitude is what kept him warm, heavens.Â
So you remember the firebender prison? And how Zuko kept his bending at full strength when he was put in the freezer box, which disabled anybody else put in there? Thatâs because Iroh taught him that airbender trick, just like later he taught him waterbending moves to deal with lightning. Iroh was secretly master of all four elements and passed it on to Zuko without him noticing.
For the record while ATLA is an excellent show and Zukos redemption arc was perfectly paced, I would kill to have had Zuko join the Gaang at the end of book two, because the first half of book three would have been the funniest thing on the planet. Like. Just picture it. A bunch of unsupervised teenagers travelling undercover through enemy territory, trying to blend in⌠and the only people who have even been there before are 1. A guy who hasnt been there in a century, and 2. The former crown prince who has literally never spoken to a fire nation citizen who wasnt nobility, military, or one of his servants.
Like. Neither of them have any idea what theyâre doing, or how normal fire nation citizens act, but theyâre pretty sure the other one is wrong. Rest of the gaang knows even less. No adults. Zuko and Aang getting into a shouting debate over the finer points of fire nation culture is a nightly event. They are both so wrong, and so, so awkward
Zuko, for the fifth and probably not last time: FOR THE LAST TIME, NOBODY USES THE PHRASEÂ âFLAMEO HOTMANâ!
Aang, aware of that fact but in too deep to back out now: OH YEAH? THEN WHAT DO THEY SAY!?
Zuko, clueless and bluffing: âŚSomething about glory to the Fire Lord?
Toph, well aware that both are lying through their teeth and have no idea what theyâre talking about, and fucking loving every second of this train wreck: Clearly the only solution is for both of you to go into town tomorrow and test your theories out.
And the side taking, oh my god the side taking from the other three. Katara sides with Aang every single time. Does she honestly believe that the people of the Fire Nation greet each other with âFlame on, my em-brotherâ? Hell no. Would she rather die than say that Zukoâs correct? Yes.
Sokka usually sides with Zuko, unless he comes up with something astoundingly stupid. Zukoâs thoughts, while usually wrong, sound a lot more plausible then Aangs, and fuck it heâs willing to take a gamble.
Toph is the closest thing to a neutral party they have, in that she knows damn well theyâre all full of shit, and has chosen to instead egg them on to make it worse. Sheâs an agent of chaos, and this is free nightly entertainment. Sheâs having the time of her life right now.
The debate takes a brief pause once they stop going undercover and get to the business of actually saving the world, but holy shit. once things have settled down? itâs back on with a vengeance. Except now Aang and Zuko arenât the two most wanted people in the Fire Nation, theyâre the two most influential people in the world. They are trendsetters. They can make slang become a thing.
When Zuko first hears the phrase âflameo, hotmanâ being thrown around casually, it takes a lot of deep breathing exercises to not immediately return to his previous occupation of hunting the Avatar.
Iroh: Iâm so proud of the way youâve been ruling, nephew. Flameo, hotman!
A new novel series about Kyoshi has been announced! The first book in the âepic YA sagaâ, The Rise of Kyoshi, is hitting shelves in July 2019!!
This is a big surprise and a very welcome one at that! The author is F.C. Yee with Mike DiMartino consulting. The series will be two books long, and cover, as the title suggests, the rise of the Earth Kingdom Avatar we all know and love, with this synopsis to go on so far:
âThe first of two novels based on Kyoshi, The Rise of Kyoshi maps her journey from a girl of humble origins to the merciless pursuer of justice who is still feared and admired centuries after she became the Avatar.â
The publisher for the books had this to say:
âBringing Kyoshiâs previously untold story to life in original novels will be a major pop culture event, not only for fans of the show, but also for readers hungry for a new epic YA saga. The Rise of Kyoshi has all the hallmarks of what YA readers love â bold storytelling set in a rich landscape with a strong heroine at the forefront!â
Kyoshi was recently revealed to have âby all accounts loved men and womenââ that is, she was what we would likely consider bisexualâ so it will be interesting to see if that will show up in these books. And thereâs just so much we donât know about her life growing up, the people around her (meeting her Team Avatar is an extremely exciting prospect), and what her corner of the Earth Kingdom was like before her legendary exploits, about 380 years before Korra arrived in Republic City. For reference that would be approximately equivalent to 1500s China, but Kyoshi herself and the culture of Kyoshi Island take more inspiration from Japan, so it will be very interesting to see how the worldbuilding takes shape. Overall thereâs a lot to look forward to here!
This is a really cool development for the franchise and will hopefully open up the avenue for more books about different time periods and characters from the world of Avatar, something weâve been asking for for a long time!
The Rise of Kyoshi is 336 pages long, itâs coming out on July 16th 2019, and it can be preordered here.
Monthly reminder that Azula only lost to Katara because of plot armor
This Katara libel on my dash?
the entire gaang jumped azula and she was fine and she damn near killed aang while he was in the avatar state AND even iroh didnât wanna go against herâŚ.do you legitimately think azula couldnât take on katara 1v1 and most likely kill her if it wasnât for her lil plot forwarding breakdownâŚ.
Azula was always unstable and didnt like loss. We see that through her entire character arc where anything less than perfection isnât good enough, to the point where perfection didnât even satisfy her. The bitch was strong but she was crazy, and let her guard down.
Itâs hubris sis, theyâve been doing this since ancient Greece dont act high and mighty because you dont understand Hamartia.
Also letâs not forget that Katara is an insanely powerful waterbender. Like her skill is unique at her age. She stops rain out to like 20 feet away from her and mastered blood ending after only working with internal water for about a day. We see Zuko even be scared of her power and impressed by her restraint.
There is only one bitch who matched Azulaâs raw bending power and her name is Katara so gtfo.
Also in that scene where Azula got a (lucky) shot at Aang in his avatar state, someone was kind enough to bring up that Katara was going to to toe with Azula and nearly ran her into the ground until Zuko came to help her ass. So no, if anyone could beat Azula it was Katara
Bitch, Katara was about to fuck up LEAGUES of Dai Li agents when Aang went into the avatar state in the Earth Kingdom. Zuko knew he couldnât face Azula alone on her best day so who did he ask to come with him? Katara. This is a girl who went up against a waterbending master and held her own so well that it made a culture change their values and customs. Donât you EVER disrespect queen Katara like that.
fuck off with ur Katara disrespect. not in my house.
One thing I really liked about Avatar is how each tribe exists at a different stage of societal evolution from our history. It doesnât make a whole lot of sense with only four cultures, all with open travel and trade, but the principal of it is rooted in fact. Real wars have been fought with spears on one side and ironclads on the other.
A major theme of The Last Airbender was fear of industrialism. Technological supremacy was synonymous with military supremacy, until faced with a deus ex machina.Â
Legend of Korra was a retraction of that ideology. Its message was one of unity between man, machine, and spirit. It literally ends with a marriage of the worldâs leading industrialist and spiritualist.
So I have a couple explanations for why the BnHA world is underutilizing quirks compared to LoK.
First, itâs possibly due to narrator bias. We see the world through Dekuâs eyes. As a quirkless hero-worshiper, Deku cannot come to grips with quirks being used for such mundane, utilitarian purposes. His worldview is built around an ideology that quirks must be used heroically.
As a final note, I think itâs reasonable for BnHA and LoK to handle their superpowers in radically different ways. Bending only comes in four flavors (with very rare exception) and pervades 30-50% of the population throughout history. Quirks cover infinite possibilities and very recently became common, only existing at all for 100 years or so.
So itâs the difference of a society that grew with simple superpowers, versus one with complex superpowers suddenly imposed upon it in modern times.Â
I know Zuko is a disgraced and banished prince, but I still think that general was imprudent to taunt him the way he did. Â For one thing, the situation royal families find themselves in can change quickly, particularly in wartime. What if he regains his fatherâs favor? What if his other relatives died, leaving him the most likely candidate for the throne? Now youâre in a position where your new leader is the guy you talked trash to. Also, just because the fire lord himself is happy to be a dick to his son, Iâm not sure that means he wants others to follow in his example. After all, if regular members of the army get the idea in their heads that they can be nasty to or even try to kill one member of the royal family, who says theyâll stop there? Â Rulers have to maintain a position of feigned invulnerability. If the common people break through the layered cultural illusions and armor and see youâre just a dude sitting on a throne, theyâll have a much easier time knocking you off of it. Â Allowing them to harass one of your kids damages that facade. Â Plus, itâs not like youâre going to look super tough beating up on a kid. Â It was just a bad idea all around.
So anyway yeah Iâm going to be That Bitch again and be back on my bullshit about cartoon politics and strategy. Â I assume all of you are used to this by now, although who knows, maybe thereâs one ever hopeful person still sitting somewhere going âwhy canât they just announce which cartoon characters they think are hot like the rest of usâ
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