20 Years Ago Today The First Episode Of Avatar The Last Airbender Aired, And My Life Was Changed Forever.

ugh that ssktyles screenshot they're so miserable. anyways bumi, kya and tenzin are all kataang's children and those bitter zk shippers can die mad about it 🤪

i agree that aang wasn't the terrible father certain fandom corners makes him out to be, he was flawed but ultimately he loved his children and they loved him back. writing-wise though i think the concept of airbending being so synonymous with air nomad culture warrants criticism. i hate the way the narrative painted bumi and kya as less than for not being airbenders even though they had just as much air nomad heritage as tenzin. i can't recall which episode it was but there's a scene where bumi says he finally feels like he's part of the air nation after becoming an airbender and tenzin agrees like ugh no! he was always part of the air nation regardless of bending!

ironically enough bumi and kya embodied their air nomad side more effortlessly than tenzin given how free-spirited they were and picked upon on spiritual matters quicker than he did. i'm also thinking about the ways tenzin embodied his water tribe side but that's a ramble for another day. i just think tlok's writers really dropped the ball in depicting the nuances of the kataang kids' mixed race heritage but yeah i'd love to hear your thoughts on this

Frankly, I don't want to talk about them if I can help it. I've learnt my lesson on interacting with that side of the fandom or thinking one can reason with them. Never again. Block them. For your own good.

I'm just really tired of the 'Aang was an awful dad' thing. He's no worse a father than Hakoda, who also couldn't spend as much time with his children as he wished due to external responsibilities. But Aang didn't get the change to speak to his children about this, because, unlike Hakoda, he was deader than a doornail by the time complaints began to arise.

I'm 50/50 on the airbending question. In a vaccum it's a solid concept. To ye ole air nomads, airbending was a matter of spirituality, to the point that if an airbender list their spirituality, their airbending could weaken, or dissapear. This is a very cool concept, and ties in nicely to the Air Nomad's ties with buddhist monks.

However, when set in a world where, to the other nations, bending is more up to the genetic lottery, it sets some very obvious hurdles for mixed families. Which isn't an entirely bad thing, it would be interesting to be fleshed out. It is a shame, but it's also not the only potentially amazing storyline to not be explored in the show.

I think the fact that Tenzin is our main window into tlok's Air Nomads is also what sorta drags their characterisation down. As nicely as I can put this, Tenzin can be a bit of a stiff prick, especially to his siblings. Granted, he's under A LOT of stress and pressure (plenty of it self inflicted), but still...

Shifting more into perspectives of a less baggage-ridden character like Jinora, or newer airbenders like Opal and Kai (here is Quill's very sneaky attempt at begging for more Opal content) might have given us a newer, less local-man-convinced-he's-the-single-person-upholding-the-legacy-of-a-genocided-nation flavoured viewpoints.

Tenzin feeling the pressure more than his siblings was, frankly, unavoidable. Even if Aang and Katara didn't encourage him taking on the air nomads legacy at all, he would still be expected to participate in it by outsiders, being what he is. It's certainly a case of someone's identity becoming political, and being burdened with great responsibility for something you can't change about yourself, a phenomenon many minorities irl are intimately aware of.

I do like how Aang handled this aspect of raising Tenzin, wven if it seemingly did not stick lol

Tenzin internalising the importance of his airbender heritage is also not improbable. The issue, to me, is that he is never challenged on this.

Don't get me wrong, I adore the moment in the Fog of Lost souls when he speaks to Aang's spirit and realises he doesn't have to try to be Aang to carry on the air nomads legacy. It's great start, but it could go further, with him mending rhe bridge between him and his siblings, and realising that they are also part of the Air Nomads.

B3 would be a good place for that arc, but it doesn't happen. I hate the "well you're part of the nation now 😌" scene between Bumi and Tenzin, because it feels so artificial. Wouldn't surprise me if it existed because people felt bad for Bumi in B2, and it were an attempt at quickly patching that up. But that's purely speculation, as B3 just feels like it's full of useless fanservice in general.

I can actually get behind Tenzin's mildly condescending attitude towards his siblings. If I had to get into his head, Kya and Bumi both shirked whatever responsibility they had to the Air Temples, even if it was smaller than the one Tenzin was saddled with. Bumi joined the military, which is not very pacifist-monk of him and Kya left the fold to wander the world. Leaving Tenzin alone to carry the weight of the Air Nomads. Of course, from their perspective, they were already excluded, but Tenzin didn't seem aware of their feelings.

I think multiple people have pointed out the hypocrisy of Tenzin, leader of the Air Nomads, criticising his sister's nomadic lifestyle, but I'll do it again. It is very funny, how Kya and Bumi seem to more effortlessly embody select Air Nomad values, and certain of Aang's personality traits, than Tenzin ever could.

Kya, of course, spent a lot of her time as a nomad and seems to genuinely take to meditating and spirituality. Similarly, Bumi seems to naturally gravitate to spirits, even befriending one.

I'd actually argue that Tenzin is the most similar to Katara personalitywise. People have joked about how he got her temper, but I think it's more than that. They have other similarities in personality, as well as their deep and fierce love of family and need for a community. I also like that they're both not natural bending prodigies. Katara was shown struggling with waterbending, but became a master through perseverance and passion. Similarly, Tenzin didn't get his arrows until he was over 16, a far cry of Aang and Jinora who were both around 12 for it.

Honestly, Tenzin trying to be so much like his father, when he's obviously a mama's boy is one of my favourite parts of his character.

I honestly wish we had more between these two, and perhaps an arc of Tenzin reconnecting with his Water Tribe roots. He clearly does have some care for them, visiting for festivals, and with a lot of the furniture around Air Temple island having some callbacks to water tribe furnishings weve seen before. But it's obvious he's cut himself off from that aspect of himself to focus on the duty of rebuilding the Air Nomads.

So, I think my ultimate opinion on the cloudbabies and their relation to their Air Nomad heritage is, like with many aspects of tlok: excellent potential, great setup, fascinating characters- not enough time and fumbled execution.

I love this, so cutee. I made myself (except I have darker hair and acne 😔)

Starting new picrew bc I find this one super cute and pretty so lets go! LINK

No pressure tag @wyvernslovecake @bby-deerling @nina-ya @ringdabel @im-stuck-in-fandom-hell and everyone who wants to join! 💛

REBLOG IF IT'S OKAY FOR ME TO BOTHER YOU IF YOU'RE MY MUTUAL

Lore drop oh yeah!!

I’ll give 3 bc why not

I’ve been to over 16 countries

ive had knee surgery and nearly lost the ability to bend me knee afterwards

I’ve know how to ski since I was 5

Further explanation will be provided if wanted

it's so weird to me that everyone on this website is a human person outside of their weird internet niche so rb this with a random bit of your lore

My dogs are officially the cutest. They like to watch me while I work.

Fuzzy worm based on the sharpie highlighter that was (and still is) stuck on the roof rafters of my church building for years that I thought was a fuzzy worm at first.

fuck it. worm on a string picrew chain. let's fucking go

happy worm creation my friends

tagging @areyoudoingthis @cursed-coat-of-homosexuality @peanutbutterex @tfemteach @piratecaptainscaptainpirates (no pressure 💛)

Avatar: the Last Airbender Personality Types Masterpost

Aang

Katara

Sokka

Toph

Zuko

so pretty! I love seeing everyone’s atla ocs

okay so as a peace offering to revive this account I offer u one of my oc’s in the ATLA universe 🙏

concupiscentia__ is my Instagram username btw

Which OC has never been in love?

Ok I am slightly sorry for spamming your ask box, but it seems like you want asks so I hope this isn’t too annoying to you.

For the character bingo, could I ask for Sokka?

oh I don’t care about ask spams, I love getting them. Here’s sokka:

Yes he is very much my blorbo

he’s tied with aang for my fav character in the series with toph a close second