The first training of Zuko we see, Iroh shoots a fireball right into Zuko’s face - while Zuko just stands there unflinching. It’s the very first episode, and Zuko & Iroh are the obvious villains, and it just seems like some macho bs they do. And then comes the duel with Zhao, and Zuko is down, but when he sees that flaming fist to his face, something lets loose inside him that helps him turn the fight around…But it’s not until we learn Zuko’s backstory that all this gets a whole new meaning.
Why would Zuko still be on basics if not because he suffered a huge setback after his agni kai? Imagine how much hard work, patience it was to build Zuko back up again, so he would not freeze in blind panic (or curl up in a ball) when fire gets close to his face. I think Iroh practiced this with him all the time until he could stand there unflinching (knowing that Iroh is in full control of his bending and trusting that his uncle would never hurt him). And when it came to the duel with Zhao, Zuko could react in a RL situation instead of freezing up, and turn all the negative feelings (rage, anger, pain, whatever) into fuel to win the fight against a bender who is much more skilled than he is.
And Iroh obviously drilled him with control and restraint, because no matter how much he lets his rage loose, he has enough control not to hurt Zhao and enough self-restraint not to burn him at the end. I definitely think it was a deliberate choice on Iroh’s part to hold back on teaching offensive forms to Zuko beyond the basics (knowing that combining those with his unprocessed anger could result in him being out of control and hurt people). Instead, it seems he concentrated on teaching him defensive forms, fire breath, heat control, and so on…
Oh god, that makes such sense. Even after recovery, Zuko would not have wanted fire anywhere near him, especially his face, and it would have been ages until he could bend without flinching. But rather than seeing it as part of recovery from a very traumatic experience. He would have beaten himself over the head with it, internally, because he would have seen flinching at fire as a weakness.
When itcomesright down to it, almost every fan can state with pride that Avatar The Last Air Bender had one of the best cast of women present in both western television and media in general. While it was not perfect in it’s representation, every major girl in the show was smart, strong, brilliant, and courageous in their own rights, equals to their male counterparts in every way, and regularly bucked gender stereotypes in ways other shows often reveled in or wouldn’t try to, so much so that The Complete Book 3 Collection had an entire panel in it’s extra’s with the voice actresses discussing the strength of it’s female cast. Despite its obvious issues in regard to treatment of certain dilemmas, (and thank you @araeph and @theadamantdaughter for these meta’s discussing ATLA’s romance, since overall that’s one of the areas that needed the most improvement.) it more than deserves it’s praise for it’s female characters.
Legend of Korra started off the exact same way, and on a base level, it achieves the similar affect as ATLA. There’s more female characters, mainly of which are all around badass fighters who can easily hold their own against anyone. Korra herself is a prime example of this:
She’s both the complete opposite of softer, peace-loving Aang and of what society traditionally dictates a woman should be. She's strong, opinionated, proud, and never backs down, traits she shares with many of her predecessors in ATLA, so it stands to reason that she should be just as hailed as them when it comes to the Avatar franchise’s female presence.
Unfortunately, that isn’t the case, and the opinions on her portrayal are heavily mixed, with two completely polarizing love her/hate her viewpoints leading her character to suffer heavy criticism for not being well-written, but I didn’t make this to argue which is right and which is wrong. My only aim is to give some much- needed perspective to the criticism of her character.
One common argument against detractors, that appears to have died down since LoK’s end, is that people who criticize Korra's behavior simply can’t handle strong, tough female characters, and that her dislike is rooted in misogyny. While I won’t deny that may be true with a small minority of sexist males, in reality, the vast majority of in-depth criticism’s against her character actually DON’T come from men. In fact, it comes mostly from female fans who point out the problems with her character development, and the fact that ATLA itself was packed to the gills with many beloved Korra-type personalities makes this argument somewhat of a straw man, so why is that, exactly? Why is it that Korra doesn’t get treated with the same level of respect that Katara, Toph, and Suki do? The people whom she shares the most parallels and similarities with?
It’s because of one glaring explanation: The character herself is not the problem, but the way the story treats it is.
When Korra first comes to Republic City, and learns of the non-bender oppression there and her problems with mastering air-bending, Bryke had the golden opportunity to execute picture-perfect learning and progression for this master-of-3-elements. Korra's main issue from the start was apparent; her lack of spirituality and largely physical-based mindset made her struggle with air and put her relationship with Republic City in a problematic, unstable state. These are both dilemmas that Korra could not simply punch her way through, and having to confront the issues of non-benders disenfranchisement within Republic City while learning about Air Nomadic philosophies and their history, discovering herself and who she is spiritually, would have gone a long into making her a better leader and Avatar. (why these two obviously colliding plots couldn’t be used to go hand-in-hand to where to learning to solve Republic City’s issues through less-violent, political would help Korra realize her air-bending potential, is beyond me.)
Instead, when Tarrlok offs Amon……………..NOPE, that's it, no more Equalist/non-bender plot, no more Korra development on that front, and a whole waste of time that ended turning into the bare-bones “beat the bad guy to win” story that wasted and entire complex narrative which could have been so much more. Bryke just halts it there with nothing to makeup for lost plot and character development, Korra learning nor gaining practically anything throughout the whole experience.
Then it gets even better when Korra finally “discovers” the power of air-bending; during the finale of Season 1, Amon takes Korra’s bending away, but unfortunately for him, Korra had a little accidental surprise for him:
Yep, she did it! She, by completely no intention of her own, learned how to air-bend! And all it took was Amon unlocking some chi-blocker cheat code for Avatars to do it, despite that this flies completely in the face of how chi-blocking works and how learning the elements works.
The main problem with this scene is that this makes all that training beforehand inherently useless. Korra struggled and fought to be able to bend the element of air for what in her eyes, seemed like forever, but the one time, plus the first time, she actually manages to wield the power of an air-bender to defeat her enemy, it’s completely, and totally, by a freak accident and not with her own training and power. It takes agency away from Korra as a character and basically makes it about whatever the plot demands to basically carry her out of her problems without doing the work or putting in the effort to solve them. She doesn’t even know what she's doing here, her eyes are completely closed! Just imagine if Aang learned earth-bending like this, in this same stance, Toph herself would probably be calling bullshit on the writers!
But, that isn’t the only time the plot steps in to save her.
When Korra looses her bending, she’s absolutely devastated. Here, the one thing that she always defined herself by, was gone.
This situation was incredibly interesting, because throughout the show, Korra prided herself first and foremost on her bending prowess and fighting skills, to the point where that’s all she had. She had no real philosophy, no real views, no real opinions on the world at large, and having that one exceptional skill taken from her, forced her to come to grips with the realization that she feels she is nothing without bending the elements.
But in actuality, that isn’t true, because even without the 4 elements or the Avatar State, Korra herself is still an incredibly strong girl. She rarely gets bested in direct hand-to-hand-combat, and could probably put most non-bending fighters in ATLA to shame in the sheer strength department, training her in weaponry or chi-blocking would probably maker her just as deadly as them, too. Her mental power isn’t something to be ignored or sneezed at either. Despite her issues, she’s an incredibly open and honest person who never gives up if she feels what she’s doing is right.
I say all of this to make the point that ATLA always, ALWAYS reiterated consistently that a person’s power is more than the element they bend.
Just look at Katara in imprisoned:
Earthbenders! You don’t know me, but I know of you. Every child in my Water Tribe village was rocked to sleep with stories of the brave Earth Kingdom, and the courageous earthbenders who guard its borders. [The watchman walks up to talk the warden, but the warden stops him and listens.] Some of you may think that the Fire Nation has made you powerless. Yes, they have taken away your ability to bend. But they can’t take away your courage. And it is your courage they should truly fear! Because it runs deeper than any mine you’ve been forced to dig, any ocean that keeps you far from home! It is the strength of your hearts that make you who you are. Hearts that will remain unbroken when all rock and stone has eroded away. The time to fight back is now! I can tell you the Avatar has returned! So remember your courage earthbenders, [Shouts clearly.] let us fight for our freedom!
Katara isn’t using any over-powered water-bending technique in this scene to play the hero and save the day. She’s using her own words, her own thoughts, her own opinions, and her own passion to spark the revolt against the prison holders, and something like this should have happened with Korra here.
Korra should have realized that her strength is in more than just her bending, and she should have learned that her identity as the Avatar is about more than just the power, but the leadership, passion, spirituality, understanding of others, determination, experiences and constantly growing philosophies that come with it, and through fighting Amon with THAT power, with her allies and knowledge of the Avatar State she amassed through HER own hard work, like Katara has, should she have regained her bending abilities again to take him out for good.
But, none of that happens, instead we get this:
Aang basically just swoops in and admits he’s going to solve all of her problems for her in the blink of an eye, no further effort on Korra’s part required. This scene is basically just “Korra had a boo-boo and Aang came to kiss it. He even threw in some free master-level energy bending too!.”
And this pattern repeats, constantly. It happens with the Spirit Portals, it happens when she cuts all ties to past Avatars, it happens with Jinora showing up at the goofy-ass Godzilla duel, it happens with the Red Lotus, and it happens with pretty much every fight (and that’s the majority) she looses where other people have to step in; the plot just never gives Korra the chance to truly grow, as either an Avatar, a bender, or as a person, because the plot constantly treats her like she’s some damsel in distress that needs to be rescued………from herself.
But, despite this, the claim is still made that she, and other LoK women, are just as empowering as ATLA’s female cast, all because they share the same characteristic of being the Action Girl Trope, or of being strong, loud or tough, and while those qualities are admirable, the way LoK portrays them actually does a huge disservice to strong, capable women.
Female characters in ATLA were COSTANTLY challenged, always forced to think outside of their boxes, put in complex conflicts, or taught to understand perspectives they never would have otherwise. Katara’s entire character arc is this, as is Toph’s relationship with her that was a key in her own character development.
They start off antagonizing the other over their differences, but they learn to appreciate what the other has to offer and become one of the best female friendships of the series, unlike LoK were the closest female friendship we get is the largely one-sided, Korra-centric Korrasami.
Likewise, the majority of their relationships with male characters in the show also enhanced their own character growth, with Katara learning to appreciate her brother.
And even Toph and Iroh learning lessons from each other, Iroh triple her age!
We never get that kind of healthy dynamic between the men/women in LoK, in fact, it seems that many times the “strong” female characters are distinctly portrayed as abusive when it comes to their relationships (Bolin/Eska, Mako/Korra, Lin/Tenzin, literally everyone of these situations would look horrendous if the genders were reversed) almost as if to make a mockery out of them. Unfortunately all Bryke is doing is encouraging dangerous stereotypes of “strong women” by caricaturizing them as inherently emotionally volatile and destructive, something women in general already have to put up with enough.
It takes more than simply being a fighter to make a strong, complex, and interesting female character, and that’s something Bryke seems to not understand.
Sibling rivalry is often a trite story of one sibling hating the other out of jealousy. On the surface, the Zuko and Azula may look that way. They have no problem blasting fire and lightning at each other and both of their parents had a favorite. But there’s so much more to it.
First of all, I would argue that in spite of many near-fatal encounters, they don’t necessarily hate each other. It’s far more complicated than that. How they view each other is closely tied to how they view themselves.
For most of Zuko’s life, Azula is the standard he’s held to. She’s ambitious, ruthless, and a prodigy. No matter what he does, he can’t earn their father’s approval like she can. And she rubs it in his face constantly. When Azula is cruel to Zuko, Ozai affirms that she’s not wrong to do so. Zuko rarely argues with her because he’s been conditioned to believe she’s right. Zuko has internalized the blame for how his father treats him rather than project it onto Azula, and accepts how she treats him as normal. He has plenty of bitter feeling toward her, but none quite as clear as hate.
Azula’s view of Zuko is even more convoluted. The first time we see Azula, she’s smiling because their father is about to burn him. The next time they meet, she berates him for being a failure of a son. It looks like she enjoys watching him suffer.
But when Zuko helps “kill” the Avatar in Ba Sing Se, we get to see them in a new context. In the rare moments that they aren’t pitted against each other by the ever looming presence of their father… they actually get along fine.
Every time Azula appeared happy to see Zuko suffering, it was at the hands of their father. It wasn’t just that Ozai hurt Zuko, it what that Ozai hurt Zuko and not her. Every time Ozai insulted or injured her brother, it cemented Azula’s position as the favorite child. And she had to stay the favorite child because she’s seen what would happen to her if she wasn’t. Deep down, she knows just how conditional her father’s positive regard is. When Ozai leaves her in the Fire Nation while invading the Earth Kingdom, the first words out of her mouth are “You can’t treat me like Zuko”. Being better than Zuko is part of her identity.
When Zuko defects from the Fire Nation and begins to succeed without meeting, or even trying to meet, the standards set by their father, it throws her priorities into doubt. In her mind, Zuko is supposed to fail. But she isn’t truly unnerved until she’s betrayed by Mai and Ty Li.
She is incapable of understanding why Mai would chose Zuko, and this drags to the surface her inability to understand why her mother preferred Zuko. She believed her mother loved Zuko and not her. Now Mai, her closest friend, loves Zuko and not her.
This conflicts with her entire view of the world. She sees the worth of a person as equal to their quantifiable skills and accomplishments. She has been admired, respected, and feared, but as far as Azula believes, no one has ever loved her. She was a prodigy who did everything right, while Zuko was the family screw up. Yet people loved him and not her.
For years, being better than Zuko was how Azula measured herself. Ozai said Zuko was lucky to be born. That he was worthless, weak, disrespectful, and both his children believed him. When Zuko left, he finally saw that Ozai was wrong about him. When Zuko returns during Sozin’s comet, Azula too is forced to see that her perception is wrong.
Zuko has become the embodiment of everything she lacks. She thought he was weak, but he’s not afraid enough to fight her fairly as an equal. She thought he was dishonorable, but really he was independent enough to break away from their father’s control. She thought he was worthless, but he’s found people who care about him in spite of his flaws.
Azula isn’t just trying to kill him, but everything he represents. And when she can’t, she breaks. Zuko is still standing. She has nothing left.
Word of God (Bryke) confirmed that at the end of the Agni Kai, Zuko felt pity rather than hate for his sister. This continues into the comics as he genuinely tries to help her. He knows that while she may not have been overtly abused like he was, she was raised in the same web of lies, agendas, and violence.
Their past left them both unable to trust people. Azula controlled everyone around her with fear. Zuko shut other people out and tried to do everything on his own. It isn’t until Zuko has left his old life behind that he slowly begins to let people in.
While Azula hangs onto the beliefs of Ozai and the Fire Nation, Zuko can see their situation from the outside. He sees two screwed up teenagers who spent their lives fighting their father’s war, manipulated into a conflict that isn’t their fault, forced to kill each other over choices made a century before they were born. It took Zuko years to figure out the hell that was his home life wasn’t his fault, but only a few minutes to see that it wasn’t Azula’s either.
Ive been meaning to talk about this for some time. This isnt just metal bending. This is very clearly liquified like metal…just like the poison?
Coincidence? I doubt it but personally its just a huge growth scene for me. This moment. Its so much more then just when Korra would have a horribly traumatic PTSD moment in the Avatar State. This was the very thing that broke her.
It looks like a direct darker version of the poison from Book 3. Its being hurled AT HER FACE AT AN ALARMING RATE. Does anyone else think that for even a moment Korra DIDNT think about her past experience?
I dont.
In fact i think they did this to prove something. Korra accepted what happened completely and fought back. She stopped the metal. She ended her own demons. She is so fu king strong and it still breaks my soul because my god she does deserve all the happiness in the world.
My favourite thing about this, is that he goes back to his father, and holds him accountable for his actions. He’s thought he was in the wrong for years. That it was his fault he lost his honour. To see him come to this understanding that he was a child and his father was the responsible party was amazing.
His character development throughout the whole 3 seasons was amazing. He started off on a path of revenge, believing that his father was powerful and amazing and that the only way to earn his honour was to please his father. In book 2 he learned how ordinary people live their lives, and he picked up valuable lessons in humility and justice during these travels, honing his sense of right and wrong which culminated in his metamorphosis at the end of the season In book 3 it was shown how Zuko was struggling with the temptation of having everything he had ever wanted, but at the price of him feeling empty and hollow because of it. He eventually realised this and came to terms with it with some help from Uncle Iroh. He knew what he had to do as he faced his father on that day and had the drive and strength to leave behind what he loved so he could fight for what he knew was right, not what he had been taught to believe was right. Through this, he became a true firebending master and earned his honour and dignity.
But with his own hands and through his own means. Not with the help of his father, his nation or even the woman he loved. By himself.
Zuko and Katara are not Yin and Yang. Aang and Toph are not Yin and Yang. Yin and Yang is not direct opposites.
Yin and Yang is used to describe how opposite or contrary forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world; and, how they give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another.
Shippers like to take the yin and yang concept and twist it to fit their agenda. When Avatar The Last Airbender brought up Yin and Yang, what was it? Right the moon and the ocean. Two forces of nature that while contrary forces are still interdependent forces. They need each other for balances.
Yin and Yang are not strictly used for the sake of romance. Some stories, it is used for obvious ship teasing purposes, but Avatar The Last Airbender is not one of them.
The two characters who embody that far better than anyone is Zuko and Aang. Two very different and contrary characters, yet two characters who balance and compliment each other.
They have different personalities and yet serve as perfect foils. They both mirror each other and contradict each other. They are opposing forces that interdependent on one another. Fire and Air fits that far better.
While with different backstories and personalities and choices, they still parallel one another, they still balance each other.
To me this gifset really showcases that. They come from two different worlds, with different ideologies. They are foils in every respect, Aang fights more defensively, while Zuko more offensively, and they use their powers to battle each other as such. Zuko’s darker colors contrasts Aang’s brighter color scheme in their designs. Zuko is older than Aang obviously. But despite their many obvious differences, they still are forces that while not knowing it at the time, bring balance with each other.
Their friendship is of a Yin and Yang kind. They’re similarities and differences were my favorite parts of the show sometimes. I loved how they both contradicted yet balanced each other. They formed an unlikely friendship because of those two key factors, their differences and similarities.
short version: screw what fangirls say these two are the real yin and yang of atla and I aggressively love this brotp, kthnx bai.
I’ve always been amazed at how Aang matured throughout the episodes.
This show had some of the best character developement in modern media
Especially when you consider how in the first gif he accidentally burns his friend and doesn’t want to firebend afterwards and the in the second one he wields it with such mastery but doesn’t want to harm his opponent.
Request: Could you please make a section in the main side bar containing the names of existing analyses and their hyperlinks? It would be nice to be able to see what you already have at a glance/access stuff quickly instead of digging through this blog page by page to find things. Thanks. I love your work!
Why hello anon! Thank you for the ask. avatarverseanalyses is a sideblog that I (and two others - but they’re not around that much anymore…. O_o) that I manage, and thank you for bringing this up to me - it’s a very valid critique for this blog (which really doesn’t have that much on it, I should probably try to fix that!) and I will try and get it done when I find the time. :)
(Disclaimer: First of all, I have to apologize for my English. It’s probably not good enough to write a lengthy analysis (I should’ve called it an essay, probably) like this. And I didn’t rewatch LoK to write it, just re-read the transcripts, so I’m probably missing something. But the dynamic between them is just so interesting that I couldn’t resist).
(Everything written in that post is just my interpretation. Contains a few theories/headcanons of my own. More about Korra in that part :).
Later that (or the next) day, Tarrlok visits Air Temple Island. It’s just about time to try to convince Korra to work with him against Amon, especially since it became personal to her. Meanwhile, Tenzin is saying a prayer.
Tenzin: We are grateful for this delicious food, for happiness, for compassion, and…
Very thoughtful about both characters and your commentary on Tarrlok was fascinating, since you admit that he’s not the best of men but he tries (such as with Korra and the invitation to the Task Force incident which only ended badly for him) and that he takes the decent route first before resorting to underhanded measures to get what he wants.
You know, I just realized that Korra’s most famous quote, “I’m the Avatar, you gotta deal with it!” is more than her just being full of herself. She uses this almost as an excuse many times throughout the show to get people to like her. She’s even used it to try and persuade people that’s she the one right in a situation (thought it turned out to be true). It just goes to show how egotistical Korra truly is. Her self-worth is directly proportional to her status, and there’s no denying that.
A title does not define how good of a person you are. Kings and queens may be just that, but that does not make them a better person than a commoner. In monetary terms, sure, but as a decent human being? Probably not. So, let me reiterate: a title does not define how good of a person you are. Korra may be the Avatar, but she is not a good person.
but she is not a good person.
I just don’t think she is at this point. This would be less of an issue if she wasn’t framed as The Hero in a show where it’s implicit/explicit that The Hero is Good and she is framed as being Justified. In fact, it makes it worse. Wow, are first seasons important—I don’t think the first season wanted me to just dislike Korra’s personality by the end of it, and be massively disappointed in her character, full of promise and what it could’ve meant in the wider cultural world. But, there it is, regardless of Korra being a WOC protagonist of an animated action-adventure show aimed for young people, I can’t stomach her personality, especially when canon wants us to root for her.
