Here we go again

[ID: Bernie Sanders meme with white text on the image of Bernie Sanders saying “I am once again asking you to use critical thinking skills when writing or drawing ATLA/LOK fan pieces” END ID]

Dear white fans of Avatar the Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra (but especially Korra because that’s the half of fandom I am most involved in right now): I am literally BEGGING y’all to do a MODICUM of research before you start drawing or writing. Nobody in ATLA/LOK is white or Christian: please apply an OUNCE of critical thought to the cultural choices you are making in your fanart and fanfic.

Some Resources:

This list is NOT comprehensive.

This is just everything I have the spoons to collate right now. I don’t include food or fashion, because that it is better explained/detailed in the links below:

When in doubt, read this first and research the cultural influences herein: Influences on the Avatar franchise

Additionally:

Fan artist resources:

And lastly:

Don’t be shitty and perpetuate racism in fandom. Do your goddamn research.

Again: Nobody in ATLA/LOK is white or Christian.

Your existence in a white supremacist, christian society, consuming this piece of media made mostly by white people existing in a white supremacist christian society, influences how you will interact and create media in this fandom.

This includes, but is not limited to, colorism in ships: If your darker character in your ship is always the caretaker, please examine why that is.

Lastly, listen to your fellow fans of color. If they say something is racist or shitty, LISTEN TO THEM.

Folks with additional resources are more than welcome to reblog and add them and/or DM me and I’ll add them to the main post. Thanks.

"Why did Katara choose Aang over Zuko??"

Y'all Zuko wasn't even a player.

Babygirl, Zuko was a player

He was playing for the other team.

hi :)

funny little people in my funny little au. except the last part. thats not my au. just drawing zuko and aang.

Are people waking up or something because these posts are so good and funny 😭

Glad that even Aang's power is appreciated!

avatar girleens

"You've changed"

thinking abt this tweet again

some of your goofy asses for the past 20 years

Thought process behind this:

Just things they can connect about… Zuko you should bring up the fact that you burned down Suki’s village again, I’m sure she’d appreciate it.

I think they would've been friends

Yapper Sokka and Zuko here just nodding to whatever he says

(Sokka’s probably judging some passerby)

take a break. your highness.

Their bonding moment should have been grand theft auto

Besties in crime

cute lil zukka doodle entirely inspired by the several fanfics I have read where sokka braids zukos hair to show he's taken. ITS SUCH A CUTE AND PERSONAL CONCEPT I LOVE IT!!!!

Idk what this is, but more Zukka for the win definitely

Aang getting so, uncharacteristically angry when Appa was taken by the sandbenders wasn’t just because of his love for his sky bison. Of course, that was a big part of it. Appa is more than just a pet to him, he’s his best friend and soulmate, someone who’s been around since Aang was very young and is meant to be a “companion for life”.

But, Aang ran away on a random Tuesday, got caught in a storm and it changed the whole trajectory of his life. He ran away because he was upset his life was changing so rapidly, he suddenly had all this responsibility at 12 years old that he wasn’t ready for but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t have gone back. We don’t know what would have happened; he could have needed a few days to cool off, he could have seen the start of the war and stepped up (from what we know of Aang, there’s no way he would have ignored it for his own needs), but that didn’t happen.

He got caught in the ice for 100 years and when he woke up he discovered that not only was everyone he knew and loved were dead, but brutally murdered in an act of power. That everyone from his teachers, friends (children, like him) and animals, were gone. Not only that but his whole culture; traditions, foods, clothing, music… everything important was eradicated and possibly most of the documentation of the culture, too. He’s suddenly handed this new responsibility on top of being the Avatar, trying to uphold this culture (as literally the last airbender alive) and grieve at the same time.

And Aang grieves very privately, in fact, does he even give himself a chance? He discovered the horrible truth and his immediate response it so go have some fun, maybe because he knows if he thinks too hard about it and gives into the pain, he’ll turn into something he’s not, he’ll forget what the monks taught him and he can’t let that happen.

So he tries to channel all his grief and anger into being the Avatar, even if he still has his reservations, and by his side is Appa. The only thing keeping him tethered to his life 100 years ago and his culture. He’s been with him through everything, and will continue to be, like I said “companion for life”.

And then he’s gone, he’s taken, and all of a sudden Aang cannot keep the crushing weight of his loss at bay anymore and he… snaps, he loses control. He gives into the avatar state because not only is everything he knew and loved gone, taken from him for nothing more than political gain, but now his soulmate that represented everything he lost is gone, too and he doesn’t know what happened to him. Is he dead? Is he scared? Is he fed? Who knows.

Aang losing Appa with the final straw and his grief, something he was ignoring and refusing to deal with, was brought to the forefront when he lost Appa, making it impossible to ignore and if it wasn’t for us friends trying to ground him and remind him of who he was, who knows what would have happened.