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I promised more the nwanyi spirit and the woman who bent blood excerpts and here it is!
Suki, Toph, and Katara are a team of bounty hunters known as The Runaways in this AU and they were “recruited” by the mysterious White Lotus and offered work with them. Iroh makes them an offer they can’t refuse…
(NSFW: sweary words)
Suki’s smirk remained, plastered into place, but she tilted her head towards her friends and pitched her voice low. ‘The old man’s job offer. Thoughts?’
‘Oh, we’re taking the veiled threats as a serious offer, are we?’ Katara drawled around a mouthful of food. The spoon rubbed against her bandages which in turn were rubbing against her wound but despite the discomfort, the hot meal was doing wonders for her spirits.
‘I take all and every opportunity seriously, you know that.’
‘You really believe the White Lotus, a group whose members we’ve personally hunted down and delivered to the authorities more than once, is interesting in partnering up?’
Suki studied her carefully from behind the mask she wore. ‘I take it you don’t.’
‘Hm, you think?’
Toph poked at her dinner, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. ‘They’re alright,’ she muttered. ‘Silvertongue and Jun and the others we met on the road. They’re cool.’
‘Alright, are they?’ Katara asked stiffly. ‘The people who essentially forced us to come meet their boss because he had a humble offer for us?’ She lowered her voice when Suki widened her eyes in warning. Katara leaned in closer. ‘They’re firebenders, Toph. Zuko definitely is, his uncle and cousin might be too. We don’t know how many more there could be. I don’t trust them.’
‘Well none of us trusts them,’ Toph said as though Katara had pointed out that two badgermoles plus two badgermoles equals a whole lot of trouble. ‘No one trusts anyone in this business, we all know that.’
‘You trust Jun,’ Katara accused in a hushed tone.
Toph frowned, her lip popping free of her teeth. ‘I want to fuck Jun, I don’t trust her, Madame Fussy Britches. Big difference.’
Suki cleared her throat, moving her stir fry from one side of her bowl to the other. ‘I want to take him up on it. Iroh. I think we should take it.’
‘Are you insan—’
Toph elbowed Katara so hard in her ribs that she nearly spat her rice halfway across the table. ‘You sure are light on your feet, fire boy,’ Toph acknowledged, turning to face Zuko. The man stood behind them, his eyes narrowed and calculating. ‘Sneaky little firebender, aren’t you?’
‘Only because you can’t see, Toph,’ Suki said, grinning up at Zuko. ‘He’s actually quite tall. Impressive ninja skills for a man of your… size.’
Zuko went from irate to a blushing mess in little under ten seconds. ‘I’m not— That’s not even—’ he spluttered, dropping his bowl onto the table beside Katara. ‘The waterbender left her herbs at the serving table!’
Katara arched a brow, still rubbing her side. Suki always knew how to exploit a person’s weakness to her advantage; Katara would have high fived her success if the firebender hadn’t been spluttering so close to them.
Instead, she glanced at Zuko. ‘How thoughtful,’ she simpered. Then, after a meaningful look from Suki, begrudgingly added, ‘Thank you.’
The firebender, his cheeks red as flames, slammed down a bubbling cup of tea with the now familiar scent of comfrey, centella, Hei Bai’s wort, and marigold. ‘Don’t mention it.’
Katara lifted the cup and swilled the liquid around. ‘You’ve definitely overcooked the herbs.’
But the firebender bent over his food and ate without any sign of having heard her.
Toph was snickering into her own bowl— something about touchy firebenders— but Suki took pity on him. ‘So, Zuko,’ she began, nibbling at a piece of broccoli. ‘How did the White Lotus end up running a boarding house?’
The firebender chewed awhile, glaring straight ahead even as he answered. ‘The White Lotus is more than you think it is. We provide shelter to those who need it. This boarding house is for wives who need a safe place from dishonourable husbands, refugees who need somewhere to stay while the state allocates them a permanent home, students who can’t afford to live at the university.’ Zuko jabbed his finger across the table, gesturing to the far side of the room. ‘See that old guy in the shabby robes? He’s a cabbage merchant whose never sold enough cabbages to afford a place to live. Used to live under his cabbage cart before someone smashed it. So now he lives here.’
‘For free?’ Toph asked.
Zuko shrugged. ‘Sometimes.’
‘How can your uncle possibly afford to house people for free?’ Katara demanded, before a wry smile claimed her face. ‘Oh, that’s right. His hands aren’t as clean as all that. He’s like us. Trades lives for money.’
‘My uncle does not trade lives for money,’ the firebender snarled with such ferocity that a prickle of trepidation ghosted its way down Katara’s spine. ‘You don’t know anything about us, waterbender.’
This is one of my favorite theories behind atla and I wanted to share my own breakdown of it.
SO the raids on the SWT began in 40 AG. They continued until each and every waterbender from the Southern Water Tribe had been captured. (Note: captured)
Worth noting is that Hama refers to herself as the last waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe.
Here’s where the conspiracy gets juicy. Hama was the only one who managed to escape. She created bloodbending to get out of the prison. And she says herself that she’s the only one who escaped. This could be for one of two reasons:
All of the other prisoners had already succumb to the conditions or been killed
The remaining waterbender prisoners were murdered after Hama’s escape
The second option is more plausible. Hama displayed a dangerous, powerful, unknown form of waterbending and overtook a Fire Nation guard’s body. She had him unlock her cell and fled. If there were remaining waterbenders in the prison they would have been killed out of fear once Hama escaped.
They Fire Nation couldn’t risk anyone else in their prison possessing this power. So they were all murdered because of Hama’s escape.
Look at Hama’s reaction to hearing that the raids continued. A kind of casual “oh, you poor things.” Hama knew that the raids continued because she escaped. All of the waterbenders had already been caught! The only waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe that was known at that time to be free or alive was Hama.
And she knew better than to return to her home, where they were sure to come looking for her. She stayed and hid right under their noses because she knew they were going to tear the world apart trying to track her down. She was too dangerous.
When Yon Rha comes to the Southern Water Tribe in 94 AG Katara is still a child. Their tribe has been in shambles for years at this point. Katara is the tribe’s last hope and they’re a tiny tribe at that point in time. Do you honestly think that word of a child waterbender would have made way to the Fire Nation?
Do you think that the Water Tribe would ever release that information willingly? I don’t. I think that the Southern Raiders had no idea that another waterbender had been born into the Southern Water Tribe.
Why else would Yon Rha have accepted that an adult was the waterbender he was looking for? The intel didn’t say that a new waterbender was born, the intel said that there’s one waterbender left. The Fire Nation already knows about the last waterbender of the SWT. She escaped. And they’re still trying to find her.
The Fire Nation is adamant about finding the last waterbender because they’re looking for Hama. Hama, who can control people’s bodies. Hama, who managed to escape a high-security Fire Nation prison without any water. Hama, the only waterbender to best the Fire Nation. And the only one left.
Kya offers herself up as prisoner to Yon Rha. Because she knows that the past raids meant that the Southern Raiders took the waterbenders prisoner. But that has changed.
Whywould their procedure have changed? Why did they stop taking waterbenders as prisoners? Because of Hama. They stopped taking waterbenders prisoner after Hama’s escape.
Tl;dr the Southern Raiders were never looking for Katara, they were looking for Hama.
Wait but wouldn’t Kya have been way too young to be who they were searching for? I mean she appears to be in her twenties or at most early thirties in Katara’s flashback and Hama appears to be around 70 or more when she meets the gaang less than a decade later and she had clearly been out for several decades by then and was at least a teenager when she escaped…as long ago as it had happened, wouldn’t it have made more since to go after Gran Gran at that point?
I see your point, but I’ll offer this as counterpoint: we have seen how woeful the Fire Nation’s communications are. (Ex. the one ship’s captain complaining about the lack of communication between ships in the first episode of Book 3) So there’s a possibility that Yon Rha never was told an age. Just that there was a dangerous waterbender on the loose. Who knows how long he had been at this post, even? This may have been his “pet project”, like Zhao suddenly deciding to take the Avatar on as his, when he joined the Southern Raiders. Something to make him sound good, a notch on his belt. It may have been what pushed him to retire?
And who in the Fire Nation, when they get the report, is going to ask him “Oh btw, how old was she?” Most likely, they would just check off the box of “Southern Water Tribe Bender dead.” and that would be the end of it.
Just some ‘40s style AU stuff with the Gaang gals as young adults out for a picnic. :) I was just playing around in Procreate and trying different things. Wasn’t exactly sure how I wanted this to turn out beyond just really wanting to draw Katara in this striped playsuit outfit like this. Suki and Toph are hard to draw. I am not used to them. haha But I dunno. I like it alright. :T
Something that always bothered me when I first saw the Southern Raiders was how the episode seemed to go out of its way to show how Zuko is this character who is very cold, vengeful and unforgiving, as opposed to Aang, who is just this perfect saint of forgiveness. So recently I found out that Elizabeth Ehasz, who wrote the Southern Raiders, had to rewrite the episode multiple times to demonstrate that Zuko was a very toxic influence on Katara. The original episode had them showing just a bit “too much chemistry”. It was like a lightbulb went off for me. Immediately it made perfect sense of everything I had thought was weird when I first saw the episode.
Aang has always been a very merciful and forgiving person. But he was never so…preachy and trite about it. We see this when he chooses to spare Zuko’s life many times. During the Siege of the North, the characters are left with a choice to either leave him to die, or to take him with them. Sokka has no problem leaving him. He is an enemy who has tried to do them harm, so Sokka’s suggestion is not unreasonable. Aang doesn’t want to do this, but he never judges Sokka, or lectures him about the value of life. He simply decides to follow his heart. But he never displayed a tendency to push his beliefs onto others in a judgmental way. His attitude to Katara in TSR made him seem quite insensitive, which is pretty out of character; especially towards the girl he claims to love.
The same can be said of his preaching about forgiveness. We know Aang is not above having his anger get the best of him at times. We also know that Aang puts Katara on a pedestal, and does not like to see her display any negativity. Yet, her anger and reluctance to forgive Jet do not cause Aang to lecture her about forgiveness. Sure, Jet is someone Katara liked at one point, but Aang never seemed to be so petty as to treat Jet any differently than anyone else, just out of jealousy. In fact, Aang’s possessiveness toward Katara seemed to come about only in Book 3 as well (maybe that’s a post for another time). Suffice to say, I found Aang to be uncharacteristically moralistic in TSR. The episode seemed to sacrifice the nuance of Aang’s character for the purpose of beating you over the head with a black-and-white morality message about Aang being “good” and Zuko being “bad”. I didn’t like this because Avatar is usually so good with handling mature subject matter with shades of grey and leaving the audience to come to their own conclusions.
Which brings me to Zuko. I also found his sudden propensity for vengeance to be surprising. This kid has a lot of flaws, but I did not remember Zuko to be especially vengeful. He was devoted to his “duty” as a Fire Nation soldier and Prince to capture the Avatar, someone who his country has falsely made out to be an evil tyrant who started the 100 year war, yes. I am not saying that Zuko would not feel contempt for Yon Rha, or believe that he didn’t “deserve” Katara’s wrath. But I found his glibness and vocal support of revenge to be unusual, especially toward someone who had just recently forgiven him. The episode also seemed to suggest that Zuko was pushing Katara for revenge as well, something Bryke imply in the commentary on the DVD. So what’s going on here? Is Zuko really so vengeful?
This is Zuko after his Uncle tells him that his sister is “crazy and needs to go down.” The last two times Zuko saw Azula, she tried to murder him in cold blood, and then tried to murder his Uncle right in front of him. Yet Zuko, apparently so used to abuse, does not see this as a reason to hate his sister. In his family, such behavior is “normal”. He has a look of anguish on his face. In spite of it all, Zuko loves his sister and the thought of taking her out causes him a lot of pain. One could argue that Azula is his family and his feelings toward her are not representative of his views on revenge in general. Ok, so let’s get to another non-family member, then.
Here we have Zuko in his Agni Kai with Zhao. Zuko has been disrespected by Zhao and wants to prove himself against him. Throughout the fight, Zhao displays dangerous levels of force against Zuko. Zuko comes very close to losing, and is clearly triggered at one point, remembering the last time he fought an Agni Kai and suffered unimaginably. Yet Zuko is victorious. In Fire Nation imperial culture, strength is valued above all else, and Zuko would be expected to demonstrate his victory by burning Zhao. Zuko has been insulted by Zhao, and as a Prince, this is a great dishonor. As a Prince, Zuko would be expected to uphold the values of his culture and family, and burning Zhao would be seen as a sign of strength; as a man, as a soldier, and as a royal. Yet Zuko is unable to bring himself to do this, despite the fact that it would single him out as being labelled weak. He is simply unable to bring himself to enact that level of violence on another person; the same violence that he has suffered. Zhao showed Zuko no such consideration. He is a man who was visibly happy when Zuko received his scar, after all. This is not a man that Zuko has any type of bond with.
But that’s not even all. Later in the series, Zhao hires pirates to assassinate Zuko, and he nearly succeeds. Zuko barely survives to confront Zhao. They fight and Zhao makes every attempt at finishing the job the pirates failed at, before Zhao is grabbed by the Ocean Spirit. As he is being dragged away to a guaranteed death, Zuko responds. Even after trying to murder him, Zuko is moved with pity and reaches out his hand in an attempt to save Zhao. Clearly the actions of a very vengeful person, wouldn’t you say? I’m sure Zuko just wanted to finish Zhao off himself. Yep.
Has anyone else tried to kill Zuko? Oh yeah, there was. When Jet discovered “Lee” and his Uncle were firebenders, he attacked in a very vicious way that could have easily killed him. When Jet is finally taken away by the Dai Li, we would expect Zuko to be very happy, right? Well, here is his reaction. He and his Unlce aren’t celebrating. They look rather solemn, they entire ordeal being sad and unfortunate. So we see that Zuko is not particularly vengeful when people harm him. I suppose some would argue that his attitude is more tied to his mother. Sure, Zuko being harmed is one thing, but his mother? Surely that’s why he’s so vengeful, right? He wanted to live out his revenge for his mother through Katara, right?
Well, Zuko does actually get to confront the person who took his mother away. Zuko learns everything. His own father was not only was responsible for his mother’s disappearance, he planned to have him killed as a little boy. A little boy who wanted nothing more than to get his father’s approval and love. His immediate reaction to hearing this news? Not rage or violence. He is overcome with emotion that his mother may be alive, and that her loss was a result of her love for him. Zuko’s father is helpless during the eclipse. Zuko probably could have taken him out in the little time left, if he wanted to. But he does not. He only redirects the lightning in self-defense after Ozai attempts to kill him.
So yeah, I find it insulting to Katara, Aang and Zuko’s characters how TSR played out due to Bryke insisting that Aang be the “angel” for Katara and Zuko be “the devil”. They obviously wanted this to be a Kataang episode, where Aang’s statements to Katara stopped her from “going astray”. It reduces Katara’s agency to come to terms with her pain with her own morality. It’s funny how Zuko’s supposed propensity for vengeance conveniently shows up only when he and Katara may have bonded, making him seem like a huge jerk and a totally horrible love interest, right Bryke? And it backfired and made Aang look like even less of a good match for Katara than before. Not to mention seriously lacking in empathy. I would have loved to see the original script for the episode that Elizabeth Ehasz wrote. Even so, I see shades of the original intent even in the final version, and applaud her fantastic writing, as usual.
so I’ve left this post elsetab for a while because I have Thoughts on the matter but always seem to feel that I am tired and not at a good brain time to word good it right. But I have reached a level of tired where I have stopped worrying about word gooding it.
I don’t actually know what Bryke intended to get across with this episode, but I can tell you the way that I’ve always interpreted it.
See, it’s not a matter of “forgive those who have done you wrong” vs “destroy those who have done you wrong”. What it comes down to, ultimately, is that Aang is viewing things from an entirely different perspective than Zuko and Katara.
Aang learns that the Air Nomads have been wiped out in a fairly impersonal way – he was away when it happened, he associates no names or faces with their deaths, and Monk Gyatsu apparently took out a decent number of them when he went out so there’s the off chance that the most personal death avenged itself before he got there. Also it was nearly a century ago so there’s a decent chance that all those directly involved are already dead at this point. So, relatively easy to be zen about.
Zuko? His own father – okay you know Zuko’s backstory. This shit is intensely personal and most certainly has a face. And when the time comes, Zuko faces his father. He overcomes a ton of shit to say he is powerful and worthy of respect and his dad’s a shithead for not seeing it. That he CAN kill the bastard but chooses not to. Then he is able to let go of his hatred enough that it doesn’t weigh on him. It’s like. Instead of hauling a set of emotional baggage everywhere he goes, he checks it somewhere. The baggage isn’t gone but it’s not a burden.
… I admit that it has been a while since I saw this ep so there’s the off chance it’s one of those things where my brain rewrote a scene to be more satisfying.
so anyway. We get to Katara. She saw her mother’s killer; she has a name and a face burned into her mind, the one who killed her mother. Again, hella personal, dude is still alive and kicking, hard to let go when, hell, you don’t know if the guy still plans to take out any waterbender he finds.
Zuko knows that sometimes you need to face your demons to dismiss them instead of staying in your office and mailing them a pink slip. So he helps Katara locate his desk to fire him in person.
I don’t know if that metaphor works my fingers are making clicky noises on the keys.
So Katara faces down the waste of a uniform who killed her mom and tells him that he sucks and failed at his job and she COULD TOTALLY KILL HIM and would totally be justified in killing him. But she chooses not to, and he only lives by her will.
That is what she needed for closure, to frighten the boogeyman of her dreams. He’s not the imposing figure lurking over her; he’s a cowering weakling. It wouldn’t have been possible for her to forgive him in the way Aang wanted.
dunno if this makes sense but they seriously thought this TONED DOWN the Zutara notes? pft, this is one of the shippiest episodes ever. What, did the original have them making out at the end?
Imagine Katara growing up to become an influential, respected world leader or advocate instead of just being remembered as Aang’s wife and Tenzin’s mom. Where was her statue? Where was Bolin freaking out to meet her? Why did she suddenly change her mind and decide that the healing huts were where she belonged?
I was rewatching the Katara v Pakku fight scene and I just realized that when Katara was throwing ice discs she was really aiming for the kill at that point. Like those were sharp enough to slice through the man. What a legend.
katara had big kiyoshi energy
Katara, straight up trying to kill pakku: if he’s really a master he’ll survive.
That’s the thing about Katara. She has the mental and physical capacity to kill, but chooses not to when she has the opportunity. She will fight for all she’s worth, but when she’s won she is willing to walk away.
New to sortinghatchats? In the way that we play this game:
Primary Houses are WHY characters act– their morals, their motivations.
Secondary Houses are HOW characters act– their methods, their means.
Want to learn more about the precise definitions we’re working off of here? Check us out at sortinghatchats.wordpress.com or read our basics page here.
Avatar the Last Airbender Conclusions:
Aang, Azula, and Toph are all Slytherin Secondaries– flexible, adaptive, and reactionary, they all apply the methods of that secondary very differently. Aang avoids, Azula manipulates, and Toph lands constantly on her feet.
Aang and Azula are also both Slytherin Primaries, though Azula is a Burned one, afraid of loss and clinging to fear rather than connection. Aang’s Slytherin loyalties peculiarly show themselves in his idealistic struggles near the end of the third season and his dedication to his pacifism – the Air Nomads’ pacifism is the last part of Gyatso and his people that are still alive and he doesn’t want to abandon that or them.
Toph is a Gryffindor Primary, who judges right and wrong by her gut and prioritizes most being true to herself and her feelings.
Katara and Zuko share a sorting – Hufflepuff Primary/Gryffindor Secondary. They both find their moralities shifting as their communities and their idea of who counts as a “person” expand. They both charge at injustices with both great effect & also sometimes great damage to themselves.
Sokka is a rare Ravenclaw Primary/Ravenclaw Secondary in this cast. He’s been told all his life he should be a Gryffindor, a brave leader, but he’s most at home as a learner, a strategist, an inventor.
Like Sokka, Katara has been told all her life she should be a Hufflepuff, care-giving and generous. While she does maintain some of those skills, she learns to embrace the fierce certainty of her Gryffindor Secondary and rock the boat.
Want to hear our full sorting for Avatar?
Listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple Podasts, or on Castos.
