One of the many reasons i love “The Beach” episode in AtLA is it really shows us how political dysfunction/ imperialist expansion filters down into the interpersonal, like you can’t be part of an imperialist national mechanism without that shit fucking you over on a personal level: there’s Zuko and Azula with their problematic family, there’s Mai and then Ty Lee who was tired of being a carbon copy I mean these are all kids that are stifling under the narrow roles ascribed to them (which is what happens in highly industrialized, capitalist nations which prioritize efficiency, compliance and utility rather than creative expression and interconnectedness). Ofc the Gaang has family issues too – Toph and her parents, Katara and Sokka’s early loss of a parent figure etc – but you don’t get the same sense of dysfunction and trauma and pain that you do with Mai/Ty Lee/Azula/ Zuko, or at least it feels different. And I really wanna know more about these four FN kids in their childhood and how they found each other and formed these bonds through and in spite of their dysfunction and ugh feels about kids growing up during war i mean this is really one of the strongest things about the show: war and militarization affects everyone in some way, not just in terms of losing land and resources but also in how fully we can engage our own humanity
Yes, he hugged Iroh, yes, he made up with Iroh, yes, Iroh’s his family…but he always had Iroh throughout the show. His very first scene was him talking with Iroh, and his uncle always had his back; the only separation between those two happened in Book Three (and that brief portion of Book Two).
But Mai is the one there to welcome him home.
And what’s more?
It’s not just Zuko’s resolution here.
It’s also Mai finally being able to express herself, finally being able to hug Zuko, to welcome him back and to be open with him—she saved his life, she took a stand for what she believed in and what she wanted, and she gave up her safety and security…and now she’s found it again. She’s finally got the life she wanted.
Both of them are hugging here because they have both finally found what they wanted most in the world.
I’ve seen the balance of yin and yang being used to support the Katara/Zuko (Zutara) ship, and it’s honestly so hilarious?
I mean let’s set aside the fact that in my culture yin and yang in the context of a man and a woman means, well, sex. Not even in a serious sense, more like a parody of how your 96-year-old grandfather might pressure you and your partner to give him great-grandchildren.
I mean, the sexual innuendo aspect is the least of my objections to fandom’s misuse of yin and yang, but I thought I’d put it out there because you can imagine how I feel when I read all this stuff being discussed in deadly earnest and all I can think is “archaic sex joke.”
Like I said, though, let’s set the sexual connotations aside and just look at yin and yang in the original, philosophical sense. Even here fandom gets it wrong when it comes to Zutara. Let me explain why Zutara is not the yin-yang ship, Mai/Zuko (Maiko) and Aang/Katara (Kataang) are.
Azula is one of the most fascinating and complex villains in children’s media, or indeed in any media. She is both abuser and victim, both deeply cruel and deeply afraid. Often, discussion of her breaks into two camps, either she was born the way she is, or that she was abused, and she was made into the character we see onscreen by that abuse. Either she is a “psychopath” (an outdated term that has been widely misunderstood and keeps shifting in meaning), and she was born the way she is, and she either wasn’t abused, or abuse didn’t affect her, or she was abused, and how she was raised made her into who she is. I don’t think either of those positions are correct. There is no code that says that predators don’t abuse other predators, and there is nothing in the world that makes abuse magically not damaging. I have spent a great deal of time figuring out what makes this character tick, and what made her stop ticking at the end. So how did nurture and nature come together to make Azula? Bear with me, it’s a bit of a story.
midnight-in-town 