rip the four nations

Toph Beifong

Even tho Mai & Zuko are separated, u can tell they're both growing. It's not just abt getting back together anymore, it's abt learning, maturing, and building a better relationship. They keep changing for the better even while apart, which makes their eventual reunion feel so much healthier

Atla animation appreciation

Give these animators am an Oscar already.

I think it’s just a byproduct of people being way, WAY too stereotypical with how they treat less traditionally feminine characters. You can find so much about Toph being some ultra butch lesbian everywhere, but she ultimately shows no interest in women, and even is disgusted and embarrassed for accidentally kissing Suki. At the same time, she’s shown having multiple crushes on men. Sokka, Satoru, Tagah, Ohev, etc. throughout ATLA and its supplementary materials. She even has a named baby daddy in Kanto.

Toph being a slightly promiscuous adult woman who is attracted to men does absolutely nothing to make her a weaker character or a weaker female character. This is the same genre of argument as saying Katara is a weaker female character for wanting to have children and raise a family, or saying Pema is a homewrecker and useless character for being, well, not Lin Beifong.

The first is that, in EIP, Katara yelling at Aang is her quite literally holding him accountable. Sokka yelling at Aang for burning Katara is him holding Aang accountable. Aang refusing to learn firebending as a result of that is him holding himself accountable. His calling himself an idiot and being willing to move on from Katara in the finale is him holding himself accountable. When Aang messes up, there is direct action and sometimes verbal reprimanding that holds him accountable. To say that he isn't is just blatantly wrong.

The second is that, I genuinely want you to take every instance of the characters stepping over the line and saying and doing something they shouldn't have, and then actually apologizing for it and count them. Because we never see Katara apologize to Sokka for what she said in TSR. We never see Zuko say "I'm sorry for what happened in Ba Sing Se" to Katara. We never see Aang and Katara apologize to Toph in the Chase. We never see Sokka apologize to Katara for all of his sexism. We never see Zuko apologize to Mai for yelling at her. The show rarely had the chatacters actually say the words "I'm sorry." What it does do is show them getting reprimanded and/or taking action.

the painted lady

avatarsbalance's atla appreciation (5/??):