BracedHawk

reblog if you believe anon is wrong and writers are writers, no matter what they write about. no matter how they portray these taboo topics.

reblog if you believe art can be about topics that are controversial, taboo or outright disturbing, and artists who create controversial, taboo or outright disturbing art are as valid as artists who create art of conservative values.

Or does whatever this type of response is:

I guess coming from Jouno complaining sounds like a compliment???? Maybe???

But whenever something is bothering to Jouno because of his heightened senses, like Tecchou’s breathing or his stank ass sweat, he instantly does whatever he can to accommodate him. No argument, just, yeah gotcha bro whatever you want. I’ll close up every pore in my body for you.

I really respect his level of respect, and also the fact that he puts up with the insane fusspot that is Jouno. W unbothered king.

Stuff like "Azula Fire" or "Katara Water" just sounds cringe as hell. What else is there? Something minimally more poetic like "Azula Dragon" isn't much better. Using parents or grandparents' names is at least a slight step forward, but i.e. "Azula Azulon" is an involuntarily comic alliteration… "Katara Kanna" the same.

Sure, I could apply existing patronymic schemes ("Azula Ozaisdottir"? "Katara Hakodovna"?), but that adds an unwanted and mismatched Scandinavian/Baltic flavour to it. I don't know enough about i.e. Japenese or Inuit family names to apply them here and I'd fear that butchering those naming systems would be distasteful at best, offensive at worst, and ruin the immersion for anyone familiar with those, not to mention that the cultures of ATLA rarely map entirely to just one actual culture.

I could make up last names in those languages, i.e. "Katara Immaqtuq" (that'd be, according to Google, "flood" in Inuktut) or "Azula Kogeta" (that'd be "scorched" in Japanese, says Google). That's the most palatable approach I've found so far, but still feels unsatisfying.

I had a couple ideas for last names for Azula, but I don't know enough about Japanese and kanji to be sure any name I could give her wouldn't be homophone with an unintended meaning. For example, "kao", written 火王, means "fire king" if the lists I've used are correct and Google Translator works, but I have no idea if there's another way to spell "kao" in kanji that might carry a meaning I don't want?

Water Tribe Surnames

Regarding surnames for Water Tribe characters, the easiest option would be to use the last names of public figures who are of Inuit, Inupiat, and other Indigenous Arctic ancestry for inspiration. If a real person of that ethnicity has that surname, then your character's name is automatically going to feel more genuine.

Another thing to consider is that surnames aren't traditional to most Indigenous groups, so their family names are shaped by historical context, as well as the language/culture of their specific Indigenous group. For example, most Greenlanders have Danish surnames due to Greenland's status as a Danish territory since the early 19th-century. Meanwhile, Inuit people in Canada can have a British, French, or Inuit-derived surname; the push for Inuit people to give themselves family names (Project Surname) happened from 1968-1971. Inupiat and other Alaska Natives will have either Russian, British, or Indigenous-derived surnames due to Alaska having been a Russian territory purchased by the US. The label "Inuit" describes an ethnolinguistic group that spans modern-day Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. When creating a name for Sokka and Katara, you first have to consider where their family would be from. From there, you have to consider how those areas would have affected their upbringing and values.

Anyways, here's some references you can use for "Water Tribe" surnames:

List of Canadian Inuit - Wikipedia

List of Inupiat people - Wikipedia

List of Greenlandic Inuit people - Wikipedia

List of Inupiaq (Inupiat) Names from the North Slope Iñupiaq to English Dictionary

Fire Nation Surnames

Google Translate often struggles with Japanese due to the language being so context specific. If you want to know what homophones or alternative readings a name/word might have, the online Japanese-English dictionary Jisho is a good resource. According to Jisho, the word "kao" (かお) can be written in kanji as 顔, meaning face or honor. A shockingly good alternative meaning!

I know one of the "Free Comic Book Day" comics already named her sisters, but I've always viewed the side story comics as "optional" canon. Here's my take on possible Ty sister names, assuming that Ty Lee's name means "Soot Plum":

Ty Tao (炱桃): Soot Peach

Ty Zao (炱枣): Soot Jujube

Ty Xing (炱杏): Soot Apricot

Ty Ju (炱橘): Soot Tangerine

Ty Cheng (炱橙): Soot Orange

Ty Shi (炱柿): Soot Persimmon

Ty You (炱柚): Soot Pomelo

Ty Ye (炱椰): Soot Coconut

Also... is Ty the surname? I kind of like the idea of Ty being the last name. (Though always saying it makes some questions.) I guess we see some Fire Nation in Korra where the surname is second, but that also feels optional... OR does the 'Ty' mean that they are all of the same birth? So twins would have the same name followed by a distinctive name?

I think it's more likely that Ty is a generation name. A generation name refers to the practice of giving each person within a family's generation a shared character/syllable, while the other character/syllable is unique to the individual. This practice is traditional to Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese culture.

Considering that Ty Lee is one of seven sisters--- for all we know, she may even have brothers, on top of that--- it makes sense that her parents would give them a generation name, as a way of showing off how many children they have (and to make naming them easier).

There are certain questions I get where I know I’m going to enjoy answering them and this is one of them. The wedding traditions of different cultures and time periods are always fun to learn about, because they’re a neat encapsulation of the values of that time and place. Anyways, since this is a lengthy post, I’ll detail each step of the wedding process separately.

As Iroh says, “Earth is the element of substance. The people of the Earth Kingdom are diverse and strong. They are persistent and enduring.” Each area of the Earth Kingdom has its own unique flavor; some places are based off of specific Chinese dynasties, others around the various ethnic minorities of China, and some are other Asian cultures entirely.

Toph’s Proposal

So Toph’s family’s aesthetic is based off of Tang Dynasty China. Traditional Chinese marriage is viewed as a union of two families rather than a symbolic act of love so the marriage process reflects that.

The proposal process during the Tang Dynasty is actually pretty well-documented, to the point that it even has a name: Three Letters and Six Etiquettes. It’s a very formal series of events and I don’t see Toph as the type to follow such rigid rules at all, so I’ll just post a video and an article on the whole process below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEeKobHJP00

https://www.writtenchinese.com/the-6-etiquettes-of-a-traditional-chinese-wedding-ceremony/

Without getting into the long-winded details: It relies upon hiring a matchmaker who also doubles as a fortuneteller (think someone like Aunt Wu). The matchmaker helps negotiate the bride price between the families, reads the young couple’s fortune to make sure they’re compatible, and picks a lucky wedding date. The only way I could see Toph going along with all this would be if she were marrying someone like Sokka and wanted to troll him with all the superstitious rigmarole. Sokka would be pulling his hair out if he had to rely on Aunt Wu to get married.

Suki’s Possible Proposals

Kyoshi Island is a mixture of Ainu and Japanese culture.

1: Ainu

In traditional Ainu culture, when a daughter reaches marriageable age, her parents let her live in a tunpu: A small room attached to the back of the house, separate from the rest of the home. The parents selected acceptable spouses from the men whom the daughter allowed into her room.

When the man actually proposes to the woman, he visits her house, eats half of a full bowl of rice handed to him by her, and returns the rest to her. If the woman eats the rest, it means she accepts his proposal. If she does not and puts it beside her, she has rejected his proposal. Once they’re engaged, they exchange gifts with one another. The man gives the woman a small engraved knife, a hand-carved box, a spool, and other useful gifts. The woman gives the man embroidered tops, leggings, gloves, and other handmade clothes.

2: Heian Period

Regarding the Japanese aspect of Kyoshi, it’s mainly inspired by Heian-era and Edo-era culture.

For Heian proposals, the man’s family hires a matchmaker to find a good woman for him to marry and to inform the woman’s family of the man’s interest in marrying her. In the Heian era, however, there didn’t seem to have been any sort of bride price or dowry.

Once all parties are informed of each other’s intentions, the man must write a waka (31-syllable poem) to the woman. The woman will write a letter back, indicating whether she liked the poem or not. If she does, the two will keep exchanging letters and poems; this is essentially the dating period. When the man finally does propose to the woman, it must be in the form of a written waka; it’s perfectly acceptable for the woman to turn down his proposal if she decides she doesn’t like him or thinks his poem sucks and he needs to write a new one.

3: Edo Period

It's hard to say. We only see the word agni used in their name for honor duels (Agni Kai), with agni (अग्नि) meaning "fire" in Sanskrit and kai (会) meaning "social gathering" in Japanese. The fact that "kai" refers to pleasant and non-violent forms of interaction leads me to think that Agni Kais were originally more ceremonial duels meant to express piety to the deity Agni. However, by the Hundred Year War period, it seems that the religious ceremony had evolved/been corrupted to become a form of conflict resolution with legal ramifications.

The impression I get of the post-Sozin Fire Nation is that traditional religiosity seems to be heavily discouraged. The Fire Sages seem to exist only to maintain ancient temples and conduct ceremonies; we don't see them present in any important meetings, so they presumably don't hold much real power in Fire Nation society. We see the children of the elites are taught to pledge their allegiance to the Fire Lord at the beginning of each day (or maybe even at the start of each class period), which implies that the position has developed a cult of personality that supersedes any religion in the country. The one village in the Fire Nation that seems to follow any sort of deity religion, Jang Hui (The Painted Lady village), is literally marginalized and mistreated by the Fire Nation authorities.

As for the Fire Nation of the past, it's possible they once worshipped Agni. It's worth noting that Agni is also worshipped in Buddhism as a minor deity, as well as in early Hinduism. Of course, Buddhism descends from Hinduism, so it still ultimately comes back to the Vedas. Especially with many aspects of the Fire Nation possessing a really strong Southeast Asian influence, it's reasonable to assume the Fire Nation's religious history might have went:

Early Hinduism-equivalent > State-Sponsored Buddhism-equivalent > Imperial Cult

* body language masterlist

* a translator that doesn’t eat ass like google translate does

* a reverse dictionary for when ur brain freezes

* 550 words to say instead of fuckin said

* 638 character traits for when ur brain freezes again

* some more body language help

It’s one of the first instincts writers have: describe your character. What they look like, what they wear, how they move. But the truth is — readers don’t need to know everything. And more importantly, they don’t want to know everything. At least, not all at once. Not without reason.

Let’s talk about when to describe a character’s appearance, how to do it meaningfully, and why less often says more.

Stuff like "Azula Fire" or "Katara Water" just sounds cringe as hell. What else is there? Something minimally more poetic like "Azula Dragon" isn't much better. Using parents or grandparents' names is at least a slight step forward, but i.e. "Azula Azulon" is an involuntarily comic alliteration… "Katara Kanna" the same.

Sure, I could apply existing patronymic schemes ("Azula Ozaisdottir"? "Katara Hakodovna"?), but that adds an unwanted and mismatched Scandinavian/Baltic flavour to it. I don't know enough about i.e. Japenese or Inuit family names to apply them here and I'd fear that butchering those naming systems would be distasteful at best, offensive at worst, and ruin the immersion for anyone familiar with those, not to mention that the cultures of ATLA rarely map entirely to just one actual culture.

I could make up last names in those languages, i.e. "Katara Immaqtuq" (that'd be, according to Google, "flood" in Inuktut) or "Azula Kogeta" (that'd be "scorched" in Japanese, says Google). That's the most palatable approach I've found so far, but still feels unsatisfying.

I had a couple ideas for last names for Azula, but I don't know enough about Japanese and kanji to be sure any name I could give her wouldn't be homophone with an unintended meaning. For example, "kao", written 火王, means "fire king" if the lists I've used are correct and Google Translator works, but I have no idea if there's another way to spell "kao" in kanji that might carry a meaning I don't want?

Water Tribe Surnames

Regarding surnames for Water Tribe characters, the easiest option would be to use the last names of public figures who are of Inuit, Inupiat, and other Indigenous Arctic ancestry for inspiration. If a real person of that ethnicity has that surname, then your character's name is automatically going to feel more genuine.

Another thing to consider is that surnames aren't traditional to most Indigenous groups, so their family names are shaped by historical context, as well as the language/culture of their specific Indigenous group. For example, most Greenlanders have Danish surnames due to Greenland's status as a Danish territory since the early 19th-century. Meanwhile, Inuit people in Canada can have a British, French, or Inuit-derived surname; the push for Inuit people to give themselves family names (Project Surname) happened from 1968-1971. Inupiat and other Alaska Natives will have either Russian, British, or Indigenous-derived surnames due to Alaska having been a Russian territory purchased by the US. The label "Inuit" describes an ethnolinguistic group that spans modern-day Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. When creating a name for Sokka and Katara, you first have to consider where their family would be from. From there, you have to consider how those areas would have affected their upbringing and values.

Anyways, here's some references you can use for "Water Tribe" surnames:

List of Canadian Inuit - Wikipedia

List of Inupiat people - Wikipedia

List of Greenlandic Inuit people - Wikipedia

List of Inupiaq (Inupiat) Names from the North Slope Iñupiaq to English Dictionary

Fire Nation Surnames

Google Translate often struggles with Japanese due to the language being so context specific. If you want to know what homophones or alternative readings a name/word might have, the online Japanese-English dictionary Jisho is a good resource. According to Jisho, the word "kao" (かお) can be written in kanji as 顔, meaning face or honor. A shockingly good alternative meaning!

At first i thought it was because Kyoshi was between the Southern Tribe and the Earth Kingdom, and it was a result of trade. And maybe Jet's area just didnt get any trade by being a constant warzone, resulting in scavenging fabric. But that doesnt explain the pink fortune teller dress or the pink nomad dress.

P.S. As someone who loves anthropology i love this blog! Ive followed for a couple years now :)

Aww, thank you!

I have a post that touches upon characters wearing "non-standard colors. Here's my explanation for these design choices:

In general, I think dressing your characters in non-standard colors signals to the audience that they live more on the fringes of society. Kyoshi Islanders wear blue because they're isolated from the rest of the EK, the pirates wear all colors because they probably purchase (or steal) their clothing from ports all over the world, Jet's group probably scavenges for their clothing, Aunt Wu's village is a borderline cult, and June is a bounty hunter.

In-universe, I think both the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom have the natural resources to produce a wide variety of dye colors. Maybe they stick to very limited color palettes to better identify outsiders?

Not to sound too weird but, as far as phenotype goes, it seems pretty easy to physically "pass" as another nationality in Avatar. Even eye colors aren't a very accurate indicator of nationality, since there are FN citizens with grey and green eyes. This means that the only way to really display group membership would be through your clothing and hairstyle choices.

It's actually not as unrealistic as you might think, especially in a mostly pre-modern setting. Off the top of my head, the Hakka Chinese are traditionally known for wearing mostly blues and blacks. It started off practical--- indigo was readily available where they lived and darker colors are stain-resistant--- but it eventually became deeply intertwined with their cultural identity. They even call their traditional clothing the "Hakka Blue Shirt".

Like with Native American accessories, I would advise to be especially cautious when researching Tibetan jewelry, as many "new age"-types love slapping the "Tibetan" descriptor on their merch for a quick buck. With that said, these sites have decent archives:

Met Museum - The most reliable of the resources I've found. The Met is a well-respected museum that curates culturally significant items from around the world.

Culture-Cross - Perusing through the site, it seems that the people running it work very closely with local artisans for the benefit of the artisans' communities. They also cite location and materials used for each item as well.

Woven Souls - It cites location and materials used for each item, so it seems trustworthy enough. They also do a good job of distinguishing between the different cultures shown throughout the website.

1. Slow down at emotionally important moments.

Big emotions need space to land. If a scene feels rushed, pause the plot briefly to show how the moment affects the character.

2. Add reactions, not explanations.

Instead of explaining what a character feels, show it through physical responses, hesitation, or small actions that reveal emotion naturally.

3. Ground every scene in the senses.

If a scene feels thin, add one or two sensory details—sound, texture, smell, or temperature—to make the moment feel lived-in.

4. Let thoughts interrupt action.

A line of internal thought can deepen a scene without slowing it too much. Thoughts show stakes, fear, longing, or conflict beneath the action.

5. Expand consequences, not events.

You don’t need more things to happen—you need to show what matters. Focus on how events change relationships, decisions, or self-perception.

6. Strengthen setting where emotion peaks.

The environment should echo or contrast the emotion of the scene. Setting is not decoration—it’s emotional reinforcement.

7. Add specific details instead of general ones.

Underwriting often relies on vague language. Swap “they argued” for one sharp line of dialogue or a specific breaking point.

8. Let dialogue breathe.

Short dialogue exchanges without pauses can feel flat. Add beats—silence, gestures, interruptions—to give the conversation weight.

9. Show transitions between scenes.

If scenes jump too quickly, readers feel disoriented. A brief transition helps establish time, mood, and emotional continuity.

10. Clarify stakes early in the scene.

If readers don’t know what can be lost, scenes feel empty. Make sure the character wants something specific and fears losing it.

11. Use the “what are they feeling right now?” check.

After each major beat, ask what emotion is dominant in that moment. If it’s missing on the page, the scene is likely underwritten.

12. Expand scenes that feel “too clean.”