Cantankerous Cabbage

in another life, i would have really liked just doing laundry and taxes with you.

The show villainizes Jet and Hama yet Iroh gets to be forgiven for his sins. I love Uncle Iroh and he should be able to be redeemed, but why can't we also give the same grace to victims of the fire nation who were motivated to commit acts of violence because of the violence that they experienced? He just gets to live peacefully in Ba Sing Se now yet Hama is probably locked up somewhere still? Why is it that Jet died, but they found a way for Ozai to live? Why was Katara minimized to just be the Avatar's wife and mother to his kids in LOK? Why was she just a healer when the rest of the gaang (including Toph who was also a mother) was active in politics and still able to fight. Why is it that they tend to write women as either wives/mothers or fighters (+ terrible mothers)? In the movie the genocide of southern water benders is minimized and how Katara doesn't even know much of her own culture until she met Hama. I haven't read the comics, but many people have discussed how they are pro settler colonialism and specifically make Katara the supporter of that. And let's not even unpack how the white writers clearly didn't know how to properly write about the air nation because they don't fully grasp what being a nomad looks like and living in a communal society so they just shoved Aang in a monogamous relationship where he lived in Republic City and called it a day.

That means for almost two years, there were no imports or exports in or out of Ba Sing Se, which means almost no movement of food or medicine. A siege going on for that long means people not only died from fighting, but also from sickness and starvation. An affliction that more often than not targets children, mind you.

And yes, he atoned and he freed Ba Sing Se in the finale, a great end to his character arc. But as a reward he gets to … live in the city he terrorized as a tea maker? Seriously?

I don’t know if it’s implied that the citizens of Ba Sing Se know him or not, but if they do, I can’t possibly believe that they are just okay with that decision. Especially since the siege is less than ten years before the end of the war. The people there would remember living through that siege. If Jin was living there at the time, she can still probably and vividly remember it too.

It’s clear not only in this but how the series and comics in general depict other plot lines that the creators don’t have the best idea of what a war actually does to people.

During the main timeline of the show, we see that Zuko didn't just hold on to the gift, he embraced its message. He fought, tooth and nail, to accomplish whatever it was he thought needed to be done--at first that was capturing the Avatar, and then it was training Aang to defeat his father. He never gave up without a fight.

Six years ago, I replied to a post about money in ATLA. However, while I was able to cover many aspects of Chinese currency history, I still couldn't find a solid exchange rate between gold, silver, and copper. Welp! I've finally found what I've been looking for.

I just came across this piece of information on the Wikipedia article for Sycee (Chinese ingots):

During the Tang dynasty, a standard bi-metallic system of silver and copper coinage was codified with 10 silver coins equal to 1,000 copper cash coins.

The source for this tidbit of information comes from the book, The Stewart Lockhart Collection of Chinese Copper Coins by Sir James Haldane Stewart Lockhart. Here is the actual entry from the 1915 edition of the book (Page XI of the Introduction):

"The standard introduced by the Tang dynasty and continuing in theory until today... in value, 1 gold -- 10 silver -- 1,000 copper, these being the metallic exchange equivalents in China thirteen centuries ago."

I think we've found a good inspiration for the coin conversion system in ATLA:

1 gold coin = 10 silver coins = 1,000 copper coins

The average weight of a coin during the Tang Dynasty was about 4 grams. The Waterbending Scroll stolen from the pirates was valued at 200 gold coins. According to this website here, as of May 2026, a gram of gold is worth about $152 USD. Meaning...

The Waterbending Scroll would be worth $121,600 USD in today's money.

Katara basically stole the scroll equivalent to a 2026 Mercedes-Benz S-Class Sedan:

Tang Dynasty copper coins are about 4 grams on average. If a copper coin is about 1/10th of a liang, then a Tang Dynasty liang is about 40 grams. So, during the Tang Dynasty, the exchange rate was more like:

40 grams of gold = 400 grams of silver = 4000 grams of copper

In ATLA terms, that would equal to:

1 gold coin = 10 silver coins = 100 copper coins

If 1 Liang of Silver = 100 Liang of Copper, then 10 Liang of Silver = 1000 Liang of Copper. Therefore:

1 Gold = 10 Silver = 1000 Copper

The 1915 book was right.

Since Katara was forced to take on a traditionally maternal role at an early age, I'd like to think her favorite Water Tribe dishes are the ones that are quick and easy to prepare. I also feel that Katara would be fond of the few fruits and edible greens available in the arctic, as it brings back fond memories of foraging with her mother and grandmother during the warmer seasons.

Sea Prunes (Entire 1st Row)- Katara doesn't express many food preferences in the show, but she seemed pretty enthusiastic about eating sea prunes, so I assume it's a meat she enjoys. Sea prune is another name for the black katy chiton, a type of mollusk. Their shells are dark and leathery, earning them nicknames like "sea prune" and "gumboot". Sea prunes are a traditional protein source for many indigenous peoples in Alaska and western coastal Canada. I think Katara would enjoy them sauteed with Chinese (Earth Kingdom) five-spice or tossed with seal oil in a kelp salad.

Suaasat - A Greenlandic Inuit soup. It traditionally consists of a thick broth made of seal meat, barley, onions, and potatoes. I'd like to think that she likes any dish where you can just throw all the ingredients in a pot and feed a lot of people fast.

Boiled Crab - She likes crabs because they're relatively easy to catch and even easier to cook. You just boil them and crack them open!

Pitsik - Dried Arctic Char. Like crab, she enjoys the simplicity of preparing it. You simply fillet the fish with its skin on, score and salt the flesh, hang the char to let the arctic winds airdry it, and you have a delicious jerky-like snack! They are also rather visually striking when you hang them up.

Akutaq - Meaning "mixed together" in Inupiat and Yupik, this dish is traditionally made with whipped fat, boiled fish, and berries. Commonly used berries include cranberries, lingonberries, cloudberries, bearberries, and crowberries. A sweet and savory meal that Katara and her mother probably used to make together.

Suvalik - If akutaq is “Arctic Ice Cream”, then suvalik is “Arctic Fruit Salad”. It’s traditionally comprised of emulsified fish eggs and seal oil mixed with berries. It’s described as creamy and sweet. This dish is known in Yupik culture as qerpertaq.

Bannock - Also called palauga in some Inuit dialects and alatiq in Yupik. Bannock is an unleavened flatbread found throughout North American indigenous culture. Since the flour has to be imported all the way from the Earth Kingdom, it was a rare treat for Katara growing up. She also likes how easy it is to make.

For more Water Tribe dishes, check out my Cultural Cuisine tag.

Like what I’m doing? Tips always appreciated, never expected. ^_^

I’m sorry if I ended up rambling. It’s just that seeing Desna and Eska inherit their chiefdom really confused me because I always thought that it was an elected position

Traditionally, leadership in Inuit culture was determined by consensus, so basically a democratic election. Typically, the qualities that led people to choose you as a leader were your survival skills.

I've mentioned before that the Northern Water Tribe has more non-Inuit cultural influences than the Southern Water Tribe, so I've always just chalked up their hereditary leadership as being another example of that. Considering their proximity to Ba Sing Se, their emphasis on a strict hereditary chiefdom might be for the sake of projecting an image of centralized power, to help ward off their imperialistic neighbors to the south.

As for the Southern Water Tribe, I think they're actually a collection of small and independent villages, with each one having its own leader that's democratically elected; this is how they're portrayed in the "North and South" Avatar comics. This would explain why Katara mocked Sokka when he tried to claim he was a prince to Yue; it would be like the son of a small-town mayor declaring himself a prince. Plus, if leadership were hereditary, princedom would have been an internal struggle for Sokka, similar to Zuko. But Sokka's insecurity is never framed as not being worthy of being chief, but as simply lacking traditionally masculine skills.

On the one hand the lost lore archive seemingly confirms that cow-pigs produce “delicious” milk, but how canon can we really consider that? On the other hand, if you didn’t already know, most humans are lactose intolerant. The gene for lactase persistence (the ability to digest milk past babyhood) originated in the Middle East or Europe and spread from there. Even today East Asia has some of the highest rates of lactose intolerance in the world, and lactase tolerance was virtually nonexistent in North America pre-colonisation. Not drinking cow’s milk is the norm for humanity, not the exception, so I just think it would be cool to have at least one fantasy world where the main characters are lactose intolerant and soy milk is the norm.

Granted, given that cheese can be made to be palatable to lactose intolerant people and that there does seem to have been some lactase persistence traditionally in northern Indian and Himalayan regions (at least at a cursory research glance), you would probably expect it to vary by region and culture. Maybe cow-pig milk is consumed in only certain regions and otherwise usually made into cheese. I personally headcanon that air nomads eat sky bison cheese, which might taste similar to chhurpi.

From what I've read, dairy cows aren't native to East Asia, hence the lack of cow milk in most of the traditional cuisine of that region. I would say that cow-pig milk in Avatar might just be a local delicacy unique to the EK town from "Zuko Alone".

However, a predisposition towards lactose intolerance is not necessarily a permanent roadblock to enjoying milk products. Speaking from personal experience, I can generally build up my tolerance for dairy if I make a point of drinking milk every day. However, if I take a break of more than a week, then I have to start the whole process over again.

As for the consumption of other animal milks...

Based off cultural inspiration, the Air Nomads likely had close to 100% lactase persistence. Dairy is a huge part of Tibetan and other Himalayan cuisine. Plus, if Appa is any indication, sky bisons were roughly the size of sperm whales. Assuming there was a sky bison for every nomad, there was probably enough extra milk produced for it to become a staple of the Air Nomad diet.

The Northern Water Tribe probably has some lactase persistence, since they have Mongolian and Sakha cultural influence in addition to Inuit. Both Mongolian and Sakha culture are known for their consumption of mare's milk, both as a drink and as an ingredient in dishes. Plus, the NWT canonically has Buffalo-Yaks, which is a combination of two animals whose milk is commonly consumed in parts of Asia. Lactase persistence might not be as strong in the Southern Water Tribe, who don't seem to have domesticated any milk-producing animals.

The Earth Kingdom probably only has lactase persistence in certain regions, such as the village in "Zuko Alone". This aligns with its primary cultural inspiration, China. While most of China does not have a cheese-making tradition, there are pockets of regional cheeses: cow and goat acid cheeses in Yunnan, fermented cow milk cheeses in Xinjiang, and yak cheeses in the Tibetan and Mongolian autonomous regions. However, on the whole, I think most EK citizens stick to non-dairy milks made from soy, seeds, or nuts.

I've been wanting to analyze the dishes the Beifong were offering for years now, but procrastinated because I knew it would be time-consuming. After much research, I'm pretty satisfied with the headcanon I've created!

My theory? The Beifongs did not want Aang to feel welcome in their home, even before he started bickering with Toph. Allow me to provide the evidence.

Red Braised Spare Ribs

Red-Braised Spare Ribs or Hong Shao Pai Gu (红烧排骨) is a popular Chinese pork dish characterized by its sweet and savory flavor profile. This is achieved through the red-braising method: Cooking the ribs in a mixture of light & dark soy sauce, rock sugar, Shaoxing wine, and other aromatics like ginger & star anise.

While I've had this style of ribs before, this has to be the most decadent plating of the dish I have ever seen. Not only is there a giant pile of the spare ribs, but they literally lined the bowl with extra slices of marrow-filled bone. As delicious as that looks to a meat-eater, don't you think it's a bit tasteless to display all of that in front of a monk?

Sweet and Sour Fish

Sweet and Sour Fish or Tang​ Cu ​Yu (糖醋鱼) is a beloved Chinese dish composed of a battered & fried fish covered in pineapple, red bell pepper, and the ever-iconic sweet & sour sauce.

However, it seems like the chef skimped a little on the sauce and toppings, calling even more attention to the dead fish on a plate...

Pan Fried Pork Buns

Pan-Fried Pork Buns, also known as Sheng Jian Bao (生煎包) or Sheng Jian Mantou (生煎馒头), are a popular Chinese specialty. They're beloved for their contrast in textures and flavors: They combine a soft, fluffy top with a crispy, golden-brown bottom and juicy pork filling.

Not much to say, other than the Beifongs are pretty much serving up the entire pig at this point.

Steamed Lobster Tail

I'm guessing the Steamed Lobster Tails (蒸龍蝦尾) were served to ensure they had equal-parts seafood and pork dishes on the table. When I think of Chinese lobster dishes, I always think of the Cantonese-style lobster tails served at the fancy sit-down restaurants in California.

Soy Sauce Braised Chicken Wings

This one might be a bit of a stretch, but that bowl of light brown ovals looks like braised chicken wings to me. Soy sauce braised chicken wings or hóngshāo jī yì (紅燒雞翼) are a popular dish known for their sweet and savory flavor, as well as their glossy, sticky glaze. They're a staple of Chinese-American restaurants.

Compared to the previous ATLA meals I've covered, the meat-content of this dinner is kind of ridiculous.

Fried Rice

A staple of every Chinese restaurant, from mom-n-pop takeout joints to the most bourgeois of banquet halls. Fried rice can be vegetarian, but I'm pretty certain that the Beifongs' version had meat in it, since there wasn't any on Aang's plate.

So what exactly did Aang get to eat during this decadent feast?

Aang's Meal

Tea. Soup. Scallion Fried Rice. Giant Pile of Plain Rice.

And that's it.

They had one of the most important people in the world as their honored guest and the Beifongs served him the kind of meal that a broke college student might think to make. Admittedly, the scallion fried rice looks tasty but it's still just rice and green onion.

You expect me to believe that the richest family in the Earth Kingdom could only provide the Avatar with rice and soup? When there's plenty of vegetarian options within Earth Kingdom cuisine?

The gaang A-plot: oh no we're stuck in a cave with singing hippies!

Average Zuko B-plot:

As far as he's aware, he's never seen this boy in his life.

But it's like a cat's urge to knock something off the table: He just has to, just because.

And Zuko's hyper aware and uber confused about it all.

+Jet at all points after the Dai Li arrest: