★

Seriously, there was hardly any other way for those kids to turn out with what they lived in. Living under abuse can make you live in survival mode for years and years with no real way to get out of it because you don't know a life beyond it. If you do what is expected, you'll be safe and usually there's nothing you can see beyond that promise of safety. It's also difficult when your abusive parents provide you 'love' however toxic it is because when you don't really get that from another source, that's all you can hope for and you'd do anything for it, even if it destroys you. It's difficult to understand the desperation of it all if you've never experienced it.

Similarly for Katara, I genuinely hate how people chastise her for bringing up her mother. Can you freaking imagine the woman who raised you and took care of you dying just like that? Not only is the depth of loss an incredibly difficult process because trust me, you don't process the loss at once. Personally, it keeps coming to you again and again. It doesn't register at once that they're gone and you'll never see them again. Katara didn't just lose her mother that day, she lost her entire livelihood as she knew it. She lost her innocence and her childhood in more ways than one. She didn't just lose the physical embodiment of Kya but she lost her mother's cooking, her mother's stories, her mother's specific way of affection, her mother's protection (random examples bcs we don't know much abt Kya). Nothing will ever bring that back. Nothing could ever recreate that.

A lot of people who say these things do not know how severely traumatizing these experiences like abuse, death, losing your culture, not having agency in your own life and many more actually feels and they shouldn't know bcs its not something I'd ever wish on people. The you before and the you after experiences like that can practically be two seperate people. You will never be the same again. Especially when you experience it super young. It fucks up your brain so severely.

Any urban fantasy au would be freaking hilarious bcs I just think Ilya would have the funniest reaction. Like damn I already got enough drama being a gay man who hasn't been able to come out and love who he lives tf do you mean magic is real and monsters exist.

Now obviously, Priya and Mizu are not that similar so it's much more of a superficial comparison. Moreover, Malini is more motivated by revenge. Still, yall see what I'm getting at right?

The last time they saw each other, she risked leaving the palace in disguise and getting him a ship. I like to hc she also pulled some strings to get Iroh on the ship and mildly suggested to Iroh about the crew (in the movie I think it's literally the 41st division Zuko wanted to spare which is probably the only other good addition). She even told him to change his bandages so he wouldn't risk his eye even more. It makes me think of how much of the smile she had in the actual scene was a mask.

Like they're both princesses of kingdoms who are colonizing other places, they're both very manipulative for the sake of survival and willing to use others, there's also Malini's ladies-in-waiting who are currently dead but remind me vaguely of Mai and Ty Lee.

The difference is again their upbringing. Azula had only her father to turn to despite the abuse and was created into a weapon while Malini was actively abused by her tyrant brother in a way she wasn't manipulated to worship him and came to despise him as she should. Hence, the expectations from them were also different and the way they plot and manipulate for their survival turned out different.

Anyone found it kind of weird that the islands main defence is literal teenage girls? Ofc they're all very competent at it as shown, but they're kinda young no? It plays well into the child soldier thing in Atla and ik the age people were considered mature and adult at a time like that would be different but presumably the Kyoshi warriors have protected their island from other threats in the past considering how prepared they were relieving Aang, Katara and Sokka in ep 3. Considering Suki's age atleast, she could've been 13-14 or younger even then.

I honestly don't think Kyoshi would've been training a bunch of toddlers when she founded the Kyoshi warriors, especially because the Dai Li were all adults. Maybe she could've been allowing the training to take place for kids but I don't think they were supposed to become the main faction of protectors.

Hence, I present the hc that originally, the Kyoshi Island warriors WERE adult women but the guy who said they've stayed out of the war so fat wasn't wholly truthful. I hc that maybe they were attacked once but the adult Kyoshi warriors defended the island. However, in the process a lot of them died or were so severely injured they could never fight again. The girls we see now could've been many of their daughters who were left abandoned at a young age. So the guy we see in ep 3 tried to tell them all that the fire nation didn't invade them because of the strength of the kyoshi warriors and they were trained very early due to wanting to be prepared because none of the villagers were capable or able-bodied. I think most of them (Suki included) would've kinda known how their parents died aleast later on but don't bring it up to keep the peace they've established.