Avatar Inspired Fitness

An eleven-year-old Avatar Yangchen meets a new past Avatar and travels to the Spirit World for the first time in the first official preview from Chronicles of the Avatar: The Dawn of Yangchen

With the highly anticipated first Avatar Yangchen novel by The Rise and Shadow of Kyoshi author F. C. Yee due to hit shelves in under two months, we have our first official preview from the prologue: Voices of the Past; and Chapter One: The First Step, courtesy of Gizmodo!

In it, a young Yangchen is an uncontrolled conduit reliving past Avatars’ experiences both good and bad, including a new named past life: Avatar Gun, whose tragic memories of a haunting failure send her into a feverish state.

You’ll learn more about Avatar Gun in the preview, but with them we now know of ten named Avatars:

Wan (fire) …

Gun (unknown element) …

Salai (unknown element) …

Szeto (fire)

Yangchen (air)

Kuruk (water)

Kyoshi (earth)

Roku (fire)

Aang (air)

Korra (water)

Man, this franchise is so cool. Note that we don’t actually know the order Gun and Salai are in.

We also learn the names of five past Avatars’ team members: Jetsun (Yangchen’s older sister, featured in the preview and the POV of the prologue!), Mesose (Gun’s companion), Angilirq, Praew, and Yotogawa, as well as the name of the Earth King who died about ~300 years before Yangchen’s time (so about ~850 years before ATLA and about ~920 years before TLOK, wow!): Earth King Zhoulai.

With all that lore setting the tone, we then follow Yangchen’s first journey into the Spirit World at age 11, at a stone circle above the Western Air Temple similar to the one at the Eastern Air Temple where Yangchen’s future life, Korra, enters the Spirit World for the first time centuries later!

Without further ado, you can read the full preview here:

Voices of the Past

Jetsun paced down the hallway, trying to stay ahead of the screams.

The high ceilings of the Western Air Temple tended to make echoes of whispers and explosions of dropped teacups. Though the girl was back in the infirmary being watched by the elders, her cries of pain sprang from every surface, bouncing off the hard stone.

Jetsun couldn’t take it anymore and broke into a full run. Ignoring decorum, she sped past her sisters, ruffling robes, upsetting inkpots, prematurely ruining colorful sand paintings that were meant to be ruined only once they were finished. No one scolded her or gave her sharp looks in passing. They understood.

When she ran out of floor she jumped. The upside-down construction of the temple meant that despite its overall size, there was very little space to stand on, nothing connecting the spires but thin air and a three-thousand-foot drop. She didn’t have her glider. Eminently dangerous, but she could make the leap without it.

Air at her back and air against her robes gave her enough loft to land on the next tower, the one containing the Great Library. Tsering, chief caretaker of the books, waited in front of the tall shelves. The older woman’s kind eyes were edged with worry. “I saw you coming. Is it happening again?”

Animated Avatar prequel and Zuko theatrical films in development

I can finally reveal the first concrete bits of what I know about Paramount and Avatar Studios’ epic upcoming movie & show slate. A rumor has been going around recently that one of their movies will be a prequel; I got the go-ahead from my source to confirm that this is true. I can also exclusively reveal the concept of one of the other movies in development: a Zuko-focused story.

The time period the prequel movie will be set in is not confirmed– basically anything before Sokka and Katara free Aang from the iceberg can be considered a “prequel”, so it’s not necessarily directly connected to the original. It could be Wan, Kyoshi, Iroh, etc. (just guesses).

The time period the Zuko movie will be set in is also not confirmed; we don’t know what age he’ll be in it or anything like that yet. However, this does implicitly confirm that, yes, the Avatar franchise is officially revisiting the existing characters/eras in animation– Avatar Studios won’t only be working on new, unrelated time periods.

These are just two of the animated projects in the works, and trust me, there’s a lot more exciting stuff where that came from. I’m hoping I can post one particular animated streaming series soon that should make a lot of people happy. But something really important to keep in mind is that it’s still really early and a lot could be different by the time stuff actually starts coming out in a couple/few/#soon years. This is just a snapshot of what’s being developed right now, and plans are definitely still in flux as Avatar Studios gets going in earnest. I’ll be sure to update if either of these two specific movies changes.

Did you know swans give hugs with their necks? google swan hugs, you won't regret it.

Zuko, trying not yell out of anger and confusion:

zuko, who has never heard a swearword before: ????

So about that MonstersInc!AU…

Aang: 4/10 He is so so kind, and he respects women so much. He is, however, quite smart, and even when he does Foolhardy things, it is out of his mischievous nature, which is not the same as the himbo’s dumbass-ery.

Azula: -876/10 She does not possess one single himbo bone in her body. She is mean, she is a talented tactician, she is stick-thin, and she struggles w/ internalized misogyny.

Jet: -389/10 Like Azula, there’s not a himbo bone in his body. He’s strategic and very intelligent. He definitely doesn’t have the himbo kindness, even though he clearly has love in his heart, alongside his desire for revenge. He doesn’t seem to disrespect women, but I didn’t see him being particularly respectful at any point. He’s not really the type to respect anyone.

Katara: 0/10 She’s nice, but not in the oblivious himbo way. She’s also pretty thin but, unlike Azula, she has some muscle (it’s not just her bending prowess, she can lift stuff). She also respects women so so much, and fights for their rights whenever she can. But, it obviously isn’t in the Background Cheerleader kind of support that himbos usually provide (that’s aang’s job here). She’s also quite smart.

Mai: -4/10 She’s not particularly nice (listen. Mai has a heart of gold, but she would rather die than say the l-o-v-e word. She’s super compassionate, but she glares at her friends and is off-putting to strangers.) she’s very smart, and she is also very thin. Mai is incredible at throwing knives, but she would rather die than do a push up. I know this.

Sokka: Absolutely not/10 Look at me. Look me in the eye. Stop saying this. Stop it. Being goofy on purpose is not a himbo trait! Himbos are accidentally funny, out of their kindness and dumbassery. Sokka learns to respect women, but he’s not particularly ~nice.~ He’s a good guy, but he doesn’t have the endless patience and kindness of a himbo, and is actually pretty rude and sarcastic most of the time. Plus, he is so smart! The smartest! Wise AND analytical. Don’t even.

Suki: -8/10 Yeah she’s reasonably buff. She’s nice, but not overly accommodating, in fact, she is a fan of trickery and goofs, which himbos usually only mistakenly stumble into (and are on the receiving end. they aren’t usually successful pranksters). She is also smart! Strategic, wise, and emotionally competent.

Toph: 1/10 The 1 is because she is strong! Could scoop you up! Besides that: no. She doesn’t have the Himbo Kindess, and prefers to cause problems on purpose, and has to actively remember to be selfless. She’s also very smart and quick-thinking.

Ty Lee: 2 ratings. In appearance: 9/10. Actuality: -56/10. She seems to be buff, stupid, and Kind, but she is not. She is very smart and aware of her situation. Plus, she can actually be pretty mean, either by manipulating people herself, or because she seems completely unaffected by Azula’s frightening cruelness until it’s directed at Mai. She’s buff tho.

Yue: -1/10 She is so nice, but it doesn’t come out of any naivete… though on the surface it may seem that way. She’s not buff at all, homegirl does not go to the gym. She’s also extremely wise! Which is a trait himbos can possess, admittedly. Still, I can see her being really good at math, and reading a lot of books.

iroh: prince zuko, please do not steal.

zuko:  you REJECT zuko??  you discard his gifts like the garbage??  oh!! oh!!!!  

~reunions~

Some person: isn’t that women’s work?

Takiko, used to this nonsense, starts to move towards the pot but to the collective shock of everyone in the room she is waved away by the Fire Lord.

“No, no, you’re in the middle of your presentation, I’ve got this,” says Zuko.

Male advisor: *sputtering* “My Lord! Surely Takiko can do that. Is it not below your station to pour tea?”

Zuko: “It’s fine. Uncle Iroh always pours his own tea and he’s ranked above all of you.”

*Room collectively recalls that Uncle Iroh is Dragon of the West*

Male advisor, changing tack: “She has uh… much more experience with such things.”

Zuko: *displaying an impressive level of control in using a fire technique to heat the pot that he learned during his time working in the Earth Kingdom tea shop* “I doubt it.”