Sweaty Overdressed Obsequious Jedi

"I'm sorry, mistress. I don't know how this works. Was I supposed to start smaller and work my way up to the firstborn? I’ve always been hopeless at haggling." The man seemed on the verge of tears. "My wife passed a few years ago. She used to do all the business at market."

"If your wife passed a few years ago, how exactly do you plan to offer me your firstborn?" The witch swirled her tea and the steam made foul omens in the air. "I mean, sure, you don't have to be married to have kids, but it does usually help if you're not obviously still in mourning."

"Oh, my little Jackie is already born. They're five. My firstborn and, well, my only-born."

"Okay. If the kid has already been born, you don't have to say firstborn. You can just say 'my child, whose name is...' What's the kid's name again?"

“Jackie.”

“Well, you’ve gone and put Jackie in a bit of a precarious spot. You see, now that you’ve offered the child, the fatespring will hate it if I accept a lesser deal. So either I have to talk you into a bargain that’s technically worse for you, or little Jackie comes to live with me. Now, I could-”

“That’s fine mistress. I accept the bargain.” The man sniffled and wiped his tears. He looked weirdly relieved. “So, do I bring Jackie here to you, or will you come to the farm to collect? Or is it one of those ‘leave them in a clearing at the full moon’ kind of-”

“My guy. What is up? What is your deal, exactly? I’ve had, like, five different firstborn deals this week. That’s weird, right? You get that? That’s normally the worst case scenario for y’all. But at least they hadn’t had the kids yet, so they could still fool themselves that they could wriggle out of the compact somehow. And they didn’t lead with ‘oh yeah, take my first child, that’s a strong opening bargaining position!” The canopy around them began to darken and the trees began to grow thorns. “And if there’s one thing that really gets on my flat-ass witch tits, it’s when there’s something going on I don’t understand. So what in the ever-boiling piss is up?”

The trembling farmer forced out the words, “It’s, uh, it’s the levy, mistress.”

“The levy? What levy?”

“The king, mistress. He’s put a levy out. He needs troops.”

“Why would he want a child to be pressed into military service?”

“It’s the prophecy, mistress. A great foretelling came down from the Speaker of the Fates, or so the criers say. In 18 years, a great darkness will come. It will bring war and ruin to the kingdom. It will shatter the crown. So the king is demanding we send every child who’ll be over 16 when the omens come due. They’ll get raised as warriors and heroes, so they say.” The farmer looked up at the Witch, a hint of hope shining through the desperation that had cracked him. “Only, none of us want to pay the king’s fateprice with our kids. And Mrs Goodwhistle, she said that you’d probably give them a good life. 

“Or, at least… you’d give them some kind of life.”

The Witch said nothing for a long while.

Then she stood up.

“I guess I’d better get a shift on then.” The briar-bound cottage behind them pricked up its leaves like they were ears. 

“You’re… you’re leaving?”

“Oh, don’t fret. I’ll take little Jackie with me. I’ll take all of them.” The witch’s home unravelled, all its branches and brambles writhing down to follow its roots into the ground. “If my hearth is going to become a daycare for all the poor little prophecy-pocked bairns of this land, I’m going to need more space. And I’ll need to take them somewhere harder to find…”

“Oh, thank you, mistress!”

The Witch flicked something to the farmer, who caught it instinctively. In his sweaty palm was a seed - though it was older, darker and heavier than normal.

“There’s your harvest spell. Appropriate payment, as the scalekeepers demand. Each morning, when you go to bring in the harvest - look to the sky. When the sun is just tickling the horizon, reap a single ear of corn and put it aside. Whisper into it as if you’re talking to your child. Jackie will hear you. In the deepest part of winter, roast and eat that corn - then you’ll get your reply.”

“I… I have no words…” The farmer’s eyes and throat burned.

“No need for them. The deal must be made and the price must be paid.” The Witch held out a hand and a nearby tree bent its limbs down to meet her, offering a branch. “Now, I have much to prepare, so I will take my leave. The woods will see you home.”

And the witch took the living branch from the tree and sat upon it like a broom, then rose into the sky like a sunrise.

---

18 years later, the Witch of Stolen Tomorrows returned to the kingdom. The earth trembled as her thorned fortress - a living wilderness - bore her onwards on a thousand root-wrought feet.

Standing atop the briar parapets was the Witch’s cadre of apprentices. They were all teens and twenty-somethings, clad in the colours of autumn skies and wielding the instruments of fate.

The king, far away in his keep, felt a strange shiver through the gold of his crown. An echo of its coming shattering.

The Witch hung from a giant thorn like a sailor from a bowsprit. In her free hand, she cradled a cup of tea.

“Here is a lesson about prophecies.” She said it softly, but the rushing winds carried the words to her students. “If you fight them, they’ll put you on like a jacket and wear you as a costume as they dance ruin through your life. But if you grab them by the scruff, then you can be the one wearing destiny as your cloak.

Early Zuko is a boy trapped in illusion (maya). He clings to his identity as crown prince, he clings to the idea that his honor is tied to his reputation and the approval of his father and nation. He clings to the idea that the fire nation's imperial ambitions are just.

But these are illusions, ego, identity, power, "being right".

Because of these illusions and his attachment to them, Zuko suffers. He's miserable, he,s full of shame and anger throughout his whole arc of chasing external honor. He clings to his identity, he clings to what he sees as his birthright, he clings to his father's approval and the idea of "belonging home". The more he desires these things,(craves them, tanha) the more he suffers. (Dukka) especially post crossroads of destiny while in the fire nation we see zuko get what he thinks he wants and feels dissatisfaction/ dukka.

His arc especially highlighted in ba sing se and the episode zuko alone. Is about him painfully, laboriously breaking his illusion of who he is.

Who is zuko when he has no identity, no crown, when he is just some guy? What does he choose to do? He learna the self is not fixed (anatta), it changes and grows. He changes and grows. From crown prince Zuko of the fire nation to just Zuko. He may not really be conscious of his change at first but he becomes aware regardless. Zuko begins the story existing in extremes but he learns to be less reactive and become more aware, of himself, of his values, of suffering and what causes it. He becomes somebody compassionate but not weak, who can assert himself without being cruel.

We see this especially when he rejects his father to help the gaang, not because he clings to a new destiny or identity but because he recognizes its the right thing to do. He begins practicing Right Action, Right Intention, and Right Livelihood. (Factors of the eightfold path) Not for glory but because he believes in accountability and doing right.

Now onto my girl Katara.

Where zuko grows into Right Intention, ego death, enlightenment, etc, katara embodies a lot of Buddhist principles from the beginning. Though she does go through an arc tied to Buddhist principles as well so lets touch on that first.

Kataras wound is loss, loss of her mother, father, and stability and she fills that hole up with control and identity. She becomes the caretaker, the responsible one, the healer, the protector. She's hard on herself when she can't fulfill those roles. Her arc is about learning yo let go of that need for control and trust that other people can handle it, that she doesn't need to be in charge all the time for things to not fall apart.

Now onto the embodiment part. Katara embodies a LOT of Buddhist principles. Especially Right Intention, Wrathful Compassion, and Skillful Means.

Let's break it down (EARTH BENDING STYLE!!!)

Wrathful or fierce compassion is a concept in Mahayana and Tibetan Buddhism and is the form compassion takes when softness doesn't get results. Its not cruelty or vengeance, its righteous fury. Its anger turned into wisdom and action. (fun fact, this is often represented by the color blue!) Katara doesn't practice detachment she is deeply interconnected to suffering. She fights for the voiceless even if its uncomfortable or inconvenient (ie, the episodes Imprisoned and The Painted Lady, and literally every time katara takes a stand against injustice). Katara, like a bodhisattva refuses to ignore suffering and she acts on it.

Skillful Means (upaya) is another mahayana Buddhist concept that ties into kataras wrathful compassion. It means choosing the method that best reduces suffering even if its uncomfortable or hard or breaks rules. Katara doesn't adhere to dogma or moral purity, she's focused on relieving suffering, justice, and accountability.

Kataras Buddhism isnt clean amd quiet, it has dirt under its nails. Its a form of Buddhism called Engaged Buddhism which is very action oriented and decolonial.

Right Intention is probably the easiest one here to talk about. Katara always acts out of care and compassion, even when she fights with fury or lies or gets upset, she does so out of compassion.

I want to also note that even at her darkest/ most morally ambiguous (southern raiders) Katara chooses not to kill Yon Rha not because aang asked her not to but because she realized on her own that it wouldn't give her peace.

That is deeply Buddhist like straight out of The Buddha's mouth actually since he says we shouldn't listen to teachers or lessons blindly but to test them out in life to see if they hold up. Thats discernment. Thats the dharma in lived experience.

Lastly I feel compelled to address your assumption that their Buddhism is somehow "more compatible with neolib messaging" as this is not only a bad faith accusation but intellectually lazy and rather ignorant.

I never said Aang was not Buddhist. Or not a "real" Buddhist or not a good Buddhist. But Katara and Zuko, while not being explicitly coded as Buddhist, live out Buddhist principles in a way that's more coherent, compassionate, grounded and messy when compared to Aangs Buddhism as presented on the show. That doesn’t mean Aang is a bad Buddhist. His attachment to identity, the concept of letting go, and his adherence to nonviolence even to the point of inadvertently causing harm. are all rooted in a very real, understandable trauma. Buddhism, especially Mahayana and Engaged, holds space for that.

However, in rhe shows writing, Aang's Buddhism is a very surface level western understanding of Buddhism, a fact that you do seem to acknowledge judging by your reblogs. And if we want to throw around accusations of neoliberalism then lets be fair here.

Neoliberalism in a political context is defined by privileging individualism over collective care, image and performance over substance and praxis, an avoidance of discomfort or systemic confrontation, and pretending systems are changing and suffering is being addressed while hiding behind aesthetics of peace and moderation. In simple terms it prioritizes passive tolerance over active justice.

Katara and Zuko’s Buddhism is quite often literally the opposite of that. Both act in compassion even when its hard, both challenge structures of harm and both sit with their negative feelings even if its uncomfortable.

Im not saying Aang never does those things but his Buddhism as portayed in the show is often passive, idealized nonviolence, rigid, emphasizes detachment without always practicing compassionate presence and gets handed spiritual and narrative shortcuts (lion turtles, the rock awakening his avatar state). Which...well to put it bluntly, is a very neoliberal form/understanding of Buddhism.