The Samurai Prince on FF.Net and AO3. :)

If they are letting Aang and the Gaang meet Toph in probably Ba Sing Se, then...this raises a question...why would Toph even join Aang and the Gaang on their adventures in the first place?

Think about it. If Aang and Toph supposedly meet at Ba Sing Se, and they are limited to this one location throughout the whole season(I feel like they'll use a bit of Omashu as well), and if Aang really needs an earthbending teacher...would Toph just like, go over to where Aang and everyone else are on foot since it's one big city that she's living in, instead of just joining them on their adventure?

So that leaves the question: Would Toph even join them if she's training Aang earthbending from where she's supposedly residing? In the cartoon, Toph and her family originally lived in Gaoling, and that's a long way to Ba Sing Se. But if this setting is in Ba Sing Se, then...she has no reason to join Team Avatar. Sure, she can help out every once in a while IN Ba Sing Se, but...would Toph even leave with Aang to go to the Fire Nation, where Aang has to defeat the Fire Lord? Would she even leave her whole family and home behind?

And that's when it hit me.

Toph WILL go with Team Avatar...she WILL go with Aang...but it's only for Aang...

Think of it this way. Aang is the very first friend that Toph supposedly has, a real friend...which could blossom into something more.

If they are doing something like changing the setting to where Toph and her family live right now, and letting Toph escape the Earth Kingdom and Ba Sing Se because she wants to help her friend, Aang, who has been hurt by Azula...maybe Toph was even captured by the Dai Li by containing her in a metal cell, which Aang has to save her this time. And thanks to her being in that metal cell, she learned metalbending along the way...

Thus...she looks for Aang, all the way to the Crystal Catacombs...and Azula might strike Toph down as a cheap shot at her with lightning...but then, Aang jumps in front of her...and absorbs the shot from her...and now Toph, forever grateful, wants to follow Aang to make sure he recovers.

What do you all think?

i left a comment under a post saying but i felt like that wasn’t enough to get this out of my chest so i’m repeat it now: those men do NOT give a fuck about women, let alone indigenous women.

no, them fighting for kataang to be endgame over zutara (what people love to deny even though the writers had talked about that many times) has NOTHING to do with them making an statement on indigenous people not getting paired with their oppressors or to frame this beautiful love story between these two genocide survivors or whatever the lies this fandom likes to spread to pretend bryan and mike are better people than they actually are.

they have reiterated with the new movie they do not care about katara being a genocide survivor, i dare to say they don’t even perceive her as such; in lok and the comics there this big emphasis on rebuilding of the air nomads but zero attention to the southern water tribe because — i can’t stress enough — they do not care about katara, they do not care about survivors and they do not care about indigenous culture or people.

yue, another one of the few indigenous women on the og cartoon wasn’t even on the original plans and she’s killed off just after being introduced.

hama, another survivor of the swt genocide is completely demonized by the writing, there’s no deeper discussions about the times she endured pushing her to creating bloodbending or the possible usages of a technique like that but nooo, she’s just evil.

ozai, the main villain on the cartoon is treated with more grace than her, even mai and ty lee are never showed regretting and reflecting on their acts, they just suddenly with good guys and that’s it (and before someone says “oh they’re just teenagers” well, so was zuko), iroh (who’s a war criminal btw, i like him, everyone likes him but he is) is already redeemed by the beginning of the story, zuko’s arc is all about redemption but none of this grace for hama though, yet i’m suppose to believe these two white men in mid 2000s had this deeply understanding about being a genocide survivor and their opposition of zutara was motivated by that.

the thing is, bryan and mike are very open about why they prefer kataang and dislike zutara, the reason being: because kataang fits their fantasy.

this is literally what they had to say about katara and aang’s dynamic:

the older and more mature girl who finally comes to see the hero not only as a hero, but as a grown up like her, her love being the validation for his maturity (usually without presenting real development), her interest on him being the confirmation he grew from a boy to a man.

them saying they wanted the """nice guy""" to get the girl over the """bad boy""" has nothing to do with morals and everything to do with the incel rhetoric women go for men who treat them badly, their literally claimed on that stupid and immature video zutara shippers (mostly kids and tweens at the time may i add) will end up in disfuncional relationships, this is their vision on women.

katara for them is a prompt, she serves to set a message about aang and when he’s out of the picture, she doesn’t serve them anymore, that wouldn’t be the case if they really cared about indigenous women like people on the internet try to pretend they do, they wouldn’t dismiss her feelings about her mother’s death and act like aang was tHe aNgEl oN sHoUlDeR or whatever that bullshit was, they wouldn’t have aang scream to her face she doesn’t understand what is to be on his position in the new movie if they cared about genocide survivors.

Affirmation for writers, please!!

There is no thought put behind any of the conflicts. Half of it is man v nature in situations with Aang, a guy who can literally move rocks and air, and is getting bested by falling rocks through the air.

It feels like half the time random stuff happens just to fill the runtime rather than progress the character arcs (or arc, cause it's just Aang). There's also no strategy or skill involved in winning the day or overcoming any of the conflicts other than random lion turtle-esque magic fixes. They just fight for a while, no cause and effect, no reason for why anyone is winning or losing, and then Aang wins inexplicably. It's all spectacle and no substance.

There are some neat bending animation scenes, but the main characters will randomly be defeated for no reason other than they needed to be defeated to move the plot forward. They just are less powerful randomly because they have to be beat. There are so many plot contrivances, but the plot isn't interesting enough to excuse them or make them worth suffering through even slightly. Because, again, the plot is mostly just random stuff.

All of the characters have dumbed down generic non-personalities and only ever say lines that revolve around Aang and his interests or really unfunny canned jokes you could pick up at the dollar store that have nothing to do with their personalities being funny in certain situations but generic template lines you could swap between any characters. All the characters were butchered. Sokka was treated like an actual clown. The voice acting is really atrocious and flat. The pacing is both too fast and too drawn out.

"My life wasn't as easy as yours/Life wasn't as kind to me as yours" (one of those) said to Katara by a random one-dimensional side villain forced into the story to humanize the other side. Katara, whose mother is dead, whose entire culture was wiped out, who always had the weight of the world on her shoulders and was the only one keeping her group on track. Whose current canon bf assaulted her multiple times before they got together. Aang telling her she doesn't understand being the last of her kind when she's literally the last Southern waterbender (not the same as the North, completely different cultures, and she doesn't even have temples or relics to bring back her culture like he does). Katara is just there to be the supportive gf for Aang whose only motivations in life have to do with Aang and his interests, she initiates all the affection to a gratuitous level. Her one thing she does on her own is interrupted and made about him when he shows up and she's just googly heart eyes for him while he exists and does his own thing.

Katara and Zuko have 0 interactions. I thought they'd at least have more, you know, animated scenes and stuff next to each other from all the screenshots I've seen in the community and tags here. But no, they are literally in the frame "together" for .1 second in each of these instances. Idk how people are getting these screenshots lmao.

Bryke made the upcoming Aang feature film specifically to show that Aang and Katara were insanely happy and healthy as a couple post-ATLA. 🙄

I have a feeling these guys were just tired of all the unhealthy-Kataang theories and discourse from the last 10 years or so, and made this film as a means to put to rest all the negative implications they subconsciously wrote in LOK about Kataang not being that great of a partnership, and consequently negatively affecting their kids’ lives.

They also wanted to put to rest any fandom allegations that Aang had “burdened” Katara with the sole responsibility of bringing back the AirBenders. Bryke instead wanted to demonstrate (with this film plot about a powerful weapon that can bring back airbending to the level of Harmonic Convergence— 🙄) that Aang was feeling the weight of loneliness being The Last Airbender after almost 10 years post-war, but nevertheless was doing his due diligence as the Avatar and looking for alternative means to bring back his airbending culture. What a well-meaning guy he is, right? Not thinking about himself, for once?

Bryke also wanted to show that Aang understood how lonely Katara must feel, dating the world’s savior, giving her space to honor her Watertribe culture in their relationship (even though he wasn’t all about it as a vegetarian nomad who cherished all animal life as sacred). We might even get a callback in this film and see these two lovebirds penguin-sledding in the very-much redeveloped Southern Water Tribe. 😝 I wouldn’t be surprised.

Bryke is probably going to show that Aang valued Katara’s individual identity, and will show that Aang wasn’t just sitting back casually as the guy-who-won-the-girl-as-if-there-had-been-any-contest-at-all… and show that Aang wasn’t just banking on Katara (‘s uterus) to bring his airbending people back to the world. Bryke wants to show us how Aang was quite considerate of Katara’s wants and needs, that he saw her as a parter who deserved recognition and agency outside of being “the avatar’s girl”.

Bryke is going to show in this film how Aang and Katara collectively decided that wielding this unknown powerful force in the world just to bring Airbenders back is too risky and can fall to some dangerous and nefarious hands… and it was not the right way to go about things. 🥲And so… together, they destroy that powerful element. Awwww. And then, it will be Katara — choosing willingly and of her own sound mind — that she will happily be the world’s only hope to bring back Airbenders.

“What?… you mean, kids?” Aang will deduce with an awkward wince.

“Yes, Aang.”

“Oh— oh, wow! I mean… are you sure?” Aang will fumble nervously. “We haven’t even talked about kids yet. Is this really what you want?”

“It is, Aang. I’ve wanted this for a long time.”

Katara will further explain how she is willing to step away from fighting and live more of a healer’s life so as to keep herself safe from danger and be in the best health to bring children into the world. And no, she won’t see this as “giving up” her fighting spirit. She won’t see dedicating her life to motherhood as a burden to her life; in fact she will see it as her life’s greatest honor, wearing The Avatar’s Girl title as a badge of honor.

And Aang will look at Katara with such admiration and respect, he won’t even see Katara going in for a kiss until her lips are fully on him, reassuringly. And… when they part and Aang teary-eyed and quietly says “I don’t deserve you,” Katara will hug him tightly and say something snarky like “you’re definitely right about that!”

And they will tearfully laugh together in that comforting hug, commemorating how, before anything else, before even their epic romance that is most-likely being penned into a new play in Ember Island by our Renaissance man, Sokka… this moment will confirm to all fans that Aang and Katara are the best of friends. They’re truly in all of this, together. 🙄🙄🙄

To me, this film will just double-down on how much Bryke wants to confirm that Kataang wasn’t any kind a “forced” relationship. That it was a partnership based on compromise, strong communication and understanding… and that Katara never ever felt burdened by Aang… and as a matter of fact, she got to live a very fulfilling life and one that she always wanted.

Bryke is going to tell us that, ultimately… Katara just wanted a life with Aang, regardless of what that would actually look like.

Because it’s Aang. And she loved him.

In fact, I really hope NATLA is so much more different and better than ATLA and its movie, and that it does so well, that Paramount wises up and thinks, "Damn, look at Netflix delivering on this show, everyone loves this version! ...Maybe we should cancel this animated movie."

Cause I got some news here: the people who viewed the movie didn't think it was worth putting in theaters. That way, Paramount decided to put it on streaming...and I 100% believe that what you said about Aang and Katara will happen in this turd of a film. And I feel like people didn't buy that crap about their relationship when they were viewing it. X(

Really, it will probably look pretty, but that's all it really is, just an art show. The story will be complete shit as per usual, like every other post-Avatar content in Bryke's direction...