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Naga: KORRA! YOU’RE HOME!

Naga: I MISSED YOU! EVEN THOUGH IT’S ONLY BEEN AN HOUR.

Naga: Tonight… I’m gonna poop in your boots.

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Meanwhile… In the Equalist base…

—-

Lieutenant: Uh…

Amon: Woof… Grr… grrr. woof. woof.

Lieutenant: Yes sir. Right away.

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I’ve been mucking around trying to figure out Artbreeder and I’ve seen a lot of people in the ATLA fandom using it.

I’ve only seen a few takes on Ozai and no offence but they are all so vanilla. Ozai isn’t supposed to be boring, so I give you my take.

I know it was all said before, but I’ll say it again. The LOK writers messed up many many times, but as the Red Lotus trash I am, the way their characterization, any semblance of a coherent plan or philosophy, utterly vanished in last three episodes will always infuriate me. (After I finish my current rewrite, I probably won’t write more canon-compliant stuff for them for two reasons: after those prisons, they’re all very messed up and there’s only so much angst I am willing to delve into; and it’s way too bothersome to think of any way how what happened in the finale could make sense.)

Zaheer, the admirer of Air Nomad culture, decent with children (that moment with Ikki comes to mind), almost kind in some moments, just giving a nod to destroy an Air Temple, such an irreplaceable part of their culture? Threatening to wipe them out, even?

???????????

It’s just another case of “we need the villain to do something despicable so people won’t mind too much when we kill them off”. Or in Zaheer’s case, return them to horrific conditions. (Why were those prisons even a thing?! If these people are so dangerous you have to keep them barely alive so they won’t escape, torturing them in the process, then just kill them.)

And P'Li? For some reason, they thought that both her canon backstory as a child soldier and her agreeing to kidnap a child go well together??? That particular choice for her past has certain implications…

There are not many ways to make it work believably. Sure, they didn’t bother too much with personality when it came to her, so perhaps it’s just me grasping at straws and headanons here? Let’s see. One option is that she’s not very observant and it never even occurred to her. But that’s actually not true - when Tonraq, Zuko and the twins visit her at her cell, P’Li immediately knows Zaheer is out.

(Another thing… why the fuck was it necessary for them to go see her? It would make sense - and don’t hate me for this, I’m just speculating - if they were there to kill her so the fearsome foursome wouldn’t come together in full force. But the way it was set up… it just drove the point about the cruelty of whoever knew about and agreed to those prisons. Would you look at that, Zuko! (But Azula gets the credit as the sadist, I see…) And Unalaq and Tonraq. You know what, if the other side is capable of this, the Red Lotus are in the right.)

The way she jokes around with Ming-Hua  also makes me think that P’Li is many things, but she’s not stupid. There’s little to actually make my point, too bad. But I’ll stick with it anyway.

So, another option? P’Li noticed the parallel, but ignored it. Why? Either because she loves Zaheer so much she just goes with whatever he says - which is just incredibly gross - but that too doesn’t seem right. In Republic City, she actually calls him out on his recklessness on Air Temple Island. Their relationship strikes me as genuine and fairly balanced. (Call me P’heer trash, you’d be right, but they were one of few things the show actually did right. The most ironic thing is that it was likely unplanned, because Bryke can’t write f/m ships to save their lives.)

Okay, so what next? Maybe she convinced herself it was different, or is just ruthless enough that she doesn’t care that if they planned to kidnap Korra, they would basically raise her to become a weapon fit their own goals. Whatever they might be, the child would still be robbed of the choice, much like happened to P’Li. And okay, that may actually be solid. But I deeply dislike the implication it has - that the cycle of abuse continues. Also, I’m tired of the way combustionbending and other highly advanced techniqes (bloodbending) is so obviously demonized (if you don’t think it is, why was the Equalist subplot derailed to make way for “two villains are actually bloodbenders”? And why would Lin refer to P’Li as “third-eyed freak”?).

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TLDR: The Red Lotus were characters with tons of potential that got done dirty because the writers didn’t bother to think their choices through past the “omg this will look cool” stage, and their politics past the “don’t go too far kids, leave it up to the authorities” message.

Iroh, smiling: Thank you, Zuko.

Zuko: Not you.

Iroh: Wait wh-

I can imagine Noatak as Amon going, “Councilman Tarrlok always had a bed wetting problem… and he hasn’t stopped until he was eight.” 

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Tarrlok

Male, 37, Waterbender

“Well aren’t you…precocious.”

Tarrlok is a member of the United Republic Council, representing the Northern Water Tribe.