I love everything about Aang’s journey!

I love Sokka, Toph and Suki working together!

But man, I hate seeing Azula’s downfall

I hate Zuko becoming Fire Lord at fucking 16 after he spent 3 years at sea and is STILL A KID

I’ve been looking back on things and have realized that,,, gay. I didn’t grow up in a homophobic household or anything, but we didn’t talk about homosexuality and I didn’t see it in any media so I didn’t realize it was an option/ Looking back on the way I saw relationships in the shows I used to watch? I kept waiting for GayTM to happen but it didn’t.

Avatar: The Last Airbender especially. Especially with Zuko and Sokka. I liked Suki and Sokka fine, but my 10/11 year old ass was mad pissy at the initial dynamic: Sokka was putting women down and then Suki taught him that Women Are Not Weak And Not Possessions/Something For Men To Own, and then he and Suki end up together. There were steps in between, obviously, but I wanted it to stay at the “friendly respect” phase because I didn’t think his romantic interest should have to have taught him not to disrespect her first (younger me? A very bitter bean.) Also, I wanted to see Suki and Katara “interact” more, because Katara’s development was all about inner strength and bettering herself by her own choice, and I felt that Suki would be perfect in showing her how to be strong (even without waterbending powers.) But also... my ass really wanted them to be in lesbians with each other, because they were very similar in what they valued in themselves and others, but were also vastly different. Suki would have helped Katara loosen up a bit, and Katara would 100% make Suki feel loved. But in the third book of the show, I was really waiting for something between Zuko and Sokka; I didn’t realize what I was waiting for, but I was waiting for them to become an item lol. Zuko is an Angst Machine, and even in the comics he and Mei are kind of like this negative emotion echo chamber. At one point in the comics, Mei is like a Feeling’s Receptacle for Zuko and she calls him out on it. I don’t doubt that they loved each other, but Mei was a prominent part in his childhood, is a reminder of everything in his past, and her naturally mellow/ downtrodden/ morbid personality doesn’t always react so well to Zuko’s more brooding personality. Sokka struggled to take things seriously until he really has to. He is the self-admitted “funny-man” of the group. It creates conflict because he hides what he’s feeling under humor. But Sokka and Zuko are good at making each other talk. Sokka is humorous and caring and all Mom FriendTM so he alleviates some of Zuko’s broodiness and Angst. Zuko is naturally a very serious (and, as aforementioned about 80million times, brooding) and has trouble interpreting people, so this forces Sokka to actually verbalize what he’s feeling and helps him come to terms with himself. I also think their banter is/would be fantastic.

An important factor in their relationship: Uncle Iroh LOVES Sokka, and everytime the three get together it’s just this relentless teasing of Zuko, and Zuko has to sit there and take it because he loves the idiots.

I DID like the idea of Toph and Aang together. I get that Aang’s immatureness was supposed to combat Katara’s over-matureness, but they get on each other’s nerves a lot. Toph, like Aang, is a lot more playful, but in a different way. Toph and Aang are such opposites in nature that it would develop their characters to see how the other interact with the world. Aang is always flitting from problem to problem, worrying himself silly, and Toph pulls him out of that by grounding him. Toph tends to hyperfocus on a problem when she realizes she can’t solve it, and Aang would show her a different way of looking at it, or show her the things she can do to get her to stop looking at what she can’t/ Aang tends to be good with emotions, but he doesn’t always grasp the situation, wheras Toph is usually the opposite. I dunno, I feel like they balance each other out really well.

I briefly liked Katara/Zuko pairing. Katara is “supposed” to be a healer and while she is she’s a badass fighter that the group relies on. Zuko was raised to be a warmongerer but it was never in his nature (see: him speaking out against generals of Fire Nation armies as a kid because he refused the idea of using soldiers as canon fodder. See: any time he chose his uncle or his crew over capturing the Avatar. See: the fact that he made an effort to change for the better and /did/.) and now he just wants to heal his nation and the hurts they’ve caused. Zuko sees himself as a monster and I felt that Katara would show him that being powerful/having a power that can hurt people (like bloodbending) doesn’t mean that you have to use it to hurt people. Also, I enjoyed the thought of Healer!Zuko who learns how to cauterize wounds and the like. I have a whole AU man. Katara also gets caught a lot in her own perception of things, and Zuko (who’s been travelling around the world for awhile, albeit with his own misconceptions) would be able to help her see different sides of things.

Essentially: even as a kid I didn’t like the pairings ATLA went with, my pansexual ass really wanted some rep before I knew I needed rep, and the Sokka/Zuko pairing is my favorite.

Me, adding a zuko/katara to the pile: sorry, what was that?

Forever my favorite shot of the gaang.