#grangran

water tribe {header}

I saw some Kanna x Hama art on deviant arc (by Leyalluna Yoo)

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/oODVK4

You can't tell me they aren't a bit fruity.

A cute headcanon (that could be canon as well tbh):

Kanna was scared and cold when she first arrived in the Southern Water Tribe. She was a member of one of the richest family and sold her expensive to be able to buy transportation to her sister tribe.

When she first arrived there, everybody was suspicious of her and knew that if she them the truth, they would send her back, and she didn't traval across the entire world so they would turn her down.

No. She couldn't go home, even the thought of her mother and father's cries made her regret her decision, but she just couldn't go back. Kanna decided to take her destiny in her own hands.

—What are you doing here?! Are you a spy?

A tall man said suspiciously, holding a sharp boomerang in his hand.

—No, I'm not! I'm from the Northern Tribe!

Her heart was pounding out her chest, fingers freezing touching her brown arm.

—How can we trust you?!

The man put his boomerang close to her throat, Kanna starting to breath heavily, her head feeling like spinning around as she started sobbing.

—Stop it, Sernin!

A clear and deep voice made the short water tribe girl stop breathing for a second. A slightly taller girl put her hand on the man's arm, trying to push his weapon down.

—Does she look like an enemy to you? Look how scared and cold she looks.

Hama took her coat off and gave it to Kanna that was watching her in awe, feeling her heartbeat race.

—Put it on.

The pale girl encouraged her with a small smile. Kanna nodded and did what she told her, sighing relieved feeling the already warm coat on her.

—But Hama!

—I don't care.

And like that, a long life friendship (or at least that's what they both thought) was formed. Hama never asked her once why she left her own tribe and argued with everybody that did so.

Hama♥Kanna

Kanna saw the ships for miles before they landed. The flat terrain allowed for them to be spotted by young Kohn, who had taken up Sokka’s duty to the watch tower. The village was excited. There was no one old enough like herself to recall the way the boats of the Northern Tribe looked as they sailed into the South.

Kanna hadn’t seen one since she herself sailed here. Her voyage had been the last to make it all the way to the South Pole. She did not know if others never followed, or if they simply met a horrid fate crossing Fire Nation waters.

She could admit that while she was just as excited about the return of Northern voyages, and hopeful for the return of her grandchildren and the Avatar, she was also worried what ideals these people may bring.

Her dread only grew as the boats landed and there was no sign of a bison, airbender, or either of her grandchildren. Only men left the boats, Kanna soon realized, only men would leave the boats. No women had come with them.

Then he stepped off one of the boats and Kanna had to wonder if running to the Fire Nation was a viable option for her. Surely a waterbender wouldn’t be dumb enough to follow her there.

“Kanna,” Pakku breathed. Kanna just stared at him unimpressed.

“Why are you here?” Kanna asked.

“Your granddaughter Katara, made it to the North,” Pakku tilted his head, “you never told her the North didn’t teach females. She was surprised.”

Kanna’s jaw clinched. “Katara was the only bender we had left. I was not going to take her hope from her by telling her the North would leave her behind with nothing. Our people, my granddaughter, have suffered enough. How could I possibly tell her about men like you?”

Pakku cleared his throat as both Southern and Northern Tribe members stared at the two of them. The Southern Tribe may only consist of women and children theses days, but they fought hard for their own.

“Well, I actually did teach her,” Pakku said, “she was determined and knocked some sense into an old man. She will make a fantastic waterbending master.”

“Really,” Kanna said, proud of her granddaughter. “Well, I never would have thought the North would bother teaching women waterbending but I guess people do change.”

“Ah,” Pakku said, “I would not go that far, your granddaughter was the exception.”

Kanna narrowed her eyes, as Pakku continued talking.

“She showed me that if I really wanted something, I should fight for it, so I’m here, hoping you might be willing to try again?” Pakku asked.

“Pakku,” Kanna said, sweetly, “leave before I show you where my granddaughter gets it from.”

With that Kanna disappeared into the village igloo. The other villagers quickly dispersed, no longer interested in their visitors, now that their elder had spoken.

---

THE MAGICIAN - TEO 

Upright: Manifestation, resourcefulness, power, inspired action

Reversed: Manipulation, poor planning, untapped talents

I think Teo can definitely represent the magician in this tarot deck. He doesn’t let his illness define him and he’s not afraid to jump into the action. He’s like his dad too in terms of resourcefulness. I’m sure in the ATLA world he grew up to do and create great things. 

THE EMPRESS - GRAN GRAN

So I started re-watching Avatar The Last Airbender tonight. I figured I'd give my thoughts on the episodes as I re-watched them. This may take a while as I have to watch around work and other things but I've done it before with Korra.

So with 'The Boy in the Iceberg' I didn't notice much that wasn't noticed the first time around. The show is really good at getting straight to the point: these are your main characters and antagonist.

One thing I noted that bothers me is that there is such a large age gap between Katara and Sokka, and the other kids in the tribe. Though admittedly it makes sense that there are so many young 3-4 year old (the men are about to leave), its very strange that you have Katara at 14 and the next oldest appears to be maybe 8 at most. Surely there should be kids relatively the same age as our water tribe siblings as many of the men we later see off with Hakota are relatively his age or not much younger.

I know it was used as a gag in the show but its still strange. You would think there might be other 13-10 year olds in the tribe even if Katara and Sokka are the eldest. Even them being the eldest doesn't quite make sense as its implied by Bato that at age 14 boys become men of the tribe, so even if they took everyone 14 years and older with them Sokka was 12 so there feasibly could be some kids older than him.

I get that it was to show how devastated the tribe had been but I feel like that could have been shown in a way that didn't make the only two teens in the tribe two of the main characters.

The other thing that interested me about the first episode is the new context I have for Zuko's hair style. It's considered tradition for the dishonored/loser of Agni Kai to shave off their hair around their top knot (or in Zuko's case his Phoenix tail) which isn't to be cut off save in situations akin to death. What I thought of as a stupid hair cut for a stupid mean teenager as a kid just got a whole lot more meaningful and upsetting (as things with Zuko generally are).

Now on to 'The Avatar Returns'. Oh boy did I miss a lot in this episode as a child. First off can we talk about when Zuko's ship first makes contact with the tribe. I was honestly worried the plank would come down straight across the entire settlement despite knowing it wouldn't. This more than anything shows you just how much devastation the Fire Nation has cause the Southern Water tribe. Zuko's ship (which is later shown to be way smaller than other fire navy ships) dwarfed the entire tribe. Can you even imagine for a second Zhao's ship landing there? Yikes.

The second thing that really struck a cord with me was the dichotomy between Zuko and Sokka prepping for battle. Sokka was alone in his tent tying on things with his teeth as he had zero assistance from another warrior. Zuko had people dressing him for battle. Its completely heartbreaking because you know just from these few scenes that Sokka can throw his all at Zuko and it will barely make a scratch well before its shown happening. Hakoda really did leave his tribe completely defenseless, though Sokka may try.

Speaking of, I'm sure Hakoda is going to have a long talk with his mother about not letting his kids wander the world with strangers they just met when he finally gets home but for now GranGran does what GranGran wants.

Also I was surprised I forgot how annoying I found both Zuko and Iroh when I first watched the show but the emotions came back and I just very much wanted them to go away. As a kid I though Zuko was rude (he is) and Iroh was a bit stupid (he's not). It wasn't until after Zhao tried to kill Zuko that I really started finding the two characters compelling as a kid. It was interesting to see them back in those lights. Zuko was still annoying but I'm seeing the subtle ways Iroh directs his nephew. I'm still not sure I like that about Iroh regardless of his intentions.

I'm also going to start a white lotus count for the episodes to see just how many signs of the organization I missed the first time around.

White Lotus Count: 0