#the puppetmaster

Inspired by one incorrect quote I can't find :(

It went on kind of like this: Hama said that the moon gives her power, and Katara replied that the moon gives her more power since Katara's brother dated her. If you know this post please please please tell me so I could credit the author of the original idea.

This song put a spell over me.

Animatic for Hama of the Water Tribe, Bloodbender, after she frees herself from the Fire Nation prison.

What is it with some people trying to glamorize bloodbending???

It was first introduced in Season 3 episode "The Puppetmaster". The context: Bloodbending is a subset of waterbending, invented by a Southern Water Tribe bender, Hama.

To put it simply, bloodbending is hella dark. The liquids and fluids inside of your body are controlled, turning you into a living puppet and completely robbing you of your autonomy.

Indeed, as it turns out, Hama is fucking nuts.

She had a tragic backstory involving genocidal imprisonment, but it's still frightening what she did. Forcing a pre-teen girl to learn a harrowing art in a sadistic choice--she bloodbended two of her true companions and almost made them kill each other in order to make Katara bloodbend!

Needless to say, that must've made for one of the worst nights of Katara's life. Especially since back-to-back, Katara got bloodbended herself, and then she was forced to bloodbend to save Aang and Sokka's lives.

The next time Katara bloodbends is when she's dangerously close to turning into Hama Jr. I already wrote about The Southern Raiders, but the bloodbending scene in that episode is genuinely unnerving because it's the signal that the normally-compassionate Katara was one step away from losing her grip on sanity.

Thankfully, Katara regains her composure, and after the events of the episode, never uses bloodbending ever again. Indeed, it's been reported that well into her adult years, Katara outlawed the art of bloodbending, influenced by her trauma.

Now here comes the confusing part:

Apparently, some people are calling foul on the supposed "demonization" of bloodbending by the franchise.

First of all, that sounds insensitive as fuck to Katara. She was a child, forced to learn bloodbending when she didn't want to because it goes against her kindness. Yet some people think ill of her decision to ban the practice???

Let me remind you: Bloodbending takes away the autonomy of its targets. A pretty horrible scenario that's ripe for extremely dark parallels. And the way it's presented in AtLA is pretty reminiscent of generational trauma; one generation passes its problems down to the next, leading to a vicious cycle of hatred and misery.

Also, I find the idea that "Katara should've used bloodbending more" as something akin to "literal trauma should be empowering". The latter concept has been rightfully criticized in certain corners for how incredibly tone-deaf it is for victims of trauma and the worst kinds of assault.

Also, here's an alternate idea: Katara not using bloodbending for the rest of her life can be seen as something akin to healing from your trauma. Hama, even after escaping from prison, let her trauma consume her, which is why in her old age, she was able to pass down her bloodbending ability onto Katara. So to see Katara distance herself from bloodbending and never doing it after The Southern Raiders incident should be lauded as a show of Katara's mental fortitude and strength.

WELCOME TO ELLINGTON CORNER, THE ASKBLOG FOR ALL OF MY (@ash-lien 's) OCS!!!! (in this universe, at least.) (Edited 4/21/26)

Some ocs have more lore which will be slowly revealed through lore posts and asks. You can also ask them about their lore, but they have the option not to answer if you ask rudely.

I will try to draw for the asks but i wont be able to for every one.

MCs:

🍒 Cherri: 16, THE it girl. A rising celebrity on the web, if you will. Transfem and bisexual. Likes: Her followers, cute clothes, bright colors, stray cats. Dislikes: Her mom, the government, being interrupted, being silenced and feeling inferior. Tag: #the internet girl.

🌼 Evan: 16, blind, and has sickle cell anemia. Your average school student, if you ignore everything else. Pansexual and closeted/unaware demiboy. Likes: Manatees/marine life, flowers, ballet, nature, mac n cheese. Dislikes: Loud noises, weird textures, being babied, the hospital, medicine. Tag: #the wilting flower

🌈 Luna: 16, the most awkward scenecore teenager in the world. Non-binary/Xenogender and bisexual. Likes: Invader Zim, Deltarune, their mom's cooking, Alex G and bright colors. Dislikes: Hot weather, pricks, being bullied. Tag: #the standout

🔥Amber: 17, the world's troubled pop star songwriter with the worst backstory in the history of backstories. Lesbian. Likes: Her sisters, red velvet cupcakes, rainy days, singing for fun, nighttime and caffeine. Dislikes: Memories, people she doesn't know, being forced to sing. Tag: #a slowly dying fire

THE ELLINGTON CHILDREN:

🎀 Mimi: 6, the sassiest kindergartner you'll ever meet. Likes: ballet(?), crafts, drawing, new crayons, sunny days. Dislikes: Math classes, ballet(?), being told what to do, bugs. Tags: #the last dancer

📝 Derrick: 18, and the next Einstein. Transmasc and bisexual. Likes: Science, school, reading, white noise, Star Trek, libraries. Dislikes: Childhood photos, being outsmarted, emotion. Tag: #the prodigy

☁️ Jenny: 16, Evan’s “perfect” twin sister. Used to do ballet, but quit when Evan left. She wants to take over the bakery one day. Popular, smart, funny and kind, (though a bit judgy), Jenny is everything you would want in a person. Likes: Needohs, pop music, quoting brainrot at her brothers, baking and annoying her mom. Dislikes: Spiders, “weird cringe stuff”, going to school. Tag: #the golden girl

THE ADULTS!

🍰 Caroline: 42, a real life wild mother bear in the woods. The owner of a somewhat successful bakery. Caroline tries to take the best care of her complicated children, all while hiding a secret from the whole family that eats her up. Pansexual. Likes: Baking, hot showers, orchestra music, ballet, her kids. Dislikes: Fires, raccoons, diseases, garbage and dirty things. Tag: #the grieving mother

🩺 Daniel: 40, a real life teddy bear, nurse and war veteran, believe it or not. Straight Ally and cis male, but he REALLY REALLY tries to understand his kids. (He messes up Luna's pronouns a lot, but not intentionally.) Likes: Cooking, his co-workers, hikes, spoiling his family. Dislikes: Alcohol, using his cane, loud noises. #the healer

⭐️ “Joyce”: 34. Works at an orphanage in New York, mothering tons of children except her own. Despite her modest job, Joyce wants nothing more except to be a movie star, a famous diva, to be young and dumb and a child again. Likes: Old movies, bright lipstick, gold jewelry. Dislikes: Using social media, thinking of her husband. Tag: #the runaway

🩺 Carmen: 56. Carmen wants nothing more than what’s best for her child, even if they don’t see eye to eye often. As a successful single mother and doctor, she wants Luna to follow in her footsteps and surround themselves with the right friends and the right lifestyle. Likes: her patients, cooking, hanging out with her friends and coworkers. Dislikes: Luna’s father, Luna’s friends (except Evan), people who don’t listen. Tag: #the puppetmaster

THE OTHER TWO I DONT HAVE A LABEL FOR:

💎 Angela Chen-Williams: 18, child of rich people, a nepo baby through and through, though she wants to live the romanticized life of “common man.” Pansexual. Likes: jewelry, designer fashion, pugs, elaborate dinners. Dislikes: bugs, cramped spaces, dirty things. Tag: #just a teenage girl

🌲 Aspen: 19. A college student coming from Italy, Aspen works at his local restaurant during the year, at the Ellington Bakery during the summer. Transmasc and pansexual, Aspen is good friends with Derrick despite their large differences in personality. Likes: loud music, getting tattoos, designing tattoos, getting piercings that hurt, DnD. Dislikes: Churches, jeans, brushing his hair. Tag: #the pessimist

THE GHOSTS!!:

TW for slight blood and a grayish sickly looking corpse kinda

This is what I mean when I say that Hama’s episode is an example of ATLA’s anti-resistance propaganda. Ultimately, Hama’s senseless violence against random Fire Nation citizens is viewed as more depraved and horrifying than the genocide that was wrought upon the Southern water benders. And before anyone tries to twist my words, I’m talking about what this means NARRATIVELY and the kind of message that it sends as well as the biases it reflects.

In a show where even Fire Nation soldiers and guards get to have moments of humanity, Hama (a victim of genocide and oppression) is treated as a frightening monster whose depravity knows no bounds. Characters who participated in the Fire Nation’s conquering efforts are ultimately seen as worthier of humanity than the characters who were victims of it.

Imagine asking an omnisexual to pick just one cute character to smooch

hello anon! thank you for this fabulous question & hope you don't mind that it took me ages to get to it.

TL;DR: I think making Hama into a serial killer/abductor was a terrible narrative choice. If it were up to me, Katara would have a (child-friendly) ethics discussion about bloodbending with Hama, who then joins them on the Day of the Black Sun. After the war, bloodbending becomes a lynchpin issue when the North attempts to colonize the South, but Hama and Yugoda find healing uses for bloodbending in the kerfuffle.

But first, my "ATLA bungled colonialism themes" soapbox: to me, bloodbending is a metaphor on two levels. The storyline about how Southern Waterbenders are captured and then transported to the FN certainly seems to reference the Transatlantic Slave Trade, like you said, though without the labour exploitation aspect; the storyline about Hama and bloodbending feels like an allegory for guerrilla resistance in general. Imo the narrative kind of cheapened these potential real-world connections by making The Puppetmaster a spooky Halloween special with a dash of “an eye for an eye” parable. The narrative's treatment of bloodbending, and Hama, feels like an unintentional reflection of “unacceptable” colonial resistance and "dark" knowledge of the colonized (fearmongering around Vodou etc). A common colonial narrative is that the colonized are sinister and underhanded for engaging in things like guerrilla warfare, which is either too violent or too cowardly depending on what’s more convenient for the colonizers’ narrative at a specific point in time. I think ATLA’s approach to bloodbending reflects this general sentiment, especially since Hama is drawn as this creepy Hansel & Gretel-style witch, a keeper of a sinister / untrustworthy / threatening type of knowledge. I also really don't like the part of the story where Hama became a serial abductor out of this indiscriminate thirst for revenge. While it's possible in real life for a colonized, incarcerated person to make those decisions, and good fiction can explore that effectively, a children's show is not the place. ATLA's target audience and general tone couldn't handle all the complexities around that, so they turned Hama into a cartoon witchy villain. Groundbreaking.

Anyway, I think the start of The Puppetmaster is actually very promising. Hama's story, and the children's discovery of her SWT roots, was touching. Katara's growing sense of unease at discovering the "darker" uses of waterbending (taking water out of flowers) is interesting. Katara is the perfect character to explore the intricacies of "how far is too far in colonial resistance." Because she's not a pacifist, like Aang, but she's also not a total pragmatist, like Sokka or Suki, and she cares about the fates of random people more than Toph. She's angry and compassionate in equal amounts.

I would love a conversation between Hama and Katara about bloodbending -- not in the dead of night while Katara has to protect her friends, but where Hama talks about the genuine hopelessness she felt in the Fire Nation prison. And Katara could talk about why she thinks bloodbending is wrong -- taking away someone's agency -- and Hama can ask Katara what she would've done in that scenario; maybe she can point out that she could have made the FN guards kill each other, but she only made them open her cell door, so it was the least violent escape she could have done; and I think, framed that way, Katara would have started to see bloodbending not through a lens of fear and disgust, but sheer pragmatism, and realize that all bending can be good or bad.

During the war, I think Katara and Sokka could convince Hama to join them on the Day of the Black Sun: Hama, for the first time in decades, has hope, and she gets to see some of the people who used to be just little kids when she was kidnapped from her home.

After the war, bloodbending would become a hot button issue in North-South relations. I could easily see the Northern waterbenders being horrified at bloodbending, in the same way Medieval Europe & puritan America have been horrified by witchcraft and other feminine-coded knowledge. I could envision the Northerners using bloodbending as justification for why women shouldn't be allowed to waterbend, and justification for why the South is backwards and therefore needs the North's influence (which would also tie nicely into the North and South comic). While Katara is busy with the political BS, Hama is swapping notes with Yugoda the healing master, and then they would eventually arrive at the conclusion that bloodbending could be used to heal.

(I can't take credit for the "Northerners horrified at bloodbending" idea, btw -- colourwhirled's Southern Lights has a storyline around it.)