Just a Bear. Really.

I've gotten a few asks about how lipstick works in the ATLAverse. There are a few possibilities, which I'll explore through the three most memorable lipstick wearers in the show: Suki, Azula, & Yue.

Suki

Suki likely colors her lips using komachi-beni or "belle crimson" rouge. Komachi-beni (小町紅) is a dry paste made from fermented safflowers that's applied using a dampened makeup brush.

Komachi-beni paste will typically line a small shell-like bowl called an “ochoko”, where it dries into an iridescent green. When it makes contact with moisture, it turns a vibrant red. One cup of komachi-beni will usually provide you with about 50 applications-worth of lip color, depending on the shade you're trying to achieve.

Komachi-beni acts more like a dye than a gloss. The more you apply, the deeper the rouge color becomes; you can go from light pink all the way to dark red. The color will also stain your lips for quite a while. This might explain why Suki's lips seem to be perpetually pink, no matter the situation. It's possible that all the time she spent wearing Kyoshi Warrior makeup might have semi-permanently stained her lips with a pink tint.

Azula

While Suki's lips are tinted pink, Azula seems to prefer an intense shade of red for her lips. I think the most efficient way of achieving such deep red lips on a daily basis would be to use traditional Chinese rouge paper. Rouge paper or yānzhī zhǐ (胭脂纸) are small squares of paper that have been infused with red pigmentation extracted from plants, typically flower petals. I'd like to think that Azula's rouge paper is made from fire lilies.

They're applied by wetting the lips and then pressing/rubbing the lips on the rouge paper. This was actually a trend on TikTok for a while and the paper seems to dye the lips a bright red almost immediately. It also appears to be pretty smudge proof, which would be useful for someone as active as Azula. Here's a video of Chinese influencer Liziqi making some rouge paper from scratch.

Yue

Historically, Inuit women did not color their lips. For Yue's lip coloring, it's possible that she might have had rouge paper or komachi-beni imported to her from the Earth Kingdom. However, I don't think it would be very difficult for Yue to tint her lips with what's available in her immediate environment. All you really need to make lip balm is some form of pigmentation and an oil/fat to bind the color to your lips. I think Yue would probably mix juice from arctic berries with seal oil (rendered seal blubber) to create her lip balm of choice.

The lip balm would be both pretty and practical, as it would prevent cracked lips, which is probably quite common in the dry & icy arctic.

Strictly speaking, I suppose the above aren't really lipsticks, but lip tints and lip balm.

Like what I’m doing? Tips always appreciated, never expected. ^_^

The bows of the Yuyan Archers are likely inspired by traditional Korean bows known as Gak-gung (각궁) or “horn bows”. As the name implies, these bows are constructed from water buffalo horns along with sinew and multiple types of wood. What distinguishes traditional Korean bows from their Japanese and Chinese counterparts would be their comparatively compact size and exceptionally reflexed (curvy) shape; even when fully drawn, the Gak-gung retains its distinctive “3″-shaped profile. The bows of the Yuyan Archers share all of these characteristics so it’s probably safe to assume that their designs take some inspiration from Korea’s rich history of archery.

And since I’ve just spent the past couple of weeks down the Korean archery rabbit hole, have some fun facts:

It takes over 1 year to make one traditional Korean bow. This is due to many parts of the bow requiring very specific soaking, drying, and heating conditions to be both strong and flexible. Click here to see the process.

One of the ancient Chinese characters for Koreans and other Northeastern peoples is “夷” (pronounced “Yí”), which is literally a combination of the characters for “big” (大) and “bow” (弓).

What really convinced me that the Yuyan archers are Korean-inspired is their ability to “pin a fly to a tree from 100 yards away without killing it.” This is similar to the mythological abilities of Chumo (추모), the founder and first king of Goguryeo, a kingdom that occupied the Korean peninsula from 37 BC to 668 AD. According to legend, his archery skills were so great that he could kill five flies with one arrow. I guess “flies = accuracy points” in ancient Korea?

Like what I’m doing? Tips always appreciated, never expected. ^_^

Unlike the rest of the Gaang, Sokka’s Fire Nation outfit is almost entirely Chinese-inspired. The capelet he’s wearing is inspired by “cloud collars” or Yunjian (云肩).

I can’t say I know much about Korea but I do remember an old Korean story we read in mythology class. A bear and a tiger go to this Heavenly Emperor and ask to become human and he says that they must be locked away in a dark cave and pray for a hundred days with nothing but a bit of garlic and mugwort to eat. The tiger can’t do it but the bear persists to day twenty-one and is then turned human. The Heavenly Emperor marries the bear woman so she won’t be lonely and with him she has a son who founds Korea.

Kuai Ball is the fictional beach game that Azula and company were playing on Ember Island. While it does take a lot of inspiration from volleyball in terms of serves and ball control, its aggressive kicks and high-flying acrobatics are more reminiscent of sepak takraw.

Sepak takraw (เซปักตะกร้อ) is a sport native to Southeast Asia. While similar to volleyball, sepak takraw only allows players to use their feet, knees, and heads to touch the ball. As you can imagine, these restrictions lead to some pretty creative techniques for keeping the ball in play.

The kick that Azula ends the game with is probably the most difficult move to pull off in sepak takraw: The Roll Spike. This technique involves jumping up with one leg and flipping in the direction that you want the ball to move, all while remaining airborne. Using the the non-jumping foot to kick, the ball is spiked over the net. The entire spike must be performed while in the air, only landing after the foot has made contact with the ball.

Click here for some more examples of wild sepak takraw moves.

Like what I’m doing? Tips always appreciated, never expected. ^_^

In honor of the Year of the Fire Horse, I think we ought to draw some fanart of ponytail Zuko.

This is the first set: The Gaang Cards💕