Five Things You May Not Have Known About Avatar.  

1. The animators think they are well funny and original.

That’s right people. In perhaps one of the most important and climatic scenes of the show where Aang becomes a fully realized Avatar, some overworked and underpaid person though it would be hilarious for the word ‘GAY’ to appear in the receding water.

2. Toph gets in everyone’s pants, no matter the version of ATLA.

A quite well known piece of Avatar trivia, but important none the less. Toph was originally designed as a dude. Her character in Ember Island Players references both her personality and alludes back to her original character plans.

But what a lot of people don’t know is that Toph was also originally a love interest for Katara. Early production notes state that Toph was supposed to complicate the Aang/Katara romance because Katara develops feelings for Toph and Aang gets a bit jealous. But then Toph was switched to a girl and everything changed.

Totally different.

3. Iroh was freed and had weird sexual chemistry with multiple Grand Slam winner Serena Williams. 

 Remember that nice prison guard who showed compassion towards Iroh?

Voiced by sporting megastar and all round HBIC, Serena Williams.

4. Nickelodeon will never ever learn from their mistakes. 

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me thrice, I’m not sure why some of you still have jobs. Fool me four times, no wait guys, seriously who’s running things up there? 

People think Nickelodeon have messed up a few times concerning Korra, what with episodes being uploaded online before they were aired and general sloppiness in terms of spreading information. This is nothing, NOTHING, compared to what happened during Avatar: The Last Airbender. 

Episodes were frequently uploaded online before they aired, different countries got episodes ahead of America leading to a massive spoiler fest, DVD’s were released with episodes that hadn’t aired yet and of course perhaps the weirdest fuck up, the release of a graphic novel that gave away the entire finale. 

That’s right. This short illustrated book was released WEEKS before the finale (Avatar Aang) was aired on television and gave away everything. At least we got to the Korra finale not knowing Amon was Noatak. This book gave away everything, energybending and final pairings galore. I suppose you can’t really blame Nickelodeon for this, (or can you?) but it does just show the general point of how weird and chaotic it is being an Avatar fan. 

(Sidenote: One of my favourite moments as an Avatar fan came when about 1000 posts were made about how this book was a massive fake and that it was just a conspiracy against Zutara fans. To be fair, Katara is dressed wrong and it does seem as if Aang has had a lobotomy.) 

5. Iroh’s a really great and inspirational character. Wrong. He’s a massive asshole. Or at least he could have been.

Another gem out of the production notes was the idea that Iroh would be a bit of a dickhead. Instead of joining Zuko on his exile voyage out of the good of his heart and a wish to steer his nephew towards a path of good, Iroh was planning to ruin the fuckers life. 

Iroh was originally going to teach Zuko a faulty form of Firebending that would totally ruin any chances of him capturing the Avatar. The idea of Iroh teaching Zuko Firebending made it into the final cut of the show, but of course without the general evillness and family backstabbing. 

What a shame, I think if anything, Zuko was really missing a source of angst and despair in his life. 

“Your Mother did vicious, treasonous things that night.”

the promise is so much more entertaining when read as an epic gay melodrama

aang doesn’t think he can deal with zuko’s fancy dressing tendencies 

but they find a way to get past their differences. the helmet had to go tho.

Fanfiction vs. Reality

MY REVIEW OF THE PROMISE PART 2 

I’m just gonna do the main points that really stuck out to me cause no one wants to read a long rambly essay. 

• Toph and Sokka’s storyline — I love these characters and yet I found their bit of the comic the most boring. They had a couple of moments of brilliance, mostly when Toph and Sokka were bantering (no seriously, i want you to call me that!) But their students, oh my word. Some of the flattest characters I’ve ever read. I actually found myself sighing at some points when I was reading the dialogue. They’re not even the stock characters that trick you into thinking they are flat and then subversively twist all your expectations. Nope, those 3 students are boring and say the same things over and over again. Please can we just have Toph and Sokka go off and have wacky adventures on their own in the future? 
• Zuko’s storyline — Erm, don’t have much to say about this. It’s easy to tell that Zuko is Gene Yang’s favourite character (well he has said as much in interviews, but it is painfully obvious in the comics) cause he gets the most morally nuanced story with interesting flashbacks. Ozai was pretty cool and I liked listening to his warped moral political philosophy. 
• Aang and Katara’s storyline — Oh lawd. This could have been really interesting and had the potential for some great development in their relationship. Aang having a fanclub was totally realistic considering he is so famous and credited with ending a horrific war. Him being in a committed relationship with Katara opened up the potential to have a really good story about how that would affect their relationship. Them dealing with the fact he is going to have to be so friendly and open to people while at the same time recognising Katara is his forever girl. Instead that bit of the storyline ends with Katara beating herself up over being jealous…and then we go off somewhere else. There’s no resolution or anything, it ends on a major downer and I really doubt it will be picked up again. 
• That bit with Sneers and Kori kissing was so random. It was an obvious plot device to reitirate how ~multicultural~ Kori was and set up the impeding conflict. The fact Gene Yang originally wanted Jet to be in this (before people reminded him Jet was in fact very dead) I think emphasises the fact this was a rather contrived romance because Jet probably would have been used instead of Sneers. 
• Mai — Oh god. I was doing fine with the comic until these panels. It is so clear that Gene Yang has no idea what to do with her. So he makes her leave. Never mind the fact this completely contradicts established characterization. Seriously, 3x09 she is there comforting Zuko and helping him deal with his frustration of his family’s politics. 3x15 Zuko breaks her heart and yet she still sets out to find him and eventually is willing to sacrifice herself for his safety. But in The Promise she decides to just bail. I feel sorry for Maiko fans, cause I feel slightly peeved by how Kataang is being handled, but you guys have got it x1000 worse. 
• Review is getting a bit negative so I will add that the artwork is still really nice. The character designs are great, especially Aang and Toph. Part 3 also looks like something interesting is actually gonna happen. Although we already know how it ends so it’s not like there’s much tension. 

Overall I would say it’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be based on early reviews. But it’s kinda mediocre bordering on tedious. A few moments of brilliance scattered between endless pages of meandering plot. 

Zuko is still alive! The next three locations are unlocked for the Republic City game!

SYNOPSIS FOR PART 3:

The Harmony Restoration Movement has failed, and the four nations are plunged back into war! In the midst of the battle, can Aang and Fire Lord Zuko mend the rift between them, or will Aang be forced to take actions that can’t be undone?
Written by Eisner winner and National Book Award nominee Gene Luen Yang (American Born Chinese) and drawn by Gurihiru (Thor and the Warriors Four), this is the adventure Avatar fans have been craving!

Leaked page from The Promise (Part 2). 

I think this is what people were talking about. I’ve got to say I’m not surprised, I don’t have overwhelming confidence in Gene Yang’s writing and it seems neither does this reviewer. 

“so we always remember the good times together”

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you know what actually, i’ve never gonna shut up about the race thing in avatar. i don’t care if people don’t like debates and it spoils the ~squee~. this shit has real life implications and this whitewashing attitude is endemic of the larger problem in the media. 

how do you think they got away with making all the heroes in avatar movie white? it’s cause some people still believe that because avatar is a fantasy it therefore has no connection to the real world. this is simply, empirically, wrong. the creators have said as much (just pick up the art book), the head writer has said as much and anyone who has even the most basic understanding of various asian cultures can see that avatar is absolutely overflowing with references to them. yes, aang is an air nomad, but his culture is based of tibetan culture and pretending that has no relevance to his character is exactly the kind of opinion that allows hollywood to whitewash these characters. 

so if you think that the asian influences in avatar mean absolutely nothing, please just unfollow me so i don’t have put up with your misguided and offensive comments when you reblog my posts. 

I think there should be a dance competition in the Avatar world where Aang and Zuko team up to breakdance and then round off their number with a classical interpretation of the dragon dance.