I love that Aang’s adult character design incorporates so much of water tribe culture and attire into it
The bluish gray sleeves he wears on his forearms aren’t something we’ve seen on him before, but we do see such attire on water tribe characters like his daughter Kya, or Katara and avatar Korra!
His air nomad necklace (based on threngwas which are tibetan Buddhist prayer beads) incorporates water tribe beads instead of the brown ones we saw in the ATLA cartoon. This is the most culturally significant item he wears belonging to his people and he’s altered it to include Katara and her culture :)
Appa’s saddle as well as Aang’s glider both incorporate blue in their designs as well!
And of course, he’s shown wearing furs! He may be the last airbender and he also may be the avatar, but he’s master Katara’s lover boy first!! 🥹💙💛
genuinely what did she expect
Where the Sky Meets the Sea
Chapter Two: Home
This fic is for those who want the movie...but slightly different. Will remain canon in the relationships, but will be told from Katara's perspective. So we'll touch on what happened during the Gaang's healing, finding Aang, missing pieces here and there. Some things may divert, but the core should still be similar. I may even expand on the "after" if people like it.
Chapter 2: Home covers Katara's feelings about Aang being injured and the conversation from the balcony scene. I'm still playing with the balance between what was in the movie vs. what I see in my head.
((Once I'm accepted into AO3 this is moving there because I cannnoooottttt with ff))
Preview below!
AO3 link:
Fanfiction Link:
Aang Is the Ultimate “Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t” Character
Aang might genuinely be the most “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” character in Avatar.
If he acts like a twelve-year-old, he’s immature. If he acts like the Avatar, suddenly he’s too powerful and gets accused of having everything handed to him.
If he relies on Katara, he’s supposedly dependent on her. If he protects Katara, suddenly he’s possessive. If he loves her openly, he’s obsessed. If he had backed off completely, people would’ve said he never fought for her.
Even his biggest moral decision gets this treatment. Aang spends the entire series being taught that the Avatar exists to protect the world, only for practically everyone around him—including his past lives—to tell him that protecting the world means killing Ozai. But Aang refuses to throw away the last piece of his Air Nomad identity just because everyone else thinks it would be easier.
So he finds another way.
And somehow that becomes a problem too.
People call energybending a cop-out, but thematically it fits Aang almost perfectly. The Lion Turtle tells him, “Before the elements, we bent not the elements, but the energy within ourselves.” Aang doesn't defeat Ozai by becoming more like Ozai. He wins through an older, more fundamental form of bending that requires his own spirit to remain unbendable.
And the cosmic-energy argument is even funnier.
When Aang unlocks the Avatar State, suddenly it's “cosmic energy did everything for him.” Okay…he's the Avatar. Connecting with cosmic energy is literally part of mastering the Avatar State. That's like complaining that a waterbender won because there happened to be water nearby.
And remember what Aang had to do to reach that point: confront his fear, grief, guilt, attachment, responsibility and eventually the possibility of losing Katara. He didn't stumble into enlightenment while looking for snacks.
That's basically Aang's entire existence in the fandom.
Lose? Fraud.
Win? Plot armor.
Use the Avatar State? Cosmic-energy merchant.
Don't use it? Weak Avatar.
Refuse to kill Ozai? Coward.
Kill Ozai? “So much for Air Nomad values.”
Love Katara? Too attached.
Let her go? “See? He never really loved her.”
At some point you realize the criticism isn't actually asking Aang to make a better choice.
It's asking him to somehow choose every contradictory option simultaneously.
21 years later and we’re still getting fandom takes about the canonical romantic pairing that the show goes out of its way to disprove on screen… man 🚬
- Aang doesn’t ask for Katara’s physical affection, and it’s actually something he has a small arc rejecting because he has a hard time accepting it.
- Katara doesn’t “mother” Aang by being physically affectionate. That’s how she is showing romantic love. When she mothers a character (like Sokka or Toph) she scolds them, yells at them, bosses them around and acts like she has authority over them.
- Aang never asked Katara to “manage” the Avatar State for him, and never appointed her to such a role. She also only pulls him out of the Avatar State twice in the entire 61 episode show.
- Aang does not “throw a tantrum” when entering the Avatar State. He only enters the Avatar State 3 times due to emotional distress. Every other time he does, it’s to save people’s lives.
- Aang did let go of Katara in the Crossroads of Destiny. We literally see him do this on screen and then he gets shot with lightning and nearly dies because he’s narratively being punished for it.
- Katara shows clear romantic interest in Aang throughout each season of the show, beginning with book 1 episode 4. She shows repeated jealousy whenever Aang mentions or interacts with a girl that isn’t her. She blushes over Aang, she asks to kiss him, she kisses him back, she initiates the kiss that starts their relationship, she asks what he thinks of her appearance, she considers marrying him, and she said she loved him in book 2 episode 1.
- Aang appreciates all of the things Katara does for him and repeatedly thanks her for these things throughout the show.
- Aang did not try to force his culture onto Katara in The Southern Raiders and agreed that she needed to go on the journey. She even thanked him for understanding before she left. He ended the episode saying he was proud of her.
- Katara does not treat Aang like a brother and we can see that she does not treat or view Aang and Sokka the same way whatsoever. She even on screen denies viewing him like a brother when he asks.
- Katara never said she was confused about how she felt for Aang. She said she was confused about if and when they could have a romantic relationship because the war was still ongoing.
- Aang did not assault Katara in The Ember Island Players episode. He did not hold Katara down and force himself onto her. He did not kiss her out of malice or intent to hurt her. Both of these characters were in love with each other and had already kissed twice before this moment, one at her suggestion and the other being one she on screen reciprocated. He kissed her at a bad time here and that was all it was. She pulled back, and he didn’t try to fight her on that. He was reprimanded for it and made a mistake.
- Aang does not depend on Katara to “raise” him. He was already self sufficient and well traveled before he’d even met her. It was Katara who had never left her home before she met Aang. She’d never even met another boy around her age that wasn’t her brother. This is canon.
- Katara lost her mother and Aang DOES understand that pain because he lost Gyatso, who was his guardian and father in every way that matters. Katara herself literally relates her grief over her mother’s death to Aang having lost Gyatso in the 3rd episode of the show! This is CANON!
This was literally kataang the entire show mind you
All this gross mischaracterization and outright lies spewed for decades all for a fanon ship that was never happening smfh free us all from this hell
i like their flowers in "the cave of two lovers" ^_^
finally posting this kataang commission i got from @aisatsaa a while ago 💙🧡 i genuinely don’t know why it took me this long to share it on here but here we go!! i love this piece so much
Older Katara and Aang dressed up as The Painted Lady and Kuzon again but just for some fun đź’‹
🎨 Art by @luei_qng (twitter/ig)
I love that Aang’s adult character design incorporates so much of water tribe culture and attire into it
The bluish gray sleeves he wears on his forearms aren’t something we’ve seen on him before, but we do see such attire on water tribe characters like his daughter Kya, or Katara and avatar Korra!
His air nomad necklace (based on threngwas which are tibetan Buddhist prayer beads) incorporates water tribe beads instead of the brown ones we saw in the ATLA cartoon. This is the most culturally significant item he wears belonging to his people and he’s altered it to include Katara and her culture :)
Appa’s saddle as well as Aang’s glider both incorporate blue in their designs as well!
And of course, he’s shown wearing furs! He may be the last airbender and he also may be the avatar, but he’s master Katara’s lover boy first!! 🥹💙💛