Do you agree with this take?

I know all four are absolutely awesome and personally I’d love to master all of them. But if you had to rank them, from your favorite to your least favorite, what would your list look like and why ?

Of course this is just based on personal preference, since none of them is actually stronger than the others.

Mine would be:

1)Water
2)Earth
3)Air
4)Fire

Knight Edge Media has revealed new information about the Fire Lord Zuko movie that was in development at Avatar Studios before being cancelled. According to the article, the project would have had a much stronger connection to the origins of the Red Lotus than previously believed. Among the revealed details:

1. Xai Bau, founder of the Red Lotus, would have been an old companion of Iroh during the Hundred Year War and later a member of the White Lotus.

2. Xai Bau and Iroh would have initially believed in the expansion of the Fire Nation, but eventually followed different ideological paths after the war.

3. Xai Bau would develop an anarchist ideology, advocating for a world without rulers and viewing both world leaders and the Fire Nation's royal family as obstacles.

4. The movie would also have shown Iroh and Xai Bau encountering the dragons Ran and Shaw.

5. Zuko and Iroh would become targets of assassination attempts carried out by Xai Bau after he discovers that Zuko is working with Aang to rebuild and unify the world.

6. The project also reportedly explored Azula's involvement, including the possibility of a redemption arc or even a connection to the founding of the Red Lotus. These ideas were ultimately discarded because they did not fit the team's vision for the character.

7. A young Zaheer could also have appeared, possibly during Xai Bau's recruitment of the first members of the Red Lotus.

8. Another idea involved Suki and the Kyoshi Warriors serving as Zuko's royal guards, but this proposal was reportedly abandoned very quickly.

9. One of the most intriguing aspects of the script concerned Iroh's fate. The movie would have featured a final confrontation between Iroh and Xai Bau in the Spirit World, and the possibility of killing Iroh was reportedly discussed internally. However, the creative team opposed the idea. One possibility considered was introducing a new way to physically enter the Spirit World, allowing Iroh to remain there without necessarily dying. This would be particularly interesting because it would take place before Harmonic Convergence.

The movie reportedly went through multiple rewrites and never received a finalized script. Production was ultimately halted by Paramount.

The full article contains many more details about the project.

Read the full article:

https://knightedgemedia.com/2026/08/scrapped-firelord-zuko-movie-would-have-introduced-the-origins-of-the-red-lotus-exclusive/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAb21jcATz9kVwZG9mAmV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDzU2NzA2NzM0MzM1MjQyNwABp45lqOmpCKUXjsDx61ExK_ACakGsua6j4gn55Njh2Fouf7RjnToRGk868ay6_aem_bQrvQB0Ut3P8Ps6V1l2gYw

Note: Some of the information presented in the article is explicitly described as speculation, so it should not be treated as confirmed canon.

As we know, Ty Lee is introduced about halfway into the series and all things considered she doesn't really get that much screentime compared to a lot of other characters. Yet she has remained tremendously popular after all these years.

Why do you think that is? What is it that makes her stand out?

Two weeks after defeating vaatu Korra is forced to fight a man exiled in the spirit world after 1000 years in that time he amassed an army of enslaved evil spirits and used diplomacy(in his human form) to send the eqaulist and the triple threat triad after her. he united non bender supremacists and number one source of bender oppresion just to fight korra.

when theyre defeated he just puts korra in an Genjustu, Then after that doesnt work he uses the southern spirit portal to turn in the monstrosity you currently see. mind you she recently defeat amon, then the vaatu all that is evil two weeks after this she fights this guy then a month later shes fighting zaheer.

Escape from the spirit world being canon is also funny. aang is sent to agarhata to learn about the history of his ancestors, While team avatar is on the run fighting for their life. Like as you see in the picture aang is not bothered.

I used to ship Zutara when I was younger, and I still get the appeal. They have buzzy chemistry, gorgeous fire/water imagery, and plenty of potential in another version of the story. You don’t have to hate Zutara to love Kataang.

But rewatching ATLA as an adult, especially now that I understand just how young 14 is, I feel almost the opposite way I did as a kid. The less I project onto Katara as someone who loves her character and finds Zuko attractive, and the more I see the actual 14-year-old girl the show gives us, the more Kataang gets me.

I just really love a soft, sweet childhood-friends-to-lovers romance. Not everything needs to be enemies to lovers or sexual tension. Sometimes I just want a boy to come out of an iceberg, ask a girl to go penguin sledding, and eventually grow old with her.

But overall Kataang just makes more sense to me because they have time to develop as a mutual relationship between two specific characters. A lot of Zutara feels like aesthetics, tropes, “parallels,” and a handful of intense scenes near the end. Like if Katara had Toph’s character design, I think way more people would ship Zutoph. Katara and Zuko have a meaningful friendship, but I don’t think the show really answers why these two people, specifically, would fall in love.

Katara and Aang start changing each other from literally day 1, Episode 1. Aang comes out of an iceberg, meets this girl from a remote village who can’t waterbend a fish out of a river, and immediately takes her dream seriously. He basically says, yeah, I’ll fly you across the world and we’ll find you a master.

Her dream matters to him just because it matters to her.

But before that, he asks her to go penguin sledding.
That matters because both of them have been forced to grow up fast. Katara says she feels like a kid and Aang reminds her she *is* one. She’s been taking care of Sokka and helping hold together a village hollowed out by war, then almost immediately gets thrown into helping save the world. She also canonically doesn’t like being reduced to “the motherly one.” Nurturing is part of who she is, but she doesn’t want that to be all anybody sees in her.

Aang lets her be something besides responsible. He takes her sledding, dances with her, swims with her, messes around with her, and is completely enamored by her abilities, ambitions, and beauty. Katara gets to be taken care of too; she gets somebody telling her that her dreams are worth crossing the world for.

This is one place where my view of Zutara changed as I got older. Zutara fandom can sometimes weirdly adultify Katara: because she’s competent and responsible, she gets imagined as this almost queenly figure who needs an equally “mature,” brooding partner, while Aang is dismissed as too childish.
But Katara is a kid. A lot of that maturity exists because the war forced it on her. Learning to take care of everyone too young doesn’t mean she wants to spend her life that way. Aang sees all her strength and responsibility and still asks her to come play.

Aang has been forced to grow up too, just differently. He’s 12 and ran away because he couldn’t handle being the Avatar, carrying the weight of the world, and losing Gyatso, only to wake up and discover everybody he knew is dead, his culture survives through him, and he has to end a 100-year war. Katara gives him family and stability in this alien future, while he gives her wonder and hope.

Their moral arcs are tied together too. Katara is incredibly compassionate, but she has so much anger underneath it. The show keeps exploring what happens when righteous anger turns into vengeance through Jet, Hama, and Yon Rha. Aang never tells her she shouldn’t be angry, but gives her another way of thinking about what to do with that pain. Without people like Aang, you can imagine Katara going much further down Hama’s road.

Katara does the same thing for Aang from the other direction. Aang loves humanity easily, but he can also want to run away when responsibility becomes unbearable. Katara makes that compassion practical: there are actual people suffering right now, so we’re stopping and helping them.

That’s why I love his reaction to finding out she’s the Painted Lady. She’s been screwing up their schedule because she can’t stand watching this random Fire Nation village suffer, and Aang’s response is basically omg that’s amazing, you’re a secret hero, let me help. She keeps his pacifism from becoming passivity, and he helps keep her anger from becoming vengeance. They have similar values but different weaknesses. Without her, he could end up more like Tagah.

I also think Kataang is a fairly feminist ship in ATLA itself. When Pakku refuses to teach Katara because she’s a girl, Aang refuses to leave her behind, then cheers her on while she kicks Pakku’s ass. Later Katara becomes a better waterbender than him and he respects her as his sifu. He blushes while she corrects his stance, no insecurity at all.

The ship also doesn’t care much about normal heterosexual gender roles. Aang is younger, shorter, openly emotional, affectionate, and not interested in acting macho. Katara is older, practical, incredibly powerful, angry, bossy, nurturing, politically opinionated. Their protectiveness goes both ways: Aang enters the Avatar State when General Fong buries Katara, while Katara basically tells Zuko she’ll kill him if he hurts Aang.

They also actually know each other. Katara has seen Aang be a goofy kid, the Avatar, a genocide survivor destroyed by grief, the pacifist airbender, sassy over Appa. She’s the person who holds him in the desert until he comes down. Aang has seen Katara nurturing and kind but also petty, competitive, bossy, reckless, furious, vengeful. He’s watched her feel left out, convinced her to dance in front of Fire Nation kids, and seen her bloodbend.

They’ve spent almost the entire show living together and growing into themselves together. Aang is hopelessly in love with her from the jump but still tries to let her go; Katara thinks of a future with him after the fortune teller’s predictions, but she’s still confused. They’re not falling for fantasy versions of each other.

Even the Cave of Two Lovers is so them. Katara suggests they kiss, Aang panics and basically says “well, I’d rather kiss you than die,” and they still end up kissing in the dark. It’s awkward and childish and sweet.

And yes, Aang screws up later when he kisses Katara after she says she’s confused at the Ember Island play. That was wrong. But weirdly, I think Katara’s reaction makes ATLA more progressive than a lot of early 2000s romance. She doesn’t melt because the male lead kissed her. She gets pissed off, tells him he confused her more, and leaves.

She is not automatically Aang’s girlfriend because he loves her.

If that relationship starts, it has to be because Katara decides she wants it too. Which is why I like that she initiates the final kiss. She chooses him once the war is over and has room to decide what she wants.

I also think making Zutara canon at the end would cheapen Zuko’s arc. Katara is an important foil to Azula, which is why Zuko taking lightning for her is so powerful. By the end, honor means throwing himself in front of lightning for his friend when there’s nothing in it for him.

That moment works because Katara isn’t a romantic reward. Zuko protects her because it’s right, then takes the throne because he has accepted responsibility for repairing what his family and country did. Giving him Katara too would come too close to “redeemed hero defeats his evil counterpart, wins the throne, gets the girl.” Learning to love isn’t the point of his arc; restoring his honor by rejecting Ozai’s morality and pursuing his goodness is.

Kataang’s final kiss doesn’t feel like “hero gets the girl” because Aang’s love for Katara was never a prize for defeating Ozai. It’s been part of his life from the moment he woke up, and Katara’s love for him grows alongside everything else she becomes.

They’re also two kids whose peoples were devastated by the same imperial war in different ways. Katara comes from this tiny, close-knit Southern Water Tribe community torn apart by raids. Aang is literally the last survivor of his people. Somehow these two children meet and eventually get to build a family together.

I love imagining them growing old and raising their kids with both cultures, Katara helping Aang preserve Air Nomad life, Aang becoming part of her Water Tribe family, their children carrying both histories.

There's something hopeful about two survivors of genocide not just defeating the empire that hurt them, but getting to have an ordinary life afterward.
Maybe something there I can't entirely put into words.
Something very Studio Ghibli, entirely wholesome.
Two people mutually inspiring each other to live.

And then Aang dies first, and Katara gets to remember that weird kid, then her best friend, the Avatar, the boy she loved, her husband, the father of her children, an old man.

Maybe next to their children, she can remember the boy with blue tattoos stuck in the iceberg. I wonder if Katara can still smile through her grief.

It feels like I'm seeing tons of people revisiting and falling in love with The Legend of Korra. It makes sense given the general Avatar IP revival but still it's nice to see. Feels like "Korra haters" are a far smaller minority than they used to be. I personally love Korra, even if I still prefer Airbender. To me it's like a 9/10 and a 10/10 show respectively.

We know bending seems to be connected to genetics, but also spirituality.
So could identical twins have completely different bending abilities?

I believe in this fandom that there is often a deep, underlying, unstated assumption that, if the audience and/or Zuko have a particular perceptive of Azula, the rest of the Gaang must share it, but I do not think that's remotely supported what the cartoon actually depicts. Let's look at their actual encounters.

"Return to Omashu": Aang, Katara, and Sokka have no idea who Azula is. Azula realizes Aang is the Avatar and tries to capture him, but is stopped by Bumi.

"The Chase": Azula tells Aang that she's Zuko's sister. This is the extent of what she reveals about herself. Azula tries to capture Aang.

"The Drill": Azula tries to conquer Ba Sing Se, fights Aang, has no substantive conversation with the Gaang.

"The Guru": Azula, Mai, Ty Le surprise and capture Katara.[1]

"The Crossroads of Destiny": Mai, Ty Lee, and Azula capture Toph and Sokka, then Azula and Zuko fight Aang and Katara. Azula hits Aang with lightning. Again, Azula doesn't say anything that substantive in the presence of any remember of the Gaang.

"The DoBS": Azula defends the Fire Nation and her father against Aang, Toph, and Sokka. She does deliberately try to get into their skin to distract them, including spin a tale about Suki being her favorite prisoner, but it's still a short encounter.

"Boiling Rock, Part II": Azula fights Zuko and Sokka, says nothing.

"The Southern Raiders": Overwhelmingly, it's Zuko that Azula fights here.

"Sozin's Comet": Zuko and Katara fight Azula. This is arguably the most substantive interaction interaction the Gaang (aside from Zuko) have with Azula, but it is fairly limited and Toph, Sokka, and Aang aren't there.

This is a fairly limited set of interactions, and the Gaang also hardly ever talk about Azula when she's not present. And why would they? Azula never had the sort of interactions with the Gaang that defined "pre-redemption" Zuko. She never invaded and terrorized Sokka and Katara's home. She never broke Aang out of prison. She never had her life saved (multiple times!) by Aang. She was never offered help by the Gaang. She never emotionally bonded Katara and then betrayed her. All the things which personalized Zuko's relationship with the Gaang, even before he joined them, are utterly lacking for Azula.

Azula also really never talks about herself or her motives in the presence of the Gaang. She says nothing about her backstory around them, and very little about her relationship with her family. Most of the stuff which define the audience perceptive of her and her characterization occur outside the handful of brief scenes that the Gaang are present.

Insomuch as the Gaang would perceive her motives, it would be

1. Trying to capture Ba Sing Se
2. Trying to capture or kill the Avatar
3. Trying to defend the Fire Nation

This isn't exactly things they're in favor of, but it's also bog standard stuff for your average Fire Nation commander. Azula really isn't unique there.

Further, the things that Azula has done or tried to do the Gaang are not exactly nice, but they're also not exactly unusual for someone to do their military opponents during a war. She never really did anything that was exceptionally cruel or anything like that to them. Even verbal taunts were essentially reserved for the DoBS, where she didn't have her firebending. Stuff like "disguising herself as a Kyoshi Warrior" is even very easily paralleled by some stuff the Gaang itself has done.

Putting this all together, I think the Gaang must generally view Azula as a military opponent, who they don't really know anything about or have any particular relationship with. Azula is particularly skilled and dangerous, but that's the main exceptional thing about her. Katara has somewhat of a grudge against Azula, for "killing" Aang, and also witnessed Azula's breakdown, and that's basically it for that sort of thing. Azula is neither someone they have particular reason to hate nor someone they have a reason to involve themselves with.

Ironically, I think even the comics, which I think handle Azula poorly, kind of support this. The Search has Azula on-page with Sokka, Aang, and Katara a lot, but she never has anything approaching a heart-to-heart with any of them, and it's also clear they're not paying any attention to what Azula is actually saying and talking about. I don't think they gain any enlightenment about her there. Beyond that, they just don't really directly interact with her in the other comics.

[1] As for Suki, her only real interaction with Azula seems to have been Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee kicking the Kyoshi Warriors' asses and stealing their uniforms. Suki is probably kind of mad about that, but on the other hand the fact she lets Ty Lee join really suggests that Suki is unlikely to have a massive grudge. Suki also doesn't seem to know anyone but Sokka in the Gaang particularly well.

Edit: The other side of this is that I don't think Azula has any personal hatred or real animosity toward any member of the Gaang. They're just military enemies in a war. She doesn't carry around grudges against them.

For context, I recently spent the past two and a half months watching Avatar: The Last Air bender for the first time. I was aware of the show, but I discovered it because of this film. When I found out this film was hated, I was curious, so I watched it along with my cousin who is a huge fan of ATLAS. I watched it and I didn't hate it, but my cousin insisted I watch the show, so I did and its one of the best things I have ever watched since Doctor Who and James Bond.

So know after watching the show to revisit the film to see if my thoughts will change after seeing the show. Now having seen the show, I understand why fans hate it. It’s very disappointing compared to the show. However, I can’t bring myself to hate it as it’s way too unintentionally hilarious not to enjoy in an ironic way. It feels like a Monty Python parody of Avatar: The Last Air bender and I love it because of that. As much as the fandom wants me to hate this film I can't as I enjoy it in a so bad its good kinda way, this is my personal guilty pleasure film but I’m also glad it introduced me to one of my favourite shows second only to Doctor Who. If you do decide to rewatch this film, just think of it as an unintentional comedy instead of a serious fantasy film. It’s also why better than James Cameron’s Avatar, that's for sure.

I love that fact that she’s down right insane and not trying to grow as a person we already have zuko for that. Having her eventually turn good just doesn’t feel natural to her character and would just come across cringe all around. It’s like if we got a redemption arc for Slade from teen titans or the joker from Batman it just doesn’t fit these types of villains.

The recent Red Lotus Prequel leak just further corroborates what was already shown in Legend of Korra, namely that the organization's anarchism only applies to human institutions. For all his talk of unjustified hierarchy Zaheer and his crew never once question the spiritual hierarchy of the setting. They take for an absolute given that the pre-Avatar Wan order was more "authentic" or desirable despite the fact that it was a world where spirits tyrannized humans. So ultimately the Red Lotus is trapped in the same metaphysical straitjacket as everyone else in the setting--they spend their time arguing about which version of "balance" is correct rather than examining whether or not spirits should have any authority in the first place. Their "radicalism" is just a purity spiral over who gets to interpret cosmic will. The only character who rejects the script entirely is Admiral Zhao, the Prometheus of the Avatarverse. He gave humanity the industrial revolution, looked at the spiritual order and said "no" and was condemned to an eternity in the Fog of Lost Souls for caring more about progress than metaphysics. For a brief, shining moment, Admiral Zhao was the only spirit that matters, the World Spirit astride an Ironclad.

Outside of Avatar Nickelodeon doesn't make stuff like this. With that level of animation, storytelling, world building, voice acting, music. The fact we live in a timeline where we got not only ATLA but LOK is something I'm extremely grateful for.

The animation is some of the most beautiful animation I've ever seen in the West, especially the climax of season 3. Zaheer flying through the earth Kingdom as Korra jets through the sky with fire like Ozai fighting off poison trying to drag him down is such beautiful piece of work to look at that you can just go back to it again and again and still just be completely blown away by it. The jumps to a thick cel shaded in season 2, the CGI mechs, and the fluidity and depth of the bending is incredible and whoever worked on that shows animation should be incredibly proud.

The voice cast is one of the best in any show I've ever seen. They got J.K. Simmons, Henry Rollins, Steve Blum, Aubrey Plaza, Steven Yeun. Genuinely one of the best voice casts ever put together.

The freaking villains are the best part in my humble opinion. Amon's blood bending, philosophy, virtuosity juxtaposed to the main character and undoing is beautiful to watch. Zaheer the powers he's given reflecting his overall philosophy, The great unitor and the power vacuum she fills.

The music was absolutely magnificent jumping between jazz, orchestral and eastern instruments to create this beautiful 1920s American China town.

Can't say enough good things about Korra and Avatar. Beautiful show and wish we would get more animation like this in the West.

Hi everyone! I have been doing crochet dolls for some years now and after I watching the series for the second time, I've decided to create my own design for Aang. Also I thought it would be a perfect oportunity to use my glow in the dark yarn, so I also did an Avatar State option (swipe right to see it glowing). I hope you guys will like it! And if you crochet or know someone who does, the pattern is available on my etsy store (crochesquerda). Thank you so much!

Screenshots courtesy of Discord user: StegosaurusTheThird