what would you have me do?

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How many times Aang has seen faces of his people only to remember those are now only spirits.

The Air Nomads domesticated an equivalent to the ailanthus or eri silkmoth, which forms its cocoon in such a way that it can be harvested and live to adulthood. The Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation were introduced to this non-violent silk making, and the farmers would invite the traveling Nomads, who especially loved seeing the moths emerge from their unique cocoons.

After Firelord Sozin's genocide of the Air Nomads, it became illegal to raise such silkmoths or produce the silk and anyone caught with either (after a ridiculously short grace period) would be taken away and never heard from again. Planting the evidence of the moths or cocoons was considered by many to be an effective form of nipping sedition in the bud or eliminating political enemies. This gave rise to the term "the wrong kind of silk", a catch-all euphemism for contraband, often with the suggestion that whoever was found with it was set up.

The ban against the raising of these silkmoths was lifted by Firelord Zuko, and some Fire Nation citizens went on to seek out masters of this sericulture in the Earth Kingdom. They hoped to win the Avatar's favor, to see at least one Air Nomad visit their farms on his travels to see the moths, as newly unbanned poems, plays, historical accounts, and philisophical writings from before the War described. One woman came foreward and admitted that her family had been illegally raising the moths and producing the silk since the ban. Her great-grandfather Kuzon, she explained, aided his parents in the upkeep of the silkmoths themselves, the production of the fiber and maintaining the secrecy of it all. Generations' worth of stories about hiding, smugglers, and close calls made her very sought after by historians, but one contact she didn't expect was a still quite young Avatar Aang. He stayed in touch with her family for the rest of his life

I was doing some research on Aang’s necklace (or mala) in the finale episode, and I wanted to share my findings with everyone. Here are my references if you want to find out more! x x x There is also information on the significance of the beads in the second link. 😊

the content we could have of aang and zuko’s friendship if you all would just accept that aang is a good boy

i am here for the long, slow discovery of friendship and the way that the genocide of the air nomads would be all the more brutal the closer aang and zuko get. it’s one thing to have studied the history and culture of the air nomads in search of signs of the avatar, but it’s one thing to see the last remnant of that culture struggle with the weight of grieving an entire people. that’s without mentioning that the histories zuko’s studied are undoubtedly steeped in fire nation propaganda, that if zuko recognizes something aang says, or does, or makes, the version zuko recognizes is warped from the version aang lived. there’s the fact that everyone aang knew, everyone aang loved, was murdered. the astronomical level of that grief? the way that aang never really has a chance to process any of it, because he’s thrust into saving the world, and then rebuilding that world, at twelve? can i get anything on zuko’s internal conflict about this, can i get anything on zuko ending up extremely protective over aang because it feels like the only thing he can offer. what zuko doesn’t know is that aang values his presence, more than his defense, but zuko’s got issues. can i get the messy emotions involved in working out how the fire nation will rebuild the air temples, because aang is a kid, and a really good kid, but his patience isn’t infinite - and zuko might be the firelord, but being firelord is no longer something of absolute power. zuko can’t say the word and make it happen, anymore. but listening to the discussions on this has to be almost unbearable for aang. and that’s just rebuilding the temples, and has nothing to do with peeling apart the layers and layers of propaganda that’s been fed to the world at large in an attempt to justify the genocide of the air nomads. one kid should not have to do all that, especially after ending a war.

can i get hugs, please. i am formally requesting that they hug. i am lodging a formal request for zuko and aang getting closer as they work to rebuild the world, and yes, they’re friends. i am formally requesting big brother-ish zuko, and all of the baggage that comes with; because then there comes the point where zuko realizes that he cares for aang deeply, and that’s a terrifying realization, because when zuko cares about people deeply it doesn’t always go well for him. but at the same time it’s………. aang. who is vastly different from zuko’s family, in every way. i think they should hug. and i think after they hug, aang teaches zuko dumb dances, and zuko, stilted fire nation baby, reluctantly learns them.

hey remember how Zuko’s ancestors systematically broke their people of dancing so now the only person we know of who knows Fire Nation dances is the Last Airbender?

i mean i’m sure there are people off in the provinces who learned from their grandmas and dance where no one important will see them but Zuko’s not going to learn about that unless he goes looking just the right way

so once Aang teaches Zuko the dumb dances, can there be a royal ball where dumb dances are done to encourage whatever’s left of the art form outside what Aang knows to come out of hiding?

god, YES. remember the episode where aang teaches fire nation kids to dance? that but at a Royal Ball™️ with the firelord himself. it’s even better if aang is passing on, like, the fire nation kid version of the hokey pokey - the dances fire nation kids used to do for fun, the joke dances they’d make up with each other.

there is something incredibly poetic about aang convincing the new firelord, zuko, who lost his childhood to the brutal whims of ozai, to do fire nation kid dances to encourage the people of the fire nation to have fun again……. i am emotional. aang’s role in the series centers so much on him helping people preserve their childhoods and their idealism and their desires, and i’m. oh i will be emotional.

edit: i said air nomad dances where i meant fire nation LMAO

This.

All of this.

All of it.