She in her madness prays for storms

was thinking again about how atla is a fantastic tool for introducing kids to the dharma, especially kids growing up in western countries who might lack a cultural context for buddhism, and how aang’s journey in particular is exemplar of honoring dharmic teachings even in the face of seemingly insurmountable violence. and this brought me to one of my favorite buddhist concepts, the bhavacakra, or the wheel of life, which is primarily featured in tibetan buddhism, and is pictured below:

“The bhavacakra is an intricate symbolic representation of samsara—the continuous cycle of birth, life, and death—in the form of a circle. It is the wheel that is commonly featured on the entrance wall of Buddhist temples and monasteries. The symbol has been around since the time of Buddha. This “wheel of becoming” or the “wheel of cyclic existence” is described as the concept of rebirth or reincarnation in Buddhism. Buddhists believe that shortly after death, one’s spirit will enter an intermediate state of “bardo” or “antarabhava,” the state between death and rebirth. This exists from the last inward breath until the first inner breath in the new physical body, and so begins a new life. The nature of one’s new life will be determined by the way in which one lived his or her previous life. This is the concept of karma. One can be liberated from the samsara—the endless cycle of reincarnation—through enlightenment.” (via. symbols archive)

according to buddhist teachings, escape from this vicious cycle is only possible through renouncing “the three poisons”  - greed, hatred, and ignorance - symbolized at the very center of the wheel as a pig, a snake, and a rooster. every depiction of the bhavacakra also shows the buddha, who is usually in the upper right hand corner of the image. he is outside the circle because he’s attained nibbana, liberation from the cycle of samsara.  “These images have variety, but you always see Bodhisattvas in the clouds and heavens, and you see a moon. In Buddhism, the moon represents the potential for liberation. The moon is a positive symbol. It is a celestial body that reflects the light of the sun and provides light in the darkness…The moon represents the power of a celestial divinity who is bringing light to the darkness to illuminate the path for those who wish to escape suffering. The Bodhisattvas are those who point the way.” (via. glorian.org)

in atla, the world is caught in a cycle of seemingly endless war. the longer the war continues, the more violence it creates, and the harder it becomes for people to imagine any path forward without violence. this is exemplified by the scene in the finale when aang’s closest friends, his family, and the whole world, implicitly and explicitly demand that he commit murder in order to end the war and fulfill his duty to the world. despite aang’s determination to find a non-violent solution, everyone insists that killing is the only way. aang disagrees. and in the end, aang’s commitment to his beliefs produces a third path, an alternative no one else had considered: instead of killing his opponent, aang removes his power, definitively ending the cycle of war with an act of peace and mercy. like the buddhas and bodhisattvas depicted in the bhavacakra, aang finds a path that exists outside the endless circle of war and suffering.

if the dharma teaches that we can only escape suffering and violence by following a different path, a path that leads outside the bonds of samsara, then aang’s storyline models this teaching beautifully, and would be an engaging and empathetic way to introduce young children to the foundational buddhist concept of non-harm.

(please note: i’m not suggesting atla can substitute for studying the dharma, simply that in a western context the lessons of the show, particularly the lesson of aang’s character arc, can be an accessible and fun tool for both adults and children to begin learning about the meaning of buddhist practice)

You’re going to fail a lot before things work out. Even though you fail over and over again, you have to try every time. You can’t quit because you’re afraid you’ll fail.

Mentor & Student quality time

... 2 in 1

..may this joke land with y’all the same way it did for my sister and I lol

everyone’s out here acting like Zuko is the “bad boy” of the show but y’all are disrespecting the real bad boy Avatar Aang ??? this boy was out here sassing the entire fire nation army, making fools out of everyone, illegally riding the mailing system of Omashu as a slide, telling his first waterbending master to go fuck himself for being a sexist ass, illegally entering the fire nation, helping to blow up a factory because he thought eco terrorism would be fun and fresh, pulling the mr steal your girl card while pretending to be a fire nation student, and grabbing the fascist asshole Ozai by his goat beard and then whipping his ass???? what a King 👑

my man is 12 and has full body tattoos

a fucking PUNK if you ask me

Remember the time he told Zuko that he was “just a teenager” and royally pissed him off at the South Pole? Or the time he rode an Elephant Koi fOr FuN? Don’t even get me started on the number of times he absolutely terrorised cabbage man. And the time he used Kyoshi’s fans–despite having never trained with them–to yeet a rough rhino into the air? Iconic.

Bonus:

Also, never forget the time he promised Katara he wouldn’t pull anymore scams but did it anyway.

I recently did this new cover for the second edition of Dark Horse’s Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Art of the Animated Series hardcover book, which will be released on November 24, 2020. This is a redo of a DVD cover I did ages ago. I always liked the drawing but was never happy with how cramped the composition was and how poorly I colored it. It was fun to take a crack at it again. The second edition will have a few new things in it. Hope you enjoy!

‘who would win in a fight between aang and korra’ isn’t even a question bc aang would be like ‘i would NEVER fight with one of my future lives’ and korra would not hesitate before sucker-punching a twelve year old

Okay but honestly fucking shit like this when they show Zuko’s scar side when talking about Sozin and then having the bar pass and have his non-scar side when Iroh says Roku is his great grandfather if EXACTLY the kind of shit that elevates this show to where really no other show has ever come and probably never will

I mean if you frame it in a photo it looks much better, in reality it was a moving shot. Still nice but not amazing. What really is an amzing shot is this

Who is realy imprisioned here? The way this shot is framed makes it clear that Zuko is in a prison of his own mind. In fact you can look at how Zuko and Iroh are generally framed in this scene

Zuko:

and Iroh:

Even in shots where Iroh is framed together with the iron bars he is far removed from them while Zuko is right in front:

What takes the cake though is the following shot sequence:

When it shows Iroh it zooms in from this:

To this:

While with Zuko it’s the exact reverse. It zooms out from this:

To this:

Say what you want but man Avatar had some amazing shot composition. 

Also the reason The Last Airbender was better than Korra is because atla had Zuko and Iroh, while Korra didn’t. Fight me.

In addition to this scene being very well done, the whole The Avatar and the Firelord episode is just genius. It just makes the parallels between Zuko and Aang so much more powerful in retrospect. They weren’t on parallel paths just because. They were on parallel paths because they’re two parts of one lineage: Roku’s Fire Nation lineage and his spiritual-mediator Avatar lineage. And throughout the series the two of them are paired up through visual language, and the show even goes as far as match-cuts between the two of them as they’re in different locations and different fights. I forget where, but I KNOW there’s a shot where Aang is dodging in a fight and basically running towards the viewer and it cuts straight to Zuko doing the exact same thing, like they’re two enactments of one story.

And the twin blades? Zuko himself says they’re two halves of a single weapon, and shouldn’t be thought of as separate. The twin blades which we really first see in The Blue Spirit storyline, in which Aang asks Zuko if they COULD HAVE BEEN FRIENDS. It’s been stated that the blades represent the good and evil parts of Zuko, but isn’t that just a direct result of him grappling with his lineage, which is directly tied to Aang?

In conclusion: I am not ok and will never be ok. Thanks Avatar.

Just “slob” is fine. Or, uh, KUZON.

to this day i cannot BELIEVE aang called up and blew off like nine avatars just because they didnt offer any vegan options to ending the war

roku: my best friend assaulted me as a senior citizen :(

kyoshi: sometimes some murder is OK

kuruk: just punch people that disagree with you

aang: okay i’m starting to think that none of you took this avatar thing seriously

You're not wrong

Aang when he is told he’s the Avatar at age 12: *has a melt down because he understands the seriousness of this function and the consequences his new responsibilities will have on his personal life* 

other Avatars at age 16: I’m the avatar? Cool! Hey look it comes with a glowing eyes feature! 

binged s1 today

airboy 🥺

color palette meme: avatar: the last airbender + pastel champagne