Avatar Comics - Tumblr Posts
Kiri's first Ikran - Tanhì
Spoiler for the Comics
Avatar: The High Ground
From the Wiki:
Kiri tamed Tanhì at a very young age simply by asking it to be her friend instead of using the banshee catcher.
In 2169, after the second human invasion on Pandora, Lo'ak, Kiri, and Tuktirey were taken hostage and imprisoned in Hell's Gate. From there they were freed by Spider. As the children fled through the woods, Tanhì found them and landed nearby to help them get home. At that moment, however, it was shot dead by SecOps soldiers much to Kiri's horror.
Additional Info - Trivia:
Tanhì was depicted as being a green color earlier in The High Ground, but was then changed to a purple color.
James Cameron has stated that the color indigo is associated with Eywa, making it tie-into the color of Kiri's banshee.
Kiri lost her banshee to the RDA, similarly to her adoptive mother's banshee.
Kiri can be seen riding a new banshee in Avatar: The Way of Water, implying she tamed a new one after Tanhì's death.
"Tanhì" means "star" and "bioluminescent freckle" in the Na'vi language.
(Tanhì's death in Avatar The High Ground Volume 3)
Problems with "The Search" Comic
The Implausible Secrecy of Ursa's Backstory
I found this little gem from the commentary of the Search Comic (Part One). (Long rant ahead!)
Mike - We added this detail of Ozai forbidding Ursa from speaking of her old life again as a way to explain why Ursa's hometown and relation to Avatar Roku was not common knowledge. (In "The Avatar and the Fire Lord," Iroh tells Zuko that Avatar Roku was his great-grandfather on his mother's side.) It also parallels the present story in a cool way: When Ursa married Ozai, she had to forget her past. Later, she makes a similar choice.
Essentially, the scene of Ozai telling Ursa to bid her parents farewell mainly/somewhat serves to narratively establish that "Ursa's hometown and relation to Avatar Roku was not common knowledge" despite her marrying into royalty.
This comic suggests that the general population of the Fire Nation never knew Ursa's backstory even though she and Ozai were together for 10+ years. And somehow, no new information about her came out during her time in the Capital. Even if the royal family bothered to concoct a backstory for her, anyone could have realised it didn't add up and/or gotten information from at least one of the 100+ royal servants. Heck, her parents attended the wedding and sat a few feet away from her, surely they would have interacted with someone (I mean how else does Iroh have Roku's headpiece).
Then there's "the fire nation town of Hira'a", described as a "small town - on the outskirts of the Fire Nation." The townsfolk know her, aren't supposed to talk about her, but can't help but speculate. Apparently, the town’s (official yet laughable) story is that "she was - taken to - Capital City on some sort of official business" accompanied by "rumours" of her "supposedly" marrying into the royal family. And "rumours" of her returning to town, and entering Forgetful Valley.
I can't believe I haven't seen any posts addressing how absurd and farfetched this is. This isn't even mentioning how the Search retconned Ursa's noble upbringing, which is evident on her Avatar Lore page (I could make another post for that).
Here are some more photos and info:
"No one's seen or heard from Ursa since she was taken to - Capital City!" said almost two years after Zuko's coronation.
Gee, no wonder Azula was tempted to burn the place down. Somehow a Fire Nation town (seemingly) doesn't know that Ursa married Ozai. Though I’m certain that wasn’t what the writers intended, and am certain that Azula mostly acts out-of-character throughout the comics (I could make another post for that).
Please note that in the Avatar Lore Pages, "royalty" is (seemingly) sometimes used synonymously with "nobility" (see Mai and Onji).
Am i too late to this trend?
Original image under the cut
