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Why do we love the red lotus so much?

It’s no secret that among the avatar/lok fandom that the red lotus in season 3 are some of the legend of korra’s most beloved villains. I started to wonder why that is, and I’m writing down all my thoughts because of course I am.

1: Cool character designs

Visually, the red lotus are super-interesting, especially when you put them altogether. Zaheer’s all-gray monochrome look and his little change from long hair and beard to baldness, and his eyebrow scar. Ghazan and his tattoos and that mustache he grew when he was ten. Ming-Hua is small but mighty, waterbends without arms and uses said waterbending AS ARMS, another shining example of the avatar franchise’s portrayal of disability. And P’li being a seven-feet-tall combustionbender with a cool braid. They look cool. What more do you need?

2: They’re human

Probably part of what makes the red lotus so popular is that they feel pretty human. Obviously Zaheer is the leader of the group, and I’d personally have loved some more moments reminiscent of the “seriously? right now?” scene, but they’re clearly all besties. Ghazan, as mentioned above, complaining about P’li and Zaheer making out in the truck; P’li getting a piggyback ride from Ming-Hua on her way out of prison and calling her a show-off; Ming-Hua calling the boys ugly mugs; Ghazan commenting, upon seeing Zaheer fly for the first time, that “i guess [Zaheer] doesn’t need a ride”; etc. They have distinct personalities from each other, with Zaheer being the planner and leader, P’li being quiet and menacing (unless she’s with her friends and her man), Ghazan being the chill, laid-back one, and Ming-Hua being snarky and hot-tempered. P’li and Zaheer obviously have their romance, which is sweet even if fans (*cough* me *cough*) would’ve loved to see more of it. They work incredibly well together as a team and in battle. Ghazan worries about P’li when she’s injured at Zaofu, P’li gets mad at Zaheer when he gets discovered on Air Temple Island and alerts the city to their presence, Ming-Hua and Ghazan are visibly surprised, sad, and confused all at once when Zaheer achieves flight and they learn that P’li is dead, Ming-Hua has the odd habit of sitting in trees and the backs of chairs instead of the actual chair...there are plenty of little moments that drive home the fact that they’re people who care deeply about each other.

3: They’re badass af

I mean, seriously. Zaheer was arguably more feared than the other three even as a non-bender, and is beaten with airbending only by his overconfidence and airbending inexperience against strong bending masters. P’li is a combustion bender who can a) talk, and b) curve her combustion beams. Ghazan is the franchise’s first canon lavabender, and Ming-Hua is its first bender who’s missing limbs. She supposedly uses her torso and legs to waterbend, despite the popular fan theory that she also uses at least some psychic bending. They have unique abilities that expand the possibilities of bending, make for unique and interesting fight scenes, and give our heroes a genuine challenge. Neither side is ridiculously powered-down; Bolin and Mako put up a good fight against Ming-Hua and Ghazan, for example, given their two seasons of battle experience and previous pro-bending careers, but still get their asses kicked and are captured, because they’ve never fought these kinds of benders before! How the hell do you stop a lady who can basically waterbend with her mind? How can Bolin stop Ghazan when all of Bolin’s ammunition is thrown right back at him in an even deadlier form? 

4: No canon backstories

Hear me out here: I do agree that we could’ve gotten more hints of their backstories and how they all met, etc., but they don’t have a canon backstory like Amon, giving them that air of mystery. I love speculating on their pasts, which I couldn’t do if they had them in canon. But idk, I feel like this just depends on what you like in your villains.

In short, a large reason the red lotus is beloved is because they’re so different from anything we’ve previously seen in the franchise. They’re fresh, new faces who give us what is widely considered Legend of Korra’s best season.

Give the Red Lotus more!

I know I made a post praising the fact that the Red Lotus had diverse personalities, but I think all fans could agree that they could’ve used more to differentiate themselves from Zaheer. Naturally, I have thoughts. The entire prison break scene just proves that P’li and Ming-Hua are ride-or-die besties, so why couldn’t that dynamic have been continued, huh, Bryke? Just a scene with P’li braiding Ming-Hua’s hair for her or teasing each other over something stupid or having a running gag with Ming-Hua, the tiniest of the group, giving the literal giant P’li piggyback rides, just because she can. I mean, if they had more moments like Ghazan’s “really? Right now?” Like, the BROTHER-SISTER DYNAMIC THAT COULD EXIST BETWEEN GHAZAN AND P’LI? I saw a creator talk about a who-can-be-more-destructive-in-battle competition between themn and like...

YES.

Like, hello, the banter during their fight scenes on the bridge getting out of Republic City or in Zaofu? Or even Ghazan gloating as he destroys the air temple with lava because he SO just won with that entire move.

Imagine a throwaway scene with P’li making too-spicy dinner and the others literally dying as she just peacefully eats and goes in for seconds. The badass Zaheer, sobbing in pain and begging Ming-Hua for the water she’s hogging for herself.

Also, I’d play up the bromance between Ghazan and Bolin a bit more, even it’s just Ghazan making a comment during their final fight that he’s sad he’s going to have to kill him.

During the stakeout fight, I’d have Ghazan and Ming-Hua sharing amused glances and snarky comments, make it explicitly obvious they’re just playing with the boys before they pummel them and Ghazan runs off to try and find Korra. They’re supposed to be “able to take down any bender,” and have had nine episodes to get back into bending after 13 years.

An idea that recently surfaced was that the red lotus should cause more conflicts within team avatar. Team Avatar’s been a little all over the place for the first two seasons, so having the red lotus so in sync with each other might motivate them to work on their own unity, and maybe help add to Mako coming back to the group and not being a weirdo about his breakups. That all just kind of disappeared as soon as they left. Hell, give them all internal conflicts surrounding anarchy! Have Korra struggling with her own doubts about the world needing an avatar and being raised by authorities--the white lotus--isolated in a compound. Have Mako struggling with being a cop when he’s reminded of how the authorities failed him and Bolin when they were on the streets, with Bolin coming to similar realizations. Even Asami, who faced discrimination as a nonbender, even if it was better because she’s rich and the Avatar’s bestie/gf. Have the red lotus leave lasting impressions on the characters. Plus, this kind of things would be great for team avatar to develop their friendships more, in a way a lot of LOK fans wish had happened.

I would show more foreshadowing to P’li’s backstory before it was revealed in enter the void. One thing I came up with was--and this is kind of reaching--Asami or Mako being reminded of their mothers, both of whom were dark-haired fire nation beauties. Maybe Asami’s mother was taller than average and fairly quiet, as well, and had some similar physical features to P’li, or maybe it was Mako. Let’s explore that trauma and its lasting impact on them! ATLA did it fantastically, and the LOK characters deserved at least some of that treatment. Maybe give one of them a brief moment alone and ask her why she’s doing these things, to which P’li’s only response is “you have no idea what people in power can do,” which we later learn is a reference to her own exploitation at the hands of a warlord. Hell, during her conversation with Zaheer in “enter the void,” maybe even add something about how she never wanted to kidnap an innocent girl, but will do it for the greater good, etc., or something that makes one of the mysteries of season 3 clearer: why would a girl who’d been kidnapped and exploited as a child be willing to do the same to another? I’d actually change the poisoning scene, having Korra knocked unconscious before they administer it, with one of them making a remark to the effect that P’li would only go through with the plan if this part of it were painless--even Zaheer yelling in their final fight that he doesn’t want to hurt her, or SOMETHING like that!

Some kind of will-they-or-won’t-they between Ming-Hua and Ghazan that has the other two rolling their eyes also wouldn’t hurt, fyi.

Red Lotus miniseries when?

Random red lotus hcs I have, with no explanation or reason:

-Zaheer is the only one who can actually cook.

-Zaheer and P'li sometimes intentionally act disgusting just to annoy Ming-Hua and Ghazan. It always works.

-Ghazan's favourite game is the floor is lava.

-Zaheer either got his eyebrow scar freeing P'li from that one warlord OR in the battle to kidnap korra when she was a kid before they all got thrown in prison to rot for 13 years.

-THEY'RE A FAMILY. I DON'T CARE ABOUT THEIR LIMITED CANON INTERACTIONS. THEY'RE A FAMILY AND THEY LOVE EACH OTHER, SO THERE.

:)

All I want is an avatar AU where Tenzin and Zaheer each lead the air nomads together

And the red lotus succeeds in messing with central leading to the creation of a more spiritually attuned conglomerate of smaller city states that work together while being small enough to genuinely represent the intentions and style of their citizens and Ghazan and Minghua have kids and the family works helping refugees by using his lavabending and her waterbending to create islands and new land areas for people to live and claim as their own And p’li ends up fucking hanging out with fire nation kids setting of fireworks displays because when it comes down to it she’s a beautiful person and can bring joy with her powers, not just destruction. man, I completely am on the wrong side of how Korra season 3 turned out

Red lotus headcanons I have without explanation or elaboration, pt. 2:

-P'li looooves looking fancy. I mean, even in canon, she's just got out of prison and has a fucking corset and those shoulder things and gold embroidery and what looks like lipstick and a really cool gold ear cuff--like, come on. She probably stole most of it, but still.

-Adding on to that, Zaheer canonically wears a gray potato sack after breaking out, so she's always looking fancy and sophisticated and he's always...less than.

-Ming-Hua is always mocking Zaheer over his long-winded ramblings and guru obsession.

-Ming-Hua conveniently forgets she can make water tentacles to get the others to do things for her ("oh, no, I can't reach that shelf! P'li, get over here!" "You can make arms as long as you want!" "OH MY GOD, YOU'RE SO MEAN TO THE DISABLED WOMAN--" "SHUT UP, I'LL GET IT FOR YOU!").

-Ghazan's hair and mustache are his pride and joy. Ming-Hua has threatened to shave it off on multiple occasions.

Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Ming-Hua has my absolute favourite fighting style in the entire Avatarverse--I believe she’s the first bender we see who actually doesn’t have all four limbs. Plus, waterbending relies heavily on arm movements, so this is super-impressive.

And as this post says: nobody is pitting her against katara, hama, desna and eska, or LITERALLY ANY OTHER character; not everything is a competition. We’re just appreciating a talented bender.

I love Ming-Hua so much it’s actually scary. I love the Red Lotus.

since this post of mine actually got a decent amount of likes i figured writing this was worth a try, so here you go! - ming-hua is one of the best and most talented waterbenders in the entire atla universe and NOBODY seems to be talking about it (sidenote: ids for each image are in alt text!)

unfortunately, due to the Frustrating lack of canon information and backstory we have on, well, all the red lotus members really, i can't explain exactly HOW she does the things she does, or how she learned. but the fact that ming-hua can do these things in the first place completely without arms should be reason enough 😏 hell, in zuko's, THE former firelord zuko's first appearance in tlok, he states that she and the other red lotus members together have the power to "take down the entire world"!

we know bending without use of the full body is possible, as demonstrated by king bumi in ATLA and amon and yakone's psychic bloodbending, but ming-hua is the first and ONLY character we've seen thus far to take it so such an incredible level - in all her fights she's consistently precise, quick, and deadly with all her movements, never making a mistake. most of all, she's shown to be able to control 6 to 9;(and more!) very long and complex water tentacles at once, completely in tandem with each other, something that's never been shown by any other waterbender in the series.

i mean, seriously, just look at this! it's absolutely terrifying! and that's awesome! honestly, simple screencaps don't even do her scenes justice. not only is the animation incredible, but it truly shows how particular and skillful her bending is. if i remember correctly, pretty much all these tendrils were moving at once and doing completely different things than each other! and that's insane!

several different times, ming-hua also demonstrates how she can freeze just the tips of her water to grab onto things, attack opponents, fling icicles, etc. do correct me if it's been shown in other characters before, but the fact that she can freeze only certain segments of her water displays a very strong sense of control she has over her bending. she could even swing across ceiling beams, railings, and floor levels, as shown during her prison break. (this white lotus guard got what he deserved by the way <3 all my homies hate tlok white lotus)

lastly, i want to draw attention to this scene from the stakeout. this whole fight with her and ghazan against mako and bolin is SO cool, but in this part in particular, ming-hua waterbends with water. again, still image screencaps do NOT do this sequence justice, but she traps bolin underwater in this bubble, then lifts her arms up and holds him in midair, while grabbing mako with her other arm. not only is she doing so many things at once, but waterbending using water itself is another skill that's never been demonstrated by any other character in the whole series.

of course, i am in no means trying to downplay the skills of any other master waterbenders we've seen, like katara or hama for example. they're in leagues of their own as well! but ming-hua has such a unique and powerful bending style with such an incredible skillset and i just... i love her okay is that so bad

tl;dr ming-hua is a waterbender of legendary skill and if i don't start seeing her in y'all's at LEAST top 5 waterbenders we ARE going to catch these hands

As someone who's made up so much red lotus lore that I can't watch book 3 of LOK anymore, I have decided that P'li was captured by that warlord she mentions, Zaheer left a rich family that exploited the poor, etc., Ghazan was a peasant in the Earth Kingdom, and Ming-Hua dealt with a lot of ableism. Then eventually they all banded together and had different gripes against the system and decided they may as well just tear it all down. They ban Zaheer from discussing philosophy at mealtimes. He's their favourite person to bully. They would all die for each other. They have monthly beach days. Ghazan and P'li are drinking buddies. Ming-Hua and P'li are the bestest of besties. What do you MEAN it's not canon? It is now, fuckers. The writers don't decide what's canon, I do.

comedy gold!

Yes I am still here, yes I will keep obsessing over these silly geese. I love drawing their interactions, Ghazan is such a himbo and my babygirl.

For all my non Italian speakers, I present you one of the greatest pieces of Italian culture ever. Excerpt from a movie by a really famous comic trio, when I rewatched it for the 100th time I knew I had to draw this dynamic. For all my Italian friends, I am so not sorry.

I don't think you understand I would throw my whole life savings (of like $50) and any iota of writing talent I have behind a red lotus backstory miniseries if they would do that.