The Dawn Of Yangchen - Tumblr Posts
I have only one problem with it, and that is: what do you mean, they have a hunger for power and a mad ambition in their blood? Fighting and backstabbing makes sense if your nation is on the brink of collapse and you're trying your best to survive. Are you saying that Fire Nation people are… just born bad? This is an interesting opinion, which makes me wonder about the prejudices about the Fire Nation after the Hundred Years War. We know that firebenders killed Asami's mother, and Mako and Bolin's parents. In the world of The Legend of Korra, are firebenders, especially if they come from the Fire Nation, considered evil until proven innocent? Does the Fire Nation, like today's Germany, carry enormous burdens of guilt, and every citizen in it is forced to deal with their legacy as a descendant or relative of a soldier in the army who killed the waterbenders of the Southern Water Tribe and committed total genocide against the Air Nomads? Is this something that the avatar after Korra, or the avatar of fire after him, will have to deal with? If Avatar Roku and Avatar Szeto are remembered as bad Avatars, how much pressure will the next Fire Nation Avatar have to deal with? How many prejudices? How many people just assume he'll be a bad avatar, because fire nation avatars are always bad? In the world of the Avatar, are firebenders considered evil, suspicious, threatening? How does it feel to live in a nation that is responsible for such a great and terrible war, and even though you, as an individual, have never harmed another person, people expect you to bear the blame of your entire nation? People expect you to be power hungry and violent? What is it like to be a Fire Nation citizen in the modern era of the Avatar world? How will a Fire Nation Avatar deal with the fact that the two Fire Nation Avatars before him are remembered as bad by history, and that people will always assume the worst for everything he does?
This guy.
Let's talk this guy.
This is Szeto, the Avatar immediately predating Yangchen. Szeto was the first person we ever saw lavabend in the show and quite potentially one of the worst Avatars to have ever lived.
Potentially.
If you've read this far, you're interested enough in Avatar lore to know that it's cyclical. These humans are (un)lucky enough to be born with every elemental power available in their world and that elects them to a position they never asked for.
Korra lost her bending because Aang wasn't diligent in staying on top of Yakone. Aang's people were wiped out because Roku let his power-crazy jilted ex run around freely. Kyoshi created the Dai Li who became secret police terrorizing Ba Sing Se. Kuruk neglected his diplomatic Avatar duties leaving the world in political shambles by Kyoshi's time. And Yangchen gave humanity everything it wanted at the cost of the spirits because Szeto spent his whole career increasing the Fire Nation's power.
What would drive the Avatar, master of all four elements and bridge between the physical and spirital worlds, to leave everyone outside his home country to fend for themselves?
I posit, dear reader, that Szeto was worried for the very Avatar Cycle itself.
In my eyes, it becomes clear pretty immediately from what we learn in Kyoshi why he may have - again, potentially - done so. The Fire Nation is actually comprised of a series of differently-sized landmasses called the Fire Islands. For whatever reason, in Szeto's time, these Fire Islands were on the brink of collapse. Kyoshi shows us that being ambitious and power-hungry wasn't something Sozin started, but that Fire Nationals have it in their blood.
Infighting, backstabbing, and so much more would have been commonplace. Szeto would have been born into a Fire Nation on the brink of collapse. And sure, he was the Avatar, everyone's Avatar, but if he gave the other parts of the world equal attention, and the Fire Nation implodes, would another Fire Avatar ever even be born?
In Yangchen's second book we see he had a room at the Air Temple, so while he wasn't in his home country 100% of the time, judging by his reputation it had to have been 90% or more. Szeto had to leave the world in such a mess for Yangchen. Because if he hadn't given the Fire Nation as much attention as he did, the possibility must have existed, or at least been real enough in his mind, that it wouldn't last much longer.
An Avatar world without the Fire Nation is one in a state of permanent imbalance. One where the cycle is broken and the Avatar has nowhere to be born. Szeto had to have felt that it was: give his all to the Fire Nation, or else be the Avatar responsible for the literal end of their world with no chance of a savior being born to fix it.
all the other avatars with the avatar smile™: cutest, so adroble
avatar Yangchen with the avatar smile™: this girl is menace to society
Kavik: As a prisoner or companion?
Yangchen: Yes
atla prequel novels are so much fun for me because the more recent avatars would question themselves and their methods, thinking "the great kyoshi and yangchen would never have stooped this low!"
but here we have avatar "legally a daofei" kyoshi and avatar "self-taught in espionage" yangchen, who still feel inadequate compared to their past lives. and as for the very first avatar? he was a homeless guy who defected from a spirit hunt! wan KNEW he wasn't worthy to host raava but she chose him anyway!
i'm sitting here just obsessing over how perfect it is that the harbinger of balance between worlds is, in nearly every case, someone who strikes that balance with their actions. fc yee just GETS it.
Apologise for such a late response, but I managed to print off that yangvik meme finally that you did! It makes me so ridiculously happy! Ty sm for giving me permission to do so! ✨ here it is above my bed frame :’)
OHHHHHHH MA GAWD YOU WEREN'T KIDDING, I THOUGHT IT WAS JUST A JOKE HOLY SHITTTT 🔥🔥🔥🔥 fuccc yeahhhh
Here's yangchen in my artstyle and a lazy yangvik shitpost art
I had a bad headache so instead of resting i draw this instead (trust me i have no braincells left when i was making this image 💀)
