Casually emerging from the depths of sleeplessness just to cripple you with feels. Click on the given source. It goes to my DA page and you can download it to see it as I intended for it to be seen.
this is so amazing… it needs to be hung and framed.
STOP THAT
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ANYWAY you cannot convince me that the air nomads didn’t have any sort of trade good based on the flying bison and aang just didn’t have the time or safety to make and sell any of these while trying to stop ozai. they probably did so much spinning just because drop spindles are super transportable, it’s something to do while flying long distances, there’s always a weaver somewhere willing to buy yarn, and there’s always, always large amounts of shed fur just. around. look at how much came off of appa that one episode. so much fur
so three things happen the summer after ozai is defeated and appa starts shedding in earnest again
(probably the air nomads also did a lot of weaving but it was mostly the pregnant nuns and the really old nomads so it’s a little off aangs radar. and does aang eat cheese? it never comes up in series but I would also believe that the nomads made a lot of air bison cheese and bison butter tea)
headcanon accepted re: sky bison products
you said SPINNING on a DROP SPINDLE and i instantly went YES. OH GOD YES.
i bet sky bison yarn is really strong but probably not super soft - we see in the show that the fibers are really long, which lends itself well to strong yarns that can stand up to a lot of wear and tear (silk yarn is INCREDIBLE when it comes to being hard-wearing, and that’s mostly because silk is basically an INFINITELY LONG FIBER). But because it’s so long and comes from such a large animal, it’s probably really coarse and thick.
I’m imagining most of those high-class ladies would be wearing at least one layer underneath their shawls, because bison yarn is probably pretty itchy if you’re used to high quality wool, silk, or fine linen. Especially bison yarn spun by a 13yo who doesn’t really like spinning.
unless of course the air nomads bred their bison specifically for soft fur, but generally when you’re breeding for stuff like that, you need different breeds for different purposes. appa’s pretty clearly a long-distance riding bison, which would probably have been a different breed than whichever ones would have been bred for soft fur. most species of domesticated animal that are dual+ purpose (i.e. meat/milk/wool/transportation) have breeds that can only do one or two of those well, and the others not as great.
the air nomads obviously would not have been breeding for meat, because vegetarians. For long distance travel and a nomadic lifestyle I bet they would have wanted a travel/milk dual purpose breed, but because they can regulate their body temperature with airbending, soft warm yarn might not have been a high priority for that breed.
which is a lot of words to say “appa-fur yarn is ITCHY”
My impression is that the sky bisons aren’t actually domesticated, so much as semi-sentient and choosing to partner with the air nomads, so I don’t think they’d be bred for anything, much less soft hair.
I actually headcanon spinning as something air nomad kids would be taught to do from a young age to burn off energy and stress and make it easier for them to learn to meditate, so I think Aang would probably be decent at making yarn that’s evenly spun, but probably wouldn’t have the experience to make super fine thread.
I would assume that appa has a double layer coat like most high altitude herd animals, so even without selective breeding the insulating inner layer would probably be suuuper soft. just look up qiviut for an idea of how soft and expensive muskox fur can get, and the skeins of bison fur yarn I have aren’t noticeably different from something like alpaca. assuming that appa sheds a proportionate amount of undercoat to muskox or bison (up to seven pounds a year) there is going to be a LOT of snuggly undercoat to turn into snuggly Soft Things
and I’ve seen a couple people say that aang would probably have learned spinning pretty young and be fairly competent at it, and I agree! I def meant the questionable yarn quality to be a statement on his attention span and post-war schedule, not skill (I don’t really know how to spin so idk if constantly starting and stopping and not paying any attention anyway would effect the consistency any? it just Felt Right)
I’ve never spun anything like qiviut - the most exotic thing I’ve spun is alpaca, unless folks think silk is more exotic - so I didn’t think about the double coat! Don’t they usually need special treatment to separate the topcoat from the undercoat, tho? I wouldn’t be surprised if Aang either didn’t know or wasn’t very good at separating from them.
I *do* spin on a drop spindle, tho, and the biggest problem with stopping and starting often is keeping the single the same width, but you have the same problem stopping and starting ANY kind of spinning project. In some ways, a drop spindle makes it easier to control that than a regular spinning wheel - you have a lot more control over the fiber and the yarn you’re spinning, so you can be more precise. My drop spindle yarns tend to be very regular and compact, while my spinning wheel yarns are more varied and lofty.
However, now I’m picturing the moment when you spin your single a little too thin, and the drop spindle lives up to its name - from hundreds or even thousands of feet in the air! Plummetting off the side of the air bison, with the older nomads scrambling to catch it…
I can totally imagine that the air nomads hat special spindles with gliders (like his stick where he glides with) to spin with airbending as a practice for beginner benders, or in a similar stile as the hand spinning wheels from India, but for air nomads!
And wouldn’t the process from start to finish be a good lesson in great fullness? Like how long it takes from baby bison to clothes
Maby even a live milestone. From first bison who chosen you to your first own robe/Stola??
It could even be that the Air Nomad’s robes were MADE out of sky bison fur, if the under coat was a) incredibly soft (I bet they’d wear the over coat too just because they didn’t really care about worldly possessions and comfortability) and b) their only farm animal was the sky bison. That’s what the Air Nomad’s wear, is Sky bison wool clothes.
Also, to the person who said Sky Bisons would only shed about seven pounds a year, I would like to counter that idea with the fact that Appa is GARGANTUAN. He has enough room on his saddle to carry literally six or seven children and their equipment on his back without much complaint, of which these children are not too much smaller than adults. An ox or an Alpaca or a normal Bison are tiny compared to Appa.
Appa’d have a metric butt ton of under fur on his body. I’d say about twenty to thirty pounds of under fur, with more on top, at the very least.
ok so I didn’t know that supported spindles existed and YES, very much yes to those. I love that.
I was actually trying to say that if muskox shed seven pounds we could use that to extrapolate how much appa shed if he shed proportionate to his size, not that appa would only shed seven pounds
ok, adhd rabbit hole time because I just looked up the average size of muskoxen and the approximate size of appa and, uh. apparently muskoxen are 900lbs full grown and appa is ten tons. over TWENTY TIMES THE SIZE OF A MUSKOX. obvs that’s doesn’t actually tell us anything about appas actual height and length but that’s the only solid number the show gives us and thirty pounds of underfur is starting to seem pretty conservative. it might be closer to 120lbs???
which is a weird way to say that I bet the air nomads had lots of crazy air powered spinning contraptions (and I’m still assuming that anything they had that wasn’t easily transportable was dealt with by pregnant nuns and aang wasn’t really introduced to it yet) and they just churned out textiles. literally everything fabric the nomads used was probably bison fur in some way because there was just. so. much. fur.
Textiles Tumblr coming in clutch to build the air nomad trade empire
Good, someone mentioned the undercoat. I was going to say that most animals who shed seasonally do so because of their undercoat, which is indeed infinitely softer than the overcoat. (Case in point, sister’s German Shepherd has a super coarse overcoat, but her undercoat that comes out when she’s brushed with the de-shedder is fluffy and soft as can be. The birds love it.)
Which works well for spinning and weaving because you’ve got time to turn that thick winter fur into cloth before it gets cold and vice-versa with the lighter summer coat.
@ljf613 I did not know how much I needed Air Nomad fiber discourse in my life till now, thank you. Here’s some information about Tibetan weaving, if anyone is interested:
According to the first article, there are five types of traditional Tibetan wool-based fabrics that vary in coarseness. Tibetan rugs are special in that they are created using knotting techniques unique to the Tibetan culture, distinct from the surrounding Indian and Chinese rug-making traditions.
This reminds me, I still need to get around to constructing Air Nomad cuisine one of these days…
To all my followers that weave, what are your thoughts on this Tibetan rug-making video?
this is it. this is the shit tumblr was MADE for
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not wanting to be outdone by the benders in the gang, sokka invents the flamethrower, the supersoaker, the leaf blower, and the concept of throwing rocks at people
this is canon. to me.
wait did anyone draw this already
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I can’t wait until my sense of taste is back. This cup of tea tastes like hot water. :(
Don’t worry, that’s normal for tea.
Tags that make me indecisive about whether I should be flattered or horribly offended
My senses have returned and tea tastes normal again.
So, like hot water then?
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Zuko: Sokka I still can't believe master Piandao trained you. Did you get to make your own sword as well?
Sokka: yes I did! At first I was scared it wouldn't work, but I'm glad he allowed me to use the meteorite for it!
Zuko: ... i'm sorry did you say meteorite?
~
Toph: it was such a coincidence running into your uncle in ba sing se.
Zuko: yea, it was very weird for him being back, y'know, since he kinda laid a 100 day seige on the city a few years prior
Toph, who hadn't connected the two dots until now: ... THE DRAGON OF THE WEST??
~
Aang: Katara... you sound like Jet
Zuko, who definitely knows a guy named Jet:
Katara: this is different. Jet attacked the innocent.
Zuko, now suspecting they were talking about the same Jet:
~
Zuko: how did toph even end up becoming a pro wrestler?
Aang: she did it to escape from her oppressive parents
Zuko: oh, that sucks
Aang: yeah, those beifongs sure were strict with her
Zuko, who probably has knowledge of the aristocracy in the other nations: THE BEIFONGS???
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the aang/sokka friendship is criminally underrated tbh
some good aang and sokka moments!!!!
im sure im forgetting some good and important scenes so feel free to add!!
also this was cute. they’re good boys
Also in book 3 when Sokka first names Combustion Man ‘Sparky-sparky-boom-man’ and Aang takes that very serious so he takes the time to scream “IT’S SPARKY-SPARKY-BOOM-MAN!!!” while almost being blown to pieces
in book 1 the only reason sokka was kidnapped by hei bai was because he ignored his own safety to help aang
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a concept: zuko waiting tables at the jasmine dragon as a well-deserved break from firelord duties, but he does not understand how he keeps getting recognized!!! he’s wearing green and everything!!! it’s inexplicable!!!
zuko: hi what can I get for you today?
extremely bemused customer: um…… aren’t you the firelord???
zuko: you know, I get that a lot. I think it’s the nose
After a while it’s just
Zuko, without skipping a beat: No, his scar’s on the other side.
Important diplomat who has visited the jasmine dragon but has NOT met the firelord before: excuse me aren’t you a waiter.
Zuko, deadpan: Yes. I am Lee, humble tea server, who has kidnapped Firelord Zuko and replaced him. You have seen through my facade. What gave it away? Was it the hair? I knew I didn’t have the crown on right.
Alternately:
Zuko, deadpan: Oh didn’t you know? The Jasmine Dragon was so successful that I was appointed Firelord.
customer: um…… aren’t you the firelord???
zuko: not today
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can you imagine how the whole energybending scene must have looked to Sokka and Suki
Sokka: “ohmygod, I think aang’s losing!”
Suki: “you dont know that, maybe red is aang’s color”
Sokka: “you think the motherfucker who was planning to genocide the entire world with fire has a *blue aura*??”
Toph: “what the FUCK are you guys TALKING about”
Sokka: it's the same color as his tattoos, of COURSE Aang is blue.
Toph: Aang has tattoos?
Toph: I can’t beLIEVE none of you told me Aang has tattoos, I’ve been part of this team for MONTHS and nobody thought to tell the BLIND GIRL that Aang has tattoos.
Toph: (quietly) Suki what are tattoos
Oh God if Toph found out what tattoos were you know she’d go hog wild with them. I’m talking full sleeves. Imagine rebellious teenager Toph COVERED in tattoos now leading an army.
Her tattoos would be just words like ROCK GROUND DIRT BREAD EARTH TATTOO METAL THE BEST.
Suki: why do you have one that says bread?
Toph: I like bread.
And you know Sokka would be the one doing them too.
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*placeholder for the Toph discovers that Zuko is blind in one eye/ has a scar post*
I feel like people have forgotten about this
Stage-Toph: “I see everything that you see, except I don’t ‘see’ like you do. I release a sonic wave from my mouth.” *elongated scream* “There! I got a pretty good look at you.”
but the LOOK on Toph’s FACE it is the best thing E V E R R R
#there is no way in hell I could ever forget about this who do you take me for
Okay but I also love this scene because the way this play was written and cast tells us two really important (and hilarious) things about the way people (specifically people in the Fire Nation) perceive Toph-
1. Although they know she’s blind, no one actually has any idea how her seismic sense works
2. No one who’s fought her is willing to admit they got their ass beat by a 12-year-old girl who doesn’t clear five feet and weighs 95 pounds soaking wet.
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Role swap au where Zuko was the Avatar who got frozen for a hundred years, so when he’s rescued from the ice instead of a goofy twelve year old Katara catches this mysterious teenager with long hair and a cool scar and a fucking DRAGON
Katara: BOY???? HOT BOY?????? HOT TEENAGE BOY?????????
Zuko: *speaks*
Katara: nevermind I hate him
How does Aang factor into this? I ask because the more I think about it the more I want him to somehow be trying to capture the Avatar.
Aang is 112 years old, decided he was going to be Zuko’s airbending teacher, and refuses to take no for an answer
Aang: Aw, the new Avatar doesn’t want me. Aang: *gets out a weighted net* Time for Plan B then.
JDJSHJABDBFJSH
Look, you know how you keep a net from falling on you? YOU AIRBEND IT, SUCKA. Air comes right after fire in the cycle so it’s not like the guy has any other options. Do you want a flaming net falling on you? No? Then learn to airbend. Or this tiny old man will cart you away like a trussed turkey and lecture you about the power of laughter, going with the flow, opening your chakras, and other hippie shit.
Sokka, slouching against a fence, not moving: Oh nooooooo, that creepy old man stole the Avataaaaaaaaaar. Sokka, sitting down on the ground: We should dooooo something. Sokka, pulling out his lunch: Otherwise he might actually learn something. That would be teeeerrible. Katara, indignant rage coursing through her body: Sokka!!!!!!!! We have to go look for him!!!! Sokka: Might! Actually! Learn! Something! Katara! Katara: *wavers* Katara, also sitting down: We have to go look for him…. *gets out her own sandwich* But, maybe after lunch.
I love that this transforms Aang’s role in the full Team Avatar familial situation from the baby of the family to the Grandpa with weird hobbies
The best part is Aang wouldn’t even teach him airbending in the beginning. First it’d be brewing the perfect cup of teach and blowing on it in juuuust the right way that it cools down ”But not too cold, or you’ll ruin it!”
Brushing Appa of course. Zuko would be pretty decent at that, but would come back to Aang absolutely covered in slobber and bison hair. “Awww! He likes you! <3″
Then it’d be calming meditation and slowing Zuko’s breathing (”But I am calm!”), tracking an elusive and nigh legendary animal so they can ride it, teaching patience by baking the perfect cake ”You just slapped the frosting on! It looks awful! *airbends it into the horizon* “Again!”
When Zuko finally gets it right, he almost smiles at Aang saying: “Excellent work, my student.” Then to Zuko’s consternation and horror Aang flings it at the head of the Fire Nation Governor during a political function. “And now we run!”
Pranks would be absolutely the thing that would bluescreen Zuko. Here’s an airbending master, over a century old, witnessed the genocide of his people, and he’s juggling, doing dances and tricks with Momo for the village kids, and plaguing the local aristocrats and military officers with flying cakes and whoopie cushions.
“How am I supposed to beat the Firelord with whoopie cushions?!”
And then, perfectly serious for the first time since Zuko had met him: “You don’t. The Avatar is about restoring balance. This training isn’t so you can fight the Firelord - it’s so you can stop a war.”
It takes a long time for Zuko to understand this. But the weird thing is: the townsfolk actually like Aang. Sure the aristocrats and crooked merchants and the officers don’t, but even the common Fire Nation infantry hide their chuckles with a cough when they see their commander’s fancy armor get covered in honey and feathers by “Crazy Aang,” again.
And Zuko realizes, at that moment, that he’s been having fun.
So, waking early, with no prompting from Aang, Zuko feeds Momo, brushes Appa, washes off the slobber, brews Aang his morning tea -perfectly cooled- and then proceeds to make a new, beautiful cake with no explanation.
“That looks wonderful, my student. Your best yet! Who were you planning to-”
Then Zuko smashes it in Aang’s face.
It’s the first time since coming out of the ice that Avatar Zuko laughs.
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I love how whenever ATLA recognizes Sokka is smart enough to solve a problem but it’d be too fast they just stick him in some kind of situation. Like he COULD’VE stopped jet from drowning a town so they tied him up and dumped him in a forest. He COULD’VE figured out what that spirits deal was so they lost him in the spirit world for 24 hours.
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I don't think I've seen anybody talk about how absolutely insane The Boiling Rock is from Hakoda's perspective.
Imagine getting captured, and your son tells you that you won't be apart for too long. That's sweet, but obviously your son has no resources to spare for organizing a breakout. You hope that the Avatar can defeat the Fire Lord soon - that's the earliest time you could hope to be rescued.
You get put into a temporary holding facility until the guards can sort out who is who. After a while, they put you on a prisoner transport to the Boiling Rock. Your captors try to intimidate you by telling you that it's the highest security prison in the Fire Nation, probably the whole world. It's far away from the capital.
You arrive at the Boiling Rock. It really is in the middle of a boiling lake. There's only one way in or out, and it's a gondola that takes you above the boiling lake. You meet the warden. They take you to your cell. You settle down to wait for the end of the war.
And 15 minutes later Sokka comes in like "hey dad I'm here I got the prince of the Fire Nation and an Earth Kingdom ninja leader gf ok let's go I'm busting you out"
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Personally I think that Azula should have been redeemed simply so that she can become Zuko's horrible little advisor who whispers evil little plans to him so that he can do the exact opposite
#the only reason she gets this job is bc he doesnt trust her anywhere else in the palace#its like enrichment for manipulative girls#also so that he can set her on asshole deligates like a rabid little lapdog#she just has mean fuckin pomeranian energy that thing bites then lights you on fire w flames so hot theyre cold#i think their sibling dynamic could be sooo fucking funny its insane (@madscientistenthusiast)
Zuko doesn't like instilling fear in people as the Fire Lord because it makes him feel too much like Ozai but sometimes motherfuckers NEED to be rattled so they don't try anything. Which is where Azula comes in. It's a win/win for everyone except for the poor sucker Azula has set her sights on
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preperations for the long journey ahead, friend
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