Fire Lord Portraits Pt. 2: Azulon

Part 2 of my Fire Lord Portraits series! And it only took me 5 years to get around to it.

The two notable details of Azulon's portrait are the flower that he stands on and the turtle beneath the flower. The flower under him resembles a peony. Like the peony flower, the petals in his painting are short, layered and frilled. In Chinese culture, the peony is nicknamed "The King of Flowers" and is associated with prosperity. This is primarily because peonies were a popular motif in art from the Tang Dynasty, widely regarded as a golden age for China. Assuming that Fire Lords choose the symbols in their painting, this would indicate that Azulon likely viewed himself as someone who led his country into a golden age of prosperity. Admittedly, he likely did enrich the Fire Nation by extracting resources from the Earth Kingdom through military occupation and the colonies. Also, the peony is the symbol of the Keohso clan, the bloodline that Azulon hails from, so it can be inferred that he was very proud of his lineage.

According to the Avatar wiki, the commentary track for "The Avatar and the Fire Lord" (S3E6) clarifies that the turtle represents "...an animal that lives both on land and in water, signifying his military successes over both the Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribes."

Turtles also symbolize longevity and tenacity. This is actually pretty appropriate, as Azulon's entire reign was spent leading a world war for 72 years. Not to mention, he still managed to make it to age 95 and would have lived even longer if he hadn't been murdered. Considering how much leading a warmongering empire ages most people after only 8 years, Azulon managing to command an active military for over 70 years definitely showcased his longevity and tenacity.

Finally, there's also the myth of the World Turtle:

Considering the Fire Nation's goals were ultimately to either dominate or destroy the other nations, depicting their leader and representative of their country standing on top of a turtle as if he is the world is pretty good symbolism. And if you're looking for the symbolism behind the scarf and halo, click here.

Also, his turtle has a really long neck and tail. Maybe it's a hybrid snake-turtle?

Favorite Foods: Toph

This is the toughest food post I've done yet.

Before Toph began sneaking out of her parents' home, I don't think she enjoyed eating very much. Meals in the Beifong household were a stuffy affair, dictated by innumerable rules of etiquette that Toph found tedious and exhausting. However, I do think she liked having teatime and snacks with her mom, who wasn't as insistent on policing her daughter's manners as Lao was. Other than that, I think most of Toph's positive food memories come from sampling street food in the area around the Earth Rumble arena. Each dish is linked to a recipe, by the way.

Fun fact: If you want an idea of what Tang Dynasty food tasted like, I would recommend finding a Chinese restaurant that serves Xi'an cuisine. Xi'an was the capital of the Tang Dynasty, when it was known as Chang'an.

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Cultural Cuisine: Seaweed Noodles

In LoK's fifth episode, Bolin takes Korra to a Southern Water Tribe restaurant called Narook's Seaweed Noodlery. Judging by how thick and green the noodles are, they most closely resemble wakame udon noodles. Wakame, also known as "sea mustard", is a type of edible seaweed (kelp) native to Northeast Asia and udon is a chewy Japanese noodle made from wheat flour. Wakame udon noodles are made by kneading wakame paste into udon dough. The result is a vivid green noodle with a mild and savory flavor. This style of noodles is a specialty of Japan's Awaji Island, although you can also buy dried sea mustard noodles from Korea.

Since seaweed is a popular ingredient in both East Asian and Inuit cuisine, it makes sense to feature it in a Water Tribe dish. Since Kyoshi Island is inspired by Japan, my head canon is that the dish was introduced to the SWT by Suki. Since nations were able to more easily trade after the war, wheat flour became common enough for Southern Water Tribers to start putting their own spin on the dish, such as using species of kelp native to the Arctic. I'd like to think that seaweed noodles came to represent the SWT's post-war culture and prosperity.

As for the broth and toppings, perhaps five-flavor soup with some stewed sea prunes?

Most officers: Fire Lord Zuko is great!

Ozai loyalists: Zuko? More like. Sucko. Go Ozai

Admiral Chan: That motherfucker invited himself to my son's party, broke my mother's vase because he was jealous, was told to leave, left, and then came back to burn down my vacation home.

Zuko: i keep telling you it was a rough period in my life

OP youre hiding gold in those tags

Accurate.

Just a collage of some distinctive hairstyles I’ve seen in photographs of Circumpolar women. Sources:

Some reference pictures of traditional arctic coats by region, for people who struggle with designing Water Tribe clothing (like myself). These are all female parkas.

Collage 1: Alaska

Collage 2: Canada

Collage 3: Greenland

Collage 4: Various regions

The last collage is of beaded amauti (baby-carrying parkas), which are typically worn during special occasions due to how elaborate they are. In some areas, they’re given as wedding gifts.

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Cultural Fashion: Fire Nation Top Knots

The Fire Nation’s iconic top knots appear to be inspired by the top knots worn during China’s Qin Dynasty (秦朝), 221 to 206 BC. Like the soldiers of Qin, the people of the Fire Nation tend to knot their hair into looped and somewhat loose buns.

Among the many periods of Chinese history, the stereotype of the Qin Dynasty is that it was very militant and expansionist so it’s a fitting inspiration for the Fire Nation.

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Cultural Anatomy: Toph’s Fancy Dress

The fancy dress that we see Toph wearing in “The Blind Bandit” is called a heziqun (诃子裙). A hezi is a strapless garment, somewhat like a tube top, that is meant to be worn over a qun, a flowing skirt. The final component of the dress are the silky sleeves called zhai xiu (窄袖) or “narrow sleeves” (as opposed to wide, draping sleeves). A ribbon is tied under the bust to hide the seam between the hezi and qun, as well as to further secure the garments to the body. The long, thin scarf that you see wrapped around the arms and behind the back is called a pibo (披帛). Overall, combined with her glamorous Gao Ji bun, Toph’s home look would’ve been considered the cutting edge of fashion during late Tang Dynasty China. I really like the inclusion of the flower embroidery on Toph’s hezi, it really stays true to the style of these dresses.

This particular design actually has a very special place in my heart because it was the catalyst for the creation of this blog last year. I was genuinely impressed by the historical accuracy of Toph and her family’s clothes and home that it motivated me to do further research on the other elements of the show. I can honestly say that the deeper I dig into the series, the more I get out of it. I’ve learned so much from researching a children’s cartoon I used to watch as a teenager. ^_^;;;

If you’d like to see what heziqun look like in motion, click here and here.

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(ID in ALT text)

listen there are more doodles. but i am agonizingly slow and well...overthinking things. big shoutout to @/atlaculture for the analysis on my last post honestly simply amazing because i went through it like 'oh gosh i am so glad i got it right!' so big thank you to them and their amazing work!

Such a cool piece!

Cultural Fashion: The Nomads Pt. 2

AKA “The Secret Tunnel Hippies”. I did not expect one-off joke characters to have such interesting cultural origins behind their designs, but Avatar always finds a way to hit me with wonderfully unexpected cultural details.

Now on to Chong’s equally-as-spacey wife, Lily! The first thing that struck me about her design is the turban-like head wrap she wears. Although there was an event in Chinese history known in English as the “Red Turban Rebellion”, turbans have never been a staple of Han Chinese fashion, especially not for women.

However, there is an ethnic group originally from China that is known for wearing dark head wraps that resemble turbans: Hmong Daw or White Hmong. Specifically the Hmong Daw from Xieng Khouang, Laos. Once I realized where Lily’s “turban” came from, the rest of her outfit suddenly made sense. The predominantly black color scheme always seemed out of place for such a carefree and easygoing character, but it makes sense if it’s inspired by the look of traditional Hmong Daw clothing.

Note the predominantly black shirt with colorful trim, the elbow-length sleeves, the waist-high sash, the bell-shaped skirt, the flats, and the head wrap. Pretty much the only major accessories that Lily is missing are the apron and the jewelry.

One can’t help but notice that both Chong and Lily’s design influences are from cultures/ethnic groups that have been pushed out of of their ancestral homelands by Chinese expansion.

Quoting @polteageist25-blog’s replies to this post:

Really wanted to highlight these replies. I’ll add these corrections to the original post. This is also a perfect example of why first-hand sources are so important. My post was made based on what I saw growing up near the Hmong community. However, because my observations came from an outsider’s perspective, I didn’t understand the evolution of the current Hmong dress or the nuance of why the traditional dress is constructed as it is.

The part about Hmong necklaces is especially interesting, because the jewelry of Miao people (the Chinese government’s label for Hmong and other related ethnic groups) is currently popular with the Hanfu community in China, necklaces included.