Avatar: The Last Airbender Book Tag

Posted On April 10, 2019

Hey guys! Welcome to my first book tag of 2019! Today I’m combining two of my favorite things: books, and Avatar: The Last Airbender. The original creator of this tag is Hannah from the BookTube channel A Clockwork Reader, and I wasn’t tagged by anyone. I just love Avatar a lot and I will take any opportunity to talk about it.

Let’s get into the tag!

Water

Question 1: Katara and Sokka: Best Sibling Relationship

This is going to sound kind of weird, since these siblings are supposed to kill each other (it also might be a little spoilery—fair warning if you haven’t read Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake), but I think I have to go with Mirabella and Arsinoe from the Three Dark Crowns series. I know, the dynamic between these two is nothing like Katara and Sokka’s, and nor is it really the kind of relationship that most siblings would aspire to, but to me, the fact that these two girls grew up being told that they were supposed to hate each other and, eventually, attempt to kill each other, and yet they still managed to find a sisterly bond and refuse to do what their tradition decreed, is powerful.

They may not have the goofy, argument-filled, typical sort of sibling relationship, but they care about each other deeply, in spite of the fact that in reality, they barely know each other, and I think that counts for something.

Question 2: Yue: Favorite Star-Crossed Lovers

Maybe the fact that I just finished reading (and loving) this series is clouding my judgment, but I have to go with Nikolai and Vika from The Crown’s Game duology by Evelyn Skye. In the first book, their only job is to win a competition that will end in one of their deaths.

Question 3: Blood Bending: A book with a disturbing/unsettling concept

Wow, there’s a lot of these I could choose from, but I think I’m going with The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North. The main character of this book is a character (Hope) no one can ever remember once she is out of their sight, and although that doesn’t really sound all that unsettling at first, after reading the book and thinking about it, it would actually be really scary to be in her position. You’d have no one to rely on when something goes wrong, no way to get help if you’re alone because there’s no one in the world who remembers who you are.  

Even from the other side, it’s scary—being the person who forgets, if said person knows that they are forgetting. We actually get to see the effects of that in the book, when Hope spends some time with a lady who is actively trying to remember her by writing notes about her, and who gradually begins to question the reliability of her memory and even her sanity because of her utter inability to remember Hope’s existence at each encounter, even after seeing her every day, several times a day, for weeks or months.

Earth

Question 4: Toph: a character whose strength surprised you or surprised the other characters in the book

The first character that comes to my mind when I read this question (other than Toph herself obviously) is Vin from the Mistborn trilogy. Vin seems to constantly be surprising the other characters in the books with her abilities as a fighter and an Allomancer (a term for a type of magic-user in that world) because she’s small and doesn’t look particularly threatening.

Question 5: The Tales of Ba Sing Se: Best Short Story/Poetry Collection

I don’t read many short stories (though I would like to fix that—feel free to throw some recs down in the comments), and I read poetry even less often, so this question is kind of hard for me, but I guess I’m going to go with Because You Love to Hate Me, which is an anthology of 13 different villain-related short stories, all written by different YA authors. Some of them are retellings of classic villain stories, some of them are entirely new, most of them are pretty cool.

Question 6: Kyoshi Warriors: Best Warrior Character

Zoe Nightshade from the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. First of all, because she’s just awesome, and second, because the Warriors of Kyoshi remind me a lot of the Hunters of Artemis (except for the fact that the Hunters are supposed to swear off men forever, and if Suki is any indication, the Kyoshi Warriors definitely don’t).

Fire

Question 7: Zuko: Best Redemption Arc/a redemption arc that should have happened

I think I have to go with Adelina Amouteru from The Young Elites. That girl’s story is such a wild ride from beginning to end, and you really have no idea what side she’s going to fall on, even up until basically the very end. You love her and you hate her, and sometimes you want to scream at her, which are all the feelings I feel toward Zuko whenever I rewatch the series (the end of book 2, anyone?)

Question 8: Iroh: Wisest Character

I know the stereotypical answers for this question must be Dumbledore, or Gandalf, but seeing as I haven’t finished either of those series—or started the Lord of the Rings at all, for that matter (I know, fake fantasy fan), I feel that I’m not qualified to speak to that, and so I’m choosing Scythe Faraday from Scythe by Neal Shusterman. I haven’t read the second book in this series, so maybe I can’t say anything here either, but in the first book, I loved Scythe Faraday. He feels guilty for all the things he’s had to do for his job, he’s a fantastic teacher, and really, he’s just great.

Question 9: Azula: Best Downfall

This might be cheating because this book literally sets out to be the tale of how the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland ended up as the villain we know her as, but I’m choosing Catherine from Heartless by Marissa Meyer. I knew from the moment I picked up the book that the main character was going to turn evil, and yet, this book somehow managed to make me care about her enough that when she made the decision that would ultimately lead to her downfall, I was legitimately angry—so much so that I literally put down the book with less than a hundred pages left and stewed about it for a while. I did eventually go back and read those last few pages, of course.

I don’t normally get emotional enough about a book that I react in such a way, so to me, that’s a good sign.

Air

Question 10: Appa: Favorite Fictional Animal/Pet

I don’t think I have a choice here: my favorite has to be Manchee from the Chaos Walking Trilogy. I didn’t love this series back when I read it, but I did love Manchee—a lot. He’s sweet and loyal and funny. Plus, his cool factor is even higher because he can (sort of) talk. In case you don’t know the premise of this series, it’s set in a world where there are only men and everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts (It’s called the Noise), including the thoughts of animals like Manchee. The story starts when Todd finds someone whose thoughts are silent: a girl.

Question 11: Aang: Purest Cinnamon Roll

Okay, so I don’t read a lot of books that are just nothing but fun and happiness. I read a lot of fantasy, which tends to have a lot of dark, save-the-world-because-it’s-ending kind of themes. Therefore, there aren’t many characters that are just there to be cute and fun.

If I have to choose, though, I think I’m going with Carter Kane from the Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan. He’s just such a pure person who wants to do the best he can, but who the world tends to look down on. He’s also really smart and capable. Honestly, I wish more people would read the Kane Chronicles. Everyone loves Rick’s Greek and Roman mythology books, as well as his Norse mythology series, but you don’t hear people talk about the one based on Egyptian mythology all that often, which I think is a shame because it’s great.

Question 12: Avatar state: A stubborn character/a character that struggles with letting go

I’m going to have to go with Kaladin from the Stormlight Archive. He tries so hard to protect the people he’s close to and whenever something bad happens to them (which seems to happen pretty frequently in his life), he blames himself unnecessarily, and he can’t get over it. I feel bad for him, but at the same time, sometimes I wish he would just realize that everything bad that happens isn’t his fault, that he’s doing his best and that, in fact, he deserves to be happy in spite of his perceived failures.

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Okay, that’s all the questions for the tag! This time, I have some people to tag, and here they are:

Cerys from Browsing for Books

Nox from Nox Reads

Hannah from Books, Life and Other Oddities

Kimberly from Kimothy Wish

And as always, if there’s anyone else who wants to do this, consider yourself tagged!

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Thanks for reading, everyone, and I’ll see you next time! Let me know down in the comments what your favorite TV show is. Mine, in case you couldn’t tell, is Avatar: The Last Airbender.

-Ariel