When I Got On Twitter And Said If Katara Had Killed Yon Rha, Zuko’s Opinion Of Katara’s Core Character

The Fortune-Teller does not deserve the hate it has received. It's actually a great episode that people misunderstand. Let me explain.

Kataangers love the episode for it says Katara is destined to be with Aang. Zutarians hate the episode for this reason along with forcing Katara into a pigeon hole. I stand between these warring tribes and say that they are both wrong.

To be clear, I am a Zutarian. If we would've had a Book 4 like the head writer had intended, this episode would've been integral for that book.

"But the 3-act story structure!" some may argue. A 3-act story structure is just a 4-act story structure in disguise.

Anyways, let's continue.

The destiny that Aunt Wu foretells does not give names and is vague in nature. She tells Katara that she is to be married to a powerful bender. She didn't say the most powerful nor did she say bender of all four elements. One doesn't have to be the Avatar to be a powerful bender.

Come Aang's fortune, she foretold of a great battle between good and evil that will determine the fate of the world. We immediately think of Aang battling Firelord Ozai to end the 100 year war. However, this fortune is vague and could foretell another battle after Ozai has fallen.

When Aunt Wu learns that Aang wants to learn about his future about love, she cheers him up by giving him a vague, seemingly harmless white lie to satisfy him. "Follow your heart and you will be with the one you love." Since Aang is 12, he can easily misconstrue infatuation for love.

I believe The Fortune-Teller is a giant red herring that many people in both Zutara and Kataang sectors have fallen for. But wait, what is a red herring?

In literature, a red herring is a device to throw the characters and the audience off the scent of future events. It's meant to distract and deceive.

At the end of The Fortune-Teller, Katara believes she is destined to be with Aang and Aang believes it as well. Throughout the remainder of the series, Katara's emotional bond with Aang is challenged. Then by The Ember Island Players, Katara is confused, unsure about her feelings, unsure about her destiny.

What other character struggled with his perception of his destiny?

For the majority of the series, Zuko falsely believed that his destiny was to hunt down the Avatar and regain his honor. We know that this destiny was forced upon him by his father, Ozai.

But as Iroh has said, "Destiny is a funny thing." Iroh had believed he would have been in Ba Sing Se as a conqueror but instead, he had liberated Ba Sing Se from Fire Nation occupation.

Zuko had turned against his father and his supposed destiny and set out to aid the Avatar instead. After this, Zuko's new belief is that it is his destiny to help Aang in defeating Ozai instead. Truly, destiny is funny that way.

But why is this only applied to Zuko? Why isn't this the same message given to Katara's arc? Is she truly destined to be with Aang and she cannot fight against this fate? Is this strong female character destined to be reduced to servitude?

The same girl that inspired imprisoned earthbenders to fight back? The same girl that fought against gender roles in her own culture? The same girl that didn't give into despair and led her crew out of the desert? The same girl that aided in healing a Fire Nation village? The same girl that rose above her mentor and used bloodbending to save her loved ones? The same girl that went toe to toe with Azula and won?

I SAY NAY!

Imagine, if you will, what Katara's continued arc could've been like in Book 4. Katara would've defied the destiny that was forced upon her and determined her destiny for herself. But in the end, destiny is a funny thing for this action only plays into fate. Zuko is a powerful bender after all. 👀

Now, I must depart before I give too many spoilers for my writing. Fare thee well, until we meet again!

Ok, ok.

So. I've had this theory floating around in my head for years but i've never actually talked about it.

The First Great Prophecy of the original Percy Jackson books is worded like this:

1. A half-blood of the eldest gods

2. Shall reach sixteen against all odds

3. And see the world in endless sleep

4. The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap

5. A single choice shall end his days

6. Olympus to preserve or raze

Now, in Heroes of Olympus, Piper Mclean makes an interesting comment about the nature of the oldest olympian:

“And why shouldn't Piper intimidate them? Aphrodite was the most ancient Olympian, born of the sea and the blood of Ouranos. She was older than Poseidon or Athena or even Zeus. And Piper was her daughter.” ― Rick Riordan, The Blood of Olympus

Now, the reason for one of the Big Three's children being prophesized is simply, that "gods often refer to the male ones."

When you put this into context, this seems, odd, doesn't it? Prophecies are intentionally misleading, and according to the wiki, "Regardless of how a prophecy is received, they all have one thing in common: they are cryptic. A prophecy will never say exactly what will happen,"

So why are the Big Three assumed to be the eldest gods, and why does everyone just go along with this explanation, the easiest one to believe?

(Ok, so what am I yapping about? what does this mean?)

Aphrodite is the eldest Olympian. Her daughter, Silena (oh, no.)

could be the (my) hero of the Great prophecy.

Let me explain each line first, then go through the entire theory.

First of all,

2. "shall reach 16 against all odds."

Silena was around 16 at the time of her death. The "odds" she's faced, apparently to make her decision (which I'll talk about later) are most likely just one "odd": Beckendorf's death. Unlike Percy, who's (assumed to be) our hero in the original story, she does not go through multiple quests to try and stop Luke/Kronos. This might make someone feel this argument is less compelling. However, Beckendorf's death and Clarisse's support rock Silena's foundations to the core, because she operated with Luke only under the belief that he would keep Beckendorf safe.

So yes, Silena made it to her current age against all odds.

" 'Against all odds' is an idiom that means something was achieved despite the odds being stacked against it." So absolutely, Silena made it against all odds.

3. And see the world in endless sleep

This section is pretty self-explanatory. In the Last Olympian,

"Silena met with the campers... and she was astonished at how peaceful Manhattan was, and asked if they were dead, and Percy said they weren’t dead, Morpheus had just put them to sleep. " - Percy Jackson Wikia

So yes, as easily as this section applies to Percy, it easily applies to Silena. What's even more interesting is that in this specific scene, Silena is given a role.

Keep in mind up until this point Silena has basically been treated barely as a character, an accessory for Rick to use as an Aphrodite child Percy is semi-familiar with. Rick even regularly forgets the makeup of her physical features.

"In The Demigod Files, it said that her hair was black and her eyes chocolate brown. In The Last Olympian, she had brown hair and blue eyes and in The Ultimate Guide, her eyes were blue and her hair was blonde."

So yes, she does fit the third line of the prophecy.

Now you may think. "There's absolutely no way she can fit the last three lines of the prophecy into Silena's story. No. Absolute. Way."

But, dear reader, you misunderstand me. This is merely an alternate interpretation of the Great Prophecy that I honestly like better than the original one. Because it subverts expectations. Because it changes the way people see things, and prophecies seldom turn out exactly the way they are described. Percy at some point is just assumed to be the hero of the prophecy. I like this theory because it is exactly what a prophecy should be: it will never say exactly what will happen, in the way that you expect it to happen.

Let's move on to Line #4.

4. The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap

Silena is established as the spy for Kronos in Book 5, The Last Olympian, Kronos begins taunting Percy with a bracelet that has a scythe charm on it: the method of communication he and his spy use. This scythe charm could very well be the "cursed blade" as Silena gives up her soul to be reaped by Kronos' cursed blade. Silena sells her soul in the hope of saving Beckendorf, and she loses her soul/life in the process of losing that blade. The cursed blade reaps, or kills, her.

If not for her association with Kronos and her later guilt that leads her to die for Clarisse, Silena would never have died. She wouldn't have been reaped. It's not as literal of a connection but it's a poetic one that still works quite well, especially in the tone of this side-arc mirroring the poem of Achilles and Patroclus.

5. A single choice shall end his days

("WAIT!!", you're saying. "IT SAYS HIS DAYS, NOT HER DAYS!!1!!!1 THEORY DISPROVED, AND YOU'RE A LIAR!")

Do you hear people say "humankind" very often? In many older texts, and partially in the current day, "him" was just the singular, default version of "they". Femininity had to be specified. This is why Thalia was considered a viable candidate for the prophecy.

Now, Silena's single choice was obvious: going out with Clarisse's helmet on. She sacrificed her life to lead the Ares cabin, which by the way was a major problem as they had the majority of the weapons and heavy fighters but refused to be moved out UNTIL Silena decided to step up and lead them.

#6. and More Explanation will be out in a part #2 I will write soon!!!

Excuse me while I throw up, we couldn’t just have a scene of them going to a play without Kataang being shoved down our throats.

I mean... yay!

but also I thought she was #2 earlier am i hallucinating?

also HOW is The Weeknd higher than Queen Bey?

I don't even like Beyonce that much, and she cannot be #7

Billboard names Taylor Swift the biggest artist of the 21st century!

(January 8, 2025)

bro literally "jack and ralph smiled at each other with shy liking"

who the fuck is ralph and why the fuck is he radiating gay man energy

We’re reading Lord of the Flies in class right now and uh

I might be delusional but what do you mean Simon “shyly stroked” Ralph’s arm

anyways uh interesting book ig

bitch shut the fuck up

straightness is strange (as a straight person)

y'all

señor orange cheeks??????

Y'all

Im not on tiktok and never have been, but I downloaded RedNote just to see what is up, and I am witnessing something truly amazing

The Chinese user community is giving the American tiktok refugees an overwhelmingly warm welcome, meanwhile the American users seem to have collectively agreed that not only will they not let the app be taken over with English and they will provide Mandarin subtitles for everything, they are LEARNING MANDARIN. Ive scrolled through so many videos of Americans offering greetings in Mandarin to try to acclimate to the new environment and be respectful, and speakers of both languages are posting lots of tutorials on language basics and internet slang in Mandarin

My God, there is an AMAZING outpouring of curiosity and delight among everyone to learn about each others cultures and daily lives. People are posting videos of landscapes, cities, towns, and natural areas in USA and China, posting recipes and traditional foods, vlogs of everyday life, and reaching out to find people with similar hobbies.

And it's not just young people! There are loads of videos from middle-aged American guys who have come to post about fishing or motorcycles and are now happily chatting with Chinese users sharing the same interests using Google translate

One American guy who was like. in his 60's had a comment on one of his videos that was like "Red Neck?" and he replied "Yes!" and I just about fucking lost it

Also the Chinese users love, and I mean LOVE, Luigi Mangione. He is apparently broadly adored in China. There is SO much fanart and SO many edits.

There are many threads initiating Chinese users to ask questions of American users about the USA, and vice versa, and everyone on both sides is clearing up a lot of misconceptions. Some of the questions I saw a lot from Chinese users were: "Is it true that American parents kick you out of the house as soon as you turn 18" (not often, but sometimes) "Do you all really wear shoes in bed" (NO!!! Apparently a lot of characters in American sitcoms are shown lying in bed with shoes on which I never noticed before!) and "are there really guns everywhere" (yes).

For the most part Chinese content creators seem just overwhelmed by the sudden influx of hundreds of followers that are super enthusiastic about what they're doing. A lot of them have made posts about how initially they thought the uptick in follower count was some kind of error, or that there was some kind of joke or prank, but then they realized the interest and enthusiasm was genuine and now they're welcoming all the newcomers.

I found several posts by Chinese users saying that this felt like a really profound historical moment, where these previously separated worlds are suddenly smashing together and suddenly there is freedom to learn about each other's cultures and connect. One of them said something along the lines of "This is a 21st century Tower of Babel and even though I'm an atheist I hope God lets this tower stand." OUGH MY HEART.

The app itself works a little bit like a video-based version of Pinterest. It's not really my thing so I probably won't be on there long term but it's been amazing to see what's happening.

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"I know he didn't get that scar from a waterbender."

If an Earthbender can make and bend lava, then it stands to reason that a waterbender could make and bend boiling water.

Oh, wait...

Yes... Yes, this might work for my fanfic muhahahahaha!

I can’t stop making low quality avatar memes

You’re my favorite character “i can ship you with almost anyone.”

vs.

You’re my favorite character “i can only ship you with one person/no person”