He's So Close To Figuring It Out

he's so close to figuring it out

Some "if Yue is alive and went travelling with the Gaang" designs

With a ton of text about cultural inspiration.

A traditional full-height drawing of Yue in an outfit for the book 2. She is dressed in a pink deel with dark purple embroidery, a light purple second layer with white embroidery (right shoulder off), grey loose pants and greyish boots. Her hair is in two braids, she has a light blue crescent-shaped decoration on her forehead, kept in place by a string of blue beads. She is looking over her shoulder while running.

A traditional full-height drawing of Yue in an outfit for the royal party in Ba Sing Se. She is wearing an ochre-coloured dress with high collar and a white wide-sleeved dress with green embroidery and high slits as a second layer. She has a string of green beads on her neck, gold earrings, a hair decoration with a tassel on the right and a pink flower, and an ochre-and-green-fan that she uses to cover her face with. She is facing the viewer.

A traditional full-height drawing of Yue in a Fire Nation disguise. She wears a red top with a loose piece of fabric going over her left shoulder, a long pink skirt with dark-gray belt, a white turban covering her hair, and flip-flops. A necklace, earrings and a couple of bracelets compliment her outfit. She's looking on her left, folding her hands demurely in front of her.

A traditional full-height drawing of Yue dressed for the invasion. She is depicted in a lilac deel with dark blue embroidery and belt, a light purple sleeveless jacket with white embroidery, loose grey pants and greyish boots. Her hair accessory is the same crescent-shaped jewelry from the main look for book 2, but her hair is in seven braids now, with two front ones braided together from the middle to the tip. She is walking forward with confidence.

A traditional full-height drawing of Yue. She is clad in white kuspuk with purple-and-white wavy embroidery and the symbol of the Water Tribe in shades of blue on her chest. The grey fur is seen on the hood, the sleeves and under the hem. Her boots are purple, with white moon on the bootleg. Her hair is separated into three parts: a bun on the back and a tied braid on each side. She stands holding her hands supine at the chest level, with her eyes closed solemnly.

The main book 2 look

Collage - full-height Yue design, mongolian girls in deels, chinese actors in two layer attires, a portrait photograph of female mongolian dancer with a headdress.

I wanted to show cultural differences between the tribes, so Yue's look is sort of Mongolian. There were Mongolian-styled hats in the Northern tribe, and Yue's dress under the coat looked like a Mongolian deel (thanks @atlaculture for all these posts about clothes and everything else!), so it's not much against the canon information.

So she's wearing a deel again with a second layer - there are chinese actors on photos as far as I know; I hope it's okay. One-shoulder silhouette refers to later Aang's clothes because Yue is still kind of a spiritual person (she wasn't a fighter, so I want her to have some other useful talent – not a bender or healer like Katara or a non-bender warrior like Suki). Violet, pink and white were originally her colors, no changes here. Three blue characters would be too much for a group of five, and total white is not practical at all. I like to think that violet color shows high rank in the Avatar universe; in the original series it was only worn by princess Yue, Kanna, the chief Hakoda's mother, and by king Bumi.

Yue's boots here are mongolian gutals/gutuls (the collage is already big, but I used them again for one of Book 3-looks).

Her hair become simpler – just two braids and a hairpiece, to match her previous decorated hairdo. I guess if she's travelling with the Gaang she's not that much of a Moon Spirit anymore (maybe she returned the part of the moon spirit that saved her and was healed other way?), so I decided to forego the moon-referring part. Also it will be easier to do by herself since she has no servants now... The headdress I took from modern Mongolian dancers; the front part is crescent-moon-shaped.

The Ba Sing Se dress

Collage - three girls in Ao Dai dresses, a screenshot from A:tla with an Earth Kingdom lady, two pictures from the artbook with NWT and EK hats and hairdos, a part of A:tla screenshot with Toph and Katara with fans.

I fell in love with this Ao Dai dress, it's simple, long and elegant. But... it's mostly Vietnamese… and I'm afraid that it's modern and not historically accurate. Also it does not really go together with other Ba Sing Se dresses :( because I did not want to just copy-paste some background look. But there is at least one dress with a tail, thigh high slits and a standing collar on the dress underneath, so... I guess my choice is not that bad? The tail makes her look more royal. The fan is the same which Toph and Katara had. For the palette I chose Yue's white color with EK greens and warm yellow/ochre to match Katara and Toph. The hairdo is copied from the series; I chose one with the tassel on the right, to refer the NWT/Korean accessories.

The Fire Nation disguise

Collage - a black-and-white photo of a Myanmar woman in longyi skirt, a portrait photograph of a girl in a turban, a half-body photo of a Thai female dancer.

A confession – I don't like FN clothes. I wasn't sure if I would be able to do it properly, so I almost copied that attire (left one) – asymmetry, as a Thai touch, which again matches Aang's Invasion Buddhist-like clothes. The palette keeps Yue's signature white, with some pink of a warmer shade, as they wear it in the Fire Nation. And the "royal" long skirt, 'cause she's still not a fighter. The look is simplified so I could not keep zigzag ornament on her longyi skirt, therefore I moved it onto the top part.

I used Thai dancers jewelry and... flip flops? idk how they are called in Southeast Asia (don't like Sokka and Katara's FN shoes at all, why the design is so complicated?).

For covering her hair I used a turban, inspired by Myanmar turbans; a white one, so if some hair will show, it won't be too noticeable. Also Yue could still be easily recognised on screen/page by her white head. The long end of the fabric on her right resembles burmese hairstyle silhouette.

The Invasion-and-till-finale look

Collage - a photo of a woman in mongolain deel, sleeveless jacket and a hat, a photo of mongolian boots gutals, three black-and-white portrait photographs of girls, one with mongolian hairdo (a lot of thin braids) and two with inuit hardo (two braids in the front braided together from the middle to the tip)

For her dress I used a deel (again); the sleeveless jacket is an hommage to her original design and has some Korean vibes, like Toph's Ba Sing Se dress (at least I hope so). Katara and Sokka's season 1 looks have Korean influence, so I guess it's okay. Gutals are from her Book 2 main look. I have a soft spot for them.

My favorite thing is her hair :)))) It's a mix of Inuit/Mongolian braids and a hairpiece, also from the Book 2 look. This time there will be more braids. Two on the front – I wanted to keep them from her original hairdo, but now they are braided together (I saw this on the Alaskan Inuit/Eskimo women photos). On the back there are five, inspired by a Mongolian hairdo for young unmarried girls, who wore multiple braids. I decided to make five, because Alaskian Inuit language uses this amount for counting and with two front braids it'll make seven, which is a lucky Mongolian number. And in theory a limited number should be easier to animate.

The post-canon noble look

Collage - three black-and-white photos. On the first one there is a woman and a little girl, both wearing kuspuks. Two other photos are portrait photographs of ingenious women with similar hairdo - a bun at the back of the head and two braids tied into sort of little buns on each side.

After the final battle I thought Yue will come back to Agna Qel'a and become a more active political figure. I chose a white kuspuk (blue color is still for Katara and Sokka), showing that she is ready to lead her tribe after this journey, not the passive perfect princess she was before. "She is associated in canon with the masculine yang of the yin and yang and the moon which, in most Inuit and Eskimo cultures, is considered masculine as well. While white kuspuks are associated with men and specifically family patriarchs, a feminine kuspuk in white makes plenty of sense for Yue's character" – @mostly-mundane-atla helped me a lot with the cultural meaning of the clothes (I am so grateful!). Also it's an hommage to her total-white Moon Spirit look. And I changed her hair again to Greenland updo with two tied braids on the front – more complicated than the simple braids she wore during the journey. It looks formal.

NWT is less Inuit-inspired and has a strong Mongolian touch (to make them look more "modern"? dunno) but I guess the formal wear for the spiritual princess could refer to older traditions. Which should be the same with SWT, 'cause SWT was originally a part of NWT – or so I heard. For example, Kuruk, the NWT Avatar who lived about 400 years ago, has nothing Mongolian in his look.

All the looks are simplified to match the style of the original cartoon. I know there should be more details and embroidery, but my goal here was to draw something (at least theoretically) applicable for animation. And no Hahn's betrothal necklace of course.

Also I want to mention here other great Yue designs, since they are the inspiration behind the overall idea of the post – the moon looks and "Yue joins the Gaang" outfits by amazingly talented @chiptrillino.

P.S.: an important note

This is my first attempt ever to design outfits that could fit the world of A:tLA. I am not Asian or ingenious, not an expert in their cultures or costume history at all, not a professional character designer. I am just a fan who tried to create designs with respect to real cultures and people. Nothing here was supposed to be offensive in any way. If something still is – please inform me so I could fix it as soon as possible.

I hope, as a fan, I have the right to draw fanarts looking for an inspiration in the cultures that inspired the original cartoon.

If you see mistakes in my post, be it in drawings or a text, also feel free to tell me. I will deeply appreciate it.

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jimbooooo0oo

3 months ago