Writing Great Side Characters | Avatar: The Last Airbender

POSTAL ADDRESS (if you're kind enough to send me a letter or something!)

Tim Hickson
PO Box 69062
Lincoln, 7608
Canterbury, New Zealand

Script by meeeeeeeee

The artist who design my cover photo:

Stay nerdy!
Tim

[HelloFutureMe]

All cabbage merchant and combustion man erotica should be left below this comment 👇 Stay steamy

Tim

[kyr]

Combustion Man is the physical manifestation of Zuko’s toxic desire to hunt the Avatar. He is purely selfish drive given flesh.That’s why it had to be Zuko who hired him, and not Azusa or the Fire Lord from a storytelling standpoint. When Zuko saves the Avatar from Combustion Man, he is saving Aang and the others from the worst part of himself.

[lindseysquire]

Can we all acknowledge that this show did a phenomenal job at humanizing the Fire Nation?

[bexeb]

The cabbage merchant is an inspiration to everyone. He keeps trying after he fails, he is funny and belives in what he does. After falling, after being in the worng place so many times he did it. In legend of Korra he founded cabedge corp. He has the best character development and became a great meme. I care about the cabbage merchant and whenever his cabbages got destroyed i cried because of how much they mean to him. he had one goal in life and acomplishis it.

[RoadRunnerAldrin]

Um... Excuse me.
Where is THE BOULDER?!

[HenhousetheRed]

I just rewatched the Puppetmaster episode yesterday and was struck with how deeply tragic of a character Hama is. She was literally tortured. Watched her home and family be dismantled at a young age. Beaten into submission; stolen from her home and taken to a strange land to be subjected to imprisonment that stripped her of her very strength. If this wasn't a kid's show, Hama likely would have watched her own brothers and sisters succumb to death while she was powerless to do anything.

She deserved to have justice for the horrors the Fire Nation forced upon her. But justice was beyond reach. The Fire Nation stole her life away. The Fire Nation was always going to be stronger; an enemy insurmountable for one Waterbender in a strange, alien land to defeat. Finding justice was a hopeless goal, as hopeless as freedom must have felt for decades. Trauma and hopelessness twist a desire for justice into a desire for revenge.

Even the invention of Bloodbending was itself not a malicious act; it was resourcefulness to survive, the only key to her freedom. The moment she used it to inflict the same torture on others was the moment she became no better than her captors.

Hama could have gone home after escaping, could have lived the rest of her remaining years in the Southern tribe. But she had no idea if it even existed anymore after the repeating raids. And the Fire Nation would just keep coming. Home and safety was never an option.

She could have lived her days in peace hiding in the Fire Nation. But trauma can leave scars. Trauma in isolation even more so, because you know no better, and there is nothing to fill the gaping void of a lifetime stolen. A life marred by injustice will not find easy respite.

Hama's redemption and her path to mending old wounds could have been Katara. Katara said Hama was a hero, and she wasn't wrong. She could have done so much good for the rebuilding of the Southern Water Tribe, and for Katara herself. Another woman of the tribe who has suffered tremendous loss. They could have done so much to help each other to heal.

But her trauma was carved too deeply, and it fed a desire so thirsty for cold revenge that even finding another Southern Waterbender outstripped it all. Hama only saw Katara as a tool to continue her vengeance. Sufficed to say, unresolved trauma can ruin people. Especially if one has lived their life knowing nothing else. She was just another casualty of the war.

All this from a side character in a Halloween special episode on a kid's show, by the way. Coming up on two decades, this show still resounds in my head. *End emotional essay.*

[Kiwii_Sports]

I think it would be cool if the Avatar after Korra is an earthbender who uses neutral jin and is very patient and focused, is having a hard time mastering their firebending. They find it too chaotic and imprecise unlike Water, Air and Earth but eventually discovers their fire in form of Combustion bending. A technique that requires a lot of focus and patience. They cause a lot of damage with it and become seen as a danger to society. This Avatar becomes a social pariah and a young hermit until a group of heroes seek their help and wisdom in saving the world from a new threat. The Avatar has to learn to trust and forgive themselves for what happened in the past and move forward.

[krazYFaic]

Unlike the other side characters, the cabbage merchant never interacts directly with any of the main characters. He's what most of us are: unimportant to the global scheme of things. Most of us will never get to meet the Presidents, Kings, and Queens nor have our actions dictate the fate of the world yet we trundle on unseen and unappreciated by global affairs. Like us, he carries on trying to make a place for himself in the world. Often he is beaten down yet he never gives up. And when he finally establishes his Cabbage Empire, he gets to sit at the big table of world movers. This is what makes him important.
But don't take my word for it Tim, you made a whole video about him.

[amberlyveil]

The side characters I remember best are both ones that Zuko mostly interacts with...

The kid from "Zuko Alone", and Jin, the girl Iroh sets him up with

[matthewcenteno]

*Cabbage Merchant*
The story of th Cabbage Merchant is a compelling tale about never giving up and always getting back up, even when your cabbage stand gets destroyed countless times, and your main product gets disrespected and eaten by none paying costumers. Throughout the series we see him finding new locals to expand his business and sell his most abundant product, cabbages, as he seems to be following our protagonists through most of the world. Many years of hard work and determination later, we see in The Legend of Korra how the Cabbage Merchant fulfilled his dreams and built a cabbage industry so big that he owned a building in Republic City with a statue in his memory infront. This statue is built to remind us, the future generations, to never give up, no matter how many times your cabbage stand is destroyed, you will always have the materials to build a new one, and start again.

[overdramaticnerd]

There is no such thing as ‘BAD’ in Avatar. There is only less compelling

[duchi]

The Boomerang is top notch side character I tell you.
Boomerang is best girl.

[adityav.p]

Hey, i care the FOAMING MOUTH GUY, the world best side character of all time who just make us WOW with his foaming mouth

[dcguy]

Tim's erotica request just started a whole new genre.
The madlad

[Doorknobperson]

Yes, I care excessively for cabbage man. I have had many a sleepless nights wondering.. did he sell his cabbages? does he grow his own cabbages? if so, what fertiliser does he use?

[sylviefay]

personally I'd rank them as
tier 1: Aunt Wu and the tribes whose names I don't remember
tier 2: Combustion Man who I'd argue is more memorable based mostly on cool design and powers but also served a little bit more story purpose as being a small stepping stone towards Zuko joining the gaang
tier 3: Piandao, more noteworthy than Sparky, played a more integral part in the main story, and his episode was definitely inspirational but most important his entire appearance in the series lacks the emotional impact of
tier 4: Jet and Hama. the emotional weight these 2 have is I think just as important as the other factors and nothing any of the other characters are a part of not even Piandao's inspirational episode comes close to matching their most noteworthy scenes
Jet: don't worry I'll be fine
Toph quietly and pained: he's lying
or
Hama with sinister music playing in the background: congratulations Katara. *you're a bloodbender*

those moments were *powerful*

[danydevina]

“Love Amongst the Dragons” fanfic but it’s just HelloFutureMeXCombustion Man

[small_and_dangerous]

The Cabbage Merchant is a fundamentally important character in the Avatar universe. His legacy lives on into Korra and his persistence for selling cabbages despite the hardships he faces is nothing if not admirable. He represents the rise and fall of a growing business and highlights the struggle of being put down again and again. He is an inspiration to those who feel like their dreams aren’t worth pursuing and he’s a resilient merchant who will stop at nothing to sell those dang cabbages.

[matthewcenteno]

*Combustion mam X Tim*
It was a hot summer evening when Tim was writing his script as to why Combustion Man is the best character in the ATLA series, while rewatching the episode that Zuko defeats Combustion Man. He was close to finishing the script and decided to finish watching the rest of the episode. Tim had never realized how much he admired Combustion Man untill he sat down to write down all the things he likes about him, the cool lookong eye tattoo, his conbustion bending powers, that moscular chest. Tim's heart started pounding when Combustion Man comes back on screen and he paused the video at just the right moment so he could admire his newfound cartoon crush. Staring at the screen, Tim couldnt help but notice how revealing his open shirt truly was, and he started imagining how the rest of his body would appear in revealing clothes. The thaught of combustion man with less clothing made Tim's hand stsrt shaking as his breaths became more uneaven and sweat started drenching his shirt. Tim decided to remove his shirt to cool off and when his own abs where revealed, he couldn't help himself from imagining Combustion Man placing his strong hands on his chest. Already half maked, Tim decided to go all out, and removed all his clothing. Staring at the screen, Tim slowly caressed his now throbing member as he leaned closer for a better view and whispered in a soft and lustful voice: "I love you Combustion Man."

[boo]

I don't think all side characters should be great and memorable, that just sounds overwhelming. Average, mediocre characters and the occasional side quest can be very important. Fluff and filler aren't entirely useless yknow? It could make the good shit stand out more