Okay, I was about to quote from this, and then discovered that quigonejinn had quoted the same paragraph and briefly doomthreaded with you here like a whole week and some ago. Although she did tell me to read this at the time so I have nobody to blame but myself. STILL. That paragraph is pure awesome. It packs so much in there: the meditation methods used to practice for firebending, the way it started so early, the self-possession that Azula had even when she was tiny, and the way the heir was selected. That for a short time, she was the heir-- outstanding.

Aang, busy sliding a tray across under the upturned bowl, wished not for the first time that people would understand that his master’s tattoos, still tight and fresh and prone to catching him by surprise out of the corner of his eye, as if bits of him were very cold or underwater, did not make him an expert on anything other than airbending.

Oh, Aang. <3 <3 <3 <3 I especially love how he's still surprised when he sees them; he doesn't recognize them as HIM yet. So lovely.