This instantly became one of my favorites the first time I read it, and It's one of those rare few I know I'll come back to occasionally for a long time to come. The character voices are spot on, the story is thought provoking and right in line with the spirit of AtLA, and the humor regularly gets me actually laughing. Absolutely fantastic job.
For this chapter specifically; I love the match between Aang and Toph. I love that you let Toph be actually angry, but simultaneously show that she's not going to let it poison her bond with Aang, and do so without undercutting or invalidating her feelings. That's especially hard to do for a character who chronically hides their feelings the way Toph does, but you walked that tightrope beautifully with the way you used subtle tells- like dropping the nickname- and then highlighted them using Aang's PoV. Closing out on the high note of them getting excited at what the other can do completes the feeling that whatever frustrations are still unaddressed will be worked out in time, and that both of them know that their friendship will not be broken. It sets up the character drama without feeling artificially inflated, drawing me in as a reader because the stakes don't feel out of place in a way that forces me to put in work to maintain immersion.I love it!
Comment on The Slow Path
Soidori on Chapter 1 Mon 04 Nov 2024 02:20PM UTC
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