Happy 20th Anniversary 🩵

Hi guys, it’s Pastel--Sapphire!! Happy 20th anniversary to one of my favourite childhood shows :tada: 🩵

——•˚✧• :ocean: 🪨 :fire: 🌪 •˚✧•——

As for many, Avatar has been part of most of my life, having grown up with it. Even though I started watching some episodes when they were on TV on Nickelodeon (in Dutch!!) and later streamed the entire series in English online, I honestly didn’t think it’d still be a big part of my life 20 years later. From the series appearing on Netflix to stream, to ing this community and meeting some incredibly amazing people, watching The Legend of Korra for the first time after it also appeared on Netflix for streaming (and rewatching it, along with the original series, numerous times), to start gathering a few pieces of merch, and more.

The official Avatar cookbook in particular always brings a smile to my face. As Avatar merch (apart from the comics in some bookstores in the bigger cities) can be hard to find in the Netherlands, I didn’t own anything Avatar related until this cookbook came out in late 2021. I ordered it the minute I could! It’s filled with amazing recipes, both for dishes, desserts and beverages (some of Uncle Iroh’s teas are included!). Many of which I have yet to try out, but Momo’s moon peaches and Uncle Iroh’s hot leaf juice are two of my favourites so far 🥰

——•˚✧• :ocean: 🪨 :fire: 🌪 •˚✧•——

It took me quite a while to get a physical copy of my own, but just before I got the cookbook, one of my besties started reading the Kyoshi novels. I she literally couldn’t shut up about them, constantly talking about them in our private Discord server, and begged me for months to read them. Some of you who have been here a long time might this Kyoshi drawing I made because of it. My friend even lent me her ed copies for me to read and once I got the time to actually read them I was 𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘥. I read both books in two days’ time!! After that I gradually started gathering the other Avatar Chronicles books as well- though I’ve yet to get The Legacy of Yangchen and The Reckoning of Roku :see_no_evil: One day my collection will be complete, that’s for sure.

——•˚✧• :ocean: 🪨 :fire: 🌪 •˚✧•——

One of my favourite Avatar memories is a recent one, though. Last October I visited one of my besties who permanently moved from the Netherlands to England. We had tickets for MCM London Comic Con on the Saturday, which was an amazing (and incredibly tiring!) experience. It was the first convention I attended in many, many years and there were SO many famous actors and voice actors as guests. As you can guess, some of the ATLA cast were also present. Michaela Jill Murphy (Toph’s VA), James Sie (the Cabbage Merchant) and Jennie Kwan (Suki’s VA) were there and even Zach Tyler Eisen (Aang’s VA!!) made a rare appearance at the convention. Unfortunately I didn’t have the budget to meet all of them as there were a fair few other VAs I wanted to meet as well (MCM London is expensive with autographs and photo ops y’all :sob: ), BUT!! I did get to meet Jennie!

If I had to make a choice anyway of which VAs I was going to meet, surely the voice actress of my favourite ATLA character would be one of them! I had never met a voice actor before, so ngl I was a little nervous. I was waiting at her table for her to return from her break and I was lucky to be the first person in her line. The way Jennie’s face lit up when she arrived back at her table and saw me waiting for her is something I won’t forget anytime soon 🥹

Some of you may my Suki kimono drawing (also my current pfp), which I gifted one copy to Jennie. I was really happy to make her happy with one of my Suki drawings! She even told me it’d get a home in her office :sob: 🩵 The biggest honour an artist can get, if you ask me 🥺 I also got another copy of the same drawing for her to sign for me (as it’s my favourite and arguably best Suki drawing) and I recently bought a frame for it. The inner Suki in me gets giddy at seeing it every time I walk by it 🥰

——•˚✧• :ocean: 🪨 :fire: 🌪 •˚✧•——

I could go on and on about my love for this series, discussing each episode or theories and the many memories I got to make because of this franchise, but we’d be here all week at the minimum. All I will say is, that I’m very excited for all the future projects that have been announced from Avatar Studios and I hope we’ll get more novels about past Avatars!

Once again, happy 20th anniversary and here’s to many more 🩵

**Sapphire out**

——•˚✧• :ocean: 🪨 :fire: 🌪 •˚✧•——