How I Became Yours: Rise of the Agni Army
The sequel to the fan comic How I Became Yours based off of the show Avatar: The Last Airbender, How I Became Yours: Rise of the Agni Army is a fancomic created by Jackie Diaz and co-authored by a fellow named Patrick BP. Ms. Diaz was notorious for continuous tracing, stolen photographs, and bad Photoshops within the first comic. While only one partial chapter has been released so far, it seems that she's up to the same old shenanigans.
The comic starts off much as the first one did with a dream sequence flashback. In this, it shows an attack on the fire nation from the perspective of Lilith, Zuko and Katara's daughter. She wakes and after a short argument with her brother, Kuzon, they both leave to train. While training, they both experience flashbacks about the their time at the water tribe immediately following the attack. Once this ends, we move on to Poe, Aang and Toph's son, who is causing trouble. Ling, his twin sister, stops him and these two also have an argument before Ling buries him up to his neck in the ground and walks off. Then we get to see Miracle, Sokka and Azula's daughter, as she interacts with two children in the North Pole in a filler scene...which leads to another flashback sequence of the treatment Lilith and Kuzon received in the Water Tribes due to their unorthodox parentage.
The comic is located right here. It can also be found here, if and when Ms. Diaz friendslocks this comic too.
Tropes used in How I Became Yours: Rise of the Agni Army include:
- Alliteration: Agni Army. May or may not be corny.
- Aerith and Bob: Lilith? What is a Biblical name doing in a Fantasy Counterpart Culture to East Asia?
- The same could be said of Miracle as well.
- There's also Poe. Not "Po," as in Po from Kung Fu Panda or Chien-Po from Mulan, or the similarly-pronounced "Pau," but "Poe," as in "Edgar Allen."
- All of the Other Reindeer: Lilith and Kuzon in the Water Tribes.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Poe acts a lot younger than his sixteen-or-so years, supposedly as a coping mechanism to get through the grief of the war and his father's illness. This gets on Ling's nerves, so of course she is perfectly perfectly justified in earthbending a rock so he hits it face-first at high speed and sinking him neck-high into the ground which would break his nose and make it very hard for him to breathe, respectively.
- Armies Are Evil: Monster masks, impossibly huge shoulder pads, led by a Yandere Designated Villain and her sexy, psychotic brother? Yeah.
- Artistic License: Biology: The awkward anatomy of some of the poses, poor genealogy of the kids mentioned below, and her very very strange hands, it seems that Ms. Diaz still only has a questionable grasp on the basic structure of the human body.
- Artistic License Physics: Lilith breathes fire while doing a handstand. The flames execute a perfect right angle - supposedly to show wind or something - so that it looks like she has a big, fiery tongue waggling over the cliff. First off, no wind would do that; it'd just dissipate the fire, making a huge smoky mess. Second, even if Lilith is a firebender, no bender in the show displayed that level of control over flames, so A Wizard Did It doesn't cut it. All in all, it just looks ridiculous.
- Berserk Button:
- It turns out... insulting Zuko and Katara in front of Lilith is a really bad idea.
- Poe is really touchy about his hair.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Mai and Sho.
- Blood From the Mouth: Zuko. The massive chest wound probably has something to do with it.
- Brother-Sister Team:
- Lilith and Kuzon.
- Ling and Poe.
- Mai and Sho.
- Bullying a Dragon: The bullies quickly learn why one shouldn't pick on a daughter of the Fire Lord...
- Butt Monkey: Poe seems to be stepping into this role, having been on the receiving end of two Amusing Injuries already.
- Cherry Blossoms: Photoshopped into the first panel.
- Color Coded for Your Convenience: When in Water Tribe territory, Kuzon and Lilith wear red parkas. Never mind that those parkas would have to be especially made for them, in a place where red dye is presumably hard-to-find. And never mind that they are already set apart enough from the Water Tribe children with their mixed breed looks.
- Conspicuous CG: Not quite as bad as the first comic - more effort can be seen in the polar backgrounds, for example. However, the first panel is still quite obviously a photo of the Forbidden Palace.
- Cut and Paste Comic: Like its predecessor, painfully obvious at times. Lilith's rampage for instance is pretty clearly just the same image flipped three times.
- Dead Guy, Junior: Kuzon is named after Aang's old friend, from before the war. He's also named for his conveniently miscarried elder brother, making him a twofer.
- Death by Woman Scorned: Mai is done being Ms. Nice Guy.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best:
- The comic starts off with Zuko and Katara both dying.
- Judging from Ling's comments, Aang, at least, is about to go the same way.
- Delinquent Hair: Just remember, Poe's hair does not look like a "porky pine's ass." Even if it does.
- Delusions of Eloquence: Like the prequel, it is peppered with this trope. The most Egregious example is on the poster. Evocation is not used that way, unless of course the commentor is saying this story is a demon brought out of the pits of hell. Considering the fact that he's the co-author of the sequel, it's reasonable to assume that is not what he meant at all.
- Different As Night and Day: Ling and Poe.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Ling thinks Poe is acting childish, so she sinks him up to his neck in earth. This leaves him open to being run over by unsuspecting carts, stepped on, and/or possible suffocation if it is hard enough for him to breathe. This, after his joy ride through the city hadn't permanently harmed anyone, and just as he was apologizing for the argument he had with his sister afterwards. And yet Ling is supposed to be the sympathetic one.
- Dramatic Wind: Right on the poster, too.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: According to the cover picture, Mai suffers a little from this. Sho pulls it off and makes it sexy, as per the usual.
- Evil Weapon: One is implied to be involved in Katara's death.
- Fantastic Racism
- Flash Back:
- Miracle has one of these about the poor treatment her cousins received from Water Tribe children after their parents died and they had to live with their aunt Azula.
- Lilith and Kuzon also have flashbacks to the time they first arrived in the Water Tribe during their Training Montage.
- Flashback Nightmare: Lilith's nightmare of the attack on the Fire Nation in the beginning.
- Floating Head Syndrome: The cover/poster for this comic.
- Friend to All Children: Miracle, apparently. She strikes the fear of God (or Agni, whatever) into a couple of kids who accidentally hit her with a ball during play, threatening heavy punishment for a small offense. Then, she smiles and asks if she can play with them. And she had almost looked like the real Azula too...
- Funny Background Event: Aang is still silently begging the universe to end his pain. Wish granted.
- Hand of Death: When Lily meets Zuko's murderer, there's a close-up of the person's hand holding a knife dripping with blood.
- Halfbreed: Lilith and Kuzon, being among the most visibly biracial, get the brunt of the drama that is the result of this trope. Miracle doesn't for some reason...either the Water Tribe is more accepting of her because the Moon Spirit healed her, or they just got used to her. It's a non-issue for Poe and Ling.
- He's Dead, Jim: Two scenes so far use some form of this.
- Zuko is nonresponsive and has a case of Blood From the Mouth, with Lilith providing the typical Please Wake Up reaction.
- Katara has the arm falling shot, with Lilith taking the I'm Cold...So Cold...
- If I Can't Have You: In the first comic, Mai was very careful to exclude Zuko from her revenge scheme. It seems that that has changed, because she is obviously Zuko's "mysterious" killer.
- I'm Cold... So Cold...: Somewhat inverted. Lilith says it rather than Katara.
- Inadequate Inheritor: Poe is scolded for being too irresponsible to live up to his parents' fame. Subverted in that a random old man is scolding him for this reason, not his parents. Averted in that he's exactly like Aang was in his younger days, only more destructive.
- In the Hood: The character who kills Zuko wears a hood that hides everything except for one burning yellow eye. One guess as to who that is.
- Amon?
- That would be awesome. Unfortunately, it's probably Mai.
- Kids Are Cruel: Whatever you may think of Lilith and Kuzon... those Water Tribe kids were hitting way below the belt. And they ended up regretting it.
- Laser-Guided Karma: It bites Designated Heroes Zuko and Katara in the ass with ancient curses and good old-fashioned knife work.
- Malevolent Masked Men: The Agni Army, of course.
- Martial Arts Do Not Work That Way: Apparently Lilith's firebending training consists of stretching, randomly breathing fire, and doing slow-motion somersaults.
- Only Six Faces:
- Orphan's Ordeal: Two confirmed cases of this among the children, with at least another two on the way.
- Parental Substitute: Sokka and Azula for Kuzon and Lilith.
- Please Wake Up: Lilith to Zuko.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Poe has the least angst of all the teenagers, so he becomes this by default.
- Pretty in Mink: Azula and Miracle both have fur trim on their dresses.
- Raging Stiffie: Kuzon seems disturbingly aroused by his bending practice.
- Recycled Soundtrack: During her death scene, Katara manages to copy lyrics, nearly word for word, from Tarzan's "You'll Be In My Heart." That's saying nothing of the Mufasa and Obi-Wan Kenobi quotes that follow in the same text bubble.
- Rouge Angles of Satin: On the cover page picture, "heroes," is spelled "heros".
- "Your going to have too talk about it sooner or later Lily."
- "Porky pine"
- Amusingly, Ba Sing Se is spelled as Bong Sing Sai.
- ...but not very surprising considering that Toph's surname "Bei Fong" was spelled "Befong" more than once in the predecessor.
- Scenery Porn: The photographic backgrounds return!
- Schedule Slip: Ms. Diaz has not updated this comic for months now, which is surprising, given how consistent she was with updating How I Became Yours.
- Shoulders of Doom: Standard equipment for the Agni Army. Which only emphasizes Sho's naturally big shoulders even more.
- Siblings in Crime: Mai and Sho.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Poe is a hyperactive bad boy in training. Ling is a responsible young woman who acts like Poe's mother when the parents aren't around. They Fight Crime.
- Spin Offspring: The entire purpose of this comic.
- Stripperiffic: The girls train and go into combat wearing outfits that are basically bikinis...except in the case of Lilith, who wears a few strips of cloth wound perilously around her nether regions. Could also be a really bad case of Exposed to the Elements. *ducks rotten fruit*
- Strong Family Resemblance: Lilith, Ling, and Miracle all look almost exactly like their mothers; Kuzon and Poe take after their fathers, only Poe has hair and a distinct lack of Aang's trademark airbender tattoos. The only difference is that their eye colors are all changed to reflect the opposite parent.
- Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Katara and Zuko. Also Aang, eventually.
- Take Care of the Kids: Katara does this toward her brother.
- Theme Twin Naming: Ling and Poe both have names that sound suspiciously familiar.
- Trailers Always Spoil: The artist tries to downplay Mai's involvement with the raid on the Fire Nation by making the character look ominously anonymous. Unfortunately, Mai is prominently displayed on the first poster, and given that Zuko's murderer is a knife-wielder with a grudge against the royal family, it's pretty easy to figure out who she is.
- Training Montage: Kuzon and Lilith do one of these bits toward the beginning of the comic. Kuzon seems to be learning how to surf on a big wave of water that has no source which the reader can see. Lilith is practicing breath control - while doing fairly pointless handstands and backflips. The whole thing seems like nothing more than an excuse to show off the childrens' bodies and equipment.
- Unexplained Recovery: Yay! Judging from the cover art, Mai's back! Wait...
- Unto Us a Son and Daughter Are Born: Ling and Poe.
- Vapor Wear: Lilith when practicing her firebending. Made even more awkward by the fact that she seems to be turned on...
- White-Haired Pretty Girl: Miracle and Azula.
- Winter Royal Lady: Azula and Miracle have this goin' on.
- Wound That Will Not Heal: How Katara bites it.
- World of Buxom: Any girl old enough to have breasts has BIG breasts. Unless she's Mai.
- You Might Remember Me From: Once again, Ichigo fills in as Zuko's double.
- That's not all. It's like she's aiming to be the next Nick Simmons.
