**************AVATAR SPOILERS BELOW!!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!!****************************
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Feeling tremendously, overwhelmingly bittersweet about the ending (why yes, I *DID* bawl like a 3 year old), I knew I had to make fanart. Forget the shipping, forget the battles, for me the most important, beautiful element of this great series was friendship. So I just had to try and create something, something in which the original Gaang + their new companion--who managed to integrate himself into their little family so easily after only a matter of field trips--could be nicely represented. Their friendship is beautiful and touching and I love how much they love each other. This is meant to be representative of the moment they reunite after their respective battles-- they're just so happy to see each other alive and well.

I knew if I was going to do something as touchy-feely-closeness as this the inevitable war of Kataang vs Zutara would come up, so I figured the best thing to do was to address and simultaneously ignore the shipping entirely. In this pic you've got some of the most popular ships -- Kataang, Zutara, Tokka, Zukaang, Toko--but what does it matter, really? The important thing is that the five of them, as proven by the very last minutes of Sozin's Comet, will be together... always.

I liked the look of it unshaded but am going to experiment some more with the colors/shading style and the BG, so we'll see what else comes of it.

Photoshop, 13 hours.

P.S. Sorry about the watermark guys, but I really really really reallllly like this piece so I don't want it to wind up somewhere I don't want it to be. u___u

NOTE: Those who happen to be at AN this weekend will not see this exact print but instead this image incorporated into a much bigger piece.