#Freedom fighter Zuko

[jetantifa]

I don't accept that the Fire Nation should be allowed to keep their monarchy and maybe Zuko tries and tries to cling onto power because he's convinced he can change things in the Fire Nation from the inside out. It's ill thought out, he's naive but he's desperate to try and the Avatar lets him, just as misguided.

Zuko talks the right talk when he's suggesting they need to pull back from the Earth Kingdom, but when an advisor points out that the quarry only exists because the firebenders made it possible to mine, that if they're pulling troops back then Earthbenders will lose their jobs, and what else will they find to do? Will they go backwards without people to guide them? He sounds troubled as he says it, it reminds Zuko of Iroh and something in him twists.

Zuko doesn't recognise it for what it is he's done until the military stationed there are drowned out, like rats, and the advisor begins to let spite bleed into his words, when he calls the Earth kingdom leeches who don't even know what's good for them because they aren't accepting that hand the fire nation offered them, and Zuko can't find a reason to disagree, he knows they can't govern themselves

It keeps happening, nobility stopping him from doing a smooth, clean break, a unit gets maimed, and Zuko doesn't know how to navigate it, he doesn't even know who could be involved. It's tied to the Earth kingdom but that just draws suspicion, after all, wasn't Zuko in Ba Sing Se for a while? Who's to say he wasn't murdering them in cold blood to stir some terror, to make his advisors push back, Ozai liked to do this then cut down anyone too unwilling to fall into line quickly.

The way it looks to the people, he's attempting to snatch away power from the nobility who usually back him, his family? Zuko can't get rid of them, because he knows too much change could set up a coup, so he's moving slowly, but in doing so, he's not removing fire nation bases, or pearing down his army, he's stagnant. When people start talking about Ozai again, in whispers, he doesn't understand, he thought if the head of the snake was removed, the rest would follow along so he could rebirth the fire nation into a new era.

But the imperialistic fire nation was always more than one man, it's systematic, it's a disease and Zuko only realises it when the walls are closing in and he's abdicating under threat of being usurped, he's stuck trying to figure out what's happening and anyway, I just think Zuko finding the freedom fighters, with Jet alive and making sense of what the fire nation represents, that the advisors and nobility obviously don't want to let go of their power because war is profitable, so ofc they dress it up as benevolent rather than controlling

I just think class traitor Zuko finally joining the freedom fighters could be so fun because the Palace was always stifling but he's only realising it when he's in the trees again, when the blue spirit comes alive again because you can't wash away 100 years of imperialism when it's embedded in the structure itself and they should start getting along in their shared ideal of wanting to resist. For Zuko it's to remove the rot, the corruption from the Fire Nation, for Jet and his people, to get the Fire Nation army to stop oppressing them, to leave them to govern themselves.

That it's Fire Nation propaganda that they (the Earth kingdom) can't function without the Fire Nation, it's nothing more than a way for the Fire Nation bourgeoisie to line their pockets because war is far more profitable than demilitarising like Zuko wanted so ofc they'd be at odd ends with him

[zukosfate]

Zuko and Cookie Jet 😭

[dianorayasiri]

Jetko Week 2024.

Day 2: Tea shop.

Years pass and Jet finally pays off his debt + interest since the waiter had to chase him down.

Continuation of this part 1 and part 2.

@jetkoweek2024

[starboysbrainrot]

“so happy the gaang got their happy ending”

what mf happy ending are we talking about exactly ?

you mean the happy ending where aang gets to live forever with the constant reminder that he is alone, that the genocide of his people happened and there is no going back ? where he has the responsibility to assure that the air nation doesn’t die off with him after his death ? where he has to forever live with the fact that he disappeared for 100 years and that the world he lives in now isn’t his. he’s a relic of the past, the testament of a forgotten culture, the last remaining of what is left of the air nomads. he’s alone, forever, at least a part of it died with his people, forever lost.

or you mean the happy ending where Katara & Sokka go back to their tribe, scarred forever by war and loss, having to rebuild the southern water tribe after 100 years of war ? having to rebuild their culture, forcefully destroyed by all those fire nations attacks ? forever living with the urge to cradle between their mom’s arms, but never quite being able to do it. Katara will forever see her mother in her brother, his face, his eyes, everything reminding her of her mom, how she misses her. and Sokka being unable to remember his mother’s face, always ending up picturing Katara instead. even with their dad on their side, Kya will always be missing.

or you mean the happy ending where Toph goes back to her toxic parents that really couldn’t care less for who she really is ? and leaving the gaang, the only family she ever really had, who have to take on various missions around the world to rebuild it after the war ? and let’s not forget how scarred and terrified she could be after barely surviving their last battle.

or maybe you mean the happy ending where Zuko, after living a childhood made of lies, abuse, neglect and grief, has to become fire lord at 16, with no idea on what he is doing ? after having half his face burned by his own father, for defending his nation, will experience numerous assassination attempts as a new ruler and have to rebuild the whole world because of the wrongdoings of his ancestors ? his hands are tainted red by blood that his swords didn’t shed, but the crown on his head now is his, and that’s all that matters in everyone’s eyes. that’s all that will always matter.

or you mean the happy ending where Suki, after months in prison, simply has to go on with her life as if nothing ever happened ? as if she hadn’t rot in prison for months ? as if she hadn’t experienced the war firsthand by helping the refugees in Ba Sing Se ?

or maybe you mean all those other kids, that the gaang met during the series.

characters like Haru, who saw his dad being imprisoned, fearing for his life and the life of his mother everyday.

character like the freedom fighters, orphans, who had to become child soldiers in order to survive, who built a family around the hope that they were doing something right. only for it to be washed out by the destroying of a village, and the splitting up of their group.

characters like Jet, who never even got to see a life after the war, who was born in a world scarred by flames and loss, forced to become a parental figure to dozens of orphans, and who died by the hands of his very own country, forgotten forever under a lake, among other forgotten bodies.

characters like Mai or Ty Lee, that never really got to choose what they wanted to do, forcefully put into a role maintained by fear and violence. in a world that asked only thing from them : to fight.

characters like Azula, who got her whole life taken away by one cruel man, forced to become a weapon. who’s forever scarred by the way she grew up, by the way no one saved her, no one helped her, by the way she lost her mom and her brother, because of one, very, cruel man.

or Yue, who sacrificed herself for the wrongdoings of yet another man, who never got to experience adulthood, never got to experience the joy of growing up.

y’all can’t even comprehend that they are all DOOMED. they will never have a normal life after the war, never. their whole lives are forever scarred by the mistakes made by thousands of people before they were even born. they are born with tragedy, loss and war in their blood. ALL OF THEM. nothing will ever change that, no matter how good their future could be. even Aang, who was born before the war, was ultimately tainted by the horrors of it. after experiencing, seeing, all the suffering, all the wrongdoings.

they got the weight of the world and the hopes of long gone generations on their shoulders. not a single one of them got to be kids. not a single one of them got to experience a normal childhood. not a single one of them will live freely after the war. some of them won’t even live after the war.

because how. how can you forget, how can you forget 100 years of pain and suffering ?

(I know this all sounds pretty pessimistic but they all make me so, so sad… I love all of these characters so much. all of them. they make me sad in the best way possible and the tragedy of their story will forever make me cry.)

[lee-treehouse]

Freedom fighters and Maiko pirate au

[longerbee]

Does the adventure map thingy still count🥺ember island for sure

"It never occurred to me the smell of smoke could be relaxing."

Zuko tried to make up with Smellerbee and Longshot after knowing Jet's death.

It was not going well at first for Smellerbee slamming door in his face.

and they won't miss the show

[coralpaperthoughts]

funniest thing abt the atla kids is that they're not all fatherless but they are all motherless

[unevenpatterns]

Is Jetko week in 2024 a thing that is happening? Anyone out there?

Jetko week 2024 still seems to be a thing, I'm just out of the loop because I don't use twitter 😅 - It would be so cool, but it seems like this ship is kept alive by a few steady boats and I have no idea how active it still is.

(I'm relatively new to writing for atla and know nothing about events, help)

[count-horror-xx]

I think people hate on Jet WAY to fucking much. Like yall act like he didn't witness his parents get brutally burned alive as well as his whole village go up in fucking flames. He makes like two mistakes and yall go "yeah THATS public enemy #1"

Don't get me wrong obviously I don't condone him flooding an earth kingdom village cus it was invaded by the fire nation that I can agree with was too much 😭 but omg don't you think if your whole life was burned down you'd be a little fucked up in the head??? And be basically blinded by your own hatred for those who murdered your family??? Like I said what he did was absolutely wrong but to call him like evil reincarnated is a little far, bro was just a misguided kid who hated his oppressors more then loving the ones he swore to protect, but in the end he did realize he needed to focus to protect the ones he loved more but he ended up dying for it. And that's why no one really cares about his character growth and it honestly irks me 😭😭

Edit: not to mention when he found out zuko & iroh were firebenders, he didn't know thier intentions. Obviously we did and knew they weren't planning anything but he didn't. In his mind he probably thought they were fire nation spies trying to invade ba sing se and that's why he attacked them.

[blluespirit]

atla fics i want to write but in a future investigative journalist kinda way/vibe; some potential ideas:

The Boiling Rock idea 1: a journalist goes to the Boiling Rock Prison, now at the centre of controversy as reports come to light for the first time detailing the horrific abuse endured by prisoners during the war.

The Boiling Rock idea 2: a journalist investigates the rumours that Fire Lord Zuko and Ambassador Sokka broke in, and out of the Fire Nation's most notorious prison, expecting it not to come to fruition, and instead, uncovering one of the most insane stories of the year.

Pentapox: a journalist investigates a mysterious outbreak of the so-called "pentapox" disease that broke out towards the end of the war in the then Fire Nation-occupied city of Omashu, in which a highly documented disease resulted in the release of dozens of Earth Kingdom citizens from the city to stop the spread, despite there being no record of any similar disease then or since.

Azulon, Ursa and Ozai: a journalist decides to take the plunge and investigate the suspicious and frankly disturbing timeline of events that lead to Fire Lord Ozai taking the throne. Through a series of harrowing interviews with previous servants, political experts and even a special interview with the Fire Lord himself, they learn their suspicions of murder and violence were tame compared to the truth.

Ba Sing Se's missing women: a journalist delves into the bizarre series of disappearances of Ba Sing Se women in the final decade of the war and the state secrets that surround it (i.e., all the women the Dai Li brainwashed were people, and there's no way there wasn't some scary as fuck rumours about the Dai Li kidnapping women and then seeing them again, except they no longer have any idea who their loved ones are)

The Blue Spirit: A journalist looks into the bizarre crimes of a masked vigilante who robbed both the rich and the poor, freed the Avatar, and ended their story in the Ba Sing Se catacombs. The story leaves everyone with a lot of questions, and very few answers.

The Boy in the Iceberg: a journalist decides to delve into the truth of what happened to Avatar Aang in between the time he went missing and 100 years later. Through incredible exclusive interviews with Chief Katara and Ambassador Sokka, they learn about the events that led to Aang being discovered, and what it meant to leave their home behind to save the world.

The Freedom Fighters: A journalist and their journey tracking down one of the most well-known resistance groups in the later half of the war as they learn the fate of it's leader and the terrible cost of war on the children that were pushed into fighting.

[rigrub]

Jet's back

Jet stands in the middle, looking wearily at the monster he was supposed to eliminate. To his left, The Duke clings to his leg, gazing at the cockroach with disgust. On Jet's right side, there's a figure from the background, as seen in the "Jet" episode. The girl also eyes the cockroach with fear and anxiety, hiding behind older boy.

[ouroboreas]

[dianorayasiri]

Jetko Week 2024.

Day 1: College AU.

@jetkoweek2024

[dont-leafmealone]

The crew drive out to enjoy a summer evening in the woods.

For @jetkoweek2024 day 3: Gentle Touches

4,790 words, rated G, no Archive warnings apply.

[attackfish]

@candleslitsnow asked for an AU in which Jet and his freedom fighters ran into Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee, disguised as Kyoshi warriors, rather than Zuko and Iroh.

Sometimes I get a prompt that makes me go, "Ah yes, you share the same kind of malicious sense of humor that I have."

1. So the thing about Avatar the Last Airbender is that I can't say that x-character is y-character's foil. I can, but I have to clarify that they are also z, a, b, c, and d's foil, because Avatar: the Last Airbender is an absolute master class in parallel character arcs and thematic cohesiveness. So you can in fact pull out any of those parallel character arcs and compare them to each other, and all of the characters can function as foils to each other, and you can compare and contrast them and it is great writing. But of course some characters are more obviously narrative foils. Jet serves as a foil primarily to Katara and Sokka when he is first introduced, and then in Book Two, he serves as a foil to Zuko. But there is a character that is a whole lot alike in some fundemental ways that he never meets. And Zuko's reaction to him in canon is colored by this fact. Because that character is Azula.

2. But actually the show does go out of its way to draw a strong narrative parallel between Jet and Azula, wherein Jet's approach to Zuko, and attempt to get to go to join him functions as a microcosm of Azula's attempt to do the same thing in the first and last episodes of Book Two, and later when Zuko ultimately comes to reject each of them, they react in very similar ways. There is a solid literary essay to be written on this by somebody who isn't me. All of this is a lot of words to say that Jet and Azula share similar tactics, and are manipulative in very similar ways. And people like that are good at recognizing each other for what they are, and seeing each other as threats.

3. All this means that I can't imagine Jet would approach Azula. He's going to make his manipulative little approach to Mai and/or Ty Lee, before he knows about Azula. He would probably like Ty Lee better, because of how wide eyed and innocent she seems, but really it depends on who he meets first. But Mai and Ty Lee both have a lot of experience with Azula, and they would have no problem recognizing Jet's brand of manipulation, and uh, leadership. And they also would have no trouble figuring out that Azula has him completely outclassed, so they would bring him home for her to eat alive.

4. As I mentioned, Jet is going to cotton onto the fact that Azula is a threat real fast, and the last time he looked at a group of people and picked out one of them as a threat, he tried to separate that one from the group and have him killed. That was Sokka, and it did not work out well for him. It would probably be pretty funny to watch him try and fail to do that with Azula. She might even let him try for a while before closing the trap in around him. But either way she's going to find him very entertaining, and she is going to have him arrested and hauled off to the Fire Nation to cool his heels in a cell at the Boiling Rock, along with Suki. If Longshot and Smellerbee were with him during this whole thing, they're going to the separate prison that the Kyoshi Warriors went to. If not, they're going to have no idea where he disappeared to. Either way, he's going alone.

5. He's going to meet Suki, they're going to hate each other, flash forward a few months, and Zuko and Sokka are going to show up. Zuko will of course have never met Jet before, but Sokka has, and he is not going to be happy to see this particular jerkface again Escaping from the Boiling Rock is going to be fun.

[splosh-crime]

Avatar: the Last Airbender - Vigilante AU

Do you ever think about that one time Katara became a vigilante eco-terrorist called the Painted Lady? I feel like that’s not talked about enough.

Here, Katara and Zuko become Best Friends/Vigilante Buddies without knowing each other’s identity

Platonic Identity Porn. If that wasn’t a thing before, it is now.

Sokka & Aang never discovered Katara’s identity as the Painted Lady but Toph knows all.

This could also be a modern AU, in which case all the Gaang are Vigilantes.

- Katara’s the Painted Lady; her mom, dad, and papa (Kya/Hakoda/Bato) were/are part of a secret group investigating and gathering proof of Ozai’s many violations of Native land rights treaties. Kya got badly injured or killed while investigating and Katara isn’t about to let that slide, even if her parents don’t want her involved. She becomes an ecoterrorist targeting Ozai Incorporated.

- Toph’s the Blind Bandit; she ran away from home and is homeless, surviving by being the champion of an illegal fighting ring. She helps out other homeless people whenever she can but doesn’t go out of her way to patrol or anything.

- Zuko’s the Blue Spirit; after being burned, Iroh discovered the abuse and took custody (which wasn’t hard since Ozai didn’t fight for him). Despite this, Zuko feels it’s his responsibility as a son to stop his father’s economic imperialism.

- Sokka’s a Kyoshi Warrior; part of a vigilante team led by Suki. By day, this team is just a Scout Troop that teaches self-defense.

- Jet runs a gang that doubles as anti-hero vigilantes called the Freedom Fighters. He takes in any homeless or abused kid he can and will do anything to keep them fed, happy, and avenged.

- Azula, Mai, & Ty-Lee are a bounty hunter trio hired by Ozai (a corrupt CEO). Azula’s still his daughter, but being in modern times didn’t stop him from molding her into a child soldier to assassinate his enemies.

- Aang’s a new vigilante trying to avenge the monasteries destroyed by Ozai’s corporation. He’s an exchange student living with Katara, Sokka, Hakoda, Bato, and/or Kya.

- Teo (the Mechanic’s son from the Northern Air Temple) kits out all the vigilantes’ gear, tech, and outfits with help from Sokka.

Credit to @symphony_sonata on Instagram for their modern civilian lives. Link: https://instagram.com/symphony_sonata?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==)

I also got a lot of inspiration from searching “the blue spirit avatar” on pinterest if you want concept art.