#Kya/hakoda

[waterfire1848]

[ Hakoda and Kya fostering Zuko, Azula and Kiyi. ]

Kiyi: Where’s my mac and cheese?

Hakoda: Oh, we’re not having mac and cheese tonight, baby.

Kiyi: I want it!

Zuko: Kiyi!

Kya: Kiyi, Hakoda and I worked really hard on this dinner and there’s lots of yummy food for you to eat-

Kiyi: No!

Zuko: Kiyi! Karera ga kureta mono wa taberu yo, yoi!

Kya: Zuko! Zuko, stop! I got this!

Zuko: Why are you yelling at me? I’m just trying to help you?

Kya: I’m not yelling at you! Okay-just then I was. Kiyi-

[ Kiyi grabs her SpongeBob knife. ]

Hakoda: She’s got a weapon.

Kya: It’s a SpongeBob knife.

Hakoda: It’s still a knife!

[muffinlance]

Consider: Post-canon Zuko wakes up in the body of his childhood self, the morning of That War Meeting. Would he still speak against the plans, knowing his fate? What do you think he would do differently the second time around?

"Turned away at the doors, Zuzu?"

"Shut up, Azula," her brother sulked. But sulked weirdly, after staring at her too long and too wide-eyed, not like she'd surprised him but--

But like he hadn't expected her to be there. At all.

He turned away. ...He turned back. "Hey, Lala? Do you think you could help me practice that one set?"

He didn't meet her eyes.

She narrowed hers. "Which set?"

"The one I'm bad at."

She scoffed. Pushed away from the wall she'd been leaning against. "That's all of them, Dum-Dum."

He didn't shout or stomp or yell about the nickname. His lips twitched.

"It's okay," he said. "If you're afraid you won't be a better teacher that my instructor..."

It was the most obvious manipulation ever.

Perhaps if he proved an adequate firebending student, she'd work on his courtly survival skills next. Honestly, it was good that not even Uncle Gets-Cousins-Killed had been fool enough to take Zuko into that war meeting. She could only imagine how terribly that could have gone.

"Keep up," she said, and turned her steps towards the training grounds.

He did. There, and during the katas she ran him through.

Azula kept her eyes narrowed.

"Hey," he asked, "do you know how to bend lightning yet?"

As if he could have missed it, if she'd been able to get more than sparks. "I will soon," she said.

"You will," he agreed, and flowed through his next set. The one she'd only just mastered.

Father didn't notice how weird Zuzu was being. Uncle never noticed anything. Zuko ate dinner and asked a servant for seconds and didn't stutter or flinch or lose his appetite when father asked, coolly, what he'd done with his day. Azula's shoulders tensed, because one mention of how she'd squandered her own training time teaching him--

"Azula hogged the training grounds. For hours," Zuzu scowled, exactly like a petulant thirteen year old.

Exactly like he hadn't been acting all day.

By the time Father was looking her way, Azula had her usual smirk in place. "I'm sure there would be room for both of us," she said, "you're not afraid of a little friendly fire, are you, brother?"

Zuko sulked. And ate his seconds, like he was enjoying each bite. There was something in his eyes, like a joke no one else was getting.

---

Father died that night. A heart attack. There were the faintest of burns to either side of the treacherous organ; the royal physician hypothesized that he'd grabbed at his chest, fingers burning hot in his final moments; so hot they'd only exacerbated the problem.

The royal physician would never have been brought any victims of lighting strikes. Those that occurred in the capital did not generally require a doctor in the aftermath.

Zuzu ate a hearty breakfast.

He didn't order seconds. Azula gave him points, at least, for not being tacky.

---

The sages named Iroh as regent.

They named Zuko as Fire Lord.

"No," the tiny Fire Lord in his perfectly miniaturized Fire Lord robes said, sitting at the head of his war council. "We're not doing that. And I'll be reviewing all recent battle plans, as well. What's this I hear about a division of new recruits being deployed to the front?"

He did not mention how he'd heard of the 41st Division. No one asked.

"Prince Iroh, surely--" one of the generals tried to appeal.

The young Fire Lord's regent was looking as startled as the rest of them, for a moment. Then he sipped his tea, and smiled.

"Your Fire Lord is correct, of course. A change in our leadership--a change the other nations may mistakenly view as weakness--will necessitate a change in our strategy."

"Now," said their lord, "what, exactly, is our overall objective in this war?"

War, the new Fire Lord decreed, was not an end unto itself.

---

The new Fire Lord continued to have time, to pretend to be trained by her. Azula watched him. Adjusted her footwork. Did not tolerate, and was not offered, any commentary on who was teaching who.

"What did you do with my brother?" she asked, as they flowed from one set to the next. As her hands, poised to throw fire, just so happened to be pointed his way.

He missed a step. It didn't look like an act.

"I'm, uh. Right here?"

She didn't bother to dignify that.

He didn't bother to look worried about her hands, one movement off from a true attack.

He looked around, then grabbed her sleeve, and tugged her further from any walls that may hide ears. The royal family's private training grounds were wonderfully large, and wonderfully open.

"It's me," he said. "It's still me. Just. More of me? Longer of me?"

She narrowed her eyes. A familiar expression, by this point. "Explain."

"...I found the Avatar," he said. "And this is definitely his fault, but--but I guess it started at a war meeting, when I was thirteen."

Azula listened. It was a very Dum-Dum story.

[dranktwocoffees]

hakoda and kya doodle for strawpage that i never posted here

[bakedbeanchan]

[candle-scm]

a series of southern water tribe fam shenanigans

[chiptrillino-art]

Hello! Wellcome to my sort of 2023 recap!

ID in ALT text shockingly i drew more zukos then sokkas this year.... which is weird to me personally? although... i did have a sudden 'i have no clue how to draw zuko?!?!?" moment this year. oh also..uh... i was wondering if i drew egnouth faces to make them 'turn around' and well...

kind of?

[jayietheriverwarrior]

Okay. Okay. I’m rewatching ATLA and I just hit The Runaway and… new headcanon.

After the war, Toph pulls Aang, Suki, and Zuko aside and explains the whole “Sokka can’t remember what their mom looks like” thing and says she wants to do something about it, for both Sokka and Katara. So they put together a plan. They get Hakoda, Gran Gran, and any other Water Tribe members old enough to remember Kya to give them as detailed a description of her as possible, then with Zuko’s financial help they hire a top-notch portrait maker to put it all together.

Sokka and Katara aren’t suspicious when Zuko approaches them about having them sit for a portrait together - they helped save the world, they have quite a bit of fame and political attention now, makes sense to kind of capture them how they looked when they first defeated the Fire Lord for posterity. But with both of them sitting for the portrait for reference, and with the information from the Water Tribe describing her to work from, the artist is able to put together a damn good recreation of Kya. And when Sokka and Katara finally get to see the finished product r and realize what the artist was really working on, and what their friends did for them… Katara of course bursts into tears, both sad and happy, grief for her mother and joy to see her face so clearly again after so long, and full of love for the friends who went to so much effort to give her this.

But all Sokka can do is stare at the portrait. For so long, his image of his mother has grown murkier and less distinct in his mind. For so long, when he’s tried to picture his mom, all he could see was Katara, because it was Katara who stepped up and took on that role, Katara who made sure everyone stayed together and kept them feeling like a family. But now, he looks at this portrait of his mother, smiling and warm and alive in a way that she hadn’t been in his mind in so long, and instead of Katara in her face, he sees himself.

[witchering10123]

hakoda: you need to stay here and protect your sister

13 year old sokka, whose only point of reference for "protecting his sister" is literally his mother sacrificing herself in katara's place: ok 😃

[bunnybb-art]

I respect and love Kya. In my comic, she'll be alive and have an amazing life. I'll reveal her as an interesting character. She deserves attention.

[coralpaperthoughts]

kiss me if I'm wrong but

[sokkastyles]

Many people have already discussed the way Zuko and Katara are linked by the loss of their mothers. I and others have also meta'd about the differences in how they interact with their fathers, a comparison the show highlights in "The Awakening," where Zuko faces his father for the first time in years and is forced to repress his emotions, vs Katara being allowed to express her hurt towards her father and being treated with kindness and compassion by Hakoda. But another comparison between Ozai and Hakoda that I have not seen anyone bring up before is this one:

Both Zuko and Katara running to their dads for help upon discovering that something has happened to their mothers. Hakoda immediately stops what he's doing to let Katara take him to Kya, while Ozai does not even acknowledge Zuko. Zuko's angry "where is she?" to Ozai also implies that he knows his father is the cause of her disappearance. There's also an emphasis on the fact that Hakoda is defending the village when Katara comes to him whereas Zuko finds Ozai tending to his own wounds and refusing to acknowledge what his children might be feeling.

The father as protector of the family vs the father who divides the family.

[phantomstatistician]

Fandom: Avatar: the Last Airbender

Character: Ozai

Sample Size: 612 (non-explicit) stories; 205 (explicit) stories

Source: AO3

Note: The top chart only includes stories that are NOT explicitly rated. The bottom chart only includes stories that ARE explicitly rated. I excluded stories that were "Not Rated" since those could be explicit or non-explicit.

[beifong-brainrot]

Katara and the fear of loss (aka why she waited)

I think one aspect of Katara's storyline I don't see explored nearly enough the fact that she is terrified of losing others, especially those whom she cares for. This makes sense, especially looking to her background, how the death of her mother affected her and the fact that war has been a very large part of her life since she was a small child. Not to mention, she is actively a huge part of said war, along with her brother and friends, at the tender age of 14.

Now, some of you may ask "quill what the hell does Aang have to do with Katara's mother?"

Yes, on the surface, there isn't that much connecting Katara's dead, grown ass mother to Katara's alive 12 year old goofball bf but the parallels between Kya and Aang are planted even at the beginning of the show, in the first few episodes.

When Zuko and the Fire Nation attack the Southern Watertribe, they are looking for Aang, the last airbender, not dissimilar to the Southern Raiders looking for the last Southern waterbender. Furthermore, both Kya and Aang willingly give themselves up to the Fire Nation in order to protect the village, particularly Katara.

Throughout the show, we see Katara's interest and endearment towards Aang grow, and we see them create a genuine friendship. But I'd argue that Aang being the Avatar is, to some degree, a problem to their relationship. Aang's duty as the Avatar, and the risks and decisions he is faced with due to it, often create a rift between him and Katara.

Be it due to Aang's responsibilities leading him to make decisions she doesn't agree with, like in the Avatar State, where Aang feels the pressure to force the Avatar State due to the suffering of the soldiers he feels responsible for.

Or, more poignantly, in the Awakening, where Aang is once again compared to one of the parents Katara lost due to the war, though Hakoda's 'loss' was not due to death, but a need to fight. I think this also shows how much Katara values Aang not just as the Avatar, but as a person.

Katara: Aang. He just took his glider and disappeared. He has this ridiculous notion that he has to save the world alone, that it's all his responsibility. Hakoda : Maybe that's his way of being brave. Katara: It's not brave; it's selfish and stupid! We could be helping him, and I know the world needs him, but doesn't he know how much we need him, too? How can he just leave us behind? Hakoda : You're talking about me too, aren't you?

This is twice Aang has been directly paralleled to one of Katara's parents, whose repsective losses have clearly affected her greatly. This is also extremely poignant, since we've been explicitly told that Aang's love for his own lost family, the Air Nomads, was reborn into Katara. For Aang and Katara, the ways they deal with their losses influences how they pursue each other romantically.

Of course, there's also the ✨️ immediate threat of death and physical injury✨️. Aang and the rest of the Gaang, but particularly Aang is constantly being chased and tracked and endangered by the Fire Nation and he is meant to face the Firelord and defeat him. There are a lot of possibilities for something to go horrifically wrong here.

From Aang being half dead when Katara found him, then almost immediately getting kidnapped by the prince of the goddamn Fire Nation, to almost every villain of the week shenanigan, Katara already has good reason to worry for Aang.

But then the reach Ba Sing Se and things get even worse. Jet, Katara's only other canonically confirmed love interest dies, and Katara is helpless to do anything about it. This is already enough to make someone reconsider future romantic endeavours, but surely it can't get any worse, right?

Oh yeah, Aang FUCKING DIES

He gets blasted in the back with lighting, right as he enters the avatar state, right before Katara's eyes. The saviour of the world, but more importantly, her dear friend, brutally cut down before her very eyes. And Katara, a child, is the only person with even a sliver of hope of bringing him back.

So is it really any surprise that Katara, having experienced loss before multiple times over, and almosf having lost Aang himself, would be hesitant to enter a romantic relationship with someone being actively hunted by the greatest military in the world, someone obligated to take on the leader of said military?

Katara is afraid. She's afraid of opening her heart up to loving Aang and then losing him after that. This is the main reason why she hesitates in initiating her and Aang's relationship. Whenever Aang tries to brooch the subject, she brings up the war and the Firelord, but due to being a child, she struggles in communicating her exact feelings, which leaves Aang confused and of kilter. Katara often gives Aang romantic attention, and clearly feels rather possessive of him, however, she is not ready to enter a romantic relationship due to the threat of the war looming above their heads. But due to being 14, she doesn't know how to explain these feelings, which is what leads to the minor conflict between her and Aang. Because, you know, they're both children in a situation that children aren't built to deal with.

Katara : Aang, I don't know. Aang: Why don't you know? Katara : Because, we're in the middle of a war, and, we have other things to worry about. This isn't the right time.

It's important to note that Aang isn't exactly a bad person for wanting this relationship to be made tangible. He does push boundaries, and kissing Katara without her consent in the Ember Island episode is obviously a horrendous misstep (which he acknowledged), but I think you can at least understand his motives. He may soon die, after all, and he wants to love Katara and wants to express that love before he possibly loses his entire goddamn life. I think this can also be traced back to how Aang deals with the genocide of the Air Nomads and vs how Katara deals with the death of her mother.

Aang certainly blames himself for the death of the Air Nomads, although this guilt is unfounded. Perhaps part of him believes that if he'd just stayed with them, spent a little more time with Gyatso, he could've helped them. It wouldn't be a leap to imagine that Aang wanting to spend more time with those he loves, including Katara is a coping mechanism surrpunding that loss.

Now juxtapose this to Katara, who's entire encounter with Yon Rha is permeated by helplessness and fear, an 8 year old Katara being unable to do anything but run away and try to get help, sadly not in time for Kya to survive. So Katara trying to assert some control over her relationships, maintaining a certain distance to Aang while the war that robbed her of her mother is still in full swing isn't an improbable concept. She's trying to not feel that helplessness again.

(Katara probably blames herself for her mother's death too, but it has less to do with Katara's actions and more to fo with what Katara was; a waterbender, something she hasno bearing on)

This is why she initiates the kiss with Aang at the end of the show. Not because she feels the need to give in to his advances due to him being the hero of the world. Not because she's caving to his insistence or because she's pressured. But because the possibility of Aang getting fucking murked by glorified pyromancers are significantly lower than they were during the war.

This is not a 'taking one for the team bcs I feel like I have to due to Aang saving the world' type of smooch. This is a 'finally I feel safe to express my feelings' type of smooch.

To be completely honest, I don't like how Kataang was handled post day of black sun, I think it was an unnecessary addition of a redundant "will they, won't they?" aspect to the relationship. Teasing Zutara in the last few episodes was also just unnecessary, because it was obviously never a viable endgame relationship and it only served to give kid zutara shippers false hope. This is especially fucked up looking at how the same zutara fans were later mocked by the creators, which, no matter what you think if the ship, is a horrible thing to do to a bunch of teenage girls and I think has contributed to those teenage girls growing into bitter, aggressive adult zutara shippers.

But, as much as I dislike this storyline, it does make sense for Katara's character and is an interesting and touching 'silent arc' for her to have. We often see characters fall in love in the midst of a conflict, but we aren't always shown how that conflict would affect the way they look at their relationship, so I appreciate this storyline for what it was.

[waterfire1848]

I gotta suggest something here.

Kya was taller than Hakoda, Ursa and Ozai. The only one who was taller than her was Bato.

[mesapies]

The fact that both gran-gran and hakoda got awful new love interests after years of being widowed needs to be studied

Mother like son, I guess

[hypnoticsphere]

i love polyamory

zuko, suki and sokka

kya, bato, and hakoda

azula, ty lee, and mai.

atla is just so poly-able