#Zuko being an expert on all things Avatar (not just Aang)

[rayraytail]

I'm 80% sure that the ATLA live action writers are fanfic readers/writers.

[zukosdualdao]

just… the absolute trust between zutara in the finale is unreal. after zuko’s impromptu training attack session, yes, katara is surprised and even somewhat angry as she confronts him, but when she says “you could have hurt aang!” all it reminds me of is the fact that just a few episodes ago, she literally threatened to kill him if he ever gave her a reason to think he might so something to hurt aang. but here, now, even as she’s confronting him, she just… waits for him to explain, and she actually sees and agrees with his point once zuko tells the gaang about ozai’s plan.

there is also the absolutely, 100% synchronized way they fight during the simulated training session, something that calls back to their synchronization and teamwork in the southern raiders, and that inherently shows a lot of trust and understanding between them.

katara is the one who initially asks zuko what they should do after aang disappears. everyone else agrees, but it's katara who trusts him enough to position him, not just to herself but to everyone else, as someone they should listen to because of his history, skill, and experience, especially noteworthy because the reason she gives—“you are sort of the expert at tracking the avatar”—is what used to make him untrustworthy in their eyes. they’ve come such a long way.

then katara notices zuko freeze and sit in front of iroh’s tent, and when she asks if he’s okay, he just… completely trusts her with exactly what he’s feeling, and if he’s even a little worried that what he’s saying might cause her to act derisively, because what he’s referencing here is also what katara was angry and hurt about, he doesn’t show it. he just so completely trusts her with it, and her insistence that iroh will forgive him is born from her own trust of zuko, and she's able to tell him what he needs to hear because she was once in iroh's position and zuko proved his genuine remorse and care to her.

then, of course, we've got zuko not missing a beat as he asks katara to be the one to come with him to confront azula, and her ready acceptance. they make a good team, and they know it.

but when they get there and azula challenges zuko to an agni kai - though she initially has misgivings, katara ultimately trusts zuko when he says he can handle it and understands that he doesn't want her to get hurt if she doesn't have to. (an aspect of zuko's "i can't explain it, but she's slipping" line that i think gets underexamined, btw, is that that's not an inherently good thing for them. yes, maybe that means zuko will be able to take her, particularly because he knows azula and her fighting style well. but someone who is "slipping" is also, in this case, desperate, and more prone to being reckless with people's lives. zuko tries to mitigate that by fighting her alone, but it doesn't work because azula can't follow the terms she sets when she realizes she's losing.)

the lightning scene is a really interesting example of trust as it relates to zuko and katara, because to me, the emphasis there isn't quite so much on zuko and katara trusting each other. there's barely time for katara to think through what will happen to as azula aims for her or wonder what zuko will do, after all, and zuko is probably in too much pain and too out of it to think about katara coming to try to heal him. (though if they did have the time and mental faculties to think it through, i think they would both 120 percent trust the other to help them.)

instead, the emphasis is on the audience trusting the characters. from the moment zuko sees where azula's aiming, he doesn't hesitate, doesn't even think about, just. immediately jumps in front of the lightning before it can reach katara. i've said this before, but as soon as he understood what was happening, there was just no chance of that lightning ever getting to katara and that's the point. we've seen what zuko looks like when he's hesitating or conflicted, and the difference is stark. the show never wants you to question exactly what zuko will do, that he refuses to let katara get heart, that he'll save her.

and for her part, katara immediately runs to try and save zuko despite azula still being around and attacking, and tries again before realizing she needs to defeat azula in order to do so. but the entire scene of katara's defeating her, while obviously heroic and emblematic of katara's power and the culmination of her arc as a girl whose culture and identity was nearly stripped away from her to being a master waterbender, is also framed as katara defeating azula so she can get to zuko. she would have done it anyways, yes, but in this context, right now, she is fighting azula so she can get to zuko to heal him.

here, in the narrative culmination of their arcs together, it shows not just that they trust each other, but asks the audience to not doubt the development of the dynamic that’s been built, to trust that they will take care of each other. and they do.

[actually-factually-anonymous]

Ladybug Vs Avatar's use of the supporting cast and the problem thereof.

I'm not sure if this has been covered before, but there's a serious problem with Marinette being the be-all end-all of everything in Miaculous.

And it's not just because "she's stressed" or "it's all on her". Her being the most important, talented and plot-relevant character in every situation is.

Let's make a comparison to the Gold Standard:

In Avatar the Last Airbender, Aang is the axis of the story. He holds incredible powers beyond anyone else, can bend every element and could conceivably end the entire conflict that plagues his world with relative ease- which he eventually does.

However, for 99% of the story he cannot do so. Because Aang is untrained, he cannot access that divine win-button of the Avatar State at will, and using it carried enormous risks to himself and those around him- making it functionally unusable for common conflicts. Furthermore while he does technically have the capacity to use all four elements, he had only mastered one and needed to learn the remaining three.

Indeed, Aang has outright difficulty with learning Earthbending despite his innate talents and while he's a quick study for the other two, he doesn't demonstrate the same effectiveness with water and fire as Katara and Zuko.

This means that Aang cannot do certain things as well as the others in his team. This means that for the majority of the story, even though his first and preferred element provides him with useful abilities" Aang has weaknesses that he needs others to cover and provide for.

Enter Katara, Sokka, Toph and Zuko.

Katara is a waterbender who teaches Aang and later advances her powers to include the all-important power of healing and the disturbingly effective (though situational) Bloodbending.

Toph is an earthbender who is also one of Aang's teachers, and whose tremor sense later allows her to both detect liars and invent Metalbending.

Sokka is seemingly just the comic relief normie. However his technical mindset allows him to serve as the general of the group, and even plan and lead in that role for entire armies later in the show.

Even Zuko who joins later and becomes less a teacher but a fellow student alongside Aaang in firebending is a skilled infiltrator and melee weapon expert. (This is less of a case than the others since it's not used as much, but it's more of a concrete example than his insights into the fire nation and his potential utility as a replacement Fire Lord).

They each provide far more than those short summaries, but it's important to note that in each case, even when Aang does learn the elements and starts growing into his role as the Avatar: he never gains the full range of abilities that his team offers. He never assumes the fully strategic mindset of Sokka, and even though it's downright implausible that no Avatar before him never learnt healing, he never demonstrates that ability or any Metalbending prowess even in the Avatar state.

There's also the enemy trio of Azula, Ty Lee and Mai. Azula is a powerful firebending genius, but Mai's prowess with her throwing weapons are a close match- and Ty Lee's chi-blocking can outright cripple enemy benders for any given fight when combined with her insane agility: something that not even Azula can do with her firebending. They are an incredibly dangerous combination and when Azula loses them, she becomes far less effective for their absence.

In both teams despite the leader being a powerful, talented bender who is objectively the strongest person on their respective side: there's no doubt about each member of the team contributing something that said leader cannot.

-

Now let's look at Miraculous:

Marinette is the "Greatest Ladybug" of all time despite being fourteen, only having had the earrings for less than a year, and having a list of predecessors that go back literally thousands of years and include Joan of Arc.

She is also the Guardian of the Miracle Box. Specifically she is the Guardian of The Mother Box that is the most important of all the boxes, despite there being at least a full Temple's worth of actually trained candidates somewhere in Tibet who should be far and above more capable than her or her mentor Fu. However, her supposed superior Su-Han seems entirely convinced that she's already surpassed any teachings his order has by how often she breaks said teachings in his face only for him to roll over like a dog. There's not been a single time when Marinette has been confronted by some shortcoming in her responsibilities as a Guardian where she has had to learn anything from the multi-millennia old Order of Guardians.

Marinette has also worn almost every single Miraculous in her Box at the same time, a feat that supposedly risked serious harm to her but merely made her woozy for an afternoon (if that). As of the season five Finale, she has also unified her earrings with her partner's ring: a scenario that in earlier seasons seemed to imply great risk: yet she was able to use the powers flawlessly.

As Ladybug, she is also the lone hero who has unlocked any new advanced powers with her Miraculous (unless you also include the arbitrary "adulthood" that she and Chat Noir achieved that allows them multiple uses of their Miraculous before detransforming), and on the occasions when she's used anyone else's powers has shown no sign of being any less capable than they are with them.

Ladybug does everything as well if not better than everyone else.

Marinette can not only unify with any Miraculous she needs for a given mission, she can use the powers as effectively as their "dedicated holder" can and without any restrictions. Unlike the majority of the cast who are still under the child-power limit. She can even unify with multiple miraculous at the same time without any drawbacks.

And without those drawbacks, without anyone on the cast being able to use the power of their Miraculous more effectively than Marinette: everyone else on the team is more or less superfluous.

Sure, Marinette has tossed out the Miraculous to her team like candy now. But when you get down to it: the real lesson that she should have learnt from Strikeback to just put some damn security on her Yo-yo/The Box. Because this just means that she has to wait for the hero in question to show up when she could have just pulled off whatever plan she has in mind herself.

And that superfluous label includes Chat Noir.

As frustrating as it is to come to the this conclusion: as of right now, there's no real reason for Adrien Agreste to be anything but a temporary holder. Certainly you can point to his experience with Plagg's power, and a few examples that seem to imply he can do more with it (in his second outing he was able to reconstruct part of the Eiffel Tower into a makeshift extension to catch someone from). Things that imply that if he perhaps received any actual training in the show like Marinette did from Fu, any guidance whatsoever from the Order or their Grimoire he might be able to achieve more.

But there's no solid evidence to expect that Marinette wouldn't be as effective, and the narrative precedent does not lend itself to the idea that anyone could overshadow Ladybug as a holder even of their own Miraculous. If anything, the sheer ability Marinette showed as Bug Noire implies that her having a partner instead of just keeping the ring herself is a detriment to any given situation.

If you can justify exposing the ring to potential capture in the first place considering that there seems to be no requirement to do. By all rights the practical thing to do is just keeping Plagg in the box instead of risking reality.

Of course we wanted to be generous, Adrien could still be of some use. He's the resident meatshield and narrative jobber. So long as he has a Miraculous he could continue faithfully serving in those roles, eating up mind-control beams and taking hits for Bug Noire so she can save the day as usual.

But everyone else on the Miraculous team might as well turn in their furry super-suits and go home.

-

You couldn't get a more black and white depiction of the value of others outside of the protagonist. in Avatar, Aang is literally a semi-divine being who still needs to be humble and learn while the others around him still have useful special talents and prowess that he can't simply attain at will.

While in Miraculous, there's only one person of actual true competence. From Paris to Shanghai, Marinette alone is the capable one- barring the odd episode in the limelight (Alya and Felix stand up and take a bow. Adrien can stay seated).

There is a word for a character that is impossibly more capable than any other in spite of all reason and logic. And Marinette is increasingly fitting that mold as the show goes on. There's also a term for characters that ultimately contribute nothing good or bad to a story; wasted space. You can't have an entire ensemble of characters as part of the cast and have them provide nothing if they're supposed to have even a smidge of narrative value without making them something the story would be better off without.

Just as you can't just have one person at the centre of everything, make them capable of everything and not eventually have the story they're in turn into (at best) a power fantasy.

And it's a shame. Because Miraculous seemed like it could have been a lot more.

[juicyreptile]

Things in ATLA fanfics that really butter my bread

zuko described as breathing out sparks/embers/smoke/steam, especially unconsciously

aang forgetting he is the most powerful human alive

sokka gets the braincell

the gaang (aang or zuko esp) gets to be feral. as a treat ❤️

rotational team parent - everyone gets a turn to try and corral (and fail!!) the other members!

everyone forgetting that zuko is a master of stealth and/or zuko getting to actually use those Blue Spirit skills

Everyone's Uncle Iroh is Best Dad

ZHAO ALWAYS GETTING FUCKING DUNKED ON, NON-STOP. fuck zhao all my homies HATE zhao

suki my beloved suki

toph being the absolute gremlin that she is

aang being a troll

physical differences in benders!! like, firebenders running HOT, being hard to burn; waterbenders running cool, able to deal with colder temps easier; earthbenders have denser bones, tougher skin; airbenders having huge lungs, superior senses of balance/up-down; ect ect, (this can also extend to non-benders of the dif nations in less dramatic and/or obvious ways)

zuko being the leading expert on airbenders/the avatar to the surprise of everyone, with the excuse that he was hunting for the avatar for three goddamn years and looked up any tiny scrap of information he could find. (also extends to him being super knowledgeable about the customs of other nations/places because he's literally been all over the world)

found family gaang real; they're all stupid and protective over each other, sharing one braincell collectively and doing incredibly dangerous things but then all just pile up in one place to chill and take a group mirmir

outsider POV of the gaang, esp ones were people are incredibly alarmed over this group of feral children being the ones running the world now but also wtf else are they gonna do?? they gonna tell the Fire Lord what to do? they gonna tell the AVATAR what to do?????

please share with me YOUR favorite things in fics i wanna hear them ❤️

[waterfire1848]

Sokkla Opposite AU, where Sokka is the banished Water Empire Prince looking for the Avatar and Azula is the last firebender of Hira'a who just found a boy inside a volcano.

Hello, @stardust948 !!! (BTW Love this reverse AU!)

1. Azula grew up in Hira’a because that’s where Ursa took the children and fled to when the Water Tribe attacking (very big mistake making your main city basically in a bowl). Iroh, Ozai, Lu Ten, Azula and Zuko were living their lives in the royal palace when the WT attacked and Ursa took the kids and fled to Hira’a which is where they’ve spent most of their lives (13 years). Ursa never stopped telling her children stories about Caldera and a time before the Water Tribe attacked and the Avatar which Azula rejected by Zuko was mesmerized by. Azula never really thought the Avatar could be alive and instead wanted to focus on defeating the Water Tribe so that they could go home. Iroh, Ozai and Lu Ten all never come to Hira’a so Ursa has no clue what happened to them but, shortly before Aang comes, she’s killed by the Water Tribe (who are looking for any remaining members of the Royal Family). Azula is the last firebender left in the area and feels the weight of this everyday. One day, she and Zuko are by the volcano (Zuko: Yeah. The Water Tribe would never look for two firebenders near a volcano. What a crazy idea. Azula: Zuzu. Zuko: Yes? Azula: I will know you into the active volcano. Please shut up. I’m trying to focus.) Of course he doesn’t shut up, Azula gets made and a familiar airbender pops out.

2. Sokka was banished by his father because he’s a nonbender. (Kinda hypocritical since Hakoda’s a nonbender too but…) Basically, Sokka was scarred and banished because Hakoda wanted Katara to take charge. He believed that she, being a girl in the Water Tribe, would be far more easy to control when she was on the throne as opposed to Sokka. So, Hakoda tricks Sokka so that when he goes on a traditional hunt, Sokka is attacked by a polar bear dog and blinded in one eye and returns home empty handed. Hakoda regards this as Sokka’s failure to show he can’t lead (he can’t even catch some food for a family. How is he expected to lead a nation?) and banishes him to find the Avatar. When Sokka sees the light coming from the Fire Nation island, he knows that this is his moment. (Sokka: Gran Gran, do you know what this means?!?! Kanna: That we have to go to the land where 80 degrees is their record low temperature?). Sokka’s scar is three long scratches over his eye and he can’t see out of it, so he relies on his other eye and good hearing to detect things. Also, because of his lack of bending, he’s become an expert in weapons and hand to hand combat which aids him greatly in an initial fight against Zuko (which he wins easily) and he doesn’t get to fight Aang because the airbender goes with him without issue (Aang: I bet none of you Water Tribe soldiers have ever fought an airbender before…)

3. When the Fire Nation was attacked, firebenders fled all over the planet and were hunted down by the Water Empire. Realizing they were weak, a good number of firebenders took whatever resources they could find and fled to the old Sun Warriors civilization. Azula and Zuko, being former royalty, were able to get that information and tell Aang about it so he can learn firebending (I changed the cycle. It’s now air, fire, earth and water). However, to throw Sokka off their trial they have to make a couple stops in the Earth Kingdom first. (Azula: I’m telling you, based on how Aang flies that water prince won’t be able to track us. Aang: What do you mean how I fly? Azula: We literally flew across two islands then flew back to both of those islands. Aang: Seems normal to me Azula: Yeah, no one is figuring out our pattern.) In the Earth Kingdom, they find Mai, who also fled with her family but they went to the Earth Kingdom. Mai is still trained as a markswoman but now she’s also helping the Yuyan archers. (Zuko: MAI! Azula: Your girlfriend is alive after all. Aang: Girlfriend? Azula: Mai and Zuko were inseparable before the Water Tribe attacked Caldera. They literally did everything together. Zuko: What?! No, we didn’t. Azula: Okay, we’ll pretend. Maybe we can also pretend the sky isn’t blue, Appa isn’t big and the Water Tribe doesn’t suck too. Zuko: 😡 Azula: This is only proving my point). Mai agrees to join after realizing where they’re going and what they’re trying to do.

4. Bato is a bit different from Zhao. He’s a family friend, but also Bato doesn’t just tell Sokka not to try and capture Aang. He gives him a chance but when Sokka can’t, he steps in and tells Sokka to remain put while he handles it. (Kind of in a…. ‘You’re my kinda sorta nephew’ way). Would you believe that Sokka doesn’t listen? Bato figures out where they’re going and that that’s the hiding place of the firebenders. The Water Tribe empire sends as many ships as possible and attacks while Azula, Zuko and Aang are there. When they arrived to the Sun Warrior’s home, they met Ty Lee who became a sort of spiritual person since her time in Caldera and is very closely connected to the dragons. When the city is attacked, she and the dragons emerge to protect the people and one of the dragons is shot down. The Water Tribe has GREAT respect for the spirits but they don’t really care for the first benders of other nations so killing a dragon is not a big deal to them. You know who it is a big deal for? Aang. While Aang attacks the Water Tribe, Ty Lee sacrifices herself to become the second dragon and maintain balance. (Sokka: Bato! Bato! Bato, hardly breathing because the dragon drove its claws into his chest: Hey, Sokka. Sokka: BATO! Bato, don’t worry. We’ll get a healer and- Bato: Don’t. I’m okay. Sokka: The blood coming out of your body would say otherwise. Bato: Sokka, I don’t know what you know about your father’s plan but promise me you’ll stay safe. Sokka: I- Bato: Promise me. Sokka: I promise. Bato: Good. Good….Sokka: Bato?…Bato…😭) (Hakoda: Ugh! Advisor: Sir, I- Hakoda: Get Katara! Advisor: But the princess- Hakoda: Get her! Tell her that she has her first mission. Bringing her brother back and killing Team Avatar. I have a feeling her newest skill will be very useless for that.)

5. Katara in canon was incredibly strong on just a couple weeks of training. Now imagine her with years of training and being okay with bloodbending (yeah....not good). As the princess of the Water Empire, Katara has a military force behind her but chooses not to use it because she wants to move swiftly. To do so, she uses Yue and Suki to help her. Yue isn’t exactly a princess (since only Katara can fulfill that role) but because the Water Tribe is incredibly spiritual, she is held in high esteem for having some of Tui’s life force. Unlike Azula and Zuko in canon, Katara and Sokka get along great. The second Sokka sees Katara he runs over to hug her and ask her how she’s been. Katara really doesn’t have any bad intentions so she tells Sokka about the mission their father has given her and if he wants to help. Sokka grows worried though because he doesn’t have Aang and wonders why his father could want him back without the Avatar. (Katara: He wants you back. What’s the problem? Sokka: I just….I don’t know. It feels weird. Katara: He’s our father. Sokka: I know and I know he just wants what’s best for us both but- Katara: He probably wants you back now because the Avatar is back. Hope will return to the Earth Kingdom and whatever’s left of those ashmakers may come together again. We need our Prince. Sokka: You’re right. Katara: I always am. Sokka: Spirits, I forgot how annoying you are when you’re right. Katara: I’d like to think of it as more….announcing to the world that I’m smarter than you. Sokka: You were right in this one argument. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves). The first time the four meet the Gaang, Katara goes right for bloodbending and bloodbends them all. (Katara: You’re not living up to the legend, Avatar). She only losses because Azula hits her with enough fire that Katara has to back up and they escape on Appa. (Sokka: You learned to bloodbend during the day?!?! Katara: That’s not all I learned. Sokka: What do you mean? Katara: Let’s just say I have a very…creative way to make sure that little firebender and the Avatar never bend a single element again).

(Plus one) 6. In Ba Sing Se, Sokka realizes the truth: that Hakoda doesn’t want him to return and grows terrified of going back with Katara. With very limited options, since Katara is seconds from taking over the city, he decides to switch sides and make a desperate jump to Aang’s team (Azula: Why would you join us? Sokka:….The good of the world? Azula: 😑). Of course, no one on the team trusts him but they’re a little occupied with fighting Katara to really worry about that. While fighting in the final battle, it’s Katara vs Sokka, Azula and Aang and Katara is very angry that Sokka changed sides. She’s angry enough that it throws her off her game and she ends up at Azula’s mercy with a flame to her throat. (Aang: Azula, no! Azula: We have to! If we don’t kill her now then she’ll kill us later! Aang: No! We can’t kill her. Azula, taking her eyes off of Katara: Aang- Sokka, noticing what Katara is about to do: Azula, watch out! *He pushes her out of the way of one of Katara’s attacks and Katara sends an ice blade past Azula and straight into Sokka’s chest. Sokka: AHHHH!! Azula: Sokka!) Katara takes the moment of panic to attack Aang, bloodbending him and Azula down and removing Aang’s bending but being forced to flee (cause….the Earth King has guards) before she can remove Azula’s. Azula, Zuko and the guards get Aang and Sokka to a healer’s room while Katara, Yue and Suki flee the city without being detected. Azula remains with Sokka and Aang while they heal, staying with Sokka until he actually wakes up. (Azula: He saved my life. Zuko: He did. Maybe he has changed. Azula: Zuko: Azula? Azula: No one’s ever….Zuzu? Zuko: Yes? Azula: Nevermind. It’s not important. I’ll talk to Sokka when he wakes up.)

[oneatlatime]

City of Walls and Secrets

I am also once again saving the commentary for a rewatch.

I still think rock trains are neat but their inefficiencies hurt my brain. The friction! They should at least install dynamic braking.

That's big. This show has really confined itself to the hinterlands so far, so this is really novel. I had no clue anything this big existed in the Avatar universe.

Complete nitpick time! Given that earthbending is a thing that exists, why bother making things out of stone with individual tiles like this?

Single most threatening musical sting of the whole show so far goes to an overly smiley tour guide.

Wow! I hate this lady already!

"Oh, Ba Sing Se has many walls! There are the ones outside, protecting us, and the ones inside, protecting us from smelly poors!"

"In case someone brings home a lady friend!" Do you know your nephew AT ALL?

Both Iroh and Zuko are right. Life does happen everywhere and without your permission. But, the city is also remarkably prison-like.

He got them jobs in an afternoon. AN AFTERNOON. Stop it Iroh, you're making me feel inadequate.

Once a fuckboy, always a fuckboy. This particular leopard can't change his spots, no matter how he tries to dress up his actions in a new law-abiding veneer. I feel sorry for Smellerbee. Her faith in her leader isn't exactly being rewarded.

So... is there a law on the books that makes being a firebender illegal in Ba Sing Se? Because the head-in-the-sand vibe I'm getting from Judy makes me think that the average citizen doesn't even know there's a reason to dislike the Fire Nation. Iroh and Zuko could probably bend as openly as a waterbender or an earthbender could here.

This whole being handled thing must be dredging up some pretty nasty feelings for Toph. This is specifically what she left behind.

Speaking of precisely targeted torture, Judy is engineered to be as irritating to Sokka as possible. Man of action versus Lady of script.

What a productive use of time! What an exemplary case of turning over a new leaf!

Iroh buddy I have news for you regarding the ingredients of tea.

That's like the nicest thing a member of the Fire Nation royal family has said all year.

How to get Iroh's ass in gear: Step 1: Make insulting tea. Step 2: There is no step 2.

I thought that little thingy in the background was one of those electricity things.

The attention to detail in this show is stupid. There's a moving reflection of the carriage in the water as it goes past.

Hi forbidden city!

Ba Sing Se has a morality police?

I've already run out of patience with the city and I'm 7 minutes in. I haven't even made it to a commercial break yet!

Their house is cute but the veranda is so substantial that it's probably really dark inside. Also there's a pumpkin hood ornament on the roof.

I don't think you can stop there for a month. Have you guys forgotten the now-doubled ticking clock? Eclipse and comet?

Oh ok we're doing 1984 now. Damn. This show goes places.

I stand corrected. Everyone knows about the war and would be appropriately non-welcoming to firebending. But not openly. This could be like one of those Bugs Bunny bits where he traps someone in societal rules. If someone told a firebender not to bend, all they would have to do to get the guy off their case would be to ask why they aren't supposed to be firebending. What's the guy going to say, because there's a war on?

Shout out to Pong for doing the Gaang a solid and providing the only useful info since they've arrived.

There is something very Gollum-like about Jet, crouched in laundry on a roof in the dark, talking to his stolen spark rocks.

Sokka. Feet off the artwork.

Time for Toph to weaponise her oppressive upbringing and out-fancy the fancies in the name of ending the war.

Aang can master an element in a couple of months but a qualified expert declared manners to be beyond him.

I just realised that Sokka and Katara don't have a last name.

Sneaking into a Bear's (JUST Bear's) birthday party may be the single least violent infiltration attempt in the show so far.

Smellerbee is very articulate, and it's rare that this show spells out its themes so obviously. No metaphors, just "you're obsessed. It's not healthy." And Jet still doesn't get it. Maybe Smellerbee should have tried metaphors.

Normally glowy green stuff is bad news, but all of Ba Sing Se's green lighting is surprisingly cozy.

Sometimes, rarely but sometimes, Zuko has to put up with a lot of nonsense.

A raise? Did I miss a timeskip?

Busting in to a local business, yelling about the enemy, pulling out a lethal weapon: How to Look Sane, A Guide by Jet.

Customers, amirite?

I guess the Bei Fongs are too minor as nobles?

"You don't know what I had to do to get seats this near the bear!" but I want to.

I know this guy's voice from something.

Momo ghost plan. I want it.

Pretty funny that the busboys plan works better than the fancy ladies plan. Goes to show you should always play to your strengths.

Get de-wheated punk.

I'm not sure I've rooted for Zuko this wholeheartedly since The Storm.

Jet be like.

Judy is not good at her job. Like really not good. Her insistence on getting out of there before they cause a scene caused the scene. Nice going!

The music slowing down when Judy's face falls is really effective.

You ever get the feeling that it should be Aang who ran away to the circus rather than Ty Lee?

Actually a travelling circus would be a great way to be, and remain, an incognito airbender. Aang should have done that rather than frozen himself. Ok I'm not sure how much say he had in that, but you know what I mean.

For the first time in his life, Zuko has people take his side. It's too bad that it's based on a lie, but it must feel nice.

I would have preferred if Zuko had a clean win against Jet - they're both great with swords, but I thought Zuko was better - but an assist from the funky hat police works too.

I'm getting some funky vibes from the funky hat police.

Bye! I won't miss you!

The face on the guy on the left is the funniest part of this episode.

Now these are some funky hats.

I know this scene is supposed to be scary and tense and action-packed, but I can't get over the fact that the king just did a drive by. They carried him in one side and out the other. This concludes the King's presence at his Bear's birthday party. He's a very busy man, you see.

Long Fang's title keeps getting fancier.

Brain washing crops up quite a lot in kids' cartoons. This is not the first time I've seen this plot beat.

Forget the Fire Lord. Forget the Fire Nation. Long Fang just threatened Appa. Long Fang has to die now.

The Judys are replaceable. Given everything else this city seems ok with, they're probably disposable too. Yikes!

Final Thoughts

This episode was probably the most expository I've seen this season. Maybe even the whole show. It was a big infodump with barely any humour. Actually that's wrong; there was humour, but not to my taste.

Jet is infuriating as usual. I think the writers are going for the villainous decay trope, because smooth-talking season one Jet hasn't reappeared once.

I feel really sorry for Smellerbee and the archer guy. I wonder if they even wanted to go to Ba Sing Se in the first place.

Once again, for the third episode in a row, Zuko is one of, if not the, most reasonable character. Season one shouty Zuko is gone. Is this what I think it is? Has Zuko really turned a corner? If so, I'm liking (rather, disliking less) this new Zuko. This is good. I'm also surprised, because in my experience, if you want to domesticate someone, you don't put them in a customer-facing role. That will have the opposite effect and make them turn feral.

Iroh is having too much fun. It's good for him to have something of his own going on. I think he's been in Zuko wrangling mode 24/7 for the last two? three? years, so he definitely deserves to pursue his own interests for a bit. But I can't see Zuko being a tea boy for long before he's back to needing wrangling.

What's the long term plan though? Are Zuko and Iroh going to live the rest of their lives in Ba Sing Se? Are they waiting for something? Are Iroh and Zuko functionally dead, with Lee and Mushi taking their place?

I will give the show credit for finally coming up with and antagonistic force that Aang & company can't just bend or talk into submission. Bureaucratic tomfoolery covering for authoritarian censorship and information suppression and re-education was not something I'd ever have expected in this show, because it's a little too much like the real world, if you know what I mean.

I don't like seeing our heroes unable to triumph, so this episode was kind of uncomfortable to watch. It felt off the whole way through, which I credit to that creepy music box tune that played throughout. The soundtrack of this episode was a cut above what I usually hear in this show. I noticed it more than I usually do, and I mean that in a good way.

As someone who'd be lucky to pass as a busboy, upper class intrigue and social games stuff doesn't do it for me, so this wasn't an episode I was going to enjoy anyway. I preferred the B plot with Zuko and Iroh, for the sheer absurdity of the concept. Imagine you're in 1950s London, having barely survived the Blitz, and you come across Himmler working in a pub. It's so odd that it almost wraps back around to normal again.

I didn't find this episode very enjoyable. I don't like the forced inactivity that's been imposed on the Gaang. The humour was not to my taste. The worldbuilding was substantial, but - probably thanks to Joo Dee, whose name I've definitely been misspelling - it felt inorganic, like a lecture. Which the writers do lampshade by making Joo Dee sound like one of those audio guide things you rent from tourist attractions. But lampshading a fault does not make a fault go away.

Thanks to what happens to Jet, I know that the people of Ba Sing Se don't dare even think about the war, for their own safety. But after spending more than half a season being shown every type of refugee and victim of war in other parts of the Earth Kingdom, I could not bring myself to give a flying fuck over Pong's concern for keeping his house. The city is frustrating, the officials are frustrating, their priorities are beyond frustrating. Zuko was right when he said he didn't want to make a life there, although I did find the lower ring where Zuko and Iroh are to be far more comfortable than the high ring where the gaang is.

This episode makes me want to bite something.

And still no Appa.

[mbrainspaz]

okay I just finished the new live action Avatar season 1 and

y'all are being too mean about it.

All I've seen is posts about how horrible and not-like-the-cartoon it is—and it definitely does deviate quite a bit���but it's still an enjoyable show. I even thought it was good. Not perfect, but definitely fun.

My two favorite things about it are 1: It stayed true to the emotional narrative of the original. While it's a bit 'darker' with how it doesn't shy away from showing some of the more horrific war stuff they obviously couldn't show in the cartoon, the focus stays on the main cast and the growth of their friendships, and still takes time for their individual growth. I did think it was funny how much more emphasis Zuko's storyline is getting so far, but that leads us to the 2nd thing I really liked:

This version, at it's best moments, expanded on the character stories presented in the original in intriguing ways. The added depth of the backstories really drew me in to an adaptation that otherwise could've been a stale repeat. The extra attention given to Iroh in particular was so cool. They couldn't keep every character or story, but the ones they could, they mostly did a satisfying job with.

Am I bummed that they had to cut so much of the story for the compressed runtime? Absolutely. But that's what they had to work with, I guess. I was kind of impressed with how they chose to weave some of the plots together, especially in the Blue Spirit episode. You can tell that the writers had tremendous respect for the original show and genuinely cared about paying tribute to it.

The graphics, as many have complained about, are not spectacular all the time. There are some really cool money shots but other times it's like—aaaand, that whole scene was done in Blender, yikes. Some of the child acting was bad and a lot of the line deliveries felt really stiff and scripted, but there were a lot of good moments too. Zuko and Iroh were the highlight, and Xao was very punchable. Ozai had perfect bad evil father energy, which was great (I'm an expert on this). King Boomie was probably the low for me. So was his whole episode.

I've always been in the 'why do we need live action remakes of perfectly good animation anyway' camp, but since they did it—SURE WHY NOT. IT WAS FUN! Seeing everybody jumping out of their seats to scream and cry about how bad it was.... yes there are valid criticisms to be made but I'd like to see more people talking about all the stuff they did right.

Nobody was expecting this to be a dramatic masterpiece, especially after the og creators split ways during production. I'm still impressed with what we got. If all you wanted was an identical copy of the cartoon with real people and CGI, it's just never gonna happen. That's not how media adaptation works.

Granted, I wouldn't complain if they did another version that leaned more into the silly goofiness of the cartoon. The loss of the frozen frogs scene cuts deep, and Aang wasn't 100% Aang without his sillier side.

[swordgayist]

cultural appropriation in ATLA (hinduism edition)

i’m sure there’s already a ton of posts about this, but whatever, i’m still making one idc. 

ATLA’s cultural appropriation, everyone knows about it, the white people don’t speak about it, and the asian and indigenous people get ignored. we know the cycle. but i wanted to come here and highlight some of the most prominent examples of ATLA abusing hinduism, as i am kinda sorta hindu (i was raised in a hindu household, i go to chinmaya mission, that kinda shit). i might forget some things so keep that in mind.

this is gonna be divided into 3 main sections, since there are different ways that they disrespect hinduism that i don’t wanna lump together.

and i’d say i know a lot about hinduism but that doesn’t make me an expert, obviously, so if other hindus have anything to add and/or correct then please do !! and if anyone else wants to share how their cultures were appropriated then please do that as well !!

so let’s get started shall we?

appropriating hinduism

1) the avatar

we’ll start with the most obvious example: the avatar itself

i know that there are parts of the avatar mythos that are taken from other cultures as well but the idea of the avatar itself is primarily from hinduism.

basically in hinduism, the term dashavatara refers to the 10 reincarnations of lord vishnu (the god of preservation), with avatar(a) meaning form or incarnation in sanskrit, and das(a) meaning ten. it was said that whenever the world was out of balance, lord vishnu would come down to earth in a certain form to restore balance. Each reincarnation is considered a different life with a different story. the avatars of lord vishnu are often considered the saviors of the world.

so basically, the central idea of the show and the actual name of the show is largely based on hinduism.

2) chakras

many different indian religions have a concept of chakras (chakra meaning wheel or circle in sanskrit), but hinduism is the one that primarily preaches the system of seven chakras, the version used in ATLA.

chakras connect the physical body to the ‘subtle’ body (referring more to the spirit and the psyche) by connecting parts of the body to aspects of the mind. the idea is that through different forms of steady meditation you can manipulate the different chakras and allow the pure flow of energy through the body.

the whole idea of chakras on ATLA is that aang has to unblock them all to let the cosmic energy flow through him so that he can go into the avatar state at will. so yeah, pretty much that whole idea was taken from hinduism.

3) terminologies

these are just a few terms that were taken from hinduism. i’m pretty sure there are more that i can’t think of right now but yeah.

“agni” kai 

i’ll be honest i don’t know where the ‘kai’ part is from, i don’t think it’s from hinduism but if it is well fuck me i guess.  ‘agni’ in hinduism is the god of fire, so the creators used it in ‘agni kai’, the name for a firebending duel.

“bumi”

this is in reference to the hindu word for ‘earth’, which is bhoomi. this is also in reference to our goddess of earth, bhoomi devi. also this doesn’t really bother me but i wonder if the creators knew that bhoomi is a name typically used for women (as are most hindi names ending in ‘i’/‘ee’).

in general, concepts like having multiple complex gods (the spirits) who are capable of good and evil and the reincarnation cycle are prominent in a lot of asian cultures, including (and arguably primarily) hinduism.

mocking hinduism

now we get into the mockery of hinduism in ATLA, because it is very much there.

1) whoever the fuck that baboon guy in the spirit world was

now what the fuck was this.

i mean i wouldn’t say this is the most egregious example of them making fun of brown people but lord why did this even need to be there? this random guy from the spirit world has an indian accent ? and is fervently chanting ‘om’ for some reason, and it’s clearly meant to be seen as comical. also portraying brown people as monkeys....... really.

2) combustion man/sparky sparky boom man

when rewatching ATLA in 2019 i actually had no idea that this was a thing, because the last time i had watched it was as a kid and i didn’t finish it.

so lord was i in for a surprise when i saw...

now... now what.

if you didn’t know, combustion man’s ‘third eye’ is designed to replicate the hindu god of destruction, lord shiva. right down to the vibhuti on his forehead (referring to the three line markings around the third eye).

in hinduism, lord shiva’s third eye is used to reduce people to ashes, though as far as i can recall, not very frequently. the primary significance of the third eye is that it represents the ability of higher spiritual thought and higher consciousness.

the ATLA writers take the ACTUAL significance of the third eye, throw it out the window, and then take its destructive abilities to make a super duper cool and dangerous new firebending technique.

and if that wasn’t bad enough, the actual person who uses this technique, and is meant to emulate a GOD who is PRAISED, is a scary, burly, half metal man who is a villain and an assassin. not to mention the design of his facial hair replicates that super duper scary “terrorist” depiction of brown people, particularly of muslims, that white people are so thoroughly terrified of for no reason. 

this is a parody of a god, and they portrayed him as this terrifying, maniacal fucking assassin who, along with p’li, the combustion bender from LOK, is constantly referred to as a “third-eyed freak”. i’ve made this analogy before and i’ll do it again, this is like making jesus into a hitman.

now onto my favorite example...

3) guru pathik

ah, this motherfucker.

i don’t really have any problems with him as a character, i mean hell, must’ve taken a fuck ton of patience to handle aang’s “why would choose cosmic energy over katara” bullshit.

but we all know it, we see it plain as day, don’t even try to deny it.

“guru” literally just means teacher or guide, so i don’t really know why pathik needed to be referred to as “guru” so distinctively from aang’s other teachers and guides, but that’s just extremely trivial compared to all the other issues with this character.

first of all what is this character design? what is he even wearing? if they’re trying to replicate the clothes of swamis and priests and stuff this is already wrong, realized people don’t dress like this. and why the fuck does he have an indian accent? and why was this indian accent done by a non indian (brian george)?

once again, the poor but extremely heavy indian accent is clearly meant to be mocking, if it wasn’t, they wouldn’t’ve gone out of their way to get a non indian person to DO an indian accent, and instead they would’ve just gotten an actual indian person to play the role. 

and oh yeah, the onion and banana juice. because hindus just eat weird shit right.

whether it’s actually weird or not, the show certainly portrays it as weird. and as far as i know no hindu actually fucking drinks onion and banana juice.

ironic because brown people can absolutely destroy white people in cooking. but i digress.

i know what you’re all waiting for. because the guru apparently didn’t have enough fun with guru pathik, so they just had to come back to him in book 3:

where do i begin.

so this is obviously john o’bryan’s super funny and hilarious depiction of pathik as a hindu god.

usually when a god has multiple arms it’s to carry an array of things, from flowers to weapons to instruments, and one hand is typically free to bless devotees (ie. goddess durga and lord vishnu respectively):

but of course white people see this as weird and so they make fun of it, hence guru pathik having multiple arms just flailing about aimlessly (save for the two that are being used to carry the aforementioned onion and banana juice).

then there’s the whole light behind pathik’s head which is usually depicted in drawings of hindu gods to show that they are celestial.

also what the fuck is he holding? is that supposed to be a veena? because this is what a veena looks like:

and i assume the reason this was added was to mock the design of goddess saraswathi, who carries a veena:

but that right there in the picture of pathik looks more like a tambura than a veena. 

and it also just kinda looks like a banjo?

but i guess the animators just searched up “long indian instrument” and slapped it on there. actually no, that’s giving them too much credit, they probably didn’t search it up at all. 

and then the actual scene is pathik singing crazily about chakras tasting good or something while playing the non-veena and it’s all supposed to be some funky crazy hallucination that aang is having due to sleep deprivation. just some crazy dream, just as crazy as talking appa and momo sparring with swords or tree-ozai coming to life.

our gurus and swamis and sadhus and generally realized people are very respected in hinduism, they’re people we look up to and honor very much. and our GODS are beings that we literally worship. and the writers just take both and make caricatures out of them for other white people to laugh at.

4) other shit

before we move to the next portion i just wanna mention there are also smaller backhanded jabs that i can’t really remember now, but one example was when zuko was all “we’ll be sure to remember that, guru goody goody”. or when a character would meditate and say “om” only when the meditation is supposed to be portrayed as comical or pointless. or in bitter work when sokka was rambling on about karma. small things like that. but moving on.

south asian representation, or lack thereof

now i finally get to the “losing” hinduism part. by this i mean the lack of actual representation there is of south asians (the region where hinduism is primarily practiced) despite the fact that hinduism plays such a big role in the show’s world design.

i think it’s safe to say that broadly the main cast consists of aang, katara, sokka, zuko, toph, azula, iroh, mai, ty lee, and suki. 

a grand total of none of these characters are south asian. the writers don’t even attempt to add any south asian main characters. 

there are characters with dark skin, like haru and jet, but a) they’re not confirmed to be south asian and don’t have any south asian features or south asian names, b) they’re side characters, so they don’t count as representation, and c) even if they were south asian and main characters, jet wouldn’t even count because he’s portrayed as a terrorist.

the ONLY truly south asian character we get is fucking guru pathik. so yeah. not representation.

i don’t get how the creators of this show rip off of hinduism (among many other south asian cultures they rip off of), mock indians, and then don’t even have the decency to HAVE a main character who is south asian.

i’ve never gotten a chance to compile all this, and this definitely isn’t all the creators have done, but i hope this was somewhat informative.

[the-badger-mole]

Can you write a short story with a jealous Zuko?

PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE

Zuko was used to being overshadowed. By Azula; by Lu Ten; by Avatar Aang. It still often annoyed him to know that the most he could aim for was second best to someone else, no matter where he was. But he never minded when it came to Katara. Give her enough time, Zuko often told himself, and she could bring the entire world to its knees. She'd saved his life in more ways than he could count. She had saved them all, and there would never be enough people singing her praises as far as Zuko was concerned. She stood out no matter where she was. Even in spaces where the Fire Lord should have been the center of attention, Zuko knew he didn't stand a chance when Master Katara entered the room.

It should have annoyed him, Zuko thought, but it didn't. She was sunshine, for all she was a child of Water, and she drew everyone towards her like plants reaching up for Agni's rays. When she laughed, it filled the room- a bit too loud to be polite, but too infectious to really be upset over. She talked with high-ranking nobles with passion, leaving them stunned at her knowledge and convictions- this woman who was barely not a child anymore. She had earned the grudging respect of Zuko's council, which even he hadn't succeeded in doing. He should be jealous, but he watched Katara make her way around the room with pride. Maybe he wasn't as eloquent or magnetic as Katara, but he was her friend. He knew her in a way few- if any- in that room would ever know her.

Someone- Iroh, Zuko guessed- had signaled for the band to start playing. Business was done for the day. Soon the crowd had reshuffled itself, and couples began making their way to the dance floor while everyone else made their way to the buffet tables lining one end of the hall. Katara met Zuko's eyes across the room, and with a warm smile, made her way over to him. She seemed to glow supernaturally. Zuko cast a surreptitious glance to see if some prankster had aimed a spotlight on her. Was it just Zuko? How was no one else being blinded by the way the light reflected off her smile? Her hair? Her skin? Zuko swallowed hard, trying to unstick his tongue from the roof of his suddenly dry mouth.

Katara's smile widened and she opened her mouth to greet him.

"Excuse...um...p-pardon me." Katara turned in surprise to the young man who had approached her. Zuko recognized him vaguely, and he scrambled to place a name. Katara spared him the ordeal of guessing.

"Lord Jee-Soo," she smiled politely at King Kuei's cousin, though Zuko could see an odd tightness in the corners of Katara's eyes. Jee Soo, however, did not notice. His face was tinged pink and he leaned forward in a stiff, formal bow.

"I-I hope I'm not disturbing you," he said. "I was hoping that...that maybe you...er, that is...would you grant me the honor of a dance."

Zuko froze. A shock went down his spine as if someone had walked across a carpet and touched his skin. Katara gaped at him in surprise. Her cheeks flushed a pretty dusky red. Jee Soo smiled at her, nervous and hopeful. She cast a glance at Zuko, trying to communicate... something.

"Oh!" Katara gasped. "Well... I was just going to..." She cast another look at Zuko before she shrugged and smiled at Jee Soo. "Um... sure, I'd love to."

Zuko watched silently as Jee Soo wrapped a clammy-looking hand around Katara's and led her out to the dance floor. His hand squeezed his punch cup dangerously tight as Jee Soo slid his arm around Katara's waist and pulled her as close as propriety would allow. His breath caught in his throat as the young Earth Kingdom noble said something that caused Katara's nose to crinkle in amusement.

"Take care, Fire Lord Zuko," Iroh sidled up to his nephew, with an affable smile and a knowing gleam in his eye. "Someone might think there's trouble between the Fire Nation and Ba Sing Se the way you're glaring at young Lord Jee Soo."

"I'm not glaring!" Zuko insisted hotly. Still, he turned his scowl on his uncle instead.

"She would have danced with you if you'd asked," Iroh told him. "I'm sure she still would."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Zuko grumbled.

"Oh no?" Iroh tried unsuccessfully to hide his amusement. "My mistake. It's been a long time since I was young and in love. Perhaps I don't remember the signs as well as I thought."

"Perhaps not!" Zuko knew he was being peevish, but his uncle was overstepping. Zuko had admitted to having a small crush on Katara years ago, and Iroh had never forgotten, even though Zuko had gotten over her a long time ago. She was dating one of his best friends at the time.

But not anymore.

The traitorous, smug voice in his head sounded annoyingly like his uncle. It was true that Katara had broken up with Aang, but it made no difference. Even if he wasn't over Katara- and he was over her- she and Aang hadn't split on the best of terms. It wouldn't be fair to either of his friends for Zuko to insert himself in the middle of that.

On the dance floor, Jee Soo seemed to have gained some confidence. He twirled and spun Katara with expert ease. If Katara had been hesitant to dance with him before, she seemed happy enough now. Her eyes were bright and her face pink with the exertion of the dance. She was having a good time, and Jee Soo gazed at her as if half in love already.

Zuko could dance. He could dance at least as well as Jee Soo. Others may outshine him in literally every other part of his life, but Zuko's mastery of dance was part of what made the Blue Spirit so deadly. Maybe he could challenge Jee Soo to a friendly competition. Katara could be the judge. Maybe the first prize could be a kiss...

Zuko shook his head. Dangerous territory. She was just coming out of a serious relationship. With one of his best friends. True they had broken up almost a year ago. Also true that Aang hadn't been in close contact with any of them since the breakup. And there was speculation that things had ended because Aang had cheated. But Zuko didn't know that for sure. No one knew for sure except Katara and Aang. Suki probably had more of the story, which Toph probably bullied out of her. And Sokka at least suspected if his coldness towards Aang at the last summit was any indication.

Dangerous territory. Friends don't go after a friend's exes. Even if you happened to have had a thing for said ex before your friend started dating them. Even if that ex was also your best friend.

Jee Soo dipped Katara, causing her to let out a nervous, but giddy laugh. Her hands clutched at Jee Soo tightly, to keep herself steady, but as a result, they were much closer than they started at the beginning of the dance. Jee Soo's face lit up with a grin as he did it again. And again. And again.

Didn't this guy know any other moves? Katara was going to catch on to him, and she would be annoyed. Wouldn't she? Zuko knew she'd been out with a couple of other guys since the breakup. Nothing serious, though, Suki had informed him. No one who lasted more than a month. Still, Zuko wasn't sure what her type was anymore. Jee Soo reminded Zuko a bit of Aang, but just because Katara had dated Aang for three years doesn't mean he was her type. Maybe she was into quieter guys who got way too deep in their own heads and overthought hypothetical situations until they lost entire nights of sleep worrying about problems that didn't actually exist. Yeah...for sure that's what Katara would find attractive.

How long was this song, Zuko wondered. Jee Soo was dipping Katara again, though she seemed to be getting tired of it. Her smile was that polite, tight smile that she'd given him earlier when she wasn't sure she wanted him to interrupt her. Zuko saw her say something to him, probably asking him to keep her upright for a while. Jee Soo laughed and shook his head and said something teasing as he pulled her closer. Katara's smile fell away completely, and Zuko saw she was getting mad. He was halfway across the dance floor before he'd even realized he was going to go over. He was ready to yank Jee Soo away, and if necessary, deck the creep for not respecting Katara's reasonable wish. But before he got to them, Jee Soo had stepped away with a deep, embarrassed blush on his face.

"I'm so sorry," Jee Soo was saying as Zuko got closer. "Honestly, I was just trying to...well, I didn't mean to upset you or offend you."

"It's alright, Jee Soo," Katara said patiently. Her smile was back in place. The song ended, finally, and another one started up.

"Would you...like to dance again?" Jee Soo asked.

"I'm a bit tired," Katara begged off. "But I'll bet Kimiko would love you to ask her. Don't say I told you, but she's been checking you out." That didn't seem to soothe Jee Soo's disappointment, but he accepted the rejection graciously enough.

"Seems like you had fun," Zuko said. Katara sighed tiredly and slipped her arm through his.

"I thought the song would never end!" she groaned. "It was like dancing with Aang. Fun for the first minute, but he was doing way too much. All the dipping gave me vertigo." Zuko heard that with interest.

"I didn't realize you weren't having fun," he tried to keep his voice even as he led them away from the dance floor over to the punch table. "I would have come rescue you if I'd realized. We should come up with some sort of sign when you want me to cut in."

"You never dance at these things," Katara pointed out.

"I'd make an exception for you." Zuko blushed and scrambled to cover. "I mean, I'd do it if it saved you from some over-eager guy who can't take a hint."

"My hero." Katara scrunched her nose up at Zuko and leaned against him. It was adorable! Zuko had to bite the inside of his lip to keep from grinning.

"Actually..." Katara said slowly. "I was coming over to ask you to dance before Jee Soo interrupted."

"Really?" Zuko's voice hit an octave it hadn't hit since he was fourteen and his voice was still dropping. He cleared his throat, trying to ignore the fact that Katara was trying very hard not to laugh.

"Yeah," she nodded her head. "I know you don't really like dancing, but maybe you can preemptively cut in for me? Someone told me that Lord Hino's son wanted to ask me for a dance." Zuko grimaced. Lord Hino was one of his most trusted advisors, but his son was a famous klutz with two left feet. No woman left the dance floor without bruised feet when she danced with him.

"You told Jee Soo you were tired," Zuko reminded her. Why, he yelled internally, would he say that? Fortunately, Katara just shrugged and looked up at him coyly from the corner of her eye.

"I'd make an exception for you," she said quietly. Zuko froze midstep. Katara looked up at him in alarm. There was a spectacular blush rising from her neck towards her hairline, and a panicked retraction already on her lips. Zuko turned to her and took her hand. Then in a move that would have pleased every last one of his etiquette tutors and his uncle, if he was watching, Zuko bowed elegantly and brushed a feathery light kiss on Katara's fingertips. He lifted his gaze with an impish grin.

"I would be honored," he said, "to have this dance." Katara nodded speechlessly and allowed Zuko to lead her out to the dance floor again.

Zuko was used to being overshadowed. He wasn't the most powerful bender, or the most charismatic leader. He wasn't the most handsome man or the most eloquent. But there on the dancefloor, with the most beautiful woman in at the ball in his arms, he knew that no one could match him for dancing. Katara seemed to agree because she accepted his request for another dance. And another. And another...

[flameohotwife]

Why do people hate King Kuei so much and not Zuko? Both of them were abused by father figures, with Kuei actually having his power usurped when he was a toddler after his parents were murdered. The bear stuff is obviously his response to trauma, and Long Feng kept him sequestered and lied to. I just feel like the fact the he was a non bender is why and it feels weird to me tbh because I feel like since Imbalance, non bender prejudice is the in-universe racial prejudice, so people dislike King Kuei because he's not a "cool bender" like Zuko is.

Hello, anon! I tend to keep to a very tiny (kataang) corner of fandom, so I was not even aware that this was a *thing* until you brought it to my attention and I asked around. I very strongly considered just saying that this is a kataang blog and I don't often venture into other areas of discourse, but this intrigued me for a few reasons.

I'm in the process of writing a longer kataang story that doesn't paint Kuei particularly favorably. He's not a "bad guy," just he's still learning how to be a true leader and he is still largely taking the advice of other, older, more experienced people in his circle. (In my story he is taking advice from the Council of Five to pressure a now-of-age Avatar Aang to have children to ensure that the next avatar will have a teacher, should anything happen to Aang.) I agree with you that Kuei is a very sympathetic character for all the reasons you mentioned. BUT I also feel that BOTH he and Zuko still have a long way to go in terms of growth at the end of the series. There were times when both Kuei and Zuko put their foot in their mouth making racist comments that they probably didn't even realize were racist (I've mentioned Zuko's comments about Air Nomads in TSR before, and also Kuei's comments about the Water Tribes not being "civilized" in North and South were pretty bad, too). I don't think anyone in AtLA is "perfect," and that's by design.

I would hesitate to call anti-nonbender prejudice the "in-universe racial prejudice" because racial prejudice ABSOLUTELY already exists in AtLA as I noted above. I think it's probably more similar to a form of ableism, but we see ableism in action with Teo and Toph as well. It's absolutely a form of prejudice BUT

I don't think it's the reason people like him less than Zuko. I think we only see Kuei for a couple episodes in canon, whereas we follow Zuko from the very first episode to the very last one. We see his growth and his struggles. His storyline is a very western one, and so many people from a more western audience latch onto him. He's definitely a "fan favorite" in the fandom at large, to the point of many in the fandom becoming zuko-apologists and rationalizing all of his poor (often racist or sexist) behaviors.

I will say that I've never really seen Kuei-hate though, but like I said I sequester myself into a tiny tiny corner of the fandom, where I don't have to see or read anything unpleasant about kataang and I can enjoy my fandom time to the fullest. So obviously I miss things. I'm not an expert on these things and sometimes I wonder why people send me certain asks because this is literally just a kataang blog lol, but I'm happy to answer anything I can to the best of my ability.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on that. Anyone who is more knowledgeable about King Kuei discourse than I am is free to tag onto this post and explain things since I literally had no idea this was a thing until I saw this ask in my inbox. Thanks!

[allnewalldifferentwildspider]

Zuko & Katara's Relationship Dynamic

This is like the third or fourth time I've tried to write up this post so please bare with me.

Oh wow. That video. Hopefully everyone has seen it now. Not only did it articulate arguments I've been making for years, but it also brought up ideas I had never thought of or noticed before. Watching that and watching the second half of Book 3 again (because it's my favorite) made me want to redo my zutara dynamic post.

I'm going to be using the tiny bits and pieces the show gave us to see how Zuko and Katara's relationship looks and how it would look if they gave us more because...Bryke really fucking hated zutara. I mean, I guess they did.

Katara is compassionate; Zuko is empathetic

A lot of anti-zutara arguments have said that Zuko and Katara could never be together because they would constantly fight and hate each other and it end sooner than later. Not only does this actually describe maiko, but that argument would need to ignore the characters' actual character.

One of Katara's biggest character traits is how compassionate she is. She has a drive to help others and ease their pain. Whether it's getting Aang out of the iceberg or healing a Fire Nation fishing village, Katara will go out of her way to help someone in need.

Katara: No. I will never ever turn my back on people who need me.

Zuko is very emotional and passionate person. As much as he tried to hide it to appease his father, Zuko does want to open up and connect with people. Unfortunately, aside from his uncle, most of the other people he knows are like Zhao and Azula. Not the most understanding of crowds. But because of this he can pick up what people are really thinking and feeling. Think of it as a defense mechanism he developed growing up around people like Azula.

Get these two kinds of people together and you get the crystal catacombs scene. Katara lashes out at Zuko until she breaks down. When she does Zuko opens up with empathy since they have something in common. This creates the beginning of an understanding between the two. Zuko uses that to finally open up to someone who isn't his uncle and Katara listens and reaches out to help. Contrast to the first episode of Book 3 when Zuko tries to voice his thoughts and concerns to Mai and she...doesn't really care.

Something similar happens during The Southern Raiders. Zuko figures out that Katara is taking out her anger of being separated from her father by The Fire Nation onto him and even connecting her mother's death to him.

It's not the first time Zuko has done this either. He easily figured out that Sokka was planning on going to The Boiling Rock. He does it again during Sozin's Comet when he tells Katara that Aang needs to figure out what to do about Ozai by himself.

There's a noticeable pattern of behavior by the time Sozin's Comet arrives. Zuko voices his concerns about meeting his uncle again and Katara is right there to help him through it.

Zuko's empathy combined with Katara's compassion creates almost a cycle of understanding and emotional vulnerability that the two can't really get with anyone else. One notices the other having concerns or problems and goes to give comfort by words or by actions.

Zuko still has a temper but so does Katara

Even after Zuko's fever dream character change thing, even after The Day of Black Sun, he still has it in him to yell at anyone who commits even the slightest transgressions against him:

Aang: That one felt kinda hot. Zuko: Don't patronize me. You know what it's supposed to look like. Aang: Sorry, sifu hotman. Zuko: And stop calling me that!

Sokka: So all we have to do is make Zuko angry. Easy enough. *pokes him with his sword* *annoying laugh* Zuko: All right! Cut it out!

Maybe it's the firebender in him or maybe he really is just like that. Basically if you annoy him, he'll let you know. What people sometimes overlook is that while it takes Katara a bit longer, she also gets worked up when people upset her.

Toph: What's the matter? Can't handle some dirt, Madame Fussy Britches? Katara: Oh, sorry, did I splash you, mud slug?

And remember, it was Katara getting angry at Sokka that even broke the iceberg that revealed Aang.

Katara: Ugh, I'm embarrassed to be related to you! Ever since Mom died I've been doing all the work around camp while you've been off playing soldier! Sokka: Uh... Katara? Katara: I even wash all the clothes! Have you ever smelled your dirty socks? Let me tell you, NOT PLEASANT! Sokka: Katara! Settle down! Katara: No, that's it. I'm done helping you. From now on, you're on your own!

The point is that it is both Zuko and Katara that are very passionate and emotional people. One of them isn't emotionally dominating the other because they both wear their emotions on their sleeves.

This also comes in to play when they set goals for themselves. When Zuko sets a goal, he puts everything into it. Katara is the same way. The difference is that Zuko's drive sometimes gives him a one-track mind while Katara is more flexible. Like for example Zuko being so focused on finding Aang before Sozin's Comet that he ignores Toph's story about her childhood versus Katara wanting to go to the North Pole but taking time to stop and help whoever they come across.

This passion also fuels their values and how strongly they stand by their beliefs. I already put The Painted Lady quote up above but Zuko's morality is what is making him so angry at himself during The Beach. He knows what he did was wrong, but he couldn't face it yet.

Sometimes their emotions get the better of them, but it's only because they are passionate about what they're doing.

Their natural teamwork is amazing

I can't provide a lot of clues in this bit because it's more of a visual thing. Just consider how flawlessly their plans worked during their attack on The Southern Raiders. Especially when you consider that it was a stealth mission so they barely even said anything to each other during and it still went incredibly well.

You could see it again during their mock battle with The Melon Lord. Sokka must have noticed because he paired them together to deliver some "liquidy-hot offence." And they pulled it off, again, without having to say anything.

They've only been a team for a few weeks(?), days(?) but they act as if they've been doing it for years.

They trust each other's judgment

Piggybacking of the previous point, Zuko and Katara have only been a team for a while but there seems to be a level of understanding in terms of judgement. They both know that whatever the other chooses is going to be a well-thought out decision. Maybe it's because they see each other as the mature members of the group even though Sokka is the same age as Zuko? I don't know.

Aang disappears right before they embark on their fight against the Fire Lord, and out of nowhere, Katara puts Zuko in charge.

Zuko: Get out of the bison's mouth, Sokka. We have a real problem here. Aang is nowhere to be found and the comet is only two days away. Katara: What should we do Zuko? Zuko: I don't know. Why are you all looking at me? Katara: Well, you are kind of the expert on tracking Aang.

and that wasn't the first time in that episode that she went along with one of Zuko's decisions

Katara: Aang, don't walk away from this. *She begins to walk towards him as a hand touches her shoulder to stop her from doing so.* Zuko: Let him go. He needs time to sort it out by himself.

As a lot of people have pointed out during the entirety of The Southern Raiders, Zuko never gives a suggestion on what he thinks Katara should do. Aside from making it a stealth mission, he follows her lead the entire way.

Katara teases Zuko (and he lets her)

The fun one. This one has two parts: pre and post The Southern Raiders.

Before The Southern Raiders, Katara was tolerating Zuko. She was still angry with him about the betrayal at Ba Sing Se. Getting little jabs at him was the only thing that was really helping her from loosing her cool around him.

Katara: I'm sorry. I'm just laughing at the irony. You know... how it would have been nice for us if you lost your firebending a long time ago? Zuko: Well it's not lost. It's just weaker for some reason. Katara: Maybe you're just not as good as you think you are. Toph: Ouch.

He just finished yelling at Aang and Sokka but all he does is glare at Katara. She does it again, but to be fair, he kind of set himself up for it.

Zuko: It's a sacred form that happens to be thousands of years old! Katara: Oh yeah? What's your little form called? Zuko: ...The Dancing Dragon.

Then comes post The Southern Raiders and...yeah, she's still picking on him and he still lets her. Granted it's a lot more playful this time around.

Zuko: They make me totally stiff and humorless. Katara: Actually, I think that actor's pretty spot on. Zuko: How could you say that? Actor Uncle: Let's forget about the Avatar and get massages. Actor Zuko: How could you say that?! (Cut back to Katara wearing a satisfied grin on her face and she looks to an expressionless Zuko as he slouches in his seat.)

I love pointing it out every time. She teases him and he does nothing about it.

Katara: Er, no. I was looking for cooking pots in the attic and I found this. Look at baby Zuko! Isn't he cute? Oh lighten up, I was just teasing.

And she admits it!

-

So what can we take away from this? From what little time they were given together (thanks, Bryke) it seems that Zuko and Katara really understand each other on an intimate emotional level. They can sense when the other is distressed and offer comfort. They're both passionate in and out of combat, for better or for worse. They're comfortable with each other as if they've known each other for years even though it's such a short time. Katara also likes to add a little bit of playfulness in there with Zuko letting her have her fun, again, showing how comfortable they are with each other.

I do think their relationship could have gone to romantic sooner than later if you would have given it a bit more time. Like first half of a hypothetical Book 4.

To me, at least.

[littlelovelyspiderling]

The Competition

I’d say oops part 3 but these are so fun to write and bring me such joy that I’m gonna stop apologizing for it haha

The avatar gang competes to see who can get Zuko to laugh first. Adorableness ensues.

word count: 8116

__________________________

“Zuko doesn’t emote much, does he?”

Katara was staring at the young Fire Nation prince as she said it. He was lying against Appa, fully asleep even though the sun had only set an hour ago. She had noticed that, if circumstances permitted it, Zuko tended to rise and fall with the sun, waking at sunrise before anyone else to meditate in the soft morning glow, then nodding off quickly after the last whispers of light had vanished behind the horizon. Perhaps it had something to do with fire benders’ dependency on the sun: the way it fueled their strength and abilities, just as she drew power from the moon. 

Whatever the reason, it was amusing—the way he conked out like a baby polar leopard long before anyone else in the group had even considered turning in for the night. 

Sokka scoffed, tearing eagerly into a strip of salmon jerky. “Are you kidding me?” he said between bites. “The guy yells every other sentence that leaves his mouth. How is that not emotive?”

“He does have a bit of a temper,” Aang admitted, shooting an anxious glance in Zuko’s direction before continuing. “But it’s something he’s told me he’s working on. I think being angry is like his base temperature, so we should try to be patient with him.”

Aang grinned enthusiastically. Katara shook her head. 

“I know he’s good at expressing his anger. I guess I meant emoting in more...positive ways. He barely ever smiles, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard him laugh before.” She stared at him sullenly. “Do you think he’s all right?”

The rest of the group followed her gaze to the slumbering teenager. The campfire in the center of their circle rose and fell with his steady breathing. 

“He does have a lot going on, what with the having to betray his nation and leave his home and help Aang defeat his dad and all,” Toph pointed out. “But I think you’re reading this wrong, Katara. Maybe Zuko just doesn’t express happiness the same way we do. Maybe it’s more subtle.” She popped a berry into her mouth. “But that doesn’t mean he’s not enjoying being here with us.”

Katara crossed her arms in thought. “Yeah,” she conceded. “Maybe.” She turned back to the group with a line between her eyes. “It just...makes me sad. It’d be nice to see him be unsubtly happy for a change, wouldn’t it? I know all of your laughs and smiles by heart at this point. I feel like I’ll never know him completely until I recognize his.”

The only times Zuko ever flagrantly expressed himself were when he was shouting angrily about something or shooting awake from another horrendous nightmare, drenched in a cold sweat with tears shining in the corners of his eyes. Happy emotions were restricted to tiny smiles that vanished in a heartbeat and the slightest lift in his otherwise level voice. Katara wondered what kinds of hardships he’d endured to make him this way. What cruel forces had forged him into the teenager that slept by their side—a person who shrunk from joy like it was dangerous, poisonous. 

Aang sprung to his feet suddenly, making the others wince in surprise. “Ooh, ooh!” he exclaimed excitedly. “I know what to do! We should have a competition!”

The group sat in silence for a moment. “A...competition?” Sokka parroted, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah!” Aang cheered, pointing at the still-sleeping Zuko. “Whoever can get Zuko to laugh first wins!”

The gang exchanged a look of confusion and intrigue. It was such a silly proposition. 

“And I mean really laugh,” he elaborated. “Like, Sokka-after-Toph-inhaled-fire-flakes laugh.”

Sokka burst into giggles at the mention of the incident while Toph frowned at her feet. “Oho man, that was the best!” he cackled, wiping his eyes.

“Yeah, like that!” Aang continued exuberantly. “For the next few days, all of us should try to make Zuko do the Zuko-equivalent of that. And whoever gets him to do it first wins!”

Katara grinned at the idea. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t imagine what Zuko’s laugh might sound like. She needed to hear it firsthand, which would clearly require creativity on their end. Her mind was already grasping for potential leads. 

“I like it,” she decided. “Are there any rules?”

Aang tapped his chin in thought. “Hmm. No telling Zuko about the competition or what we’re trying to do. That’ll spoil it. We also have to take turns trying to make him laugh—as in, you can’t try something once then immediately try something else; everyone has to go again before you get to take another stab at it. And everyone has to witness it happening and agree on the winner for it to count.”

Sokka stretched his arms over his head with a smirk. “Well then, the rest of you might as well duck out now. Everyone knows I’m the king of gut-busting jokes and sarcasm. Sokka’s got this in the bag.”

“The Air Nomads are famous for having great senses of humor,” Aang retorted cheerfully. “I’ve got an entire cultural heritage of making people laugh on my side. Don’t count me out just yet.”

Katara rolled her eyes. “You guys are so conceited. Always thinking your hilarious wit is the answer to everything.”

Aang and Sokka shared a puzzled scowl. “What’s your plan then, Miss Anti-Humor?” Sokka asked. 

Katara colored. “Um, w-well—” Her eyes darted around their campsite before landing on Momo. She scooped the lemur off the ground and placed him on her head. “I’ll make him laugh with fun! See? Fun!”

Momo warbled lazily as Sokka shook his head. “You’d best leave this to the experts, Katara. Fun hasn’t ever exactly been your thing.”

Momo leapt off her head as Katara pouted. “We’ll see,” she grumbled.

“What if none of us find a way to make Zuko laugh?” Toph inquired. “What happens then?”

“Those sound like the words of someone who is going down!” Sokka cried triumphantly. Aang shrugged. 

“Then I guess we just keep trying.”

Toph pursed her lips before hinting a smile. “All right. I’m in.” She polished off her handful of berries. “Oh, and I’m one hundred percent winning this thing.”

“That’s the spirit!” Aang said. He pumped his fist in the air. “The competition begins at daybreak tomorrow!”

The group settled in for the night, brainstorming their own series of elaborate, laugh-inducing schemes to test out in the morning. Zuko slept soundly, unaware of what awaited him once he woke.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You seem distracted.”

Aang blinked, his focus snapping back to the tranquil cliffside and the scowling fire bender standing in front of him.

“Oh, uh, distracted?” he said, balling his hands at his sides with an innocent smile. “No, I’m not distracted.”

“Then get it right this time,” Zuko snapped, assuming a low stance. “Kick up, recenter, then punch out. Fire comes from the breath, so exhale at the peak of your move, not a second too early or late.”

Zuko demonstrated the action again, thrusting his foot in the air, reclaiming his balance, then jabbing his fist forward, flames gliding and shooting with his movements in perfect harmony. A burst of fire exploded from his knuckles at the end of the move, sending a wave of heat washing over Aang.

Aang winced back and swallowed. “Right. I’m sure I’ll have it down in no time.” A smile seized his features. “But before I do that, I have a surprise for you!”

Zuko’s fierce expression shifted to puzzled. “What?” he said, relaxing out of his solid stance for a moment. 

“Wait right there!” Aang said, then darted away, disappearing behind Appa. Zuko huffed, crossing his arms against his chest. 

“If you’re trying to bribe me out of today’s lesson, it’s not going to work. You still have five sets of fire lunges to get through.”

“It’s not a bribe!” Aang’s voice insisted from afar, echoing down the cliff side. “It’s just a token of appreciation—you know, for joining the group and being such a wonderful firebending teacher.” 

He reappeared with a giant grin on his face and his hands hidden behind his back. The rest of the gang sat around their campsite, looking unusually interested in Aang and Zuko’s training session. 

Zuko scanned the avatar warily as he approached. Aang stopped a few feet back, chipper as always. 

“Are you ready?” he asked, smiling wide.

“I guess,” Zuko deadpanned. 

Aang extended his hands forward, revealing his gift. “Ta-da!” he exclaimed.

Zuko blinked. It was...a cake. Of some sort. A small, round pastry with some kind of red jelly in the center. It was surprisingly professional-looking, especially considering they were out in the woods with no markets or ovens nearby. 

“I baked it for you with firebending!” Aang explained. “I even flavored the center with fire gummies so it’d taste like home.”

Zuko was taken back by the thoughtful gesture. This all felt largely unwarranted. “Um,” he said, scratching the back of his head. “Thanks? I guess?”

Aang held it out eagerly. “Go on, try it! It’s an old Air Nomad recipe. It’s really good!”

“I’ll try it after we’re done training,” Zuko said, re-assuming his power stance. “Now then—show me the move I just demonstrated for you.”

“Aw, come one,” Aang whined. “Just one bite! Please? I promise you won’t—”

Aang staggered forward suddenly, tripping over his own foot. He hoped it didn’t look too staged—like falling with the cake in his hands hadn’t been his plan all along. The alarm that crossed Zuko’s expression indicated his performance was a success. Zuko tried lunging forward to help him, but it was too late—with a yelp, Aang face-planted into his culinary creation, splattering cake and jelly at the prince’s feet. 

A beat passed where Zuko just stood there, mouth agape. Then the rest of the group exploded into hysterical laughter, gripping their stomachs and doubling over themselves.

“Ohokay, that was pretty good,” Sokka admitted between giggles.

“Look at Twinkle Toes, starting things off strong,” Toph agreed.

Aang lifted his face out of the cake, letting the goo and batter slip off for a moment to enhance the effect. At the very least, he expected a smile to cross Zuko’s lips. Instead, he just looked startled. 

“Aw, man,” he said, offering him a hand. “Are you okay?”

Behind the layer of flattened pastry, Aang frowned. “Yeah, of course,” he said. “I just tripped.”

“Sorry about the cake. It, uh, sounded like you worked hard on it.”

The others were still cackling like hyena bats behind them. Aang swiped his hand across his cake-covered face bemusedly. It didn’t make sense. Why wasn’t Zuko laughing?

“But don’t you think it’s funny?” he asked. “That I, you know, tripped and fell face-first into it?”

Zuko narrowed his eyes. “Do you...want me to think it’s funny?”

“Kinda! I don’t know. Everyone else does.”

The firebender wasn’t sure how to respond. “You worked hard on something, and now it’s ruined. That’s already bad enough. I didn’t want to make you feel worse.”

Aang couldn’t believe how spectacularly his plan had failed. Everything had gone perfectly except for Zuko’s reaction. This might be harder than he thought. He dropped his face back into the cake, groaning in defeat. While the others continued giggling, Zuko placed his hands on his hips.

“Let’s, uh, break from training for today. We can pick up where we left off tomorrow.”

Aang gave a halfhearted thumbs up as the prince walked away. Zuko: 1, Aang: 0.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was around lunch time when Sokka made his move. The rest of the group watched in anticipation as the next competitor approached their target. 

“Hiya, Zuko!” Sokka greeted him. The teen sat by the fire pit with the others, eating a bowl of soup. 

“Hi...Sokka,” he addressed him hesitantly, popping the spoon out of his mouth. “Can I help you?”

Sokka jabbed his index finger into the air. “As a matter of fact, you can! I have a very important question to ask you.”

Zuko shot dubious looks at the other members of the group before sitting up a little straighter. “Okay,” he said. 

Clearing his throat, Sokka broke into a grin. “Why are firebenders always the slowest runners?”

Zuko thought on it for a moment. A frown wrinkled his features. “We are?”

“Because they get too easily burnt out!” Sokka howled, laughing wildly at his own joke, slapping his knee and hugging his belly. Zuko just stared at him, blinking his strikingly golden eyes. A few seconds later, the tiniest of smiles lifted one corner of his mouth.

“Oh, I get it,” he said. “That’s funny.”

Toph, Aang, and Katara giggled softly behind their hands—more out of pity than anything else. Sokka gawked.

“Wait—that’s it?”

Zuko tilted his head slightly. “What’s it?”

“I spent all night coming up with that joke!”

“I said it was funny,” Zuko said defensively.

“If you thought it was funny, why didn’t you laugh?”

Zuko downed the rest of his soup and shrugged sheepishly. “I’m...sorry?”

The rest of the gang snickered into their palms. Sokka groaned.

“Wait, wait—one more chance,” he pleaded, more to the others than to Zuko. Zuko had no idea why it was suddenly so important that he found Sokka’s jokes hilarious. Recovering part of his trampled dignity, Sokka coughed, then tried again.

“What do you get when you dunk Momo in a pitcher of lemon juice?” 

Zuko sighed, leaning back with his hands folded behind his head. “Gee, I don’t know, Sokka. What do you get when you dunk Momo in a pitcher of lemon juice?” 

Sokka’s eyebrow twitched crossly. Patronizing, much? “Lemurnade,” he muttered out. “You—you get lemurnade.”

At that, Aang cracked up, his laughter ringing like a bell. “Haha! Good one, Sokka!”

Sokka hung his head. “Thanks, Aang,” he mumbled, then sulked away, heavily chagrined. Zuko watched him go, feeling like he’d done something wrong.

“What’s his deal?” he asked the group. 

“Don’t worry about it,” Toph assured him, stifling a snort. “That’s just Sokka being Sokka.”

Zuko furrowed his brow. Was it just him, or were all of them acting...strange? It felt like they were paying more attention to him than normal, and hanging on his every response to their interactions like it was life or death. Around these guys, he preferred to fade into the background rather than be center stage; they were all such good friends, and they had so much history together, whereas he...well, they had history, all right, but not exactly the good kind. He found he was perfectly content listening to them talk from the sidelines, only joining the conversation when he was directly addressed. 

After lunch, the group headed to a nearby stream to wash off and cool down. Zuko stood at the edge of the riverbank, watching Momo paw at the minnows in the shallow pools between the reeds, when Katara tapped him on the shoulder.

“Hey Zuko,” she said, looking artificially high-spirited. “You want to see something fun?”

Zuko gave her a questioning look. “Fun?” he repeated, turning to face her. What is with everyone today? He hunched his shoulders. “Um...okay.”

Zuko didn’t know what he was expecting her to do—propose some kind of group activity, show off a new waterbending move, maybe—but it certainly wasn’t her placing both hands on his chest and shoving him full-force into the river. The prince yelped and flailed, teetering frantically on the edge of the bank before tipping backwards and dropping into the water with a splash. Zuko resurfaced a few seconds later, his wet hair sticking to his face, his eyes wide. Immediately, the group erupted into a chorus of laughter, making the firebender blush.

“W-what on earth, Katara?” he stammered, slicking his hair back so it wasn’t falling in his eyes. “What was that for?”

“For fun, of course!” she exclaimed nervously, as if she was trying to convince herself. “Wasn’t that fun?”

“Not really!” he growled. He clambered up the riverbank, griping and grumbling the whole time, steam rising off his thoroughly soaked clothing. The others continued to giggle at his dripping, disheveled appearance. “What part of that was supposed to be fun?”

“I thought it was pretty fun,” Sokka chuckled from the opposite side of the river. Zuko reddened beneath their stares and quickly turned away, crossing his arms tight to his chest.

“Sorry, Zuko,” Katara said. “Here.”

Using her bending, she pulled the water out of his clothes so he was dry again. Zuko scratched at his wild mess of hair, eyeing Katara thoughtfully.

After a pause, Zuko made a rash decision. His arms jerked forward before he could talk himself out of it, pushing Katara into the river, making her fall faster than she could react. She hit the water with a shriek, sending waves in every direction. The rest of the group gaped.

“Hey!” Katara gasped as she broke the surface, hands balled into fists. Zuko smirked.

“I take it back. You’re right, Katara. That is pretty fun.”

The others laughed again, and Katara eventually joined them, drawing the water from her hair and flinging it playfully at Zuko. Zuko flinched back with a smile, but that was the closest she got: still no progress on the laughing end. Not even the tiniest giggle.   

It looked like The Water Tribe siblings had struck out as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Toph’s decision to strike at night had been her plan from the start. Laughter always flowed more organically after dark, after all. The more tired you were, the more funny things seemed—even things that arguably weren’t that funny in the first place.

The light from their campfire gilded the group in an orange sheen. Zuko blinked sleepily, watching the flames lap toward the night sky, his golden eyes reflecting the glow in an arrestingly brilliant way. She waited until his heartbeat began to slow before executing her plan. While Sokka studied a map of the Fire Nation, Katara charted the stars, and Aang scratched Momo’s tummy, Toph rose to her feet.

“Watch this,” she said out of nowhere. Then she pounded her heel into the ground, causing the earth underneath Sokka to jump up like a spring, shooting him high into the air. Sokka screamed in surprise, bounced between the branches of a nearby tree, then crashed to the ground with a grunt. 

Katara and Aang’s jaws dropped open. Spitting and sputtering, Sokka scrambled to his hands and knees in a befuddled fury. “Toph!” he screeched, leaves and twigs sticking out of his hair.

Toph busted out laughing while everyone just stared. When she realized no one else was joining her, her giggles gradually petered away. 

“What? You guys didn’t think that was funny?” 

“It was certainly...surprising?” Aang ventured to say.

“A bit violent, though,” Katara added.

“A bit?” Sokka cried, wagging his arms through the air. “She catapulted me into a tree!”

Toph snorted. “Well I thought it was hilarious. Zuko?”

All eyes turned to gauge the prince’s reaction. They were stunned to see his body slack and his head lolled to one side. Their resident firebender was out cold, sleeping peacefully. 

With a huff, Toph flopped to the ground. “Are you kidding me? That was some of my best material!”

“Wow,” Aang mused, resting his chin on his kneecaps. “I can’t believe how big of a bust today was.”

“Seriously! I laughed at everything everyone tried with him! All of us are objectively hilarious, but still nothing!” Sokka jabbed an angry finger at Toph before she could respond. “Not you, Toph. I’m going to be picking bugs out of my hair for weeks!” He slumped to the ground, gazing at Zuko through the flickering tongues of the fire. “Man! What’s it gonna take to get this guy to laugh?”

Toph shrugged. “Maybe I was right. Maybe laughing just isn’t the way he expresses happiness.”

“That can’t be true,” Katara stated indignantly. “We’ve just got to keep trying. Maybe in Fire Nation culture, royalty aren’t allowed to laugh or something, and he’s still stuck in that mindset. All we need to do now is find the right way to draw him out of it.”

“First dancing is outlawed, now laughing?” Sokka slapped his forehead. “Why is the Fire Nation so obsessed with destroying all things fun?”

Toph swirled her finger in the air. “Or maybe you’re all just not as funny as you think you are.”

While Sokka viciously protested Toph’s proposal, Aang narrowed his eyes and stuck out his bottom lip. “If we’re determined to make Zuko laugh, we have to find out what he thinks is funny. Perhaps his sense of humor is just different from ours.” Aang smiled at his friends. “Don’t worry, guys. I have a plan.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zuko yawned and rubbed his eyes as he strolled up the quiet hillside. The grass shivered in the cool breeze and the sky was a painting of pinks and purples and blues. 

Morning meditation was a drag sometimes, but it helped him clear his head, reorient his senses, and tame his inner fire. Plus, after his haunting betrayal in Ba Sing Se, it was one of the only ways he could still feel connected to his uncle. Uncle was the person who taught him the value of disciplined meditation—a practice he hadn’t realized wasn’t widely exercised among firebenders until he was older. Rather, it was actually an Air Nomad tradition Iroh had picked up and passed on to his nephew. 

Sticking to his uncle’s mindful regime didn’t make Zuko feel better about what he’d done, but...it was something. A small memento to Iroh’s unconditional kindness and wisdom that he could maintain, even if he never got the chance to redeem himself.

As Zuko rounded the crown of the hill, he was surprised to see smoke rising from their campsite. The others were usually still asleep by the time he got back. He heard chatter and the sound of something hissing over the fire. A wave of smells washed over him that was oddly familiar—warm, spicy, nostalgic. 

“Zuko!” Aang cried once the prince stepped into view. The sleepy prince was shirtless and wore pants that cut off just above his kneecaps. He tended to run hot, being a firebender and all, so it wasn’t an unusual sight. The others popped up excitedly and grinned, as if they’d been waiting for him.

“What’s going on?” Zuko asked, kneading the heel of one hand into his eye. He sniffed the air and frowned. “Are you...cooking jook?”

“Yeah! And ash banana bread!” Katara presented a hefty portion of each for him. “Aang swung by the market at the base of the mountain and found all the ingredients.”

Zuko blinked at the offering then between his four friends. “This is Fire Nation food,” he said.

“Is it!” Sokka agreed. “Well, our attempt at it, anyway.”

“You guys hate Fire Nation food,” Zuko continued skeptically. “Why are you making it?”

“Just because we hate the Fire Nation doesn’t mean we hate all Fire Nation food,” Toph said, wrinkling her nose. “Although, I think I’ll pass on the jook.”

Sokka took a large bite of banana bread. “And even if we did hate it, it doesn’t matter. You like Fire Nation food, right?”

Zuko hadn’t realized how much he’d missed the delicacies of his country until now. After weeks of eating nothing but what they could forage and hunt in the wild, his stomach ached for an authentic taste of home. 

“Yeah,” he finally answered, still unsure what all this was leading to.

“Great! Because we made this for you!” Sokka slurped up a spoonful of jook and smiled wide.

Warily, Zuko accepted the bowl and the bread from Katara. He didn’t know what to say, other than—

“Why?”

Aang cocked his head to one side. “Why what?” he asked. 

“Why...did you make this for me?”

The group exchanged a look, like that was the silliest question they’d ever heard. Toph chuckled. 

“Because we like you, stupid. You're our friend, and we like doing things that make you happy.”

The words floated around his head for a while before seeping into his brain. Once they did, Zuko’s face flushed warm and pink. “Oh,” he said. He gazed into the steaming bowl in his hand. It looked just like the kind Uncle made for him. Where is all this coming from? he wondered. Was it something I did or said? This slew of kind gestures felt so undeserved and foreign, especially coming from the people he’d spent a significant portion of time terrorizing. A few moments later, a shy smile lifted the corners of his lips. 

“Well, thanks. I’m touched.”

“Here, sit,” Sokka said, scooting over to make room. Zuko sat down beside him and took a sip from his bowl. He brightened delightedly. 

“It’s great,” he said. Not as good as Uncle’s, he conceded; Iroh had a much heavier hand with the ginger. But still great—better than he could ever make. He fidgeted beneath all their attentive stares. “You guys didn’t have to do this.”

“It was a lot of trouble,” Sokka admitted, earning a whack from Katara. He winced, rubbing the fresh bump on his head. “But—ow—we were happy to do it.”

Aang floated into a sitting position on Zuko’s left, landing beside him like a leaf drifting delicately to the ground. “Speaking of happiness, I’ve been meaning to ask you: can you remember the hardest you’ve ever laughed in your life?”

It was a very bizarre and random inquiry, and didn’t seem at all like a natural segue in the conversation. But that appeared to be a theme among the avatar gang, so Zuko played along.

“Um,” he began, shifting to cross his legs on top of each other. “The hardest?” He grasped for a memory from his youth, but it was all so distant and fuzzy. Whispers and sprinkles of laughter buried beneath years of fear and obedience. Eventually, he shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe when I was little, with my mom. Or maybe with Uncle.”

He went back to his jook, thinking he’d satisfied their curiosity. Katara leaned toward him impatiently. 

“Maybe that’s too specific. How about the happiest you’ve ever been? When was that?”

Zuko lowered the bowl from his lips and eyed Katara curiously. “The happiest I’ve ever been?” he repeated back. 

“Yeah! Like, what period of your life would you consider the most joy-filled?”

Another unexpected question. This was getting weirdly personal. He could sense there was an end goal to all this prying, but he had yet to pinpoint it. Zuko ran the back of his hand across his mouth. 

“Uh...well...again, I’m not sure.” He thought hard about it for a few seconds, trying to recall an era of his life when he’d felt happy—truly happy, for an extended length of time. “I guess I remember moments of being happy, but...not entire periods. Working at the Jasmine Dragon with Uncle was nice while it lasted. But even then, it felt kind of forced.” He nibbled at the ash banana bread. It was warm and cinnamon-y and tasted like autumn. He swallowed and hinted a smile. “But being here, helping you guys...I’d say this is the happiest I’ve ever been. Because for once in my life, I know I’m doing the right thing.”

The statement was small but sincere. As his words sunk in, the group mirrored his smile tenfold. They shared knowing looks with one another, each with the same thought in their head. So this is Zuko’s version of happy. It’s definitely different, definitely subtle, but it’s him—and it’s genuine.

Maybe Zuko didn’t laugh loudly or smile all the time. That didn’t mean he was sad or broken. He just had his own way of expressing joy. And that was okay. It was reassuring to know that Zuko was in a good place, even if he didn’t show it as obviously as the rest of them did. The competition wasn’t over yet—that was a given—but if they continued to fail, at least they knew it wasn’t because Zuko was upset or discouraged. 

“Aw, Zuko—ya big softy,” Sokka teased, poking him in the ribs. To his surprise, the prince jerked away from his touch, a small yelp escaping him. Zuko turned to him bewilderedly, eyes wide. Oops, Sokka thought. Had he hurt him by accident? Maybe he had an injury he didn’t know about. He’d nearly made him drop his jook. 

“Oh, sorry,” Sokka said. “Are you okay?”

Zuko clenched his jaw. “Y-yeah,” he answered quickly, rubbing at his rib cage. “You—sorry, you just startled me.” 

He appeared flustered suddenly, like he was hiding something. Maybe he’d wounded himself in a really embarrassing way and didn’t want anyone else to find out about it. Sokka looked to the others for insight, but none of them seemed to have noticed Zuko’s weird reaction to his touch. 

“This startled you?” he inquired suspiciously, poking him again, lower this time. Zuko responded the same way as before, flinching and squeaking like he was being electrocuted. But as Sokka watched his expression change, he realized he wasn’t wincing or grimacing in pain. Instead, a grin flashed across his face, bigger and brighter than he’d ever seen, then vanished a second later, smothered by a look of shock and anger. 

“Quit it!” he snapped, hopping to his feet. He pursed his lips to keep them from turning upright. 

Sokka recognized his response. He’d seen it from the kids in their Water Tribe village as they wrestled playfully with their mothers and one another. Katara, too, when they’d played as children. A devious smile gradually spread across Sokka’s face. No way, he thought.

The rest of the group looked at Zuko confusedly but shrugged it off. He yelled a lot—it wasn’t anything new. Now was Sokka’s chance.

“Aang, let’s go. Time for your firebending lesson. We’ve got a lot to catch up on.”

He was talking rapidly, eager to abscond this situation before it escalated any further. Aang let out a disappointed groan.

“Okay,” he murmured, floating to his feet. Sokka stood with him.

Oh no you don’t.

As Zuko turned to leave, Sokka ran up behind him, wrapping his arms around his midsection. 

“Sorry—one more time. This startled you?”

With fiendish glee, he dug into his torso, wiggling his fingers into his belly and sides. Zuko yelped and flailed, not anticipating the surprise attack. He tried to pry Sokka’s hands away, but the Water Tribe teen was stronger than he looked. His flustered sputtering transformed into stifled squeaks. Two seconds later, the dam finally broke.

“Ahahaha!” Zuko belted out, grappling at Sokka’s hands as they clawed at his tummy. “S-Sohakka! Whahat are you doohooing?”

“Winning this competition, that’s what!” Sokka exclaimed. He poked and prodded at his ribs, making Zuko thrash and giggle. 

“Hahahagh! Gehet off me!”

Zuko broke Sokka’s hold and wrenched out of his grip, staggering forward so fast he fell to the ground. He rolled onto his back and scrambled a few more paces away, staring up Sokka in disbelief, blushing violently.

“W-what is wrong with you?” he stammered, hugging his stomach protectively.

It took a moment for everyone to register what had just transpired. But as soon as it did, shock and delight sprawled across all of their faces. 

“You…”

“Did he just—?”

“Oh man! You did it!”

“Yeah I did!” Sokka cheered, striking a pose. “Told you I was gonna win this thing! Bow down to your champion!”

“Win what thing?” Zuko growled, his face still tinted pink. He stood up nervously, scowling between them. “What’s going on here?”

“We’ve been playing a game to see who could get you to laugh first,” Aang explained. “None of us had ever heard you laugh before, so we wanted to try to make you do it. And now we finally have!”

“You mean I have,” Sokka corrected him smugly.

The idea that they’d spent the past twenty-four hours committed to hearing his laugh puzzled him. Why did it matter what it sounded like? It wasn’t particularly important or helpful information to have. Why did they care so much about something so trivial? The situation was odd and embarrassing yet strangely heartwarming. But mostly embarrassing. Zuko hunched his shoulders crossly.

“That’s what all this weirdness has been about? Why didn’t you just tell me what you were doing?”

“Because we wanted it to happen naturally!” Katara said, throwing her hands in the air. “But apparently none of us are funny enough for your taste!”

The group giggled. Zuko wasn’t sure what to say. A smirk touched Toph’s lips.

“Huh. I never would’ve thought to try tickling you.” She placed her hands on her hips. “I guess I just didn’t expect the Grumpy McGrouchy Pants prince of the Fire Nation to be ticklish.”

“And that laugh!” Sokka snickered. “Have you guys ever heard anything so adorable?”

Heat boiled to the surface of Zuko’s skin. “I’m not…!” he began, but he had no idea where he was going with this. For people who claimed to be his friends, they sure liked humiliating him and making him blush a lot. With an angry huff, he turned away. “Whatever. I’m going fishing.”

As he started to leave, Katara, Aang, Sokka, and Toph shared a wicked grin, locking down their next course of action without exchanging a single word. Sokka moved first, dashing after him and hooking his elbows underneath Zuko’s armpits, making the prince start.

“Hey!” he cried, struggling against his hold.

“You’re not what, Prince Zuko? Not ticklish, or not adorable?”

Zuko burned inside and out. He tried to throw Sokka over his shoulder, but the other teen planted his feet and hoisted Zuko off the ground, taking all of his leverage with him. He kicked and floundered, feeling small and ridiculous.

“Let me go!” he demanded.  

“Either way, we’re obliged to prove you wrong.” Sokka beamed at the others, voice laced with mischief. “Get him, guys!”

Zuko opened his eyes to find Katara, Aang, and Toph approaching him, smirking with fiendish delight. This cued the prince to fight even harder to escape, his legs flailing through the air. 

“Besides, we only got to listen to you laugh for a few seconds,” Katara pointed out, curling her fingers into claws. “I’ll need to hear it a little longer than that to memorize it.”

“And to determine just how adorable it really is!” Aang added. 

There were a lot of things Zuko had dreaded facing after joining the avatar’s gang. His dark past, the Fire Nation’s tyrannical cruelty, his plethora of failures and mistakes. This, however, had not been one of things he’d had in mind. 

Zuko considered heating up his hands just enough to make Sokka release him, but he didn’t want to betray the trust he had only just recently earned from all of them. If he accidentally burned another person on their team, he’d never forgive himself. 

Though perhaps that’d be worth avoiding the mortifying predicament he currently found himself in. 

“W-wahait!” he yelped, giggly dread amassing in his belly. He kicked in their direction to keep them from getting any closer. “Stay back!”

Sokka wrestled to keep the squirmy prince still. “Toph, a little help?” he called. 

Toph grinned and thrust her palms toward the sky. Two hands made of earth rose up from underneath Zuko and grabbed hold of his ankles. As she lowered her hands back down, the earth hands moved with hers, dragging his legs toward the ground then morphing into a pair of rock bonds encased around his feet, keeping them firmly trapped in place. 

Oh no. Zuko wriggled and wrenched, but there was nowhere for him to go. Unless he firebent his way out, he was defenseless. 

Before he could voice any more protests, Katara closed the space between them, her hands reaching his torso and scuttling up his bare sides. Zuko jolted and gasped, a giant smile lighting up his whole face despite his attempts to squash it.

“Ahahaheehee!” he giggled, squirming and shifting to try to get away. It was no use. Her fingers needled his exposed midsection freely and mercilessly, driving the sensitive prince absolutely nuts. The blush in his cheeks bled down his neck. “Wahait—mmheh—ehahaha!”

“Not ticklish at all, I see,” Katara said smugly. “And certainly not adorable, no.” She scribbled her nails all over his belly, parroting his endearing smile. It was so big and radiant and happy—a hundred times more so than she ever could’ve imagined. His laugh was another matter entirely—bright, bubbly, hysterically shrill. Far too cute for the human language to articulate. Plus, outrageously contagious.

“Stahahap it!” Zuko cackled, tugging uselessly at Sokka’s arms. The boy’s grip was like iron. Katara ignored him, testing and teasing every inch of his twitchy torso, kneading his tummy and pinching his sides and fluttering her fingers underneath his rib cage. He couldn’t believe how much it tickled, or how wild his own laughter sounded. None of them had realized how loud and uncontrollable Zuko’s laugh could get until now—including himself. 

Two hands on his ticklish belly were already enough to drive the giggly prince out of his mind. Of all days to meditate shirtless, why did he have to choose today? But then, to his horror, two more hands joined the fray, drilling into his hip bones with diabolical intensity and precision. Zuko bucked and squealed, his laughter reaching an entirely new caliber. 

“Ahahahaha!” he bubbled, shaking his head from side to side. “NohohahahAang!”

Zuko thought out of everyone present, the avatar would be the one to approach this situation with the most mercy and compassion. Boy, was he wrong. The airbender attacked his weak points like he’d been trained in the ancient art of tickle torture—as if tickling was a fifth element, and he’d already more than mastered it. 

“I can’t believe we went a whole day trying to be funny to make you laugh when all you needed was a little tickling!” Aang chirped cheerfully. “I also can’t believe you made us go this long without hearing what your laugh sounds like. It’s so cute and happy! Why don’t you do it more often?” 

If Aang expected Zuko to reply, he wasn’t making it easy. He furrowed his brow and stuck out his tongue as he explored the prince’s sensitive midsection, working in tandem with Katara so that every tickle spot on his torso got a turn being poked and squeezed and stroked. Zuko couldn’t stand another second. 

“Guhuhuhuys!” he howled. This was a nightmare. Things couldn’t possibly get any worse. He had to make them stop.

“Try tickling his ribs!” Sokka suggested suddenly, grinning with malicious glee. “He was super jumpy when I poked them before!” 

“Ooh, good idea!” Aang said. He skittered his hands up his sides then shook them viciously into his rib cage, making the poor teenager squawk.

The universe just loved proving him wrong, didn’t it?

“NOHOHAHA!” he bellowed, throwing his head back, nearly hitting Sokka in the face. “Gaha! Youhou—jerherherherks! Ahahaaa!”

The gang giggled along with him without slowing their attack. “Hey, there’s the Zuko we all know and love,” Toph chuckled. She sat on top of his buried feet and began skating her nails against the backs and caps of his knees, drawing feathery circles into the sensitive skin and causing goosebumps to shoot up his legs. It was gentler than Aang and Katara’s cruel tickle tactics—a fact he had to be grateful for—but still contributed significantly to his overall state of flustered, twitchy hysteria. 

“Aw, look at you, Prince Zu-Zu! So smiley and giggly and squirmy!” Katara bunched up her hands and spidered her nails against his belly button, making Zuko shriek and thrash like a little kid. “I can’t believe we were ever afraid of your adorable little face! If only we’d known back then how easy it is to defeat you! Just a couple tickles here, a few pokes there…”

She moved her hands across his tummy while she spoke, wiggling her fingernails as they dragged along his skin, cooing at him the entire time. Meanwhile, Aang was absolutely wrecking his ribs, grinding his knuckles ruthlessly into the bone. 

“Right? He’s cuter than a baby turtle duck!” 

“No wonder his uncle adores him so much,” Toph agreed.

Zuko wanted to disintegrate. The relentless teasing was just as cruel as the six hands tickling him to pieces. He’d never been taunted or tickled to this extent before, and the only thing he could do about it was blush tomato-red and laugh himself silly. He didn’t consider himself to be that sensitive of a person, seeing that no one had really tickled him since he was a child, but the avatar and his crew were doing a pretty good job convincing him otherwise. At this point, his entire body was bright pink and sizzling like a space heater. 

“PLEEHEASE STAHAHAP!” Zuko begged, hiccups leaping from his throat and puncturing his endless giggle fit. No point in trying to retain some shred of dignity—every last drop had already been spent. “I CAHAN’T TAKE AHANYMOHOHOREHAHAHA!”

“Aw, but this is so fun,” Sokka pouted playfully, poking at his neck with the fingers that could reach. “You sure you can’t take just a little more?”

“We haven’t even tickled your armpits yet!” Aang protested, immediately shoving his hands under his arms and wiggling his fingers against the hollows. It was a welcome break for his ribs, but also gave him giggly whiplash.

“AHAHAHACK!” Zuko squirmed helplessly, tears welling in the corners of eyes. He barely had the strength to even writhe in place anymore. “IHI’M—GOHONNA—DIHIHIHIE!”

Katara’s hands slowed to a halt against his sides, granting him a sudden rush of relief. “Okay, maybe we should stop,” she said, smiling sympathetically. “He does look pretty wiped.”

“He’s not going to die,” Toph assured the others with a chuckle. She took her hands off his knees. “Still, that’s probably a good idea.”

The absence of Katara and Toph’s tickling gave Zuko the chance to catch his breath a little. The relief was astronomical. Aang, however, had yet to let up, keeping the prince twitchy and giggly with his rib cage and underarm torment. 

“EhahahAang!” Zuko wheezed, wriggling helplessly. “Pleehease!”

Aang smiled wryly. “All right, I’ll stop,” he conceded, worming his fingers between each individual rib. “But first, you have to admit out loud that you’re adorable, because I’m still not convinced you believe it. Say that, and I’ll stop.”

Zuko thought it impossible for things to get any more embarrassing than they already were. Wrong again. Being disowned by his father and banished from the Fire Nation hadn’t been as humiliating as the past five minutes. Now this?

The group grinned at him expectantly, waiting. Zuko shook his head.

“B-buhut—I—” he stuttered out between giggles. Then Sokka dug his hands into armpits, making him squeal with laughter and shrink into himself.

“No excuses!” he demanded playfully. “Go on! Say it!”

Zuko tried to thrash out of Sokka’s grip now that it wasn’t so tight, but Sokka still had a strong enough hold on him to keep him trapped—even while he was tickling him. He buried his face into his shoulder to hide his goofy smile and flushed cheeks. 

“Ahaha! Youhou’re—s-soho—meahean!” To think that he used to be the one considered cruel and evil. Ponytail Zuko had nothing on these diabolical tickle monsters and their degrading requests.

A moment later, Katara started squeezing his sides again, causing Zuko to twist and yelp. “We’re mean? But look how happy we’re making you! If anything, you should be thanking us.”

Toph wiggled her fingers against the middle of his tummy. “We’re waiting, your highness.”

It was too much. He couldn’t bear it any longer. He needed this to end.

“OHOKAHAHAY!” he cackled, squirming and hiccuping and craving the sweet escape of death. “IHI’M—I ADMIHIHIT IT!”

“You admit what?” Aang asked, grinning innocently as he revved up his rib tickling to a maddening ferocity. Oh, he was so getting them back for this.

“GAHAHA! FIHIHINE! I’MAHAHAHADORHORABLE!” He ducked his head, blushing brighter than their campfire. “NOHOW STAHAHAHAP! PLEEHEEHEASE!”

The group laughed and cheered at his miserable defeat, then finally ceased their attack. Katara and Aang stepped back as Toph freed his feet and Sokka released him from his grip. Zuko was left standing in the center of the team, panting and giggling dazedly, guarding his torso with his arms held tight to his skin. His whole body tingled and burned. His face hurt from smiling so much.

“Well, you heard it here first, folks—Zuko is adorable, and he knows it!”

“And he can laugh! Like, actually laugh!”

“I guess he can express happiness the same way we do. You just have to push the right buttons.”

“Was that emotive enough for you, Katara?”

Zuko was at his wit’s end. Again, with the teasing? Couldn’t these guys give him a break? He was never going to hear the end of this for as long as he lived. Giggling breathlessly, he sunk to his hands and knees, making his friends flinch. 

“Whoa,” Katara exclaimed. “You all right there, Zuko?”

For a moment, the team worried that they’d gone too far, that they’d somehow broken Zuko by making him laugh for what might’ve been the first time in his life. Zuko doubled over himself, wheezing dazedly.

“Uhuhugh…” he whimpered, voice muffled. “Y-you’re...gohonna...pahay for that…”

The group let out a sigh of relief. If he still had the strength to threaten him, that was a good sign. 

“Don’t worry, Prince Zu-Zu,” Sokka said, patting him on the back. “Having a cute laugh doesn’t make you any less intimidating.”

“It’s nice to know that you can laugh though, even if you don’t do it very much.” Katara smiled somberly. “I was worried something was bothering you, or that you weren’t happy here with us. That’s why we started this whole silly competition in the first place.”

After a pause, Zuko slowly lifted his face from his lap. His cheeks were still rosy, but he was beginning to tame his breathing. 

“But if that’s just not how you normally express yourself, that’s okay.”

The prince sat back on his haunches, still seething with humiliation, but to a semi-reduced degree. He didn’t think he’d ever fully understand the way this group functioned, why they garnered such delight out of poking fun at him and each other, why they were so concerned and endeared with his behavior and emotional expressiveness. But it was clear they cared about him, however bizarrely they chose to demonstrate it. 

“I...I am happy here,” Zuko eventually ventured to say, his voice still shrill and brittle. Hearing it out loud made him blush some more, but he continued. “I wasn’t trying to make you think otherwise. I’m just…” he swallowed. “Weird. And bad at...stuff.”

The gang snickered. “Yeah you are,” Toph said, hugging his arm. “And we love you for it.”

The firebender blinked and hinted a bashful smile. Aang placed his hands on his hips. 

“Who knows! Maybe you just forgot how to laugh for a while, but now we’ve reminded you!”

To everyone’s disbelief, a chuckle escaped Zuko, short and authentic. “Maybe,” he said. 

Then, an instant later, he shot to his feet. “But don’t ever do anything like that to me ever again! I’ll burn down this entire hillside and run back to the Fire Nation if you even think about it!”

Flames rose from his clenched fists as he glared daggers into each of them. But Aang just laughed.

“Sure you will,” Aang teased, fluttering his fingers against his side. Zuko winced and smiled, then whirled on him with a growl. 

“Touch me again, and I’ll have you doing fire lunges until you puke.”

Aang shrunk away with a nervous chuckle, folding his hands behind his back. “R-right. Sorry, Sifu Hotman.”

If anyone noticed that Zuko started laughing more after that, whether it was at Aang’s antics or Sokka’s jokes or Katara’s ridiculousness or Toph’s sass, they thought it best not to point it out. Now that he’d started emoting more positively, they didn’t want to shy him away from it. It was still small and fleeting, but it was progress from absolutely nothing. Perhaps they had helped the Fire Nation prince rediscover his laugh after all. 

But that didn’t stop them from poking and teasing him whenever the urge hit. While his everyday chuckles and giggles were great, nothing compared to the sound of Zuko’s wild, bubbly, tickle-induced laughter. And unless he firebended at them to get them to quit, they didn’t plan on stopping anytime soon. 

[light-miracles]

Azulaang?

Andddd I guess I ship Azulaang now. Thanks anon. They're actually pretty interesting??

.........

"I'm not going to apologize," the young princess said, brushing the flying bison's fur.

Aang was on the other side of Appa, brushing his third leg. He wasn't wearing a shirt and his scar was visible all over his back, as if someone had thrown mud and blood at him. 

Aang looked up, confused. "What?"

"Do you call that brushing?" asked Azula, always a perfectionist. "You'll have to do it again."

"Apologize for what? Did you spend all the money on strawberries again?"

"Of course not, that's ridiculous. And it only happened once," replied Azula rolling her eyes.

She had been traveling with the Avatar for the past year, under such unusual circumstances that it was still hard to believe. After some time in the madhouse where Zuko had locked her up, it had become more than evident that no one could help her if she didn't want to. Her very existence was a danger to Zuko's reign. Her brother had tried visiting her, talking to her, but the poison between them was too deep. Azula suspected that poison would always be there.

It was then that the Avatar, of all people, interceded for her. He somehow convinced Zuko that his sister needed to go through her healing path on her own, just like he had done years ago.

That was how her brother, the Fire Lord Zuko gave her a choice. She could be free again, but the most precious thing that any citizen of the Fire Nation possessed, her honor, would be linked to the Avatar from then on. She would travel with him as his bodyguard. She would help him keep the peace between the nations. That would be her mission and her sentence. And if she escaped or betrayed the Avatar, she would lose her honor forever and history would remember her as a traitor to her country. Azula knew they would probably also lock her up for good and throw away the key. His brother's reign was still fragile and he couldn't risk her trying to kill him.

Azula knew perfectly well that she could regain the throne if she wanted to. But she didn't want to. There was no one to impress anymore.

So there was the princess, almost a year later, traveling the world with the young Avatar who had once been her worst enemy on the other side of the war.

"So why do you want to apologize?"

"I said I'm not going to apologize," replied Azula, brushing Appa's neck. "You were on your side of the war and I was on mine. You won, but I'm-not-going-to-apologize."

"Oh, I see," said Aang slowly, studying her reaction. "You don't need to apologize. I've already forgiven you."

"Has it ever occurred to you that I don't want your forgiveness? You haven't been paying attention. I didn't do anything wrong," she replied, brushing harder. "Everything I did was in the service of my nation."

"There are certain limits to what is right to do out of patriotism, princess. You know that."

"You were my enemy. No, there wasn't."

"So that's it," replied Aang, leaving the brush aside and putting on his shirt. "My scar."

Azula crossed her arms, refusing to look away in defiance.

"As I said before, I have already forgiven you," said the Avatar with a smile. "But I think it's you who need forgive yourself."

"It was a war. There is nothing to forgive."

"That's fine," replied Aang simply, satisfied with the simplicity of their conversation. The first two months of their trip, Azula hadn't even talked to him about anything other than his safety. Her 'bodyguard' seemed content to remain silent and ignore his existence for days. Aang would be lying if he said it wasn't awkward at first, but over time their relationship had progressed to the point of basic and more or less normal conversations.

Aang knew he had made the right decision when he asked Zuko for permission to take his sister away. Not only because he was convinced that the mental hospital was in no condition to encourage any chance of Azula's recovery, but because his former enemy could be a formidable ally in his duties as the Avatar. Azula was a genius and an expert in strategy and politics. He was convinced that the princess could do a lot of good for the world if she wanted to.

He still didn't know if she did, but he would accept any advance as a small step in the right direction. Their time together was, after all, her chance to heal. That was the priority. Help a person who needed help.

"You're doing it again, Avatar."

"What thing, Princess?"

"Let me have the last word just because you don't want to argue," she said with a frown. "As if I were a wild animal that should not be provoked."

"I don't think that and you know it," replied the young Avatar softly but firmly. "You say you have nothing to apologize for and I respect that. I understand. Like you said, it was a war. I'm not going to apologize for what I did to your father either. He had to be stopped at all costs. But the war is over now," he said walking towards her and staying still by her side. Azula continued to brush the bison without giving him the satisfaction of looking at him. "Wouldn't be better to leave the past behind and look towards the future? Wouldn't you be happier?" 

Azula threw the brush away, breathing hard through ber tightly pressed lips. "Don't be ridiculous," she said without turning around. "I have no future."

"Of course you have-"

"Open your eyes, Avatar," she said in frustration, but not anger, just resignation. "Wherever I go I will always be a pariah. Even in my own home. Or do you not see the hatred in the eyes of the people in every town we visit?"

"It won't always be like this," replied Aang softly, smiling at the princess. "It may not seem like it, but time heals all wounds. Even the deepest ones."

"It doesn't matter," she said with a shrug. "I haven't really lost anything. I've never been loved, Avatar. I have accepted that it will simply never be a part of my life."

"You're loved."

"Excuse me?"

"You are loved, Azula." For a moment he thought about mentioning Zuko or Ursa, but quickly decided not to. "I know that you think it is foolish, and that you don't feel much hope right now. But even if my people didn't profess love for all living beings, I'll always try to have my heart open to anyone who needs help. Or who needs a friend. And after all our time together, I must know I care about you. I would like to be your friend, if you allow me."

Azula didn't answer him, her mind calculating all the chances that the Avatar was manipulating her to win her favor. For what purpose? She no longer possessed political or military power. Was the Avatar trying to use her talents and strength? It must be that, because there was no other option but-

The Avatar stepped forward and wrapped her in a hug.

Azula's instinct was to shake him off, before feeling something she couldn't remember ever feeling. Something so alien to her that she considered it an invention of fiction, like ghosts. Love. It was a warm feeling deep in her stomach, making her eyes feel heavy and for just a moment, everything stopped hurting. The Avatar radiated love like a burning coal radiated heat.

With wet eyes, Azula returned the hug.

[crashingmeteorz]

zuko brings a lot to the table when he joins the gaang, especially the return of the ba sing se bimbos (jinjetsongko)

credit as always to @azenkii!

when they all eventually join team avatar, in my mind, it still happens after the Betrayal by zuko. this is obviously very Angsty and Intense, but that’s a post for another day.

song and her mother, through a series of Strange Events, make their way into the fire nation in disguise and end up in a village that the gaang passes through, just before the invasion. she and katara recognize each other, and song asks to go with them to help at the invasion.

at first, song positively Freaks Out at meeting aang and also at the fact that he’s ALIVE. katara eventually calms her down enough to ask, “are you comfortable going to the front lines of the invasion, song? we need healers, but this will get very dangerous.”

“oh, i think i’ll be alright,” song says mischeviously.

jin ends up at the boiling rock for trying (and failing, but not without a good hard fight) to free mushi/iroh. how does she end up in the crystal catacombs? idk yet, but she was there, and boy was she PISSED at lee. azula took her away before zuko had much of a chance to argue - he’s ashamed to say he didn’t try very hard.

of course, she meets suki, and has her own fan girl moment. she also develops a very quick crush. i mean, yeah, she’s the leader of the kyoshi warriors so of course sokka was obsessed but after meeting suki jin’s like how could you NOT fall in love.

jet, who has been brainwashed by the dai li, goes with them to the fire nation. he’s assigned to dangerous reconnaissance missions that azula plans, which she ensures that zuko finds out about, since she’s doing it purely as a way to test his loyalty. it works - because this, along with zuko’s other realizations in book three, is what makes him fully denounce the fire nation. when he leaves to teach aang, he drags jet along with him.

this trip is less than easy, because jet, who is, again, brainwashed, bounces between attempting to murder zuko for his betrayal, and treating zuko as his ward to be protected.

at some point on the trip, after an extreme mood swing, during which they both almost die, they’re breathing heavily on either end of the war balloon, and zuko says “you’re giving me emotional whiplash.”

“OH AM I, LEE?” roars jet, before collapsing with exhaustion. it’s a very song-like comment, and in spite of everything zuko really truly hopes his friends will forgive him one day.

when zuko first shows up to greet the gaang, jet is Not Well, and so zuko leaves him at the campsite. he also knows things between the gaang and jet did not end on good terms, so zuko figures it’s no big loss.

the second time, when zuko attacks combustion man, jet follows him on a Murderous Rampage, until he realizes zuko’s trying to help aang and the others, and then he joins zuko’s side.

“fucking prince, fucking avatar, I WAS A FREEDOM FIGHTER! I DID IMPORTANT THINGS, LIKE TERRORISM! NOW IM GONNA DIE, FOR WHAT? THE PEOPLE WHO KILLED MY GANG’S VIBES AND THIS TWIG-SIZED ROYAL MORON?” jet screams as he uses his hooks to hoist himself and zuko back up the cliff.

(of course, his anger mostly melts away when the others exit the temple after the danger passes, and song is there holding the duke’s hand. it’s the first happy thing that has happened to him in so long.)

song regards zuko/lee as a mixed bag because, you know, the obvious Bad Stuff, but also he saved jet? and he’s training the avatar now?

so she decides on the middle ground - forgiveness, paired with Never Letting Him Live Anything Down.

she hugs him, and tells him she missed him, and he’s so overcome with relief he almost cries, and then she says very loudly for the whole group to hear: “i forgive you, but i expect a herd of ostrich horses after the war.”

“song-“ he says desperately.

“you know. compensation.” she says.

“i only took the one-“

“zuko!” says aang, scandalized at the idea that zuko had personally affronted one his new friends even though it’s the smallest of his crimes.

“was it just one? i must’ve forgotten,” song says sweetly. “sure hope i haven’t been brainwashed. oh! like someone we know-“

“that wasn’t even my fault!” says zuko.

yeah, katara LOVES song.

when sokka and zuko go to the boiling rock, jet tries to go with them because he’s convinced zuko will betray sokka, but he’s still kind of out of it, and they try to convince him to stay back. he gets loud, threatening to tell everyone what they’re up to if he doesn’t get to come along, when a hand holding a rag comes up around his mouth and he passes out.

“it’s my turn to watch him tonight and i’m too tired to reason with him,” says song, dragging jet under his armpits back to the camp. “just go do whatever stupid risky thing you’re going to do.”

“that’s it?” zuko asks curiously. “no speech about how we shouldn’t go?”

“oh, i’m sorry, am i your mother?” song asks innocently. “i personally haven’t seen my mother since before the invasion, you know, the one we had to plan because SOMEONE’S nation waged a war-“

“okay, okay, i get it!” zuko snaps, and they go.

when they return with jin, however, song drops all the sarcasm and jet stops being so hostile. this is partially because they’re so grateful he brought her back, but mostly because jin is definitely the Friendship Glue.

she tells them all about how their daring escape, she mentions that everyone acted according to their sexy selves (hakoda, thankfully, does NOT hear this), but especially zuko.

“honestly,” jin says, “being the one of the first prisoners to escape the boiling rock has got to be the most legendary thing anyone’s ever done. i’m going to go down in history. so many fire nation prisoners are going to be like ‘who’s that pretty girl who escaped on the gondola?’ and they’re either going to be talking about me or suki, and it’s all thanks to zuko.”

yes, they have a ba sing se bimbo reunion hug.

“guys, you will not BELIEVE what i found out at that gross prison.” jin says at the campfire that evening. “the firelord singed his eyebrows off once, and now he has to draw them on every morning. also, he gets these little flames painted on his nails at the palace spa because he thinks it makes his firebending stronger, and, like, yes, guys who paint their nails are hot, but not when they paint them to look like a four-year-old drew them.”

“literally none of that is true,” says zuko, absolutely baffled.

“oh really?” jin says, rounding on him. “because i heard it from min, who heard it from the guard who shaved her head, who heard it from the watchtower guard, who heard it from the WARDEN HIMSELF.

“yeah zuko,” says song, “do you think you know more about the firelord than the WARDEN?”

“no offense, but you’re not exactly the expert on the firelord,” says jet, grinning because He Knows.

zuko says nothing at first. then he sighs, shakes his head, and asks happily, “so, is it all the nails, or just, like, the ringfinger?”

part two of this segment coming soon!

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[ambitionsource]

i watch a lot of avatar the last bender and i gonna ask the question. which of the a class is a bender (water, earth, fire, and air) or a non bender? who do you think would be the avatar?

given that she has an atla url, you can imagine es was very excited to answer this question LOL. we decided we’d approach this from like the standpoint of if bending existed, but in the current setting and world as we know it (so not quite fixed in the atla world or lore). i made visual aids to go with it because i’m a visual person, but i’ll talk a bit through our thinking for each type!

water felt so obvious for riley she was one of the first people we decided on. she definitely has that katara-like energy for a waterbender where she’s gentle and practiced and quite fluid with her motions and her emotions, but she’ll also flip on a dime in an instant and kick your ass with water if you hurt anyone she cares about (which brings us to a necessary thought -- missy vs riley epic bending battle like katara v azula energy? would love to see it). for chai, we decided she would be water because it’s interesting to have a diva type who falls in a category that is represented by folks who aren’t at all divas, so it just adds an interesting variety to things. she’s also the direct opposite to maya as a rival in that sense (who we’ll come back to).

for charlie, both he and zay we thought a lot about how the movements of bending could be tied to dance and where their strengths lie. esther said that the fluid movement of water bending reminded her a lot of ballet / lyrical, and that made sense to me. it also ties together the similarities between riley and charlie in terms of their personalities, but i think where they differ is charlie would be someone who struggles a lot with his bending. i think you have to have a big sense of inner self and balance to bend proficiently, and as we know, charlie never feels on balance. i think he’d be victim to more overwhelming moments of bending when his emotions feel out of control, and for that reason he’d try really hard to avoid using it whenever possible. esther also pointed out the cool idea of he inherited a bit of this as well -- if the gardners are all water benders, but eleanor is very strict about them only using it for healing properties and Nothing Else, that kind of belief can constrict charlie’s ability as well and contribute to his fears. and perhaps the reason bridgette was exiled also has to do with her wanting to explore bending in a more well-rounded sense, so then she could be a mentor to charlie later... truly much to think about.

(also, again, i say... can we imagine the epic bending battle that could exist between brandon, charlie, and zay? charlie who is always underestimated and brushed aside and doesnt feel in control of his own power stepping up when zay starts to lose the upper hand in a bending face off and thus charlie comes into his own and jumps into to take on brandon too and its like yeah YOU THOUGHT HE WASN’T GONNA DO NOTHING. BUT THEN LOOK AT HIM GO. LOOK AT CHARLIE AND ZAY TAG TEAM. EXACTLy).

continuing under a read more because there’s evidently lots to say!

earth happened to be a crowded category for us though why i don’t know. i jokingly said that dave would be like the boulder but also he like... is basically a human brick, so it makes sense he’d have some earth roots. but i think dave uses his bending in a more silly / lowkey way, and has no ambitions to try and master it. he also is part of the quartet of bending in the techie boys that makes up the full element list (dave, nate, dylan, and jeff), which is kinda cool. zay we went with earth for because unlike charlie, the most key trait to his dance (and bending) is how firmly rooted and grounded he is -- he has faith in his own abilities, he’s balanced, one could even say he’s stubborn in how he sticks his ground. but this parallels well to dance as well where you need to have faith in even footing and knowing you’re going to land the right way and in the right position. esther also suggested that he would be one of the few who can lava bend, which kind of makes him this interesting near-intersection of earth and fire which i thought was super cool.

for isadora, we agreed she would be of the metal bending camp (and perhaps, in this world, is even the innovator of it) and is always trying to experiment with her earth-bending. we know she’s stubborn as hell and very firmly planted in her stances and opinions, but i think where she trips up is in the moments where she does feel unsure or kind of loses her footing (like with val or knowing how she wants to be perceived over s2), her bending no longer comes naturally and she almost loses it in those moments. so like over s3, in theory, as she’s grappling with grief you’d see her have to struggle to even get the basic bending capability back in decent shape as she’s also recovering emotionally. then for eric and harper, both of them to me have very stable, grounded energies, and i think they act acutely as mentors to isa and zay respectively.

most of these feel obvious, but maya is probably the most self-explanatory bender you can get here. she is like azula in a nutshell in terms of being showy, hot-headed, calculating, arrogant, etc... though she admittedly has more heart than azula. which is saying something. we thought of maya and asher as honestly sort of antithetical to one another, as asher on the flip side is terrified of his bending ability and thusly is almost a non-bender in that he never uses it. it flares up sometimes when his anxiety gets bad and so he freaks and tries to stifle it (almost like elsa with ice but. reverse lmao), and i also think there’s something really cool in the way of like... how breath is tied to bending (especially fire) but also tied to calming panic so there’s... something there. a thread to pull at. but essentially its kind of like zuko v azula where like if asher believed in himself and stepped up to his full potential he could 100% take on maya, but it’s his own insecurity, fear, and self-doubt that holds him back and keeps him all wrapped up. also, yindra v maya fiery bend-off when?

all four of these kiddos have air bender energy to me, but in different ways and for different reasons that i can’t even necessarily articulate. haley i think is very dreamy and somewhat flighty and so wouldn’t be very good with her bending abilities. yogi just has the like... air trickster energy. then you have nigel and dylan, who are kind of like polar opposite air benders. dylan is definitely in the class of aang where it’s like silly tricks, aid in helping him leap and flip and soar around, constantly showing off that marble party trick, goofing off with the other techie boyz and trying to teach them how to do air games, etc. it’s to the point where jade (a non-bender) is like air benders must be the most annoying type on earth do they ever RELAX? impossible to work with... and then she meets nigel, also an air bender, who is like the antithesis to that in that he’s calm, thoughtful, peace-making, almost overly cautious (in that same way aang is where indecision can be your greatest enemy) and jade is like... now that. that’s what i’m talking about.

back around to dylan, though, this brings us to our assertion that dylan would be the avatar. this is something we actually mused on ages ago together when doing atla rewatch (for maggie) / watches (for es), and he just has the perfect energy for it. he’s someone who brings people together, he’s a unifier and peacemaker, he has so much intrinsic hope and optimism... but he also can be too silly and naive and would have struggles here and there trying to learn different elements (both focus wise and generally). but he basically has a team avatar built in his usual core group, with riley (water), isa (earth), and asher (fire), not to mention his techie buddies who add to that.

i was also very excited about the thematic element of dylan being air and asher being fire, because what does fire need to survive? air. yeah, it’s poecy.

and there’s something interesting there too of like... you know, the reason aang didn’t want to learn fire bending anymore was after he accidentally burned katara, and i think that sort of thing is what asher is most afraid of -- especially if dylan eventually comes to him and claims he would be the perfect teacher to teach him fire bending which will be the hardest element for him to master. it’s like, if you’re already scared of your own ability to cause damage, how do you possibly risk that even slightly to try and pass it onto your most treasured loved one? you know? there’s just so much interesting fodder there.

anyone who has known me for a while should find lucas being a non-bender exactly 0% surprising. when it comes to magical or mystical concepts like this i nearly always give lucas the normie everyman role, because i feel like it is just so quintessential to his essence. even in aaa, actually, he kind of represents this role being the “untalented,” average person stuck at the performing arts school with people who are supremely talented. so you see the blueprint. he kind of makes up the sokka angle of the dylan-team-avatar arrangement, and he also falls under the guidance of jack who is a non-bender in the vein of that expert swordsman that sokka trains under. they have that kind of dynamic and energy to me (which brings us to our third point: jack v yancy epic battle with swords when?) i think there’s also something interesting to lucas and asher’s friendship if part of the reason they’re close is because asher stifles his own abilities so much to basically be on the same playing field as lucas, which makes him feel less alone... so how does that change if he does start exploring his bending in the effort to help dylan... much to think about.

jade, as previously mentioned, is just a very Tired non-bender being surrounded by her loud bender boys. darby and sarah, as non-benders, reinforce their theoretical subordination to the likes of maya and chai (though i support darby fighting back if she could just wile up the courage...) then we have farkle, who is in a very interesting place as a non-bender trying to elbow his way to the front of the pack amongst the likes of maya and zay. i think this inferiority complex would contribute to... you know, everything about him (especially s1) and would be exacerbated even further by the idea of him REALLY being the black sheep of his family if he’s the only non-bender in a family full of practiced and prestigious fire benders. we also felt like farkle would definitely be someone who dabbles and experiments in technology around bending, trying to replicate the thing he just doesn’t have.

-- Maggie & Es

[ljf613]

Prince Zuko for the character thing?

First impression  “Hmmm.... significant-looking facial scar....... teenager leading a ship of grown men..... accompanied by a Wise Mentor Figure..... a prince? This guy’s going to be important.” 

Impression now  Hotheaded and impulsive, but kind, caring, and a really hard worker-- loyal to a fault, and never gives up. Needs a nap. 

Favorite moment  Ooh, that’s hard. Maybe the scene in “The Ember Island Players” where he’s talking with Toph? Between joining the team in “The Western Air Temple” and EIP, he’s been trying so hard to fit in, to help everyone else, but seeing him able to be so open and vulnerable with a real friend (something he’s probably never had before) is really nice. (Not to mention that his smile when Toph tells him about her talk with Iroh is so precious.) Either that or the scene in WAT where he apologizes for burning Toph’s feet. The fact that he’s able to acknowledge that he made a mistake-- that just because it was an accident doesn’t change what happened, that having power that could hurt others means being responsible for it-- is huge. It shows development. Zuko being angry, Zuko fighting, Zuko confronting those who hurt him, Zuko bonding with Iroh-- all of those are fairly predictable parts of his character, established all the way back in his very first introduction in season 1. But being able to communicate openly and honestly with friends-- that was not.  (The fact that Toph is in both of these scenes is a total coincidence, honest!) 

Idea for a story  Hmmm.... I’m already writing a couple of stories about Zuko, but something new, huh?  Maybe an amnesia/soul-swap fic where 13-116 year old Zuko wakes up in the body of post-canon Zuko? He thinks he’s still banished, that there’s still a war going on, that he needs to hunt down the Avatar-- but he’s actually Fire Lord, the war’s over, and the Avatar is his best friend.  Alternatively, it might be fun to see a story about Zuko during the three year banishment. Maybe Zuko’s tendency to chase after anything vaguely fanatastical-looking got himself and Iroh wrapped up in Spirit World Schenanigans? Maybe something about “the Blue Spirit’s: first appearance? Maybe just traveling the world and exploring, visiting the Air Temples-- did he ever meet the Airwalkers at the Northern Temple? 

Unpopular opinion  Umm, my post on Zuko’s Memory Bias did not go over as well as I’d hoped it would?  Also, I just generally think people tend to woobify Zuko a lot. He’s not this soft, helpless little angel, that’s kind of the whole point-- writing him that way does a huge disservice to his character. 

Favorite relationship  Probably Aang, Iroh, or Toph. 

Favorite headcanon  In his searching for the Avatar, Zuko did a ton of research, trying to find anything that might be helpful on his quest. Which means he’s probably the foremost expert both on Avatars, and on the Air Nomads.