#dadko is dadding

[the-badger-mole]

Fic Snippet!

“Are you out of your mind?” Zuko rushed across the courtyard and bore down on Aang with an intense, almost palpable fury. “Do you know how badly you could’ve hurt her?”

“I was just…I didn’t mean to-“ Aang stammered.

“Fire is not a toy!” Zuko bellowed at him. He turned to Katara, examining her for injuries. “Are you okay?”

“I’m alright,” she assured him, her voice shaking. “I’m fine.” She was trembling visibly, and there were singe marks on her clothes, but she otherwise seemed unharmed. Zuko turned back to Aang, how was looking down at his feet in shame.

“What were you thinking?” Zuko demanded.

“I don’t know,” Aang mumbled, kicking at the ground. “I was…mad.”

“About what?” Zuko was absolutely bewildered. “What could Katara possibly have done that you thought it was a good idea to do that?”

“Nothing,” Aang admitted sullenly. He didn’t say anything after that. Zuko glowered at him, took a few deep breaths to quell his own anger.

“You’re going to clean this mess up,” he said gesturing to the torn up stones, dirt and cooling lava. “Then you’re going to do 100 fire squats. Then you’re going to work on your forms for an hour. And I don’t want to see so much as a curl of smoke out of you. You’re not responsible enough for fire. Understood?” 

“What? That’s not-“ Aang’s protests died on his lips when he saw Zuko’s expression.  He huffed, kicked at stone, and finally nodded.

“Get started,” Zuko ordered through clenched teeth. He turned back to Katara, who was watching the exchange. She was still shaking a bit. Zuko draped his arm protectively around her back and guided her away. He glanced back once more at Aang, and almost rolled his eyes when he saw the younger boy still moping at the ground. It was hard sometimes to reconcile the awesome might and eminence of the Avatar with the reality of Aang, the child.

“I’ll be back,” he warned Aang. “Have this mess cleaned up. And don’t even think about asking Toph to help.” 

I know canonically, the Lava Fissure Incident takes place while Zuko and Sokka are rescuing Hakoda, but I wanted to have Zuko see and react to it. Personally, I think it was another accidentally accurate depiction of how unready Aang is to be the Avatar. And it is also another incident that the narrative decides not to call Aang out for, so the chances of him growing from it are...well, we all know how things turned out in LoK.

[dranktwocoffees]

have i ever mentioned how genuinely happy i am that zuko ended up with a daughter. he'd be a great dad even if he had a son but theres no character in atla with stronger girl dad vibes. he just needed a daughter

[salty-pnutz]

Little Izumi painting her face to look like the one she admires the most

"Look daddy, i I have a mark like you"

"oh..."

[billsbae]

this is so momtara and dadko coded

[punkeropercyjackson]

'Zutara should've happened to subvert the 'hero always gets the girl' trope!!!''Bad boy always gets the girl' is also a trope and one with significantly more misogynistic history than the hero one.Kataang itself is a subversion of how it's usually potrayed to make it feminist with specific writing points to switch up the gender dynamics and thus defy gender roles and sexist stereotypes,including that Katara is also the hero of Atla as much as Aang is,while Zutara calls for the bad boy one to be played straight in a classic faux-feminism move and false attempt at challenging cisheteronormativity.Also Zuko wouldn't have gotten Katara a statue 'unlike Aang' not just because he canonically didn't but also because she would never want one and there is no evidence to suggest she would nor that she finds manliness on men attractive nor that she's a preppy good girl nor that she enjoys playing into maternal roles to anybody except her actual kids or sees Aang as her son nor that she hates other girls her age nor that Zuko wants to burden his girlfriend with all his emotional problems nor be a 'female fantasy' for any girl instead of his girlfriend's boyfriend👍🏼Projecting is for film and y'all're M.Night Shyamalan

[lphoenixspiritl]

At Toph and Aang's wedding, Zuko filled in as father of the groom and Iroh had the honor of being the father of the bride. Meanwhile Katara took on both roles as mother of the bride and mother of the groom.

[ididgettomeetyou]

SOKKA BEING TEAM DAD

[khevras]

AU where Zuko's in his 20s and his ministers are now all trying to persuade him to get get married and have an heir cos 'really Fire Lord Zuko, you must secure the line to the throne' and 'the fire nation has already had a succession crisis, there really isn't a need to cause another one'

but the thing is, there was a reason why he and Mai broke up years ago; she had realised she much preferred girls whilst he realised he really didn't. (They had however remained strong friends and he couldn't wait for the next time Mai and Ty Lee would visit so they could catch up)

so there he was stuck on what exactly he should do, especially on how to avoid trying to be pressured to agree to a marriage with one of the daughters of the noblemen of court. And so, late one night, deep into papers on the agricultural imports of the southern isles, he lets out a sleep deprived prayer to the spirits to at least let that problem resolve itself, cos 'Spirits damn it, he really doesn't need his ministers trying to discuss his love life and how they could benefit from it'

so anyway he releases that half-crazed prayer and thinks nothing of it, burying himself deeper into his work.

but the spirits have always been fickle things, and something in the spirit world shifts

The next morning, Zuko's in the middle of going through what meetings he has scheduled today when he is interrupted by a frantic messenger asking for him to come to the temples by the request of the high sage. Obviously, that means something serious must have happened with the spirits if the high sage is calling for him without asking for an official meeting, right?

So he rushes into the temple, and once inside he witnesses several very stressed sages running around whilst the high sage stares him down while holding what looked like a very sooty bundle of cloth.

As he comes closer it suddenly becomes a lot more apparent that the cloth bundle is in fact a child

The child seems to squirm inside its tight wrappings before opening its golden eyes and staring at the new presence in front of it. And as Zuko gazes down at the curious eyes of the baby all he can think is the overwhelming feeling of rightness before he sweeps the little girl into his arms.

It is not until later that hes told of how the child appeared in the temple and how she had caused such disarray among the order. That as Agni's first light had kissed the land the fires of the temple had surged up, almost as if attempting to join the spirit in its journey across the sky, before dropping low and revealing the giggling form of a babe born from flame and ash.

But that is not until later, and right now all Zuko can concentrate on is his beautiful new daughter and how he promises to be a better father than Ozai ever was to him

[quillsparkle]

*catches Sokka trying to sneak out*

Dad agrees to play with his son after seeing him upset.

Zuko giving his, "back when I was a kid" story while being the brother who thinks he's better than you

Your eldest kid wants to play with you but you're too busy working on your job.

Tells your kids to act your age and Katara's just acting like an exasperated mom well Zuko is acting like a confused dad.

And these are just Zuko being good with a kid whose his sister and the last photo gives me a "your mother's right. Let's talk about this" scene. Then your kid yells at you, telling him that's what you wanted to do in the first place.

(couldn't find a picture of him but I remember Zuko grabbing onto Aang's shirt and telling him his lessons not done yet before picking him up by the scruff of his shirt)

[kitorasohma]

Exhibit B:

“Dadko is out of character” Ok then explain this:

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

I don’t understand the idea people have that Zuko is more mature than Aang, that he’s the only who’s an equal to Katara, “Dadko & Momtara”. I love Zuko, but he wasn’t very mature, at least initially, he had a lot of issues with his anger, even near the end of the show, and he initially had a very impulsive one track mind. They say Aang needed Katara to mother him, but Zuko literally needed Iroh to be the father figure in his life, and this isn’t a bad thing, poor Zuko need a good parental figure.

That’s not to say was always mature, he was 12, he could be childish, impulsive, and sometimes selfish every so often, but he was also very wise for his age, he was empathetic, he generally had a decent grip on his emotions (baring The Avatar State, which was out of his control) and above all, didn’t let his tragic circumstances embitter him, although he did have good friends to support him.

Lastly, I hate that people say Katara and Aang (or even Aang and Zuko). Had mother/son (or father/son in the latter’s case) relationship, just because Katara comforted Aang and supported him multiple times, like can’t friends do that for each other. I could easily say Katara wanted to tend to Zuko’s scar and comforting him about confronting Iroh as motherly. They were both were equals who mutually respected each other, and it was a give and take relationship, both did a lot for each other. Zuko and Aang were also equals, like their dynamic with each other, being similar and yet different is one of the core themes of the show, especially in The Dragon Episode.

I've said it once, I'll say it again: 13-year-old Zuko was way more mature than 16-year-old Zuko for reasons of "He wasn't yet regressing mentally due to a fuckton of trauma and self-loathing as a result of being physically abused and blamed for it", but zutarians think "older, angrier and more traumatized" is the same as maturity - hence them adultifying Katara so much, when the very first episode of the show full on says to us "This is a child that has forgotten she has the right to just have fun and this needs to be fixed."

Also a lot of things that are labeled as Aang being "immature" are just... not that at all? A 12-year-old wanting to play instead of being a super soldier/weapon is not "immature", just like he wouldn't be "immature" for not wanting to be a dad at that age, or work a 9-5 job. The aberration is people pressuring him to grow up to fast, not him resisting that because he's a literal child and that's not supposed to happen.

And even if he had been an adult: a pacifist not wanting to be everyone's hitman for hire is not "immature" or "selfish", he's literally Just A Dude That Exists and doesn't appreciate that people feel entitled to walk all over his morals, beliefs and agency.

[atla-confessions]

Dadko takes have always bothered me a little, but one thing that has stuck with me was when I saw one post that refered to the scene of Zuko and Aang riding Appa on the way to see the firebending masters and refered to that as something like 'when zuko started being the dad figure' when Zuko was almost literally the kid in the backseat going "are we there yet"

Dadko who? All I see is an angsty teenager having to be watched by a 12 year old

X

[wilcze-kudly]

idk why i just saw your response to the dadko image but it made me die. like holding someone by the shirt makes you a parent huh LOL

Honestly Zuko is really out here doing the bare minimum lmao. Like I can kinda see why people call him the Gaang's dad (if I squint really hard) but he just really doesn't have that vibe to me.

Especially that most of the qualities that make uin the dad friend are very similar to the ones Toph exhibits. Grumpy, sorta headstrong and pretty goal oriented? But of course calling Toph the dad friend is kinda silly because gender roles lmao.

In fact, I think the same qualities that get Zuko crowned as group dad often have people calling Toph a petulant child. Eh, the duality of how we view male and female characters ig.

Anyway I vote to replace Dadko with Dad Friend Toph, who's with me?

[survivalove]

The funny thing is I wasn't a kataang or katara fan until I saw a bunch of people treating katara like she was 30 close to my age and I started feeling protective of her s I re watch atla and see babies. Other Zutara watch it and see momtara dadko and baby aang it's weird they're children. I dunno why zuts hate kids but they have a big we hate kids vibes and I'll never not to be sore at the appa disrespect. Aang grieves his kidnapping and it's called throwing a tantrum. It's insane how they claim to be a empathic fanbase and call katara comforting aang coddling. as someone who lost a pet years ago nearly sim too aang . iI just don't get these people .

momtara is one thing but dadko is just pure delusion. how does zuko act like a dad to anyone, especially aang when all he does is fight him, yell at him, be racist before and after his redemption since that’s their favorite word? I guess that’s how his father treated him so they think that’s zuko being a father? lmaoooooo

the way aang made sure to point out that he was technically zuko’s great grandfather?? but yes that’s clearly his father figure, sure.

and then this coddling nonsense when aang rejects katara every time she even tries to comfort him?? almost every time katara tries to comfort him it goes horribly wrong the first time. the only exception i can think of rn is the desert 💀 aang is a monk that grew up with other monks. he never had a mom and will never have one. i don’t think he even says the word mother/mom the entire series.

these people are so up zuko’s racist behind it’s hilarious

[punkeropercyjackson]

Lazy Modern Atla Au meme

[tachiha3]

Okay, I can see where the 'momtara' peeps are coming from (even though it doesn't make any sense), I can still see where people can base their argument from.

But seriously? Dadko? Are you for real? Like that has got to be one of the most baseless argument I have ever heard. Zuko has the emotional maturity of a fucking peanut.

And where are you even getting that argument from? Because he didn't let Aang drink watermelon juice? Because he told Sokka to get out of Appa's mouth? If that's what you think a dad is then you really need to revise your definition of a father.

Or maybe you only think of Zuko as a dad because Katara is a 'mom' and you want them to 'fall in love while taking care of these problem children'.

Zuko is a teenager who is a victim of emotional and physical abuse while Katara is an early teen who had to grow up too soon because of her mother's murder. Stop adultifying them.