#katara: to be clear. i'm not just saying this because zuko was our enemy

[discordiansamba]

his little flame sputters and dies.

he forces everyone to leave. he digs his fingers into his hair, trying to make sense of this- but he only ever comes around to one option.

katara is telling the truth.

but if katara's telling the truth, then it means everything he knows about himself is a lie. it means his father isn't his father. it means his mother never existed. it means he doesn't exist. but no matter how hard he tries to wrap his head around that idea, it just refuses to budge. he knows katara has to be telling the truth- that's he's been brainwashed.

but when he wakes up the next morning and looks at himself in the mirror, the only person he sees in his reflection is lee. he also looks like a wreck- his eyes are red and puffy. he never unbraided his hair last night, so it's sticking out in all kinds of ways. the growling of his stomach reminds him that he hasn't eaten anything since yesterday morning.

he cleans himself up. he braids his hair. he puts on earth kingdom green. he is not lee of ba sing se, son of yuna and lan-wei. that person does not exist. but he's certainly not prince zuko, either. at least lee is someone that he knows. he inhales. exhales. he needs to make something to eat.

he can't let this destroy him.

katara ends up joining him. he makes food and tea for them both, and finds himself calming down further as he does so. he doubts prince zuko knew how to cook, or make tea for that matter. lee does it as naturally as he breathes. the owner would always say that her tea shop would be in good hands, if lee were willing to take it over.

lee wishes he could. so what if he used to be someone else? he's lee now. would it really be so bad if he stayed this way? he doesn't want to go back to serve princess azula, knowing what he knows now, but... he could go back to his life in ba sing se. he's not sure he can forgive father, but he's eighteen. old enough to live independently.

he asks katara what his father did to him.

katara tells him. she'd told him before, but he hadn't believed her.

she doesn't know the full details either, she admits. but she knows that lan-wei changed him. it's not just that he made him forget his past identity as zuko- he's molded him into someone completely new. lee has his own past. his own personality, entirely separate from prince zuko's. there might be some overlap in places, but otherwise he's a new person entirely.

"is that why i still feel like lee?" he asks.

"that's part of it," katara says, "-but I think... I think your mind's begun to adapt to being brainwashed. it's so different from a joo dee's."

lee's brow furrows. he asks her what she means. she tells him that when they'd freed him from princess azula, she'd checked his mind. she'd already freed countless people- joo dees, she called them- from brainwashing after the end of the war, and she could tell right away that their minds had been manipulated.

but lee's mind? if she hadn't already known, she might not have have guessed. she had to look a lot harder to find it. the brainwashing he was made to endure was far more thorough than anything the joo dees ever experienced- and happened a lot more frequently too, she's willing to bet. his mind probably tried to protect itself at first, but at some point it just... gave up.

it stopped resisting, and started adapting.

"so," lee's brows furrowed, "-is that why I don't feel brainwashed?"

katara nods. you have the free will to make your own choices. it's just that those choices are being informed by an entirely new personality, and backed by an entirely new set of memories that he didn't have before. that was lan-wei's goal, she thinks. to perfect a form of brainwashing that was ultimately self-sustaining.

"...but I can't stay this way," lee asks, "-can I?"

katara looks at him. she asks if he wants to. lee bites his lip- and then slowly nods. yes. he wants to stay as lee. but he knows that's just because he can't imagine himself as anyone other than lee. he thinks about fire lord iroh. about the sad way he told him that he reminded of his nephew.

he wants to talk to him.

he tells katara that. she blinks- and then smiles at him. okay. she can arrange that. we can put off any decisions until then. lee just kind of stares at her. it's like she's presenting staying this way as an actual option. wasn't the whole point of bringing him here to make him zuko again?

"it was," katara says, "...but I think you should be able to decide what you want for yourself, lee. otherwise we wouldn't be any better than lan-wei. if you want to go back to being zuko, that should be your choice. and if you want to stay as lee...

...you should have the right to do that, too."

lee doesn't know what to think.

he doesn't understand why lady mai is here. he wants to say that katara manipulated her in the same way she wants to manipulate him- except. katara's been here the entire time. he knows that for a fact. another waterbender, then?

but lady mai had said they couldn't even do that.

he didn't understand. lady mai was one of princess azula's close friends, but according to her, the princess had been lying to him. and katara... katara was telling the truth. he closes his eyes, thinking back to the way lady mai would always watch him out of the corner of her eyes. to their occasional morning tea sessions together. if lady ty lee had always been friendlier to him than someone of his lowly station deserved, then lady mai had always been aloof and proper.

and sometimes, lee realized, she looked at him with pity.

he doesn't understand. it doesn't make sense. if princess azula was lying to him, if what katara and lady mai say is true, then...

...no. it can't be true. it doesn't feel true. katara says his father was the one who brainwashed him, but lee loves his father. his father loves him. he's always been proud of him. that feeling can't be fake, can it? it feels real. he closes his eyes for a moment. tries to imagine himself being prince zuko, the banished prince of the fire nation.

he can't.

there's a knock on his door. he doesn't know why he opens it, but they're all standing out there. he stares at them, wondering what they see then they look at him. who they see. when he looks at himself in the mirror, the only person he's ever seen reflected back at him is himself- is lee. but have they ever seen him that way?

"sit down," lady mai instructs, "-I'm going to prove everything to you right now."

lee moves, almost mechanically. the way he expects a brainwashed person would move. he doesn't move that way. he sits on the ground, cross-legged like lady mai tells him to. she tells him to close his eyes and hold out his hands. to time his breathing with hers. he asks what they're doing.

she tells him he's going to firebend.

"this is the way they test for it in the fire nation," lady mai says, "-close your eyes. focus inward. find your inner flame and bring it out."

this is stupid, lee thinks. he's not a firebender. but if he does what she says and can't firebend, then he'll know they're all lying to him. that he's not some fire nation prince. that he's lee. maybe once he proves that to them, they'll let him go home.

he wants to go back to ba sing se so badly.

lee draws in and lets out a deep breath. he concentrates inwards. he has no idea what an inner flame is even supposed to be. he's always felt a warmth in his chest, though. he concentrates on that, and then... how would he even bring it out?

he hears katara and sokka suck in a breath.

lee's eyes flutter open. there's a tiny flame flickering in his palms.

"congratulations," lady mai says, "-you're a firebender, zuko."

lee barely hears her. he can only stare at the flame in horror. he's a nonbender. he's earth kingdom. he shouldn't be able to firebend. this is impossible. this has to be a trick, his mind whispers to him. you know who you are. you're lee, son of lan-wei and yuna. you're from ba sing se. you're a tea server.

...was he?

[tiny-katara]

I can totally buy that Zuko could fall in love with Katara. She’s amazing. But why would Katara fall in love with Zuko? She may have forgiven him and become friends with him, but it’s one thing to become friends with a former enemy and another love them. Zuko really hurt her in many ways. Please don’t think I’m trying to be rude, I’m just genuinely curious. I want to understand the way Zutara shippers think. I have to because the ship is so popular.

no you're totally fine anon! your question is perfectly respectful and i have no issue answering. in fact, it would be a pleasure :)

now i can only give you my perspective on why i believe katara could/would fall for zuko and a lot of it is heavily based on my own experience as i do relate to katara in more ways than i'd like to admit lol. anyways... let's begin (this will definitely be extrememly long).

zuko definitely did a lot to hurt katara, but she forgives him in the show and they are ride or die besties immediately afterwards. katara strikes me as someone who forgives wholly and completely upon seeing a genuine effort to be better and zuko showed that to her. i really don't think if she hadn't completely let the past go they would've been able to joke around like they do in ember island players, so i don't really see that in particular barring their potential relationship. might just be me tho lol.

the thing about katara is that she is very good at taking on others' burdens but very poor at asking for help with hers and i think this has a lot to do with the death of her mother.ccanonically, katara immediately fills the void her mother left behind. mothers generally take on the burdens of their children and expect nothing in return--as it should be! children are not responsible for dealing with an adult's problem. all this really goes to say that katara is a character that struggles to receive help because she's been channeling what she saw her mom do and it pretty much outright says in the runaway that katara is the motherly figure of the group and that responsibilty is heavy weight to bear, but one she does anyway. she takes care of everyone, but she really struggles to allow herself to share her inner turmoil with everyone as a result. like we do see her talk about how she lost her mother a fair amount with people, but very rarely do we see her discuss the specific impact it had on her with them. it's almost always used as her method of empathizing with people who have suffered as a result of the war, not as a means to gain closure.

katara does tell one character the full story of what happened to her mother and the character she chooses to share that with is zuko–which is absolutely crazy if i'm being honest! it says a lot that katara is able to speak her mind more freely to someone who has deeply hurt her than her friends/family--and not necessarily bad things. again, it just shows that katara feels like they need her to be the tough one, or the caregiver, but she never does that to zuko. he's one of the few characters katara can freely express herself to and that's not just me making assumptions, that's canonical. it's insane when you're watching through the show and looking for katara's most vulnerable and honest moments and noticing that a lot of them occur around zuko. it's pretty clear that katara feels some kind of connection with zuko from like the first moment they have an actual conversation. like our girl just pulled that spirit water we'd all forgotten about and deemed fixing zuko's esteem issues worthy of it.

if you step back and think about it though, zuko and katara are some of the most similar characters in the show. both of them are very passionate people who fight for what they think is right. both deeply understand the meaning of a sacrifice since their mothers both gave up their lives for theirs (ursa obviously isn't dead but from zuko's reaction in the show he clearly thinks she is and she did still sacrifice her current life/lifestyle). both are pretty emotional and reactive if they're pushed to it. both are deeply empathetic, which often drives their sense of justice. it makes sense that katara would feel more comfortable opening up to him because zuko just gets it.

now this isn't about kata/ag and i don't want this to turn into anything like that, but this is the reason a lot of us zutara folk don't like kata/ag. no offense to aang, but our boy is 12. he is not going to be good at emotions and deep-rooted trauma no matter how wise and knowledgeable he may be lol. He just doesn't notice this struggle of katara's, and this isn't exclusive to aang. none of the members of team avatar are ever truly able to see this in katara and actively try to help her. that is until zuko.

the southern raiders is an episode that is wildly controversial across the fandom. there is no denying that lol. my interpretation will no doubt be different from yours, especially since it seems like you ship kata/ang (? this is not meant offensively love whatever you what anon!). in this episode we katara finally snap. she isn't being kind and caring, she's being selfish and angry--which let's be real, she deserves. like i said, none of the members of the team ever really notice that she's bearing the brunt of the weight in the group and our girl is doing a lot. it's really just a culmination of her family separating again, the burden of playing mother, the long journey (you can't tell me she's not completely exhausted), and the hurt zuko caused. everything builds up and katara does say some things that she definitely should not have, but it's mostly because of how blunt and hurtful they are.

a bit of a side note, but katara's comment to sokka is something that has always bugged me. i hate that we didn't get a scene between the two in which they reconcile and actually talk about what she said, because basically what she said boils down to "even though we shared the same mom and experience, the trauma we went through as a result is not the same." that statement is 100% accurate. sokka is very clearly not carrying around the same baggage katara is. it's pretty clear that katara feels responsible on some level for her mother's death as she is the last waterbender and that's why the fire nation was there in the first place. it's obviously not her fault, but we don't always process these things in the most logical ways now do we?

anyway, katara is hurting very badly in this episode and we see her lash out at zuko specifically, which is completely understandable. he’s from the nation that killed her after all and then on top of that royalty lol. it's the perfect storm really. i think it's important to note that although katara doesn't exactly state what's wrong apart from mentioning the betrayal in ba sing se, zuko is able to see how much she's actually hurting and tries to fix it as best he can. we also see zuko defending katara's decisions throughout the episode. he has her back 100% and he never expresses any sense of disappointment in her. zuko trusts katara's judgment and choices, something we don't see aang or sokka do in that episode. a partner should be able to let you make your own choices and have your back. zuko's giving katara that chance and he isn't telling her what to do or expressing disappointment in her actions.

this is probably based more on my own preferences, but i really don't think it's unrealistic for a teenage girl to fall for someone who is older and cares for her. i mean the guy jumped in front of lightning for her??? like idk but it would definitely make my heart skip a beat especially if he's also someone you get along with quite well. the two are ride or die besties in the span of like an episode. AND katara actually is amused by him on some level as seen in ember island players when they have their little moments of banter. all of the boys katara shows interest in before the finale/that aren't aang are older too. jet is older and if you count haru he is too (it's up to you there, i personally don't really know how to feel about it). that's also without mentioning how strikingly similar zuko and jet look. it is absolutely wild how closely they resemble each other, so it really doesn't seem outside the realm of possibility to say that zuko would fit katara's aesthetic if you will lol.

something else that is fairly unique to zuko is that he always treats katara as his equal. katara and zuko are always battling on the same level and he never acts like she can't handle herself. in my opinion, zuko is the one who shows the most respect for katara's bending abilities. zuko asks her to come fight azula with him because of that. like he definitely acknowledges that toph is also insanely powerful, but katara is someone who worked hard for what she is, and that's something zuko had to do himself. he knows exactly how hard it is to work for what she has and i think that understanding of her innate talent and work ethic are both reasons she would zuko to be an appealing partner, especially since katara has always had to demand that respect from other people. zuko respects it without her saying a word and i think it's safe to say that pretty much everyone wants a partner who acknowledges their talents and abilities without being specifically asked. i think this also ties in with part of her affections for jet because he also showed interested and respect for her bending. i mean he also did abuse her bending but still! katara would not put up with someone who didn’t show her respect.

zuko is just a more appealing partner than anyone else to me. he grows up a lot and has a strong sense of responsibility, is empathetic, passionate and ambitious, kinda dorky and awkward, and all around trying to be the best person he can be. those are pretty attractive qualities in a partner, so it just makes sense to me for katara to feel similarly, especially since i very much identity with her character lol.

so that was absurdly long, but i hope that helped your understanding of zutara! it's a ship that very strongly values strong individuals that are similar and different and respect each other as equals. my explanation is a bit messy and all over the place, but i really hope you did find it insightful! if you want a better and more in-depth view of the ship, i would recommend this video by snzeey reviews (its a long one but it is extremely thorough). she's able to explain it very politely and with much less bias than me. she even talks about how aang in a very respectful way, which I will admit to failing at lol. book 3 aang drives me up the wall! 

anyways thanks for your ask :) i am so sorry it took me so long to answer but i have literally thought about it all the time since receiving it lol. it was a lot of fun <3

[juniperhillpatient]

Can you explain to me how it is that Zuko and Jet are foils for each other?

Thank you so much for choosing to ask me, I love rambling about Avatar so much 💖

Hmm, I'm not necessarily sold that Zuko & Jet are truly character foils. It's possible I said that they were in the past, but I don't remember saying it. Having thought about it just now, I think I would say that they're more like characters who have a lot in common. TLDR: Zuko & Jet are very important to one another's character arcs & they have certain parallels, but I would not say they are narrative foils.

Character foils are characters that exist to completely contrast another, & sometimes to show what their foil could be under different circumstances. For example, Katara & Azula are fairly clear-cut (in my opinion) foils. Prodigy benders with less naturally talented older brothers & distant father figures & missing mother figures. The key difference is that Katara got the love & affection Azula never got while Azula got the privilege & opportunities for training Katara never got. Also, their personalities are pretty much opposite with Katara being warmhearted, compassionate, & idealistic & Azula being cold, calculating, & pragmatic (not to even get into what they represent to one another as opposing elements & on opposing ends of the war because already I'm making a question about Zuko & Jet about Azula & Katara lol)

Zuko & Jet don't exactly have that clear-cut character foil relationship, although they are important narratively to each other & they do have parallels. Zuko is a banished prince searching for redemption & honor in his father's eyes. Jet is an orphaned rebel seeking revenge for the loss of his family & his people as well as caring for other orphans. I don't actually see anything with their backgrounds to represent the whole "in another life this could be you" thing. & aside from Jet being charismatic & Zuko being awkward, their similarly violent & angry outlooks on life are too similar for them to contrast one another in that way.

If you ask me, Aang is Zuko's foil. "But Rose, you just said that Jet didn't have enough similarities with his background to Zuko, how does Aang?" Hear me out. The entire narrative of the show focuses from day one on the contrasting values & personalities of Zuko & Aang. Zuko is angry & brash. Aang is soft & kind & carefree. That's to not even get into the fact that Zuko is fire & Aang is air & that Zuko represents the Fire Nation & Aang as a sole genocide survivor represents the harm the Fire Nation has done.

"The Storm" (one of my absolute favorite episodes) is where we really see it drilled in that Zuko & Aang's fates are intertwined & that their stories are connected as more than just enemies. We see in flashbacks as Aang, scared & overwhelmed, runs away from his duty to the world. Meanwhile, we also learn the story of how Zuko was banished. These stories are presented to the audience directly as parallels, showing that the two aren't so different after all. & before anyway says "but they don't show what the other could be in another life" to be clear, I said that could be the role of a foil. But also a foil can just highlight certain traits in a character & contrast their values with another (which - that's Zuko & Aang's entire story even when they reconcile they can't agree on things like murder & revenge)

We also get our first hint in "The Storm" that Zuko can reconcile with his foil & become a more peaceful, better person in both the information that Zuko was burned & banished for wanting to protect innocent lives & Zuko's decision to prioritize his crew's safety over capturing Aang.

Anyway, that was a tangent - Zuko & Jet!

Yeah, I don't think they are foils. Zuko & Jet are two very angry young teens who have suffered more trauma than anyone their age should because of the war. But when they finally meet, it's not to contrast them as people so much as to compare them.

Zuko & Jet meet when they're in similar parts of their character arcs, which is fun. Zuko is starting to consider his uncle's idea of a quiet life in Ba Sing Se. Jet is reconsidering his violent ideals & willingness to hurt people. They meet & both agree to steal food for the other refugees.

Jet experiences shock & betrayal when he begins to suspect that Zuko & Iroh are firebenders. We all know how that goes down with the iconic "I'll give you a show!" showdown :D

...& less fun, we all also know how this entire arc ends up going for both characters. Jet loses his life & it's turned into a cheap joke rather than at least given narrative significance & Zuko gets a redemption arc. What? No, I'm not bitter.

Anyway, I think that Zuko & Jet both experience a lot of anger for very different reasons. They both represent some of the show's not so black & white exploration of morality in war & when it comes to child soldiers. They've both experienced loss (Jet with his family, Zuko with his mother). Their roles in one another's arcs are significant. But that doesn't necessarily mean they are "foils." Actually, I think that their angry personalities & shared penchant for the dramatic (see: their fight scene) make them significantly not foils.

This got long it's just that I love talking about what different characters represent to each other - anyway I love Zuko & Jet & I wish we'd seen way more of them interacting. They are narratively significant to each other. I just wouldn't necessarily say they're foils.

[hello-nichya-here]

Azula, like any other Fire Nation soldier, wants to win the war and is willing to go great lengths to do it. Doesn't necessarily means she wants to do those things, however.

Just like Zuko probably didn't want to kill Aang, and still hired an assassin to do it, just so he could go back home and be the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation once more.

Just like Iroh was willing to burn Ba Sing Se to the ground (until his son died) to be the conqueror of it, but probably didn't want to kill its civilians or result in the death of hundreds if not thousands of Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom soldiers alike.

Let's take a look at the times (that I remember) where Azula actively tried to kill someone in a fight, and why she did it:

Aang - She can only bring her brother back if he's dead. Period. Not even saying it was Zuko who conquered Ba Sing Se would affect her father because he's an unpleasable cunt.

Zuko - Because he, a person she cares and loves (though she won't say it), abandoned her without even talking to her. Doesn't that remind you of someone? Also, after everything she did to him, he just backstabbed her for, in her mind, some Fire Nation enemies.

Mai - Because she betrayed her and not only that: she also said the worst thing someone can say to Azula: that she loves Zuko more than she fears her. It may seem like petty reason to be angry with someone, but only if we ignore the context. Ursa spent most of her time with Zuko instead of Azula, giving her the idea she only cares about him and not her. Iroh definitely favors Zuko over Azula, that much is clear. Lu Ten might have cared about Azula, but he's fucking dead. So now to hear someone whom she also probably loves (though she won't say it, again), implicitly say she loves Zuko more than her, hurts. On top of that, once Ty Lee betrays her as well she's in an even worse state, but she only sends them to prison instead of killing them.

Zuko... again and Katara - She still angry as fuck with him but on top of that you also have Ozai abandoning her even after she basically begged to be with him. And then he made the title of Fire Lord pointless by creating the title of Phoenix King, implicitly stating she would never his equal because nobody can be it (even though he's just a mediocre ruler with great bending abilities).

But even then... she still doesn't want to kill her brother: she has the perfect opportunity after Zuko is stunned by failing to redirect her lightning. All she needs to do is attack him and firebending combined with the power of the comet would suffice... but she uses it to stop Katara from healing him and even indicates that, once she wins against them, she'll bring him to a place where he can be healed, although by someone else ("I'd really rather our family physician look after Little Zuzu if you don't mind").

When she fights Katara she's pretty much out of it: she's having a crisis, angry, sad (about all of the previous events I've mentioned and more), desperate for love, affection, care and pretty much out of herself... and she doesn't even know who Katara is. Had she been her reasonable self or fighting against someone whom she knew and cared about, she would probably fight her to subdue her (although she would still be willing to kill them if necessary).

Tell me if I'm wrong, Nichya.

You are 100% correct about everything - especially about Ozai being an unpleasable cunt

[soopersara]

... okay, it looks like some assumptions are being made here, and I want to make something absolutely clear before anyone else tries to glom onto my post: I am a Zutara shipper. That's extremely obvious to anyone who's poked around my blog for more than five seconds, but... fine, I'm not going to blame anyone for reblogging a post from a tag on Tumblr without digging into the OP's post history first.

The ATLA fandom at large has a bad habit of dismissing any points that we, as Zutara shippers, make about the story and the characters (especially Zuko and Katara), no matter how little the points we're making have to do with our shipping preferences. I was careful to leave out romance as a motivating factor in Zuko's redemption here because a) I personally prefer a slow progression from enemies to friends to lovers, which usually translates to a romance that doesn't start until well after his redemption, and b) romance just wasn't important to the point I wanted to make. But I also tagged the post as #zutara because I do ship them, the points I was making about their platonic relationship does play into how I write their romance, and also... I just didn't feel like dealing with the part of the fandom that sees a Zutara shipper and immediately dismisses anything we might say as delusional. Most of them (in theory, at least) don't touch the Zutara tag or even have it blacklisted, so keeping things in the ship tag is usually a safe way to avoid harrassment.

I'm not going to say that people who don't ship Zutara are unwelcome on my blog or my posts, because I do sometimes talk about things that aren't the romantic relationship between Zuko and Katara. So does the rest of the Zutara fandom, and honestly, it would be nice if people could recognize that we can make good points even if we have different shipping opinions. But... if you're not a Zutara shipper, and you're rude about it, I will block you.

Recently, I've pondering Book 2 and 3 of ATLA, and I reached a conclusion that surprised me a little.

Specifically, this: Zuko would have been very unlikely to join Team Avatar if not for Katara.

Now I'm not saying that Zuko had a secret crush on her or anything. As much fun as that concept can be to explore in fics, I don't love the idea of Zuko's redemption being motivated by romantic interest, and his canonical arc is clearly driven by his own evolving understanding of the world and the morals that come along with that understanding. Still, if you cut out his interactions with Katara, especially in the crystal catacombs, I just don't see him ever taking that last step to turn against his father and join Team Avatar. He would have been discontented in the Fire Nation, sure. Spending a few years away from home with a guardian who genuinely cared about and protected him could easily push him that far all on its own. He might have become disillusioned enough with the Fire Nation and its role in the war to run away too. Zuko spent enough time in the Earth Kingdom, learning about the people and their suffering, to have doubts and regrets when he finally learned about Ozai's true plans.

But without Katara reaching out to him in the crystal catacombs (or more accurately, Zuko reaching out to sympathize with Katara, and Katara reciprocating), I'm not convinced that he would have considered his future or his place in the world enough to go farther than that. To leave and to join the enemy. And even if he had considered joining Team Avatar, I'm not convinced that he would have thought he had a chance of being accepted if he hadn't shared that moment in the crystal catacombs with Katara.

I mean... sure, Aang sort of reached out to Zuko way back in Book 1. But even leaving aside the fact that that was one moment several months before Zuko finally left home (and an offer that brief and that old is probably shaky at best), it wasn't an offer of friendship in quite the same way that Katara's kindness was. What Aang said to Zuko was:

You know what the worst part of being born over a hundred years ago is? I miss all the friends I used to hang out with. Before the war started, I used to always visit my friend Kuzon. The two of us, we'd get in and out of so much trouble together. He was one of the best friends I ever had, and he was from the Fire Nation, just like you. If we knew each other back then, do you think we could have been friends, too?

"If we knew each other back then, do you think we could have been friends, too?"

It's a hypothetical question. Aang is thinking back to a time before the war, to the people he knew in the Fire Nation an entire lifetime ago, and trying to imagine where Zuko might have fit into that time and those relationships. He doesn't reach out a hand to directly offer Zuko a friendship in the present (and frankly, it wouldn't make sense in the moment if he had), nor does he ever make another offer of friendship until after Zuko actually joins the team. Every encounter between Zuko and Aang from The Blue Spirit on through The Western Air Temple is either a) a fight, b) Aang sparing Zuko's life while Zuko is unconscious (and therefore unable to see the kind gesture and interpret it as an offer of friendship), c) unwilling cooperation against a common enemy, or d) ... That Face that Aang makes at Zuko after interrupting him and Katara in the crystal catacombs.

Maybe it's just me, but... none of those interactions exactly set up a strong foundation for a future friendship, or even a future alliance. If Aang's old "offer of friendship" was all Zuko had to go on, then joining Team Avatar would have been a long shot. An extremely long shot.

By contrast, Katara bares her heart to Zuko and, at least in the moment, makes it clear that her kindness is deliberate. They've fought against one another time after time, they've been unwilling allies in the fight against Azula, and they've had some... generally antagonistic face-to-face interactions as well. But even after all of that, Katara offers to heal Iroh with very little hesitation in The Chase, then offers compassion to Zuko himself in The Crossroads of Destiny. She openly shows Zuko that there's a chance for him, and even when he turns against her in CoD, her angry dialogue still reflects the fact that she thinks he can be better. That she wants and expects him to be better. "I thought you had changed" isn't just anger, it's also a sign that her trust and kindness in the catacombs was genuine.

It's a sign to Zuko that if he can become the person who Katara thought he was for those few minutes in the caverns beneath Ba Sing Se, he might be able to prove himself worthy of that same trust and kindness again. And once Zuko has finally had enough of living under his father's thumb, of sitting silent on the sidelines while the world burns around him, once he leaves his old life behind for good, it's the beacon that draws him onward into a new life and a new purpose.

I can't claim to know exactly what would have happened if Zuko had never shared those pre-redemption moments with Katara. I'm just one random fic writer in a quiet corner of the internet, but I don't think it's unreasonable to say that her kindness to him in Book 2 made his decision easier. Without Katara, Zuko still might have left the Fire Nation behind. He still might have told off his father and tried to rescue Iroh from prison during the eclipse, but that doesn't necessarily mean that his next step would have been to run off to the Western Air Temple and offer himself up as a teacher.

Without Katara, Zuko might have fallen into the cracks in between the Fire Nation and Team Avatar. He might have become a different type of dissenter - maybe a less obtrusive one, like Piandao or Jeong Jeong, or he might have fallen back into his vigilante persona. He might have gone searching for his mother while the war kept raging on the other side of the ocean, or he might have tried to settle down into the type of quiet life that Iroh wanted for them both in Ba Sing Se. But regardless of what choice Zuko would have made, I think it would have been much harder for him to choose Team Avatar if he hadn't had Katara's voice in the back of his mind, telling him that he could be better, and that if he was, he might have a place with her and her friends.

Ship them or not, Zuko and Katara had an incredible bond that shaped a lot of the show. And while I'm not exactly on Team 'Zuko had a secret crush on Katara from the beginning' because of what it can do to his character arc if it's not handled carefully, I think I just found myself squarely on Team 'Zuko changed because it was right, and Katara opened the door for everything that came after.'

[fakeikemen]

Katara's Grief

(This is my first attempt at a meta post and I know that this has probably been already done but I just needed to get it off my chest and go on a little rant and it kinda got long so bear with me.)

A lot of the hate on Katara stems from the fact that she keeps on mentioning her mother's death at every chance she gets and invalidates other people's pain to assert that her suffering is the worst of the lot.

And even though everybody is entitled to their own opinions, I'm gonna point out why I think the aforesaid claims are not exactly correct.

First we'll take a look at; Katara's Backstory:

We know that Kya is killed in a fire nation raid and that Katara had been the last person to see her alive before she leaves the tent on her mother's insistence. Only to come back a few moments later and find her dead body. This, in itself is a traumatising event.

So yes, her mother died. Other people in the story go through far worse. You're not wrong when you say that.

But what is more important in Katara's story is the aftermath of her mother's death.

As Sokka says while talking to Toph in "The Runaway" in B3 Ep7:

Sokka: When our mom died, that was the hardest time in my life. Our family was a mess, but Katara? She had so much strength. She stepped up and took on so much responsibility. She helped fill the void that was left by our mom.

As an eight year old, she had to force herself to grow up to step into her mother's shoes and raise herself and her elder brother and simultaneously look after the entire village after her father left to fight in the war. She had to do all of it by herself.

In face of all her responsibilities, she never really had the chance to simply be a grieving child lamenting the loss of her mother. She habituated herself to caring more about others than herself (We see this trait in the entire series as she acts as the stand-in mom friend for the entire Gaang with an exception of Suki and Zuko). She ended up bottling her feelings of grief, resentment, guilt and rage deep within herself.

She had to give up an extensive part of her childhood where most children focus on figuring themselves out, to become a mature and responsible person who was working as the immovable pillar holding up the family and even the whole village not much later.

She put up a strong front to help others and pretended to be fine even though she was hurting inside the whole time.

She could never find any closure from the situation. She never got over it.

Moving on to the criticisms:

1. Katara keeps on mentioning her mother like a broken record:

Here are the number of times Katara mentions her mother's death (not sure if that's all of it, lmk if there are any others):

1. In her first scene with Sokka

Katara: Ever since mom died, I've been doing all the work around camp while you've been off playing soldier!

2. A short while after she meets Aang

Katara: Well, I just want you to be prepared for what you might see. The Fire Nation is ruthless. They killed my mother, and they could have done the same to your people.

3. A short while after she meets Haru

Katara: I lost my mother in a Fire Nation raid. This necklace is all I have left of her.

4. A short while after she meets Jet

Katara: Sokka and I lost our mother to the Fire Nation.

5. In the swamp after she sees a vision of her mother

Katara: I thought I saw Mom.

6. In the Crystal Catacombs with Zuko

Katara: I don't? How dare you! You have no idea what this war has put me through! Me personally! The Fire Nation took my mother away from me.

7. A short while after she meets Hama

Katara: We completely understand. We lost our mother in a raid.

8. Repeated mentions in The Southern Raiders episode

(Most of the episode basically)

The first mention with Sokka is in the middle of a siblings' spat where she tells off Sokka for trying to act as if he were superior when it was obvious that in the face of the gaping hole that was left by Kya's sudden death, Katara had shouldered much more responsibility.

When she tells it to Aang, she uses it as a proof that the Fire Nation is capable of immense cruelty and destruction.

The Gaang travel all around the world and meet different people affected by the war in different ways. So when Haru, Jet and Hama narrate their own stories, Katara sympathises with them and talks about Kya's death in lieu of "I understand, the Fire Nation hurt me too."

After they got separated, Aang, Sokka and Katara each had their visions and after they get back together, they all mention their visions and so does Katara.

When left alone in catacombs with Zuko, whom she considered as the face of the Fire Nation— the same Fire Nation that had her mother killed and forced her father to leave to fight in the war, she has a meltdown where she rightfully accuses him of all the bad things he's done and then breaks down while talking about how the war has cost her i.e., by causing her mother's death.

The Southern Raiders is the episode where Katara hunts down the man responsible for her mother's death. If you think mentioning Kya repeatedly in this episode is uncalled for, then I don't know what to tell you.

In all the incidents mentioned above, Katara mentioning her mother's death is a very natural occurrence is the respective conversations. She mostly talks about Kya's death to either extend her sympathy or to use it as an example of the ruthlessness of the Fire Nation.

Another fact to be noted is that 70% of the Gaang's storyline is followed via Katara from a narrative point of view. Plus, being the mom-friend, she acts as the spokesperson. Considering that Kya's death is a major event that played a huge role in shaping Katara's life and is also the source of her severe, unresolved trauma, which acts as the driving force of her story, it is only natural that she brings up this topic whenever she is engaging in a deeper conversation.

It is us as the viewers who have seen her from the start and already know about her mother's death and we see her talking to multiple people about it. Which is why it might come across as repetitive to some people.

While, Kya's death is not necessary information that everyone needs to know, Katara talking about it never comes across as a forced or unnatural.

2. Katara invalidates others' pain because she thinks she has suffered the most:

First of all, if anything, Katara is the most empathetic person of them all. As the mom-friend of the group, not only is she their constant moral support, she also helps them untangle and sort out their own feelings. She is also able to tap into issues that aren't said out loud.

Instances of Katara helping and supporting Aang, emotionally are uncountable.

She is the first one to notice Sokka's sour mood in B3 Ep4 "Sokka's Master". And even though his insecurities seem baseless, she validates him (by saying "I'm sorry you're feeling so down" instead of something like "That's a dumb thing to say") and knows exactly what to do to cheer him up.

In B3 Ep7 "The Runaway" she has the insight to understand that Toph's unruly behaviour is caused by the mixed feelings she has about her parents even though Toph's herself never talked about it.

She even reaches out to Zuko in B2 Ep19 "Crossroads of Destiny" even though she used to think of him as the face of the enemy.

But then there's The Southern Raiders.

Ah yes, that episode where Katara is extremely OOC and a total b*tch.

Agreed that she said some things that she definitely shouldn't have said. But like, she's just 14?? And has been hurting on the inside since she was 8?? And pretended to be fine just for the sake of other people?? Like, there's a limit to how much she can have her shit under control?? And she did a real good job of Sokka's upbringing and taking care of the village and taking care of Gaang on her own?? Some people out there are really willing to forget everything she has ever done just because she was mean for 5 minutes?? A traumatised 14 yo shouldn't be villianised and called toxic because she got mad and lashed out at people that one time??

But here's my take on the scene anyway:

When Aang gets to know that she's going to go face her mother's killer:

Aang: Um ... and what exactly do you think this will accomplish?

Katara: I knew you wouldn't understand. 

Aang is a non-confrontational person who prefers running away from difficult situations as opposed to Katara who firmly stands her ground and is never afraid of confrontations. Katara had approached Aang only hoping that he would understand. But going by his dismissal, he obviously doesn't understand the burning need that she has to confront the man who had single-handedly destroyed her childhood. (Most people infer that what Katara means is that she thinks that Aang doesn't understand the pain of losing people. And so does Aang, I guess)

But things start getting even more tricky when:

Aang: Katara, you sound like Jet.

In all honesty, this is probably the most insensitive thing that she could've heard from anyone right then, let alone one of her closest friends. Hearing herself being compared to a homicidal maniac just because she wants to avenge her mother's killer. (No, I'm not justifying murder but there's a clear difference between homicide and avenging someone's death. And Aang may not be my favourite character but I do love him but this wasn't really a good thing to say either. And he wasn't even mentally distressed in the very least to be completely lacking tact or a filter.)

And then the situation escalates:

Sokka: Katara, she was my mother, too, but I think Aang might be right.

Katara: Then you didn't love her the way I did!

After 6 long years of Katara bottling in her dark feelings and letting them fester inside herself, she is finally letting them out and the first things she faces in a span of few minutes are outright rejection, invalidation of her feelings, comparison to a homicidal maniac and nothing akin to the unconditional support that she has provided to everybody. Her own brother tells her that he is siding with the boy who just compared her to a homicidal maniac.

Yes, accusing your own brother of not loving your mother enough is a very cruel thing to do. But both Sokka and Katara know that she doesn't entirely mean it.

But also, there is one very important factor in here:

In B3 Ep7 "The Runaway", Sokka says to Toph:

Sokka: I'm gonna tell you something crazy. I never told anyone this before, but honestly? I'm not sure I can remember what my mother looked like. It really seems like my whole life, Katara's been the one looking out for me. She's always been the one that's there. And now, when I try to remember my mom, Katara's is the only face I can picture. 

Katara overhears this conversation just as Sokka had meant her to.

This dialogue lets us know that Sokka's coping mechanism has made him suppress all memories of Kya and replace them with memories of Katara in order to attain a semblance of normalcy.

Both Katara and Sokka had very different ways of coping with Kya's death. Katara pressed down her feelings and tried her best to pretend to ignore them while Sokka partially succeeded in forgetting her.

When Katara first hears these words she is shown to be crying. But if she were to remember these very words while she was justifying herself infront of her own brother and a close friend for wanting to avenge her mother, it would've had a negative impact on her.

In her rage, she would've thought: "Of course he doesn't want to avenge mom. Because he doesn't think it's worth it and that's because he doesn't even remember enough of her to be mad about her death."

And for someone who has spent each day of the last 6 years trying to fill in the shoes of her mother and experiencing her absence everyday, the idea of forgetting her mother is a ridiculous concept to her.

Her thoughts would have quickly derailed to: "He didn't love her enough to remember her."

In light of these thoughts, saying "Then you didn't love her the way I did" doesn't feel out of the blue.

No, I am definitely not justifying what she said, I'm just laying out a possible explanation to why she said what she said.

Yes, she should've apologized to Sokka for this and I think that they definitely should've had a long conversation about their mother's death and how it affected them. Between Katara supressing her feelings and Sokka supressing his memories, i don't think they ever had this conversation.

But sadly we are given neither of these scenes.

Tl;dr: Everytime Katara mentions her mother, it's with good reason and I don't think it's fair to call a character toxic when they lack a mind to mouth filter for 5 minutes and say some mean things. And considering all that Katara has done for everybody, it isn't fair at all.

Peace out!

[passable-talent]

OMG is it too much to ask for a continuation of the last person's ask request ? Like I loved it so much but was heartbroken at the angst ending. Could you like do where the reader has to adjust to him being there and they work through there feelings them eventually falling hard for zuko as they did for Lee and Zuko tries his best to make things right them and whether or not it works is up to you I'm down for a surprise will they/won't they?

I’m going to... scream

someone, you my friend, loved my fic SO MUCH you want a continuation??????

I owe u my life thank you so much 💕💕💕💕

side bar I watched The Western Air Temple to get the true 👌🏻👌🏻 canon compliance of this ask and I am like, not okay. i would give my life for Zuko and the episode is SUCH a rollercoaster and a masterpiece of the group’s collective opinions of Zuko, I could go off but I’m not gonna. mostly? 18 y/o me cannot handle the resurgence of 6 y/o me that just crushes on Zuko like crazy

this is gonna be another long one because I actually really like this storyline? also ya boi is a sucker for angst

continuation of this post

You’d stalked back into the temple, finding an empty room to sulk in, anger and sadness and betrayal and all sorts of upset wrestling in your heart. You thumped your back against the wall, scowling, and reached up to wipe a tear you weren’t aware had fallen, forcefully, as though you were angry at it.

Maybe you were.

Zuko had betrayed you. He had been given the choice, and he chose poorly. He had no excuse for that. You could’ve even understood if he’d regretted it immediately, but he hadn’t! He had stayed in the fire nation for months!

What had changed? What had rocked his life so deeply that he’d come to the avatar? Was he being honest, or was it a trap? You wouldn’t put a trap past him, not after all of his past treachery.

Though you didn’t want to see him, you did want to know what was going on, in case there was a fight and you needed to intervene. It was as good a time as ever, you decided, to practice seismic senses. You weren’t quite good at it yet, and not nearly as good as Toph, but you’d been learning.

Pushing off of the wall with a motion still angry, you took a step forward and kneeled, settling both knees onto the floor. Already you closed your eyes, regulating your breathing as though deep in meditation.

The touch of your fingertips to the stone floor was light, at first, feathery, but slowly you moved your hands forward and laid the palm down. You stilled, your body not moving even a bit, and slowly a scene began to take form. It wasn’t a picture, and you couldn’t see it exactly, it was like the way that your fingers could find your nose even when your eyes were closed. You just knew, as though the ground itself was an extension of your body.

You could sense Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph, standing together and facing Zuko. You couldn’t quite understand his movements, but you knew they were frantic, whereas Team Avatar stood ready in stances prepared to fight.

The image went fuzzy as your heartbeat sped up, and by the time you could get it to clear up again enough to make sense of it, Zuko was gone. You stood up, and walked back out to the rest of the group, fists clenched at your side.

“So you kicked him out, huh?”

“We had to!” Katara said, a snarl in her voice. “He’s-“

“Don’t defend yourself to me,” you interrupted, “I probably would’ve done something worse.” There was a pause, in which you followed their lead to grab your sleeping bundle from Appa’s saddle. “And even if I hadn’t, my voice will only confuse our decision. I’m not even sure what I think of him, but I know I’m angry.”

“We can’t trust him,” Katara said, and you dropped your bundle so you could use it as a seat.

“I kind of have a confession to make,” Aang said, and the night only got weirder from there.

When Toph came back, you weren’t surprised she’d been burnt. And you weren’t surprised when Combustion Man resurfaced, too. You had the forethought to throw a rock shield from rubble in front of your friends, but very quickly Aang and Katara’s attempts at fighting back made the five of you realize you needed to find an even better place to hide.

What did surprise you was that Zuko swooped in, to try to stop the assassin. Despite everything about yourself, despite everything he’d done, you felt cold dread grip your heart when he was thrown back over the edge of the temple, and may have even tried to save him if it weren’t for Combustion Man’s constant explosions.

But Sokka did what Sokka did best, and soon the assassin was gone, leaving behind a clear view of the fire prince climbing a vine back up to safety.

“Oh. Zuko made it,” you said, your tone halfway between relief and annoyance.

His speech to Aang was everything you expected to hear, and it seemed as though he’d earned Aang’s forgiveness. Your heart still racing, you listened, to Aang’s words. You didn’t dare look at Zuko, and so stood beside Katara, staring at the ground by her feet. You tried to let anger be your shield, because Zuko’s presence made you remember all to easily how much you cared for him, even if it was a different part of him, under a different name.

“Now I know you understand how easy it is to hurt the people you love.” The sentence made you lift your head, and for the first time you let your gaze slide to Zuko. You caught his eye, just for a moment, as though the sentence had had the same effect on him. But he brought his focus back to Aang, to be told that he needed permission from all members of Team Avatar. Toph and Sokka’s answers were affirmative, and you knew yours would be the same- but that didn’t mean that you had to go easy on him.

“Y/N?” Aang asked, and you raised your chin, though still your gaze was on the floor, unfolding your arms from your chest.

“There’s good in him,” you started, and you raised your gaze finally to Aang. “I’ve seen it. And if you think that this is proof that he can let it-“ you slid your eyes to Zuko, a soft glare making up your expression. “-guide his actions,” you looked back to Aang with a small nod, “then I’m okay with it.” You didn’t dare look back at Zuko, you didn’t want to know his reaction. But mostly, you didn’t want to see his face, remind yourself how much you still cared for him.

It was easy, you decided as you laid in bed that night, to hate him when he wasn’t in front of you. It was easy to be angry and talk of how you’d hurt him when you couldn’t see him, hear his voice. But now that he was here, and you’d watched him fight, you knew that that wasn’t the truth of it. You still cared for him. Lee hadn’t been washed away in Ba Sing Se- the aspects of Zuko’s personality that Lee was made of were still there, and very much alive. You saw it in the small smile he’d let himself crack when you glanced back as Team Avatar walked away from him.

The boy you’d almost fallen in love with was very much alive. And though he’d betrayed you, he’d hurt you, he’d betrayed and hurt the people you cared about- it didn’t stop you from wanting to love him again.

“Y/N?” came Zuko’s voice from just outside your door, and your first response was to earthbend a slab from the floor that sealed the door shut. “I know you’re angry, please, just let me in so that I can talk. You don’t need to listen, or look at me, I just want to say things to you. I need to.” Despite yourself, you wanted to hear what he had to say, and so you uncurled just enough to pull your slab through the door, though you didn’t move it far enough to allow him to enter the room.

Reaching down to press your palm to the floor, you used seismic sense to make out that he’d sat down on the other side of the slab.

“Thank you,” were his first words, and you assumed that he meant for moving the slab. You were wrong. “-for saying that about me. You, I feel like I’ve hurt you the most. I know that that’s selfish, or- or ignorant, because I’ve done terrible things to Aang and Sokka and Katara, but-“ he sighed, and you heard what you thought was an impact between palm and forehead.

“But when I did those things to them, I didn’t care about them. I cared about you.” Though you couldn’t see him, through your little wall of rock, his words made you turn, rolling over to face where his body was.

“I cared about you a lot, and still I let Azula-“ once again he cut himself off. “You deserve a proper explanation, Y/N, even if it isn’t a good one.”

“My mom always treated me differently than my sister, I know that. My father did too, but in a different way. He didn’t- he wanted nothing to do with me. I was his eldest, his son, and he didn’t seem to like me at all. He was the one that gave me my scar, you know.” His next sentence was lost on you as you sat up, anger hot as lightning coursing through your veins.

You knew that scar had come from a firebender. But between Ba Sing Se and this moment, you’d been so caught up in your anger that you never stopped to realize that Zuko was a firebender too, and so a firebender must’ve hurt another firebender, and who would’ve done that? His father, the fire lord? If Aang didn’t take him down, you decided that you would.

“I spent years blindly searching for the avatar, not letting anything get in my way. I was so cruel. To Katara and Sokka, to Toph and Aang, I was so cruel because I just wanted to go home. I wanted to earn my honor, but moreso I just wanted to show my father that I could do what he asked.” You heard a tremor in his voice.

“And I was so blind, it made me ignore how important my uncle was to me. I see it now- and I think back on his face right after I betrayed him, and I just feel so ashamed.” He paused, leveling his voice before he said his next words.

“I think about how you looked. When Azula said that you were my enemy, too. I know it’s no excuse, but she’s so manipulative, she’s such a-“ There was quiet as he let out a breath.

“I don’t regret spending my time in Ba Sing Se with you. But I do regret how it ended. You have every reason to be angry with me, you’re right to be. I’m so sorry, Y/N.” You thought, for a moment, that he was done, but still he didn’t move.

“When I went back to the fire nation, I fell back in with an old girlfriend I’d had before I was banished. But it felt wrong. It felt like- like I was just with her to try to regain my life from before, but I wasn’t that person anymore. I wrote her a letter, but I didn’t know what to say, and...” Zuko paused, and sighed. You wondered, with a bit of bitterness, why he would tell you about a girlfriend he’d had between the last time the two of you saw each other. Wasn’t he just giving you more reason to be angry with him?

“I’ll never have enough words to tell you how sorry I am. And I know I don’t deserve a second chance from you. I deserve nothing but hatred and- and anger and everything you can throw at me, because I asked for it when I turned against you.” You stared at your slab, and wondered how long it would be before your eyes bore holes straight through it.

“Just... just know that I’m sorry, and I- I’m never going to treat you like that again.” He took a deep breath, as though meditating, or summoning his courage. “Know that I’ve thought about you almost every day. About that time you spilled tea on me and tried to pay for a replacement shirt, and-“ he tapered off, and let out the rest of his breath. “You’re probably asleep.” He was silent, for a moment, as he reached up to press his hand onto the rock keeping him from you.

“Goodnight, Y/N.” You heard him stand up and walk away.

You remembered the night he was talking about. Mushi- Iroh- had let you stay past when the shop closed, before you worked there. Zuko had sat down across from you and closed your textbook whenever you tried to read, and finally you’d gotten frustrated and put it away. You’d tried to put your feet up, but instead kneed the table, and sent his cup rolling, spilling his tea onto his shirt.

Looking back on it, it made sense why the heat of the tea didn’t bother him. He was a firebender, after all.

The part that he’d failed to mention tonight was how he’d walked to a back room to get another shirt, as you followed, insisting on paying for the ‘damages’. But the words had caught in your throat when he took off his shirt because wow, and that was all you could really fathom yourself to think, and you’d stuttered, and he’d just laughed before putting another shirt on.

You wondered, now, if things would have turned out differently if you had kissed him that night, instead of pulling away. Had you called him boyfriend, would he have been so quick to betray you?

Laying down slowly, you reached out to press your palm to the ground again. It took you a moment to get a clear seismic understanding, as your heart was pounding and your breath shaking, but you could sense him in the room he’d taken up as his own. You pulled your hand to your chest, losing the image, and closed your eyes.

Your throat burned the next morning.

ok this bitch got LONG AS FUCK so stay tuned for a pt 3 probably tomorrow

edit: | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 | part 8 |

-🦌 Roe