#like zuko is DYING over here

[melzula]

zuko confiding in sokka to be his wingman to try to get together with you?

a/n: sokka sharing his back bending skills with zuko we love to see it. also this takes place post-war

summary: Zuko isn’t sure how to tell you he likes you, so he looks to Sokka for guidance

Zuko watches longingly from across the room as you dance with Katara and enjoy the night’s festivities. Your eyes sparkle with joy and your smile is so infectious it has everyone around you beaming. Everyone seems to want your attention, and so he hadn’t been able to speak to you much since the party began, but he desperately wants to be near you.

“You know you look like a total creep when you stand in the corner and stare, right?” Sokka notes, interrupting Zuko’s sulking.

“I’m not staring!” The Fire Lord says defensively, but he knows he’s not fooling anyone.

“Come on, buddy, it’s a party! Lighten up! Go mingle!”

“I don’t want to mingle,” Zuko grumbles indignantly, “I just want to talk to y/n.”

“Then go talk to her!” Sokka encourages as if it’s the most easiest thing in the world. “It’s not like you haven’t talked to her before. She’s our friend!”

“I know that,” the boy bites irritably. Deflating, he sighs, “But it’s different this time.”

“What do you mean?” Sokka says, his demeanor morphing into that of a more serious tone.

“I… I think I have feelings for her.”

“You what?!” Sokka exclaims, earning a few puzzled stares from nearby partygoers. Zuko sends his friend a harsh look and urges him to be quiet.

“I know, I know. What am I thinking? She’s perfect, she’d never go for someone like me,” he admits in quiet defeat. “It’s stupid of me to feel this way.”

“What? No way, that’s not true,” his friend insists encouragingly. “You’re a great guy! You just need to work on your romance game.”

“My what?” Zuko retorts skeptically.

“Your romance game! Look, if you want y/n to like you then you have to work your charm.”

“I don’t have any charm to work.”

“Sure you do, it’s easy! Take it from your old buddy Sokka, the ladies love me. Just follow my advice and by the end of the night y/n will be dying for you to ask her out!”

Zuko is skeptical of his friend’s words and hesitant to take Sokka’s offer of help, but he knows he’s hopeless on his own and there aren’t many other options. With a relenting sigh, Zuko gives his friend an agreeing nod.

“What should I do first?”

“Just follow my lead,” the boy says with a wink before loudly calling you and his sister over. Zuko does his best to mask his embarrassment and puts on his best attempt of a smile as you and Katara saunter over arm-in-arm.

“Hi, guys!” You greet cheerily. “King Kue really knows how to throw a party, doesn’t he?”

“He sure does! Say, that’s a really nice dress,” Sokka compliments before harshly elbowing Zuko’s side. “Don’t you agree, Zuko?”

“Uh, yes, it is,” he stammers nervously, his face immediately turning red. “You look very beautiful.”

“Thank you,” you reply with a bashful smile. “You don’t think it’s too much?”

“Not at all,” he says earnestly. “You could never be too much.”

“You know, y/n, Zuko here was just telling me how much he wants to dance,” your friend informs you much to the Fire Lord’s dismay.

“What?! That’s not-“

“Oh, well, would you like to dance with me, Zuko?” You ask with a careful smile, delicately holding your hand out for him to take. His protests immediately die in his throat as he takes in your gentle features, the world almost seeming to come to a halt as he focuses on you before him. Your beauty almost physically pains him, and he wished he knew how to tell you this without coming off like a total creep.

Zuko hesitates before taking your hand, knowing that whatever happens next could alter your friendship forever, but the idea of physical touch is almost too tempting, and so he gently grabs hold of your hand and guides you back to the dance floor.

The musicians play a melody of traditional Earth Kingdom waltzes, and despite knowing nothing about dancing Zuko does his best to match your pace. His hands are suffocatingly warm against your skin, but you never once complain. You say nothing when he steps on your toes repeatedly or gets caught on your dress, and in spite of how awkward you both look compared to the other couples on the floor you seem to be having the most fun out of them all.

“You’re doing wonderful,” you encourage, giggling when he missteps and nearly trips over his own feet.

“I’m awful at this,” he argues exasperatedly. “I’m sorry you got stuck with such a lousy dance partner.”

“I don’t care about how good you can dance. I’m just happy you’re dancing with me,” you admit, looking away bashfully to hide your smile. “I haven’t really been able to speak to you much tonight, so I appreciate being with you now.”

Over your shoulder, Zuko spots Sokka from across the way. The water tribe boy waves his arms frantically and gestures for Zuko to make his move. The Fire Lord simply scowls before swallowing down his nerves and looking back to you.

“Y/n,” he calls faintly, gently guiding your face to look back up at him. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you all night, but it’s been hard. You’re so full of life, you draw people in with just your smile, and so I didn’t think I’d get the chance to finally be alone with you and tell you that- well, that I have feelings for you. I want to be the one that makes you smile, the one that dances with you at every party.”

“Zuko,” you murmur softly, taken aback by his confession. He takes your surprise as rejection and looks down with a dejected smile.

“I know, we’re friends. It’s strange of me to think we could be more, but I just needed to tell you.”

“No, that’s not it,” you quickly correct him, “I-I’m just surprised because I didn’t think you felt the same way I did.”

"You mean… you like me back?” Zuko asks in disbelief.

“Of course I do! What’s not to like?” You tease with a smile. “All night I was hoping you’d come up to me, and even though Katara said I should be the one to make the first move I was too scared to try. I’m glad you told me because I feel the same.”

You feel as if your heart could burst when he carefully tilts your chin up to meet your lips in a kiss. Ever since he joined your group you’d wanted nothing more than for him to see you as you saw him, and after months of what you thought was one-sided pining it seems Zuko has felt the same way about you all along. It took some time for things to come out in the open, but now that they are you couldn’t be any happier.

And unbeknownst to either of you, Katara and Sokka share high-fives behind your back in celebration of their successful plan.

| zuko tags: @ilovespideyyy @yiyibetch @eridanuswave @lammello @a-monsters-love @taeeemin @livelaughlovekuni @lovialy

| atla tags: @sirkekselord @niktwazny303

[imagines--galore]

||Theatrics||

Summary: During a little impromptu training session, you happen to sprain your ankle. Luckily Zuko is around to help you back to Katara so she can help. Unfortunately for Zuko, you have a tendency to be slightly dramatic about your injuries.

Pairing: Zuko x Reader

Rating || Genres || Warnings: T. Romance. Fluff. Slight mention of injury but that about it.

A/N: You guys voted, so here it is! Also gif is definitely Zuko’s reactions to reader’s.....theatrics :3

"I’m dying!”

“You’re not dying Y/n.”

“Then why is the world growing dark!?”

“You probably have your eyes closed.”

"I do not need your sass while I am dying Zuko!”

“Well maybe you should shut up before I drop your dying butt.”

Smack.

“Ow!”

“Rude Zuko!”

“Thats it! You can crawl back for all I care.”

“No! Wait! Zuko! Wait!! I’ll be quiet.”

“One more word out of you, and I won’t carry you back.”

Katara looked up from where she had been mending Sokka’s shirt, again. There was no one in sight yet Zuko and Y/n’s voices were loud enough to echo along the path leading up to the main courtyard of the Ember Island Summer House. She stood, dropping her sewing to side as she quickly made her way towards the door and peered outside.

It took a minute or so, but then she saw the approaching figure of Zuko with.......you on his back. An amused smile played across the young waterbender’s lips as she watched the Fire Nation prince approach with you slung over his back, your arms wrapped around his shoulders to keep yourself in place.

“Katara! Oh! Now I won’t perish! Or perhaps I will? The pain is too much.” You moaned, throwing your head back for dramatic effect, the force of which nearly made Zuko stumble in his steps. Katara giggled as Zuko huffed in annoyance.

“She twisted her ankle.” He explained as he carried you into the courtyard with Katara trailing behind.

“And who’s fault is that? If you hadn’t startled me during my practice then I wouldn’t have twisted it.” You snapped back. Clearly the pain was making you more then a little cranky.

Zuko rolled his eyes, turning around and dropping you, rather unceremoniously onto the wooden platform that led to the rooms. You gave a little yelp, glaring at the Prince who smirked back as you rubbed your tailbone a little. Katara, ever the kind soul, carefully removed your shoe. You let out a soft hiss as the leather was slipped off.

Removing the cork from her water pouch, Katara made quick work of assessing the damage. “Well you definitely twisted it. I’ll try to heal it as much as I can, but it’ll be a little while before you’re able to walk on it properly. Probably a day or two.” You turned to glare at Zuko who rolled his eyes. “I’ve blasted you off the side of a flying bison Y/n. I don’t see you holding a grudge about that against me.” He said, referring to the days when he had spent chasing Aang and the rest of them.

“Yeah, well I got my revenge when I knocked you out with a blow to the back of your head.” As Katara started her healing process you held up a threatening finger in his direction. “You better watch out Princey, I will have my revenge.”

Zuko smirked. “What will you do? Hobble after me waving a crutch?” You growled under your breath, looking like you would leap at him at any moment. And if your ankle wasn’t throbbing so much you would have.

“Now now children. Lets not fight.” Katara said in a mocking tone as she tried to contain her laughter. You let out a small sound of relief as some of the throbbing was alleviated as Katara worked her healing abilities. “You’re a spirit-send Katara.” You said, gratitude shining in your eyes as you grinned at the girl.

Zuko frowned. “What am I? An ostrich-horse? I carried you back and you don’t call me a spirit-send.” You turned your attention back towards him, an annoyed frown creasing your forehead. “And who’s fault was it that you had to carry me back?”

“Don’t be so dramatic.”

“I am a performer, I’m supposed to be dramatic.”

“Over dramatic you mean.”

“Need I remind you, the acting company I worked for won awards for being one of the best in the Earth Kingdom.”

“Probably when you weren’t working for them.”

“As if your dramatic self is any better? Out of all of us, who’s the one moaning about his so-called honor all the time?”

“That was in the past.”

“The past was only a couple months ago, Princey.”

“Shut it Drama Queen.”

“Ah! At least I’m a rank above you, you fire-breathing-”

“Er.....guys?”

You and Zuko broke eye-contact to glare at the poor unsuspecting Avatar who had just arrived from the market with Sokka, Suki and Toph from an errand run.

“What?” The two of you snapped in unison, prompting Aang to let out a nervous laugh and slowly back off, holding his hands up in a surrendering manner.

Taking the lull in the argument, Katara quickly finished bandaging up your ankle and patted it in a reassuring manner. “There, you’ll be all better tomorrow.” You gave a small smile in thanks to the girl before gripping the sides of the wooden platform and slowly starting to stand. You tried putting some weight on your bad ankle, only to wince at the pain that radiated from there. It was much better then what it had been a few moments ago, but it still hurt.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I shall be retiring to my room.” With a haughty look in Zuko’s direction, you turned towards where you room was.

"Isn’t our room upstairs Y/n?”Toph helpfully reminded you, causing you to pause from hobbling forward. Your face fell, shoulders slumping, causing Sokka to let out a bark of laughter, only to shut up when Suki gave his shoulder a light punch.

“Hey Aang? Can Appa drop me into my room through the window?” You asked, turning to the younger boy with a pleading look. Before Aang could reply, Zuko let out a loud groan, throwing his head back to stare at the sky as he growled.

"For the love of Spirits!”

With that he stomped forward, and before you even got the chance to say anything, he had lifted you off the ground, one arm secured around your waist, the other under your knees to keep you from falling. Meanwhile, you had let out a shriek of surprise, your arms coming to wrap around his shoulders.

“If we want to defeat the Father Lord, you’d better start laying off from the FireFlakes.” He grumbled as he began to carry you towards the stairs.

“Its Fire Lord, and are you insinuating that I am fat?!”

“I said that! And I’m not insinuating, I’m stating a fact.”

Thwack!

“Ow! Will you stop hitting me?!”

“Then stop being so rude. I thought Prince’s were all about manners and chivalry when it comes to ladies.”

“Lady? You? Please! Toph is much more of a lady then you are.”

Thwack!

“You hit me one more time and I’ll drop you on these stairs.”

“Do it! I’d rather crawl up then be carried by you anyway!”

“Ungrateful brat!”

“Pouty prince!”

“Drama queen!”

“Honor bound jerk!”

Your voices started to muffle to the rest of the group as the two of you walked further into the house. The younger members of the group stood where they were, a little dumbfounded at what had just occurred.

“I bet you anything these two are gonna be even worse with their flirting when they get married.”

Sokka gaped at Toph, who stood there smirking.

“That was flirting?!” He exclaimed, prompting his girlfriend to roll her eyes at her boyfriend, smiling at how oblivious Sokka could be. Aang blinked his wide grey eyes. “You know, now that I think about it, whenever we fought Zuko in the past, Y/n always had something to say to him.”

“And he always said something back.” Katara added, the laughter obvious in her tone as she continued to listen to the muffled arguing through the wooden floor above.

[sirenalpha]

I'm seeing so much commentary on people reacting to the live action atla toning down Sokka's misogyny

and I'm over here like this is a total non-issue because in my own rewrite of the show I already did that exact thing, it makes complete sense to do it and they should do it because it's a weaker aspect of the original show

Sokka's early misogyny is utterly cartoonish in comparison to the set up of the rest of the SWT, it doesn't feel realistic for the only teenaged boy in a dying culture surrounded by adult women with a grandmother who left a more out and out misogynist society to act the way he does

how Sokka "resolves" his misogyny is equally cartoonish, I never liked how in The Warriors of Kyoshi literally episode 4 of the show makes a teen girl compromise her own culture with a female only fighting tradition teach a boy who is supremely rude and disrespectful to her and then still be attracted to him afterwards, it's more misogyny to fix misogyny and is very obviously men writing about how to fix misogyny especially as they have Aang make a joke about Sokka wearing a dress after going through how meaningful the fighting costume is and how a lot of Asian clothing with hanfu influences like atla borrows from would have men in what to western eyes would be dresses, Aang has already seen multiple male authority figures in robes, the joke makes no sense

I also wouldn't consider Sokka's misogyny genuinely resolved after this, consider how the show deals with his romantic relationships with both Yue and Suki and how both can be seen as extensions of how Kataang is treated in the show, rewards for the hero, especially with how Sokka interacts aggressively with Hahn instead of respecting Yue's wishes whatever her reasons for them, I think an argument can be made that Yue's death is a fridging for Sokka's storyline rather than or in combination with being a consequence of Aang's failure as an avatar or the culmination of her own storyline where she fulfills her duties as a leader to protect her own people

Beyond his romantic relationships, while Sokka drops a lot of his more misogynistic language with Katara, he doesn't support her when she faces off with the NWT leaders to learn waterbending, and he still leaves the caretaking and food preparation and grocery shopping to her which is more common than him going out to hunt or gather in order to provide for the group while he takes a leadership role like determining their travel schedule and routes, it is not an even division of labor and falls along traditional sex stereotypes

In addition to his typical duties to the group, Sokka also remains invested in the trappings of masculinity after ep4, he's concerned about what's manly and how he compares to Jet for example, there's no investigation or interrogation in his interest in meat and hunting and how they relate to masculinity and his misogyny, in the episode with Piando, his insecurity as a non-bender is resolved by giving him a new male mentor and a new martial skill, sword fighting, which is masculine in both western and Asian cultures rather than assuaging his self esteem issues in any less stereotypically masculine ways, I also think it was done so he could compare more favorably to Zuko, another male character, and even his interest in engineering and mechanics comes with a male mentor and is a traditionally masculine pursuit

the show's poor handling of misogyny also extends beyond Sokka, with the NWT, the show acts as if Pakku is the only reason the tribe is misogynistic and the only consequences to that misogyny is that women can't waterbend and there are arranged marriages, and that both the NWT and Pakku's misogyny is resolved by allowing only Katara to learn to waterbend which she doesn't even earn on her own merits, she gets the opportunity because Pakku likes her grandmother

none of this is realistic, misogyny is not because of one bad apple, Pakku doesn't make Yue's arranged marriage, Chief Arnook does, he picked Hahn for her, and the show acts as if Arnook has no authority to compel Pakku to teach Katara or any ability to persuade him in order to reduce his culpability in the NWT's misogyny as its leader to make him a more respectable character so it's not uncomfortable when Aang and Sokka follow his orders in the battle later on, but women not being able to bend and forced into arranged marriages is still status quo when the gaang leaves, Yue's just dead

I'm not even convinced the show runners understand what's wrong with arranged marriage, the issue is not Yue can't be with Sokka who she likes and at most has a slight crush on cuz she's only known him for like two days, it's that she's being treated as male property, a broodmare, and a vehicle to ensure Hahn receives the throne because her father has no male heir and picked some guy to succeed him instead, like it's not explicit in the show but that is the implication based on the historical reality of princesses in arranged marriages, and the show has her get out of it only through death idc that she ascends to being a spirit, it's still a teen girl that dies

There's also no discussion by the show of the Earth Kingdom's misogyny when it has the exact same shit going on, Toph is the only female earthbender in the show not including avatars, there might have been a female earthbender in the background when Katara broke them out of prison, but I'm not really counting that, the entire army and Dai Li are all made up of men, the EK might even be worse because the show doesn't demonstrate that women and girls even have the capacity to earthbend aside from Toph and avatars and Toph doesn't even learn from a human, she has to learn from animals, the show treats this as commentary on her disability but the show has no compelling reason why it can't also be commentary on her sex, Toph was also originally supposed to be a boy so this could have ended up so much worse there literally would have been no female earthbenders aside from avatars at all, I'm not counting Oma as she might just be a mythological figure not a real person that once lived

The Fire Nation kinda barely avoids the same issue, Azula is the only named female firebender aside from avatars in the show but she has two female sidekicks who despite being non-benders show martial skill and there are clearly female soldiers and guards in the FN military so there are much stronger implications of female firebenders existing and being completely allowed to train their abilities and that Azula isn't exceptional in that respect like Toph is, only for being a prodigy with blue fire

Azula was also originally supposed to have an arranged marriage in s3 and they dropped it in favor of showing that royal and noble girls could casually date in the FN which has wild implications for women's empowerment in the country more so than but especially in combination with the fact women can train and join the military (which is why I say the FN is not fascist it's literally the least misogynistic country aside from Kyoshi and by like a country mile so it's literally not misogynistic enough) not that the show does anything more than minor teen drama with it

again, the vast majority of this misogyny is completely unremarked upon by the show especially after s1 when they leave the NWT, it is clearly a fictional world made by men with no true understanding of misogyny just a vague awareness that misogyny is bad and what the really obvious and outdated examples of it are, this is a narrative inconsistency in the show to have the examples and commentary on misogyny be so cartoonish in the beginning and then disappear after s1

your options to resolve this inconsistency is to either go all in with more realistic misogyny and provide commentary on all of it but this takes effort and will be divisive, or take the easier route and ease off the cartoonish-ness of it and comment less on it to avoid drawing attention to all instances of misogyny in the show

obviously Netflix was gonna do the latter

(not me tho, I'm making it less cartoony and dealing with it in my rewrite)

[zukosdualdao]

the moon will sing a song for me (i loved you like the sun)

zutara month, day seven: divine intervention, @zutaramonth.

summary: when zuko takes the lightning aimed for katara, it takes a little more than her usual healing to get him back from the brink. feat. yue's words of encouragement and empowering influence on katara, medically necessary bloodbending, and a zuko who is too out of it to understand much of what is going on, but that's okay. katara has him.

content warnings: general references to violence and wounds, nothing more explicit than the show.

notes: title is from "the moon will sing" by the crane wives. yes i do too many lyric titles. no i will not stop <3. idk when sozin's comet officially ended but for fic purposes we are imagining the timing makes sense for the moon to be out after the agni kai. two pieces of dialogue were taken from the show.

Zuko groans as he's being turned over. His bones feel like liquid, his skin set alight, his heart like a crater in his chest.

Katara, he thinks, he tries to say, he doesn't know.

Katara looks at him with a worried expression, her lips turned in a frown, her eyes wide with fear and sadness as she presses a watery hand to his crumpled, prone form.

She is worried but alive. She is alive, and if she is here, then she must have defeated Azula.

Katara is alive. That is what counts. This was his destiny, then. To save her.

It wasn't a bad note to end on.

Zuko closes his eyes. There's a hammering thud in his chest. He is so tired. Normally, he'd associate the feel of it with exertion, or else desperation, and he would feel frantic. But he is so tired. He has been so tired.

"No," he thinks he hears Katara say. It sounds like she's underwater, or perhaps he is. "No, Zuko, don't you dare."

He struggles to open his eyes again because he doesn't want her to sound so angry with him and doesn't want her to be sad. It only feels like a moment has passed, or maybe it has been hours.

She is looking up. Pale, yellow light shadows her.

Katara is speaking with the moon.

The moon is also a girl.

Someone told him a story like that once.

A spirit, he thinks a little redundantly, with white tresses of hair and a glowy form and a gentle smile. The moon spirit?

Zuko jerks, a spasm of his body as he lights up again with the pain, and Katara looks back to him, alarmed.

"—but you know another way," the moon-girl insists softly to Katara, whom Zuko looks at as her mouth sets in a thin, determined line. Unless he's imagining it all, which is possible. "And I am here with you now."

After a moment's hesitation, Katara nods and sets her left, water-encased hand against his chest again and raises her other in a motion he faintly recognizes.

"This is going to hurt," she says warningly, sadly. "But it will help. I think. It has to." She shakes her head, torn.

Zuko doesn't know what's going on, but if Katara says it will help, that's all that really matters.

"I trust you," he slurs. Is that him? Does he sound like that?

Katara blinks. Zuko watches tears slip from her cheeks.

And then, it starts. She did not lie about it hurting. Despite himself, Zuko feels his body rising from the ground in pain and panic, and Katara has to keep him pressed down. His blood is boiling, his chest swelling. This must be what dying feels like. But then, he's pretty sure he was dying before. He supposes it's a process.

"—sorry, sorry, I'm so sorry—" Zuko makes out the words, faint in his ears, though Katara sobs them out.

Eventually, though, the beat of his heart evens. His blood begins to simmer down. The pain melts.

He watches as Katara pulls back, resting on her knees. The moon-girl smiles down on them before fading back into being just the moon, high in their war-torn sky again.

Nothing that just happened makes any sense, Zuko decides dazedly. But it was Katara who saved him, and that made all the sense in the world.

"Thank you, Katara," he rasps, looking up at her through heavy eyes. Looking at her made everything in the world seem alright again.

She looks down at him with a soft expression and a watery smile.

"I think I'm the one who should be thanking you."

[ragzonacamrencruise]

Azutara bending swap?

hehehehe i got it.

okie hear meowt-

Aang didn't know what to think of this at all. Here's Sokka and Toph explaining their 'excellent' plan that Aang sure knows can be done successfully. But the reaction they might get out of this could be deadly.

"I- I donno, Sokka. This could be dangerous." Aang hesitates. "I've never tried it before-"

Sokka interjects. "There's always a first time for everything. And besides, they wouldn't even know what hit 'em! See, all you have to do is . . ."

And so, that night, when the complete Gaang had finally fallen asleep around their makeshift campsite in their respective tents, Sokka wakes up Aang to carry out their mission. It's very simple in Sokka's head, but it's Aang who's sweating under his knees trying not think of what might happen if-

"Shhh." Sokka holds a finger up his lips. "We need to be sleek and stealthy." He guides them through the soft grass, trying not to make a sound.

Aang cannot help but shiver. Sokka has a brilliant mind. But sometimes, just sometimes, it comes up with shitty ideas like this one and Aang cannot help but follow through with them. Call it brotherly love, or genuine curiosity, it doesn't matter.

Sokka suddenly stops before a blue tent. "I'll go and check if she's asleep. Wait for my signal, and then you can come in and do your thing." He disappears quietly inside the tent.

Aang waits patiently for what feels like an eternity but he knows it's only been a few seconds. He jumps out of his skin in jitters when Sokka's head peeks out again. "We're on."

Aang gulps, stepping inside the tent slowly. It's dark inside but he can fairly make out a figure wrapped in blankets, sound asleep. Katara's figure.

He moves near her with surprising speed, suddenly filled with the urge to get this over quickly. He kneels down before placing one thumb on Katara's forehead gently and the other thumb on her chest wrapped in blanket.

A blinding bluish glow fills up the tent before dying down as quickly as it came.

Aang then repeats the process, and this time, an orange glow fills up the tent and dies down again. When Aang opens his eyes, Katara's still sleeping like a log, exhausted from the day's work and training.

One down, one to go.

---

Aang has always been an early bird. But today, he doesn't wanna wake up. Or at least, doesn't wanna sit up and join the others. He's been up all night anyways. Although, he can hear everything that's happening around the camp as clearly as a spirit lake.

That is, Sokka screaming his lungs out. "ZUKO! I CAN'T SEEM TO GET THE FIRE GOING FOR BREAKFAST!! WAKE YOUR LAZY ASS UP AND FIREBEND!!!!"

Aang knows Zuko's still in bed like an old lady. But what he didn't expect is to hear Azula's voice.

"I can help with that." She says smugly.

Aang peeps one eye open, not wanting to miss out on the fun but at the same time, not wanting to get caught in crossfire when things go south too.

Sokka gives her a knowing smirk. "Sure you can." He says sarcastically.

"Now, now, Sokka. Is this how you treat a Fire Princess who's trying to become go- GOO-" She chokes on the word. "God damn it! I can't even say the word!!"

"Well, if you insist . . ." Sokka trails off before standing up and moving aside.

Azula takes a deep breath calming her posture. But it really seems like Aang is the one who's supposed to be taking deep breaths cuz he fears after a minute, these are going to be his final.

When the Fire Princess jumps high, spinning mid-air to deliver a perfectly executed firebending kick, a hugh blob of water appears out of no where, and splashes on the firewood stacked under the pot meant for breakfast, drenching it wet. The force of the splash is so high, Azula gets drenched as well, following Sokka, who's jaw is practically on the floor by now.

Azula is the first to come to her senses. "WHAT THE FUCK?!"

Aang notices Toph's face turn red as she's trying to hold in her laughter. Azula, not believing her eyes, demonstrates a series of double-punches, all of which results in blobs of water splashing this way and that, hitting every single person present on site.

"What's going on here?!" Katara walks in, carrying another bout of firewood, before getting hit by a water whip straight to her face. "OW!"

Katara looks all around, amazed. Isn't she the only waterbender in their Gaang?! Then who hit her?! Then she takes in the scene before her, mouth slowly falling agape.

"Katara! Check it out!" Suki exclaims. "Azula's waterbending!"

"That's impossible." Katara lets the firewood in her arms drop down to the ground.

"Oh yeah?" Sokka crosses his arms over his chest. "Say that to the wood that is soaking wet right now. All I wanted, was a little fire to light up the stove. But guess who decided to waterbend and ruin it!!"

"Hey! I didn't even know I could do that!" Azula yells at Sokka's head.

"So, you're saying we all knew you could do that?!"

Azula looks confused, squinting her eyes in disbelief. "Wha-?"

"Sokka," Katara looks at her brother suspiciously. "Did you mix cactus juice into our dinner yesterday night?"

"No!" His voice reaches a higher octave. "Why would I do that?!"

"Why are we all seeing visions then?!"

Aang wishes he had some fire flakes right now, snacking on them as he watches this drama unfold. Ember Island Players could never. He's pretty sure Toph's thinking the same too.

"Guys, relax." Toph says, leaning back on Appa, sitting on the ground and crossing her legs. "Katara can easily take out the water from your precious firewood, Sokka. Don't be such a wuss. Right Katara?"

"Right . . ." Katara says, just as she takes a stance, readying herself for some concentrated waterbending. She turns towards the firewood kept under the pot, and moves her hand upwards in one fluid motion.

To everyone's disbelief and shock, the firewood first smokes steam and then suddenly bursts into violet-coloured flames, burning bright before turning to orange, then red.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!"

Aang doesn't even have to look to know who said that.

"Okay, now I'm definitely worried." Katara's face is filled with horror. "I can firebend?!"

Azula pinches the bridge of her nose. "It's too fucking early for this shit-"

"Aang!" Katara calls out. "Get over here!!"

Aww man! Just when he thought things were getting interesting-

"Coming!" Aang calls out as he jumps up and sprints towards the crime scene. "What? What's wrong?"

"This." Katara says, before she catches hold of a screetching Momo and lights his tail on a violet fire.

Azula rolls her eyes before issuing a punch, that hits both Katara and Momo, putting out the fire and bathing them in water. "And this."

Aang knows he's supposed to be acting surprised. But he does a terrible job at it. "Maybe . . . you guys are the Avatars . . . ???" He trails off with a guilty look on his face.

Katara narrows her eyes. "Aang . . ." She threatens him, instantly aware that he somehow knows something. "What is going on?"

She looms over him, casting a glare. Aang tries his best to not pee his pants. "I- I- I donno, I- I just woke up!"

Sokka comes to his rescue thankfully. "Maybe somehow your powers got swapped?"

Katara turns to him, still not getting out of Aang's personal space. "How is that even possible?"

"Yeah." Azula chirps in. "How's that possible? I've got blue flames. That peasant conjured up violet ones."

"Maybe you're just jealous that I got the hottest burning fire." Katara crosses her arms at Azula.

"Maybe I can shut that flame up with a flick of my wrist!" Azula says, stomping her way towards Katara, standing toe-to-toe with her, nose almost bumping with Katara's.

"Uh . . . guys?" Aang scratches his bald head taking two steps back, growing increasingly confused and concerned. "Maybe we can calm down and talk about this-?"

"Maybe you're an idiot to think that you could ever shut me up!" Katara bits back at Azula. paying no heed to Aang's feeble attempt at peace.

"Maybe you're an idiot to think that I couldn't!!"

"Oh!" Katara exclaims. "Do it then!! I dare you to shut me up!!"

"Let's go, peasant. AGNI KAI!!"

"Oh, did you forget, little princess?" Katara asks sarcastically, inching closer to Azula. "You're not a firebender anymore. Maybe you need to get your memory checked."

Azula steps even closer, if that's even possible. "Maybe I don't need my fire to shut you up."

"Mayyyyyybeee," Toph interjects, finger up her nostril, picking her nose non-chalantly. "You two need to kiss and save us all the trouble."

"WHAT?!"

"WHAT?!"

Both Azula and Katara turn to Toph with a panicked look on their faces.

"T- That's absurd! What are you talking about, Toph?!" Katara stutters, even as she looks at Azula's side profile for a second longer and takes a step backwards.

"I'm talking about what I'm seeing." Toph says smugly.

"You're blind." Azula states.

"Yeah, but my feet don't lie. Every time you two get heated, and trust me that's a lot of times, you both get in each other's face like this and spew out empty threats as if my feet can't figure out you two are lying! At least, I know you are lying, Katara. I got nothing on Azula except a faster heartbeat."

Azula's eyes narrow to slits, but other than that, there's no reaction from her. Katara steals a glance at Azula once again before she turns to Toph. "What does that have to do with our bending getting swapped?"

"Uh . . . I was the one who did it-" Aang raises his hand slowly, with a sheepish look on his face.

"AANG!!" Sokka cries out. "You made a personal Avatar promise not to divulge this information!!!"

Katara's anger immediately shifts to Sokka. "So you are the mastermind behind this . . ." A captivatingly pretty violet flame lights up in her palm as she slowly moves to Sokka.

"Katara . . ." Sokka gulps. "I can explain . . ."

"Zip it."

"Look . . . your fights were getting pettier and frequent and you both idiots couldn't see what we all were seeing so we thought-" Sokka begins to take steps back as Katara turns her back to Azula and advances slowly towards him.

"We're not giving your bending back until you either make up and be civil or make out and be civil." Toph states firmly.

But Katara wasn't showing signs of stopping anytime soon on her death walk towards Sokka.

Azula rolls her eyes. "Make up and be civil sounds too boring and wayyyy too long for me. And I want my bending back now. So . . ."

As quick as her own lightning, she moves behind Katara who's still advancing towards Sokka. Azula stops her with a hand around her delicate wrist, and pulls her flush against her body. Katara lets out a surprised yelp as she finds herself being whipped around by her waist to face Azula, her breath frozen inside her lungs, too surprised to even blink.

A soft smirk escapes Azula's lips before she places two fingers under Katara's chin, tilting her face up to plant her lips on hers in a gentle kiss. Katara's too frozen with shock to reciprocate. When she finally does, the kiss is already over. Nothing overdone at all. Just a soft chaste kiss against her lips and Katara feels like she needs to sit down, suddenly weak in her knees.

"There." Azula says proudly. "Now give us our respective bending back."

Katara blinks up at Azula, still stuck in a daze. "You . . . traitor! Who gave you permission to just . . . take advantage of me like that?! How dare you-?!"

"You're a terrible liar, Katara." Toph interrupts her.

"Oh, yes you are." Azula agrees with a smile.

"No, I'm not!"

"Oh?" Azula mocks disbelief. "Then why are you still holding onto me like this?" She gestures with her eyes down to Katara's hands.

Katara follows her line of sight and almost has a heart attack as she finds herself completely wrapped up in Azula's arms and her hands holding onto Azula's shoulder and neck desperately.

"UGH!!!!" She exclaims as she lets her forehead fall down to Azula's shoulder, burying her face in embarrassment. "You people are driving me insane!!!!!"

Everyone present on crime scene laughs except Katara.

Zuko walks out of his tent, rubbing his good eye and yawning. "Hey, what are we laughing about? What did I miss?!"

"Okay, who's gonna tell him?" Toph says before escaping the scene.

***

i keep writing mini fanfics instead of drabbles for these prompts and im so sorry 😭🖐🏻 it's like my mind wont stop until i spit out every little detail. it's annoying at this point.

okie lemme know what you think abt what i did with this one!!!!

[valkyrie1435atla]

@hannahhook7744 this was going to be another reply but it started getting too long, so here’s a bit of an explanation on Zuko’s situation.

I can’t always know if what I’m trying to portray in my comic gets across how I want it to, that’s a drawback of the comic format, I’m generally not able to include long, detailed paragraphs unless it’s in a format that makes sense in the context of the comic. (Yishengs Logbook for example.)

-SPOILERS(?) FOR PARTS 14, 17. OR NOT REALLY SPOILERS, JUST PLAIN EXPLANATIONS OF WHAT HAPPENED TO CLEAR ANY CONFUSION-

in Mortem Obire, we see a play-by-play of Zuko’s death and his time traveling from his own perspective, in his head. ‘Mortem Obire’ means ‘to face death,’ this is Zuko processing what happened to him. Azula’s lightning struck him, pain, blinding pain, and then it all stopped, and he was back on his ship. He is still reeling, though, every sensation is suddenly opposite, “it was loud, and it was burning-“ in a millisecond his whole world flipped upside down. “And suddenly it was quiet, and I was cold” Zuko is so disoriented from the switch he immediately collapses, slams head-first on the hard ship deck, and is sent back to the future. “And it was loud again, and I was burning again” He becomes stuck in this sort of in-between state, like a light switch you’re trying to balance in the middle, flickering on and off. “Someone called my name” Katara calls his name, Iroh calls his name. “I saw a pillar of light in the sky-I saw a comets trail in the sky” he sees both. “You ran to me” Katara ran to him, Iroh ran to him.

Iroh was holding him; he laid alone, bleeding out.

Iroh pulled him away, Zuko began to lose consciousness; he burned while watching Azula kill Katara.

He laid there in his dead, rotting body; he laid in a body that wasn’t his.

It all happens in Zukos head, though. In the present moment Iroh just asked him, “and then?” Zuko replies, “and then…” (Part 13) then falls silent for about 30 seconds. Iroh just stares at him, waiting for an answer. The flashback plays in Zukos mind, he starts to tremble and hyperventilate, Iroh calls out his name but Zuko cannot hear him. “Prince Zuko, can you hear me?!” The flashback ends and Zuko is pulled back to the present. etc. etc.

A Thankless Job is YiShengs (and partially Iroh’s) perspective of Zuko’s death and time traveling. (Obviously they don’t know that he died, they don’t know that he time traveled.) season one Zuko collapsed suddenly and for literally no reason at all, (they didn’t see the beam of light, there was no beam of light.) YiSheng and Iroh took him to his room, and he started seizing (“A seizure is abnormal electrical activity in [the] brain” (the Cleveland Clinic)). He was sort of awake for a few seconds at a time, YiSheng medicated him in a moment he could actually swallow, and then Zuko passed out completely. Iroh stayed by his side. It is important to note that there was no injury at first, and Zuko woke up a few hours later. Parts three, four, and five happen, Zuko has a brief conversation with Iroh, he still isn’t completely aware of the time travel, everything is very hazy. Iroh leaves, and the haze begins to clear. The lightning creeps back in, the scar starts to reappear on his chest and it grows and it burns and Zuko is burning burning fire fire I am melting from the inside I am dying. etc. etc.

In the revised version I am currently working on, remaking the first chunk of the story so far, these details (and many more) will all be displayed much more clearly. We will see Iroh’s complete perspective of the collapse first, followed by Zuko’s and Yisheng’s as has already been written. A short interlude of Jee’s perspective next?

Basically, Zukos injury carried over because he didn’t stay in the past when he first got blasted there. Everyone else in the gaang flipped once and that was that, the injuries that killed them stayed with the past timeline. Zuko’s did not. Just his luck, really.

[the-badger-mole]

In the debate between pro-aang-kill-ozai and anti-aang-kill-ozai. Which side are you on and why? If it's the anti then did you like how it was done or do you picture something else?

I think I've mentioned before, but I am not inherently against Aang not wanting to kill Ozai. Some of my favorite heroes have a no-kill policy. I don't even mind the lionturtle solution itself. What I didn't like was how it was handled. There was plenty of time to address Aang's reluctance to kill before the second to last episode. I can think of three points in particular where it would've been thematically appropriate and given Aang's bland, two-dimensional character some depth.

First, right after the siege at the Northern Tribe. Aang may not have technically been the one who killed all those Fire Nation soldiers, but it couldn't have happened without him. You would think that someone who is both committed to pacifism and also the one the entire world is relying on to end a war that people have been fighting and dying in for a century wouldn't just be able to shrug off what happened. Aang did, though. Didn't even cross his mind when he was whining about people expecting him to kill Ozai.

What should have happened was the next season should've opened with Aang grappling with what happened and his part in it. He should feel guilty about it, not because he was actually wrong, but because it should feel wrong to him. Then, Katara and Sokka should comfort him and tell him he did nothing wrong. Build it up that their word are comforting him a little, then drop the bomb when they start talking about how cool it was. How amazing it was to see all those soldiers running in fear for once. How relieved they are that so many of them died. Then have Aang snap on them about the sanctity of life. He needs to be angry and hurt, and this should be the point where he decries the powers of the Avatar. He'd call himself a monster, and maybe he would call Katara and Sokka monsters, too. Then they (probably mostly Sokka) would argue with him that they aren't monsters, they're just trying to survive, and the Fire Nation is a threat to be taken out. This would be the first time it's brought up that Katara, Sokka...the entire world expect Aang to kill Ozai. I think it would be perfect as a season 2 opener. Season 1 was light and goofy, and Zuko was their biggest immediate threat. The siege raised the stakes, and season 2 should continue on that rising. Aang should also have started looking for another solution here. In the library, Aang should've asked Wan Shi Tong if it was possible to end the war without more violence. We should've seen Aang coming to terms with the fact that the world is suffering and he is the one they are looking to to save them. One thing I think the Harry Potter movies in particular did well was that shift from goofy and whimsical to darker and more frightening (as far as kids movies go) as the story went on and the stakes got higher, and the danger felt more real to the characters. Aang never gets that realization. He has moments when the danger feels real, but he's goofy and whimsical for pretty much the entire series until the plot of an episode needs him not to be.

The second place they should have brought up his reluctance to kill was DoBS. This really should've been a no brainer. Aang was loosing sleep over facing Ozai. He had his anxiety about losing- though not really what losing would mean for his friends and the world- but he didn't even consider what winning would take. If DoBS had been successful, there's no way Ozai would've been able to be taken alive. Logistically, killing him would've been the easiest, safest option. You mean to tell me no one brought it up? No one asked Aang how he was planning to take Ozai out? No, instead we get Aang proving he knows what enthusiastic consent looks like and taking away his excuse for what happened later, but nothing about Aang weighing his personal beliefs against the needs of the world. That training montage and confrontation that he has with his friends in the second to last episode should've happened here. This should've been when his tendency to run away should've been challenged, too, because half a season before he was crying about how he abandoned the world again. Now his instinct would be to run, but his friends would challenge him, calling back to that moment. They could demand that he present an alternative to killing Ozai. I don't think any of them would object to him living to stand trial, but Ozai is a rabid dog, essentially. He needs to be put down. Aang's got nothing, but not for lack of trying. When he tells his friends about all his efforts to find a non-lethal way to defeat Ozai, they are unmoved. They are at the doors of the Fire Nation, and now is not the time to be indecisive. He has to go face Ozai. And he's probably relieved when the plan fails. This whole situation would have the added bonus of skipping that first Kataang kiss because no way would Aang want to kiss Katara after her insisting he terminate Ozai with extreme prejudice.

The third place Aang's no-kill policy should've come up is TSR when Zuko asks him what he's planning to do when he faces Ozai if he's so against killing. This should scare Aang, and it should be his focus for the rest of the season. He should be more withdrawn from his friends, because with all the training he's doing (and he would still be training on all the elements because he's not that good at any of them), talks about the most efficient way to kill would be unavoidable. Katara might actually try to teach him bloodbending. Toph would just tell him that a big rock is just as effective as some fancy bending move. Zuko would be warning him about his father's ruthlessness and cunning. This would be where Aang looses his patience with his friends and insists that he's a pacifist and Ozai doesn't deserve to die. This would piss Katara in particular off because by this point, Aang knows what happened to her mother. He would get an earful about how Ozai's plan is to do to the Earth Kingdom what his grandfather did to the Air Nomads and how he's going to let millions of people die because of his refusal to kill one. Now, Aang can take off, only instead of just running away from his friends because he doesn't want to hear them anymore, he could be making one desperate last ditch attempt to find a solution that both ends the war and keeps him from having to kill Ozai. EIP could still happen in this circumstance, but instead of getting mad that he's being played by a girl, he would focus more on how eager for his death the Fire Nation is. That would come up in the argument about killing Ozai.

Now, for the lionturtle. I'm about to blow some minds. I have been vocal about my hatred of the Lionturtle/Rock of Destiny desu-ex-double team, and I do still hate it with a passion. However, as a concept, I don't mind the lionturtle. This is a fantasy adventure. You expect a bit of magical intervention. What I wanted was Aang grappling with this problem for more than half an episode. I wanted him working on a solution the entire time, starting from right after the siege. I wanted to see him take initiative. To actually think about the problem. Maybe have him specifically looking for the lionturtle. Then when it shows it, it could be because it knew Aang was looking and decided he was worthy of a meeting. Aang could still have his meeting with his past lives, and that could still go the way it did. Then the lionturtle could speak up. Instead of poo-pooing the idea of killing Ozai, it could agree that it was the most effective way to make sure that the war would end. Then, when Aang is despairing that he'd wasted all that time trying to find a different solution, the lionturtle could offer the spirit bending. But it would have to come at a cost, and it might not work the way that Aang hoped. Now Aang has to make a choice. Sacrifice something for this spiritbending ability (I'm thinking he loses his airbending, because it seems poetic) that might not have the outcome he's hoping for, or give up his pacifism- one of his few connections to his heritage- and kill Ozai. He chooses the spiritbending. Instead of the conveniently placed rock, Aang would actually have to give up his attachment Katara. I think he would be half-way there, having finally realized how little he understood her. He "loved" her because she was pretty and took care of him, but he's come to realize there's a lot more facets to her that he hasn't gotten to see because they don't fit his narrow view of her. He also understands what Guru Pathik was trying to tell him about one person not being able to replace everything Aang has lost, and he realizes how unfair to her he had been. He still loves her, but as a friend and caretaker. This will actually lead to a deeper friendship between them. Aang defeats Ozai without killing him, but now he has to deal with the loss of his airbending, which only now does he realize was a much of a connection between him and his people as his beliefs. He still has spiritbending. He can still airbend in the Avatar State, but he's effectively cut off a limb to keep his integrity. He will go the rest of his life wondering if it was worth it, especially after Ozai goes to trial and is sentenced to execution anyway. The effects of that on his children could be explored in LoK.

TL;DR I don't have a problem with Aang not wanting to kill Ozai. I just wanted to see him deal with it before the last minute. I think the show would've been better for it, and Aang would've been a more interesting character.

[lily-alphonse]

So I finally finished watching ATLA (the animated series) all the way through, for the first time. Here's my final reaction post! You can see the others at the first tag listed below (lily's atla reactions)

I had always known it was a good show from what little I saw of it. Im not a big TV watcher because a lot of it gets too intense for me. I can’t separate reality from fiction and get so stressed I would actually die watching something like Game of Thrones lol. So I’ve started going through series from my childhood and of course I was going to start with this classic.

(Im cutting this in case you are like me and took forever to watch this and dont want spoilers)

I unsurprisingly love this series. My boy Zuko stays on top, I love his emo ass. Uncle Iroh is a close second, I know, based lol. I was very pleasantly surprised by the Earth King, an unexpected little side character fave that I latched onto and WILL be writing for.

Honorable mention also to Appa. I adore Appa. His episode broke me. Absolutely broke my heart to see him lose his trust in people, and then when Suki found him OH MY GOD 😭 I was so relieved. (Which, btw, did not expect her to be such a big part of the series that was nice)

Speaking of animals though, the hardest I cried was for Roku dying with his dragon. When the dragon just jumped back in to the flames to die with his master I fucking lost it bro. It reminded me of how Aang and Appa nearly died together, and how Aang’s instinct with his dying breath was to protect them BOTH in that ball of ice BRO I SOBBED ALOUD.

Oh as far as characters I also have to mention the explodey eye guy. I love action and he was SO menacing I was always on the edge of my seat when he was around.

In general I love the scenery, I love pretty scenery and colors and I was so well fed. I am worried that if I continue on to LOK I won't like it as much, considering the time jump to the industrial era. I'm a renaissance faire girlie lol.

I love the heavy messages they didn't shy away from. I think the show probably helped conceptualize a lot of really heavy subjects for kids, and I'm grateful to it for that. How revenge hurts everyone, how mistakes don't define you, how grief works.

I love the friendship and found family, the Zuko adventures episodes were probably my favorite. I can see where everyone is coming from with their various Zuko ships, I'm hearing all of you. If I had to choose one, though, I might actually be pro Zuko/Aang? Which is kind of wild and unexpected because Aang isn't my favorite, but I honestly felt like their characters complemented each other the best. It's funny because I share Zukka art all the time and the only fic Ive read was a Zukka fic lol. They're hot together what can I say? I do like Sokka and Suki together though! I think the show really did them justice as a couple.

There were a couple of really cool moments in the ending. Toph falling onto the metal door and metalbending herself armor? SO badass. And Sokka's boomerang coming in clutch again. I love clever moments in action like that.

Overall, unfortunately... I did not love the ending. I wish I had more of a reaction for you, but I found myself being too critical in it, and that is not how I want to contribute to the fandom. I recognize it is a kid's show and I am an adult, and probably wouldn't have anything to say that hasn't been hammered into the ground over the years since it aired.

I loved the show, expect to see an Earth King fic from me someday (and maybe other ships? who knows). I might watch Gravity Falls next since I can't handle adult television lol. We shall seeeee

[imjustavenuxwithaboomerang]

finished episodes 7 and 8 with my sister:

she called the show scary a couple times before starting episode 7

"fuck the council" "well he is"

she was very happy when ekko was revealed, "FINALLY FUCKING FINALLY"

^but also went "i got him back and at what cost, HIS LIFE?" after marcus shot him

"i know that her tattoo says vi but i would like to think it says six for the five kids and vander"

she apparently never noticed how high mel's dress slits were until we got to episode 8

"i can't leave her again" "girl, we got in the boat, we paddled in the water, we got up here and now you want to make that decision? you could've told us before we packed up the boat"

"that looks like a nice hug" and "the bickering is insane" (about caitvi)

"i don't think you had to do that, madam" (about the opening scene with ambessa killing the girl)

when it cut to jayce's shirtless scene in the forge, she went "why does it look like he's having a sex dream about him, like "jayce will understand" then it cuts to this" ('he' being viktor)

^speaking of that scene she did in fact need a second after the "don't lose your nuts" bit

"is caitlyn still tied up while we're seeing the sights, taking a trip down memory lane?"

"caitlyn's like 'another bitch you know, another fucking bitch you know? do all you pests know each other?' is that not the face she's giving? look at her!"

"if y'all are just gonna chit-chat, y'all can leave. there's the door" (talking for viktor about jayce and mel)

"tell my daughter that i-" "that her father was a bad guy? sure"

"are you trying to take your daughter's man?" (about ambessa)

all she had to say about sky's death was "that's wild" (okay i'm kinda burying the lead, she was shocked and had her hand over her mouth the whole time but those were the only words said)

"she's such a self-saboteur but i understand" (about vi)

every time heimerdinger appeared on the screen in his cloak, she laughed at him, "he turned around like a thief in the night but he's this little thing"

"jayce, have you checked on your homie?" (no the answer is no)

"the way she walked was like 'there's a new sheriff in town'" (about ambessa's entrance at the port)

^she was also just like me and was disturbed by her interactions with the boytoy (no shade to them tho, to each their own)

"he killed a kid, that's gonna mess with him...i hope it does" (about jayce, also the "i hope it does" is meant to be read like she hopes he doesn't just move on)

"could this bitch die already, she's been close to dying a lot of times" (about sevika)

"MISS FRIZZLE?" (during the scene when we were in viktor's bloodstream)

when episode 7 ended, she did in fact think that jinx had killed herself and ekko (i also explained the whole thing about ekko hitting the bomb away from them, i also explained the thing about him having a crush on her when they were kids)

"i don't like mel's mother, i don't think you're supposed to but i don't"

"enforcer 3 is booo *thumbs down*" (because he was using a lot of force on the kid that jayce killed)

"it's giving zuko alone" (about heimerdinger going into the undercity)

"these hairs are fucking insane like on everybody in this world. like vi's looked like a sideways chicken"

her thoughts on episodes 1 and 2

her thoughts on episode 3

her thoughts on episode 4

her thoughts on episodes 5 and 6

her thoughts on the finale

[burst-of-iridescent]

atla live action thoughts: episodes 3 & 4

SPOILERS AHEAD

tw: opinions

things i liked:

jet, you beautiful, beautiful man. had me twirling my hair and kicking my feet fr i NEED this show to get a season 2 just so i can see more of him in the ba sing se arc please netflix

but looks aside, sebastian amoruso DELIVERED on the performance. the softness, the vulnerability, the charm, the intelligence, yet also the ruthlessness beneath it all? KILLED IT.

the moment between him and katara where he tells her to remember her mother as she was alive and not just her death was absolutely lovely. “remember the sunrise” made me very emotional

on that note, can’t believe jetara fake marriage is canon now lmao

i am SO here for desi omashu. i love the vibe and aesthetic of the city and again the visuals are STUNNING. live action repping the south asians better than the original ever did i’ll be honest

shameless fan service but “MY CABBAGES” being so fucking dramatic had me dying

of all the things i expected from the atla live action, secret tunnel and omashu being lesbians wasn’t even on the list but i’m not mad. hilarious that they turned the cave of two lovers into the cave of two platonic siblings though

jet, omashu and northern air temple arcs actually meshed together better than i thought. the NAT episode never sat well with me in the original so i’m glad they moved them to omashu instead.

the freedom fighters were RIGHT OUT OF THE ANIMATION. casting directors absolutely killed

love that they showed resistance movements within the fire nation and azula being part of rooting them out. it’s a nice nod to the deserter, since i’m guessing they’re not including that episode

really glad to see that the atla live action is following the tradition of having weirdly unnecessary zutara crumbs in every iteration of the story because what in the om shanti om was that zutara scarf moment. 10/10 no notes

having one of the earthbenders transporting iroh be angry over losing a loved one because of iroh’s siege of ba sing se was a really great change. i’ve always thought the original glossed over the true extent of the damage iroh did, so having him come face to face with what he’d done in the past was a great way to add some complexity

“how dare you beat up that child!” everyone go home seeing zuko being beat up by a random old lady is the highlight of this series. really love that they were just running around throwing things at each other that was major book 1 zuko/aang fight energy lmao

SECRET TUNNELLLLLLLL

leaves from the vine instrumental was 100% to inflict emotional damage and it fucking worked. the scene between zuko and iroh at lu ten’s funeral was so beautiful & then to have it flipped around at the end when iroh says “everything i need is on this boat”… fuck you for this netflix i didn’t need these tears today

things i disliked/am conflicted about:

not a fan of what they’re doing with katara’s character. they’re toning down a lot of her rage and fierceness, and boiling her down to “trauma over mother’s death.” in the original katara didn’t freeze jet and splash water at him because he tried to fight her, she did it because she was hurt and pissed off! there’s no way animated katara would’ve just run away from jet without sending a water whip at his face first. i’m concerned for how the pakku fight is gonna go tbh

bumi my guy, what did they do to you 💀 this series seems hellbent on having everyone remind aang that he ran away which doesn’t work when a) you already changed aang actively running away to him just going off for a break and b) you’ve made that point! the original omashu episode was about bumi teaching aang to look at the world differently, here it just weirdly feels as though he’s punishing aang by venting all his anger and despair on him?? that’s NOT what animated bumi was like & they didn’t even have the two of them go sliding down the delivery system in the flashbacks so adding it in at the end felt very out of nowhere. they didn’t even genuinely seem to be FRIENDS

having aang immediately figure out it was bumi was… sigh. can we please not do the thing where characters already know everything it’s giving me trauma flashbacks to the percy jackson show

jet’s plan feels more reasonable here than it did in the original. i get they’re trying to show that he didn’t care about the collateral damage to innocent people and that’s bad, but idk him wiping out an entire town unilaterally felt more extreme than a few bombings.

heavily dislike what they’ve done with zhao. i know they’re trying to show him clawing his way to power but that’s more of a long feng move than a ZHAO move. it’s important that zhao always holds more power than zuko and that he has an overinflated sense of ego from the start for him to fulfil his narrative purpose of serving as a warning to zuko of what he might become.

i like seeing mailee but why are they in this show? it feels as though they’re cardboard cutouts there for fan service instead of being actual characters

overall i liked these episodes better than the previous two & i do enjoy how action-packed and visually pleasing the show has been so far.

overall rating: 8/10 for episode 3, 7/10 for episode 4

[dreamchasernina]

To cleanse your feed of bullies,any Kataang or Zuko hcs you have :3?

Hiiii. Thank you for this! Here are some of my hcs off the top of my head:

- In the episode “Sokka’s master” while the Gaang are watching the meteor shower, Aang and Katara spontaneously hold hands. They’re lying next to each other and accidentally touch hands and then Aang blushes and embarrassed starts pulling his hand away but then Katara catches it and brings it closer to her and intertwines her fingers with his. They don’t look at each other it just happens, they just lay there in silence with their hands interlocked between them, until the meteor crashes later in the episode (Why couldn’t they put something like this in the show like????)

- When their kids start asking how Aang got the scar on his back, Katara is hesitant about telling them that story since they‘re so young but Aang turns into a sort of bedtime story. Instead of telling it as a scary and traumatic story about how their father died, he tells it as a heroic story about how their mother saved the day. How the fire nation princess took her shot and tried to slay the avatar but their strong and amazing mother did not let that happen and saved his life, and thus, saved the whole world. The kids want to hear the story over and over again before bed.

- Aang proposed to Katara on the Jasmine Dragon balcony at sunset…the exact same spot she told him she was pregnant years later.

- When Aang was struck by lightning and was unconscious for 3 weeks Katara always slept beside him and refused to leave him alone at night out of fear that something would happen. But when he woke up she kinda continued doing that. She’d tell him first that it was to make sure he was completely healed, he didn’t protest. Then it just became a routine, sleeping next to each other helped with their ptsd of that night in Ba Sing Se. (It’s like Katniss and Peeta’s arrangement if you know what I mean??? I love taking inspiration from Katniss/Peeta, they’re so similar I could make a whole post just about that! Aang is the dandelion in the spring for Katara, you know???? *sobbing*)

- So I need to paint the picture for this headcanon. If you’ve never seen Lost, in the last season, as the characters are dying they see their loved ones in the after life. So when one of my fave characters was dying she saw her boyfriend, and the last words she said were the words she said to him in the afterlife. So in my head, as Katara is dying she sees Aang waiting for her, and suddenly they’re both 12 and 14 like they were when they first met and then 14 year old Katara asks Aang “will you go penguin sledding with me?” And those are her last words before she passes away. So the last words her children hear their mother say, are the first words Aang’s ever said to her (Picture Rose and Jack reuniting at the end of titanic) I HATE THIS ONE CAUSE THERE ARE TEARS IN MY EYES AS I’M WRITING THIS.

I have a couple more but I’m gonna save them for Kataang week cause I have to write something! 😭

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 2

Propaganda Under Cut

Elizabeth Midford

She started as just a cutie fiancée trying her best, turns out she's also a swordfighting genius, very under pressure to perform feminity in the Victorian Rose type of way. Fandom crucifies her bc she's Ciel's fiancée and they want him to be with his butler, Sebastian, the demon he sold his soul to for revenge

anime was a shitty canon divergent adaptation that butchered her character down to her "cutesy silly girly" persona, which obviously made the 2008 anime fans hate her with a passion (nothing wrong w being girly I'm just saying the adaptation made her super one dimensional) anyways fujoshis used to treat her as a villain because she's the fiance of Ciel,, who as u might know already was HEAVILY shipped with his butler, Sebastian back then (now it's kinda looked badly upon, nice tbh that ship sucks ass xD) She's a bit similar to Misa Amane from death note in the way she was treated. (Like an obstacle the yaoi ship must overcome rather than a person)

she's my silly little rabbit! i could gush about her character but i'll keep it short and just say that she's really well written and one of the best characters in the series. anyways she's ciel's fiance and she's like, rightfully annoying as any other 13 yr old girl would be but the fanbase fucking crucified her for even existing. she gets demonized for being 'annoying', but then ciel gets yaoishipped with an even more annoying guy. there is 100% an argument that lizzie/ciel is weird bc they're cousins (i personally don't ship it) but that falls flat when her detractors then ship the 13 yr old ciel with an eons old demon who Canonically looks like his father. the anime also never reached her main character development until years after its peak and that was only in a movie, so she really got the bad end of the stick here. not me though i had a giant crush on her when i was 12

Katara

Katara is constantly mistreated by the fans in favor of the Zukka ship (Zuko × Sokka.) They make her out to be mean, homophobic, and completely out of character just to add drama to the Zukka ship. In reality, Katara is very compassionate, and would never act that way toward anyone. 

Zutara was a popular ship but when zukka got popular over covid during the atla renaissance there were a million posts about how zutara was problematic while zukka was perfect usually for racist reasons. Meanwhile katara and sokka are siblings so it didn't even make sense. They did not have to be so illogically rude to her to ship zukka and it was weird

Katara is FANTASTIC I fucking love her to pieces she is so cool and yet the entirety of the ATLA fandom treats her like garbage because she “talks about her mom dying too much” (even though she BARELY does & also was parentified from a young age due to her mother’s death) and, of course, because she’s a more feminine women when compared to her counterparts. Even in the show itself she’s mistreated: she’s ALWAYS shown cooking for the rest of the gaang, doing their laundry, any ‘womanly’ task. She ends up with the guy who kissed her twice without her consent & who she never showed any real attraction to and apparently (despite being a badass warrior-doctor!!!) after the show ended she just… settled down in the South Pole and had a bunch of kids and never did anything else. She didn’t even get a statue :( Anyways during the ATLA renaissance, despite Zutara actually not being canon, people felt that Katara threatened the sanctity of the new almost entirely baseless yaoi ship, Zukka. Unfortunately for them, due to the fact that Katara and Sokka are siblings, the usual anti-Zutara arguments didn’t work as well. So they resorted to just… slaughtering her character. If she was lucky, they’d just make Katara a background character, wingwoman, &or throw her together with her canon love interest. If she was unlucky they’d do anything from make her homophobic (??) to killing her off! Fuck’s sake, she never even got a token spare-the-pairs wlw ship! Sorry for getting so heated, that whole debacle made me FUMING MAD.

[oneatlatime]

A Precariously Stacked Pile of Random Season 2 Thoughts

These are notes I took as I watched the season. Usually after I’d already posted about the episode in question, and I thought of something I would have added to the post. Rather than edit them into my posts, I’m rounding them up and posting them all at once. As such, they are vaguely chronological. Unfortunately, because I made the notes legible to me and me only, I didn't bother to write down what episode I was referring to. I've also added some notes in as I was editing these notes. So this is also a bit of a scavenger hunt. Enjoy!

Iroh poisoning himself: dumbass moment or 5D chess?

My autocorrect corrects “Sokka” to Sock, and “Sokka’s” to socks. This causes double takes when editing.

Badgermoles have excellent eyeliner. Is that where the Kyoshi Warriors get their jaw dropping cat eye?

Why is Ty Lee spelled Ty Lee and not Tai Li? Why is Dai Li spelled Dai Li and not Dy Lee?

Sometimes Sokka makes me think of Mulan. Am I crazy?

Are the swampbenders’ moves based on a real martial art style too?

Why didn’t Aang use his swamp sense to locate Appa post-appanapping?

Where did Toph, who spent her whole life as a prisoner of her parents’ house and a moonlighting WWE wrestler until Team Avatar busted her out, get such emotional intelligence?

Why did Zuko’s dad put forward the plan to disinherit Iron in favour of him less than 24 hours after Lu Ten’s death? Why did he think that moving quickly was the right approach? Does the Fire Nation not do grieving periods? In what world was 'strike while the iron is hot' the correct course of action here?

Looking back, I’m amazed that season 2 didn’t end in Zuko’s redemption. I didn’t much like Zuko Alone, but I was sure that a season that included that much set up for a Zuko redemption arc would prioritise finishing that arc.

I haven’t even met this Firelord guy yet, but I am peeved that that twerp has a name as cool as Ozai.

Why haven't I met that Firelord guy yet?

I really thought that the older brother character in Zuko Alone would make an appearance later on in the season, giving Zuko a chance to flex some newly acquired morals. But the parallel to Lu Ten and the general message about the evils of war lands better if we never hear of him again.

Zuko in the first half of season 2 had me so annoyed that I was incredibly uncharitable to him in my write ups. Reading through some of the stuff I wrote while watching episodes, I kind of wince now. Zuko in the second half of the season was much less annoying. Which I feel bad for saying, because he’s clearly not in a good place in the second half of the season.

I would love to know why the writers decided to have Toph and Iroh meet in the wilderness. I think it’s a good choice, but I want to know how they came up with it, and why those characters? Is there anything about Toph (especially at that point, when we’ve known her for 1 episode) that suggests that she and Iroh should meet? Or would get along if they did?

Zuko has so many rock bottom fake outs this season: Zuko Alone? Nope, he gets worse in The Chase. The Chase? Nope, he gets worse in Bitter Work. Bitter Work? Nope, he gets worse in the finale.

I’m still peeved that Azula won a 6 on 1 showdown. Sorry, but that breaks immersion.

I bet the Blue Spirit could make lightning.

If water is the element of change, why does the Northern Water Tribe have such strictly defined traditions? I get that it's literally the element of change, in that water can exist in different physical states, but shouldn't the metaphorical interpretation also be true?

I like that Toph can think like an Airbender sooner than Aang can think like an earthbender.

What is Sokka’s boomerang made of? Is it metal? Because if it’s metal, does that mean that there’s a blacksmith somewhere in the South Pole? With a forge?

I still can’t get over how dumb the whole eclipse plot was.

Suki is TINY!!!

I mocked this guy’s 80s aerobics video leotard aesthetic, and I stand by that mockery, because this guy is ugly. Those colours are awful. But do you know who else has those colours?

Jet this season fascinates me. He’s positioned as genuinely repentant and legitimately seeking a second chance and I don’t believe him for one minute. Why don’t I believe him? This show has a theme of learning from mistakes and doing better, so shouldn’t Jet be a perfect fit for this show’s themes? I should be primed to believe him. And yet I don’t.

I have to applaud Iron’s enthusiasm for their new life in Ba Sing Se. A lot of that cheer (at least before the tea shop) is put on for Zuko’s sake. I don’t know where Iroh gets the energy to keep trying with Zuko after years of minimal results, but I’m glad he does.

I think Aang and Ty Lee should hang out. They have similar circus energy. Or maybe it’s that they’re the only two characters in the show so far who are remotely playful.

Aang = surface silliness, core of calm. Not that the silliness doesn't run deep, but he seems to have an untouchable anchor of calm deep within that rarely gets disturbed. Gyatso raised him well.

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~Poetry bouncer ~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

I need next season to have more Appa & Mono subplots à la their escapades in The Swamp. Not à la Momo’s Tale.

Tales of Ba Sing Se definitive ranking: Momo Aang Sokka Zuko Iroh Katara & Toph

I love that Momo still sleeps in the Momo bag from The Blind Bandit

Are Suki and her warriors sitting in the middle of some Earth Kingdom forest in their underwear?

So are Smellerbee and Longshot just done? Will they be back in season 3? What happens to their life now? They are known associates of an enemy of the state who was just executed. It doesn't look good.

Everyone on this show has big ears. Zuko has the smallest ears simply because he has the least amount of ears remaining. But everyone else? Big ears.

Can I have more Gyatso? I forgot how cool he was. More Guru too please.

Hakodilf.

Everyone in the SWT has such wonderfully fluffy hair.

I like Sokka’s boots. Southern Water Tribe boots in general.

If this is the grand total of the SWT, I have some bad news about population dynamics.

Is there a proper naval term for what the SWT are doing? They’re a stealth strike force that seems to be going after individual enemy ships, using both direct and indirect tactics. Not pirates, because as far as we know they aren't going for FN supplies. They're doing what submarines do, but above water. There’s got to be a proper name for that.

Is there a raft of FN corpses chilling in the waters in front of the NWT's big wall?

I saw ATLA described as a show where all the characters are Asian-inspired people of colour, but isn’t Suki a blue-eyed redhead?

I had no idea that you could decline an Agni Kai. Zuko should have done that.

Why are the Dai Li so in love with Azula? I get that they're pissed with Long Feng for getting arrested, but wouldn't the logical choice be to direct their loyalties to the Earth King rather than a wildcard princess? I'm not going to pretend for a minute that the Dai Li are loyal to the Earth Kingdom or to Ba Sing Se, but the Earth King is a known quantity. Seems to me that it would be easier for them to re-puppetify him, rather than a FN princess.

Katara & Zuko bonding over their missing mothers is the same “makes sense until you think about it for five seconds” as Song & Zuko bonding over losing their fathers to war. Technically the same, sort of, on paper, but actually kind of rude to equate them once you know the full story. Same with the parallel between Lu Ten and the older brother in Zuko Alone. The proper dead mom parallel is Katara and Jet. Although Katara doesn’t object to the Zuko comparison, so I have no grounds to do so.

I’m really glad that Katara didn’t remove Zuko’s scar with her spirit oasis water. Both because she kind of really needed that water, but also because one thing this show has always done right is permanence. No quick fixes, no fake outs, no take backs. Lu Ten is dead, and he stays that way. Princess Yue is the moon, and she stays that way. Half a dozen people’s moms are dead, and they stay that way. Aang is the last Airbender, and he stays that way. Zuko is scarred, and he stays that way. There are no hand waves, no easy fixes. All the characters can do is learn to live with it, and go forward. And I’m grateful the show is like that, because that permanence, as well as being a good lesson to learn, functions as a reward for audience investment.

Aang did come to a crossroads of destiny in the finale, chose his duties to the world over his friends, and got aggressively slapped down for it. I have a feeling that he’ll take the wrong lesson from that, since he was already inclined to shun that path.

Overall Season 1 was prettier.

Ty Lee was the cause of more than one Beat Up Sokka Quota fulfillment this season. Make of that what you will.

Will Zuko & Azula spend season 3 bouncing between the FN and Ba Sing Se? They could be heavily involved with establishing the FN governance over Ba Sing Se, since the city is already inclined towards royalty.

Favourite episode this season? The Guru. The Blind Bandit and The Swamp are tied for second place.

[uniquevoidflowers]

Chapter 4 is finished now! It's short but ehehe I have plans. The perspective might change next chapter.

In the treehouse, was a figure covered head to toe in armour and sitting on a chair. Legend approached the figure cautiously. “Zuko, I thought I told you to leave me alone for now,” An old, raspy voice came.

“I-I’m not Zuko,” The prince stammered.

The figure spun around and Legend was met with a skeleton, one red eye glowing, hiding behind thick golden armour. “And who are you to barge in uninvited?”

“I need your help, if you’re the Hero of Time,” Legend started. “Because—“

“Bah! Unless it’s really important, get out of here,” The skeletal figure interrupted.

“I’m Prince Legend of Hyrule, and I need you to train me!”

“...Why have you come for my help, and not those tutors at the castle? Train you for what?”

“I found out I’m a-a chosen hero, or that I’m supposed to become one because I drew a sword from a pedestal,” Legend started again.

“Cliché,” The Hero of Time scoffed.

“What?”

“What?”

“Nevermind,” Legend muttered. “And this voice told me to seek you out for training so I can become the hero and save my mother—the Queen—from the Servants of Demise.”

“Training to become a chosen hero...Give me a day to think about it.”

“What? A day? We don’t have that kind of time, my mother could be out there dying—“

“Time is a fickle thing, lad. I’ve been told that we don’t have time, I procrastinated a little bit, and still ended up saving the world. Becoming a chosen hero takes patience, I’ll tell you that.”

Legend continued to sputter but the Hero of Time forced a cup into his hands and then leaned back in his chair. “I’m serious. Patience with the world. Every dungeon I had to go through, sometimes I needed to have a bit of patience to let myself figure out the puzzle and get to the end, and lemme tell ya, being a nine-year old in an adult body during all those difficult puzzles took most of my patience.”

“What?”

“Anyway, if you leave me to think, I might have an answer sooner.”

“...Fine. Just...Even with patience, we have the need for haste. Demise is foretold to reappear along with his followers, and Demise is a god of evil and hatred. And if I cannot find training with you anytime soon, then so be it. Let the world be filled with destruction. This place will burn if Demise’s return eventuates without heroes to stop him. Your Kokiri siblings will face horrible deaths at Demise’s hand. You, even for an immortal soul, will live forever in suffering. Procrastination, as you call it, is not an option now,” Legend spoke, and it felt like these weren’t his own words but he just shook his head and started to climb out.

“Wait,” The Hero of Time called and the prince momentarily paused, looking back.

There was a beat of silence before the Hero of Time took off his helmet. “I’ll train you. I...cannot let my siblings suffer death. This place, though changed over the years, was where I grew up...The need to keep my home alive is greater than my own will.”

Legend smiled. “Thank you.”

“Now, if we’re going to train, I need to gear up. Meet me at the grounds near the shop, there’s a nice open spot there.”

“Okay.”

Sure enough, the Hero of Time arrived with a sword and shield in hand in that spot, and Legend readied his legendary blade, as the hero taught him better sword-fighting skills then he knew and then once that was finished, said, “We will start with the Ending Blow, a hidden skill I’ve taught before,” The shade hummed. “Some enemies may jump up after being knocked to the ground. The Ending Blow serves as a technique to make sure the enemy does not get up. To do such a skill, you must jump forward, landing a downward strike on your opponent while they’re still on the ground. Understood?”

“Understood.”

“Now, attempt at one, by knocking me to the ground first and then landing an Ending Blow. If you have any questions, ask but do not stop moving.”

Legend swung his sword and fought until the Hero of Time lost a bit of balance and he knocked the skeletal figure into the ground. He jumped forward like he was told and swung and missed. He landed on the ground instead, his sword in the dirt.

“Try again,” He was told.

He tried again and again, getting a few tidbits of information from his—mentor?—teacher? And eventually he performed an Ending Blow. He grew worried that he was hurting the Shade but he merely reassembled himself. “Well done. Next hidden skill I shall teaching you is the Shield Attack. You have a legendary sword, but it won’t be able to get through an enemy that is covered in armour and has a sturdy shield. This hidden skill is to help you overcome that obstacle by forcing vulnerability. You must ram them with a shield, until they are stunned, and then you may attack them better.”

“I...don’t have a shield...”

“Of course. Alright, I’ll give you an extra,” The Hero of Time sighed and tossed a shield over.

They sparred once more until Legend came in and as forcefully as he could, rammed his shield into the Hero of Time. It failed the first time, but when the prince tried again, he succeeded, and hit the vulnerable spot left open. “Hm, not bad kid, not bad,” The Hero of Time chuckled, the noise raspy and rattling. “Next hidden skill...Back Slice. That Shield Attack won’t do you much good when your opponent is clad in armour as well as a shield. But, with the Back Slice, you may be able to attack at the rear instead of the front where these enemies are mainly focused on guarding. This can be used both as defence and offence, depending on the situation. To perform a Back Slice, dodge my attack and roll around me, so that you may strike from behind. A jumping spin attack is used when you strike, but I shall teach you that a bit later.”

This went on for hours, training as hard and as quickly as needed, until eventually Legend had learned and performed all of the Hidden Skills, and had better fighting technique. Then, they slept there for the next day because The Hero of Time insisted that Warrior may also need to learn the Hidden Skills, though it would probably take less time because of the knight’s skill. Lots of time was also taken to learn those, and then they were resting back at a treehouse that was apparently empty. It had seemed like forever since Legend had worked up a sweat like that, but he was glad he did because he felt way better about having to be a hero.

Master. Now that you have been properly trained, I suggest making your way back to Hyrule Castle. Even though it may be too difficult to find all heroes on your own, perhaps there may be a way you can help.

And what is that way supposed to be?

The voice didn’t respond so Legend just grumbled and followed its advice. As they took a ride back to Hyrule, the prince fingered the soft mask in his hands, and made a vow to himself to get Sky to meet the old man Deku someday. “Hey, Legend?” Warrior murmured.

“Yeah?”

“...How do you feel about this hero business?”

The prince gave him an odd look but answered anyway, “I...don’t really know. On one hand, it’s overwhelming, I don’t feel like I can do it...but on the other hand I need to. And I’ll do anything to keep my title as a hero if it means protecting my kingdom...and rescuing my mom.”

“Okay...” Warrior muttered and that was the end of it.

But Legend couldn’t help but wonder what he was feeling, or why he asked. Was the knight having doubts?

He hummed, narrowing his eyes. How difficult will it be to get all these heroes up to speed? Do they need training too? Will they have similar doubts? If so...this will take time we don’t have.

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

“You’re back,” Fi acknowledged.

“Yes...Any news of new heroes?” Legend inclined his head to the side.

“No. His Majesty has been working nonstop, yet records indicate almost everyone in this town has no history that can lead us to a hero. Have you received the training?”

“Yes. You say almost everyone? Who is the exception?”

Fi showed a moment of hesitance that brought suspicion to swell in his mind, even though his family had trusted her for years. “Well, there is a man that bears the name Time Lon Lon, here in Castletown. His records are scarce, but Termina has vouched of past incidents following heroic deeds performed from him. He fits the resemblance of a hero, but it is unknown where he is and what he does. It brings skepticism to one, does it not?”

“If it’s our only lead, shouldn’t we check it out?”

“That is risky. If we lead ourselves to the wrong place, there is no telling what will happen. I must remind you that anything could have happened to this Time Lon Lon character over these years. The incidents that he solved were nearly 29 years ago. People change over time.”

“Yes, but if this is our only lead we should follow it. I’m afraid we don’t have much time left...If you have any more arguments save them. I will talk to my father.”

The words came out needlessly cold, though that wasn’t his intentions. Sky seemed to take his words into account. “I see. Legend, I want you to investigate, but take as many guards with you as you think you will need. There is still risk for your life with the Servants of Demise amuck, and with such a scarce record, it might all be a ploy.”

Is this how I help, O Mysterious Voice?

Master, the advice I can give you is to advise caution when searching for this man. I am not all-knowing.

Sheesh, okay.

“Alright, I will. And...I did get some teaching so I can defend myself.”

If it were any other time Sky would have smiled slightly and expressed pride for the prince, but all he did was nod tiredly. “Thank you. I know this has been sprung upon you, and I promise I will do all I can.”

Legend gave a nod and hurried to tell Warrior the plan, and gather a few knights. He was about to step out when he realized something. “With all the knightly gear and such, you’ll all draw more attention to me.”

“Disguises?” Warrior murmured.

“That may be our best solution. Or at least just change? I know you all have armour for a reason, but...”

“Yes, Highness,” The soldiers loyally complied, sliding off shining gear and placing it somewhere safe.

His own knight did so as well, shedding the armour with a bit of reluctance. They set forward and Legend looked at the paper he had been given, the one record of Time Lon Lon. He studied the picture and looked forward, scanning faces. It took awhile, as his patience left him and irritation took place but he saw a younger looking man, face baring some resemblance to Time. His hair was brown-ish unlike the blonde figure but there was no mistaking it. Coincidence? He approached the man. “Hello? Sir?”

The man startled and looked back at him. “What do you want, kid?”

“Do you know this man? Time Lon Lon?”

He held up the paper and didn’t miss the man’s subtle flinch. “If I do?”

“We want to know where he is, so we can talk to him,” Legend explained.

“About what?”

“Look, if you haven’t noticed, there are enemies of our kingdom here and we need to stop them. We believe Time is a key to achieving this goal.”

“I can’t just give his whereabouts away to a stranger, with all due respect.”

“Perhaps you’d be comforted if you knew I’m not a mere stranger,” Legend said in a low voice. “I work with the Royal Family.”

It was too dangerous to give away his identity but he needed to get to Time. The man sighed. “Follow me.”

He didn’t lead them to the one-eyed man he’d expected to see, but to a shop. The man glanced at the group nervously. “Can I ask you to stay here?”

“Why?” Legend pressed.

“Well, I just need to speak to the lady in there.”

“...Fine.”

The prince could see through the window if anything suspicious happened. He leaned back and waited, peering inside through the window. The man approached the lady at the counter, and he could see their mouths moving but couldn’t hear them no matter how much he strained himself. He would not usually be this wary, but even that mystery voice told him to advise caution. The lady’s eyes widened minutely and she glanced at the window, seeing them. She then ducked her head, said something, and the man hurried out. “Time works at the local tavern,” The man informed them. “You’ll probably find him there...if you’re old enough.”

Legend was 17. The drinking age was 19. He hesitated. “Can you bring him out then?”

“I’ll see,” The man hummed but gave him a mildly concerned look.

After approaching a tavern, that reeked of alcohol and vomit, the man, among Warrior went inside and after a few long minutes, came back out with what was most definitely Time. “I heard I was needed,” Time narrowed his one eye and Legend hated how the old man terrified him.

“Yes. You’ve saved Termina before, right?”

Time sighed. “Yes. Please just get onto the point.”

“I’m sure you know of the Queen’s situation. We’re looking for heroes to save her, and stop a group called the Servants of Demise. We believe you may be one of them.”

Time gave a half-hearted sounding chuckle. “As much as I’d love to, I have a family here. I can’t just leave them.”

“We’ll ensure their safety. Anyone’s at danger with the Servants of Demise around, not just the Royal Family, so—“

He was interrupted by a scream and he shared a look with Warrior before they rushed to the sound. He looked back to see Time and the other man following them and noted that. The red-haired lady from earlier in that shop was bleeding from her side and had a sword at her throat. A man clad in red held the blade firmly and only pressed tighter when they walked closer. Time paled and the other man placed his hands over his mouth. “Distract the guy,” Legend mouthed to his knight.

Warrior looked hesitant but obliged anyway. “Let the innocent civilian go.”

The red clad guy just cocked his head. “You think it’s gonna be so easy to just command me around? All you good folk are all so ridiculous.”

“I don’t know who you think you are, but you have no right to take someone’s life without reason,” Time growled. “You’ll find that malicious deeds only lead to death.”

The prince snuck around behind the dude, as he saw grey eyes peering through the mask, straight ahead. He raised his weapon.

“Don’t make me laugh. Now, witness the result of—“

Legend had pushed the sword through the guy as one of the soldiers rushed in to tear the sword away from the poor woman. The guy grunted and looked back at him, through the inverted-eye on his mask and swung his fist. The prince ducked and flew at the man, pinning him down before landing an Ending Blow, one of the hidden skills he had been taught. The man gave a faint choking sound before he went still and Legend pulled his sword out. Bile rose up his throat at seeing the most definitely human blood on his sword but he just let Time rush to the woman. “Malon, dear, please say something.”

“Fairy boy,” Malon, apparently, breathed. “Is he gone?”

“Yes, you’re safe. We need to take you to a medic though.”

“Oh...okay.”

“You’re welcome to receive service at the infirmary at our castle if you so wish,” Legend informed them.

Time looked like he wanted to object but sighed and nodded. “Twi, I want you to go close the tavern for me okay? Then stay back at our house.”

“But—“

“No,” Time interrupted the other man. (Twi?) “I will remind you it’s not safe. I know you are capable, but please, just stay home.”

“Fine,” Twi grumbled and left reluctantly.

They headed back to the castle and quickly to the infirmary, where Legend ordered the nurses take good care of Malon. The old man wouldn’t budge from his side so the prince ordered one of the knights he had taken to inform Sky of what just occurred. After a bit Time suddenly spoke up. “I see what you mean now. My family is more in danger if I just sit around and let these people wreak havoc. So, I will join your cause.”

The prince smiled, despite everything. “Thank you. Would you mind joining me somewhere, just to make sure you’re a chosen one.”

Time looked very reluctant, squeezing Malon’s hand before nodding. So, they walked into the Room of Swords, and waited until the old man walked towards one of the bigger swords and grasped the hilt. Time pulled the sword and raised it skyward with both his hands.

He does not need any training, Master. He already bears enough skill to be named a hero.

Well wasn’t that convenient. Time sheathed the sword with a heavy sigh and started to walk away. “Wait. Before you go, you should know my true identity. I’m Prince Legend, a hero as well now, and it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Time stared, eye widened in surprise before he bowed. “It’s a pleasure to meet you as well, Your Highness.”

“Rise, you have no need to treat me as such. If we’re going to save Hyrule together, then for now, treat me as a friend.”

“Alright.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Malon recovered, and Legend asked Fi if there were any more records. There wasn’t. Which meant they had to figure out how they were going to find the other heroes. In retrospect, they still had a lot more to find considering there were only three of them so far, and they were supposed to have nine heroes in total. This voice was incredibly vague, he didn’t think he’d get any help from it. He didn’t know what to do now.

“Are you sure we need all the heroes?” Legend asked Fi. “My mom still needs rescuing. It’s been too long.”

“Yes, Highness. I believe even now you are woefully unprepared to fight off the Servants of Demise. Though I have not the exact number, they have many powerful fighters.” “But if the goddesses are on our side—“

“The goddesses are the ones who sent us the prophecy. What happens if we do not heed it?”

Legend sighed. She had a point, and maybe he was just getting impatient. “Apologies, I’m just stressed right now.”

“I understand, Your Highness. I will leave you to cool off.”

Cool off? Sheesh.

After a bit he heard footsteps and wondered if Fi had already come back, but no, it was Time. He looked like he had something to say and Legend’s heart swelled with hope. “Yes?”

“I remembered something that may be of use. Back a long time ago, there was a war of sorts, and I never was told who the opposing side was, though that’s because I rarely paid attention. But they might have had the Servants of Demise you speak of. There was a boy, who was caught in the middle of it and he defended this other little girl before he collapsed, sustaining fatal wounds. Though I had enemies to fight, I took the two to one of the medics. The little girl was sent somewhere far off, supposed to find a safer place, and the boy was in a coma for years.”

Legend listened but he was wondering where this was going.

“I saw one of the knights near his Majesty on my walk outside the castle and recognized him. I think he may be that boy. You see, I saw incredible skill when he was defending that little girl, and he was handling them with a soup ladle.”

Wild? The knight defending the King? Could be possible...

“So, I think it would be wise to see if he is one of us,” Time finished and then the tips of his ears turned red. “I apologize for bursting in so suddenly, Highness.”

“Don’t apologize,” Legend said with a smile. “I think you might be right.”

When they went to explain to Sky and Wild, the knight looked shaken. “A little girl...?”

“Yes. Is everything okay?” The prince asked.

But suddenly the knight’s eyes were distant and he was unresponsive to any calls. Sky looked confused. Clearly this hadn’t happened in front of him before. “Can we get a medic, then?” Legend asked, a little frantically.

Some of the servants went off and all Legend could do was wait for results. The medic looked thoughtful after running tests on him and coming back. “He’s not injured, or sick. I can’t see anything physically wrong with him, so all we can do is wait this out.”

Sky looked perturbed. They did wait until Wild eventually came back to and rubbed tears from his eyes, explaining it was a memory because he had amnesia. He remembered his little sister, defending her, and agreed, saying it was because he didn’t know what happened to his family but he would protect them if they were still alive. They assigned a new knight to the King and headed to the Room of Swords. Wild admitted that he wasn’t hearing a voice and Legend worried that he wasn’t actually a hero until he wandered up to a sword hanging up on the wall and pulled it off. It looked covered in ancient, ancient technology and when he raised it, it made a noise and glowed. Not with magical light but perhaps it was endowed with sacred magic that they couldn’t see. The knight still told them that he couldn’t hear a voice but he could wield the sword. The prince decided it was okay. They needed all the help they could get.

Then evening came and the prince lay awake, wondering if he’d get all the heroes. How he’d get them. In fact, how would they even know where his mother was? How could they save her when she could’ve already died from that stab wound?

@layraket, @candy8448, @luna-lovegreat, @thekingbiscuit

[muffinlance]

I'm dying for more Tiny Danger Noodle Zuko content. I can't decide which I wanna see more; someone accidentally hurting the noodle (resulting in dramatic Miette-esque "betrayed" looks on Zuko's part and lots of pampering and cuddles to beg forgiveness from the crew) or them hurting Zuko on purpose when they first meet him and immediately regretting it from the heartbreaking noises he makes and how scared of them he becomes 🤔

(Continued from this ficlet.)

Bato swore, which ended Hakoda’s good day.

“Fire Nation?” he asked.

“Who else,” his second-in-command said, lowering the spyglass.

“Ship?”

“Scout.”

“Shoot it down.”

* * *

Zuko landed on the mast. And sort of… wobbled, but his claws were sharp and the mast was wood, so. He clung on. And blinked hazily down. The dogs had brought him here, so… this was safe, right? He… he needed help. There was only so much that good-intentioned tongue licks could do for a burn wound. 

The sails were blue.

The men had bows.

Zuko’s day got worse.

* * *

It was hard to see how big the scout was, between the sails. So Hakoda was not expecting how very small it was, when it hit the deck. 

The hatchling dragged itself into something of a defensible position. It braced its legs and arched its neck and flared its wings, like a kitten-otter trying to scare off a predator. It bleed on his deck, much less intimidatingly.

“Hold your fire,” he ordered.

Which was just as well, given that the ocean took that moment to erupt all around them.

“Woof,” boomed a very disappointed isodog.

* * *

Healer Kustaa could feel the ground under his feet rumbling with growls as he stepped down onto the dog’s back.

“Easy, boy,” he said, and very carefully picked his way over the ridges of the isodog’s shell, towards where another dog’s big head was trying to lick something that was smaller than its tongue. Said thing was hissing. 

The hissing increased exponentially as he drew closer. The little dragon’s size, on the other hand, seemed to shrink as it coiled more tightly around itself. There was a wash of red mixing with the water on the first dog’s shell, like watercolors diluted. The puddle had been much starker up on deck.

“Easy, boy,” Kustaa repeated, and set his bag down, hopefully out of immediate range of incineration. Unlike himself. “I’m a healer.”

The hissing continued.

“Can I take a look?” 

The hissing did not abate.

“I know you’re scared—”

The hissing intensified.

“—And I’m sorry my chief is an idiot—”

A slight decrease.

“—But we’ve got to get that out and get it wrapped. And unlike your big friends here, I’ve got opposable thumbs.”

A scaly snout poked tentatively from the dragon’s coils, a little red tongue flickering in the air, like it could taste his sincerity.

A scaly snout with a pustulant burn wound. 

“...We’ll take care of that, too.”

The head retreated back into the coils. The hissing resumed.

Kustaa sighed, and pulled out the most secret of healer techniques: a bulky wool blanket.

He carried the wrapped-up dragon back to the sickbay, hissing and wiggling.

[ssreeder]

heres some sketches to go along with my rant (in a different ask cause i did these after) I FORGOT WHAT JET LOOKS LIKE BUT THATS SUPPOSED TO BE HIM W SUKI UHHHHH

so jet and suki doing the… spit handshake… or whatever… and then zuko laughing and sokka being shocked, then sokka dying from the spicy dumpling he took from zuko

OKAY THATS ENOUGH FROM ME THANK U FOR THE FLUFFY CHAPTER!!!!!!

WAHHHHH ART FOR ITF?!?! NO WAY!!! I love it!!! I AM GOING CRAZYYYYY!!

Jet looks so devious and also handsome!! SPIT PACT LETS GOOOO!!!

& zuko did get to laugh finally after over one million words haha. Thanks again for these they brought me so much joy!!