#this could be an avatar zuko au

[zukkaart]

AU where the SWT (Hakoda) conducts a stealth mission into caldera bc he heard a legend of a FN relic that could end the war.

He finally finds the chest and sneaks past its guard (just a woman? Weird) only to find that the chest holds no scroll, no information, no spell even.

Just a black haired baby, barely older than his own son.

[joodeegemstone]

i fucking knew it

[adriancatrin]

soulmark au sketches. the idea of sokka in proven ‘soulmates are real’ universes consistently intrigues me—how would that impact his skepticism/interpretation of fate/destiny/free will? personally i think he’d be very angry for a very long time and probably not even understand why

[discordiansamba]

thought too hard about an offhand comment I made in one of my other posts (as I am wont to do). local fire prince stumbles upon the bones of a dragon while exploring ember island by himself and gets possessed/cursed by it's vengeful spirit.

the servants that ursa sent find the prince collapsed in the middle of the forest. he has a high fever for days that leaves doctors baffled. one morning, they wake up to find that the fever has broken, but the prince is very much not himself. he growls and spits fire at anyone who gets close, acting more like a wary and aggressive animal than he does a human. his body has been warped, gaining features that can only be called draconic.

ursa calls upon the fire sages, and they all tell her that the prince has been cursed. he houses the soul of a dragon within his body now, and it has consumed him. ozai tries to have him killed, but ursa pleads with him and asks him to spare his life. he agrees... on a condition.

(fire lord azulon dies. ozai ascends to the throne.)

iroh returns, having received a disturbing letter from ursa. they have been keeping zuko locked in his room at the ember island villa, at a loss as to what else to do with him. he attacks anyone who gets near, but iroh bravely approaches him regardless. for the first time in months, zuko displays something close to recognition and iroh knows that not all hope is lost. his nephew is buried by the overwhelming anger of the dragon's spirit, but he is not lost.

he takes up residence at their ember island villa, slowly and steadily coaxing his nephew out of the dragon. with iroh's help, zuko gradually regains his senses- though the damage to his body has been done and is irreversible. he slowly learns how to live a mutual existence with the dragon that inhabits his body, and the dragon learns from zuko in turn.

(the first time the dragon speaks to him, iroh is surprised- but perhaps he should not be.)

iroh would like to take his nephew to see the masters, but he knows that he cannot do it under ozai's watchful eye. zuko is forbidden to leave the ember island villa, though he is free to roam its grounds as he pleases. iroh personally hires the most discreet staff he can find. the fire nation is lead to believe that their prince has taken ill, and azula takes his place as ozai's heir.

zuko chafes at his imprisonment. he and the dragon have achieved an understanding, but it is still so angry- and so is zuko. then one day, his father pays him a visit and makes him an offer. the avatar has returned. if he captures him, he will give zuko his freedom, if not his throne.

zuko and the dragon agree.

[fanartfunart]

I had a dream my sister made me pitch this to the alta creators so I'll pitch it to the Fandom: Avatar Azula.

Picture it: maybe Ursa was a stolen bride from the Water Tribe. Or maybe the fire nation has been doing a lot of Avatar Hunting over the years... Azula could easily be very much like Kora and able to bend water and fire at about the same young age. Maybe Ursa convinced a young Azula to only ever use Fire, and she's a prodigy at it, of course. Maybe Azula forgets and thinks it was a game she used to play.

Or maybe nobody knows until she's 14.

Either way, when Ozai finds out, he would think the Spirits have rewarded him. The Avatar is Right Here and loyal to him and the Fire Nation.

Zuko, meanwhile, is still already looking for an Avatar he left at home.

And then there's these ragtag teenagers from a barbaric continent who have *somehow* been guided by an airbender into kidnapping the princess of the firenation.

And now Azula is confused and enraged, Ozai is on a (new) warpath, and Zuko is very much ready to kidnap his sister back before his dad's army does.

But hey just gotta find a way to teach the Avatar the value of... the other nations? Life? Anything other than Conquest? Before she goes back to the Fire Nation. The learning other elements thing is hardly a drop in the water compared to that, really.

(Is Aang an Avatar spirit ala Roku and Sokka's Luck with Spirits just worked out that way? Is Aang some airbender Old Man? Is Aang a kid from a hidden enclave of airbenders? Who knows)

[zukkaflowers]

middle aged zukka have to share a bed but they lie parallel, untouching, both their minds racing thinking about i’ve loved him for years and years and years it’s too late to do anything; if i move he will know if i touch him he will know if i breathe he will know and. i can’t let him know. if i look at him from this short distance there’s no way he won’t be able to tell in my eyes that he’s the center of my soul. if our hands brush and he hears the hitch in my breath. if we wake and i am curled towards him. maybe he can hear my thoughts; maybe he already knows. maybe he can feel my pounding heart forcing ripples through the mattress. maybe he remembers my blush as the lights went out. maybe he knows and he’s embarrassed. maybe he knows and he’s repulsed.

i can’t let him know.

[gotticalavera]

AU ZukAang

Demon/Spirit Zuko x Exorcist-Monk Aang

[Screenshot of the comics "Imbalance" and "Azula in the spirit temple"]

[waterfire1848]

Avatar AU - Azula and Zuko wind up in BSS when they’re very young (4 and 6) and Long Feng decides to raise them in Lake Laogai, keeping them hidden in the place and only allowing them to leave once or twice a week. Flash forward 10 years later, when the Gaang arrive looking for Appa and find both him and two firebenders.

[bluespiritshonour]

I'm presently watching Revenant and I have an idea™ for an AU.

Zuko's got the Blue Spirit latched to him (it's malevolent). Mai can see ghosts. She and Piandao are ghost hunters. To flip the dynamic Mai (the apprentice) is stoic and silent and Piandao is emotional. Of course it's not far from show characterisation except for the fact that I might make Piandao a little more emotional than he is in the show (which is actually a normal amount).

So, the main point could be getting rid of the Blue Spirit. But once that's done they figure Zuko's really good material to be a medium.

Mai and Piandao don't wanna risk it. But Zuko insists.

And they become a trio of ghost hunters or something.

[closetsof-backlogged-dreams]

what would’ve happened if azula was the one who had an iroh and zuko stayed back? (their characters and personalities would be the exact same as in canon, but their roles would be reversed)

love u<33

TAKING A BREAK FROM STUDYING = azula breakdown time <333

im ngl, we're prob gonna be looking at a longer post today bc this is a lot to breakdown😭 so buckle up chickies we're going IN

THINGS WE HAVE TO COVER IN THIS ANALYSIS:

how Zuko leaving did affect Azula

how being forced to leave did affect Zuko

how being forced to leave would effect Azula

how Azula leaving would effect Zuko

how Iroh's effect on Zuko would translate to Azula

the literal changes this would have had on canon

so let's get into it!!

Zuko leaving and it's effect on Azula

So, we know Azula has a problem with abandonment, starting with her mother and ending with Zuko. To try and keep this as short and readable as possible, I'm just going to say that this obviously resulted in a constant need for control over the people she loves, very obviously shown in her relationships with Mai and Ty Lee and even Zuko in season three.

She also just has a very convoluted perception of love (obligatory azula love-fear-control analysis plug), that largely stems from never having it readily accessible to her. Now, even when Zuko was around, they never had a good relationship and she was always his tormenter, but what if they had reconciled? What if they had been able to heal that broken relationship? We'll never know if that could have been a possibility, but Zuko leaving ensured all true familial had been removed from her life.

How being forced to leave affected Zuko

We all know that being forced to leave his home and his family had a huge impact on Zuko as a person. It made him rash, angry, and determined to find the Avatar so he could return home at the cost of anything—even his own life.

Iroh became his anchor, guiding him through the worst of his turmoil and always steering him in the right direction. Iroh kept him human, and stopped him from killing himself trying to capture Aang.

Pre-banishment, we did still see that Zuko was snippy, and still had a temper that could be brought out at times. But post-banishment, all his childhood sweetness was abandoned. Anger became his default setting and his source of power. He was definitely struggling with at least some level of self-resentment and a simultaneous lack of confidence (never being good enough) and over-confidence (required to believe that he could find a man that had eluded the world for a hundred years)

Overall, his banishment made him fueled by anger and constantly at war with himself

How being forced to leave would affect Azula

Azula is a very validation-motivated creature. She has to be perfect, at all times, at all costs. There is never a misstep with her, never a miscalculation. So much as a negative word from her father could destroy her and push her off the edge.

So, imagine this girl, this super-perfectionist, messing up so badly that she is banished from her entire nation? Her father disapproves so much that he disowns her and threatens death in the event that she ever came back?

In the (honestly unlikely) event that she doesn't immediately kill him/overthrow him or try to harm herself in any way, and follows Zuko's storyline of leaving to find the Avatar... yikes. However angry and obsessed Zuko became with finding the Avatar, Azula would be a hundred times worse. The psychological breakdown she had at the end of the show? Yep, that.

She would tear through research and the entire world, leaving death and destruction in her wake. She would become a monster. (Of course, having a support system like Iroh with her would help immensely, but we'll get to that in a bit.)

There is also the question of: would Mai and Ty Lee come with her? If we're following Zuko's banishment to a T, then she should be banished at age thirteen, around a year before we meet her in canon. I'm not going to lie, that's a whole other analysis in and of itself, so maybe I can do a separate post on that later?? Send me an ask if you're interested😭😭

How Azula leaving would affect Zuko

There are two things we have to remember here: despite being the oldest sibling, Azula was always the favorite and most accomplished of the two. He was always ridiculed and looked down on due to being so far behind his sister, in raw power and cunning both.

But at the same time, this means that all the pressure to succeed was put on Azula's shoulders. It's why she became such a perfectionist. She always was perfect, so now she had to perfect enough for both of them. Now, where Zuko had been mostly given up on, they would be pushing for him to step up as heir and become the perfect one.

This is a pressure he's never had to experience before. Azula was the way she was for a reason—she became a perfectionist because of that pressure, and Zuko would probably become the same way.

Of course, I still think he would keep his sympathy and genuine humanity that Azula often lacked, but he would be forced to push it down most of the time. Where he had been grounded by Iroh in the show? Gone. He would have absolutely no one to turn to, absolutely no one to support him. If we're sticking to canon, maybe he would have Mai, but that's where it stops. And he would probably be the over-controlling POS he was in the first half of season three, maybe even worse.

Overall, Azula being banished would absolutely destroy Zuko, and probably push him to that same psychological brink Azula was teetering on the entire series. It wouldn't be pretty, that's for sure.

Zuko & Iroh -> translated for Azula & a mother figure

Okay, in order to fully answer this question, we have to take note of all the things that made Iroh and Zuko work:

Iroh losing his own son, and Zuko filling that cavity in his life

Zuko having an abusive father and Iroh becoming his father figure

Zuko needing and Iroh being an anchor in Zuko's life to keep him human

Zuko being given up on his entire childhood and Iroh being the first person with genuine faith in him and willing to help him

So, let's translate these things into Azula, and a hypothetical mother figure (disclaimer!! no hate to Ursa; this is just all from Azula's perspective and how she views her relationship w her mother <3):

Azula's mother figure potentially having once had a daughter that she was too hard on/did not treat well and wanting the chance to do right with Azula

Azula having a mother that believed she was a monster, and her mother figure reassuring her that she is human and does have the capacity for good

this mother figure also being an anchor in Azula's life, and saving her from absolutely destroying the world trying to go home

Azula being forced to be perfect her entire childhood and her mother figure being the first person to genuinely help her and allow her the space to make mistakes and reassuring her that it was okay

(Okay, not gonna lie here, this idea of a mother figure for Azula is really getting to me—the urge to write a fic I'll never finish is STRONG)

Overall, a mother figure that would support Azula and genuinely care for her would have had a colossal effect on her. I really believe that Azula would have been able to have a happy ending. idk this is really getting to me😭

AND FINALLY:

the literal changes this would have on canon

For one, I genuinely think Azula would have succeeded. Azula has always been a prodigy, and while Zuko was able to become powerful with the guidance of Iroh, Azula started out that way. I also think that while Azula's mother figure may have been able to steady her and keep her from the brink, she never would have been able to quell Azula's ambition. Her ambition is just too much a part of her, the same way Iroh was never able to quell Zuko's fury.

Also, Zuko did have Aang a few times! But he also had the sympathy to let him go, or was just not powerful to stop him from getting away. Azula was different. Genuinely nothing could of stopped her from capturing season one, inexperienced, little kid Aang. It may have taken a few shots, but she would have done it.

I really think Azula would have succeeded and returned home as a new woman, with the support of her mother figure, and now with the capacity to genuinely love people (at least to some degree.) I think Azula and Zuko would have been able to repair their broken relationship. Azula would have become Firelord with Zuko as her advisor, and the Fire Nation would have reigned in a new era. The Fire Nation also most likely would have been successful in conquering the world, now.

So, happy ending for Zuko and Azula and most of the Fire Nation, but... no one else lol.

wow! this was actually such a fun idea to play with. probably one of my favorite asks you've ever sent me<3 i love u sm we are unstoppable

[moss-on-a-pebble]

I don’t know if you’re still doing requests for art. If you aren’t delete this but if you are…could I request Avatar!Sokka?

Got into an atla doodle mood after my last post so decided to quickly do this one as well!

Sokka would get into all kinds of shenanigans as the Avatar I just know it

[demaparbat-hp]

Beautiful

[magicaldancer5678]

Soooo where's the Zutara "You've Got Mail" (1998 film) au???

Like the way so many details would fit together! It's slow burn rivals-to-lovers but they have been friends via pen pal method the whole time under aliases perfection!!! Also the book shop aesthetic!!!!!

Does no one see the vision??? 😭

[hyperfocusthusly]

I’m going to finish this chapter today if it kills me

(And finish it I did!) -> Beams, Bars and Burns

[discordiansamba]

back on my mer zuko au bullshit again. local fire prince just straight up doesn't go anywhere if there's not an ocean-linked body of water nearby even after he gets the ability to get legs again. when he's fire lord he mostly travels by druk because there's a difference between "why is the fire prince's hair always damp" vs "why is the fire lord's hair always damp".

(also because it's harder to have a member of the gaang be on 'bring zuko his clothes' duty as they get older. it's sokka a disproportionate amount of time.)

[garfield-milk]

pspspsps. transfem zuko headcanons? im all ears please tell me

you have no idea how much I've waited for the day someone asks me about this...

ok so I want to start about how I think her childhood was like. pretty much everything happened the same as in canon but!!! ursa realized that there was something going on with zuko (she was showing her feminity) she didn't know exactly what, but she neither wanted to dig too deep. she just went "oh wow my kid is a queer, I personally don't care but I don't want to see him get hurt" so she let zuko try some jewelry and do femenine things with her but letting her know that it was seen as something "bad". HC that zuko secretly loves (both in canon and in this au) when azula calls her zuzu bc it's not a masculine nickname. anyways stuff happen, zuko started hiding that part of herself and then Ursa leaves and the agni Kai happens and she had to cut her hair (ouch). she didn't let it grow back or have it united bc she felt ashamed about everything about her !!!!! (I know I'm making this up myself but IM GOING TO CRY UGHHHH). there's more under the cut, I just don't want to make this too long lmao

ok so 3 years go by she gets really depressed and angry and blah blah blah your average zuko angry but with more flavour. then she a iroh have to flee from de FN and she cuts her hair!!!!! and lets it grow longer (it grows really fast ok?) which feels great for her and when they get to BBS and trans stuff start to happen. I have this idea (idk if this works well with canon but idc) that, meanwhile in the FN lee is a masc name in the EK the only name similar is Li (a femenine name) so one time iroh is talking to a costumer and calls "lee" to help him and the consumer just says something like "oh I didn't know you had a daughter" and iroh doesn't correct them (old man suspects a few things) and neither does zuko so iroh looks at her with that knowing smile but let's it be hehehehehe.

also I have a feeling that in BBS they arent really lgbt friendly but they let queer people live their lifes freely bc they want everyone to be "happy", so there's a ton of LGBT paces. zuko just happens to stumble in one and there's a lot of queer people and when zuko tells them that her name is Li they share a look and go "li girl come here, let us give you a makeover" and they dress her and put make up and jewelry on her. zuko starts coming over and meets a bunch of trans people and realizes that there's nothing wrong with her (after this is by the time she catches that 'im becoming good' fever, because she's also redeeming herself). she doesn't tell iron but!! she start wearing a bit more femenine clothes and some jewelry and pretty much everyone in the tea shop calls her iroh's niece/daughter so...

oh!!!! and zuko and jet have a thing bc jet didn't realize that she was a firebender until after the ferry. so one time zuko takes the courage to tell him that she's a girl (first person she actually came out to) and jet is completely fine with it bc why wouldn't he?? and then he finds out she's a firebender and tries to kill her (jet is a dumbass, he doesn't die and 5 years later they find each other and jet sees her and is like wow I shouldn't have tried to kill her but Zuko doesn't want to know anything about jet bc #girl boss). also the blue spirit is believed to be a girl and when zuko first heard someone say "oh wow do you not know about the blue spirit? she's like the coolest folk hero ever..." she got really fucking happy but attached it to the fact that that way people wouldn't associate the blue spirit with her (lie).

and this is without going too much into what would happen after she joins the gang (not really sure when that would happen, if in the bbs catacombs or like in canon after going to the FN) but she and Katara would be absolutely besties after the firsts weeks and Katara would be GLAD, even if she tries to not show it, to finally have someone to be girls with (no, she insists that toph doesn't count because she's just as nasty, if not more, as the boys) and Katara would say stuff like omg im going to teach you how to be the perfect girl, and even though it might sound weird bc katara wtym perfect girl, but they are both excited asf and loving the concept so it doesn't matter (they are doing each others hair while shit talking about people)

i would love to know your opinions about what would she change her name to bc, yeah she prefers li over zuko but it's still very much a masculine name to her fire nation ears. so I have a few opinion but in not really sure witch one I like the best: suzume, sao, sakda or kuniko. but I'm open to hear any suggestions tho! and about head canons too, and pretty much anything related to transfem zuko!!!!!