#typical zuko

[standardquip]

Typically Zuko: An Awkward Zuko fancam

Hi! Zuko here.

Video: Avatar: the Last Airbender Audio: Kroh - Typical Me Released in 2023

[s-c-l-n]

college zukka roommates where its 3 am, sokka walks into their dorm and sees zuko playing every version of “please, please, please let me get what i want” with candles light all around his side of the room and notes that say “passing grade” on just about ever surface while zuko is sleeping

(sokka turns around and closes the door to go bother suki into letting him stay in her room for the night)

[theduckeminence]

“Water. Earth. Fire. Air.”

“My grandmother used to tell me stories about the old days, a time of peace when the Avatar kept balance between the Water Tribes, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and Air Nomads.”

“But that all changed when the Fire Nation attacked.“

“According to my grandmother, in response to the Fire Nation bringing devastation to the world in attempt of war, the Spirits grew upset by the way in which the order of things have been put into imbalance.”

“So, in response to the losses left by the fire, a rot was releases into the world.”

“And slowly, taking the body and minds of others, the infection known as Spirit Rot came to be.”

“Only the Avatar mastered all four elements. Only he could stop the outspread of this disease. He can bring peace back to and for all of us. But when the world needed him most, he vanished.”

A hundred years have passed and the Spirit Rot has since consumed the world, leaving behind more devastation and losses than the Fire Nation had done.

Two years ago, my father and the men of my tribe journeyed to the Earth Kingdom to help fight against the infected and offer transport and assistance, leaving me and my brother to look after our tribe.

Some people believe that the Avatar was never reborn into the Air Nomads, and that the cycle is broken. But I haven't lost hope. I still believe that somehow, the Avatar will return to save the world."

Or, an ATLA infection AU.

[dualcordie]

I want to write a sun and moon zukka fic but not in the sense that zuko has a sun personality and sokka has a moon personality, but rather zuko is the moon (peace, tranquility, calm, etc.) to sokka and sokka is the sun (happiness, warmth, home, etc.) to zuko

I need someone to understand what I’m getting at here

[lollytea]

I got my nephew a last airbender comic AND a poster and a snorlax plush for his birthday and I've never seen him more excited about a present in his life. It was great!!!

[sukibenders]

"I love ATLA, it's one of my favorite shows! But I hate Aang! He's my least favorite character because he's selfish, immature, practically started the war in the first place, and he's so possessive-"

Like, it's okay to not like a character and everything, as everyone is drawn to something different. But if you're going to contrive a complete bs argument and mischaracterize the character to try and justify your unfair hate, just keep it to yourself. Also, reminder, Aang is a kid for the majority of the show so of course some of the things he does are going to be either a.) childish or b.) something that an older person wouldn't necessarily choose out the gate. Or did you think you were all wise and knowing as a child? 🤨

[shinygeo]

I feel like there's way too much feminization of male characters with trauma. Like I see it a l o t. As soon as a male character gets trauma or is found to have trauma he gets femininzed and is always put in a mlm relationship with big strong dude who also has trauma but no one cares bc he has muscles or some sort of attachment to masculinity.

Do you know how unhealthy that is??? For fandoms to only really see men's trauma as valid when they put them in skirts and put them in a heteronomative gay relationship?? Like men with muscles can have trauma?? It does nothing but help toxic masculinity and make men believe they can't possibly have trauma?

Masculinity is not inherently bad. Femininity is not inherently good.

(This is aimed at fandoms, obviously there's a fuckin massive problem of misogyny and ppl seeing femininity as inherently bad)

Femininzing masc characters with trauma also damages Femininity as it reduces it to being 'emotional'.

Trauma isn't part of the gender roles it has nothing to do with them.

(Feel the need to point that this has NOTHING to do with trans headcannons, I love those they r great)

[ljesaw]

can’t stop thinking about somebody saying that zuko is constantly going against his very nature in order to be evil and i will be crying about it forever frankly

[vulturevanity]

My lukewarm take is that while A:tlA did most of what it set out to do impeccably, "what it set out to do" was never really that good or groundbreaking

[natasxliah]

I LOVE this! Married!Zutara is 👌🏻

Book 2 au with Zuko and Katara Lee and Huamei

Katara is separated from her friends, and so she's left to travel the earth kingdom on her own. She stumbles across Zuko, who is similarly travelling on his own. They decide that pairing up and travelling together would be best

[atlaculture]

I have a weird question: Is chiefdom hereditary in Inuit communities? In the Northern Water Tribe, we know that Desna and Eska inherited their chief position from Unalaq- but I’m unsure about the Southern Water Tribe, maybe Sokka inherited the position from Hakkoda and then when Sokka died without issue, they held elections and chose Tonraq? Or maybe Sokka was democratically elected as well?

I’m sorry if I ended up rambling. It’s just that seeing Desna and Eska inherit their chiefdom really confused me because I always thought that it was an elected position

Traditionally, leadership in Inuit culture was determined by consensus, so basically a democratic election. Typically, the qualities that led people to choose you as a leader were your survival skills.

I've mentioned before that the Northern Water Tribe has more non-Inuit cultural influences than the Southern Water Tribe, so I've always just chalked up their hereditary leadership as being another example of that. Considering their proximity to Ba Sing Se, their emphasis on a strict hereditary chiefdom might be for the sake of projecting an image of centralized power, to help ward off their imperialistic neighbors to the south.

As for the Southern Water Tribe, I think they're actually a collection of small and independent villages, with each one having its own leader that's democratically elected; this is how they're portrayed in the "North and South" Avatar comics. This would explain why Katara mocked Sokka when he tried to claim he was a prince to Yue; it would be like the son of a small-town mayor declaring himself a prince. Plus, if leadership were hereditary, princedom would have been an internal struggle for Sokka, similar to Zuko. But Sokka's insecurity is never framed as not being worthy of being chief, but as simply lacking traditionally masculine skills.

I think Sokka eventually becoming the Southern Water Tribe Chief had more to do with his status as a prominent war hero than to his connection to his father.

[fabdante]

A Tea for Sunrise

“But what is home,” Iroh asks more bluntly this time. Zuko presses his lips together and thinks. He’s thinking too literally, maybe, attributing home to four walls. “Well, you, Uncle,” he begins. Obvious answer but one anyway. Iroh chuckles. “You and the Jasmine Dragon and this tea.” “What else?” Iroh sips his tea. “Sitting with my friends around a fire. Being the last awake after a good nights meal, knowing everyone's fed and safe. Staring at the stars with them. Maybe the summer house on Ember Island.” He taps his cup. “Making dinners and lunches and breakfasts with Katara. When she tells me stories about her travels or the South Pole. When we both stay up late because I don’t want to give in too early and miss out on our conversations.” He considers a moment longer, sips his tea again, then glances towards Iroh’s shoe. “Maybe this whole trip.” Iroh hums. “Katara is a lovely girl,” he says. “She’s one of the best people I know,” Zuko agrees. “And one of your favorites.” Ironically, the notion hadn’t quite crossed Zuko’s mind until the words were laid out in front of him. But she is, isn’t she? It’s becoming harder to imagine what life would be like without her there in some way or another. Be it like this, them side by side and adventuring. Or something else. He hasn’t quite figured out the ‘something else’. Letters, maybe, hopefully quite frequent if she cannot be nearby. He doesn’t like the idea of her not being nearby. “She’s one of my best friends,” he says and Iroh snorts.

Summery: Realizing they're close to Ba Sing Se, Zuko and Katara agree to stop in the city to visit with Uncle Iroh. (Posted for @zutaraweek day seven, sweet!)

Word Count: 10'949

Rating: G (canon typical mentions of Zuko's childhood and also the war)

Read Here!

And read the rest of Circumnavigators of Celestial Bodies here! (series can be read in any order but is listed chronologically here!)

[ill-kidnap-all-the-stars]

Azula

[ image description: a digital drawing of Azula from Avatar: the Last Airbender in my style. She is a light-skinned woman with gold eyes and black hair, the top part tied in a top knot. She is wearing a red cheongsam dress with a wide skirt, a dark red/brown sash and a matching shawl around her arms. Her upper cheongsam has gold hibiscus embroidery, while her sash has gold phoenix embroidery. Whisps of blue fire are coming from her fingers. She is standing in front of a brown Fire Nation sign ]

prints ✨ commissions

I honestly feel like this Azula might be close to my magnum opus 🔥 influences and inspiration under the cut, but the usual warning that it's nigh impossible to condense thousands of years and miles worth of culture into one post so there is 100% nuance and detail missing. Also, I tried my best with the Chinese, but I honestly don't speak a lick of it so I put my faith in strangers on the internet :/ anyway, enjoy:

A Bit of Background:

The Fire Nation is visually and geographically inspired by volcanic islands such as Iceland, Hawaii and Polynesian islands, while the culture of the Fire Nation is primarily inspired by East, South and Southeast Asia, as well as sun-worshipping cultures (such as the Ancient Egyptians and Mesoamericans). For example:

the Confucian concept of ‘filial piety’ (孝顺 or ‘xiao shun’) is central to the Fire Nation too;

the agni kai is a form of honour duel commonly seen in warrior societies of South Asia, and literally translates as ‘Duel of Fire’ or ‘Fire Quarrel’;

the Fire Nation propaganda justifying the war is reminiscent of the Japanese Empire during the Second World War;

the architecture draws on that of Ancient Egypt, different Chinese dynasties, and historic Southeast Asian kingdoms;

the food typically resembles the Sichuan food, particularly in the spiciness and quantities of meat.

Fire Nation Clothing:

The clothing of the Fire Nation draws from many East and Southeast Asian clothing. For example, the armour the military wears has influences from traditional Thai armour, the shoulder pieces the Royal Family wears come from Burmese court wear, the school uniforms are inspired by traditional Thai clothing, and the Royal Family's top knot appear to come from Qin Dynasty China.

The Royal Court are often seen wearing changshan, a traditional clothing of the Han Chinese, although that is not the only influence. For example, Azula's skirt comes from the wraparound trousers worn in Laos, Cambodia and Thailand, while Ty Lee and Toph's jewellery comes from the Thai mongkut.

My Design:

While Azula (and, in fact, many other Fire Nation characters) originally had a distinctly Japanese-influenced design, I decided to roll with the overarching Chinese aesthetic that she and the Royal Court ended up with. I think it's well-established that Azula's obsession with perfection extends to her appearance, not just her bending, so I decided to draw her as the perfect Fire Nation princess.

My starting point was the Chinese phoenix (鳳凰 or ‘fenghuang’), which symbolises, among other things, feminine beauty and good fortune, and is traditionally associated with the Empress in Imperial China. In addition, the phoenix and the dragon are often seen as representative of the yin and yang, the two complimentary and opposing forces in Chinese philosophy, and I think the two nicely symbolise Azula and Zuko's contentious relationship. I also embellished her dress with hibiscus flowers, as they symbolise glory, grandeur and fame, which I believe Azula desires greatly.

[loveamongdragons]

I've been thinking about what sort of conflicts Zuko and Katara would realistically have if they ever ended up together. I mostly either see fan interpretations where they bicker a lot, or where they have total understanding between each other, but I don't think that either would be the case.

So, first of all, the typical enemies-to-lovers who bicker all the time to hide the sexual tension trope is just not about Zutara: in the latter part of book 3, we see their wholesome and understanding relationship, and we can safely assume that this is what the basis of their bond will be going on forward.

However.

Conflicts happen, and especially if we are talking about a Katara that emerges from a long-term relationship with Aang, I think we will have two pitfalls she'd be frequently running into:

Trying to mother Zuko out of habit. Bonus points if she did not do it prior to them entering a relationship and then suddenly started doing so. Katara has been parentified, and she is used to playing the motherly persona for her partner - something that might cause Zuko to feel infantilized, leading to anger. Or: he might feel that he can't get through to Katara, and that she is acting not as herself, causing some sort of frustration he'd have no word for.

suddenly not voicing her opinion when she disagrees with him, out of fear that he'd bolt. Only applies if Katara emerged from a really long relationship with Aang where this continued to be an issue throughout the years, and it's admittedly less likely than the first one. Still, I can see a Katara hiding her thoughts out of habit, getting subconsciously angry about it, Zuko getting angry too because he feels that some sort of tension is in the air, and that Katara is more on edge than usual, and not understanding what the issue is.

On the other hand, we'd have Zuko misinterpreting innocuous phrases, especially if he emerged from a long-term relationship with Mai (who, let's admit it, tends to leave a lot of barbed comments).

So, we might have a Zuko who hides behind a wall due to suddenly feeling inadequate or despised, and Katara, understandably, not getting what the deal was. Bonus points if it triggers a trauma reaction in Katara due to memories of Aang bolting and leaving her.

We might also have a Zuko who got used to others not giving a lick of care regarding what he does and where he goes, and thus failing to communicate his plans properly, causing (again, understandably) anger in Katara. Again, bonus points if it reminds her of Aang's tendency to disappear.

Let me be clear: none of these would be relationship-breaking, and with how much trust and intimacy there is between them, I fully believe that they'd be able to sort it out. But especially at the beginning of a relationship, I believe that these issues would keep tailing them. In time, it would probably evolve into comments like "you're doing this thing again" and "ah... yes... sorry, my bad."

[haroldtea]

no sleep except to dream 🩸

“I know it makes me selfish,” Sokka said into his neck after a while. Zuko felt his breath hitting where the necklace laid. “But sometimes, after you leave here, I hope you fail. Just so I can see you again.”

Zuko felt a stinging in his eyes and squeezed them shut. “Then I must be no better, because sometimes I smile as Azula sends me back up the Styx. Because it means that time wasn’t the last time.”

a zukka hades au

(you don’t need to have played hades to understand the main story)

cw: some mentions of video game-typical blood and *slight* gore