#zukka fan fiction

[robinlolo]

ZUKKA FIC RECS :)

Sokka is washed overboard while working on the fisherman's boat during the storm. He wakes on a deserted island.

Or... mostly deserted.

Chief Arnook never assigns Sokka to protect Princess Yue, so he goes to fight the Fire Nation with the other men. When the moon dies, and the ocean spirit takes its revenge, Sokka is caught standing on the deck of a Fire Nation ship. Sokka should have drowned… and he would have drowned, if not for a certain Fire Nation raft fleeing the North Pole.

[An enemies-to-lovers season 2 rewrite, where Sokka is separated from the gaang during the Siege of the North, and travels the Earth Kingdom with Zuko instead].

The world is a wild, strange place, and Zuko has spent his whole life searching for his place in it.

An accidental encounter with Prince Zuko forces Sokka to discover that desperate times call for desperate measures. Oh, and he's not telling that story to anyone.

Sokka isn't sure what Zuko is doing in the middle of a swamp, but what he is sure about is that it can't be good.

Book 3. Sokka/Zuko. Set after The Boiling Rock Pt. 2, Sokka and Zuko explore the Western Air Temple, where Sokka tries to get Zuko to talk about girls, marriage, and maybe even a future for the two of them.

Sokka and Zuko are both weird guys. Fortunately, they're the same kind of weird as each other.

Sokka thinks Ozai’s beach house is pretty awesome. Slightly less awesome is the couch he has to sleep on, as is accidentally getting into Zuko’s bed.

At first, that is.

Long ago, the four nations lived in harmony. Then everything changed when the tower of Babel was built.

Just kidding- this will be a typical canon rewrite of the Avatar: The Last Airbender story with soulmates, Zukka, and languages!

Follow Sokka where he embarks on a journey around the world, following a strange monk who speaks in a dialect over 100 years old. Along the way, Sokka realizes he has a soulmate, depicted by the black lettering that appears on his wrist out on his journey. The only problem is, he can't read the writing for the life of him.

*Tower of Babel not included

Sokka deals with the loss, heartbreak, and fear as he learns just who the name on his wrist belongs to. He embarks on a delicate journey of acceptance and grief, while Prince Zuko struggles to keep his cool while life throws anything it can at him. Follow the boys in the second book of the Lost in Translation series!

Typical soulmate au/canon rewrite with a fun twist: realistic languages! If you're new here, be sure to start with book one! Regular readers, good to see you again! Hope you enjoy the second installment of this silly little fanfic I've grown to love :)

[squeezetheduck]

I am now and probably always will be a sucker for characters that are a little ‘too good’ for the world in which they exist, and the cynical characters that can’t help to fall in love with them for it

[meforreal7]

I think it’s so interesting how in gay ships there’s always one that’s gay and one that’s bi it’s like we’re trying to make the ships more believable and random by having the two characters have different sexualities. Ofc a lot of the time the characters are canonically straight so I just think it’s really interesting to see which one ends up being labeled as gay and which one as bi in the fics. For example Zuko/Sokka, for the majority of fics Zuko tends to be gay and Sokka bi even tho they’re both written as straight in canon. Another good example is Sasuke/Naruto. Sasuke is gay and Naruto bi. I suppose it could just be narrowed down to vibes but it’s a common pattern I’ve noticed and they do tend to make sense generally so

[arainbowmess]

A reminder that U should totally read my fav fanfics (like rn)

[eleanorthealigator]

Sokka/Zuko Fanfics

I'm starting to get into this ship, would love to have some of your favorite recommendations!! Open to Omegaverse, and some canon divergence. Preferably a fanfic with angst and world building. Bottom Zuko or switch pairings preferred. But it would be amazing if there was no smut! I really like lengthy fanfics, so nothing less than 50k. Ongoing fanfics are ok! Excited to see what fanfics are out there!

[mangoofthesea]

what I say: I like reading fiction about power structures and systems of governance outside of our usual - like royalty fantasy or rogue criminal heist kind of thing. The action sequences and higher levels of consequences are really cool

what I mean: it's about the experience of being trapped within a system which you hate but want to sustain in a better way than it has been for the good of its members its about loving your family while hating your family while being stuck somewhere you want to improve you can't escape your responsibility but you can try its a never ending struggle of deciding who you are and who you could be and how you can live and live with yourself while within such systems that feel like a wall closing in on you and your life as you try to build a life with less corruption than the last generation its about th-

[i-dont-actualy-like-oatmeal]

fan fiction is just a more grown up version of me in my room making two ken dolls kiss

[zaddyazula]

i’m struggling on what to write for my zukka fic 😭😭😭😭

idk whether to do siege of the north or go straight to season 2 i’m so lost

[stealthetrees]

Why can i not filter my marked for later list on ao3. I use that thing like a fucking library. It’s 17 pages long and I’m looking for one fic I marked years ago and I can’t find it. This should be a feature.

[aangsfrogs]

I forgot how some fan fictions make my heart flutter and I’m out of breath

[theotterpenguin]

the performative accusation that shipping zutara (and occasionally this criticism is levied at jinko/zukka) is colonialist apologism has been addressed in some excellent posts, explaining the inaccuracies and problematic implications of this logic far better than i ever could - like this post and this one and this one and this one and this one.

and i know this topic has been talked about to death, but if you could indulge my contribution for a moment, i just find it interesting how this sentiment results from the cognitive dissonance of atla fans being unable to reconcile with the idea of their favorite show's political beliefs not lining up with their own.

atla is a largely philosophical children's show that at its core deals with themes of love, redemption, and destiny vs. free-will. atla examines these themes through an anti-colonalist, anti-imperalist lens that deconstructs the idea of racial divisiveness and the idea that people of different ethnicities are inherently different. this is message is pretty explicitly stated by guru pathik:

Guru Pathik: "The greatest illusion of this world is the illusion of separation. Things you think are separate and different are actually one and the same." Aang: "Like the four nations?" Guru Pathik: "Yes. We are all one people. But we live as if divided."

and also by uncle iroh:

"It is important to draw wisdom from many different places. If you take it from only one place, it becomes rigid and stale. Understanding others, the other elements and the other nations will help you become whole."

this theme is developed across three full seasons, with the crux of this message culminating in zuko's friendships with the gaang - despite coming from different nationalities and different backgrounds, they have all had their own experiences being hurt by the fire nation and work together to take down the oppressive fire nation government. the question of destiny vs. free will is also explored through zuko's character - despite starting off as an antagonist, he develops into a symbolic representation of how the fire nation's oppression hurts its own citizens. he unlearns the fire nation's imperialist propaganda while simultaneously unlearning his father's abuse. rather than following misguided beliefs of what he thought his destiny was as the heir to the throne, instead he forges his own path.

thus, to claim that zuko can never form a deep and meaningful relationship with any of the gaang because of his nationality goes unequivocally against the themes of the show. and a major part of this is because these are fictional characters being used to analyze different theoretical questions within the show and in some cases, are used as symbolic representations of different philosophical ideas - their friendships and their character arcs serve a purpose within the text that cannot be easily transcribed onto real-life dynamics between people.

it's illogical to criticize fans who are choosing to understand atla at the level of the themes that are presented by the text - who are interested in exploring similar philosophical questions brought up by the show through the context of relationships.

if you don't like the themes of forgiveness and redemption that atla explores, your criticism should be aimed at the writing of the show itself rather than other fans. because you are giving far more thought to the "implications" of a close friendship or romantic relationship between someone from an imperalist nation and someone from an oppressed nation than the writers ever did. (and if you fall in this camp of people, i would hope you wouldn't be reblogging fanart of zuko and the gaang together while simultaneously claiming zuko could can never escape the sins of his ancestors and can never form a deep relationship based on trust and intimacy with katara or sokka or jin - because that would just be hypocritical).

and as a side note, people seem to apply this flawed logic to zutara far more than other ships solely because the show spends the most time exploring the complicated nature of fire nation imperalism in the interactions between zuko and katara in the latter half of b3. this is because they've been juxtapositioned against each other and paralleled with aang since the beginning of the show in ways that toph, sokka, and suki are not, who have mostly been used to examine different themes. there simply isn't enough time to explore these complicated themes with all the other characters, even if they theoretically exist in zuko’s dynamics with these characters, so the writers focus the most on zuko's relationships with katara and aang, and these relationships are given far more narrative weight, so have more content to criticize. but zuko and katara also canonically become friends by the end of the show. if you want to discount the existence of their friendship, claiming that it will always be tainted by the fire nation's oppression regardless of what is shown in the text, then you also have to discount zuko's friendships with aang, suki, toph, and sokka - because even if this isn't shown as a permanent barrier to their friendships in the show, it’s also not shown as a permanent barrier to his friendship with katara. if your logic is solely based on the idea that a person's identity in a relationship as a colonizer or a victim is fixed and unchanging regardless of character development, this would apply to zuko's friendships with everyone else as well.

[punkeropercyjackson]

My issue with Zutara isn't JUST that it's problematic ship but also that the SHIPPERS are almost always problematic PEOPLE.For example,i ship Zukka and even Tyzula,though the latter more queerplatonically as a friendship thing with my longtime bestie-Yes,Zukka has a few of the same problems Zutara does and Tyzula's dynamic was much more unhealthy than Z/K ever was but when was the last time you saw Zukka shippers doing anything but vibing and being nice to others fans and celebrating and encouraging things like lgbt and neurodivergence/disability/mental illness headcanons?The only times i DO see them being mean it's to bigots in the fandom that have earned it or just joking around.And for Tyzula,the Azula and Ty Lee stans who ship it are pretty much always Aang defenders too because they understand that as a gnc boy of color he's as much rep as the woc are so they don't stand for unfair hate of him or Kataang and that's my number one priority when it comes to deciding to interact with other Atla fans or blocking them because of how violently racist the fandom has been about both for so long and most Tyzula stans are understanding that not everyone is comfortable shipping them even in aus so they don't harass people over it and just do their own thing.Zutaras love crying 'I'm allowed to enjoy problematic fiction!!!' but that means nothing when you treat REAL people badly over it because you're literally proving Zutara antis right to think you're gross and entitled losers by shipping it

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

Kataang is a ship that dared to be different. Not sure why people think Kataang is a sexist ship when Katara and Aang both protect and support each other and neither is the damsel and the hero in the relationship.

And yet people think ZK is better than the average M/F ship when the reason why ZK is so damn popular is because of annoying overdone hetero-normalic tropes. To the point where people think Zuko taking a hit for Katara is romantic coded (and apparently me and my peers are """delusional""" for not seeing it as romantic coded) and that ZK fanfics are such romantic fantasies of Zuko saving Katara and Katara being such a meek little girlfriend for the badass chad fanon!Zuko. (As if the ZK fanbase is aware that Zuko and Katara are both pure yang energy and they have to make Katara meek to make the ZK ship work.)

I mean yes I am annoyed Z/tara is as popular as it is but Kataang is canon and ZK is dipping in popularity and it feels like the bulk of the ZK fanbase is just annoying ass middle aged women who get pissy at a kids show for not being the adult show they want...

Just food for thought...Especially considering ZK shippers act immature trying to 1-up people by saying their ship is popular (I mean, are they unaware Zukka topped Z/tara?) And again, popular doesn't automatically mean good...Especially since Z/tara is only popular because it hits all those hetero-normalic beats that people adore so much.

Guys, come on, let's be serious here. I LOVE kataang, with all my heart, BUT best friends to lovers is as cliche as enemies to lovers, main guy dates main girl is as cliche as hero falls in love with the villain who changes side. To quote my best friend @dragomer "A knife is cliche. It's still what you use to cut shit with."

The problem with Zutara fans is not the they prefer the more "traditional" romance, or that it's cliche, or that it's smutty, or that they sometimes make it a toxic dynamic, or that it's not a "progressive" ship. The problem is they feel entitled to push their preference as the only correct one - it's the same issue that made the fandom for Zukka, an actual non hetero ship, so hated by everyone else. No one likes the people that think only they are allowed to have fun with fanon. No one likes the people that expects them to disregard canon for the sake of their prefered fanon.

And speaking as a bisexual woman: we gotta stop with this nonsense of labeling straight ships "non-hetero normalic" for basic shit (and the reverse of it, the "hetero-normalic gay ship" that is literally just the age old homophobic question of "But which one of you is the woman?" with woke language attached to it). It doesn't matter if Kataang is "heteronormative" or not, because:

1 - All that matters in fiction is if something is WELL WRITTEN AND ENTERTAINING, not if it's progressive or more on the traditional side, if it's cliche or "subverting expectations".

2 - What media you find entertaining has nothing to do with your politic views and real-life sexual preferences. Liking one of H.P. Lovecraft's stories doesn't make you a racist, disliking Freddie Mercury doesn't mean you're homophobic (though it does mean you have shit taste in music), liking the most traditional straight romance ever doesn't mean you're straight yourself.

3 - In the case of Avatar in particular, lets be fucking real: no way two straight writers back in 2005, while working on a kids show in a network that had a long history of banning episodes of shows that tried to hint or full on talk about homosexuality, were thinking "How do we make this straight ship less 'hetero-normalic'?" They were just writting whatever felt right for the characters and story - that's why Avatar, while flawed and a product of it's time, aged WAY better than many shows of the time that had "be progressive" as the goal, it avoided forced narrative choices that were only made to beat the audience over the head with the moral lesson of the day.

[burst-of-iridescent]

at the moment, 5.7k people are following the kataang tag, not 2.9k, as you said, why would you lie? in addition, even on Tumblr (which remained almost the last popular zk place among all fan platforms), Zukka is ahead of Zutara in popularity, and a lot of talented and popular creators of fan art and fan fiction are now concentrated in the Zukka and Maiko fandom. It is fundamentally a mistake to focus on the popularity of the ship, because shipping should be for personal pleasure, but this only shows that most people are ATLA fans (namely fans, not casual viewers) they actively love ATLA and did not see zutara in the canon. In addition, can you give evidence of your words that «almost all of the main cast and most of the writers» love zutara? From the cast, only Dante actively confessed his love for zutara, but he also spoke about his love for zukka, Mae Whitman not against Zutara and joked about it, but she also said in podcast that she also loves kataang, the rest of the actors did not speak at all about their preferences in shipping (except Grey DeLisle who prefers zucest).

none of the screenwriters has ever confessed his love for Zutara, on the contrary, Ehasz has said several times that he loves Maiko, he also wrote almost all the most significant maiko and kataang episodes. The only one of the 13 main writers of ATLA who spoke about sympathy for Zutara is John O'Bryan. Zutara never featured in any of the original scripts, and in ATLA's "bible," the only love triangle that was originally planned was Aang-Katara-Toph (who was a boy in the original script). In a recent interview, Ehaz also answered the question of how he feels about zutara vs kataang, that he, as a professional screenwriter, "follows his characters" and their final canonical choice of love interest is the choice of the character himself, not the writers.

.

i wrote 2.9k the first time around by mistake. the original post has since been amended to reflect the actual numbers of the kat.aang tag, though frankly the disparity between the two tags is still so large that i don’t even think it matters. anyway, my bad. thanks for letting me know.

many cast members and former writers on the official atla podcast, braving the elements, have talked about shipping zutara — including, but not limited to, dante basco, jack de sena, michaela murphy, joshua hamilton, and john o’bryan. grey delisle, mae whitman & greg baldwin have also spoken about being zutara shippers. i’m not sure why them liking or showing support for other ships somehow means they don’t ship zutara, because people don’t need to ship only a single couple to prove they’re “real” shippers lmao. i like azutara, sukitara, ty luko & even book 1 kat.aang myself; that doesn’t make me any less of a zutara shipper.

i’m also not sure why you expect me to do the work of providing evidence for you when, given the fact that you’re here, i’m certain you have just as much access to google as i do. this information is freely available online. feel free to fact check me.

and let me say this again, in case it was not clear enough: i truly do not care about zutara’s popularity. even if none of the cast and writers shipped it, even if the tag only had 10 people, even if every single wonderfully talented writer & artist & AMV editor & GIF maker in this fandom left, i would still ship it. because it’s a better story, because it is more thematically and narratively cohesive, and because it makes me happy.

and if you disagree with that, that’s fine by me. but somehow trying to “prove” to me that zutara is unpopular and no one likes it is not only a) factually false it’s also b) not going to do a damn thing to change my mind lmao. the opinions of other people have never been a reason for me to ship zutara, and they never will be.

[arainbowmess]

No cus the amount of energy that a good fanfic give you

[apocryphiend]

writing patterns meme

rules: List the first line of your last 10 (posted) fics and see if there’s a pattern!

saw @lunarriviera’s post and was curious! considering i’ve only posted sixteen works in ten years… this will be quite the spread lol

10. it’s been january for months in both directions (jinshi/maomao)

Jinshi’s not sure how long they sit there, huddled beneath the cold open of the sky. But it isn’t long enough.

9. what’s another shadow anyway? (godou yoshito/kudou kiyoka)

Kiyoka tells him that Miyo-san has invited him to dine with them, and Yoshito is delighted, but more than a little confused.

8. in another life, we were arsonists (jetko)

February’s reputation says shes the coldest month of the year.

7. new fruit humming (maiko, zukka)

Zuko has that look in his eye, and Mai knows.

6. sound of water (itafushi)

As much as he would like to argue otherwise, there are very few scenarios in which Megumi would answer Yuuji with an unyielding no.

5. like american money (stony)

The American tips him a thousand dollars and Steve thinks he might fall over.

4. if i’m out of sight then take another look around (zukka)

The grass is cool against Zuko’s skin beneath the trees of the subdivision’s greenspace.

3. the manifold geography of hunger (zukka)

When Sokka wakes, his vision is blurred, and his head is pounding.

2. phantom (todoroki genfic)

Pride.

1. tell me what you know about night terrors (destiel)

Dean dreams.

@lunarriviera talked about wanting to depart from american academic realism… idk if i am ready to depart, because it’s a style that i really enjoy, but i do need to switch it up every now and then.

i’m a big fan of opening in media res, and it shows. so much of my favorite fiction, fannish and otherwise, has that air of familiarity that settles around you from the first word onward, and i really try to emulate that in my writing. i wouldn’t say that it’s achieved yet, but we’re building toward it.

if y’all are interested, i want to tag @sulkybender, @outpastthemoat, and anyone who wants to share!