#zuko is a dweeby little turtleduck

[attackfish]

So everybody here knows that I'm notorious for being a massive defender of Ursa, and that I have no patience for the "Ursa was a bad mother, she favored Zuko, and was abusive to Azula and abandoned her kids, and made Ozai abuse Zuko," narrative. That narrative is vile, victim blaming, and deeply stupid on a number of levels.

With that out of the way, I want to talk about some really really bad parenting we see Ursa do during the series. And it is to be clear really really bad.

In the Book Two episode, "Bitter Work", Zuko and Iroh have a conversation:

ZUKO: So Uncle, I've been thinking. It's only a matter of time before I run into Azula again. I'm going to need to know more advanced firebending if I want to stand a chance against her. I know what you're going to say, she's my sister and I should be trying to get along with her-

IROH: No, she's crazy, and she needs to go down.

This scene is a favorite of a certain type of Azula fan who wants to paint Iroh as a big meanie who didn't wave his magic redemption wand over Azula the way he clearly did over Zuko. See? See? He's writing her off here and calling her crazy.

This of course misses the context of that scene, which is that Zuko is taking care of a severely injured Iroh, who was injured by Azula, in what looked a heck of a lot like a murder attempt. Earlier in Book Two, in the episode, "The Avatar State", Azula unambiguously attempts to murder her brother after failing to capture him, and he is only saved by Iroh's quick reflexes.

But let's leave that argument aside for today because what interests me about this scene in the context of Ursa's parenting, is the line Zuko says right before Iroh's infamous declaration: "I know what you're going to say, she's my sister and I should be trying to get along with her."

Because in the context of Zuko and Iroh's situation, where Azula has recently attempted to kill Zuko, and just put Iroh into a coma that Zuko had to take care of him during, in which he has only just woken up from, this line from Zuko actually demonstrates some really warped thinking. It is not a healthy response to the situation at all. And his assumption is that a good caring parent figure like Iroh is going to respond to this situation by telling him that Zuko needs to get along with his sister, who is actively trying to hunt him down and capture or kill him.

So why does Zuko think that? What adult reacted that way to Azula's violence toward her brother in the past? It wasn't Ozai. Ozai is not going to use the language of getting along with one's siblings, when he is so bent on setting them against each other. So who was it?

The show answers this a few episodes before this scene, in the Book Two episode, "Zuko Alone." The answer is clear and heartbreaking: It was Ursa.

The scene in which this becomes plain, starts with Zuko and Ursa walking together. Mai spots them and smiles and blushes. Azula notices, and then turns to Ty Lee, and whispers, "Watch this!"

AZULA: Mom, can you make Zuko play with us? We need equal teams to play a game!

ZUKO: I am not cart-wheeling.

AZULA: You won't have to. Cart-wheeling's not a game, dum-dum.

ZUKO: I don't care. I don't want to play with you!

AZULA: We are brother and sister. It's important for us to spend time together. Don't you think so, Mom?

URSA: Yes, darling, I think it's a good idea to play with your sister. Go on now, just for a little while.

And then Ursa leaves Zuko alone with Azula and her friends.

There is a lot here that I want to talk about. I have in fact talked about this scene before, and what it tells us about Ursa's eagerness to reinforce Azula's seemingly kind and loving behavior: [Link], and even touched on why this is in fact an example of bad parenting from Ursa: [Link], but I think this deserves its own post, where we examine exactly what went on here, what this tells us about Ursa's parenting, and how this affected Zuko, and to a lesser extent, Azula.

In those previously linked posts, I talk about how this is clearly a pattern, that Azula has learned to predict and manipulate, and because we know it's a pattern, we know that this behavior on Ursa's part is repeated, and something her children have come to expect from her. Zuko and Azula know their mother wants her children to get along with each other, and love each other and have a good sibling relationship with each other so much that if Azula she plays into that, Ursa will force Zuko to spend time with his sister, and worse, that time will be unsupervised.

So, to be clear here, what Ursa is doing is giving Azula unsupervised access to her brother, against his will, as a reward for Azula momentarily acting nice. Or in other words, Ursa forces Zuko to spend time with his abuser against his will because she wants them to get along.

I think we can all see how that is some grade A terrible parenting.

And it does have negative effects on Azula. I think that we can see her learning how to manipulate people, learning how to lie and get what she wants from people, and that Ursa by giving her what she wants here, is showing her that this is a thing she can do to get what she wants. That is not a great lesson to teach your kid. I think it also feeds into Azula's possessiveness of her brother, and sense of entitlement towards him. She has learned that even the people who love and care about her brother, won't protect him from her. And she has learned that no matter what she does to him, he is supposed to try to get along with her.

These are some really terrible lessons, and we see some of the effects of them throughout the course of the show, so why is it that the "Ursa is a terrible mother" crowd never bring this up? I mean of course we know why, it doesn't fit their narrative. Their premise is not simply that Ursa is a bad mother, or even that her bad parenting explains Azula's behavior.

In fact frequently it isn't even about finding someone to blame for Azula's behavior, so that the responsibility isn't Azula's. (Which, to be clear is not how it would work anyway, because even if Ursa were exactly the type of horrible mother they said she was, Azula was still making the choices to do Very Bad Things, in the same way that just because Ozai is an abusive father, this doesn't mean Azula stopped being responsible for her own actions). It's more about proving that she has suffered enough that she deserves all the sympathy, and is allowed to be awful to other people, including Zuko, you know, as a treat.

The narrative that the "Ursa is a terrible mother" crowd are pushing is that Ursa didn't love her daughter, and thought she was a monster, Azula suffered so much, and it's so sad, and this is why she deserves to do very nasty things to everybody else, and no one should ever hold her accountable. Frequently there is some flavor of, "Zuko had a mother who loved him, you guys, unlike Azula, so he doesn't deserve sympathy, not like poor baby Azula!" Which is a deeply warped thought process on many many levels, but we're not going to go into that here.

The point is, that this type of bad parenting that I am pointing out here, doesn't fit this narrative, because this is not the kind of parenting mistake that a mother who doesn't love one of her children, and thinks that child is a monster, is going to make. This is the kind of mistake that a mother who loves her children very much, and wants them to have a good relationship, and doesn't recognize the threat that one of her children poses to the other, is going to make. In fact, the fact that she does it, proves that Ursa does in fact love her daughter and does not think she's a monster. So it does not fit the narrative these people are spinning, so they will never bring it up as an example of how Ursa was a bad mom.

Of course the other reason the "Ursa is a terrible mother" crowd aren't going to bring this part up is because it would mean acknowledging that Zuko deserved to be protected from Azula, and needed to be protected from Azula, when they were both children, which would go against the whole "she's a poor innocent child" thing they like to spin, and also because Azula is getting what she wants here, and Zuko is the one suffering, which is not going to get Azula any sympathy points.

And for the most part, Ursa was an excellent mother, who did the best job she could in horrible circumstances that she had very little control over, but she wasn't perfect, and she did make mistakes, which makes all of this a wonderful example of how even very good parents can make very bad choices that hurt their children and cause serious long-term damage.

I've talked some about the long term damage that Azula faces from this, learning about manipulation, and developing some really nasty entitlement issues with regards to her brother, but Zuko's long-term damage is if anything worse.

When we put this together with Zuko's line from "Bitter Work" quoted earlier, we can see that Zuko learns what Azula learns from the other angle, which is to say that he will not be protected from Azula by anyone, and not only will he not be protected, but he does not deserve to protect himself. Not only can he not defend himself, but he can't even protect himself by avoiding her. That's not allowed either. And in the face of her cruelty and violence towards him, it is still on him to make their relationship work, and to be clear, he should absolutely be making their relationship work. And the adults who love him are going to tell him this, no matter what Azula does to him.

I for one am really glad that Iroh is there to say no, that's a terrible idea, and you do not need to keep trying to get along with your sister who is trying to kill you. And it's significant that throughout Book Two, Iroh consistently protects Zuko from Azula, and teaches him what he needs to fight back.

[misspines]

It's kind of funny that this is totally applicable to any moment in the series

[asaaesthetic]

after a cliffhanger :

[jely-bely]

Zutara and Kids

[fanaticloser]

Teenage Dirtbag of the Week

Zuko - Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008)- The Legend of Korra (2012-2014)

[attackfish]

Okay, but it did not in fact work. It's heavily implied that the Dai Li knew who and where they were, and may even have gotten Iroh the Jasmine Dragon to better keep an eye on him. When Azula showed up and wanted to capture her uncle and brother, they sure got ahold of them real fast, now didn't they?

And when did Iroh get the offer of his own tea shop in the upper ring? Right after the whole thing with Jet. If you ask me, the Dai Li looked into these two refugees at Pao's tea shop, did the math, and decided to keep an eye on them while they figured out what to do with them and how to capture them quietly. That whole time, Iroh and Zuko were already caught. They just didn't know it yet.

i still can't get over the sheer AUDACITY of iroh going to ba sing se. like did it work? yes. but ONLY because the dai li was too busy following around some bald kid looking for his dog to notice him

[glitter-gummy-bears]

Made this forever ago and found it!

It's based on that pidgin girl meme!

[attackfish]

I had a brain wave tonight. Given how much older Iroh appears than his brother, I have always thought it was very likely that Iroh was either an adult by the time his brother was born, or very close to it. And what we see if Iroh's adult past paints him as a military leader who led from the front, and was not afraid to spend years on end in the field. So it's not improbable that he might have been only rarely present when Ozai was growing up.

Ozai bitterly resents his brother, who Azulon clearly favored, while scorning Ozai. He privately denigrates his brother and later blames him for Zuko turning on him in a way that shows he likes to blame Iroh for things. Ozai's picture of Iroh has much more to do with what it's useful for Ozai to believe about his brother, then it does with who Iroh actually is. This would be much easier for Ozai to do if for most of his life, he were able to project what it was useful for him to believe onto an absent Iroh.

It's a whole lot easier and more comfortable to maintain a psychologically useful image of someone if they aren't there to contradict it. And this has fascinating implicatations for the other two people we see Ozai most eager resent and blame, Ursa and Zuko, both of whom he banishes. And even better, when Ozai banishes Zuko, Iroh goes with him.

This must have been the most mentally comfortable Ozai has ever been in his life, with all of them safely gone and unable to break his useful images of them, but still alive so he could resent and blame them as needed. And this offers a plausible unconscious motive for Ozai to do something as stupid as sending his accomplice in murder and treason, a potential heir to his throne, and an alternate claimant to his throne, who also just happens to be an accomplished military leader, out from under his direct control.

[lostheather9]

ATLA : The Beach in nutshell

[attackfish]

5 headcanon for Azula is significantly older than Zuko. What happens when Aang is forced? Obviously Zuko would be too young to be banished. But does something happen to Azula? Does she turn to the Avatar to help protect her brother from their father?

Continued from: [Link], [Link], [Link], and [Link].

I presume you mean when Aang is found?

1. When Ursa leaves, her son is a babe in arms. When Aang is found, that same boy is a six year old, learning his first lessons in firebending, and learning to write his first characters. But something is already apparent. He isn't leaping ahead with the lightning speed of his sister at that same age. And that might not have been remarked upon, if not for something else. Little Zuko is... soft. He gets angry and upset when birds of prey kill turtle-crabs on the beach. He tries to sneek abandoned owl cat chicks under his bed, and is distraught when they don't make it, because they were too young. He puts himself on the side of the weak and vulnerable, and tries to protect them from the powerful and from the uncaring universe. And in doing so, he earns his father's scorn.

2. Azula couldn't tell you if it happened gradually or suddenly. She remembers both a sense of sudden dislocation, and change to a new reality, with new rules, and also a gradual creeping dread, as the world, their father's world, shifted around them. All she knows for sure is that one of her very woest fears has come to pass. Zuko is no longer a little ball of potential that she is being measured against at all times. Now he is weak, and pathetic, and she promised. She promised she would protect him, and teach him what he needed to know, and how can she, when their father is so big, and so powerful, and Zuko doesn't even understand what she's trying to teach him, and it makea her so angry, when he just doesn't get it... And she feels like he must have, the day on the beach, with the turtle-crab and the hawk, and she can't help worry that someday her dad will realize she's pathetic and weak too.

3. When the Avatar is first found, he is Zhao's problem. Azula never thought much of Zhao, but by all reports, the Avatar is a twelve year old child with training in only one element. It doesn't occur to her that Zhao will fail to capture him. But he does. Again and again. And after the debacle at the North Pole, Azula finds herself kneeling at her father's feet, telling her it is her turn. She must find and capture the Avatar.

4. And she must capture, or preferably, in her father's eyes, kill, her uncle. Because her uncle disappeared a less than a month ago, and showed right back up, at the North Pole, helping the Avatar and opposing Zhao. Her father is of course outraged at his brother's treason. Azula's thoughts are more tangled. And more wounded. He would leave to help the Avatar, a stranger and an enemy to her people, when he barely deigned to notice his own niece and nephew. And that's the thing, isn't it? Azula's whole life has been marked by the presence of so many people, so many adults, who either didn't notice what her father did to his children, or just let it happen. Her uncle is just one more. Only her mother ever tried to protect her.

5. Azula has to leave her brother behind, in her father's care. Which is why, for her, the goal isn't just to capture the Avatar and deal with her uncle, it's to do it as fast as possible. Which is why she goes to Mai and Ty Lee. And if she has qualms about threatening Mai's baby brother to remind her of what she has to lose? Well, it's her own baby brother on the line.

[attackfish]

It still kills me that people scream that ursa horribly favored Zuko and this ruined Azula like it wasn’t her displaying concern at extreme troubling behavior and comforting Zuko when he needed and him likely needing it more bc HE was very targeted and not favored by his father (and our one flashbacks is from Zukos perspective! Of course it centers around him). Azula felt her mom hated her because she was torn between the violent cruel behavior that ozai encouraged and ursas disapproval of that it was a no win scenario

And like, after Ursa was banished, anyone want to put odds on how long it took Ozai to start going, "yeah your mother, she totally thought we were both monsters, she didn't understand," to Azula?

[attackfish]

AU where Iroh is given a choice by an ancient spirit to bring his son back from the grave in exchange for his nephews life.

The first time he has the dream is mere days after Lu Ten died. The spirit never shows his face, and with the logic of a dreamer, Iroh never questions it. The spirit asks him to trade the life of his nephew, little more than a fond memory after the long years away, for his only child. Of course he says yes.

He doesn't think about the dream. A grieving mind does strange things. He goes home to find his father dead and his brother's wife gone, the throne in Ozai's hands, the world turned upside down, and everything dark and gloomy as he feels. That night, he has the dream again. He begs the spirit for his son back, whatever it takes. He sees Zuko's fear and pain as death comes, and for a few moments of dream, Lu Ten is in is arms, a child Zuko's age. He wakes in the middle of the night with tears on his face.

The next morning, his nephew knocks on his door, and he turns him away.

The dream plagues him. It comes back again and again. He always says yes.

It comes the night Zuko is banished. Iroh sits by his bedside as he shivers and cries out in fever and pain, and doesn't know if Zuko will wake. He seems so terribly small. When he falls asleep at his post, he dreams, and the spirit asks him. Iroh can barely speak, he is so angry. Why does the spirit ask this? Zuko may be dying, why would he put his life in Iroh's hands? The spirit laughs. Isn't Zuko's life already in Iroh's hands? Iroh sees the spirit's face for the first time. It's Ozai's.

The dream comes back again and again, every time Zuko is particularly difficult to deal with, every time one more potential lead on the Avatar turns out to be nothing. Iroh has the dream every night. He doesn't always tell the spirit no.

When he tells the spirit yes, he gets Lu Ten back, sometimes as a child, sometimes as he was just before riding off to battle. The spirit keeps his bargain. Zuko dies.

When he tells the spirit no, Zuko only spits in his face.

Then they find the Avatar. Zuko throws himself into danger. And worse, he's fighting against what is right, against what the world needs. And Lu Ten died fighting for that same cause. That night, Iroh sees the spirit's face again. It's the young Avatar's.

Zhao captures the Avatar. Zuko goes to steal him. Iroh tosses and turns, and finally sleeps. The spirit comes to ask his question, and Iroh lunges for him. His hood falls away, and his face is Zuko's own.

It's been three long years since Zuko was banished, and Iroh's niece comes to take them both prisoner. Iroh stops her from killing her brother with lightning. The spirit wears her face that night.

They sneak into Ba Sing Se. The spirit wears the face of an Earth Kingdom Soldier. Zuko fights off another teenage boy, Jet. The spirit wears Jet's face that night.

Zuko joins his sister beneath Ba Sing Se. Iroh sleeps in his cell and screams at the spirit to leave him be. The spirit laughs at him. It has his own voice.

It never matters which he chooses. He still wakes to a world with Lu Ten dead and Zuko alive.

It matters so much which he chooses. Why should he be forced to choose? How can he?

He goes back to Ba Sing Se. His nephew rules wisely and well, as he cannot. The world is at peace. Lu Ten was part of the old world, the world people like Ukano want to bring back. Knowing that he died fighing for what Iroh taught him to fight for, and that it was wrong hurts. It hurts more than Iroh knows what to do with.

When he dreams of the spirit now, he gives it no answer. Eventually it stops asking.

[attackfish]

5 hcs for any Avatar AU, idc which, all of the ones I've read from you are great!

I have chosen my airbender Mai universe. Continued from: [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], and [Link].

1. Azula does not keep Mai and Ty Lee at the Boiling Rock. The Warden is Mai's uncle, after all, and her treason saved his life no less than Zuko's. The two are instead taken to the tower prison at the capital. Azula does not visit them on the journey back to the capital, spent, perversely, locked in their shared well appointed cabin. For all they have committed treason, Mai and Ty Lee are left with the trappings of their noble, privileged childhoods, locked in their room like naughty schoolgirls. It gives them time to think on what will happen to them, on the enormity of the choice they both made. It gives them time to wonder when, if, their trial will take place, whether they will be sentenced to death, what will Azula do? So they wait and they worry, and Azula doesn't come.

2. They are marched up to the prison tower, stripped, searched, Mai's less obvious knives are finally taken from her, and they are handed the prison rags which will serve as their uniforms. Mai's brain is buzzing and spinning with a thousand thoughts, a thousand ways she could break out, shove themselves to the forefront of her mind, nearly all of which would involve airbending. The prison feels like it's made out of paper. But she can't airbend. She doesn't know what is happening to her family. She can't risk them. But she doesn't know what Azula is doing to them. This whole time she has traveled with Azula, the threat that she would hurt them, kill them, if Mai stepped out of line, has hung over her, and now, well, she sure stepped out of line. But she can't escape, because what if they're fine? The prison is made of paper, and Mai has to be careful not to tear it.

3. They are locked in their cell, together, which feels like an oversight. Wouldn't it be better to keep them alone and isolated? But no, they are together. And one room over, that Ty Lee can hear through the window at the back of their cell, are the Kyoshi Warriors. Predictably, Ty Lee starts trying to make friends. With the people who they helped Azula capture and imprison. Of course she does. And because she's Ty Lee, she succeeds. She weathers their anger, and self-righteous well-what-did-you-think-would-happens, and smiles and laughs until they soften to her. She's a wonder, honestly. Mai has no idea how she does it, only that she never would be able to pull it off, not in a million years.

4. Through it all, Azula doesn't come. She stays away, and Mai is glad for it. But she also isn't. It scares her. She didn't expect it. It leaves her on edge. She paces their little cell long into the night. Then, one evening, Azula turns up like a bad coin, disheveled, hair ragged, looking like neither of them have ever seen her, her air of untouchable perfection nowhere to be seen. She yells at them and blames them for everything that happened since she put them in there, her voice more and more... out of control. Her tone, her volume, the pitch, are as wild as her hair and her eyes, and as she rants, she lets more and more slip about the world outside the prison, and Ty Lee tries to soothe her, practically on instinct, and Mai doesn't. She tries to stay quiet and in the back. It's also on instinct. But Azula never mentions their families, and Mai starts to hope that Azula forgot their families exist. Either way, after Azula leaves, Mai feels even more on edge than before. That night, she whispers her secret to Ty Lee. When Ty Lee gasps in the darkness, that soft little sound is as loud as a thunderclap. And then Ty Lee squeezes her, and Mai tries to push her away and tell her she doesn't like hugs, but just this once, Ty Lee holds her, and tells her she will never tell.

5. And then the world turns on its axis once again, and Mai, Ty Lee, and the Kyoshi Warriors are set free, and Ozai takes their place. The prison guards scramble around like termite-ants whose mound have been kicked over, and Mai, Ty Lee, and the rest beat a hasty exit before anyone can change their mind. Mai runs to her family townhouse while Ty Lee goes off with the Kyoshi Warriors to meet Suki, their leader. She stands in her room in an empty house, and washes and dresses as quickly as she can, her hands putting her hair into order with quick, practiced motions she doesn't have to think about. Zuko knows. Zuko is Firelord now, and he knows about her airbending. Zuko's friends know. The Avatar knows. And in a few minutes, she's going to have to walk out the door and deal with that. The metal knob is cold and hard under her fingers as she turns it open.

[attackfish]

Can you do more of the Lu Ten back from the dead AU?

That describes more than one AU of mine, so I have chosen the one where Zuko is brainwashed by the Dai Li, and while under Lake Laogai, finds his cousin. Continued from: [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], and [Link].

Aang wakes up, with, what must be said, is perfect, and perfectly awful, timing. Lu Ten is just about to make his escape, when the Avatar opens his eyes and starts having a freak out about being on a Fire Nation ship, and about how he failed to save Ba Sing Se from being conquered by Azula (Azula? His little cousin, Azula? That Azula? Conquered Ba Sing Se?) So of course Lu Ten does what all good little Fire Princes do, and tries to follow him, because that's the Avatar! He should capture him and take him home to the Fire Nation, and come out of his captivity covered in glory! His father and grandfather will be so proud.

So of course when Aang ends up stuck on some driftwood and washed ashore by the kindly Moon Spirit, Lu Ten ends up washed up, half drowned, on the beach with him. And he's still half drowned and wondering if he really saw the Moon Spirit, or just hallucinated that bit, when the Avatar's friends show up. After the hugs and reassurances, the question quickly becomes what to do with Lu Ten. The problem of course is several fold. 1) he is a danger, because he just tried to pull a Zuko and kidnap Aang. 2) He was pretty useless about it. Zuko could have done better in his sleep. This shows that Lu Ten is still kind if not fully with it, and kind of needs to be taken care of. 3) And Lu Ten's dad is in prison for helping them-

Wait what? His dad is in prison for helping the Avatar and a bunch of teenage enemies of the Fire Nation? His cousin Azula, who last he checked was eight, conquered Ba Sing Se? His cousin Zuko, who is ten, which is, he supposes, not much younger than the twelve year old Avatar, but still ("I'm pretty sure I'm thirteen now, actually, I mean dates are weird with the whole being frozen for a hundred years thing, but...") is not only trying to kidnap the Avatar on the regular, but is apparently doing pretty well at it ("uh, we wouldn't go that far... Also Zuko's sixteen, and Azula's like, fourteen, we think? It's not like she told us.") Oh okay, Zuko is sixteen. He was captive for six years? Six years? Oh. Oh okay. Okay. Wait, who had his dad imprisoned? What do you mean Firelord Ozai? How did Uncle Ozai become firelord if his dad is still alive?

What the Avatar and his companions tell him is confused and disjointed, but what what explaination he does get paints a bleak picture, especially when they tell him that both his father and his cousin said that Ozai, and/or Azula would probably kill him if they found out he was alive. Lu Ten has no idea what to do, and finds himself trailing along after a bunch of teenagers ("Toph's twelve") by default. And when one of those teenagers ends up being dragged off to school, and then getting in trouble at said school, and having to have a parent teacher conference, Lu Ten is the only adult in reach. He works out in his head how much older he would be than his supposed son. If the Avatar is thirteen, and Zuko is sixteen, and Zuko was born when LunTen was ten, he would have been a father at thirteen himself.

Fortunately for everyone involved, six (it's six, right? Wow.) years of captivity have aged Lu Ten beyond what is expected, and he looks far beyond his twenty-six years, old enough to pass as Aang's father. He does his best with stolen clothes and his reflection in a pool of water in the cave they've been hiding in. The Dai Li kept his head shaved, and it's only had a little time to grow out into a spiky fuzz all over his head. He looks like a disgrace, his topknot shorn, the delinquent father of a delinquent son. But it's the best he can do. He isn't exactly surprised when the principal threatens his "son" with being sent to the coal mines. He also doesn't believe a word of it.

After Aang holds his little dance party, amd they all have to run out of town, he finds himself on the road with a pack of children, and is baffled by how many "adventures they find themselves in, impersonating spirits (a Fire Nation town shouldn't be in this kind of squallor!), getting taught by Piandao (who Lu Ten stays well away from, since Piandao could recognize him), dodging assassins, and running into secret waterbending blood witches. That last one was horrifying in so many different ways. She wanted... She tried to kill him. She tried to force the others to kill him. She... Was, at least on some level, a captive like him.

And at the end of it all, when they meet up with the ragtag "army" heading to storm the Fire Nation capital, he hears about the eclipse. And he decides that while the rest of them are trying to take on Ozai, he's going to spring his father. So, he slips away during the fighting and heads for the capital prison tower. Hopefully that's where his father is being kept. And Lu Ten might not have Zuko's ability to break into and out of almost anything, but it hardly matters, because he has barely made it inside when his father, having broken himself out, runs into him, and they leave together.

All this means is that when Zuko (who never did tell anybody about his cousin being alive, which is going to make his tearful reunion with his uncle and cousin a little less awful) shows up to the Western Air Temple, the Gaang is short one Fire Prince. And now they have a new one. Yay! And once he starts to become friends with them, they've got a whole bunch of questions about just what exactly is going on with his family. And yeah, the answers he gives are, well, they are... Wow, Zuko, no wonder you're so messed up!

[attackfish]

Could we get a continuation of the time travel/back in time au? I love the maiko setup!! (Ik i just sent in a different 5hc ask as well, but I sent some very scary emails today, so I’m rewarding myself :D)

Universe tag: #The whole Gaang wakes up a hundred years in the past verse

1. Mai's "siblings" don't tell her they even sent an offer of her hand off until the prospective groom has asked to meet her. So when her supposed sister bursts into her room one morning and tells her to start packing her meager possessions, because they found her a husband, Mai is horrified, she has no idea who they might have sold her to, and she is doing everything she can to come up with contingency plans to get out of this. Until of course her "sister" tells her that she's going to court. Mai can work with that.

2. Of course her plan is to go to court, and use the opportunity to assassinate Ozia, in a suicidal blaze of glory, which is both suitably dramatic, and would solve the problem of her having to actually deal with her intended husband. She wouldn't be around to have to worry about such things. So she and Ty Lee pack up and head to the capital, sharing a cramped one room cabin on a merchant ship, and Mai grits her teeth and doesn't scream as Ty Lee speculates about this new, and newly enobled, court soothsayer Mai is meeting to see if he will marry her. Ty Lee doesn't remember him from the history books. Mai doesn't care, okay? He is irrelevant to her plans.

3. And then they reach the capitol, and who is there at the dock, and trying not to look like an anxious little monkey-poodle puppy hoping his person is coming home soon? It's Zuko. Of course it's Zuko. He looks ridiculous, in court fashions that are a hundred years out of date, or in fact perfectly suited to the time period in which they find themselves, and when he sees Mai he lights up with relief and joy, and Mai feels a little bit like a character in a play as Ty Lee introduces her for appearences sake.

4. He escorts them to his new townhome, and breakfast is served, and then just like they always used to, Zuko contrives to send the servants away, and as soon as they're gone, with only Ty Lee around to witness, Mai sinks into Zuko's arms. It isn't about passion, or excitement, or even romance, but simply about exhaustion, and relief, and the complete trust that she can let down her guard, and rest here, with Zuko and Ty Lee. And Zuko just holds her for a few minutes, until she remembers that he would probably like to be held too, and she wraps her arms around him.

5. Before, Mai and Zuko were nowhere near talking about marriage. Sure, it was always somewhere in the background that Zuko was going to have to marry someone, because he was Firelord and he was going to have to make heirs, but they had only really just gotten back together. And now, they're stuck in this archaic dynastic betrothal, and sure, Zuko could refuse to marry her and send her home in disgrace, but really, they're going to get married to at least avoid having to get married to anybody else, and they both know it. They might as well get used to it.

6. Ty Lee would like out of the room so that she could stop being the third wheel. Anytime now.

[zarohk]

They’re creating the national holiday and leading by example, Zuko argues. Everyone should run away for a week or two at the start of the summer.

The council doesn't know this, but right now Mai and Zuko are wondering if elopement would be terribly selfish if it deprives their people of a national holiday.