#zuko: lol. lmao

[discordiansamba]

He got caught.

Not literally- he didn't know if what dignity he had left could survive if he got caught in a fishing net. Not metaphorically either, though- he guessed spotted was a better word for it. Someone had spotted him. It was his own fault, really- he'd heard plenty of rumors about the Northern Water Tribe's princess, Yue.

They said she'd been saved by the moon spirit as an infant.

He knew her from her white hair. He'd been curious, so he'd crept closer. He guesses he must not have been as subtle as he thought, because the next thing he knew, she was calling out to him. He tried to dive back under the water, but she called him again, and this time... he paused and looked back.

He felt... drawn to her, somehow.

She carefully made her way to the water's edge, crouching as near to him as she could get. She smiled at him, and introduced herself. He watched her suspiciously for a few moments, his gaze flicking about their surroundings, looking for any guards- but no one else was around. He debated diving underwater again...

...but he swam closer instead.

"Are you a spirit?" Yue asked.

Zuko shook his head. He didn't think so.

"Really?" Yue blinked. "You've certainly been touched by them, then. I've never seen anyone like you before."

Zuko huffed, and swam a bit closer. Yeah. He hadn't seen anything like him before either. He was pretty sure he was one of a kind.

"Can you... talk?" Yue tilted her head.

"Yes," Zuko's voice cracked a little as he spoke, "-I can."

Yue just looked delighted. He should probably leave, but... instead he placed his arms on the walkway, hauling himself slightly out of the water. Her hands twitched like she wanted to touch him, but she kept them to herself. Guess the Northern Water Tribe at least trained their royalty to have manners.

He asks her how she knew he'd been spirit touched. She just gestured vaguely in the direction of his tail. Right, yeah. He guessed that was pretty obvious. She told him that she'd had her life saved by the moon spirit as an infant (which he already knew), and that it had left a piece of itself inside of her. She could feel... something similar in him.

...yeah, actually. He felt like he could tell the same about her.

He told her he used to be a normal human, but then someone had blown up his ship with him in it. That the next thing he knew, he'd woken up underwater with this body. She frowns, considering it for a moment before speculating what he'd already guessed- that it perhaps might be the ocean spirit at work.

(He didn't understand why a Water Tribe spirit would save him.)

She asked for his name. He hesitated for a long moment.

"Zuko," he said, "-it's Zuko."

Yue's eyes widened- and he nearly ducked back under the water. Shit. She knew who he was. Of course she did- the Avatar had been here. It would be weirder if he hadn't been brought up once or twice.

"No, wait!" She said. "I'm just... a little surprised. Aren't you from the Fire Nation?"

Zuko huffed. "Yeah. I don't get it either."

She frowned. "Well... I could look at some things in our library. We have a collection of tomes about the moon and ocean spirits."

He frowned, cocking his head. Why would she do that? They were enemies. She just shook her head. She didn't see it that way. Tui and La had blessed them both in turn. Couldn't he feel it? They were connected, just like the great spirits were.

(He could. He wanted to deny it, but he could.)

Living underwater, Zuko decided, sucked.

It wasn't just because he'd been cut off from any possible way with which he might regain his honor. How could he capture the Avatar if he couldn't even walk? Just wait until he conveniently decided to go for a swim? Even if he did, his father would just think of him as even more of a disgrace if he presented himself before him like this. He was a firebender- a child of the sun.

He shouldn't be part fish.

He missed not being wet all the time. He hated the fact that he'd kind of stopped noticing he was just. always wet. He lived underwater. It was just a state of being at this point. He only really noticed the absence of being wet when he spent too long out of the water, and he began drying out. He still had a working set of lungs (thank Agni), but the amount of time he could actually stay on dry land was limited.

He missed actual food. There was nothing to eat under the sea but fish- and it wasn't like he could even really cook it, not unless he went to the effort of dragging his kills on to the shore and breathing fire on it, which was a chore in and of itself. He'd tried eating seaweed to mix it up a little, but it had just made him sick. Barfing underwater sucked.

He missed actually being able to talk to people- and wasn't that ironic? His Uncle had always tried to get him to talk to members of his crew, but he'd always just brushed him off. Now he found himself longing for someone to talk to, if only to break up the monotony. He'd developed a habit of hiding underneath docks and listening to sailors chatter, but it wasn't a real replacement for actual conversation.

Ugh. At this point he'd even be willing to talk to the Avatar.

(Not really, though. He didn't want the Avatar or his two Water Tribe companions to see him like this. It would be humiliating.)

At least the ocean wasn't entirely devoid of things of interest- he'd poked around a few shipwrecks, periodically finding interesting things. He would bring them back to the underwater cave he'd found, hauling himself up onto the rocky ledge and stashing it with the rest of his stuff. He'd at least been able to recover most of his belongings from his ship- not that he knew what he was going to do with them.

(He'd recovered some of his Uncle's stuff too. He didn't know what he was going to do with that either.)

Agni, he missed not knowing how much horrifying shit was under the sea. He'd spent three years of his life on a boat, completely oblivious to the creatures they'd sailed right over. The first time he'd run into a creature three times the size of his body, with jaws that looked like they could split him in half, he'd hid and prayed to any spirits listening that it would leave him alone.

(It was only after that, that he discovered that nothing in the ocean seemed interested in him. Maybe he was being protected by whatever spirit had done this to him. Thanks?)

He missed having a purpose. Hunting the Avatar had been his sole drive for the last three years, and now it was just... gone. He had nothing to replace it with. He didn't know what to do with himself- and maybe that was the worst part of all this. He had no idea how to fix this- so the possibility that this would be the rest of his life was one that was slowly sinking into him.

He should probably be grateful he wasn't dead- but it certainly might have been easier.

(If he ever saw those pirates again, he was dragging their asses underwater.)

[kideaternomnom]

Azula antis: She’s pure evil.

Me: ...Well, Zuko changed so why can’t she get a chance?

Antis: Uh- she was born evil! She had no empathy!

Me: My guy, she was raised by literal Ozai and was neglected by her mom along with Iroh. Zuko could’ve been the same and so could’ve ANYONE. That was the whole point of that one episode showing Roku’s backstory. She’s also still only 14 in the finale and 16 in the comics.

Antis: Erm- uh...She rejected redemption! Yeah- she’s pure evil for that!

Me: Zuko rejected redemption in season 2. But he still changed.

Antis:

[expainterorsomething]

In celebration of the new Azula comic getting a description here’s a screenshot redraw of my favorite siblings! here’s to them developing a semi functional relationship 😎

[floweryomi]

all hail Firelord Zuko

[broadwaybalogna]

Wanted to repost some of my stuff on X to maybe start a following on there as well…

Yeah.. I think I’ll stick with Tumblr…

[adorawasright]

catra is not a supportive friend/gf/sister/etc.

i see so many posts, including art and fics, that show catra being extremely supportive of adora from the very beginning, even when they were kids. but that's not what we see in canon.

catra stays quiet about shadow weaver manipulating adora all these years. she's apparently known all along that the horde sucks but she doesn't bother, like, talking to adora about it. catra simply doesn't give a shit about the horde hurting others, including her own best friend. catra uses adora's promise as an excuse, but she doesn't even look out for adora. not to mention she calls adora stupid for not realizing the abuse and manipulation sooner.

then we have catra in the portal reality, and she... slaps adora in the face when adora is reasonably freaking out. catra just forces her "to get some air" or "to relax", refusing to listen to adora... which is not even the first time in the show. catra has been calling her "crazy", "brain damaged", "stupid" etc. since EPISODE ONE, before they were enemies!

catra barely changes in s5, where she straight up abandons adora, who's begging on her knees. arguably, catra does not abandon adora in the heart... but it means nothing since catra still guilt-trips adora in her confession and, once again, she calls adora an "idiot" for not realizing catra has been in love with her the entire time.

it baffles me because the actual supportive friends adora has are glimmer and bow. they might not understand her at first, but they actually listen to her and they're patient and calm towards her. catra is NOTHING like that. i'm tired of everyone pretending she is.

[kaligraphy]

saw this meme format and cackled

[azuzula]

unconventional inevitabilities (1348 words) by cseloid Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender (Cartoon 2005) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Mai/Zuko (Avatar) Characters: Zuko (Avatar), Mai (Avatar), Kuei (Avatar) Additional Tags: background kataang and sukka. kind of. they're mentioned in one line lol, Weddings, Ba Sing Se, Maiko Week 2024 (Avatar), Maiko Week (Avatar), Firelord Zuko (Avatar), Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, Mai is a Little Shit Series: Part 1 of Maiko Week 2024 Summary: His mind circles back to Mai’s comment – they’d brought up marriage over the years, decided that yes, they’re going to last. But their conversations were comprised mostly of passing comments on a future inevitability. Nothing ever too concrete. As much as Zuko liked spontaneity, he’d definitely gained an appreciation for Sokka’s plan-oriented line of thinking. Zuko and Mai attend King Kuei's wedding. It stirs up some thoughts about the future on Zuko's end.

[dealbrekker]

I wrote this quite literally 10 years ago. Her birthday is coming up and everything. I'm proud of this story and that I finished a multichaptered fic. I only ever did one shots.

There are things I'd change and work differently, but I'm still pretty in love with this and figured I should reintroduce her back into the wild. It would be crazy if anyone on here ever read it back then...

Begging all your pardons for the epilogue in advance lmao.

Hope it's enjoyed ☺

Amidst a time of peace and a dimming marriage, Fire Lady Katara journeys back home to the Southern Water Tribe to reconnect with her people. While there, she meets a nomadic firebending artist whose scar is as striking as his work. As the moon wanes and her visit ends, the stranger molds an image of his life much different from what history knows to be true. AU.

[the-idiot-17]

working on a school project

I fucking love my English teacher so much

[aether-link]

Katara: Listen, I’ll only sleep next to you only because you take up less space. It’s like sleeping next to a stuffed animal.

Zuko: …ah ��

[fluffypotatey]

watching ATLA with my lil sib is so much fun but also very dangerous because i know he knows all the atla memes, but then i forget that he never finished the actual show

so then we’ll have moments where i comment on how it was probably Master Pakku’s sexist and dickish behavior that led to his fiancé (Katara and Sokka’s Gran-gran) leaving him, and then panic because he didn’t know about that part yet

[juniperhillpatient]

reviewing my existing drafts for scream au scenes because it hasn't really been a productive "writing" week & I'm sorry I'm sure I'll piss off both zucest & azutara shippers with parts of this fic but also scream au zuko is hilarious (to me) sometimes

this is a dark gritty sthuper serial story but also it's scream

[tealchameleon]

I wrote the first part of a fanfic I wanna do if anyone wants to beta for me. Trying to get back into writing

[burninlovebutler]

Get to know the bloggers you love! ❤️📷 Describe yourself by posting pictures of 3 fictional characters you identify with.

this is late af bc it’s been sitting in my drafts forever but

Jack Mcfarland & Karen Walker from Will & Grace

&

Blair Waldorf from Gossip Girl <3

&

Prince Zuko from Avatar The Last Airbender

4 questionable characters but 💀 complicated underneath okay

+ jack & karen are comedic relief that is never taken seriously which i am as well lol