#zutara actors au

[parkiebearr]

Zutara Month 2024: Day 8/9- Actors AU & “You’re Married?!”

Wanted to make a modern AU about Zuko and Katara falling in love on set, but not making their relationship public until Katara already had a ring LOL. Maybe they started out as acting partners who hated each other, but it grew into something more when they were in such close proximity. So fans played with the idea of them being together even when in every interview they acted aloof UNTIL THE REVEAL AT THE GALA

[bluespirlt]

this au is just writing itself at this point

[the-badger-mole]

Incorrect Quotes: You Drive Me (LITERALLY) Crazy!

Iroh: Having heard Zuko complaining about Katara for the thousandth time. Do you love her?

Zuko: Affronted A normal human being couldn't live under the same roof as her without going nutty! She's my idea of nothing!

Iroh: I asked you a simple question! Do you love her?

Zuko: Yes! 😡 But don't hold that against me. I'm a little screwy myself.

[iela-0989]

⭐️Actors AU⭐️

Zutara Month 2024

Magazine Cover Version

Clean Version

I sort of got a last minute inspiration for this particular prompt😅 Hence, this is my 1st entry for Zutara Month 2024~ It's a late one too🥹 (Can't promise that there'll be more entries after this. Though I wish I can draw more, it's hard to keep up & maintain the momentum🥲. This one alone took me almost 2 weeks to finish. Longer than I thought😅)

Thank you to all Zutarians for your Zutara Month entries~ I'm totally blessed! THANK YOU🥹❤️❤️❤️

[zukosdualdao]

stage kiss

zutara month, day 8: actors au, @zutaramonth

summary: katara just needs to earn enough to make passage to the northern water tribe, so she begins working as a seamstress for an acting troupe in ba sing se. fine enough work in theory, until the leading actress is out sick and katara is asked to step into the role.

other notes: au in which the avatar never returns, and the war is still going on. katara is 16 and just left home, zuko is 18 and let go of his search for the avatar two years ago.

Katara doesn’t believe this is happening.

Well, alright, she mostly does, but. Come on.

All she’d wanted when she came here was to find work that let her earn enough to book passage to the Northern Water Tribe. She had known it would be difficult—her own tribe hadn’t had contact with them in many years, for much longer than she’d been alive—but she hadn’t expected there would be no official transport there when she got to Ba Sing Se. 

It had quickly become apparent that her options were to either book passage through a sketchy crowd of characters—sketchy mainly in that she didn’t like the way they looked her up and down, so she’d have to decide which ones she ‘trusted’ the most—or to… purchase a ship herself. And get a crew. And probably learn how to steer it.

She’s still figuring it out.

In any case, she had to earn one way or another, so she was relieved to find the acting troupe when she did, as the director seemed eager for a seamstress right away. Apparently, the last one had quit with barely a word.

Guiltily, Katara does not mention her plans to leave as soon as she has enough money to make passage.

It goes well for several weeks. A lot of the troupe is friendly, if a bit rowdy for her tastes—one earthbending boy has broken so many props she doesn’t know how he hasn’t been fired for it yet—but she’s met some really wonderful people too. Some of the girls her age have taken to talking to her about things like boys and far-off places they’d like to see and makeup and fights with their families, and it makes Katara feel a little choked up. She’d had Gran Gran, of course, and Sokka, and all the little kids she adored and the elders she respected, but she’d never really had someone who was a friend her own age.

The one person she hasn’t made much headway with is a boy a tall boy with dark hair and a scar that clearly came from a burn over his left eye. She’d come to understand quickly that most of the war refugees were blocked off in the lower ring, and they’re in a sort of in-between state, where artisans and food stallers live—it all makes her feel sick to her stomach if she thought about it too hard—but she can’t help but wonder if that’s how he got it. 

Zuko, the girls tell Katara his name is. He’s quiet and snappish and glares a lot, only seeming to come alive, to become softer, in those moments on stage when he’s being someone else.

Katara finds herself a little fascinated, despite herself, but it’s nothing to pay any mind to. In the weeks ahead, she’s just got to focus on her work.

It goes well. Until it doesn’t.

“Xiu Bao has fallen ill,” the director says as he implores Katara to take the lead’s place. “We would be ever-indebted to you.”

“But I’m not an actress!” Katara exclaims, feeling her heartbeat grow ever faster.

All she’d wanted was to learn waterbending. Now, she’s being asked to join an acting troupe. Temporarily. But still.

“It’s no matter,” he says. “You’ve seen the play many times over by now—and you don’t have to say the lines exactly,” he adds, a bit urgently. It is, after all, only a few hours until the show is meant to begin. “Just… to the best of your memory.”

Katara purses her lips. She’s not an actress, but her storytelling was well-regarded in a way that always made her proud, if a little squirmy—just like your mother, the elders in her village used to say—so maybe that could translate.

“And I’ll be paid?” she asks.

“Of course,” he assures her. “Yes—thank you, Katara,” he adds, turning heel before she can point out that she hasn’t technically agreed yet. 

Probably smart of him.

When she finds herself on stage that evening, made up and in Earth Kingdom robes, she tries to tell herself it’s just like telling a story. Mostly, it works. She remembers the lines surprisingly well.

Something else surprises her, too—the way it barely feels like acting as she stands across from Zuko. His role is still quiet, surly, a romantic lead of few words, but there’s a charm to him, an openness, and she doesn’t know where she possibly draws it from.

It’s near the end of the thing when she remembers with sudden clarity—they’re supposed to kiss here. 

How did she find herself in this situation?

When he strides toward her, placing his hands on her waist, Katara’s breath stutters, and that… that isn't acting.

He looks at her searchingly for a moment—does the scene always take this long?—and when she gives a slight nod of her head, he leans forward. Their lips meet, and it feels like the world around them just… stops. His lips are soft and gentle against her own, and from this close, Katara can tell he smells of firewood and cinnamon. 

When he pulls back, they rest their foreheads together. Katara breathes in shakily. Zuko is supposed to have a line, Katara’s pretty sure, but he's looking at her with a swell of emotion. The director clears his throat from the front row, and it's only then that Zuko remembers this fact as well.

Katara smiles to herself a little as the scene goes on. Maybe acting wouldn't be such a bad way to earn her keep and save for her travels while she stays here in Ba Sing Se.

[bibi-itt]

where are all the zutara actors au fanfics? for real the lack of such a GOOD au/dynamic for them is honestly unbelievable. Like they don't even need exactly to be actors but at lest hollywood celebrities of some kind, cause I just KNOW that our theater kid zuko would be writing the most sickenings films/show/plays script to cope with his daddy issues that would lead him to a solid amount of awards nominations

[zutaramonth]

Zutara month 2024 Prompts

Reluctant Allies

Diary/Journal

Meet Ugly/Cute

Ashes

Katara kept her scars

Sun Warrior Zuko

Divine Intervention

Actors AU

“You’re Married?!”

Secret

“Mom & Dad are fighting again”

Kiss at Midnight

Breakup/Exes

Exposed

Scarf

Injury Recovery

Reality TV AU

Alter-egos

Rumors

Accidental Kissing

Wrong Blind Dates

Disaster

No War AU

“I wanted to, but…”

First Responders AU

Drunk

“Shall we?”

Rival School Teachers AU

Brightest in the Dark

Time Loop/Time Travel

Reincarnation

Due to the high number of similar prompts that were voted for and for the sake of variety, some prompts have been modified to be more inclusive.

Special thanks to @origo-tentaculum for the graphic

[geothewriter]

Thank you for letting me be part of the creative process on this! It was fun <3

A Phantom's Choice

zutara month, day eight: Actors AU @zutaramonth.

Summary: Katara and Zuko intend to take down the notorious crime lord Ozai, but Katara faces last minute doubts on the night of their plan.

Pairing: Katara x Zuko

Warning: allusion to violence at the end

Word count: 413

Author's Note: Major shoutout to @geothewriter for beta-ing/editing this and for suggesting I do this. YOU DO BOMB, GEO! 💣💣💜

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Zuko, I don’t know if I can do this.” Her voice quivered.

He paused his machinations and turned to her. His gaze softened when he saw her eyes wide with fear and uncertainty. In two strides he was by her side. “Katara,” his hands envelop hers, “You can do this. I’ve watched you practice. I’ve coached you. You know this part like the back of your hand. I know you can do this.” His encouragement was met with silence.  

“Hey,” he lifted her chin with his finger, “You are the bravest and most talented person I've ever met. This is just another performance.”

“But it’s not.” Her voice was quiet. 

“They don’t know that.” His voice adopted a serious but gentle tone. “Katara, we’ve worked hard for this. Tonight, we finally get justice. Justice for all of Ozai’s victims, not just us.”

Her eyes met his, fear replaced with resolve. “For everyone.”

“There’s my girl.” He smiled and put his hands on her shoulders. “Dazzle them.” A fleeting  silence held her attention, “Dazzle them like always and leave the rest to us.”

“Curtain in 5!” The stage manager shouted. 

She cupped the unmasked side of his face. “Be safe.”

He put his hand atop hers “I promise.” 

Katara gave him a quick kiss and her lips lingered a moment before pulling away. She squeezed his hand and left her dressing room. For a split second, he wanted to call her back and keep her from anything that might happen. He pushed down the wild impulse. Katara was capable. She would be safe.

The audience tonight was filled with the creme de la creme of society, business executives, high-profile lawyers, and politicians; every one of them was either a past or current client of Ozai. A year ago, Zuko would have been elated that his production made it this far. Now, however, everything felt like a sticky slimy web; his play was merely another fly in the spider’s trap. Tonight the web would be torn asunder and the spider destroyed.

As the second act began, Zuko was in the lobby checking that every exit door was locked. With the last door secured he rushed backstage and signaled Sokka. The room turned pitch dark. Surprised gasps morphed into panic as the sinners swarmed the doors to no avail. Trapped creams filled the theater. He closed his eyes for a moment and relished the sonata of guilty cries. The spider’s web would claim no more innocents.

[nostalgicfortomorrow]

zutara fanfic recs bc absolutely nobody asked

PLEASE REBLOG AND TELL ME IF YOU LIKED MY RECS BTW :)

the art of holding on and letting go - teen and up - by evergreenonthehorizon

genuinely one of the best fics i've ever read. it's aang centric and it's from his pov so zutara isn't as prominent as you would have hoped but it's a modern au where they all go to the same high school and aang learns how to let go of his infatuation with the idea of katara rather than who katara is as a person. deeply underrated, please check it out.

we hold our hearts in silence - general audiences - by psychadelic_sya

it completely follows the canon timeline and it features geriatric and ancient zutara who meet again after many years and when you read this, please listen to last kiss by taylor swift on repeat. that's how you get the full experience. it hurts so so so much.

the colour of the stars - teen and up - by bluenebulae

it's a season 3 rewrite from the day of the black sun onwards where katara and zuko both get captured and they work together to try and find the gaang. it's pretty long but the slow burn is so well done, they absolutely nailed the characterisation and it might be my favourite fic ever. they learn everything about each other and the moments zutara shares makes my heart burn with happiness. cannot recommend this one enough.

figure it out - mature - by clearascountryair (uncompleted but ends in a good spot)

they aged up all the characters by two years and it's basically about ember island and what happened after southern raiders. it's a bit uncomfortable at times for some, because there's quite a lot of sex mentioned and featured and drinking as well but the messages overall and the lessons are really good. and it covers the non consensual kataang kiss and there's so many good takeaways. not finished, but ends up in a good spot.

the chemistry of cooking - mature - by smeditteranea

hear me out, hear me out, HEAR ME OUT, it's another college modern au (yeah, sue me, i love my modern aus) but it's really well done, the characterisation is done right, no hate to any of the characters whatsoever, supremely adorable, there's some smut but just scroll past that. so zuko and katara basically end up being lab partners in a cooking class which ozai seriously frowns upon. ozai runs this really morally bankrupt company and zuko works in it, and basically figures out that ozai is doing illegal dumpings and tries to report it.

BONUS:

i feel something (when i see you now) - teen and up - by glowgal

katara is an up and coming popular actor and is zuko's high school crush. they meet again and it's so adorable.

[valariecomet]

Happy Zutara month! Today is day 8 and fhe prompt was actors au so I drew them in their red carpet outfits for a movie they worked on together.

[cosmiccdivinityy]

The trailer for ATLA just came out and ngl it doesn’t look half bad. Thoughts so far.

The background looks beautiful.

The actor for Sokka I’m sorry why did they do this to you. He looks so bad 😭😭

Azula actor doesn’t give me Azula energy but Azula in the cartoon was drawn in a femme fatale way so it makes sense it wouldn’t translate well irl.

Suki looks fucking amazing.

Zuko looks interesting, I forgot how much I hated him with that damn bald ponytail

Also kataang nation it’s over 😭😭 there’s no way it’s happening the actor for aang is like a child child and Katara actor looks closer to 16.

Idk if there gonna do zutara but I heard a rumor they are so zutara stans rise up it’s your time to shine. 😏😏

Curious how they’ll handle Mai if Zutara becomes a thing, but I also don’t see this show finishing all the seasons tbh cause Netflix cancels everything.

Suki and Aang and Ozai all look awesome af

Iroh Katara Azula and Zuko we shall see neutral on them.

Sokka is just a no idc

Also would y’all consider this canon or not? Or just an AU?

[homeagainrose]

A day late but my favorite so far.

Zutara Month Day 8: Actor AU

Iroh backs the Ember Island Players production of "Love Amongst the Dragons" - with a promise to get to cast the three leads. A bit of matchmaking never hurt anyone - except when the ministers get involved.

Guess this means you all get two from me today!

@zutaramonth

[biconickyoshi]

If the ember island players episode ever happens, will you include the original play narrative, one where they perceive Zutara but instead, Aang gets jealous of Katara. Maybe worse, Jet and Zuko. Considering whilst Zuko wasn’t exactly smitten, he did take somewhat of an interest in him. He did think he was handsome.

Good news is yes, I definitely am planning on adapting the Ember Island Players episode! However, while with most chapters that are a ways off I usually have a vague idea about what I want to stay the same and what I want to change, this chapter is one that has been more vague than others in my mind. This is because there’s so much plot I haven’t covered yet and I don’t know how differently all of that will affect the EIP plot.

I’ve definitely thought about leaving the Zutara implication scenes in, but again, there’s so much else that I have not covered yet in the overall story that I don’t know if it would make sense to include it as part of the play in this AU. There definitely still is an opportunity for jealousy there, especially with Zuko and Katara’s Southern Raider revenge spree happening not long before this (which results in them getting closer).

In regards to the Players adapting anything Jetko-related, initially, I was gonna say that I don’t know for certain if I would include that simply because the Fire Nation is so homophobic during this time period. However, now that I think about it, this could honestly be an interesting thing to explore - like maybe the play heavily queercodes both Zuko and Aang without stating it outright (kind of like Hays Code-era villains in real world media), and the audience knows clearly what’s being implied and laughs at it (bc homophobia). And maybe there’s some dramatic moment where actor!Aang and actor!Zuko are tragically killed off in front of each other (Bury Your Gays trope). I think that this portrayal would seriously shake both Aang and Zuko and make them even more anxious about the future than they already were.

I won’t say anything else because I am now thinking of a lot of interesting ideas on where to go with my adaptation of this ep that I had not previously considered, and I want to save them for when I get to writing the chapter itself :) Thanks for getting the wheels in my brain turning, anon!

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

I really wish Z/tara shippers would not speak for all PoC. Not all PoC are uncomfortable with KaTaang and not all PoC are comfortable with ZeeKay. Especially when a lot of ZK fanfiction romanticize colonization and some ZK fanfiction/fanart sexualize Katara.

And I am not sure what ZKs are talking about with claiming Aang would force Katara to let go of her water tribe heritage...When the comics and Legend of Korra proved that false. And when a lot of Z/Tara fanfiction and fanart always have Katara in fire nation red and one ZK fanfic I read kept on going on about how "Katara's caramel colored skin looks so much better in fire nation red."

"Speaking for an entire people group" seems to be something Zutara fans like to do A LOT.

As for some problematic to full on racist things Zutara fans did, I remember seeing a "list" of it somewhere, and most of it was stuff that didn't really immediately scream racism but could suddenly get to that if the writers weren't careful... and then in the middle of it there's a freaking Pocahontas AU.

I'm all for problematic stuff in stories, even in romances. I'm all for "We are here to entertain, not educate, this ain't aimed at kids." But BOY that's one loaded topic I ain't touching. I'm staying in the incest ships and kinky smut corner where it's safer.

One thing that I will agree with Zutara fans on is that it is unfair to call them "colonizers" just because they like a ship. Hell, I've seen people can Dante Basco that. DANTE! A filipino man that is constantly talking about the importance of having more POC as actors, writers, etc.

[strscrossed]

I just checked out your actor au, and I can't help but think about actor mikasa treating jeankasa questions the same way kiawentiio does with zutura completely avoiding them and dismissing them (politely ofc) lol idk what is wrong with me

LOL!

as a zutara shipper, this ask made me laugh and cry at the same time

mikasa would probably be very coy about shipping questions in general because i think in general she's uncomfortable with them but doesn't want to give that away

it's eren and jean who are more vocal about shipping while armin doesn't say anything because of his own scandals involving annie.

[cloudchiato]

Happy birthday to the best boy ❤️

[DO NOT REPOST] Actor AU • In which they celebrate his best birthday to date (his own words, not mine) in a field of pretty flowers. Happy birthday to the best boi ♡ The part 2 of this verse (inspired by Zendaya's post) was brought to you by @avenuecab​! Forever grateful for the attention to detail as she managed to create something much, much better than what I envisioned. Got super soft when I saw her take on actors!Zutara as teenagers and then as young adults 🥹  (I got longer conversations in mind for Zuko's birthday but ahhh, I don't have much free time these days to finalize anything 🥲)

Part I | Song that fits this particular piece.