#zutara short fic

[zukosdualdao]

i can be what it is you need

zutara month, day 9, “you’re married?!”, @zutaramonth

summary: when katara needs a little back up during a trip to the market on ember island, zuko is there to oblige.

warnings: a creepy older man hits on katara, but nothing further than that happens. putting a harassment trigger on here jic.

“Here he is!” Katara says as Zuko makes his way to where she's standing at one of the seafood stalls. They’d separated at the market to budget their time more efficiently, but he has since procured the rice and spices they were low on and elected to look for her again.

Her voice is bright and cheery, but Zuko can tell from the rigidity of her shoulders that she’s tense as she pulls him in by her side. The man at the food stall is staring at her with an intense, uncomfortable gaze. “My husband,” she adds with emphasis.

What.

But Zuko can’t forget the tension in her shoulders or the urgency in her eyes when they met his, so he only bunches his fingers against the red fabric set against her waist and pulls her closer to him. He tries to keep his posture straight so that he stands at his full height.

“... Here I am,” he agrees. “Is there a problem here?”

The vendor only looks at them bemused. “You’re married?! Aren’t you both a little young?”

Yes, Zuko thinks, so why were you hitting on a girl half your age?

“We’re in love,” he instead says bluntly. Katara coughs slightly beside him.  “How much for the fish?”

They make their payment awkwardly and walk away arm in arm, Zuko holding their supplies in the one not wrapped up in hers.

“You okay?” he asks quietly, once they’re far enough away from the stall.

“Yeah,” Katara sighs, then she turns her head to flash him a smile, laughter in the lilt of her voice. “Thanks for playing along, husband.”

If his face flushes, Katara politely does not comment on it. Zuko laughs along with her as they walk the path back to the house. “Any time."

[demaparbat-hp]

For the Spirits— Chapter VII: Take Me South

Take me south when it's the time

Pour me away like golden wine

I'll form a splash and it will dry

But in the shape of you

—Pure You by Nothing But Thieves

.

Yume placed her hands on her hips and took a step forward. “That I do, yet I can't help but wonder about the timing. Heading South, seeking information on the Tribes…it's all very sudden, don't you think?”

The folded parchment hidden under his vest suddenly seemed to hold the weight of the world. Zuko placed a hand on his chest, where the sketch rested just above his heart. He stared thoughtfully at the floor.

Why now, indeed?

[the-badger-mole]

Now I kind of want to see how you'd have that Zuko/Jun relationship go. I know Zutara is your endgame ship, but when you had Zuko show interest in Jun even though she's like 15 years older...I think I just bought a ticket to a new ship.

You're welcome!...or I'm sorry. I don't know how much Zuko/Jun material there is for you to consume, so maybe I didn't do you a favor.

As for how this relationship would've gone...well, like Jun said, Zuko could not handle her. Zuko also knew immediately there was no long term potential there, he just thought Jun was hot. Had they gotten a chance to talk in that mixer, they might have clicked well enough to go out a few times, but it would be like the bull ride machine. Zuko would hang on as best he could, but eventually he'd be bucked off. It would be a wild, mostly fun ride. Jun was right, though. Zuko was better off manning up and going to talk to Katara.

[lifewtr]

at home sick and bored so naturally i toyed around with some zutara looks and hcs

idk if these will make it to my computer for a cleaner digital vers but they were fun to do! also my handwriting is about as gross as my running nose rn so pls don’t judge me

[soopersara]

Do you have any zutara podfic recs? I’m all caught up on a tale of ice and smoke, and am in need of a fix

Ooh, I hope you've been enjoying Ice & Smoke! I cannot believe how close I am to posting the entirety of Book 1 at this point! (Which... I mean, it's still going to be several weeks, but considering the fact that it's been going for well over a year, THAT'S REALLY CLOSE!)

Soooooo... I was going to say that I feel really bad about how I've barely listened to any Zutara podfics that aren't my own, but it turns out that the Zutara podficcing community is like... really small 😅 Small as in, of the 53 total Zutara podfics on AO3, more than half (28 of them, to be exact) are mine. So on the bright side, I don't have to feel so bad about slacking when it comes to listening to other people's podfics. On the less-bright side, there's just not much selection out there.

Anyone who might have been thinking about getting into podficcing, go ahead and give it a shot! It's not going to make you fandom-famous or anything (which is arguably a good thing), but there's not a lot of competition for attention either!

As far as podfics by other people go, I'm at least aware of owedbetter's i'm still here and The Jasmine Dragon Tea Hour's adaptation of Tempest in a Teacup by akavertigo. I'm pretty sure both of those are dramatic adaptations with more than one voice actor, and I think JD Tea Hour did adaptations of a couple of other fics and has had another in the works for... a while. I don't see any other fics that I know well enough to recommend in the list of Zutara podfics, but I have read both i'm still here and Tempest in a Teacup, so I can at least say that I liked the stories, even if I never got around to the audio versions.

And then, since I kind of stumbled into becoming the Zutara fandom's most prolific creator for its least popular format, I might as well do a bit of self promo too:

Only by Starlight is the longest complete podfic I've posted so far - basically Book 3 Painted Lady/Zuko shenanigans with some angst and hurt/comfort

A Father's Pride

Told You So

Date

Caught

Awkward

The last five are all oneshots - check the summaries and tags to see if any of them sound interesting, I guess! I do have podfics out there for a BUNCH of other fics too, but... they were recorded before I owned a real microphone, and the sound quality from my computer's built-in mic is Not Great. I'm working on remakes of all of those fics, which will start coming out sometime after I finish posting the I&S Book 1 podfics, but the originals are still out there if you're willing to deal with some less-than-spectacular audio.

I'm also working on a podfic of Stolen Bending, and I'll be starting on I&S Book 2 within a couple of months, but those probably won't get posted until the fics themselves get to the 'light at the end of the tunnel' phase, so probably not worth marking your calendar for those ones yet.

And thanks for the ask, @amandayetagain! It's always so cool to hear that someone is listening to my podfics and enjoying them!

[paranoid-spotlight-everest]

twilight. By cadenator/HereAndGenderqueer (with definitely not pining Katara)

(Zuko (having gone through some character development after his banishment to the Earth Kingdom) joins the Gaang in season 1, after a scene much like CoD)

No matter what Sokka thinks, she's watching his firebending because she doesn't trust him. If her eyes follow his muscular torso and tanned arms to the licks of powerful orange fire controlled by just his will, then it's because she's sizing up a potential enemy, not… whatever Sokka thinks she could be doing. 

Sokka comes up from behind her, his arms full of supplies. He's giving her a look, and she knows if his arms weren't full he'd be lightly slapping her on the head.

"Stop ogling, it's weird!"

Katara makes a high pitched noise of offense, and shoots back, "I wasn't ogling!" Sokka lifts an eyebrow, and she huffs.

"He's a firebender! He's firebending! I should stay close in case he betrays us!" There's something below her words, tense and unhealed. Sokka looks like he's about to respond, so she grabs his arm and uses him to pull herself up. He looks affronted beyond measure, but she just sticks out her tongue.

Sokka huffs, "Whatever. Leave our firebender friend alone, enemy or not, we should let him meditate." She grudgingly follows him back to the tents, she should get started on dinner. They walk right past a carefully posed Zuko, oblivious to the flush of his cheeks. He's left alone in peace for about a second, which he's used to in this gang, before Sokka turns back. "For the record Zuko, I trust you!"

"Thanks, Sokka." He grits out, through his mortification.

(sorry about that split second pov change!)

2

The sun has set, and for the most part she's shrugged off the incident. She's opening her tent flap, -and Zuko's in her tent. "Uhh-" she says, intelligently. Shouldn't he be in the boys tent? "Uh, look, I mean-" Zuko rambles, flustered. He jumped to his feet when she opened the flap, and now, with hair askew and face scrunched up, he looks so innocent and adorable-. He's the prince of the Fire Nation, and he was waiting for her, in her tent.

He takes a steadying breath, and finally explains himself. "Do… do really still not trust me?" 

He's looking up at her with doe eyes, so hopelessly cute… and he has a point. He's directly saved her life twice. She exhales.

"Zuko.." and the way his name falls from her lips shouldn't feel so intimate. It's been just over two moon cycles since they met, two months in Earth Kingdom time, and.. and it's still complicated. 

They were vulnerable, honest with each other, in that Earth Kingdom jail cell. Surrounded by steel, they'd confessed what the fire nation had taken from both and Katara had found real connection, and she knew Zuko had too!

But soon after, he blew up, called her and Sokka peasants, nearly attacked them, tried to leave… before realizing his mistakes.

He's apologized profusely many times over, explained that he was raised as the prince of the Fire Nation, that those ideas were hard to shake off but he doesn't believe them anymore.

A week after her passive aggressive treatment, he'd asked what he could do it make it up for her. She spat "Could you help me find my mother's killer?" He'd looked a little surprised, but said, "Ok."

Like it was just that simple for him. It was infuriating!

They'd decided to postpone the trip until they got to the North Pole so she could master her bending, and things had been a little less tense.

At least she thought. But Katara knew she hadn't really improved her behavior. She didn't know if that was justified or not.

And so now Zuko, cute Zuko, powerful Zuko, beautiful and dangerous, was in her tent asking for her trust.

"It's complicated." His eyebrows drew together, mouth twisting downward despite, presumably, his best efforts to soothe his expressions.

"What do you mean, 'It's complicated'?!" he exclaims. She opens her mouth to reply, but he just scowls harder and continues, "We can't leave right now, you know that! Why-" he breaks off, something thick, hurt, and desperate in that last word.

She can barely swallow, and then he's back at it. "What do I have to do to make you stop looking at me like I personally killed your mother!?" The words, sharp and angry, crack in the air like a whip, and Zuko and Katara stumble back from the weight of it. "Zuko!" She warns, tense and quiet and pissed. 

His face has gone blank, and then his entire body has tightened, tense with obvious regret. "Katara.." he breathes, so soft and sorry and she needs to hold onto her anger even though she knows what he's about to say. He bows to her, then rises to meet her eyes through his lashes, head held in shame. "Katara, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that." She hates herself for being so weak, so soft. He must see it in her eyes. "This is just… frustrating." He's right about that. 

The words try to push themselves out of her mouth. It's only fair. But, "I'm sorry, too" never leaves her lips. The silence stretches on a moment too soon, Zuko fumbling for words, before repeating that unanswerable, messy question. "What will it take to trust me?" He's so open, quiet, soft… he's in his sleepwear for Tui's sake! So many words could fall from her lips in this twilight state, true and false, words with consequences she can't predict, but almost none of them do.

"I get it." She admits, soothingly, with more peace than she thought she felt. "I'm… on my way to trust, okay?" He opens his mouth and it all rushes out.

"And I know that's not fair to you, and I'm sorry, but it's less what you did and more… a problem with me?" She ends, Zuko's mouth hanging open.

There is a vortex inside her mind reflecting all her doubts back at her, and she barely notices the way her hand moves with her urges, reaching up to gently touch Zuko's jaw, a small point of warmth against her fingers. He stands stock still, eyes wide. A gentle smile, almost playful, and her fingers push up, softly moving up with the movement of his jaw. 

Her gaze, very pointedly, does not move to his lips.

He's still looking at her with awe with a look she does not care to decipher. Her fingers retreat back to her sides, but why do they still feel so close together?! 

His features still look so calm, so warm, when he repeats, "On the road?"

Her face is flushing, she knows, and anywhere else but his face suddenly seems really interesting. She phrased it so stupidly! She nods, not trusting herself to speak. She braves a look at his face, and then forces a smile. 

He doesn't quite return it, but she knows he's trying. Something passes over his face, something she doesn't recognize, before he whispers, "Goodnight, Katara." 

Their sides brush each other as he walks past, and before he can move out of earshot, she whispers, "Goodnight, Zuko."

AND I COULDN'T EVEN MANAGE TO MAKE THEM KISS i'll have to continue this

@here2hide

Hey guys gonna write a short fic am I writing secret reylo rendezvous or during canon Zutara having crushes on each other?

[mysticwolfshadows]

Taken - Zutara - Part 1

First / Previous / Next / Masterpost

So, as far as I know, we don't know much (if anything) about Azulon's wife. And I have a soft spot for fics that set up her as the origin for much of Iroh's (eventual) kind nature. Knowing a bit about world building and government structure (thanks DND), Azulon being a very militaristic leader means that the Fire Nation, to survive, would need a second in command (Fire Lady) that kept things stable on the home front. I love fics that include this, too. And we do see hints of that in ATLA. The polluted river? What smart leader puts a factory shooting chemicals into a river right housing a floating town???

Anyway, the fic that I was working on had Azulon's wife (who I called Ilah) as a main character. Basically, Fire Lady Ilah has fallen ill, and out of desperation to keep the balance of their power, Azulon managing the war front while Ilah kept the mother land alive, Azulon searches for something that can be done to save her. The only thing that was suggested that could work was a water bending healer. Of course, the Fire Nation had no access to any water benders. They executed all of the prisoners after Hama's escape, and an assault on the North would take to long to be effective. Thankfully, word had just come that there was a new waterbender spotted in the South.

Some worry its the blood demon (Hama) returned to rally dark spirits. Others hope it is a potential healer for their ailing leader. Either way, an investigation must be made. They must find the waterbender in the South.

When the ships arrive, led by Iroh (maybe Lu Ten, or with Lu Ten aboard), the tribe is helpless. Hama is not there, and hasn't been in decades. No warrior, no matter how many there are, could stand to the well equiped soldiers of three high class cruisers. So when the leader steps out, wanting to see the waterbender, the village can only cower. Hakoda tightens his grip on a spear that will be useless against so many. It's when an officer mentions a rumor that waterbenders instinctively save themselves from drowning, and suggests holding each tribesman under water until the bender is found that Katara, only 8, screams out that its her, so the Fire Nation won't hurt her family.

She's taken, her family screaming, onto the ship. There, she's kept by Iroh and/or Lu Ten, who sits with her and gives her tea. Iroh or Lu Ten explain why they came, how his mother/grandmother is ailing, and needs a healer. He tells her that, while she may be young, she's their only hope of a healer. Katara has no choice but to promise to do her best, knowing her village would take the punishment for her failure.

They dress her in Fire Nation clothes, which she hates, and as they sail back to the Fire Nation, Iroh and/or Lu Ten do their best to trian her. They have her practice on soldiers that are injured either from training or work accidents. She becomes surprisingly competent in a short time, all because she had a master (even though a firebending one) to guide her.

When she finally reaches the Fire Nation, she's taken by how bright and colorful everything is. She's amazed by how load and plentiful the people are. And when she's taken into the Fire Palace, she's shocked by how big everything is.

When she's brought before Azulon, the Fire Lord rages. A peasant child? This is the hope of the Fire Nation?! Iroh asks his father to trust, and they take Katara to the Fire Lady.

And, by some mix of sheer force of will and some miracles, Katara succeeds.

Ilah is able to recover, at least partially, and Katara is placed as her 'ward', always at the Fire Lady's side, lest the sickness return. But Ilah is a gentle soul. She won't have a child acting as a nurse full time. Whenever there is a moment, she makes sure to be where Katara can be around others her age will be. In the Fire Palace, that is anywhere Zuko and Azula will be.

Katara spends a lot of those first weeks stiff and cautious, hesitant to go near the Fire Nation royals. But Azula constantly pokes at her with Mai and Ty Lee. She bites back, snaps when Azula sneers. It is only because Ilah is there that Azula doesn't try to burn her. Later, Zuko starts to come by. He's awkward and kind of rude, but it's not meant in a mean way. Ursa encourages Zuko to be kind, to make friends with her, so Zuko does his best.

After a couple months, Katara isn't skittish or cautious. She surrenders to the fact that she's never going home. Ilah doesn't need her as much, so she is mostly locked in her room, a small room attached to the Fire Lady's personal chambers. With little to do, Katara begins to despair. It's Zuko, still trying because his mother asked and he would never disappoint her, that becomes her ally.

He brings her snacks, books, even trying toys and things, to get her to brighten. Eventually, she opens up, relying on Zuko as her only friend. It brings out more of Azula's spite, and Zuko becomes worried about safety. He asks if Katara would maybe like to come with him to practice instead of sitting around in her little room, hoping to keep her closer in case Azula tried anything.

It's at these firebending practices that Katara starts to learn combat bending. She mimics and mines certain moves when she thinks no one is watching, slowly learning what does and doesn't move the water. She learned, if she loosened her stance, made her body just a bit more fluid as it moved instead of sharp like firebenders, she could waterbend. Slowly, she adapts, teaching herself to fight by changing firebending moves to fit her needs.

It's about a year after Katara arrives in the Fire Nation that it happens. The sickness returns with a vengeance, and Fire Lady Ilah needs full time care again. Katara, attached to this woman whose life she holds in her hands and has been at the side of for over a year, weeps when she realizes she's not enough to save her. At 9, Katara must tell Fire Lord Azulon that she is weak and can not do the one thing that they kept her around for. She cowered as the Fire Lord raged, knowing that it could be the last thing she ever sees.

"It is only by Fire Lady Ilah's will that you live," Azulon tells her after the funeral. "It is her memory that stays my hand. Do not sully it, lest I forget why you are here."

Katara is put into Ursa's care, and is placed in lessons. She attends private classes, learning Fire Nation history, math, and literature. Her life becomes so busy, she barely has time for anything but her studies. Zuko is her only reprieve, and they share their wants and desires. Zuko wants to become someone that his mother and father can be proud of. Katara just wants to go home. Zuko promises that, some day, some how, he'll make that happen for her. Katara thanks him, but she knows that it's impossible.

First / Previous / Next / Masterpost

[blastaway2004]

Yikes!

You know I was starting to worry I was too harsh on longing-for-rain, but evidently I wasn’t harsh enough.

⛔️ WARNING! Mentions of RAPE and RACIAL ISSUES!

Also please DON’T send longing-for-rain death threats. What she’s doing is messed up, but it does NOT warrant death.

So long story short, her weird fic, doesn’t only depict Katara getting brutally raped in graphic detail, but also apparently her family IGNORE what happened to her, why? Because Zuko has to be the ONLY one who understands her, literally making him a imperialist savior and demonizing Katara’s relatives (who would literally beat Katara’s oppressors to death and revive them with spirit water just to beat them up again) just to prop up Zutara. I can only imagine how horribly Aang is written.

This next line sums it up best…

I’m honestly tired of LFR and her mindless drones, playing the victim, if she has suffered from something similar to (her fanfic version of) Katara, I sympathize with that and she doesn’t deserve to be sent death threats (something I should’ve been clearer on in the beginning), but she really doesn’t care about depicting real-world feminist issues to support women like she claims, she no a crusader for women and the trials they go through, she literally ONLY cares about forcing Katara and Zuko together above all else, that’s where her motivations lie under the guise of feminism. The primary reason for the fic was to put a 14 year old indigenous girl through torture just so Zuko (who need I mention was initially oppressive towards her in Book One) can be her savior and the only one who understands her. She doesn’t care about anyone but herself and being the victim in her own twisted delusion, demonizing and name-calling anyone who DARES to criticize her.

Oh and by the way if you’re an actual indigenous person, she’ll happily call you racist for disagreeing with her over Zutara supposedly giving Zuko better in-laws (ignoring who Katara’s father in law would be).

F*ck longing-for-rain and her fans.

[mosylufanfic]

Zutara One-Shot Recs?

The fun of entering a long-running fandom is catching up on all the classic fanworks that everyone's already read. Every time I run across a rec list, I'm just adding them all to my reading list.

However, they do tend to be longfics - multiple chapters, tens and hundreds of thousands in wordcount. And I love those! I do!

But sometimes a girlie wants something she can read in one go before going to sleep, maybe sometime before 3 am. Or, being that it's American Thanksgiving, something I can read holed up in my parents' bathroom for a half hour of peace.

Can you share your fave one-shot or fairly short fics with me? Nothing longer than about 10k. Me and my e-reader will be waiting.

[sokkastyles]

(a.p.p.) in re: this post

i'm a lurker in the fandom and i guess i missed out on this bit of drama; it's actually driving me insane that i can't figure out who and what specifically this is about on my own. you don't have to, but if you want to, i'd love to hear the entire pot of tea on this 👀

Okay, I've been trying to stay out of it because I don't want to point fingers, that user and I are both on a mutual block, I do not want to interact with her, and I believe she feels the same. Also, she is the victim in the most recent round of Katara Adultificationgate: Electric Boogaloo, although she's also a hypocrite who attracts drama because she keeps trying to make herself seem morally correct.

The long and short of it is that this user was, a couple years ago, trying to police zutara shippers in her own community for writing darkfic. They aligned with other users who were going on a witch hunt with the stance that it's okay to write darkfic as long as you're doing it "in the right way." With the exception that of course the way they write it is the right way. Because of course they alone are the only one capable of understanding all of the nuance involved in writing about heavy topics.

Now, this person is being attacked for writing darkfic, and is again trying to defend themselves by saying that they're writing about their own trauma, or condemning the violence portrayed.

But what's funny about the current wank is that the content of her fic is like, nearly identical to one that was being targeted in the wank two years ago. It was a fic about Katara being assaulted by men of the NWT. Which, as far as I can tell, is also what the current fic at the center of this is about as well. Only the user who wrote it has been defending it because it's meant to be an expression of her own trauma, or because the themes are about healing and condemning the act itself. Which is all well and good, but the problem is when you get into the issue of trying to police who can write about sexual violence, and in what way, and that is exactly what she was doing before. And that's also at the heart of why she's getting hate now. Every attempt to justify herself just gives more fuel to people who think you need to justify yourself for engaging in fandom a certain way.

And the thing is that KA shippers making the accusations will not see a difference, no matter how hard you try to insist that you're writing about dark topics in the "right" way. Neither they nor her have a right to decide who can write about dark topics and in what way. You can't engage in a good faith argument about how to be sensitive when shipping zutara with someone who thinks shipping it, period, is an irredeemable sin.

I know another component to this is that people are accusing her of racism because the fic involved Katara being assaulted by members of her own/sister tribe, or the idea of her being saved by Zuko. And the thing I will say about that is that while it is valid to express discomfort with those kinds of works or to speak against those particular tropes, it is NOT valid to attack someone over it or say they can't write that kind of fanfiction, or judge their intentions. I'm not going to speak about how indigenous people should feel about such content, but I am going to say that no one, regardless of their identity, has the authority to speak for an entire group of people.

I do understand the issue with the portrayal of violence within the indigenous community by someone who is not indigenous, and I understand the issue with depicting her being saved by someone outside that community. However, these arguments are being misused, because the people doing the arguing hate zutara in any form. If they really cared about the savior trope, they might examine how it is present in canon, with light-skinned Aang being the one to "save" Katara from languishing in the SWT so that she can learn waterbending. Especially considering how her homeland is depicted as backwards and Katara needing to escape it, something EIP parodies but which is still present itself in the narrative. One of the most recent posts made also screenshotted an old interaction where an indigenous fan accused a zutara shipper of "wanting Zuko to get on his wild side with Katara" on a post that said nothing that could possibly be interpreted that way. The post was about Zuko having Hakoda as an in law. The person who made the accusation made it because they hate zutara, not because the zutara shipper was actually being racist. And, I mean, if an indigenous person is caused so much pain by the very existence of a ship, the proper thing to do is not seek out content for that ship that is going to trigger you. Personal discomfort, even due to experiencing racism, does not mean you speak for an entire community. Especially one as wide and varied as "indigenous people," which describes a huge number of ethnic and cultural groups, not a monolith of people who all singularly feel the same about a cartoon ship from 2005.

If you asked an indigenous person not embroiled in fandom nonsense how they felt about these issues, I guarantee you they would not care about the ship war. Some might even be offended at the idea that Katara is even supposed to represent them, considering that her character is a mishmash of cultures and played by a white actress and talks like a white kid from California.

Which all boils down to the same thing. The only thing you can say is "this makes me personally uncomfortable." And the solution, although people may not want to hear it, is to not engage with that content. Nothing else. This was true back then, and it's still true now. And it's true for both sides.

If you want to know what indigenous authors have to say about the issue of representation, though, Sherman Alexie, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Gerald Vizenor have all been heavily criticized both within their indigenous communities and without, for their portrayal of violence, both against native people and native on native violence. For every person who says that intercommunity violence is "bad representation," there is also the opposite issue of the denial and victim blaming that also happens within these communities. In particular, Alexie has been accused both by people within and outside the community of writing a white savior narrative, when he was writing about his own experience, and the story is much more nuanced than that. (And yes, I'm aware of the allegations against Alexie, but that doesn't discount what he's had to say about his own experience, both in the ways he's spoken up about being tokenized by whites and the ways he was criticized for being "bad rep" within his own community).

And it's telling that some of the things I am seeing antis say now about the current fic is identical to what "well meaning" individuals said about the fic that was targeted years ago. And during that time, the author did not even speak up about why they wrote the fic. And I'm gonna say something else people might not like: they shouldn't have to.

Nobody has to justify why they wrote fanfiction or divulge information about their trauma, identity, or history, and the people demanding that are ALWAYS going to find a reason for why it's wrong for you to do what you are doing.

I'm seeing people say things like "but why did she have to write about Katara?"

Because fuck you, that's why.

This is the exact same argument leveled against porny fic. Whether your fic is meant to have a deeper moral point or not, the argument is the same. And you don't owe anyone an explanation.

But antis and radfems don't like that argument because they can't weaponize it.

[demaparbat-hp]

Hi! I wanted to just drop in and say I love your work (both your art and your writing. The way you draw katara is my all time favorite, really!), and was wondering other than the AUs you currently have, are there any other ATLA ones you really enjoy? Lately I’ve been enjoying chaos!avatar/vaatu vessel zuko, and blue spirit/painted lady zutara. Though in less of a hidden identity way and more of a spirit touched, body-sharing fma:b style, way. But that’s enough about me, tell me about you!

Oh! I love this question!

As you know, AUs are my lifeblood, so it comes as no surprise that every now and then someone will post something about a new AU and I'll get obsessed over it for weeks.

@late-draft's The Last Air Key Holder AU has everything. Breathtaking worldbuilding, amazing character dynamics and designs, and a generally great use of futuristic elements (hah!) in the building of the world and the storyline. A Sci-fi ATLA AU that gets even better every time op expands on it.

Then there's @pineapple-frenzy's famous Soulmate AU, which I had to mention because...well, because I just had to. Flowers growing in the places of your body where your soulmate has been hurt is such a beautiful and bittersweet concept, especially when applied to ZK. This is such a sweet AU and I love it so much.

@bluespirlt's Blue Spider AU is such a fun choice for me because, despite my little brother's attempts at converting me, I don't really like Spiderman (Batman is better for me, tbh). But I cannot see this AU and not love it. The art is great, the concept is fun, the fic is amazing! The ZK dynamic is everything the Fandom loves about them packed into a vigilante AU and I am here for it.

Lastly, there's this beast.

A long time ago, @the-badger-mole made a series of drafts, AUs, I-don't-really-know-what-they-were AU Bot Plots. One of them, despite being terribly short, and most probably forgotten already, has made its way into my heart and decided to stay there for good. The infamous Library AU. There's nothing about that AU except for that single post, I believe. Do I care about the lack of content? No. Did it stop me from fanart-ing the hell out of it? Nope! Should I be less obsessed over the idea? Yeah, probably.

[the-badger-mole]

hey so I’m relatively new to the Zutara fandom and I heard you were a Zutara blog?

do you have any headcanons for them? post canon or otherwise.

apologies if this is not the place I’m still super new (also any other good Zutara blogs out there)

Hey! Welcome! Jump on in, the water's great! My blog is very pro-Zutara, and I have tons of posts including short fics, meta and head canons. Feel free to scroll through it. However, I don't know if anyone's told you, but my blog is also very, very anti–Aang. If you enjoy him, I respect that, but I don't respect him. My anti–Aang stuff is not the majority of my blog, but there's your heads up so it doesn't surprise you later.

Since you asked specifically for head canons, here's one I'm pretty sure I haven't mentioned before. Post war, Katara encourages Zuko to make more friends. He doesn't trust most of the nobles, so in disguise, he takes an art class attended by middle and working class citizens. Not only does he make friends, he gets to know a few of his subjects by name. Later, when he and Katara build a new advisory board, unconnected with Ozai, some of the first nominees are people Zuko met in his art class.

[eponastory]

Oh look, it's another Anti making assumptions again about self-inserting and Zutarians disrespecting Katara again...

0

This person was apparently born at night, and it was last night, to be exact. So happy birthday, random anti!

Anyway, this shallow narrow minded view is very common amongst the antis because well, they have to have something to complain about at all times. Look, I get it, you don't want to seem like a hypocrite about self-inserting. We all know you do it just like the rest of us readers and writers. The only problem is they don't have the balls enough to admit it.

Yeah, that's right, we self-insert.

But it's not because we have this sexual fantasy we want to fulfill with Zuko through Katara. Look, I'm not here to judge because I also have sexual fantasies that I self-insert into characters to achieve (though mine is with Dante from Devil May Cry and I read a lot of reader x Dante fics for that). It's part of escapism.

But no, it's not because of sexual fantasies. It's about a lot of things other than that. Some of those things are emotional or physical trauma that the reader/writer is trying to get through. Especially if it's emotional trauma like emotional abuse and neglect. That's some serious shit that antis apparently don't understand because they are themselves guilty of dealing out that abuse to others (over a ship... like come on people, be serious). And no, shared trauma isn't a problem in a relationship, especially when that trauma has been dealt with from both parties. That's a horrible excuse to say that a relationship is going to be 'toxic'. If anything, moving forward through trauma can help a person grow. Zuko and Katar dealing with their trauma actually made them friends, so I don't see that being an argument against.

As far as Katara making her own choices...

Honey, sweetheart, darling...

She's a fictional character. Her choices were made for her by the people who created her. This is the same thing as using the fortune teller to have her self-fulfilling the fortune given to her. Most of us Zutara writers actually hate that Katara's choices were limited to that prophecy, so that's the one bit of Canon that can actually be detrimental to her character. But yeah, you just ignore that for the sake of your argument.

You'll find that Zutarians actually give Katara a lot more 'choices', considering how she is treated post-war, so yeah. But again, she is a fictional character. Her choices are pre-ordained by her creators. That's kinda how characters and storytelling work.

But we aren't anti Katara around here. If we were, then Zutara wouldn't exist. When it comes to self-inserting, we could easily create a character to ship Zuko with to fulfill that emotional need, but we love Katara.

Even though we can also easily self-insert into both characters.

So, yeah, I don't know where these obsurd arguments come from other than cowardice and the moral high ground that the antis claim to have.

News flash, your high horse is actually a very short pony perilously standing on the edge of a cliff.

Grow a pair and get over yourself before you fall.

[theblueeyedfirebender]

20 questions for writers

Tagging myself into this because I’m a giant loser and I think it’ll be fun!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Twelve!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

34,421

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Of my twelve fics, there are eleven for Fullmetal Alchemist and one for Avatar: The Last Airbender. And I am strongly considering dipping my toes into the world of Spy x Family as well (just as soon as I finish Code White).

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. Uncle Zuko (Avatar: The Last Airbender, Zutara)

2. The Counteroffer (Fullmetal Alchemist, Royai)

3. The Art of Living On (Fullmetal Alchemist, Royai)

4. The Flame Alchemist's Daughter (Fullmetal Alchemist, Royai)

5. Checkmate (Fullmetal Alchemist, Royai)

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes! When people take the time to share their thoughts on my work, it means the world to me.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hmm, it's a tie between As You Were and The Flame Alchemist's Daughter.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Probably Death and Taxes, in spite of its bleak title!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Thankfully, no.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Nah. I can’t even write a smooch scene without blushing and looking over my shoulder.

10. Do you write crossovers?

I haven't, but I'm not opposed to the idea if the right concept were to come to me. Closest thing I have to a crossover now is my latest fic, Mrs. Mustang, which is inspired by a scene from Pride and Prejudice.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of. There's a special place in fandom hell for people who do that shit.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but that would be cool!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Also no, also would be cool!

14. What is your all-time favorite ship?

Ah man, I have to say Zutara (Zuko x Katara, Avatar: The Last Airbender). I've shipped them since I was a kid watching Sozin's Comet in my parent's basement in 2008. They're the ship that got me into writing fanfiction. Even though they aren't canon (*sob*) and I don't write them much anymore, they'll always be my OTP.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Ahhhh don't kill me but The Bookshelf has been giving me trouble. I have a lot of Part 2 written but it just doesn't feel right, yaknow?

16. What are your writing strengths?

I'm clear and concise. I think I'm pretty good at tension, particularly romantic tension, and angst. I pay very close attention to characterization, and pride myself in accurate portrayals of the characters in my fanfics.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I'm slow. My word counts tend to be low - side effect of being concise. I gloss over descriptions that I should probably spend more time on. I'm good at writing romantic tension, but when that tension culminates, I feel like it just gets awkward and then I cut things short when I really should draw them out. Humor and true fluff pieces do not come naturally to me, though I'm trying to stretch myself by writing more of those.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I have never done this, so no thoughts except for it sounds difficult!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Avatar: The Last Airbender

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

This is hard, but has to be The Counteroffer, my first and most-loved Fullmetal Alchemist piece. In a creative sense, writing this story opened the gateway (lol) to so much more for me, and I'm eternally thankful that my little debut to this fandom (and return to writing overall) was so well received.

Death and Taxes and Hourglass are also close to my heart.

Tagging in @starwritingbri, @they-lived, @musing-and-music, @fullmetalscullyy, @writing-royza, and YOU if you want to join in!

[halfhoursonearth-writes]

A new fic and some thoughts on process and the miscommunication plot

I’ve gotten a bit blocked working on the next set of chapters for But Who’s Counting?, and I probably won’t have anything I’m happy with to post for a few weeks.

But, to try to break through the writer’s block, I took a discarded idea for an early version of that story's climactic scene and wrote a short new fic. I don’t consider this story a spoiler for what’s coming in But Who’s Counting?; basically anything I plan to keep for that piece, I’ve changed in this one.

And you certainly don’t need to read But Who’s Counting? in order to read You Make Everything Better. If you like Zutara fics with yearning, self-denial and also the end of yearning and self-denial, I hope you'll check it out!

I also brought some some writing process thoughts. Oops.

Something that has happened both times I’ve written Zutara multi-chapter fics is that the two characters fall for each other earlier than I initially plan. I’m not the most committed outliner—as a writer I’ll usually follow the energetic flow of the characters rather than any hard plotting I've done. And I find the empathy just grows so quickly between these two characters once there's opportunity.

The downside to writing this way is that often the scenes that initially motivated me to write a particular story no longer work in the story as it unfolds. So I’m often killing darlings while they’re still a twinkle in my eye.

In my initial (imagined, lol) outline of But Who’s Counting? the climactic chapter looked something like this new story. But then the relationship between the characters progressed too significantly to land in this sort of scene without constructing a major miscommunication plot for the sake of it. And I thought about doing that! I started writing that draft. And then I had to reconsider.

I don't dismiss miscommunication plots out of hand. In fact, I think miscommunications are basically essential devices in certain enemies to lovers or friends to lovers plot arcs. And frankly, real humans miscommunicate constantly, so I think this trope is more reflective of reality than it's given credit for.

For these reasons, there’s probably still some miscommunication ahead in But Who’s Counting? because there’s a lot these characters still don’t know about one another, their respective worlds, and what they want. But I didn’t want to contort the character arcs for the sake of a scene that no longer fit the story. For me, when miscommunications require me to suspend disbelief about character choices, that's where they get frustrating.

But I just couldn't let this scene go. So now it finds its own way into the world!

[blackbullet99]

Zutara-Stans aren’t real fans of Katara*

*Disclaimer: I don’t mean all fans of Zutara, I’m sure most Zutara shippers actually do like Katara. I’m talking about a very annoying, very stupid vocal minority of Zutara-stans

These Zutara Stans will preach about Zutara like it’s some kind of feminist ship that women should naturally like, whereas Kataang is somehow misogynistic because it was written by two men?

Zutara Stans aren’t real fans of Katara or even A:TLA as a whole, they only focus on Katara’s character in relation with Zuko, they think the hostile, anger, grief stricken Katara who use blood bending and was rather harsh to Sokka is the REAL Katara and that Aang is a bad person for questioning Katara and being concerned for her wellbeing if she were to kill somone, they invalidate Katara’s relationship with other characters especially Aang, a character who objectively supported character throughout the entirety of the show and whom Katara objectively had feelings for and chose to be with, but that doesn’t fit the Zutara’s agenda, so they re-write Katara’s relationship with Aang as toxic, invalidating Katara’s feelings for Aang and her compassion for him specifically which they call “emotional labor”. They invalidate Katara’s feelings and even her trauma by comparing her to a 25 year old and Aang to her 8 year old child. They have no respect for Katara’s feelings or choices.

For these people Katara’s relationship with other characters, be it Aang, Toph or even Sokka don’t matter, only Zuko. They want Zuko to be the only one who supported Katara, so they actively ignore the others’ support towards Katara, by making her this overworked girl who never speaks up for herself, who literally needs Zuko to be her Prince Charming, even though he supported her less than the others, only became friends with her recently and initially caused her the most harm out of The Gaang, that’s all irrelevant, because all that’s forgivable, people like Aang who were supportive and kind for the get-go can’t make mistakes, Zutara is clearly a feminist ship.

They completely ignore all of Katara’s accomplishments in LOK, who cares if she was the world’s greatest healer, taught the next Avatar waterbending, helped rebuild her tribe, outlawed blood bending and had a happy marriage and family. No, to these people, Katara is nothing but The Avatar’s Wife, her husband is all that defines her, her healing means nothing unless she heals Zuko, she should’ve became the Fire-Lady and becoming part of the nation that colonized her tribe, she should’ve embrace blood bending even though it was traumatizing for her because she did it in front of Zuko, she’s a baby-maker because Aang apparently forced her to have kids until he got an Airbender, despite her clearly wanting to have children. They act like her ending up with Zuko suddenly makes her story more empowering and would erase any issues they have with her character in LOK, literally making Katara’s story all about a man.

Zutara shippers like these don’t care about Katara, don’t believe their lies, they don’t appreciate Katara, the only like their self-insert of Katara who’s nothing like the three dimensional compassionate, heroic, strong woman we all know, this Katara’s story is literally built around Zuko, and even then this Zuko is super mature, empathetic and was always a good person, not the initially antagonist Zuko who is quick to anger but gradually becomes kinder and matures over time. That’s not even getting into mischaracterizing and villainizing Aang, invalidating his and Katara’s relationship. Romanticizing Zuko capturing and attacking Katara, invalidating Katara’s understandable initial hatred of Zuko and the less I say about the r@pe and sl@ve fics, the better. Long story short, screw these Zutara shippers, you know who you are, you ain’t real fans of Avatar, you aren’t real fans of Katara, just delusional moronic shippers who honestly don’t deserve to have an opinion.

Goodnight everybody. 😁