#zutara’s not canon but it’s not a stupid idea

[maddie-grove]

The thing about ATLA (original cartoon) is that the primary (not only but main) target audience was ten-year-old boys, and the way the romance is written reflects this. It’s not a huge part of the show, it’s usually lighthearted or comedic, and what angst there is comes from something that a tween boy who’s starting to like girls would relate to (i.e., am I cool/mature enough for this girl to like me). I mean this in a very broad sense (not all boys can relate to this, not all girls can’t, it’s not weird or immature for a teen or adult to like that dynamic, etc.) and in a neutral one (this kind of story is neither inherently problematic/sexist or inherently wholesome/positive). But I think both the “Zutara shippers are missing the POINT and ship it because they hold problematic views” contingent and the “Aang is history’s greatest monster and if you ship Kataang you hate women” contingent need to chill.

[blastaway2004]

Zutara shippers are truly braindead.

I really don’t know what more I can say here. I already talked about how Bryke saying Aang and Katara’s relationship was INITIALLY “like a kid crushing on a babysitter” was an INITIAL pitch bible idea that was scrapped in the final show as Katara clearly harbors feelings for Aang and views him as an equal (NOT someone to look after like a baby).

These Zutara fanatics are so desperate and pathetic that they take an out of context statement and information from people they don’t even like, and cling to this thinking it’s some checkmate, because they’re still bitter Bryke didn’t give into their middle school delusions and entitlement.

This loser in particular is jumping through hoops and reaching for the moon trying to make Aang and Katara’s relationship as problematic as possible claiming it to be “pseudo-incestuous” because “Katara viewed Aang as a little brother for most of the series” and “their dynamic had mother-son vibes”, both statements are objectively, factually incorrect. No matter how these clowns try to rationalize it. It just makes this idiot look stupider than they probably are.

Oh and of course all comments disabled. So they can remain in their safespace and no can point out their idiocy.

ZeeK freeks like these are something else, man. Not a single good take from these guys. Why can’t these fake fans go find another show to watch instead of whining for almost 20 years about their mid-ass ship not being canon.

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

Your blog is my guilty pleasure lol, it's so validating to read your very matter of fact rebuttals after years of being talked over & down to in the fandom. Being in the fan space & hearing the way people talked about how much more "female gaze coded" Z/tara was made me feel like I was betraying other women by not liking Zuko or Zutara the way "real mature" women did.

Funniest thing is, when i watched the show as a kid as an older sister, someone with talent/skills that nobody else understood, a girl who felt she had to be mature all the time, Kataang instantly became my otp. Katara was living my dream of a fun, cute boy sweeping me off my feet, telling me I was special and going on a magical journey with me-- I had the HUGEST crush on Aang as a little girl. It was so lame growing older and hearing near constantly from the fandom how stupid and unbelievable the idea that Katara actually had feelings for Aang was, and how it's a "male" (aka: bad) fantasy, when honestly Zuko's angsty ass was far from dream boyfriend material in my opinion it made me feel gaslit fjhdidjskj.

Genuine Z/tara fans are fine, I totally get the appeal of the red/blue enemies to lovers sparks fly ship, but the meanest and loudest of your crewmates and the way they act like their tastes are the Correct ones has been just. ridiculous for many years. And why do those types always feel the need to start the conversation by bashing Kataang every single time?? I started with a positive opinion of their ship when I entered the fandom as a teen, even liked a few arts and whatnot as a "what-if," but all the nonsense has left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

So yeah, thanks for this space to complain about the experiences we've had lol. I've had one too many conversations about ATLA & how good it is interrupted with the other person going "well except for the Main Romance, that was shit and Z/tara should have been endgame" not to be Worn Out. Like if in their opinion the show is *perfect* except that One thing.... maybe the problem lies elsewhere?

Yup, that's definitely a pattern I noticed: zutarians are SO many and SO loud, that even though a pretty large part of the fandom disagrees with their takes (regardless of enjoying the canon ships or not) most of them just... didn't talk about it because they didn't want to be harrassed or talked down to or be hit with the "well, we are the majority therefore we're right" argument.

It's part of why I was innitially shocked at how much support this blog got. I thought I just gonna be in my own little bubble of the fandom, but nope, I got sooooo many messages of "FINALLY! Somebody said it!"

And looking back, I should've noticed something was off. There's a reason ATLA's ending was not one of these disasters that basically nukes and kills 90% of the fandom and live in infamy as one of the worst falls from grace ever, How I Met Your Mother style, even though both shows had the fan favorite ship not end together.

It wasn't just that one was well-written and the other wasn't (though that clearly affected the audience and critical reception of these endings, both at the time and through the decades).

HIMYM was a case of "The actual endgame ship was loathed by nearly everyone while the rival pairings were almost universally beloved."

ATLA was a case of "70% of the fandom likes this ship - of these fans, 25% are multishipers that also like the canon ships, 25% only like the ship in fanfic but don't actually want it to be a thing, 25% loves it but can accept it not being canon at point because they acknowledge it'd be rushed, and the 25% are the ones that would burn down Bryke's house if they could, so in reality only a fraction of the fandom didn't accept the Kataang/Maiko endgame, while the overwhelming majority was either happy about it or indifferent to it"

And that's without taking into account that Avatar got new popularity boosts through the years that lead to plenty of people that had Zutara being hyped up for years being disappointed when they realized "Oh, it was popular because of fanon shit, not because it actually would have made sense story-wise" or people who reached that same conclusion after rewatching the show.

I think that's why Zutarians have such a victim complex and want to pretend Bryke and Kataang/Maiko fans are "oppressing" them - they've been dominating the conversation for years, and not only got no results out of it, they're now losing that "leverage" too. They're no longer in an echo-chamber, they need to use actual arguments that make sense if they want their opinion to be almost universal and they just can't do it because their ship was never that good to begin with.

[atla-confessions]

the idea that canon zutara would have saved katara’s depiction in the comics is hilarious at best and delusional at worst.

Zutara would have been terrible because it would have gotten the same stupid treatment as most ships didn’t in those because the comics are just plain bad and nonsensical storytelling.

They are badly written look what they did to Maiko. Look at what they did to Zuko! You think that Zuko would have been better for Katara? How? He’s not even better for himself! People that geniunly think having the canon ship be zutara would magically fix all the writing issues, how? Being the Fire Lord’s wife and being the Avatar’s wife are narratively similar meaning they have probably fucked it up in all the same ways and that’s because they don’t know what the fuck they are doing! The comics just be saying shit just to say shit and honestly they should recton all of them and then be done with it. They obviously do not know who any of these characters are without the plot hanging over their heads and everyday I thank god that there was no book 4. Why do you think the further they get away from the gaang’s narrative the stories get miles better? Because they honestly just do not know how to continue to gaang’s story in any meaningful way. Which is fine but please just let them go..

Do you honestly think they’d have handled Zutara with any nuance? The comic books are badly written and honestly I’m tired of hearing them brought up in arguments.

X

[omegansamurai]

You know what would be so funny? (NATLA-related)

If Zutara wasn't even mentioned in the early part of s2(I do think it will be hinted at near the end of s2 of NATLA), and the only relationship that's developed in the first part of the season is Taang. Like if they're going with a teen actress playing Toph, then something must be happening with their relationship in the future, at least. I mean, come on, they ask in the casting call for dancing moves.

Look, all I'm saying is, it would be so funny if the Kataangers would be like...super invested for hints of Kataang in the next season of NATLA, but they find out that Aang is crushing on ANOTHER girl, which that girl is Toph. XD Like, I think he'll be trying to flirt with her in NATLA, and I so believe that, and Toph would be like, "What the? Bro, calm down". I mean, it's like, Kataangers think Aang has to hook up with Katara, but...Aang has other options...like options that are HIS AGE. I mean, look at Toph. XD

And like...they're in a real-world setting. They can't go by the cartoon's (stupid) rules, logic, and canon. Honestly, the story is more important, and it wouldn't matter if some ships change in the original ATLA, the story will still be in tact. Seriously, it's telling the story just fine. So what if the ships changed? The story stays the same. X)

I just think it's so funny that they're so worried that only Zutara happening would ruin the show for them, when they're not even thinking about the OTHER ship that could potentially happen. XD I mean it, I feel like they're gonna do something with Aang and Toph's relationship in NATLA. I can just feel it. ;)

(I also got a lot of cool ideas on how they would interact and whatnot! X) If any Taang fans want to hear, DM me! :D )

[akiizayoi4869]

What do u think of korra end up with asami?

And

What are your thoughts on zuko and katara could end up together?

Well, I certainly wasn't expecting it, and when I found out about it I hadn't watched the show in years. Never got past season 1 so I had no idea what happened at the end, aside from some things I heard here and there. I do like them together though, I just wish that the stupid love triangle never happened. Idk, it just makes it feel kind of weird? To me, at least. Like, Korra kissed Mako when he was in a relationship with Asami, and from what I can remember, Asami did the same thing in book 2 when Mako and Korra had that huge fight. If that were me? I wouldn't want anything to do with that person. It's a miracle that they were able to remain friends after all of that. Aside from that whole mess, I don't have any problems with them becoming canon.

As far as Zuko and Katara becoming canon, I can see it happening, but imo, the show would have to be written very differently. Neither one of them have romantic feelings towards each other throughout the show, and obviously for them to become a couple, they would have to have feelings for each other. Had the show been written with the intention of them being endgame, I wouldn't mind. A relationship between them would be really interesting to explore. But yeah, I wouldn't have any problems with them being canon. I actually do like the ship, no matter how much I may reblog posts that are critical of it, or rather, the takes that some of the shippers have that I don't agree with. I forgot that this pairing was even a thing until a few years ago, when my sister was reading a story with them as the main pairing. I asked her what she was reading, and she said she was reading a Zutara fanfic. My first thought was "wtf is Zutara?" and I was trying to remember where I had heard that before. Mind you, I was on my phone so I could have just looked it up on Google and I would have had my answer, but for whatever reason the thought didn't occur to me🤣 heck, I could have just asked my sister but I didn't for some stupid reason. So maybe 15 to 20 minutes go by before it finally clicked for me: Zutara=Zuko/Katara. Definitely one of those moments where I felt really stupid lmao.

[kataraslove]

I saw a fic and it made me so sad like it was just shitting on Aang hours. WHEN HE DIDN'T EVEN DO ANYTHING!!!

So, basically the fic was like how Aang is too immature for Katara yada yada yada. And you know what his fault was? Doing her chores for her! Like of course he's in a new relationship and wants to treat her the best and that might make some people uncomfortable, I understand. But you have to talk to your partner and tell them that you're not comfortable with them acting like they're beneath you or something.

And the worst thing? The whole fic was from TOPH'S PERSPECTIVE who was going on about how stupid and childish Aang is and how she'd rather have her "best girlie Katara" end up with a MAN (zuko).

Aang and Toph's friendship is one of the most purest thing in the whole show and I hate how (sometimes even kataang) writers make Toph like she would think Aang is not good enough for Katara. Like she'd totally slap some sense into homie if he ever felt like he wasn't "good enough" for Katara.

Also it's funny how Aang's either an incel who throws all chores onto Katara or he either doesn't let her touch a broom. Depending on zutarians mood on how to show he would be a bad boyfriend. They should just call themeselves the schrödinger's shippers at this point.

so let me get this straight: aang is a horrible boyfriend because he.. does her chores for her? i thought the issue was that he does too little chores for her and that he doesn’t pull his weight? that she essentially has to do all the work?

now there’s such a thing as too many chores? also, why would toph even be concerned with the amount of chores that aang does or does not do in their married adult life?

the idea that aang feels that he is not good enough for katara is shrouded in fanon. canon aang does not once state or ever feel that he is not good or worthy enough for her. ironically enough, there’s quite literally a line in which zuko states, “i don’t deserve this.” if anyone on the team is plagued with insecurities regarding his relationships with friends, that would be zuko, not aang. canon aang knows his worth very well - but at the same time, as the avatar, he has never felt the need to hold this status above his friends.

it looks as if the author is using these characters to project their own relationship dilemmas - which is okay in the fanon sense, but completely contradictory to canon. i don’t think authors like the one above are ever interested in engaging with atla outside of zutara.

[pygmalimoon]

About me 🌙

Intro:

(currently on a cyber-break now, will stop posting here for a while.)

Hello here~ I’m moon (游移月) | 22 | INTJ | Eng/中文

I kinda live in fandoms and enjoy shipping. I read, write and draw, keep sailing whatever I want. I’m busy sometimes so I will ask for commissions from the artist too.

-All views are mine-

⚠️Attention: prohibit use & reproduce or AI study my post and don’t be plagiarism and inspiration thief.🚫

-

OTPs and Fandom

-My current OTPs

• katara x zuko (zutara) from ATLA

• allura x keith (kallura) from VLD (2016 DM ver.)

• claire x douxie (douxaire) from TOA (Wizards only)

• clary x jace (clace) from TMI

• joan x sherlock (joanlock) from Elementary

• maddie x caspian from Pantheon

（it’s too much, I won’t write all of them lol)

• lockwood x lucy / skull x lucy from Lockwood & Co. (Both book and TV)

Links and blogs:

I run shipping blog acc for my ships.

- @space-age-love-song-1984 for my DNA (kallura)

- @drown-in-cerulean-fume is for the cutest wizard’s children and their magic generation families (douxaire)

Attentions:

something about my views (or the opinions that I agree with) of fandom and shipping.

-From batmorphy-blog

• I’m quite pure for my ships, I prefer non-canons because they’re not written to be together on purpose but more unexpected and natural, and that make sense to me. I have confidence and believe in their connection, so they have.

• I repect the different opinions and I don’t care too much actually. Because everyone is a different individual, and if something I really dislike or disagree with, I will block/mute it myself. So nothing to worry about. The world is tolerant, we all fair and have a right to exist, and it’s valid.

• I’m open mind for all kinds of contents/shipping, characters are free and fiction doesn’t equal to reality, there’s no such limited in it. Agree/like/ship it or not, it’s all up to ourselves, only if we like it/or not, that’s all. Don’t find stupid excuses that even yourself doesn’t understand fully to stop others from enjoying, because you personal don’t agree with. That’s rude.

• I’m happy to see people who love my works and would like to create extended content for it (like the AUs/prompts that I give) for the same characters. I really appreciate it :)

But I DO HATE the inspiration and conceptual plagiarism. Such as I post my art for A/B and after 11 hours, someone posts the work that almost uses the same color palette and ideas as my art but for B/C from the same fandom. I have to say that I feel sad for you actually, you really have no idea of how to rumor-mongering for your ship, huh?

Please respect the spirit of original and honest. Don’t be an inspiration/idea thief. (Just like the AI art)

• Fandom police & antis are not welcome here. I block/delete antis/fanpols with no seconds and explains, hope you guys know. My ship is my baby, you guys are trash and don’t deserve to be under their post. Please feel free to block/mute me too if you don’t like my post contents or you’re a antis/fanpol, thanks a lot 😉🫰

Contact:

-my linktree: https://linktr.ee/punkymoon

Thanks for reading and nice to meet you! Wish you all enjoyed the things you like and be happy!

[caius-hhhhhh]

following up on this fanfic emoji ask game: I know this is not the general convention but i tend to like responding to an ask game all at once rather than waiting for prompts. so I’ve just answered every single one of the questions below the cut. Again, if you wanna play or use the game for your own purposes, please do! you don’t have to repeat my strategy, although you’re free to do so too.

i was about to say “this is a bunch of autofellating nonsense” but that’s the point. who cares. i wrote a lot about disability. if your mental illness also significantly impacts your ability to write, this might be triggering.

I’m still a baby ao3 user (@ is spitemonger) with only one published fic (it’s Zutara. It’s not that I’m not proud of it but I wrote it on a deadline and thus spent a lot of the creative process going “i don’t want to i don’t want to”). but a) I have generally been writing since I was a teenager, and b) I want to write more and publish more.

So I’ll be mostly referring to unpublished wips, with a primary focus on a long-form one-sided radiostatic fic covering Vox’s fall to Stayed Gone, and a minor focus on two shelved Magnus Chase (PJO spin-off) fics, one for Fierrochase and one for Blitzstone. [if you haven’t read Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgaard get the fuck on it, there’s a genderfluid character]

😅 What's a story or scene you've created that you're a smidge embarrassed exists?

my entire trunk novel? If I’m embarrassed by a scene I delete it during edits. So the only thing I’m even minorly embarrassed by is the fandom-specific plot I wrote by the seat of my pants (Magnus goes to Camp Half-Blood) — I’ll get more into that in a later question

🥺 Is there a certain type of moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels?

love that this emoji doesn’t fucking register on my computer. I’ve never thought about this before! It’s hard for my own writing to get me emotional, I tend to look at it so clinically and dispassionately I kind of get caught off-guard when people say an emotional moment hit them. I do get very easily fucked by other people’s writing about transness. No prizes for guessing why, characters exploring their own gender and other people telling them they see them as their proper gender always get me feeling some type of way. calam4r1’s comic about Alastor’s “what have you done to me” makes my heart EXPLODE

🤡 What's a line, scene, or exchange you've written that made you laugh?

I am exceedingly proud of this Cave Johnson-ass line: “All projects, collaborations, products, and endorsements featuring or even vaguely mentioning that crimson ass’s likeness are to be liquidated. And burned. In fact, trap and seal the gases from the fire, freeze them back into liquid, and then burn them again.”

😈 Has there been a point in a story where you did something just to be playfully mean to your readers?

Oh fuck yes. It is a major twist that I’d be stupid to spoil, but! There is a red herring at the start of my current fic that you don’t get resolution for until three-quarters of the way through. It involves Vox’s real name.

✍ Do you have a beta reader?

My close associate SpaceWall is a fan-fucking-tasting editor who understands my need for my writing to be completely eviscerated. She has the balls to tell me when I’ve got a shite idea, and I could not ask for a better editor. Go fucking read her fics and tell her she’s excellent. On the subject, I really like editing and am fully open to reading your work. I’ve a slightly longer post about it here but please reach out to me if you’d like me to look at anything you have.

🛒 What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc.

Disability. It’s well and truly quite hard to find a story that doesn’t deal with disability — hell, it’s hard to find a human that doesn’t have a relationship with disability — but it’s something canon so frequently either tacitly ignores or doesn’t pick up on. If I’m going to do anything in a fic, it’s explicate the characters’ canon disabilities or headcanon new ones. This is my favourite part of Cold Bodies btw, and basically the only part I wrote without explicit prompting. It’s in the last subsection if you don’t want to read the 8k words of prep

🎢 Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?

idk man I’m really bad at pacing so even if the content is whack I go about it too slowly to really shock anyone

✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉

fuck off.

💋 First kiss fics. Love em or hate em?

Love the implication that I don’t fall asleep every night fantasising about a thousand different first kiss scenarios.

🎶 Do you listen to music while you write? What song have you been playing on loop lately?

I’m very picky when it comes to listening to music while I write. I can’t think about words if the song I’m listening to also has words, nor if it has a really tangible melody that I want to follow along with. So I need really slow, atmospheric music without a real tune. Undertale genocide themes are actually fucking excellent for this, I’d highly recommend them. I’ve created a massive fuck-off OSRS playlist (on itunes, not spotify, so I can’t share it, sorry) basically comprised of the entire Portal 2 soundtrack (special fucking shoutout to The Friendly Faith Plate, which is SO VOX CODED YOU DON’T HAVE ANY IDEAAAA) and Sim Gretina’s electro swing (Enemy Like Me is my favourite), plus Kira’s Piece of Art and Dua Saleh’s mOth. The first because it’s giving Vox’s obsession with Alastor, and the second because, duh.

🛠What tools/programs/apps do you use to write?

I’m a google docs hoe. I know I shouldn’t be, but fuck man, I know how it works. It feels natural when my writing is on there. I’ve tried Scrivener and it made me angry. What the fuck ever And “tools”, that’s really funny — I’m the type of grad student that does all my citations manually because switching to Zotero is weird and scary. I know how to do it manually! Why would I ever accept help for something I know how to do?? (< ocpd symptom)

⛔ Do you have a fic you started, but scrapped?

The world doesn’t fucking need any more Nico di Angelo fics. It really doesn’t. There’s plenty. He’s a skinny white boy, he’s got the entire internet in the palm of his hand. You wanna compete with Robin? Really? You wanna do that to yourself? I don’t even have catholic guilt, I’ve got nothing to add

🙋‍♀️ Do any irl people know you write fanfic?

SpaceWall and I are irl friends, but we hold each other’s secrets in equal regard. The secret is that she is a good writer and I’m a poet I wouldn’t actually mind if people I knew irl found and read my fics. It’s just writing. I don’t find anything to object in it, and in fact I’d like it if I could talk about Hazbin with other people irl. I would hate it if people I know irl found my tumblr, but that’s principally because I’m significantly more open about my ocpd here. I’m not a person on the internet, I’m just words and a drawing. You haven’t seen the kinds of fucked up shit I do in front of my peers that would suddenly Make A Lot Of Sense if they knew I had a FUCKING personality disorder.

🍦 What's the sweetest fic you've created so far?

The Blitzstone origin wip, which is mostly “ostracised gay dwarf learns ASL because he saved this dying elf’s life”. come to think of it the first chapter of that fic is technically perfect and there’s very little stopping me from putting it the fuck on ao3 and abandoning it for three years before coming back. huh. i might… just do that.

🍷 Do you drink and write?

Always. It turns the judgemental part of my brain off and I have a much easier time making things and getting ideas down. Such a shame I don’t smoke too! I’ve tried writing whilst high and it was not writing. It was in fact lying back and rereading 666

🍆 Do you write the spicy stuffs? If so, what's your most popular nsfw fic?

“the spicy stuffs” porn is the word you’re looking for. You can say it. It’s four letters. The internet police won’t get you. See look, porn porn sex penis tits ass fucking Writing erotica was a really instrumental part of unlearning the self-destructive writing habits that made me suicidal scrap my original work. My initial intention was that because it’s erotica, it’s not for other people: it’s for me. And having that barrier of “this is not for other people to see” was liberating and necessary — I turned it off eventually, because erotica is not something to be so ashamed of that no eyes but yours can look upon it — but I needed to force myself to write something that I couldn’t imagine being scrutinised and therefore needed to be Purposeful and Say Something.

🌞 Do you have a preferred time of day to write?

11pm–2am is when I get my best work done. Unfortunately, I write the most frequently between 1–3pm because I have the energy and motivation to, but those are Self Doubt Hours and I have a hard time getting into the swing of things I actually have the best writing luck when I get up early but that’s not gonna fucking happen

💖 What made you start writing?

In general, pathology, but I’ve kind of made that clear already. What made me want to write a Hazbin fic was seeing how exceptionally creative this fandom is and how much fun people seemed to be having sharing their ideas. I feel like in the circles I’m running in, there’s not a lot of pressure to make Good Art, and it’s… not really a big deal if your work gets a lot of attention or not. Everyone seems to be getting the same tone of feedback, all cheer and encouragement, and the vibe to me seems really casual and fun. I’m not thinking to myself “how will I compete with these other authors”, but “I wonder if the user I idolise will see and like my work”. And the answer is often yes. It’s not just that people are creating and playing so freely, it’s that it feels like a lot of us are here to support one another, and that’s been really reassuring. Because I feel like people will like anything I put out

❌ What's a trope you will never write?

I was about to say “anything related to pregnancy, thinking about my uterus makes me nauseous” but I uh. Wrote about a miscarriage. So I guess writing about a wanted pregnancy is the real limit

💲 Would you ever open commissions?

This is a super interesting question I haven’t seen spoken about very widely: it is considered extremely normal to commission fanart, but whenever the subject comes up, people seem incredibly reticent to ever commission fanfiction. I’m not fully sure why — in principle, it seems like there should be no real distinction in paying for fanart versus paying for fanfic. They’re both derivative work, they’re both made by enthusiastic artists who deserve to be compensated for their thousands of hours of expertise. I’m not certain what causes the disconnect. I have seriously toyed with the idea of doing podfics for money. I am in fact a professionally trained actor, and I own a USB microphone; which puts me ahead of like 50% of all of AO3’s userbase. Not sure if I’d fully commit to the idea because it’s still rather contentious. Were I to read my entire fic out loud I would put it behind a patreon though. It is in fact a very labour-intensive process, and again, I do have professional training.

🧐 Do you spend much time researching for your stories?

Hoo boy.

this is my fic folder. For most fics I write, I have a draft document and a research document: I’ve colour-coded the related documents: so dark green and dark green are the draft and research, pink and pink are both parts of the same project, etc. Let’s compare the word count in each of these draft documents and research documents, shall we? The dark green draft is 8k; its research document is 16k. The pink document is Cold Bodies. Including the html coding and my author’s notes, it’s edging on 13k. Its research document is 8k. It’s the only fic I’ve completed. The light purple draft is 21.5k. Its research is 96k! The light green draft rather conspicuously titled “botw script” is in fact a script, not prose, so it’s only about 4k. Its research, which is in fact titled “I don’t like botw’s story”, is 25k. The dark purple draft is a rather tragic 6k. Its two research documents are a combined 104k!!! One of the documents is called, rather tellingly, “I think I like research more than I like writing.”

My research process involves a not insignificant amount of textual analysis. For Cold Bodies, it looked something like this:

I haven’t done a lot of that kind of work for Hazbin because most info is fanon or only vaguely canon-adjacent, but I have compiled a list of headcanons many of you have put out into the world.

that’s gabrielsbubblegumbitch’s post and soot-and-salt’s And Not From Head To Toe. The other significant form of research I do is scour books I think are interesting or relevant so I can take plot or thematic inspiration from them. Previously, I’ve combed through Creating A Champion (and cannot recommend the experience. it’s kind of racist 😬) and made a fic a loose parody of Emma so I could fall back on its plot when I needed inspiration. For this Vox fic I’m rereading David Sedaris’ When You Are Engulfed in Flames, Eden Robinson’s Traplines (the last short story has a Monkey Beach spoiler, read that first), Catcher in the Rye, The Chocolate War, and, for some reason, Cary Elwes’ As You Wish.

🏆 What's your most popular fic?

Only got one. Shoutout to grownupchangeling for fucking SPRINTING into my inbox to ask for the answer to this question, really admire their(?) tenacity and dedication to squatting in my notifs like a spider in the corner

🎃 Do you write fics for certain holidays? Which is your favorite holiday inspired fic?

Never really crossed my mind. I do like a good beach fic, and anything set in winter makes me happy, but I’m not a massive holiday story enjoyer.

🎯 Have any of your readers accurately guessed major plot points? Care to share which?

I spoke about this a bit in response to soot, but if your readers are able to accurately guess a plot point or twist it means you have done it successfully. It means you have given your readers the tools to reach the same conclusion you did: and those tools are foreshadowing, atmosphere, subtext, and tension. Those are how a twist or beat feel that they belong in the narrative, because they gel with everything that has come before it. It in fact should be the author’s goal for readers to be able to guess the twist! It’s not that it should be blindingly obvious, but more that a seed should exist somewhere that smart readers (which are all readers!) should be able to see it and notice when it takes root.

🎨 How do you feel about fan art of your stories?

Who doesn’t like fan art? Who’s the fucking Anne Rice of AO3 that’s going to be like “you may read my fic but do Not make art inspired by mine” literally who does that

📈 How many fics do you have?

Guess.

🦅 Do you outline fics or fly by the seat of your pants?

I outline wherever possible. How detailed the outline is depends on the scene rather than the fic: “Vox goes house hunting” is in fact a very very long scene and a scene that amounts to two pages might well be described beat-by-beat in the outline. Pants-writing gets me incredibly stressed out because I don’t know what I’m doing, I don’t know where I’m going, I have no direction in mind, and because of that panic impulse I cannot be open to serendipity. It’s also really hard for me to do complete rewrites, so as soon as I have something down on the page and it’s made it past the first, worst, round of excruciating edits it tends to remain as-is in the final draft. So I often need at least a vague idea of what’s going to happen before I can start my work. I don’t do drafts, inasmuch as I’ve used that word pretty consistently throughout this post. I think. I think, think, think, research, ruminate, think, tentatively write less than 100 words, think think think consider scrapping the whole thing and then I detonate like a firework and the vast majority of the ink that first splatters on the page in that initial explosion stays until I know it’s done. I write like a shotgun: with a very intensive buildup and lots of preparation with a very short but very powerful discharge. I’ve told this to people and received the kind of expression you typically only get were you to remove your shoes and begin licking the sole of your foot. So please do not compare your own writing process with mine. Okay? This is not normal. I don’t know how often I’ve mentioned this but I have a disorder. No one but me does this. You should not expect yourself to.

👀 Tell me about an up and coming wip please!

No <3

🤗 What advice would you give to new fanfic writers that are just getting started?

I am literally the last person you should ask. Never pour water on a grease fire? Your face mask should completely cover your mouth and nose? Always make sure the base is larger than the widest point?

💞 Who's your comfort character?

I don’t actually find that there’s a single character who brings me comfort to write about. I write about someone if I have something to say about them. I do have a comfort trope, which is sleeping together.

🧠 Pick a character, and I'll tell you my favorite headcanon for them.

I think that Valentino used to be a porn actor before he became a director. During a shoot, he would wear an earpiece so his director could feed him lines, given that he couldn’t read the scripts.

🤩 Who is your favorite character to write?

Alastor! I also talk breezily and with an emphasis on slightly elevated language, so I find his dialogue to be incredibly natural to spit out. Plus, who doesn’t love dated exclamations and turns of phrase like “By Jove!” and “take a powder”?

😬 Which of your fics would you be most horrified for friends, family, or coworkers to stumble upon?

I well and truly don’t care. I don’t publish anything I’m ashamed of. I only publish things that I think showcase my skills, and that I think are worthwhile pieces of art. And if I had a friend who thought fanfiction or erotica was something to shame or scorn, well, they would not be my friend.

🎉 What leads you to consider a fic a success?

Finishing it.

✅ What's something that appears in your fics over and over and over again, even if you don't mean to?

Romantic partners becoming the main character’s therapists… I mean, that’s one of the great things about writing villain protagonists. They don’t fucking have to go to therapy.

📚 Would you ever want to turn writing into a career?

Buckle up, cunt. I had a novel I was working on as a teenager. It was about toxic masculinity and MLM sexual assault. I said to myself, this will be a piece of art that defines a generation. It will say something that our (western) society desperately needs to hear, and one day a young gay kid just like myself will be tilting their head at a 90° angle to see the titles of the books lining the shelves of their local bookstore, see my novel, pick it up, and discover that it spoke to them: in the same way that I felt seen and heard by the books I loved. So as I wrote and worked on it, I often looked at my own writing with the harsh and uncaring eyes I knew it would be faced with when I inevitably contacted an editor. I wanted to make it flawless, bulletproof, do everything in my power to make this work perfect before an editor could see it, so that way I could wholeheartedly say that it was ready for other eyes. So nothing was perfect. Every part of it wasn’t good enough, fix it, FIX IT, I know you can do better so stop acting like THIS is the best you can accomplish. Come on, pick yourself up and do it right this time. And I tortured myself with that. To this day I cannot look at my draft without thinking of all the mistakes I made, what needed to be improved, what still needs to be improved, and after I’ve grown more and gotten diagnosed and met with people who have been published — met publishers — I know that I can’t trust myself enough to let this become a career. Do you know how hard writing this post has been? Did you know it’s taken me two days? Did you know how long I leave my posts in the drafts for, rereading, rereading, rereading, making sure there’s no chance this can be fucked up in any way, that it is totally within my control? I cannot become a professional writer. It’s my disability.

so, you know. rock make stick hit hard on head, cock make dick real hard in bed

⌛ How long does it take you to write a fic, or a chapter?

A lustrum.

🤯 What's a genre you struggle with as a writer (ex. romance, action, etc.)?

B-plots! I kind of get regular plotting, in that I know how to build and resolve tension, but I am so bad at finding other things for the characters to DO in order to take a break from the main plot. I already worked so hard to make a main plot, you want me to do another one??? To say what? I did everything I wanted to, I tied it all in a neat bow, if the readers want a break from the main tension why can’t they just tab out

💔 Is there a fic of yours that broke your heart?

I love trans Vox, but in order for him to be in character he has to hate being trans. I’m really used to writing about trans joy, for my own health and for everyone else’s, so writing a character that wishes they weren’t trans is really sad.

💥 How do you feel about criticism?

I actually love criticism. Your work can only get better through education, and one of the easiest ways to get education is by having another person read your work and tell you something about it you didn’t know. I need other perspectives because my own perception of my writing is exhaustive and exhausting: I feel like I’ve done everything I can to improve my work and I am so tired of looking at it that I need a fresh pair of eyes to show me something I’d not found. Getting better is always something to strive for; and even in mean comments it is entirely possible to find the thread of a lesson. More often than not it’s a threat of a lesson, but personally, I take what I can get. Criticism is something I find easy to receive because I can turn it into something productive, either “okay, this is something I need to improve upon, let’s do that” or “this is so clearly in bad faith it is costing me nothing to ignore it”. It’s something I can easily take control of. It’s positive comments that feel like apple-bobbing in a tub full of syringes.

🤭 Do you have a favorite tag to use when posting your works?

#Psychological Horror immediately followed by #Eventual Smut. One of my favourite tag jokes I’ve written is #falling in love, #unrequited love, #friends to enemies, #on-again off-again relationship, #don’t date your coworkers holy shit don’t do it. And you really can’t go wrong with Cold Bodies’

🥰 How do you feel about reader interaction? Are you open to receiving questions about your fics?

I suppose I’m kind of asking for it at this point.

I’ve left this one for last so it will have the best dramatic impact. Thank you, heartily, for sorting through that much shit!! I hope this is a worthwhile reward for your efforts.

🤲 Would you please share a snippet of a wip?

The shadows lengthen. The room is small, bereft of light; the darkness has plenty of recesses to establish itself within. His chest distends and recedes with a languid, heavy pulse: good. He will not wake. He dares not take a step. He contorts with the gloaming, letting it carry his weight like waves on the wine-dark sea. Ink creeping along the fractal contours of incautious skin, on paper pulp. The blanket is drawn too far up his shoulder, but his hands have wisely ventured away from its grasp. He has nestled them close to his face: the right palm faces the ceiling. His overgrown claws, weightless, curl around the soundless air. The cuffs of his shirt have drawn back to reveal the skin on his left wrist.  He casts a faint but adequate illumination. Regrettably — he discovers — he has not flesh but casing. Whether it be titanium or catalin, it protects the veins underneath. What seams it must possess, he cannot access at present. He cannot smell his blood. Only the hot hiss of his breath, of bertholite and alkaloids. Experience has had the good grace to train him to anticipate the worst-case scenario. Thus, he suspects his knife would dent upon contact with his skin. This would likely require blunt force, something messy and more out of his weight class. Which is unideal: his own strength is formidable, naturally, but imprecise. And somewhat unsubtle. He sees the power buzzing underneath his grip. A live wire ready to snatch at the first hint of energy, snapping, sparking, antsy and unfulfilled. He likely isn’t trained enough to feel it himself, but again, the danger is too tangible to risk tripping over it. Were he more experienced, older, had experimented enough to test his limits, it would be a safer estimate; but as he is now, untapped and spring-loaded — fisticuffs would result in a significantly less assured victory. It is not a lack of confidence. It is simply a risky bet he does not want to get caught foolishly trusting himself with. That is smarts, not sheepishness. He does not hiss aloud. Nor does he retreat: he takes stock. The room offers little relevant information. His possessions are scarce, no letter drafts upon the writing desk, no bandages or weapons. His wallet is useless. He’s laid out nicotine patches and topical creams upon his toilet table: an invasome, it seems, may be a possibility. Unfortunately, he would have to synthesize it himself. He despises inconclusiveness. He returns his gaze to the picture box, his screen dim and vacuous.  Loathed as he is to admit, this may be a somewhat longer project than he had initially envisioned. More’s the pity — what a spectacular send-off he would have been able to provide! Keep your chin up, now, old boy. This was hardly a trip for biscuits. It was, however, strike two.

[redbayly]

Just got an anon comment on a Harry Potter fic I wrote almost a decade ago. It said:

"I hate non canon shippers."

Not "non canon ships" but the shippers. I know this is extremely mild as far as trolling and flaming goes in fandom (and even among my own personal experience - I have had a few death threats in the past, one of them solely because I liked Neville Longbottom).

But, even so, I just do not understand this kind of mindset.

They deliberately go into a fic that is clearly labeled as something they don't like just to be a dick. And it's not even about the fic, itself, but simply because there is a person who doesn't bend over for canon. And not even about a specific ship, either, just the idea of people not shipping the canon pairings.

I know I should be used to this. I know this isn't even on the radar of significance. But I still just cannot wrap my head around the fact that people do this. That they waste their time telling strangers on the internet that they hate them because of a story and that stranger's personal preferences. It's like telling someone who wears a white shirt that they hate every person who wears white shirts.

As I've said, I've seen genuinely nasty comments before. In the last couple of months alone, I've been horrified by some of the disgusting bullshit sent to people in the Zutara fandom. And, believe me, some of those comments are definitely in the extreme end of bad.

But there's something about the banality of this comment that has gotten under my skin. This person just blandly stated that they hate an entire group of people just for being non canon shippers. And, considering this is the Harry Potter fandom, I kinda suspect most people there don't care too much about canon shipping (maybe it's changed? I haven't been very involved in that fandom for a while).

I don't know. This comment was really stupid and I deleted it pretty quick, but something about it is nagging at me. I don't feel upset or angry about it, but there is a weird feeling there. Maybe I'm just annoyed and disappointed by it. By its kind of dull, even disinterested tone. It just reads like the person didn't actually care. Like telling someone else they hate them for shipping preferences is just this thing that needs to be done and they're going to put the bare minimum effort into being a jerk.

I simply can't understand it and it's bugging me.

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

idk if this is breaking the rules but a argument I saw for why zutara should be canon in the live action so grown ass adults who ship them won't harass 14 year old Gordon Comeir with the same amount of hate as Aang got

Of all the stupid, bad faith Zutara "arguments" I've ever seen, this is by far the worst. "Make it canon on the Netflix version otherwise we send death threats to a child" what in the fuck?

Even if not making Zuko and Katara a thing was a bad idea (which I disagree with, but that's not the point) the fault would be on the writers, not the actor - and obviously there's a big difference between "point out that we disagree with this choice they made because X, Y, Z" and "They did something we didn't like, lets tell them to kill themselves."

I remind you guys that the majority of the ATLA fandom, the zutara shipers very much included, are ADULTS. These are a bunch of grown men and women that literally think throwing a tantrum gets them what they want. That they can bully a child for something that is not their fault and then go "This is your fault, if you gave us what we wanted we wouldn't have to do this."

And don't be fooled if someone tries to play it off as "Oh, I'm just concerned. I don't WANT the actor to be harassed and I'm not gonna do it/am not a zutara fan, but I know other people would do it so let's just make Zutara canon to avoid it." A large chunk of this fandom is well over thirty, and it's well past the time they learn to behave like adults and stop harassing others or dismissing said harassment as a normal, inevitable part of fandom culture instead of recognizing it as people CHOOSING to be dicks.

[swordbending]

can't believe ppl are still coming out w those "what girl would choose silly childish 12yr old aang over hot teen angst broody boy zuko" in the year 2021

[geegers22]

I’d say showing the toxicity of the canon ship in the same episode is also a pretty bad idea

Some genius: We need to make Zutara look as stupid as possible. I know! Let’s have Aang kiss Katara without her consent! She should be really mad about it too. And leave it unresolved! That’ll show those pesky Zutara shippers!

the ember island players episode is still wild to me bc if you want to make a point about how crazy and delusional a ship is the LAST thing you should do is have characters within the universe ship it too like that is fanfic material sir

[burst-of-iridescent]

So Burst-of-iridescent, I noticed you were doing a character ask game and I was curious about your feelings for either Iroh or Zuko? I don't care which one you choose I just want to hear your thoughts on either one. 🙂

hey j‐man, thanks for the ask! i'll do both because why not?

zuko

Sexuality Headcanon: i know this is a mad unpopular opinion on this site, but straight. i totally get why people hc zuko as gay/bi/ace, especially when his arc with his dad is so sadly reminiscent of the relationship many queer kids have with their parents, but he just radiates straight "i love my bi wife" energy to me.

Gender Headcanon: cis

A ship I have with said character: gee, i wonder if anyone can possibly tell who i ship zuko with (zutara trash till the day i die)

A BROTP I have with said character: zuko and sokka! i love their friendship, and i can totally see sokka calling them the sword bros or something equally cringey. i also like them as a ship in fanon, but following canon alone i think these two would have the most epic bromance ever.

A NOTP I have with said character: mai/ko. kill it with fire. i will despise this ship even in my grave.

A random headcanon: zuko is ambidextrous. look at all that dual sword wielding!

General Opinion over said character: zuko is the definition of "people hating on a popular character solely to be contrary/because they're bitter their fave isn't as popular". the complete lack of empathy people seem to have toward zuko in favour of propping up other characters (looking at you, hardcore aang/azula stans) is just astounding. his character arc is so beloved and lauded for a reason. you aren't "seeing the truth" where the oh so unintelligent masses got taken in; you're purposefully and completely misreading canon to support your own batshit stupid interpretation. please develop some critical thinking skills.

iroh

Sexuality Headcanon: unlabeled. i see iroh being a firm proponent of the whole "love is love" idea and just doing whatever he wants with whoever he wants. or maybe he's just into tea, who knows.

Gender Headcanon: cis

A ship I have with said character: iroh x tea i don't really ship iroh with anyone but if i had to choose, aunt wu or piandao could be interesting.

A BROTP I have with said character: iroh and toph. they would 100% be those friends that play pai sho and gossip the whole afternoon over tea.

A NOTP I have with said character: i'm not invested enough in iroh's love life for this.

A random headcanon: iroh is the one who first notices zuko's natural athletic skill and arranges for piandao to teach zuko.

General Opinion over said character: i wasn't aware that the hague or geneva conventions existed in the atla universe, but apparently i was wrong since everyone and their mother enjoys calling iroh a war criminal. just say you dislike this character for being popular instead of pretending that you genuinely want to apply modern standards of warfare to this fantasy children's show regarding a character who repented and then did whatever he could to take down the regime he regretted supporting.

[katara-stan-club]

Is it just me or do some Zukka shippers (again, I’m talking about Zukkas™️ not people who just casually think that Zuko and Sokka would be cute together) actually have a weird kind of twisted respect for Zutara? If they didn’t genuinely feel threatened by it they wouldn’t be so fixated on it. They wouldn’t come into the Zutara tag to start fights with shippers. They wouldn’t feel the need to write essays about why they think it sucks. They wouldn’t feel the need to write “meta” on why they think that Katara is homophobic and she actually hates Zuko, who is gay, and actually Zuko is a misogynistic king and also a colonizer apparently who hates Katara too and they’re more like siblings, really but also we love their friendship!

And then the way that (some) Zukka shippers talk about Sokkla and Tokka is just… really degrading and bullying. Like apparently they’re bad because they’re “cringe???”

I think that Those Shippers are a little bit jealous of all the emotional beats Zutara gets within the show (like how they always meet up in each finale for example) and wish that Sokka and Zuko could have had similar beats. The only big 'emotional' scenes that Zvkka gets (that I can think of) are:

1. The Boiling Rock, where they talk about their previous girlfriends.

2. The Southern Raiders, where Zuko asks Sokka about Kya in an effort to understand Katara's misplaced anger against him.

Neither of those are particularly emotional in the context of Zvkka as a ship, not like the scene in the Crystal Catacombs is for Zutara as a ship. So Zvkka shippers see all these moments that they desperately want for their characters, and simultaneously want to co-opt those scenes for themselves while also denigrating Zutara so that way it isn't a competitor for their ship.

I don't know as much about the hate on Sokkla beyond "I think Azula is a lesbian so she shouldn't ever be with a man!!" which is, as we've discussed, Dumb as Hell. As for Tokka, I think part of the hate against that is slightly against the idea of women expressing romantic interest in someone and then getting "rewarded" for that interest. It's part of why I think some Zvkka shippers are cool with Kat@@ng when they dislike Katara so much is because of Katara never outwardly expressing interest in Aang. She just dutifully goes along with his obvious desire like a good reward for Aang. Her romantic interest in Jet is shot down and denied and made fun of in canon (cough Ember Island Players cough), so she is forced to put her own wants aside in favor of Aang's wants.

If Tokka was Accepted as a ship, then that means that young girls' romantic notions should be respected, and we all know society is incapable of that. Especially because Toph is portrayed as a tomboy, her romantic desire for Sokka is seen as a weakness and shouldn't be respected because it's frivolous and girly (that's probably where the "cringe" comes in; there's nothing more cringe than teen girls having Emotions amirte). If Tokka happened then that is giving into what the girl wants and not the guy, which is equivalent to Blasphemy and should be Shunned accordingly. It's so stupid.

[firelxdykatara]

You’re doing a LoK rewrite, correct? Would be really interested in hearing how you plan on fixing Suyin’s character and the Lin-Suyin conflict because……. oh boy. Man there’s a lot to unpack there. This is what happens when we don’t let Toph just raise her fucking kids for the sake of pushing a stupid as hell narrative about working women and single motherhood.

I am indeed!

In... you know, the way I'm doing most of my big potential projects, in that I have a folder with some documents that have plot notes and... some day I may actually get full, finished fics out of them (h2o AU is in there, as is my voltron!atla fusion AU, and uhhhh my book 3 atla rewrite, and a few other things), so... but I will say that the docs I have for my LoK rewrite so far amount to roughly 4.2k words of just Plot and Character Notes, which may some day turn into words of Story, hopefully.

ANYWAY, POINT IS: yes, this exists, and I have Many Many Thoughts.

Including how the Gaang kids would shake out! Cause I know I'm doing Zutara, and maybe Tokka???? Although I don't wanna just leave Suki out either... maybe a throuple??? Or Sukka having an amicable breakup before Sokka and Toph get together--maybe she already has Lin by then, and Sokka helps support her through the grief of losing Kanto???? Idk honestly, I haven't actually figured any of that out definitively yet except that Aang was perfectly happy to settle down with an Air Acolyte from one of the rebuilt temples because he grew up and out of his crush on Katara pretty easily once he hit puberty and matured a bit.

UHHH none of which is actually an answer to your question, because it's a valid one! Which is why I've been sitting on this a while (10 days I'm so sorry) bc I haven't made any solid decisions but I've been letting it percolate around my head a bit. And the more I think about it, the more I really like the Sukka -> Tokka idea (and I don't want to kill off Suki since the kids all deserve their awesome Kyoshi warrior auntie in their lives, and also I want a Sukka kid to be besties with Iara [zuko and katara's youngest] so maybe she gets with someone else after she and Sokka split? I could be talked into Ty Lee/Suki actually, the more I think about it....), but obviously having a stable father figure and a Toph who is... not what LoK made her out to be will dramatically change the Beifong family dynamic.

That said, I think I actually have a solution. (I'm so sorry for what I'm about to do.) Toph has Lin with Kanto--and he passes away when Lin is two or three, which is why she has very few memories of her father. (Although none of this 'she doesn't even know his name until she's 50+ cause Toph didn't tell her daughters about their fathers' bullshit.) Sokka is there for her through it all (all of the gaang is, of course, but you know that it sometimes just hits different when it's someone you're also starting to fall in love with, especially when there are older and much more deeply buried feelings there that are now resurfacing, because at least in my version Toph was deeply in love with Sokka when they were teenagers, but he was in love with Suki and she also loved Suki so she didn't want to mess up anything about their family or the group dynamics by making her feelings anyone else's problem), they fall in love, get married and have Suyin.

(Sokka may jokingly refer to it as a shotgun wedding, but the truth is he wanted to propose well before he found out she was pregnant, his attempts just kept getting messed up in increasingly comedic fashion.)

Throughout all of this, Republic City has been established, Sokka is Chancellor, Toph is something of a defacto police chief--mostly because, at the time, no one else was willing to volunteer, and she jokingly offered to whip the law enforcement, but unfortunately everyone else at the meeting took her seriously. However, she is also the founder of the probending league, and basically her feelings about law enforcement are complicated and she actively discouraged her kids from joining the force which is part of why Lin did. How else do you have a teen rebel phase with a parent like Toph? (Which, in this instance, means tough and firm but fair, with a 'you break it, it's up to you to fix it' attitude and very little desire to actually control her daughters and their behavior.)

Ah, but here's the rub.

Suyin is ten years old when Sokka dies, and Lin is sixteen. I'm not sure how he's killed--maybe by Yakone, to tie it into my plans for Amon and book 1. (Note that I'm not sure when the Yakone bloodbending trial happened in canon, but it doesn't matter. The timeline I'm gonna build will be completely different post-comet, and I'll eventually write it all down so that I can keep things straight.) Which would incidentally provide excellent means of having Katara have a very personal stake in the Amon conflict, and perhaps color the fight between him and Iara, but I'm getting off track. And I think Sokka being killed by Yakone, and Toph being unable to protect or save him, or deliver her own brand of justice to avenge him (because Aang is there to stop her and.... shit probably got ugly, I suspect she didn't talk to Aang for at least twenty years after Sokka's death--and this isn't to say I think Toph is particularly violent or murderous, but in that moment, she absolutely wanted to kill the man with her bare hands, and however much she may have regretted it afterwards, she took a very long time to forgive Aang for stopping her in the first place), is what results in Toph stepping down as police chief.

She didn't withdraw from her daughters or fuck off into the swamp or anything (words cannot express how much I hate that part of her canon history), but she did grieve for a very long time. Lin, meanwhile, felt like it was up to her to keep her family together, while also feeling a desperate need to... prove herself, I think. And because her mother was so adamant that she not join the police force, that's exactly what she does. I think Lin completely misread Toph's intentions, too, and believed that the discouragement was because her mother didn't think she had what it takes, when in reality I think Toph was scared of Lin losing herself in the job like she herself had begun to, and eventually coming up on something she couldn't change or fix and making the same mistakes she had.

(I think Toph and Lin have communication issues largely because they are both headstrong and willful, but where Toph thought she was giving her daughters the room they would need to make their own way, what Lin desperately craved was direction and she felt like that was something her mother simply couldn't understand.)

Suyin, on the other hand, fell in with a bad crowd like in canon. I think that what she desperately needed was attention, similar to Lin craving direction, and Toph was trying so hard not to be her own parents that she went a little too far in the other direction and Suyin began to feel like it didn't matter what she did, her mom wouldn't care, or get angry, or discipline her, or anything. Lin and Suyin butted heads a lot growing up, too, especially after Sokka's death, because Lin tried to rein in her sister's behavior and this was met with resistance and derision because Suyin felt like Lin was trying to be both mom and dad and she was neither but her big sister would never admit to being just as lost as she was and it made her furious.

So when Suyin is sixteen, and Lin is twenty-two and new to the force, The Big Rift happens. Lin catches Suyin and her gang, tries to apprehend her, gets a scar on her face in the ensuing conflict. But instead of abusing her power and sending her problem child off to her mother before fucking off to the swamp to avoid the consequences of her actions, Toph tries to actually fix things. Suyin cools her heels in prison for a while, because she was paralyzed by guilt at the time when she hurt her sister (a few inches lower and she could have slit her throat), and was still there when Lin's backup arrived.

Uhhhhhhhhhhh..... I'm so sorry I rambled for so long, BUT THE UPSHOT IS: I think Suyin learned a bit about culpability and taking responsibility for her own actions, Toph realized that her daughters had different needs than she did at their age (and I think a lot of the problem was that grief clouded her own ability to connect with her daughters, and in trying to not be her own parents she lost sight of how to be the parent her own daughters needed), and Lin, I think, had to realize that she had never fully processed the loss of not one but two fathers and had turned to her job in order to avoid actually confronting the grief that had overshadowed her childhood.

However, she did not forgive Suyin, at least not right away--and she wasn't forced or expected to. Suyin understood that she crossed a serious line, she took her lumps and did her time, and no one shamed Lin for her anger. I think, as a result, she had less reason to hold onto that bitterness, and perhaps by the time the story actually begins, she and Suyin are on much better terms, though I haven't worked it out exactly yet.

UHHH yeah I went on for days lmao. All of this is subject to change, too, depending on the needs of the story whenever I get around to actually writing it all down, BUT these are my initial thoughts, at least.