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Saw a screenshot of the ashes academy something comic where Azula is like "Mai left me for a boy who didn't even want her."

And I'm just like "oh gosh, she knows"

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I made this a year ago and I never posted it. Oops

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*slurping up zuko guilt fics like a noodle*

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Thinking about Aang's particular brand of pain and how, arguably, the only person who could come close to understanding it would be Zuko. (Nobody call me out on where else I mentioned this)

Like, don't get me wrong, there are many aspects the other characters can understand. Katara understands what it feels like to be The Last and to singlehandedly carry the responsibility of an entire part of her culture on her shoulders. Sokka understands the pain of failed responsibility and feeling as though the people you've lost is your fault because you failed to protect them. Toph understands the struggle of being forced into a role you hate and finding the courage to be yourself regardless.

But only Zuko really understands what it mean to lose everything overnight. Zuko went from a life he'd experienced loss and struggle in, but one he still loved and felt safe enough in to look forward to a future where he is Firelord. And then a single mistake and he's been thrown out, not just of his family and his role as nobility, but from his entire country. He also lost the safety and comfort of his own culture (albiet not quite as drastically as Aang).

And they both share an experience of guilt for this loss. Even though it wasn't actually their fault, they both still come away from it believing it happened because they weren't good enough. And what it feels like to do everything in your power to correct it, to be good enough this time, and fail over and over again. And even after all that effort, the understanding that ulimately it was futile anyway, because nothing they do could return what was lost. All they can do is move forward and try to build a new world in the wake of their loss.

And along with this drastic loss, Zuko also has an impossible task placed on him as punishment for his mistake. He knows intimately what it's like to stare down a responsibility nobody else has accomplished despite 100 years and having far more resources than he has. Which is also what Aang stared down in the task to end the war. And they both did it as children (13 and 12 respectively).

He knows what it's like to face people, people he loves and respects, who all tell him he needs to do something that he feels is wrong, and he knows what it's like to grit your teeth and risk it all to oppose that. Also, he's the only one who knows what it's like to take a fucking lightning strike.

And then, after that, only he comes close to understanding the weight Aang carries after the war. Zuko is responsible for an entire nation that tore itself apart in it's efforts to conquer, as well as assisting every other nation in their rebuilding in order to atone for the mistakes of his predecessors. There's a reason he says "We'll rebuild it together." He's literally the only person in the world who's job matches Aang. (Because, again, unlike other world leaders, he has to help all four nations, his own and the others as reparations).

LoK told us nobody knew Aang like Zuko did and like, yeah, I don't think anyone even could understand Aang like Zuko can.

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Zuko: "I'm not gay."

Aang: *walks into the room*

Zuko: "..."

Zuko: "I feel like updating the Fire Nation's anti-gay policies. For,,,, no particular reason."

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Zukaang Week is coming in 2025!

But first, we're holding an interest check survey, which will be open from March 21 to March 31. The dates for Zukaang Week 2025 are TBD, but tentatively during the last week of June. The results from the interest check will help us plan - so the more responses we get, the better!

Take the survey HERE

If you have any questions or suggestions, just send us an ask!

Please reblog to spread the word 💛❤️

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This feels like a conveluted set up to get a gay Aang ship to work.

On that note, I feel like perhaps donor Aang should be considered by the zukaang fandom more. We have the spirit magic route, the trans route, the polyamory route, and the divorced kataang route. But honestly, donor Aang works pretty well too imo.

1. Airbender children were classically raised by the temple as a collective. One of the things I thought was kind of sad about the Air Nation dying out was that unique child rearing being lost. Clearly Aang benefited a lot from having Gyatso as a main mentor but still being raised by the monks in general. I think part of the reason he found it so easy to get so close with the gaang so fast is, to Aang, found family is as natural as blood family is to other people.

2. Aang would still obviously be heavily involved with the kids bc like, he's the founder of the temples and the only airbender. It's not like he'd suffer any lack of getting to know/love his kids.

3. But also, on that note, one of the issues canon Aang had was how busy he was. Not just as an Avatar, but as an Avatar cleaning up a shattered world and rebuilding a forth of it from ashes. Donor method means no kids developing issues from a sometimes absent parent.

4. Who says he can only donate to one couple? More kids = more potential airbenders = baby Tenzin not growing up with the burden of the air nation solely on his shoulders. And also, we all know Aang is a kids guy. I refuse to believe he wouldn't be trying to pseudo-adopt all his friends kids and the temple kids. Uncle? Dad? General adult responsible for the kids in some way? Basically the same concept to Aang due to how he was raised. I just think it wouldn't exactly be odd for him to end up with a bunch of kids.

5. Great support for any gay Aang ship, and any adjacent yuri ship bc like, if you were looking to have a kid and needed a donor, the gay guy who loves kids and regularly pops by anyway is a pretty good choice imo. You get a kid and you also get to potentially contribute to the rebuilding of an entire fucking nation. Like, I'd go for it. And there are a LOT of great yuri atla ships.

I know some people probably wouldn't vibe with it for many reasons, not being comfortable with Aang not being directly the main parent of his kids, the implications of HOW donorship would happen in that era, or any other reasons, but it's a route I personally like.

Zukaang gets to be together and exclusive (not that I don't also love kataang, but I also can't deny the charm of Zuko being the sole home Aang returns to again and again), all my yuri ships get to have easy options for kids (the fire girls ot3 and jiangtara being my favorites), and better chances for airbenders.

I already had a hc that airbenders did have relationships with other people from the other nations, there's no way they traveled that much and didn't, and always figured the general method was any non-airbender kid stuck with the other parent and any airbender kid went to the temples (unless the parent wanted to keep them of course, probably still with regular trips to the air temples)

So, if the couple were okay with it, the tradition of airbenders being communally raised wouldn't be lost.

I've been seeing some stuff about Aang and trying to "repopulate" the Air Nomads (through his family) come across my feed. I don't think I have much to add to the conversation. What I do have, though, is a... potential head-canon? A post-canon AU idea? Something like that. I love the idea that Ty Lee has Air Nomad ancestry. Her acrobatic and leaping abilities are frankly abnormal. Her eyes read as grey in some scenes; the shape of her head/face are quite similar to Aang's. And why wouldn't there have been intermarriage and migration between the nations before (or even during) the 100 years war? She makes a lot of sense to me as an untrained/instinctive airbender. So let's start making some further assumptions. (1) Imagine a post-canon world where the Fire Nation has shed its imperialism and is seeking to repair the harm it has done to the rest of the world, which I think is more or less canon, including doing what it can to protect/preserve Air Nomad culture. (2) Imagine that that Azula recovers from (a) her Fire Nation / imperialist indoctrination (which we are told Zuko, Mai, and Ty Lee all do) and (b) her mental illness/trauma, and thus (c) becomes generally aligned with Zuko and the Gaang (3) Imagine that Azula is a lesbian (pretty heavy subtext to many readers and my own personal interpretation of Azula) (4) Imagine that Azula pairs up with Ty Lee at some point post-canon (not insane, it's far and away Azula's most popular ship and one of her most positive / closest interpersonal relationships in canon) In that world, where Azula has been "redeemed" and Zuko is both Fire Lord and closely connected with the Gaang... wouldn't it make sense for Aang to be the biological father (donor) of Azula and Ty Lee's children (carried by Ty Lee)? It potentially uncomplicates succession (since Azula's children are not, biologically, descended from Ozai, reducing their claim); it has as high a chance as any pairing in the world of yielding airbender children; and it places kids with Air Nomad ancestry into the Fire Nation royal family as a living symbol of the post-100 years war vision of the nations living in harmony.

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Not me watching The Day Of Black Sun and as Aang is inside the palace and looking around, thinking "yeah Aang, that's your future home"

It is not, but I've read too many zukaang fics

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Maybe We're the Right Way Round (33k, M)

Zuko knew it was a bad idea to feel good about his cooking class. It was probably a bad idea for him to feel good about anything, honestly. The station opposite him which had been blessedly vacant last week was now occupied by the unnecessarily cheery form of his uncle’s weed dealer. Zuko drops out, comes out, and falls in with the strangest group of people.

I finished my zukaang modern AU magnum opus, please enjoy while i figure out what I'm supposed to do with my life now

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Relax

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"The Western Air Temple" is SUCH a zukaang episode. Imo it's more zukaang than even The Blue Spirit (not as much as The Firebending Masters tho). Like, the whole thing, the whole thing all I can think about it zukaang.

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Aang 🤝 Katara

"I can fix Zuko"

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jiangtara and zukaang are such good resolutions for everyone involved, because Katara will always value her attachment to her home in the Southern Water Tribe and will always want that heart to come back to, but she's also said to travel the world, seeking out to oppose injustice and tyranny anywhere in the world and helping the Earth Kingdom and Water tribes rebuild and recover from all the damage the Fire Nation imposed on them in the war. She and Jiang teaming up together to do that and always being on the move on the pirate ship pairs perfectly with that canon desire and epilogue of Katara's.

And Zuko sees Aang as his guiding light, the one who first reached out to him for friendship, the narrative parallel and the peer who he's closest to and admires most. Aang has such fond memories of how the Fire Nation was back in, and he wants to help directly rebuild the world, he'd be game to do it side by side with Zuko. That picture of them holding hands in that ceremony as grownups might as well be their wedding.

X

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the last waterbender

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Side note: why does every screenshot and picture of Zuko looking at Aang always have a Vibe™? Is that just me? Is that just the zukaang brainrot speaking?

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Doodles~ :D