#azula and zuko barely even interact in this au

[discordiansamba]

anyways some more thoughts about the zuko jet roleswap au because it's apparently A Thing now:

zuko's father was an earth kingdom soldier who infiltrated the fire nation royal palace in an attempt to kill fire lord azulon. it obviously did not work.

zuko's mom truly was just like. I have a strong suspicion that everything I've been fed since childhood is a pack of lies and you just tried to kill my father. let's talk. I'm sure this won't lead to anything more complicated down the line.

(spoilers: it did)

princess ran is ozai's older twin sister, making him originally third in line of the throne- and then fourth, after lu ten was born. he viewed her supposed untimely demise as a blessing.

ran never spoke of her life in the fire nation to zuko. she doesn't want to complicate his life with the knowledge that he's a prince by birthright. she put that life behind her when she helped her future husband escape and fled to the earth kingdom herself.

the soldiers who raided zuko's village did not recognize the supposedly dead princess. they just saw she was clearly fire nation, and a firebender as well. she tried to fight back, but was quickly overwhelmed and killed as a traitor.

zuko's father died in the same attack.

zuko was taken in by distant relatives on his father's side of the family for awhile, but it was obvious they were always uncomfortable with his presence. he learned to hide his firebending quickly.

when he was thirteen, he decided he'd set out on his own- and no one stopped him.

the orphan acquisition started with, of course, The Duke. shortly thereafter, he befriended Pipsqueak. pipsqueak ended up bringing the second orphan kid into the group and it just kind of snowballed from there. by the time the gaang meets him, his little gaggle is eight orphans strong, excluding himself and pipsqueak.

zuko needed something other than his firebending to defend himself with, so he taught himself the dual dao. which he stole. he is no stranger to petty crime if it keeps himself and his kids fed, though he tries to be smart about who he targets.

(the blue spirit is famous for his hit and runs on fire nation supply convoys. they don't know he's taking what he steals back to his kids.)

he actually doesn't mean for the blue spirit to be A Thing. it's just a way to hide his face in case things go wrong. he doesn't realize people are going to end up making a big deal out of it.

when the moon abruptly turns red, zuko decides its time to bite the proverbial bullet and take the kids to ba sing se.

jet vs zuko swordfight in the catacombs of ba sing se.

azula forges an alliance with jet and even gives him the credit for killing the avatar. jet is instantly suspicious of this. there's no way the princess would do that... unless she has some kind of game.

maybe the avatar isn't actually dead. he asks longshot and smellerbee to make absolutely sure he is.

zuko follows the gaang into the fire nation, while pipsqueak and the duke stay behind with hakoda to help gather invasion forces.

[kimwarris]

ATLA AU - Pop group

I need to share this fic-idea that I'm never going to write, because otherwise the plotbunny will not leave me alone...

There's two music companies that concurrent with each other: Sozin Studios and Ba Sing Se Records.

Ozai is the CEO of Sozin Studios and wants to capitalize on his kids and thus created a label. To bail out potential concurrents, he took talents under two-year contracts with a solid payment but also a clause that if they were not assigned to a group at the end they were not allowed to change to any other studio for at least 6 years, which means they would miss the most important period of their youth to become a teen idol. Of course, also combined with a secrecy clause.

It worked quite well and a lot of people switched from Ba Sing Se Records to Sozin Studios until it became known that Ozai wouldn’t invest any effort into training the talents. However, he expected a lot of Zuko and Azula so that his efforts in pushing their career would pay off. Zuko befriended one talent, Jet, and fell in love with him. When his dad found out, he burned him. In the aftermath, Zuko switched from Sozin Studios to Ba Sing Se Records, being the first to ever make this move.

Ba Sing Se Records have a very structured and ambitious talent program for their groups. There’s dancing and singing lessons, trainings on how to act with potential interviewers and fans and so on. Groups are regularly mixed up to find out who’s most talented and works best together.

The story starts throughout the talent program. Everybody has their role:

Sokka: great dancer, MC & rap, for singing more in the background, though his voice is decent, plays the piano

Zuko: the dark type, has an amazing singing voice (the raspiness is softer), very determined, perfectionist and precision when it comes to the dance moves

Katara: female lead-singer

Aang: happy-go-lucky kid. Goofy, but good singer. He’s less perfectionist but makes up for it with his personality that just draws people in

Toph: also MC & rap, has an individual dancing style but can very well adapt to the others as well. However, prefers to have her own parts to shine.

Storyline:

Sokka is not really a fan of Zuko throughout the training program, because Zuko barely talks and keeps mostly to himself. He thinks Zuko is too quite and too grumpy to be member of a pop group, because he can’t imagine him interacting with fans or annoying press people etc. It is true, that Zuko is very good at what he does. He certainly looks handsome, scar or not, and he knows how to move. It’s not that he can say anything negative about Zuko (apart from the fact that he’s a Sozin and that Sozin Studios is destroying the industry), but there’s just something about him that’s weird. When they have to work together for another performance in the choosing process for the next group, Sokka realizes that Zuko is determined like no one else he knows. He’s throwing everything into their training and the upcoming performance and even though the dance training is super annoying and exhausting (they don’t really need another ten repetitions but Zuko insists), Sokka kinda appreciates that Zuko drags him through it (he would never let him know that). Their performance is one of the best in the end, but they didn’t have that bonding experience that usual comes with these project and this amount of work.

When the choosing process comes to an end, the talents who have made it into the group are revealed. The group will have the name ‘5 Elements’.

There’s a lot of tension among all the talents, because even though they’ve been trained for years there’s rarely the occasion to really make it into a group and most of them won’t get another chance.

The first talents to be revealed are Katara and Sokka, then Aang, then Toph and last, finally, Zuko.

While Aang is super enthusiastic about it and Toph just comments with her typical “sweet”, Katara is a bit more hesitant, but not displeased, but Sokka is a bit flabbergasted.

He knows that Zuko deserves to be in the group, because he undoubtedly has what it takes, his talent is undeniable and he can also carry a kinda mysterious or dark image. The girls will fall for him, no doubt. And the boys too, probably.

But it means they will spend the most part of the next few years together and despite all the compatibility checks etc. Sokka is not entirely sure, if they will get along or if the group will break up at some point, which would be a disaster.

The first few weeks in the studio go by like most time of the training. Zuko is with them, but mostly quiet and observative. He sometimes snaps when their joking around gets too annoying and forces them to concentrate, but all in all he still keeps mostly to himself. Aang seems to adore Zuko anyway, probably because he’s so grumpy and somehow Zuko is less so with their youngest. It reminds Sokka a bit of the dynamics of the dad, who didn’t want a dog and afterwards can’t let go of it for even five minutes.

When Zuko gets too frustrated with him during choreography training, Sokka tells him to relax, the hardest part is behind them. Zuko snaps telling him that the hardest part is still ahead.

There’s a new group of Sozin Studios “The Flames” – a girl group consisting of his sister and her best friends.

It will be a head to head who will be more successful, and Zuko knows that there will be campaigns against them etc.

Over time Katara warms up to Zuko and their voices compliment each other very well, just like it is with Aang. Toph and Sokka are mostly for the rap parts anyway and for the choruses.

Their first single and album are a huge success, as is the tour.

There’s a lot of shipping among their fans (literally each and every possible combination) and Sokka is a bit embarrassed when he learns about the “Zukka”-shippers. They get along better at that point. It’s inevitable when they spend so much time together.

Ba Sing Se Records encourages the shipping and for their second album, they want a song of just Zuko and him together.

They end up with a poppy song called “Echo” that is about being heard and resonating and understanding. It’s a bit of a back and forth first Zuko’s voice leading and Sokka answering, then that switches and in the end they sing together. The lyrics are much more serious than the melody and for some reason Zuko seems to be very unhappy with the song.

Sokka overhears a conversation of the producers saying that they told Zuko the song was not the usual “5 Elements” style and would be adapted. Sokka is more than baffled about that revelation and talks to Zuko about it. It must be the first deep conversation that they have and he asks how Zuko had the song in mind and when he starts to sing and after Sokka gets an idea, he starts to accompany him on the piano and adapts his own singing to the much slower and softer melody.

When they finish, there is a certain silence and Zuko mutters “thank you”.

Afterwards Sokka finds himself seeking Zuko’s company more often and they start to open up to each other. When the rest of the group hears the record of their version of “Echo”, they are amazed and ask them to sing it like this again.

The more often they sing it, the more Sokka feels the words and the growing connection between them. The eye-contact becomes more intense each time and at some point he realizes that he’s in love with Zuko.

“Echo” makes it onto the record of the new album and whenever they are asked about the song in interviews they joke around, saying that they just adore each other etc. One day after another interview like that, Zuko just confronts Sokka asking if he means any of those things he says and Sokka admits that he does and that it’s not even everything that he feels for Zuko. They kiss.

Happy End.

Thanks for your attention ;-)

[justanotherthrowaway1950]

Which Avatar ships have a chance of becoming canon but you wouldn't like them to be?

Before I answer your question anon, I'll address the elephant in the room. No, I do not think any of the queer ships involving the main or secondary characters in Aang's era will ever become canon. I have no problems with queer ships, it just that ATLA was a mid-2000s Nicktoon with an American based production team. None of the main or secondary characters in Aang's era are ever hinted to be queer during the show. And even though the franchise has added queer characters, even in Aang's era, it has never indicated that any of the main or secondary characters in Aang's era are queer.

Take Azula for example. Bryke are or were active social media users. In fact, if I remember correctly, one or both of them actively engaged with fandom on Tumblr while TLOK was running. It's likely that they are aware of the popular headcanon that Azula is a lesbian who engaged in comphet during the show for a variety of reasons. If they wanted to canonize queer Azula, they could have easily done so in her solo comic, especially since it is dedicated to showing her inner life. But instead of showing Ty Lee, Zirin, or [insert relevant, potential female love interest] as her love interest during her ideal world dream, they instead had Ruon-Jian as her love interest, even though she barely interacted with him. In fact, they had him compliment how good her hair smells. The only way they could have made it clearer that Azula is cis het as far as they are concerned is if they had Azula say outright that she likes conventionally attractive boys and wants to be complimented for being a feminine girl.

Now that is out of the way, to answer your question anon, the only ATLA ship I think could become canon but I wouldn't to be canonized is Tokka.

I don't have anything against Tokka, and I more than fine with it in AUs. In fact, some of my favorite fanfictions have Tokka actively present. It's just that, based on how they handled Korra-Mako-Asami and Tenzin-Lin Beifong-Pema love triangles in TLOK, as well as how Yue was treated in ATLA, I think canonizing Tokka would lead to Suki getting treated poorly, and possibly Sokka and Toph as well.

Sokka is currently in a very committed relationship with Suki. If Tokka becomes canon, it will require Sukka to break up, Suki's death, or Sokka to cheat on Suki. I don't think Bryke are capable of handling any of those scenarios with the proper tact based on their track record with love triangles and dead love interests.

If Sokka and Toph end up together, I strongly feel that their feelings would be centered and the narrative will justify their choices leading up to their relationship, no matter how wronged Suki is or whatever legitimate grievances she has with either or both of them. Or if Suki dies young and Sokka and Toph get together in the aftermath, the narrative will mostly focus on how it effected Sokka, and to a lesser extent Toph, even though Suki is more than Sokka's love interest or Toph's romantic rival.

For example, if Sokka breaks up with Suki and gets quickly gets with Toph, or Sokka and Suki break up because Suki finds out Toph is pregnant with Suyin and Sokka is the father, I think the narrative will at best gloss over Suki's feelings and at worst focus on showing how happy Sokka and Toph's new relationship is making them while portraying Suki as someone who can't get over the past to their own detriment.

Moreover, if Suki is no longer in a romantic relationship with a core Gaang member, I feel there is a strong chance that Bryke will write her out of the story. Official media and collaborations rarely focus on her, despite being as much of a Gaang member as Zuko, another late addition, and when they do, Sokka is more often than not nearby or she is being teased with Zuko. And I think she is worthwhile character who more than deserves more on screen or on panel time and attention, or at least enhances the story by being involved.

(Yes, I aware it is misogynistic to want a female character to remain in a relationship with a male character so that she remains relevant. But in the the nearly twenty years she has existed, how many stories has Suki been in which she was a main character and a male character wasn't centered or important to the plot?)

[shadowsilver]

Christ I hate tyzula bro how could anyone consider that ship outside of fanon aus. tylee is literally afraid of azula in the comics her knee jerk reaction to seeing azula even attempt to move in her straightjacket is to chi block her. she literally intimidates tylee into joining her in her introduction. azula isn't sane and she never has been even as a child she showed violent tendencies and relished in them. a lot of tyzula shipers say that azula was abused by ozai but i barely even think that has a lot of truth to it like zuko and azula both had a lot of pressure on them when they were young, they were exceptcted to act a certain way and do certain things but the difference between the two is that  zuko didn’t agree with the cruelty those excpectaions entailed which was why ozai hated him he found his love for peace and kindness to be a weakness. azula on the other hand relished in the cruelty and violence of it all even as a child. azula was amonster and the fire nation and ozai’s fault wasnt in abusing her it was teacher her that it was ok. thats even though it might be possible that azula likes tylee it doesn’t matter because tylee especially knows that azula’s crazy hse’s known since the beginning thats why she’s scared of her. it’s hard to take any interaction between the two pre boiling rock seriously because you know tylee is fearing for her life at all times. so no tyzula is one of the most toxic ships popular avatar ships ever and i hate it

[lordmomohismomoness]

Oneshots - Smutty

Love Amongst the Embers by Delectate

Rated M 7K words Completed 2009

After the Ember Island Players' performance, and with the help of a little rice wine, Zuko and Katara decide to rewrite an alternate ending to their story. Oneshot, Zuko/Katara. Rated M.

The Date Clause by Like A Dove

Rated M 14K words Completed 2011

Zuko and Katara are forced to go on a date together. Epic confessions, drunkenness, sneaking around, and attempted dirty talk ensue. Who knew defying Uncle Iroh and his stupid matchmaker friend could be so much fun?

Coming of Age by Like A Dove

Rated M 3K words Completed 2012

Katara has decided that it is time for Zuko to become a man. This is about exactly what you think it's about

Come Quietly by Like A Dove

Rated M 2K words Completed 2012

Katara tries to be quiet. Really, she does.

Afterglow by Burning Ice

Rated M 8K words Completed 2009

It’s a proven fact that 'intimacy' the evening before a demanding physical activity such as a marathon or an epic final battle will improve a woman’s performance, but damage a man’s, the following day. Night before the comet Zutara, Lemon, One-shot, PWP

Capture The Spirit by Jennibare

Rated M 1K words Completed 2011

The Painted Lady has been captured by the Blue Spirit and must be punished for her wrongdoings in the Fire Nation. M for dubcon, language, and sexual situations. Written for the "half-a'd game" at capslock zutara. Full description inside

Trigger Warning: Dubcon

The Ocean Takes Me In by Babyfairy

Rated M 5K words Completed 2017

She swallows hard, releasing a shuddering breath, and nods. "Perfect," She whispers, and Zuko is sure that his heart is gone now, wrapped up in her hands.

Steam Bent by Lalunanocturnal

Rated E 5K words Completed 2020

Only the Avatar can master all four elements. But Katara can love all four.

When Katara realizes she can learn more about each nation through intimacy, she figures why not give it a try. But she is saving Fire for last... and Zuko may be the perfect candidate. If you can’t bend all the elements, may as well sleep with them, for enlightenment of course.

For Zutara Week 2020 - Prompts: Fuse, Celestial, Affirm

Clarity by Bluenebulae

Rated M 6K words Complete 2020

There’s something strangely familiar about Katara’s Tinder date.

Blowing Off Steam by Smediterranea

Rated E 3K words Completed 2020

This wasn’t like Katara. Karata was responsible. Katara was organized. Some people might call her a wet blanket, but Katara knew the value of putting work before fun. She had her priorities in order.

Katara had not considered herself to be someone who would have earth-shattering sex with a guy whose name she didn’t even know. But here she was, certain that she had never made a better decision in her life.

An AU one-shot of Katara getting familiar with a certain handsome guy who lives down the hall

Condensation by Smediterranea

Rated E 3K words Completed 2020

“Zuzu!” Azula says, barely containing a laugh. “Did you have a one night stand? I’m so proud I could cry.”

“Shut up,” he growls. “And that’s not what I meant. I know who she is I just… don’t really know how to contact her.”

“You didn’t get her number,” Mai says disapprovingly. “Rookie mistake.”

Zuko groans. Getting scolded by his ex-girlfriend on not being able to properly hook up with someone is more than his fragile ego can bear.

AU College, follow up to Katara and Zuko's one night stand in Blowing Off Steam

[tell me what happens next] by Ephemerall

Rated E 617 words Completed 2020

She hadn’t told him yet – hadn’t given voice to what she felt squeezing her heart every time she looked at him. He had told her ages ago, it seemed, that he loved her, and that it was ok that she didn’t love him back. She never corrected his erroneous assumption.

Drink It In by Boudica Muse

Rated E 11K words Completed 2020

Fire Lord Zuko gathers friends and acquaintances from all over the world for a masquerade to celebrate his birthday. Strangely, he's nowhere to be found at the party, but that won't stop Katara from having a good time.

Agni's Fever by Orphan_account

Rated E 7K words Completed 2013

She decides that she loves him for both the fire lilies and the brimstone on his breath. Oneshot. Zutara.

Zuko’s hands snag around her wrists. His body is a long line of tension, and now that he’s reared up on his knees to match her stance, she notices that his chest is as bare as it is soaked. “You can’t even begin to understand what’s happening to me."

“I’m trying to understand,” Katara grits. “Isn’t that what you wanted from me from the very beginning?”

Taken by a Faceless Stranger by Delectate

Rated M 11K words Completed 2011

Season 2 oneshot, between "Zuko Alone" and "The Chase". Katara thinks she knows all there is to know about a certain masked warrior. Bluetara. Written for Zutara Week 2011. Rated M for mature.

Here's To The Broken Ones by Airiustide

Rated M 3K words Completed 2020

Trouble seems to follow Katara wherever she goes. Maybe she likes trouble. *Maybe you are trouble*, Zuko once told her.

They tell themselves this isn't love, that nothing more can come from two souls bound for different paths. One thing we can be sure of in this story, Zuko and Katara have a hard time keeping promises.

Shimmering Scarlet Scales by Hippomatrix

Rated T 7K words Completed 2016

Katara never thought she'd see a dragon. They were thought to be extinct. Yet here she was, healing a dragon she'd found in the woods (of burn wounds no less) and letting him follow her home. She didn't mean to bond with him, but that's what happened, and he became her constant companion and protector. If only it had stayed that simple.

Lonely Hearts Club by iRockYourSocks

Rated M 1K words Completed 2013

Katara was ready, albeit unhappy, for her new life as the wife of a northern warrior. A fateful trip to Ember Island opens her eyes to an alternative path in life.

Moonlight by evergreentrees

Rated E 2K words Completed 2017

Zuko didn't think that his usual nightly walk would end up with him in the same pond as Katara. Naked.

(Set in that limbo time between "The Southern Raiders" and the finale)

Shut Up by Sood (mbwff)

Rated E 3K words Completed 2015

Zuko and Katara can't cooperate on anything. Up until a week ago, they couldn't even share the same air.

----

ITS A TENT SHARING THING

To drown in you is an honor by Sood (mbwff)

Rated E 1K words Completed 2016

He, surely, is dreaming. Katara is surely not currently making idle patterns in the drying come on his chest. He is definitely not still breathing heavily from an orgasm that she, a girl who recently hated him, has caused.

---

Zuko reciprocates.

Bonus day: Tea Shop by Cincilin

Rated E 11K words Completed 2017

"Hello and welcome to the Jasmine Dragon. Today's special is—" he cut himself of with a sharp intake of breath, at the same moment that Katara placed the voice and looked up.

'He has hair.' was her first thought. Then the rest of her brain caught up with her and she started to get up, sending Momo scrambling to hide under the table.

Season 2 AU, during "The Guru", messes around with the timeline a bit, and with Upper Ring architecture.

I'm not playing by Mila (zkalone)

Rated M 1K words Completed 2020

His golden eyes darken, and he wraps an arm around her slim shoulders, pulling her from the hallway. “That didn’t look too friendly to me, Katara.” The way he says her name causes shivers to run down her spine. Tugging her by the wrist to the back staircase, he drops his bag to the floor, and hers follows.

///

In which Zuko is jealous of Katara's interactions with Jet, and she decides to make it up to him.

Lay me down by Damapintada

Rated E 3K words Completed 2020

“Zuko?”

“Hmm?”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Of course, what is it?” He asks, curiosity piqued.

Her fingers continue their path along the toned planes of his chest, before she says, “Remember a few months ago, when we did that thing with the ties?”

OR

Katara ties Zuko up and has her way with him.

I can feel it in my bones by Marked Mage

Rated E 5K words Completed 2020

Zuko's not planning to get drunk tonight. However, his demise comes in the form of tantalizing brown skin and deep blue eyes, and well, he's never been good at keeping promises.

Zutara week, day three: Fuse

Tumblr Smut Prompt: Hit the Showers by AWildJaxWrites

Rated E 3K words Completed 2020

Anon asked for trapped in a locker room and shower sex.

A locked door can make people bold.

Blue On Blue by Dyce

Rated M 7K words Completed 2013

After four years of traveling with Aang, Katara disappears. Not long after, word comes to the Fire Lord that a female Blue Spirit is performing healing miracles in his kingdom. It doesn't take Zuko long to put two Blue Spirits together.

Here's To The Broken Ones by Airiustide

Rated E 3K words Completed 2020

Trouble seems to follow Katara wherever she goes. Maybe she likes trouble. *Maybe you are trouble*, Zuko once told her.

They tell themselves this isn't love, that nothing more can come from two souls bound for different paths. One thing we can be sure of in this story, Zuko and Katara have a hard time keeping promises.

Embrace by Alexb49

Rated M 3K words Completed 2010

Katara stumbles across a familiar boy out on a date in Ba Sing Se. Set during S2 episode "Tales of Ba Sing Se". Rated M for mature content of a sexual nature. Pairing: Katara/Zuko. Written for the Zutarotica 2010 Summer Challenge.

The Solace of Night by goldilocks23

Rated E 5K words Completed 2020

The Southern Water Tribe Ambassador's diplomatic visits coincidentally coincide with sightings of the Painted Lady and the Blue Spirit.

[azure-firecracker]

For your prompt list, can you do #36- "I never wanted to hurt you' for Azutara.

I'm gonna set this one up a bit if that's ok. This prompt reminds me of a scene from the soulmate au I'm working on (hopefully will one day finish lol)

If you don't wanna use this then that's absolutely fine. With that being said, here's the relevant info.

-Soulmarks are rare to appear. Everyone has a soulmate, but the only thing that's guaranteed is that you'll be in the general vicinity of them at some point in your life. The mark won't appear until you directly speak to each other, in this case it was the throne room scene from the show. When you are both aware of the mark, you become spiritually connected. This connection is different for every person. In thier case, the mark worked two ways 1) during moments of high stress, the non-stressed one's spirit is pulled to the other (think astral projection but they can't be seen) to provide support/comfort. 2) they see various memories of the other through dreams. I plan on using this aspect to build a connection between them since they hardly directly interacted during the show. Katara's memories and some of the actions Azula witnesses from Katara both inspire her to want to be a better ruler and show her that Katara is her equal. Katara sees a lot of the more negative memories of Azula, like when her mother implied there was something wrong with her, harsh training from Ozai, her mother disappearing, Zuko's Agni Kai. Azula also has anxiety from her past traumas so, needless to say, Katara's been providing quite a bit of comfort (Azula has a mark mirroring Katara's necklace and Katara has one of a Blue Dragon going down her spine)

Next point - the Crossroads of Destiny never happened. Azula freed Katara after seeing the soulmark. She didn't tell her about it and instead offered a deal. Her freedom in exchange for information on Zuko's location. Azula had the Dai lee lower the walls before trying to capture Zuko, so he had already fled when she goes to capture him.

Azula gets called back to the fire nation by Ozai, leaving War Minister Qin in charge of the city. When she gives her report to Ozai, she left out the info about Katara, which Ozai knew about thanks to Qin's report sent via messenger hawk. He accuses her of trying to hide her failure and also brings up her inability to capture Zuko. He decides to overlook the slight in lieu of her victory but threatens her to never fail him again. Katara saw all of this and her spirit is pulled behind the princess as she returned to her room and proceeded to lose her public composure, falling into a panic attack. That was the first time Katara provided comfort but the relevant part is Ozai's threat.

Later, on the Day of Black Sun, Azula had decided she was going to leave the capital, planning to teach Aang firebending. Her plan was to safely slip into the night after the invasion (she didn't leave during it because she needed to make sure her people were protected). She set up a plan to stall Aang using far more Dai lee than she did in the show. She gave them orders not to capture him however. With the invasion thwarted, she went to give her report to Ozai. She didn't get a chance to speak as he started laying into her about allowing the Avatar to escape. (Katara astral projects in. At this point her body is on Appa as they prepare to flee) When she tried to speak Ozai back handed her yelling/asking when she became so weak. The sudden movement shifted her shirt enough for Ozai the see a hint of blue in her neck. He pulls down her collar revealing the soulmark. The last thing Katara sees is Ozai throw Azula back, causing her to stumble as he calls he a born traitor throwing lightning in the process.

This is a spoiler point. I have Ty lee rescuing Azula with airbending. As the lightning kept from Ozai's fingers, she slammed him with a gust of wind, sending him flying. The lightning, with it's trajectory changed, strikes Azula in the shoulder. When Ozai looks back, the room is empty.

Ty lee, following the spiritual connection through Azula's aura, brings her to the Western Air Temple.

I'm curious to see your take on what happens next and this prompt seemed to fit it quite well. Perhaps you'll have Katara speaking to an unconscious Azula. Or maybe you'll have a couple scenes, one when Azula arrives and another when combustion man attacks, having Azula wake up, stumble out and strike him with lightning leading to Katara freaking out about her condition. There are really a lot of different ways this could go. If you decide to do it, I admit I'm very interested to see what you come up with. 🙂

Sorry this took so long but I really wanted to make sure I got this right, especially after you left all of those wonderful comments on my fic! This AU is absolutely incredible, and I hope I did it justice.

***

Katara awoke with a gasp and found herself lying on a flat stone ledge. Around her were her friends, each looking dejected after their recent failure. But Katara had other things on her mind.

She hadn’t told her friends about the blue dragon that had appeared on her back in Ba Sing Se, or where she really found herself when she “fell asleep.” She wasn’t exactly sure why she hadn’t told them. It was partially because they had so much going on already, but partially because she was afraid they wouldn’t trust Azula.

Azula...the girl had turned out to be so much more than Katara had ever imagined. Far from pure evil, she was a broken teenager with fierce protectiveness deep inside her, and Katara had found that they weren’t as different as she’d once thought. She was her soulmate, as strange as that was. Katara never would have expected it, but she had come to care deeply about her.

She paced the Air Temple in worry, wishing she could do more than just move her spirit into Azula’s mind, that she could help in some way. The last thing she remembered was seeing the girl at the mercy of her father. Katara thought she would know if Azula had died, but her heart still ached with fear.

« Help! » came a cry from far above. Katara leaped to her feet and glanced up into the sky. There was a Fire Nation airship zigzagging towards them. Sokka raised his sword, but Katara held out her hand to stop him. This ship was clearly being flown by someone who didn’t know what they were doing. Something wasn’t right.

The ship suddenly tipped forward, pointing straight down and hurtling towards the bottom of the canyon. At the last moment, Katara saw a strange form leap from the front window towards them, falling just short of the edge of the cliff. Katara raced towards them, but Aang was faster, leaping off the edge with his glider, falling into a dive. A moment later, he was back, and he wasn’t alone. Ty Lee was hanging on to his feet with one hand, and somehow she was helping propel them through the air. Was she...was she airbending? In her other arm was the limp body of Azula. Katara felt her heart leap.

Katara raced towards them as they landed on the side of the ledge. Aang and Ty Lee began a conversation, but Katara barely registered it. She ran straight to Azula and dropped to her knees, instinctively scooping the girl up in her arms. Thank the spirits, she thought. Azula was alive, if weak.

Quickly, Katara drew her water out of her pouch, her hands moving over Azula’s shoulder, feeling the electricity coursing through her. Healing Azula was, in some ways, the easiest thing she’d ever done, because the pattern of her heart and her spirit was so similar to her own.

Azula stirred in Katara’s lap and slowly opened her eyes. As her vision cleared, she groaned, and tears instantly filled her eyes.

« I’m sorry, Katara. »

Katara blinked. « What for? »

Azula sighed, tears still spilling down her cheeks. « I’m sorry that you’ve got me for whatever this soulmate thing is. You’ve done everything for me. You showed me compassion when no one else would, you calmed me down, you were open with me when you never had to be. You made me a better person. And me? All I did was hurt you. I tried to kill your friends, and now my father won’t stop until he kills me too. I’m a failure and a monster. » She looked up, right into Katara’s eyes. « I never meant to hurt you. »

Katara suspected that the girl’s weak physical state was part of what was making her so vulnerable. She’d never seen Azula be so honest, even with herself. It made her heart swell, with sadness for the girl who’d been made to believe she was a monster, when Katara knew that that couldn’t be further from the truth.

She pulled Azula up into a tight hug. She’d never hugged her before, but it felt right. Like they’d been made to put their arms around each other just like that. « Azula, you’re my soulmate. I...I love you. I love you because you’re a person, because you’re passionate and strong and human. You could never be a monster. »

Azula didn’t speak, maybe because she was still too injured, maybe because she had nothing to say. She just wrapped her arms tighter around Katara, and held onto her like she was the most important thing in the world.

A voice came from behind them.

« Wait a second. She’s your WHAT?! »

***

This was a super fun prompt! You’re amazing so I hope it made you happy! This is an amazing idea and I can’t wait to see where you go with it!!!

[kawaiichibiart]

Continuing the Older!Sister Azula, Little!Brother Zuko AU (also, if there are any episodes or interactions you'd like to see, let me know)

First off, ages. As you can tell my last post about this AU, Zuko is very much a child. He's being carried around. As of this moment, in canon, he'd be 16 and Azula 14.

Azula is still 14. Zuko isn't 12. I have it set in my mind that he is at least 6 or 7 in this AU.

Ursa almost managed to take Zuko with her, but wasn't able to. She had Azula promise her that she would take care of her baby brother. That included keeping him safe from their father.

Because he was only about a year or two when she left, Zuko has barely any memory of Ursa. Azula does her best to paint their mother in a good light for him. Because, even if Ursa considered her a monster, she adored Zuko, and as much as she wanted to have him feel what she felt, she couldn't bring herself to. Zuko needed one parent to look up to, and Ozai wasn't it. So, she lied. She lied about how wonderful a mother Ursa was, when she honestly didn't know if she was.

Azula has a soft spot for her little brother but she still finds him annoying at times and thinks he should focus on his bending and not shiny swords.

Zuko is kept very hush hush. Ozai doesn't acknowledged Zuko as his son. When asked about him, he just tells everyone that Zuko isn't to be bothered and is being trained by the best of the best. Almost no one knows the Prince is a child. They think he's about the same age as Azula, about a year younger. The first time he goes out with her, is when they go to the beach. No one knows who they are.

Azula never leaves him alone with Ozai. If she has to go somewhere and can't take him, she has Lo and Lee look after him (she has had Iroh do it in the past as well).

I'm currently having inner conflicts about Ozai scarring Zuko as a 6-7 year old. I've seen it done in fanfics before (either Zuko is the younger sibling and gets scarred by Ozai, or the Agni Kai between him and Ozai happens earlier than in the show), I'm just not sure how I would play it out myself in this. Like, in canon, Ozai found a reason, a bullshit reason, but a reason, to hurt his son. In this, as I mentioned, Azula is limiting her brother's interaction with their father, out of their mother's wishes. So, what would Ozai's BS reason be in this?

Iroh and Azula have a, begrudging, partnership. They both want to take care of Zuko, but they don't meet eye to eye about things, such as how to teach him firebending.

The rest of the Gaang has no idea how to react to Azula bringing a child with her when she was looking for them. And it's more of a "who would leave her with a child" reaction than a "why does she have a child" reaction.

Zuko has this habit of just, clinging, to the first person he sees. This has led to him being carried by several members of the Gaang. No, Azula isn't jealous. Why would she be? (She is.)

[watchathon]

Avatar: The Last Airbender, Series Finale: Sozin’s Comet

In case you’re finding this post just by browsing the tags I’ve used for this post, this is the Watchathon, a blog where I’m hoping to watch an episode of a TV show every weekday, with a short blog post where I write down my thoughts as I watch. Each new thought starts with a hyphen and a bolded first word.

- Like so. Now that the introductions are over with, it’s time to break that one-episode-a-day rule and finish off Avatar: The Last Airbender with the climactic grand finale, Sozin’s Comet:

PART 1: THE PHOENIX KING

- Okay, so, Katara in the intro is still saying “He has a lot to learn before he’s ready to save anyone.” I could’ve sworn they removed that part by this point... Maybe that was just something for the DVD?

- I like that the “Previously on” segment is so long. It really emphasizes how much buildup there was to this. How much the Gaang has been through to get here.

- I gotta say, I was not expecting a beach party in this episode.

- Somehow, for reasons I can’t explain because I don’t understand them myself, this ambush from Zuko made the audio of Nicolas Cage saying “Surprise attack!” in Into the Spider-Verse play in my head.

- Zuko’s really lucky that he earned Katara’s forgiveness before this violent pop quiz, seeing as just a half season ago... “You take one step backwards... one slip up... give me one reason to think you might hurt Aang - and you won't have to worry about your destiny anymore. Because I'll make sure your destiny ends right then and there. Permanently.”

- It never occurred to me that we didn’t get details on the war meeting before now.

- I’d bet hearing about this plan is the thing that tipped the scales and fully convinced Zuko to join the Gaang, and prevent the genocide of the Earth Kingdom.

- It’s so nice to see Zuko being welcomed into the group hugs. Especially when it’s Katara who invites him.

- I like that Zuko is teaching Aang to redirect lightning, the same way Iroh taught him.

- Even before it’s made explicit, you can tell that Aang’s uneasy about the idea of killing.

- Toph is just delighting in her role as Melon Lord, isn’t she?

- Someone out there has definitely written an AU fanfic where someone gets killed during this training and it’s Toph’s origin story as the malicious Melon Lord. If not, then I will write it myself, and it shall be the crackiest crack fic that ever cracked.

- Y’know what, I wish Toph could’ve actually gone on a life-changing field trip with Zuko too! Everyone else got one...

- This scene of Sokka climbing into Appa’s mouth is even more uncomfortable once you’ve... well, once you’ve grown up and... Okay, I tried to put it subtly, but I just can’t: Once you’ve been cursed with the knowledge of what vore is.

- Well, there’s a bait-and-switch if I’ve ever seen one: “Azula, you’re the new Fire Lord!” “=)” “But I am now the Phoenix King and still your superior who you will answer to.” “=O”

- Nice to see June and her Shirshu make a comeback.

- Does this mean Aang wasn’t running away on purpose? I honestly thought he was just going to that island to get some alone time, maybe meditate or contact the previous Avatars’ spirits.

PART 2: THE OLD MASTERS

- I’m not sure if this is something I forgot from June’s first appearance, or if it’s actually just never been brought up before, but I didn’t know her Shirshu had a name.

- It’s sweet that Zuko is seeking out Iroh’s help. Even if the method of finding him is, ah, well... unorthodox.

- Even Avatar Roku doesn’t know where Aang is. And here I thought it was some Avatar thing that had never been brought up before.

- It’s nice to see these people make a comeback. Bumi, Piandao, even Jeong Jeong and Master Pakku are here for the finale.

- I am surprised that we didn’t get an interaction between Toph and Bumi, though. The man Aang wanted to teach him Earthbending, the girl who ended up doing it... But I guess there’s only so much time, and I don’t think there’s any scenes that could be deleted to make room for it.

- It seems like Aang is just searching for confirmation of his beliefs, rather than actually seeking wisdom.

- I like that we get to see Bumi taking full advantage of the eclipse to take back Omashu from the Fire Nation, instead of just being told about it.

- It’s nice to see so many past Avatars beyond just Roku and Kyoshi, Avatars that we never heard of before, but now we hear their stories. But all of these past Avatars echo the same sentiment that Aang should kill Ozai, even an Air Nomad Avatar.

- What can I say about this scene of Zuko and Iroh reuniting? Forgive me for echoing a post I made on my main blog, but this is a scene that’s both sweet and sad.

Sad, because Zuko’s abuse at the hands of Fire Lord Ozai left him anxiously expecting furious punishment for crimes much less than what he did to Iroh. He can’t even comprehend the idea that Iroh would forgive him. His expression while apologizing to Iroh clearly shows he’s expecting the worst.

Sweet, because Iroh still loves Zuko like his own son, and doesn’t even need to forgive him because he never felt anger at Zuko’s betrayal: Only sadness and a worry that Zuko had lost his way, truly lost his honor. And Iroh is so clearly happy to see that Zuko has found his destiny, and joined the fight against the Fire Nation.

I could go on and on about this scene... It’s my absolute favorite scene in the whole series and it brings me to tears every single time I see it.

Gosh... it’s gonna be so awkward going back to the jokes and little mundane thoughts after this, isn’t it?

- Okay, I have officially given up on the idea of finding out what the heck this island is.

- I like the smile on Katara’s face, when she’s asked to team up with Zuko and fight Azula.

- It’s nice to know that Iroh will get the opportunity to run that tea shop, even if Zuko won’t be there to work with him.

- Okay, okay, so the island was actually a lion turtle. Frankly, I’ve still got a lot of questions. Even some new ones.

- It’s nice to see that the Netlix subtitles aren’t ALLCAPS anymore.

PART 3: INTO THE INFERNO

- Gotta hand it to the music, it can make even a scene of Azula making a fuss over a non-pitted cherry rather unnerving.

- Azula’s... Azula-ness has gone straight up to eleven with her newfound role. Hasn’t it? What with all the banishments, even banishing the entire Dai Li.

- Sokka, Suki and Toph are the real dream team. 

- And we get a great final blind joke!

- I like that we get to see everyone doing their part in this final battle. All the members of the Gaang, even the White Lotus, get their moments to shine.

- The hallucination of Ursa shows that Azula, on some level, has an idea of what’s wrong with her. You can tell that they were thinking of a redemption arc for Azula come Book 4, though I am glad that didn’t happen.

- It’s chilling to see Ozai razing the forests of the Earth Kingdom like it’s nothing. And then to realize that this is what Aang will have to face.

- At first I wasn’t sure what Sokka’s plan was, but now that I see it in action, it’s really creative.

- I like the idea of a final one-on-one Zuko vs Azula duel(...a). It’s been a rivalry since Book 2, and it’s nice to finally see it get settled, even if I can’t imagine it’ll end up that easy: Otherwise, what would Katara do?

- It’s so cool to see Aang showing his prowess in all bending techniques, using them all in this final showdown.

- The background music during Zuko and Azula’s Agni Kai really sells it. It makes it sound almost tragic, and it is: two siblings pitted against each other, no choice but to fight to determine the future of the world.

- Azula might be slipping, but she’s still Azula, all too willing to cheat in what’s supposed to be a one-on-one duel.

PART 4: AVATAR AANG

- Netflix isn’t showing the intro for the individual parts, but I’ve gotta say... There’s no way that Katara’s still saying Aang’s “got a lot to learn before he’s ready to save anyone.” Right?

- I like that we get to see one last use of Metalbending from Toph in the finale.

- Dang, I hope this isn’t really the end for Sokka’s sword, or his boomerang. Especially when the sword was so cool, and one could say meaningful.

- I honestly wasn’t sure the Avatar State would ever be a factor again. But if there was ever a time, this is it. (ADDENDUM: This is probably the best time to clarify that I find and add the images at the start after writing the rest of the post.)

- And it’s so epic to see Aang bending all four elements at once.

- I like that Iroh got to burn down the Fire Nation flag.

- Since Zuko’s down for the count, I guess this means a battle between Katara and Azula, the latter powered up by Sozin’s Comet.

- To be honest, I could barely make out what Azula just said. “kjsdbksrbfkjvf family position to look after, kdcbkfh”?

- Katara may not be stronger than Sozin’s Comet-powered Azula, but she’s much more clever than Azula is right now as she loses her marbles.

- This is just the perfect kind of defeat for Azula. There’s no grace to it, no dignity, just writhing around, screaming and spewing fire as Zuko and Katara look on with pity.

- There’s probably a great practical reason someone could find for Spiritbending being a thing, but here’s why I’m glad it exists: Aang gets a happy ending. He gets to take down the Fire Lord, and hold true to his beliefs. If it weren’t for Spiritbending, if Aang killed Ozai, then he would be conflicted to the end.

And I don’t want that. I want Aang to get an unambiguously, undoubtedly happy ending, where the world is saved and that’s all there is to it.

Plus, Spiritbending is quite the spectacle.

- I’m guessing Sokka’s space sword and boomerang really are done for. But hey, there’s always headcanon. Maybe Sokka searched the forest and eventually found them.

- Weird to think that Ty Lee’s gonna be a Kyoshi Warrior.

- Again, I can’t believe Zukaang’s not the most popular Zuko ship in the fandom. Not a ship I’ll go to bat for, but it’s got all the hallmarks of a fan-preferred couple.

- It’s so nice to see Zuko’s coronation, and the official end to the war. It’s a happy ending for the whole world, the start of an era of peace.

- “Love and peace,” huh...? Now that’s funny to hear in the finale to this show, considering the next show I’m covering, come 2021...

- I like that we get to see one last confrontation between Zuko and Ozai. Even if Zuko’s question of where Ursa is doesn’t go anywhere (in the show, I know they touch on that in the comics), it’s nice to see the newly-crowned Fire Lord Zuko having evolved past a need for Ozai’s attention, or a fear of Ozai’s wrath.

- It’s nice to see the whole Gaang having fun at Iroh’s tea shop, in the end. And I stand corrected, this is where we get the final blind joke.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I’m lucky in that most of my childhood cartoons hold up as an adult. I watched Kim Possible, Phineas and Ferb, Code Lyoko, Courage the Cowardly Dog...

Still, there’s something special about Avatar: The Last Airbender. It had a unique aesthetic and world that no other show was quite like. It had a story that was like nothing I’d ever seen as a kid.

And it doesn’t just hold up, it’s even better.

When I was a kid, it was as simple as rooting for the good guys to win, and for the Firebenders to lose, except for Zuko once he turned good.

Now, as an adult (but mostly as someone with a DVD player/Netflix account so I’m not just watching whatever reruns I can catch) I can appreciate the character development, the arcs, the entire story.

I can appreciate how Aang grew from a little boy who does indeed have a lot to learn before he’s ready to save anyone, into a hero who could save the world.

I can appreciate how Zuko was an abuse victim who did what all abused children wish they could do and left his abuser.

I can appreciate... Gosh, Iroh’s entire character and dynamic with Zuko.

Some people say that Avatar “starts off as a kids show, then turns serious”, but I’d disagree. Avatar is a show where our heroes change, where they learn lessons, where they come of age and become the kind of heroes who can end a war that’s been going on for over a century.

As relieved as I am to be (mostly) done with these posts for the rest of the year, I am still oh-so-glad that I’ve rewatched Avatar yet again, and I know that I will be whenever I rewatch it in the future.

Now, with all that said... Farewell! Until the Christmas special, at least...

[zutaradirectory]

hi! please suggest a zutara fic with azula on the side. an example would be one where azula terrorizes zuko over his feelings for katara, or where azula and katara have a girls night out much to zuko's chagrin, or where azula becomes an aunt to zuko and katara's kid(s), etc. thanks in advance! 💗

I’m assuming you mean fics in which she has generally positive relationships/interactions with zuko and/or katara? I’m sure there are more, but here are a few that might fit what you’re looking for:

Step 1: Offer Encouragement - G rating, oneshot - When Azula sees her niece Kana struggling with her bending, she decides it's time to step up to the role of aunt.

Office Affair - M Rating, 34 chapters - Zuko Azulon, a 23 year old bachelor of a million dollar company finds himself in a difficult position. His number one rule, 'Dont date employees'. Will that mean anything to him when he interviews Katara South for his secretary. A 21 year old college student whose family runs the well known three star restaurant Shining South. What problems will the two face when they meet?

Half Past Closing - T Rating, oneshot - In the middle of her last year at the Fire Nation Royal University, Katara’s classes and part time job consume most of her time. Coming home late one night after the library closes, she takes a shortcut to her new apartment and passes a small tea shop in a back alley. Even when the sign on the door of his uncle’s tea shop is turned to say ‘closed’, Zuko still has to to clean up before he locks up. Alone in the small, old luxury tea house wedged in the back alley of Souzin Building One, he is confident no one sees him as he puts on some earbuds and sweeps as he unknowingly dances along to the music. As he innocently goes about his cleaning, singing along, he turns around and finds himself looking into the crinkled blue eyes of a giggling university student on the other side.

Barely Tolerable - G Rating, 12 chapters - The Pride and Prejudice AU that no one asked for yet I was more than excited to deliver. Inspired by fan art from @paintedfirelady on Tumblr.

One Week - T Rating, 7 chapters - ZutaraDirectory Admin Note: The entire work is for Zutara week 2011 prompt fills, but the chapter linked is one the only one relevant to the ask above

As usual, if our followers have recs, please drop them in the replies!

[zuzuslastbraincell]

Katara, if you please :)

Sexuality Headcanon: Bi :^) just because we never see Katara have many meaningful relationships with other girls (outside of Toph) on screen, doesn’t mean she doesn’t like them.

Gender Headcanon: female. I’m partial to trans katara as well, I think it’s a fun headcanon.

A ship I have with said character: tbh, I’m not big on ships for Katara in canon? Like on one level I feel like Katara deserves to be loved and adored by everyone, but also I am really tired of people using Katara as shipping fodder. (I like to imagine she gets a bf or a gf off-screen post-canon. Perhaps a bender from the Northern Water Tribe who moves to the south to learn from her/help her rebuild)

in AU situations, though, I really like Yuetara in an AU where Yue is a waterbending healer because I’m stupid weak for sappy tragic moon/sea gfs stuff. I also.... have such a soft spot for Kazula in a school AU rivals-to-lovers situation where Azula isn’t directly opposing and hurting the gaang in the same way, because they just match each other’s intensity well.

A BROTP I have with said character: OH Sokka and Katara, of course, BEST sibling dynamic. They’re messy, they’ve both been impacted by the trauma of war, they’re often bickering and sometimes even mean to each other but they also really do have each other’s back and work past it the best they can. Honestly anything I’ve written with Katara has had Sokka either present or mentioned often, I just think they’re that important to each other.

also I feel Zuko & Katara and Aang & Katara both deserve mentions here.

Zuko is the member of the gaang Katara can just be emotionally open with without having to bottle it up until it explodes in anger (as Sokka refuses to deal with emotions 90% of the time unless they’re hidden behind layers of jadedness, irony, or humour) and the rest of the gaang is younger, so yeah, but I think with Zuko she has a space where she can speak freely and voice a lot of stuff she has difficulty containing without judgement (because Zuko also has Lots Of Feelings and on some level Gets It).

And Aang is the member of the gaang that first offered Katara hope and a sense that there was a way out of the hopeless situation her tribe was, who offered her a way to train and grow as a waterbender, but also offered her fun and levity in a time lacking in it, and gave her a sense of her childhood back when she was forced to grow up too fast because of war. She adores Aang & would follow him around the world and back without a map quite honestly.

A NOTP I have with said character: with either Zuko or Azula in canon timelines. Katara deserves a future where she can invest her whole heart in the south pole and in reconstruction efforts there, including starting a waterbending school, and just being integral to the community. like, even on a practical level, dating Fire Nation royalty doesn’t line up with that, and that’s before we even touch on reluctance and mixed feelings she might have about dating former imperialist royals who have tried to hurt her & her friends. 

(This is before we touch like, fandom content for Zuko/Katara, which has historically been marred with imperialist apologism and racism and people treating Katara like a stand-in and zuko like an angsty white boy. bad.)

as for Azula, i certainly can’t see her forgiving Azula easily for how she hurts Aang, Zuko, & the whole gaang. Even if Azula apologises and has a full redemption arc and makes all the amends she can, I just can’t see it happening.

A random headcanon: Katara has a not-like-other-girls phase that largely keeps to herself and she totally grows out of, and it comes about from struggling with how her feelings for girls are different / feeling like she can’t be friends with girls, that she finds female friendship harder to navigate than boys (where there’s a clear roadmap), and feels a bit frustrated/guilty about her lack of friends who are girls her age and her seeming inability to ‘connect’ (it’s because you’re crushing on them Katara....). Or at least, that’s how I choose to interpret how she barely interacts with Suki, lmao. Imagine your brother’s girlfriend being your bi awakening... god, things would be awkward, poor Katara :(

Anyways. I love reading into things based on very small character details (i.e. Katara’s relative lack of female friendships)

General Opinion: I absolutely adore character for all her complexity, for her anger and her compassion and her idealism and her depth. She’s kind and warm but also petty and impulsive and holds grudges like nothing else - she’s got strengths and flaws in spades. Just great character writing! Also characters who hold deep beliefs are just generally really underrated and Katara is no exception.

She’s not the ‘mom’ friend - she’s impulsive, adventure-seeking, and honestly? Quite often funny. Also, certain shippers don’t have a monopoly on good Katara characterisation and appreciation for her character from a feminist perspective, no matter what they claim, lol.

[zutaralesbian]

Why do you ship Tyzula if you don't mind me asking?

Tyzula is a guilty pleasure ship of mine as in, I 100% acknowledge that it is problematic and understand why others don't like it. (Some people like to call Zutara problematic but really, Tyzula is truly my problematic ATLA ship.)

I think it's mostly because of the beach episode. Ty lee is the only person we've ever seen Azula apologize to on-screen, and I think that's a big deal. (I believe that Ty lee, Mai, and Zuko are arguably the three people that Azula cares about the most. But she's horrible at showing it because she genuinely has no concept of how healthy human relationships work). And I think the way they interact with each other a lot of the time is just drenched with gay undertones. But it is a ship that could only work in an AU or in a post-canon world where Azula is redeemed, acknowledges the way she treated Ty lee, and makes everything up to her. Their relationship as it was on the show, while interesting, was not healthy.

You also have to understand that as a lesbian, I am starved of good f/f shipping material when it comes to ATLA lol. There are barely any well-developed relationships between women. Katara/Suki barely has any mean in it. (Which is a shame because they would be A+ femslash material if they just, had one profound conversation between the two of them). And Katara/Toph is way too much of a older sis little sis dynamic for me to even consider them romantically.

So.....Azula/Mai/Ty lee is all I have when it comes to well-developed female relationships that I can really ship together. Out of that though, Mailee is defintely the healthiest option. They are still friends at the end of the series and Ty lee literally went up against Azula to save Mai. Whoo! So I do ship them as well.

[setaripendragon]

The Nature of Revenge

So this is a little oneshot I wrote to try and make writing not feel like a chore. It’s a scene I’ve had in my head for a while, for an AU of Avatar where Ursa, instead of bargaining with Ozai to save Zuko, just decided to grab her kids and run. There’s Azula/Jet in this, and it’s set maybe a few months before the start of the series.

Jet came to slowly, floating in that half-way place that’s hazy and dream-like but still somewhat distantly aware of reality. He felt… strange. Calm inside in a way he could barely remember ever being before, but also… hollow. Strangely bereft. It took him a few minutes to remember why. When it hit him, he gasped, and tears sprang to his eyes.

He’d done it. Finally, after eight long years, he’d finally killed the men who’d burnt down his village. Him and his Freedom Fighters had lured them into a trap, baited with some of the Fire Nation’s most wanted, and slaughtered them all. The man who’d ruined Jet’s life had been on his knees before him, bound and helpless, and Jet had finally killed him. The relief was potent, but hard on its heels came bewildered loss. There was… nothing left of him, now.

“Good morning, sleepy-head.” A viciously sweet voice trilled.

Jet turned his head and opened his eyes to see the person who’d made the whole thing possible. Azula – her real name was Azula – had identified the bounty hunters who’d raided Jet’s village, found out where they were, used herself and her brother as bait to lure them in, captured and bound the leader of the little group, and brought him before Jet as the fight was winding down instead of killing him herself, which would certainly have been easier.

She looked at him now, expression falling from smug pride to put-out confusion. She was, in fact, pouting, not that Jet would say that out loud. It was endearing, and almost enough to get Jet to smile. Almost. “I thought you’d be happy.” Azula stated, but there was a question in there, too.

“So did I.” Jet agreed with a bitter smile. He turned his head back up, staring at the ceiling, rummaging around inside himself, trying to find… something. “I… I’m satisfied, but…” He trailed off, bewildered. “I just… I don’t really feel anything.”

“Why not? Your enemy is dead by your hand. You should be gloating.” Azula encouraged.

Jet opened his mouth to make a scathing retort, but it died on his tongue. He should be gloating. He thought he’d be gloating, and… in truth, there was a part of him that wanted to, that remembered that moment where his hook-sword had bit deep into that man’s throat and blood had spilled, covering the scent of smoke and ash with a rich metallic tang. It did feel good, but…

But he’d expected it to feel better. He’d thought – or he hadn’t, really, because it was so clear how stupid he’d been now that he was thinking about it – that it would fix things, if he could just kill the bastard. But he had, and it hadn’t.

“It isn’t what I was expecting it to be.” He explained with a hollow little smile.

Azula leaned forwards, frowning at him. “I don’t understand. What did you expect, exactly? If you’d told me- I thought this was what you wanted.” She pressed, looking just as frustrated by his lack of joy as he felt. And annoyed that her ‘gift’ hadn’t had the effect she’d intended.

That made Jet laugh, ragged and bitter. He lifted a hand to cover his eyes, as tears pulsed and stung and spilled over in time with the laughter. Because that was the problem, wasn’t it? He hadn’t really stopped to think about what he wanted. He’d just fixated on revenge as if that would fix everything and make him happy again. “I want to go home.” He breathed out, aware of just how pathetic he sounded, but unable to quite hold it in.

There was a long silence as Jet tried and failed to get a hold of himself and stem the flow of tears. It was long enough that he half suspected Azula had gotten fed up with him and left. He wouldn’t be surprised, it was the sort of thing she’d do. It was one of the things about her that made her such a fun challenge to interact with. That and the fact that she was just as good – better, she would say, but Jet refused to believe that – at manipulating people as he was. She wasn’t transparent, like everyone else.

She hadn’t, though, and Jet jumped when she eventually spoke. “You’re an idiot.” She informed him archly. Jet dropped his hand and looked over in exasperation to tell her that he knew that, thank you, and jumped again when he found her kneeling right at his bedside, instead of hovering by the door as she had been before. Then she leaned down, and Jet had maybe half a second to realise what she was doing and widen his eyes before she was clumsily pressing her lips to his.

Jet’s hand leapt up to cup her cheek, to guide her head to tilt a little, to ease up just a touch, turning an awkward press into an easy slide. Then she pulled back, and narrowed her eyes at him, one eyebrow arched. Smug and challenging and goading. ‘You can do better than this’ written across her every feature so boldly it might as well have been said out loud. “You are home.”

Jet just… blinked at her, completely thrown. “What?”

Azula rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. It’s not that hard a concept to grasp.” She chided him, although she wouldn’t quite meet his eye as she said it. Which meant it was more than just a lie – because Azula could lie her ass off looking you dead in the eye without reacting in the slightest, and Jet was man enough to admit he was dead jealous of that talent – it was an emotionally charged lie. Emotions were about the only thing that could make Azula flinch, after all. So… it was a hard concept to grasp, and Azula knew that, because she’d found it hard to grasp.

Jet really wanted to know that story, but before he could ask, Azula abruptly rose to her feet and held out a hand to him pointedly. Distracted from his turmoil by the puzzle Azula had just presented him with, Jet took her hand and allowed her to pull him to his feet, his blanket tumbling down to lie in a heap. He would go along with what she wanted for now, until he had a chance to goad her into tell him what lay behind this concept of already being home for her.

Turning on her heel, Azula led the way out of his little treetop flet and onto the narrow walkway that surrounded it. To his surprise, she sat down on the edge, legs swinging into open air. She made no acknowledgement of him, gave no sign that she wanted him to join her, but he did anyway, and she shot him a surreptitious pleased look out of the corner of her eye.

Jet smirked right back. “You gonna tell me how you figured it out so much faster than me?” He taunted, idly plucking up a stray bit of straw and sticking one end in his mouth to chew on.

Azula’s pleased look was wiped away by a flash of chagrin before she looked away from him sharply. “I suppose I did have something of an advantage over you.” She mused, as if she were indifferent. “After all, the man who destroyed my home is my father. There was no way I could maintain the pretence that if I just killed him, everything would go back to the way it was.”

That was an uncomfortably accurate description of Jet’s lack of thought process over his own revenge, and he fought hard not to wince, even though Azula didn’t appear to be looking at him. “It sounds obvious when you put it like that.” Jet began carefully, letting a little rueful embarrassment slip into his tone to bolster Azula’s sense of superiority, and then; “But you’re kind of contradicting yourself. First I am home, and now I can’t go home?” He challenged.

“They’re both true.” Azula replied, smirking haughtily at him. When Jet just waited, patiently, she looked away again, that air of royal condescension slipping away to be replaced with something softer, something frighteningly genuine. “You lost… everything. Your mother, your father, your friends, your house, your school, your culture. You were just a kid, and your entire world fell apart around you, and the only thing you wanted, the only thing you had the capability to want, was everything you’d lost.”

Jet felt the words stab deep, too accurate, too precise. He caught himself on that thought, and switched the pronouns in his mind. Not ‘you’ but ‘I’, and realised it was an uncannily similar reflection. “Yeah.” He breathed out, hoarse.

From the look Azula shot him, she knew that had been more than an agreement of the obvious. That he was trying to tell her, without actually saying it, which he knew would annoy her, that he could hear what she wasn’t saying. She glared at him for a moment, then sighed. “You get so caught up in trying to take it back, that you don’t see you already have.” With that, Azula gestured, pointedly, a grand sweeping motion to encompass the whole of the view before them, and for the first time that day, Jet actually looked, and for maybe the first time in eight years, he actually saw.

There was a village up here in the branches. Houses and huts, a village square, a general storehouse, a healer’s, a shrine or three, a playground, some little herb gardens. And so many people, kids of all ages. Some who were veterans of the Freedom Fighters, like Smellerbee and Longshot, older than Jet even, almost adults, falling in love and maybe, one day, having kids of their own, but also little kids, ones they’d rescued from the Fire Nation, too young to fight, but they had enough resources to take care of them anyway, now, so they did. It wasn’t anything like Jet’s home in the details, being built on branches instead of the ground, being so much younger than the people he remembered, but…

That feeling of community and safety was pretty damn close.

“You can never have your parents back.” Azula said after a small age, and Jet jerked his head around to stare at her. He silently substituted ‘parents’ for ‘father’. “But you still have a family, Jet. You still have a home.” She smiled, a sincere, fragile little smile, and looked at him coyly out of the corner of her eye. “That’s the point of revenge.” She murmured, softly, the tone a lover might use to whisper sweet nothings, and Jet found himself smiling despite – or perhaps because of – what she was actually saying. “How else can you let go, but to kill that reminder of what you lost? It’s not about bringing it back, or fixing what was broken, or even about payback. It’s about freedom.”

Azula had to have used that word deliberately, but Jet didn’t mind falling for the rhetorical trick. He beamed. It sounded good, it sounded right. Wordlessly, he plucked the straw out of his mouth, and leaned over, making sure to telegraph his intent because he’d made the mistake of startling Azula once, and never again. She flushed pink as she caught on, but met the challenge with a sly smile and astounding confidence, despite her inexperience. This kiss was a lot less chaste than the last.

When Jet leaned back, he found that Azula had that look in her eye, the covetous piercing gaze she focused on anyone who possessed a weapon or a skill she thought might be useful. Jet felt a shiver of foreboding dance down his spine. Flirting and innuendo was the one weapon he’d had in their battle of wits that she’d never been able to match before. He… probably shouldn’t go teaching her how to seduce people when she was undoubtedly going to use it on him. Or someone not him.

Jet prodded that sudden surge of possessiveness, because he’d never thought of himself as a particularly jealous person before. At least, not in romance anyway. He preferred open relationships and casual hook-ups over monogamy, and yet the thought of Azula flirting with someone else, even though Jet knew she would only do it to get something out of them…

Yeah, that was the problem. It wasn’t so much possessiveness, but – ew – insecurity. Jet didn’t mind the thought of Azula looking elsewhere, he just didn’t like being compared to disposable parts in one of Azula’s plots. He didn’t want her all to himself, he just wanted to know he mattered.

Well, he could find out. “So, you still haven’t actually told me how you came by this valuable life lesson.” Jet pointed out, leaning back with one hand to prop himself up, tucking one ankle under the opposite knee and, and watching Azula with a lazy intensity.

Azula’s eyes widened, then narrowed, and she hummed thoughtfully. Then she nodded once, and looked away again. “It was just after Mother rescued us from the palace.” She began, picking her words with care, and sounding so amazingly mild and detached. “I still wanted to go home, of course, so I ran away from her and straight to the nearest Fire Nation outpost. I was put on a ship heading straight for the Capital, and they treated me like a Princess.” She smirked bitterly. “Guards on my door in case of attack, an escort everywhere as befitted my station, so on and so forth.”

Jet raised an eyebrow. “You did not fall for that.” He stated.

“I tried very hard to.” Azula admitted wryly. “But no, I didn’t. By the time we hit the first Fire Nation island, and I heard that my father had come all the way out to meet me, had set out the moment he heard I’d been discovered… I couldn’t lie to myself any more. My father was not going to let me reach the Capital. It was too much of a risk, given that there was clearly enough attachment between Mother and myself that she had taken me too, even though Zuko was the only one at risk. I-” Azula stopped abruptly, and grimaced like she’d just tasted something nasty.

“What did you do?” Jet wondered aloud, a gentle prompt.

“Escaped, of course. I didn’t know where I would go, or what I would do, but I wasn’t just going to let him kill me. He’d taught me better than that.” Azula mocked lightly. Jet snorted, and Azula flashed a conspiratorial smirk. “Mother and Zuko found me only a few hours away from the ship. They had followed it all the way back to the Fire Nation… just for me. They’d risked… a great deal, because they… cared. I hadn’t… I hadn’t realised how much that mattered, until then.”

Jet let the silence swell as he digested that. He could understand, now, what Azula meant when she said she’d had an advantage over him. She might have lost her family, but there had still been parts of it, parts she hadn’t even realised were there, apparently, to pull together and lean on. Suddenly, Azula laughed, and Jet refocused on her with a little questioning noise. “I remember I was so stunned, and I asked Zuko what in Agni’s name he was doing there. I’d never seen him look at me with that much anger before, not even the time I poisoned him. And he just said ‘you’re my sister’ like that explained anything.” Azula giggled a little helplessly. “I thought he was crazy. I told him so, and he said it right back.”

Jet could picture that so clearly. Both sibling angry and bewildered and even more angry about that, each accusing the other of being the insane one. “Sounds like a stalemate.” He mused, wondering how Azula and Zuko had resolved that little miscommunication.

“Oh, it took Mother interjecting with a reminder that we were fugitives before we moved, and it wasn’t until the next day that I realised… it was what I’d always been so jealous of between Zuko and Mother. They didn’t have to understand me all the time. I didn’t have to… to be what they wanted in order to earn their approval, because they would be there anyway. Even… even if I was a monster, Mother would still be there to protect me from the bigger monsters.”

Jet considered that, and nodded. “Can’t be many of those in the world.” When Azula shook herself out of the reminiscence and looked at him expectantly, he smirked and elaborated; “Monsters bigger than you, I mean.”

At that, Azula smiled, as flattered as if he’d just called her beautiful. “Just the one.” She announced with remarkable confidence, which turned a moment later to vicious determination. The sort of single-minded focus that had made her and her brother some of the most devastating fighters Jet had ever seen, even without bending so much as a spark. “And he won’t be in this world much longer.”

Jet nodded. “You want any help with that?”

“I suppose another pair of hands couldn’t hurt.”

[attackfish]

I wish you would write a fic where Jeong Jeong mentors Jet in your Avatar Azula AU

There is nothing that says I can’t do this five headcanons style, so…  Continued from here: [Link]

1. Okay so the thing is, this mentorship is unwilling on both sides.  Iroh pretty much just drops Jet in Jeong Jeong’s lap and tells them to have fun.  They don’t have fun.  Jet was on Zuko’s ship in the first place because he stowed away to try to assassinate Iroh and Zuko, and Iroh decided he needed a grown up to take care of him.  Zuko, Sokka, and Katara are revolted and also completely weirded out by Iroh’s tendency to coo at him.

2. Speaking of, the Iroh and Zuko that Jet tries to kill and ends up being kidnapped by are somewhat different from their canon counterparts.  Iroh is mostly the same, but Zuko, who knows his sister is the Avatar, and knows his father knows his sister is the Avatar, is all too aware that his father exiled him as a cruel joke.  He has no hope and nothing on which to hang his denial, which made him more susceptible to his uncle’s ideas.  Zuko may be angry, hostile, and prone to bouts of deep depression that leave his uncle feeling frightened and helpless, but he also understands that the Fire Nation’s war of  conquest is wrong and that his father needs to be stopped.  His uncle has taken him to several meetings of the White Lotus, and Zuko is escorting a young waterbender to the North Pole for training to protect her from Fire Nation capture.  He’s in a very different place from Book One Zuko.

Which obviously affects how he and Jet interact in the better part of a month Jet is stuck with them.  Also Jet tries to convince Katara, for whom getting on that ship in the first place took tremendous trust, the Fire Nation after all killed her mother thinking she was the last waterbender in the South, and here she is leaving on a Fire Nation ship to go North, that Zuko and Iroh are tricking her.  Katara loses her temper at him and almost sweeps him off the side of the ship.  Several crew members, and a reluctant Zuko, are barely able to save him.

3. The unfortunate thing about leaving Jet with Jeong Jeong is they pretty much agree about the nature of firebenders.  Iroh was hoping they would learn better together.  To an extent, Jet at least does learn better, or rather he comes to the conclusion that Jeong Jeong is right about fire and firebending, but that there are good people, like Jeong Jeong, who happen to be firebenders, and they should be pitied.  It’s not their fault they’ve been burdened with this evil, destructive element.  It’s not their fault that they have to spend their entire lives guarding against it.

Iroh, with his dragon style fire is life philosophy is going to blow his poor little mind down the road.

4. Underneath that raggedy woodsman thing Jeong Jeong has going on, he’s still a former admiral and an old blood Fire Noble.  Meanwhile, even before Jet was forced to flee into the forest, he was a backwoods peasant.  He is furious at Jeong Jeong’s pretensions, living in a hovel in the woods.   Anyway, Jeong Jeong has very firm ideas about what a well rounded person should learn, and he does his utmost to give Jet a thorough education, Fire Nation nobility style.  Poor Jet.  He does take to rhetoric and oratory though.

5. As they prepare for Sozin’s comet, Jet travels with Jeong Jeong to Ba Sing Se and the White Lotus camp.  After the war, he stays in Ba Sing Se for a while, hearing stories of the traitorous Dai Li, who oppressed the city for decades, even centuries before the Fire Nation even dreamed of war, and he sees Iroh again, and poor Jet, his picture of the Evil Fire Nation and Good Earth Kingdom is starting to look very muddled indeed.