#the gaang simply cannot function without sokka and aang

[libertatias]

whatever you do don't think about zuko abdicating the throne the same year sokka dies because he can't bear ruling without him 🫠

[carnistcervine]

My Take on VaatuAvatar!Katara

Haha, totes borrowed this awesome as hell idea from @paragonrobits :'D

So here's my take on VaatuAvatar!Katara!

-Vaatu doesn't generally consider himself interested in mortal issues.

-Or generally interested in anything outside of the dark, twisting branches of his own realm.

-He's a recluse, only occasionally sought out by mortals looking commit some kind of atrocity.

-He's turned them all down, though. He doesn't care. He genuinely doesn't care enough about the mortal realm either way to indulge them.

-That's not to say that it doesn't frustrate him to no end that the others always assumed the worst about him.

-No, he doesn't want to rip the universe into pieces so you can reform it in your own image, fuck off.

-He's quite content nestled in his own little corner of the spirit world, watching the twisting, living, dying, undying, thorns and branches fractal and spiral into the endless dark.

-No, he's not depressed and complacent after being bullied by Raava for eons, fuck off.

-And no, he does not have ANGER ISSUES RAAVA, FU- stop it.

-All that being said, he can't help but be a little curious. He's been wondering what the human has done after fusing with Raava.

-Did she finally implement the perfect order she had always tried to achieve by bullying Vaatu?

-Well no, there are eras and peace and eras of chaos, but maybe she's learned that it's less to do with him personally and more to do with just the world working how it works. Or something. He doesn't care.

-Okay maybe he cares a little when she suddenly drops out of the world.

-Her energy seemingly having vanished without a trace.

-He gets a thought, why not try the whole Avatar thing for himself?

-Maybe show Raava a thing or two about how balance is kept. After all, she let the world crash and burn when she decided to go poof.

-He mulls it over for a while, the state of the world growing exponentially worse.

-It's only been a 100 years by the time he attaches himself to a human infant.

-100 years is barely anything and these morons have already wrought so much destruction on the world.

-Vaatu bonds to the spirit of the infant Katara when she is born into the world.

-Nothing spectacular happens, and no one suspects a thing.

-When infant Katara is alone, he appears to her. She's curious about the world she is newly experiencing. He is curious about the new life he has anchored himself to.

-He rants at her, not expecting sympathy or any kind of reply or acknowledgement. But just to complain and air out his own grievances.

-The tiny baby and soon toddler would just wordlessly grab his tendrils in her tiny and chubby hands and flail about, yanking as hard as she can.

-Normally, he'd be enraged by such disrespect, but he cannot find it in himself to feel any hatred towards his vessel.

-He assumes it's their shared connection.

-Yes, that must be it.

-When she starts to speak words, she calls him a shadow blanket. But mostly just blanket.

-Vaatu finds himself, endeared, by the nickname.

-Katara calls Vaatu "Blanket", Vaatu ends up calling Katara "Larva"

-After all, she's just as chubby and squishy.

-He grows fond of her, finding himself wanting to care for and protect her above all else.

-When she fears her dreams, he coils around her. Shielding her with his darkness.

-But still, for the other meat suits that parade around her, he cares not.

-They mean nothing to him.

-Not even the humans he learns to be of the same familial group as her.

-Vaatu finds that he doesn't quite understand families. Sure, he understands more-or-less the function of human and other animal groupings. It ensures survival.

-But why so close? What's the point to all this? What's the difference between these humans and some other humans?

-Vaatu comes to a conclusion that mortals are strange.

-Vaatu and Katara grow only closer as she grows up.

-When Katara first shows her bending ability he feels the same swell of pride that she does.

-And when there is no one to teach her, no one to share such a profound gift with, he feels something he does not recognize at the time but comes to understand later. He feels pain.

-So when she is forced to practice alone, he helps her. He tries, in his own way to help her understand the nature of water.

-How it flows and moves, and settles, and rises. The chaotic nature of the ocean, and the constant shifting balance of the tides.

-When Sokka messes with, teases, and is generally an older brother to Katara, Vaatu puffs up a bit. But Katara just rolls with it, she doesn't get mad, she plays along with him.

-Even when she does genuinely get angry with him, it's much too shallow and quickly forgiven for Vaatu to grasp onto. He doesn't understand. Why doesn't she throttle him?

-Her answer "Because he's my brother" doesn't get Vaatu any closer to a real understanding.

-Then, the black snow falls. Vaatu is prepared for the human woman, Kya to simply give up his Avatar to protect her own life.

-He did not see her sacrifice coming.

-Frankly, he's baffled by it. Why would she give herself up to protect another's life?

-He finds that he wants to know, even if he's not sure how to go about figuring it out.

-Slowly the years go on, he learns to better appreciate the human that Katara insists is called Sokka.

-To Vaatu though, he will always be Idiot Larva.

-Sometimes Katara comes to Vaatu for wisdom, and he'll ramble about the universe. Very often going off on wild tangents that always somehow lead back to his main point.

-He can tell that she's pretty lost in what he's saying, but she keeps asking him, so she must be getting something out of it.

-Even though Vaatu would never admit it, he has come to see Katara and Sokka as his own.

-There is no mercy to save this world if ANYTHING were to happen to either of them.

-No one and nothing short of Raava herself would be able to stop his destructive rage.

-Of course, Vaatu can also sense such a rage simmering within Katara. But she holds back.

-Vaatu figures that she doesn't want to unleash it upon those who were also the victims of what fuels her rage. But when the time comes for it, for her to hurt the Fire Nation, he really doesn't understand why she refuses to let loose.

-Of course, Aang/Raava wakes up eventually and comes face to face with Katara.

-While Aang and Katara have a cute first meeting moment, Raava and Vaatu have a Spiderman meme moment.

-Aang and Katara are absolutely oblivious to the two cats staring each other down energy that Raava and Vaatu radiate at one another.

-When Sokka kicks Aang out of the village, Vaatu pushes Katara to leave her village. As he feels no attachment to anyone other than Sokka and sees her getting a grasp on waterbending as much more important.

-Vaatu does not understand though, why she and Aang especially come back when Zuko attacks them.

-He REALLY doesn't understand why Aang allows himself to be taken if the village is spared.

-Poor Vaatu, for quite a bit of book one, he's just floundered by humans acting selflessly.

-However, when Aang finds Monk Gyatso's remains, he finally starts to understand the importance and true meaning of family. He also understands and even empathizes with the rage that Aang feels. He empowers Katara to walk through the raging windstorm(planting the seeds of he developing airbending) so that she may connect with him and ease his pain.

-He can't deny though, that it's strange for him to be the one trying to soothe Raava.

-He never realized that she could feel that way about anything.

-I don't exactly have everything planned out in my head, but I do know that book 1 would be Katara learning air and Aang learning water.

-Why? Because reverse elemental order for the win, and because parallels.

-I also know that I want Katara to figure out somehow that's she's also an Avatar sometime between The Blue Spirit, and The Northern Air temple.

-And like, have her figure it out, because she straight up starts airbending.

-Like, I love you Katara but you can be 'blivious sometimes.

-And also the fun/drama of WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME I WAS ALSO AN AVATAR?

-With Vaatu just bein like. Well, ya never asked.

-And then, there's also the fact that he has no idea what he's doing, but shhhhhh.

-Also Aang seeing Katara and her spirit talking to each other and getting sad and jealous and wheedling Raava into talking to him.

-Though for Raava, this is Serious(TM) and she doesn't want to play games, there's balance to re-establish.

-Even if Raava would prefer for Vaatu to go back to the little corner she bullied him into, as long as her ends are established, she's fine with leaving him to his own devices.

-Even though she starts out rather detached, she does warm up a lot towards the Gaang once Aang finally gets through to her.

-But literally everyone else still gets the 0* kelvin shoulder.

-The Waterbending Master is the first time that Katara goes into the Avatar state.

-And boy, is it a sight to see, her eyes glow an ominous red, she gains a black, shadowy aura, and Vaatu's voice overtakes her own.

-And well, Vaatu basically comes out to yell at Pakku and bully him into teaching Katara.

-And it works! Kinda.

-The Dark Avatar isn't given the same gravitas as the classic Avatar.

-And uh, well, they there are multiple attempts throughout the story to purge Vaatu from Katara's body. Seeing as her case is more widely seen as something akin to demonic possession(Even though it's literally the same deal as Aang, just with Vaatu instead of Raava and no past lives to back her up)

-For the siege, I'm thinking that Katara is the one to destroy and drive out Zhao's fleet with the power of the ocean spirit.

-And it takes Aang, coming and calming Katara down to bring her to her senses.

-They end up seeking out the Guru together, although their journeys in unlocking their chakras are separate.

-Over all through the story, Vaatu comes to understand love, empathy, and compassion through Katara. Through the Gaang, he learns to understand family and familial bonds.

-He learns that true families are not arbitrary groupings of humans, but groups that hold together through love and shared experiences.

-He's also secretly lonely and gets friends that he'll never admit he wanted.

-Also Raava learns to chill a bit, and be a bit nicer to him.

-That being said, both Raava and Vaatu are still spirits, so their understanding of humans and how the world works will always be flawed and tinted through the lens of them being eternal beings.

-They will never fully understand, but they understand enough.

Whelp that's all I got for now.

This is what happens when you let me over think your ideas. xDD