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Every poll on this blog is about fictional characters only. This request was sent to us and we made a poll in response to it. Send any Blorbo-related question you want to our inbox and we’ll make a poll on which people can vote with their own Blorbos in minds

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avatar the last airbender + text posts

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(had to @ myself so i could reblog a post with the reblogs turned off)

see above, credit to where credit is truly due

i feel like i see a lot of zukka posts about sokka flirting with zuko and zuko not picking up on it (because he's autistic and/or has trouble believing someone would be into him) and while of course it makes sense for zuko to be oblivious it's kinda funny that people are depicting sokka actively pursuing zuko when if there IS any zukka in canon it's zuko seeing a cute boy going on a reckless quest and IMMEDIATELY being ride-or-die. like he smirks and shows off his fire-breathing and sokka's just like "okay yay he helped with the plan" completely unaware bc he's focused on the mission and also suki. sokka tells suki to go escape bc she's been there longer and she says she'll stay with sokka and it's a sweet couple moment and then zuko pipes up "i'm staying too" like yes i am also with sokka :) even though he was literally the one who convinced sokka to stay and look for hakoda so him staying wasn't really in question. like the whole episode he is trying to be super supportive to sokka and maybe make some small attempts to flirt and meanwhile sokka's mostly just thinking "i'm a worthless piece of shit who got my father in prison" "omg suki!!!!" "hmmm how do we escape?" "omg dad!!!!" "hmmm how do we escape (again)?" and zuko is barely in there at all (except maybe as part of the escape plan)

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okay quick poll

(This was my brothers idea)

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Hakoda the Grief Pirate it's time for Hakoda the Grief Pirateeee

Kya is killed, as in canon. Unlike canon, Bato is killed too. This means that rather than join the war, Hakoda goes mad with grief and gathers a few ships' worth of men - desperate, brutal men who want to repay the cruelty of the Fire Nation in kind. Not soldiers, not sailors, killers.

And he takes Katara.

The first place he goes is the Northern Water Tribe. He gets an audience. He goes to Chief Arnook and the elders and says: either I leave here today with a master for my daughter, or none of us leave this room alive.

Katara gets a master.

As in canon, Katara is a prodigy. With a year to focus on her waterbending and drilled by a man wearing her father's face who tells her "we're all going to die doing this" and "but we'll bleed them a thousand times over for every one of us" and most importantly he says "we're going to avenge your mother" - growing up under that man, Katara becomes terrifying.

Sokka is left alone. The last bit of love in his father's heart was spent on him, though he doesn't know it. It was spent on leaving him. It was spent on sparing him from seeing what his father would become.

Sokka goes out often, looking for traders and sailors and ships. He finds no news and too little fish. Until one day, an iceberg cracks open.

The boy is young and Sokka hasn't been a big brother for a while now, but it turns out that it's like riding a penguin - you never really forget. So when Aang gets kidnapped by some ponytailed jerk, of course he goes after him.

That he only manages to ruin Aang's escape and get them both captured is beside the point, okay? The Fire Jerk cheated.

(Appa follows them, if you're wondering. Aang doesn't seem to be in any real danger. Zuko isn't an especially merciless captor, no matter how he tries.)

Sokka finally gets some news. The Frost Wolf is believed to be a Northern raider (to protect his tribe from reprisals) and he is feared. He leaves only one survivor in each of his raids. He tasks them to deliver a simple message: the seas are no longer safe for the Fire Nation. He replenishes his crew with convicts and pirates. They say he has a crazy mechanist working for him. They say that an icy fog follows where he goes, blocking out the sun and chilling Firebenders to the core. They say he can't be killed.

-

"So, these guys of yours -" Sokka began and paused to let the answering "they're not my guys!" wash over him, "do they say anything about a girl?"

The Prince's ears reddened. "I don't listen to that kind of filth."

Which means you have listened, Sokka might have said if he felt like teasing. He didn't.

"Not like that! A girl, a little younger than me. Have you heard anything about that?"

Sokka held his breath. This was it. Of course, it didn't mean anything if Zuko hadn't heard...

"No." The Prince's voice was unusually quiet. Zuko's good eye glinted in the orange light of the torches.

Sokka couldn't help that his exhale caught in his throat on the way out, it wasn't - it was just a shock, he reasoned, it didn't mean anything that Zuko hadn't heard...

Zuko stood up and made to walk out. He stopped at the door.

"I'm sorry," the Prince said. "I have a sister, too."

The door closed and Sokka was left alone and with questions. Questions like:

How did he know?

-

The trip to the Fire Nation is long. Any experienced commander could have told Zuko to limit his interactions with the prisoners. To rotate out their guards and never have their meals brought by the same person if he could avoid it. Any experienced military commander would have seen the risk of two child prisoners, one of who is particularly genial and charming while the other is funny and sarcastic.

Iroh, one of the most experienced military commanders alive, encourages Zuko to learn all he can about his enemy. It's an advantage, you see.

(And if the watch lists are edited to put crewmembers with children into frequent and close contact with the prisoners - well, that's Iroh's prerogative. He is a General. And if there are a few minor navigational errors that lenghten their journey, well, that he knows nothing about. He's a General, not an Admiral.)

Meanwhile, Princess Azula is tasked with putting an end to the Frost Wolf's provocations. It would be terribly inconvenient if she were to have frequent encounters with another bending prodigy, about her age and wearing blue robes and a mask. They should make out about it.

Eventually, they'll all have to reckon with their monstrous fathers and murderous siblings.

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hakoda drip

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season 2 of atla is so good because you’ll watch an episode and it’ll be like -

A plot: aang learns to stand his ground in order to begin earth bending

B plot: zuko screams at god to strike him down with lightning

C plot: sokka is stuck in a hole

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that might just be because zuko's overpopularity annoys me though

since my post about reverse aus i now have people in my notes trying to make reverse aus that DON'T change the canon power dynamics (i.e. the fire nation is still the colonizers) but writing characters who become villainous out of marginalization is ALSO tricky bc it can easily come off as that marvel/lok thing where our heroes are defending the status quo from the villains who rightfully want to change it. i think the best way to do villains like this is to have the heroes also be marginalized people trying to change the system (e.g. hama & katara) but unfortunately the nature of atla and this au is that zuko is a protagonist so. i'm not sure keeping the canon power dynamics the same solves the problem here

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i imagine an "evil" hakoda smacking down zuko and much like watching the red lotus take down the earth queen all i can say is yay <3

since my post about reverse aus i now have people in my notes trying to make reverse aus that DON'T change the canon power dynamics (i.e. the fire nation is still the colonizers) but writing characters who become villainous out of marginalization is ALSO tricky bc it can easily come off as that marvel/lok thing where our heroes are defending the status quo from the villains who rightfully want to change it. i think the best way to do villains like this is to have the heroes also be marginalized people trying to change the system (e.g. hama & katara) but unfortunately the nature of atla and this au is that zuko is a protagonist so. i'm not sure keeping the canon power dynamics the same solves the problem here

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since my post about reverse aus i now have people in my notes trying to make reverse aus that DON'T change the canon power dynamics (i.e. the fire nation is still the colonizers) but writing characters who become villainous out of marginalization is ALSO tricky bc it can easily come off as that marvel/lok thing where our heroes are defending the status quo from the villains who rightfully want to change it. i think the best way to do villains like this is to have the heroes also be marginalized people trying to change the system (e.g. hama & katara) but unfortunately the nature of atla and this au is that zuko is a protagonist so. i'm not sure keeping the canon power dynamics the same solves the problem here

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the zukka doesn't necessarily have to STAY unrequited but i'm a fan of @comradekatara 's concept where zuko ends up on the outside of an extended sokka suki ty lee mai polycule going LET ME INNNNNN

@comradekatara got me thinking this way about zukka in general (pointing out the boiling rock dynamic of zuko being ride or die and sokka not caring if he jumps in a volcano, sokka babysitting/puppeting/advising firelord zuko) so i've edited and turned off reblogs on this post and you should reblog those posts instead :)

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i feel like i see a lot of zukka posts about sokka flirting with zuko and zuko not picking up on it (because he's autistic and/or has trouble believing someone would be into him) and while of course it makes sense for zuko to be oblivious it's kinda funny that people are depicting sokka actively pursuing zuko when if there IS any zukka in canon it's zuko seeing a cute boy going on a reckless quest and IMMEDIATELY being ride-or-die. like he smirks and shows off his fire-breathing and sokka's just like "okay yay he helped with the plan" completely unaware bc he's focused on the mission and also suki. sokka tells suki to go escape bc she's been there longer and she says she'll stay with sokka and it's a sweet couple moment and then zuko pipes up "i'm staying too" like yes i am also with sokka :) even though he was literally the one who convinced sokka to stay and look for hakoda so him staying wasn't really in question. like the whole episode he is trying to be super supportive to sokka and maybe make some small attempts to flirt and meanwhile sokka's mostly just thinking "i'm a worthless piece of shit who got my father in prison" "omg suki!!!!" "hmmm how do we escape?" "omg dad!!!!" "hmmm how do we escape (again)?" and zuko is barely in there at all (except maybe as part of the escape plan)

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Zukka little comic, short of, that nobody asked for but is here anyway? Thanks to the thread that I don't even know when it started, I literally found a screenshot on Pinterest and decided to draw it out. But shout out to @your-royal-momoness for starting the thread, I hope this is close to what you had pictured

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you know what i think i can salvage this concept by going full mirrorverse with it. just commit to the stupid sci-fi camp. put everyone in unreasonably slutty outfits. bato is hakoda's evil gay henchman/concubine that he's got on a chain next to his fuckass ice throne. the mechanist and sokka are cackling evil scientists in their lab full of bubbling green slime. katara predatory lesbian towards azula (i'm a straight katara truther but this is the mirrorverse). zuko's got a goatee now for some reason

in star trek's mirrorverse a lot of characters are bisexual when they aren't in the regular universe which implies that being bisexual is somehow evil HOWEVER it is also very sexy to see your favorite female characters making out in slutty outfits and i enjoy a lot of mirrorverse episodes despite the Implications. this is how i'm feeling about evil water tribe au (aka atla's mirrorverse). like the implications are Bad i don't like the idea of making an au where the brown people are villains HOWEVER i would still possibly enjoy weird evil water tribe family

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in star trek's mirrorverse a lot of characters are bisexual when they aren't in the regular universe which implies that being bisexual is somehow evil HOWEVER it is also very sexy to see your favorite female characters making out in slutty outfits and i enjoy a lot of mirrorverse episodes despite the Implications. this is how i'm feeling about evil water tribe au (aka atla's mirrorverse). like the implications are Bad i don't like the idea of making an au where the brown people are villains HOWEVER i would still possibly enjoy weird evil water tribe family

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#you could also just kill ozai#make him the kya parallel#zuko and azula become the hellbent on revenge protags#they can still be a little unstable about it#then you make iroh the hakoda stand in#loving father figure who they haven't seen in years and is off fighting#ursa becomes kanna#mother figure who raised them and gets left behind#so anyway this way you don't have to change ozai too much#it could even be fun to reveal that he actually wasn't super great#but him dying at a young age#maybe even dying to protect one of them#colored his legacy forever#turning him into a loving father in history#in ways that might not have been strictly true in life (@howlintherain)

hmm the idea of ozai being a shit dad but dying while fighting to protect them so now they're kind of remembering him as better than he was...that's not bad actually. though i feel like then that fucks with the azula-sokka and zuko-katara parallels because then this gives azula katara's connection to the dead parent. like i could see this azula having a southern-raiders-esque arc where she decides to spare whoever killed ozai not because she doesn't want it on her conscience but because maybe her dad wasn't even worth avenging.

also, ursa and kya are already parallels as the moms who died protecting their kids ("that's something we have in common") so it seems strange not to keep that intact. maybe ozai can be the hakoda parallel but instead of that making him heroic the parallel is that his kid is obsessed with a version of him that doesn't really exist. like sokka's obsessed with living up to some perfect warrior ideal meanwhile hakoda's a goofy creative guy like him, and this azula is obsessed with living up to a noble warrior protecting his family when really he's an asshole who told her to look out for zuko bc he thinks zuko's pathetic. he's like, a minor villain, then iroh replaces him as leader of the fire nation warriors and fills hakoda's role as a positive figure.

my problem with all of this though is that ozai being an abusive parent is tied to his status as fire lord, as the powerful leader of the evil conquering empire. him abusing his children is an extension of what the fire nation is doing to the whole world, helps us as the viewer feel the personal impact of those broader systems of oppression. for this ozai, a marginalized person under water tribe imperialism, being an abusive parent doesn't work the same way. he kind of comes across as a tragic victim continuing the cycle of abuse. and idk. if i wanted to write about that i would simply write about hama instead of going through the effort of creating an AU for ozai

like i said, i'm kinda interested in new weird dynamics for my favorite water tribe characters but i don't wanna write "what if the light-skinned characters were sad victims of the evil brown people"

there are a lot of reasons i don't vibe with evil water tribe/good fire nation atla aus but i think one of the main ones is that people try to swap zuko & sokka and azula & katara and that just doesn't work bc the emotionally driven one standing up for what they believe in is katara and the high-strung strategist trying to make their dad proud is sokka

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#Hakoda and Sokka without Katata and Aang around would *absolutely* just make each other Worse#Your mom choosing to leave with the daughter you abandon (exile) is also a move#(My big question with these type of AUs is how exactly you adjust what the entire fire nation royal family has going on to make them#The good guys) (@erisenyo)

yeah that is the issue isn't it? like i'm getting kinda excited about these weird water tribe family dynamics but now i'm like...i have to portray zuko and azula as marginalized underdog protagonists? i'd have to do that to ozai?

i feel like it gets at the biggest problem i have with this au which is that it feels like writing the in-universe version of "what if WHITE PEOPLE were oppressed" and i just. can't.

there are a lot of reasons i don't vibe with evil water tribe/good fire nation atla aus but i think one of the main ones is that people try to swap zuko & sokka and azula & katara and that just doesn't work bc the emotionally driven one standing up for what they believe in is katara and the high-strung strategist trying to make their dad proud is sokka

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#Why not all three!#Genuinely think Azula is a people person in her own political way#And i think part of thst is knowing exactly how to quickly assess someone's trigger points and then step all over them#(But overall Sokka-Azula parallels all the way they're equally cooked on the mental health front)#(Azula just doesn't believe in repression) (@erisenyo)

oh azula ABSOLUTELY believes in repression, she almost explicitly says so. she's like ugh you guys are so overdramatic i mean yeah my mother hated me but i'm not gonna lose sleep over it she was right lol i DO suck!

her mental breakdown has the energy of someone who has been repressing everything so long that it eventually bursts out VIOLENTLY. she's been trying to repress every kind instinct and warm feeling she has and just be her father's perfect evil servant and now she's confronting the way that's pushed away everyone she genuinely cared about and who genuinely cared about her (zuko, mai, ty lee, ursa). she was repressing any doubts she had about her father and now he's discarded her and she's rethinking her entire life and what she did for him.

sokka might burst someday too, we just haven't seen it yet

azula's cold read on sokka during the day of black sun raises questions. she figured out that he's the strategic one, that's easy, he just figured out her game and the two twelve year olds listen to him right in front of azula. but how she locks onto sokka's guilt complex of people he loves getting hurt and that somehow being his fault, even when it's not? because he feels like he failed to protect them? which WE see in the swamp and the serpent's pass, but which azula has no established reason to even know exists? QUESTIONS.

MAYBE azula learned about it from suki, like she implies happened (she certainly learned sokka's name somehow), but azula was already lying about suki giving up on sokka, and I doubt suki would blab anyway. azula is twisting suki's strength of character into this vulnerable, weak little thing that she broke, which sokka is prone to believing out of his own fear and anticipated grief, but which isn't reflective of reality. no way was it suki. we all know she gave that girl a run for her money.

so, not suki. but then how did azula get sokka so spot on?

answer the first, from the fortune teller: sokka's life is one of pain and misery, most of it self-inflicted. it's written all over his face.

answer the second: azula is a people person.