#Eventual ZK

[demaparbat-hp]

Zuko was a child when he met Agni. Then, the spirits started coming to him. Eyes hidden in the hallways, voices pleading for help, for recognition, for remembrance.

Zuko could see Agni. He could see the broken remains of a Great Spirit and the empty smiles of amnesiac ghosts.

And they could see him in return.

[night-heron-writes]

Excited to announce that I’ll be participating in this year’s Zutara Big Bang! I had so much fun last year and met so many wonderful people, and I can’t wait to do it again!

[varibean]

Varigo vamparian au where vampires are fucking Huge

[cats-artbag]

SwapOut/Webcomic/Twitch PSA!

Hi everyone 👋🏻 Zk here >< or Cats, for older followers

So I've been getting back into doing SwapOut again, but I would like to appeal to everyone who reads and loves the comic. Much love to all of you who's still sticking around 🙏🏻💙 But something has also always been bothering me throughout this journey.

As many of us know, we artists do these comics for free (especially fan comics), starting them out of love and taking a LOT of time and energy out of our lives to continue making them.

And it's amazing how many of you come from translations or comic dubs on Youtube, which are also very well-done and take a lot of effort to make, much love to them too. There is a difference, however.

Monetization.

And I'm not asking for pity! I'm appealing for understanding.

Because some comic dubbers on Youtube are able to earn ad revenue from the videos they upload. From the beginning, we artists have given them the permission to dub our works. But we don't receive anything from it, nor do we usually charge them for using our art (against our better judgement).

We let them use our comic pages in their monetized videos for free. And occasionally these videos receive thousands and millions of views, which I imagine gives a decent amount of ad revenue, while the artists themselves don't usually earn anything from their own artwork, nor do we ever want to put it behind a paywall of any kind. (we like reading free comics too so don't worry x|)

... But doing full-colored comic pages for free eventually gets hard to sustain without any income from it, even more so when we need to give our time and energy to other jobs to earn money for a living instead. We legitimately keep going on our comics purely out of love. Truly, we would LOVE to do our own art for a living. There's things like Patreon but it's only feasible if we're also able to produce bonus content or show BTS, and only people willing to spend money for them can help us, and not readers who aren't able to.

And we understand that not everyone can afford to support us monetarily. And that's okay!

But if you love these comics and want to really help us to keep going, there ARE ways you can easily support us for free!

For example, affiliates on Twitch (like myself) are able to earn ad revenue very early on (they must have at least 50 followers, quite a requirement, but still easier to obtain than Youtube's 1000 subscribers).

(my Youtube, btw. not much rn but drop a subscribe?)

But simply put, if the vast majority of readers from the yt numbers visit and stay for ads on the artists' Twitch streams (remember to have adblocker disabled for the site, if any), they'll be making an actual, physical contribution to the artist themselves, at no cost whatsoever. We earn up to 55% from any ads that run on our stream, so the more viewers, the better!

(this is my twitch on average 8 viewers, with a 3 hour stream. again, the more the better!)

(ofc you can also buy subs to watch ad-free and supports me directly, but i'm typing all this to share the free ways people can support their fave creators ✨)

And even if that doesn't work out, I'd be happy enough to see most of you there 🙏🏻💙 I've been treating my streams as work, so I'm striving not to break the streak.

So drop a follow on my Twitch, and catch the streams when you can! They're great if you need company or background noise, and also great for co-working~

Currently streaming WEEKLY, Mondays, Wednesdays (SwapOut) and Saturdays, 10.30AM EST

(art by @cupcakepaints)

>> twitch.tv/zkcats <<

Anyway thanks for listening to my Ted talk, please share this around for others as well >< 🙏🏻 Artists, make this a reblog chain or something! Promo your stuff!

And apologies for the essay, I wasn't expecting to type this much sdghsgh this itself is not an ad for Twitch or whatev, I'm just a little frustrated with needing to juggle all this.

I was also considering hosting SwapOut somewhere that could get ad revenue, but I wasn't sure where until I realized I can probably earn that from my Tapas now (i think?? sdfhgh up to 70% ad revenue there but i haven't seen any yet) So maybe I'll post there a day earlier than here or something? We'll see. Go subscribe there! Check it out! Reread it! Help ME help YOU!

... Much appreciated ><

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

you once said that the ZK do not allow the canonical Zuko to show real, sometimes ugly signs of trauma. can you write more about this? because that's what I always felt when I came across their terrible takes, but I couldn't express it.

Gladly! But first, I need to mention the sign of trauma that Zuko usually lacks - and that, for some reason, the fandom insists defines his character:

Fear

Don't get wrong, I'm not saying Zuko never experienced fear. We all saw that poor boy on his knees, crying, begging his father not to hurt him.

But in "Zuko Alone" we also see 10-year-old Zuko get bitter that only his younger sister was expected to show off her firebending skills, and deciding that he would go against his father and demonstrate his own skills to the Fire Lord - that despite the fact that he knew Azula was better at it than he was. Even when it goes wrong, he is upset, but doesn't look afraid of the consequences.

That same episode shows Azula mocking him for playing with knives despite not even being good at it, and even though the fandom insists she was his worst fear ever since he was a child, Zuko responds with a "Put an apple on your head and we'll see how good I am." That little guy has exactly zero chill.

Let's not forget why he was banished either: Despite being considered too young to be in that war meeting, Zuko demanded to be there, eventually got his way, and despite having been told not to say anything, the second he hears a general suggest using their own men as "fresh meat" to lure the enemy, Zuko speaks out against it. And at the start of the Agni Kai, he looked 100% ready to fight a grown ass man with battle experience - until he saw it was his father/Fire Lord.

Let's not forget his Agni Kai with Zhao, which was his idea and that he actually won - and before that, he openly calls Ozai a fool, to which Zhao points out that banishment clearly not teach Zuko to watch his mouth. Or the time he openly challenged Azula in Ba Sing Se and they only didn't fight then and there because Azula knew she'd have the advantage by using the Dai Li. Hell, at the start of that very season, after she tried to lure him to a trap, Zuko's first reaction is to charge at her, fire-daggers in hand. That boy is the definition of "Fuck around and find out."

He has also done things like choosing to save his uncle from earthbenders instead of chasing Aang, crossing a blockade and going into actual Fire Nation territory even though he legally is no longer allowed to do that, and helped rescue Aang from Zhao as the Blue Spirit. It shows us that Zuko doesn't have an issue with temporarely deviating from his mission because of something HE deems important even though his father doesn't, openly disregarding Ozai's orders, and even basically saying "My father will have the Avatar as a prisoner only if I'm the one to capture him"

And, of course, on the day of the eclipse, Zuko grabs his swords and directly threatens Ozai, telling that bastard to sit the fuck down, shut up, and listen to his list of reasons why he sucks as a parent, ruler and person.

Zuko is brave. Unbelievably so. He is fierce, proud, and impulsive to the point of getting himself in situations that he should have known would not go his way (like fighting a waterbender in the snow, in the full moon) because he is very much a "act first, think later" kind of guy. So the fandom's insistence that he is constantly paralyzed by fear is a gross over-simplification of how his trauma affects him.

We only see him genuinely afraid of Ozai twice. During the Agni Kai itself, and then again when he WANTS to speak out against his father's plan to burn the Earth Kingdom to the ground, but can't bring himself to because he remembers what happened last time he spoke out against that kind of horrible thing during a war meeting, at that very room. It took something THAT triggering to make him cower before a challenge.

However, fear wasn't the only reason why didn't speak out during that moment, and that takes us to the first "ugly" sign of trauma that the fandom as a whole likes to pretend Zuko wasn't repeatedly shown to experience:

"My father is right about me, actually"

Zuko doesn't think Ozai was wrong to disfigure and banish him. How could he? Nobody in that entire room stood up to at least try to support him, not even his uncle - who also once said "Why would your father have banished you if he didn't care about you?" because, surprise surprise, nobody in that family knows how to help someone through trauma because they're all dealing with their own shit. Even his crew, who WAS sympathetic to him after finding out how he got that scar, were still 100% willing to not only support Ozai, but risk their lives for him.

Zuko isn't just trying to heal from abuse, he is trying to heal from victim-blaming, and to go against YEARS of indoctrination that say the Fire Lord can do no wrong. That's part of why it was so difficult for Iroh and others to help him: Zuko didn't believe that he needed or deserved help.

And that is also one of his three major unhealthy coping mechanisms. Claiming that HE needs to prove himself to Ozai, that HE needs to make up for HIS mistakes, not the other way around.

It might seem strange that this could be a way to cope, but look at it this way: If it WAS his fault instead of Ozai's, then that means his dad is not an unfair, abusive piece of shit that is unbelievably cruel and impossible to please. Zuko just needs to accomplish this mission of capturing the Avatar and everything will be fine, they'll be a normal family again, and he won't have to be afraid of someone he thought he could trust.

It was like Iroh said: Things are never going to be the same ever agin, but the Avatar gives Zuko HOPE. And that hope that his abuser will one day have a change of heart and be a loving father to him again is both what allows Zuko not to give into despair - and what keeps him trapped in that awful situation.

Misplaced Anger

Another "unpleasant" sign of trauma that Zuko has is how he clearly has an anger problem. Sure, he's a moody teenager with a short fuse, but we see over and over again that he tends to blow things way out of proportion, and that when faced a fact or opinion he doesn't like, he is quick to lash out at someone with VERY cruel words (see him calling Iroh a lazy, shallow, jealous old man in "Avatar State", or calling him crazy and saying if he wasn't in prison, he'd be sleeping in a gutter in "The Headband").

Through the entire show, many people faced Zuko's wrath - Iroh, Aang and friends, his crew, Azula, innocent people of the Earth Kingdom, Mai, Ty Lee, that one rando that talked to Mai, and even Zuko himself.

The one person that usually escapes said wrath is, ironically, Ozai. In "Zuko Alone" he refuses to believe his father would ever be capable of harming him, in "Avatar State" he snaps at Iroh for doubting that Ozai really changed his mind about the whole banishment thing.

He is mad at Aang for being too difficult to capture, and at Zhao for stealing his one chance to come home. He never stops to question if it's fair that his father had him chase someone that was presumed dead, aka an impossible task, as the condition to bring him home. He also never addresses how he feels about the reason WHY said banishment happened until the Day Of Black Sun.

He is mad at Azula for lying to him and trying to take him home as a prisoner. He never gets mad at his father for not only wanting to lock him away forever because ZHAO screwed up at the North Pole, nor how messed up it was that he put Azula in charge of said mission.

For fuck's sake, in the day of the eclipse, we find out that Zuko legit believed his mother was DEAD - and the entire circumstance was shady as hell and put Ozai in a very bad light. Yet Zuko still wanted his love, still wanted to be a "worthy" son.

He HAS to direct his anger at other people, otherwise he'll realize that no, his father, the adult that was meant to care for him, is a complete monster.

Everytime Zuko lashes out at other people before confronting Ozai, he's basically acting like someone who is drowning and, in a panic, is trying to pull the nearest person under so he can try to breathe. It is one of the most accurate and honest representations of trauma and abuse, and it makes me SO mad when people erase it in their fics because "poor, innocent, helpless turtleduck that can do no wrong" makes Zuko look like less of a dick - and also completely strips him of his agency.

And that isn't even the thing that fans ignore the most. That "honor" goes to the simple fact that Zuko, as expected of a child raised to believe the Fire Lord can do no wrong, decided that Azula had the right idea and that the best way to avoid being a victim again was...

Copying His Abuser

Zuko has REPEATEDLY let his "inner Ozai" out through the show.

He is all manipulative by not letting the pirates know he was chasing the Avatar who was worth A LOT more than the scrowl they'd get as a reward for helping him, and by using Katara's necklace as a way to try and get her to say where Aang was.

He repeatedly steals stuff from innocent people (including some who helped him, like Song) because, in his own words "These people should just be giving stuff to us" - aka he's very much an entitled prince.

He betrays his uncle by joining Azula in Ba Sing Se, leading to Iroh being thrown in prison. He also doesn't give a shit when Katara says "I thought you had changed!" and he sends a freaking assassin after the Gaang. Even him refusing to tell Azula that there was a chance Aang could still be alive works both as a "Zuko doesn't trust Azula to not use that against him, and for good reason" and "Zuko did not even stop to think that, since Azula was the one who killed Aang, him coming back also puts HER in danger, because he's too focused on his own problems to notice anybody else's."

More importantly, he rejected a chance of a ceasefire with the Gaang three times (The Blue Spirit, The Chase, Crossroads of Destiny), much like Ozai refused his shot at ending the war in the finale before his battle with Aang, and not only did he challenge Zhao to an Agni Kai and seriously consider burning him, he also threatened one of his crewmen by saying he'd "teach him respect" - which we found out later that episode was what Ozai right before disfiguring poor Zuko.

For fuck's sake, Ozai was literally designed to look like an older Zuko. One without a scar, one that was never banished, one that never had to see first-hand all the death and suffering war brings and reflect on the role he plays in it.

Finally, we have the war meetings in "Nightmares And Daydreams", in which Zuko doesn't speak out against his father's completely inhumane plans to deal with the Earth Kingdom. When talking about it with Mai, he says "I was the perfect prince, the son my father wanted. But I wasn't me."

That is the turning point for Zuko for a reason. It's him finally being forced to acknowledge that, to become Ozai's ideal son, to earn his (conditional) love, to not be his victim he has to be just as bad as he is, just as cruel, just as unfair - and we see in Azula's breakdown how Zuko likely would have ended up if he accepted that path.

But he didn't, and that was not easy because even though it was the morally correct choice, it'd require him to sacrifice everything - his title as a prince, his right to be in the Fire Nation, his relationship with Mai, his (extremelly complicated, sometimes good, often awful) bond with Azula, the "easy" way to get literally anything he wanted at everyone else's expense, and, of course, accept that his father was never going to love him, was never going to change, and was never going to feel sorry for abusing him.

Erasing such a central conflict of his character for the sake of denying he ever did anything wrong is, ironically, removing one of Zuko's most noble character traits: his inability to just live with himself after doing something horrible. There's a reason he is in deep conflict even after getting everything he wanted after the fall of Ba Sing Se - he knows he doesn't deserve it after what he's done.

If you ignore his mistakes and the horrible consequences it had for other people, you also ignore Zuko's growth. This puts him more in the position of a good guy being held hostage by the evil villain, not of a troubled child that redeems himself as he matures.

No flaws, no mistakes, no growth, no arc.

Trauma Doesn't Just Go Away

This one is, by far, the bad trope regarding Zuko's trauma that Zutarians are the most guilt of: assuming that if he just gets enough comforting hugs (mainly from Katara), all of his inner turmoil will suddenly be healed. No more sadness, no more fear, no more of the ugly traits they never acknowledge in the first place. Just a happy, fully recovered Zuko.

But that's just not how these things work. Having the support of a loved one helps victims feel better, but it won't magically make everything okay. Trauma is a really difficult thing to handle. There's good days, bad days, relapses, bad habits that are difficult to move past from. And not only are there cases in which people take YEARS to recover, there are also cases in which they never fully heal, and instead just learn to live with that burden that is still very much present.

I understand the desire to show in fics and headcanons that Zuko will eventually be fully healed and happy, but the way Zutarians make Katara act as not just his girlfriend, but as basically his therapist that needs to find miracle solutions for every single one of his problems, comfort him whenever any minor inconvenience happens until he's gotten enough hugs to be magically okay doesn't just reveal how hypocritical they are, since they insist Kataang is about Katara being Aang's girlfriend/mom/baby-sitter, but also that they legit do not understand a damn thing about trauma and how it works.

Which takes me to:

How Mai Actually Did Right By Zuko

Poor, poor Mai. She gets blamed for "bring out the worst in Zuko", for not being "supportive", for being too cold and unemotional, for not "seeing the real him" - yet she's one of the characters that CONSISTENLY help put Zuko back on his track.

She offers him emotional support and lots of signs of affection over and over again - telling him not worry when they're arriving at the Fire Nation, pointing out she doesn't hate him when she says she's beautiful when she hates the world, explicitly saying she cares about him in The Beach, being incredibly sweet and loving to him during all of Nightmares and Daydreams, and then again in the finale by helping him get dressed up and acting all cute as they get back together.

But she also holds him accountable when he screws up. She doesn't let him use his difficult life as an excuse to be a jerk and calls him out when he's being unreasonable, or when she feels mistreated/like he's making a mistake (see The Beach and Boiling Rock Part 2).

But since the fandom loves to completely erase Zuko's mistakes AND to not let go of a stupid ship war, this completely changes the context, making Mai out to be this awful, bitchy girlfriend, when in reality, she did a great job handling Zuko - sometimes even better than the fan favorite and mentor figure Zuko had through most of his arc.

Uncle Iroh Fucked Up

Before all of you try to kill me, let me make one thing clear here: I love Uncle Iroh. He is one of the most awesome characters in the show, and I fully believe he was trying his best to help Zuko.

But he is still a human being that makes mistakes, and he was raised in the same dysfunctional family Zuko was, meaning he often had NO IDEA how to handle his deeply traumatized teenage nephew/son.

Him spending all of book 1 trying to help Zuko capture Aang so he could go back to living with the guy that disfigured him is already bad enough, but we also have the episode "Avatar State" in which Iroh asks "Why would your father banish you if he didn't care about you?"

Obviously he only did these things because he didn't want Zuko give into despair and depression - but he is still, at best, ignoring the issue, and at worst actively making excuses for Ozai's abuse of his own son. This backfires on him spectacularly, as Zuko sides with Azula over him both in the first and last episode of the season specifically because he believes that appeasing Ozai is the right thing to do, as he was only banished "for his own good."

But THE biggest mistake Iroh made when it came to helping Zuko was his refusal to accept that no, Zuko was never going to be happy by living a quiet, simple life in Ba Sing Se - even after Zuko explicitly said as much to his face.

Obviously, to some extent, Iroh HAS to make Zuko accept that he won't ever be able to come back home after Ozai literally ordered Azula to capture him, but he could have tried to find some kind of middle ground with Zuko, since being a waiter clearly wasn't making him happy.

"Oh, but what about how Zuko started acting after his metamorphosis? He was so happy about working on the tea-shop with his uncle, and that was supposed to reveal his true self!"

Yes, it was supposed to do that. But we saw how Zuko acted after actually dealing with his trauma and redeeming himself. He was obviously in a much healthier place, both mentally and spiritually, but he was still moody, still sarcastic, still as proud as ever, and even Iroh recognized that he was meant to be Fire Lord.

Zuko's arc has a lot to do with identity, with how he sees himself. At that point, the only thing he still had in life was his uncle - so he was acting like him, because there seemed to be no other role model, no other path. Seeing that weird, cheery, relaxed, always-seeing-the-good-side-of-things version of Zuko was honestly unnerving.

And Iroh thought that Zuko basically giving himself the Lake Laogai treatment was okay because he following in his footsteps, doing what helped IROH heal and change - he didn't realize it was never gonna be able to do the same for Zuko.

The very second Azula shows up, even when she's being hostile, Zuko drops the facade, because she's a reminder of both his old life and what he thought his future would be. And when she offers him "redemption" Iroh tried to advice Zuko against joining her by saying "The redemption she offers is not for you" (as in not for someone who is doing better and doesn't need to return to the Fire Nation) and "It's time for you to choose. It's time for you to choose good." How is it a choice if Iroh is explicitly saying which option Zuko cannot pick, essentially making the decision for him?

Iroh didn't just get the way to help Zuko wrong - he didn't realize his nephew didn't believe he needed help. They were not on the same page at all, and that contribuited to Zuko betraying him.

Though, thankfully, it ended up being for the best, as Zuko found his own way to redemption by himself.

Conclusion

This fandom as a whole tends to not understand Zuko at all and just eat up a bunch of fanon while pretending to be so intellectual, which I very much resent it for.

[ersetu-gazette]

Celestial Warlock Zorian

My mind keeps on wandering to an idea of an au I had, not sure if this would be during specifically the time loop in MoL, or other time loops, but I love the idea of Zorian being recruited (read: extorted) by the angels to forever be an assistant to the time loops. A template is permanently created for the Sovereign gate that is created at the beginning of each loop. This is to give the main controller a friend across all loops, an advisor, and a resource to do the ethically ambiguous things that they can't do due to the contract. I'm not exactly sure how it would out, but I just really like the idea of a Zorian after being a loop copy escaping to the real world instead of circumventing punishment is forced into service by the angels, and this cynical, curious, and otherwise normal boy is forced to be the angel's lapdog. Basically a dynamic not too dissimilar from Celestial warlocks in d&d but the patrons are much more involved and controlling. In each loop Zorian is created whole cloth, with the angels visiting the real world before hand to set up ways for him to integrate into society like they prepared the Sulrothum in the book. He primarily spends a few loops getting used to the cover story and the new culture & time period he finds himself in and then approaches the main controller once they've properly adjusted to the loop. he's been giving orders to help them with everything but he has his own spite, reservations, and rebellions to this, exercising his free will whenever possible.

Zorian and the new controller getting closer together is never a question of if but how long, since they're the only two that will never lose awareness of the loops. It also is a point of tension if the controller empathizes with Zorian's permanent servitude or not. No matter what the controller will hide some of the joy and gratitude they have they'll have a permanent friend (Zorian's empathy powers make the attempts to hide useless) A couple of thoughts on how this could work: 1) Zorian is recruited after the events of Mother of Learning and is forced to be the advisor/guide/confidant of the next controller, but somehow the time loop is fucked up even more and he and the new protagonist have to scramble to fix/ survive this mess. This is with a new cast of characters in the future focusing on how the world modernizes and changes to cultural norms. 2) Zorian actually was recruited and existed before the events of MoL and inverses the dynamic of Zach and Zorian, where Zorian is the more experience time traveler of the two. Zach almost definitely harbors a puppy crush at the cool nerdy archmage in his corner and Zorian appreciates a controller that is more on his side than others. Zorian is initially suspicious of Jornak and Zach dissmisses it as jealousy. When Zorian thwarts Jornak's scheme Zach embarrassingly sits through an "I told you so lecture" (and maybe the two talk about why Zach assumed jealousy was the key motivator from Zorian). 3) Zorian's service is timeless and he's forced to be there for all loops, even in the ancient past. He has to be the assistant to Shutur-Tanara as a young person, and deals with the crisis of being there for so much ancient history. (Also in this version Shutur-Tanara is a trans woman. No reason specifically why but I think it'd be great if Zorian's main concern is trying to stop imperialism and colonization and his modern cultural norms meanwhile Shutur-Tanara's main thought's are "man I wish I was born a woman." Eventually when Zorian is educating her on modern concepts he mentions trans people and that catches Shutur's attention. ST: "Wait, that's a thing? What magic is needed to change my body?" ZK: "I will cover that later once you agree that conquering continents and colonizing other cultures are bad." ST: ". . . make me a woman and I'll try to listen with a more open mind.") Zorian also meets some of the eleven immortals and a young Quatch-Ichl who he ends up taking a partially mentor/parental role within the time loop. Idk, there's a lot in this idea that I'm really interested in and would be curious to hear everyone else's thoughts.

[osrphotography]

NZ2308/ZK-PWL [de Havilland Australia DH.98 Mosquito T.43] taxiing back to AvSpecs 1/04/24.

New to the RAAF as an FB.40, it was given the s/n A52-20. Like MoTaT's Mossie, it was changed midway through production to a T.43 and re-serialled to A52-1054.

It was sold to the RNZAF in 1947 for a cost of £3000 and after just 479:35 airframe hours, it was deemed surplus in 1955.

It was recovered by MoTaT and presented to Olwyn Fenner as payment for his work on sister airframe NZ2305.

Olwyn began the restoration process, and at some point during the project, Glyn Powell joined the team. He would eventually take over the project and formed Mosquito Restorations Ltd.

Unfortunately, Glyn passed away before he got the chance to see his masterpiece finished, and as a result, AvSpecs took over the work.

In late March, after 15 years of restoration, NZ2308 took to the skies as ZK-PWL (in honour of Glyn) and debuted at Warbirds over Wānaka '24 (29/03-31/03).

It will now be packed into a container and sent to the United States.

[yikes-kachowski]

Hiii! I dropped by on accident and found out your avatar headcanons and OCs so so nice

I gotta ask a few curiosities of mine if that's cool? *takes out a notebook and a pen*

- since katara and zuko are a thing, did it make their friendship with aang weird or was he cool with it instantly? And how did it even began for them? Did it followed the show's events? Did Aang even got a crush on Katara?

- What happens to Azula?

- How does all these next gen kids react when Korra shows up? Is it weird, is it fine, is it all the same? I mean, they all knew the previous avatar and he was pretty much their family and all. Tho I think them having their own lives also mean it's not that much of a deal?

- Is Katara still one of Korra's teaching masters?

- Sokka's kids get along?

- Does Tenzin and Bumi eventually get okay with each other?

- Korra still loses her connection to the past avatars and therefore Aang? Do they even talk, like he did to Roku and all?

- do you have any other headcanon or change of other characters from tlok or tloa that you mind sharing? like, a plot from tlok that you think it could be better improved or discarded, or something that happens on your universe and you haven't talked about yet?

Sorry for this such a big of an ask, i really REALLY liked these ideas you had (and your art is also amazing and so awesome and pretty too 💞).

heyyyy anon! sorry for the late reply, i hope you still see this.

First of all, thank you! I love genuine interest in my stuff I never expect it. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy and clever. ALSO thanks for complimenting my art! i'm a slow artist so my blood sweat and tears (mostly tears) are in every drawing !!!

onto answering your questions to the best of my ability:

1) Aang is completely cool with Katara and Zuko's relationship. He's basically their biggest shipper :) He did have a crush on Katara (and Zuko tbh), but he was able to let it go pretty quickly. As the Avatar, after the war he was almost too busy to even be sad about it. Overwhelmingly, he was just happy for his friends

Also, Katara and Zuko get together after the war, when Katara's about 17 and he's about 19. Katara goes to the South Pole and they fall for each other through letters and short visits.

Most show events aren't really taken out for me. Just really the kiss right at the end.

2) Azula has a redemption arc. I like to think of it as being a redemption arc she herself is hardly aware of. She just thinks she's really in the long haul of fooling the gaang into liking her. Her redemption arc starts immediately after the war because Zuko keeps her safe in the palace.

Aang becomes her friend first and encourages everyone else to give her a chance. Sokka provides an outlet for all of her older brother issues, since she and Zuko have an awkward relationship. And Katara is tutored by Azula in Fire Nation etiquette and history so she's better equipped to be Fire Lady.

sorry if this is confusing, but believe it or not this rambling all makes sense to me.

3) Korra is very important to the next gen kids, aang's kids and the zk especially. Her arrival is in the middle of great political conflict that never would have happened if Aang wasn't murdered, so they're eager to get her in on the Avatar business.

My idea with Aang dying so young, is that all of his business is half finished. His kids didn't get real closure for their relationship. So Bumi, Yelaan, Palkyi and Tenzin all have complex feelings toward her. Bumi's in particular are very intense.

Being around Korra FEELS like being in his father's presence, which is hard for him. He doesn't want aang to have been a good person or a good father because then he'd really have to miss and mourn everything he was gone for. but this is a lot and hard for me to say so

the steambabies also need Korra and consider her central. They watched their parents' reactions when Aang died (particularly Zuko), and that has affected them deeply. Sakari has been advised to always follow the avatar, so she's happy to have guidance. Besides, she hopes the Avatar will restore and era of peace since she worries for Bumi and Akiak.

Akiak has changed since Aang died, a lot. In ways he's not always proud of. Facing Korra is somewhat hard for him for that reason. Especially since sometimes she opposes some of his methods. He thinks her way of bringing peace is naive.

Tophs kids (and Tenzin to some extent) are the same :)

4) Yes! Katara is one of her waterbending masters. I feel like when you're an Avatar's Master, that's your role for life. She already knows how to train the Avatar. She, Zuko, and Toph taught Korra in the right order, and are old friends with her. Korra has already met the whole Gaang even if she doesn't see Toph or Zuko as often as she'd like

5) I usually choose not to give Sokka kids. I feel like he doesn't want to be a father (even though he'd definitely be the best at it). He and Suki work too hard and have agreed they just aren't super interested in kids. He and Suki are full time Aunt and Uncle to all of the Next Gen. Now, ive made some OCs for asks and I'd say that they do get along :)

6) Bumi and Tenzin's relationship is ROUGH in this story, but yes, they do. It takes a while but eventually they're only mildly hostile with each other. Tenzin helps Bumi reconnect with Air Nomad culture, and Bumi helps him commune with the spirits better. This is jumpstarted by Korra.

7) Korra does keep communication with her past lives! But her path to being a fully realized Avatar is much more difficult. The decision to raise her in a compound was a mistake, and so her growth as an avatar is severely set back. This means, she speaks to her past lives when they reach out to her (and she's in tune enough to listen). Aang is not easy for her to talk to, but eventually she masters it. She doesn't really tell anyone because she's scared everyone will then only want to talk to aang, not her.

8) First of all: for atla, i write very particular cultures and geographies to expand the universe. They affect things in only minor ways for the most part in atla. Also, Aang is trans. I love it too much for it to not be true (if youre wondering how he had kids he made deals with spirits)

Now for tlok. In my opinion, it's very necessary for the different conflicts to not have clear starts and ends. These should all be interweaving conflicts that everyone's caught in the middle of. Not only does this facilitate a lot more character interactions, but it also builds stress and feels realistic.

Mako and Bolin are former triad members and pro athletes, they should be rougher around the edges. Also, Mako would NEVER EVER become a cop after seeing the direct damage they cause marginalized communities. I think that perspective would be very important for korra as an avatar.

Season two plotlines should just be a civil war between north and south. Tbh, I'm not digging all of the subtle ways the north takes over the south, and I imagine the south isn't either. They separated from the north for a reason, and then during the war, the north didn't even help them. The tensions were rising and Aang never came up with a good long term solution when he was alive, and that affects Korra.

Season three's plotline can mostly stay the same except there is no harmonic convergence that introduces new airbenders. The airbenders are the group that they are. They're travelling the earth kingdoms doing peace talks since much of the earth kingdoms don't want to be under ba sing se. Particularly the Si Wong Desert. Aang was in active peace talks when died and was never able to come up with a long term solution.

Season four is also mostly the same except no mechs or spirit nukes.

All the while the equalists are raging on at home.

ANYWAY. thanks for the ask! I hope you see this after i posted it SOOOO late.

See the pattern? Korra must fill aang's shoes while also dealing with all of his unfinished business. Every character serves a unique perspective that helps inform korras decisions.

I dont think these ideas are perfect and the only way to write Korra, but I think they make sense. They help tell a story Im more interested in.

[diornies]

hi! hope this isn't weird!!! i found you on twitter and eventually here on tumblr, and I just want to say!!! you're my favorite art account right now! I love your style and the fact that you draw zutara x taylor art! and your comics aaah chef's kiss 🥹 its also very delightful that you're from the ph too (or maybe unfortunate for us both lmao i hate it here) !!!

you are a blessing to the community really! thanks for carrying the zutara fandom on ur back 🌟 hope masarap ulam mo tonight 🥘

Not weird at all! I appreciate it a lot 🥹🫶🏻 and that’s such an honor cause this community is filled with so many talented artists!

I have a long list of taylor songs that I associate with zutara and my favourites have a very specific imagery in my head 😭💕 if I could draw them all into existence it would take forever

yes another pinoy zk!! god the weather is horrible lately we really are the fire nation. (I’ve noticed that atla is SO popular here, there must be something in the water 🧐)

[mintchochipkookie]

Listen, I’m as surprised as anyone else that I wrote a new ZK fic but here we are.

Big big big thank you to @twinkle-toph for all her help on this entire fic, and shout out to @forever--rain for her notes on this chapter too!

Hope you enjoy it!

Summary

Ten years after the war, Zuko offers Katara the role of Southern Water Tribe Ambassador, and eager to bring effective progress for her tribe, she jumps at the opportunity. However, not everyone is happy with the decision, and Katara faces strong resistance while Zuko struggles to maintain balance in his council. In an attempt to alleviate some of his stresses, he appoints Azula as his advisor, but Katara is quite vocal in her distrust of her. Eventually, some disgruntled ministers take it upon themselves to rectify the supposed wrongs the Fire Lord and the Ambassador are inflicting upon the Fire Nation. Somewhere in the middle of all this, they find themselves questioning what their true feelings for each other are. Will the oblivious fools figure it out? Stick around to find out!

[demaparbat-hp]

Dema can you make Zuko and Katara kiss in your next art. Please, pretty please. I can give you my spine if you want.

You know, this ask just made me realize that my ZK artworks are like a slow burn—we're all waiting for the kiss.

[jasmine-tea-latte]

delicate - chapter 26

In which Katara and Zuko work towards a reconciliation of sorts after their fight, and she delivers an ultimatum, forcing him to make a life-altering decision...

I’m really looking forward to the comment section for this chapter. Buckle up, we're getting into the murky parts...

Also, please note the updated tags. It's not going to be drawn out (believe me, I'm NOT looking forward to writing those couple of chapters. Ugh.)

However, I did want to give everyone a heads up and a fair warning, in case anyone needs to "nope" out of this fic when that eventually comes up. Like I've said all along, there *will* be a happy ZK ending, but I understand if that tag is a dealbreaker for some. I'd prefer if you stick around, of course, but I totally get it if you'd rather not for a few chapters.

[cnidariandreams]

i think that's all of the zk posts i have from my first watch

i started a rewatch and have some stuff to edit, idk when i'll get to it but trust i will keep dumping material unless toei themselves come for me. i'd like to draw eventually too but only time will tell..

[zk-j]

I'm ZK, you can also call me Jo or Mutt if you'd like

He/any pronouns, transmasc genderqueer dogboy catgirl bi lesbian

I'm a multifandom person, I mostly like anime like Tokyo Revengers and Jujutsu Kaisen.

More to come eventually, I'm familiar with Tumblr but I'm still just setting up this account.

PS: Peke J is so cool

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

Sorry, I'm pissed by ZKs, so I'm here. Thank you so much for creating this space. Really. It's a blessing. I need to swear a lot.

So, some post on tumblr about something related to Zuko. Zuko only. It has literally nothing, zero to do with Katara. At all. Just... ready? It was about his first season hairdo. I like it and I will not apologise for it.

Seems like a good post, I agree with many points, I am happy to find someone who shares my thoughts and expresses them quite nicely.

And then Katara is brought up! Out of the blue!

Is this post tagged "zutara"? Fuck, no, of course! Zutara is not it's main topic, why should it be tagged as such?

Do I immediately find plenty of prozutara and antimaiko posts in "zuko" tag in this person's blog? Fuck, yes, of course! Just as I expected.

(Btw, antimaiko analysis was outright horrible and dumb as fuck - the author just made up some bullshit in their head and treated it as an objective reality; and I'm not even starting on "stating one thing and completely forgetting about it a couple paragraphs later because it would have been in Mai's favor" bullshit here. I used to be a genuine, though silent, maiko and Mai hater, for fuck's sake, but damn, dumb ZKs do an excellent job of making me tolerate, respect and even enjoy these pairing and character in my twisted way. I wonder if they will make me ship maiko eventually. Good job, guys, and fuck you very much. Why can't you be like normal, sane ZK shippers?

Prozutara posts suffered from the same "it's an objective fact, right from my head where I made it up" problem, although sometimes there are some worthy thoughts. But only sometimes. And there were lots of "focus on Z-K interactions only and give them tons of meaning while ignoring or dismissing the same interactions with other characters".)

I HATE it! I blocked the fucking tag, I was so happy, and yet they need to just shove Katara into the topic that is not about her in the slightest because she once said "what's wrong with ponytails, ponytail" (when it wasn't even about her thinking ponytail Zuko is hot or sth like that, at all, it was about Sokka talking of ponytails while having a kinda similar haircut - freaking context, guys, please, it's not that hard)! Do they have zutara diarrhea so it just leaks out of their asses anywhere they go? They just can't hold it, it seems! They just had to bring zutara up! If it wasn't for one tiny remark, I wouldn't have guessed that this person is a crazy ZK. But the point is - they just had to make this remark!

Gosh, that's why I hate zutara. At least they generously set up red flags like this so I can still try to stay far away from them.

Sorry for the long rant and all the swearing. Have a good day.

Damn, anon, how long have you been needing to get that off your chest? XD

[blockinsider]

Buterin’s Innovative Solution for Ethereum’s Cross-Chain L2 Interoperability Challenges

Key Points

Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum’s co-founder, proposes a plan to enhance cross-chain interoperability within Ethereum Layer 2 networks.

The plan includes Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) and aims to standardize rules for cross-chain communication.

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, has put forward a strategy to bolster the cross-chain interoperability capabilities of Ethereum Layer 2 networks.

Buterin is confident that this solution will significantly improve the user experience within the Ethereum ecosystem.

Addressing Cross-Layer-2 Interoperability Issues

The proposal from the Ethereum co-founder came in response to a query about the best way to tackle issues related to cross-layer-2 interoperability.

Buterin stated, “I think people will be surprised by how quickly ‘cross-L2 interoperability problems’ stop being problems and we get a smooth user experience across the entire Ethereum-verse.”

He also mentioned that there is strong backing and a will to make this happen, and pointed out the numerous Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) on the roadmap to cross-L2 compatibility.

EIP-3370, one of the steps on the roadmap, proposes a new address standard for dApps and wallets to display chain-specific addresses through a human-readable prefix.

Another step is the upgrade to EIP-7683, which will introduce a standard method for different Ethereum Layer-2s to communicate and execute trades across multiple chains.

Buterin believes that a standard set of rules should be established for all networks to resolve issues related to cross-chain communication, as it is currently quite complicated for users to trade assets across different networks.

Improving Cross-Chain Communication

The EIP-3668 proposal details a method for Ethereum smart contracts to access off-chain data in a standardized way.

Buterin referred to this as “layer-2 light clients”, which aim to standardize how Ethereum contracts access off-chain data, thereby simplifying and enhancing the efficiency of developing applications that require extensive data without incurring high on-chain storage costs.

He also mentioned “cross-L2-replayable account state updates”, which illustrate how Layer-2s receive the latest L1 state updates while maintaining low latency and security.

In addition, Buterin mentioned a few Phase 2 updates such as proof aggregation and keystore rollups to enhance cross-chain L2 compatibility.

Concerning compatibility with existing zero-knowledge and optimistic rollups, Buterin stated that these “stage 1” updates are “completely independent of the details of rollup technology”.

He added, “Eventually, I think all rollups will go zk (and existing zk rollups will have to redo their tech stack), in order to finalize to Ethereum once per slot. But that’s like 5+ years away.”