#cause it's Zuko

[lnuns]

You thought you knew what it was to fear.

Six years old, running, running from a sister whose sparking fingertips had shifted the world into those who have and those who have not. You thought that learning to run at the crackle of popping embers and jumping at the sight of one meant to be your truest ally was fear.

Eleven years old, a mother's desperate touch, words whispered in the night, then gone, gone, gone. You learned then that fear must be absence, the cold brought by the reality of being left with no one to stand between you and the flames.

Thirteen years old, finally standing, finally being heard, finally showing you were worthy to lead, worthy to be called son. You learned then that fear was fire. Pleading, crying, on your knees, fear was a father demanding respect and the knowledge that nothing short of impossibility could take that fear away.

Sixteen years old, hope spluttered into your heart and dared to take fear's hard worn place. You chased, you schemed, you fought, and impossible became possible. Perhaps this was how fear died.

But you did not know fear.

Sixteen years old, a twelve year old child running through the trees away from a stronghold you'd risked everything to save him from. Anger, you expected. Frustration, disappointment, the chorus of failure, failure, failure that never quite ended. But what you did not expect was the earth to move beneath your fist as you smacked the ground in frustration, the shifting of rock as if it were no more than water beneath your fingers.

But the water too betrayed you, as you ran back to the ship, back toward normalcy and the everyday sort of fear you thought you knew. Perhaps it was the anger, the frustration, the disappointment, but as you tried to loose the rowboat you'd so carefully hidden, the waves rather than the ropes responded to your touch.

It wasn't until you were alone in your room that you finally began to understand that you had never known anything at all about fear. Perhaps it was the delusion brought about by lack of sleep, irritation, or a hundred other things, but in that fateful moment you looked at the space between your fingertips and tried the impossible.

A faulty hatch was easy to blame for the gust of wind that roared through your room, ripping open doors and scattering your careful collection of scrolls across the room. But it could not be blamed for what grew inside your heart as you began to wonder.

Sixteen years old, sitting shell shocked between the remains of your honor, your purpose, your sense of self. Somehow, you had gotten it wrong, everyone had gotten it wrong, and now here you were, with the earth sliding at your feet, the water pulling at your arms, the air dancing between your fingertips, and the fire dying inside your heart.

Fear was not sisters or fathers, not failure or duty, not even a burned face and its shattered honor.

Sixteen years old, and now Zuko knew that fear was hope. And hope might be the one thing that finally shattered him.

Oh hey ya'll- just a lil Zuko is the Avatar story I've been working on that I of course had to draw! Let me know what you think? Should I write it all out (an outline does exist 🙃)?

[junotter]

just some designs mainly created because I wanted to draw hakama and then it spiral out from there

bald zuko under the cute

[pineapple-frenzy]

Book 2 au: sparring sessions and short hair katara

They like to have sparring sessions in order to keep their bending skills sharp. They allow themselves to go all out and not hold back at all cause they know if anyone got hurt, Katara could just heal them

But anyways, wouldn't it be kinda funny if Zuko accidentally burned Katara's hair tho? Aofkqldkkajfjd

The "I think we can save the hairloops" line is from @linnoya-writes thank you for that!! :>>

[shipping-all-ships]

Lu Ten: I'm sorry to say this, kiddos, but your father has passed away. Zuko(10): *bursts into tears* Azula(8): *shocked* How...how did father die? Lu Ten: Uhh (Flasback to Lu Ten shoving Ozai out the window) Lu Ten: Assassin. Lu Ten: With more arm strength than he thought he had.

[strawberrymilkyumyum]

zuko believing that katara is engaged bc of her necklace will never not be a hilarious concept to me

[bluespiritshonour]

"Not everything's changed" -Mai, Going Home Again

[schrodingers-hoarding-problem]

i love that zukka nation has seemed to all agree that mai and zuko were beards for eachother but that suki and sokka are the best bi exes ever

[your-royal-momoness]

Sokka: are you ready to commit?

Zuko: like, a crime or to a relationship?

[comradekatara]

katara’s fatal flaw when it comes to politics and also just general communication is that she cannot fathom why anyone would wish to act in a cruel manner and knowingly harm others, whereas sokka’s is that he does not understand how people can be willfully ignorant or even just plain dumb. it’s why sokka is always having to point out to katara that someone is a malicious actor who is taking advantage of her compassion and idealism (jet, hama, aunt wu, etc) because he knows that not everyone has pure, altruistic intentions, but he also doesn’t understand that king kuei isn’t just sheltered, he is also straight up an idiot (or that hahn isn’t just arrogant, he is also incompetent, etc etc) until it’s too late.

[hyacinths-in-a-storm]

I swear, at this point I might just end up shipping 75% of atla girls with each other.

[petricorah]

something something i will follow you into the dark (comic wip)

[pineapple-frenzy]

Ahaha I missed zutara week again this year :'> I was way busier this week than I thought I would be. Thank god my prof moved the deadline cause ain't no way can I finish an animation by tonight ajskaidlsk anyways, since the deadline got moved I decided to take a break from it and draw some zk :>> happy zutara week!!

[kittenmoth]

I dubbed this doodle "Sokka Likes Spicy Noodles" just so you all know.

[blotsjunkyard]

[mesapies]

I don't rlly care for the katara keeping her scars on her hands from s1. They look cool in concept but what does it do for her? I always see ppl say that it makes zuko have more of a connection to her or that aang has to live with his mistakes but how does it benefit her? Why would she want keep them knowing she can heal herself?

[avidbroswer]

could you draw zk with pregnant! katara?

Here ya go Anon!