#dadko is dadding

[the-badger-mole]

Fic Snippet!

“Are you out of your mind?” Zuko rushed across the courtyard and bore down on Aang with an intense, almost palpable fury. “Do you know how badly you could’ve hurt her?”

“I was just…I didn’t mean to-“ Aang stammered.

“Fire is not a toy!” Zuko bellowed at him. He turned to Katara, examining her for injuries. “Are you okay?”

“I’m alright,” she assured him, her voice shaking. “I’m fine.” She was trembling visibly, and there were singe marks on her clothes, but she otherwise seemed unharmed. Zuko turned back to Aang, how was looking down at his feet in shame.

“What were you thinking?” Zuko demanded.

“I don’t know,” Aang mumbled, kicking at the ground. “I was…mad.”

“About what?” Zuko was absolutely bewildered. “What could Katara possibly have done that you thought it was a good idea to do that?”

“Nothing,” Aang admitted sullenly. He didn’t say anything after that. Zuko glowered at him, took a few deep breaths to quell his own anger.

“You’re going to clean this mess up,” he said gesturing to the torn up stones, dirt and cooling lava. “Then you’re going to do 100 fire squats. Then you’re going to work on your forms for an hour. And I don’t want to see so much as a curl of smoke out of you. You’re not responsible enough for fire. Understood?” 

“What? That’s not-“ Aang’s protests died on his lips when he saw Zuko’s expression.  He huffed, kicked at stone, and finally nodded.

“Get started,” Zuko ordered through clenched teeth. He turned back to Katara, who was watching the exchange. She was still shaking a bit. Zuko draped his arm protectively around her back and guided her away. He glanced back once more at Aang, and almost rolled his eyes when he saw the younger boy still moping at the ground. It was hard sometimes to reconcile the awesome might and eminence of the Avatar with the reality of Aang, the child.

“I’ll be back,” he warned Aang. “Have this mess cleaned up. And don’t even think about asking Toph to help.” 

I know canonically, the Lava Fissure Incident takes place while Zuko and Sokka are rescuing Hakoda, but I wanted to have Zuko see and react to it. Personally, I think it was another accidentally accurate depiction of how unready Aang is to be the Avatar. And it is also another incident that the narrative decides not to call Aang out for, so the chances of him growing from it are...well, we all know how things turned out in LoK.

[transuncletaylor]

Izumi is constantly embarrassed by her dads

[ID: photoed is a digital drawing of Sokka, Zuko, and Izumi from the Avatar series. Sokka is closer to the viewer from his hips up. He is wearing red pants with a gold stitch pattern with a blue dotted sash, no shirt. His bare chest showed top surgery scars and other scars, most likely from sparring and Druk. His right forearm is resting on his forehead to shield his eyes from the sun. He is looking off to his upper right at something off screen. He has his necklace on but with red beads in between the bone pieces. His ears have multiple earrings of silver and red. In the lower right corner in the background are Zuko and a child Izumi having tea. Zuko, who is wearing a red open vest, is looking to his right at Sokka with a blush and smile on his face. There are three red hearts over his head. Izumi sits in front of him to the right wearing a turquoise blouse and pink saree. Her face is in her hands in embarrassment. Above her and Zuko is text that reads “OH MY SPIRITS! Dad! Papa! Stop being so gross! You’re giving me the oogies!]

[billsbae]

this is so momtara and dadko coded

[punkeropercyjackson]

'Zutara should've happened to subvert the 'hero always gets the girl' trope!!!''Bad boy always gets the girl' is also a trope and one with significantly more misogynistic history than the hero one.Kataang itself is a subversion of how it's usually potrayed to make it feminist with specific writing points to switch up the gender dynamics and thus defy gender roles and sexist stereotypes,including that Katara is also the hero of Atla as much as Aang is,while Zutara calls for the bad boy one to be played straight in a classic faux-feminism move and false attempt at challenging cisheteronormativity.Also Zuko wouldn't have gotten Katara a statue 'unlike Aang' not just because he canonically didn't but also because she would never want one and there is no evidence to suggest she would nor that she finds manliness on men attractive nor that she's a preppy good girl nor that she enjoys playing into maternal roles to anybody except her actual kids or sees Aang as her son nor that she hates other girls her age nor that Zuko wants to burden his girlfriend with all his emotional problems nor be a 'female fantasy' for any girl instead of his girlfriend's boyfriend👍🏼Projecting is for film and y'all're M.Night Shyamalan

[fruittarts-with-rosepetals]

Zuko would be a supportive dad. Growing up, he was not given much attention and love from his father, so the last thing he wanted was to make izumi feel the same way. Thus, the princess was always found in her father's arms. He would let her do whatever she needed, paint his nail, tie his hair into crazy hairstyles and even mimick voices from her story books and He made sure to be available for his daughter, day and night, whenever she needed him

[lphoenixspiritl]

At Toph and Aang's wedding, Zuko filled in as father of the groom and Iroh had the honor of being the father of the bride. Meanwhile Katara took on both roles as mother of the bride and mother of the groom.

[ididgettomeetyou]

SOKKA BEING TEAM DAD

[quillsparkle]

*catches Sokka trying to sneak out*

Dad agrees to play with his son after seeing him upset.

Zuko giving his, "back when I was a kid" story while being the brother who thinks he's better than you

Your eldest kid wants to play with you but you're too busy working on your job.

Tells your kids to act your age and Katara's just acting like an exasperated mom well Zuko is acting like a confused dad.

And these are just Zuko being good with a kid whose his sister and the last photo gives me a "your mother's right. Let's talk about this" scene. Then your kid yells at you, telling him that's what you wanted to do in the first place.

(couldn't find a picture of him but I remember Zuko grabbing onto Aang's shirt and telling him his lessons not done yet before picking him up by the scruff of his shirt)

[katherine-lupin-enver]

Hear me out:

Zuko

Dadko

Forever!

Was scrolling through AO3 and found this gem

Enemy to parent is a trope we have to popularise lmao

[demaparbat-hp]

I had the same reaction as Aang to your Spitfire Au. Damn my heart!! I take that when ZK inevitably happens, Katara will evolve into Momtara for Lu-Ten?

Oh, I hope your heart survived!

Spitfire is the Dadko AU, so it stands to reason that the Gaang takes note and makes fun of the whole Dad and Mom dynamic Zuko and Katara have going on, before the two even notice it. She's Momtara before she and Zuko make things official (and making things official is, indeed, the correct wording—everyone but themselves knows that they're a couple). Ten Ten absolutely adores Katara, and she loves him dearly.

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

I don’t understand the idea people have that Zuko is more mature than Aang, that he’s the only who’s an equal to Katara, “Dadko & Momtara”. I love Zuko, but he wasn’t very mature, at least initially, he had a lot of issues with his anger, even near the end of the show, and he initially had a very impulsive one track mind. They say Aang needed Katara to mother him, but Zuko literally needed Iroh to be the father figure in his life, and this isn’t a bad thing, poor Zuko need a good parental figure.

That’s not to say was always mature, he was 12, he could be childish, impulsive, and sometimes selfish every so often, but he was also very wise for his age, he was empathetic, he generally had a decent grip on his emotions (baring The Avatar State, which was out of his control) and above all, didn’t let his tragic circumstances embitter him, although he did have good friends to support him.

Lastly, I hate that people say Katara and Aang (or even Aang and Zuko). Had mother/son (or father/son in the latter’s case) relationship, just because Katara comforted Aang and supported him multiple times, like can’t friends do that for each other. I could easily say Katara wanted to tend to Zuko’s scar and comforting him about confronting Iroh as motherly. They were both were equals who mutually respected each other, and it was a give and take relationship, both did a lot for each other. Zuko and Aang were also equals, like their dynamic with each other, being similar and yet different is one of the core themes of the show, especially in The Dragon Episode.

I've said it once, I'll say it again: 13-year-old Zuko was way more mature than 16-year-old Zuko for reasons of "He wasn't yet regressing mentally due to a fuckton of trauma and self-loathing as a result of being physically abused and blamed for it", but zutarians think "older, angrier and more traumatized" is the same as maturity - hence them adultifying Katara so much, when the very first episode of the show full on says to us "This is a child that has forgotten she has the right to just have fun and this needs to be fixed."

Also a lot of things that are labeled as Aang being "immature" are just... not that at all? A 12-year-old wanting to play instead of being a super soldier/weapon is not "immature", just like he wouldn't be "immature" for not wanting to be a dad at that age, or work a 9-5 job. The aberration is people pressuring him to grow up to fast, not him resisting that because he's a literal child and that's not supposed to happen.

And even if he had been an adult: a pacifist not wanting to be everyone's hitman for hire is not "immature" or "selfish", he's literally Just A Dude That Exists and doesn't appreciate that people feel entitled to walk all over his morals, beliefs and agency.

[avatar-legends-confessionblog]

Dadko takes have always bothered me a little, but one thing that has stuck with me was when I saw one post that refered to the scene of Zuko and Aang riding Appa on the way to see the firebending masters and refered to that as something like 'when zuko started being the dad figure' when Zuko was almost literally the kid in the backseat going "are we there yet"

Dadko who? All I see is an angsty teenager having to be watched by a 12 year old

X

[kitorasohma]

Exhibit B:

“Dadko is out of character” Ok then explain this:

[punkeropercyjackson]

[beifong-brainrot]

idk why i just saw your response to the dadko image but it made me die. like holding someone by the shirt makes you a parent huh LOL

Honestly Zuko is really out here doing the bare minimum lmao. Like I can kinda see why people call him the Gaang's dad (if I squint really hard) but he just really doesn't have that vibe to me.

Especially that most of the qualities that make uin the dad friend are very similar to the ones Toph exhibits. Grumpy, sorta headstrong and pretty goal oriented? But of course calling Toph the dad friend is kinda silly because gender roles lmao.

In fact, I think the same qualities that get Zuko crowned as group dad often have people calling Toph a petulant child. Eh, the duality of how we view male and female characters ig.

Anyway I vote to replace Dadko with Dad Friend Toph, who's with me?

[survivalove]

The funny thing is I wasn't a kataang or katara fan until I saw a bunch of people treating katara like she was 30 close to my age and I started feeling protective of her s I re watch atla and see babies. Other Zutara watch it and see momtara dadko and baby aang it's weird they're children. I dunno why zuts hate kids but they have a big we hate kids vibes and I'll never not to be sore at the appa disrespect. Aang grieves his kidnapping and it's called throwing a tantrum. It's insane how they claim to be a empathic fanbase and call katara comforting aang coddling. as someone who lost a pet years ago nearly sim too aang . iI just don't get these people .

momtara is one thing but dadko is just pure delusion. how does zuko act like a dad to anyone, especially aang when all he does is fight him, yell at him, be racist before and after his redemption since that’s their favorite word? I guess that’s how his father treated him so they think that’s zuko being a father? lmaoooooo

the way aang made sure to point out that he was technically zuko’s great grandfather?? but yes that’s clearly his father figure, sure.

and then this coddling nonsense when aang rejects katara every time she even tries to comfort him?? almost every time katara tries to comfort him it goes horribly wrong the first time. the only exception i can think of rn is the desert 💀 aang is a monk that grew up with other monks. he never had a mom and will never have one. i don’t think he even says the word mother/mom the entire series.

these people are so up zuko’s racist behind it’s hilarious