#i headcanon that the dance he did with katara was actually a water tribe dance

[woodlaflababab]

So, I got heavily inspired by this art by shange0211/Yishu and wanted to write a quick fic

This is just a snippet of Aang teaching Zuko how to dance.

-<>-

“Okay!” Aang started, brushing his hands over his robe to dispel nonexistent dust, “now that you know some simple solo moves, I want to teach you how to dance with other people.”

Zuko, who had progressively been getting over his reservations about this whole thing, went right back to looking at Aang like he was crazy. “What?”

“You know, dancing with a partner. Like the dragon dance, but uh,” Aang rubbed at the back of his head, “less firebending lessons.”

Zuko blinked at him a few times before putting his hands up and turning around. “No, I'm done.”

Before Zuko could take more than three steps, Aang was by his side, clinging to an arm. “Zuko!” Aang practically whined. “Come on, you've come this far, and dancing with other people is even more fun than dancing solo.” He tugged on Zuko's arm. “At least give it a shot.”

Zuko, becoming very familiar with this particular weakness of his, sighed and let Aang drag him to the middle of the room again.

“Okay, before I teach you any Fire Nation dances, I actually think we should start with a basic Earth Kingdom one.”

Zuko wrinkled his nose in distaste. “Why?”

“Fire Nation dances, while not as complicated as Water Tribe or air dances,” as Aang spoke, he backed away from Zuko and slid one hand behind his back while holding the other up in front of him, “move around, a lot.” With that, Aang started some dance routine, quickly moving across the floor. 

As he went, working his way around the room in a large circle, Zuko felt like he could kind of see where Aang was completing half of a dance, watching him move as though there was some phantom he danced with that only he could see. Zuko decided not to examine his immediate dislike for this theoretical phantom too closely.

After a bit, Aang seemed to close up his dance, coming to stand before Zuko once again and holding his hands neatly behind his back before dropping them. “Earth kingdom dances, however, tend to be simpler and easier to learn. At least,” he shrugged, “the common ones. There are a lot of special dances they do in specific cities or areas but I don't know a whole lot of those.”

Zuko had to refrain from snorting. Imagine that, Aang not knowing something. The way he went on sometimes, one would think he'd seen everything there was to see.

Aang paused for a second to think before lighting up again. “Oh! I know which one we can start with. It's actually a nobleman's dance, the rich people do it at parties and stuff, and it's really simple, give me your hand.” He stuck his own hand out expectantly.

Zuko hesitated just to nonverbally make the point that he thought this was stupid, but placed his hand inside Aang's nonetheless. He was then immediately thrown off his game as Aang pulled him forward so his hand could go on Aang's waist while Aang's went to his shoulder. Before Zuko could really catch up, Aang already had his other hand and was holding it out to their sides.

“This is the basic stance. Sometimes you break apart for other moves, but for the most part, you get to just stay like this and it's all in the foot work.” 

Aang grinned up at Zuko like that was supposed to reassure him, but Zuko was still trying to process the current situation.

“There's two parts to this, the lead and the follow. You should start by learning to lead though, that's what you're doing.” He nodded his head toward the side where he had his hand on Zuko's shoulder and Zuko's hand on his waist like that was supposed to mean anything to Zuko. “Now, just follow my steps. It's a basic three moves, okay?”

Aang looked up at him expectantly, and Zuko figured it sounded simple enough. Then something else occurred to him. “Wait, if I'm ‘leading’ why are you,” he hesitated as he tried to figure out how to word it, “leading?” was the word he uselessly landed on.

Thankfully Aang understood what he meant and let out a light easy laugh that coaxed some of the gathering tension from Zuko's shoulders. “It's just the name for things. Dancing isn't something you think about, you just do it. It doesn't matter what words you use, just follow me.”

“Whatever you say.” Zuko muttered.

Aang nodded before slowly taking a step back. It, a bit embarrassingly, took Zuko a second to figure out how he was supposed to follow Aang, but when he stepped forward to match Aang's movement, the proud grin he got as a reward seemed so much more poignant that close up.

Aang moved his other leg back in a bit of a sweep and Zuko, expecting it this time, followed along easily enough, ended by them bringing their feet back together. “Great!” Aang praised. “Now it's the same thing but backward, so now you step back.”

As he obeyed and repeated the moves backward, he found it was strangely gratifying as Aang moved with him step for step.

“Now we just do that box again.” With that, Aang once again stepped back.

Zuko followed after him as they moved smoothly through the cycle. It felt almost as easy as breathing, moving and matching Aang step for step and despite how simple the repetitive moves were, he was captivated. The flow of it, the simple trust that each step would be matched, how close they could be together and yet never run into each other. 

He found himself staring at Aang as Aang watched their hands for some reason Zuko was sure he'd never really understand. The simple focus in Aang, the ease with which he did everything, as though there really was nothing to think about, just movements shared, it was all fascinating to Zuko.

So much so that it took Zuko a moment to realize he was probably staring too hard when Aang turned back to him and gave him a weird look. Then it was Zuko's turn to look at their hands, but even that caught his eye in such an unexpected way. Getting to see the blue arrow cradled in his own hand as they glided over the floor, never wavering, like it was meant to rest there, caused a confusing flux of emotion he couldn't quite name.

Not that he'd ever been particularly good at that to begin with, but he felt even more lost than usual, like there was something he was missing.

“Zuko?”

Zuko's focus snapped back to Aang who was looking at him with an amused confusion. “You look like you're thinking, and I'm pretty sure I just said no thinking.” He teased and thankfully didn't ask about the thinking. Zuko had no idea how he'd answer.

So instead he latched onto the familiar easiness of teasing. “Sorry, not all of us can magically turn off our brains whenever we want.”

Aang's wide amused grin was almost difficult to witness when he was standing that close. “It's really not that hard. Maybe I should teach you how to meditate next.”

Zuko scowled. “I know how to meditate.”

“But you're really bad at it.” Aang pointed out without mercy. “Besides, maybe if I'm there it'll be easier to not overthink things.”

Zuko, for some strange reason, highly doubted that.

[azulasmommyissues]

ATLA sexuality headcanons, part 1, Aang's era:

aang

-unlabelled or pansexual, also incredibly gnc. he/they methinks

-he never questioned it, he never thought about it. the air nomads were chill with everything, so he was too.

-he simply loves people, and he loves them deeply. he's the sort of person who says "i love you" very fast. and he doesn't have a specific type, either. he simply connects with people.

-he definitely had a bit of a thing for kuzon back in the day. kuzon taught him all the fire nation dances he knows, and bumi cheered them on.

-he also kinda digged teo, the mechanist's son, but by that point he already had his heart set on katara.

-as for girls, he DID like on-ji. in different circumstances, they would might have dated for a short while. but with katara it was love at first sight. the sort that makes you giddy and stupid.

-he's a lot worse at rizzing up katara because he is just THAT into her and he keeps fumbling

katara

-growing up, she never really questioned it. she knew she definitely liked boys and never had feelings for another girl.

-she's certainly fully cisgender. happily says “she/her/hers” when asked for her pronouns

-on the contrary, she was somewhat attracted to haru and jet both—and might've even considered zuko in different circumstances. like she definitely felt something akin to attraction in the crossroads of destiny.

-she fell in love with aang, because he gave her hope, he gave her joy, he gave her balance. she already felt SOMETHING in the cave of two lovers, but she was deeply confused and her feelings didn't clear until after the war.

-she always thought of herself as straight but said that, if she had the chance, she would be willing to kiss a girl—as an experiment. she just sort of always admired pretty girls, in the sense of "do i wanna BE her or DATE her,"

-and she's really passionate about feminism, obviously

-she always prefers getting compliments from other women because "they're worth mOre"

-eventually she meets jiang who's such a butch lesbian and questions EVERYTHING

-is that a girl? is that a boy? idk but why are they kinda...

-niyok and nutha both give homoerotic friendship vibes with her (all comic specific characters have the combined personality of one person hence why I'm including both)

-since she was dating aang she didn't explore her sexuality, but she discussed it with him and he supported her

-she considered identifying as bi but didn't feel like she qualified, since she'd never actually dated a girl. aang told her it's okay eifher way.

-at the end she decides to keep it all behind closed doors as per water tribe tradition. she's happy with aang, some girls are hot, it's nobody's business but her own.

-i also completely fw the reading of her as a straight cis girl, but you know

sokka

-bisexual, female lean, and maybe even poly.

-he fell for yue, he fell for suki. he definitely found like, ty lee attractive, but he didn't LIKE her. He was involved with suki, and they hadn't had any conversation about the exact status of their relationship so he wasn't about to fumble it.

-suki and him are both bi. and if yue were alive they'd BOTH be dating her. at the same time.

-zuko was sokka's bi awakening. seeing zuko and suki run around in the boiling rock absolutely changed his brain chemistry.

-he had a hard time accepting it, because of how the water tribes roll. he had a preconceived notion of manhood that he obviously had to challenge alongside his initial sexism.

-but then he realised that 1) his dad had been in a secret poly relationship with kya and bato, and then with bato and malina-- 2) his grandma had a fling with hama--3) master piandao and jeong jeongwere a thing--and 4) his girlfriend herself, suki, was bi. so bro had nothing to worry about.

-his identity became clear to him with suki's and his father's help. unlike katara, he was a bit more open and public with it. being poly, him and suki had many opportunities to explore it, always respecting each other's boundaries.

-sometimes suki does his makeup and he grows to enjoy it. he experiments with gender expression until he becomes totally chill with it.

-big part of his character is learning that he doesn't have to be a “man” in the way that patriarchy imposed on him his whole life

-so like, cisn't

toph

-toph has crushes on boys: sokka, zuko, the duke, satoru, sun, kanto. but i think non of them are really legit.

-toph would also flirt with girls, like, yaling

-had a 'not like other girls' phase

-she/they/he vibes, has a very complicated relationship with gender

-because she was made fun off by other girls as a child, it was harder for her to blend in and talk with them

-she was also raised sheltered within the walls of aristocracy which contributed to her not thinking about it

-she avoided commitment and serious relationships like the plague

-so she's unlabelled and perhaps in the aro spectrum. like, demisexual. but being both demi (aka needing to like someone as a person and getting to know them before feeling attracted to them) AND having commitment issues and a bunch of failed relationships is like, a DEADLY combo.

-i don't know. she is chaotic and not at all skilled with romance so she always fumbles it.

-but i also think she might just be 1000% aromantic whether or not she understands it fully

-i think that's very plausible

suki

-bisexual with a female lean and maybe poly

-big she/they vibes

-she's got endless autistic rizz like girl seduced sokka at light speed.

-in kyoshi island they called the bisexuals 'children of kyoshi' and the lesbians 'children of rangi'

-kyoshi island is basically lesbos if you didn't know /hj

-had her first kiss with mingxia before they decided that "ew, never again, i see you like a sister". she was super happy to meet meilin, mingxia's girlfriend

-DEFINITELY liked biyu and they might have been a thing in different circumstances. Aka if biyu hadn't betrayed her.

-would've dated both sokka and yue if yue was alive. like she would have loved yue. both of them having never left their respective homelands. both of them caring about community and having a duty to their people, a leadership position,,,

-but suki being so badass, liberated, free—and yue needing to sacrifice herself to BE free from her oppressive environment,,, like yue would also admire suki so much?? they would love exploring the world together and it'd put sokka out of a very awkward spot-

zuko

-demiromantic, bisexual. like this boy is SOMEWHERE im the ace spectrum but he's also bi. I'd say with a male lean.

-had internalised homophobia growing up, because, duh, fire nation

-he definitely thought that everyone feels like that when he was a child until his mother told him that this was very much NOT the case

-the gaang made him realise that it's totally okay and since they are all so queer he felt very safe with them

-made gay marriage legal in the fire nation

-made pride a thing in the fire nation inspired by the rainbow fire because i said so

-definitely felt attracted to both jet and sokka in the guy department.

-now, when it cames to girls, mai was his childhood crush.

-he definitely found song attractive but he was NOT in that headspace obviously

-same thing with jin although he was in a better headspace then. he introduced jin and song to each other post-war and they dated each other.

yue

-never got the chance to figure out how much girlypop liked women

-i could so easily claim she's a femme lesbian and that sokka was comphet, and I could even CONVINCE ya'll, because he is SO comphet coded, but I really love yue's storyline as it is and the lasting affect it has on sokka,,,,

-i can also imagine her on the ace spectrum

-she's so sapphic she's so queer bro is literally the moON?? what's more sapphic than the moon

-so, whatever, I'll say she's bi with a STRONG female lean. if she'd survived and joined the gaang she would have dated both sokka and suki and i truly believe that

-she would've loved suki and i just KNOW it

-love her so much let my girl be free of her arranged marriage

ty lee

-lesbian or pansexual. was ready to risk it all for mai. also completely down to be in a polycule

-she simply enjoyed male validation and attention due to her unmet childhood emotional needs. the dudes at the beach as well as sokka were giving massive comphet energy.

-i do also accept the possibility of her being pan, that'd be pretty great, but yknow, we do need more lesbians.

-despite being a fire nation citizen i think she'd be pretty open and liberated when it comes to her identity, at least wherever it's safe

-because her own ideology and philosophy is like. pseudo air nomad philosophy so i think she simply doesn't give a shit

-she is really into pride events. she LOVES the parade.

-i think she did have feelings for azula, at least as a child. then it all became really unhealthy,

-still, she felt sad about how things ended with azulw. she genuinely wishes it were different

mai

-she does also give comphet lesbian vibes BUT the "i love zuko more than I fear you" line SLAPS so I'm going to say bisexual with a female lean. she's also definitely asexual—and also demiromantic.

-ADORED ty lee, she just always assumed ty lee would choose azula

-it takes mai a long time to develop feelings for anyone, but when she falls she falls hard

-she's really not a big pride person, but she grows to enjoy it eventually. she goes with zuko and ty lee.

-she's not super vocal about her sexuality, but she also doesn't hide it. she doesn't give a shit. it's her business.

azula

-azula is a lesbian. not debatable like the others, to me.

-her feelings towards ty lee and mai are very reminiscent of sozin's feelings for roku i believe. like iykyk.

-she couldn't remember which of the boys was the one she was supposed to "like," but she remembered perfectly which bikini ty lee and mai were wearing. she picked chan like lesbians pick a random boy to crush on in middle school.

-and then she instesd remembered one of thr gusy who were flirting with either mai or ty lee. bestie was jealous.

-she had comphet, so much comphet. she wanted to be loved.

-so much internalised homophobia.

-she has a type, and it's brunette non benders of similar build. by which i mean ty lee and suki

-the ill will she holds towards mai in her comic for ruining their group over a stUpid BOY-

-it's comical,,

-i love her.

jet

-all the freedom fighters are queer

-jet is probably pansexual or bisexual. and also he/they

-he had a thing for katara but he sure as hell also had a thing for zuko

-he punches homophobes in the face

-i never liked jet when i was a kid because he was a jerk and i hated him with katara, but i grew to really enjoy his character and his arc

-this boy wants to eat the rich

-he doesn't want gay marriage, he wants to abolish marriage

smellerbee

-transfem ICON, she/her, though generally gender non conforming.

-and she's also also aromantic and asexual.

-queer platonic relationship with longshot, because of how deeply they love and understand and support each other

-if you misgender her on purpose the whole group will gang up on you and by the end of it you'll have four broken limbs and they'll be arrested for aggravated assault

longshot

-he's aromantic and asexual but he's got unmatched non-verbal autistic rizz

-as i said, QPR with smellerbee

-but all the freedom fighters plan to keep living together forever,, they're found family

-him and smellerbee just have a particularly special bond

the duke

-the duke is pansexual, i think

-i think he had a crush on toph

-also he/they

-and that's about all I've got

pipsqueak

-he/they/she

-pipsqueak's literally his chosen name, nothing cisgender about that,

-gay

sneers

-transmasc, he/they, potentially genderfluid

-dating kori who is bi

haru

-bisexual, female lean

-he/they, potentially genderfluid

teo

-gay, crush on aang

jin and song

-jin is pansexual, would definitely date song who is a lesbian

-zuko introduces them!!

uncle iroh

-straight ally. women are great! big womaniser back in his day.

-loves gay people

-huge support for zuko coming out

-that being said, he wasn't ALWAYS an ally. like he wasn't homophobic either, but he didn't support queer people before lu ten came out to him. then he accepted it, because he loved his son. finally, travelling the world and studying different philosophies led him to be a great ally.

-then he became the biggest ally ever amd a huge advocate for queer rights

-on a similar note, lu ten was gay. ozai was straight. zhao was straight and azulon was probably also straight. just getting them out of the wAy.

piandao

-gay gay gay. likes men.

-him and jeong jeong as a salty judgmental old couple is so real

-also everyone knows about it but nobody dares to give him shit for it

-he just glares and you immediately get off his back

-he could get himself a husband and nobody in the fire nation would do anything to stop him because they literally cannot arrest him

-he'll just shut the door on their face

jeong jeong

-also gay. big gay.

-tons of internalised homophobia, bless him

-tons of self hatred

-like, the way he sees his firebending as a curse of destruction and hatred and hates himself for it—instead of seeing all the colours of the dragons' rainbow fire, like zuko and aang, who symbolise the new generation

-it can work so well as a queer self-acceptance metaphor

-he definitely ends up with piandao, as i said before. begrudgingly in love.

hama

-lesbian. privately, as per water tribe tradition.

-nobody in the south gives her shit for it.

-she definitely had a relationship with kanna.

-when she lived in the fire nation, things were different. living as her authentic self was impossible—even secretly, it became near-impossible.

-hama's life is one big tragedy.

pakku

-straight. initially homophobic as per water tribe conservatism. the sort of, "just don't shove it in my face" homophobia

-but upon realising that like, both his friend group and his wife are incredibly queer, he gets over it

-iroh helps with educating him

-it's also canon that zuko gives the southern water tribe custody of hama after the war which i find incredibly sweet

-but since hama and kanna were... tight, I find myself incredibly entertained imagining possible interactions between pakku and hama

kanna (gran gran)

-kanna was bisexual.

-in the time she spent traveling from the north to the south she slept with a bunch of people

-fire nation pirates, sand bender bandits, earth kingdom soldiers... hakoda's father is a mystery. a mama mia situation.

-other flings include the herbalist, probably, (all old people know each other)

-even madame wu, why not?

-like it entertains me to think that kanna was unhinged the moment she left the Northern Water Tribe

-and being a non bender she used all tools at her disposal to reach the south if you know what i mean

-that being said, she also learned to fight a bit. probably. just to spite pakku.

-when she reached the south, she had a thing with hama. i say this because of the kataang parallel when hama was taken away.

hakoda and bato

-hakoda is bi, bato is gay

-hakoda loved kya, bato loved him secretly and never told him

-after kya died, bato was his only comfort, they fell in love

-once malina enters the situation too, it eventually ends up being a polycule

-note that i strongly dislike malina and those comics

[azenkii]

A Long List of Trash Fire Lord Zuko Headcanons

...that i couldn't get out of my head:

(warning: SUPER LONG POST i havent figured out how to trim posts yet)

he's the one who unchains azula despite iroh's protests. she doesn't even try to fight him, just cries into his shoulder and keeps mumbling about how father's going to be so disappointed in her. he takes her to her rooms and has her drink a sleeping draught, then stations the best guards he has left outside her chambers.

his first council meeting takes place literally a day after sozin's comet. he hobbles into the council chamber shirtless with his entire torso covered in bandages and every council member just looks at him like '...what'

he does NOT sleep for like,,a week after sozin's comet and then another two weeks after his coronation. katara, aang and suki try to persuade him to sleep and he doesn't listen. eventually sokka, toph and mai team up to literally drag his ass to bed and tell him he's not allowed to get up until he sleeps (does mai pin him to the bed with her knives? yes. is it kinky or sexual in any way? definitely not.)

he drinks So. Much. Tea. at this point it's practically tasteless to him but he drinks it anyway because he just needs something to do and tea is something familiar. he keeps iroh on his toes because he's constantly asking for new tea blends, uncle, i think i actually tasted the last one,

he flat-out refuses to grow his hair for at least a year after ozai's defeat. the second it starts getting close to his chin he shears it off himself, with his knife, and his stylist has a heart attack every single time

when he's tired he'll occasionally jump up when one of his guards moves. it stops after a bit, but for the first month and a half or so he's really twitchy. when sokka asks, the only explanation he can come up with is that he's not used to having people stand behind him silently and not want to kill him, much less want to protect him (sokka immediately takes him out for a shopping trip and makes a point of walking behind him the entire time, but only on zuko's right side, where he can clearly see it if sokka moves towards him)

when the healer declares azula mentally unstable and in need of an institution, he shuts himself in his office for the rest of the night. no one's allowed in, not even iroh. he finally emerges in the morning, eyes red from crying and sleep deprivation, and tells the librarian that he'd like a list of the best mental institutions in the country, please, the best in the world if you can get them

he loves theatre (is this even a headcanon?). unfortunately it practically died out in the fire nation along with the rest of the creative arts, leaving nothing but small troupes like the ember island players. one of zuko's personal goals (meaning things he wants to accomplish that aren't as important as restoring his country) is to bring back theatre; he finally manages to do it after about eight months or so of being fire lord, along with other arts like dancing, music and sculpture

he establishes a national day of mourning, on the first day of autumn every year, to commemorate the genocide of the air nomads. from 100AG onwards, every calendar printed in the fire nation has it marked. at first it was called the day of repentance, but aang persuaded him to have it changed (by arguing that he didn't want guilt to be a literal staple of fire nation culture)

he introduces literally So Many educational reforms, plus a mandatory class that teaches students about the cultures of the other nations (air nomads included) and how some of their traditions overlap

he turns down the offer of having a statue put up of him in the capital. toph ignores him and does it anyway.

he visits azula regularly, makes sure she's (relatively) comfortable and well-fed, and sometimes just sits down outside her door and tells her about everything that's going on right now ('some of the far colonies have developed their own standardised writing, azula, you wouldn't believe it, and i've asked the fire sages to come visit more often—but you never liked them, did you? oh, well; i'll make sure none of them go into your chambers by mistake')

(he doesn't know it, but when he does this azula sits by the door and listens. she wonders what kind of writing the colonists have developed, and whether or not the fire sages have taken on some new recruits.)

he hates being above anyone else. never sits in the throne if he can help it, nor does he sit on the dais in the council room. when he talks to people shorter than him, he finds himself stooping a little bit to talk to them on their level (the exception to this rule is sokka, who he mocks for being shorter all the way up until sokka grows taller than him, the bastard)

the first time he visits the earth kingdom, the earth king's ministers call a toast. he ends up being the only one who has to sit out, because he's too young to drink by earth kingdom law

once his servants figure out he won't kill them for talking to him, they start becoming a lot more bold, telling him off when he doesn't take care of himself. at one point, they force him to let them take care of him so much that he literally just bolts into the gardens and hides there until the staff rope in mai and ty lee

when he needs to escape, he does one of two things: (a) he dresses up as the blue spirit and does some parkour until he calms down, or (b) he goes to work at the jasmine dragon. (b) happens less often bc the jasmine dragon's in ba sing se, but there's been a few memorable incidents when an earth kingdom diplomat walks in and yells, 'LEE?!' when they see the fire lord

the first court artist who draws him also happens to be the one who drew azulon and ozai. he draws zuko without his scar. zuko takes one look at it and tells him, very calmly, that he'd like him to leave, please.

zuko burns the portrait. he doesn't fire the court artist, but he never calls on him again unless he has to. a second court artist is called, and can't help but be a bit confused when the fire lord tells him to be sure to include the scar

he forgets the crown. a lot. sometimes he walks into council meetings in his sleepwear with his hair tied up in a messy ponytail and a bunch of scrolls tucked under his arm. none of his councilmen have the guts (or the heart) to tell him that this is not, in fact, formal council wear

he goes to feed the turtleducks when he's stressed. he thinks he's being subtle. he's not. the entire palace knows, and they consciously give him space when they see him in the turtleduck garden

most of his staff are older than him, so they look at him and see this teeny tiny fire lord who is So Small and who Must Be Protected. the day after zuko's coronation, the head chef holds a meeting where they commence Operation Do-Not-Let-That-Boy-Turn-Out-Like-His-Father (subsection He's-The-Only-Good-Thing-We-Have)

one night he wakes up to find suki sitting in his room, decked out in full kyoshi warrior garb and makeup, and just about screams blue murder. suki tells him there are suspicions of an assassin in the palace, and would you please stop yelling it's very distracting, we won't be able to hear anyone coming over that racket

zuko gets very, very paranoid of random spirits after that. yeah, suki looks like a possibly malevolent spirit when she's wearing her makeup, what about it? (when he tells sokka he's highkey terrified of spirit shenanigans, sokka just looks at him and says, 'man, the stories i could tell...', and THAT'S when zuko remembers sokka spent like six months more than he did travelling with the avatar)

on his first visit to the southern water tribe, he removes his boots and leg guards, rolls up his pants and kneels barefoot in the snow. even though chief hakoda immediately starts trying to pull him up, he's stubborn as hell and stays kneeling for the entirety of his very long, very sincere apology-on-behalf-of-the-fire-nation speech. he nearly loses his toes to frostbite after that, and both sokka and katara never stop giving him shit for it

the first time he grows a 'beard' is completely accidental. he's stressed over some trade miscommunications with chief hakoda, hasn't slept in a few days...and then when sokka arrives as water tribe ambassador to help smooth things over, he takes one look at zuko and says 'man, facial hair does not suit you'

zuko: facial what now

he checks a mirror to find that he's got stubble covering his chin, dark enough that it almost looks intentional, and holy gods how the fuck did he not notice this before

'UNCLE WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME' 'i assumed you were doing it on purpose' 'WHEN HAVE I EVER DONE ANYTHING ON PURPOSE'

he shaves it all off immediately, of course, which prompts a lot of teasing and rib-poking from sokka until zuko finally snaps that he's scared it'll make him look like his father. sokka stops after that.

(the day after sokka leaves, zuko finds that a mysterious someone has scribbled all over ozai's royal portrait, giving him a frankly ridiculous beard and moustache that literally CANNOT be grown in real life. oddly enough, he can't bring himself to care about the defamation of royal property. he's too busy laughing.)

his paths cross with toph and sokka more than any of the others, because sokka is ambassador and toph is technically still a beifong. most of the time, at formal functions, he ends up sequestered in the corner with toph and a hoard of snacks, and they talk and swear much more than they usually do (zuko's ministers once heard him when he was drunk with toph, and the servants swear the older ministers' ears started bleeding)

he restores fire nation cultural festivals, and in doing so subjects himself to learning a lot of complicated dances

during one memorable week, he wrote so many letters and drafted so much legislation that he ran out of paper. he had to go visit the nearest school and ask for some

he keeps up with his firebending and sword training even though it's hard to fit into his schedule. his ministers refrain from reminding him that he has guards to protect him now; it's still hard for zuko to trust his safety with anyone but himself (team avatar is the exception).

he started sleepwalking about two months into his reign. no one knew why. one time, he nearly sleepwalked right off the edge of a balcony, and one of his guards had to grab him by the back of his robes.

the sleepwalking stopped after around a month and never happened again. at this point it's practically palace legend.

after freeing the war prisoners, he went around collecting every single earthbender-proof wooden cell he could find in the capital and surrounding areas. when he'd gotten most of them, he gathered them into a huge pile in the city square and set fire to them with his own hands.

unfortunately he couldn't do that with the waterbender metal cells but he did get toph to come in and bend them all into pretty shapes (well, toph thought they were pretty shapes. everyone else thinks they're meaningless squiggles)

he learned how to write with both hands at the same time out of sheer necessity (he refused scribes until it became clear that he'd be putting some people out of a job; that was when he started letting scribes write very, very minor things, but all important documents/drafts/letters are still written by him)

he once put the wet end of an ink brush in his mouth instead of the wooden end by mistake. didn't even realise until he bit down to keep it in place and ink went oozing everywhere

when his guards rushed in to find him coughing and spluttering black liquid all over his desk they thought he'd been poisoned but no he's just stupid

on his 17th birthday, his first one after being crowned, he got tackled by team avatar in the middle of the ballroom and ended up at the bottom of a cuddlepile for like ten minutes

this cuddlepile happened at an event that was very much public and very much formal. it was a scandal for weeks

just. fire lord zuko, guys. so much potential

[forever--rain]

I wanted to create a separate post for this, @thebansheeandherboy, because it’s a topic that is near and dear to my heart as a little sister with an older brother. (And this got...LONG. So I've hidden part of it under the cut.)

My brother used to be very set in his patriarchal ways. Certain things were "a woman's job." He was absolutely convinced there was something wrong with every guy who miraculously took interest in me. For a long time, we had a very Sokka-and-Katara-Book-1 relationship. Antagonistic yet fond. Full of conflict yet protective.

As we grew up, he dated some girls who were very strong-willed and courageous. They didn't take his crap. They were my earliest feminist influences and I love them all for it. Without them, I may not have found my voice and become the person I am today. And they changed him, too.

He's very supportive of my independence now. He thinks I kick ass and is extremely proud of who I am, even if we don't always see eye to eye. And as the years have passed, he's learned that my judgement in regard to friends and significant others is pretty good. Sure, I made my youthful follies, but so did he.

Though I know he'll never admit it out loud because it would mean admitting that he likes someone whose views directly oppose his, he actually likes my S.O. and he's glad that we finally found our way to one another. And though I know I'll never hear the precise words, "I like him," I see it in a myriad of little ways which I won't delve into now because it's not pertinent.

"Ever," you may be asking. "What does any of this have to do with fictional characters?"

Well, Sokka learned from strong female influences as well. He shed his misogynistic views and embraced Katara, Suki, and Toph for who they were--strong women. He learned not to underestimate them. I've seen that in real life and I can relate to it.

It's my personal headcanon that Sokka and Zuko become lifelong best friends after everything that happened during the war. Zuko would come to admire Sokka's ingenuity and Sokka would appreciate Zuko's sense of duty and honor. They'd both respect each other's leadership skills and be in constant communication about inventions or laws or anything else under the sun. They'd be good sounding boards for one another. (And they'd also really grow to appreciate each other's senses of humor.)

(Truly, these two are my brotp.)

In a universe where Zuko and Katara get together, I actually see Sokka catching on long before either of them do. Maybe Suki would have to clue him in, but I don't think so. I think he'd catch on to their chemistry at the Western Air Temple during the war. And I think that he'd sit down with Zuko to talk to him after the war. Not in an "over protective big brother" kind of way or anything. He'd definitely just want to thank Zuko for saving Katara's life since she's always been the one to sacrifice for everyone else. He'd make sure to tell Zuko what that means to him and how much he respects him for it. He might even tell Zuko that he's like a brother to him.

That would be the beginning of it, though.

Sure, maybe a part of Sokka would find it weird because it's his little sister and his best friend (and, honestly? I'd find it weird at first if my best friend liked my sibling), but he'd kind of get it. Zuko and Katara push one another. They complement one another. They have a selfless and unconditional give and take that somehow always remains equal. Plus, Sokka knows Katara better than anyone. She's strong-willed and determined. Even if he hated the idea of her and Zuko getting together, that wouldn't stop her. He knows, too, that Zuko has always seen Katara for who she is. Zuko's not once underestimated her. He'll remember when Zuko and Katara went to track down Yon Rha and that memory will reinforce in his mind that Zuko is willing to provide Katara with unwavering support no matter the decision she makes.

And when he notices them looking at each other when the other has no clue, he'll realize he's seen that look before. Katara looks at Zuko the way Suki looks at him. And Zuko might be better at hiding his emotions than Sokka ever could be, but he can't completely disguise the way his eyes go soft when Katara walks into a room. (Don't forget: Sokka trained with Piandao. He has higher observational skills than most people give him credit for.)

And he'd just kind of watch over the years as Zuko and Katara sit in denial and dance around it. But he'd also definitely tease them both about it relentlessly, don't get me wrong! He'd make kissy faces at Zuko behind Katara's back. He'd walk around after Katara mimicking her voice as he says, "Oh, Zuko's so handsome. Zuko's such a powerful bender. Zuko has such nice, shiny hair." (Until Katara bends a snowball into his face, of course.)

Maybe Katara would try dating other people. Sokka would say things like, "You know, this guy doesn't make you laugh. Even Zuko makes you laugh." Or, "This guy can't even sling a boomerang! At least Zuko can wield two swords at once. You should find someone like that." Or, "You should be with someone who's unafraid to give you autonomy and likes your political ideas."

And if Zuko looked like he was about to give in to an arranged marriage, Sokka might step in in a subtler way. "You know, you should find someone who challenges you and inspires you to be a better person. Someone with aspiration who isn't afraid to speak her mind. Especially if she's speaking up for the average person. And you should really try to find someone you love because leading a nation seems like a lonely thing and you don't deserve to be alone."

When they finally decided to try to be together, the two of them would keep it under wraps at first. People might suspect, but there'd be no concrete evidence. Toph would claim she's noticed a difference in the energy between them. And Suki might say Katara's letters suddenly contain a little too much Zuko. But Sokka, ever the skeptic, wouldn't buy into it because his best friend and his sister are dense.

Maybe Sokka stumbles across them snuggled under a tree by the turtleduck pond one day. Or maybe he catches them kissing during the winter solstice celebration in the Southern Water Tribe. And he definitely pulls something melodramatic because, let's face it, he's Sokka. Plus, he just wants to give them shit because he's still Katara's brother and Zuko's best friend and he's obligated.

Afterward, though, he'd track Zuko down. Zuko might try to explain in his usual fumbling manner, but Sokka would just look at him and say, "You know if you hurt her or leave her or if you don't find a way to make this last forever, she'll kill you, right?" And then he'd pull out a flask of Southern Water Tribe vodka, raise it in Zuko's direction and say, "Flameo, hotman. Flameo." And together they would toast to Zuko and Katara's relationship.

(But Sokka would still lovingly give them shit for the rest of their lives.)

[inkmyname]

The Ember Island Players: performing toxic masculinity and narrative complicity in propagating misogyny

Initially I wasn’t going to respond to concerns about Katara’s racist/misogynistic portrayal in the Ember Island Players with anything more than snarky tags, but apparently I can’t keep my mouth shut, so I’m posting my response as a standalone meta about how the writers’ insistence on creating drama for drama’s sake leads them to--in lieu of actual character development--fall back on lazy narrative shortcuts whereby a performance of toxic masculinity against a gendered heternormative background is used to create tension in a romantic relationship, presumably with the goal of keeping the audience invested.

The Ember Island Players is problematic for a lot of reasons, not least of which is the pervasive tone-deaf misogyny, including racialized misogyny, directed at Katara. There’s a lot of meta on this, so I’d like to focus on something different: Aang’s relationship with gender and romantic attachments.

Aang seems so uncharacteristically chagrined the whole episode: “I’m not a woman!” Based on his previous characterization up to this point:

The Fortuneteller. This is the same Aang who makes a necklace for Katara when she loses her mother’s. Observe how he responds to Sokka’s jibe about jewelry-making, which can be seen as a feminine pursuit: Sokka: Great, Aang. Maybe instead of saving the world, you can go into the jewelry-making business. Aang: I don’t see why I can’t do both. Femininity isn’t presented as being mutually exclusive with narrative pursuits like saving the world which have traditionally centered male protagonists (especially if we take the entire canon of anything every written in any genre that’s not specifically, say, something like shoujo or jounen which are directed and young girls and women, the narrative focus on male personalities is overwhelming).

The Warriors of Kyoshi. Oh, and this is the same Aang that dressed up in full Kyoshi gear, kabuki makeup and all, without complaint. Why would he? After all, she was him in a past life. (There’s a whole meta here about gender-critical analysis of kabuki productions where male actors typically assumed female roles and how Avatar both takes inspiration from this real-life kernel and subverts it in Rise of Kyoshi where Kyoshi’s signature look is not only an homage to her parental heritage but also a reimagining of who can inhabit what roles. Her legacy, though imperfect, is also notably feminist, taking face paint worn typically by men IRL and expanding it into war paint for women warriors.) (There’s also great headcanon-adjacent meta here about gender non-conformity and non-binary identities in Avatar. Avatar was not overtly explicit about its feminist or gender-progressive mindset outside of episodes like The Warriors of Kyoshi or The Waterbending Master, but it was still way ahead of its time. If anyone was to be presented or headcanoned in such a way, it would be the Avatar who’s lived a thousand lives, inhabiting a thousand skins and a thousand identities, including gender identities. There’s also cool crossover meta here about the Legend of Korra depicting a female Avatar in Korra with masculine tendencies and visible muscle vs Aang as a male Avatar with a gentler pacifistic spirit and gender nonconforming tendencies.)

The Cave of Two Lovers. Aang wears a freaking flower crown and is generally wholesome and adorable, even leading up to the “let’s kiss lest we die” scene with Katara. He’s not pushy or overly concerned with appearing masculine and it is in fact Katara who suggests the kiss and Aang makes a fool of himself. From the transcript: Katara [Shyly, blushing.] Well, what if we … kissed? Aang [Very surprised.] Us … kissing‌? Katara See? It was a crazy idea. Aang [Dreamily.] Us … kissing … Katara [Fake-jokingly.] Us kissing. What was I thinking? Can you imagine that‌? Aang [Fake-jokingly.] Yeah. [Awkwardly laughs.] I definitely wouldn’t want to kiss you! [Beat.] Katara [Insulted.] Oh, well! I didn’t realize it was such a horrible option. [Angrily.] Sorry I suggested it! Aang [Realizing his mistake.] No, no, I mean … if there was a choice between kissing you and dying … Katara [Disgusted.] Ugh! Aang [Desperately.] What? I’m saying is I would rather kiss you than die - that’s a compliment. Katara [Enraged.] Well, I’m not sure which I’d rather do! [Slams the torch into his hand and storms away.] Aang [Miserably.] What is wrong with me … Aang, sweetie, this is not what you say to a girl you want to kiss, but generally, this is Wholesome™ and narratively, this is Good™. Eventually, they do kiss and that’s perfectly acceptable because there’s a whole conversation beforehand with humorous romantic framing. There’s consent and communication and initiative by the female protagonist. So solid A on the sensitive writing.

General Air Nomad culture. We don’t get a lot of Air Nomad culture in the show (and what little we do get what presented in such a misguided way, especially the whole commitment to forgiveness/pacifism which was handled in such an amateur black-and-white way from a writing perspective in season 3). But I digress. I really, really don’t think that Air Nomads who were so concerned with the spiritual side of bending and general existence had stringent notions of gender and romantic relationships–at the very least, they had very different notions of these issues compared to, say, the Northern Water Tribe. Canonically, even though AN philosophy emphasized detachment, Air Nomads practiced free love. Same-gender romance was freely accepted unlike in the homophobic Earth Kingdom (which even Kyoshi, a bisexual woman, wasn’t able to change) and the militant Fire Nation (Sozin outlawed homosexuality after declaring world war, essentially). And though the temples were gender-segregated, it seems that the burden of raising children fell to the entire community instead of just the women. Both male and female Air Nomads are revered. In the case of the former, Guru Laghima who unlocked the power of flight through achieving complete detachment from the material world. And in the case of the latter, Avatar Yangchen, who has statues everywhere because she came to be revered as a deity not just among Air Nomads but in the physical world in general. Nowhere in Air Nomad philosophy is the concept of gender, romance, love, sexuality, relationships etc. etc. tainted with jealousy and possessiveness (especially towards women) or rigid binary heternormativity.

So this was Aang for the better part of the first half of the series. Not overly concerned with gender roles. Pretty much fumbling his way through his first crush like a lovesick puppy and it’s all very wholesome. Supposedly a classic product of Air Nomad upbringing.

Meanwhile, Aang in EIP:

Checks out Katara’s butt as she’s sitting down.

Gets mad at being portrayed by a woman.

Accuses Katara of being the racialized misogynistic version of herself depicted on stage ([sarcastically]“Yeah, that’s not you at all.”).

Nods in agreement when the misogynistic stage production of Katara presents her as the “Avatar’s girl.”

Unable to differentiate between fiction and reality and puts the onus on Katara to do the emotional labor to justify something she never said (”Katara, did you really mean what you said in there? On stage, when you said I was just like a … brother to you, and you didn’t have feelings for me.”)

Assumes they would just… fall into a relationship… just because he forcibly kissed her at the invasion and again pressures Katara to do the emotional labor to justify why their relationship is not how he wants it (“But it’s true, isn’t it? We kissed at the Invasion, and I thought we were gonna be together. But we’re not.” / “Aang, I don’t know.” / “Why don’t you know?”)

Forces a non-consensual kiss on her even though “I just said I was confused!”

So, there’s so many things wrong with this, most of which are a laundry list of behaviors typical of toxic masculinity:

Ogling

Outdated misogynistic humor (what’s wrong with being a woman?)

Verbal abuse

Offloading emotional labor

Gaslighting

Pressuring a potential romantic partner

Lack of direct communication about romantic desires

Lack of sensitivity

Lack of active listening

Lack of emotional intelligence and empathy

Lack of consent and sexual assault

I could go on and on.

My question is Where and when did he learn these toxic behaviors? What happened to the wholesome boy making necklaces, wearing flower crowns, and generally being adorable in a kid with a first crush kind of way when it comes to romance?

Now, you can argue that EIP players Aang has been through a lot, including being shot by lightning and actually dying, and after the failed invasion, he’s stressed out with the weight of the world on his shoulders and maybe not expressing himself or his desires in the best way and taking out all of his frustrations on Katara.

Except… that is all just conjecture because the actual writing of the show doesn’t put in the hard work and make those connections. Instead, they fall back on misogynistic tropes and toxic heternormative romance tropes and a forced love triangle subtext and they just, to put it politely, fuck it up, two and a half seasons’ worth of work, gone, in the space of one episode. And even if it weren’t conjecture, it would still be wrong of Aang to act the way he did.

Let’s list Aang and Katara’s interaction in relation to each other in season 3:

The Headband. “Don’t worry about them. It’s just you and me right now,” Aang says as he pulls Katara into a dance. I have qualms about the writing of this episode: the creators wasted a golden opportunity to flesh out the Air Nomad genocide because they were too busy playing footloose in a cave, they wrote Katara–the same Katara would said fuck you to Pakku, freed enslaved earthbenders from a Fire Navy prison, and became a spirit goddess ecoterrorist to help a village in an enemy nation–as uncharacteristically shy just so Aang could sweep in and pull her into a dance. But like fine, whatever. It’s cute and really well-chreographed and there’s actually appropriate romantic framing here for once and at the end of the dance, look at Katara’s face–she’s happy! Positive Kataang interaction, and I don’t actually mind it. 7/10.

The Day of Black Sun Pt.1. He forces a kiss on her on the mouth, taking her completely by surprise. A chaste kiss on the cheek and a wistful pining last look and “Be safe” might have been acceptable, but given Katara’s shocked and uncomfortable body language, the kiss on the mouth was not. Worse yet, the show just… forgets… to follow up on it for several episodes and when it’s brought up again, it’s used as a sledgehammer to punish Katara for not magically being with Aang. 0/10.

The Painted Lady. Let’s look at the transcript: Katara [Using a disguised voice.] Well, hello Avatar. I wish I could talk, but I am very busy. Aang Yeah, me too. I hate that. [Looks at Katara’s face from behind the veil.] You know, you’re really pretty, for a spirit. I don’t meet too many spirits, but the ones I do meet, not very attractive. [Looks at Katara suspiciously. Tries to look under the hat.] Katara [Giggles nervously.] Thank you, but- Aang You seem familiar too. Katara A lot of people say that. Aang [Suspicious.] No, you really seem familiar. Katara Look, I really should get going. [Covers her face and runs, but Aang uses his airbending and blasts her hat up into the air, exposing her.] Aang Katara? Katara [Guiltily.] Hi, Aang. Aang [Shocked.] You’re the Painted Lady? [Pointing at Katara.] But how?Katara I wasn’t her at first, I was just trying to help the village. [Takes her hat off.] But since everyone thought that’s who I was anyway, I guess I just kinda became her. [Drops her hat on the ground.] Aang So you’ve been sneaking out at night? Wait, is Appa even sick?Katara He might be sick of the purple berries I’ve been feeding him, but other than that he’s fine! Aang I can’t believe you lied to everyone, so you could help these people. Katara I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t have … Aang [Happily.] No, I think it’s great! You’re like a secret hero! Katara Well, if you wanna help, there’s one more thing I have to do. Aang gives her a curious look. Cut to the Fire Nation factory. Aang and Katara run along the river’s edge toward it. Aang looks at the polluted water. Aang You wanna destroy this factory? Katara Yes. Sokka was just kidding, but he was right. Getting rid of this factory is the only way to help these people permanently. He helps her blow up the Fire Nation smelting plant! Yes, he does call her pretty, but more importantly, this is one of the few times he acknowledges her faults (lying, deception, putting the mission at risk to help the enemy nation etc.) and still thinks she’s so fucking cool. He calls her a secret hero! There’s a lot of admiration and support here from Aang. He’s raising up Katara (instead of putting her down as in EIP) not because he sees her as a potential love interest but because he admires her and her compassion! This is great. Solid wholesome Kataang interaction. 10/10. But all good things must come to an end…

The Southern Raiders. I’m not going to spend too much time on this because there’s a million pieces of meta on this episode. He’s completely out of line asking Katara to be forgive her mother’s killer, the source of her greatest trauma as a victim of targeted ethnic cleansing. Given that he’s a victim of ethnic genocide himself, although he personally wasn’t there for it/didn’t actually witness it unlike Katara, he should have understood. He does say “You need to face this man,” which is good and supportive and he should have stopped there, because he continues on to say, “But when you do, please don’t choose revenge. Let your anger out, and then let it go. Forgive him.” Stop. Stop stop stop. No one should tell a traumatized victim of ethnic cleansing how to deal with their trauma. By the end of the episode, Katara doesn’t kill him–but she crafts a third path as the conclusion to her hero’s journey and it is not the path of forgiveness that Aang preaches. Ironically, it is Zuko, who also confronts Ozai, the source of his greatest trauma, who never tells Katara what to do but follows her lead instead: even though he redirects lightning at Ozai and could have killed him, he doesn’t go through with it. He understands Katara and he understands that she needs to this. Kataang interaction rating: 0/10.

So that’s where we are with Aang and Katara in Ember Island Players. Some positive interactions that are appropriately romantically framed and some that are just wholesome and good… but all ruined by forced kissing and moralizing about Katara’s trauma instead of offering understanding. So that still doesn’t answer when Aang would have learned all of the toxic masculine/heternormative behaviors he displayed in The Ember Islands Players.

The only answer, I’m forced to conclude, is bad fucking writing, where the creators were not only tone-deaf in portraying Katara in a racist/misogynistic way or, you know, in writing solely for the male gaze because fuck half the audience, I guess, but they just wanted to create drama for drama’s sake. They completely disrespected their female lead and I would argue they disrespected Aang’s character too in making him a stereotypical self-insert Gary Stu who displays toxic masculine behavior without consequences because that’s what’s expected of a toxic heternormative romantic plot device.

And worse yet, they never follow up on this, just like with the kiss at the Invasion. In the last five minutes of the finale, Katara looks up at him with admiration for saving the world and then kisses him. This is not only a missed opportunity for character development for Aang, but also a big fuck you to the female audience because the message is clear: the guy gets the girl as a trophy for saving the world, and fuck input from the female half of the partnership because that’s just not important and is not worthy of screentime. But I guess screentime dedicated to displaying toxic masculine/heternormative behaviors without ever condemning such behavior as a follow-up is just fine! :)))

If the EIP was supposed to make an argument for Kataang, then it failed. but more important:

By the show’s own high standards, The Ember Island Players is a failed episode, full of bad writing and worse characterization. For a show that was so ahead of its time, this episode is a narrative black mark, a failure of progressive representation and a disservice to its main characters.

There’s some wholesome Sukka and Zuko/Toph interaction, but even that doesn’t manage to save this episode, especially given there’s no resolution to the central conflict: the relationship between Aang and Katara. The entire unnecessarily OOC and forced Kataang drama drags it down.

We know Aang is capable of lifting up Katara and being supportive of her, as he was in episodes prior. We could have had honest, supportive, and open dialogue between Aang and Katara that actually followed up on the Invasion kiss, with Aang clearly expressing what he wants, Katara expressing that maybe she didn’t want that right now, and Aang completely respecting that and them hugging at the end because their friendship/connection is much more profound than pre-teen romance. This is an instance where Aang could have chosen to center Katara’s feelings, for once, instead of his own out of selfless love. If this happened, I would have been okay with a Kataang ending. But that isn’t what we got, obviously.

Part of what appealed to me about Aang as a male protagonist in media aimed at young audiences is that he–at least initially–did not start out as a toxic self-insert Gary Stu lifted from every problematic heternormative romance film ever. In fact, given his playful trickster archetype, general kindness/gentleness, and his stance against violence (a typically masculine trait), he both subverted expectations of and expanded the boundaries of what a male protagonist in children’s media can look like. Unfortunately, the creators don’t go all the way with Aang. In fact, they took a step back with his portrayal in The Ember Island Players, where the creators not only rely on misogynistic tropes to create drama but also make him complicit in propagating said misogyny. And that’s just a damn shame because we could have had a wholesome Kataang storyline and a sensitive male protagonist who cares not about your outdated gender roles and respects his partner’s autonomy!

[sparkles-and-trash]

Modern ATLA AU Headcanons Meme

Reblog this post, and your own answers!

I love myself some modern AU's, and I love how different they all are, so, I made this so we can all share, and feel free to add characters if you want, and just not do any of these if the character isn't important to you!

General:

Bending? Yes! Always!

Monarchy? Nope

Our world or theirs? Their's all the way

Animals? Boring ones from our world, it's what I know the best lol

Aang:

Tattoos? yes, always, and I keep the inspired by the ones in the movie (the movie is awful but the tattoos are cool and actual rl inspired?

Home life/family/upbringing? I usually go with him being raised by Monk Gyatso, and keep everything else kind of vague

Major/job? I go back and fourth, but I like him as a tattoo artist, or as a vet, anything with animals, or as a nurse, preferably a pediatric nurse!

Hobbies? Skating, in any form, yoga, meditation, painting and art

Vegetarian or Vegan? I think he's be cruelty free as far as it's possible

Appa and Momo? Big, fluffy rescue dog and small, shifty cat

personality compared to canon? Pretty similar, maybe a tad less traumatized considering the war didn't happen, but he's still the Avatar, and he still suffered great loss very young

how long have they've known the Gaang? Toph since always, water sibs since middle- or high-school, Zuko either middle school or uni, spending on the story, Suki in high school when she dates Sokka

some random headcanon(s)? he doesn't drink, but he does occasionally enjoy some ouíd at parties or when others drink

Katara:

Home life/family/upbringing? Their mother died when they were really young, and Hakoda married his lifelong best friend, Bato. They're generally a happy family.

Major/job? I love doctor Katara, and vet Katara, but also Katara in Politics, working hard making the world a better place!

personality compared to canon? Extremely similar, kind, brave, not afraid to speak her mind, awkward in certain situations, a pesky but loving younger sister, etc.

how long have they've known the Gaang? meets Aang and Toph early high school, Suki pretty fast after, Zuko late high school or uni

Hobbies? Sporty, likes to play all sports but doesn't do any seriously, swimming, surfing, writing, reading

some random headcanon(s)? she very good in school, but she's not a goody-two-shoes, she likes a good party as much as anyone

Sokka:

Home life/family/upbringing? Their mother died when they were really young, and Hakoda married his lifelong best friend, Bato. They're generally a happy family.

Major/job? I always like him as some type of engineer, but anything clever and creative is cool!

personality compared to canon? Similar, but maybe a little less... insecure? in that he never had to protect for his entire Tribe very young, and he did very well in school and had lots of talent, but also he has enough struggles to not be a dick? Extremely competitive and protective tho.

how long have they've known the Gaang? meets Aang and Toph early high school, starts dating Suki soon after, Zuko late high school or uni

Hobbies? Surfing in summer, skating, always, drawing and painting, gaming

some random headcanon(s)? has ADHD, is a bi-king, very comfortable with that, and is somehow good friends with all of his exes

Zuko:

Home life/family/upbringing? Similar to canon, just a modern rich asshole version of Ozai, who's either a huge criminal or just inherited a lot of money, Ursa out of the picture, Iroh as caretaker from a young age, but still lived kinda sheltered and was very lonely in his kid and teen years

Major/job? I like tons of stuff for him, either him managing a Jasmin Dragon, preferably with him adding a book café, but also a writer, photographer or tattoo artist

personality compared to canon? very similar, but since I usually write them uni aged or older, he's more mature? But he does still have some anger management issues, can be oblivious to social settings, awkward, brash and has very little knowledge of some basic stuff due to growing up rich. But he's also very loyal, loves his friends so much, and wants everyone to be okay, all the time.

how long have they've known the Gaang? Aang either middle school or late high school, Toph from a young age, and the others either late high school or uni.

Hobbies? Writing, photography, reading, fan fiction, musical nerd, bad gamer

Scar story? Ozai, in some way, preferably when Zuko speaks against something evil he did in front of the wrong people, so similar to canon

some random headcanon? used to have a pretty bad stutter, and even tho it's almost not noticeable anymore, he's very insecure about it

Toph:

Home life/family/upbringing? Extremely sheltered, barley got to go to public school, snuck out a lot, moves out the second she can and has a tense relationship with her parents

Major/job? I never know tbh, so many possibilities, but I like her as some sort of teacher, either in earth bending, or martial art!

personality compared to canon? Pretty much similar as canon? Loud, unapologetically herself, fiercely protective over her friends, funny af

how long have they've known the Gaang? Toph and Aang since childhood, water sibs since early high school

Hobbies? passionate about good music, is a talented drummer, knows piano from childhood, is a fairly popular youtube gamer/streamer

some random headcanon? demiromantic bisexual, she teaches Zuko how to play the piano and he loves it sm it's their thing

Suki:

Home life/family/upbringing? Was raised by a single mom and has a bunch of siblings, not poor, but lower middle class, but comes from a loving home

Major/job? Professional athlete of some type, then a coach when retired

personality compared to canon? The same as for what we know! Good attitude, including, funny, very passionate.

how long have they've known the Gaang? most of them from high school when she starts dating Sokka!

Hobbies? Surfing, gaming, material arts, music, plays the bass

some random headcanon? flannel bi, has lots of freckles and big, green eyes

Mai:

Home life/family/upbringing? Similar to canon, but her mom divorced her father around the start of high school, and they had it a lot better then. She loves her little brother a lot, he's pretty similar to her and looks up to her a lot.

Major/job? Forensic Science major, usually

personality compared to canon? Similar, very similar. Quiet and calculating, but loves her friends and family dearly. Witty, in a quiet way.

Hobbies? plays the violin, reads a lot, goes to a lot of concerts

some random headcanon? I think of her as a lesbian, but I like aro ace Mai, too

Azula:

Home life/family/upbringing? Same as Zuko, but she moves in with Iroh a little later than him. No contact with her father after that tho, goes on the fitness stand against him after the Zuko thing. Very protective of Zuko, and she doesn't hide it, but she can be ruthless with him, too.

Major/job? Leadership, of some kind

personality compared to canon? She's definitely still Azula, she's amazing at reading people, can be cunning, and mean, but not cruel. Had a major psychological breakdown a few years after their father got sent to jail, a reaction to pushing everything away for. so long, and spent some time in a psychiatric hospital, and dealt with a lot with the therapists and doctors there. A very loyal friend.

Hobbies? material arts, advanced fire bending, fashion and reading

some random headcanon? was the leader of the debate club in high school, became a straight up legend in that crowd.

Ty Lee:

Home life/family/upbringing? Basically the same as canon

Major/job? professional gymnast

personality compared to canon? Same as canon

Hobbies? Dancing, cosplay, fashion

some random headcanon? Knows everyone's name, always.

Idk, tag a few people if you wanna, but no pressure to ever do it!

@flamelo @littlespoonsokka and literally everyone who wants to sorry I'm so bad at tagging jslkgg

[carnistcervine]

Water-Fire Reversal AU

...But then, everything changed when the Water Tribes attacked.

Here's the proper headcanons/outline/AU thing for my own interpretation of Water-Fire reversal AU.

Based on my post here.

-The Water Tribes becomes the perpetrators of the 100 years war, and the Fire Nation becomes the one stripped away and decimated.

-God forgot to nerf the Southern Water Tribe and they joined forces with the North during Kyoshi's time.

-Kyoshi is too busy chillin on her island to bother with them, so they become dangerously powerful by the time Roku rolls around.

-The Fire Nation still goes through with it's industrialization, because, come on it's a volcanic island chain. There's lots and lots of heat, and fossil fuels, and metal ore. They wouldn't not have an industrial revolution.

-The only difference here is that Sozin actually heeds Roku's advice and decides to listen to the Avatar. He accepts that the world needs to remain four nations, and decides to help him uphold the balance.

-Their friendship grows strong once again.

-So when colonies appear in the Earth Kingdom, it's the South colonizing Kyoshi island.

-Roku is like, OH HELL NO- D:<

-He goes to confront the Southern Chief, and she's all, bitch I do what I want.

-But Roku has had time to calm his tits on the ride over so, he tries to be rational and restrained about it.

-So he be like, "Leave Kyoshi alone, or I will string you up by your nipples"(or something like that. :'D)

-Also, uh, Kyoshi may or may not be part of why Roku is so mad. I mean he is her direct successor.

-The uh, the Water Tribes didn't like that.

-At all, lmao.

-They get into a fight, he kills the chief, which only further serves to turn the Water Tribes against him. And makes their chief a martyr. Strengthening her cause.

-However, at the time they see Roku as acting as Avatar, so they leave the Fire Nation be. Their beef is with him.

-The Avatar is at war with the Water Tribes for several years, resulting is heavy destruction for both tribes, and leaving Roku exhausted.

-Rather than see their Tribes destroyed, they decide to temporarily back off, lick their wounds, recuperate, and make a plan to strike back against Roku.

-Tired, Roku retires to his volcano home and settles down with his family.

-Now, volcanoes do not erupt with no warning whatsoever. Roku and the inhabitants of his island simply misjudged when it would blow it's top.

-However, it did not escape the Water Tribe's notice that the volcano was growing increasingly unstable.

-They primed themselves to strike as it grew increasingly violent.

-When the volcano blew it's top Roku was dealing with both an angry volcano, and angry waterbenders using their combined power to summon tsunamis.

-Roku had to stop the volcano and protect the people trying to flee at the same time.

-He put more into protecting the people, as they had nothing to do with it and didn't deserve to be dragged into his conflict.

-Sozin, seeing Roku's island blowing it's top, came in on his dragon and offered his help.

-Sozin works to get the people to safety while Roku battles the volcano and waterbenders.

-Roku is overwhelmed and both he and his dragon are slain in battle.

-Sozin sees the attack as a declaration of War.

-The Air Nomads are not wiped out.

-Not because the Water Tribes are nice or anything. No, in this AU, they are just as bad as canon Fire Nation.

-The Air Nomads are still around because there is no water equivalent to Sozin's comet. And where the Air Nomads live, ridiculously high above sea-level, protects them from the Water Tribes.

-Sozin begs the Air Nomads for help, but they refuse to partake in the war. Even to the point of hiding Aang from the world.

-In this AU, the Air Nomads serve a role similar to the canon North and Ba Sing Se. Where they put up their defenses and sit idly by as the rest of the world drowns.

-The Water Tribes decimate and wash away many coastal communities, only sparing the ones that bow down to them and allow themselves to be colonized.

-Ba Sing Se and Omashu are safe, because they are far away from major sources of water. Ba Sing Se is mostly surrounded by desert and the only water way is protected by sea serpents(plural).

-And also that goddamn wall.

-Kyoshi Island had the Unagi, but... it was killed. :'D

-The South had a feast that night. lmao

-Sozin plans on putting an end to the war using Sozin's Comet(called Agni's Comet or the Great Comet).

-But uh, there's an eclipse.

-It becomes known as the Darkest Day in Fire Nation history.

-The Fire Nation royal family make it out okay, but to say the country as a whole was decimated is an understatement.

-This becomes the catalyst to the war, with the Earth Kingdom being moved to join forces with the Fire Nation to fight back against the Water Tribes.

-The Earth Kingdoms and Fire Nation have some leverage with their metal ships, but the Water Tribes have the advantage of literally being able to use the battle field as a weapon.

-Learning from the Darkest Day, the Fire Nation(with the help of the Earth Kingdom) builds a wall around it's inner cities.

-They make a recovery, but the outermost communities(ie. the fishing villages) are pillaged and ravaged constantly by the Water Tribes.

-Of course, there was a short occupation of the Fire Nation by the Water Tribes as a result of the Darkest Day, but well, let's just say Agni's Comet fixed that. :^D

-As for Aang, he still goes out and explores the world, but only under the strict guidance of the other monks.

-They are careful to hide the war from him, and him from the war.

-However they cannot hide him from his destiny forever, and as the monks grow increasingly worried over the world's state of affairs, they decide to hide him away completely.

-Very, intimately aware of the fact that Water is next in the cycle, and they likely won't hesitate to kill the poor child to get their own Avatar to corrupt to their terrible ways.

-Aang doesn't take very well to be smothered and runs away.

-Unfortunately he ends up in the middle of a battlefield with fireballs, waves and ice going every which way.

-The stress of nearly being killed triggers the Avatar state and he freezes the battle with himself in stasis in the center.

-The other soldiers either escape or die in the icy tomb. :)

-Without Sozin and Azulon perpetuating a cycle of abuse, Ozai, Zuko, and Azula all turn out as much better people.

-On the other side, the familial bonds of the water tribe take a much darker tone. Anyone not within the tribe/the family doesn't matter. The Tribe is all that matters, all others are the enemy. They become colder, much more insular. While they care for one another, they become rigid as ice, family and tradition being valued above all else.

-Also, waterbending lost touch with it's roots, becoming dark and perverted. A way to sway others to your own way, rather than flowing with the natural push and pull of the world, it became the water tribe pushing against all and pulling in what they please.

-This is borrowing from another AU of mine(*eyebrow dance*), healing is perverted into a technique that brainwashes people. Think of Katara healing Jet's mind from the brainwashing, but in reverse. :^)

-Kanna and Pakku are betrothed, while Pakku is willing to let things like only teaching women to heal, and arranged marriages slide, finds actual, genuine brainwashing to be genuinely disturbing. But tries his best to ignore it. It's just how things are, he tells himself.

-When Hama developed her bloodbending technique and shows it off to the North.

-She proposes it as a way to get the filthy ashmakers and dirtstompers to submit to the mind melting.

-When they try to get Pakku to learn/teach his students bloodbending, he breaks. He can't take it anymore and deserts.

-He becomes the first to desert the Water Tribe navy.

-Kanna feeling the bite of shame, agrees to marry someone from the South instead.

-But also, daytime bloodbender Yue.

-When Katara turns fourteen, she is deemed a master waterbender and given the rights to begin higher level training and learn the secrets of the Water Tribes.

-She learns of bloodbending, and mind manipulation.

-Having fully bought into Water Tribe propaganda her whole life, she cannot believe this. Horrified, she speaks out directly calling Hama disgusting and wicked for inventing such a technique.

-She rightfully calls out her tribes elders for using these techniques on innocent people.

-Oh, boi, but calling out the elders amounts to treason.

-Because she called out her elders, she had dishonored her ancestors and as such had to best Hama in one-on-one combat to avoid being exiled.

-And uhhh, she lost her fuckin eye instead.

-Disillusioned from loosing his father to the war, Sokka joins Katara in her exile.

-Seeing as Kya is the chief of the South, she gives an in for Katara to return back to the tribe's good graces. A way to prove herself. She must find the Avatar and bring him to the Water Tribes.

-Sokka having grown disillusioned, sees it as a way for him and his sister to finally get away from the darkness infesting their home.

-They spend two years at sea looking for the legendary Avatar who vanished for 100 years.

-Also Katara wears an eyepatch and 100% looks like a motherfucking pirate.

-And Zuko, sixteen year old, grumpy but well meaning and kind-hearted Zuko, fears deeply for his people.

-Unfortunately, he feels like his nation isn't doing nearly enough to protect the people living outside the walls.

-Ozai warns young Zuko multiple times that his is not permitted outside the walls. "That place is no place for royalty." He would say.

-"Come back to your gilded cage" He would mean.

-It's only inevitable that Zuko sneaks out and invents the person of the Blue Spirit to help the poor folk living outside the walls.

-His uncle catches him, but doesn't tell. Instead he watches over him, he knows that he can't stop Zuko from trying to save his own people.

-Unfortunately things go tits up when there is an attack in the middle of Zuko helping the people.

-Zuko is captured, and taken away, but Iroh manages to sneak on as well.

-Together they escape, but by that point that are far, far away from the Fire Nation.

-While slowly rowing their little dingy back, they come across a certain frozen battlefield sitting in the middle of the ocean...

-And as fate would have it, a certain, hot-headed, one-eyed waterbender and her "slacker" brother happen to be sailing nearby when Aang is freed.

-Aang has no idea that he's the Avatar, but he also doesn't feel like going back home. He wants to know why the people are fighting.

-He wants to understand why they hate each other so much. :(

-Iroh picks up that Aang is the Avatar right away though.

-He subtly tries to pry Aang about how much he knows of this or his destiny.

-And Aang knows nothing, the monks never got the chance to tell him because he ran away.

-Iroh thinks of a way to gently break the news to Aang, and tactfully handle his need to be trained so he can put an end to this war once and for all.

-Hopefully before Agni's Comet, because Iroh knows that even though his brother isn't a wicked man, he will do what is necessary to put an end to this.

-You see, the Fire Nation has begun to withdraw, it's mostly biding it's time for the Comet's return so that they can put an end to this struggle once and for all.

-Ozai doesn't want to destroy the Water Tribes, but watching his father drown, his nephew slaughtered, and his own brother crippled and forced into retirement has brought him to some very dark conclusions.

-Iroh advocates strongly against using the comet for war, but Ozai has made it clear if the war does not end before the comet appears... He will do what he deems to be necessary.

-That being said, finding out that his son and brother had been taken by the Water Tribes throws him into a rage.

-And yeah, loosing Lu Ten and Azulon, broke Iroh. Along with being physically injured himself. So he gave up the throne to Ozai, feeling that there was nothing he could do for his country.

-With the Avatar, now found, Iroh decides to indulge his nephew's desire to travel and help in the war effort.

-Because, well, Iroh is terrified that Ozai will use Aang to take down the Water Tribe violently.

-An unfortunate consequence of this is that for a while, Ozai thinks that Zuko and Iroh are dead!

-And Ozai is the opposite of able to cope with this. lmao

-I haven't decided when Aang should realize that he's the Avatar, but it's def gonna be due to him loosing control and lashing out in the avatar state.

-Iroh ends up being the one to calm Aang down when he goes Avatar-Rage-Mode.

-Because Iroh is big soft man, and basically Aang and Zuko's dad.

-It's too soft to for me to resist okay?? :D

-I'm also not entirely sure when to place this on the timeline, but I am highly considering having Ozai find out that Zuko and Iroh are alive at the end of Book 1, so that it can mirror canon a bit. Because as soon as he finds out they're alive he sends his stronk ass, prodigy daughter Azula to go fetch the two and bring them back home safely.

-But also go get the Avatar, so he can be properly trained in firebending.

-Yes, Azula is good in this fic. But she's still not nice. She's very pragmatic and stoic. She does genuinely care about her brother and Uncle, but she considers the safety of the world and the Fire Nation to be more important than their feelings.

-She's cold and detached, but would do anything to protect the Fire Nation, her family or help the world as a whole.

-Azula is also occasionally playful, teasing Zuko and calling him Zuzu or dum-dum.

-Once she's pulled into the story, she kinda serves as a rival to Zuko. Constantly trying to drag the Gaang home to the Fire Nation, so the Avatar can be taught by proper instructors.

-And Ozai is not a bad dude, but he's STRESSED. And seen some very unfortunate things. Let's just say, the war is not putting him a great headspace.

-Like he isn't abusive like Canon!Ozai, but his desperation to save his country and put an end to the war is driving him to do some questionable things. Like considering using Agni's Comet.

-The people of the Foggy Swamp are still good and left in tune with the true nature of water. So when time comes around to Katara to have her heel-face turn, ya already know who she gon go to.

-Also, they sups spiritual, so yeh.

-I am also considering having the Foggy Swamp be the final point of Katara's redemption arc, like her final realization of what he destiny really entails and what she must do.

-But I do want the first step to be Sokka getting injured while protecting her.

-Like she can't believe this, she's about to loose the last piece of her family, and in a desperate move, she rediscovers the lost art of true healing. Saving Sokka's life.

-I’m also considering having Katara join the Gaang at the end of book two.

...

-Sparkle Sparkle Moon Girl.

[caelum-in-the-avatarverse]

Katara's still reeling after learning about bloodbending. Aang tries to help. 

~~~

This one's gonna have discussion of how bending can kill people and allusions to death and stuff, just fyi.

Enjoy!

~~~

“Teach me how to heal?”

Katara blinked a few times and looked up at him. It took her a few seconds to focus on his face. “What?”

“Teach me how to heal,” Aang said again, and then he added, “please.”

She blinked again. “Why?”

Because you cried for hours last night. Because you kept apologizing to Yue. Because your hopes were completely shattered. Because I know how badly you wanted to learn Southern-style waterbending. Because one of your greatest heroes turned out to be the worst kind of villain. Because you’ve been staring at a field of fire lilies all afternoon. “You taught me how to fight...for obvious reasons. But...I know I’d prefer healing over fighting. And...I think we both could use it.”

Katara graced him with a weak smile. “Okay,” she said, straightening up. She already looked better at the prospect of a goal - a mission, something to make the world a better place. “Give me your arm.”

Sokka and Toph left them to it and stuck to the other side of their campsite, Sokka drawing out diagrams for sky bison armor while rattling off ideas, and Toph practicing her metalbending and telling Sokka that, as much as her skills were progressing, she would not be able to created mounted arrow-launchers, nor would they be able to train Momo to use them in time.

Katara spent the better part of an hour tracing her finger up and down her and Aang’s bodies, talking about the twelve standard meridians and chi flow and applying waterbending as a conduit. Aang soaked the information up like a sponge, watched Katara sink her focus into healing, and all the ways you could fix a person.

But eventually her words trailed off halfway through an explanation of how waterbending could keep a person’s heart beating, and she stared at her fingers hovering over Aang’s chest. “It’s...not so different, is it?” she whispered.

Aang took her hand in his. “It’s very different, Katara.”

She shook her head. “I just...can’t believe someone would use waterbending for something so evil.”

“I know,” Aang said gently. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s - we’re supposed to be better than the Fire Nation. Waterbending isn’t evil, it’s good.”

“No bending is good or evil,” Aang said. “It just...is.”

“I’ve never seen firebending used for good,” Katara said dryly.

“Kuzon used to make shapes with it,” Aang shrugged. “People, animals. They’d dance around the campfire. It was cute.”

She looked unconvinced.

“Anyone who knows enough about the human body to heal it is also going to know how to hurt it,” Aang said. “Bending is just an ability, it doesn’t have morals. What’s good and evil is people’s choices on how to use it.”

Katara sighed. “I guess I’m just...so used to the idea of fire being the element that causes pain,” she said. “I never thought water…”

Aang hesitated - but she looked so lost, and she’d cried so much last night, and he cared about her so much. He glanced towards Sokka and Toph, saw they were still engrossed in their own conversation, hopefully far enough away that Toph’s hearing wouldn’t pick anything up. He leaned closer to Katara and said, very quietly but all in a rush, “Airbending can be used to suck the breath right out of someone’s lungs.”

It took a moment for it to sink in, but when it did she stared at him, horrified. “...What?”

Aang hunched his shoulders a bit. “Yeah.”

“You can - ”

“I can’t,” he said immediately. “That’s - it’s forbidden, and even if it wasn’t I wouldn’t want to know how! But it’s...definitely possible. There were old stories. Legends.”

She took another moment to process it. “That’s... awful, Aang.”

“Yeah,” he said, and with a rueful grin added, “there’s reasons why we’re pacifists.” If you listen hard enough you can hear every living thing breathing together, Hue had said, back under the banyan-grove tree. The old Swampbender had no idea how true that had been for Air Nomads.

“I’d never heard that about Airbenders,” Katara said.

“It’s not like it was common knowledge,” Aang shrugged. “We didn’t even talk about it amongst ourselves much. I don’t think anyone even actually knew how to do it, just that it was possible.” Maybe a skilled master could have figured it out on their own, but none of them would ever have attempted it. And now there was definitely no one who knew how to do it - maybe no one who even knew it was possible, if Katara’s reaction was anything to go by.

If Aang never said anything about it, maybe no one would ever know again.

Aang had been grieving the loss of his people and the destruction of his culture for months, but if the knowledge of the asphyxiation technique disappeared, it would be one loss he wouldn’t mourn.

“Even knowing it’s possible is scary,” said Katara, who’d bloodbended a whole human fifteen minutes after learning the technique was possible.

“But we didn’t, Katara. We could, but we didn’t. It’s not the power that’s evil, it’s the choices you make in how to use it.”

Katara mulled it over. Eventually, she nodded, and they spent a long, silent moment gazing out over the field of fire lilies. The flowers were just as red and beautiful as they’d been in another field, several islands behind them now. Katara held a hand over the nearest flower, slowly moving her wrist and her fingers, and the lily’s petals opened and closed a few times, it’s leaves shifting in slow wavy motions.

It didn’t whither or dehydrate under her hand, but when she released it, the lily suddenly fell limp to the ground, unable to stand upright anymore, leaves and petals haphazardly splayed. Katara blinked. “I...must have hurt it somehow,” she realized, frowning. “Maybe I burst something inside.”

“It’s okay,” Aang said quickly. “It’s not like you bend plants much.”

“...Yeah,” Katara said after a moment. “You’re right, I don’t.”

At least it wasn’t a person, Aang didn’t say, because now was not the time to bring that up.

“They’re just flowers,” Katara said quietly. Sadly. She stared out at the fire lilies again. The field looked like a massive army of little red soldiers.

They were quiet again, for a little while. On the other side of the camp, Toph was telling Sokka that two horns was enough for Appa and they didn’t need to give him any more on his helmet no matter how cool he claimed it would look. It would not look cool, it would look stupid. She didn’t know much about looks but she knew for a fact she would be able to feel the stupid.

Finally, Katara sighed. “She didn’t even teach me any actual Southern-style waterbending.”

Aang wrapped an arm around her shoulders and thought of the way the nuns raised at the Western Air Temple had been able to walk around on the ceiling, perfectly upside-down with the rest of their home, how they’d laugh at anyone who attempted to mimic them, and how jealously they’d guarded that unique art. “I’m sorry, Katara.”

~~~

Thanks for reading! Kudos and comments are appreciated.

Meridians are the paths chi flows through in the body, according to traditional Chinese medicine. I think when Katara attends that healing lesson, the dummy Yugoda is demonstrating on has the meridians carved into it. Also why did no one ever teach Aang healing I think he would've loved it and also I think healing deserves a bit more in-depth exploration as an art. The fantasy genre tends to just treat healing as another thing in the characters' bag of tricks and I'm getting tired of it.

Also I've spent all these years wondering "how did Sokka manage to make armor for Appa they didn't have a forge and we just see him working on it like once but it didn't make sense" and while I was writing this I was like "oh wait Toph can metalbend, duh."

It seriously kills me that Hama doesn't seem to have actually taught Katara any actual Southern Water Tribe techniques. Everything they talked about had to do with Hama learning to survive in the Fire Nation and pulling water from unconventional sources. No moves, techniques, or philosophies. So sad.

Also I kinda headcanon that Hama died very shortly after her arrest of either an aneurysm or a heart attack or something. It was Katara's first time bloodbending and she was under a lot of stress. :( I also don't think that the Gaang is aware of this - I think they high-tailed it out of Hama's village immediately. A bunch of disappeared villagers return home in the middle of the night with the old innkeeper in chains saying she's a witch who controlled them somehow and these strange kids saved them? That would probably launch an investigation, or at the very least a lot of questions, and no one knows Hama and Katara are Waterbenders. Bad enough some of the prisoners probably saw Toph bending her space rock into a key. The Gaang wasn't gonna wait around for someone to poke around the inn and find a flying bison.

Regarding asphyxiation, unfortunately for Aang, there actually is surviving literature regarding that old Airbender tale - a few mentions in anthropological texts, a few recorded bits of folklore, and some Sozin-era anti-Air Nomad propaganda. Fortunately, these records are really only known in academic circles, and even there it's pretty obscure knowledge. So just as long as no well-read martial arts experts with a deep appreciation/obsession over Air Nomad culture suddenly obtain airbending abilities, the knowledge of asphyixiation techniques is safely unusable! :D *cough*gdiZaheer*coughcough*

[firelxdykatara]

do you have any headcanons about zuko&katara's relationship??

OH BOY DO I (this kind of turned into ‘zuko and katara getting married’ headcanons but i can’t apologize, my heart is too full)

When they first started dating (a few years after the war ended–it took forever for the awkward turtleduck to realize it would even be possible for Katara to return his feelings, nevermind work up the nerve to actually ask her out), Zuko had no idea he would one day ask her to marry him–he was still trying to grow accustomed to the fact that she actually liked him liked him. She stuck around and she kissed him and she spent so much time with him and sometimes he found himself looking at her in absolute bewilderment, with no idea what he could possibly have done to be worthy of her.

A few months into their relationship, though, they were taking a walk through one of the poorer sectors of the city (it was difficult and hadn’t gained much traction, but Zuko did his best to not only make reparations to the rest of the world, but to improve the lives of all of his citizens, and spent a lot of time with Katara to improve conditions in poorer areas), and they came across a young girl who was being picked on by several other children. Zuko was about to put on his Fire Lord Voice, but before he had a chance, Katara had rushed forward and was giving the other children one hell of a tongue lashing. As he watched her comfort the girl, picking her doll up out of the dirt and wiping the tears off her face, he was hit by a sudden realization–he wanted to marry this woman. He probably always had.

It was a desire he sat on for a very long time. After all, it took Zuko years to get over the near-crippling fear that one day Katara would wake up and realize he didn’t actually deserve her. (His one serious relationship before her had… not been healthy. Nor had it ended well.) Katara knew this–it killed her, sometimes, the fear she saw in his eyes whenever he presented her with a gift, as if he was just waiting for her to throw it back in his face, or the way he always hesitated before telling her he loved her, afraid she’d shrug it off or outright reject his feelings–but she also knew she couldn’t fix it for him. All she could do was let him know how she felt–tell him the things she loved about him–appreciate the effort he put into their relationship, even when he made mistakes–gently guide him into self-love because damn it he would understand the way she saw him even if it killed her.

Speaking of love, the day Katara realized she was in love with Zuko, it hit her like a lightning bolt. It was late at night–Zuko almost always went to sleep before she did (he was an early bird, she very much a night owl), no matter how hard he tried to stay up (he wouldn’t say it, but she knew that sometimes he was afraid she’d be gone when he woke up), and one night, she was coming to bed, and he was quietly asleep. His hair–quite long, by this point (he mentioned getting it cut once, and Katara basically begged him not to, to the endless amusement of Toph and Suki, who were visiting at the time and gave Katara some very knowing looks (a knowing smirk, in Toph’s case))–was spread out across the pillows, and silver light poured through the window, illuminating his face with an almost ethereal glow. He was so beautiful, in that single instant, she almost wanted to cry. And in that moment, Katara knew, unequivocally, that Fire Lord Zuko was the love of her life.

Katara started dropping hints that she wanted to be his wife a long time before Zuko actually popped the question. This is mostly because Zuko had written a letter to Hakoda, desperate for information about Southern Water Tribe marriage customs–he had learned a lot about her past and her culture over the course of their relationship, but marriage (even though they’d been together for years by this point) was something that always got danced around or glossed over. Katara worried that Zuko would get skittish if she came on too strong. Zuko worried Katara might say no, and he cherished their time together far too much to risk losing it until he was absolutely sure.

Hakoda, of course, used this as an opportunity to leverage a trip home out of his daughter and her boyfriend. It took months for Zuko to arrange things to the point where he could safely leave Caldera for an extended period of time. Zuko had met Hakoda a few times over the years, of course, but he hadn’t spent a great deal of time with him, and now that Hakoda realized his daughter’s boyfriend was very serious about wanting to spend his life with her, he planned to give him the ultimate third degree. Zuko tried to hide the fact that he was a nervous wreck–Katara’s father intimidated him in ways he could never quite explain, except that there was always a part of him that would picture Ozai’s reaction to anything he said or did–but Hakoda understood more than he realized. And he spent all of five minutes alone with Zuko before he realized that a) this kid loved Katara with all his goddamn heart, and b) he had a second son now, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Speaking of Southern Water Tribe marriage customs–they didn’t do betrothal necklaces like the North. And Zuko wouldn’t have wanted to try to replace Katara’s mother’s necklace for her, anyway. So instead–because men in her tribe tended to present gifts as a show of their own skills (furs, other trophies from hunts, hand-crafted tools), which the women could then accept if they felt the men were worth their consideration as life partners–he carved a set of leather-working tools with his own hands. Years of sword-play had left him with deft hands and quick reflexes, and finally, at dinner during the last night of their stay, he presented the tools to her, on his knees and head bowed, silently praying to Agni that he hadn’t misjudged the depth of her feelings. Sitting on top of the set of tools was a small comb fashioned from burnished bronze, with the symbols of tui and la engraved on one side and the moon on the other. After accepting his proposal (Gran-Gran, Hakoda, and Sokka all had tears on their faces, even if Sokka wouldn’t admit it; Suki was openly weeping), Katara turned and asked Zuko to help her thread the comb into her hair.

She wore that comb in her hair every single day of her life, until the day Zuko died. They’d lived long and full lives, had several children, and he’d passed the mantle of Fire Lord onto their oldest daughter decades earlier. Katara herself only lived a few months longer. The day her husband died, she placed her comb in the urn with his ashes. She lived long enough to set the rest of her affairs in order, and say goodbye to her remaining friends and family. At her request, she was laid to rest in the style of the Fire Nation so she could be with her husband, but only after the chief of her tribe had performed the traditional Southern Water Tribe funeral ceremony.

……..i made myself sad. and probably went overboard. it’s not like i think about this every day or anything >.>