#katara is the answer

[attackfish]

I know this is a controversial take in this fandom, but I actually don't think Legend of Korra did Katara dirty. Like I see a lot of people who complain about the fact that she didn't have a statue, and she never became Southern Water Tribe chief, and she was just the Avatar's wife, and was just a healer, and like I don't know what show these people were watching.

No, Katara never became chief, nor did she ever express a desire to be chief in any of her appearances. Yes, she was the Avatar's wife. Yes, she was a healer. But like, what do we actually see of Katara's life in the Southern Water Tribe after the war?

We see Katara as a master healer and waterbender, clearly well respected by the Order of the White Lotus, and training the next Avatar. We also see her in an extremely well appointed rehabilitative therapy center, that is implied to be hers, working with Korra. Korra talks about learning healing from Katara, who is one of if not the best waterbending healer in the world, and we see Katara's state of the art rehabilitative medicine center. This is how Katara chose to use her skills, in a way that is completely separate from being Aang's wife. And given how lovely and either new or well taken care of everything looks, I would argue that she probably isn't even retired. We are shown her as a world renowned rehabilitative medicine expert at the top of her game.

And the field of rehabilitative medicine is such an interesting choice for her. Rehabilitative medicine is the field of helping people who have been severely injured not only heal, but gain the skills to have the best lives possible after their injuries. It's something that somebody like Katara who wants to do the most good would absolutely be drawn to as a healer after the war, since both people who had fought in the war, and non-combatants, would have the kinds of grievous injuries that would benefit from rehabilitative medicine. Given the state of healing and technology at the end of the war, Katara might even have been a major pioneer in the field, in fact I think we're meant to read that as the case.

Katara as we see her in the show is not opposed to being a healer. She just doesn't want to be denied the ability to fight when she and her friends are facing conquest, death, and danger, and her people are facing elimination. After the war, Katara would do what she always has done, and look for ways to help. Once the fighting is over, the Katara we see in the show would embrace healing and helping the war wounded rebuild their lives.

Heck, we actually see her with a patient, Korra, who was injured in battle, and she's clearly very practiced at dealing both with the physical parts of recovery and the psychological. Katara has always wanted to help her people, and there were few things her people needed more after the war, than someone willing and able to treat the victims of the war.

I think the reason so many people see Katara's career in healing is because of a fantasy media tradition of healing being the weak, girly magic given to the designated girl of the group, secondary and even silly next to fighting. But that't not what we're shown in the show. That's something brought in from outside, and I think if we ignore this negative connotation that healing has in the fantasy genre, it becomes obvious that a better comparison for katara's career path is that of head of orthopedic medicine at a world class hospital, who volunteers with Doctors Without Borders.

I got a lot of problems with Legend of Korra, but I think they handled Katara pretty dang well.

[demaparbat-hp]

GOD i wish they kept katara's burn scars from aang's mistake

I agree.

[ash-and-starlight]

hiiii. as both an artist and a fan of atla and hades (the game), i really wanted to ask about the hades style character pieces you did - i loved it in the game too, and you did an amazing job recreating it yourself. do you have any tips or experiences that might help with drawing in that style? details, colours, elements, etc - anything really. tysm in advance, and i hope you're having a great day!!

HAIII THANK U SO MUCH SORRY THIS TOOK ME LITERAL MONTHS TO MAKE OTZ

[comradekatara]

Which is worse? Forgetting your own [mother’s] face, or being forced to witness it every day?

little comic that didn't take long at all to draw hahahaha (i love pain)

[navajja]

Literally followed for fat sokka please continue to share your thoughts feelings and/or opinions on various characters it brings great delight!!

Sobbing* thanks you🥺🥺🥺💕💕 it makes me real happy that people enjoy how i don't like when canon can only make skinny characters.

[yourhighness6]

What is your favorite Zutara headcanon?

I hope you have an amazing day! ^.^

I'm so sorry this has been sitting in my inbox forever! I haven't had a chance to answer asks and I kind of forgot about it, so I'm going to give an extra long answer to make up for it lol. I have a few that are tied for first and second, so bear with me.

Firstly, I absolutely love the idea of Zuko helping out Katara with the chores after he joined the gaang. It just makes sense that he would try to help her out, and that he would feel guilty and try to do extra work. Of course, it takes Katara awhile to actually appreciate his help, but after TSR they actually manage to have fun together while they're doing dishes and laundry together, and she can't imagine it any other way.

This one is kind of cheesy, but I love the idea of them both being musically inclined, but in different ways. Zuko is obviously great at the tsungi horn, but he's an absolutely awful singer, and Katara can't play an instrument to save her life, but she has the voice of an angel. They like practicing songs with each other to let off steam, and even after the war whenever Katara finds herself in the Fire Nation or Zuko in the water tribe, they still get together to make a bit of music. They're also both wonderful dancers, Zuko from growing up learning dances in the FN court, and Katara because it's a big part of her culture, and she also just thinks it's fun. Zuko never really liked to dance, because it reminded him of being boxed in at court, but Katara shows him some different steps and he actually enjoys himself for once. In an AU where they end up together, their kids grow up combining the dances of both their cultures and creating new trends in both the FN and the SWT.

This one isn't really Zutara-centric, but Toph teases the HELL out of them. She literally goes around making the snarkiest comments and she will not stop until they are both blushing like tomatoes.

In an AU where they get together, they are the second in the gaang to get married, after Suki and Sokka but before Aang and Teo (I said what I said). Their wedding is obviously a huge event, and Sokka and Aang are the groomsmen while Toph and Suki are the bridesmaids, obviously. Katara is super into wedding planning and picking out her dress. Uncle Iroh helps her with the plans and buys fireworks and organizes the guest list and Zuko rebels against the both of them at every turn because he doesn't really want a huge, ostentatious wedding. He eventually realizes that this is way more important to Katara than it is to him, though, so he stops trying to get them to tone things down and only helps her with the planning when asked, to give her all the creative freedom her heart desires. In canon (where they don't get together) I like to think that Zuko would be Katara's 'man of honor' at her wedding with Aang. Partially because of pining and angst, but mostly because they want to be there for each other and see each other happy, even if they aren't going to be the ones spending their lives together.

Zuko would be the first one to realize his feelings for Katara, but he'd be in denial for so long that by the time Katara realizes her feelings back, they're at about the same place when it comes to their relationship. She's the first one to say "I love you" and even though it takes him a little time to say it back, it's only because he's scared to be so vulnerable with someone at first. She gives him time, and his love confession ends up being simultaneously the most awkward and the most romantic thing in the world. Zuko is the one to propose and Katara says yes without question.

They end up having two kids, twin girls named Kya and Ursa after their mothers. Kya, the nonbender, is set to inherit the throne, and Ursa, the waterbender, has a special gift for healing. Zuko only wanted one kid because he was afraid of messing them up, but he ends up being a wonderful father. Katara is a great mother as well, of course, and she loves to teach Ursa waterbending while Zuko helps her incorporate firebending moves into her fighting style. Kya feels a little left out of these family training sessions at first, but Zuko teaches her how to use the dao swords, her Aunt Mai teaches her how to throw knives, and her Aunt Ty Lee teaches her chi blocking, so she's just as deadly as the rest of her family.

Katara's first project after becoming firelady is to help spearhead pollution reform and create industrial regulations that help the FN become more environmentally friendly. She eventually travels back to the village in "the Painted Lady" with her daughters to show them the value of respecting nature.

This one also isn't very zutara-centric, but I don't think Katara and Azula would ever really reconcile. Although she becomes good friends with both Mai and Ty Lee (who are dating, obviously), she can never forgive Azula for some of the most traumatic events of her life. Zuko and Azula do eventually have a healthy relationship after Azula realizes the error of her ways, but she decides to move away from the palace of her own accord. There are too many bad memories there.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my headcanons! These are the only ones I can think of right now but I probably have more somewhere in my brain.

[acarillustrated]

i simply Must know more about "pov someone said the dumbest shit youve ever heard at the diplomat meeting" and "sokka stretch"

the "pov someone said the dumbest shit youve ever heard at the diplomat meeting" one was something i started drawing over the summer and just never finished ,,, the literal birthplace of my older atla au/aang dies young au

id love to revisit it but ive changed my mind on a lot of the wardrobe decisions and style

"sokka stretch" is straight up just a figure study but w sokka lol. i love drawing the human form i wish tumblr let me post penis and boobs.

[theotterpenguin]

what’s your take on zutara being “you’re the wind, i’m in the water”. i’ve heard k@t@@ngs saying it’s clearly about their ship bc their elements are air and water but isn’t that a very surface level of understanding of the lyrics?

anon, i adore you for this ask because i love chemtrails over the country club (and lana's music in general).

i'm not surprised that people would try to apply this song to katara and aang because yes, at a surface level it's relevant to them for obvious reasons (water vs. wind), but i agree that the lyrics have far more depth than this.

first, we have to look at the context of the lyrics within the song. "you're in the wind, i'm in the water" presents a romanticized view of the separation of two lovers, just as the two elements brush past each other but never become one. this theme of separation is seen throughout the rest of the song as lana contrasts the privileged bubble of suburbia with the harsh reality of society, the darkness lurking behind a beautiful front.

likewise, zuko and katara have similar character arcs that revolve around an awakening to the harsh truths of society. zuko learns that the beauty and the power of the fire nation is just a facade, hiding the extreme cruelty of its colonialism and imperalism that has hurt all people (which goes hand-in-hand with zuko unlearning the abuse from his father, the personification of the fire nation itself). katara's arc involves a similar type of awakening, as she unlearns some of the dichotomous thinking she's held around the fire nation. her experiences with jet, hama, the sexism of the northern water tribe, the fire nation village in the painted lady, and even zuko show her the complexities of the war and teach her that people aren't always as simple as "good" or "evil." essentially, both zuko and katara undergo parallel character arcs that fundamentally change their worldview, reflective of the theme of chemtrails over the country club.

additionally, the "wind" and "water" that symbolize the separation of the two lovers in the song is also reminiscent of zuko and katara's journey - the two characters that have been pitted against each other from the beginning of the show, their opposing goals of protecting the avatar vs. capturing the avatar, daughter of the chieftain of the southern water tribe vs. prince of the fire nation, and the two characters that end every season finale in an climactic fight scene (first on opposing sides, then on the same side). and if you want an even more bittersweet perspective, there's also the fact that they are doomed by the narrative, two lovers who never end up together in this lifetime, fated to be separated.

if we want to look further into the song, i've also seen the lyric "nobody's son, nobody's daughter" being superficially applied to aang and katara as they have both experienced loss, but again, in the context of the actual show, it's katara and zuko who are repeatedly paralleled with this connection of losing their mothers and being separated from their fathers. katara discusses her grief over losing kya with haru, jet, and aang, but it's only her and zuko's connection over this that carries actual narrative weight in the story. and katara is the only person that zuko discusses the loss of his mother with. so it only makes sense that all of these narrative parallels culminate in the southern raiders, an episode vital to katara's character arc in which zuko is a crucial supporting character. you could also argue this ties in with the overall theme of separation in the song - being separated from your parentage and having to forge your own path.

finally, as a fun little addition, one of the other lyrics in the song is "my moon's in leo, my cancer is sun." and hmm, who are the two characters we typically associate with the moon and sun? (hint: "you rise with the moon, i rise with the sun"). but wait - it goes even deeper than that. i am most definitely not an expert on zodiac signs, but according to some basic googling, leo (a fire element) is typically ruled by the sun, while cancer (a water element) is typically ruled by the moon. by switching up what elements we typically associate with the signs, lana is reflecting on the duality and the unpredictability of herself like how she reflects on the duality of society earlier in the song. and similarly, zuko and katara undergo dual character arcs bound by elemental symbolism. despite being a waterbender, katara also personifies the element of fire - the element of passion, power, and will - as she stands up against injustice and refuses to back down from a fight. and despite being a firebender, zuko's arc also personifies the element of water - the element of change and adaptability - as zuko's perception of himself, his father, and the fire nation changes over time. they are both water and fire, both moon and sun, both yin and yang.

[julietwiskey1]

If ATLA had a fourth season, what do you think would have been the plotline of Book 4 and what would likely have been the good and bad parts of it?

If we keep the original three then I think it would have gone into Book Four: Air. Likely seeing Aang work to restore the Air Nation and searching for traces of any survivors. Perhaps he sees that culturally they are dead but their are still people who can bend air. Now Aang’s role in the previous three seasons is flipped upside down, he is no longer the student but the master.

We also probably see Zuko, Azula and the gaang search for Ursa. It would serve primarily as Azula’s redemption and growth arc. Let her heal and find love with Zuko and Ursa, maybe even forgiveness by the gaang. Zuko’s story focusing more on his growth as a leader and facing the problems that beset his people that it’s his job to fix. Not just punching the lone corrupt official but making actual changes to his government.

I think to keep it on theme we would see Sokka and Katara try to find parts of their culture stolen. Perhaps even look for water benders like Hama who still know the southern tradition. Though I see this being the most likely to be cut.

The best part of the season would be its emotional beats. Focusing on healing, coming together and love. It would nail down the hope Aang always inspires. Show him and Zuko leading everyone into that new world of peace and harmony they promise.

I think something like this would struggle to keep everyone together. All of these character naturally want to do their own thing now. So why Zuko and Azula need to search with the gaang would be in question. Why aren’t Katara and Sokka going home to heal their tribe? Shouldn’t Aang be heading off on his own now?

That’s what I think is most likely.

Though I personally think if the show knew they would have a fourth season it would have been better to split season three into two. Season one takes place up until the day of black sun. Have it take place in the colonies. Focus more on Ozai and his role leading the war and the struggles Zuko and Azula face at home. Show him as a villain by showing how two of our previous villains who love him still fear him. The gaang runs into a lot more stories like the headband and Hama. Show the oppression of the colonies and how the Fire Nation exploits the land.

Then with the season four show Zuko earning his way with the gaang as they hide in the Fire Nation Islands (not colonies but Fire Nation proper). Show him slowly earning their trust. But most importantly let him interact with the Fire Nation and learning what has to change about his nation. But I think he needs to also serve as a supporting character in several episodes. Where he’s not the focus, but rather holds up or steps out of the spot light for Katara, Sokka, Toph and Aang to shine.

Aang could also be discovering energy bending or another Ozai solution. Make the reveal of energy bending at the end feel like an earned discovery and not a deus ex machina.

During this fourth season Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee take the secondary story plots. Show the fracture of the friend group. How Azula is struggling under Ozai expectations and how it forces her to act contrary to a teenager with her friends. Give her breakdown time to fester and grow. But also show a girl who is deserving of redemption. Who quite simply currently does not feel or does not see any way out or can fully see what is wrong. Her side story can pair with Zuko’s. When Zuko finds a problem and fixes it give it to Azula and show how constrained she is.

And most importantly show Ozai being the villain beyond Azula and Zuko. Let him personally hurt and burn people. Maybe even give an episode where the gaang nearly runs into him and show how he can take them. Make him a terrifying enemy before the final fight.

[fanfic-gremlin-ft-trauma]

toph learned both english and mandarin because the beifongs wanted her to learn something other than her mother tongue. but the ppl teaching her english was hella lazy so she didn't learn as much. but she learned the basics like how to say her name, her age, how she's feeling, etc. like she can keep up a decent conversation.

but she has trouble with her pronunciation, plurals, and articles. and SHE DOES NOT ADMIT THAT SHE NEEDS HELP. katara tried helping her with english a few times but toph always denied needing help. sokka & aang also tried to help, but again, toph. then she met zuko, who just happens to be multilingual, speaks to toph in mandarin. and then he does manage to help toph with her english.

and in return, toph teaches the rest of team avatar how to speak mandarin (she taught them how to say swear words and thats it 😭)

IM OBSESSED WITH THIIIIIISSSSS. no you don’t understand this made my evening 😭 esp the last paragraph that’s so Toph it’s visceral. Anyway one of my favourite hcs from you specifically is the languages they speak, idk why but it sits so right with me. also this leaves me under the impression that zuko snuck in English lessons and Toph only realised after he spoke to her in English and she responded way better than she usually would n she’s like: you sneaky son of a bitch

Zuko’s like: 🤷

[attackfish]

5hc for an Ocean Spirit Katara AU? (Like in the same sense that yue was blessed by the moon spirit?) I can’t remember if you have one for that or not, but it’s a favorite premise of mine

I don't. The closest I have is a Katara-Yue role swap, where Katara becomea the moon. So you get a whole new AU.

1. Katara is born silent, eyes closed, not crying. Her chest barely rises and falls. This happens. Some babes are born only to die. There is nothing to be done. It has happened as long as children have been born. Nothing to be done? hisses Kanna as her son and his wife weep, caught between the exhaustion of birth, and the grief of losing a child they will never get to know? Nothing to be done? She takes the baby from her son's wife and carries her to the frigid ocean. She dips her in the water and begs. There is no oasis here, no koi, but surely the Ocean Spirit is in the ocean. Ocean, give her granddaughter the strength to live.

2. Katara's eyes open, and her mouth opens to wail. Her dark brown hair turns a bright watery blue. Kanna wraps her granddaughter up tight, and holds ber close to keep her warm, and carries her back to her parents.

3. Little Katara grows up, bright, strong, and a waterbender, the only waterbender at the south pole. She is in all ways a normal little girl, and a loving sister and daughter, but to the people of her village, she is a miracle child, saved by the spirits themselves, and marked by them too. Sokka, in the face of this, struggles fo be seen, to be noticed, not by his parents, but by everyone else. It galls, to be known as Katara's brother, when Katara is just his annoying little sister with weird water powers and weird blue hair. Sorry Sokka, your sister is an anime protagonist, and you got to learn to live with it.

4. Then their mother dies, ans their father leaves and they find the Avatar, and leave on adventure, and it's all big and new, and Katara has to cover her hair to keep it from being noticed, and they're chased by Zhao and Zuko, and they make all the way north, and Katara has to fight to learn waterbending, but finally, finally they make it, and she gets to learn.

5. And then Zhao attacks the Northern Water Tribe fortress, and marches to the Spirit Oasis to kill the moon, and he... kills the wrong fish. The ocean draws back as if there is about to be a tsunami, but the water just keeps drawing back, exposing the deep dark parts of the sea that have never seen the sun, and Katara, blessed by the ocean itself, knows what she has to do.

[demaparbat-hp]

Love your work!! Would you ever do a what-if scenario? Like what if Zuko and Katara kissed in the catacombs? Or what if they shared a moment during the Southern Raiders? Or I always love to imagine a headcanon where Zuko and Katara get married and Oma and Shu happily watching them aka their reincarnation in the background ambiance or from the spirit world or something.

Sorry if I'm rambling but I'm just throwing out some suggestions if you want some ideas for Zutara art. Please know that you don't have to take my suggestions or even do ZK art. Do whatever art you like and we'll always support!!!! You're honestly so talented and we love everything you do!!!!

Most of my AUs are what ifs scenarios! What if Kanna ended up in the Earth Kingdom instead of the Southern Water Tribe, and Katara was Hakoda's illegitimate daughter? What if Ozai sent an assassin after Zuko at the start of s2? What if Katara healed her hands when Aang burned her, but couldn't keep them from scarring? Canon divergences are so fun to play with, honestly.

Also, about the Oma & Shu AU, I've been working on a little something with that idea in mind for ages, and thought I'd share a WIP :)

[stardust948]

I know this will never happen in your dragon fic, but I'm kind of curious. How do you think things would work if Katara and/or Sokka somehow gained the same ability as their partners to go back and forth between being humans and dragons?

Sokka and Katara would be water dragons opposed to fire dragons so they aren't as big as the others in dragon form and can't breathe fire or fly. Thankfully, the ocean is nearby so they can figure out things there. They discovered their wings are meant for swimming (much like penguin wings).

If it happens at home, Hakoda and Kya would immediately rush them to the Fire Family's house. Ursa would be glad to teach them how to manage the shifting and being a dragon. She's also thrilled there are more dragons.

The siblings would have a hard time adjusting to the heighten senses though. They have to wear ear coverings for the first couple of weeks before getting used to it. Katara gets especially upset when she accidently rips up one of her dolls with her claws. They would also face more discrimination being both foreigners and "demons" now.

On the brighter side, Sokka would enjoy hunting with Azula in the forest and Katara would love sunbathing with Zuko. In return, the water siblings will try to teach Zuko and Azula how to swim. Fire dragons don't mix well with water, so it doesn't go too well. Zuko and Azula opt to sunbath on the sand whenever they go to ocean. All four of them would love rough housing especially now that the fire siblings don't have to hold back as much.

Also, Ozai would help Hakoda and Kya dragon proof their house and how to cuddle the pups without throwing out their back (much). They'll move to the lighthouse to be right at the ocean and away from prying eyes. It's also easier for the Fire Family to visit in dragon form.

Thanks for the ask 💖

[comradekatara]

What if Aang and Gyatso ran away together, allowing them to avoid the genocide but still confront Azulon twenty years later after Aang has mastered every element and win the war? 80 years later what would the world look like, and (in this unlikely AU scenario where all the rest of the main cast is still born) how would Sokka, Katara, Toph, Zuko, Azula, etc be different?

I mean it wouldn’t take aang 20 years to master every element he’s literally a prodigy. he mastered all four elements by the time he was 13. but yeah. if gyatso had found him in time. oh man. the inherent tragedy of poor timing, magnified by one hundred years. it’s unclear exactly how long after aang getting frozen sozin’s comet arrived (it was within the same year, but certainly not on the same day, as natla suggests), but it was probably sometime between a few weeks and a few months later. so I don’t think aang would’ve been able to prevent the initial attacks on the four temples, but obviously there would’ve been survivors who weren’t at the temples at the time, since yknow. they’re nomadic (natla also has them conveniently gather for “the great comet festival” as a way to explain why they were all killed at once but like. they weren’t. that’s not how genocide works). and so if aang and gyatso were together, away from the southern air temple, during the attack, that would definitely spur aang to fulfill his responsibilities as the avatar. he’d still feel the same crushing guilt, the ignorance of not heeding the threats of war, the responsibility on his shoulders of repairing his culture and ending an imperialist regime before it’s too late. but obviously, to a far less extreme extent, and with gyatso there to guide him, instead of temporally displaced and utterly dispossessed and bereft of his mentor, with no air nomads (besides appa) left. there would still be air nomads immediately after sozin’s comet, who were eventually captured and executed (or forced to hide and assimilate, hey ty lee’s family) over a century of imperialist conquest and violence. but if aang never time traveled, he would have still defeated sozin at the age of 13 and ended the war under a massive time pressure. roku would still be on his ass trying to get him to correct his mistakes, and aang would still feel the crushing burden of being just one kid tasked with saving the world from disaster.

so based on aang’s lifespan as indicated in lok, the next avatar would be an adult from the southern water tribe by the time the rest of the gaang are kids. and maybe the avatar is kya (im not gonna do the exact math here, because who cares). and kya is tasked with maintaining balance in a world where there are fewer air nomads than there should be, but due to aang’s influence, there are far more than there otherwise would be, as he spent the rest of his life ensuring that the world was a safe place to live in and keeping the rulers of the fire nation in check. and the world has never really forgiven the fire nation for what they did to the air nomads, but the extent of their imperialism was never fully realized because aang stopped sozin before he could oppress and attack more populations. so kya is constantly working with various nations and peoples to maintain balance, but she’s basically just a diplomat because aang did most of the work of putting out fires and now she’s just facilitating and ensuring that the peace he established continues. so she has time to like. start a family. and sokka has a complex about being the nonbending son of the literal avatar (and hakoda’s like “try being the nonbending partner of the literal avatar” but it doesn’t really make him feel better because that’s so obviously not the same) because obviously he can develop a complex about anything (still a much better complex to have than his actual deal, tho, so we’re counting this one as a win) and katara has a complex about having to be the best waterbender ever because her mother is the avatar. and their home life is kind of unstable because their mother doesn’t have a lot of time for them, but she’s still a very loving parent and eventually she takes them on trips with her and they love being able to see the world and help their mother with her diplomatic duties (katara is very justice-oriented, sokka relishes in getting to help kya with the more administrative and bureaucratic side of politics). so it’s better.

katara and sokka meet toph on one of their diplomacy fieldtrips, since the beifong family is incredibly powerful in the earth kingdom, and as much as they try to hide toph’s existence from the world, it’s kind of hard to ignore a whole twelve year old girl in a fancy hanfu just running around your mansion. sokka and toph immediately get along, and she takes him to the earth rumble where he becomes obsessed with the entire spectacle of it. katara finds toph kind of obnoxious, and is glad for them to finally leave gaoling. then of course toph stows away with them, and sokka has to somehow keep that a secret from both katara and kya until the beifongs come aknocking like “did you by any chance KIDNAP OUR DAUGHTER?!?” and toph’s like “NO. I KIDNAPPED MYSELF.” and katara is just so fucking fed up with the whole thing someone please return this tiny aristocrat back to her mansion dear GOD. but ultimately toph is just so cute that she gets her way and kya agrees to show her the world before then returning her to her family (at which point toph assures sokka that she will simply run away again). toph is just so happy to have relative freedom that she doesn’t even mind that katara is [checks notes] bullying her for being blind. and so she kind of just tags along on their travels throughout the earth kingdom. but then, once they go back home, she realizes that there is simply no way that is agreeing to live in the south pole, so she and sokka reach a compromise and she moves in with suki on kyoshi island, who sokka goes to visit all the time.

oh yeah. he obviously knows suki. their introduction is far more formal, what with them actively knowing the avatar will be visiting them in advance, and he doesn’t antagonize her (he also doesn’t need to learn any grand lesson about patriarchy since gender roles were not being reified by colonialism in this world. fwiw) but he still asks her to teach him what she knows (even though he did receive formal training from hakoda as a child, not for any life-threatening purposes, just because it’s a part of their culture) because he’s obsessed with learning every single thing he can about the world. suki finds it really cute that this nepobaby is so humble, and they have a fun time getting to know each other without the threat of war looming over their heads. yue similarly gets to know sokka on a diplomatic trip to the northern water tribe and there’s immediate chemistry and they’re infatuated. but obviously she’s also engaged, which is an issue. since there’s no siege, both hahn and yue survive and eventually get married, which is as tragic for yue as it sounds. eventually yue gets so sick of hahn that the next time she sees sokka she’s just like fuck it and just straight up enters her infidelity era (which is fully morally justified btw). sokka knows that if anyone ever found out that the princess of the northern water tribe was having an affair with the avatar’s son, it would cause an international scandal, so he’s incredibly careful not to do anything that might expose them. and it’s very bittersweet, but it is what it is.

haru and jet’s respective villages were never occupied so they both grow up in pretty normal households. haru is still kind and brave, and jet is still obnoxious (sorry), and katara is still infatuated with both of them, but jet never like. tries to kill sokka or flood a village, and she never helps haru liberate a prison camp, so they kind of just have normal teenage relationships that last for a brief while and then end naturally. of course sokka still cannot stand jet, but it’s purely vibes based so he just chooses to ignore him while katara sews him the ugliest hat you have ever seen in your life. and eventually haru and katara will reconnect when they’re slightly older and get into a more serious relationship. because they’re cute together. also they meet aunt wu and the events of “the fortuneteller” just play out exactly as they do in the episode. idk why but that’s important to me.

as for azula and zuko, they both grew up hearing from their father that “the fire nation was robbed of its glory and humiliated by the avatar, and that one day it is their destiny to take back their honor and finally realize sozin’s vision, restoring their glorious bloodline to the true throne once and for all.” and ursa’s always like “oh well you know your father has fanciful notions because he was descended from the firelords, but that’s a totally outmoded system of government, and ever since avatar aang instated a republic, the quality of life for all of our citizens has improved tenfold. that’s just evidence-based data talking.” so zuko believes ursa, because she’s nicer to him, and azula believes ozai, because he has his claws in her. kya knows that ozai and the rest of the old royal bloodline still pose a threat to the stability of the fire nation and the world at large, so she is always attending to that family just to ensure that they’re not doing anything insane. and sometimes she takes her kids along with her. and well. for one thing, a better-adjusted sokka hanging out with azula (still being abused, albeit to a lesser extent) is kind of just amazing to me. she explains why the fire nation is ontologically superior and that’s why they’re being nerfed by his stupid lib mom and he’s just like “you’re so smart so how are you so stupid.” he’s deeply enthralled by her cognitive dissonance and just her whole deal in general.

meanwhile katara is infatuated with zuko, and ursa, who immediately adores katara because she’s such a cute and friendly girl, is kind of quietly encouraging him to date her, because the waterbending prodigy daughter of the avatar is really an ideal match for her son. and zuko really likes katara too. they get along really well, and they agree on a lot, are both really passionate about similar things, and go on fun little adventures together, and help each other with their bending, and make each other laugh. but every time katara tries to kiss him he interrupts her by being like “does your brother think im cool?” and katara’s just like “what.” until eventually even she realizes that the idea of actually dating this boy is simply impossible. and for a while she’s crushed that the guy she likes is obsessed with her stupid loser brother (can you imagine anything worse. truly. i cannot) but eventually she comes around because she’s always wanted a gay best friend who she can carry around in her pocket. and then she makes him go shopping with her and paint her nails and go to plays and at first he’s like “this feels kind of offensive” but eventually he realizes that even though she IS stereotyping him he actually DOES really like all those things so he’s just like FINE. I GUESS. katara meanwhile is trying to oh so subtly figure out whether or not sokka even knows that zuko exists and sokka is just like “oh yeah he seems nice enough. his sister though. well she fascinates me.” and katara is like “what the fuck nooooo” but then sokka keeps talking and she realizes he’s discussing her like an abnormal psych case study or something he would dissect in a lab and she’s like “oh. okay. thank god he’s not into her. he’s just some kind of freak.”

katara crowns herself queen of the gays and vows to zuko: “i am going to get my brother to fall in love with you if it’s the last thing i do.” but all of katara’s attempts to make zuko attractive to sokka backfire because she’s exclusively making him do things that she finds attractive and sokka simply has the exact opposite taste. he goes to katara like “i don’t know why i never noticed it before, but zuko’s vibes are kind of rancid. he even kind of reminds me of that guy jet who sucked so bad.” and katara’s like FUCCKCKKKKCK. eventually katara is out of options so zuko’s just like “fine i guess i can’t sink any lower..” so he just knocks on sokka’s door and when sokka opens it he just gets on his knees and clasps his hands together and goes “pleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease just one chance PLEASE” and sokka is just like “ummmmmmmmm???? lmfao???? okay….” and goes on a very awkward date with zuko where all he does is just answer every single one of zuko’s somewhat invasive questions about his life in the most detached, impersonal way possible and then at 9pm on the dot sokka yawns and is like “wow im so beat…. this is my bedtime so. goodnight” and zuko is just like scribbling down in his little diary “sokka goes to bed at 9pm on the dot every night because he is regimented and responsible…” sokka gets home and katara’s like, eyes all sparkly “how did it goooo???” and sokka’s just like “man. i don’t know how i didn’t see it sooner. i thought azula was a freak, but zuko is just as much of a freak, if not more so! i definitely need to go out with him again. he’s such a fascinating test subject.” and katara is just like “fuck my life why is he like this.” and then goes to zuko and is like “yeah!!! sokka said he had sooooo much fun!! he really wants to see you again!!” and zuko just lights up like “REALLY??!!?” and katara just doesn’t have the heart to tell him the reason.

anyway. katara and sokka travel the globe. katara establishes some water tribe healing centers in other parts of the world, works as a liaison between the air nomads and the southern water tribe, gets back together with haru, goes on countless adventures, and builds a beautiful life for herself. sokka starts attending ba sing se university because he’s sick of people assuming that his diplomacy skills are purely due to nepotism. so he decides to major in polysci so that he can point to his degree as a qualification. but pretty quickly he realizes that polysci is a stupid field of study and everyone in his classes (including the professors) are completely incompetent and have no actual field experience. so he starts taking different classes, shopping around to figure out what it is he really wants to study. turns out that a lot of different subjects interest him, and maybe being a diplomat isn’t his only possible career. he spends a good decade in academia, just contributing research to all kinds of different fields. then he gets sick of academia and goes into engineering. he starts working with an inventor in the earth kingdom (the mechanist) and basically revolutionizes technology. then he’s like “im sick of inventing cars and computers and smartphones and falafel” (his most important invention) so he goes back to his physics research. but then he gets kind of sick of how insufferably arrogant physicists are so he’s like “maybe it’s time to revisit my favorite case studies” and goes back to the fire nation. katara tags along purely for damage control.

sokka, katara, zuko, and azula are all having dinner together. azula was eventually able to extricate herself from ozai’s abuse and moved to a more rural part of the country to heal. she got really into spiritualism and started working with air nomads taking care of sky bison. zuko moved to a different city in the southern fire nation where he became a herpetologist who primarily works with dragons, and also got really involved in theater. by the time sokka and katara revisit them they are both really happy and thriving. sokka has even read some of zuko’s plays, and has to admit that they’re quite good. which is disappointing, because he was hoping to use them as case studies in his research. at some point during their dinner, zuko’s like “i can’t believe we used to date. i must’ve been so annoying back then, i don’t know how you even put up with me.” and azula’s like “hang on. no. you weren’t dating sokka. i was dating sokka.” and they both stare at each other and then turn to look at sokka for like five minutes of total silence. katara gets so fed up with this that she just bursts out, “NEITHER OF YOU WERE DATING SOKKA. HE WAS USING YOU AS DATA FOR HIS ABNORMAL PSYCH PET PROJECT.” another five minutes of silence. and then azula is just like “oh that actually makes perfect sense. in hindsight that really explains a lot.” and zuko’s like “but kataraaaaa why wouldn’t you TELL meeeee” and katara’s like “well i didn’t want to hurt your feelings and destroy your ego forever. but now that you like. ride dragons for a living i figure that you’ll be fine.” and zuko’s like “yep. haha. im fine! totally fine.” he wasn’t at all living under the illusion that sokka was returning to him after all these years because they were going to reunite and get married and ride his favorite dragon into the sunset forever. his ego definitely isn’t destroyed by this fact at all. he’s sooo good don’t even worry about it. sokka’s just like “well anyway, im very glad that you both seem to be doing a lot better now. that’s really great news. big mazel to you both. okay bye.”

anyway. as for kya, she lives a long and happy life, and is so proud of both her children. she dies at a very old age, completely content. the next avatar is of earth kingdom heritage, of course. and it’s mako :)