#yes aang tripped ozai on purpose

[stardust948]

Bonus:

@waterfire1848 and anon I blame you. I can't resist a G/T AU

[wileycap]

Further Excerpts From The Fire Nation Royal Palace Servants' (Unofficial) Handbook

Or: More Revisions To Normal Protocol After The Ascension Of Agni's Exalted Flame, The Dragon Of The Sun, et cetera, Fire Lord Zuko

Part 1:

7. If His Majesty offers you advice regarding martial arts, camouflage, theatre, or any other subject which he is commonly known to be well-versed in, accept it gratefully. If His Majesty offers you advice on emotional matters, listen politely and then disregard it.

7.1. If His Majesty uses the phrase "silver sandwich", you are entitled to a longer lunch break. So you can take a longer bite out of your silver sandwich.

7.1.1. Please do not vandalize the handbook, even if you think it's funny.

7.1.2. Especially if you think it's funny, Chikao.

7.2. If you share something tragic with His Majesty, and he replies "that's rough, buddy", it means he empathizes with your situation.

7.2.1 Alright, maybe he did need to learn that it's not a great way to respond to tragedy. But "rough like the boulders that crushed my father?" was a bit much.

8. Prince Iroh has advised the servants not to reveal to His Majesty what the meat in turtleduck dumplings is. Apparently, he thinks the name comes from their shape. The dumplings are not shaped like turtleducks.

8.1. Now that His Majesty knows, be ready to recite the names of all the turtleducks in the palace at a moment's notice, and also to reassure His Majesty that they are all safe, accounted for, and uneaten.

9. His Majesty should be kept apprised of any "sightings" of the Blue Spirit. The Blue Spirit is an entirely fictional creature. However, his belief in it is entirely benign (and as far as eccentricities go, we've all seen worse) and likely something he will outgrow with age.

9.1. Do not lie about any "sightings". If His Majesty is told that the Blue Spirit was sighted near his window, he will be extremely distraught for the entire day. The Fire Lord has too many real assassins to worry about already. There is no need to add imaginary ones to the mix.

9.1.1. And whenever he is distraught, his footsteps are even quieter than they normally are. It is hard enough to keep track of his movements as it is.

10. While His Majesty has approved the "Kick Ozai Retreat" for servants who were mistreated by Ozai of the Fire Nation (titles rmvd, dishon.), it will never be organized. Please suggest other activities for the Servant Wellness Day.

10.1. Yes, that is because Avatar Aang found out.

10.1.1. Specifically because of the very heartfelt and very long speech he gave on the matter. And the fear that he might give one again.

10.1.2. And no, we can not "simply tell the Avatar to shut up." He is the Avatar. And he is also a 13-year-old boy. His dragonling eyes are very effective.

11. Princess Azula is at the stage of her treatment where she will take regular trips to the palace, dividing her time between her island and here. We're all terrified, but there's nothing we can do.

11.1. Lady Beifong has offered to act as protection, should the need arise. On an unrelated note, the kitchens will now be serving a number of delicacies from the State of Gaoling.

11.2. At the specific and undeniable request of Master Toph, The Blind Bandit, her titles and styles have been updated and they will be enforced effective immediately.

12. If Avatar Aang is seen on a rooftop with no apparent purpose, that means that Fire Lord Zuko is also on that rooftop. Get him down.

12.1. If Master Katara appears to be discreetly looking for someone, that usually means that one or all of His Majesty, Avatar Aang, Master Toph, the Honorable Tribesman Sokka, or the lemur Momo are in some kind of trouble. Assist her. Before one of those idiots gets themselves killed.

12.2. Do not vandalize the handbook, even if it's true. Also, please do not call our Fire Lord, the Avatar, Master Toph, or the Avatar's beloved pet an idiot.

13. Any senior officials who wish to challenge Fire Lord Zuko to an Agni Kai should be directed to the Fourth Scribe's office. They should also be told that there is a waitlist.

13.1. If the Honorable Tribesman Sokka wishes to challenge the Fire Lord to an Agni Kai again, he should be denied. No matter what he tells you, he has not developed Firebending abilities by means of "Spirit World shenanigans" or by Avatar Aang "just giving them to him, Energybending style, like best buddies do, you know."

13.1.1. The Matron has made it known that if the Honorable Tribesman Sokka offers to demonstrate his so-called "Firebending abilities" again, servants are allowed one free kick. The last time he did it, the stench from his blubber bombs lingered for three weeks.

[zukkaart]

okay so what if Zuko never left the fire nation after being welcomed home. Zuko is crowned fire lord instead of azula because of birth order, when ozai becomes Phoenix king. the avatar movement has to go underground and things get worse. Azula never had her breakdown because she was never defeated but there's clearly something wrong. ozai gets annoyed with her paranoia eventually and decides to marry her off to the southern water tribe chief, against his (and her) will, mostly as a way to get rid of her. she arrives in a foreign land, expecting to be hated and kept as prisoner until she dies. instead the first thing hakoda says to her is "I'm sorry". sure they're all wary of her, but she's still a teenager, Katara's age. the second the fire nation embasarries leave he tells her he's built her an igloo of her own. Azula figures its a prison cell, but its really hakoda's way of saying 'i dont want anything to do with you wifely'. and suddenly azula is in less danger than she's ever been in before. basically just recovering domestic azula with dadkoda. and eventually azula and zuko reconcile and decide to take the fire nation down from the Inside and story plot blah blah. but mostly hakoda adopting azula and giving her the parental love she never got 😭

I absolutely can NOT even begin to tell you the brain worms this gives me.

I think it makes a lot of sense for the time period in which avatar takes place too because I think it’s supposed to be circa 1700? (Correct me if I’m wrong) and obviously in most places at that time arranged marriages were very common, and many rulers did not shy away from marrying their children (daughters especially) off to much older men as long as they gained significant advantages from it- I wouldn’t be surprised if Ozai did the same. (Sorry for the info dump I’m a history nerd)

If you read “the art of burning” by hella1975 on Ao3 it is basically all dadkoda content but with Zuko and it’s absolutely beautifully written- probably one of the best fics I’ve ever read.

Circling back on topic- I could see Azula resigning herself to what she’s been taught her “wifely duties” are and constantly telling herself “just one son, just an heir, then hopefully he’ll never touch me again” (Yes Sokka but let’s just say for political purposes her father wants her to provide a SWT/FN heir) and then she realizes that Hakoda would NEVER do that to her or anyone else - and her cold facade begins to drop revealing the scared little girl she really is beneath the conditioning.

Bonus: Zuko absolutely despises the marriage because that’s still his little sister and just because he accepted his role doesn’t change where his morals fall. So he plans a whole months trip to some remote place for “training” but instead steals his old ship and goes to the SWT to get Azula back and maime anyone who laid a finger on her regardless of the political consequences, but he shows up and Azula explains how Hakoda basically adopted her instead. Zuko actually finds himself jealous of Azulas situation outside of his fathers influence and finally having the childhood that neither of them ever were offered but is ultimately so grateful to Hakoda for it.

And then he meets the water tribe heir one night while he’s grappling with these feelings of jealousy vs grief vs gratitude and having dealt with his father leaving and losing Yue and seeing Katara and Aang being happy and traveling together while he stays in the south he completely understands and helps him work though it.

[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

[itsmoonpeaches]

The Ocean Meets the Sky

Chapter 1: Growth

Please note: Every prompt for this Kataang Week connects into an over-arching story.

Prompt: Height Difference

Summary: In the midst of battle, there was not anything else that Aang thought of. There were clashes, debris flying, fear for his life, and he only thought of that. But when the dust settled, his bruises felt, his muscles aching deeply, he could only think of her.

-

Or, after his battle with Fire Lord Ozai, something lingers within Aang's spirit. Katara is the one that pulls the seams back together. No matter what, Aang and Katara find each other.

Written for @kataang-week

Read on ao3 or ffn.

---

Aang boarded the airship with the others as they babbled jokes in the background. Sokka, Toph, and Suki were throwing barbs at the Fire Lord he had just defeated. Ozai, in his utter worthlessness, was a limp puppet with his strings cut. Aang found it, for better or for worse, just a little bit amusing. Probably more amusing than he should have.

The image of a life-sized ragdoll increased when it was Toph who decided that it would be her spirts-forsaken right to drag Ozai onto the ramp and up into the loading dock of the ship.

“What’s that Loser Lord?” mocked Toph as she metalbended Ozai along on a makeshift gurney complete with elongated belts of steel around his torso and limbs. “Were you saying something? I couldn’t hear you over all your whining.”

Ozai groaned something intelligible.

Sokka limped with his broken leg, an arm around Suki’s shoulder. “I think he was trying not to drool,” he added with a grin. “Kind of hard if the Avatar just kicked your butt if you ask me.”

Suki chuckled, urging the rest of them along. “Hurry up, slowpokes. We have a Fire Nation capital to get to,” she said.

They made it on the airship together, collapsing onto the nearest chairs as soon as Ozai was secured. The weariness set in faster than Aang anticipated. He was worn and his clothes were mostly disintegrated into fire. All he had on was a pair of ragged brown pants. He was sure that there were burns all over him, maybe even a few internal injuries he could not feel yet. He was not looking forward to finding out.

After a moment of exhausted wallowing, he and Sokka were directed to a spot in the medical bay. Suki deemed them both the most incapacitated out of the four of them. Minus, of course, Ozai himself.

“Now, I don’t want either of you standing up until we land,” she commanded, hands propped on her hips. Even after a battle well fought, she kept an impeccable stance. Aang could hardly guess she was ever winded. “I’ll get Katara to heal you two, but you don’t want her killing you before she does it properly, got it?”

Sokka sighed. “Yes, ma’am,” he replied as he plopped himself onto a cot.

Aang fought a gasp when he heard Katara’s name, felt it bubble just beyond his reach. He watched Suki leave the room. She shut the metal door behind her and twisted the latch. The echo of the name trailed behind her like a phantom from her lips.

His heart thudded just a little quicker, his chest constricted just a little more. The leftover smoke in the air urged him along, wanting him to choke on the wonder of just the thought.

In the midst of battle, there was not anything else that Aang thought of. There were clashes, debris flying, fear for his life, and he only thought of that. But when the dust settled, his bruises felt, his muscles aching deeply, he could only think of her.

He realized that things suddenly turned from “What if?” to “What now?” Yet, it was so much more than that. They had made it out alive, but there was still the mystery of if she and Zuko did as well.

He could not bear to think that they did not. That she did not.

Aang rested against the cool surface of the wall. He felt the hum of the ship as it came to life, the fluttering butterflies in his stomach as they started to tilt upward and towards the sky. He imagined that if she were there, he would feel something similar.

Sokka cleared his throat and Aang turned his attention toward him. “So,” drawled Sokka, “A lion turtle, huh? You can just take away people’s bending like that? Can you give someone bending?”

Aang laughed, shaking his head. “Yeah, a lion turtle. According to legend, they gave the power of the elements to humans a long time ago. I learned that from Wan Shi Tong’s library. Though, I don’t think I could give people something that wasn’t already there, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Sokka looked surprised for a bit, his eyes wide. “Oh,” he said, placing his hands on his lap. “I didn’t mean that you’d give me bending like…as a thing. I was wondering if you could...you know…mess with people. Prank them a little. Maybe even…switch elements with someone? You know, scare people into thinking Toph is the Avatar because that would be terrifying.”

The look on Sokka’s face was earnest, and if Aang was honest with himself, he knew from the moment Sokka went prattling on about messing with people that he was serious about it.

Aang burst out into laughter.

“Hey, hey!” Sokka pouted, raising his arms in a placating gesture. “I wasn’t kidding!”

Aang was able to calm himself down for a moment. “Yeah, I know,” he said, “It just sounded exactly like something you would say.” He paused for a breath, staring at his friend with a soft smile. “It was nice. Almost like coming home.”

Sokka blinked. He opened his lips a few times, but nothing came out. Instead, he placed a hand on Aang’s back, and smiled at him.

It was silent for a while before Sokka asked, “So, how was it when you took away Ozai’s bending?” He gave Aang a pointed look. “It looked pretty crazy from where we were with all the light beams.”

Aang remembered what the lion turtle told him: “To bend another's energy, your own spirit must be unbendable, or you will be corrupted and destroyed.” Instead of sharing this with Sokka, he said, “Yeah, it was pretty crazy.”

The truth was what he recalled in that moment was pure unadulterated terror. Orange clashing against blue, night and day, bright and dark. He could not see what the difference was in all the chaos. All he knew was that he wanted to end the war his way, the way he believed it should be. Because what was peace if not for a peaceful beginning and a peaceful culmination?

It was what his people, his culture, taught him. The memory of Gyatso one rainy spring evening when he was small appeared and reminded him, “All life is sacred…even the life of the tiniest spider fly. You think that its life is any less important than yours? You and I, just like this spider fly caught in its own web, are part of a greater whole…of a greater balance.”

The thought had given him purpose, joy even. But Aang was still a person who had lost everything, and when he was about to tell Sokka about his experience, he could not help but remember one last thing.

A voice had reverberated through him as he felt the battle of wills reach its climax, as he had fought through Ozai’s wishes and dreams of burning the Earth Kingdom to the ground, seeing it in visions and grotesque images of blackened, skeletal people.

And he had thought, just for a second, that that was how Gyatso died. Distorted and unrecognizable and scorched.

A great and terrible voice had spoken into his ear at that point, right before he proved that his spirit was unbendable. To hate me is to give me breath. To fight me is to give me strength, it had said. Deep, ominous. Familiar. There is darkness you have failed to recognize.

Then, just like that, it had vanished.

To Sokka, Aang said, “I’ll tell you more about it when we land. I’m pretty tired.”

Very soon he was dozing off, only to be awakened by the screeching of metal on metal. His eyes snapped open, and he found that the airship had stopped moving. Suki had come for them, telling them to disembark.

“The Fire Nation capital,” she remarked. “I never thought I’d ever make it to this place in one piece.” She nodded at the two of them. “Let’s see if we can get you guys healed up.”

At the suggestion, Aang suddenly remembered his worry. Without thinking, he bolted through the door, sprinting through the maze of the vessel on pure adrenaline alone. He was not sure how he remembered where to go, but he was sure that the prospect of seeing Katara on the other side of it all had something to do with it.

He almost stumbled out the exit, tripping over himself on the ramp that slanted down onto the palace courtyard. He glanced up, and it was silent for the longest time as he spotted Katara’s figure hovering over a propped-up form that leaned against a pillar on the steps.

Aang slowed, and then stopped. She looked up, and as soon as their eyes met, it was as if the whole world was about to collapse in on itself and Aang would never notice.

Zuko, looking worse for wear and with a torn tunic, nudged at Katara’s side and that seemed to urge her forward.

That was the catalyst for everything that came after.

Aang ran and so did Katara. They met in the center between the steps and the airship, colliding into each other’s arms, holding each other so tightly that Aang could feel how hard his heart thud in his chest. He could feel every part of him sigh in both relief and exhilaration.

His chin hooked onto her shoulder, pressing into the soft blue fabric there. She shuddered out  his name, and he was sure that he could feel her tears pool onto his neck as she too pressed her face next to his.

“You made it,” Katara whispered, “You made it.”

Aang sagged into her embrace. “You did too,” he added. “We both did.”

They pulled apart and he could see how pink her cheeks were, how red her glittering eyes were along the edges of them. Her arms remained draped around his shoulders, and his hands rested just above her waist.

Katara smiled. “You’re taller,” she observed, laughing a little. Almost as if in awe. “You’re almost as tall as me. I guess I never noticed until now.” She pulled him close once more, this time without the desperation they both displayed only minutes before. “I’m glad that there’s time for me to see you grow more.”

Aang did not notice as their other friends started to encircle them with their own hugs until they sank to the ground together. Katara did not let him go.

[elkian]

Apparently I’m becoming an ATLA theory blog? Lmao.

So not sure if this is canon or just prevalent fanon, but something I see in fic a lot is Zuko being born on the Winter Solstice. Now, to be clear, I like this idea! I think it’s a good base for why Ozai in particular and the Fire Nation/Imagined Fire Nation in Zuko’s low-esteemed life would consider him weak or questionable from the start.

BUT.

[Image of the ATLA world map.]

So we’ve got a couple of factors I’m gonna get into here, but a big one is: the Fire Nation/Isles are firmly along the equator.

Yes, there’s some up and down, and according to one map I found the FN capitol is visibly North of the Equator. However, my point is this: what we see of the Fire Islands is hot, balmy, tropical.

The problem at hand here is that, even the FN isles take note of a solstice, winter in general doesn’t seem like it’s going to be much of an issue. More specifically, along the exact Equator (which imo seems like the place the FN capitol would be in the first place, like on purpose), wouldn’t there be no winter/summer or solstices, etc., at all?

Now, to be clear, while I do live close to the Actual Earth Equator, I don’t live on it. So it’s entirely possible I’ve gotten something wrong here. Additionally, while a lot of stuff on the ATLA planet seems pretty Earth-analogue, it’s entirely possible to have a different axis tilt/seasonal shift/etc. than us.

(Sidenote, my frustration at the primary plots of Kyoshi Island and Sokka’s Master being explicitly one day long has turned into a spitecanon of sorts, that a day - and perhaps other units of time - are much longer on the ATLA planet than Earth. Otherwise Aang’s deadline is crazy harsh, right? But then that would make the long-living people even older so who knows.)

So Problem the First is that the FN very likely does not take note of solstices, at least along the equatorial line, even with the whole Sun thing. Like I can see them mentioning it, but Ozai going “He was born in the heart of Winter“ while it’s 90F/32C and sunny outside is just... not very convincing lmao.

Problem the Second is mainly just feeding into the first: in canon, solstices come up a few times. The Winter Solstice has Roku warning Aang to beat the Fire Lord before the Summer ends. (Note: Thanks to the efforts of several fans, it’s determined that the Eclipse takes place on the 1st day of the 8th month. Ziran Jay Zhao mentions that Sokka checked four months worth of dates while Toph was holding the Library up, so in Earth time that’d be April in the Library and August for Black Sun. Plus like a week or two??? of training and prep after, the show was moving pretty fast at that point.)

The first Episode involves Sokka claiming he has “midnight sun madness”, and the sun is up for the entirety of the episode iirc. This doesn’t strictly mean it’s Summer in the Southern Hemisphere when the show starts, but it’s a possibility.

It’s not really clear where The Winter Solstice takes place, but presumably it’s in the same hemisphere where the show ends, because otherwise that’s a pretty impossible task, right?

My point is that the show jumps the equatorial line and, while not explicit about it, this does affect the Gaang and their surroundings in notable ways.

Back To Zuko - I think the best way to make the Winter Solstice thing work for his birthday is if, say, his mother took a trip North or South while pregnant, and got taken by surprise by going into labor, thus making the Solstice bit a bit more reasonable and notable. Plus, this is a great setup for Zuko to be a premature birth - possibly to the point of serious concern for his survival.

A great setup for Ozai be disappointed as soon as Zuko’s born.

[potent-cactus-juice]

this was inspired by a post i saw about Aang’s anger

I’m thinking of Aang, and a brown air nomad named Nikhil. He’s chasing anything that looks like family, like home, and Nikhil entices him into a trap where his anger is just heightening internally, minute by minute, and his frustration is growing even more endless. And at the same time, he has to help defeat some big established villain (kinda like Ozai, just pure evil). Nikhil’s a superficially evil character at first, (nonbender, just my preference) who’s being driven by a lifelong goal, and he needs Aang to help him achieve it ‘cause he’s a powerful guy.

And then one day, the bough just breaks. Aang’s become too angry, too tired. He goes apesh!t on the established villain that he is supposed to fight and just epically destroys him and surrounding environment in an awesome battle.

And then everybody loves him for destroying evil, established villain, but Aang is left feeling hollow, and conflicted. He destroyed evil guy, yes, but he also destroyed people’s homes and other stuff. Then Nikhil shows up once again, and Aang, in a moment of weakness, goes with him in a desperate attempt to stick to air nomad ways, after diverting from them so drastically. 

Nikhil starts twisting them, but Aang keeps on correcting him because of his “unbendable spirit”. And then we get *tragic backstory* for Nikhil, because of course, he thought he was the only airbender left behind. It also reveals his pride, and insecurity, showing how much he wishes he could do it himself, instead of Aang.

Aang and him start underlyingly rubbing off of each other, Aang getting more ambitious and creative with the ways he could sustain air nomad cuture, and Nikhil regaining his moral compass. 

*insert the gaang and honorary members, Mai, Ty Lee and Azula (post-redemption arc*

 They have been researching on some big spirit thing, which Aang and Nikhil have been doing as well, Nikhil’s doing it for different reasons. Katara has just been made next chief (something she’s really excited about), after Sokka’s struggle with identity comes to a close. Mai has also ended her epic self-appraisal journey, and has joined the Yuyan Archers as an honorary member, (and she’s super excited to hear about Sokka’s new plans). Zuko has finally learnt how to balance his duties as Fire Lord and his identity, and has gotten confident enough to start to shape a Fire Nation he envisions. Ty Lee’s finally comfortable in the place she is in life, but after this she’s going to take a trip. Azula’s going to come with her, but she is still in the doghouse with Ty Lee, and must find her purpose on her own. Suki’s become more confident in her leadership, and is leading a stronger army, Toph has become close friends with Suki, and Suki’s began teaching her about leadership.

So they all join up once again, and when they reveal to Aang what they have to do, Nikhil realises that Aang and him are still not on the same side. He leaves, and Aang is frustrated, cause he thought they had made some ground. Aang finds him and they consult the airbenders together and Aang and Nikhil learn that Nikhil’s been preserving himself and he’s about to die. Nikhil doesn’t care at all, he just wants to brig them back. He manages to sway Aang to join him, but Aang realises that some matters have to be put to rest.

*cue epic battle with the gaang and everyone there*

Aang makes an air shield, him and Nikhil fight it out in an awesome air nomadic way while shouting passionately at each other (imagine a nonbender nomad fighting an airbender? that would be so freaking cool). Nikhil’s mad, because Aang has the power to restore their family, and Aang is mad at himself and Nikhil, at Nikhil, for wanting to exploit spirit magic, and himself for knowing that he would never do that. Aang eventually convinces Nikhil that it’s not worth it, then they help each other do the spirit thing, cause Aang can’t do it by himself. And then Aang says “ They can’t come here. But you can go.” And Nikhil doesn’t want to leave him alone, but eventually he’s swayed and goes to meet his family. Aang is now alone (that would be the title of the episode). And then he cries, terribly, painfully in fact. Because he knows he could have had his family back. But he knows he’ll be fine.

I just wrote an entire season out of pure boredom, and i have an exam on Monday.

[idk-my-aesthetic]

more of my au where zuko and azula are good siblings/ continuation of this post

mostly bc @zarakem is a nice person who said they were interested in hearing more :) 

- most of it follows cannon ish w/ alot of like. stuff i already went over buttt 

- they win the day of black sun, but ozai escapes and starts prepping to attack. they don’t actually get a chance to even find him, he bolts b4 they can 

- they’re pretty sure he’s gonna attack on the day of the comet (which they’re right about) so they’re trying to train and prepare 

- both azula and zuko are very very stressed but showing it in diffrent ways. azula by going back to her more.... difficult side bc it’s her defense mechanism, and zuko by overworking himself to an insane degree 

- obvi their freinds + kit + iroh are like ‘please take a fucking nap’ 

- they basically go w/ aang and iroh on a life changing feild trip to. get their shit together so they go to the sun warriors to calm/understand their inner fires yada yada

- ozai shows up w/ all his supporters, a signifigantly smaller army but one that uses more tactical attacks + fun firebender powered machines that were stored at some nearby decommissioned army bases

- so most of the gaang + ty lee and mai are dealing w/ the ground attack, minus aang, Azula, and zuko

- zuko and Ozai have a proper Agni Kai. Ozai cheats and Zuko’s hurt, but Azula steps in to take his place and take Ozai down

- it kinda mirrors their first fight with him, with very injured zuko saving Azula in the middle of it and a third party stepping in. Though this time aang is mostly just healing zuko bc they had some time after the day of black sun.

- anyway after he’s dealt with there’s a bit of a question about who should take the throne. In the end zuko technically takes it but it’s pretty common knowledge that he and Azula basically co rule. (Plus Iroh deals w/ minor issues bc omfg these are children why are they running a country-)

Anyway that’s the MAIN plot I missed!! But I have more stuff in a less chronological order :)

- the fire siblings chilling w/ and getting used to Iroh is a Process. They’re not used to parental figures, even the gaurd (aka kit) is more like a much older sibling. (I started to say smthn like this on the last post and managed to forget half the sentence. *sigh*)

- the gaurd who saved them gives up her name for spiritual purposes after they desert and simply goes by “gaurd” for a while until the ppl start calling her “the kitsune” so she starts going by kit/kitsune

- note: kitsune are mythical fox creatures in Japanese mythology. (They’re what the 9 tails Pokemon is based off) they don’t have an inherent connotation with fire but they can, and there are generally characterized in 2 main ways. Either as malicious tricksters or messengers of the spirits (that are occasionally known to be benevolent, faithful guardians). Just figured I’d give some background into the folklore bc they’re not as well known like dragons and their hoards or pheonixes and their healing power :)

- alotttt of people end up with small crushes on Azula. Including Katara, Yue, suki, ty Lee, and mai. It’s just the lesbian energy.....

- azula ends up w/ mai and ty lee (at the like. Very very end of everything) and has no real interest in anyone else but katara’s small crush does make aang a little jealous

- all of that is mostly just like cutesy plaid for laughs type stuff- I have negative-infinity interest in making any real love triangles

- Azula and zuko join them in season 1 so please. Please imagine them at the North Pole b4 the siege of the north. They’re so cold. And yet so mad at all this sexist BS. Azula cheers Katara TF on when the whole Pakku thing happens while poor Sokka is holding Zuko back bc he 100% tries to intervene just in a protective big brother way

- zuko and Sokka are really dumb idiots about the huge crushes they have on eachother. Zuko is so jealous around Yue while also being grumpy at himself for being jealous bc Yue is a lovely person and he likes her a lot. Sokka doesn’t even like Yue they’re just mlm wlw solidarity

- they get their shit together in the cave of two lovers. Instead of aang and Katara being on their own it’s the two of them. Azula gets stuck with the hippies and it goes about as well as you’d think

- Azula 100% sudgests kidnapping Toph after Toph’s parents kick them out (b4 Toph runs away). Both zuko and Sokka seriously consider it

- Azula also pulls a knife on bumi during their dinner with him

- Zhao is still after them in season 1 (though he gets defeated at the siege of the north) and they have History bc Zhao has been trying to kill zuko and Azula for a while. They don’t even bother disguising themselves to raid the stronghold, and like half the base defects to join their supporters the next day

- as the day of black sun is nearing and they’re trying to gain troops Sokka insists on disguising them. Yes he dresses as wang fire. Zuko refuses to kiss him for as long as the beard is stuck to his face

- the gaang knows from the start that zuko and Azula are the prince and princess but finding out why they deserted is.... rough buddy

- though ppl that don’t know include Hakoda, who gets to join up preparing for the attack on the day of black sun to find out that not only have his kids been traveling with the prince and princess of the fire nation, but also his son is dating said prince

- ba sing is mostly skipped,,,,, but there’s this whole plot involving assasination attempts and the dai lee a few months after the war ends so. It’s dealt with eventually?

- mostly bc zuko goes there for political talks and while he and Sokka have ackward small talk with the king and bosco, Azula, ty Lee, and mai are dismantling the entire dai lee on their own. Not that it’s particularly difficult

- I feel like there’s probably more but I’m big tired

[postmodernmulticoloredcloak]

Avatar: The Last Airbender episode 3x18 ･:*:･ﾟ’☆

Oh boi we’ve gotten to the final batch of episodes. It feels like yesterday that I started the show. Oh man. I’m not ready.

Aang is having his firebending lessons with Zuko. “Now let me hear you roar like a tigerdillo! ...That sounded pathetic, I said roar!”

Awww it’s a small thing but Momo intimidated by Aang roaring hiding behind Zuko’s leg is the cutest thing. When the kitty trusts you that’s it, you’ve won.

Zuko is a hard teacher but everyone else decides to have a beach party and make sand sculptures. Awww Toph’s been working on sandbending!

“Zuko’s gone crazy! I made a sand sculpture of Suki and he destroyed it! ...Oh, and he’s attacking Aang.” Priorities XD

Zuko is bewildered that they’re wasting time when the comet is due in three days, but Aang has decided to wait to attack the Fire Lord after the comet, not feeling ready for the task yet. Everyone’s reasoning is that Aang needs more training and the Fire Nation’s already essentially won the war, so things can’t get any worse... but Zuko knows more than them. Oh, it’s about the famous war meeting that basically opened Zuko’s eyes about everything!

“The people of the Earth Kingdom are proud and strong. They can endure anything as long as they have hope” “Yes, you’re right. We need to destroy their hope” “Well, that’s not exactly what I--” oh, muffin. It’s obviously poetic that everything comes down to the Earth Kingdom, which has been Zuko’s home after being thoroughly rejected from his own, where Zuko found a place and connected with the people, empathized with their struggles, genuinely saw them as actual humans. And of course the circular structure of it all, everything started when Zuko participated to a war meeting and spoke out in defense of people who’s be purposely sent to death. Now he participated to a second meeting, at this time with his father allowing him to speak and in fact asking for his opinion, and is also horrified by a plan that would mean a full genocide, but stays silent, endures the shame of that silence, but processes the meaning of it all and chooses to join the resistance.

Zuko’s character development is peculiar because he starts off as someone who has specifically selfish goals. Which in fact would normally be “bad”, because selfish goals are usually associated to being a bad thing, except that in his role selfish goals are actually a good thing, temporarily speaking, because of who he is, i.e. the son and heir of a genocidal dictator. He doesn’t go after the avatar to further the success and glory of his nation, but to go home, to acquire respect and love. He never really cares about his nation, even about his position as the heir to the throne; he only cares about regaining the respect of his father. And that’s the key to his salvation because he never is a cruel or violent person, but a compassionate person whose trauma closed him off into a shell of selfishness but that could slowly come out of that shell once he was forced to set his goal aside (in the Earth Kingdom). He temporarily regressed but of course that was necessary for him to fully realize how empty and meaningless that original goal was - the respect of his father means nothing because he’s a genocidal dictator. And his experience in the Earth Kingdom has allowed him to really grow into a compassionate person, because he lives among refugees and ordinary people, as a refugee and an ordinary person, instead of being a prince in a world of power.

He had a potential for empathy which his experience in the Earth Kingdom fully realized, and when Ozai decides to literally burn the Earth Kingdom away, that obliterates all the the value Zuko placed on his father’s respect. It obliterates all the respect he had for his father at all. He looks at him with the eyes of all the people he’s empathized with during his journey outside the Fire Nation, and sees the enemy.

And now he tells Aang that he might not be ready to save the world, but once the comet comes there won’t be a world to save anymore. He’d never told them about Ozai’s plan before because he was still under the assumption that the deadline was before the comet, and possibly he assumed that the rest of the gang had a full grasp of how evil the Fire Lord actually was. Funnily enough, the Fire Lord was always “the enemy” for the rest of them, but somewhat an idea, a concept, while Zuko’s experience of his father is very real and concrete. Heck, he carries it on his face.

Aang is distraught, but they tell him that they’re going to fight the Fire Lord as a group. They have a powerful bender for each element plus two weapon masters, their group as a collective has the full power of the avatar. Team Avatar indeed :)

“Get over here, Zuko. Being part of the group also means being part of group hugs.” Awwww <3

Zuko teaches Aang the technique to redirect lightning that Uncle Iroh invented and taught him. Zuko describes the experience of being passed through by lightning as “exhilarating but terrifying” because it’s so incredibly dangerous. Again, Aang is reminded that it’s either the Fire Lord’s life or his, but he’s obviously not okay with the idea of taking a life.

Meanwhile Sokka has come up with a plan to take down the Fire Lord. Or, in this case, the Melon Lord. They practice it--Toph has a great time playing the Melon Lord. If she were the avatar the Fire Lord would already be dust.

I mean, all due respect for Aang but sometimes people need to be physically eliminated, even if it doesn’t feel good. Then again, I’m not a monk or a particularly good person, so maybe it’s me. They have two days and no alternative...

It gets worse when Katara finds a picture of baby Ozai, which humanizes him even more.

They have a fight over it, and Aang mysteriously disappears into the sea... They decide to split up and look for him.

“I’m going with Zuko! What? Everyone else went on a life-changing field-trip with Zuko, now it’s my turn.”

Suki and Katara only find the actress!Aang...

Asdfghjkl Toph rants about her difficult childhood to Zuko but he’s not in the mood to listen XD

Aang is nowhere to be found...

“What should we do, Zuko?” “I don’t know. Why are you all looking at me?” “Well, you are kind of the expert on tracking Aang.” “Yeah, if anyone’s got experience hunting the avatar, it’s you.” when you have 2 experiences on your curriculum and one is tea server but the other is a highly specialized research that suddenly gets in demand.

Oooh Zuko indeed has an Idea(TM).

Meanwhile what I assume are the preparations for the arrival of the comet has begun.

Ooh. Azula was supposed to be with her father in the attack to the Earth Kingdom, but Ozai has decided that she’ll stay behind. She is upset at first, but he explains that her task is to watch over the Fire Nation... and she will be the new Fire Lord, as he becomes the king of the entire world. The Phoenix King in fact. Which is a really cool name, admittedly.

He’s already got a whole aesthetic ready. Damn, the dramatic gene is strong in the family.

Oh, Zuko’s idea is to recruit the bounty hunter from that other time!

Meanwhile Aang wakes up, with no memory of getting there...

[seyaryminamoto]

Why do you think Zuko is misunderstood by the fans?

Um… because of a lot of reasons, really. But alas, as it’s a controversial topic, I’ll just leave it under the cut:

Zuko isn’t the idealized version of his character that most fans love to interpret. He could have been that version of himself, no doubt, if Bryke and their crew had written him like that, but they didn’t. And as I’ve been here a while, I’ve seen how many people interpret Zuko’s character however they please, often forgetting the way canon portrayed him just to replace facts with their idealized versions of Zuko. 

From the get-go, Zuko was coded as a stubborn, hotheaded, impatient teenager. Recently I saw someone complaining about how Bryke had dared take Zuko’s character and reduce him to an angry emo who lashed out at everyone in the first half of Book 3. I mean… did they not watch the rest of the show? This was literally a way for the show to convey how Zuko is dissatisfied even when he has “everything he could want”, just as he was dissatisfied with his lot in life during the majority of Books 1 and 2. Yet you see fans outraged about his behavior in Book 3 because, uh… I don’t know. I seriously don’t know. It was honestly pretty obvious what they were going for. Not seeing it really just makes me think these fans were making genuine efforts not to see it. 

Zuko’s eternal pursuit for honor makes a lot of fans think he’s very honorable indeed, but even all the way to the finale, he makes decisions that aren’t honorable in any possible interpretation. Him choosing to fight Azula one-on-one sounded honorable up until he says that since she’s slipping he can take her this time. He takes advantage of the enemy’s breakdown, and the enemy is no other than his sister. How honorable is this?

And this isn’t the full extent of it, of course. His trips with Aang and Katara are as distant from honorable as can be: the one with Katara was literally based on helping her kill a man so she’d like him. The one with Sokka has to be the least harmful of them all, and it’s the only one where someone (Mai) challenges his crazy decisions and tries to make him reason with what he’s doing.

But the one with Aang is extremely, extremely ironic, as he’s deemed worthy of the secrets of firebending by Ran and Shaw… right after acting like a ridiculously arrogant ass who told Aang that they’d fight Ran and Shaw easily, because “we’re the Avatar and the Fire Prince, I’m sure we can take them!” Moments later, “Still sure we can take them?” “Shh, I never said that!”. 

Oh, so honorable.

I honestly don’t care about how this is supposed to be comedic, or how his previous dishonorable acts come from, uh, “honorable” purposes. Defeating Azula so he can take over the Fire Nation and leading the world in a better direction is all good, except for the part where he chose to fight when he saw she wasn’t okay and thought it was the right chance for him to take advantage of. A truly honorable person would think this isn’t the way they want to earn a throne.

And his greatest act of bravery… is to defy Ozai when Ozai is powerless. I mean, the confrontation had to happen eventually, but did it have to happen when Ozai was alone and powerless? Really? In contrast, as I’d been in a bit of a CG roll, Lelouch defies his father, AT 8 YEARS OF AGE, in court, in front of everyone, being completely powerless but fueled by his courage and knowledge of what’s right and what isn’t. It ends poorly for him, yes. But what Lelouch did showed a lot more bravery, courage and HONOR… than confronting Fire Lord Ozai when he’s alone and powerless, and then escaping ASAP as soon as Ozai regained his power. I don’t care how dangerous Ozai was, what Zuko did wasn’t shrewd or clever: it was sneaky, and as distant from honor as can be.

The honor jokes really get old, but it gets even older to see people praising his honor back and forth. Zuko is canonically still in his quest to understand honor, no matter how many impassioned speeches he tried to give about it in the show. A man of honor wouldn’t act the way Zuko did 99% of the time. Words =/= actions, at all.

Then there’s also the way his redemption is continuously praised back and forth, left and right, everywhere you go. I wrote a lengthy post about my complaints regarding the differences between Book 1 Zuko and Book 3 Zuko already, enjoy it if you’re interested in seeing that. It ought to cover why I’m not as happy about singing praises over his character development as most the fandom is. 

Once you read that post, you may understand why I feel Zuko’s humane side from Book 1 was somehow squashed and tossed away by Book 3. Was he wearier after all he’d seen and endured? Was he too tired at this point to show mercy? Whatever it was, Zuko showed more compassion towards worse enemies in Book 1 than he did in Book 3 towards his own sister. And when you point this out, people will rush to defend him by saying Azula was a genuine threat while Zhao wasn’t (do we conveniently forget that Zhao got REALLY close to killing him? How isn’t he a threat when Zuko literally survived the explosion of his ship by the intervention of plot armor and nothing else?). Or that Azula was trying to kill him so Zuko had every right to want the same.

What it all amounts to, in my opinion? Zuko had practically all his Book 1 compassion beaten out of him by Book 3. Not a lot of people seem to consider that might be what’s at play here, but I truly believe it’s what it is. His little to no concern when helping Katara track down Yon Rha, never batting an eyelash about having to fight his own people? Yon Rha may have been scum of earth, but we’re talking about the Zuko who was outraged when his father’s council was considering sending soldiers to serve as bait in the war. Now he’s out there, giving his not-yet-friend a hand in killing soldiers too, just to be her friend indeed. That’s our compassionate, pure-hearted Zuko. That’s the guy who absolutely became a better person and who had TV’s greatest redemption arc in all of history!!

As ever, I’m not saying loving his character is wrong. I’m only pointing out all these things because loving him should amount to accepting all this about him. It should amount to realizing Zuko is not just far from perfect, but that his darker sides actually are more prominent as the show advanced than when it started. The entitled snotty prince became a war-weary exile, and it didn’t happen smoothly or without any cost. Zuko didn’t simply open his heart to goodness and became a Carebear in the process. There’s a lot of good intentions in him, no doubt, but that doesn’t make him 100% good and nothing but good. At the end of the show, he’s still showing those darker sides of himself when he practically spits at Ozai that he should be grateful the Avatar spared him at all. Truly, this is how His Honorable Zuzuness treats Ozai? Ozai was a huge asshole without a conscience, no lie: that doesn’t mean a compassionate, kind-hearted man would spitefully rub in his face that he’s lucky to be alive at all.

Zuko’s journey is more complicated than many of his die-hard fans have acknowledged it to be. Excuses have been made for him in regards of every single bad thing he does because “it was for a good cause”, “the other person deserved it”, “he’s good deep down so that trumps all the evil he may do”. Instead of accepting the seriously fucked up decisions Zuko makes, instead of embracing that even at the end of the show, he leaves a lot to be desired in regards of morality, you get people praising him as the kindest, gentlest, sweetest soul in the Avatarverse. In the same breath, those fans insult and demean other characters who underwent similar journeys to Zuko’s, refusing to see the complexities that come with character growth in this show.

Nobody got to the end of the show unscathed. Not really. Aang lost a ton of his innocence, Katara gave herself to her darker emotions in the final season, Sokka suffered losses he never had expected to, in the very finale Toph was left powerless in the middle of the air, depending on someone else to save her life no matter how powerful she always had been, Suki endured prison for a long time, Azula lost everything. Everyone had something that broke them, in their own way. And not everything they lost made them stronger or better people: frankly, Katara made me lose my patience a lot in Book 3. She was erratic and even cruel at times, to degrees I never imagined possible for her. Aang’s loss of innocence was damaging for him too, even as he did his very best to hold onto his beliefs and to do what was right. His leisurely smiles at the start of the show are very different from the ones at the end, which portray he’s been through a lot of pain. As the show progressed, Aang made a show of more pent up anger and bottled up emotions than anyone could have anticipated from him in Book 1. None of these things made Katara and Aang better people: but they made them real, genuine characters, no matter if the viewer liked or disliked those new sides of their personalities.

Zuko isn’t that different from them. Even at his best, Zuko is flawed beyond belief and makes shows of many traits that in no way should be considered ethically correct. It’s part of who he is, part of his character, and as it is with Aang and Katara, it doesn’t have to be a bad thing as it makes his character more real. But I don’t see people saying Katara became a much better person at the end of the show. I don’t see them doing the same with Aang. People say they grew, yes, but they don’t praise them for becoming perfect human beings. They do it with Zuko.

I just lose it when people call Zuko complex in one breath, and in the next simplify his character completely. How they will give him every benefit of the doubt and make a show of understanding gray morality, yet judge everyone else for their actions with a black-and-white mentality. Zuko is complex indeed, but he’s not the only complex character in the show, let alone the only one who did terrible things for what he thought were the right reasons. And saying he gets the privilege of a redemption because “he was always good deep down” is something I am sick to my stomach of. It really sounds like people who spout this sort of stuff don’t even understand what redemption means: 

“Redemption: an act of redeeming or atoning for a fault or mistake, or the state of being redeemed.” 

Where does this say you need to be an inherently good person to qualify for redemption? Nowhere. Why’s this relevant? Because someone who’s always been good yet acts bad wouldn’t need a genuine change of heart or growth to “join the good guys”. Example 1: Sirius Black didn’t need a redemption because it turned out all the awful things people said he’d done were lies, so he becomes a “good guy” without undergoing a major character arc to reform him into “goodness”. Example 2: Android 16 from DBZ turned out to be absurdly kind-hearted and hateful of cruel and senseless violence. What Future Trunks suffered at the hands of the Androids was not true for this version of Android 16, because while he had the potential to become a destructive force, he turned out to be really kind. He started out partnered with the other Androids, who were villains at the time, but eventually fights against the real, common enemy (Cell), with everyone else. You didn’t need a huge story about Android 16 changing his ways because he didn’t need to change them at all.

The three-season-long journey Zuko undergoes would have been so much shorter and he would have joined Team Avatar since, I don’t know, episode 8 if being inherently good was all his character was about. He’d be like those two I mentioned up there, for instance. Zuko’s growth was as long, as complicated and as infuriating (for me at least :’D I lost my patience with him a ton of times) because he DID NEED A CHANGE OF HEART. Because Zuko had to live through a ton of awful circumstances and situations to understand he was wrong, to understand he had made bad choices and to find the strength to correct them.

Him having goodness in his heart never, EVER, ruled out that he could do bad things, or believe in bad things. In case it went forgotten, because too often it looks like it did, Iroh’s big attempt to teach Zuko that he was born to the joined bloodlines of Roku and Sozin, wasn’t merely about showing him he had potential for good: it was about showing him he had potential for evil too. Zuko was the one who would make the choice of which one he would follow. 

Ergo, the show OUTRIGHT SAYS IT. Zuko is NOT inherently good. Being a good person isn’t all that difficult, objectively speaking, but it does take an effort that Zuko often didn’t make, especially in the first two seasons. When he joins Team Avatar, he’s supposed to be making the effort now, and yet he still does awful things and still acts entitled and still makes terrible decisions and still shows remarkable disregard for honor in many instances. He’s STILL in the process of truly changing and growing into a better person. He wasn’t one all along. If he always had been, as I’ve said before and I’ll say forever, his growth would be an exercise in futility and a waste of screentime. 

... Alright, I think that more or less covers it. I am not going to bother getting into comics Zuko, don’t have the heart in me to go over that problem for the gazillionth time.

Anyways, these are the things I believe a lot of the fandom misunderstands about Zuko, NOT EVERYONE, but a lot of loud Zuko defenders who seem to insist he’s a cinnamon roll who would never hurt a fly. I’ve met many Zuko fans who do love him as he is and it shows, since when you read their stories about him you see he’s remarkably IC. They understand him well enough. But there’s a lot of them who just see everything in the show from a very narrow perspective, who love Zuko yet are so immersed in the Internet’s sick purity ideals that they’ll gladly excuse him for everything just to feel better about themselves for loving him. Another pointless exercise, this time in egotism, I’d say.

Long story short, Zuko’s idealized fandom version irritates me and I wish people would see him for who he really is already. He’s way more interesting as he was than in their absurd idealization of him, anyways.