#loopy777

[comradekatara]

Who first suggested the book club: Mako or Jinora? And who picks the books?

i think it probably started organically as a natural progression of jinora getting to know mako better. they're on a roadtrip (airtrip?) across the earth kingdom in search of new airbenders and they're both a little bored and irritated. mako has no escape from the budding bestieship of his two gorgeous ex-girlfriends who he fumbled. badly. jinora has no escape from her generally chaotic extended family. they're both introverts who need space that they cannot find on a relatively large but still altogether much too cramped airship. mako walks in on jinora reading a book on the history of ba sing se. he apologizes for interrupting her, but then he's like "is that book interesting?" and before he knows it, jinora is rambling about the history of dai li and the various earth dynasties, and mako is listening intently trying to absorb all of it. normally jinora's interests are shot down as being (ikki and meelo) "too nerdy" or (tenzin and pema) "extraneous to her air nomad studies" (even though, she argues, air nomads have historically been very worldly, and besides, she's part water tribe!) so when mako seems to actually appreciate knowledge for the sake of knowledge, she lends him her book after she's done with it. and for a while, that's how it goes: jinora finishes one of her books, and then she gives it to mako to read, and they discuss it. their conversations primarily focus on their literary pursuits; neither has an interest in discussing the interpersonal drama currently surrounding them.

then, jinora develops a crush on one of the new airbenders. and suddenly jinora regrets befriending this teenage boy who won't stop barraging her with his motherly concern and disapproval. "he's not good enough for you," "he's untrustworthy," etc. etc. everything they read somehow turns into a didactic lesson, even as jinora directs them to books on the most mundane, innocuous topics possible (mako is actually fascinated by the mechanics of the omashu mailchute system, but he still somehow manages to turn it into a moralizing tale about how careless disregard for authority can lead to life-ruining danger). eventually, the red lotus becomes more of a threat than mako's obnoxious presumption that he knows what's best for her, and their attentions are diverted elsewhere. gradually, mako's opinion on kai turns around, and he gives jinora his approval (not that she needed it, he's literally just some guy?), so they can once more go back to reading and discussing literature without any distractions.

jinora is usually the one selecting the books, since she has more free time to read, but mako lends her some books of his own. there is no obligation for it to be a formal thing, since mako is on air temple island frequently enough that they don't need to create an official schedule to plan for their meetings, but for some reason they still do because mako prefers to live a highly structured, ordered life. they meet on the second and sixteenth of every month, and exchange notes on their primary takeaways from each book – what they were most interested to learn, whether the author was convincing in their rhetorical style – and then they deliberate over which book to read next while drinking tea. they have a strict "no 'personal life' talk" rule. occasionally jinora ventures to suggest that they read a work of fiction together next, but mako always swiftly shoots her down. he is here to expand his mind, not to rot it with fluff! jinora would be annoyed if she didn't find it charming being friends with the world's most boring guy. and eventually she does manage to tease out his entire convoluted backstory with korra and asami, as well as some of the least unpalatable details of his childhood, and some of his more exciting moments as a detective. jinora's just like "damn, no wonder you don't read fiction. your life is already five different genres of insanity." and mako's just like "yeah. do you have any more of those plain, unsalted rice crackers? they're my favorite food."

#loopy777 #asks #mako #jinora #jinora&mako #idk if that's a tag i've ever used but they're my favorite implied totally offscreen friendship in lok #they share books and he disapproves of her boyfriend!!! it's adorable!!!!! #in the lok rewrite that lives in my head this is a prominent subplot and is explored with the full depth it deserves

[maikingsenseofit]

Announcing Maiko Week 2024!

Daily Maiko announced on Twitter that MAY-Ko week will be from May 1st - May 7th 2024!

Here are the prompts, they look amazing. It will be so great to have our first Maiko week in two years

Please tag your friends, artists, and writers to make this week extremely special!

@bluespiritshonour @an-aspiring-jester @akiizayoi4869 @count-horror-xx @justinedont

@leantailean @privatefire @attackfish @loopy777 @swan2swan @rms10 @valkyrie-kun +MORE

#mai #zuko #maiko #avatar the last airbender #atla maiko #pro maiko #Maikoweek2024 #atla

[sokkastyles]

Alright, this needs to stop.

As I mentioned over here, someone is stirring up drama between Zuko/Zutara and Azula blogs by harassing people in their inboxes. At least this time they have (mostly) used their own words instead of directly copying posts from other blogs. Or used a chatbot because boy, howdy, do these messages make no sense, even when they aren't directly copied from other blogs. The eye contact one is a post copied from another tumblr blog, and doesn't even make sense to plop into my inbox because there isn't even an argument presented.

You can see though that this blog has no content, but their followers list is full of Zutara/Zuko and Azula blogs, probably for the purpose of stealing posts to cause drama with. I would suggest everyone on the follow list block and report them immediately, and do this every time you get a message from a blog that looks like this.

@comradekatara, @atla-recluse, @ask-ozai, @ask-azula, @azulas-daddy-kink, @justanotherthrowaway1959, @betteravatarpolice, @a-s-fischer, @fireladyazula, @tinky-dinky, @attackfish, @ultranos, @loopy777, @innocentimouto, @dragynkeep, @atla-fandom-confessions, @wingsfreedom, @zuko-always-lies, @atla-lore-archive, @prying-pandora666, @zuctionary, @zvtara-was-never-canon, @burst-of-iridescent, @waywardbananawolf, @firelxdykatara, @waywardavatarenthusiast, @juniperhillpatient, @super-hero-confessions, @azulas, @firenaition, @waterfire1848, @ly0nstea, @the-badger-mole, @phoebester, @err0r4x, @doodlesanime

If you notice a blog like this following you, liking your posts, or sending you messages, they are stealing posts and trying to cause drama. Block and report them.

You can also follow the link to my previous post to see the list of other blog urls they have used, and you can go to each page and see that the blogs look very similar and have similar if not identical follower lists.

#zuko #katara #zutara #azula #atla discourse

[zuko-always-lies]

so if it takes place after imbalance isn't azula 18 in her solo comic?

I don't try to track the internal chronology of the comics. You would be better off asking an actual comics expert like @loopy777

[caelum-in-the-avatarverse]

Hello! I’m trying to collect seminal fanworks for different fandoms, and figured that it would be a good idea to ask you for any for atla since you said that you’ve been involved in writing fanfic for the show for so long. Basically, I’m hoping to find any fics that are widely popular within the fandom and/or have laid the groundwork for certain aspects of fanon. I’ve already got Embers by Vathara down for this since I’ve seen influence from it pop up pretty often, but I’m a bit new to the fic side of the fandom so I wanted to know which other ones were out there. Thank you!

Hmmm. Well, I can probably point you in the right direction, BUT there's a few things about me you'll want to take into account.

I have always had incredibly niche tastes. Even back in 2009 I was way more interested in reading about minor characters than I was reading about the main cast, and I preferred genfic over shipping. So the fics I read didn't tend to get popular, and the fics that did get popular were usually shipfic and thus I didn't read them and wouldn't be able to track their effects on the fandom. I also haven't regularly read ATLA fic in years; I write it, but I'm way more interested in my own OCs and worldbuilding and headcanon sandbox than most fic these days, so I'm not sure what the current trends are or where they came from. Most of the things I point you towards are going to be very old and possibly forgotten.

That said, I think your best bet is going to be figuring out where the hangout spaces were and who the major players were in old ATLA fandom and going from there. @loopy777 and @piandaoist may be able to help us out here too, especially since I only joined the fandom after the finale aired; they were around long before that.

So, where did the original ATLA fandom and its fic live? Well, for the fic, mostly on FanFiction.Net. You're lucky in this regard--I don't think there were any big independent fanfic archives for ATLA. Harry Potter was around at the same time and had several big fic sites, but HP was older than ATLA, so places like Sugar Quill and FictionAlley were founded around 2001. FFdotnet was founded in 1998, but back then it was pretty commonplace to build your own personal place on the internet. By the time ATLA aired, though, I think FFdotnet was becoming the go-to fic place. And old ATLA fandom never seemed to have much of a slash fandom; if it had that would've been more incentive to start up a separate slash-focused archive, since m/m would be especially vulnerable to purges. So as far as I know, no one felt a need to establish an ATLA-focused fic website, and if they did it never got very big. You'll probably have some good luck seeing what was popular if you just go to the FFdotnet ATLA section and sort by number of reviews and check the dates on what you find.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are going to go looking for this stuff, you need to keep in mind that you are looking at a past internet that is very different from what you might be used to today. For all that purity culture wankers like to complain, AO3 is a dream compared to the olden days. Now, you can see a fic's tags and warnings (or that the author chose NOT to warn) before you even open it. That was not possible or expected on many other fic archives. FFdotnet only gave you so many characters to write your fic summary, that was precious real estate. Sometimes people warned for things in author's notes, sometimes they did not. The culture and etiquette around warnings was different; in many fandoms back then, failing to warn for character death was seen as way more upsetting than failing to warn for rape. Check the rating, the summary, the author's notes--and then understand that you might still run into a completely random sex scene halfway through the fic. Was every fic like this? No, of course not. Most of them weren't. But you have to understand that this is an unavoidable risk. If you can't handle the idea of stumbling across some underage Zutara smut, this might not be the project for you.

Oh, and mind the citrus scale--lemons mean sex, limes mean the characters don't go as far as having sex.

And FYI, it's been ages since I've read anything I'm about to go over and I can't remember the details, so yes, this warning applies to anything I recommend here, too.

Other places to check...well, fandom lived on LiveJournal back then. I'm not sure if ATLA fandom was very affected by Strikethrough and Boldthrough; like I said, there didn't seem to be a lot of slash fans back then. But you could probably go trawling through old journals and communities and see if you find anything interesting... Oh, and back then all fanart would've been posted on DeviantArt, that was pretty much where fanart lived back then. LJ didn't have native image hosting, you had to use Photobucket if you wanted to post any images on there, and why do that when DeviantArt was RIGHT THERE for your fanart.

Ooooh, here you go, FanLore has some lists of ATLA fan spaces, lots of which are on LJ and DA!

There was also AvatarSpirit.Net, but they shut down ages ago. I archived a lot of the threads before it went, but I basically skipped the whole fanfic forum--everything in there was probably on FFdotnet, and no one really left comments on the fic threads, so it seemed pointless since I was pressed for time.

I think that pretty much covers the places. So what about the people?

Well, off the top of my head, I think one fan you might find useful is AvocadoLove (haha your names match). She wrote a lot of fic, but her most popular by far was Another Brother, which I believe was the original Zuko Joins The Water Tribe story, so that trope can be traced back to her. AvocadoLove also kept what might've been the fandom's most prestigious fic reclist, which you can still see on both her LiveJournal and her DreamWidth:

LJ 1 | LJ 2 ||| DW 1 | DW 2

There's a lot of popular fics on this list. Be warned, though, that a lot of them have disappeared, especially if they were posted on someone's LJ instead of on FFdotnet. A few years back I went down this list archiving everything I could, and the number of error pages I hit was saddening. It's possible some have been reposted to AO3 so you can go check there.

Going off this list...

Enslaved by sharkflip--This was a popular Zutara fic, Zuko's the one who got enslaved lol. Extremely different worldbuilding from canon, I gave it a read once and it was interesting.

Mai's Ramblings by @loopy777--Oh my GOD I forgot this existed but it's great. Unfortunately ASN is gone and I have no idea if they're posted anywhere else, LOOPY TELL US, but these were just hilariously stupid rambles by Mai on every ATLA ship imaginable. Did they have a big effect on fanon? Unsure. Were they beloved by the ASN community? YES.

Stormbenders by Fandomme--Another super-popular Zutara fic, people loved it, so it's possible it might've affected Zutara fanon?

Water Tribe by Rufftoon on NoSelfControl--Okay, so this is a long webcomic about "what if Zhao survived the Siege of the North, got amnesia, and the NWT begrudgingly took him in?" Very popular with Zhao fans back in the day. The really cool thing about this is that Rufftoon was actually an ATLA storyboard artist, so her artwork looks a LOT like the show. I believe she made Water Tribe as a sort of personal practice for long-term visual storytelling or something. She did lots of other ATLA art too, you should check her out.

Oh, speaking of webcomics...

Plight of the Freedom Fighters by SioUte and PFFbySIO--The first webcomic was a "how to make Jet survive" story, the second followed the Freedom Fighters after the war as adults. SioUte was the Freedom Fighters BNF back in the day.

And while I'm thinking of it, not a webcomic, but sylvacoer had this whole not-really-Zutara story going on that was literally Blue Spirit/Painted Lady.

*thinks* Look, when it comes right down to it, unless there's stuff going on in the shipping subfandoms that I'm not aware of, I don't think you're going to find anything that directly established as much fanon as Embers did. There were plenty of other super-popular fics, sure, but most of them focused on shipping, and worldbuilding wasn't quite as important. Embers put worldbuilding first and foremost, and therefore it was easier for the fandom to pull from as a whole.

Uhhh let's see what else...at this point I'm basically just throwing whatever I can remember being interesting at you, lol, idk how much of an effect any of this really had.

DJNS wrote a bunch of fic with interesting premises, some shippy, some not. The Zuko/Aang roleswap AU was pretty cool.

For me personally, the biggest influences on my writing were Dark Puck and Rebecca Hb, specifically their Dai Li fics. They had a circle of friends on LJ who put out some good stuff.

*thinks* Yeah, I think that's all I've got for now. Hope that gives you a starting point! I'd also recommend, as you trawl through FFdotnet, checking out the authors' favorited fics in their profiles, you could probably find more interesting stuff that way.

Idk, I'll add more later if I think of anything. But if you start with AvocadoLove, I think that's an excellent starting point.

#asks #fandom history #ancient fanfiction #fanfiction #fandom #caelum rambles

[attackfish]

Hi! Do you have any atla fic recs?

Here are the seventeen best fics in the Avatar fandom, and I swear this list is totally not just the favorites of one person whose choices are completely subjective and entirely based on personal preference. Yeah so these are my personal faves, your milage may vary.

"Who by Fire" by Kaberett: [Link]

There was precedent, of course, for succession in the event of the untimely demise of the incumbent ruler. Between political intrigue, ambition and necessity - and these qualities have never been in short supply within the ruling classes of the Fire Nation - history contains no shortage of examples. Deposal in the absence of bloodshed, however, is another matter entirely: and more so when the Heir Apparent is the banished prince, who has, contrary to every expectation, found the Avatar and brought him home.

"Enslaved" by Sharkflip: [Link]

A triumphant war party returns with an exotic slave, a gift for the ruling house. Multi-chapter, Katara/Zuko

"Eight Principles of Yong" by Psocoptera: [Link]

The pen is mightier than the sword, or how Zuko saves the day via the power of good penmanship.

"Five Ways Toph Created Her Own Family (Whether She Liked It or Not)" by Lady Ganesh [Link]

The title is the summary.

"Tea with Destiny" by @awesomeavocadolove [Link]

After the shock of Lu Ten's death, Iroh makes a fateful journey into the Spirit World. The tea there is exquisite, but the company may give Iroh a run for his money.

"Without a Fight" and "Never Give Up" by @suzukiblu [Link] and [Link]

Thirteen years old and alone in the Earth Kingdom, thrown out of his life and family and destiny with the burn on his face still raw and new, Zuko does not want to go on. Song/Zuko

"Gilded Green" by @caelum-blue [Link]

At the end of Iroh's Siege, the Dai Li decide to test their brainwashing abilities on a Fire Nation soldier. They don't know that their guinea pig-rat happens to be a supposedly-dead prince. Multi-chapter and multi-part

"Til Death Do Us Start" by @loopy777 [Link]

Mai's parents arrange a marriage for her. The first problem is that she's been dead for fifteen years, and the second problem is that her husband isn't who anyone is expecting. Mai/Sokka

"The Airbending Master" by @liz-squids [Link]

Teaching airbenders is not the same as restoring the Air Nomads

"In Which Mai and Toph Are Not Remotely Ladylike" by @liz-squids [Link]

Mai and Toph drink too much, talk too much, engage in petty vandalism. Their mothers would be horrified.

"Drink Some Fucking Tea" by @unjapanologist [Link]

A parody of 'Go the Fuck to Sleep'. During season one, Iroh unloads some frustrations about his beloved nephew that he can't very well voice out loud.

"Red is the Color of the End of the World" by @sholiofic [Link]

Post-series, Katara is adjusting to the new shape of the world. They all are.

"Chromatism" by @glamaphonic [Link]

Ty Lee is soiled and unclean and bursting with color.

"Life Began With Waking Up" by @glamaphonic [Link]

It was a simple truth that Mai had never really thought about her children. Mai/Zuko

"His and Her Circumstances" by Lavanya Six: [Link]

AU. Two years ago, it's believed the Fire Lord exiled Prince Zuko to distance himself from responsibility for his son's subsequent assassination. Five months from now, a boy in an iceberg will awaken. Tonight, Mai runs across a masked criminal. Mai/Zuko

"Escapee" by @liz-squids [Link]

So you're a traitor. Now what? AU from "The Boiling Rock" where Mai and Ty Lee escape with the others. Mai/Zuko

Unnamed ficlet #4 by @liz-squids [Link]

The AU where Azula never found out Zuko and Iroh were in Ba Sing Se, and 16 years later, the Fire Nation has won the war, and Mai is the governor of Ba Sing Se, and she and Zuko have an awkward 30-something reunion. Mai/Zuko, past Jin/Zuko.

#posts i created #avatar the last airbender #do you want to ask a question it doesn't have to be a question

[akiizayoi4869]

Sokkastyles has finally gotten sick of the bots sending them our posts, and has provided a list of all the accounts sending them stuff:

It's long. Really long.

@bitchygardenerkryptonite

@saltysoulkidcreator

@sshdhdhdhdh

@clevercrusadebread

@wingedyouthcrusade

@unlikelybarbariancycle

@thoughfulbarbarianlove

@weepingdestinycollection

@crazychildstranger

@keenaglewinner

@cooltragedysuit

@foultheoristgiver

@sizzlinggalaxypost

@crookedcrownearthquake

@eclecticglitterhologram

@sweetfurypolice

@jsshbdhdhdhd

@jonno7567

@zuzustyles

@atomiczombieanchor

@foulpersondefender

@alwaysgenerouscupcake

@qualitymentalityperson

@delightfulturtlesandwich

@saintnoviceprince

@juniorscientist52

There's also a list of all the accounts who the bot follows/whose asks have been sent to sokkastyles (the bot's follows mysteriously disappeared after this list was made lol):

@comradekatara, @atla-recluse, @ask-ozai, @ask-azula, @azulas-daddy-kink, @justanotherthrowaway1959, @betteravatarpolice, @a-s-fischer, @fireladyazula, @tinky-dinky, @attackfish, @ultranos, @loopy777, @innocentimouto, @dragynkeep, @atla-fandom-confessions, @wingsfreedom, @zuko-always-lies, @atla-lore-archive, @prying-pandora666, @zuctionary, @zvtara-was-never-canon, @burst-of-iridescent, @waywardbananawolf, @firelxdykatara, @waywardavatarenthusiast, @juniperhillpatient, @super-hero-confessions, @azulas, @firenaition, @waterfire1848, @ly0nstea, @the-badger-mole, @phoebester, @err0r4x, @doodlesanime

..... Idk if I should be amused or concerned

#asks #anon #atla #aki answers things

[piandaoist]

Good thing the internet never forgets.

A screenshot reblog from @karinta-agogobell-unified via @loopy777 that reads "Unrequited fic is a fic that you desperately want to write, but you know you'll never write it." - @piandaoist

#thank you duckduckgo #good thing i saved what few snippets i had on @piandaoist

[maiweek]

Mai Creator Appreciation: Authors

[Image ID: A banner with an teal background and a screenshot of Mai eating with chopsticks. The text reads “Mai Creator Appreciation. Fanfiction Authors.″ /End ID]

Thank you all for your submissions for your favorite Mai creators! In the lead up to Mai Week (which will be held October 3-7, click here for prompts and rules!) we now want to highlight our favorite fanfic authors who have written amazing stories centered around Mai. Click here for the appreciation posts for Mai fanartists. In no particular order, we have:

graphite and tea by @drowning-in-cacophony

(Rated G, 4.2k words, Mai/Zuko)

[Aunt Mura’s taken to dragging Mai along to her weekly Pai Sho games. Three weeks in, and that’s when she sees him.] Or: Mai likes drawing. Then she meets Zuko.

I Don't Hate Grifters by @loopy777

(Rated G, 5.7k words, Mai/Zuko)

In a slightly different world, Mai isn't a blade-throwing disaffected heiress. She uses her precise hands and ability to become anyone to take what she wants from the people who can't keep up. Until, that is, she has a run-in with a certain scarred, banished prince...

show me where my armour ends (show me where my skin begins) by @raspberry-flower

(Rated G, 1.3k words, Mai/Ty Lee)

It has been years, but the motions are familiar, still. Her fingers slip into an easy rhythm, a remnant from the time when this was a regular occurrence, when they were young and foolish and didn’t know they shouldn’t. When they hadn’t yet learned that this was something to be hidden.

[In the prison, Ty Lee asks Mai to braid her hair.]

Molotov by silkinsilence

(Rated M, 62k words, Mai/Azula)

Mai's world has been grayscale too long. Azula lights a match and lets it burn.

Lost and Found by @attackfish

(Rated T, 4.5k words, Gen Mai)

"Hey, Mai, we got a job."

Mai leapt down from the stable loft. "What kind?"

"The easy kind from a rich teenage idiot."

Honorable Mentions

@moomoozuzu (AO3)

@praetorqueenreyna (AO3)

@itsalabaster86 (AO3)

@fireladymai666 (AO3)

@zukkaoru (AO3)

iCe (FFN)

RoseWaterTears (AO3)

@zukoisgayforsokka (AO3)

#atla #avatar the last airbender #avatar #mai #atla mai #mai week #mai week 2022 #maiko #mailee #maizula #mai creators

[atla-lore-archive]

Asslam o alikum! That a sharp blog you got there, loopy777. Careful you could puncture an entire royal imperial class battleship leaving thousands to die at sea. Because it so sharp. *points my finger to your blog.* keep what you do best. Have a beatiful week to anyone reading this!

Walekum Assalaam!

(If I got that wrong, please forgive me!)

I'm just happy to have chosen the one social media site for this archive that hasn't (yet) tried to actively keep its biggest users from its content. Watch those sharp edges, though. ;)

[atla-fandom-confessions]

I'm the maiko shipper who also thinks maikka is a fun ship and was asked for a fic rec.

The writer that I'm talking about is Loopy on Ao3 and Loopy777 on fanfiction.net.

The fic that got me to consider maikka is Til Death Do Us Start by Loopy https://archiveofourown.org/works/5117996. imo Loopy writes some of the best maiko content, but their maikka fics are also fantastic! I really liked Sunken Maikka, which is a fic of short stories. The last chapter is my very favourite and I've read it several times: https://archiveofourown.org/works/35668639/chapters/89267698

I hope you enjoy them!!

x

#atla #atla fandom confessions #maikka #fanfics

[comradekatara]

Obscure sexualities: Pipsqueak

gay icon obvi

#asks #loopy777

[aangmarble]

loopy777 replied to your post “Looks like my local theatre is not gonna be showing Spider-Man: Into...”

It's okay, I saw it in IMAX 3D despite other options being available, so we'll just say I gave them some extra money on your behalf.

Perfect then. Thank you for reducing the weight of my crimes :P

#loopy777 #Personal stuff

[avatarsymbolism]

ranku-abadeer replied to your photoset “I don’t really want to go over stuff I’ve already discussed so, with...”

I feel like there is also a tie in with how close zuko was with his mother and how katarra is frequently described as mother like. She almost instinctually takes a pseudo parental role in the show, and zuko is constantly looking for parental affection, especially after he lost his mother. Im not sure if i can really describe it fully. But I've got a feeling theres something there.

You and @loopy777 have both made similar arguments, and it’s an interesting idea to play with. I’m not sure how much I buy it, but it’s still an intriguing idea, especially when we get into the theme of Zuko seeking approval.

#ranku-abadeer #zuko #katara #atla #commentary #commentary: zuko #commentary: katara #loopy777 #reply

[captainofthetidesbreath]

@loopy777 replied to your link “Boba Fett: A Diaspora Story — what we lose when the Fetts aren’t…”

Having read ‘Certain Point View’, there’s no way it’s canon. The stories even contradict each other.

I haven’t read it, frankly, so I can’t say anything about it. But the piece was written before it. It’s worth noting that by the model that LFL has set up—everything after April 25, 2014 is canon—it is canon, contradictions and all.

I really don’t know how they intend to reconcile the contradictions or if they even care, like, @PabloHidalgo answer this ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#loopy777 #star wars shenanigans #i really don't know. it's supposed to be canon even if it contradicts itself

[caelum-in-the-avatarverse]

I'm intrigued by that 'Roku in Yu Dao' fic. That's not a combination that I would have ever considered or found promise in (badum tish), but the fact that it exists implies you've seen something interesting there.

bahaha yeah, promises promises.

Okay so Yu Dao is supposed to be the oldest Fire Nation colony in the Earth Kingdom, right? I take that to mean it’s literally the one that Roku saw in that flashback before he went off to whoop Sozin’s butt.

Now, I would hope that Roku would actually, y’know, investigate the place before deciding to go yell at Sozin about it. I mean maybe there’s just some visiting Fire Nation ambassadors there and their giant Fire Nation flag got dirty so the Earth Kingdom was kind enough to wash it for them and hang it over the town wall to dry, y’know? Maybe there’s a REASONABLE EXPLANATION FOR THIS.

There isn’t, of course, and the entire fic is basically Roku going around Yu Dao, investigating what the Fire Nation is doing there, and slowly reevaluating his relationship with Sozin and coming to terms with the fact that yeah, his oldest BFF is definitely drifting down the road of imperialism and Roku is going to have to do something about it. I also feel like there’s some concepts about colonialism and exploitation that I ought to explore if I can figure out how - in the comics Yu Dao is seen as a good place by both its Fire and Earth citizens, and it’s very possible that when the Fire Nation first moved into the small town it originally was, the Earth inhabitants thought it was a great opportunity for their local trade and business and, like, *hand waves* just a whole thing about how even though something might be a terrible idea for the rest of the world when you look at the big picture, the very people it exploits may also just embrace it because it’s better than whatever they had before, and it’s not their fault for taking the opportunities they get but also good lord is that insidious.

Also Gyatso is there the entire time with his cheery sense of humor and general kindness as he very gently supports Roku through the realization that he might lose his friendship with Sozin. I’d love to figure out how to incorporate Ta Min as well - even if she’s not present, maybe her merchant contacts alerted her to Yu Dao’s existence and she passed the info on to Roku and that’s why he’s there in the first place? And also, because I’m me, a pair of starstruck Dai Li agents who are really very honored to meet Avatar Roku, and who are also investigating what the heck is up with this Fire Nation settlement in the Earth Kingdom.

It’s one of those fics that could easily be a oneshot and definitely has the potential to be multi-chapter depending on how much plot I come up with and worldbuilding I wanna explore. I’m not sure which I’d prefer, and also I haven’t touched the document of vague ideas since 2014, so I’m just waiting to see if any particularly good ideas show up.

#loopy777 #asks #stuck in WIPs hell #the writing process is ridiculous