#most of zukos outfit for instance

[moncuries]

clearly my idea of these two just revolves around longing and diplomacy

#as u can see every time i draw them niasdkj #see if u can find all the easter eggs in this one #im watching a lot of palace cdramas rn so u can blame that for the bg #zuko #sokka #zukka #atla #fanart #my art #questionable bowl of red and blue substances #i think u can tell on some parts i was like ah yes... i give up #most of zukos outfit for instance #sokkas one sleeve on the other hand ir lly.. anyway

[circlique]

Color Theory in ATLA: Part 1

Let’s talk colors! ATLA is a colorful show! It’s pretty obvious at first glance that each element and thus each nation has a color association. But how else does ATLA use color narratively? Today I’m gonna be doing a little analysis at two levels: surface and narrative. This post will cover the visual, surface level.

By the way, this is actually a propaganda post for @multicolor-fandom-tournament, where you should totally go vote for ATLA in the final. As much as I love Pokemon, I wanna see someone else win a poll for once. Give ATLA some love. Anyway, let’s get started.

For individual characters, there is some pretty obvious color coding/representation going on that is notable. For instance, Ty Lee wears pink and is girly with a bubbly personality. Mai wears dark red and black and tends to be gloomy and serious. Zuko wears red and is often prone to passionate, angry outbursts. Aang wears yellow and tends to be cheery and positive. Sokka, for all his cool collectedness, wears blue. Toph is represented by green and is first introduced as a vision in a swamp, where there are themes of connectedness, growth, and new beginnings. These are all fairly obvious and surface level, so I’m not going to go into them too much.

Beyond individual characters, each nation gets its own color. This is fairly straightforward. Fire is red, air is orange/yellow, water is blue, earth is green. People from each nation wear their nation’s color for the most part, leaving us with recognizable character designs that easily allow us to discern any particular character’s origin.

There are a few other interesting cases where specific colors are reserved for specific things, such as purple, which is only worn by royalty, Princess Yue, and gold, which is used in small accents in the Fire Nation, but larger usages seem to be reserved for the royalty there as well.

However, throughout ATLA and some of the extended material such as the comics and Legend of Korra, the colors a person wears has been further used to show their multiculturalism, and sometimes detachment from culture altogether. In ATLA, there is a travailing music troupe that wears a variety of colors, presumably due to their travels necessitating the need to replace worn out garments with whatever colors are available. In the comics, there is a plot line about conflict arising in the former Fire Nation colonies, where people have been raised in a mix of Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom culture. Some of the people there wear both red and green.

Later on in Legend of Korra, we see that while Republic City is multicultural, many of the people there don’t identify super strongly with any one nation. After all, many of the people there have never lived anywhere but Republic City. As a result, a lot of the Republic City characters such as Mako and Bolin wear more muted colors such as gray. Although their outfits still have accents in their respective bending colors, their outfits reflect their heritage to a place that does not strongly emphasize any one nation’s colors over the others. Notably, Amon and his chiblockers wear gray too, because their entire deal is equality among benders and nonbenders.

Another thing that is heavily color coded in ATLA is eye color. Each nation has a corresponding eye color too. For fire it’s gold/amber, air is gray, water is blue, and earth is green and brown. Eye color is so heavily color coded that it even picks up some narrative importance. When Azula takes over Ba Sing Se, she, Ty Lee, and Mai disguise themselves as Kyoshi Warriors. Katara runs up to then to warn them of the coup, but realizes something is wrong when Azula’s pretty Fire Nation amber eyes flash in the light.

Eye color is used like this in a few other places too. In the Kyoshi novels, there is a character who goes undercover who must disguise his eye color to avoid being discovered. In the Yangchen novel, there is a character from and island in the Mo Ce Sea (which is roughly in the middle of the map) who describes how her home became so cut off from any one nation that she didn’t feel allegiance to any of them. Her eyes are specifically described as hazel/brown, which can be found in all four nations.

Eye color is so heavily nation-coded that it has spawned plenty of fan theories and arguments. Suki, for instance, has green eyes in some art and blue in others. Fans argue about what her eye color actually is, with some suggesting blue-eyes Suki may have Water Tribe heritage due to Kyoshi Island’s proximity to the Southern Water Tribe, and others suggesting it was just an animation error and that they were actually supposed to be green. Another example is Ty Lee, who is a nonbender but has gray eyes, causing many people to speculate she has Air Nomad ancestry. Notably, Zaheer ALSO has gray eyes and later gains the ability to airbend, so the popular theory is that he and Ty Lee may be the descendants of airbenders who survived the initial attack and hid amongst the four nations.

Indeed, different eye color is used to show people with mixed heritage, a notable example being Asami, who has green eyes but is descended from Fire Nationals who settled in the colonies in the Earth Kingdom.

And there you have it! Those are the surface-level uses of color in ATLA. Next time we'll talk more about color theory and narrative usage of color symbolism.

#avatar #atla #avatar the last airbender #tlok #legend of korra #aang #katara #sokka #toph #zuko #suki #ty lee #asami

[neva-borne]

Aang was infatuated with Katara, not in love with her

Look, he may have believed it was love. He was 12, after all, and how many 12-year-olds are actually astute in terms of their own emotions? Not many, for sure.

Katara may very well have been the first girl he’d ever really seen. In the show, in canon, all we see are male airbenders at Aang’s temple. I can’t say definitively that he never saw other girls, especially since he apparently traveled around the Earth Kingdom and even Fire Nation as a kid (since he was friends with Bumi and Kuzon). But the chances of Katara being the first girl he ever really got to interact with are quite high, based off the canon content we were given.

(This got way longer than expected so more under the cut)

So, back to the point. Let’s start with some definitions.

Merriam-Webster defines infatuation as:

a feeling of foolish or obsessively strong love for, admiration for, or interest in someone or something : strong and unreasoning attachment

It defines love as:

(1): strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties

(2): attraction based on sexual desire : affection and tenderness felt by lovers

(3): affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests 

Going off that, we can examine the evidence from the show. First, Aang’s reaction to seeing Katara for the first time:

He’s just woken up from a 100-year Avatar State-induced coma, basically. Katara is the first person he sees. Katara is a pretty girl. On top of that, she’s nice. She rescued him. It’s natural for him to feel some connection to her.

Then, a few episodes later, we get this scene:

This is the most obvious mention of his crush thus far, combined with the blushing that Aang does whenever Katara touches him to improve his waterbending form.

This image itself is probably enough reason to argue that Aang was infatuated with her and not in love with her. This is effectively showing that Aang does not see Katara AS SHE IS, but as something perfect and untouchable, in a way. Sure, we all have our biases towards the people we like, but true love, the kind that lasts, goes beyond that - it recognizes flaws and accepts them instead of ignoring them.

This continues throughout the show, and this scene is ultimately repeated when the camera slow-pans up Katara to show off her Fire Nation outfit in Season 3 (just without the sparkles).

But Neva, there’s no sparkles, so surely that means he DOES see her as she is, and not as some perfect girl with no flaws?

To that I say, Aang has matured somewhat by this point. He’s realized he has to defeat the Fire Lord or have the world end. He’s finally facing reality. 

However, the way he treats Katara still shows how little he understands the true Katara. 

“It's okay, because I forgive you. [Pauses.] That give you any ideas?”

I know that The Southern Raiders episode is used all the time by Zutarians to show how much the Zuko/Katara dynamic works. In this post, I’m not going to compare Aang to Zuko. I’m just going to describe how Aang treats Katara.

Aang clearly is struggling to understand Katara’s anger at the man who killed her mother. He’s been through enormous loss himself, losing the airbenders and almost losing Appa, one of his last ties to his culture and his animal guide. And both of those situations triggered intense emotional responses from him. He went into the Avatar State upon discovering Monk Gyatso’s body and the destruction of his childhood home, and he flew off in a rage in the dessert and verbally attacked Toph for letting the sandbenders capture Appa (despite Toph having done literally everything within her power to save both Appa and prevent the library from sinking and burying her friends forever). And when Aang found the sandbenders responsible, he once again went into the Avatar State and destroyed two of their sand boats. 

Yet, after all that, he acts all high and mighty and says Katara should forgive the man who murdered her mother in cold blood. 

Based on this massive misunderstanding of Katara’s motivations, it is clear that Aang does not love her - certainly not in the way that would last romantically. His feelings are foolish and obsessive, based on the ideal image of her that exists in his mind. They are much more in line with the definition of infatuation than the definition of love.

Does he admire her? Maybe. But he admires a version of her that doesn’t actually exist. He admires the perfect, flawless Katara.

His strong and unreasoning attraction to Katara does not stem from a deep personal connection. The only common tie they have is that they both want to save the world. Katara always stands her ground to help people while Aang often runs away even when he should stay (see The Storm, The Awakening, etc). 

His obsession with Katara also led him to risk the entire survival of the world because he chose her over mastering the Avatar State (which was the only possible way he was going to defeat Ozai). He was not sacrificing himself in this instance, he was not being selfless, he was being selfish, choosing to hold onto his obsession instead of let it go and grow as a person and an Avatar.

This, ultimately, completely ruined his character arc of growing up and maturing and learning to let go of things. Thanks Bryke.

Anyway, all that to say that Aang did not actually love Katara, he just thought he did.

#aang #katara #anti kataang #kataangst #meta #head canon #atla #avatar #avatar the last airbender #atla meta #atla analysis #love vs infatuation #love #infatuation #avatar meta #atla headcanon #hc #i guess it isnt really a head canon #character analysis #katara deserved better #aang deserved better #aang's character arc #anti bryke

[hello-nichya-here]

Zucest - Is It Really Flirting?

(Originally posted on AO3 as chapter 43 of Defending and Analysing Zucest)

@azdaema-does-art asked: So I think a big stumbling block for me with this ship is that I very much adhere to the reading of the show that holds:

Quasi-Seducer!Azula (as seen virtually anytime) and Quasi-Seducer!Zuko (as seen in "The Waterbending Scroll") are not actually expressions of desire from them. Rather, this is Zuko and Azula trying to be intimidating by modeling their behavior off their father (circling, personal-space-invading, low seductive tones, etc)

When actually trying to flirt neither Zuko nor Azula acts anything like that. When Zuko goes on that date with a girl in the Earth Kingdom, or Azula flirting with that guy on Ember Island, they're both awkward disasters.

I'd be curious to hear you address this. (Or point me to some awkward disaster!zucest fanfic.)

***

That is a really good point and I'm glad you brought it up. While I understand that reading of the show, I disagree with it slightly for a few reasons (beyond my own bias).

Need to be in control: No one can argue against the fact that neither Zuko nor Azula know how to have "normal", healthy relationships with others, mainly due to how unequal 99% of the relationships in the Fire Nation are since imposing your own will over someone else's has become part of their culture. Both Zuko and Azula accepted being treated like mere tools/punching bags by their father, Zuko was constantly insulting Iroh over the smallest things and Azula full on threatened Ty Lee's life to make her join her on her chase after her brother and the Avatar - both were scenarios where desire wasn't a factor at all (thought I know many fans that would like to think otherwise XD)

However, during The Beach, we saw how both of them try (and fail) to deal with romance. Zuko was extremelly paranoid that Mai was interested in another guy, for no real reason, and was constantly trying to intimidate her into either admiting to it or into saying she disliked the guy, even though she had clearly said she was completely indifferent to him. And Azula, after her kiss with Chan, decided, on her own and not giving a damn about his feelings on the matter, that not only would they be officially a couple, but that they'd dominate the earth together. Control is, more often than not, a major factor in all of their actions and relationships, so Azula wanting to intimidate Zuko in the bedroom scene (which she very much tried to do and succeeded at) doesn't automatically rule out the possibility of atraction.

Mixed feelings: While "I wanna fight/kill my sibling" is sort of these two default state, there are moments that show that they do have at least some positive feelings for each other. Zuko doesn't give a shit that Aang is going to kill Ozai, but seeing Azula falling "to her death" and then chained up and defeated after their Agni Kai quite clearly made him emotional, even if he tried to control himself. Azula's positive feelings for Zuko are so obvious I had to do an in length discussion of it in chapter 12 "Is Zucest just about sex?" Combine all of the conflicting emotions they have for each other with their need to control the other, and some scenes end up getting some connotations the writers weren't planning them to have... supposedly (I'll get into that in a bit)

Awareness and familiarity: Don't get me wrong, Zuko and Azula are two extremelly traumatized, socially awkward teenagers who have no idea how to flirt (or how to fit in with people their age) but we also need to take context into consideration, especiall when it comes to Zuko's date with Jin and Azula's interactions with Chan.

In Ba Sing Se, Zuko was outside of his comfort zone, away from home, in enemy territory, and so paranoid that he assumed Jin came into the tea shop so often because she knew they were Fire Nation, not because she had a crush on him or simply enjoyed their tea. And while he liked her and the date was nice, Zuko was very "stiff" and even looked a bit uncomfortable (not to say very uncomfortable) at some points - which is oddly simmilar to how he was acting during the bedroom scene (hell, Azula was quite clearly looking at him just like Jin did, as I pointed out in "The most important parallel in Avatar"). Finally, we cannot forget that, even though he was awkward as fuck during 90% of the night, Zuko did manage to do something kinda romantic by lighting up the place, meaning he isn't completely oblivious to the concept of flirting (which is proved by his relationship with Mai).

Now, when it comes to Azula, the poor girl has almost no idea how to flirt. Almost. Talking about Chan's sharp outfit shows she's got some of the basis down, like "say something nice" - the problem is that her concept of "nice" is very different than that of most people. She did sort of know what to do once Ty Lee gave her some tips... but she quickly reversed back to her regular ways - which once again shows that flirting/seduction has an element of control and intimidation for her. She probably doesn't always mean to act in ways that could be considered flirty, but that doesn't mean she is completely oblivious to the implications of, let's say, invading her brother's personal space and talking to him in a low tone while wearing nothing but a robe.

And since I mentioned Azula going back to what she knows, that leads us to another thing to take into account: the fact that Zuko and Azula quite literally knew each other their whole lives - meaning if they were to ever flirt with each other, it would probably look at least somewhat different than when they were out of their element. Azula was the one in control, so she was far more comfortable and confident than she had been with Chan, and Zuko was the one being intimidated, which explains why he kept his guard up. Once again, that "theory" is sort of confirmed if we compare how Zuko acted while flirting with Mai on The Headband versus how he tried to interact with her in The Beach - when he used a non-traditional, but very Mai-esque "You're so beautiful when you hate the world" he got her equivalent of an "I love you" when she told him she didn't hate him, but he tried to do more "normal" things like getting her a pretty shell it blew up on his face. He knows Mai since they were both kids, meaning he usually knows how to deal with her, just like Azula usually knows how to deal with him.  

Intensity: While a lot of Azula's behavior can be explained by her copying Ozai, we need to remember that there's only so much he could affect, especially since her way of "intimidating" Zuko was far more touchy and incestuous than his, and lasted a lot longer. Azula gets close to people when she's intimidating them (see how she toyed with Aang in The Drill), but not as close as she did with her brother. The sole exception to that being Sokka on The Day Of Black Sun - but that is on somewhat shaky ground despite the accidental sexual tension since the first time she got close to him she was being launched by the Dai Li and he just happened to be standing a little bellow the direction she was launched at, and the second time had him pinning her to the wall (which is in character since Sokka usually goes straight at his foes to intimidate them while fighting), and as soon as she had her firebending back she pushed him away. On top of that, she was trying to distract him, Aang and Toph, meaning he wasn't her focus at all, and she ignored him on all the other times their groups were facing each other.

With Zuko on the other hand, she was going full force, like I said on my analysis of the bedroom scene. She played coy, stared at him in a very intense, weird way, circled the pillar on her bed, stretched in front of him, got on his personal space touching his shoulder and chest, and bit her lip while talking basically purring her words. That is all a bit too much for me to believe it was just about intimidation. And the touching gets even more suspicious when you notice Azula does enjoy and is willing to give physical affection - she hugged both Mai and Ty Lee after seeing them again, pulled Ty Lee close while conforting her and apologizing for her harsh words at The Beach... and put her hand on Zuko's shoulder while saying he restored his own honor to reassure him after he was feeling bad for betraying his uncle.

Intention of the actors/writers/animators: Avatar is no stranger to parallels. It also isn't a stranger to adult themes/jokes, fanservice, and ship teasing. For instance, even thought they didn't end up together and were never canonically interested in each other, there was A LOT of hints/teases of Zutara - dude fucking took lightining to the heart for her.

Just like the writers and producers were aware of Zutara, Tokka and many, many other ships, they were also aware of Zucest and even jokingly shipped Azula and The Blue Spirit at a panel. The animators habit of sexualizing the characters speaks for itself, so I won't even go into that. Finally, Grey Delisle, Azula's voice actress is a Zucest shiper, has brought it up many times, asked people to send her fanart and fanfic of it, created the phrase "Zucest is best cest", and has full on said she voiced the scene as if Azula was trying to seduce Zuko,  - which regardless of whether or not the writers intended for the character to be doing, means that there is a very strong incest subtext to the scene and that, in a weird way, "Azula" herself confirmed her motives to act the way she did.

#zucest #azuko #shipcest #meta #azula #zuko #fire siblings #atla #avatar

[autistic-azula]

Azula Has Autism

So I’ve recently started watching and reading about Avatar:The Last Airbender, and one thing I’ve noticed is that everyone argues about whether Azula is a sociopath or not. Being autistic, I actually saw a lot of similarities between her and myself at her age. I’d like to posit that instead of being a sociopath, Azula instead has a very mild form of autism, and that the way her parents handled her allowed her to hide it until her breakdown.

Now, people would point out that Azula is very good at manipulating people and that that flies in the face of the main hallmark of autism: lack of skill in social interaction. I noticed that too, and did some research. It turns out, that most researchers agree that, in women, autism tends to present itself more mildly. This is due to a variety of factors, namely that most knowledge about autism is based on male subjects. Additionally, based purely on personal experience, autistic people can be just as manipulative as allistics. Azula’s manipulative tendencies are not necessarily a disqualifier towards a diagnosis. Now, we should move on to the more typical hallmarks of autism:

Obsessive Interests

Azula clearly has a strong interest in firebending. Her first scene clearly shows her dedication to it. It also shows a downright obsessive and perfectionist attitude toward it. If that doesn’t sound like how someone with autism is about an interest, I don’t know what does. Personally, I have a headcanon that she uses her firebending katas as a form of “stimming” that wouldn’t make others think that she’s weird or weak. Additionally, the breathing exercises that one uses when firebending serve as one of the few functional stress reduction strategies Azula has.

Literal or black-and-white thinking

This seems to be a common issue with autistic people, but it’s extremely obvious with Azula. She shows a continuous with us-or-against us mentality, even among people who are, in theory on the same side as her. This is clearest when she starts banishing servants left and right.

Sensory issues

This one is actually very subtle and part of it crosses over with another entry. If you pay attention, Azula’s standard outfit has this armor that sits on her shoulders and back. Many autistic people find pressure on one’s shoulders and back to be calming. I think that Azula wears the armor to feel safe, justifying it as making sure people know she’s the Crown Princess. I also think her meltdown over the cherry pit wasn’t just paranoia, but also had a sensory component. 

Dislike of change and lack of structure

This part is mild, but it’s very consequential. I’d like to qualify the term dislike of change with the addition “specifically, change she can’t control”. Azula is fine with certain changes. But when her friends “betray” her and her father effectively puts her in an unstructured position(as Phoenix KIng, he’d still be running the Fire Nation. All the coronation does is take away anything for Azula to devote her time to achieving, depriving her of anything to structure her days around.), she freaks out. This is why she seems so well-adjusted in the regimented and structured environment of the Fire Nation military.

Lack of social skills

“The Beach” hits just about every indicator of Autism in regards to Azula’s interaction there. Bad jokes, avoidance, the works. It also highlights how Azula’s position and circumstances have allowed her to hide her autism. She is in a situation that seems designed to minimize any issues her autism might cause. Her perfectionism about her firebending is praised and she spends most of her time in a regimented military where any interactions she has are predictable. She outranks just about everyone and people are expected to accommodate her, no matter how weird the request. Azula doesn’t seem “typically” autistic because her world is such that her autism has never actually caused her issues,(or so it seems. I have certain headcanons that would indicate otherwise, more on those below.) and thus, she’s not seen as “disabled” by it, which is usually how autism gets diagnosed.

Empathy issues

Azula is often speculated to be a sociopath, namely because she seems to lack empathy towards others. However, given that she seems to show some instances of empathy,(comforting Ty Lee and Zuko in “The Beach”) autism would explain those situations, while also explaining her otherwise consistent lack of empathy. Empathizing with others is possible for people with autism, but it’s hard. Azula would have to have a strong reason to expend the emotional effort(especially given the way she was raised) to try to empathize with people. Most of the time, there’s not really a good reason, so she doesn’t bother.

Speculation

I personally think that Azula’s lack of issues with her autism is recent, having occurred after Ursa left. I have a couple of personal headcanons about how that occurred: (Trigger Warning for child abuse)

- Azula likely had some form of physical stimming as a child, which Ursa only noticed as a sign of how odd she was, but didn’t really do anything about. Ozai likely burned or beat her when she did it around him, exploiting her lack of social understanding to keep her from seeing it as abuse. 

- Iroh’s lack of sympathy towards Azula isn’t due to any favoritism towards Zuko but because he sees how he used to be in her(I also think Iroh might have very mild Asperger’s, but that’s not important). Her ruthless focus scares him, and he worries she could bring out the worst in him, which is why he avoids her. It doesn’t excuse him, but he isn’t doing it to be an asshole.

- Ursa asking “What is wrong with that child?” was the culmination of several weeks of Azula having autism-related problems. She probably threw a fit about some new sheets or refused to eat something new the chef made, and probably continuously behaved in a socially awkward manner, which Ozai likely took out on her. Azula taunting Zuko was the last straw. Ursa regretted saying it, and her regret was why she never said good-bye to Azula when she left. She accepted Azula’s resentment because she thought she deserved it for what she said.

#autistic azula #azula #avatar the last airbender #Autism #analysis #fuck ozai #ursa #iroh #zuko

[avatarstories]

izumi’s birthday part three:  sources of wisdom

The next morning, breakfast with the family is awkward. Izumi was a few moments late, having had to stop by the royal seamstress to have the last adjustments fitted for party outfit finished. By the time she arrived at breakfast, everyone was seated, and the only empty chair was between her father and Bumi. Bumi’s stony expression made her want to just be swallowed up by the floor. Maybe she could go find Druk and convince him to eat her. She gives Bumi a sad smile, and he rolls his eyes with a noticeable exhale. Izumi takes her seat quietly trying her hardest to give him as much space as possible. 

“Are we going to talk about how Izumi and Bumi are making the air in the room extremely uncomfortable?” Kya says. “Lover’s quarrel?” she jokes. 

“Fuck off, Kya” Bumi mutters, looking down at the table in front of him. Kya is across from him and leans in trying to get his attention. 

“Excuse me?” she says with a joking lilt in her voice. 

Bumi doesn’t say anything. Instead, he throws his tea at Kya and storms out of the dining room. Everyone is silent but all eyes are on Izumi. Having managed to stop the tea from hitting her, Kya bends it back into a cup. 

“Well, Happy Birthday, Izumi! What an exciting way to start the day,” Kya deadpans. Zuko looks at Izumi with a concerned expression. Azula looks ready to go to murder. Toph and Lin have their eyebrows raised and are taking a big sips of their mango juices. Tenzin hangs his head and focuses intently at his rice. Izumi notices Katara giving Aang a look that says go after him and when he doesn’t move she shakes her head. 

“This looks like a job for a wise old man like me,” Iroh says, pushing his chair back so that he can stand up. 

“General Iroh, it’s really ok, Aang can take care of it,” Katara says. 

“Uh, I kinda agree with General Iroh,” Aang replies sheepishly. 

If looks could kill, the ice in Katara’s eyes would have Aang pinned to the wall. “You are unbelievable,” she says quietly, though the anger and disappointment in her tone are unmistakable. She follows Bumi out the door 

“Looks like Twinkletoes is in the polar bear doghouse,” Toph says. Aang groans and then goes after Katara and Bumi.

“Care to enlighten us, Izumi?” Azula asks. 

“Not really,” she mutters. “I’m going to the training yard,” she announces quietly, and she walks out the door. 

Azula looks between Zuko and Iroh “I would go after her, but I was planning to go boss some staff around to make sure her party is perfect, which I think now needs to be even more perfect,” she says. 

“I will see what is bothering our dear Izumi,” Iroh says pushing out his chair once again. He and Azula leave the room. 

“Man,” Lin says “I thought mom and I would be the ones to start drama.” At that, Sokka laughs so hard he snorts, and Suki punches him in the side for it. ————————————————————————————————— 

Izumi is moving through advanced katas when Iroh finds her.

“I have told you before, forms practiced in anger are like tea steeped in unclean water, dear Izumi.” 

She finishes the form sending an arc of a flame towards the stone wall with an audibly annoyed exhale. 

“Now, are you going to tell me what is wrong or should I guess? Kya suggested a -” 

“IM NOT DATING BUMI! CAN EVERYONE STOP THINKING THAT!” 

Iroh chuckles. “Everyone used to think the same of your father and Katara when they were yours and Bumi’s ages. When people share a special bond others cannot help but wonder. But of course I did not come here to talk about your father’s youthful affections. It appears you and Bumi are experiencing a strain. Care to inform your old grandfather so he can help you?” 

“We had a misunderstanding.” 

“I know that I am old, Izumi, but I am not blind.” 

“Bumi was telling me about some issues in their family between him and his dad, and I basically told him that he should be lucky not to have the weight of a legacy on his shoulders.” 

“So your problem stems from your fear of your future,” Iroh affirms. “Rightfully so on an occasion as momentous as your 17th birthday, but Izumi, you are a kind, gentle, and fair minded young woman, and your father is a picture of health, what has brought about this anxiety?” 

Izumi crosses her arms and says nothing. 

“Izumi?” 

“I overheard some of the noblewomen talking about a curse on the Fire Ladies.” 

“And what is this curse?” 

“That Fire Ladies who die in childbirth give rise to evil Fire Lords. The spirits make them pay the ultimate price for what they bring into the world.”

Iroh takes in her words. “And so you have applied this to your own birth?” Izumi nods.

“You’re young yet Izumi, but I think you will find that destiny is what you make of it,” he says. “You and your father are the descendants of Sozin and Azulon, but you’re also the descendants of Avatar Roku on your grandmother’s side. There’s light and dark in you, and you will have to chose what nature you will allow to flourish. But knowing you, I would largely place my bets on the light side. And,” he takes a pause, “you can always seek to redeem yourself for your faults. I tried to break through the walls of Ba Sing Se, and then I took it back from the Fire Nation. Your father chased Aang halfway across the world, and now they are best friends. Azula was one of the most terrifying people in existence -” 

“She still is.” 

He chuckles. “Yes, she still is. But the original fire bending masters deemed her worthy of regaining her power when she lost it and repented, and they even gifted her a dragon egg as they did to your father,” he explains. 

“Your father’s legacy was to end a war. Yours will be the equally important one of maintaining peace,” Iroh says. “Now, maybe you should go practice that and make your amends with Master Bumi. I am off to make some tea.” 

“What if he won’t speak to me,” she asks. 

“Well then your partner dance in front of the court later on at your party will be terribly uncomfortable!” he says walking back inside. ——————————————————————————————————— Bumi does not really know where he is walking to, and he just follows the direction that instinct takes him. He can hear his parents behind him, but he does not stop. 

“Bumi please,” Katara calls. 

He groans and walks faster. In this instance, he was incredibly pleased with himself because he still remembers some of the secret passageways in the palace that Izumi had showed him as children when they would play hide and explode with Izumi’s Aunt Kiyi and Aunt Azula, so he ducked into one that he knew was coming and hears his parents run right passed. It was slightly dark inside, which made perfect sense considering that usually only firebenders used these hallways and had no need for any other light. 

Bumi went off memory and kept his right hand on the wall. If he had to figure this out like a maze in order to get out, that’s what he would do. After about ten minutes in the dark, he feels a variation in the stone that tells him he’s found a door. If he remembers correctly, this one will let him out by the portrait gallery. However, when he opens the door, he’s stopped by a piece of furniture. 

“Huh?” he hears someone ask, and soon the furniture is being shoved out of the way and the door opens and bright light blinds him, and Azula is standing in front of him.

She stares him up and down. “I would offer to help you but I will warn you first that if you ruin Izumi’s birthday, not even the fact that your father is the Avatar will save you from me.” 

Bumi remains frozen, unsure what to do. 

“Well don’t just sit there,” she says, raising a brow. He stumbles into what he realizes to be Azula’s office. 

“If you are avoiding your parents who ran after you when you caused quite the commotion at breakfast, then my office would definitely be the best place to hide. Push that back into place,” she commands gesturing to the small table she had just moved. 

Bumi has not spent much time alone with Azula. Whenever he would visit the Fire Nation, he and Izumi were attached at the hip. Every summer when Kya would go to the Southern Water Tribe and his dad and Tenzin would go to an Air Temple, Bumi would get dropped off in the Fire Nation for a few months of sword training with Master Piandao. After Piandao passed away, Zuko offered to continue training him since Sokka was busy trying to get Republic City up and running. In all that time, he’d never really gotten to know Azula. From what Izumi had told him, Azula was Zuko’s right hand. She lead his small council and sat in on meetings when he was away on diplomatic trips, which made her an extremely powerful person. 

He looks around her office. It’s clean and tidy. There is a small ink portrait of Izumi on the wall to the right of Azula's desk, and vases of Fire Lilies around the room. 

Azula studies him while he looks around the room. “Should I ask what’s bothering you or should we pretend this exchange never happened?”

“Whatever you prefer,” he replies. 

“I prefer to be well informed.” 

“Izumi and I had a fight.” 

“I gleaned that,” she says flatly. There’s a pause. “Izumi hates celebrating her birthday. She tells us every year it makes her feel guilty, but the 17th birthday of the Heir Apparent is a rite of passage in the Fire Nation.” 

“Why’s that?” 

“Traditionally, it’s when the Crown Prince, or in Izumi’s case, Princess, starts sitting on the small council and has to take up a stronger political role than just kissing babies and doing well in school… it’s seen as the last day of childhood.”  

Oh Bumi thinks. “That’s why she’s so stressed.” 

“Most likely a factor.” 

“She never mentioned it.” 

“Well, you know Izumi. Unless it’s Zuko, getting her to tell you what’s wrong is like pulling teeth. She is like you in that regard.” Bumi looks puzzled. “I read people very well,” she says in reply to his reaction. There’s a pause as she regards him. “I do not imagine it is easy to be a non-bender in a family like yours.” 

“Man, you really don’t hold back.” 

She offers him a half smile. “I understand the fear of being a disappointment too. When I was 12 I was so scared of failure and what would happen if I disappointed my father. It was not even two years by the time I self destructed.” 

“I’m not going to self destruct,” he mutters. 

“Then you might need some help carrying that weight on your shoulders around.” 

He is quiet for a minute. “What if there’s no one to help me?” 

 She glances down at a small ink drawing of her mother, Zuko, and herself  that sits on her desk. “From my experience,  you can often find help in very unexpected places, but you have to be open to being helped.” 

AN: you cannot convince me Azula didn’t get a redemption arc and a lot of healing and become a strange source of wisdom. you just can’t. azula redemptions are a peak of feminist literature. 

I imagine redeemed Azula serves Zuko in a position similar to the hand of the king from GoT. 

#avatarstories #izumi #bumi #azula #zuko #aang #katara #toph #lin #kya #iroh

[princepondincherry]

Wish RWBY was better? Try ATLA

To start: Yes, I’m aware ATLA and even LoK probably have much larger fandoms than RWBY already. I think they also have more content and were produced with a larger budget, which means we have to give RWBY some slack. It doesn’t mean criticism isn’t valid.

Since Avatar came out on Netflix, I watched both shows, and I can’t help drawing parallels with RWBY since they’re both animated shows I’ve loved about badass kids/teens with magic powers. And Avatar is SO MUCH better. For instance, inter-party conflict. The Gaang argue ALL THE TIME, and it’s just presented as the normal state of affairs, not some dramatic, crazy detail when one sibling has a slight disagreement with the other sibling. And as much flak as the Mako relationship drama gets in Legend of Korra, at least it had substance to it. We still don’t really know what the problem is with Ren and Nora. Oh, and The Last Airbender handled an unwanted kiss forced on someone who didn’t think it was the right time for romance SO MUCH better, with an immediate, “I SAID I was confused!” and the instigator having a scene right after where they called themselves an idiot, instead of the Renora kiss being presented as romantic or something.

Now I kinda want to write a list of things I feel Avatar does better. There’s a poorly-argued word vomit below the cut:

- The dead mother thing--Salem mentions Summer once with no details, and Ruby completely breaks down? What? Like, grief is fine, but this has literally no foreshadowing since the songs don’t count as full canon, and it made no sense given Ruby’s established (ha) character and the situation. Katara would have flown into a rage, and it would have been so much better.

- Arguments with adults on your side--Pakku was set up as an asshole teacher from the start, and he when confronted with the consequences of his misogyny, he changed his ways for the better. Zuko arguing with Iroh is never intended to have Zuko be in the right. Korra argues with Tenzin all the time, and usually they’re both right, but have to come to a better understanding of each other’s perspective that helps them grow as people. In fact, this conflict drives a lot of the story for the first two books of LoK. Unfortunately, RWBY seems incapable of this sort of nuance. Qrow is just drunk until he isn’t, but then later gets Clover killed, and Ozpin is supposedly just awful.

- Arguments with adults who should be on your side but aren’t--Long Feng SHOULD be on the same side as the heroes, defending the Earth Kingdom, but he isn’t for pretty stupid reasons. But, unlike Ironwood shooting people like a maniac, Long Feng is against the heroes for stupid reasons that (mostly) make sense in-universe: he wants to remain in power. (I still don’t understand why he didn’t just quietly explain that he had the real power in the city, not the king, and shuffle the kids off to whoever was running the military defenses that allowed him to pretend there was no war. I guess he thought if he just gave them the cold shoulder long enough, they’d go away?) Whatever problems there were with Long Feng’s storyline, at least he was consistently written as a bad guy. In contrast, Ironwood is inconsistently written as a good guy who has all the trappings of a tyrant but doesn’t act like it AT ALL, except when he occasionally does something extreme like shoot Oscar. He’s written (I guess unintentionally?) as a subversion of the military tyrant, except when he suddenly acts like one again. It’s like they were shooting for a Tarrlok (sketchy government official who’s both bad for the obvious reasons AND worse than he appears beneath the surface, even though he often works for the side of good) but actually wrote Suyin (someone who could easily be a totalitarian dictator, but decided not to be because of her moral principles, and is actually nice), except occasionally she attacks her allies for disagreeing with her.

- Costume design--I loved Ruby’s, Weiss’s, Ozpin’s, Qrow’s, and a few other original costumes, and Ruby’s had some very solid costumes. However, Volume 7 was terrible. The animation looked weird on Weiss’s braid, Jaune’s hair was awful, and a bunch of them weren’t really dressed for the weather. In contrast, the Avatar characters change outfits whenever it’s appropriate. You know, like real people. (If this is a “3D animation makes outfit changes harder than 2D animation” thing, then maybe 2D animation is just a superior art form when you’re on a budget.)

- Consistent power levels--Katara starts weak and gets stronger. Aang starts as only an airbender and consistently gets better at everything else. Toph invents metalbending and gradually gets more proficient with it. In contrast, RWBY’s Volume 1-3 feats are often better than their later feats, and Aura strength blatantly depends on plot. Yang’s gotten *slightly* better at fighting, Weiss learned a new skill and promptly got her butt kicked by focusing on it too much, Ruby supposedly learned hand-to-hand combat but really just did a headbutt, and RWBY SOMEHOW beat the most premiere team in Atlas after training with them for a few weeks. Sure, Toph, Katara, Azula, Aang, and Sokka are all ridiculous prodigies, but they’re established as such from the beginning. Katara still loses soundly to Pakku before he trains her. (Despite the memes about her kicking the ass of the patriarchy, he’s obviously going easy on her and still crushes her.) Aang gets beaten by Ozai without his OP special ability. Azula gets beaten easily the one time we see her go up against an adult (Iroh, on the ship in the beginning of book 2). And Toph is more like Pyrrha than anyone on Team RWBY. Honestly, this is one of my weaker points, but I still stand by the fact that the Avatar kids’ victories felt much more earned.

- Bad Fights--Yes, I know, heresy. I actually think the best of RWBY’s fights (RWBY vs. Torchwick’s mech, Ozpin vs. Cinder, Pyrrha vs. Cinder, RWBY vs. the Nevermore, Qrow vs. Tyrian) are somewhat more exciting, visually interesting, and (sometimes) emotionally charged than even the best of Avatar’s fights (Aang vs. Ozai, Zuko vs. Azula, Kya vs. Zaheer, Korra vs. Zaheer, Tenzin and his siblings vs. Red Lotus, Suyin vs. Kuvira). But my actual point is that RWBY’s bad fights are BAD, whereas I can’t even think of what the worst Avatar fights are. Sokka vs. Zuko in episode 1 was pretty bad, but that was more of a gag than a fight. Umm...Big Glowy Korra vs. Unavaatu was kinda cheesy, but I still liked it. Meelo fartbending vs. the Equalists? Idk. Meanwhile, RWBY has the Scuffle of Haven, that time Ilia seriously hurt Sun somehow, Qrow vs. Tyrian vs. Clover (visually impressive, but made NO FUCKING SENSE), Oscar landing a massively-telegraphed blow on Neo...well, okay. Maybe there weren’t that many awful fights. I still think I came away from more RWBY fights disappointed, but I can’t really argue my case very well.

- LGBT representation, normalized to the time period--Yes, Korrasami never got past handholding in the finale, but somehow Yang and Blake haven’t either? Even though it’s 2020? Actually, this is a symptom of a larger problem:

- Romantic relationships being ignored--Why won’t RWBY explicitly confirm anything? The RWBY cast are closer in age to the LoK cast than the ATLA cast, but it feels the other way around. Kataang was both heavily present in ATLA the whole time and by no means taking over the plot. And, okay, there was Jaune/Pyrrha, but she’s dead now, so the most-developed ship is Renora. Who held hands, then didn’t talk about their relationship at all for a full volume, and then had a nonconsensual kiss handled worse than the Kataang kiss in Ember Island Players. I’m glad there haven’t been any Romantic Plot Tumors in RWBY, but something would be nice. Or just don’t bring it up at all if you’re never going to develop the relationships.

- Sibling relationships--Yang and Ruby were great as sisters in the early volumes, but lately it’s just been Yang deciding to yoke herself to Ruby’s judgement, until suddenly she’s not anymore. I feel like they barely talked in Volume 7.

- Villains--If Salem wants to kill everyone and collect the Relics, why hasn’t she? She’s invincible! Ozai at least was still human, but he left to handle things himself as soon as he got a power-up. More vaguely, I just find Avatar’s villains more interesting than RWBY’s most of the time.

I’m aware that some/most of these are unfair. It’s more intended as an incoherent rambling to get my views out of my head than as any sort of persuasive argument.

#rwby #atla #rwde #TLOK

[astudyinsarcasm9]

Battle of Heart and Mind - Review - Beware of Spoilers

Before I dive into the review I just want to make a list of things that were left unanswered, just to get it out of the way. Here it is: 

- How did White Diamond know that PD was Rose? It was never explained. 

- How did White know what a child is. 

- How did White know what a mom is. Blue and Yellow had no idea what a mom was or even what a child is. Why would White know? 

- Who made White or how was White formed? And if she was the first gem in existence how did she know what was she supposed to be?

Feel free to add more. 

I’ll split the review into parts so it’ll be easy to follow. 

Part 1: Blue helping Steven and her and Yellow fighting. 

While I liked the tender moment between Blue and Steven and the fact that she helped me I still think her giving in happened a tad too quick. All Steven had to do was point out how she locked PD in the same prison. he was in and how she must have cried so many times because of how Blue treated her. I understand the guilt Blue feels and because of that her change of heart seems a bit more believable. 

Next. And I can’t believe I’m saying this but how did no one notice that Yellow was sitting in a room full of bubbled forced fusions: 

That is incredibly messed up. And I am willing to bet that those were all experiments that went wrong and they were bubbled to study them on how to possibly make the cluster? Could be. Either way it was so so wrong. 

The fight between Yellow and Blue was nice albeit short. I would’ve like to see Blue poof, just for a bit, just so we can learn a bit more about Diamonds. She could have reformed quickly afterwards. Anyway, Steven managed to stop them fighting and Yellow agreed to help him escape. But during the fight Blue said something that I think is very important: 

”She was suffering in silence for ages, just like our gems, just like me”. This line is the ONLY reference we get to the fact that Homeworld gems are oppressed and unhappy. No one mentions it again. And I get it there wasn’t time but at least show the Homeworld gems reacting to the battle, to what was happening. The world felt so empty without them. 

Anyway, after White gets in the way of Steven leaving Blue and Yellow’s ships return and we see Bismuth, Period and Lapis are piloting them. 

And let me just say that Lapis and Peridot’s new forms are really nice. Peridot is so cute. I only wish she would have done something with her hair, but I guess that’s just how Peridots look. 

I kinda like how Lapis doesn’t have an obvious star on her outfit.  She is a CG but she’s not fully there yet. I guess the half star counts too. 

After this, there comes another important line that I think deserves some talking about: 

”No, I won’t go. Pink Diamond ran away from you. Rose Quartz, my mom, she started a war with you. But I don’t wanna run, I don’t wanna fight, I just want to talk”. 

It’s a really...interesting line if you think about it. It shows how PD, RQ and Steven differ and how each had a different perspective about things. And again it shows how Steven is just a pacifist who wants to talk things out. I suppose it s only fair because at that point a battle with White would’ve meant doom but then again, at least try. Sometimes talking is not enough, that’s just how life works. 

The special goes on to say how Steven and the Diamonds have to fix their broken family and Connie even steps in and says how her mom use to enforce a lot of rules on her which made her feel miserable. But that once she told her mum how she felt things got better. 

That’s all cute and sweet but...we’re talking about a race of beings that conquer worlds and commit genocide like it’s nothing. And White doesn’t just make rules for the Diamonds, she makes rules for everyone, and if anyone disobeys them she outright shatters or posses them. I’m pretty sure Connie’s mom would just ground her and that would be all. I mean one can not just put a ”=” between these two instances and call it a day. 

Anyway, Blue and Yellow’s decide to talk to White about how they feel and Blue has this to say about it:

”White, we used to be close, don’t you remember? Pink would make us laugh, all those silly things she did for no reason. But there was a reason: she wanted us to be happy together, but we weren’t and we’re still not. I know my purpose is not to be happy but I find it harder and harder to enforce your rules when they make me miserable, when they make us all miserable”. 

Btw, Yellow’s speech was so corny. I get that she was terrified of White but it sounded so weird. 

I could have gotten 100% behind Blue on this if it weren’t for the fact that...we were never shown that enforcing White’s rules made them miserable. All we saw is them doing their jobs as Diamonds and showing no remorse for it. Blue wanted to shatter Ruby. Yellow is willing to poof or shatter anyone that doesn’t fit in. We were never shown them having a moment, after, let’s say, ordering a gem to be shattered. Maybe it could’ve worked. To show them torn apart by their roles as Diamonds. But nope, none of that. 

And sure they were close and Pink made them laugh but in the grand scheme of things they were still dictators, they were still shattering gems, conquering planets and so on. And even if they were happy together Im pretty sure that White would’ve wanted them to keep Homeworld as it is. 

Part 2: Steven’s fusions and getting into White’s head. 

Steven’s fusions were so cool. My favorite was Rainbow Quartz 2.0

I like to think it’s a male gem even though they’re genderless. But just because Steven is involved. Anyone is free to see them as they want. It’s still a really nice fusion. 

I liked Sunstone too but her design was so-so. But that wasn’t the problem for me, the problem was breaking the fourth wall. It took away from the tension and the seriousness of the moment. 

And that’s another problem of this special: it juggles with the tone. Sometimes it’s dead serious, sometimes it is over the top silly. It wants to be both but the two don’t exactly mix well. It reminds me of Disney’s Hercules where they did just that and the result was just a mush of silly and serious. 

Keeping the tone consistent would have been a big plus. Not make it totally grim but just let the serious moments feel serious and urgent. 

I think my favorite part of the special is when Steven is in White’s head/room. It was intense, it was serious, it was dark and most of all there were stakes. 

Obsidian was wicked cool. Though I thought she’d look slightly different than the temple because Rose was involved in the fusion. Steven was. 

Just one question: What was White waiting for while the gems were dancing to fuse into Obsidian? 

Part 3 - Removing Steven’s gem aka the best part of the special with the best animation. 

I loved, loved, loved this part. Everything was perfect. 

The animation? Top notch. The music? There was music when the gem was removed - Great. The atmosphere? Great. 

What I loved most was that PD/Rose did not reform. Everyone speculated for so long as to what would happen in a scenario like this and now we have our answer. It’s a confusing one but a beautiful one nonetheless. 

Steven is not his mom at all. He is the literal fusion of PD and Greg. I viewed that scene as White ripping off PD’s genes from Steven and Steven falling apart because he was left with the Greg part of him. PD is gone because she literally fused her genes with Greg and passed her gem entirely to Steven. She made sure she was gone and she practically delivered and empty gem for him to make his own. It wasn’t PD or Rose powering Steven it was Steven powering Steven.

Brilliant. 

Part 4: White and her realisation that she herself is off-color. 

The animation on White was fantastic I need to say that. I liked that she was proven wrong, that she saw with her own eyes that Steven was Steven and that PD was gone forever. It turned her world upside down, sure but it told us that she is not all knowing as she wanted to be seen. 

I can’t say I liker her sudden change of heart. 

People who abuse and who are as toxic as she is will not just change because they are told that their ways are bad. Sure some of you might say she still seemed reluctant when she was on Earth. She seemed but the fact that she so quickly accepted to go on Earth and fix the corrupted gems, shows that she got  over it quickly.  

It is nice to see her facial expressions while on Earth and I get they were trying to show us how she is not comfortable with what is happening but come on, what dictator turned around so quickly?

Though, White being off-color was brilliant. 

Part 5: Healing the corrupted gems 

I was so happy to know we were gonna see the corrupted gems be healed. 

But then I was so angry that it was just a montage. I mean it’s better than nothing but we waited for so many seasons for this. I understand there was a lack of time - 44 minutes - when they marketed it as an hour special - but come on. 

I wanted to see Centy interact with Steven. I wanted Jasper to talk and find out about PD not just to see her all flustered after seeing everyone around her. We can assume Amethyst told her very briefly what was going on but still. 

I felt cheated out. 

Also, Lars was back and while the off-colors delivered my favorite joke from the special I feel it wasn’t worth their showing up. It was rushed as hell. And it felt awkward as the Diamonds were just standing there assisting to this little human reunion. 

All in all it wasn’t bad but it was, as with all big SU episodes, incredibly rushed. The story is there, the characters are there but it was all cheapened by the terrible pacing and by the fact that, at the end of the day, Blue and Yellow were absolved of all their wrong doings because they were doing all those things to please White. 

Again, I feel the need to reference ATLA and how there Zuko’s family, a royal family, which the Diamonds can be inferred also are, was also broken and messed up but the show acknowledged that it was a family beyond repair, that it was too toxic to even go there and that while YES they did have happy times, as Zuko tells us they had, even in those happy times Ozai was still the toxic person we know and they were still part of a system which oppressed the Fire Nation people. The fact that they were family and that they had happy times did not take away from the important aspect of Ozai being a dictator. Also, Azula was also doing all the terrible things she did to please Ozai yet the show doesn’t excuse her but it tells us it was messed up. 

Why is SU excusing the diamonds? 

#su spoilers #steven universe #white diamond #pink diamond #yellow diamond #blue diamond #homeworld #change your mind #boham #battle of heart and mind #fusion #su critical

[advocaado]

Day 1: Vigilantes

“This is crazy! I can’t believe I let you talk me into doing this.”

On the other side of a small, wooden table situated in a dimly lit corner of one of the many sea-front taverns of Linfen, a bustling port town in the Western Earth Kingdom, Zuko sat watching Katara with a look caught halfway between unimpressed and distressed.

Katara scowled right back. “It’s not like I had much of a choice, you know,” she informed him tetchily. “There’s no way I could bring Aang. He’s way too recognizable. Not to mention flamboyant. He’d get us caught immediately.”

Zuko placed an elbow on the table and dropped his forehead onto his palm, his fingers sliding up into his hair. “It’s not asking me to help you that I have a problem with. It’s what you’re asking me to do. You do realize that if I get caught pretending to be a pirate, it’s going to turn into a huge scandal for the Fire Nation.”

“The Fire Nation is already facing international scandal if we don’t find out who’s selling poached elephant-whale ivory to the members of your court. And besides, I’ve yet to hear any better suggestions.”

Zuko had nothing to say to that, just as she expected. Clearly knowing he was beat, he changed the subject. “By the way, how did you get Aang to agree to this, anyway? I’d think he’d be the last person to be okay with you…” he trailed off and gestured pointedly at her outfit and make-up, both of which had been painstakingly selected to help her blend in with the sorts of women one would naturally expect to find hanging out with pirates. “I mean, think of what people are going to say if they find out that the Avatar’s girlfriend is running around dressed like a...” He trailed off again and his one visible eye widened in sudden realization. Katara knew then that he’d finally pieced the truth together. “Oh, my god. He doesn’t know.”

Katara opened her mouth to get a word in before Zuko inevitably descended into exposition but unfortunately, she wasn’t quick enough.

“He doesn’t know,” he repeated, redirecting his gaze to the table. “Of course he doesn’t know. You’re going behind him again just like you did with that governor in Huinong. Spirits, I should’ve seen this coming after the hot water you got me into that time but you swore that would be a one-time thing.” He raised his head and pointed at her accusingly. “This is going to come crashing down on my shoulders again. You know Aang is going to think I encouraged you.”

Katara crossed her arms and tapped her pointer finger on the table top in mild irritation. “Oh, relax, Zuko,” she told him, leaning forward over the table. “This is nothing like that time and Aang will get over it once I explain things to him. Jeez, becoming Fire Lord has made you so high strung.”

Zuko scowled at her and as earnestly as she’d ever heard him said, “I’ve always been high strung.”

Katara’s cheeks puffed out and she didn’t even try to stop the laughter that burst out of her at his statement. When she was finished, she wiped a tear from her eye and said, “Your words, not mine.”

Zuko exhaled and pinched the bridge of his nose. Katara wondered if he was counting backward from ten. After a short break of silence, he said, “I can’t believe I’m being told to loosen up by you, of all people. Aren’t you the one always tugging the leash on Aang—talking him out of goofing around and making him perform his duty seriously? Why is it that you always seem to suddenly crave chaos whenever I’m in the picture?”

Katara scoffed. “It’s not ‘craving chaos’,” she informed him, using her pointer and middle fingers to mime quotation marks. “There are just certain things that I can do with you that I can’t do with him. For instance, I can count on you to be responsible. I know you’ll take our missions seriously so I can afford to take a few risks. That’s all.”

She watched Zuko consider this and knew that he understood. He knew as well as she did the reason she’d become, for lack of better words, a tight-ass where her friends and boyfriend were concerned. As another who had been unceremoniously shoved into the role of team-parent during their adventure a year ago, he could appreciate her need to play the part of the responsible party.

Sure enough, Zuko gave in with a sigh. “Alright,” he relented. “I’m already in this far and I know you’ll go through with this with or without me so it’s not like I have much choice.”

Katara smiled brightly and reached across the table to take his hand in a firm grip. “Team Liquidy-Hot?” she prompted with a small smirk.

Zuko made a big show of rolling his eyes but his lips turned upward to mirror hers and he shook their clasped hands once. “Team Liquidy-Hot.”

oO0Oo

Katara hummed jovially to herself in the inn’s dingy mirror as she slipped another pearl pin into her hair. Styling her hair into the elaborate up-do of a tavern floozy had become nearly second nature after four consecutive days of the same afternoon ritual. Each day, her disguise was slightly different. Today was blue and pearls. Yesterday was goldenrod and jade. The day before that was crimson and opals. And so-on it would go until she and Zuko found what they were looking for.

Finding the poachers responsible for the killing and selling of Southern Water Tribe elephant-whales was a slow process, but Katara was confident that her plan would bear fruit soon. Each evening, she and Zuko made the rounds in the port’s most notorious taverns and at each one they put on the same performance.

“Do you see that man over there?” she’d whisper to whatever hapless, drunken pirate happened to darken the seat beside her at the bar. “They say he can get you anything.”

All night long, she’d gossip in the ears of pirates and bar wenches alike, helping the rumor to spread throughout the town. Meanwhile, Zuko would sit at a table not far away, his royal robes swapped out for a stiff jacket and leather boots and a scarf wrapped around his head to hide his scar and turn greedy eyes with short, strategic glimpses of priceless Fire Nation treasures hidden in the pockets of his jacket—treasures liberated from the catacombs beneath his palace.  

Last night, they had upped their game by showing off a few invaluable water tribe pieces that Katara had “borrowed” during her last visit to her village. She’d felt guilty for pinching the prized jewelry right from under her father and grandmothers’ noses but it was for the sake of maintaining peace between the Southern Water Tribe and the Fire Nation and Katara knew the jewelry would be the ticket they needed to get the attention of the right people.

Katara nodded to herself as she put the finishing touches on her make-up. Tonight, they would get a bite. She was sure of it.

“Out of curiosity,” Zuko muttered as she clung like a trollop to his arm while they walked down the dusk-lit street to their first tavern of the night. “Where is Aang? I’m guessing you made up a story to keep him off our scent?”

Katara made a big production of batting her eyelashes up at him like she’d seen countless other girls here do to keep any passersby convinced of their charade before answering in a hushed voice. “I’ve got him searching for clues in the Fire Nation. He thinks I’m doing the same back home. You know, divide and conquer.”

Zuko’s good eye widened and he turned his head to look down at her in alarm. “You sent him to the Fire Nation?” He lifted a hand to push back his shaggy fringe in exasperation. “Why would you send him there? He’s almost certainly figured out that I’m gone by now. You know he’s going to put two and two together and realize where I went.”

Katara sighed and smacked his arm. “You really do worry too much. Listen, by the time Aang figures out where we are, we’ll have already bagged our target. When he asks how we did it, we’ll just bend the truth a little.”

Zuko shook his head. “You’re digging me in deeper and deeper. I think you’re underestimating him.”

Katara rolled her eyes. “Just don’t worry about Aang, alright? I’ll take the fall if he tries to accuse you. He needs to respect that I’m capable of making my own decisions and that I don’t need to explain myself to him. I have to watch him go off and do as he pleases without any input from me all the time. I should be allowed to do the same.”

Zuko frowned. His brow was creased in a way that told Katara he was working through a problem in his head. “Katara…” he said her name with a touch of concern, “is everything okay between you and Aang?”

Katara felt her cheeks heat from embarrassment at talking so openly about her feelings regarding Aang and she turned her face away to hide it. “Everything’s fine,” she assured him quickly. “Just peachy.” She quickened her pace, pulling him toward the tavern. “Come on. Let’s just get to the bar and get this over with.”

o0o

Just as Katara suspected, showing off the stolen Water Tribe heirlooms attracted the attention of just the people they’d been hoping to snag. That night, a pair of comparably well-dressed pirates approached Zuko to inquire about his so-called legendary skills. Katara listened covertly to their conversation from a nearby stool where she pretended to be focused on a conversation with a group of washed out sailors.

The pirates were cautious at first, but when Zuko showed them the items she’d given to him, they sweetened right away. Katara saw the greedy glimmer in their eyes as they drank in the priceless artifacts and when they asked what means Zuko used to procure such treasures, Katara took that as her cue to excuse herself from the sailors and saunter over to their table. She gave the duo a sultry look as she slid onto the bench beside Zuko and snuck her arm around his, cozying up to his side. “I couldn’t help overhearing that you boys are looking to get your hands on some Water Tribe paraphernalia,” she interjected smoothly, lowering her voice to disguise her age. She batted her eyelashes at them, making certain the blue of her irises caught the light. “You came to the right man.” She used her grip on Zuko’s arm to raise her body upward in order to pepper a few light kisses to the area near Zuko’s ear, never once taking her eyes off the pirates. “He just might know a gal that can set you up with what you need.”

Zuko stiffened in her grip but managed to keep a straight face. Katara knew she’d surprised him with her actions. Well, she hadwarned him that she intended to be authentic in acting her part. She allowed her free hand to travel to his thigh and she gave it a short caress. The pirates followed the motion with hungry eyes and she knew she’d snared them. “If you’re interested in doing business, tell your captain to come to the southernmost docks in thirty minutes. We’ll discuss our fee there.” She lowered her eyelids to half-mast and leaned forward so that her artfully squished cleavage spilled enticingly out of the front of her dress. “Bring as many friends as you want.”

The pirates ogled her openly until the weight of Zuko’s traveler’s cloak appeared on her shoulders, blocking the view. The pirates seemed to regain their composure then and nodded curtly. “We will relay your message,” the one on the left said quickly. He stood, pulling his partner up with him and tipped his hat. “Until then.”

The duo hurriedly exited the tavern, their excitement obvious in their gait. Katara fastened the cloak as she watched them go and she couldn’t help the grin that spread across her face. Roleplaying the sinful pirate wench had been surprisingly fun. She didn’t normally get to feel sexy.

“Bring as many friends as you want?” Zuko repeated incredulously beside her. Katara turned to look at him and found his cheeks flaming.

Katara winked up at him. “This way we can get them all at once,” she explained, directing her grin at him. “Never underestimate the persuasive power of feminine wiles.”

Zuko shook his head, his face still aflame. “I won’t. Believe me.”

oO0Oo

As promised, the whole pirate crew turned up to meet them on the docks thirty minutes later. Just as Katara had been hoping, they’d come alone. She and Zuko had been prepared for the pirates to go to the authorities instead of their captain, but it seemed their caution was unneeded.

At the sight of the man who could only be the poachers’ captain, Katara’s eyes widened. All at once, she understood how he and his crew had managed to hunt whales right under her tribe’s noses. Though he was dressed in Earth Kingdom browns and greens, he couldn’t disguise his dark skin or sea-blue eyes.

Hanook, northern warrior and vice-ambassador to the Southern Water Tribe, wore a greedy smile as he and a man Katara assumed was his first mate approached them on the pier. “Ahoy there,” he called to them in a cheerful tone. “My crew told me you two are the ones to see about striking a lucrative deal.” He stopped before them and his eyes traveled over them curiously. “I’ll admit that I’m impressed a mere two-man team has been able to infiltrate right to the Southern Water Tribe’s heart.” His gaze found Katara and his smile turned to a smirk. “But I suppose a pretty thing like you could worm your way into any man’s coffers.”

Katara shivered under the vice-ambassador’s leering gaze. She’d always thought the man was a little shifty, but now he was being downright creepy. To think he’d been taking advantage of her tribe’s trust to poach elephant-whales in their very own waters. She never imagined the crook responsible would be Water Tribe. It was a betrayal that hit hard. She shook off her discomfort and narrowed her eyes. “So, you were the one killing our whales,” she spoke clearly, enunciating each syllable. “Hanook of the Northern Water Tribe.”

Hanook’s eyes widened and he took a step back. Beside him, his first mate put a hand on the hilt of his sword. They’d been caught and they knew it. “How do you know my name, wench?” he demanded, his smirk now gone.

Katara scowled at him and dropped into a bending stance. “Don’t tell me you don’t even recognize the face of the Southern Water Tribe’s most powerful waterbending master,” she called to him. “Even though we’ve shared a supper table countless times.”

Realization rearranged Hanook’s features. His eyes swept her face again and this time she saw recognition in them. A look that spelled ‘oh shit’ appeared on his face and he whirled around to bark at his assembled crew. “The deal’s off! Take those two out, now!”

What followed was a flurry of action as Hanook’s crew leapt to follow their captain’s orders. Hanook and his first mate unsheathed their swords. Katara shared a nod with Zuko and the bescarved firebender jumped into action, pulling his own swords from the scabbard on his back and rushing the two-dozen men. His swords flashed in the moonlight as they sung through the air in great whirling strikes, knocking the blades from the pirates’ hands so that Katara could immobilize them with ice.

Defeating the pirate hoard was almost too easy and in a matter of minutes, Hanook and his crew were captured and Zuko was calling the authorities to come and retrieve them. While she waited for Zuko to return Katara took it upon herself to interrogate Hanook. “Tell me what you’ve done with all the ivory you’ve poached,” she demanded in a dangerous tone. “You’d better answer honestly or I’ll make certain you remain in jail until you rot.”

Just capturing the ivory’s supplier wasn’t enough. She also needed to identify who was buying it along with any middlemen.

Hanook, now clearly defeated, shook his head helplessly. “I don’t have it. This month’s harvest has already been sold.”

Katara’s eyes flashed. “To who?”

Hanook shrank under her furious glare. “A jeweler. He’s a big-name merchant in the Earth Kingdom. The man has a side business peddling rare goods to high-profile clients.”

Katara frowned. That didn’t explain how Fire Nation nobles had been getting their hands on the ivory. Ever since the problem had first come to light, Zuko had cracked down hard on black market transactions in the Fire Nation. Merchant ships and passenger vessels alike were thoroughly inspected for contraband goods upon arrival to Fire Nation ports. “And just who is this merchant?” she pressed. “How is he sneaking our ivory into the Fire Nation?”

Hanook shook his head again. “I don’t know. He has buyers who do the purchasing on his behalf and they change every time. I don’t even have any means of contacting them. They always come to me.”

Katara fought the urge to curse. It sounded like she’d hit a dead end. It was imperative that they discovered the identity of this merchant or he’d merely find other ways of getting what he wanted. The fact that he covered his tracks so thoroughly was to be expected, she supposed.

“Ah, but I do have a theory about where the ivory might be going,” Hanook said quickly. “This guy only sells to wealthy and powerful clients. Nobody else could afford to pay his prices. If the ivory is ending up in the Fire Nation, then it’s probably being sold directly to members of the nobility somewhere outside the Fire Nation and smuggled back in very small quantities. Large shipments are easy to catch, but individual pieces are much, much harder.”

Katara’s eyebrows rose. Hanook made a fair point. She hadn’t considered that. “And where would these nobles be purchasing these pieces? You said you have an idea.”

Hanook nodded. “The answer is simple. We know they’re not going to a shop because that would be too easy to trace. No, as I said, the pieces have to be sold to the nobles directly; at a place where it wouldn’t be strange to find a large number of wealthy Fire Nation ‘customers’. There’s only one place, or event, rather, outside the Fire Nation that fits the bill.”

Katara’s eyes widened as realization dawned on her. There was indeed only one place that matched the ticket. A grin stretched across her face as a plan formed in her mind. She knew just how she was going to peg both the merchant and his buyers.

To Be Continued... (Day 12)

#zutara #Zutara Month 2018 #zk month 2018 #Zutara Month #30 days of Zutara

[seyaryminamoto]

This is the first time I have come across Sokka and Azula being shipped seriously. This interests me, so would you care to explain why you ship them? =)

Well, I have explained a few times before… or a lot of times xD but alas, if something can get me rambling, it’s a question like this.

Alright, soooooo… why Sokka and Azula? Why not any other combination of characters? Why did I have to choose these two despite their canon interactions are so few and far apart that sometimes it made me, a hardcore shipper, lose my mind, desperate for more?

Everything really sums up to one word: potential.

People have all sorts of reasons to ship anything they like. The most common one you see out there, in fandoms, is history: the childhood friends trope is very loved, for instance, and even I can’t help but love certain ships built on the basis of long-term, strong relationships that could endure absolutely any obstacles. When shows take ten thousand years to get that big fan couple together, people will start gushing about all the history the pairing has, and alas, it’s a great reason to love a pairing!

But as you will notice, there’s no such canonical history between Sokka and Azula. What is the root of this ship, if not shared history? What makes me say they have potential, when they seldom interact?

The potential we shippers see comes from something else entirely. It comes not from history, but from the contrast between their characters, the parallels, the similarities and the differences between them. All this brought together can give birth to a unique relationship that, to this day, I can’t realistically picture brewing between any other characters in this show aside from Sokka and Azula.

Alright, to start off:

1. The parallels and circumstances: Sokka and Azula were born to the family of leaders in their respective nations. The situations aren’t 100% the same, but their fathers are the leaders of their communities and their mothers had a closer relationship with their other sibling. In regards of their relationships with said siblings, Sokka and Azula are the rational, even cold-blooded siblings at times, in contrast with their emotional and hot-headed siblings, Zuko and Katara.

Curiously, with the upbringing they have, Sokka and Azula both turn out to be the siblings who tease the others, the ones with the sense of humor (I will never let anyone forget Azula’s absurd puns), They’re the ones who grew up with a tight bond with their fathers, looking up to them and wanting to follow on their footsteps - not that Zuko didn’t try to do it too, but the difference here lies in how the fathers reacted to it: Ozai embraces Azula’s attempts to imitate him and rejects Zuko’s, while Hakoda tries to teach Sokka how to be a leader and a warrior, much like he is. So, Azula and Sokka have similar relationships with their fathers.

And just so, they’re the ones who are more military/strategy oriented of their pair of siblings. Azula was, hands down, a strategist and intellectual, shown as she can recite perfectly what Ozai requests from her as a child in Zuko Alone, and shown again when Zuko asks her about Sozin’s history, uncertain of his own knowledge but assuming Azula would know better. Sokka, likewise, is the “plan guy” in Team Avatar, and the one who was ecstatic and determined to go to a Library. Sokka loves learning new things, and from the looks of it, Azula may be intellectually inclined as well.

Also, they’re the most awkward flirts you’ve ever seen. Combine “Maybe we could do an activity together?” with “That’s a sharp outfit...” and you find yourself with the most hilarious attempt of courtship ever seen.

Considering all this, we also have the issue that comes with their insecurities. The complicated relationships with their mothers, the sense of inadequacy... they’ve both canonically felt the despair of not being good enough, Sokka struggled with it silently for a long time, begrudging his sister for her special skills. Azula felt it too, while watching as her friends picked to side with her brother over her. Sokka felt it as well when his father left him behind in the Water Tribe as he took off to the war... and Azula did it in the same circumstances, years later, as her father leaves her behind, too. Even in these regards, they’re similar.

In conclusion, their upbringing may have just had a hand in grooming them into being this similar to one another, no matter that they were as different as they were. These experiences are the kind of thing that could easily bring two people together, realistically speaking. There’s a lot of potential bonding that could happen because of this.

2. The differences: these two are also vastly different, and of course, the opposites attract notion has been repeated to no end with this ship and many others. But what’s going on with Sokkla isn’t that simple, I believe. People can ship something on the premise of “opposites attract”, but I personally can’t do it unless there’s more substance to it than just that (ergo why I like the parallels I listed above more than I like the differences).

So, let’s list the obvious differences, shall we? Princess and peasant (despite there’s a lot of people who like to think otherwise, but upbringing-wise, Sokka lived far more humbly than Azula did and that’s really what this is about), water and fire, bender and non-bender, moral and amoral, sociable and loner, healthy family and unhealthy family. 

Amongst the not-so-obvious differences, I said they’re great at strategy, but as it turns out, they’re great at different kinds of strategies: Sokka loves long-scale plans, but they fail for him more often than not. He’s better at improvising, at thinking of solutions on his feet. Meanwhile, Azula is the opposite: she regroups when a plan fails, then builds new plans steadily, but with perfect precision so that everything falls into place when it has to.

The differences abound, by the tons, but as you may see, they’re not the worst kind of differences. While it sounds cliché as heck, even the example of the way their strategies work is ideal to prove why these differences aren’t quite as problematic as they can seem. If they work together, those differences become complementary. Take your time to imagine what a strategy concocted by Sokka and Azula would look like: who on earth would be able to stop these two if they joined forces? I tell you, no one on ATLA’s cast would stand a chance xD

The differences between them are pivotal for the third point, I’ll say. And that’s where things really kick in.

3. What they could become together: Sokka and Azula are of course not without flaw, they’re both pragmatists to the point of cold-bloodedness, he can be really goofy sometimes, she can be extremely amoral often, so as much as I adore them in every sense, I know there’s a lot of room for character growth in both of them, even now (yes, I sing praises for Sokka’s development, but I’ll be damned as a fan if I didn’t realize he can grow even more than he already did!).

The one who clearly needs to grow more is Azula, nobody will question that. Her downfall is very heartbreaking and everyone wants her to heal. I am not going to claim Sokka and Sokka alone can patch her up, that’s absurd. But I do believe Azula needs support from someone who’s as emotionally strong as Sokka proved to be throughout the show, someone who will stand by her even in her darkest moments, someone who doesn’t give up on those he loves. Sokka fits the requirement just right. 

3A. But why Sokka, and not anyone else? Because Sokka, who’s one of the characters with the best moral compasses in this show, is also not a preacher. If Azula chooses to take an aggressive stance on something, or a threatening one, Sokka might talk her down from that by showing that approaching the problem from a different angle will be more efficient. Sokka isn’t above murder, that’s something that cannot be forgotten: he knows sometimes you can’t find peaceful solutions for problems, as it was in canon when they killed Combustion Man. But Sokka would seek any other solution before reaching the point of killing someone. Spending time with someone who has a good moral compass, but who isn’t high-and-mighty about it, is the kind of thing that I think Azula would benefit from. With him, she can learn to let go of her father’s teachings of using fear as the means to control anyone: Sokka would show her why that’s pointless, really.

And speaking of which… it’s canon that Sokka isn’t inherently terrified of her. Azula could intimidate Ty Lee into submission, even send Mai away with a mere suggestion (and sure, Mai glared at her but still left as she was asked), she can terrify her brother and uncle enough to make them think the Earth Kingdom killing them isn’t as bad as being handed over to Azula… and yet, when she goads Sokka during in the Eclipse, he doesn’t hold back. He doesn’t back down. He gets up in her face and yells, demands for the truth. He will not let her walk over him, and even when she regains her bending afterwards, he makes a move as if to go after her before he realizes it’s futile. But he isn’t scared. He’s courageous enough that in the Chase he swings his club at her as she’s running off, tosses his boomerang faster than the elements the others sent at her. His sword threatened her far more than Zuko’s bending in the Boiling Rock when the two of them took her on. Sokka kept her in check, never hurt her, but it SHOWS that Sokka isn’t going to back down on her just because she’s threatening. Heck, even the comics prove this! He took her on, one-on-one, in the Search. And heck, he survived despite the roof collapsed :’D wouldn’t you consider that quite a feat?

Point being, Sokka will NEVER let Azula walk over him. And this is something that makes me believe he’d gain her respect rather quickly. He’s not a minion, he’s not a vassal: he’s a leader in his own right, and I believe Azula would acknowledge it. 

Why would she? Because she ditched an entire firebending procession in favor of traveling with two non-benders. Because she took a legion of earthbenders under her command, no matter that they weren’t Fire Nation: contrary to the popular belief, Azula’s sense of superiority doesn’t blind her to other people’s skills, regardless of who they are or where they come from. She’s willing to find allies anywhere, and the show proves it clearly. Why would she scoff at Sokka for being a non-bender when she didn’t do this to Mai and Ty Lee? Why would she scoff at him for not being Fire Nation when she didn’t do that with the Dai Li? Well, my answer is that she wouldn’t scoff at all. Not if they met under better circumstances than they tend to meet in canon, or if they amend their relationship somewhat.

Sokka has a lot to offer Azula, but the first thing that hooked me on this pairing was the realization that he might actually make her laugh to the point of tears. Sokka’s jokes, silly as they can be, are the sort of thing that definitely could fly with the girl responsible for “the Avatar’s fangirls”, and nobody’s ever going to convince me otherwise. The real thing that hooked me is that this goofy boy, with his witty comments, his sarcasm, his often poorly-disguised enthusiasm for all things new, could really bring happiness to someone like Azula. The little history between them is bad, yes, they were at opposite sides of a war, but as enemies they could respect each other. As friends? I think they would find they suit each other really well, their senses of humor match, their countless list of things in common do, too. Even if someone doesn’t want them to become romantic, the potential between their interactions is so great it fascinates me even after all this time. They have it in them to be amazing partners, whatever the nature of their relationship.

The bad blood between them isn’t the kind of bad blood I see between Azula and any of her Fire Nation friends. She never expected anything good from the members of Team Avatar, but she did from the Fire Nation gang. She had helped her brother out but that went to waste in her eyes, and their relationship only ever got worse to the point of them damn near fighting to the death in the finale. She was definitely not the greatest friend to Mai and Ty Lee, but she believed they were friends for real: they betrayed her. The amount of backstabbing Azula has received is kind of overwhelming. People can think she had it coming, whatever, but those wounds are a lot more likely to open again when dealing with the people who inflicted them in the first place. Team Avatar was always just the enemy for her. She doesn’t need to bounce back from being double-crossed with them, so honestly, I find that establishing bonds with them could be smoother for her than trying her luck with everyone who turned their backs on her before. She should have new friends that she knows aren’t lying to her face, or shooting glares at her when she’s not paying attention. 

And that brings up another reason why Sokka is so good for her, in my opinion: he is terribly, ABSURDLY, blunt and honest. Sokka’s attempts to lie his way out of anything are laughable, and for someone like Azula, it’ll always be obvious that he’s lying. But he’d never lie about serious things, too, which is where his great principles are a wonderful thing for this relationship. He’s not going to be dishonest to her, and she’ll know it. She’s a people person xD she can tell when someone’s absolutely honest, and she’ll find that Sokka is practically incapable of dishonesty. So whenever she’s doing something he disapproves of, he’ll say it. He speaks his mind, always, no matter the cost. He doesn’t even know how to hold his tongue. 

Finally… the honesty part ties in with something essential for me in a stable, healthy relationship for Azula. This girl has gone her whole life telling herself she’s a monster: when someone as honest as Sokka gets to know her, and lets her know she’s not one? No doubt her life would end up upside down because of it, but she’d know he’s not lying. She’d know he’s saying it because he truly believes it. Sure, it’s a huge source of drama for their relationship anyways xD but if Sokka loves her, her fears of not being deserving of love could start to be dismissed. If her enemy from the times of the war could possibly grow to have feelings for her… well, first off she’d think he’s crazy xD but once it kicks in, so much of what she feared and dreaded about herself would be disproved. I know many people expect this problem of Azula’s to be fixed through her family, but as I said above, the bad blood there is so damn bad that I don’t see why someone else can’t do it instead. Maybe it’s not the ideal way, but I believe it would work. 

So, that’s quite a bit on why Sokka suits Azula as well as he does. But you might be wondering by now if it’s a two-way street: can someone like Azula be good for someone else? Well… you might be surprised.

3B. But why Azula, and not anyone else? Sokka has a ton of love interests in-canon, and a ton more ships outside of canon. So why would I dare claim Sokkla is the best ship for him?

Something funny I like to bring up is that what people love in Sokka’s most popular ships gets gathered into one with Sokkla. 

The main reason why people ship Yuekka: impossible love, princess and peasant, he did everything he could for her, didn’t stand a chance and fell head over heels for a girl who loved him but loved her nation too. So… Azula and Yue are obviously characters who differ in A LOT of aspects, in fact, in most of them. But they share two things: they’re princesses, and they would do ANYTHING for their nation. Azula’s goal when striving to become Fire Lord is to be a great leader for her nation, remember? Curious coincidence, right? So… if Sokka falls for Azula, you get these same elements that you had with Yuekka. Funny.

Top billed reason why people ship Sukka: “I’m a warrior but I’m a girl too”. That quote sold a lot of people on this ship, and frankly it’s the main reason why Sokka and Suki are together at all: both are warriors but her feminine side appeals to him anyways. Do I even need to say who’s a girl and a warrior, AND A STRATEGIST JUST LIKE HIM…? Yeah. I don’t. You already know :’D

Top billed reason why people ship Tokka: Toph and Sokka were hilarious together, right? Got along really well, they even bonded over Katara being annoying and all that. They were the nickname ones, the jokesters, offered a lot of comic relief in the show. But alas… I am not a fan of the comics, yet Sokka and Azula provided comic relief just fine too. As I pointed out above, Sokka and Azula grew up with very similar siblings: they could just as easily bond over that, too.

Point being, Sokkla can pull everything off. At the same time. It really can. You could say that Sukka’s famous line applies to Tokka too, but it doesn’t work with Yuekka. You can’t say the appeal of Yuekka can also be found in Tokka because Toph actually doesn’t care for worldly affairs the way Yue did (she doesn’t join Team Avatar out of wanting to help people, she does it to be free and to have a chance to be herself, completely personal reasons). The comic relief thing about Toph and Sokka having similar senses of humor can’t apply to either Sukka or Yuekka. And Yuekka’s circumstances simply don’t apply for Sukka either.

So Sokkla has the potential that every one of these ships has, and more. It even gathers factors that the other ships didn’t have (as I mentioned, relationships with family, interest in strategy and intellectual pursuits), and adds several that I find pivotal for why Azula can help Sokka grow lots:

Azula is a challenge. What does canon show us regarding Sokka and challenges? He absolutely THRIVES in them. Sokka can claim he wants to have a peaceful and easy life, but the minute something extraordinary happens, he’s all over it and doing his best to be part of it. Sokka was set free from burdens and allowed to grow into the young man he became because of the challenge of stopping the Fire Nation. It was a fight they could have lost, but he did his damnedest to help his friends succeed.

Yue was a challenge of sorts for him, too. She was out of his reach, and he tried to love her without being with her, which showed an amazing nobility from him and proved how much he can care about the people he falls in love with. It ended too fast for anyone to say if that relationship could have gotten anywhere, but it was promising, if anything.

As for Suki… I really don’t love the ship. And one of the reasons I don’t is because while they care about each other, I feel that Sokka doesn’t need to try at all. Being comfortable is fine, but as I said earlier, Sokka thrives in challenges. He loves proving himself, and he did to Suki early on, but he doesn’t need to prove anything anymore. Thus, their relationship isn’t the kind I think would suit Sokka best. It’s not a relationship that compels him to do better, to try harder, to give it his everything.

A relationship with Azula would be the absolute opposite of that. Sokka would know Azula doesn’t settle for mediocrity in anything and he will not be a man who doesn’t deserve her. He would constantly strive to better himself, and she would help him reach his potential as a fighter and even as a leader, because that’s the kind of stuff she knows, and it’s the kind of stuff he’s interested in. So he can learn more about these things with her! In any case, he’s not going to have a single second of boredom with Azula. Not a chance. And I really think that’s something Sokka would love to enjoy in his life: a relationship that never ever feels complacent.

And another thing that always gets to me is Sokka’s acute awareness of how ordinary he seems in comparison to all his friends. It’s a nonsensical thing if you ask me, HE’S WONDERFUL! XD but he has these insecurities, and those insecurities can gnaw at him a lot. Wouldn’t it be great for him to be with someone, a partner who would make him realize how amazing he is? And I don’t mean that Azula would spend all day coddling him and telling him he’s remarkable: I mean that she would make him feel remarkable, because nobody can hold a relationship with Azula the way Sokka can, no matter how hard they may try. In a fully stabilized relationship, where they’ve both worked together to reach their full potential individually and together, these two really would develop a bond like no other. A relationship this incredible would be so strong it could reduce Sokka’s insecurities a huge lot. And I’d say that’s yet another point in favor for this ship. 

4. The potential: with everything I said, I think it should be clear now why I talk so much about this ship being one based on potential. Nothing is set in stone, you can really do whatever you want in fanfiction with this pairing. You don’t have nearly enough canon interaction that you can take as shippy, no landmarks, nothing you absolutely need to feature… you really can do anything.

There’s Sokkla fics about them being partners in some organization, be it the White Lotus or anything else, there’s Sokkla fics where they’re a happily married pair, there’s fics where Azula captures Sokka that can start dark and go light, or even stay dark all along. There’s modern AUs, there’s crossovers of all kinds… there’s SO MUCH you can do with Sokkla. So much. These two really aren’t limited by anything, as far as I can see. People can portray their relationship as the healthiest in the Avatarverse, but some enjoy drama or angst, and they can take the relationship towards a toxic angle if it suits them. Someone can write them in the fluffiest of fluff, simply being happy together, and instants later they can give them the wildest smut you’ve ever imagined. And if done right? Everything will work. EVERYTHING.

Canon didn’t give us the ship, but it gave us the possibility. As I am, I don’t even worry about it becoming canon or not anymore: the richness of stories I’ve seen with these two is so vast I am constantly in awe over it. There’s been some serious fanfiction masterpieces for Sokkla that anyone should read (but if you want those, there’s another ask for fic recommendations waiting for me, so hold on and I’ll get to it eventually xD). The worlds that can be created for these two are amazing, truly.

And well… maybe you know this, but I’ll say it in case you don’t. I’ve spent almost five years of my life writing a fic about Sokka and Azula in the most compulsive manner EVER. Five years WITHOUT writer’s block. Five years of constant work in an AU that has already spanned over 1.6M words. What can I tell you of this experience? That I could have never made it this far, and created something this vast, with another leading pairing. I can’t replace their characters with others, I can’t write a version of Gladiator with, say, Toph and Zuko instead. It wouldn’t work. I can’t do it with Azula and Aang. It would never work the way it does if the main characters weren’t Sokka and Azula, and if their relationship wasn’t the main line that moves the plot forward (or slows it down, sometimes). I’ve rewritten ATLA as a whole, and gone further than I ever imagined I would with a story.

And it’s all because of them. Because that’s how much potential they have. Whatever criticism Gladiator deserves for my decisions, the fact remains that the story wouldn’t even be even a pale shadow of what it is if it weren’t about Sokka and Azula.

Lastly… doesn’t hurt that they make a beautiful pair, does it? :D

(Sokka and Azula by Drakyx)

Nope. Certainly doesn’t hurt one bit.

So, I hope if you got through this absurdly long ask, you would take two things with you: first, this wonderful ship has a ton of potential and it just takes a willing eye to see it. They’re a remarkable match in every way, seriously. Sometimes I get so lost in it I forget there’s next to no canon material about them, because of how real the connection between these two characters feels to me xD

The second thing I want you to take with you is…

… I talk a lot. I have too many feels about Sokkla. If you ask me to talk about them, I will ramble for hours, as I just did :’D hope you enjoyed reading my crazy gushing, and if your curiosity is still stirred, stick around and I’ll recommend Sokkla fics very soon! Thanks for the excuse to squee about them!

#anon #sokkla #sokka #azula #and I rambled again #how many times will I ramble today I do not know but I sure am happy about this last session of rambling xD #this is the kind of stuff I wanna talk all day about yes

[folklore-musings]

After School Special (Part 6)

Summary:  In an alternate universe where Jughead greases his hair more than Danny Zuko and Betty Cooper gives Sandy Olsson a run for her money at being the nicest girl in town. (No Danny Zuko and Sandy do make an appearance in this fic). Set in the early 1960s at Riverdale High. Slow burn leads to rapid fire (all the bughead smut you can imagine)

Read on AO3 Here

As this fic is getting longer I request that you please just head to the stories link on my page and scroll through to find previous parts (I hope you don’t mind)

A/N:  I apologize for the wait for this chapter, I just became so wrapped up in my other works that I set this story on the back burner. So many feelings for this chapter, I hope you all love it. Please let me know what you think and thank you for reading.

Betty scrutinized herself in the full length mirror, shaking her head repeatedly. “Another no!” She shouted past the curtain to where Ronnie was waiting for her. Betty pushed the curtain aside and walked out with her lips in a pout. “It’s hopeless.” She slouched down on the bench next to Ronnie and pulled on her hair. “Every dress looks exactly the same when I try them on.”

Ronnie gave her an encouraging smile. “I don’t understand what the problem is. Everything you’ve tried on so far has looked perfect on you. And that dress you’re wearing right now? It screams ‘Betty Cooper’.”

Betty groaned. “I don’t want to look like Betty Cooper for this dance. I want to shock people. This, this frilly little thing will do the exact opposite.”

Ronnie nudged her friend in the shoulder. “You don’t want to shock people; you just want to shock Jughead. He already likes you Betty, you don’t have to try so hard to appease him.”

“I know I know. I just want to wear something with a little more… edge, I guess you could call it.”

“Why didn’t you say so sooner? I know just the place.” Ronnie stood up and shoved Betty back into the fitting room. “Hurry up and change. I have a brilliant idea.”

Betty did as she was told and followed Ronnie out of the store, their arms linked together as they headed for another shop. The store front windows had a stark white backdrop and all the mannequins were draped in black. Betty had passed the store plenty of times before when shopping with her mother, but she’d never been allowed to go in. “In here? Are you sure?”

Ronnie nodded and tugged on Betty’s hand, leading her inside. Every article of clothing popped with color, not a hint of pastel hung on the racks. Betty grabbed a few dresses that caught her eye, desperate to try them on. She clung to her self-esteem, each dress worse than the last. Finally, Ronnie forced a hanger passed the curtain. “Try this on.”

Betty popped her head out and thrust the dress back at her friend. “This is definitely not my style.”

“I thought that was the sort of look you were going for?” Betty drew in her lip and gave the dress a once over. It was a replica of the dress Marilyn Monroe had worn in The Seven Year Itch only black. Instead of a pleated skirt, the dress was flowy, with a scarlet ribbon tied around the waist. Begrudgingly, Betty tried it on. The neckline plunged, showing off the curves of her breast. She flushed as she looked herself over, loving what she saw. She felt confident and sexy. To top the look off she retracted her ponytail, letting her hair fall in soft waves around her face and over her shoulders.

Her smile was contagious as she stepped out of the fitting room, modeling the dress off for Ronnie. “I think I’m in love.” Betty swooned. The silk felt like heaven against her skin and when she spun the skirt billowed, defying the laws of gravity.

“You’re welcome.” Ronnie said with a devilish smile playing at her lips. “I love being right.”

“It’s a shame you’re not right more often.” Betty laughed and changed out of the dress, eager to buy it and take it home, before realizing she needed shoes.

“You can borrow my red pumps. My dress is silver so I won’t be wearing them. Also – we should get ready at my house. I think mother Cooper would have a heart attack if she saw you wearing the devil’s colors.” Betty laughed and swung the shopping bag over her shoulder.

“Can I keep the dress at your house? I don’t want to chance her finding it. I already have to hide the fact that I’m going to the dance with Jughead, I don’t want to have to hide my outfit too.”

“Of course Betty, don’t be mad if I try it on for kicks though.”

“Knock yourself out.”

◊◊◊

Betty glanced up at the door when she heard Jughead’s heavy footfalls, signaling his arrival. He was ten minutes late but he was holding out a strawberry shake that had her name on it. “You’re late.”

And you’re cute, Jughead thought but didn’t say. “You should be used to it by now.” He handed her the shake and hopped up on the desk she was currently working on. Betty sighed and pushed her papers away, taking a sip of the strawberry goodness.

“I refuse to get used to it. Instead I always hope you’ll be on time. Although we only have a week left together, so my hopes are pretty much crushed.”

Jughead pulled his notebook from his bag and began working on his final comic strip for the year. “Are you going to miss me?” he asked, scratching his pen against the paper absentmindedly.

Betty took a look around the room. She knew no one wanted to be a part of the school paper. Before Jughead came along it was just her and Ethel, rushing to publish at least four articles every other week for the Blue and Gold. And debate still sparked around the school, wondering who the comic artist was, Betty having effectively kept Jughead’s identity a secret. “Earth to Betty.” Jughead waved a hand in front of her, pulling her back to reality.

“Wha – oh yeah. I am.” She said, a blush rising in her cheeks, facing her attention back to the article in front of her. “Your articles made everyone actually care about the school paper, instead of using it as a napkin or whatever. I think we’re all going to miss you.”

Jughead continued to doodle, letting out a long sigh. “Maybe I should stay?” He asked rhetorically. He was already planning on it anyway. Any extra time he got to spend with Betty was worth it in his book.

She shook her head, blonde curls brushing against the sides of her face as she did. “You don’t have to do that Jughead. I don’t expect you to.”

He noticed her hand clenching on the desk beside his thigh and reached for it, holding it delicately in his palm. “I know, but I want to. I’m not ready to give up these afternoons with you, Betty Boop.” He tapped her nose with the tip of his finger and her face reddened. Jughead smiled inside, his heart soaring.

“Did you have to ruin the moment by calling me that?” She sighed and glanced up at him with playful eyes and an endearing smile. “Remember you promised that nickname was dead.”

Jughead shrugged and removed his hand from hers. “I know, but I think deep down you actually like it, you’re just too uptight to admit it.”

Betty huffed. “I am not uptight.”

“Sure Betty, whatever you say.” Jughead grinned smugly. He grabbed for the usual cigarette behind his ear and placed it between his lips, his tongue tapping against the butt lightly. “You’re cute when you’re flustered, you know that?” He held the lighter up to the end and ignited the Winston.

Betty’s gaze traveled to the door and back to Jughead’s face. “You can’t light up in here. What are you thinking?”

He lifted an eyebrow as the corner of his lip curled even more. “The teachers do it in the lounge room. Why shouldn’t we be able to?”

Betty’s jade eyes were doe wide and bright. “Well if you get caught,” she placed a hand over her eyes. “Then I didn’t see a thing.”

Her lips curved into a devilish smile and Jughead wanted nothing more than the cup her face in his hands and kiss her. With her hand still on her eyes, he held the cigarette out to his side and leaned forward. There were inches, then centimeters, then mere millimeters and he got so close he could feel the warmth of her breath tickle his cheek.

She removed the hand from her eyes just as his lips brushed hers, watching in frozen panic as he kissed her softly. Just as she began to close them he pulled away. Jughead opened his eyes and lifted his hand to her chin, brushing the pad of his thumb against her bottom lip, tracing the path his lips and taken. Betty’s cheeks were painted scarlet.

“You have no idea how long I’ve been wanting to do that.” He breathed, taking a puff from the forgotten cigarette between his fingers.

Betty leaned back in her desk chair and bit her lip. “I think I do. I distinctly remember you trying to kiss me the night you took me to the Bend.”

Jughead’s face fell in his hand then ran through his slicked back hair, defining the curl at the side of forehead even more. “I was really hoping I could go the rest of my life without being reminded of that night.”

She placed hand beneath her chin and arched an eyebrow. “You didn’t think I’d forget my almost first kiss that easily now, did you?”

Jughead swallowed the lump in his throat. “Wait, does that mean… was that just-?”

Betty nodded shyly, detracting her gaze from his questioning eyes. She was so flushed the tips of her ears were beginning to turn pink.

Jughead dabbed his cigarette against the cuff of his jacket and tucked it back behind his ear to finish later. “Good news for you Cooper.” He leaned in close and touched his lips around the shell of her ear. “I’m a really good teacher.”

◊◊◊

It was the afternoon before the dance and Jughead couldn’t stop fidgeting. He’d never felt like this before. So high strung and caring. Most instances he tried not to care, he’d perfected the aura of not giving a fuck.

Jughead stood in front of the mirror on his closet door and lifted the collar on his button up. His hair wasn’t slick back in its usual pile of grease, but instead lay atop his head in soft dusky waves, tucking the ever present loose curl behind his ear. A black tie hung loosely around his neck and the top button on his dress shirt was undone.

Archie came up behind him and clapped a hand on his shoulder. “You ready?

Jughead tossed on his leather jacket and nodded, pulling a cigarette from the pack in his pocket. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

The drive to Ronnie’s was quick and full of Johnny Cash. Jughead beat his thumbs against the wheel as he pulled up the curb. “If these were any other girls, I’d say honk, but I think they deserve a personal greeting.”

Jughead stepped out of the car, his leather boots crunching on a fresh downfall of snow. They waited at the front door, able to hear the echo of the doorbell ring throughout the expansive house. Ronnie’s mother Hermione opened the door and welcomed the boys inside.

“Well don’t you boys look just the bee’s knees.” She smiled, leaning back against the banister.

Ronnie was first to descend the steps, a silver strappy heel planting a foot on the top stair. Jughead drummed his fingers on his thighs and rocked back and forth on his heels. Behind her he could see Betty’s silhouette following in her wake. His jaw dropped.

Her golden hair shined down a ray of sun, with tousled curls falling in waves, framing her face flawlessly. He couldn’t remember a time he’d seen her hair down and he struggled to breathe, thinking she needed to do it more often. His gaze traveled down to the dress she donned and his jaw fell even further. Instead of her signature powder blues and pinks, he was decked head to toe in black with accentuating red. His mouth was dry as he attempted a swallow, enjoying the way her breasts peeked out at the sides of the silky neckline. The skirt came to just above her knees and Jughead’s eyes roved over her legs, like porcelain, desperate to feel them beneath his touch. Get ahold of yourself he told himself, shaking the current thoughts from his head and holding out his hand to meet her at the bottom of the steps.

He leaned in and whispered in her ear. “You are breathtaking, Betty Boop.”

She raked her eyes over his body, the hint of a smile playing at her lips. “You don’t look too bad yourself, stud.”

They stood together for a picture, his hand pressing against the small of her back. He thanked Ronnie’s mom for being so welcoming and accommodating and led Betty to the car. Jughead held the door open for her and ushered her inside. He knocked the hood twice as he walked around and hopped in the driver’s seat beside her, holding her hand beneath the stick shift the whole way to the dance.

#bughead #betty x jughead #betty cooper #jughead jones #bughead fanfiction #slow burn #my writings