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firelxdykatara · 3 years

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gods, ok, apparently i’m not done.

atla fandom? we need to have a chat.

(....ok that made me sound pretentious as fuck. and maybe i am, but this needs to be said, cause i’m getting....real, real tired of a Certain Corner of this fandom and as a result, this is gonna be a discourse-heavy post so feel free to scroll past if that’s not your bag. as always, my salt posts all carry the catch-all #salt for ts tag, which you’re free to blacklist/filter at your leisure. i’m Very Annoyed at the moment, which will probably come through in the following post, so just. yknow. be prepared for that. or ignore it, that’s perfectly valid too.)

under a cut bc i do care for my followers and their sanity i swear lmao

there’s a real serious issue in this fandom with not understanding what queer terminology actually means or implies, especially when applied to a fictional narrative.

i’m specifically talking about ‘coding’, here. (if i were in a more meme-y mood, i might have said ‘the atla fandom found out about the term “gay-coding” and haven’t shut up since’.)

to the people who say ‘zuko is gay-coded’, i have this to say: you keep using that word. i do not think it means what you think it means. because he isn’t. i’m sorry, but he’s not! and the fact that this is such a prevalent claim in this fandom is distressing, bc it says to me that none of y’all know what gay-coding is or when and how to apply it! please, i’m begging you, go and look up these terms and what they mean and when they should be used before actually trying to plug them into your critical analysis, because when you misuse them and then call other people delusional for disagreeing with you it casts a pall over the entire fandom and is, i think, the root of some of the worst toxicity this fandom has to offer.

and the thing is, there are cases where gay-coding would apply--for instance, a couple series that are famous for queerbaiting their audience by coding their main characters as being attracted to one another (sometimes even despite their openly stated sexualities) come to mind, but those shows bare no similarities at all to atla and how zuko was written and portrayed! (and it would be funny, if it weren’t so obnoxious and infuriatingly wide-spread throughout the fandom, because the only queer couple we actually seen on-screen in either show wasn’t even queer-coded in any respect, and they’re canonically bi! [yes, i’m shading korrasami, or more accurately i’m shading bryke for refusing to give ka the build-up and development they deserved].)

this absolutely isn’t to say that headcanoning zuko as gay is a bad thing or invalid in any respect. (although the tendency for zukka shippers to do this specifically to keep zuko away from katara and/or invalidate his canon relationship/attraction to girls is more than a little eyebrow raising. especially since sokka is usually allowed to be bi, bc fans have no problem letting sukka stay in the background bc it’s no real threat, while jetko shippers are happy to have both boys be bi. [possibly bc katara is less a threat to jetko bc jetkotara is every bit as valid as any single ship between the three, but zukka can’t exactly let katara join in, and if the potential exists for zuko to be attracted to her then canon giving them the far deeper emotional bond becomes a threat to zukka’s existence? idk for sure--you be the judge.]) i prefer to hc zuko as bi (and always have, long before the atla renaissance), bc i don’t think zuko being attracted to boys is outside the realm of possibility, and it isn’t a threat to my ship since zuko&katara had a deep and emotional bond in canon that is very easy to develop further into something that becomes explicitly romantic--but the headcanon itself isn’t really the problem (although what it’s often in service to can be).

it’s the strange insistence that this is the only way to read his character, bc he was coded that way and so anyone who doesn’t see it must be too straight to understand--and i really shouldn’t have to say why and how that is so incredibly fucking insulting. (the ‘hetero lenses’ comment wasn’t cute when it came from bryke six years ago, and the same sentiment being repackaged and delivered by zukka shippers ain’t cute now.)

calling zuko gay-coded not only demonstrates ignorance as to what the term actually means, and how to usefully apply it in critical analysis, but also validates the frankly bullshit insertion of institutionalized homophobia in the world of atla where it was neither needed, nor wanted, nor ever hinted at in canon. as a queer woman i’m still infuriated by one fucking comic panel shoving institutionalized and systemic homophobia into a world where it was entirely unnecessary (and doing this in the first installment of the franchise showcasing a queer relationship??? making korra and asami worried about ‘coming out’ when they could have just gone on to have cute adventures together and tell people ‘hey we’re dating’ and have everyone else be ‘that’s awesome =DDD’ [because it is, in fact, possible to just have a world without homophobia i promise!!!!!] double yikes, i’m still pissed at bryke about it), and i doubly hate that ‘zuko is gay coded’ has become so widespread that ‘ozai hates him bc he’s gay’ has become a staple in that part of the fandom.

not only does making zuko gay and implying (or outright stating) that ozai hated and abused him because of it completely undermine zuko’s character arc by making his abuse about his sexuality rather than ozai’s toxic pride and anger at seeing himself reflected in his ‘weak’ son, but it comes very close to outright stating that abuse and trauma are inherently gay experiences, and they aren’t!!! they really aren’t, i promise!!!

abuse and trauma narratives exist outside of ‘my dad hates me because i’m gay’. and, quite frankly, there are MORE THAN ENOUGH queer trauma narratives out in the world. we do not need to start trying to retroactively make them canon in a series where they didn’t exist! if you’re gay and see yourself in zuko and project your own experiences on him, that’s understandable and valid. that does not make zuko gay-coded. and honestly, the insistence that he is makes very little sense to me, because you’re essentially trying to give the show credit for work you put into interpreting the characters! why would you want to do that? why not own your own headcanons and take credit for them, rather than insisting they are canon and everyone else is wrong for not seeing them??? like, i’ve said before that i’ve always headcanoned zuko (and katara) as bi, and even support it with my interpretations of evidence from the show, but the difference between ‘i think zuko is bi’ and ‘zuko is definitely gay-coded’ is that i know that bi zuko is my interpretation of canon, and that it is work i’m putting into the show that wasn’t actually intended by the creators/writers, no matter how much sexual tension i read into the jetko swordfight.

and like, zuko’s character arc doesn’t actually parallel a queer one all that well to begin with. it’s easy enough to do the work and twist it sideways just enough to make the general points fit, but the fact is, zuko’s arc is not one of self-discovery. it’s not one of coming to understand something fundamental about himself that he can’t change, that he was hated for, and coming out to his father in a dramatic confrontation where he shows that he understands himself and doesn’t need his father’s acceptance to be fulfilled.

zuko’s arc is actually one of trauma and healing. and those can (and often are--like i said, there are more than enough queer trauma narratives in the world, atla really doesn’t need to be one of them) be part of queer narratives, for sure! but they aren’t uniquely queer. and zuko’s confrontation with ozai during the eclipse doesn’t read like a ‘coming out’ at all. (yes, i’ve seen that post. yes, i rolled my eyes and moved on, bc unlike some people, i’m capable of not clowning on correctly tagged posts i disagree with.) zuko is specifically confronting ozai over his abuse, because his arc wasn’t about discovering anything fundamental about himself (and therefore realizing that ozai was hating him for something he couldn’t change)--it was about realizing that he was not at fault for the way his father treated him. it was also about realizing that the fire nation was broken and corrupt at its core, and that his father was an aspect of that he needed to break away from so that he could help the world begin to heal.

he says it himself:

Zuko: No, I've learned everything! And I've had to learn it on my own! Growing up, we were taught that the Fire Nation was the greatest civilization in history. And somehow, the War was our way of sharing our greatness with the rest of the world. What an amazing lie that was. The people of the world are terrified by the Fire Nation. They don't see our greatness. They hate us! And we deserve it! We've created an era of fear in the world. And if we don't want the world to destroy itself, we need to replace it with an era of peace and kindness.

making this about zuko being gay and rejecting ozai’s homophobia, rather than zuko learning fundamental truths about the world and about his home and about how there was something deeply wrong with his nation that needed to be fixed in order for the world to heal (and, no, ‘homophobia’ is not the answer to ‘what is wrong with the fire nation’, i’m still fucking pissed at bryke about that), misses the entire point of his character arc. this is the culmination of zuko realizing that he should never have had to earn his father’s love, because that should have been unconditional from the start. this is zuko realizing that he was not at fault for his father’s abuse--that speaking out of turn in a war meeting in no way justified fighting a duel with a child.

is that first realization (that a parent’s love should be unconditional, and if it isn’t, then that is the parent’s fault and not the child’s) something that queer kids in homophobic households/families can relate to? of course it is. but it’s also something that every other abused kid, straight kids and even queer kids who were abused for other reasons before they even knew they were anything other than cishet, can relate to as well. in that respect, it is not a uniquely queer experience, nor is it a uniquely queer story, and zuko not being attracted to girls (which is what a lot of it seems to boil down to, at the end of the day--cutting down zuko’s potential ships so that only zukka and a few far more niche ships are left standing) is not necessary to his character arc. nor does it particularly make sense.

(and before anyone brings up his date with jin--a) he enjoyed it when she kissed him, and b) he was a traumatized, abused child going out on a first date. of course he was fucking awkward. have you ever met a teenage boy????)

anyway, uh, that was a lot of words, so have a tl;dr: zuko is not gay-coded. there is nothing uniquely gay (or even uniquely queer) about his character arc or characterization, and he was certainly not coded gay in an attempt to sneak a queer character past the censors. if anyone involved with atla was gonna try that, it would’ve been in lok, and as established, they didn’t even manage to queer-code the actual queer relationship before the last few minutes of the final episode. headcanoning zuko as gay is absolutely fine (though if it’s only done to keep him away from female characters he may otherwise be attracted to, that smells more like misogyny than anything else), but insisting that this reading is the only one that makes sense, and anyone who doesn’t agree must be straight (hello, queer woman here making this insanely long thinkpiece) is very much not.

ship what you like, but stop trying to invalidate other ships and other interpretations of characters just to make your ship seem more plausible. it’s really not a good look.

#atla #zuko #zukka salt #more like zukka shipper salt #atla fandom salt #salt for ts #zuko is not gay coded and im so so tired of seeing that argument in this fandom #it's fine as a hc but it's not canon and was never remotely intended and his arc isn't particularly evocative of a gay narrative #long post #queer things

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sword-and-stars · 3 years

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Thank you @dilfdarthvader for tagging me! You’re a babe.

How many works do you have on AO3?

59 (what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck)

What’s your total AO3 word count?

368,447 (what the fuck again but this time with added screaming.)

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

SO many but if we’re just going off of AO3, it’s ATLA, Game Of Thrones, and Tales of Vesperia.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The Good Vanilla (ATLA, zukka)

Safety First (ATLA, gen)

All The Gentle Creatures (ATLA, gen)

For Hearth And Home (ATLA, gen)

Hallowed (ATLA, zukka, explicit)

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

So this is actually pretty embarrassing. I used to try and respond to all of them, but it became something that started to give me a lot of anxiety, so I let myself let it go. It’s one of those things where I know that most commenters don’t really care if they get an author response back and I’m way better at responding to asks or dms if somebody wants a personal response. It’s been better for my mental health.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I don’t really write angsty endings. I’m pretty allergic to them, actually, and I don’t like reading them nor do I like writing them.

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

Okay so the current one is obviously my ATLA x Pokemon crossover but I’ve also written Glee x Doctor Who (don’t @ me) and DBZ x Harry Potter. Take your fuckin’ pick.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I’ve definitely received hate but none of it was actually given in comments? So it’s less that I’ve received hate on a fic and more that I’ve received hate for who I am as a person? I don’t think very many people have the balls to be shitty to me in my comments in public.

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Yes! I guess the soft and full of feelings kind? I’ve written m/f smut, m/m smut, f/f smut. Soft smut, kinky smut. I’m a bitch of many talents.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not yet and don’t any of you hoes think about it.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! I believe somebody wanted to translate Truthfully into…Russian? I’m not sure if it ever happened. I’ve had quite a few fics podficced, though!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have. I used to do a lot of co-writing with a friend of mine before our friendship imploded. We wrote several Vesperia fics together and I do regret that I’ll never finish them.

What’s your all time favourite ship?

All time? That’s so hard. I plead the fifth.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I had so much fun writing the outline for School Of (Boiling) Rock that who knows if I’ll ever actually write it.

What are your writing strengths?

I’m very good at dialogue, introspection, and emotion. I’ve been told that I’m excellent at packing a lot of feelings and detail into minimal sentences.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Fight scenes. I’ve gotten better at them, though, since I’ve made myself write more of them! They’ll never be something I particularly enjoy, but I can manage well enough.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

If you have to have translation notes for more than a word or two or the meaning can’t be conveyed through syntax, you’re better off just using italics instead. It’s actually a pretty major pet peeve of mine to have a gajillion translation notes in the fic. If I need a dictionary to read and enjoy your fic, there’s a problem.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Dragon Ball Z. Don’t look at me.

What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

What could be my favorite fic hasn’t actually been posted yet. >:) out of the ones I’ve posted, I think my favorite might be Equivalent Exchange or Mass Times Acceleration.

Tagging @kurikaesu-haru and anyone else who wants to do this!!

#tag games #ficblogging

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snickiebear · 3 years

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yo nadia <3333 i'm bored in my online classes and u reblogged the questions thingy at the right time lmao, so get ready: 1, 4, 5, 9, 10, 17, 23, 24, 28, 30!!!, 34, 38, 39, 40 (the intimacy of being understood) (imma stop here lol) (also i'm sorry u're not feeling well, ily and hope u'll feel better soon!! <33333)

ELE ILY. (and thank you, i’m stayin home today cause,,, yeah. i appreciate you sm.) you’re the literal best, i adore you.

1. How long ago did you start reading fanfiction? Writing fanfiction?

The first fanfiction i read was for The Lunar Chronicles when I was like 11?? and it was 100% on accident and it scarred me because it was a hardcore porn one with a period kink and i was like WHAT IS THIS??? OH MY GOD???? LMAOOOOO i didn’t pick it back up until i was 13-14 and really got into the Fairy Tail fandom. I still reread my favorites on ff.net cause i love them.

As for writing, I wrote a horrible, terrible x-men fanfiction when I was twelve. (my friend still brings it up and REFUSES to delete it so it still gets comments and views, that shit HAUNTS ME ELE.) then tried again for Fairy Tail, posted like two chapters before taking it down cause i wasn’t really feeling it. And then I posted The Intimacy Of Being Understood and here we are.

4. Link your three favorite fics right now.

OMGG okok

@murd3rm1ttens ‘s The Problem How Time Works IF YOU HAVENT READ THIS YOU GUYS NEED TO HOP ON IT ASAP. MITTEN’S WRITING SO SO SO SO GOOD. SAKURA AND INO ARE TOTAL BADASSES. KAKASHI IS A SIMPPPP. ITS SO FUCKING GOOD.

@mouseymightymarvellous ‘s We Were Screaming In Color (Only A Possibility) yes, yes I KNOW. i always point into mousey’s direction but i WILL always advocate that everyone reads her fics, they’re literally so beautiful???? i just happen to be rereading WWSIN rn

@safelycapricious ‘s Shaking Up And Breaking Down series. I found this like?? idfk but i’ve been raving about it ever since. ALSO CHECK OUT THEIR FICS IN GENERAL.

fuck i have more than three but also check out @ambivalens999 ‘s Masks

i do wanna make a fic rec thing where i just rav about my favs,,, might do that later or sum

5. What are your fanfic pet peeves? Do they have a huge effect on whether or not you decide to read something?

Omniscient third person. I don’t like it. Like I can understand that it can be a little hard to stay in one person’s perspective but, in my opinion, if you can, it shows how disciplined you are as a writer. Plus, i just get so confused when I go from A’s thoughts to suddenly what B is thinking about A.

When writers use ‘ ‘ instead of “ “. When writers put thoughts in ‘ ‘ instead of just italicizing them. It’s small things but like they just bother me sO MUCH. most of the time i can ignore it and try to enjoy but other times i just dip.

9. Tag 3 fic writers you think are underrated/unknown in the fandom/fanfiction community.

@espoir-et-reves !!!!! THEIR SHISAKU FICS ARE SO SO SO SO SO GOOD. And they have a warring states one going on THAT I AM SO OBSESSED WITH.

@writer168 idk if they’re really “underrated” but THEY HAVE SUCH GREAT FICS ON AO3. Like theres an AU with sakura, kiba, and shino that i reread constantly because it just. is. so. fucking. GOOD. and they posted a new one that i’m YELLING about.

@eggtoasties okay they only have 2 in the naruto fandom (one shisaku which is still ongoing) BUT THEIR WRITING STYLE IS SO NICE?? I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT. I still go back and reread their shikasaku one cause UGH i can’t get enough. I love it.

10. What’s your favorite fandom, pairing, or character to read fic for?

Fandoms: Naruto, Soul Eater, The Old Guard, ATLA

Parings: KakaSaku/ShikaSaku/ShiSaku/MultiSaku, SoMa, Joe X Nicky, Zukka

Character: SAKURA. I will read anything with Sakura as the main character and her being a fuckin badass or becoming a badass. I love her.

17. How obsessively do you sit and stare at your fic after you’ve just posted and wait for feedback?

aha.. haha.. well. I check my email like three times an hour. its the first thing i check in the mornings too. I’m literally a whore for praise and literally eat up feedback like its going out of style. I also reread a lot of my stuff because i make so many mistakes and spelling errors, or the spacing is weird oR SOMETHING. plus, literally any and all comments make my day, i go back and reread them cause they just make me feel so tingly and warm like “wow. this person enjoyed the fic/my writing enough to tell me. thats HUGE!”

23. What’s your absolute favorite trope to write?

Angry, feral, bloodied, morally gray women. They aren’t bad guys, they’re probably the good guy, but that doesn’t mean they cant be fucking raging at the world with raw knuckles and blood on their teeth. I just love an angry woman who struggles with her emotions and just has so much inner conflict but that doesn’t take away from her character or badassery, it adds to it.

24. What’s a trope that you’d like to never hear about as long as you live, let alone write?

The fake dating or miscommunication troupe. LIKE GUYS JUST TALK. AND TELL EACH OTHER OMFG. the entire like obliviousness of “nah they dont like me” while the They holds their hand and kisses their cheek. MOFO WHAT. it makes me so impatient and like mad HAAHHAHA. its probably because i’m a pretty confrontational person so seeing stuff like that just “cmon bro, USE YO HEAD.”

28. How do you deal with writing pressure (ie: pressure to update, negative comments, deadlines, etc)?

I have yet to receive a negative comment! Which i was really surprised about tbh. As for deadlines or pressure to update, i just kind of do whatever. I do set goals, but i set them flexible enough that hey, if i can’t do it, that’s okay.

I have a lot of mini goals, like “i want to write this chapter and get it done this week” and then the large goal is “FINISH BY END OF MAY” so i have time.

Actually, now that I think on it, the entire pressure to update thing is probably why i’m waiting until I have all of OL&W written to post it weekly,, cause well. I wouldn’t wanna leave you guys waiting as I tried to write and work out the next chapters and stuff, you know?

30. Post a snippet from your current WIP without context - no more than 300 words.

AAAAAA YOU KNOW I LOVE THESE AHAHAHAH

Have you seen the way the dead dance, World Breaker? They roar, half mad and starving. Do you not wish, do you not hope to see them twist and bend and dance to your will?

Shikamaru snarls, looking behind his shoulders to where his Shadows lay. “Patience.” He spits. “Is of the essence, Things of Ancient. Know your place as the dark you are.”

34. How much of yourself and your life experiences do you put into your writing? What do you think your readers’ image of you is?

None of my experiences match up to anything I write tbh,,, probably the only thing that is me in my writing is maybe the emotional turmoil? I’m pretty emotionally and mentally mature because from a pretty young age i started forming my own opinions, started looking into the world around us and being like “dude what the fuck this is not what disney advertised”. Then i started talking (read: arguing and debating) with my dad about a lot of it. So, like emotions are kind of hard for me. Like i’m pretty good at controlling them or understanding them, but still. idk its hard to explain ig.

Like the weight of stress, the anger, the sadness. It’s kind of therapeutic to write. Cause i don’t know how to put those feelings to verbal words so writing them really helps.

As for my readers’ image? Probably like some kind of hunched over figure typing away in the dark with a maniacal grin on their face. I honestly don’t know AHHAHAHA but it is fun to think about. I think they’d see me as someone with potential but a lot of room to grow and someone who is imperfect but in a charming way LMAOOOO

38. What does your writing process look like? How chaotic is it on a scale of 1 (very tame) to 10 (you can’t handle this kind of chaos)?

I’m gonna be real honest. Its probably like a 2. I’m a bit of a control freak so I almost always go in chronological order, my writing is pretty linear. Unless, i get bored and jump to one of my fav parts. It's pretty much i sit down, i open the doc, read over my notes and just start writing.

It’s a little boring to explain AHAHAHA but once i get into the groove of things its really fucking great, I can like feel myself in the world, I can feel what i want the characters to, i love it. I catch myself mouthing the words as i type too, which i find hilarious.

39. What’s something about your writing that you pride yourself on?

I rather like how raw my writing is sometimes. Which might sound really vain, but i do like the way i word things or describe things. I love juxtaposition and repetition, or making a good ole circle back to some minute detail that wouldn’t stand out until i repeat it at the end and you’re like “omg” AHAHAHAHA.

Like those little poetic snippets or certain wording i just sit back and go “damn thats kinda good nadia! go you!’ HAHAHA

40. How did you come up with the idea for The Intimacy Of Being Understood?

AAAAA this fic is like my first child, my pride and joy LMAO

so the idea initially came when i was reading some fic, idk if it was even naruto, but i was like “i don't like this, but i do like the rain symbolism.” And I knew i wanted to write something kind of slow paced, something a little sad and angsty, but would show KakaSaku slowly but surely falling in love.

Idk if you’ve noticed but a lot of my fics, the pairings don’t change each other dramatically. They accept each other as they are and then they grow with together. Like that acceptance is something i just love writing, its so subtle, it isn’t something you declare. Its simply “I am going to love you. I am going to love you despite your flaws and faults. I am going to love you unconditionally because I know you, I understand you, and there is nothing you could do to drive me away.”

The fic kind of wrote itself after that first scene. I kept going back to the rain, go being ghosts, and resurrection, and the small epiphanies one gets. I wanted to focus on each character’s growth with each other. They didn’t find light in life because of each other, but with each other. And i think that’s my favorite thing about that fic.

I wanted something raw and real and just something beautiful. I’m actually really proud of it tbh. Would i go back and rewrite/edit it? Oh of course! I’d do that with every single one of my fics, but i’m not gonna cause i think its in its rawest form right now. :))))

ask me shit plz

#silly things from silly friends

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aquariusshadow · 3 years

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My thoughts about the 'age thing' being announced for the Netflix Live Action ATLA: as a Zutara shipper.

First I want to discuss Katara being 16 and Sokka being 14 (without any talks of any ships. No Zutara talk, no Zukka talk, no Kataang talk) and how I feel it could potentially scuff with their character developments.

Katara being 14 in the original series and the younger sister makes the 'growing up too fast too young' part in her character more impactful. In the OG Katara was already seen as the mom friend (among other badass character traits she also showed. Yes, I recognize Katara was more than the mom-friend. She's my favorite ATLA character because of how diverse she is) and it affected her character more because she's still a kid. A kid that desperately needs to let loose and have fun and that’s what the Gaang can provide for her. Her being 14 emphasizes that part of her personality.

Her being 16, while still conveys that same purpose of her being the mom-friend...instead of it being one aspect of her character she can learn and grow from, there's a risk of her becoming just the mom-friend and we lose all the stuff in the OG that reminded the viewer that 'yes, Katara is still a kid.'

That being said. I can still see the writers not keeping Katara as "just the mom-friend" despite her being aged up. But because she is older, and I don't trust the Netflix writers (I mainly don't trust any sort of reboot writing as I personally haven't seen any successful reboots??? but I degress...) to keep Katara as complex of a character as she was/is in the OG. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt but remain skeptical.

I'll be completely honest here. I wouldn't have too much of an issue with Katara being 16...if Sokka wasn't aged down. In my opinion, that's where the decision to change the ages is scuffed the worst.

Sokka being the younger brother changes the entire dynamic he has with the Gaang as well as his own character growth. An in turn, ultimately messes with Katara's dynamic with him and the concerns I mentioned above with her being reduced to "just the mom-friend." Sokka's arc is the protective older brother figure of the group and a lot of that stems from how he wanted to step up and be the man of his village, and in turn, Katara. Sokka being younger than Katara changes that because, while he would still want to be the 'man of the group' (and the village) that same desire to step up for Katara wouldn't be there in the same way??? Yes, he would still be the older-brother figure to Aang and Toph, but ultimately, Katara would be the one taking care of him completely.

Because of that, Sokka and Katara's relationship would ultimately be different from the OG and Sokka's character is more at risk of being potentially unrecognizable or simply reduced to comic relief.

Now, onto the part I think everyone cares about the most. The shipping.

This is where I think I'm about to be really controversial.

Basically, I think aging up Katara screws up the legitimate arguments Zutarians have when criticizing Kataang. I've seen pretty much every argument against Kataang and I've agreed with most of them. But aging up Katara to "show" that Kataang doesn't work because of the age thing (and whatever else) delegitimizes the legitimate claim that Katara being 14 and Aang being 12 is still a problem by itself for their relationship.

Katara being 14 and mothering 12 year old Aang, etc etc, has so much merit for conversation and claim as to why Kataang isn't a good pairing. Especially since a 14 year old girl and a 12 year old boy are so different in maturity and you add in Katara's "having to grow up too fast" character development just further adds to the argument of the 2 year age difference being a legitimate critique. It's impactful. It has merit.

Especially since throughout the seasons...we lost the whole "Aang lets Katara be a kid" theme that the show was trying to show in early season 1. Again, this is just my observations from watching the show many many many times throughout my life since I was like 8 to now 21. That theme was lost because we see more scenes of Katara mothing Aang than Aang and Katara treating each other like equals.

Aging up Katara to 16 takes that away. It more or less says "well we want to prove that the age difference is an issue so lets age up Katara more" when, in my opinion, the show does a good job showing why the 14 and 12 year old age difference is already an issue.

I don't think aging up Katara hurts the Zutara pairing at all. It just hurts the legitimate critiques people had against the Kataang pairing...which leads me to my third and final point.

Should Zutara be canon...and Katara is aged up to 16. The fandom is going to attack anyone that does ship Zutara even more than I've seen the past year or two since being more active on social media sites. On tumblr you have your set tags that you keep to when having discussions. I personally haven't seen a lot of zutarians on tumblr go into the kataang tag and shit on kataang for the hell of it. Sure there might be strays but its not the overwhelming majority of Zutara shippers, from what I have seen.

My point is, there's going to be a lot more hate and anyone who ships Zutara is probably gonna be immediately discredited in the fandom because of the toxicity. This isn't a fandom where all opinions and thoughts are treated with respect. If it was, then I wouldn't be making this post.

Furthermore, I also don't trust the writers to write Zutara properly. Yes, I did see that the new head writer is known for well-written enemies-to-lovers which does give Zutara a chance at being canon on screen so I'm a tiny bit hopeful? That being said, because of the changes already being made, the likelihood of it being good seems 50/50. If they do Zutara the justice it deserves then I wouldn't be as concerned about the toxicity I mentioned above. But. If they scuff the Zutara pairing in the live action. Then. Re:toxicity.

When people want a reboot/live action of something, they don't want the core fundamentals of the story changed. If there is significant change then theres extra pressure to do it right. If it's not done right then all hell breaks loose.

My point, as a Zutara shipper, I'm concerned that the aging changes + Zutara being canon would divide the fandom even more and Zutara shippers getting the brunt of a lot of hate that is unjustified.

I don't speak for all Zutara shippers. For all I know they probably aren't concerned about any of the points I presented and honestly? Good on them lmao. I'm proud if that's the case. I guess, I'm trying to look out for a fandom and a community I am very fond of and plays a huge role in my life.

#zutara #atla #atla live action #thoughtful discussion #let me hear your opinion

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flameo-hotman · 3 years

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Sometimes I’ll be writing a fic and then I learn someone has already posted one with the same premise or something pretty similar and then my anxiety kicks in and I just push that fic into my pile of WIPs I am too nervous to finish, but then other times I’m like no this is still different enough and I was writing this before I found out about the similar fic.

It’s a coin toss tbh

And I mean it is so stupid that my brain does this because I wrote the plot for and first chapter of a fic before I came back to the fandom. Like I sat down with my Atla box set and did a rewatch and then started working on this fic and I was really proud of it but then I saw shortly after rejoining the fandom someone else had posted something just similar enough that on the surface it sounds like the same fic but too the left.

So then I stopped work on my fic and a little while later I started writing Better Than Hunting because yah know. Woke up in the middle of the night wrote it as a one shot that was a dumpster fire in about 15 minutes that I physically cringed at when I woke back up and decided to redo but it ended up becoming way longer than a one shot and I was actually pretty happy with it.

But yeah long story short I kind of want to do some work in that fic that I started working on before rejoining the fandom and I am not sure if I should just write it and post it or if because there is a similar fic if I should gift it to the person who wrote a similar fic or tag it as being inspired by because their fic on the surface sounds similar and ahhhhgh

Idk and this is making my brain hurt.

I’m gonna just leave the fic in the valet of if I do finish it I will never post it but I’ll still make it Zukka because of that one shit head who had a problem with a gay guy writing gay porn. (Seriously wtf kind of logic is that?)

But like for the other fics I started and didn’t post because I ended up learning there was a similar fic and my anxiety kicked in, what should I do with those?

I mean do I tag them as inspired by even though I did know about the other fic until after I had begun work on mine? I mean of course if I had known about their fic before hand I would have no issue with doing that. I mean I tend to just gift the fic in those instances because yeah if my fic was actually inspired by another fic or another fic gave me a key element to make my fic work then yes gift it to them and say it is inspired by them because in that case it is, but that isn’t really the case when I wrote a fic without knowing that a similar one even exists.

What is the right thing to do in that instance???? Because I don’t want to do something rude and I mean do I just post it and say yes I know this sounds similar to so and so’s fic but I didn’t know about their fic when I came up with mine or do I just keep my mouth shut and gift it to the person who posted their version first?

I’ve talked about it with friends before and they say I’m overthinking it and that just post the fic without mentioning the similar fic and if anyone says anything then to just say I didn’t know about that fic when I started this fic.

And I mean that sounds logical to me but my brain still won’t stop giving me worse case scenarios and I would like to see what yahl think because I have fics that I want to be able to post but anxiety gets the best of me more often than anyone realizes.

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the-boys-from-ba-sing-se · 3 years

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Top 5 fics of 2020!

Tagged by @khashanakalashtar to post my five favorite works I made this year.

Rules: it’s time to love yourselves! choose your 5 (ish) favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

1: The Sun Will Be Guiding You

Spymaster Sokka

This was the first fic I made for this fandom, and it’s without a doubt the thing I have put the most effort into. My longest ever fic, my most coherent plot (though it was mostly stolen of course!), my first proper fight scenes, my first fic with chapter titles, my first time working with beta readers, the whole shebang. I also received so much lovely feedback from readers, and I have to say it is gratifying to be on the other side of the frustrated angst-related screaming every once in a while!

2: Plum Blossom [Podfic] (by @zukkaclawthorne)

Hanahaki AU

While this is not the first or the best podfic I have made for this fandom, it is probably my favourite. This was recorded on my phone, and the first time I uploaded it I accidentally left a few mistakes in and didn’t find out for over a week until I was listening back to it in the kitchen! I was mortified and quickly edited and reuploaded it, but not before over 100 people had streamed and downloaded it. I read this fic just before going back to uni in September, and the intensity of emotions hit me so hard, I knew I wanted to inflict it on other people! This is probably the first fic in which I successfully managed to distinguish between characters’ voices, and the fic in which I solidified my characterisation of Zuko. This slightly came back to bite me in the arse in the sections with heavy dialogue between Zuko and Toph, because having to switch rapidly between a deep chest register and a high chest register was pretty straining! I guess I only have myself to blame, and I’ve definitely improved since then.

3: Locked down with you ain’t so bad

Quarantine fic

I couldn’t not include this fic on the list. It has been literal years since I had sudden writing inspiration strike in the middle of the night and I had to type something out rapid-fire on my phone, but that’s exactly what happened. As some of you may remember, back in mid-September I was having a crisis as I found myself in the middle of slow-burn friends-to-lovers fanfic trope with my best friend and housemate, and I proceeded to yell about it all over discord. Then, probably to no one’s surprise but my own, I ended up with a girlfriend and a happy ending. Of course I ended up writing aboiut it, and this fic is a pretty much entirely faithful re-telling of the events that led to my relationship, but with Zukka instead, of course.

3.5: You Okay?

Post-quarantine smut

This is of course the PWP sequel to the above fic, hence the 0.5 numbering! It was, up until about a week ago, my A:tLA fic with the most hits (now overtaken by TSWBGY), you dirty little freaks. I actually wasn’t going to put this on the list, because while it is my own writing, it’s not exactly high art, but then I remembered, fuck you, I do what I want. Also, this fic has been pretty important to me in its own way. This was my first time writing (serious) smut, and while this fic is not directly autobiographical, I do just like soft Sokka being the Consent King.

4: Baby Hotline, please hold (me close to you) [Podfic] (by @engagedzukka)

FBI Zuko

I love this fic so much. I have probably re-listened to this podfic the most out of all my podfics (yes I listen to my own work, there’s not a lot else out there, someone else please make some more podfics!). Again, this is one of my earlier podfics, but at this point I was using a proper microphone rather than recording on my phone, and the difference in sound quality is very noticeable. Shoutout to my housemate (cast as Toph in my lockdown fic!) for lending me their mic! I think I managed to get the tone of this one down pretty well, and it’s probably the fic I had the most genuine fun recording and putting together.

5: Boy Problems [Podfic] by burnt_oranges

Arranged marriage/misunderstandings

This is my most popular podfic. It doesn’t have the most hits on Ao3, it’s actually sixth down, but it has almost twice as many streams and downloads than most of the ones above it on Ao3. I’m not sure exactly what that means, but it’s probably good, so thank you! It’s my longest one-shot podfic, and I recorded it in one day, over two sittings. Ouch! This is also the fic where I fully committed to giving OCs regional accents lmao. Bear witness to my shame as I attempt to make Zuko’s assistant/bodyguard Welsh and the noodle shop owner generic Scottish.

@ohmyzukka, @khaleeseas, @bisexual-atla, @jetruvius (any of y’all), @zukkaclawthorne, @macdenlesbian, @theobliviouswriter, @sword-over-water go!

#author tag #top 5 fics 2020 #rio rambles #atla #zukka #podfics #fanfics #my works #thank you kieran for tagging me!#as always delighted to be seen

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snowe-zolynn-rogers · 3 years

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Avatar Zuko Rewrite

Pairings: Zukka (pre-romantic, unrequited)

Word Count: 1687 Words

Summary: Lee somehow manages to win Sokka's heart without even trying aka he feeds him. Sokka doesn't even know how to process how cute Lee is.

Warnings: Injury Mention, Food Mention, Half Blind Character, let me know if I should tag something else.

Chapter 7

When they finally consoled Aang, they led him back to where Lee was in the Avatar Chamber still. It seemed they’d all left him there to continue with his intrigued study of the statues.

Finding him collapsed in front of the Roku statue was definitely not something they’d anticipated. It looked like some debris had flown here too from Aang’s emotional breakdown. None of it looked to have hit Lee but they all guessed it had somehow hit him in the head and made him collapse with a concussion.

“Hey, Lee. Lee, wake up.” Sokka shook the raven’s shoulder.

He gave a groan, waking up and he held his left hip, apparently that had hit the ground first and taken the most of the brunt of the fall. Lee pushed himself to sit up, other hand holding his head, eyes shut still and refusing to look at them. Finally, his gold eyes opened and he gazed up at them.

“What happened? I’m so sorry if I hurt you, Lee!” Aang hugged him.

“No, it wasn’t you. The spiritual pressure is just really strong in here.” He rubbed his left scalp with soreness from the fall, but thankfully, he didn’t seem too injured.

“Well you are right. It does feel like the pressure is stronger here. Maybe it’s the statues.” Aang told him, helping him up on his left side while Sokka helped his right. Sokka felt protective of the airbender, he was obviously weak and a bit hurt, he needed someone to look after him.

He helped him from the chamber, all four leaving it to let Lee recover. The airbender seemed to be getting better, all but his hip, however. But that just seemed sore too, and was obviously better the more he moved it and used it and wasn’t overstressing the muscle he’d hurt. Aang and Katara played air ball this time, Lee and Sokka sitting on the grass, watching.

“Do you think they’d mind if I looked around?” Lee asked.

“Why?” He asked the airbender.

“Food. You’ve been complaining nonstop, I figure shut your mouth with some food.” Lee told him, smiling broadly but also nervously. He was getting comfortable around people but he wasn't sure how to act.

“Nah, they wouldn’t mind. Just don’t get lost. Come back here after or I'm sure Aang might freak out that I lost you.” The raven nodded and set off the path on the left, slowly retraining the sore but thankfully healthy muscle in his left hip. An hour later, Lee came back with several things in his arms. He threw something round at him and he immediately caught it out of instinct.

“Found the kitchens and the gardens. That’s a pomelo by the way. They grew firebender fruit here. Who would have thought Air Nomads could simulate different climates?” He was smiling.

“What the hell’s a pomelo?” Sokka asked, peeling it curiously.

“A fruit. It’s like an orange but better. Don’t complain. I could have made you eat the durian fruit.” He showed him a large yellow fruit as Sokka took a curious bite of the fruit in his hands.

“Hey, I’m not a quitter. Let me try the other one.”

“Don’t complain to me then, water-boy.” He tossed the yellowy fruit at him. Sokka caught it easily. He used his dagger to cut open the durian fruit to come face to face with the yellow flesh.

“What? Scared?” Lee smirked, eyes smiling and Sokka, to all that knew him, was absolutely not one to back down from a challenge.

If anything, a cute boy staring him down to eat a fruit that intimidated him, yeah that was a challenge. He cut the piece sunk his teeth into the yellow flesh and was met with a bitter, sour taste in his mouth and immediately spit it out, spitting saliva in hopes the taste would go away. Lee took one of the unbitten pieces and bit into it easily.

“I told you. Water Tribe Boys can’t eat durian.” Lee teased.

“Well, Fire Nation Boys can’t eat sudachi.”

“I’m Air Nomad. But just the same. I don’t like Water Tribe food.” Lee finished his demon fruit.

“Smartass.” Sokka mumbled.

“Takes one to know one.” Lee sat back on the grass watching the game going back and forth until Katara and Aang finally both tied in a stalemate.

“Lee found the kitchens and gardens while you two were on your supervised date.” Sokka told them.

“Where are they?” Katara asked, blatantly mad. And then Lee did the unexpected again. He pushed upward with his hands and landed on his feet with only mild difficulty from his hip.

For a second, Sokka was sure that he was becoming a true demon like the fruit Lee had eaten with the way he’d been moving until he realized he was just a showoff. Katara rolled her eyes at the display and Aang snorted laughter at Sokka’s terrified yet shocked expression.

Lee made a small chuckle at his shocked expression too, already him and Aang leading each other to the kitchens and gardens, leaving Katara and Sokka to run to catch up again.

“Oh Gods, the kitchens smell heavenly.” Sokka drooled.

“I figured we’d all be tired and hungry after all that’s happened today. I started dinner before I left. It should be done in a few minutes.”

“Cooking’s a girl thing! You can’t cook!” Sokka protested.

“Eat dinner or go try to make something yourself. The gardens are out the door, to the left, down a bit.” Lee walked away from him into the kitchens from where they were in the mess hall.

Sokka was impressed with how easy he seemed to act naturally around him and the others, like the three years on a Fire Navy ship had never changed his personality to the meek and scared boy he’d seen him the day prior. Though, it occurred to him that Lee could just be scared of his bending being destructive.

“He needs to get a handle on that talk of his!” Katara raged.

“He’s fine. I think he’s just getting comfortable around us.” Sokka told her as much. She growled at him to be quiet.

“I made extra.” And the two big bowls of first pasta then a black and lumpy mix got set on the table. Sokka poked it with his spoon.

“What is that?” He asked.

“Zhajiangmian. Fire nation food. Thankfully the not hot kind. Made vegetarian for our airbender.”

“Waterbenders need meat, Lee.” Sokka complained. Lee raised an eyebrow. He bit his tongue, Spirits dammit, why was that cute!? “But it smells good. I’m eating.” He put some of the noodles into his bowl. He looked at the dark saucey substance oddly as to what he should do with it.

“You put the zhajiang overtop of the noodles and mix them.” Lee spooned the mix over his own noodles, mixing it together with his chopsticks. Sokka mimicked what he’d done and brought a the chopsticks to his mouth, tasting the food.

“That’s pretty good actually.” His mouth was full but he felt the need to say it, wanted to see Lee's reaction. Lee laughed at his face that was obviously covered with the sauce. His heart melted a little bit, Lee laughing made his heart skip. Lee sounded happy.

“Wipe your face. You look like a rabid wolfbat.” He laughed, having to stop eating for a minute. Sokka wiped his mouth clean and continued eating, teeth crunching into what he assumed were vegetables.

“Ya know, that’s a good way to get Sokka to eat vegetables, Lee.” Aang told the other airbender.

“It’s better than him wandering off and maybe getting hurt trying to fend for himself.” Sokka was busy spooning the vegetables from his bowl to his mouth, too satisfied with the food to care much about the conversation.

“Katara, why aren’t you eating?” Aang asked. Indeed, Katara hadn't so much as touched her bowl, let alone fill it and eat anything.

“I won’t eat Fire Nation food.” She told them bluntly, eyes shooting daggers at Lee.

“Technically, this is the Earth Kingdom recipe. It’s not spicy like the Fire Nation makes it and there’s no meat added in.” Aang told her. Lee had folded in on himself when she’d made the comment, he was busy quietly eating, refusing to look up from his bowl. He wasn't going to defend himself, he probably felt he deserved it.

“'Tara, you’ve gotta try this. It’s so good.” Sokka urged her.

“I’m not hungry!” She snapped. Lee flinched at the tone but continued eating, seemingly unwilling to look up at her. Sokka could spot his eyes getting glossy with tears that the airbender was obviously forcing down.

“Katara, you’re being too hard on Lee. He’s not even Fire Nation, he’s an Air Nomad. Don’t you think he’s probably struggling through this war too? This war’s been hard on everyone.” Sokka told her. Lee was staring at him, wide eyed and looking a bit scared on his part.

Was he scared of something happening simply because he was defending him from his sister? Maybe it was justified, his sister was scary and it seemed a feasible fear from what he'd heard Lee say about his father. Being around that abuse so long, he probably learned not to defend himself for fear it would lead to him being beaten.

“Fine, I’ll eat. But you better not be pulling anything, Lee.” Katara told him, finally spooning noodles and zhajiang into her bowl and eating.

“Good, Katara?” Aang asked.

She simply grumbled what sounded like a 'yes’ past her food. Sokka smiled at Lee as the raven continued eating, eyes a bit awestruck toward him. It wasn’t a problem convincing his sister to eat, he would have had to make her eat eventually.

Aang went back for a second bowl, commenting that it was just like Xiu-Mei made it. Sokka had ended up having two and a half bowls while Lee only finished one and Katara finished two. Plus Sokka got to sit next to a cute boy he very much wanted to kiss.

Taglist: @darkrainbow333 @magic-but-its-green @the-lemonade-artist @a-chaotic-being @wasinotwantedatthisexactsecond @lgbtforeverything @brain-deadx0 @everythingisstardust @emoqueerpan @thatoneperson1967

#avatar the last airbender #atla #aang #zuko #sokka #katara #snoweywrites #avatar zuko #avatar zuko au #tw inury mention #tw food mention

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cruelangelstheses · 4 years

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blue neighborhood - chapter 1: WILD

fandom: avatar: the last airbender rating: T characters: sokka/zuko words (total): 1.8k words (this chapter): 1.8k additional tags: modern au (no bending), high school, college, time skips, childhood friends, friends to lovers, slow burn, (internalized) homophobia, implied/referenced child abuse, fluff and angst, angst with a happy ending description: for zuko and sokka, the line between best friends and lovers has been blurred for a long time. a/n: hello!!! posting this just in time for @zukka-week (specifically day 4: free day, since it doesn’t really fit into any of the other prompts, though i guess this fic will also focus on pain and healing a lot so it could count for that too), but i’ve had this idea in my head literally since blue neighborhood came out. i don't even listen to troye much anymore but i needed this to be a thing. each chapter is inspired by a different song off the deluxe edition of BN, going in order of the track list, and they’re sort of out of order because they’re all little vignettes/“glimpses” into zuko and sokka’s relationship at different points in time! the first chapter is the beginning though, and the last chapter is the end (it’ll make more sense as you read each chapter). warnings are in the additional tags. ty for reading! :3

read it on ao3

—

“Hey, Zuko! Look what Gran-Gran got for me!”

Zuko, nine years old, sticks his head out the window of his bedroom and glances down at his neighbor Sokka, who stands eagerly in Zuko’s backyard one Saturday morning with his hands behind his back. “Okay,” he says slowly. “What is it?”

“Guess!” Sokka replies with a grin.

Zuko groans a little. “Sokka, you know I’m bad at guessing, and you always just tell me what it is anyway.”

“Just try!” Sokka insists.

Zuko sighs and thinks for a moment. He’s always one to let go of his stubbornness for Sokka. “Um...candy?”

“No!” Sokka says. “It’s not something you can eat. It’s something you can play with!”

Zuko shrugs. “A ball?”

Sokka shakes his head. “Nope.” With that, he reveals the toy he’s been hiding behind his back. “It’s a boomerang! Wanna try it out with me?”

Zuko bites his lip. “I dunno. My dad’s home. He might not let me.”

“Just ask him,” Sokka says, matter-of-fact.

Zuko doesn’t want to explain why that plan isn’t always as simple as it sounds, but he really does want to play outside with Sokka. Pulling his dark hair up into a ponytail, he runs downstairs, where he finds both his parents eating breakfast in the kitchen. Neither of them are speaking, but Zuko ignores the tension between them. He’s more concerned with his own desires, and besides, they’re always like this.

“Can I go play outside with Sokka?” he asks.

Ozai raises a disapproving eyebrow. “You really should be making friends with more civilized children.”

“Well—I, um…” Zuko stutters nervously. He still doesn’t really understand why his father always makes such rude comments about Sokka and his family. They’ve never been anything but kind to Zuko. “It’s only for a little while. We’re gonna practice throwing his new boomerang.”

Ozai exchanges glances with Ursa, who turns to Zuko with sympathetic eyes and says, “Yes, of course.”

Ozai looks like he wants to protest, but he seems to be preoccupied with whatever problem he and Ursa are having, so he simply sighs and adds, “Be back in no more than two hours.”

“Great, thanks,” Zuko says hurriedly, and without another moment’s hesitation, he sprints outside, where his best friend is waiting for him.

—

On a perfectly average day as they’re walking home from school, a twelve-year-old Sokka asks, “So, have you ever kissed anyone?”

Zuko, now thirteen, stops in his tracks, caught completely off-guard. “I—what? Why?” His voice is high-pitched and cracked, and he glances over at his house nearby. If he doesn’t get home soon, his father might wonder where he is.

Sokka shrugs. “I was just thinking, ‘cause I overheard Jet bragging about his first kiss in the hall today.”

“Well, that’s Jet for you,” Zuko replies dismissively. “What does this have to do with me?”

“Well, you two are the same age, so I thought maybe you’d had yours, too.”

“Age has nothing to do with it,” Zuko says, trying not to let his embarrassment show. “What, you think as soon as someone reaches eighth grade they have to have their first kiss?”

“Hey, it was just a question,” Sokka says, holding his hands up in surrender. “I was just thinking that you could help me.”

If Zuko thought he was embarrassed before, now he’s absolutely mortified. Feeling his cheeks turn bright red, he stutters, “You—what?”

“I don’t want people to think I’m a bad kisser!” Sokka says, crossing his arms and leaning against a neighbor’s fence. “So I thought maybe you could teach me. Give me some pointers. Then when I have my first kiss, I’ll be ready!”

Zuko just stares at him for a few short moments, stunned and confused and unable to think clearly. Finally he says, “H-how am I supposed to teach you how to do something I’ve never done myself?”

“I don’t know.” For a split second, Sokka looks almost dejected. Then another idea seems to hit him, and his face lights up once again. “Well, we could practice together!”

He says it with a great deal of confidence, but Zuko can tell that he’s nervous by the way he deliberately avoids making eye contact. Stupidly, Zuko asks, “What do you mean, ‘practice?’”

Now it’s Sokka’s turn on the embarrassment train. “Well, I mean—it’d be like—well.” He clears his throat to give himself more time to collect his thoughts. Then he says, “You know exactly what I mean, Zuko.”

He’s right, too. Zuko does know.

“Well,” Zuko says slowly, still blushing furiously, “if we…do that, then wouldn’t that be your first kiss right there?”

“No! It doesn’t count if it’s just practice. Duh.” He rolls his eyes, as if this should be obvious. “Besides, then you can get better at kissing, too!”

Zuko takes another brief glance over at his house. It’s only a few doors away from where they’re standing, on the sidewalk in front of a neighbor’s place, Sokka still leaning against the fence. The area is mostly shaded by the small trees that populate the neighborhood, their leaves red and orange and preparing to fall from the branches. Not a single car passes by, nor does Zuko see anyone outside. Even in the late afternoon sun, it almost feels as though they’re completely alone, isolated from the rest of the world. No one would see. No one would care.

“Sokka…” Zuko starts, his voice quieter now as he dares to truly let himself look at his best friend. The early autumn breeze blows some of Sokka’s stray hairs into his face, cutting across his bright blue eyes. He bites his lip and attempts to fix his ponytail, but he pauses mid-motion when he notices Zuko staring.

“What?” he says, seeming genuinely confused. His eyes are wide with curiosity as he looks up at Zuko, his arms still lifted above his head. Zuko knows he should turn away, but Sokka’s raised eyebrows wear him down. He knows he shouldn’t do it, but when Sokka looks like that...well, how could he not want to break the rules?

Zuko’s friends and family always tell him how impulsive he is, how he never thinks things through, how he takes life on with a “shoot first, ask questions later” attitude. Until this moment, though, he never realized how right they were.

Without thinking, his mind nothing but white noise, Zuko leans forward and kisses Sokka right on the mouth. His lips are surprisingly soft, his breath warm, and it kind of feels weird, but not bad weird; perhaps “unfamiliar” is a better word. Sokka doesn’t react immediately, and Zuko starts to panic, but just as he’s about to pull away, Sokka grabs him by his shirt and kisses him back. It all happens in a matter of seconds, simple and sweet and innocent, but it’s enough to make Zuko’s heart pound hard in his chest.

Now Sokka’s face is bright red, but he still tries to maintain the illusion of composure. “See?” he says, voice cracking. “That was good! That was great! So…now we both know.” He flashes Zuko a quick grin, but it’s not enough to hide the blush or the breathlessness. “Well, uh, we should probably be getting home,” he adds, pointing in the general direction of his own house. “See ya!”

Before Zuko even has a chance to say anything, Sokka turns and rushes down the sidewalk, only looking back once. For a few moments, Zuko just stands there staring after him, trying to process what the hell just happened. Then he remembers his father and the time, so he runs the rest of the way to his house, unaware that it’s the last time the sun will see his face unblemished.

—

“When I get older, I wanna leave this place.”

They’re both lying on Sokka’s bed when he says this, his arms behind his head and his gaze trained on the ceiling, a look of wistful contemplation on his face. Zuko turns from his stomach onto his side and rests his head in his hand. “No kidding,” he says with a sigh.

“I’d love to travel,” Sokka adds, smiling a little. “Imagine it: just you and me on our own little road trip across the country, blasting shitty ‘80s music and buying snacks at half-abandoned rest stops.”

Zuko snorts. “Ah, yes. The picture of luxury: Doritos and ‘Take On Me.’”

Sokka shrugs. “I mean, that’s pretty much all I’d need to be happy. That and you.” He says it so nonchalantly that Zuko doubts his own hearing ability for a brief moment.

“Sometimes I feel guilty for wanting to leave,” Sokka continues, sitting up and frowning. “Of course I’d miss my family, my friends. But I feel so trapped sometimes, you know? Like I’m stuck here.”

Zuko nods. He knows exactly what Sokka means. Their town holds so many memories—some happy, many not—but sometimes it feels like there’s a cloud constantly hanging over it. Or perhaps it’s just that the cloud is constantly hanging over him. Sometimes it feels like that, too.

“I mean,” Sokka says slowly, “you have a perfectly valid reason to want to leave. If I were you, I’d probably try to get as far away from here as possible.”

Zuko still doesn’t say anything. Ever since that day nearly a year ago, the day his father scarred him and kicked him out of the house, he’s been searching for a way to redeem himself. His uncle tells him sometimes that he doesn’t need Ozai’s approval, but Zuko never listens. He understands why Sokka would think he’d want to leave and never see his father again, but that’s exactly why he can’t bring himself to. If he left, his father would think he was running away from his problems.

Zuko’s never been the type to run away.

Sokka gives him a hard, knowing stare, as if he can tell what Zuko is thinking about just by looking at him. He probably can. “Zuko,” he says, his gaze flitting very briefly to the left side of Zuko’s face.

Zuko turns away, trying in vain to block out the memory of their lips touching underneath an autumn sky, naive enough to think that the trees would keep them out of sight. It doesn’t matter that he enjoyed it, and it doesn’t matter that part of him wishes it would happen again. He kissed his best friend—he kissed a boy—and he paid the price for it.

“Well,” Zuko says finally, glancing back over at Sokka with a faint smile, “one day we’ll get out of here. I promise.”

#zukka #zuko x sokka #zuko #sokka #zukkaweek #avatar: the last airbender #atla #my fics

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that-was-anticlimactic · 3 years

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top five fics of 2020

i was tagged by @zukkaclawthorne to post my five favorite works I made this year.

so. I have only published five on ao3 because I just worked up the nerve October, so. Bear with me haha!

1. finding the worth that is hiding beneath

This is one that I actually haven’t posted yet (because it’s not done haha), but this is a little snippet from it that I posted! It’s pretty important to me because it’s the first time I wrote Sokka with Tourette’s Syndrome and, if I haven’t mentioned it enough times, I have TS so it’s very personal to me. This was / is just really fun to write in general! It was my first time writing Zukka and has some personal self-projecting moments in it and was the first thing I actually wrote for atla (I think I started it in April but then Dairy Queen overworked me to the point where I barely had time to think about atla unless it was what blizzard the characters’ favorite would be so anyways it’s far from done). It was also my first time trying to write this style for TS (I wrote a oneshot with Jay Ninjago having TS and I wrote that differently). Anyways, I’m rambling! This fic is just really special to me and I can’t wait to finish it so I can share it with friends and others with TS:)

2. threshold of eternity

oh boy did posting this one terrify me! Not only was it my first time writing for Azula, but also my first time writing for Mai, Jin, hints of Jinzula, as well as interactions between certain characters. I actually almost didn’t post it because I was terrified that it would be too ooc, but I guess it wasn’t because people told me they liked it and thought I wrote well for Azula (which made me mentally sob happy tears, so thank you!). I have the tendency to focus on certain characters and I do that with Sokka... a lot... so this was also my first time writing something with minimal Sokka (... he was still... he was still in it though oops) and this was a great opportunity for me to explore other characters as well as their relations! Plus, I love Azula and she deserved better. It was also the first oneshot in a series I’m working on and I wrote it all in three days instead of, ya know, doing homework... I would just sit in a dining hall and writexD

3. Deeper Than Words

have I not talked enough about how much I love Sokka and that I headcanon him having Tourette’s? Yes? I’m sorry, this one is also about that. I wrote this in like five hours one day when I was sad because of my tics and how embarrassing they are (and they aren’t! that’s something I’m still working on), so this was very heavily self-projection but to the extreme because I have never been in a situation entirely like what Sokka was in in this. Again, it’s very personal, I got to show Suki some love, I got to write some Zukka, and I got to give myself the words of affirmation that I desire but don’t have the guts to ask for haha. I’ll keep this one short and sweet! I’m just... rather proud of it:)

4. unruly heart

look. I love the musical The Prom. perhaps and unhealthy amount. but also, this was written from ZUKO’S pov and NOT Sokka’s, which is an accomplishment in itself for me! This one was... really really really hard for me to write. I had one and a half pages sitting in my google docs for, perhaps, two months before I literally said “screw it” and finished it in one day. I’m not sure why this was so darn hard for me to write, maybe it’s because I had to write for Ozai and mmmm wasn’t sure I could do that well. Or maybe it was because it wasn’t from Sokka’s pov or because I have literally never been in a relationship and I don’t know what it’s like. Either way, I knew what I was writing was right and I wanted to write it so badly. It was hard to write, but I won and managed to finish it:) (and go listen to Unruly Heart from the Prom).

5. we say that it’s a brotherhood

okay. this is, perhaps, one of the most abstract things I have ever written. It’s kind of funny, I was talking to Grace about it the other day and even she went “and you only mentioned Sokka a couple of times, I’m proud of you!” (that’s when you know you have a problem lol-- kidding, I was thinking the same thing haha!). I started this when I was sad. Now, I don’t remember why I was sad, but I was very sad so for some reason I decided to make Jet suffer... and then Yue... and then Suki... and then Piandao... Ty Lee... Kanna... Aang... but I’m kind of proud of it? It’s rather different compared to other things I’ve written but I like how it turned out:)

this was excessively long oops

I have so many other atla wips in my google docs that I would probably have finished if I knew how to focus on something lol

anyways, thank you, Grace, for the tag:) this was fun to reflect on!

uhhhhhh I’m not sure who else to tag, so anyone who wants to can and some fellow writers I know are @tikmasjiens and @mcfanely and uhhh Grace and Ellen have already been tagged, so uh, again, anyone else who wants to should do this because we LOVE positivity:)

#tag game thing #this was nice #like to sit and reflect and just be proud of myself for something #atla fanfiction #zukka fanfiction #i guess? Idk should I tag? Do I tag? I'm bad at decisions #i'll just stop while i'm ahead #honestly i just use the tags as a chance to talk to myself lol #corey writes:)

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elrondsscribe · 4 years

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No ATLA shipping wars, please. There is room for ALL the ships.

So I’m sure anyone who’s been tracking me lately knows that I’ve been all up in Avatar: The Last Airbender ...

And I must say, after checking out the tags, I am TERRIFIED to speak my mind about ANY of the ships I like!! Like, I don’t want to be thought of as a poisonous Supporter Of That Which Is Toxic And Problematic because I did or didn’t gel with one ship or other. Spoilers under the cut.

See, I’m always the kind of fan that nobody likes: I’m the MCU fan that appreciates Steve and Tony; I’m the Star Wars fan that loved all nine Episodes. So when I say that I sail literally all of the ships because all of them hit me in different kinds of feels, well, y’all know to expect this from me.

(I should say at this point that the only thing I’m considering ‘canon’ for the purposes of this conversation is A:TLA; no LoK or comics is relevant here.)

(Also, can I just say what a wonderful change of pace it is to be in a property where, at least in the generation of our ‘mains,’ there seem to be more named, developed female characters??)

So I’m gonna start out with saying: I like the canon pairings as they stand! Kataang, Sukki, and Maiko being the main ones, obvs. However, I also like all kinds of AU pairings too!

Like Zutara - I mean, I can hardly say anything here that ten thousand others haven’t already said better, but their journeys do parallel each other in a lot of significant ways, and I think that, by the end of the show, they do legitimately share enough to have the foundations of a good relationship, if as a fanwriter you wanted to go there. You could make much of the poetry of their differences (”you rise with the moon, and I with the Sun”), and/or really develop their existing ability to safely be the ‘splash zone’ for each other’s turmoil. Besides, I think Katara’s mothering fussbudget energy would be a great thing for Zuko, and there’s a gentleness to her that he’d find healing.

{Now, I’ve seen a lot of comparisons between Zutara and Reylo, made by people who either want to demean or defend both ships. I’ve also seen these comparisons soundly trashed by people who like one, but not both, of these ships. As someone who never has had strong feelings either for or against Reylo, and as someone who loves Zutara but not exclusively, my response to all of that drama is a big old shrug of my shoulders. So don’t come at me screaming about Reylo, either to stan or cancel. Please just don’t.}

Also I don’t know a good way to say this, but you know how some people just can’t seem to resist reading Zuko and/or Sokka as gay? Well, I can’t stop reading Mai as lesbian; I don’t know why.

I don’t know which pairing Taang is. If it’s Aang/Ty Lee, omg yes!! Kill me with all the sparkles and rainbows! I already want to eat them both up. More seriously, I think Aang’s peaceable temperament would be a really welcome change in her life, after Zuko’s turmoil and Mai’s ice and Azula’s, well, Azula-ness. She’d probably just love Aang’s aura :)

If Taang is Aang/Toph, well, we’ve observed that our flighty lil’ Aangster could use a grouding influence :) I don’t know who on Tumblr pointed it out, but Toph is the last person in the world to fangirl over Aang, which seems to be very good for him, while also not clipping his wings. While I do believe they’d be the kind of couple to quarrel and, at times, drift apart from each other (she’s incredibly rooted while he’s the embodiment of a free-spirit), for some reason I can easily see them finding each other again. There’s a scene in my head, one where an adult Aang is faced with the necessity of a sacrifice play that he might not come back from, and instead of tearfully trying to convince him not to do it, Toph says, “Go get ‘em, Twinkletoes.”

[And if you ship Zutara alongside Aang/Toph, you could have a fanfic where you did a Parallel, with Two Ships Of Opposite-Power-Benders. I’d be a fan!]

Now I’ve seen Sokkla floating around too, and I must say that this intrigues me, especially the way that this ship is connected to ideas about the redemption of Azula. I’ve seen some people being really upset that Azula never got a redemption arc in the show, but c’mon guys. A redemption arc for Azula would have taken a long-ass time - it would’ve been awesome, but it would’ve taken a long-ass time, definitely longer than a fourth season, I think. But if you were going to go with a combination of a redemption arc and a ship for her, Sokka would be a great idea. I don’t think Azula knows what fun and merriment are, and who knows those things better than Sokka?

[Honestly, that’s the thing about shipping Sokka with anyone: he would bring them laughter.]

But enough about the het AU ships, let’s talk about the gay ones!

Zukka would be the most prominent example, of course. The rapport that Zuko develops with Sokka over ‘The Boiling Rock’ is beautiful to behold (jokes about ‘that’s rough, buddy’ aside), and heaven knows Zuko needs someone to teach him how to laugh.

And remember how I said that I somehow can’t see Mai as straight? Well, I also can’t stop shipping her with Azula (don’t know the ship name for this one, but I know it exists). Obviously this ship would have more than an edge of ownership and manipulation about it, but they’re so deadly radiant and it’s like I can’t look away from them.

And Ty Lee is just so adorable and sincere (even with all the buried sadness) that shipping her with almost any of the other girls just makes my heart melt. Especially Katara, who would just cuddle the hell out of her whenever she’s feeling down. Or even Azula, who would totally own and work her but also, like, dazzle her. Main exception being Suki - for some reason, my head goes all kinds of hot, dirty places when I imagine Suki and Ty Lee sparring.

However, all this being said, I still have love for the canon ships that we got.

For example, like I said, I do ship Kataang, and I think together they’re incredibly sweet, but I also think that Katara’s tendency to hover and Aang’s tendency to (literally and metaphorically) fly away from/float above problems would jointly become a not-inconsiderable hurdle in a long-term relationship. Now I’ve observed couples in real life with similar dynamics, and I’ll stick out my neck and say that I consider this a workable hurdle, especially if both Katara and Aang grow in maturity and interpersonal understanding as they get older.

Similarly with Maiko: we see that, where Zuko’s emotions tend to run fire-hot, Mai’s tend to run ice-cold; we saw a clear example of these tendencies really clashing with each other. And Mai’s way of showing Zuko affection does seem to have genuinely perplexed some people who watched the show, to the point that they didn’t read it as affection at all. But again, drawing on what I’be observed, some couples really do develop a ‘love code’ that they understand even if literally no one else does. I don’t see any indication of either Mai or Zuko actually ill-using the other; and I will always stan this line from Mai when she made her big choice: I love Zuko more than I fear you.

As for Sukki - well, you already know. Sokka definitely grew and healed a lot from it, but I don’t think the trauma of being unable to protect Yue is one that will ever truly leave him. And as much as Suki understands him, I do think Sokka’s protectiveness will sometimes grate on her. She’s a motherfucking warrior-chieftain. And yes, this can definitely shape into a relational problem, but not one that can’t be worked around.

So ... TLDR, I love all the ships, and refuse to be part of the anti drama.

#avatar: the last airbender #a:tla #ships #shipping drama #i love too many ships #zutara #kataang #sukki #mailee #sokkla #maiko #taang #Shippy Content

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claroquequiza · 6 years

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Tagged by @emotionalmorphine! We share a similar problem: I, too, have been sending these to my drafts with the intention of doing them later, and, uh, well----

What is your total posted word count on AO3? (Go to your Works, then click Statistics.)

497,846. Always With Me sure is a long one, isn’t it???

How often do you write?

I intend to write every day for about three weeks or so, and I usually end up writing for at least an hour a day--but about one day in three I write nothing at all because my brain feels like molasses. When the chapter’s done I take a break for ten days or so--then the cycle begins anew.

Do you have a routine for writing?

I try to eat breakfast, shower, and caffeinate first--it powers me up and removes any worries that I might fixate on rather than write since even if I forget the time, I’m already ready for work and everything.

What’s your favorite kinks/tropes/pairing?

McHanzo has been fairly diverting lately. Enemies to Friends to Lovers is just so full of possibilities, but two old grumps finding love despite everything is probably the bigger draw and trope that I enjoy.

Other pairings I’ve written for include Zukka, Yamajyou, and Logurt, but you’ll never find any of them. :3c

As for kinks--body worship and body scent. Not putrid body scent by any means, but touching, feeling, sniffing, and appreciating is just--yes please.

Do you have a favorite fic of yours?

The First Moment holds a special place in my heart, and I still think of an unfinished Zukka piece with fondness.

Your fic with the most kudos?

jfc, Afterdrop has 3,805. Jeez. Jeez louise.

Anything you don’t like about your writing?

I am super wordy and I go on a lot of tangents--better authors than me would be finished with Afterdrop by now without sacrificing a drop of emotional punch or literary integrity. If Afterdrop were an original piece I was trying to get published, I’m sure an editor would have it chopped down to a quarter of its length without too much trouble.

A lot of people have told me they tried to get through it and just couldn’t, and I don’t blame them at all--and a lot of the time I’m flabbergasted that so many people do get through it--multiple times, even!! Like--how?? Why??

Now something you do like?

God - fucking - damn it, but I like to read it!! Even though it’s so long!! I like to read it!! My editing process is basically, “Am I bored with it or do I like reading it? I like reading it? Then It Stays!” It’s narcissistic as all hell but I just!! Like to read my own stuff when it’s done!!

I dunno who to tag, so I tag you.

#personal #gif #gif warning

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