#/ there is no comedy in ba sing se
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[X] " What even are daddy issues? Just traumatize your father back." Masoko to Kaede >:3C
unhinged comedic relief
"Traumatizing him is exactly what got me into this mess, Macchan, it's not going to work. Haven't I told you enough times? Kurai'll just beat the shit out of me and have me detained at the estate on principle and call it a day - don't tell Adrian about that, if you value our friendship. I don't need his already wracked nerves even more wracked than they already are. He'd just get worried and be even weirder around me. I want him to like me, not worry about me to the point we take fifteen steps back - like how things used to be. Also, your advice sucks and I'm not getting jumped by not only my dad, but Aoi and the rest too. I can be damn near special-grade all day long - it doesn't matter, if there's twenty first and seconds trying to beat me within an inch of my life, so... no thanks."
"By the way, does Adrian like chocolate? I have some chocolate oranges on the way, and I figure..."
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the thing about the adult gaang movie is even if it’s somehow done really well, i don’t wanna see aang and katara as adults, that will actually make me really sad. whereas if sokka is the protagonist that’s fine because i already think everyone should heal and find fulfillment after the war except for sokka. i think sokka should get worse. i think sokka should continue collecting mental illnesses like they’re pokemans creatures. a qing dynasty court intrigue film with sokka navigating ba sing se politics (and iroh can feature as he dispenses occasional wisdom. but sokka is just like “call your son”), or a xai bau spy thriller (except tbh this one would work better as a novel), or even just. a mai and sokka roadtrip movie in the style of an early 2000s stoner comedy (this one would have no artistic merit but it’s also probably the best idea ive ever had). these are but a few examples of the many ideas i have for movies that put my favorite guy through hours of suffering without having to depict my other favorite guys as anything other than the precious babies i know and love.
#‘pokemans creatures’ is what i call them to piss my brother off so much#aang and katara are BABIES#do not ROB ME OF THAT#everyone in the world must age or die#but katara and aang!!!! are immortalized forever in babydom!!!!!!#why would you ruin that!!!!!!!#(okay im actually just going thru a separate crisis here wrt my brothers but don’t. we’re not talking about that okay)#also i think if you wanna make a movie that’s ‘darker’ and ‘for older audiences’ just make sokka the protagonist and boom problem solved#last time sokka got to be the protagonist he attempted suicide at the human rights abuses volcano#his mind is a dark dark place ok!#but also mai & sokka stoner comedy. is anyone writing this down? u should be writing this down#idk how to tag this#sokka#i guess?#postwargaang#also#bc obv these all happen in my complex tapestry of post war developments#gene yang could never#ask me about any one of these points for elaboration (PLEASE)
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I need everyone to understand that the best stuff in the live action ATLA series is the stuff that wasn't in the original cartoon, but expands on it in a memorable way that feels true to the characters.
The most universally beloved scene of the Netflix show is Zuko sharing a memory of Lu Ten with Iroh at the funeral. It wasn't in the cartoon, but it completely makes sense for these characters. I also loved the conversation between Iroh and the Earth Kingdom soldier while he was captured about the siege of Ba Sing Se. Yes there was a scene in the cartoon where he was captured, but it was mostly played for comedy (which was good too). But this conversation brought a uniquely human element to that part of Iroh's past that added to the worldbuilding.
The fight scene in Omashu with Zuko and Aang (and the woman hitting Zuko with the brush). Amazing. Also wasn't in the original series, but it's something that easily could have been because it captured the spirit of season 1 perfectly.
The "goat hair" conversation between Aang and Zuko during the Blue Spirit episode that expands on the scene from the cartoon. Loved that. More please.
The best parts of the show are things that they weren't trying to copy or re-write to fit a season's worth of story into 8 episodes. I still resent the show for existing in the first place, but there are good things that can come out of re-adapting something. They just need to figure it out.
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i deeply understand the hilarity in zuko being dumb in fics but when i read fics that are centered around him and iroh they always depict iroh being too wise when iroh being stupid occasionally was literally part of book 1 and 2s comedy. its important to me personally. mind you if zukos head wasnt nearly entirely bald against his will in book 1 then most of it would be grey hairs and it would be all irohs fault. buying random knick knacks off zukos monthly banishment budget when he had mouths to feed. turning the whole ship around for a singular tile off his nonsensical board game (itd been a farse to keep him off the gaangs trail but still.). his funky ass sandals. that ship is too small for him not to be washing his feet. running around hot springs while butt ass naked. flirting with women. making zuko socialize with zhaos bald and ignorant self
and thats not even covering book 2. eating poisonous flowers in the middle of nowhere then nearly dying. ruining the potential of zuko having a situationship with the cool mysterious tall boy with curved swords in ba sing se just to heat up his lame tea. No wonder zuko always lost it with him. i know i wouldve too. occasionally hed play the dumb old man card if it benefit him in some way but im telling u rn the other 85% was him just being stupid. It runs in the family. i wont stand for this erasure
#i think he had significantly more patience with iroh than if azula was the one banished#like hypothetically. if it were her and she was already under the stress of the situation and then iroh got on her nerves#shed probably try poisoning him. And frankly hed deserve it wholeheartedly and shed be doing the world a favor.#But still.#we need more faithful to canon depictions of iroh being a moron. It runs in the family#atla#avatar the last airbender
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Coupling a few different headcanons together and I don’t remember if divorce exists in ATLA or if Mai is Izumi’s mom but part of me does think it would be funny if Zuko invented divorce specifically for Mai’s sake & so with her alimony from her failmarriage she’s free to spend several years being roommates w Sokka while they go to the university in ba sing se except this is not so that she can be employable her goal is to rack up as many useless degrees as possible.
One of her and Sokka’s favorite pastimes is attending essentially university workshops for open “mic” nights for like spoken word and stuff. Sokka kinda enjoys the artistry, Mai just wants to not be bored so she approaches these evenings with more irony-poisoning than he does. Mai thinks it would be very funny to sign Sokka up when she thinks he isn’t looking but much to her chagrin he’s actually better at making up poetry on the fly than he is writing it (not that he’s bad he studies different forms for fun™ like he’s basically a lit minor, but he also over-edits bc he’s extremely self critical).
Sokka Is good at spoken word but not in the way where it’s like, the hard hitting unpacking trauma kind of slam poetry, Sokka has never unpacked a trauma in his life, but under pressure he’s good at striking the right balance of comedy and the tiniest bit of vulnerability and clever wordplay. (This is also why he’s not that good at poetry he sits down and Thinks about, especially when asked to write anything abt himself bc he finds it incredibly navel-gazing and embarrassing). Still, Mai continues to play this joke on him when he least expects it, mainly bc she loves committing to the bit. She eases up for a while bc he starts to suspect her too much only to spring the bit onto him again whenever someone comes to visit just for maximum embarrassment, either Toph, Katara, or Zuko. Toph thinks the whole thing is hilarious. Zuko and Katara both find poetry night deeply moving, but Katara finds Sokka specifically being forced to vamp deeply funny.
She’s tried it w Suki but suki doesn’t even flinch & Mai wonders if it’s bc she’s just that supportive or if she’s just not that discerning when it comes to art. The real answer is that she is plently amused and will tell Sokka in her own time but also Sokka has embarrassed himself in front of Suki enough times that she doesn’t blink an eye at anything. Aang also is not fazed but that’s mainly bc he 100% wants to get in on the fun.
In retaliation, Sokka has gotten Mai on stage before but bc mai would rather die than spout poetry her time always ends up basically being musings abt her life that’s pseudo-workshopping material for a Tight Five & like… it’s not really poetry but the crowd is laughing including the guy who throws ppl out when ppl don’t stick to the correct form (on those specific days). So nobody is going to stop her. She tells a lot of really dryly delivered jokes abt her shitty childhood and her failhusband Li from the tea shop and it takes a hot sec before ppl realize holy shit, she’s actually talking abt the fire lord. And also jokes abt discovering lesbianism. Which she’s thoroughly embarrassed abt being late to the party about. & even more embarrassing to be a dyke secretly love with her best friend. Afterwards, Sokka and Mai do have to correct the other patrons who approach them bc they’re convinced Sokka is the dyke she’s in love with. But they’re just friends. (I don’t know how mining comedy out of blatant dyke drama would work if we’re right to assume Sozin invent homophobia in ATLAverse but w/e).
Also. Sokka WILL boo & heckle her out loud when her material stinks. But if anything, this gives her a chance to do crowd-work which she’s good at. So even tho it’s 100% genuine ppl do start to suspect it’s staged.
I also think part of Mai racking up unemployable degrees includes assignments where she makes really off-putting and macabre interactive exhibits/art installations bc she’s trying to work on authentically expressing herself & wants to be an unpalatable as possible to make up for the years of being a perfect daughter. But she also thinks being too earnest is deeply cringe so even tho her pieces are self evidently kinda tortured and gloomy, as a way of preserving her dignity her artist statements are intentionally as brief and opaque as possible for the highest impact comedic punch.
#shut up Janelle#atla#Mai#Sokka#idk what to call this#also this is kinda an amalgamation / my own spin on a lot of the. headcanons or w/e of comradekatara#there’s some zukka and Mailee in there if u squint I guess
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stuff I wish disney would make instead of toy story 5, frozen 3, and zootopia 2
new oswald cartoons
a third goofy movie (max becomes a father arc?)
a great mouse detective series
a theatrical movie musical about mickey that gives him Extreme Character Building
another fantasia movie
who framed roger rabbit sequel, but only if they can do it with the right amount of love and care (impossible challenge)
slice-of-life shorts about snow white and the seven dwarfs. very relaxing and perfect for bedtime.
gigantic. give it back!!!
epic mickey 3 (or technically 4 because we have power of illusion on the 3ds)
wreck-it-ralph series about ralph, vanellope, felix, and calhoun's everyday adventures in the arcade. also retcons that sequel movie because there is no wreck-it-ralph 2 in ba sing se
new alice comedies cartoons!!! it's disney's 100th let's do something for alice and julius!!
adaptations of literature/famous movies but with mickey & friends + duckverse characters
#feel free to add more if you want to#yes this is content specifically catered to ME!!!#im just so sick of all the boring content disney's been making#toph musings#disney
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Avatar the Last Airbender Netflix Episode 1- "Aang"
Well...the time has come.
My biggest question going into this series is asking why it needs to exist. I mean, from a business standpoint it makes sense. ATLA exploded in popularity overnight during the pandemic and Netflix wanted to cash in while the iron was still hot. Moreover, it's one of those "safe bet" projects. The name recognition alone is going to attract some viewers, even if just to compare it to the original. Doesn't matter if you don't like it, you still saw it. And if it boosts their numbers, it'll be a success regardless of critical reception.
No, my question stems from a creative standpoint: what are they going to do in order to make this remake seem like a necessary thing? What was so important that they needed to retell the story over again?
That's my thoughts going into the first episode. My first complaint is the structuring. It would not be a stretch to say that this episode had THREE introductions (arguably five if you count Aang and the water siblings being introduced): one by Kyoshi that gave an overview of the setting, one that set up that the Fire Nation was going to attack the Southern Air Temple during Sozin's Comet, and yet another by Gran Gran where she basically recited the original series opening. It just feels clunky, that we're being told the same information over and over again with exposition dumps.
And yeah, there's quite a few of them. Sure, some exposition is necessary to quickly relay the state of the world. But then we have stuff like Katara explaining that the Earth Kingdom is holding out in Ba Sing Se even though that's not exactly relevant to the current story? Stuff like that seems too much to throw at the viewer in too short a span of time. I'd hate to compare it to the original series where stuff like this was introduced more organically within the context of the story (Ba Sing Se was first mentioned in Iroh's siege of it, right?).
Last thing is that the acting was...hit or miss. Which to be fair I think was more direction and writing than any fault on the actors. Katara was...she was just kind of there for the most part I felt, not having any of the pent up anger of the original. And Gran Gran...yeah, her acting was bad. Really bad. Again, I'm blaming more on the writing since she felt stiff and didn't have any of the loving qualities despite her weariness of the original (didn't get a scene of her saying goodbye to Katara and Sokka for example).
Now, stuff I liked, and there was quite a few that I did like. I liked the actor who played Aang, he was a great choice. Really nailed down the balance between goofball and needing to take things more seriously. Some of the comedy beats were pretty good, like the one Southern Water Tribe member saying "He looks dead" about Aang, Sokka screaming his head off while riding on Appa, or one of the Fire Nation sailors grumbling about Zuko dragging their asses all over the place (first swear in the franchise and Zuko caused it).
There are two things I want to address here. The first change of Aang being more duty-oriented and wanting to clear his head instead of running away. I get the backlash...but I also think it's addressed here. In the original, Aang learned out in the worst way possible with nobody there to ease him into it. Which resulted in him running away. Here, Monk Gyatso broke it to him as gently as he could. It was still a bad situation, but I think a father figure being there to sort of steer him in the right path would've toned down his reaction in the original if that was allowed to happen. Plus it would've given Aang more incentive to take his duties seriously if Gyatso guided and vouched for him. Like he's doing it for his old mentor. I'd be interested to see where this goes.
Last thing: the scene between Aang and Iroh. It's simple, but effective. Aang asks why Iroh why the Fire Nation is waging the war, and the old man just gives off what sounds like Fire Nation propaganda. Aang shuts him down and Iroh...silently nods and agrees with him. It's actually pretty powerful. Aside from him realizing the implications that he just advocated the imperialistic rhetoric to a survivor of said rhetoric, it also sort of humanizes the Fire Nation a bit where an old veteran like Iroh admits that no, sometimes he and his people weren't always in the right. It's just he can't do much about it.
There. I complimented an Iroh scene and admitted he got one of the best scenes in the episode. Happy now?
All in all, it was...a solid start. I think I'm a bit more forgiving in terms of Aang's changed character since...well, I wasn't asking for a one-to-one remake of the original. There were a few things that bothered me, but I'm willing to hold the benefit of the doubt until they start becoming bigger problems down the line.
At the start of my watch, I asked whether or not a remake like this was necessary. What I got from this episode was..."maybe?" It's clear they want to do something different in terms of character, which is fine. It's just how clunky some of the dialogue and structuring choices were that holds it down a little. A shaky start, but there's room for potential.
#avatar: the last airbender#netflix avatar#atla netflix#aang#avatar aang#iroh#general iroh#atla#live action atla#avatar live action#live action avatar#monk gyatso#atla gyatso
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An alternate scenario in the season 2 finale of ATLA:
Katara quickly uses spirit water to quickly heal Aang from Azula's lightning. Azula takes notice and separates Aang from Katara, forcing her to leave Ba Sing Se without him. Zuko and Azula have successfully captured the avatar.
Up until the day of black sun. Aang is stuck as Azula's prisoner. They spend the most time together, getting to know each other better, they form more positive interactions. She helped him ease his fear of firebending.
Aang in the Beach episode could probably look like a combination of the beach and the headband and I see it being moved up to be the 8th episode instead of 5. It's Aang and Azula who do that famous dance from the end of the headband.
The next episode will have the war meeting. He's told to be seen but not heard. He hears Azula and Ozai's plans for the comet which leads to Aang and Azula having one of those 'tearful/dramatic falling-out' cliques. Azula orders the arrangement for Aang to be transferred to the boiling rock sometime tomorrow. The plans for the day of black sun arrive, Azula foils the gaang's plans to end the war and rescue Aang. Zuko rescues Aang once again and delivers him to the gaang as his peace offering.
Though he's glad to be reunited with his friends, Aang misses Azula and hates the thought of being enemies again. Though Azula tries hiding it, she feels the same way, this'll foreshadow her eventual breakdown. At the beginning of "The Southern Raiders," as Katara catches a falling Zuko, Aang jumps off Appa, glides to a falling Azula, catches her, and brings her to safety. Without another word, he flies back on Appa and the team flies away.
Season 4 has 30 episodes. In the premiere, it's revealed that, upon reopening his last chakra, he lost every ounce of romantic interest in Katara he had left, but in exchange, he and Azula become spiritually linked/connected/bonded. Azula's redemption takes up to 18 episodes and it's framed like Dante's divine comedy trilogy but metaphorical/psychological. Zuko has the privilege of being Azula's Iroh. The 18th episode shows only Aang and Azula on screen and it's about Aang showing Azula how to open and master her own chakras, making their spirit bond even stronger but the sessions are more intimate than the ones Aang had with Pathik.
(Btw, in this scenario, Iroh is Ursa's older brother. Ozai is the true instigator of the 100-year war but is still the final enemy Team Avatar faces, the archenemy to each member of Team Avatar, is in peak physical prime condition despite his age, and can only be defeated by a fully realized master avatar. Ozai's comet arrives by the end of Fall. Season 3 ends only with the final agni kai but without the comet while everything else is moved over at the end of season 4)
#atla#avatar the last airbender#aang#azula#azaang#azulaang#aangzula#aang x azula#azula x aang#azula redemption#zuko as azula's iroh#anti atla comics#atla book 4 air#ozai#spirit bond#chakras
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Hi, what do you think about the whole "Zuko never felt sorry for burning down Suki's village" argument? Because it didn't feel to me like the place was destroyed at all, no more than Aaag, Katara and Sokka destroyed Omashu.
Well, we are shown the damage that Zuko's bending caused and Suki does confront Zuko with it later, so we are supposed to treat this as damage Zuko caused that he should feel sorry for that is distinct from the gaang accidentally destroying things with cartoon shenanigans. Zuko came to Kyoshi to capture Aang and he didn't care about the damage he caused to the village as long as he got what he wanted. He's the bad guy there.
That said, there is a limit to how much the show can take this seriously and that's why they don't, and it is absolutely ridiculous how some people will demand that Zuko needs to further atone in some way or that he doesn't care or that what he did was worse than it was.
It's not like Zuko went there and razed the village, which is an intentional war crime. He only cared about capturing Aang and the fires were caused by reckless bending. It's still bad, and fits in very nicely with the responsibility of firebending that is part of both Zuko and Aang's storyline, plus Zuko's arc of learning personal accountability and having a more balanced perspective on things vs only thinking about himself at the beginning of the story. But it's not akin to knowingly destroying an entire village - something which Jet tried to do, in contrast - and I've even seen people insist that Zuko burned down "multiple" villages and like...lol where?
It also can't be treated like it's similar to razing villages in the real world because the fire gets put out by Aang riding a giant sea monster. Like in the Omashu situation you mentioned, there's an extent to how seriously you can take this when the show itself treats it like cartoon shenanigans. And if you DID want to hold these characters accountable in that way, then you have to treat every instance of the gaang destroying something like it's serious business. And that's completely ignoring that ATLA is a fantasy comedy action cartoon created for children. It is not a serious drama about war, even if it deals with those topics at times.
That's why Suki herself doesn't bring up what Zuko did to her village beyond that one humorous exchange. The other reason is because he's clearly changed by the time he meets her again. It would be really strange for her to constantly hold this against him when he's currently trying to break her out of prison. And I don't know where people are getting that he "never felt sorry." Zuko has shown enough regret for his past actions that he doesn't need to speak about every single one to prove he's sorry. What, you think Zuko is sorry for all the things he explicitly apologized for in the series, like trying to capture Aang, hunting the gaang, attacking the Water Tribe, hiring Combustion man, and betraying Katara and Iroh in Ba Sing Se, but he's not sorry for attacking Suki's village because he didn't explicitly say those words onscreen? Be serious. Accountability is not about constantly self-flagellating, and if risking his life to rescue her from the most secure Fire Nation prison is good enough for Suki to forgive and trust Zuko and think he is genuinely sorry, it's good enough for me.
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Goncharov has proven that we, as a fandom, should look at inconsistencies and "yes and" them. Is Dr. Watson suddenly maidenless when Sherlock Holmes comes back from the dead, but then two stories later he's once again married? He's divorcing them back and forth and all of them still keep contact with one another; they meet every Thursday to talk about how life's been doing. Both Professor AND Colonel Moriarty are named James? Their father named them when he was really drunk; happened to two of my distant cousins, who were born 3 years from each other, share the same father, and also the same name. There are no inconsistencies in Ba Sing Se, only comedy potential
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Obviously "clouds are pretty" & "yeah. fluffy" is comedy gold & I quote "that's rough buddy" at least once a day but I was looking at the actual "Boiling Pock Part 1" transcript & the actual conversation between Sokka & Zuko is pretty interesting
Sokka: I think your uncle would be proud of you. Leaving your home to come and help us? That's hard.
Zuko: It wasn't that hard.
Sokka: Really? You didn't leave behind anyone you cared about?
Zuko: Well, I did have a girlfriend. Mai.
Sokka: [Smiles and looks at Zuko with interest.] That gloomy girl who sighs a lot?
Zuko: [Smiles.] Yeah. Everyone in the Fire Nation thinks I'm a traitor. I couldn't drag her into it.
It's really sad to me that Zuko doesn't even consider Azula. I'm not condemning him for this, to be clear. I'm noting the tragedy. Zuko's family history & the way he & Azula were raised meant that he viewed her as a rival first & his little sister second, if at all. It's just very sad that even after they reconnected & had some good moments together post-Ba Sing Se coup, Zuko was incapable of separating Azula from Ozai or viewing her as someone that he was leaving behind.
I think that it's at least implied that Azula was hurt by this betrayal, too. Zuko abandoning her & betraying the Fire Nation after she did everything in her power to restore his honor was such a blow to her, arguably even the first in the sequence of events that led to her downward spiral. But Zuko, I don't think, even processed this or thought of the fact that he was leaving Azula behind.
Again, can't be clear enough, I'm not condemning Zuko or calling him a bad person or a bad big brother or arguing that they couldn't fix things down the line. I think that they could. But the story we're presented with in the show between the fire siblings is so deeply tragic. And I think that despite recognizing his father's abuse, Zuko remains mostly blind to the way he was pitted against his sister. This also means that Zuko is sadly blind to the tragedy of his relationship with Azula, at least until the very end :(
#atla#atla meta#zuko#zuko meta#fire siblings meta#my atla post#i'm so adhd lmao i was NOT looking at the script with the intention of writing this post#i just started thinking about it & had no choice
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Zuko's Hot Tea
Read now on Ao3 at
https://ift.tt/oLsCAfH
by xenspectral
Firelord Zuko takes a break and realises something is amiss as he finds himself part of a greater conspiracy brewing in Ba Sing Se...
Words: 6160, Chapters: 8/?, Language: English
Fandoms: Avatar: The Last Airbender (Cartoon 2005), Avatar: The Last Airbender (Live Action TV 2024)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Zuko (Avatar), Iroh (Avatar), Aang (Avatar), Azula (Avatar), Bumi (Avatar), Sokka (Avatar), Suki (Avatar)
Relationships: Mai/Zuko (Avatar), Iroh & Zuko (Avatar), Bumi & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Additional Tags: Crossdressing, Kidnapping, Conspiracy, Comedy, References to Drugs, Sexual Tension, Light BDSM, Fluff and Angst, Crack Treated Seriously, Dark Crack, Fluff and Crack, Tea, Fire Nation Politics (Avatar), Fire Nation (Avatar), Bad Parent Ozai (Avatar), Weird Plot Shit, There Is No War In Ba Sing Se, Firelord Zuko (Avatar), Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, Zuko is a Mess (Avatar), Bisexual Disaster Sokka (Avatar)
Read it on Ao3 at https://ift.tt/oLsCAfH
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Zuko's Hot Tea
https://archiveofourown.org/works/55826833
by xenspectral
Firelord Zuko takes a break and realises something is amiss as he finds himself part of a greater conspiracy brewing in Ba Sing Se...
Words: 6160, Chapters: 8/?, Language: English
Fandoms: Avatar: The Last Airbender (Cartoon 2005), Avatar: The Last Airbender (Live Action TV 2024)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Zuko (Avatar), Iroh (Avatar), Aang (Avatar), Azula (Avatar), Bumi (Avatar), Sokka (Avatar), Suki (Avatar)
Relationships: Mai/Zuko (Avatar), Iroh & Zuko (Avatar), Bumi & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Additional Tags: Crossdressing, Kidnapping, Conspiracy, Comedy, References to Drugs, Sexual Tension, Light BDSM, Fluff and Angst, Crack Treated Seriously
May 10, 2024 at 11:13PM
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I feel like I should defend my boy the Cabbage Man. I know Meg suffered and was mistreated, but consider the following. He's just trying to make a living. He's going about your own business, doing his own thing, trying to survive during a fucking war. From the way he gets around, we can surmise he has no home, no family. Just his cabbages. They're all he has. There are many examples we get of him being very attached to them. Then he gets everything he worked for over the course of many months of hard work thrown off a cliff because a guard is an asshole. Fine. He manages, somehow, to get inside. Then this dastardly child, who's supposed to be the one to protect him and end this war btw, crashes right into his cabbages and destroys everything. Fine. He tries to get justice, but the king is weird and quirky and he is not only denied justice, but his tormentors are rewarded while he is left with nothing. Fine. He'll try again. He does try again. Things seem to be going all right. He's at another market, trying to make a living during a cursed wartime, which has been hard on him. The same child, the one on whom the world is laying its hopes and dreams, flies through his cart, destroying it again. And he has to work hard, all over again, do so much labor to grow more cabbages. He does it though, because he has no choice.
And this just keeps happening. Ever since that Avatar showed up, he has been treated cruelly and with no respect. He is constantly stripped of his possessions and has his work ruined. He is never reimbursed or compensated for any of this. He tries to go to Ba Sing Se. Who goes to Ba Sing Se? Refugees. He's a refugee now. He's a refugee because he has no other way to support himself during this war. The war and that Avatar are ruining him, and he has no other way to get by other than to go to the city where there is no war. But wait. The cabbages he's worked so hard to grow again are not allowed and are destroyed and eaten right before his eyes. Somehow the Avatar is there. He's almost broken at this point. He has to be carried away. But somehow, he manages to pick himself back up one more time. And then there are animals from a zoo eating his cabbages. Animals that the Avatar released. At this point, he gives up. "Oh, forget it," he says, as the animal looks at him mockingly. He sinks into despair, and we never hear of him again. We check in on him in the comics though. He's been doing a little better, getting himself back together after having his dreams and his means of survival crushed over and over. After losing the one thing he cared about in life over and over again. One might even say he's thriving- HOLY FUCK IT'S THE AVATAR AGAIN. Aaand his little shop is gone once more.
The Cabbage Man had to endure constant rejection and suffering. He lost everything he had, everything that was keeping him afloat both mentally and economically during turbulent and distressing times of war. He was reduced to having nothing, nothing at all. The Avatar. The one who was supposed to protect them all. He always caused nothing but pain and suffering. He tried again and again to pull himself back together, and yet, he was still bested and torn down ruthlessly, until he gave up. Until he quit everything. And he pulled himself back up again and was torn down again. And the characters around him never gave him even a little help, nor did they compensate him for all the damage they caused him. He was always dismissed by the people around him. People in authority who should have him get justice just let him go without any of that. The Ember Island Players used his misery for comedy. He canonically has trauma from Aang ruining his life over and over.
And the worst aggressor is the narrative. His suffering is played for laughs. His tormentor is hailed as a hero. He was literally created to have his pain be laughed at. The viewers at home mock him. They acknowledge his pain but only to laugh at him. But the Cabbage Man is anything but a comedic figure. His story is a tragedy. It shows thematically how much the suffering of the common man is overlooked when it comes to understanding the effects of a war. It shows the cruelty and pointlessness of violence, and how it can cause such great losses and such despair. It shows the way the war strips away at his identity, reducing his strength in the face of adversity. He tries over and over again but gives up in the end. And once he does try one more time, he is ruined again. His suffering has no end. Because he was made to suffer. He represents so many thematic elements you say? Well, here's the clincher. None of it was intentional. From the beginning to the end, the Cabbage Man has faced nothing but hardships, hardships which are invalidated both in and out of his universe. And that was his whole purpose. To lose everything he had, everything he cared for, to be beaten down over and over when he tried to rise and fight against this cruel world, against his predetermined existence as a vessel for comedic suffering. He loses everything. He has nothing. Suffering is all he's known.
He exists to suffer. And that truly is the worst fate of all.
.
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A Dark Night in Ba Sing Se
By MuffinLance @muffinlance
On Archive of Our Own
Status: Dead/Hiatus (?) (updated at author’s discretion)
Summary: accidentalGuard!Zuko AU. A Ba Sing Se crime noir where, instead of totally ignoring that Zuko stole a guard's swords to fight Jet, the guards lovingly gangpress this crazy-good-swordfighter who is the nephew of this crazy-good-teamaker into helping out around the station. They quickly learn that the tea skills are not hereditary. And trouble follows this kid.
Summary: I love this fic. All of MuffinLance’s works are amazing (she also wrote Salvage), the perfect mix of angst and comedy, but this ranks as one of my favorites. Zuko’s characterization is as great as she always makes it, and the use of OCs feels a lot more natural than it does in a lot of other works.
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WiP Wednesday: The Seduction of the Innocent
Okay, firstly, this entire idea is really the brainchild of myself and steveelotaku and we’ve had fun coming up with stuff for it. The title is his suggestion - based on that crackpot book written about Batman and Robin being gay and corrupting the youth of America. It’s PERFECT for a fic that is all about Zuko writing a comic strip to help support his thesis as he goes to Ba Sing Se University lol
Premise: Zuko needs a hobby to keep himself occupied during the idle times of teaserving/vigilantism - and ends up writing. His new BFF Jin also suggests that he apply for Ba Sing Se University when his history of researching the Avatar and their cultures comes out. So Zuko ends up writing a thesis that studying ancient/declining cultures (Air Nomads and the Water Tribes) is worthwhile in the world today (bc the Water Tribes still exist and there’s 1 living Air Nomad). To help make his point/spread knowledge about the different cultures, he and Jin end up creating a comic series about The Adventures of the Blue Spirit and the Avatar (and co). Through the hijinks of the Blue Spirit and the Avatar traveling around the world (remember, there’s no war in Ba Sing Se), they fight crime and evildoers and teach each other about their cultures.
So, right now I’m thinking this is actually 2 fics: a prequel and a sequel. The prequel will be all about establishing Zuko going to Uni and creating the comic and some of its effects (it’s REALLY popular with kids!). The sequel is when the Gaang (Zuko coined the name) finds out about the comics and read them - and then Aang, who KNOWS who the Blue Spirit is, goes looking for the author to confront them. He suspects it’s Zuko, but he doesn’t actually BELIEVE that it’s really Zuko. After all, how could ZUKO get into Ba Sing Se and why would he write comics explaining how the Air Nomads believed in peace?
(For those that dislike shipping in atla, the sequel will have some Zuko/Aang, but probably T-rated teens dating. Not wholly sure yet, but I think the whole series will be T)
So far, I have a few random scenes written, so I’ll share some snippets here, but also, I HAVE to tell you about what steveelotaku came up with for the comic!!!
The Comics
So like I said, the premise of the comics is: the adventures the Gaang + the Blue Spirit get up to, while fighting off their standard array of villains. (Credit for these goes to steveelotaku, who is incredible and came up with GREAT villains!)
The Big Bad: Fire Lord Ozai
But, I hear you say, there’s no war in Ba Sing Se! So how-?
Well, the answer is - Zuko REALLY wanted to draw his dad receiving a pie to the face (look, he’s upset about the whole traitor thing and he needs an outlet) from Aang, so he invented a silly Silver Age Comics campy reason for why the Fire Lord hates the Avatar: the Avatar blew storm clouds over his parade and RUINED his hair! (Ozai hates getting wet 😂)
Other Recurring Villains:
Sparkler, the Princess of Pyromania: Fire-themed villain with a mysterious connection to the Blue Spirit and a grudge against them
The Koan: Basically Buddhist Riddler. "What is the sound of one hand picking your pocket?" "If a building blows up, and no one is around to see it, did I commit a crime?"
The Cabbage Merchant of Death: Literally just the cabbage merchant, but breeding his cabbages to attack humanity as vengeance for overturning his cart. (The Cabbage Merchant actually loves the comics and his portrayal. Someone recognized his plight! So he taped one of the panels to his cart.)
The Tapestry: Literally a guy dressed in a tapestry who makes horrible weaving jokes and uses sharp threads. "Knit one, purl-oin two gold bars!"
The Ember Island Jester: The only actor to be fired from the Ember Island Players, because his jokes were terrible. His crimes are all theater-themed and he wears a comedy mask. "Four nations, all alike in dignity, all ripe for the plundering!" "It's curtains for you, Blue Spirit! -drops a heavy curtain on him-"
The Nightingale: Basically the Penguin, but with an army of robot nightingales, like in the old Chinese fable about the Emperor who forgot how a nightingale had brought him joy when a mechanical one is given to him, only for it to save him later. Only this time, the Nightingale is some minor noble who got fired and now keeps pestering Ozai with his robot nightingales and Ozai has to call for the Blue Spirit, much to his frustration. "The Nightingale sings the song of your doom!" Aang: "How does that go?" "Uh...doom! DOOM DOOM DOOM! DOOM doom DOOOOOM!"
Okay, so those are our Villains. Now what about our heroes? Remember, the Gaang is being written by Zuko - who may do lots and lots of research and maybe has stalked them on occasion, but still doesn’t really KNOW them.
The Blue Spirit - Zuko goes in hard on the tropes, so the Blue Spirit is totally the broody badboy. He has a secret identity that no one knows. Also, he tells tea jokes and makes tea puns. Iroh is very proud.
Aang, The Avatar - Aang is the epitome of “peace, love, and happiness make the world go round” (real Aang finds this hilarious) but he’s also an incurable prankster
Toph, The Avatar’s Earthbending Teacher - Toph is the buffest, littlest character there is and it is unclear whether she beats villains with her bending or her fists or if the two are one and the same.
Katara, The Avatar’s Waterbending Teacher - Katara is the scariest motherfucker on the team and Zuko stands by that. She has some of the corny “hope” lines, complementing Aang, but mostly, it’s her determination that makes her scary. When she decides something, it happens. (Zuko might be projecting a bit, but he’s not wrong.)
Sokka, The Avatar’s Jester/Strategist - Sokka is the straight forward comic relief and is a walking joke, but he does tend to suggest the plans that work... they’re just very, very ridiculous, in line with Silver Age comics ridiculousness.
And some choice lines by steveelotaku:
"Holy cumulus, Blue Spirit! The Fire Nation's set fire to the tea tree grove!"
"The fiends! It's not enough for them to boil it too long--now they're roasting it to ashes!"
"Halt, Blue Spirit! Your pathetic crusade of justice stops here!"
"It's that suspicious sous-chef of sabotage, Serial Griller! Fire Lord Ozai's right hand cook!"
"That's right, Blue Blunder! And today's special is deep fried masked man with a side of Avatar fries!"
"Blue Spirit! Help!"
"By the subtle tang of oolong tea! Avatar, you're turning into a were-bison!"
Not a trick! Not an imaginary story! The Avatar's best friend might just be his doom! Can Aang and the Blue Spirit survive...THE NIGHT OF THE APPA-LLING WERE-BISON?!
AND NOW, THE SECRET ORIGIN OF THE BLUE SPIRIT:
A nameless warrior stands on the battlefield in the pouring rain. Another village massacred, the survivors left for dead. He alone had dared to speak against this heinous crime, and for that he was cast out from the only family he had. Hiding within a teahouse, he took with him the one souvenir of that battle he dared to claim--the mask of the Blue Spirit, a warrior who had fought for justice against his cruel oppressors. Now, the warrior takes the mantle for himself--to find redemption, or die trying!
Snippets:
The Beginning
Zuko needed a hobby, was the thing. He was really, really busy in Ba Sing Se, between being a tea server and being the Blue Spirit. But there was a lot of idle time in both roles and Zuko just needed something to keep him occupied. It wasn’t supposed to turn into a big thing.
Only one day, Jin had caught him writing at the teashop and demanded to read it and… look. It was just a lark. It was just a funny little idea that he was toying with. It didn’t mean anything.
It was in the afternoon lull and Uncle was, fortunately, in the backroom, doing tea things. Meanwhile, Zuko’s only other customer was an old accountant who was always buried in their books and never registered anything going on around them. They liked Pao’s strongest tea.
This meant that there was no one else around to see the look on Jin’s face when she read through his scrawled handwriting – he was much better at writing with a calligraphy brush, but these days, charcoal was as good as it got – depicting a silly dialogue exchange between the Blue Spirt and the Avatar. It was just one of the questions he’d always wanted to ask the Avatar, one that wasn’t really important, but that had bothered him until he’d researched it anyway.
“Li,” she said slowly.
Zuko gulped. “Yeah?”
“This… this is good,” she said with a tone of wonder. “Seriously, I really like this!”
“You… do?” Zuko blinked, not sure what to do with that. “But it’s – it’s–”
“Funny? Enjoyable? Cute?”
“Dumb.”
“Bullshit,” Jin said bluntly. “You’re allowed to enjoy dumb things, Li. As long as it’s fun, what else matters?”
Zuko frowned. That was not a philosophy about life that he was familiar with.
“Do you think the Avatar really throws pies in people’s faces?” Jin asked with a laugh.
“Oh, that bit I can confirm,” Zuko flashed a brief grin. “I found a letter from the King of Omashu to the Southern Air Temple that very specifically said Aang and his friends had pie’d the King’s Guard.”
Jin blinked. “What do you mean, you found a letter?”
“Oh,” Zuko bit his lip, realizing he really shouldn’t have said that. “I, um. I… studied the Avatar. For a long time. And the Air Nomads and the Water Tribes, a little bit.”
“Really?” Jin looked excited, of all things. “That’s so cool! So you were a mini scholar before tragedy struck, huh? Are you gonna try to apply for Ba Sing Se University? You should!”
“I… what?”
“It’s not often someone from the Lower Ring gets accepted,” Jin said, “but it does happen! And I know you’d study really hard and there are scholarships and things to help pay for it. You should try!”
“I’ll… think about it?” Zuko said, taken entirely off guard.
“You should write more, too,” Jin encouraged. “Honestly, it’s a really fun scene. I kinda wanna draw it.”
Jin’s family ran what was probably one of the best places in town to get writing and illustration done on a budget. This meant that Jin spent a lot of time drawing what she called ‘very boring adverts’. He wouldn’t think his scene was that interesting either, but Jin’s face was genuine and she smiled at him.
“Really?” he couldn’t help but ask.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Jin grinned, “just the visual of the Fire Lord getting a pie in the face–” she broke down laughing.
Zuko flushed. It was possible he was a bit upset with his father for marking him as a traitor and sending his sister to bring him home in chains. And it wasn’t like a little pie had ever hurt anyone…
During Zuko’s Tour of Ba Sing Se University (from the POV of the admissions tour guide)
“As part of your curriculum. You don’t study other cultures, like the Water Tribes and the Air Nomads?”
There was a loud scoff from behind Min and she turned to see Professor Lang sneering down his nose at the kid.
“Of course not,” he said. “What use is there in studying ancient civilizations?”
The kid looked confused for a brief moment… and then he got mad, and wow, he was actually kind of scary underneath that scruffy unkemptness.
“The Water Tribes aren’t dead! And even if the Air Nomads are, there’s still reason to learn about them!”
“And what, pray tell, would that be?”
The kid had a pretty impressive snarl. “The Earth Kingdom has trade contracts relating to the Water Tribes, who are still alive. And there’s one living Air Nomad now, too!”
Min blinked. What did that mean?
“Pah,” Professor Lang spat. “The Avatar is not part of any culture.”
The what?
“The Avatar isn’t told until they turn sixteen. Until that age, Avatar Aang was and still is an Air Nomad.”
What!?
“The… Avatar?” Min said vaguely. How had she not heard about this? “The Avatar is back? And they’re an Air Nomad!?”
The kid looked scared for a moment. Perhaps he could sense how closely they danced to the dangerous territory of current events.
“Yeah,” he said slowly. “We, um. We heard before coming to Ba Sing Se that the Avatar is back. And – and he’s an Air Nomad. So there’s relevance in understanding the Air Nomad culture! Because, like…” he visibly flailed for an example that would be acceptable, “like family!” He held up his finger triumphantly. “Culture affects what words mean. In the Earth Kingdom, family is defined as your clan, tied to you through blood, marriage, or contract. In the Water Tribes, the whole tribe is family and everything is done in service to that family. But to the Air Nomads? They defined family as people chosen based on who you wanted in your life. They did not recognize blood ties.”
Min and Professor Lang both stared at the kid.
“How – how do you know that?” Professor Lang asked eventually.
The kid froze. “I, um. I did a lot of research on – on the Avatar and, and their cultures. I’m not making it up! One of their core tenets was that the blood of the covenant was thicker than water of the womb, meaning those who share their vows are more kin than those who share their blood. They were more concerned with spirituality and behavior.” The kid sighed heavily. “I wish my old library hadn’t burned. I had some amazing finds.”
Min’s eyebrow arched. That almost made it sound like, despite the current state of things, this kid had some noble background. Well, well. That changed things.
She clapped her hands together. “This sounds like an excellent topic for a thesis, don’t you agree, Professor Lang?”
“A – what?”
“A thesis, of course. You have an argument to make – that ancient/declining cultures still have a role in our society. Through your course of study here at Ba Sing Se, you will learn how to draft an effective argument, backed by primary sources.”
“I had primary sources!” the kid said, sounding strangely offended.
“Of course,” Min allowed.
“You want this disrespectful brat to write a thesis on such an absurd topic!?” Professor Lang burst out.
“He argued his point well, did he not?” Min shrugged, smiling pleasantly.
“I have another one,” the kid – Li, according to her file – said. “The Air Nomads were pacifists. They didn’t believe in consuming the flesh of any creature, because in their view, violence was abhorrent in any form. So think about it… the – the Avatar’s job is to bring peace and balance to the world, right?”
Min took a sharp breath. That was coming a little too close to–
“Well, Air Nomads were very devoted to peace. They have eighty-seven words for peace, all of which mean different things. Some of which, if applied to the nations by the Avatar, would face significant dissent. So in dealing with the Avatar, it’s important to know that you need to clarify the meaning of things being discussed.”
“And you expect to be ‘dealing with the Avatar’, do you?” Professor Lang sneered.
Li opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again. “Of course not,” he said, “but that’s precisely why the study of these cultures is so significant! Because if it’s not widespread knowledge, then we’re all at a disadvantage.”
Min clapped, “well said. What is knowledge but a tool for the betterment of ourselves?”
“...right,” Li nodded hesitantly.
(For those curious, Professor Lang knows about Aang because the Gaang and Joo Dee went by the university when they first came to Ba Sing Se - but the visit was kept moderately hush hush, because talking about the Avatar can mean talking about the war. This changes when the comic takes off.)
From the next scene
Jin was pacing in Pao’s Teashop as they all waited excitedly to hear the results of Li’s visit to the university. Mushi was channeling his anxiety into making lots of tea, so Jin was spending far more than she should on new pots, but at least sipping tea gave her something to do.
Finally, Li opened the door – and jerked back as everyone in the teashop – four of the afternoon regulars and Jin, plus one couple that had no idea what was going on – rounded on him.
“Well? How did it go?”
“Uh.” Li scratched his head. “I think I’m a student now?”
Jin blinked. “I thought you were just going to apply?”
“So did I,” Li shrugged. “And then I got into an argument with a professor during the tour–”
Everyone groaned collectively.
“Oh, Nephew,” Mushi sighed, coming out from behind the counter and ushering Li into the room.
“Of course you did,” Jin laughed.
“But it was fine,” Li huffed. “In fact, I think it actually helped me? I guess I’m writing a thesis on the Avatar and also why studying other cultures matters?”
“You’re… what?” Mushi said blankly.
Li shrugged helplessly. “It just kinda happened.”
Now we skip waaaaaaay ahead to the sequel, to when the Gaang (well, Aang specifically) finds out about The Adventures of the Blue Spirit and the Avatar
It started with an innocently overheard conversation at a bakery near their Upper Ring house while waiting for the new pies to cool.
“Did you read it?” one girl hissed to another. “Did you see!?”
“Yes!” the second girl sounded so excited that it was hard to control her volume. “I told you! It’s real! Spiritar is canon!”
“I just can’t believe it,” the only boy amongst the group murmured. “I didn’t see it coming at all.”
“That’s because you never listen to us,” the first girl sniffed. “I called the Blue Spirit x Avatar Aang coming from miles away.”
The… what?
Aang blinked, turning to stare at them. “I’m sorry, did you say Avatar?” he asked hesitantly.
“Yeah, who’s asking – oh sweet spirits, it’s the Avatar!” the boy looked like he was about to hyperventilate.
“Um. Hi,” Aang waved awkwardly.
The two girls squeaked and flushed red. “Hi,” they managed, one more easily than the other.
“Did you say something about – about the Blue Spirit and the Avatar?”
“Oh spirits,” the second girl whispered under her breath. “Oma and Shu, why would you do this to us?”
“Um?”
“Okay, so,” the first girl cleared her throat. “Um, let’s start at the beginning. Are you familiar with The Adventures of the Blue Spirit and the Avatar?”
“The… huh?” Aang’s mouth twisted in confusion. Who was the Blue Spirit and what did they have to do with him?
There was a cleared throat from next to them and another woman in the bakery stood behind them. “Hi, I’m sorry, I couldn’t help but overhear and – I have a binder just for this purpose.” She pulled out a thick binder full of papers and thudded it down on the table. Then she opened it to a page that had two figures cut out from an inked illustration. One was obviously Aang, though his arrows weren’t quite that big – but the other… the other was–
“The Blue Spirit, you called them?” Aang asked, staring at the mask that he remembered with stark distinction. If the stranger in the mask hadn’t saved him…
But then, of course, the stranger turned out to not be so strange after all. Aang could still feel the rough bark under his fingers as he played with it, waiting for Zuko to wake up.
If we knew each other then, do you think we could’ve been friends? he’d asked, and Zuko hadn’t actually answered, but the blast of fire spoke many words.
“You don’t know them?” the girls all looked up at him with a broken sort of hope.
“I – I do,” Aang answered hesitantly. “But I never got their name.”
“Yes!” two of them high fived and Aang just stared at them. “Uh, sorry.”
“Anyway,” the girl with the binder said, “The Adventures of the Blue Spirit and the Avatar, originally simply titled the Blue Spirit, is a serial comic created by Li and Jin. They’re two artists in the Lower Ring, if you can believe that. But Li attends Ba Sing Se University!”
“Uh. Okay?”
She cleared her throat, flushing. “Um, at any rate, the comics are aimed at children and Li has been recorded as saying that he wanted to explain cultural differences through a fun story. And they deliver! The characters are great, the dialogue is snappy, the illustration is beautiful, and the plots are silly but fun.”
“Nothing will ever top the Fire Lord getting pie’d in the face, though,” the first girl said nostalgically.
“What?” Aang asked.
“Oh, I have that in my binder!” The girl flipped through several pages and landed on a comic panel pasted onto the paper. It depicted – exactly what they said. Fire Lord Ozai – who Aang had never actually seen in person, but he had seen a few paintings and it looked pretty accurate – receiving a cream pie to the face. Actually, the pie was drawn pretty well, too – it even had the lemon curd filling that Aang and Master Gyatso used to add for extra gooeyness.
That was surely just a coincidence, though. Right? It wasn’t like the Blue Spirit could really be–
“It’s a really famous picture now,” the girl with the binder whispered to Aang. “It’s the only thing like it that hasn’t been censored by the Dai Li. See, in The Adventures of the Blue Spirit and the Avatar, the Fire Lord has a legitimate reason to hate the Avatar.”
…was stopping him from destroying the world not legitimate?
“Oh?”
“Oh, I love this one. Show him the comic strip!”
“Here it is!”
Aang looked down to see a single panel of Fire Lord Ozai, this time wailing, “my hair!”
“Uh…”
“The Avatar was flying a kite,” one girl explained, “and he was messing with the wind currents – but it made storm clouds fall on the Fire Lord’s parade and ruined his hair!” They all chortled. “Literally you rained on his parade!”
Aang… did not know how to react to that.
“So anyway, the Avatar and his friends join the Blue Spirit and fight crime and evildoers!”
“Yeah, the Blue Spirit is a vigilante, you know that, of course,” one girl said and actually, Aang had not known that. “So they team up with the Avatar and with the whole Gaang–”
“Pardon?”
“Oh yeah, isn’t it great? It’s ‘gang’ but with 2 ‘a’s, like your name! To encompass all of you together!”
Aang hummed. He did like it, actually. Sokka would be upset that he hadn’t come up with it.
Especially if the person who did come up with it was really–
But surely it couldn’t be. How would Zuko have even gotten into Ba Sing Se?
From the confrontation between Aang and Zuko after Aang tracks down the creators of the comics (with some shippiness)
“Soooo,” Jin drawled, sprawling in a booth in the otherwise empty teashop, “guess what happened today?”
Zuko, busy wiping down a table, didn’t answer.
“C’mon, guess! It’ll interest you, I promise.”
“I dunno. You… had an idea for a comic?”
“That happens every day, Li,” she said flatly.
Zuko sighed. “Just tell me.”
“Fine, fine,” Jin paused, making him wait, and then she burst out, “the Avatar came by the shop!”
Zuko froze, blood draining from his face. The Avatar. The Avatar was here. The Avatar was here and knew about the comics, elsewise why would he have gone to Jin’s family’s shop?
Oh, this couldn’t be good.
“Li? You okay?”
Before Zuko could answer – negatively – the door to the teashop opened and the Avatar walked inside.
Zuko wanted to die. This was it. This was the end of him. This was when his cover would get blown and everyone would know and hate him and–
“Hi,” Aang greeted them pleasantly. “I’m looking for Li.”
Zuko just about swallowed his tongue. There was no way that Aang had failed to recognize him. The change in hairstyle did not make up for the huge disfiguring scar.
Raising a shaking hand, Zuko managed a strangled, “I’m Li.”
The Avatar smiled. What even–?
“I thought it might be you,” Aang said. “But I also kind of thought I was probably wrong.”
Not having any idea what to say, all Zuko could do was swallow drily.
“Huh,” Jin said, “you really have met the Avatar.”
Zuko flushed. “I told you!”
“You say lots of things, though,” Jin contested. Usually, Zuko was grateful that she let his slip ups go so easily, but right now, he was just annoyed.
“I don’t lie,” he frowned. That was a rule for him. His whole identity may be a lie, but at least he would do his best to live honorably.
Aang coughed and Zuko flushed brighter, jerking his attention back to the man who, technically, was still his enemy.
“Sorry,” Jin laughed, holding out her hand, “hi, I’m Jin. I hear you went by my family’s shop earlier looking for us?”
“You’re the illustrator?” Aang asked.
“Yep, that’s me!” Jin beamed, showing off her chipped teeth.
“Wow. You do a really good job of showing different places,” Aang complimented and Zuko stared. What was even happening?
“Oh, that’s all thanks to Li,” Jin demurred. “Sometimes I dunno whether his descriptions are accurate or not, but he believes in them so much that it just seems right to go with it.”
Zuko groaned, slapping a hand to his face. “Jin…”
Aang smiled wider and it made Zuko’s heart pound, cheeks turning pinker. “Well, you both create very good comics,” Aang said casually, as though Zuko wasn’t close to expiring on the spot.
“You – you read them?” Zuko croaked.
“Of course,” Aang said. “We had to see what was being written about us!”
Oh. Great. So all of Aang’s friends had read them. Fuck.
Oh Agni, did that include the most recent issue? Maybe he was lucky for once in his life and it didn’t–
Aang pulled out a comic and the cover was quite familiar. Jin had drawn the Blue Spirit in the middle in a ridiculous pose that really emphasized his butt – even moreso than the original draft, because Jin was an asshole and made the change after he complained. Behind the Blue Spirit were various headshots of the Gaang – Zuko came up with the name and he was rather proud of it – with little hearts all around them.
The cover proclaimed, ONE OF THESE PEOPLE IS THE BLUE SPIRIT'S SOULMATE – BUT WHO!? and the story was all about one of the regular villains, Sparkler – who totally wasn’t Azula – trying to find the Blue Spirit’s lover to blackmail him. After she was defeated, the true lover was revealed… with a kiss, because of course it was.
Zuko felt like he might cry at the absurdity of this being how his life falls apart (again).
“Sooooo, um…” Aang started and Zuko could not look at him.
“In my defense,” Zuko started, his mouth absolutely disconnecting from his brain, “it was a reader request.”
Aang tilted his head. “What does that mean?”
“Oh, you don’t read the letters at the end of the issue?” Jin asked, “you really should, they’re quite fun. We answer questions and requests from readers – mostly kids, but sometimes their parents, too.”
“And a kid… asked about–?”
Zuko just nodded mutely, but Jin – the traitor! – explained, “they asked about who the Blue Spirit’s soulmate would be. And obviously – ow!” Zuko elbowed her hard in the side, but it was too late. Aang’s eyebrows were high.
“‘Obviously’?”
“I mean, have you read the flirting?” Jin asked. “Li writes fantastic banter, doesn’t he?”
“Fucking hell, Jin, shut up!” Zuko hissed, and he was sure that his face was hot enough to be steaming. Hopefully Jin wouldn’t question it.
“Oh, all right, all right, I’ll let you two talk alone. But don’t forget the afternoon rush will be soon!”
So saying, Jin sidled out the door, headed back to work. The Avatar opened his mouth as soon as she was gone and Zuko quite abruptly wanted her back. He scrambled around for a change of topic and grasped the teapot next to him.
“Tea! Would – would you like some tea? We have–”
“I liked the tea jokes in the comics,” Aang said calmly. How was he calm when Zuko was about to shake out of his skin?
The pottery clattered slightly from his trembling hands, but he served Aang a cup of jasmine tea. “Those mostly came from Uncle,” he murmured.
“Well, they were fun,” Aang said, taking the cup and immediately sipping it as though it hadn’t been poured by his enemy. Then he smiled. “Jasmine. I like jasmine. It was my mentor’s favorite.”
“I know,” Zuko said without thinking.
“You… know?” Aang blinked. “How?”
“Uh.” Oh Agni, how was he supposed to explain this. “One of the Elders at your temple kept a journal. It survived.”
Aang stared. “Seriously?”
“Yeah,” Zuko nodded. “Monk Tashi. He complained about how often you got into trouble and how Monk Gyatso only encouraged it.”
Aang inhaled sharply, breath hitching at Gyatso’s name. Zuko could only imagine how much the loss hurt him. If Zuko ever lost Uncle…
Okay, that’s all I got, but I’m very excited for this series, so I hope you enjoy!
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