the thing that’s so important to me about azula is that she can be as developed & redeemed or whatever as she wants she can learn soo many lessons about friendship & healing etc but also if she’s not at the end of the day at least a bit of a mean manipulative petty pathetic little bitch she’s not azula I’m so sorry

Hi, hope you're well.

I was listening to ‘social cues’ by cage the elephant, ‘in cold blood’ by alt-j and the ‘be the cowboy’ album by Mitski and all these songs just reminded me of this one western-ish mai&sokka roadtrip au where they are kind of cowboys, kind of assassins with a mission to kill local rich boy Zuko who can't seem to die, but I digress…

What would you envision for a mai&sokka modern au road trip?

ummmmmm please elaborate on this AU????? cowboy assassins mai and sokka sounds almost as good as bored teen detectives HELLO. also "zuko can't seem to die" is so true lmfao like he's not even trying NOT to get killed (in fact. the opposite) but he's indestructible nonetheless he's just built different. i'm picturing mai and sokka trying to kill him but every time they're about to they see him do smth so pathetic that they are momentarily distracted out of suddenly being overwhelmed with pity/secondhand embarassment for him, and he keeps managing to get away, escaping his fate. they can't tell if he's some kind of master of manipulation or legitimately the saddest guy alive. eventually they reluctantly befriend him upon deciding that he's more trouble than it’s worth.

as for a modern au roadtrip (boy, you sure do love roadtrips huh?) i definitely think mai and sokka would go on a lot of long drives together, especially during their college years (established lore states that they attend princeton together). these roadtrips include...

stopping at a gas station and buying SO MUCH junk food it doesn’t seem possible that only two people could ever get through that much food. but of course, they do.

mai wresting control of the aux cord but sokka likes every song in her music library anyway (some mitski, some kate bush, etc.)

mai talking shit about azula & zuko and sokka having to stop on the side of the road because he’s cracking up so hard he’s near tears, he can barely breathe.

mai really likes when sokka drives fast; she rolls the windows down to feel the wind in her face and yells “RUN OVER THE PEDESTRIAN!!” every time he stops for a red light.

comparing various quick and easy ways to kill yourself and neither of them being concerned that they’ve both clearly contemplated this a lot.

comparing horror stories about the assorted nightmare students they’ve met on campus. people who care about eating clubs, that sort of thing.

sokka banning mai from taking the wheel because she drives way too fast and it’s an actual safety hazard.

getting into a really big argument about objectivity in quantum physics even though they actually mostly agree with each other.

sokka getting a spontaneous call from aang (he just felt like saying hi) so they put him on speakerphone and talk to him for over an hour.

katara joining the call at which point sokka lights up and mai goes dead silent with an irritated look on her face until she leaves. mai’s just like “ugh katara is such a spoiled little princess” and sokka is like “YOU LITERALLY GREW UP IN A MANSION????”

sokka putting on jets soundcloud album at which point it becomes a test of endurance to see who breaks and has to turn it off first.

giving each other math and logic puzzles to solve as a way to pass the time but sokka gets too into it and ends up driving really slowly because he’s too busy concentrating which only serves to extend the length of their journey.

stopping at a diner and eating so many waffles between them that their server is genuinely concerned for them.

mai napping in the backseat and conducting an entire conversation with sokka in her sleep (this is not nearly the first time this has happened btw).

sokka stopping because he saw some cool mushrooms on the side of the road and mai being like “ew. that’s literally fungus. ew” to which sokka’s like “yeah, so cool, right?”

stopping at another gas station to stock up on even more junk food (they ran out an hour ago).

getting into a debate over whether aristotle was an important thinker in his own right or whether he was irreparably nerfed by being a student of that idiot plato.

getting into an extremely heated debate over which pokemon is the most fuckable (the conversation ends when mai says “lickitung”).

sokka noticing that mai is suddenly sweating a lot after having just checked her phone and he’s like “oooooooh did you get a text from ty lee??” and mai’s like “SHUT UP?? SHUT UP AND ALSO. I’LL KILL YOU.”

flawlessly singing all the words to smash mouth’s “all star” without missing a beat.

sokka being like "look!!!!! an animal!!!!!!!!" every time they pass an animal and mai scoffing in disgust because she hates all animals except for lizards.

stopping at yet another gas station because they somehow ran out of snacks again.

prolonging their trip by taking lots of pointless little detours because, ultimately, they enjoy this space they've created for themselves far more than the prospect of actually leaving the car and facing the world in all its brutal vulgarity.

driving slower than necessary and cranking the music up as a sort of last hurrah as they cherish the final moments before they pull up to their destination.

arriving.

Well I got at least two people interested (@esmeralda-anistasia and @deathsmallcaps) so why not.

Quick disclaimer: I understand that some fans can be very sensitive to this topic and take general criticisms as personal attacks and jump to the defensive. Please don't justify your ships to me if you have that reaction to anything said in this post. It's not my business and if I'm honest I really don't care. Your experiences are not mine and will not change mine and nothing I'm about to say is meant to be read as an insult.

Okay onto the rarepairs in question!

I was ten years old when the episode Zuko Alone first aired and Ursa fascinated me. She was so elegant and sweet, and yet the implication was that she was also capable of assassination. Her disappearence and the fact everyone involved kept pretty hush-hush about her gave her character an air of mystery and Zuko's memories involving her made him a great deal more interesting and sympathetic (i still rolled my eyes every time he showed up and thought he didn't deserve all the cute moments with Mai until The Day of Black Sun, and even then still thought Jet was cooler in every way, but you can't please them all). She had quickly become a favorite character and I've held onto that adoration for about 15 years now.

I also really wanted her to kiss Hakoda.

They had compatible personalities and deserved some luck in love after all the heartbreak and trials, and they both loved their children despite having to leave. Ursa was never treated as dead, just gone. She could have been anywhere and there was nothing to say she couldn't have crossed paths with Hakoda and his men.

There was also something about it I didn't quite have the words or media exposure to explain. Often, in fandom or canon, if a relationship is biracial, the partner who is fairer-skinned and/or of the dominant or invading culture, who the audience sees themselves in, is the man and the one who is darker-skinned and/or marginalized or colonized is the woman (heteronormativity got a head start on this one). There's a lot of ugly "taming the savage" rhetoric in this, usually paired with blatant misogyny that's supposed to be in the woman's favor (like suggesting that a woman could only be complicit in this culture because it was what she was told and didn't know any better). The woman's family and friends who oppose this are depicted as unfairly prejudiced against this strange man as if their distaste for people who can be or have been responsible for things like genocide or subjugation is the same as the other side seeing these people as deserving of genocide or subjugation for the crime of not being like them. Sometimes it's the other way around, where the partner seen as "more civilized" is the woman and the one seen as "less civilized" is the man, in which case the woman is often abducted or otherwise the man's defining feature is his brutishness. This supposed brutishness is both intimidating and attractive to the oh so delicate if a bit repressed captive/wife (as well as the audience) and can manifest as being fiercely protective of her, which is how he shows his affection if there is a language barrier between them. And if you grow up Native, this is easy to pick up on and often in the back of your mind, because at least 90% of your media representation likely has some aspect mentioned above.

(Man that was a lot of academic style analysis)

But the dynamic between Hakoda and Ursa wouldn't leave room for any of that. Hakoda, as an absent parent backstory, is defined by having to leave despite how much he loved and would miss his children. Ursa, as an absent parent backstory, is defined by the crime she was willing to commit for her children (for Zuko specifically, but how long would it actually take for Azula to shoot her mouth off at the wrong place and time and also be targeted by Azulon?). Ursa was the one whose willingness to kill sent her fleeing into the night. The culture of her nation betrayed her and made her choose between her own safety and that of at least one of her children. Hakoda is charismatic and a good leader, but he is also soft spoken and understanding, and above all else, gentle. He isn't here to hurt innocents. He's here to see to it that the next generation of his people will not fear invaders or raids or even know that snow can be black from soot. And he's someone Ursa can finally feel safe around and confide in, and she could be the same for him. Someone he doesn't have to be the leader for, to whom he can admit that he just wants to be home and let the tears fall.

I'm honest enough to admit that one of the reasons I liked The Search was that Ikem wore his hair a lot like Hakoda did and that was close enough to it being canon for me.

Another one is Jin/Smellerbee. Something about their personalities strikes me as being so wonderfully harmonious and I like to imagine Jin, smooth-talking and streetwise but still the most genuine person, being the one to sit Smellerbee, who never really got a chance to think about these things, down and explain that anything she might be is okay. That it's okay to not be in love with a guy friend who gave her a purpose and loyal companionship. That it's okay to like girls. That she can have more than one partner. That it's okay to be different from what's considered normal and proper and not have an easy word to describe it. And eventually she'd realize it's true. And eventually she'd realize that she wasn't teasing when she called her beautiful in a wild sort of way.

I also like to think that Smellerbee clearly has more specialized fighting skills and is very good at what she does but Jin is strong enough to bench press her no problem. And Smellerbee acts all tough (because she is) but blushes whenever Jin calls her cute or pretty because she's not used to it.

Sometimes Longshot is involved too. Not as a third wheel or the exact same kind of partner, more like a ghibli style relationship with Smellerbee. Like is it a gentle romance? Is it an intimate friendship? It's love and they know that and don't have to define it by others' perception. And Jin gives Longshot kisses so he doesn't feel left out, which gets him a bit bashful because she really could have anyone, she already has Smellerbee of all people, and she still finds him deserving of a peck on the cheek. They probably all bunk together.

This actually started from a fic I wrote but don't intend on posting more than snippets of. Basically, i was tired of a lot of fanfic tropes, especially those having to do with friends to lovers and soulmates (this world is not kind to aromantics and the last thing I wanted in my escapism was romance being established as a level up for relationships), so I wrote something to actively subvert all of them. Jet and Smellerbee were each convinced they owed the other a romantic relationship after all they'd been through together, even though neither actually wanted it, because that's how all the stories go. So after he dies, she remembers all those times that would have been romantic if either was actually interested, but were instead just uncomfortable because it was entirely social convention and no feeling. But then she comes across Jin, who she's never met before, but who takes her in her arms and reassures her and sympathizes with her, and in this tiny apartment in this seedy side of town, she feels safe. She seeks permission for every touch and kiss and tells her this encounter doesn't have to be anything she isn't comfortable with. And when Smellerbee has to leave, Jin insists she take a candle to light her way, and winks when she says she can return it the day after. She gives her an excuse to visit again. And Smellerbee blushes and accepts it.

And then there's Teo/Haru and Teo/Ty Lee. No special reason I just think both would make a cute couple and want Teo to be happy. He's a good boy, more people should love him. Let him impress people with wheelchair tricks and get smooched.

One of the things that is so compelling about Zuko and Katara in the catacombs beneath Ba Sing Se is the focus on exploring nuances in character that we haven’t seen before but which still feel organic. 

We expect these two characters to start screaming at each other. They’re both strong personalities and on opposite sides of the war, so when they’re imprisoned together, each at their lowest point, we expect Zuko to be defensive and angry and Katara to be self-righteous and angry, which is how they initially react to one another.

And a lot has been said about how they connect over the shared trauma of the loss of their mothers, but I think what’s even more important than that is how both of them have grown as characters in order to get to this point. The best character writing is found in scenes like this, where characters act in ways that are surprising, yet still make sense for the characters themselves. This is hard to pull off but works if you’ve established your characters as containing layers, developed those layers, then slowly peel back those layers for the audience.

It’s not surprising that Katara tells Zuko that she lost her mother to the fire nation, she tells this to pretty much everybody, and she’s flinging it at him as an accusation, in a moment of grief and rage. What is surprising is Zuko’s apology, followed by him telling her that they have that in common, because for all that Zuko spends so much time talking about his father, his loss of his mother is something much more private that he doesn’t usually talk about, and we certainly don’t expect him to apologize to the girl he’s been chasing after for two seasons. But he does, and there’s a reason.

It’s also rather surprising that Katara believes in his sincerity. She could have immediately dismissed Zuko’s attempts to connect their experiences - and she would not have necessarily been wrong to do so - but she is instead startled by his openness and honesty and that leads her to look at him differently and apologize for yelling.

And the thing is that both of these characters have grown since the last time they’ve seen each other. Both of them have experienced the world in ways that prove that it is far more complicated than what they originally thought. 

For Katara, she thought she knew who the good guys were, and who the bad guys were. Zuko was “the face of the enemy,” while Ba Sing Se was the last bastion of the forces of good. But now, not only has she been exposed to Ba Sing Se’s seedy underbelly, which resulted in the death of Jet, a boy who himself was flawed but who, nonetheless, she might have seen herself loving if things had been different; but she’s also seen the enemy hiding in a tea shop and done what she believed was the right thing by ratting out Zuko and Iroh, only to find out that the far more dangerous and immediate enemy could be found in Azula, disguised as a friend. That’s where she is when Zuko suddenly appears in front of her, also a prisoner of the same enemy.

And for Zuko, by the time he’s captured by Azula, he’s no longer actively hunting the avatar and has seemingly made his peace with the idea of living a quiet life with Iroh. We can see him deliberately making an effort to be happy and supportive of his uncle, despite the fact that it’s not what he wants. He’s learned to push aside his own feelings for the people he cares about, and it almost works, until of course Azula finds them. Then he’s imprisoned and he’s sulky as Katara rants, because everything she’s saying is true and that brief moment of a calm and peaceful life with his uncle turned out to be just a fantasy, but in that moment where he apologizes Zuko does the same thing he did to make Iroh happy. He pushes aside his own feelings, he makes an effort. And he makes this effort for a girl he barely knows, who is his enemy. Zuko doesn’t have anything to gain from this. In fact, his behavior here highlights exactly what he’s lost, because now that life with Iroh, the tea shop, that’s gone. His apology to Katara doesn’t sound like someone who is trying to gain sympathy or force a connection, it sounds like someone who is mourning the loss of a life that was never actually realized, as her attempt to apologize for yelling at him is met with “it doesn’t matter.” His body language and tone are despondent, his earlier defensiveness gone as well.

Katara realizes that Zuko is no longer just the face of the enemy, and Zuko realizes the same thing in relation to himself, that his scar doesn’t have to determine his destiny. Their discussion is also quite rife with symbolism because Katara has learned now that the enemy has many faces, and that the most dangerous enemy isn’t the one who comes announcing that they’re your enemy, not the boy with the burned face, but the face hiding behind the mask (or in this case makeup) of a friend.

If Zuko and Katara hadn’t reached this point in their character development before meeting each other, then yes, they might have just yelled at each other or fought, but they don’t do that, because they’re dynamic characters, and they actually help each other to continue to change and grow.

Of course, their development doesn’t end there. Katara is idealistic to the point of naivete in her willingness to jump in to healing Zuko so quickly, even knowing it might not work, and part of the reason she does this is because she’s a caretaker at heart. People say she doesn’t do this with Zuko but like, this boy just told her that he lost his mother and she immediately goes into healer mode. And Zuko is almost as naive in his willingness to trust her when she tells him that she can heal - might be able to heal - something that is a very deep wound for him, and of course makes the wrong choice in the end and betrays that newfound trust. We can feel the connection between these two characters but that also increases the tension when they are pulled apart again. Katara is looking back at him practically wistfully, while Zuko looks like he’s trying hard not to look at both her and Iroh, his mind torn between conflicting thoughts and emotions.

One thing, actually, that I don’t see brought up often is that Zuko had to put himself out there quite a lot to be able to trust Katara in the catacombs, letting her see him at his most vulnerable, letting her touch his scar, and I think he feels betrayed by Katara post “The Western Air Temple” perhaps almost as much as Katara feels betrayed by him, not only because he trusted her but because she was willing to trust him and he lost that trust. He deserved it, and he knows it, but it still hurts, and it hurts way more than just her seeing him as an impersonal enemy.