for @lesmiserablol​ and their great fic now that i see you 

so i was going to do what you suggested but this expression reminded me of the smolderTM and i just decided to uhhh tangled au instead

going through old posts and found that one about 40 yr old aang instead and my comment keeps making me giggle

aang: bumi! meet my kids :)

*camera cuts to zuko and sokka*:

i don't expect adaptations to be carbon copies of the original, because then what would be the point of the adaptation when we already have the original. i don't expect adaptations to be better than the original, sure, there are a few cases of that happening, but it's rare.

what i do expect adaptations is to be faithful to the source material, keeping to the same themes that were integral to the original, and i do expect adaptations to maintain the integrity of the characters, especially in a show like avatar the last airbender, where much of its appeal and depth come from the growth, development and the relationships of the characters and that's where natla fails.

Been on an ATLA animated series rewatch lately and the storm episode in S1 ATLA has me STOMPED BC IT NARRATES THE DARKEST MOMENTS OF BOTH ZUKO AND AANG'S LIVES PARALLELLY-

(SORRY I KNOW THIS MAY BE OLD NEWS BUT FOR SOME REASON I THOUGHT THESE WERE SEPERATE EPISODES BUT NO.)

But Oh, the parallel of an airbending boy who ran away from his destiny vs a firebending prince who rushed towards it too soon. With both ending in a tragedy where they were left alone grieving what they've lost..

I believe they're more of the Yin & Yang Duo of the series. (I know ppl associate that with zutara or something but they're more alike than people seem to think 🤔)

The fact that Uncle looked away. The guy who was so compassionate and empathetic, had to look away. Because there is so much violence in the world and the only way some people no how to deal with it is to avoid it.

The fact that he refused to look away again. That he went with Zuko and chose to face the war head on. Because nothing was going to change if he kept looking the other way, if he kept avoiding what was right in front of him.

the ‘you jump, i jump’ of zukka in the boiling rock

tams azula is sooo fascinating bc while canon azula doesn't really show her age at all like she's completely desensitised to so much shit 'she is fourteen' is not a justification for ANYTHING both in her own mind and in other people's, in tams she has zuko. and yes the world has been abundantly cruel to her but zuko hasn't. he's basically raised azula and he's done so in a way that she's allowed to show her age, but she still only shows her age in very azula-esque ways. there's no reluctance to see violence like you'd expect from a fourteen-year-old, and like ive said before, that means zuko can't play on that reluctance in order to shield her, but he still wants to shield her from that violence because regardless of what SHE feels about it, as the eldest he knows fundamentally that she shouldn't be seeing certain things no matter how well she can handle them. and seeing zuko effectively PLAY azula in order to protect her is so interesting and complicated and fun

reading atla fics where zuko joins the squad in S1 and katara is the most distrusting of him even after sokka and aang trust zuko a la S3 is soooo infuriating like girl. did y'all forget the crystal caves where katara heard some of his Tragic Backstory™️ and IMMEDIATELY tried to help him out??? she only distrusts him so much in S3 so much because he went and backstabbed her after they had a fun bonding moment. you know who would be the most distrustful of zuko out of the 3? sokka. the disrespect.

Zuko’s happiest moments in the show happened when he was with Mai. He smiled the most when he was with her and when Sokka asked her about Mai he also smiled. If you hate Maiko you hate Zuko. Mai is the one who makes him happy not Katara. If you really wanted Zuko to be happy you would ship Maiko but we all know Zutara shippers don’t really care about Zuko.

this... this is a joke right??? his happiest moments!? anon, i have terrible news for you.

zuko is canonically having the worst time of his life in the fire nation. the entire point of zuko returning to the fire nation is prove that being home isn’t going to make him happy. that’s literally an essential part of his arc. if zuko had left with katara in the catacombs, he would remain unsure of whether or not he made the right choice. he wouldn’t be sure that he didn’t miss out on home and his father’s love. going home and getting everything zuko thought he wanted is essential for the completion of his redemption arc. there’s nothing more he could want from home! he’s got a throne, he’s got the girl, he’s got power, he’s got his father’s “love,” zuko has it all, so why is he still unhappy???

a huge part of why our lovely zuko is so unhappy is that he’s pretending. he’s unable to be himself and spends all his time in the fire nation playing a role: the son ozai always wanted. zuko pretends to be confident to the point of arrogance, he pretends he's a hardened war strategist, and he pretends that he feels better than those around him. crown prince zuko is not the same plain ol' zuko. regular zuko cares very passionately and very deeply about doing what is right. his conscious and morals weigh on him heavily if he does something that contradicts them. he is empathetic and understands the pain that others are going through, a huge part of his arc in book 2. it is in zuko’s nature to care about the world, about people, about things. it’s just who he is.

mai as a character is apathetic and doesn’t have a strong sense of morality. it just isn’t something that concerns her. that’s just how she’s characterized. she obviously does care about things/people, but not many. mai’s motivations are often self-serving in nature, such as joining azula purely for the thrill of it. mai never does anything simply because it’s the right thing to do. she always has a personal stake in what she does and to be perfectly honest there’s nothing inherently wrong with being selfish if it doesn’t actively harm other people. 

things get sticky when you stick these two people together. mai and zuko are just so vastly different, it leads to a lot of problems. zuko doesn’t get why mai doesn’t express herself and keeps everything bottled up, which is literally canon based on the beach episode. mai doesn’t understand zuko either, as she’s very confused as to why he leaves the palace at all because to her it just seemed like things were perfect. she doesn’t know why he blows up and why he just generally cares so much. they just literally don’t get each other and that’s not a good foundation for a relationship believe it or not. 

another issue is that mai is dating crown prince zuko and is completely satisfied with that, aka the zuko that zuko is pretending to be. when the real zuko slips out, the passionate and headstrong zuko, she is irritated that he can’t keep his feelings in check. she doesn’t encourage him to grow and would prefer he stay the perfect little fire nation prince she fell for. this literally just all goes to show that mai doesn’t even like zuko, she likes the idea of him, which would be fine if she wasn’t projecting it onto him. mai needs someone she actually likes the personality of lol. 

speaking of the beach episode, that’s a like showcase of why they don’t work. mai doesn’t get zuko’s “romantic gestures” and her lack of affection for these makes zuko very insecure, causing him to act out. it is important to note that zuko’s actions are not in anyway condoned by me, but i am saying that they understandable. zuko was acting ridiculously and his jealousy was out of control, but he was ignored by mai all day and from his perspective she was showing no interest in anything he did and more in some random guy--that’ll mess with your head. and again, zuko should not have had his little beach party meltdown, but the points stands that they misunderstood each other so badly it spiraled to that point.

i really don’t why not liking maiko makes me hate zuko. disregarding the fact that she absolutely does not make him as happy as you’d like to claim, your romantic partner isn’t, or rather shouldn't be, your only source of joy. do you mean to tell me that zuko isn’t happy when he is joking with the gaang about chasing them around? are you claiming zuko wasn’t happy when he and toph bonded over his uncle? are you seriously going to tell me that zuko isn’t happy during that hug on the ember island dock with katara, one of his most soft and genuine moments, if not his absolute softest moment? that would be absolutely ridiculous.

now, saying that i don’t care about zuko is kind of ironic, because it really seems like mai is the one who doesn’t care about zuko. when your partner opens up about their fears, concerns, and deeply emotional moments, the response is never playing it off as a joke and going “don’t worry.” that is literally one of the most unhelpful things mai could have done in that situation like what do you even mean zutara shipppers don’t care about zuko??? don’t you want him to have someone who understands him emotionally? someone who is there for him in those moments of fear and doubt? someone who sees the good in him even when no one else except his uncle could??? like bestie, you have absolutely no legs to stand on here. go home and think about what zuko really needs, and you’ll find it isn’t an apathetic girl that doesn’t understand him.

Zutara WIP, Hunger Games AU that I have no idea when I'll be able finish.

OBSESSED with the tattoo on Zuko’s arm in your zukka scooter tittie grab art. Have you done a drawing with it in full view??

lmao that tattoo has occasionally popped up in my art since forever but i don’t think i’ve ever drawn it complete? you could probably pierce together the whole design by sticking together all the different drawings ndfbsjd

Y’all want Uwu Zuko so bad like why are y’all deaging him to be younger than Sokka? 😭

Wait sseven daughters?? TY LEE IS ZHAO'S DAUGHTER?

I'm not surprised you did not know. Nobody talks a lot about it. Much less since Zuko had to explain to the girl that her father had been eaten by a giant monster when he tried to kill the moon with an instruction manual he found in the library of a giant owl named Washington. It wasn't a simple conversation, nor easy to understand

About seventeen years ago, Zhao's parents found him in a compromising situation with two pickles and a coconut cake, so they forced him to get married as soon as possible. It didn't last more than three hours, for in the middle of the night he snuck back to the navy and no one heard much from him for the next eight months until he came back home to the surprise that his wife had conceived septuplets the first and only time they shared the marriage bed. You will understand why my old friend never touched a woman again. According to his own words, he was cursed with being too fertile and there was a chance of having septuplets again. He didn't want to have any more children. Taking a look at Azula's traitorous teammate, I think he did the right thing.

The case was nationally famous as the first septuplets in the country's history. When they were born he named them Ty Liu, Ty Lao, Ty Woo, Ty Lee, Ty Lat, Ty Lin and Ty Lum. The seven brats looked exactly the same and there was no way of telling them apart, so Zhao named them that way so that if he yelled 'Ty!' all seven of them would pay attention to him. I think Azula's teammate ran away to the circus once, right? It took us a while to notice that there were six Tys in court instead of seven. I think Zhao never noticed the difference.

The last I heard from Azula's friend, Ty Lao, is that she joined the Kyoshi Warriors. There is a rotten apple on every tree.

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Well I have finally watched the first three episodes of Netflix’s ATLA…

Ugh.

“the ember island players” has it all. gaang family bonding, shirtless zuko, theatre nerd zuko, socially awkward zuko (whaatttt nooooo i don’t have a favorite character), cute sokka and suki moments, sokka being a fucking dork, toph and zuko bonding, so many fucking hilarious moments… truly one of the most episodes of all time.