#and he LOVES zuko

[ssreeder]

One thing that’s sort of bothered me about ria is that Sokka and Zuko decided to rob the Komodo rhino ranch. It feels out of character for both of them to take such a risk when they think Zhao is right on their tail. Can you elaborate on why they made the decision? Because I feel like that event probably drew a lot of attention from the rough rhinos.

Absolutely!

I wrote it a rather impulsive decision made by Sokka that came from an emotional place & a need to be useful and protect the people he loves.

I’ll explain:

Sokka is a really smart guy who is great at planning, but that tends to fall apart when he gets too emotional...

Sokka blamed himself for Zuko being captured by Zhao again, and it would be similar to the guilt he felt when his canon plan on The Day of Black Sun failed and his father and other men were captured.

In canon, Sokka made a super impulsive decision to try and fly Appa to the most heavily guarded prison in the Fire Nation, alone, to rescue his dad. Without a plan, which was very unlike him. But Sokka was acting on emotion and when he does that he doesn’t perform at his best. (There are a few other examples of Sokka not thinking clearly because of his emotions, but I felt the Boiling Rock situation was the best example)

Canon Zuko supported him and went along because he trusted Sokka and he wanted to help him anyway he could. Which is what happened in RIA (with just a bit more codependency & deeper feelings) which isn’t a great dynamic for their relationship,,, but I wanted to show that Zuko would follow Sokka into ANYTHING… even if he might think it’s a bad idea.

In RIA, Sokka found out he could use the rhino calf leather to help him create something that would help protect him from being burned. This would take some of the pressure off Zuko and give Sokka the ability to defend himself better - which would hopefully keep Zuko safe. After what happened to Zuko, and the guilt Sokka feels, he would do anything to try and protect Zuko.

At this point in RIA they were away from Zhao for about a month? Maybe a little more? (Sorry vague timelines make it hard to track it 100%) but of course the fear of Zhao was still there… it just wasn’t as intense as it had been before. They were also unaware that the RR were tracking them ha… so that was a surprise. :D

Did the Komodo rhino calf ultimately lead to their capture? 1000000% - but Sokka had no way of knowing this and he thought his plan worked. Even if they didn’t end up killing Boots lol… Sokka still got his boots and no one died. (Well... not totally true but no one IMPORTANT DIED)

I hope that clears up my logic behind that decision… & now Sokka has badass boots to fire bend with Zuko :D soooooooo win/win? :D

Rip boots ;)

#sorry if i over explained #I wasnt sure how to get my thoughts across #I usually have some canon reason for the characters to do what they do #Even if Sokka and Zuko are really far away from their original character designs #Sokka doesn’t think clearly when he is emotional #Boiling rock #punching Hahn #Getting distracted by azula... #just to name a few #and he LOVES zuko #and feels so guilty for what happened to him #so his emotions are all over the place #& it’s only gotten worse since that scene…. #they actually go out of the rhino situation rather unscathed #it also did lead to their capture #but lucky Sokka doesn’t realize that haha #or we could slide some more trauma onto his shoulders oops #I hope I answered your question anon #I love when y’all question things or have deeper thoughts about scenes #you’re awesome #liab #ria #ask

[demaparbat-hp]

Little Zuzu for an incoming project 🔥

#atla #avatar the last airbender #zuko #atla zuko #zutara #avatar #prince zuko #zuko fanart #atla fanart #atla art #zuko art #I'm... kinda new here so I don't know the tags #Anyways you guessed it (it's a comic) #You may blame our only true God Hozier for making me do this #I never asked for the perfect Zuko song and yet I still received Arsonist's Lullaby #Amazing #Anyways he's literally the love of my life #Best. Character. Ever. #And I know I say this about... pretty much all my favorite characters but I MEAN IT this time #Also look at the pretty fire 🔥 #I've got a page that's literally just Dragon Fire so... I guess this was practice for Ran and Shaw????? #Gotta draw Zuzu here firebending in colors

[percki]

‘why would zuko do that’ he is sixteen years old. ‘i don’t understand zuko’ are you or have you been sixteen years old. ‘zuko just makes bad decisions’ he is sixteen years old. ‘zuko burned down kyoshi island’ he’s literally sixteen years old. ‘zuko kidnapped a twelve year old and dragged him through the snow for hours’ yeah sure but he was sixteen years old. ‘zuko hired an assassin to capture aang, and said assassin went rogue and attempted to kill everyone’ yeah well he’s not good at critical thinking. he’s sixteen years old

#this post is a joke. i love zuko i would hit him with my car and then cradle his head like a dying baby deer #atla #zuko’s literally just a wet cat sorry. he’s not good at making decisions #this is a criticism of the ‘zuko can do no wrong’ ppl but ALSO a criticism of the ‘zuko is inherently bad and can never change’ ppl #two criticisms for the price of one post hehe #avatar the last airbender #prince zuko #zuko #talk tag

[thatonedudeinthecorner]

Sokka, trying to be more friendly to Zuko after becoming Aang’s firebending teacher: relax, guy, I like gay men

Zuko, sweating profusely: that’s nice but…I’m not gay

Sokka, who has been daydreaming about kissing him, KNOWING his fantasies were based off of some fact: [squinting] I don’t believe that

#memes #avatar #avatar the last airbender #atla #sokka #zuko #zukka #zukka memes #I just love this audio it’s so funny #relax I like gay men #Zuko aka mr gay gayman the gay man #im not gay #NO ONE IS GOING TO BELIEVE THAT ZUKO #I like to think that Sokka has like #cringey middle school anime drawings of him and Zuko kissing #he doodles in the middle of aangs bending lessons #in between hassling Zuko and being a general nuisance #he needs his hobbies #and I support them 100%

[nemkero]

zuko when i make him my oc (hi)

#hydrogen bomb vs coughing baby #there is almost zero difference between them #but #he gets less scrawny #and grows a lil #im just soft for happy affectionate comic zuko #hes so cute #hope he die #and this will be like #the only time ill draw book 3 zuko standing straight #anyways #only drew this to use as reference #bc i wanna draw them interacting #i love stupid self indulgent time travel bs #atla #avatar #avatar fanart #avatar the last airbender #atla fanart #atla art #atla zuko #zuko #fire lord zuko

[luriuan]

Sokka and Zuko get SO much funnier when you remember this is both of their first times talking to another teenage boy in years. Sokka had all the other boys leave the tribe when he was little and Zuko just hasn’t talked to other teenage boys. They wanna be friends but have absolutely no clue how to talk to other teenagers. I love them so much.

#Sokka #Sokka Alta #atla sokka #atla #atla zuko #zuko #avatar the last airbender #it cracks me up #little lonely asses 💀 #zuko atla #Zuko and Sokka #Sokka and Zuko #zukka #i love them so much #they mean so much to me #you cannot convince me Sokka wasn’t ecstatic when he realized another teenager was joining the Gaang #Zuko trying to be nice #and Sokka desperately trying not to infodump so he doesn’t scare zuko away #Zuko was probably bummed Sokka was a little younger too #but still like “”Another teen boy who’s kinda chill how do I converse where is my uncle Help.

[fanfic-gremlin-ft-trauma]

bad day need hug

#zukka #zuko x sokka #zukka fanart #atla #atla fanart #yes clingy Sokka this clingy Sokka that #what about Zuko who has never once seen peace finally feeling comfortable seeking affection? #what about Zuko having the worst possible day but he’s okay because #he knows he has a loving bf to go to who won’t deny him care? #sorry I’ll shut up now but this is too important to me

[venator-signum]

I always see the "sunshine" character reduced to someone who is simply happy and bubbly all the time and I was thinking about how I wanted a sunshine character who is sunshine but because they choose to be - because they wake up every day and choose kindness

and then I remembered aang exists and that want has been filled

#rosi shitposts #atla #avatar the last airbender #aang #atla aang #hes the best boy #hes been through so much #so much trauma and guilt and anger that he could have taken out on the world and on zuko in particular #but he didnt #he offered and chose friendship love and kindness every time #he defeated ozai as an air nomad and according to what HE thought was right not anybody else #aang supremacy

[teddytheartist]

Sokka side-profile for the girls and the gays

#this is likeee 20yo sokka in my mind #also yes big nose for the win #we love this specific flavour of sokka in this house #he’s looking at his so #cough Zuko cough #I love this tricolor pencil man it makes everything so much prettier #fanart #atla sokka #atla #atla fanart #avatar the last airbender

[bakedbeanchan]

AU where Zuko doesn't practice helmet safety

#baked bean originals #avatar the last airbender #zuko #sokka #iroh #atla #what would even happen after this. aang's firebending teacher is dead #he'd have to learn from. jeong jeong. #on another note i love how violence is such a big deal to aang #but it's just a chore to sokka #he did not gaf about killing all those guys in air ships or combustion man #“YEAH BOOMERANG :D!!” sokka you just murdered a man. #he cheers after he murders combustion the exact same way i cheer when i finish writing a tedious essay

[zukosdualdao]

everytime i see antis imply that katara somehow secretly still hates zuko by the end of the show, i'm like

... "yup. that's exactly how i look at people i hate."

#zutara #whether you interpret it platonically or romantically i truly don't care but she likes him! by the end of the show! #the different expressions are so too cute too #before tsr hug is like. fondly seeing someone in a new light #second one is friend enjoying teasing another friend #third one is like. soft and comforting but also almost admiring #fourth is literally weeping with joy that he's okay #like. in what world does she hate him by the end of this show lmao #also katara has very expressive eyebrows and i love that for her #atla #zuko #katara

[petricorah]

🍃 couldn't decide on which of jin's hairstyles i liked best so i combined them [id in alt]

#zuko #zuko fanart #atla fanart #avatar the last airbender fanart #avatar the last airbender #avatar fanart #atla #jin avatar #zuko x jin #look yall know i love zukka and i love mai and zuko but jin will always have a soft spot in my heart #i never read the comics and have no intention of doing so but heard that mai broke up with him? and if he can't be with mai i do think it #would be endearing to have him be with jin. and b funny for her to suddenly have the firelord show up at her door step asking for a date #and that he could have a connection to where iroh spends his time and split time between there and the fire nation capital #she continues to call him lee #edit: in the show she wears her hair in braids one time and the a ponytail the second time and i combined them for this

[comradekatara]

i feel like the reason aang isn’t as adored and beloved as he should be is because he’s the protagonist but he’s also not an archetypal western classical hero. i don’t agree with the entirety of that “avatar aang: feminist icon” essay because i think the role of patriarchy and gender in atla is more complex than what that essay posits, but he definitely complicates the masculine ideal of heroism and generally does not conform to patriarchal notions of masculinity. which is very deliberate, especially as contrasted with sokka and zuko’s explicit struggles with the imperialist/colonial standards of an aggressive, militaristic, and chauvinistic masculinity. aang is subversive because he represents an absence of war in a world ravaged by it. through his link to a (somewhat more) peaceful and harmonious past, he represents a better possible future. as katara would say, he brings people hope.

but people don’t like that he’s not visibly edgy or tormented like zuko is (even though he’s a far more tragic character than zuko is, just fyi), that he isn’t “cool” (even though he’s literally the coolest kid ever, just fyi), that he “gets the girl” (even though if anything, she gets him) despite being twelve and bald and nice (the horror!). katara is the more classical hero of the narrative, as its narrator and its catalyst, the adventurous revolutionary who gradually learns to control and use her powers and eventually becoming a force to be reckoned with. zuko is the classical anti-hero of the narrative, his “redemption arc” constantly hailed as one of the greatest character arcs in television. so people expect katara and zuko, as very obvious narrative foils who parallel each other every step of the way, to be the obvious couple, because based on every romance narrative we’ve been inundated with throughout our lives, within our patriarchal society, they “just make sense together.”

but as much as katara is a protagonist in her own right, aang is the show. the title quite literally represents the central thematic tension of the entire narrative, the colon illustrating the implicit divide between his duties to this brave new world in desperate need of justice and balance, or his duties to his extirpated culture as the last true voice among them. aang is the central figure because this tension represents the crucial ideological battle happening across the entire show. aang is the avatar because he is the only person in the entire world whose values have not been shaped by war.

people constantly laud zuko, in particular, for being the most interesting, complex character in avatar. but i personally don’t even think that’s true. which isn’t to say that zuko isn’t fascinating in his own right, of course, but rather that he’s certainly not the only complex character this show has to offer. he just happens to monologue about his anguish constantly. but aang wasn’t raised as an imperial prince, and so he approaches the world, and his own pain, in a very different manner. the reason he immediately goes to ride giant koi on kyoshi island, mailchutes in omashu, and otherwise goofs around after learning of the shocking ramifications of his people’s genocide is because that’s how he copes with his pain. unlike zuko, who never stops talking about his aches and yearnings, aang represses his trauma and hides his tears behind a mask of upbeat cheerful goofy twelve year old antics.

until he can’t anymore. until he snaps. both katara and zuko wear their hearts on their sleeves, and that includes their rage. but aang’s rage is dangerous specifically because it represents that he has been pushed past his limits, that the conditions of this world in which he is a perpetual stranger, temporally displaced and dispossessed, are intolerable. that peaceful reconciliation is impossible. and the fact that he persists beyond that breaking point, over and over again, to firmly and resoundingly establish his ideals even as they conflict with everything he has learned about this world, a world that is not his own even as he can never return to the world he once knew, is what makes him so unique, so powerful, so beautiful.

i know that aang isn’t the typical hero, neither narratively nor aesthetically, but really, that’s the entire point. the world, our world, needs something other than what we have now. we need someone who will not succumb to the ideals of domination and victory through violence to assert themselves. we need someone who stands firm in refusing to kill the firelord, even as everyone he knows tells him otherwise. we need someone who knows that darkness cannot be vanquished through more darkness, but can only truly yield to purifying light.

and sure, aang is a child, and often acts childishly. sure, he’s not conventionally handsome and alluring. but one thing i will never understand is how that somehow negates his appeal to the masses. because even if you don’t appreciate how crucial he is to the themes of this narrative you all seem to love so much, how can you not love his adorable little face? his precious little laugh, his zest for life, the infinite well of love and kindness he holds in his heart? people who hate aang are crazy to me. because you are, quite literally, hating the world’s most precious baby boy.

#aang #katara #zuko #analysis #hot takes #sorry this one is kind of all over the place #very stream of consciousness bc it’s loving aang hours #and he’s not only meaningful narratively #but he’s also just SOOOOO CUTE #I would literally pay money to babysit him #which I think defeats the point of babysitting but whatever #he’s just. so precious 😭😭😭 #also fwiw I don’t really fw kataang either but like. it does make more narrative sense than the alternative #and if it had been executed better . well. who can say

[demaparbat-hp]

Fire Half-Child

#atla #zuko #avatar the last airbender #atla zuko #zutara #halfblood au #zutara au #atla art #atla fanart #zuko fanart #prince zuko #zuko art #zuko alone #Halfblood AU art #katara #Here comes the Blue Eye Samurai art style influence rearing its pretty head #Gotta love that show's use of lighting #I know this looks like another good ol' Zuko Alone fanart... And it kinda is... But I swear it's also from the HalfBlood AU #I'm still figuring out Zuko's backstory in this AU but I know he was raised in the EK after escaping the Fire Nation as a child #It was probably Ursa who took her freshly burned son and left with help from the White Lotus #I'm... not entirely sure if Zuko remembers everything from his previous life. Flashes of memories and faces but that's it #He believes himself to be a War Child. Ursa loved him but she was also distant in illness and grief. #She taught him to hide his real name and his firebending at all costs. Agni only knew what would happen to him if he was found out. #The last thing Ursa said to him before pushing him out of the burning cottage was to search for his Uncle in Ba Sing Se #He would help him. Keep him safe. And he had answers. #He could tell Zuko of his past and his memories and shed some light over his strange dreams and his mother's sorrow #He just had to reach Ba Sing Se and find him. Uncle would tell him everything about the monster who had burned her mother's back and spirit #Then Zuko would find him #And no demon other than himself would ever roam the earth again #Change of subject. Am I going to keep dropping the full backstory and plot in the tags? Yes. Yes I will. Sorry guys

[dranktwocoffees]

have i ever mentioned how genuinely happy i am that zuko ended up with a daughter. he'd be a great dad even if he had a son but theres no character in atla with stronger girl dad vibes. he just needed a daughter

#atla #avatar the last airbender #atla zuko #princess izumi #dadko #the only one who can compete with zukos girl dad vibes is korras dad #hakoda is great but you can tell hes a boy dad.... still very dad though i love him #zuko: dad edition

[lilith-91]

This is the sweetest thing EVER

#avatar the last airbender #atla #aang #zuko #sokka #katara #toph #THEY ARE SO ADORABLE 😭 #love how zuko is mad with sokka lol #he wanted to give aang his gift :(