#atla time travel

[wileycap]

Crackfic Idea:

30-year-old Zuko gets randomly flung back in time to his 16-year-old self. For a couple of hours at a time. At the most random times imaginable. Imagine the potential.

Zuko assumes that it's a dream or a vision, but definitely not real. He tries not to freak everybody out too badly, but he's also fully enjoying himself and seeing all of his friends as their young selves.

ZUKO, as he and Aang circle each other at the South Pole: I've spent years preparing for this encounter. Training, meditating. You're just a [Spirit Shwoop Sound] ... baby Aang!

AANG, confused: Well, more like preteen Aang. How do you know my name?

ZUKO, looking around: Wait, where are we?

AANG: Um... this is the-

SOKKA: Don't answer him! He's trying to get information out of you. You can't give away our location!

KATARA: Sokka, he's standing in the middle of our village. I think he knows.

ZUKO: We're here? This is so weird. I was just here for the Annual Penguin Race.

AANG: THERE'S AN ANNUAL PENGUIN RACE?!

ZUKO: Well, yeah, it was your idea... you gave a whole speech about cross-cultural cooperation and friendship, but I know you just wanted to go penguin sledding with a bunch of people...

AANG: Well, I-

SOKKA: Stop giving him more information! He already knows about the penguins!

Everybody else is confused, bewildered and even befuddled except for Iroh, who assumes that it's Spirit Shenanigans™️ and just fully accepts that his nephew likes tea and hugs and Pai Sho sometimes while being his usual shouty surly traumaball self at others.

ZUKO, stepping into the cabin: Hi, Uncle. I brought you some ginseng. How about a game of Pai Sho?

IROH, tearing up a little: I would love that, my nephew.

ZUKO: I wish we could do this more often, but you live so far away...

IROH, mentally calculating that he lives exactly three doors away from Zuko, and nodding sagely: The rat-viper may never climb the mountain that a hog-monkey can, but the monkey does not know what lies underneath it.

ZUKO, sighing sadly: I know, Uncle. I do appreciate my position in life, even if it has disadvantages.

IROH: Hmm. Your move, nephew.

The crew of Zuko's ship is terrified by the fact that whenever it happens, Zuko is somehow even more hyper-competent, seems to be weirdly calm about everything, and most unnervingly of all, he's polite.

SOLDIER: Here is a report on the best teahouses within three days travel of our current location, Sir. And, uh, Commander Zhao sent a messenger hawk.

ZUKO: Excellent. Thank you very much, Sergeant. I think we can ignore whatever Zhao has to say. In reply, I want you to send him a list of the most famous officers in Fire Nation history, and point out that none of them had sideburns. I want to see if he shaves them.

SOLDIER, sweating nervously: O-of course, Sir.

As a matter of fact, the whole fic could just be Zuko trolling Zhao. It would be glorious.

#atla #atla spoilers #atla fic #avatar the last airbender #crack fic #time travel #atla zuko #atla iroh #avatar aang #sokka #katara #zuko #atla zhao #iroh

[stealthetrees]

I had a really funny idea for a Zukka time travel AU, but I can’t write so all I have to offer are two low quality memes

#avatar #atla fanfic #atla #zukka fanfic #zukka au #time travel #atla zuko #sokka atla #fire lord zuko #zuko x sokka

[a-todd-illustration]

Fanfic prompt: Aang sees a vision of the future, which gives him the hope to keep going.

Feel free to make something of it!

#myart #fanart #avatar the last airbender #atla #avatar #zuko #aang #katara #toph #sokka #time travel fic #roku #avatar roku #avatar aang #fanfic idea

[rboooks]

The Shadow Nation

Zuko will admit that his time as Fire Lord has been a rough adjustment. Many oppose his rise to power, scream for a more prolonged war, and still support Ozai over the banished prince turned tratior (In their eyes at least).

He has dealt with many assassination attempts throughout his two-year rule. Suki and her warriors were working nonstop to keep him safe, but even they couldn't be everywhere at once. So it came to no surpise that one managed to sneak through every now and then.

Ussually, Zuko is able to fight them off. What many people of the fire nation don't realize is that the stories of his bending and combat being weaker then his sister and father are in the past. He has plentely of front line combant experince, has re-shaped his whole fire bending tenchine and has even trained the Avatar.

Zuko, to this day, is much more deadly with his swords than with his flames. The fact his people consider none-bending as a none-threaten is a sadundervalue of his combat abilitiess. The assasins are always so suprise when they learned just how ready he is for them.

They spent the rest of their days in a prision cell, stweing in rage that the Fire Lord contuines to call back troops, return colines and some may say worst of all, welcome the Mixed Blood into the nation.

Mixed Blood are children who resulted from Fire Nation soldiers letting off some stress in conquered areas with other Nations. They were not seen as equals, for Fire stood above all, and those children were servents at best, dirty secerts at worse.

This was a notion that all four elements shared. They disagreed with intermingling with the wrong element. The Mixed were not welcomed anywhere, less if they shared Fire in their veins. There was some tolerance for Water and Earth mixing but only some and only in trading ports that were far out of sight. (Or the pleasure district where all the Mixed eventually ended up)

It saddens Aang; he claimed a hundred years ago that mixed was common, and it's another thing this wretched war ruined.

Mostly, it angered Zuko. He knew what it was like to be an unwanted child, knew the confusion, the anger, the pain of wondering why his birth was such a sin.

He met some mixed children while on the run from the Fire Nation - he suspected Jet was one of them, but he never dared voice his opinion. Being outed as mixed in some places was as good as a death sentence. Ba Sing Se was one of those places.

He decided that the if Fire Nation would heal everything they have done then they needed to make admends for such children. They needed to help them find love and a home. With the help of his friends, he sent out a world wide notice welcoming any Mixed Blood and promising a life where they did not need to hide who they were.

Zuko, will admit that this eagerness to welcome those children may have blinded him from how lowly his people saw the Mixed. His assassination attempts tripled since herds and herds of badly washed, weary eyes, and tired individuals started arriving in the fire nation.

It, apparently, didn't help that Cheif Hakoda did the same after much encouragement from Katara and Sokka. The Fire Nation for the past three generations grew up with nothing but tales on how they should never be like the rest of the world.

Agreeing to shelter Mixed like the Southern Water Tribe has many calling for a coup.

Zuko knew this. But he would not stop in his effort to right the many wrongs of his bloodline. He expected the assumptions, he expected the barely hidden insults of his advisors, he expected the resentment from some of his more patriotic people.

What he wasn't expecting was his people trying to rid of him using spirits.

Zuko doesn't know much about the spirits or the spirit world. Aang never really talked about his trips there, and Uncle would only warn him to respect the beings at all costs.

He knew enough to follow, honor them, give them prayers, and how to avoid them but nothing else. So he really isn't prepared for his latest assassin to be an old woman with a spirit trapped in a cursed pot.

Apparently, her family had sealed it away years ago, and in exchange for its freedom, the spirit is tasked with ridding the world of Fire Lord Zuko. The old hag waits until Aang, Uncle, and Sokka- who also surprisingly has some encounters with spirits- depart before attempting her plan.

She rushes into the Gand Courtroom, throwing her pot with a loud release spell on her lips. Zuko is in the middle of a peace summit, so his first instinct is to protect the visiting diplomatics, less the other Nations call war again.

The old woman is quickly taken down by the Kypshi warrior, but the deed is already over.

The pot shatters, and out bursts a blue burning flame that forms into a howling wolf. There are chains along the wolf neck, and no amount of thrashing can break them. The wolf looks up, straight into Zuko's eyes, ignoreing the swords and flames of his guards trying to protect him before it bows it head.

I'm sorry. It seems to say. This is the only way.

He leaps at Zukom by passing every attempt to stop it, before it digs it's teeth into the Fire Lord's neck. Everyone is left watching in horror as the young king screams in agony, blue flames licking all over his body as he truns to dust.

The wolf's chains shatter as the last of the ashes that were once the man who brought peace to the world fall. The old woman laughs, even though the wolf spirit now turns it rage filled eyes on her and her kin.

She did what she needed to do. The Fire Nation will rise.

She is unaware that her actions cause the Fire Nation to burn. The wolf spirit was the nation's original spirit of mercy, and her family was the ones responsible for sealing it away on the order of thelate Fire Lord Sozin.

She is unaware her ancestors were all but wiped out once they successfully put the wolf away, for fear that they would turn on the nation.

There is nothing more dangerous than a spirit that no longer holds mercy. The Fire Nation seems to vanish overnight. It breaks Avatar Aang's heart but world prepares for a second war. A war against the spirits.

But that is the fate of this timeline. Fire Lord Zuko would never know the fate of his people as he was sent far away by Mercy to fulfill another destiny.

It's the least the spirit can do for having to take his human life in part of a deal.

Zuko wakes to find the Blue Spirit Mask attached to his face, laying on his back in what could only be Fire Nation colonies within the Earth Kingdom.

His trusted duel swords tied to his back., his utterly black outfit with only hints of blue undertones, and the most startling feature of all, his now unscared skin.

Zuko has no idea what is going onas he studies his face in a river, tracing his smooth skin with a near-hysterical glee. He's never considered himself overly goodlooking, but for some reason his relection is pretty.

No, not pretty, gorgeous. Unnaturally so, as if he traded his humanity for features as perfect as these.

What in the world-

A scream breaks through the air. High pitch, laced with fear and sp obviously young, Zuko is donning his mask breaking into a sprint before he even process what he is doing.

He does not notice the small flickers of ember he leaves in his wake, multiple colors as his dragon flames, nor does he see that the speed he travels is impossible unless he, too, is an Airbender.

When he breaks through the treeline, he finds himself in a ruined camp. A crowd of Earth Kingdom soldiers surrounds two small children, who look no older than ten, while a third, probably twelve, is desperately trying to free himself from a large boulder that seems to have crushed his legs.

There is blood everywhere, and Zuko burns with rage.

"Mixed Blood isn't welcome here," A soldier spits, kicking the thrashing twelve-year-old. The gut-curling screams the poor thing releases don't seem to affect the soldiers besides a few taunting smirks.

"Spirits help us!" One of the smaller kids cries out and a near by soulder kicks her in the stomech.

"The spirits don't answer to the likes of-" His words are lost as blue flames overtake the small opening, placing a barrier between the children and the adults.

Zuko walks through the flames, a strange sense of calmness washing over him. Deep within, he knows that he will protect these children from the world and burn everything in his path that tries to stop him.

"A spirit," One of the soldiers gasps. "Why is a spirit here?!"

"You attacked children." Zuko's voice is his own but not. It sounds like it's coming from a deep cave, as if the echoing flickers in and out like a candle flame. Somehow, it sounds far worse than Aang whenever his past lives speak through him.

It would have chilled him to the bone if he was in the right state of mind.

"You attacked children." He repeats when he does not get the responses he wants from the soldiers. They are not groveling before the children in regret. They are not freeing the boy from his pain. They are not moving.

"These are not children. These are Mixed- abominations! We were only trying to Agggh No, please. Mercy! No no! Please," One of the soldiers starts, but his words are cut off by the blue flames that suddenly grab hold of him, shaping him into chains and dragging him into the shadows that have formed around Zuko.

Shadows that hold loud screaming voices all being for death for that would be a mercy.

His screams echo alongside the voices within Zuko's shadow as he tilts his head to the remaining soliders.

"You attacked children. Leave" He whispers and at once the screams stop, the shadows draw back into his own human shaped one and his flames blow out. The Earth Kingdom soldier remains on the floor, eyes seeingless, and skin blue.

Dead.

The rest of the Soldiers don't linger, rushing to leave the angry spirits sight. Zuko watches them leave from behind his mask wondering where such rage had come from. And why he felt numb to the life he just took. Why he felt so unhuman and not be bothered by the thought.

He reaches up to trace the Blue Spirit Mask, feeling dancing flames along his fignertips.

Well done. Our children are safe. A voice whispers in his mind. It's Zuko, but it's also not. It's something more.

He hears a small whimper that snaps his out of whatever hold the mask has over him snaps. He turns his attention to the three children. The two are trying to push the bolder off of the eldest, their features scream Fire Nation but their eyes and coloring belie their Earth Kingdom.

Zuko stride over, waves a hand and the rock butns to dust harmlessly. The younger children cower and the oldest is too daze with pain to do anything else but sob.

His legs are comepletly smashed.

The cold burning rage returns.

Our children. Heal them. Zuko hears, and he wonders if he's gone mad. It's his own voice, but it belongs to the Blue Spirit.

I can't. I'm not a waterbender. He tells it

We can. We heal with green flames. Heal. It insits

Zuko traces the jaw of his mask before he raises a hand and sure enough green flames lick his fingers. The children start to sob, but he heads their fear no mind as he brings the green fire down on the boy's broken body, willing it to warm, fix heal.

Bones, muscles and skin slowly repair one by one, taking whatever scars once decorated the child's skin and leaving smooth almost too perefect sking behind.

Once done the flames jump onto the other children, fixing the broken bones, the bruises and the many scars other less kind humans have given them.

The three gape up at the spirit who holds out a hand.

"Would you like to come live in my nation?"

"The spirit world?" One whispers wondering if they had not been rescued after all. If that had all pasted to the next world.

The spirit tilts its head before removing its mask and revealing a face so beautiful it could rival the stars and sun. "No, dear child. My nation. My name is Zuko."

A fifth nation is born. The Shadow Nation moves from place to place but can never be taken as the spirits themselves protect the civilians.

Not that Zuko realizes it. He's just trying to get back to the Fire Nation, and if he impulsively stops every time a child is in pain and said child follows behind him like a lost puppy, well, that's no one's business but his own.

The legend of the Blue Spirit, protector of all children, inspires so many before Avatar Aang is found in the Southern Water tribe three years later.

A fire wolf watches from a far and smiles.

#avatar the last airbender #time travel #Zuko is the blue Spirit #I've been reading a lot of ATLA fanfiction #I love the idea of Zuko being confused for a spirit #Zuko has no idea what's going on #tw: child abuse #Tw: some racism?

[thebxghag]

Azulaang aus c:

#this fully started out as a crack ship #but inevitably my little brain just kept creating scenarios #sdknfksdjnf #most of the sketches are from an au in which azula chose to go with the gaang after the war instead of with Iroh like zuko wanted her to do #just to be a contrarian #and then somehow she ended up one of the last members travelling with aang full time #and the one in the middle is for an au in which aang lost the war and became a politaical prisoner #that I’ve been writing for three heckin years #but I DO think I’m on the last draft for that one >D #my art #atla #fanart #avatar the last airbender #illustration

[thegaangneedstherapy]

Zukka fic Rec

Look at the way we love you (darling, isn't it nice?)

Zuko-no, Lee, seventeen years old, server at Pao's tea shop. He only goes to the shaman because Uncle insists, really. Plus, the fumes are making him dizzy and-

He wakes up in Caldera. Apparently, twenty-seven years old Zuko is Fire Lord, married, and knows so. Many. People.

What in Agni's flaming balls is this.

#atla #zukka #avatar the last airbender #zuko #zuko x sokka #sokka x zuko #zukka fic rec #fanfiction #sokka #zukka fanfic #ao3 #archive of our own #time travel

[vintageskeletons]

LIAB-verse zukkas based on conversations @ssreeder and i had, because it's their birthdayyyayyayayayayy!!!

happy birthday to my one and only prison pal, cookie in my cookie day, wine to my lemon juice etc etc.

you're insufferably amazing and amazingly insufferable. never change sreeds! :) <3

#id in alt text #avatar the last airbender #atla #zukka #sokka #zuko #leaving it all behind #risking it all #injuries #(just to be safe) #fanfic art #sreedy #wine to my lemon juice #my art #now time for the rambly sappiness! SREEDY YOU BETTER LOOK DOWN HERE #happiest birthday to you you beautiful squid i hope you get showered with all the love today and every other day cuz you deserve it! #i love your stupid magic hands and your stupid magic brain but mostly i love YOU. you're a wonderful person and an awful jerk <333 #one day i'll bring you the honey cornflakes.. and our potato chips.. steal your boots.. come for your kneecaps.. #(also very sorry this is MESSY. i knew we were travelling but didn't expect it to be on your bday week. i had to speedrun this ;( ) #sorry i'll stop now! *crawls away to poke you elsewhere* #(did i plan to embarrass you on your bday? is this actually disguised fanart bribe? am i just an incredibly sexy genius?) #:) :) :)

[waterfire1848]

[ Team Avatar and the Krew interacting. ]

Sokka: We are very professional.

Aang: Get her off! Get her off!

[ Zuko trying to pry Toph off Aang. ]

Zuko: If you’re not ready to challenge her then don’t look her in the eye!

[ Zuko slams into Katara. ]

Katara: Stop shoving or I will pull out your tongue!

Sokka: Most of the time.

#incorrect quotes #source: the croods #sokka #Aang #zuko #toph beifong #katara #time travel AU #korra #atla #TLOK #avatar the last airbender #the legend of korra

[mysticwolfshadows]

So, after the live action series, I've been binge reading basically all my AO3 bookmarks for ATLA/Zutara. (Can you blame me? The TENSION in that scarf scene. Damn.)

Anyway, I got really in the mood for a time travel fic, but I only had one and it was an 'into the future' fic. (I Choose Us: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27492745) So I go to look, and I can't find anything that peeked my interest, and I realize that I wanted to watch the world burn and came up with one instead.

Basic set up is that everything is the same, all the way up until Zuko and Katara arrive at Azula's coronation. Instead of challenging him to an Agni Kai, Azula is wild and fights them both. And when Azula is starting to lose, she goes after Katara like normal. Only, Zuko isn't in a spot where he can save here, and, well... Yeah.

So, in my racing midnight mind, I immediately started to think about firebending and angst, and how insanely cool it would be for Zuko to unlock this fort of feral firebending form. Just going absolutely savage, his inner fire not coming out in controlled bursts or movements, but to literally start bursting from his skin all over his body. Have it burn everything as he loses control, until there's literally nothing left.

But then Zuko wakes up back in Ba Sing Se, after he had been sick. And he remembers.

And suddenly, we have a set up for Zuko having this uncontrolled power that flares with his emotions, and a SECOND layer of trauma centered around Katara. He couldn't save her before, and if he doesn't get a handle on this power, he'll have to see her die all over again! And, of course, he can't dare attack her in the catacombs, so he joins the gaang.

Katara vouches for him, even though he won't meet her eyes. Toph confirms, saying he's telling the truth about being on their side. Aang is optimistic, but Sokka is kinda dubious. Until, of course, Zuko starts talking about what the Fire Nation plans to do on the Day of Black Sun and helping with revising battle plans.

Even if Iroh is there, Toph obviously would tell that the 'uh, I was the prince?' explanation isn't quite right.

They go through the Fire Nation, Zuko helping them navigate the best he can. He tries to not let them get distracted, but it never works. Toph eventually questions him, and thinks he's either insane or had some sort of spirit vision.

And of course, they get into shenanigans. The dance party, Zuko pointedly staying out of the way, being a look out. Cleaning the river, busting out the Blue Spirit disguise. Taking Sokka to Piando, and having a really interesting conversation. Then we get to Hama. And Zuko knows basically nothing about this, other than Katara's crazy display while investigating the Southern Raiders.

At some point, Zuko and Katara have to have a conversation. He's weirdly protective of her. Just her. And Zuko sort of kinda tries to side step it. He's a terrible liar, of course, so he says something along the lines of he had a spirit vision and he saw her dead. He doesn't want to talk about it, so Katara doesn't really get details.

Do they win on the Day of Black Sun? Does Aang succeed in taking out Ozai? Or do they have to retreat again, to face off on the day of the comet?

#zutara #zuko #katara #time #time travel #atla #avatar the last airbender #fanfic idea

[soopersara]

For reasons that have everything and nothing to do with the most recent chapters of I&S, I've been thinking a lot about a time travel AU that I will absolutely never write.

Specifically, I want a time travel AU where little-kid!Zuko (age 9-10) travels forward in time and meets angry-teen!Zuko (we're talking like... the Book 1 egghead version of angry-teen!Zuko here). I know that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, but the way I envision this playing out is:

Teen!Zuko and kid!Zuko meet, and after a healthy amount of confusion, figure out that they're two different versions of the same person. Kid!Zuko is... not thrilled to be stuck on a rickety old ship with a much grumpier version of himself, but hey! Uncle Iroh is here, and he's got lots of board games and even more free time, so it could be worse. Teen!Zuko, meanwhile, is having a bit of a crisis as he gets slapped in the face with several realizations all at once.

Realization #1: A warship is not a good place for a 9-10 year old boy to live, but there's literally nowhere else in the world where kid!Zuko will be safe. For as long as kid!Zuko is stuck in this timeline, teen!Zuko has to look after him.

Realization #2: Oh, shit. No one has seriously fucked up kid!Zuko yet. His life obviously hasn't been perfect, but this is pretty much the peak of kid!Zuko's sweet-and-innocent phase.

Realization #3: ... as fucked up as teen!Zuko's life has been, he desperately doesn't want to be the person who fucks up kid!Zuko's life.

Cue teen!Zuko scrambling to get his shit together so that he can be a reasonably healthy and stable guardian/big brother figure for his younger self. He starts working on his temper and trying to take Iroh's advice more seriously, and while things don't always go smoothly (kid!Zuko definitely picks up some vigilante tendencies from teen!Zuko. There may or may not be sightings of a tiny Blue Spirit causing trouble up and down the Earth Kingdom coast), teen!Zuko eventually figures out what he's doing. He puts in the work to become a decent role model, he deals with some of his own shit (and his outlook on life improves), he grows to see kid!Zuko as the little brother he never had, and he generally doesn't fuck anything up too badly.

Basically, looking after kid!Zuko teaches teen!Zuko self love (but with extra steps! I don't think grumpy-teen!Zuko could ever learn anything the simple way 😂)

All of that growth makes it harder and harder for teen!Zuko to ever envision himself returning to the Fire Nation. After all, if he wouldn't put his younger self through the pain of going back there and dealing with Ozai, why should he put his present self through that? And on a related note, kid!Zuko definitely has questions about teen!Zuko's scar and banishment. When teen!Zuko reaches a point where he's able to think about the Agni Kai, he can't imagine anything that kid!Zuko could ever do to deserve that kind of treatment, which leads teen!Zuko to question whether he deserved it. And as teen!Zuko starts to come to grips with the fact that he's probably never going back home - certainly not if it would mean putting kid!Zuko through the same pain that teen!Zuko experienced there - he has to start considering what other options he has for the future.

Kid!Zuko may or may not accelerate teen!Zuko's redemption arc even more by befriending various members of the Gaang and dragging his 'big brother' along to meet his new friends/disappearing for a few hours with his new friends only to be 'rescued' by teen!Zuko who is... very surprised and very awkward about it when he realizes who kid!Zuko is hanging out with.

There are obviously lots of time travel AUs out there already, but apparently this one is just going to live in my brain for the forseeable future 😂 As much as I love the standard "post-redemption!Zuko meets Book 1 Zuko and mentors his younger self to accelerate his own redemption/drags himself kicking and screaming toward redemption" time travel AUs that I see around the fandom, I think I'm just hungry for a time travel AU where pre-redemption!Zuko doesn't know what his future could look like. To me, there's just something really appealing about the idea of a time travel AU where his redemption gets accelerated not because he knows his life will get better if he becomes a better person, but because he wants to be someone who his younger self can be proud of.

#atla headcanons #zuko #zuko headcanons #time travel au #now it's time for me to go back to daydreaming #about the Zutara variant of this AU #where either Katara finds kid!Zuko first and has to find him a permanent guardian #which can only be teen!Zuko or Iroh #and since she's bonded with kid!Zuko by the time that she finds teen!Zuko and Iroh #she can't get herself to just drop off kid!Zuko and run #so they all strike an uneasy alliance #OR the other version #where kid!Zuko and teen!Zuko are traveling together from the beginning #and when Katara comes into the Ba Sing Se teashop #kid!Zuko starts playing with Momo #then teen!Zuko tries to get his 'little brother' to stop bothering the customers #Katara sees teen!Zuko #and Zutara-flavored teashop shenanigans ensue #zutara

[innocentimouto]

Do you think the show/franchise should acknowledge that Jet Is one of Iroh’s victims?

Do you mean because the Rough Rhinos were under Iroh's command (or at least their leader was)?

At first I thought no, just because the show moved on from Iroh's flaws and never gave us anything in terms of his victims. I don't see them doing it, let alone doing it right. Also Jet would get even more hate.

But say they could do it right. Then yes, it would be incredible. Even if Jet still died, so long as it was made clear to characters like the Gaang or Zuko and Iroh that he was one of Iroh's victims, I would be happy.

Whatever opinions there are about Jet's actions in war, he did something. He was resourceful and strong; he could have fled somewhere else or survived on his own (however long that would last considering the war). But he chose to help others.

Iroh never did that. I don't think Iroh helped Zuko either, but say he did. One, that's not great when Zuko was invading Sokka and Katara's home or when capturing the avatar. Two, Iroh still never helped anyone in the war against the Fire Nation until the very end.

It makes sense for a character like Jet to be the one to hate Iroh and make it clear that just because the man is elderly and kind doesn't mean he didn't do horrible things in war and then became content with doing nothing to fix it.

It even fits within the storyline. They met on the way to BSS. Zuko's arc needs to go somewhere. Iroh's arc has been stagnant for a while. Jet's trauma hasn't been properly conveyed. Having Jet bring up what Iroh has done, in detail, possibly with victims from Iroh's siege against BSS, would be a great way to force Iroh to be confronted with his actions and forced to give his thoughts on it.

Does he care? Does he care beyond feeling remorse? Has he ever thought about helping people against the Fire Nation?

It also helps Zuko's arc. He's still on the Fire Nation's side, but he's seen the other nations are just regular people. Would having Iroh state whatever his views are on this affect Zuko? If Iroh just brushed it all away with a small shake of the head and some words about letting anger go, would that make Zuko uncomfortable? Because now he has faces to possible victims. And Jet is great with words and can definitely hurt people with them, so I doubt he would stay quiet at whatever Iroh would say.

Or would Zuko simply not care and side with Iroh because he's always known what Iroh had done? Zuko burned a village down himself. Only thing he's done lately is complain about poverty.

It could go either way for them, but I think things would be clear with the Gaang. If confronted with Jet's words, and neither Zuko nor Iroh care or offer much in return, I don't think the Gaang would be that receptive to accepting Zuko later.

The Gaang has never heard Zuko say the Fire Nation propaganda he was fed all his life. I doubt they would forget it if he somehow justified the Air Nomads being massacred. I doubt Sokka, Aang, or Katara would be okay if he justified waterbenders being killed.

Calling someone a peasant or trying to kill them is one thing, but hearing someone explain to you why your people were wiped out and that it was right is not something most people will forget.

(Also we can get development with Toph and her thoughts on the war. And Suki wouldn't get her words about her village being destroyed turned into a joke. Also Haru, because fellow earth kingdom kid who most likely heard terrifying tales of the Dragon of the West.)

And seeing their reactions---horror, grief, rage, pain---no matter how behind Zuko could be on his arc, that would stay with him. He's a teenager. He's hotheaded and selfish and entitled. But he's not a monster. He feels emotions. And while I disagree strongly that he had a good redemption arc, by BSS, he at least had some doubts about some things.

It's an established way to bring Iroh's character back to morally flawed, which is good. Too many things are canon for Iroh to be anything better than that. He learned firebending from the dragons, but still continued killing innocent people? He stood by while Zuko got burned? He let Ozai take the throne without ever challenging him despite being the rightful heir and supposedly realizing the war was wrong?

Iroh had the best chance to at least slow the Fire Nation before Aang appeared. The thing about Iroh is that he's always been content to sit back and not do anything. He wanted Zuko to make tea with him within the walls while the war was coming to a close and we're expected to believe he cares about the wellbeing of other nations? About the war itself? Iroh was one of the strongest firebenders in the world. He had a responsibility to at least atone for the deaths he caused, if not outright confront Ozai.

If you meant that Jet got brainwashed because of Iroh and then eventually killed?

I don't really blame Iroh for Jet's death. I strongly side-eye Iroh for acting completely innocent about what Jet was rightfully saying despite Iroh supposedly regretful for his actions in the war and yet not caring at all that he got an innocent kid arrested by police that everyone knew were capable of making people disappear.

#Jet #atla jet #anti zuko #anti iroh #asks #anti zuko's redemption arc #hope I worded this right #basically someone needed to face Iroh and go #you killed LOTS of people #and yes past is past or whatever focus on present blah blah blah #so what have you been doing in the present? #*check notes from spying #running a teashop #running a teashop... #that's how you #as one of the strongest benders in the world #with firsthand knowledge of the enemy nation #decided to spend your time #while children are fighting the war for you #you somehow traveled through the ek #saw all the victims suffering #and are content to live happily and do nothing #honestly Jet would be that tragic character to point this out and be ignored by the narrative

[bard-llama]

DRAGONS! AKA Zuko and his crew get dragon eggs

So in Chapters 32-33 of A Second Chance at Family, a couple of our cast members get their very own dragons! This post is literally just to talk about them lol

So in my headcanon, dragons can change their size as will. They’re a little more noodly than these models, but we work with what we have. (Dragons designed using this tool)

Zuko’s Dragon: Enya

Enya is a born flyer and she’s much more mobile than the other baby dragons. She likes to curl up either in Zuko’s hair or around his neck. Her name is Irish for fire, little seed, kernel.

Iroh’s dragon: Matcha 

Matcha (named for the tea) likes to burrow into the earth, especially the soil around a bonsai tree Iroh raises. She also gains a habit of soaking in hot tea - which Iroh was initially horrified by, because she would curl up in his teapot. Eventually, he compromised by pouring her her own cup of tea to soak in - and leave the rest so that he could drink it. She also mimics Zuko and calls Iroh “Uncle”. Iroh loves it.

Engineer Nasam’s dragon: Ember

Ember likes to hang out in the furnace in the engine room on the ship while Nasam works. In general, she likes fire and detests being cold. As a dragon, she’s technically capable of telepathic communication - but she rarely speaks and when she does, it’s usually to tell someone to fuck off. (She’s a good match for Nasam’s personality and he adores her.)

Crewman Jaiza’s dragon: Uryu

Uryu is a little unusual in that she loooooves water. Her name means rain dragon in Japanese and she needed rain to help her hatch. She’ll often swim alongside the ship as it travels and is very good at using her wings to propel her through the ocean.

#atla #my fics #dragons! #time travel #because it's for the time travel fic that has gone so wildly AU that I can't even explain #fic planning

[synthshenanigans]

Jashtober Day 16- Mask

Feat. New brushes that I don't know how to properly use

Apparently I must have multiple versions of everything I make cos im indecisive, so more under the cut. [Tho they're much different this time lol]

{Warning for Bright Colors}

#IM ON TIME GUYS #IM NOT LIKE 4-8 HOURS LATE #at least in my timezone #I mean sure its still 9:30 so its still kinda late but #its actually the day its supposed to be on #ive won #annnnd it'll only mess up again this weekend cos im traveling for band again #oh well it happens #chonny jash #chonnys charming chaos compendium #cj soul #jashtober #jashtober day 16 #-atlas art- #idk if it need its for the main one but wanna be safe of course #// bright colors #eyestrain //

[10moonymhrivertam]

I would like to thank this post for reminding me i have time travel fix-it opinions like: Zuko should decide his best course of action is to just. Attach to Bumi, especially if he’s thirteen rather than sixteen. He’s heard the story about finding Aang, he knows finding him on purpose is a fool’s errand - or, at least, if it doesn’t happen again, they should have a master water bender who might be able to feel the different qualities of ice/Aang’s blood. He knows the water siblings won’t want to touch him with a ten foot pole even if he comes in peace. And maybe he’s never gotten the full story on Toph joining the team or something

But he does know someone who knows stuff about air bending and is part of the White Lotus and who’s likely to trust (or at least pretend to) a fire bender with good intentions.

Zuko pretends at a mix of pre-banishment and post-war behavior while he’s Bumi’s guest. Big ‘trained in diplomacy’ vibes. Bumi and Iroh are privately baffled by how normal he is acting. Then one day Zuko accidentally drops some slang Aang forced him to pick up or does a move he made specifically to counter the air scooter and Bumi just goes. ‘Oh there’s a particular brand of spirit fuckery going on here okay’. Maybe he assumes Aang has kind of possessed him or something or at least that he’s talking to Aang’s/the Avatar spirit in the spirit world until Zuko fesses up to the time travel

#atla #time travel #fix it #fic ideas #king bumi #atla iroh #atla zuko

[ghostly-squid]

Time travel fix-it? No. Time travel worse-it.

#time travel #specifically have brainworms about atla #Azula getting thrown back in time mid-meltdown into her toddler body #and the first thing she sees is Ursa smiling at her #and she Flips Her Shit #and what would you do? if your baby started screaming about how she knows you don't love her because she's a monster #just like her father. how she knows she only loves Zuko- who was so weak it's his fault father hurt him? #azula casually says a Whole Bunch of stuff that paints a terrifying picture that is very clearly All Ozai's Fault #Ursa made mistakes as a parent but this level of Total Meltdown coming from a daughter saying things she should have no concept of- well. #aka I want an au where Ursa kills her husband and father in law and has to write Iroh 'oh it's so sad boo hoo but as regent #I am saying everything is CANCELED so Get Your Ass Back Here My Babies Are Melting'

[sulkybender]

Sokka can't remember being this warm, this safe. It's like drinking too much; it leaves him buzzing, pleasantly numb. Zuko breathes on his hands, rubs them with his warm fingers, cards through his hair with tender heat, tells Sokka how beautiful he is. He's so adored. It's been years since anyone loved him like this.

And in the night he goes back to his family's hut, and puts his body between his father and the people he loves.

your heart, burning

#zuko #sokka #zukka #ao3 #atla #time travel fic #hurt/comfort