I noticed that every time someone says "flameo, hotman" in ATLA and beyond, none of the Fire Nation characters understand what it means. So imagine if you will, 16 year old Roku, freshly diagnosed with Avatar, landing at the air temple and being greeted with "flameo, my good hotman" by nearly all of his new classmates and being so confused.
When he asks them what the hell that means, they all just glare at Gyatso nearby, who is howling with laughter after having told everyone to say this to a Fire National that they're meeting for the first time as a prank. And he's internally like "you are a strange little man with a lot of guts. i want you on my team at all times now."
I'd also be willing to bet Gyatso told this to Aang as well and when he said it to Kuzon, he thought it was downright hilarious and the inside joke carried on.
Ok so AU where Zuko has a connection to the spirit world(no he wasn’t blessed but he spent three years running towards the first magical shit he saw so fuck you this is my headcannon) and so he doesn’t chase the Avatar but the spirits always try to push Aang and Zuko towards one another cause yk spirits like to fuck with them and one day they finally meet each other, probably a bit after the attempted siege in the NWT, but Zuko is like “No I can’t teach you firebending i dont wanna be in this war” so Roku just possesses Aang and lectures the FUCK outa Zuko because “HOW DARE YOU YOUNG MAN, TO LET YOUR NATION DOWN AND NOT SAVING THE OPPRESSED AND NOT KICKING MY EX’S GRANDKID-
Yall should go read @avatarkurukdefender's fic 'A Literal Team Avatar'
Wanted to draw some moments from the first chapter and it's been forever since I drew these characters, so it was nice to be inspired to do so again
[id: a digital illustration. The image depicts 3 doodles of teenage Roku, Kuruk, Kyoshi, and Yangchen; each in monochrome colours of red, blue, green, and orange respectively. Top left shows Kuruk holding up his animal pelt above his face with a joyful expression. Next to him is Kyoshi. Her headwear is crooked and she has a hand raised to her face. She is smiling with Kuruk. Above them reads 'affectionately bullying a 14 year old'. Top right has Roku looking up at Yangchen with a peeved expression as he is now the shortest. Yangchen has a sympathetic smile as she looks at Roku. The bottom drawing is of Roku hitting Kuruk's pelt over his face with the latter making an aggravated noise. /end id]
After watching Netflix Avatar I knew it was my parental duty to make sure my kids saw the REAL Avatar all the way through, or as my son calls it now, the "Real REAL Avatar." And I realized once again how much I adore the fire temple episode. For one express reason.
Everyone's all chained up, Zuko included, and they're all about to get their faces burnt off (One of these four knows exactly what that feels like and isn't thrilled about going through that again.)
But this terrifying being is coming straight at them.
Dude look at that thing! No one's walking out of this!
These guys sure as heck are gonna feel it.
But....
...team Avatar is fine. Not a scratch on them. The fire is hot enough to disintegrate their chains yet none of them get so much as an ember in their face.
And you know who else doesn't get hurt at all?
Zuko.
Zuko doesn't get hurt in the least. His chains disintegrate and he takes his less than graceful leave.
We know Aang doesn't like to hurt people, and Zhao doesn't get killed or anything. But the dude still gets fire in his face and as far as Aang is concerned, Zuko is no different than Zhao and should have received the same treatment. Except Aang isn't the one in charge and Roku knows exactly who Zuko is and who he's meant to be.
No other Avatar will ever beat Kyoshi at romance dumbassery. I love her. Not Avatar “I fall on my face every time I see the girl I like” Roku, not Avatar “I'd rather kiss you than die that's a compliment right?” Aang, and not Avatar “I kinda dated my whole team and now I'm dating my ex's ex” Korra. No one. Kyoshi having her bi awakening and realizing she was in love with Rangi because she thought she looked beautiful under the moonlight while they were running from the fucking cops is unmatched.