Aang, Surrounded By Baffled Councilmen, Interrupted Mid Meeting: "ZUKO I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’D DO SOMETHING

I don’t think anyone has fully considered the potential of a feral zuko au.

Like, Ozai tries to kill him when he’s 10, but zuko escapes with a scar, Ozai claims he was killed by an assassin and Azula gets a redemption arc early.

Meanwhile zuko is off completely changing the corse of history by, in no particular order:

-Making Hama realize that not all fire benders are bad cause the child she just told about how she was in prison immediately his to instigate a jail break

-is emotionally adopted by hakoda along with most of the crew

-finds wan shi tong’s library

-befriends/is adopted by June the bounty hunter

-discovers a herd of flying bison

-joins a traveling acting troupe for a while cause he’s a theater nerd

-visits omashu and is forcibly befriended by bumi, who decides that zuko is now his grandson and no one can stop him

-discovers the white lotus, decides that they don’t do shit, and starts a hobby of breaking into their safe houses and wrecking them until they get off their asses and help with the war

-meets toph when some fire nation soldiers chase him to gaoling and she stops them, and her parents see her, but zuko does this little speech about how proud they must be of their daughter and how much they must trust and respect her since she’s such a powerful earth bender, and basically guilt trips them into letting toph continue to fight and practice bending

-gets a dragon tattoo 

-wanders into the swamp at some point

-drinks a bit more than he probably should, but he can hold it shockingly well

-figures out lightning bending in the middle of a thunderstorm 

-goes to ba sing se, gets arrested by the Dai li, breaks out, and starts a one man war with them, which basically is just zuko par core-ing around the city till he finds some Dai li, then rather beats the shit out of them, or just kill them. 

-He does it all with out fire bending though, just his swords. 

-After like a week the Dai li are basically gone, and the earth king finds out about the war, and makes zuko a part of the army, some fancy title and a medal or something, zuko is officially recognized as the dragon of the east, and proceeds to duck off to the North Pole to try and convince them to help in the war

-they don’t want to, but he befriends yue and they talk about politics and zuko helps her get out of the arranged marriage 

-zuko called Paku a sexist bitch and is surprised yet delighted to inform him that blood bending was invented by a woman

-invents lightning redirection

-the north joins the war thanks to yue 

-zuko meets the mechanist at the northern air temple at some point

-meets and joins the freedom fighters, makes out with jet, uses fire bending to save jets like, then jet tries to kill him

-the other kids understand that zuko is still good even though he’s a fire bender, but zuko leaves, even though every single kid adopted zuko as their older brother

-becomes known as the greatest swords man to ever live

-it’s actually true, and when piandao, who has Ali adopted zuko, hears that he is very proud and brags about it to everyone he meets

-basically zuko gets adopted by almost every adult he meets

-gets really good at cooking, hunting, reading maps, finding water, pick pocketing, stowing away on beats, sewing, and pretty much every other skill you would need to live on your own. 

-hears that Zhao has captured the avatar and casually breaks Aang out of prison

-refuses to be his firebending teacher and leaves

-stops at a village to tell them that the volcano next to them is about to explode, and he knows this cause he grew up in the fire nation which has a lot of volcanos

-they don’t believe him cause the fortune teller never said anything about it, zuko gets pissed and starts yelling at them

-this is the exact moment Aang Katara and sokka show up

-zuko thinks Aang is following him and tries to leave, but sokka recognizes him as the dragon of the east from a wanted poster

-they basically follow zuko around trying to convince him to help them, and he is this close to just beating them up when Katara mentions they are going to the northern water tribe to learn bending

-zuko agrees to go with them just so he can see Katara kick paku’s ass 

-obviously zuko and sokka get together at some point

-when the gaang finds joung joung zuko makes fun of him cause zuko was there when he broke up with piandao cause he was afraid of being found out (cause being gay was illegal) and piandao kicked his ass even though he’s a non bender

Meanwhile Azula thinks she could have prevented zukos death somehow, maybe helped him with his fire bending or hadn’t bullied him so much or something. 

Ozai kind of focused on her more and started to look down on her a lot more cause he couldn’t compare her to zuko. He put a lot more pressure on her and it drove her away from him, she started seeking his approval less and less, instead growing closer to her mom and uncle. Her mom was constantly worried she would screw up and Azula would die too, but she was Ali scared of making her think she was trying to replace zuko. But by being rather open with Azula about that it never really became an issue. 

Azula took up sword fighting and trained with piandao and she got a lot of character growth from that, cause she wasn’t naturally good at it and really had to work hard. Piandao was not someone she could bully or manipulate, so she had to struggle with earning someone’s approval. 

Piandao told her at some point that sword fighting was not something that came naturally to anyone, and you had to work hard your whole life to be really good. He also said zuko was the fastest learner and best student he had ever taught. Piandao believed that zuko could have easily surpassed piandao himself within a few years.

Azula gets to go to the war meeting that zuko got banished at in the show, she also says the plan is wrong, but in a much more eloquent way that doesn’t dishonor the fire lord but does dishonor the general. She fights an Agni Kai against the general and wins.

The plan is done anyway, (zuko finds that message and is able to warn both the earth kingdom troops and the squad of fire nation soldiers that where going to die, it starts the rumor that the dragon of the east is actually prince zuko and it spreads, some solders start to rebel against their commanders in the name of the prince) Azula finds out about it much later and raises all kinds of hell over it, calling Ozai an “honorless coward who betrays his people, unworthy of the throne” to his face in front of a bunch of people.

Azula gets banished for it, Iroh comes with her and she’s now basically zuko from the show, but tasked with finding and capturing the dragon of the east to prove her loyalty instead of the avatar. At this point she does not know that it’s zuko.

She finds zuko didn’t recognize him and fights him, but he’s better than her, and then she sees the knife that Iroh have zuko just before he “died” and puts two and two together and comes up with seven. She thinks the dragon of the east is the assassin that killed her brother.  It kind of makes sense, if the assassination was his first act of rebellion, cause a string of jail breaks followed. 

I’m not really sure where the story could go after that but there’s a lot of potential for an invasion, since zuko knows so many people. Imagine them all showing up to help and they’re all like “oh hey zuko” and the gaang turns to zuko and ask how he knows them and he’s just like “that’s my mom/dad” and it just makes them more confused.

cant stop thinking about this

I was wondering, how bad was Ozai's abuse even before this Agni Kai? And how much did Piandao know about it?

Piandao was born into wealth and prestige, but he was not raised in it. He was raised in an orphanage, and the workers there would click their tongues and mutter pitying words. Poor young Piandao, his parents are still alive and well, they simply didn’t want him. If only he’d been a firebender.

When Piandao had excelled at the art of the sword, become recognized, and started taking students, he only got nonbenders. People claiming to be the best in their village, wanting glory that they found harder to gain without having bending of their own.

That was why it was such an oddity when he received a letter requesting (commanding, technically, he supposed) that he train the young Prince Zuko in the art of the sword. He’d agreed (there was no other choice), and a few weeks later, the eight-year-old prince arrived for his first lesson.

After two weeks of learning what Zuko was like, Piandao had decided to train the boy in the dual broadswords. 

Those two weeks, and all the time after that, taught Piandao a lot about Prince Zuko. More specifically, about his life back at the palace.

He wasn’t sure the prince even noticed. Piandao, actually, suspected all the movements were involuntary. 

Piandao would test a possible new student. He’d deny them. The student would raise their voice, anger seeping into their tone, spitting in Piandaos’ face about what a valuable pupil he would be to have.

Piandao would see Prince Zuko sitting in the corner wince as the yelling got louder, looking more wary than before.

The first week that Piandao actively was teaching the boy, he brought him to the town square to watch a friendly fire duel. He watched as the boy leaned back when fire came in his direction, even when it was nowhere near him. Piandao would narrow his eyes at the way the prince would rub at his forearm, and the way his eyes would widen a bit and he would flinch minutely when the flames came too close.

They didn’t go to sit and watch the duels much, after that. When they did, they sat far, far away from the front.

All of this could be written off, but Piandao couldn’t ignore what happened the first time that Zuko got a cut during their training.

Zuko was practicing dodging. It was an accident, and not even a major one, just big enough to put a pause on training for the day. The prince hadn’t moved fast enough and the blade he had been dodging struck him in the middle of his arm. The blade was not very sharp, as it was a training one, but it managed to get through the fabric a bit, and blood slowly seeped out.

Before Piandao had been able to speak, to apologize and call for bandages, Zuko had grit his teeth and spoken instead.

“I’m sorry, Master Piandao.”

Piandao had paused, blinking at the eight-year-old boy. “Why are you sorry?”

“I should have been faster. I shouldn’t have gotten hurt.”

“Does it hurt?”

Zuko nodded, a few stray, sweaty stands of hair getting in his eyes. “Yeah. It stings. I’ve learned my lesson, I won’t do it again.”

Piandao had been quiet for a moment before asking, “What... What are you talking about?”

Zuko looked tired, more than anything, and annoyed at himself, glaring at the arm he clutched to his chest. “I mess up and get hurt, I deal with the pain.”

Piandao felt sick, but he had replied simply, “No, I only get the summer with you. No reason to waste time waiting for that to heal without help. We’ll get it cleaned and wrapped.”

It made him want to throw up when he saw how surprised the boy looked as he met his gaze. “I...” Zuko looked down at his arm, then back up and said, “Thank you, Master Piandao.”

The flinches, and way he talked about pain like he deserved it, and the small burn scars, both fresh and fading, that Piandao soon found lay beneath the sleeves, were all enough to paint a rather unwelcome picture, but as Zuko got more comfortable, he would talk all about his mom, waiting back at home, as well as his cousin and uncle, and sometimes his sister.

Never his father.

Things changed when Zuko came for training the summer after his mother disappeared. 

Training was normal, other than the fact that Zuko was rather glum the entire time. He was lost in thoughts, and talked less, and was less excitable. It was rather... upsetting to see.

Then, though, the day before Zuko was to leave, a day that they normally spent relaxing, Zuko came to him, his eyes red, and said, “I don’t wanna go home.”

The next day, the prince had gone home.

Piandao knew about the Agni Kai. He didn’t know what happened to the boy afterward.

He missed him for the three years after that fateful day.

Piandao didn’t train anyone with passion, again, until he met Sokka. The boy reminded him so much of Zuko sometimes that it ached. So alike, yet so very, very different.

Piandao was born a nonbender to two powerful firebender parents. They abandoned him because of it.

When he thought about the way that Zuko’s father (a powerful firebender) treated Zuko himself (a less powerful firebender), Piandao found himself thinking that maybe growing up in the orphanage, parentless, was actually for the best, after all.

Hijacked Lesson

(A de-aged Azula ficlet)

“No! Go away! This is my lesson!” Aang whispered harshly at the little girl with sparking fingers. A spiteful, mischievous gleam entered her eye and Aang braced himself for an attack.

“Zuzu! Aang’s being mean to me!” She shouted, running over to interrupt Zuko’s demonstration. Aang took a deep breath, his hands curling into fists. He did not hate Azula. He didn’t hate her when she nearly killed him as a teen. He absolutely should not did not hate this small five year old version who kicked his shins under the table when he dared to sit next to her brother and jumped into Zuko’s arms every time Aang went in for hug (and stuck her tongue out at him while she was getting his big brother Fire Lord cuddles). “Zuzu! Can you show me how to do the form? Aang clearly isn’t ready to learn it!” Aang’s eyebrow twitched. 

He didn’t hate the baby Azula… But he did not like her. 

#luten<333

Atla Gen Week 2022.

Day 5: Childhood/children.

This is a glimpse of our AU “Fire Sage Lu Ten”.

[ID: Mini comic with two vignettes in monochrome magenta.

In the first vignette, a pre-teen Lu Ten confidently and excitedly says “I’m a prince!, how hard can it be?” he holds Zuko and Azula who are little children in each arm, Zuko in the right arm and Azula in the left arm, they are holding hands on the front of Lu Ten. In the background on the left side it reads “Babysitter for the first time” with emphasis lines on the edge of the vignette.

In the second vignette, in a darkened stillness, Zuko and Azula are floating, both with glowing eyes, mouths open as they hold hands. Lu Ten screams frightened. End ID].

@atla-gen-week

I present to you,,,art (idk what to say, its a doodle dump, enjoy!) @hella1975

Bonus sketches that I didnt clean up:

💕Happy Valentines Day💕

(Click for better quality ✨)

drew some fanart from one of my favorite jetko AUs: boarding school! jet and zuko are sneaking some alone time on the school roof after closing hours

If there’s anything Iroh misses about his time as crown prince, it’s getting to roast his little brother at any given moment

(Also this sort of pertains to my own headcanon (vaguely inspired by the comics) that Ursa is a proficient dancer, and often performs for big celebrations)

Zukka neighbors AU, enemies to lovers 100k+

while it's not the same story i got the idea from @kurisu-80's neighbors AU comic, which i definitely recommend checking out, i think about it a lot

I can imagine Ellie in Jackson making a kid army. Because every little kid think she’s so cool because she survived “the outside” and especially the younger kids have never seen that so they see her as a superhero. And she’s just corrupting every single one of them into annoying the hell out off all the adults.