Begrudgingly I Care

My name is Jace!  So I started to have too much B.I.C. content to contain to one blog and I thought it might be fun to have a blog specifically for this AU so! This is the Dad! or Caretaker!Zuko AU blog. Feel free to ask about the story, request drawings or drabbles, or write something of your own for this! My AO3 is  https://archiveofourown.org/users/J_Ace_Flicker/works

[softlygasping]

Does anyone have any ace zuko fic recs

[avayarising]

I think Zuko’s ace in Fight by @electronswrites

It’s a ‘Zuko joins at the Crossroads’ fic and there’s a lot of good worldbuilding and a very dramatic ending.

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[electronswrites]

He is! Thanks for recommending my work. 😊

[i-was-talking-to-momo]

Are we, as a fandom, ready to admit that Mai’s entire backstory, personality, coping mechanisms, character traits, strengths, weaknesses, self image, belief system, and arc, are literally almost exactly the same as Toph but like, slightly to the left

[i-was-talking-to-momo]

Sheltered and coddled rich kid, “better seen and not heard,” “don’t speak unless you’re spoken to,” “stay in your room and stay out of trouble,” both painfully bored and stifled to the point of being incredibly depressed and borderline self destructive, Toph turned to earthbending matches, Mai taught herself how to throw knives, neither ever learned how to interact with people their age or how to have friends and struggles with social interaction, neither expect anyone to respect their opinion or even listen so they always either just keep their opinion to themself or when they boil over, they boil over completely and turn to shouting or violence because they don’t believe anyone will listen to them otherwise, both slowly had to learn to love and to trust that someone would be there, while also learning that they deserved better and should defend their boundaries because being treated like a human instead of a prop isn’t an unrealistic expectation

[i-was-talking-to-momo]

People talk about Toph’s ability to dress up all fancy and fit in perfectly as a sophisticated, model daughter, while also being like “hehe violence, lets go commit crimes” but no one talks about how Mai is literally exactly the same way, from a political perspective she’s like the perfect, calm, cultured, girlfriend for Zuko, she can absolutely play the role she needs to, but she also carries knives on her at all times and committed arson with her friends at a beach party for fun

[silverin-thebone]

That similarity is also 100% part of the reason that Zuko and Toph get along so well, because once she warms up to him Zuko immediately recognizes her as a kindred spirit. Out of the entire gaang, Toph is the one that Zuko understands and empathizes with the most/vice versa. 

[i-was-talking-to-momo]

Everyone else took a really long time to understand Toph because Toph is so different from the main group but Zuko had half a conversation with her and went “oh she’s Mai but baby”

[thiswomanshouldbewriting]

A bunch of headcanons about the gaang and their kids

- Since the air nomads raised their kids communally, Aang 100% considered all of the kids in the group sort of his kids as well. Which lead to some awkward incidents because he sometimes forgot this wasn’t normal for the others. Like Katara would come home and

“Hi Izumi! It’s so nice to see you here, I didn’t know you were coming over. Where are Zuko and Mai?”

“Back home.”

“Aang for the love of spirits please tell me you told Zuko and Mai you were taking Izumi wih you.”

“…”

Meanwhile, in the fire nation: *sirens wailing, everyone is on alert because the princess has gone missing*

Meanwhile Zuko and Mai, already halfway to the south pole:

“Remind me why we didn’t kill him when we had the chance.”

“Honestly at times I ask myself the same question”

- Bumi’s favourite member of the gaang, aside from his parents of course, is Toph. That’s because she’s the one who was never more careful with him because he was a non bender.

“Aunt Toph, bend some rocks at me, I need to learn how to dodge if I want to take out an earthbender in a fight!”

“Sure kid.”

Aang and Katara are terrified of this at first, but Toph knows exactly how not to hurt him too much. He just loses a couple of baby teeth like this.

- Lin may be able to intimidate Tenzin, but she can never manage that with Izumi, Bumi or Kya because they all saw her trying to eat mud as a kid.

- “Life-changing trip with Zuko” becomes a recurring joke. 9 times out of 10, when one of the kids was acting out as a teen someone would say “why don’t you go on a life-changing trip with Zuko and maybe you’ll calm down.”

- Sokka and Suki were in charge of shopping trips. They’d take all the kids with them and come back with more stuff than they could carry. These trips were always characterized by unbelievable mayhem and a few hilarious cases of a shop owner carefully asking Sokka and Suki if those were all their kids. Cue Sokka and Suki saying yes for the chaos of it and coming out with ridiculous explanations as to how they, two non benders, could have all these kids bending different elements. This became exponentially more difficult when Tenzin started airbending and once resulted in the police being called because someone was convinced they’d kidnapped the avatar’s son. Toph arrived to the scene and is still laughing about it.

- Sokka and Suki were also the ones who were better at telling stories and who gave the best advice about weapons and make up, but they were absolute trash for dating advice.

- Suki once mentioned that Kyoshi was bisexual and baby lesbian Kya became absolutely obsessed with her. You know, in the classic “I just think she’s neat” phase of figuring out her own orientation. Everyone found it both adorable and hilarious that Aang’s daughter was obsessed with one of his past lives. 

[aunt-suki]

I feel like Sokka is the type of person where when he’s talking and really getting into something, you could just hand him anything and he’ll take it without noticing. Like he’s to busy focusing on his train of thought so he doesn’t lose it that he just subconsciously takes whatever you give him.

Anyway Aang and Suki have made a game out of it, and they compete to see who can hand him the weirdest stuff without him noticing. When he finally notices he just shrugs or like gives them a look.

[aunt-suki]

bringing this back to say that Zuko is the type of person where if he’s talking and you try to hand him something he short circuits and forgets what he was trying to say

[sokka-with-his-hair-down]

The grasps y’all have in these characters are amazing

[younggayanddoingokay]

On the balloon to boiling rock

Zuko: wait, so your dad NEVER hit you, even when you weren’t as good as your prodigy sister? Wow he sounds amazing no wonder you wanna rescue him.

Sokka: *concerned* dude, not hitting your kid is like, the baseline for being a half-decent parent. That and like, feeding your kid.

Zuko:*shocked* HE NEVER MADE YOU SKIP MEALS WHEN YOU MESSED UP EITHER?!

*Later*

Sokka: *holds Zuko out in front of him by the armpits, dangling him in front of Hakoda* This is yours now.

[hitmewithcute]

The boulder feels conflicted about fighting a blind, young girl

[bisexualbaker]

[Image: A full grown man dressed as The Boulder postures at a tiny girl dressed in an impeccable Toph costume (complete with Appa backpack). The girl is unfazed.]

Help, it’s too adorable!

[vomara]

i get that understanding the full scope of the airbender genocide is difficult, but so many people in this fandom don't even try. like, yo, it's not like it's just aang's family that's dead or something. it's not even the baseline standard for a genocide (mass disruption of a culture). it's almost complete annihilation. there's quite literally no one left but aang -- and even outside of the air nomads, there's no one old enough to have known aang as a child except bumi. and yet so much of this fandom still trivializes this grief, and lacks a fundamental understanding of it. they see zuko's or azula's or any other character's tragedies as more relevant or terrible than the one at the core of the show. in some sense, it's because aang doesn't lean into his dysfunction and trauma the way other characters do, and therefore, his tragedy occasionally seems less visible than other characters. but the rest of it is the complete lack of desire to even engage with the depth of his tragedy.

[irresistible-revolution]

#a large portion of that is the fact that many of us are westerners that relate to the imperialist narratives better...#but we have to actively try to break out of that! you have to put the effort into understanding the cultural tragedies that occur elsewhere!#this is in part some of my own perspective as a person with a culture that has been colonized and continues to be colonized#but even that slightest eradication of that culture is terrifying and horrible. the idea of losing it all is a near incomprehensible horror#but so many people don't think like that because they relate to the opposite perspective better.#maybe not because their cultures haven't been stolen but because they were raised to implicitly worship a culture that steals.#anyway those are just thoughts i'm sorry

[vomara]

a couple wonderful responses from the tags:

#if i see one more 'aang grew up in times of peace so his trauma isnt as bad!' im gonna lose it#aangs grief and trauma is different than everyone else both as the sole survivor and as someone displaced out of time#this isnt dismissing the other characters either#but aang is so different from that#and i know it might be easier to relate to a shitty dad and a distant mother#if thats ur thing#and relating to other characters is fine#but some ppl r so dismissive of aangs character and trauma altogether#and it shows (via @all-for-one-and-that-one-is-me​​)

#it's so much easier to conceive of losing a parent#even before i lost my mom that was something i could conceptualize#but especially if you're from a western culture#(which i am and i fully admit to having trouble)#you just literally can't conceptualize aang's loss#especially because he internalizes so much of his pain#the one scene that comes closest to visualizing it is when he's opening his chakras#and all the air nomads just like#almost line up in front of him#and you see air nomads in row after row after row#amd then they vanish#amd even THAT isn't a perfect representation#aang is the last#the last person of a beautiful culture that was destroyed#and yeah he doesn't show it the same way as others#but the boy must be in so much pain#which is why i will throw hands with anyone who takes issue with not killing ozai#if aang had done that#it would have erased his culture from the world completely#and that's too much pressure to put on a twelve year old kid#to uphold amd perpetuate an entire culture#but aang does it anyway and he does it perfectly#and i love him so very much (via @richardgayseyiii​​)

[volkswagonblues]

a lil guide to the Fire Nation for the ATLA fic writers out there

(aka. a no means exhaustive primer on east asia by an asian person)

This is a guide for fic writers want to write a canon-era story set in the Fire Nation, or featuring Fire Nation characters. A quick little primer on the tiny details of everyday life that you might not think about, but certainly stuff that would make me, an asian person, wince if I were to encounter it. BRUSHES, not quills. CHOPSTICKS, not forks. 

(note #1: this was partly inspired by a chat with @elilim​) 

(note: #2:  I originally intended it for zukka fic writers before realizing that other writers might find it useful. so apologies for a slight Zuko-bias for that reason)

(note #3: this is all stuff i was thinking about when writing firebender’s guide, in case anyone was wondering)

1. CLOTHING

Okay, I think the most straightforward way to describe what everyone’s wearing most of the time is “tunic”. They’re all just…tunics of different colours and varieties. Later when Zuko’s the Fire Lord he wears robes. The show provides a better visual guide than I could, here are a few notes to keep in mind:

a) Japanese people wear their collars LEFT crossed over RIGHT

I don’t think this would come up in writing as much as it would in art, but it’s considered bad luck to do it the wrong way because that’s only for dead people. Let my boy Zuko demonstrate:

b) There are no buttons

This is picky, but Wikipedia says “Functional buttons with buttonholes for fastening or closing clothes appeared first in Germany in the 13th century.[6] They soon became widespread with the rise of snug-fitting garments in 13th- and 14th-century Europe.” I kinda believe it. If you look closely, characters’ clothes are always tied together or wrapped in some way with a belt. If there are fasteners, they’re braided frog closures that go into a little loop, like the qipao-style dresses women wear in Ba Sing Se, or Zuko’s casual prince’s clothes in the topmost image. Anyways, I don’t think Zuko or Azula or the Gaang would technically button or unbutton anything when they’re changing clothes. Clothing is designed to be tied, not buttoned.

[so much more under cut]

Keep reading

[oldpotatoe]

sokka invents teabags

listen hear me out. zuko gets really really good at making tea just the right way after the war (not perfectly, not like iroh, but close enough that it doesn’t matter) and sokka. well he goes and develops a taste for it, you see, he can appreciate the warmth and all the fruity little flavours and he likes how zuko tries to hide his laughter everytime sokka obnoxiously slurps from his teacup (one time toph tried doing it right after sokka did and all zuko did was huff at her. she’s still mad about it.)

so, yeah, sue the guy. sokka likes tea. but what sokka hates is the fiddliness of it all. measuring out exact amounts, having to strain them all out, the specific temperatures and the specific times– it’s all too time consuming for him. why not eliminate one of the fiddly steps then?

when iroh finds out about this particular invention, sokka gets banned from the jasmine dragon for three months

[cayteecat]

supportive but clumsy ally uncle iroh

[elimentals]

[ID: Two-panel comic featuring Iroh and Zuko from Avatar. They both wear green Earth Kingdom robes from the Ba Sing Se arc in Book 2.

Iroh and Zuko walk side by side down a street. Iroh is carrying a large brown vase with a bouquet of orange flowers inside.

With a smile on his face, Iroh says, “I just want to make our new place look nice in case ~somebody~ brings home a lady friend.”

Beside him, Zuko, looking incredibly exasperated, says, “Uncle...”

Iroh suddenly looks thoughtful and adds, “Or a boy, no judgement!”

Zuko turns bright red and jumps forward, yelping, “UNCLE!”

End ID.]

[zukkastanrights]

[Image ID: the meme that originally says “a mac and cheese is something that can actually be so personal,” but it is edited to say “Hakoda acting like a father to Zuko because his real one is horrible is something that can actually be so personal.” End ID.]

talking to @hotdamnitszuko today abt hakoda and this was the result

[icaruspendragon]

“I’m about to celebrate becoming an only child.”

[sokka-with-his-hair-down]

Eugene Lee Yang is the hero we didn’t deserve but we all needed

[your-royal-momoness]

Excuse me he uses a blue cloth for Azula’s lightning and an orange one for Zuko’s fire I AM DEAD

[ineffectualdemon]

Crack Fic idea that I may actually write:

Sokka as Dr Doofensmirtz

Zuko as Perry the Platypus

(But he's human and like sells Sokka tea at Iroh's shop down the street)

Like it's SO stupid BUT

Zuko: *crashes through the door into a fighting stance*

Sokka: Zuko?

Zuko: *rolls his eyes and puts on the blue spirit mask*

Sokka: *gasping dramatically and pointing* ZUKO THE BLUE SPIRIT!?

[bluberry-spicehead-deactivated2]

my mom saw the episode with p'li and asked why she had a third eye tattoo like shiva (a hindu god) in as many words and if they talked about the meaning behind it

they dont...and this isnt the first time this has happened...

dont get me wrong...i love this show and i do think its for everyone to enjoy...just...

avatar isnt pronounced the way you think it is either ah vuh thar is somewhat closer

its a sanskrit word that means the incarnation of a god on earth

this is the same deal that bothers me (an understatement) all the time...like in crazy rich asians when the only south asians shown are the servants and guards

in a movie celebrating east asia...was that necessary?

atla shouldnt just pick and choose elements of asian culture and throw them in

atla shouldnt pretend that asia doesnt include south east and south asia when so many words and names are taken from it

tenzin names his son rohan that's my cousin's name

come on

[durtletuck]

EXACTLY!!!

names like 'bumi' is actually the word bhoomi, which is sanskrit (and hindi and other languages) for earth.

agni is actually pronounced 'uh-gni' and means fire in sanskrit. it's also the name of the hindu god of fire.

rohan??? i know at least 7 rohans.

the literal meaning of avatar is one that has crossed across from the sky, or descended from the sky.

[sanskrit, ava (down) + taara (across/carried across) ]

the word itself is used to refer to the various incarnations of vishnu, who is one of the main 3 hindu gods. he is said to take different forms across generations to battle evil on earth.

i haven't watched the entirety of LoK so i haven't watched the p'li thing, but Combustion Man in atla, too, had the eye thing...which was taken from shiva, another one of the main 3 hindu gods. it is said that when he opens his third eye (again, the concept of which has been so bastardised by westerners, but i digress) fire devours everything in his sight and brings about destruction. again, there's variations to these myths and stories but there's constant elements in different editions.

so you have ALL these things taken from south asian culture and yet you can't include a single south asian person? don't get me wrong, i love the east asian rep, but if you're borrowing elements from our culture then at least show our faces. that's it.

i watched atla for the first time when i was 19 and STILL i kept looking for someone who looks like me. bc they used so many sanskrit words and elements, hell, the name of the show is a sanskrit word!! i'm not a religious person but this is just...idk. it feels bad. there is such a dearth of (good) desi rep in media. do better.

[moghedien]

Azula: And that was how I successfully staged a coup and took control of Ba Sing Se. Do you have any questions?

Baby Izumi: *incoherent baby babbling*

Azula: Fascinating stategy. I hadn’t even considered that. I could have taken the city and killed the Avatar in half the time!

Baby Izumi: *more incoherent baby babbling*

Azula: You have a ruthless mind. Tell me, if you were tasked with conquering the North Pole, how would you go about doing so?

Zuko: *peeking from the doorway, unsure if he should stop this or not. slightly afraid*

[enbyzukostanblog]

Azula: that is a wonderful strategy, I would be glad to have you as an ally by my side

Zuko, leaves to go find Sokka because he is to weirded out by this:

Azula: We should-

Azula:

Azula: *baby voice* Is he gone? You and auntie Azula tricked your papa!

Baby Izumi: *baby laughter and clapping*

[rwoh]

We never hear any mention of Lu Ten’s mother, implying that I can make any headcanons I want about this, including:

Lu Ten is an Earthbender

That’s it that’s the post goodbye

[lbibliophile-atla]

Ok, but this leads to a series of potential follow-up headcanons:

Lu Ten is commonly believed to be a non-bender

(his father might be the Dragon of the West, but his mother was a non-bender - from one of the newer colonies, wasn’t she?)

(their son must take after her side of the family)

(besides, no-one looks at a prince of the Fire Nation and thinks ‘hey, I wonder if he’s an earthbender’)

(…this includes Lu Ten himself)

Due to his lack of firebending, Lu Ten becomes proficient with metalweapons instead

(hence why he suggests it as an alternative for Zuko when his cousin is frustrated with his own lack of bending progress)

He knows all the tactical theory - the common attacks and how to counter them, the preferred defences and how to get around them - but he’s never actually seen earthbending

Until he gets to the Front, that is

Lu Ten quickly gains a reputation for being lucky against earthbenders

(he always seems to guess correctly which way to dodge to avoid flying rocks, when to move before the ground erupts from under him)

(there were a couple of notable examples when he was able to warn his unit about imminent ambush by tunnelling earthbenders)

He plays it all off as a combination of luck and perception, but he can’t help but wonder…

He starts paying more attention to the earthbenders he fights, not just matching forms to effects, but the nuances of stance and gesture

Then he goes for a hike one day, far away from anyone who might see, and tries some of the forms for himself

…

…well fuck.

He can’t keep it a secret

Now that he’s finally felt the perfect exhilaration of bending, he’s not sure he can just give it up again

And now that his chi has learned to move in the surrounding earth, he’s not sure he can keep it from reaching out anyway

It only takes one person to see something they shouldn’t, and tell someone they shouldn’t, and he won’t know that the charade has all fallen apart until it’s too late

He can’t tell his father - part of him is worried that Iroh will react badly, but part of him knows he won’t… and that’s worse

(everyone knows that victory in the siege is imminent, the moment that will make the General’s career)

(but the scandal of the Dragon of the West having an earthbender for a son would overshadow even such an achievement)

(he won’t put his father in a position where he has to make that choice)

He can’t tell his grandfather - (Azulon is the Fire Lord, and the good of the Nation will always come first

(while he could overlook Lu Ten being a non-bender, he won’t want to risk of having an earthbender so high in the line of succession)

(not when he has two sons and another two grandchildren all as proper firebenders)

(he’s not sure just what actions his grandfather might take, but he’s not going to wait to find out)

He can’t tell his uncle - Lu Ten has no illusions about the man; he will see this as an opportunity

(while Azulon might be swayed to leniency, Ozai will do everything in his power to permanently remove his nephew… and probably his brother while he’s at it)

(one way or another)

But perhaps that is the answer

Lu Ten is a prince of the Fire Nation. Lu Ten is an earthbender. These facts cannot coexist

He cannot change what he is, but he can change who he is

(it breaks his heart to do this to his father, but it must be done)

Prince Lu Ten dies, and a nameless earthbender slips in through the broken walls of Ba Sing Se

—

(Years later, a golden-eyed earthbender walks into a teashop for a surprise family reunion)

[rizadyke]

I LOVE when people get mad at wlw for shipping female characters that didn’t interact in canon..like y’all just give me more power...... I’m just gonna do it more.....the Herbalist and Aunt Wu ARE exes....like what are u gonna do? prove me wrong? You can’t 😌