Hakoda the Grief Pirate it's time for Hakoda the Grief Pirateeee
Kya is killed, as in canon. Unlike canon, Bato is killed too. This means that rather than join the war, Hakoda goes mad with grief and gathers a few ships' worth of men - desperate, brutal men who want to repay the cruelty of the Fire Nation in kind. Not soldiers, not sailors, killers.
And he takes Katara.
The first place he goes is the Northern Water Tribe. He gets an audience. He goes to Chief Arnook and the elders and says: either I leave here today with a master for my daughter, or none of us leave this room alive.
Katara gets a master.
As in canon, Katara is a prodigy. With a year to focus on her waterbending and drilled by a man wearing her father's face who tells her "we're all going to die doing this" and "but we'll bleed them a thousand times over for every one of us" and most importantly he says "we're going to avenge your mother" - growing up under that man, Katara becomes terrifying.
Sokka is left alone. The last bit of love in his father's heart was spent on him, though he doesn't know it. It was spent on leaving him. It was spent on sparing him from seeing what his father would become.
Sokka goes out often, looking for traders and sailors and ships. He finds no news and too little fish. Until one day, an iceberg cracks open.
The boy is young and Sokka hasn't been a big brother for a while now, but it turns out that it's like riding a penguin - you never really forget. So when Aang gets kidnapped by some ponytailed jerk, of course he goes after him.
That he only manages to ruin Aang's escape and get them both captured is beside the point, okay? The Fire Jerk cheated.
(Appa follows them, if you're wondering. Aang doesn't seem to be in any real danger. Zuko isn't an especially merciless captor, no matter how he tries.)
Sokka finally gets some news. The Frost Wolf is believed to be a Northern raider (to protect his tribe from reprisals) and he is feared. He leaves only one survivor in each of his raids. He tasks them to deliver a simple message: the seas are no longer safe for the Fire Nation. He replenishes his crew with convicts and pirates. They say he has a crazy mechanist working for him. They say that an icy fog follows where he goes, blocking out the sun and chilling Firebenders to the core. They say he can't be killed.
-
"So, these guys of yours -" Sokka began and paused to let the answering "they're not my guys!" wash over him, "do they say anything about a girl?"
The Prince's ears reddened. "I don't listen to that kind of filth."
Which means you have listened, Sokka might have said if he felt like teasing. He didn't.
"Not like that! A girl, a little younger than me. Have you heard anything about that?"
Sokka held his breath. This was it. Of course, it didn't mean anything if Zuko hadn't heard...
"No." The Prince's voice was unusually quiet. Zuko's good eye glinted in the orange light of the torches.
Sokka couldn't help that his exhale caught in his throat on the way out, it wasn't - it was just a shock, he reasoned, it didn't mean anything that Zuko hadn't heard...
Zuko stood up and made to walk out. He stopped at the door.
"I'm sorry," the Prince said. "I have a sister, too."
The door closed and Sokka was left alone and with questions. Questions like:
How did he know?
-
The trip to the Fire Nation is long. Any experienced commander could have told Zuko to limit his interactions with the prisoners. To rotate out their guards and never have their meals brought by the same person if he could avoid it. Any experienced military commander would have seen the risk of two child prisoners, one of who is particularly genial and charming while the other is funny and sarcastic.
Iroh, one of the most experienced military commanders alive, encourages Zuko to learn all he can about his enemy. It's an advantage, you see.
(And if the watch lists are edited to put crewmembers with children into frequent and close contact with the prisoners - well, that's Iroh's prerogative. He is a General. And if there are a few minor navigational errors that lenghten their journey, well, that he knows nothing about. He's a General, not an Admiral.)
Meanwhile, Princess Azula is tasked with putting an end to the Frost Wolf's provocations. It would be terribly inconvenient if she were to have frequent encounters with another bending prodigy, about her age and wearing blue robes and a mask. They should make out about it.
Eventually, they'll all have to reckon with their monstrous fathers and murderous siblings.
I've already said this before but a fully redeemed Old Azula in The Legend of Korra could've genuinely been the funniest character in the entire Avatar franchise without even trying.
Like, Zuko goes to get her in Book 3 so she can help him with the Red Lotus thing and once she appears there's this tense moment and her scary theme (you know which one) starts playing, only to for her to ask him if he wants some tea and reveal that they're now chill with each other. She goes to the North Pole with him, Tonraq, Eska and Desna and the elevator scene in which they talk about trying becomes a thousand times more awkward when she mentions how she was actually successful at killing Aang but he only lasted like, 3 minutes dead. Then when the Earth Queen is already dead and the news come out everyone is like "how could all these people sneak into Ba Sing Se and take down the government just like that?" And Azula is like "I mean I did it when I was 14, it's actually not hard" and when everyone stares at her she adds "not the time, sorry". The Red Lotus captures Korra and it's revealed what their plan is and Azula berates it saying it's a poor strategy to attack the Avatar in the AS upfront if they want to succeed and that they should go for a sneak attack and everyone stares at her again and Azula says "sorry, this is bad, I get it" She is surprisingly chill with Bolin and gets along with Meelo for some reason.
More of the Social Media AU: these chats here are happening during season 1. Note the icons at the top - the left overlaying one tells you who started the DM.
The Agni Kai button is an inherent feature of this social media site hosted by the Fire Nation, the only one in the world so unfortunately everyone's on FlameBlr(?) The button starts a chat battle that's livestreamed. That's not shown here but I heard Zhao is almost always live. Idk.
As many people said, all public posts are automatically deleted after 24 h to prevent flame wars getting out of control. It's a very toxic social media site!
Saw this frame on a different reblog by @thatssroughbuddy but why does it look like Iroh is using his phone to take a photo of his nephew at a landmark
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