Avatar AU where Aang stays in the iceberg and Katara is mistakenly believed to be the Avatar after she “earthbends” a rock by moving the ice inside it.
Instead of telling the truth and letting everyone down, she and Sokka pull on an elaborate charade and go on a journey to convince the world that the Avatar is back.
Sokka was initially against the idea, thinking it’s crazy, but he got onboard anyway because it’s his little sister and he can’t let her go out into the world alone and put a target on herself.
After they started, he got super into the idea and started crafting an elaborate backstory for her Airbending predecessor, and devising ways for her to fake-bend the other elements.
The Road to Ba Sing Se. I love it.
Bumi agrees to teach her because he is pretty sure she’s a reincarnation of him
Sokka: But… you’re still alive.
Bumi: So is the real Avatar. I think we can bend the rules of reincarnation a bit.
Zuko still gets a redemption arc and switches sides. Only after he joins Team Avatar does he learn that Katara is not, in fact, the avatar. By this point he’s already committed so screw it he’s teaching a waterbender how to fake-firebend now.
That’s very in-character because Aang never wanted to be the Avatar anyway.
Sokka after learning the real Avatar was 20 minutes from his home village the whole time:
She respects Katara a lot more as a fake Avatar than she did when when she thought she was the real one (which is none).
Katara always making a pot of tea before meditating and ‘airbending’, because she’s figured out that if the humidity is high enough, she can move it and it looks like airbending.
Zuko behind a rock with a cauldron, desperately blowing flmes under it to keep it steamy.
Sokka over there 👉 clowning around to distract everyone, as Katara calls out her earthbending moves and Toph is windmilling away to keep up.
And that one desert town where Katara couldn’t find water except in one place, and they still talk about how the Avatar Herself showed up and invented Cabbagebending one day.
