trans Zuko being really anxious about the gaang finding out because in the fire nation being trans is considered shameful / not a real thing
but when they do find out Sokka is like âoh same dude, the midwife said i was a girl when i was born but by the time i was 3 it was clear i wasnât one, itâs no big deal in the southern water tribeâ
Katara explains how water is a flexible element, always changing and becoming something new (from liquid to ice to steam and back again, from a river to a sea or the clouds overhead) and thatâs why water tribe folks see nothing wrong in people turning out to be a different gender than originally assumed â like water, people can change and surprise and be what they want to be.
Aang says air nomads were the same, he had plenty of friends who turned out to be a different gender or multiple genders or even no gender at all
âand hey, my old friend Kuzon was like you, and he was fire nation,â Aang mentions, and itâs a shock to Zukoâs heart â a fire nation kid a century ago could be trans and it wasnât a problem?? when had his peopleâs viewpoint changed??
heâs excited to learn he isnât alone, relieved that his new friends treat him like normal, but saddened that his nation has grown to be so xenophobic and he vows to change that.
years later when heâs the firelord and finally gains his peopleâs love, he becomes open about being trans, so that anyone who is like him can see that itâs no dishonor to be trans, that you can live a happy and fulfilling life. and slowly his people return to their past worldview that gender is as mysterious as flame, that its source comes from inside a person who can choose how they share it outwardly. and zuko regards it as one of his greatest accomplishments.
