scared to grow up

mira, she/her hey, I mostly just scroll on tumblr and reblog posts for my favourite fandoms mocha is my dog <3

[kyneia]

a sketch of kataraaa from the new movie 🫰 also pretend the water is realistic…

[starbieart]

[greenbasiltea]

The dragon dance is so cool

[funny-tik-toks]

[wafflebloggies]

I DIDN'T EVEN HAVE TO UNMUTE,

[iveofficiallygonemad]

Captions:

Gaston: "Everyone knows her father's a lunatic. He was in there tonight, raving-"

Fast placed music plays as the scene changes.

Gaston: "Whoa! Slow down Maurice."

[grasseeee]

[avery-silly-human]

ATLA Fic Idea

I have read a LOT of ATLA fanfiction. Like a LOT. And I've seen a fair share of girl Zuko fics. Though, I've noticed a sort of trend within the plots of some of these fics: She gets mistaken for a cis guy (ESPECIALLY by Sokka). I can honestly only think of like one or two AFAB Zuko fics where she’s referred to as a girl from the start, but even then, my memory is incredibly fuzzy. 

The fics seem to always go like this:

Zuko gets misgendered, she doesn't care to correct them. 

Its often because instead of the term ‘princess’ being used, literally anything else is. (Language is a boon that is used very often for this.)

The Gaang seems stupid to her.

Canon shenanigans

Zhao being a fucking creep (Even more common in these kinds of fics than not, while still VERY prevalent. Sometimes the rating gets SO much worse because of this. The fucking horrors I tell ya. I shan't elaborate further.)

Toph can immediately tell

Jetko

Sokka is almost ALWAYS the last to know (But I think there WAS one where Katara was the last to know.) 

The Reveal ™ for everyone in the Gaang is REALLY fucking late in the series. Like Book 3 late.

These elements feel like they're always there when I encounter one of those fics on AO3. (But to be fair, I read the majority of it years ago when I first got into ATLA. And my memory is SHIT. AND I'm a chronic skimmer. So that might not be as accurate as I think it is.)

But all of that isn't exactly the point I want to make here. There's ONE detail that pushes this plot into the direction that it does: Zuko doesn't correct the Gaang even ONCE. To be fair, a lot of the time it's a miscommunication issue because most of the time when they meet face to face they’re fighting and also talking directly to Zuko so Zuko wouldn't exactly know, but yeah. BUT. A whole lot of the time the Gaang doesn't find out because Zuko is like ‘when they find out, they find out. let them make fools of themselves until then.’ or ‘they didn't ask’. BUT I PARAPHRASE HEAVILY HERE. THAT'S JUST THE GIST OF IT.

And this made me think of what canon Zuko would do in that situation cause I dont really think that the “I don't care” mentality would be it? I'd imagine that Zuko would be a lot more bothered, or at the very least correct the misgendering. 

I thought to myself, ‘Why wouldn't the AFAB version be bothered??? 

So I had an  i d e a . Hear me out: Bigender AFAB Zuko. 

…

*crickets chirp*

AFAB Zuko fic but she doesn't care about being referred to as ‘he’ because he doesn't mind EITHER when referring to him, BUT justifies those thoughts with just saying that she doesn't care! AND with the other justifications that I brought up that were used often to drive the plot forward! 

*silence. The crickets left.*

This has INSANE comedic potential. Lets say that the water tribe siblings are he/him-ing Zuko while Aang is like: ‘GUYS! It's rude to assume!’ And Sokka says that its OBVIOUS that Zuko is a guy, but he says it in the WORST way possible. 

……A long pause.

THEN Katara says that Aang is right! 

Aang: Thank you, Ka-

Katara then proceeds to exclusively she/her Zuko to stick it to the patriarchy and piss off Sokka. She DOES also believe it more and more as time goes on.

Aang:

Aang: That's not exactly what I meant.

*       .                  .*

As the Gaang shenanigans go on, Aang tries everything in his power to try and ask Zuko his pronouns, but gets interrupted literally every single time. 

Aang: Oh, by the way, what are your-

*gets fireballed*

*is too far away*

*The Unagi roars*

*BITCHASS ZHAO interrupts*

*Avatar Fucking Roku shows up*

*The Fire Temple gets destroyed*

*The pirates say some BULLSHIT*

*The waterfall lol*

Aang: Do you think we could have been friends too? Oh! Also, I never got to ask but-

*Gets fireballed again*

*Jun*

*Is unconscious/In the Spirit World* 

*canon happens*

*Azula*

*Azula again*

*Azula, yet again*

Meanwhile, Sokka and Katara are aggressively gendering Zuko to prove each other wrong and at one point Zuko hears one of these conversations and is just like:

Zuko, experiencing ultimate euphoria: ???

Zuko, also because she has no idea where this conversation stemmed from: ??????? 

*  *

Blah blah blah character study, blah blah blah season 2, yadda yadda….

Uhhhh. I have no ideas past this so here ya go. 

[leoniejulie]

[thehappyflower]

:3

[steelycunt]

imagine this heat and you roll over in bed an there’s some cunt there next to you. bruv id be inconsolable

[mitrakats]

i do nawt play abt kataang

[mavmalt]

Adult Gaang cuddle pile

[dainocoart]

What's your favorite avatar species? Mine are turtle ducks, they're so adorable!

[beingharsh]

it's been one of those of weeks... park that car drop that phone sleep on the floor dream about me!

[robertreich]

Trump's corruption is making us all less safe.

[viliageruins]

sokka and katara…,,,. i never draw them so

also zukka because im a sick freak

[notpama]

Yall remember that part in the movie where they confessed and got married

[somecunttookmyurl]

i can tell i’m sleep deprived bc i just made myself cry about tutankhamun and i have, like, negative interest in the kid

[somecunttookmyurl]

have now made the rest of the discord cry about this little boy who had multi-coloured ducks sewn onto a tunic that he loved so much he wore it to a Very Important Event because he was EIGHT and have you SEEN my DUCKS

[somecunttookmyurl]

sorry no i’m not done i’m gonna make you all cry some more i’m bringing you down with me

there was once a little boy.

he is born disabled. his body hurts, and he can’t walk properly the way the other children do. he doesn’t understand why. he’s a little boy. but he plays with wooden boats and pulls toys on a string.

somebody makes him a tunic. they sew ducks onto it in red and green and yellow and blue. the bright colours of a child.

the little boy is eight years old, and he’s going to be king now. there’s a big ceremony about it. he doesn’t really fully understand what’s going on, because he’s eight, but he wears the tunic with the brightly coloured ducks for the occasion because he loves it. look at his ducks! aren’t they great?

he is a child. the adults around him manipulate and coax him to gain more power for themselves. he still plays with toys.

as a teenager, not yet an adult, he fathers children. they do not survive. he’s not even old enough to have full agency in his job and is still being manipulated, but he had babies and they died.

he does not make it to his twenties. at eighteen or nineteen years old he dies, and is buried. his babies, so tiny, are buried with him.

and so is his tunic with the little ducks that he loved so much he kept it long after it no longer fit.

there was once a little boy.

[somecunttookmyurl]

yeah i think that like. especially with historical figures in your mind people who were kings and queens or important nobles were adults. even if you know how old they were it doesn’t really click. it doesn’t seem real

but then you get something like a little tunic with brightly coloured ducks on it and it hits you like a fucking truck that this really was a little kid and no matter how far removed you are a little kid is still a little kid. their brains didn’t develop any quicker back then. he was just as developed/mature mentally as any 8 year old now. he had cartoonish animals on his clothes and he played with toy boats and probably terrorised the local cat population.

tutankhamun was a child and he didn’t make it to adulthood because he was unfortunate enough to be a very important child

his dad died when he was 8. he saw his own babies die when he was still just a boy himself.

but he had brightly coloured little ducks on his favourite shirt, and he kept it.

[somecunttookmyurl]

and he did not just keep the duckie shirt either

tutankhamun had a little pair of sandals with ducks on them. he had earrings decorated with ducks. he kept those, and other items of childhood clothing. some toys. keepsakes. things he loved, and treasured. he kept them all in a little wooden chest. the chest… was carved with ducks.

and that little duck chest, filled with things he kept from his childhood, was buried with him. maybe he was keeping them for the little babies who did not make it. maybe they just reminded him of good days and fun times.

but he was a little boy who thought ducks were just the best

[somecunttookmyurl]

WITH PLEASURE

(greyscale makes it hard but the duck head is on the right above the toe strap. always takes me a while to find it too)

[beggars-opera]

[libriamore]

Ok but this is how to teach history. This is how you get people to pay attention, to care. Find something small and make it personal, then zoom out to the wider context. History is best taught as a story, with people who lived their lives in ways that came together to create something remarkable that we still talk about today, but who were still just human at the end of the day. They kissed, argued, cried, and dreamed just like we do. And sometimes they really liked ducks.