#owedbetter

[phoebester]

Looooooook 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽

The g.o.a.t of all zutara fanfic author liked my post 😱 ♥️ ♥️ ♥️

[zkfanworkweek]

ZFAW Content Creator Interviews: OwedBetter

Hey everyone! We hope you’re all excited for ZFAW, and to honor (ha!) ZFAW’s commitment to supporting and celebrating fan content creators in the Zutara fandom, we’re going to be rolling out a series of interviews with well-known and widely-beloved content creators over the next few weeks. We’ve got artists and fanfiction authors, some names you recognize as well as a few phenomenal up-and-coming talents, and we can’t wait for you to meet them all!

I’m super excited about this one! For the sixth (incredibly delayed, I’M SORRY) interview in the cycle, we have Jo, aka @owedbetter. Best known for the absolutely iconic Zutara fanfiction “I’m Still Here,” Jo’s works can be found at: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12312357/chapters/27990618

Tell us about how you came to ship Zutara. What does this ship mean to you?

To use one of my favourite lines from Jane Austen, "I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun." I started watching Avatar: The Last Airbender when I was just a tiny little baby child at 10 turning 11 years old. I do know for a fact, however, that Zutara had simply always been it for me from the very beginning. I believe it was during "The Storm" that I just knew that there was more to Zuko than what was at surface level. As a brown girl trying to make her way into positions of leadership as a child, Katara's strength, rage, and bravery paved the way for me to survive in the way I have. As a survivor of child abuse myself, Zuko remaining kind and gentle and good was of paramount importance. Together, they were the joining of two souls that met in conflict and chaos but through merit, equal standing, and forgiveness, they were exactly what each other needed. They are not opposites nor two halves of a whole; they are the sky and between them is only the world. Everyone has the need to feel truly seen and understood as they are by another, and Zuko and Katara do exactly that. Other stories come and go, but they're the story I come back to and will continue to call home every single time. I will never tire of them.

2. What inspires you to create Zutara fanworks?

 I've been a professional writer for the last ten years. It's my job to imagine and create stories. I also love consuming stories through every medium possible. The well never dries when you keep it full to the brim. When you do the work I do and you consume as many stories as I do and you've lived a long enough life and paid attention to the life around you as I have trained to do, to be inspired is second nature. For Zutara, however, these are voices that have lived in my brain for fifteen years. When I get an idea for a story, literally any story, it's like my subconscious is naturally attuned to their dynamic that every prompt I come up with is automatically a Zutara prompt. Such is the way. If I ever publish a novel and/or lead my own show/movie, you can bet that it's probably Zutara if you squint.

3. Be selfish - if you could request one fanwork based on your own art/fanfic, what would it be? What would you absolutely love to see someone create? 

To this day, "i'm still here" is probably the single greatest thing I've ever done in my whole stupid life. It would be the greatest honour to see my work interpreted visually. Genuinely, I'd love to see certain scenes as comic panels or something. Katara's realisation at the beach over who she is and she thinks about Yue, her mother, and her grandmother. Zuko and Katara's mutual understanding. The scene that started it all: baby Zuko taking care of baby Azula at the beach. Katara and Iroh talking in Chapter 7. Toph meeting fear for the first time. The entire ending of Chapter 6. As of writing this, I haven't updated the sequel yet but I would love to see visual interpretations of incoming Original Characters because they've been fun to create. I don't even know. If anyone wants to draw something from "i'm still here", I would like to see it. Please let me see it. I will cry. But also, I would like to see visual interpretation of Zutara in my modern quarantine pandemic AU because I would like to see long haired 28 year old Zuko wearing autumn-wear in a public park filled with flowers with 26 year old Katara basically wearing anything I wear because I am projecting in that story for a reason. 

4. Any words for people who are new to the fandom and/or nervous about sharing their work for the first time?Buddy, we're all just a bunch of nerds who are creating things for our enjoyment and the enjoyment of likeminded individuals. Do things for you and because they bring you joy, first and foremost. Everything else can be ignored if you want to ignore it. You're doing great. 

5. What is your favorite Zutara-related thing you’ve made and why is it special to you?

 Again, "i'm still here" is literally the greatest thing I've ever done in my life. Something I get commended for a fair amount with ISH is how I handled Zuko being a child abuse survivor, and his conflicting emotions with his violent abusers because he's still a child who wants his family to love him. That comes from an extremely personal place for me and it means the world to know that other survivors out there resonated so well with it. Also, Masterchef Zuko with that chicken adobo meant me getting a LOT of people saying they tried out the recipe themselves and I can feel my grandmother radiate with pride over knowing I'm so great a cook that I can convince people to want my dish just by writing about it. I'm so proud of everything I did with ISH. I worked really hard on it and I'm so happy to know it means a lot to other people too. 

6. What’s an idea for a fanwork that you have but haven’t gotten around to making?

I have this one modern AU involving dogs that I've put on the backburner since 2017. One day... one day!!! I'm a bit of a workaholic, though, so most of the things I want to do, I just do 'em. 

7. Are you participating in ZFAW? If so, want to give us a hint as to your plans? 👀

I am! I have a draft ready based on one of Hayley Foster's animatics and I'm very excited. Tumblr user hayleynfoster, I owe you my entire life. 

[airiustide]

Do you have any good zutara fics to reccomend, and/or fic writers? Currently basking in the zutara/atla renaissance and I read your fic, forever young forever you and loved it!

I’m sorry for the late response. honestly, I haven’t gotten around to new fics at the time i had gotten this ask, and with some life changing events going on it had only been recent since I’ve caught up with any, with the exception of one in this list that i’ve always adored. i have posted one of each of these authors’ works, but i do encourage you to check out their other amazing fics. 

as for forever young, forever you. im so glad you’ve enjoyed it, it’s definitely reassuring to hear people like my work at all and it is most appreciated. 

***

 Violent Reflections by antarcticas - Rated M- (ongoing) a dark fic in which the author takes us through Katara’s mind while she is captured. It also taps into Zuko’s inability to see his wrongs, not just towards Katara, and how selfishly he takes advantage of her in her saddened state. A tragic yet beautiful story that’s heartbreaking and captivating. 

This Might As Well Happen by owedbetter - Rated T- (ongoing) Katara is stranded in a foreign country during a pandemic and Zuko, after overhearing Katara’s predicament, invites her to stay with him. A modern au.

The Summer Of The Switching Sickness by fictionissocialinquiry- Rated E- (completed...maybe) He sighs. Loudly. ‘Here’s what’s going to happen.’ Katara peeks at him through her fingers. ‘First, we’re going to agree right now that we will never tell any of our friends about this. Ever. Especially Sokka and Toph. Deal?’ Katara nods fervently. ‘Deal.’-The summer of the Switching Sickness puts a strain on relations between the Fire Nation and Southern Water Tribe... It's probably better for everyone involved if no one else finds out why.

Make Sense Of All My Broken Parts by markedmage- Rated E- In the beginning, they were enemies, pitted against each other in order to save the world. They fought, mended hearts at Ba Sing Se, and found betrayal under the moon. They reunited, fought again, and helped the Avatar save the world. Somewhere, along the way, Katara unwittingly allowed Zuko into her soul, taking up residence and finding peace within all her broken pieces. Somewhere, along the way, she gave him her heart, and she knows she can never, will never, want it back.

Full Moon Rising by adamantwrites aka theadamantdaughter - Rated T- this one was a gift for me and to this day, i absolutely love it. not only because adamant happens to be one of my favorite authors but because she captured everything i love and made it into a zutara fic.- His mother’s fairy tales told of the first, running from the wasteland at the top of the world across the water and the land and the ice in the south, all to rescue a lover stolen from him. From his father of all demons, he knew the truer history: packs that once roamed the poles, shifting from wolf to human and back again.

[thcrin]

for @owedbetter, who lives and breathes billy x clara

AU/Crossover: Mr and Mrs Smith AU

[shivisdivis]

I'm trying to get back into zutara for zutara month! Do you have any fic recommendations to get me started?

These are the Zutara fics that I have read so far, I hope you like them :). 

These Stories We Tell : “Told in chapters of “These ______,” These Stories We Tell follows Zuko and Katara through the events of The Southern Raiders, and on. They face the trials of war, friendship, leadership, and family, learning how to be there for each other and love each other completely. - This is a series of role play threads.” This wonderful story is created by my two beloved nieces @theadamantdaughter and @honxrable, I love you girls.😘

i’m still here (FF) i’m still here  (Ao3): “You see me.” And somehow, that makes all the difference. [s3 canon compliant (until it’s not). zutara.]I really love this fic, here we know a little more about Zuko, and we see how the friendship between Zuko and Katara develops, to something more 👀. - This beautiful story is created by @owedbetter

Southern Lights : In a world without the Avatar, Sozin’s conquest succeeded. One last chance at peace forces an unlikely alliance between a carefree air nomad, a fugitive heiress, a homesick waterbender, and the fire lord’s son. Together, they must shed old enmities and become the balance they seek to restore to the world. Or: the Avatar has four heads. [AU canon reboot with darker themes/smut]  - In this story, the Fire Nation dominates among the other nations, and they must adapt to this life, but there may be a little hope in a small group of friends. I love the plot and as it says it has dark themes, it’s a great fic and is created by @colourwhirled

Born Beneath An Angry Star:  When Zuko falls ill with a deadly spirit fever Katara learns her healing abilities are the only remedy for his illness. While spending time together the two develop feelings for one another, but Katara refuses to act on her feelings. Leaving Zuko to wonder if Katara will ever be able to look beyond who he was in his past, and fall in love with who he’s become in the present. - As it says in the fic, Zuko falls into a terrible spirit fever, and Katara, in healing him, experiences part of his past, and when they know each other more, they fall in love. Story created by AddictedToTheWrittenWord

The Boy with the Golden Eyes (FF) The Boy with the Golden Eyes  (Ao3): For the majority of his sixteen years, life was pretty quiet in the South Pole for Zuko, but everything changes when a young boy appears out of nowhere in search of the next Avatar with the Fire Navy on his tail. Zuko wishes he would just go away. Katara’s excited that she has someone to finally teach her how to bend. AU. -  In this fic, we see Water Tribe Zuko and Avatar Yay! This story is created by N_ginoza

Lilacs and Lily Pads:  A tale of clumsy courtship and calamitous court weddings, featuring awkward family encounters, floral mishaps, cultural complications, and good old fashioned fluff and conflict. Takes place in the five years following war’s end. For Zutara Week 2016. A prequel to Bones. - In this fic, Katara fights between the prejudice of the people of the Fire Nation about her relationship and wedding with their Firelord. This story is created by the great @sadladybug   

If someone likes to add more fics is welcome! So much love.❤️🐛

[thcrin]

for @owedbetter, who’s having a hard time and need some cheering up <3

AU/Crossover: A famous photographer, Billy is fascinated by his new model, Clara, who quickly becomes his new muse, his new bedfellow, and his new love. Can he convince her that she means more to him than just the next in a string of girls?

[sophdoesstuff-blog]

DRABBLE: Not an Adventure

Clara Oswald has been travelling long enough that this universe, the universe with her Doctor is becoming the norm. The technicolour adventures, and the stars blazing; it’s all day to day. The monsters, the aliens, the running — the adventure! It’s all becoming second nature. No –– it IS second nature now. She doesn’t flinch at new types of aliens, she doesn’t question, instead she is excited. She’s like him now. As though every star is a toy in her toy chest and the Doctor well, he is the kid playing next to her, the kid who’s been there to show her the best toys. The kid who would share his world with her without any doubts or anxieties.

At this moment, he’s grinning at her, his hands fiddling with the plectrum revolving through a wave of skeleton fingers, his storm coloured hair, longer than she’d ever seen it, a cloud around his head, crowning his eyebrows. “So, Clara Oswald,” he intones with one chord on his guitar, moving closer to her so they stand side by side. “Where next?” “Where next,” she replies with with a wistful expression, her eyes falling to the levers and buttons, all of which she’s starting to come to grips with. “Yes where next, your choice. Where too?” “And we could go anywhere?” “Yes, within reason.” “Reason?” “Oh you know the rules by now….”

“….and you know I know how to break them.” The Doctor shrugged, but he’s beaming at her as he strums more on his guitar, song bird chords chiming in the large room. “Don’t we all? So––––!! Pick our next adventure. Pick something you’ve always wanted to do. Something exciting, something different. Something we haven’t done before ––– ” He puts down the guitar, unaware of how Clara has started to look at him, as though the console does not exist, that nothing else exists but him. The Doctor’s fingers clap together, before he recognises — with some effort the expression. ‘What?” She moves towards him, the shorter woman baring a new different glance into his eyes and for the longest moment, The Doctor doesn’t speak. “Clara?” he asks, still not having gotten an answer from her, and suddenly she’s on her tiptoes, the balls of her feet pressing up as she pulls at his lapels so their lips are close enough to touch, pressing their mouths together in the same action. He’s stiffens, but he did not pull away. His hands still out at his sides. Slowly he allows himself to pull her towards him. fingers resting on her waist, his eyes closed. Starlight seeming to dance underneath his skin and through his body, making him want to float. Clara Oswald always finds a way of making the unthinkable, a reality. Perhaps that’s why she’s still the impossible girl. Not because she was impossible ––– because she makes the impossible possible. She pulled away, and their eyes meet, her face was redder than he’d ever seen it, but he couldn’t read the emotion that came with it. “There.” “There?” “I picked something I’ve always wanted to do.” There’s a pause. The Doctor opens his mouth, closes it then opens it again, they’ve barely moved from their positions, in fact, he’s sure that he’s the only reason Clara is able to maintain being on her toes. “–––You’ve kissed me before.” “I hadn’t kissed this regeneration before. Not like that.” He’s still not smiling, his face doesn’t quite know how to react, so she’s confronted with a sort of angry-dash-confused-pleased look. She puts a hand to his cheek, and she says nothing else. She knows he doesn’t know how to do this, knows that there were so much more she could say. But she knew how he felt about her. He knew how she felt about him. After all this time, after everything they’ve done together. “Come on, old man,” she said as she pulls away, but still stands close to him. “I chose an adventure, now you pick the next one.” “Kissing is not an adventure.” “You said pick something we’d not done before.” He can’t seem to fault this, mouth open again, he shakes his head, and when his vision returns, she stands there still, smiling at him. “So, go on. Choose a place.” He pauses, processing this, before suddenly he’s flying across the levers, pulling some forward and some back, and a few buttons pressed, Clara can’t help the laugh that escapes her as the TARDIS seems to burst to life at the process. “Where are we going?” she asks as she bounced on her toes as she moved with him around the controls. “You’ll find out soon enough,” and as he walked away from her as the TARDIS stopped, his fingers press open the TARDIS door as she follows him. Whether it was every day or not it didn’t matter, her best friend and his toy chest were always able to surprise her… This is what her heart beats for. “Oh, and don’t forget your sunglasses, Clara! Vaiphus 3’s fireworks are as strong as any earth  solar eclipses.”

written for the lovely @owedbetter!! based the events before our roleplay thread / headcanons where ‘clara loses her dignity’

[nehswritesstuffs]

List 6 movies you can watch at any time and then tag 6 people.

I was tagged by Jo (@owedbetter), so here it goes, under a cut.

1. Star Wars 4-7

These all count as one since they’re in a series and while 4-6 helped shape me as a wee tiny nerd-child, 7 is keeping that feeling alive and well. Science fiction in my house wasn’t exactly a thing when I was young, and still isn’t super-big, but I was more likely to watch a WWII documentary than a science fiction show, meaning the times I spent at my cousin’s house watching the original trilogy are precious to me since I realize now how important that was (see also: when we’d watch 90s Batman movies and how that really made me open to superheroes).

2. My Big Fat Greek Wedding

My family’s not Greek, nor is it this level of insane, but considering I’ve had some nutso and stereotypical Old World shit go down in my family (both sides), plus being closer to 30 than 20 and still unmarried myself, I feel Toula. A SEQUEL IS COMING THE WEEKEND BEFORE MY BIRTHDAY AND I’M CAUTIOUSLY EXCITED?! THAT CAME OUT OF NOWHERE. On an academic standpoint, it also is curious since while the Portokolas family is kinda wild and crazy, they just get side-eyed and gently ignored by the “dry white toast” sorts of people, while I’m sure they’d get many more complaints if they were anything OTHER than Greek (or maybe Italian, since they can easily be in a similar position simply thanks to general cultural norms (and having the distinction of being a Mediterranean people that comes is varying shade from pasty to “are they mixed-race”)). The lack of identity that Ian’s family has is frankly disturbing to me, and it’s sad because, well, even the dry white toasts aren’t all the same, but that might be part of me being irritated because when I say I’m half-Dutch, plenty of people assume that means I’m half-German due to Dutch/Deutsch and the Pennsylvania Dutch being Germans, and the whole Scots/Irish debate. CULTURAL IDENTITY AND UNDERSTANDING IS SO IMPORTANT TO ME, YOU HAVE NO IDEA. Fuck, I should have been a Cultural Studies major.

3. All four Indiana Jones movies

THERE! I SAID IT! ALL FOUR. FIGHT ME, MOTHERLICKERS. Basically, I love the melting down of the different pulp serials/films of the times (30s for 1-3, 50s for 4), and I’m actually genuinely sad that so many people hate Indy 4 because it wasn’t Harrison Ford fighting more Nazis. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull merely did what the rest of the series did, but updated it to fit the actors’ ages, and didn’t do a bad job in the slightest. I also haven’t had a problem with a large chunk of Shia LeBouf’s acting career--once Transformers 2 happened, things started getting sketchy, but that was more influence from the franchise rubbing off on him than anything else (I had a bit of a crush on him in the Even Stevens/Holes days, so I may be a bit biased in that regard). Indiana Jones just great, okay? The only downside is that Harrison Ford is not as hot of a dad as he could be in 4, at least I didn’t think so the last time I saw it, which just means he peaked the year I was born and no gusta.

4. Singin’ in the Rain

I love how Jo and I agree on this movie--there’s also the fact that I can nearly recite it word for word and if my old high school decides to do this as the “community musical” next year, I don’t care if it makes me miss my ten-year reunion because I’m going to try out of Lina “I Ain’t Peepl” Lamont (besides the fact I wouldn’t want to attend my ten-year reunion anyhow). Musicals and I don’t always get along, but this one is the perfect send-up to the era when silents were fading out and talkies were IN, not to mention the hard work that went into making it. Apparently Gene Kelly was a total dick to Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor ACTUALLY FUCKING PASSED OUT AFTER THE MAKE ‘EM LAUGH SEQUENCE and the husband-wife team that wrote the entire fucking thing were just given a bunch of songs the studio owned rights to from the era and told to do something with it and... just fuck. This movie owns my soul.

5. Arthur Christmas

Here’s a little tidbit about me: I loathe the Christmas-themed entertainment barrage I get every single year. There are different Christmas episodes and movies that I enjoy, yes, but this is one I wouldn’t give up for anything. The rest of my family has Elf, whereas I have Arthur Christmas. It’s sweet and carries a very good message about who Santa really is, which I think is important considering how bitter some kids can get when they’re let in on the truth, and has 100% less Zooey Deschanel and Will Farrell. It doesn’t pull any shit about how people need to have Christmas spirit or that you should believe (or shouldn’t, despite things) or that Santa and his fifty elves sitting at woodworking benches deliver hundreds of millions of presents worldwide in a tiny af sled... oh no. In it, the Santas have kept up with the times, the North Pole is high-tech and probably more populated than some US states and English counties, and it doesn’t matter who Santa is--as long as he came. Santa can be anyone, and the fact “he” came is enough to show that he cares, and caring about that happiness in a child is what really counts. I’ll be Santa one day, and it makes me oh so very glad.

6. JOHN CARTER

Here’s my obligatory John Carter [of Mars] mention, because I don’t care if I’m one of three people that bought the Bluray I am going to try to vindicate this stuff for always and ever. Maybe if the Burroughs Estate tries again in ten years or so, we might get somewhere, but ugh, please, it’s the culmination of so many science fiction/superhero tropes rolled into one because it’s an adaptation of the SOURCE MATERIAL FOR ALL THESE THINGS, so please no one shit on it for being a copycat because it’s not.

Other mentions are [also] Atlantis: the Lost Empire, The Emperor’s New Groove, just about any Studio Ghibli movie from either Miyazaki or Takahata (excluding Arietty/From Up on Poppy Hill and including the Castle of Cagliostro), Fantasia/Fantasia 2000, the Lion King, Pacific Rim, all four Pirates of the Caribbean movies (YES I LIKE THE FOURTH ONE AS WELL), and The Iron Giant. The Lord of the Rings/Hobbit movies do not get anywhere near this list only because of length.

I don’t tag people, so do this if you feel like it. :D