ATLA Modern USA Battle of the Bands AU - Katara focused. I thought this up in the car so it isn’t polished. Check out comradekatara’s AMV for what inspired this.
Katara is a 18 year old Tlingit girl who is part Makah on her grandmother's side. She just graduated high school.
Due to work, she hasn't seen her Dad for a while, as he's constantly traveling from Juneau to DC and back trying to get elected to Congress so he can pass more protections against the Oil companies in the area, especially the long standing Caldera Oil Company (COC). And between that, he has a job fishing, because he isn't rich. Gram Gram, not wanting to worry her son, doesn't tell him that there's been some suspicious businessmen who've recently bought the local bank and jacked up the mortgage and rental rates in the area, so that they might lose the house.
(Katara's mom worked in city hall and was the only one to know that COC had applied to drill and then found a major oil reserve right under their town. So she was murdered)
Sokka and Katara overhear Gram Gram talking about this with the other adults who are affected and are devestated. Of course, that's when a big dog walks into their lives. He's dirty, he looks like it hasn't been taken care of in a while, but Enamored, the siblings take him in.
That's when, of course, the 16 year old Tibetan-American John Doe wakes up at the local hospital, the only survivor of a terrible car wreck.
His name is Aang, he's a musical virtuoso, and his parents died for similar reasons like Katara's mom.
Unlike Katara's mom, his parents shared the info with him. The hit men thought he died.
Gram Gram is the only certified foster parent in town, so she takes him in. Aang reunites with his dog Appa joyously. He hasn't processed his parents' deaths yet.
The kids get to see Zuko (nickname for Zachary Sozinson, disgraced spare to the COC throne) threaten Gram Gram in their home. They manage to scare him and his bullies off, though not before they see recognition of Aang and then a regretful look on his face. The next morning, they see a commercial on TV - there's a rock music contest!
Three cities across the USA (Seattle, Chicago, DC) will have 'Diversity Bands*' battle for the chance to get out on records. Each band member has to be from a visibly different race.
The contest in Seattle needs a solo or duet act, the contest in Chicago two to three people, and the one in DC three to five people. Previous contestants are allowed to recompete as long as they add to their band.
There is also cash prizes for the second and third place winners for each city/category.
*yes it sounds very tokenizing and faux-left corporate and there's a good reason why narratively. Hold on.
Katara and Aang decide to hit the road, using what little savings he inherited from his parents and her money from her job during the school year. As she's only 18 and can't get hotel rooms, and Aang is still a minor, Sokka agrees to be their driver/ roadie/hotel dude when they can afford rooms. They rescue a raccoon kit along the way and name it Momo.
Shenanigans ensue, Zuko is kind of haunting them along the way, they can't tell if he's following them or if he's just going to the same place they are, etc. Aang stops by his old house only to find that it's been taken over by a COC worker who has been using/covering up his parents' proof papers.
The gaang convinces him to be a whistleblower as they leave. They also meet John John (Jeong Jeong), who they briefly consider adding to their band if they don't make it this round, and who is currently embroiled in a case against COC and thus needs to stay on the move for safety reasons.
He teaches Aang another instrument, though for once Aang REALLY doesn't take to it. Along the way they meet Suki, who is in a all girl band and is also going to compete, though they're going to wait until the Chicago contest so they all can get into the contract, etc. Sokka learns to respect girl bands.
Jet, who is also just going to go to the DC one for his big band, reveals to them that the record label is owned by COC, who wants to appear hip with the kids and not a conservative's wet, polluting dream. He feels that since he knows this stuff and how to defeat them (supposedly) he is justified in ruining other bands instead of winning honestly. That isn't good, obviously, so they distance themselves from him.
Eventually they make it to Seattle, Sokka and Katara are invited to stay with some Makah cousins they haven't seen since they were little.
Aang comes too of course, but isn't the reason they were invited in.
Katara learns more about music composition. There Sokka meets and falls in love with Yue, daughter of the mayor. She has to compete with her
'boyfriend' who is really just using her as a beard (consensually) but is very respected by her parents.
Zuko, who realized who Aang was and wants to capture him to bring him back to his Dad, so that there's less whistleblowers for COC, and thus regain his standing in the company, ends up wrecking their performance.
So 'the Gaang' only gets third place, but enough cash to let them squeak by until they reach Chicago. Yue gets first place, breaks up with her boyfriend, and ascends to star-(moon?)-dom. She is extremely busy and does not get to hang with the Gaang much for the rest of the series.
They travel to Chicago, Aang doesn't recognize his old friend Bumi from High school and gets teased relentlessly about it. Meanwhile, they're also looking for a third band member, Aang wants to learn a new instrument and Katara and Aang end up kissing, much to their embarrassment. Zuko and Iroh are on the road too, Zuko embarrassed by the even more public failure to help his father's business take down an individual with so much power to hurt COC (Aang). Similar plot lines with Jet, Azula and Katara's relationships with Zuko occur. Iroh opens a cafe.
Eventually, they make it to Chicago, where they see this 14 year old absolutely destroy everyone in a rap battle while ALSO playing drums. It's Toph! They trick her parents into letting her compete in the Chicago contest. Chicago is where COC wants to move their headquarters, and the local government wants their business, so many higher class people are in serious denial about their effect on the environment.
This time, the get second place, because Jet, who had been tortured for information by COC, manages to escape during their performance and cause a ruckus (he gets treated and reunited with his family don't worry).
Azula and Zuko (it's complicated like in the show) manage to take out Aang via a last minute stage mishap involving a heavy light falling on his head Iroh gets pinned for some COC crimes that Jet did manage to get public, Zuko returns to the top with Azula, etc. Suki's band wins and gets signed, but due to interference from Mai and Tai Lee, their contract is shittier than Yue's and they have to work a ton initially for low pay.
Toph's parents are NOT fans of how this turned out, but Toph's underground fans manage to placate her parents, and then they're on the road again.
Along the way Zuko has his change of heart, Iroh escapes, Katara's Dad is stuck in DC, Gram Gram might lose the house soon, and Aang is growing out his hair for the first time since his parents died. Katara meets Hama, who has a story pretty similar to both hers and how her mom died. When she hands Katara an [instrument] she modified to work as a poison dart gun who would ever check that for poison!] Katara hesitates to take it. She does end up taking it, but switches out the poison for a nerve stopper poison (I can't think of the right way to say it makes you fall asleep/unable to move for a while?).
Also Hama teaches her more music composition and really rounds out her skills lol.
(The painted lady episode WILL happen of course. If I ever write this.
It will probably happen in WV)(as will the school dance episode. Probably in. A rich area just outside DC)
Sokka learns to video edit and starts making music videos for the band. He also meets back up with Suki! Her initial hard-core tour is done, and she's taking a break from her band members for a bit.
When Zuko joins, he and Aang learn how to play his instrument best, he and Sokka finally visit Hakoda and tell him what's going on at home, and he and Katara track down her mom's killer. She poisons him, even keeping Hama's dart in hand just in case, but ultimately lets him live. Even though Zuko assures her he knows how to make it look like an accident. Aang learns how to write a very powerful song from an old person.
They win the big battle of the bands of course. COC then holds a concert to celebrate its 'new, future-forward clean image. There, Katara composes the music to Aang's song, and as their big finale, they play a song - with visualizer proof in the background on huge screens cut together by Sokka and partly by Hakoda) that exposes COC and Ozai.
The series ends with Zuko shifting the company to clean energy, Katara and Sokka returning home triumphant with Aang and his animals in tow, Hakoda gets elected, Toph lives independently and everyone gets to be happy. Except 'Oz' (Ozai) and kind of Azula.
