the thing about media literacy is that understanding why the author chose to specify that the curtains are blue is the same skill set as understanding that the way the author characterizes all black characters as angry or all chinese characters as meek and silent is racist. it is the same skill set as being able to identify when a news source is biased or when someone is feeding you propaganda. the ability to ask "why did this person choose to present this premise in this specific way?" is a critical skill in a world full of misinformation. why are the curtains blue? maybe it's a characterization detail. maybe it's extraneous worldbuilding. why is this character written as being right all the time? maybe you're intended to disagree with them. maybe it doesn't matter. maybe you should still ask why.
so, a while ago I posted chibi zutara drawing. The original plan was to draw Zuko and Katara kissing (sketch)
But I scratched and went with chibi zutara.
@zzeno commented on my post saying they hoped I didn't scratch it. I kind of did scratch it, but I still had the sketch saved because I map my progress on fanart drawings. So, I decided to come back to it and see what came out.
Consider this piece my personal celebration of my first ever Zutara Week.
Day 1 progress
After that, it kind of went sideways. I have three different pieces created from that one.
Y'know, I've seen the argument that "Zutara can't actually be connected to Oma and Shue because Oma and Shu weren't ever actually enemies". And . . . are we sure about that?
Like, they did come from warring villages. The only knowledge we have of their relationship is an extremely abridged story. It's not unreasonable to believe there was at least tension between them at some point.
Let's go line by line.
"They met on top of the mountain that divided their two villages."
Now, they don't necessarily seem hostile here (though it is important to note that the expressions are not clear), but I will point out that Oma is holding a stick here. And, like, I'm not going to say that the only reason she could be holding it is as an impromptu weapon, but I don't think that possibility is entirely out of the question.
Alternatively, perhaps the fact that Oma is not wearing the colors of her tribe (at least I assume the tribes are color-coded like they are in the present day), could mean that Shu didn't immediately recognize her as the enemy. Therefore, he didn't treat her like an enemy, and she decided not to engage because she didn't have a reason to.
"The villages were enemies, so they could not be together."
Oma and Shu releasing each other's hands definitely looks more affectionate than anything, but I think that it could easily be more of an artistic rendition of their first meeting than a literal one. And I think it's worth pointing out that both Oma's branch and the character above both resemble blood. Which could represent the general animosity between the two villages, or it could point to a more personal initial animosity between the pair.
In addition, "the villages were enemies, so they could not be together" could mean that the fact that they were enemies was an obstacle to having any kind of relationship with each other, at least at first.
"But their love was strong, and they found a way."
Again, this is a very abridged version of events. We don't know how or why they fell in love, just that they did. Perhaps that love begun at their first meeting, perhaps not. It can't be said for sure. However, I do feel pretty confident in saying that they met up in some way or another in the time between first meeting and making the tunnels together. And, you know, a lot could have happened/changed in those meetings.
Now, that's as far as I'm going with the rest of the story, because at this point they are definitely passed any possible enemies stage.
However, there is one more, pretty significant point I would like to bring up.
This story is told from Oma's point of view.
Not literally, of course. I don't believe she wrote her own tomb inscription. But the only possible way someone could have known about this story is if she had told them first. I'm guessing probably a trusted friend, or possibly family member, who had been given the task of honoring the pair after death (also probably an earthbender she taught, judging by the statues right by the tomb).
So from that perspective, of course the story wouldn't go into detail about any initial animosity between Oma and Shu. Particularly after Shu's death, I think it only makes sense that Oma wouldn't linger very hard on any possible "enemies" stage between her and her love. That probably wouldn't feel very relevant or important to her, or anyone who wanted to write the story on the tombs.
So, like, there isn't necessarily proof that they were enemies, but it's also definitely not out of the realm of possibility.
The Southern Water Tribe ship docked with no advance notice a week later, and Katara, her arm still lightly healing, ran to the harbor the moment she heard Chief Hakoda himself was aboard.
— Dad! — She hugged him hard the moment he came down the gangway, the familiar smell of salt and leather bringing a sudden wave of homesickness she hadn’t realized she’d been carrying until that instant.
— Heard about the attack, — Hakoda said, holding her by the shoulders, his eyes examining her from head to toe with obvious paternal worry. — Came the moment the news reached the South Pole. Are you all right?
— I’m fine, Dad. Really.
Hakoda raised his eyes, and Katara followed his gaze to Zuko, who was approaching the docks, formal but visibly nervous.
— Chief Hakoda, — Zuko greeted him, bowing with genuine respect. — Your daughter is one of the bravest people I’ve ever known. I am deeply sorry that danger reached her under my protection.
Hakoda studied the young Fire Lord for a long, assessing moment, the kind of silence Katara recognized as pure paternal calculation.
— Let’s talk, Fire Lord Zuko, — he said, finally.
— Just the two of us, if the ambassador doesn’t mind.
Katara exchanged a nervous glance with Zuko, who nodded, resigned to a conversation they both knew was inevitable.
She watched them walk off together down the pier, the father who had raised her alone after losing her mother walking beside the young man she loved, and felt her heart beat unevenly between hope and dread, imagining exactly what kind of conversation would unfold when the two most important men in her life finally met with no one standing between them.
A male-centered/male-perspective romance can adore a woman without knowing her. When we say the romance is written from the male PoV, they get so offended. And it isn’t even inherently a slight. Women can enjoy being desired, idealized and even participate in the male gaze themselves. None of that is the problem.
The problem is narrative access. The limit placed on how Aang is allowed to engage with Katara’s internal world.
He’s allowed to adore her, idealize her, fawn over her, admire her, care for her, give her things, defend her, and want her affection. He’s allowed to experience Katara as the object of his romantic attention.
But he’s rarely allowed to encounter the machinery underneath who she is (her internal world).
He’s not allowed to meaningfully subvert her parentification. He’s not allowed to sit with the uglier or more complicated dimensions of her personality. He’s not really made to confront the full weight of her grief, her abandonment issues, her anger, or the ways those experiences have fundamentally shaped her. All of that internal conflict that has bled into/modified virtually every part of Katara’s characterization?
Let’s give it to Zuko. He gets to bear the brunt of it, okay? Perfect. Bravo! Bravo!
“She hated Zuko most the show.”
I dunno. I kinda liked it. Because her enmity toward him gave her the opportunity/permission to be difficult and different. It was a twisted kind of outlet.
She could be furious, vindictive, distrustful, unforgiving, and vulnerable. She could expose the parts of herself that weren’t nurturing or agreeable. Zuko’s relationship with her required him to engage with those parts of her rather than simply admire her for the parts that were easy to love.
With Aang, Katara is often either his friend or reinforcing the reasons he loves her (regulating, coddling, centering and reassuring him).
And when the narrative does foreground their romance, it just falls back into some tropey, romantic beat that’s most probably designed to give us a glimpse through a keyhole of what kind of couple they’re meant to symbolize, rather than dramatizing the internal process that would make it feel earned.
Aang is allowed to love her far more than he’s truly allowed to know her. That’s the kind of male-gazey it is.
Katara discovers far more about herself in her friendship with Zuko than she ever does in her romance with Aang.
The Caldera, without Katara, felt to Zuko colder than it had ever been, even surrounded by the volcano’s own eternal heat.
He threw himself into work with an almost self-destructive intensity, dispatching reform after reform, investigation after investigation into the New Ozai Society, as if physical exhaustion could somehow fill the emptiness her absence had left behind.
— You need to sleep, nephew, — Iroh observed, finding him still awake over a stack of reports for the third night running.
— Not even the Avatar can save the world without rest.
— I can’t sleep, — Zuko admitted, his voice tired. — Every time I close my eyes, I think of her on that ship, alone, and everything that could go wrong before I manage to fix this political mess and bring her back.
Iroh sat down across from him and poured tea Zuko didn’t touch.
They stayed like that a while.
— I’m not sleeping, — Zuko said.
— I know.
— It’s not because of her.
— Of course not.
Zuko put his head in his hands.
Iroh said nothing more. He sat there with him until the tea went completely cold, and then stood, gathered the two cups, and stopped at the door.
A lifetime of breaking involuntary time-loops has made Katara an expert at preventing tragedies. But nothing could have prepared her for finding Sokka's body, being framed for his murder, and having her consciousness sent all the way back to her childhood.
Time has a morbid sense of humor.
Now, Katara has the chance to stop the chain of events that will cause her brother's death—starting by saving her reclusive classmate, Zuko Kasai, from becoming a serial killer's first victim.
.
Catching My Reflection AU:
Mom died, and Katara started dreaming of memories that weren't her own. Little things, innocuous warnings, slow-coming over the years. Keep Sokka away from fish hooks. Teach Bato to make burn ointment. Sit on the village wall and stare at the ocean, waiting for an old ship to appear on the horizon.
Father scarred him and cast him out, and memories consumed Zuko. He drowned in them, sudden and unapologetic. Visions of all the mistakes he made in a future that wasn't his, so he wouldn't choose the wrong path this time. Play Pai Sho with Uncle and thank him for the tea. Write to Azula, tell her she's something beyond Ozai's weapon. Go to the South Pole, know you're not alone.
The cost of the attack only became fully clear at dawn: seven dead, among guards and civilians who had tried to protect the warehouses, dozens wounded, and a harbor that would take months to fully rebuild.
Katara spent the entire day healing what could be healed, her hands trembling with exhaustion by nightfall, her face marked with soot and silent tears for lives that the water, powerful as it was, hadn’t been able to save.
She found Zuko alone at the makeshift memorial raised in the middle of the damaged harbor, the names of the dead being carved into a stone plaque under his personal supervision.
— Seven people, — he said, his voice hollow, when she came near.
— Seven people died because I couldn’t protect this city from ghosts my own father and grandfather created.
— Zuko, that isn’t—
— I know what you’re going to say. That it isn’t my fault. — He turned to her, his eyes red with exhaustion and contained grief. — But the weight is still mine to carry, Katara. I’m the one who sits on that throne. My subjects are the ones who die when I fail to protect this peace.
Katara didn’t argue with his grief — she simply came closer, taking his hands in hers, both marked with the same soot and ash.
— Then carry that weight with me, — she said, gentle but firm. — Not alone. Never alone again, Zuko. That’s what I promised when I decided to stay.
They stood there, in silence, before the newly raised memorial, the smell of smoke still hanging in the morning air, two survivors of different wars finding, in each other, the strength to go on rebuilding what could still be saved.
Aang left 5 years ago to join Tagah and find the other airbenders. With his return, he’s realizing the world doesn’t stop because the avatar is missing and that all of his friends have moved on without him. Especially Zuko and Katara.
An Avatar Aang movie rewrite but changed up with a Zutara twist.
Also posted on my AO3:
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Jamie is over and Jamie is gone
Jamie’s decided it’s time to move on
Jamie has new dreams he’s building upon
And I’m still hurting
He was home. As Aang flew on Appa against the backdrop of the night sky and full moon, he looked below him to the city he helped build - Republic City. Even though it was dark, there was something about the city that was different. He didn’t know what, but Aang could tell this wasn’t the same place he left five years ago. It seemed more…alive…lived in…settled. Funny how things change in just a few years.
But Aang wasn’t too concerned about Republic City right now especially as it was already evening. All he cared about, all he could think of, was getting home. He wanted to sleep in his own bed. He wanted a decent meal. But most of all, he wanted to hold Katara. He had missed her in the time he’d been gone. It had been torture to not talk to her since leaving. It didn’t help that they had left things on a sour note.
When Aang decided to leave Republic City to follow Tagah for the chance to restore the Air Nation, Katara had not taken it well. Aang didn’t want to stay, which is what Katara wanted. But Katara didn’t want to go with him, which is what Aang wanted. And so he left anyway. She didn’t understand that it was something he had to do. He needed to restore his people.
But that was passed them now. Aang was so sure that once she saw him again, they could let bygones be bygones. She’d take him into her arms like she always did, he would kiss her, and they would be ok again. He couldn’t wait for that.
X
It didn’t take long for Aang to arrive at his apartment in the city. He settled Appa and quickly made his way inside, practically bursting with excitement. “Katara!” He yelled when he opened the door. “I’m back!”
Aang heard the sound of something breaking in the kitchen, probably from the surprise of his yelling. He quickly made for the noise and entered the kitchen only to be surprised to find that the Water Tribe clothing on the person bent over the floor picking up broken pieces didn’t belong to his love - but to her brother.
”Sokka?” Aang asked in surprise.
Sokka looked up startled, dropping the broken pieces again as he stared at Aang in surprise. “Aang? Is that really you?” Sokka stood up and eyed Aang up and down before letting out one of his signature laughs and pulling Aang in for a hug.. The two old friends grasped each other tightly. “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?”
“What happened, man?” Sokka asked after they pulled away. “You were gone for so long and we were so worried about you.”
Aang rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. How was he to explain that his mission was a failure? That Tagah and his group had used him to find the staff so they could build an Airbender Army? That he had almost died and all his friends were right that he never should’ve left, let alone trust Tagah?
Sokka could see the look on Aang’s face and knew the answer. He’ll ask about Aang’s time away, but not tonight. “Hey, don’t worry about it tonight. Just get some rest and we can talk about it later.”
Aang gave him a small smile in gratitude. “Thanks, Sokka. I think I just need some rest tonight.” Aang looked around his home. “Is Katara sleeping already? I want to say hi before I go to bed. If she is, I’ll just kiss her goodnight.”
“Oh, Katara…” Sokka rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Umm…she’s not here.”
Aang looked at him confused. “What do you mean? It’s the middle of the night. Where is she?”
Sokka sighed and figured it was better to just rip the band aid off and tell him. “She doesn’t live in Republic City anymore. She had me take over her position on the council here and instead took up an ambassador position with the Tribe.” Aang’s eyes widened with each new piece of information he heard. And then Sokka gave the final blow. “She’s been living in the Fire Nation.”
X
The night was so calm. Another beautiful Full Moon was above her. Katara could feel her element in her veins and all around her. In the private gardens of the Fire Nation palace, Katara began to bend the water around her as Yue watched above. She felt so strong, so free, so happy.
As Katara was bending and feeling the push and pull, she felt a disturbance. Much like Toph could sense her surroundings with her earthbending, Katara had been able to hone in on her water bending and could sense that there was something off around her.
“When I found out you were here in the Fire Nation, I thought I’d find you on the beach during the full moon. I didn’t expect to find you in the palace and in the private royal wing.”
Katara’s eyes widened as she looked to the top of the wall’s highest ledge. “Aang?” Aang floated down from the top. “You’re back.” She wanted to be happy and hug him, but there was something about his body language and demeanor that had her on edge.
Aang nodded. “Yeah, I’m back. I came home to Republic City first. I was so excited to see you. But then all I found was Sokka.” He started inching towards her in almost a predatory way. She stayed on her guard. “He took over the job I left you and our home.”
Katara shook her head. “Republic City was never my home, Aang. And I didn’t want to be the head of the council. I told you that, but you wouldn’t listen.”
“Well if you had come with me, I wouldn’t have had to leave you the job,” Aang said, getting slightly more frustrated.
“You shouldn’t have left in the first place. I told you that too. You had responsibilities here! We all did!” Katara’s voice started rising to match him.
“I had a responsibility to my people! There was a chance I could’ve brought them back! I had to take it!” The wind started rustling harder and the water became unsteady. “You still don’t understand! None of you do!”
“You weren’t the only one who lost people in the war, Aang,” Katara said, regaining some calm. “The Southern Tribe was also targeted. All the waterbenders gone. My mother…gone. To protect me and the last of our heritage.” Her voice broke but she kept going. “But Sokka and I moved forward. We all moved forward. That’s why we couldn’t go with you. How could we give up what we spent so long building?”
Aang took a deep breath and the elements around him calmed. “Ok, fine. It’s late. Can we talk about this tomorrow please? Appa is waiting. Let’s go back to Republic City and we can talk about it more.”
Katara shook her head. “No Aang. I’m not leaving. I can’t.”
Aang began moving towards her again and grabbed her arms. “Why not? I know we’ve had our fights and differences, but I’m back now. We can talk and start over.”
Katara pulled away from him. “I’m sorry, Aang. But I can’t. I already told you. Republic City was never my home. And besides, we’ve all moved forward.” She rubbed her neck awkwardly and pulled her collar down to show her necklace. It wasn’t her mother’s. Aang looked at it closely. It was a green crystal engraved with a dragon and two koi fish set on a purple ribbon. “I’ve moved forward.”
Aang’s eyes widened at the implication. “No. No no no no…” Aang was beginning to lose control of his emotions again. The water in the pond, the air around them, even the earth underneath them began shaking.
Katara was wobbling, losing her balance as Aang let his emotions control him again. “Aang stop this!” The elemental disturbance and her yelling attracted the guards that were waiting outside the door for her.
They quickly rushed in and lit their hands or grabbed bent water out of their pouches. They were ready to attack the avatar if needed. “My Lady!” One of them yelled.
Katara lifted her arms to stop her guards. “Stay back! Don’t hurt him and don’t get any closer.” She faced Aang again. “Aang, please! Calm down!”
Aang let out a final gust of wind which blasted all of them towards the wall with a thud. He calmed down long enough to see Zuko run in with more guards. He didn’t even notice Aang. He went straight towards Katara and helped her up. He did a quick once over of her body to make sure she wasn’t injured. “Are you ok? What happened?” Desperation and worry was written all over his face.
Katara placed her hands on either side of his face to calm him down. “I’m fine. I promise.” Zuko sighed in relief and then got down on his knees. He placed his forehead on her stomach and took a deep breath as Katara ran her fingers through his long hair. “We both are.”
Aang watched the scene before him. They seemed to have forgotten he was there or that he was the cause of the commotion. Realization hit Aang like a saber tooth moose lion. We’re ok. No. No, it couldn’t be. Aang shook his head in disbelief and quickly fled from the area.
X
The next morning, Aang sat on the dock of the Fire Lord’s Ember Island home. He wanted to leave the Fire Nation, but he knew he couldn’t. There were so many things left unsaid. He just didn’t know how to face it.
“I thought I might find you here,” a gentle voice behind him spoke. He didn’t even need to turn around to know who it was. He knew that voice; loved that voice. “Some of our best Fire Nation memories from the war were here. I figured if you hadn’t left, this is where you’d be.” Aang still wouldn’t say anything or turn around to face her. Katara sighed. “I’m sorry that this is how you found out everything. Had we known you’d returned, we would’ve reached out and invited you over.”
Aang cringed at the word ‘we.’ It was a fresh reminder that not only was Katara no longer his, but she was already someone else’s. He still couldn’t bring himself to say anything. “If you’ll give me a chance, I can tell you everything you’ve missed in the past 5 years,” Katara said gently.
Aang took a deep breath. He didn’t want to hear it. He didn’t want to know. But he knew he had to. He turned to look at her. “Ok. Tell me everything.”
Katara gave him a slight smile and sat on the dock next to him. “I know you think we betrayed your friendship when none of us decided to go with you and Tagah. But you need to understand, Aang, the predicament you put all of us in.”
“What are you talking about? What predicament?”
Katara sighed. “I know the trip was important for you. I know you wanted to find or bring back the Airbenders. But if we all left, who would be here to take care of what we already have? Who would run the Fire Nation if Zuko had gone with you? My dad wants Sokka to take over as Chief in the south one day. What if, spirits forbid, they lost their lives? Who would succeed them? And Toph too. She had just opened her metal bending school. She has so many students. Who would teach them if something happened to her?”
Aang closed his eyes and thought about it. Maybe he didn’t think it all the way through. Maybe he did ask his friends for a lot at the time. “And what about you? You didn’t have anything you were leaving behind, but you still didn’t want to come.” He asked as he looked at her.
Katara shook her head and wouldn’t face him. “Yeah, you’re right. I didn’t have anything to leave behind because I was always right behind you. All I had done up to that point was support you. I followed you, supported you, watched you build Republic City from the ground up. But that was all I did. I was only ever your support and I wanted more for myself. That’s why I took the ambassador position when you left; so I could do more with the gifts I’ve been given.”
“That still doesn’t explain why you didn’t come with me. Or how you ended up here in the Fire Nation and married to Zuko!”
Katara sighed. “When we had that argument right before you left, about how I didn’t want you to leave because it was dangerous, and you decided to leave anyway…I remembered something my dad told me just a few months prior. He said the right kind of love, the kind that’s real, that sacrifices; that kind of love doesn’t blind you. It actually helps you see.” Katara finally looked at Aang. “I was starting to see our relationship more clearly. I didn’t want to be your support. I wanted to do my own thing, not just as the Avatar’s girl. I wanted to do more. But you wouldn’t listen to me. So I kept giving up more of myself for you instead. But that’s not love, Aang.” Katara took a deep breath knowing this next part would hurt him. “Whether or not you would’ve left, I still would’ve broken up with you.”
Aang’s eyes widened as he looked at her and listened to her words. “What?!”
“We got together too quickly after the war. I didn’t even fully think my feelings through. I told you I was confused. But I agreed to be your girlfriend because it felt like the right thing to do at the time.”
Aang scoffed. “Too quickly? As if you didn’t immediately fall into Zuko’s arms after I left.” He said it with such malice that it would’ve hurt her had it been even remotely true.
Katara shook her head. “No Aang, we didn’t.” Katara sighed again and continued. “Zuko and I…just happened. The first year you were gone, we didn’t expect you to be away for that long. Republic City was still new and with you gone, he only had me to rely on to keep it in order, on top of keeping his own country in order. I told you I didn’t want to be the head of the council. I begged Sokka to take the job, at least until he took over as chief or if you came back. I took an ambassador position and went home to the South Pole. Zuko and I kept in touch because I was still helping him keep the peace in the Fire Nation. I took him up on the offer to visit so that I could get a first hand look at the problems.”
Aang closed his eyes but willed himself to keep listening. “Being with Zuko was so easy. We had the same values and wanted the same things for his people. We would share our worries about the world but also about you. We barely realized we were falling in love. After the first year, we admitted to each other we were in love and started the second year with our courtship.”
Aang looked at her distraught. “Didn’t you think I’d come back?”
“Of course we thought you’d come back. We hoped you would. And we felt guilty for a long time about our courtship, Zuko especially. But we can’t stop our lives because you’re not there.” Katara paused to let Aang take it all in before continuing. “Near the end of the second year and you still hadn’t returned, Zuko proposed and we became engaged. We married before the end of that year.”
“Why so fast? Because you were afraid I’d come back?” He asked bitterly.
“Because we love each other and we wanted to be together. Whether we waited 3 months or 3 years, it wasn’t going to change.”
Aang really didn’t want to hear this but he knew he had to. So Katara kept going. “We agreed the first thing we’d do when you returned was tell you together. And we had hoped you’d understand. But you still hadn’t returned in that third year and we were getting worried if you were even still alive. The White Lotus began scoping through both of the tribes to see if the new avatar was born. It was heartbreaking.” She paused before continuing with the rest. “But as they searched for a newborn avatar, I had a newborn of my own.”
Aang’s eyes widened as he abruptly turned to look at her in shock. He knew after last night she was currently with child, but he assumed it was their first. But no, they already had a living, breathing child in the world. And he tried to take their mother. “You have a child already?”
Katara smiled proudly and nodded. “Yes, a little girl. Her name is Izumi. We named her after a fresh water spring, so her name could honor each culture. She’s the light of my life. She’s just barely two but she’s so smart and bright. And so happy. And we just learned a month ago that she’s a firebender. She got upset about something and in her little tantrum, she let out the tiniest flame from her hand. Zuko was ecstatic but worried. He didn’t want her firebending to come from anger, so he’s been doing little training sessions with her. Zuko thinks she’ll be an even bigger prodigy than Azula.”
“That’s why you weren’t bending on the beach last night. You didn’t want to be too far away from her.” Aang said as a statement rather than a question.
Katara nodded. “She’s smart and talented, but she’s still just a baby. She needs me and I can’t be far from her even if I wanted to be. Being here now, so far away, is actually killing me a little.”
“So you had Izumi in the third year I was gone. What else?” He was really hoping there wasn’t anything else.
Katara shrugged. “Every year we hoped and waited for your return. But like I said, we couldn’t stop. The world wouldn’t stop even if the avatar was missing again. So we kept moving forward. I opened up hospitals and schools. Zuko, with my help, brokered peace with the other nations. And as you saw last night, we’re having another baby.”
“So you and Zuko…it’s real then?”
Katara nodded. No hesitation in sight. “Yes, it’s real. It’s always been real. I love him, Aang. I know it’s not what you want to hear but it’s the truth.”
Aang looked at her with sadness in his eyes. “But I love you too. I loved you first.”
Katara was sad. She just wanted him to understand without breaking his heart more. “I love you too, Aang, but not in that way.” She put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s been 5 years. We’ve both changed. We’re not the same people.”
And looked at her distraught. “How am I supposed to move on without you?”
Katara just smiled a sad smile at him. “I know you think that right now, but I promise one day you’ll wake up and realize you still have the capacity to love someone else the way you thought you loved me.”
“And if it takes another 5 years?”
“Then it takes another 5 years. And regardless, you’ll always have me. We’re still best friends, or at least if you want to be. And maybe one day, when you find that someone meant for you and you find the capacity to forgive Zuko and I, then I’d hope you could be part of my kid’s lives as their fun Uncle Aang.
For the first time since they started the conversation, Aang smiled. “I’d like that a lot.” He sighed. “I’m not ready to be around you and Zuko yet. But I promise it won’t take me 5 years to forgive you guys. I just need some time.”
She smiled. “Take all the time you need.”
Aang nodded. “And when I’m ready, and we’re ok again, I’d really like to tell you what happened to me in those 5 years.”
Katara’s smile widened and she nodded. “We’ll be waiting for you. All of us.”
Aang nodded and stared back at the ocean in front of him. She was right. A lot had changed in the time he was gone. But the world didn’t stop for one person, not even the avatar. He promised himself he’d do better. Maybe there was another way to bring back his people. Maybe just by keeping the culture alive, he was doing just that. He may have been heartbroken but he still had a lot of love to give. And that was more than enough to bring his culture and its legacy back to life.
The Ember Island Players presents "The Boy in the Iceberg" | Coming soon to theatres in 100 AG
"The Boy in the Iceberg is a new production from acclaimed playwright Pu-on Tim, who scoured the globe gathering information on the Avatar from the icy South Pole to the heart of Ba Sing Se. His sources include singing nomads, pirates, prisoners of war, and a surprisingly knowledgeable merchant of cabbage."
Black ppl deserve to feel safe and welcomed on the internet, on fandoms on whatever community or hobbies they want without having to deal with antiblack racist attacks, microaggressions or enablers of antiblackness . And if u genuinely consider urself to be left leaning or an ally or woke you should do and try to unlearn the colorism, texturism , eurocentrism and antiblackness
Zutara Week 2026 Day 7: Time (things end the way they should have)
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Jeankasa Week 2026 Day 7: Secret Relationship (a situationship AU one-shot I’m still working on and it’s currently 32k words long 😅 if you enjoy this trope, make sure to subscribe to the series so you don’t miss out)
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Beautiful cover art by @weis_sen on X
Untitled @ultrajennycat-bui75 - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
