u/Sea-Factor-2992

Anybody know any good fics where the two of them are treated with the grandiose master level combatants should be? Like so often, for played up drama, I see Zuko and Katara getting taken down by no name soldiers, struggling with people that wouldn't last ten seconds against them normally.

It's like people trying to force realism for realism sake forget these are not realistic people, they're literal magic elemental wielding super wizards. I mean, just look at Ty Lee and Mai. It took them less than two minutes to defeat an elite platoon of over twenty earth bending soldiers, and they didn't take a single hit. On the way to the Earth King, the Gaang got jumped by literal hundreds of earth benders, and they didn't even try to attack back, just marched right through them, with fucking Appa vibing behind them and dealt with all their attacks. Piando with only a sword defeated a hundred fire benders at once. Zuko tanks getting blown through houses and having them fall on top of them, lightly pushing guys and sending them flying thirty feet, literally survives being on a metal ship that is completely destroyed by being blown up while he is in it, defeats three Kyoshi Warriors (Suki in amongst it, alongside Sokka), in literal seconds. Zuko and Katara together, by book three could casually handle small armies.

I see that kind of thing mostly respected in other fics for the series most of the time, but the nerfing for all the characters for 'realism' is very prevalent in Zutara fics. Is it just because Zutara fics are plagued by a lot of 'drama for drama's sake'? Never mind, I rambled, I'm just interested to see if anyone knows any good fics where the Gaang are treated as the actual behemoths they are that brought the Hundred Year War to an end.

One of the most prevalent tropes of Zutara fics, is Zuko and Katara always having to walk on eggshells around Aang. Usually resulting in some edgy angsty crap that tends to get drawn out far too long because of a possessive bald twelve year old monk.

Everyone in the Gaang gives up so much to help Aang, put themselves in so much risk and dedicate so much of their time to him. It's absurd they even need to hide their own emotions cuz he has a crush.

So, is there any good fics where Zuko and Katara just don't care to hide their relationship and tell Aang to just deal with it, it isn't his business.

In so many of the Zuko joins the Gaang early fics, especially during the Crossroads of Destiny, when they meet up with Hakoda and the SWT warriors. Zuko is generally imprisoned, treated like shit, completely disrespected and has to win over their approval. A lot of the time he gets the shit beaten out of him and locked up. And then after it, it's treated as if he deserved it, and rarely ever apologised for.

Is there any Zutara fics out there, where Zuko just puts them in their place and doesn't take their disrespect? Beats the absolute breaks off of anyone that starts shit with him? Doesn't need Katara to baby him and protect him. Isn't scared and cowering from Hakoda.

Is there any decent one shots of Katara looking back on her life and being bitter? With in the end, how all she became was a woman relegated to the healing huts. The Avatars forever girl. Usually, it's always from an old pining Zuko's PoV who pines away for her, even in fics where she leaves Aang early, it tends to have Zuko being single and having basically just waited for Katara, not looking for his own happiness or moving on.

Hell Katara didn't even meet her grandkids till Tenzin came for Korra if I remember right.

So is there any good one shots or the like where Katara is the one pining for what could have been, for not choosing Zuko, and choosing Aang because the hero gets the girl nonsense and felt obligated to do so. Where she hates where she ended up, hates how shit of a husband and father Aang was. And Zuko himself had moved on. Maybe he had a string of lovers, concubines, or just flat out married a nice girl like Jin that made him happy.

One of the biggest running themes I see people bringing up in the Zutara fandom, is Aang putting Katara on a pedestal, especially in the fanfiction side of things. And he does, I completely agree.

But, the problem is, a lot of Zutara fans do the same and are little better than Aang in that regard. And in doing so, completely invalidate how amazing her growth is, as a person, and a bender.

Bending is probably the best place to start, because of how much her water bending relates to her identity. Katara is, possibly thee most talented bender we see in the series. Not the most powerful raw power wise as a bender maybe, even excluding avatars, but Katara's sheer innate talent is insane. She went from complete novice, to master in a few months.

Not even an Avatar like Aang can claim that. It took him until he was twelve to master air bending, and by the end of the show, we know he's not a master of Earth, Water or Fire. In fact, the one Aang was progressing the quickest out of all the elements, was fire I'm pretty sure. Which is kind of ironic when you think about it.

Toph didn't do that and she learned from the original masters of Earth bending. And not even Azula is that talented.

Now bringing in Zuko. A lot of the fandom, like to make it out as if Katara from the very beginning was meeting Zuko blow for blow and even beat him multiple times before ever getting to the North Pole. And make it out as if Zuko was scared of and in awe of her from the very beginning. And that's just not a thing. The closest you can claim to that, is her bending the perfume that screws over Nyla, who takes out Zuko.

In book 1, it's very hard to place where Zuko is as a bender. We get told he's untalented and such, but he consistently in Book 1 takes on masters. He lost to Aang a few times, but there were others where Aang was having to flee and on the backfoot where he would have lost without luck saving him. Zhao was a master, and Zuko beat him twice in Book 1, the second time after he was horribly injured and dominated that fight. So while we can't say he's a master fire bender at that time for sure, he's a master level combatant at least.

Master level people in world, are a big big deal. That's why it's so impressive Katara got to that level in a few months. So when people glaze her earlier self than that, putting her on a pedestal, it completely invalidates her accomplishments.

In their first real fight, Katara held her own against Zuko. Sure, it was under the full moon, and Zuko was horribly injured, and had just swam through arctic waters. But she managed to get the upper hand for a brief moment before Zuko defeated her. That is an amazing accomplishment, Zuko earlier in Book 1, casually defeated Suki, and multiple other Kyoshi Warriors like they were bugs.

In their second fight not long later, Zuko still had all those injuries, and had just scaled a glacial mountain while carrying Aang and walked a few miles in a blizzarding tundra. And she decisively won that round. Sure, she had the biggest advantage she could ever have beyond being in the middle of the ocean, but it was still a clear win.

Then in their third fight, with an even better Zuko, they were completely even. That is a ridiculous growth considering they were in neutral territory, under ground, no sun or moon to amp either of them much. The two best fighters in the catacombs, were Katara and Zuko. Katara overpowered Azula, and Zuko overpowered Aang.

The way I personally see it, going off on her matching Zuko from the get go. Is a complete disservice to Katara's growth. If she as a beginner could match Zuko, then she could only still just match Zuko after becoming a master...then she hasn't improved much at all has she?

(Her being capable of such a thing, is absolutely mind bogglingly impressive. Zuko is a master martial artist, master swordsman, by Book 2 if not a master firebender, very very close to being one. Probably the physically strongest guy we see in the Show barring maybe Combustion Man or the Hippo. Definitely the most durable, we see Aang air blast this guy through an entire house that falls on top of him, and he gets back up. He was inside a massive ship that exploded and lived. Not to mention, pretty much a ninja who as I said, bested multiple Kyoshi Warriors, one being Suki, in seconds when he was weaker than his end of Book 2 self by a decent margin. Katara went from a complete novice with zero combat training, to being an even match with him a complete monster like that. People really need to give her more props for that.)

And it's not just the bending and fighting. Ambassador Katara is a very popular trope. But, she can just do all this, with no formal training or learning. In these fics and ideas, she is constantly out politicking seasoned veterans and learned nobles who were born and bred into this, and is mostly always treated by the narrative or Zuko as the one being in the right every time.

Not to say Katara isn't intelligent, but people doing it like this, make her into a mary sue that can do no wrong. The exact way Aang puts her on a pedestal that a lot of the Zutara fandom like to go on about. In fact, I see these things constantly happening in story, where they have Katara complaining about Aang putting her on a pedestal. Glass houses people, c'mon.

When it comes to Ambassador Katara. I love to see her not quite getting things at first, she's an optimist who loudly voices her opinions with little nuance. But, quickly grows through the experience of being out manouvred dealing with these people in politicks and putting in the work to research laws, economy, the works.

Another thing I've noticed in the fandom is a massive amount, like to make Katara experienced by having her lost her virginity to Jet. Now her being experienced at all isn't really a problem, only really insecure guys will care about a girl not being a virgin. But...Katara knew Jet for a day. Sure she was a bit naive with him and taken in by his charm and lies, and he was basically the only guy her age she had met at that point beyond, well, Zuko himself in his angry ponytail phase. I just don't see Katara getting duped that easily into bed, naive or not at that point. Or am I just missing something? Is it just to put Katara and Zuko on even footing since Zuko's relationship with Mai was very physical?

Well I rambled on enough, more than I meant to and this has dragged on way too long as it is. I just constantly see this stuff with the fandom that makes me feel like they don't get Katara at all? Or have this idealized version of her, like Aang. Which completely undermines all the effort she goes to and her growth as a character from the beginning of Book 1 to the end of Book 3. Well, until she got Bryked at least and got replaced by some look-alike in the books and new movie.

Honestly, getting back into the fandom over the last month reminded me how much I enjoyed Katara's character years ago. And how well she and Zuko mesh, when their characters and accomplishments aren't flanderized in the name of pairing them.

One of the things I remember about Ehasz plans for the possible Book 4, was 'Zen Zuko'. Helping Aang through a lot of anger and such, and being the shoulder everyone else went to cry on. Is there any good Zutara fics like that? Like, Zuko is just wanting to train, or spend with time Katara, but keeps getting interrupted by someone in the group coming to him in need of comfort, advice, reassurance, or just cuz they flat out feel safe around Zuko.

Seriously, why is it so consistent in Zutara stories to have Zuko scared of Hakoda? And always worried Hakoda will kill him. And not in a humour way, but actually legitimately worried about it? I honestly do not understand the sheer wank Hakoda constantly gets. I literally read a story as well earlier where Zuko lost to Hakoda in a fight, post series Zuko. And said story made a point of going over how Hakoda is stronger than Zuko? Like, what? Zuko who can smash metal with his bare limbs? Zuko who can send guys his size flying over 30 feet with a flick of his wrist?

...We've seen Hakoda fight in canon. He's nothing special in series. Sokka could take him. I literally cannot fathom Zuko ever being scared of this guy beyond being nervous about his approval for Katara's sake. I just really don't get why this is so prevalent with Zutara writers. Is it really so hard to respect a character's abilities?

There was a point a few years ago where I noticed a trend of simple, slice of life, fun stories taking place on Ember Island, featuring around the Gaang's relationships with each other and how close they are. I remember them specifically cuz there was quite a few where Zuko used his firebending to help with the girls cramps/periods, and it reminded me of an ex of mine who used to get pretty heavy cramps and liked to have me lay in bed with her and hold a hot water bottle against her stomach and massage the base of her spine with my other hand.

Anybody know any good slice of life Zutara fics like that?

I'm so tired of fics where Zuko always needs to reach out to Azula, or she just gets let off by him for everything she does. Even fics where she outright near kills him, he wants revenge...and does nothing with it like Boogum's crap canon hugging crap.

Anybody know any good fics where Zuko outright kills Azula? Or Ozai actually.

The problem with it, is the glorifying of Katara and the constant nerfing of Zuko in them. Zuko is consistently not only rendered into this awkward bumbling shy loser most of the time, but also weakened considerably in every category, whether that be fire bending, agility, durability or sheer physical strength.

Like take The Worst Prisoner series for instance, one of the most popular sets of Zutara fics. Zuko is overpowered by Bato. Fucking Bato, an absolute nobody, non bending, non martial artist average joe.

Most of the time, it's like Zuko plays second fiddle to Katara in the relationships as well. Just there to prop up Katara as her good looking angsty bad boy, boyfriend. Or just there to prop her up and make her look better.

Zuko usually has very little agency out of constantly trying to be the kind of guy Katara wants him to be or making up for 'betraying' her.

One of these times, I want to see a fic where Katara on her high horse talks shit about the betrayal, only for Zuko to actually stand up for himself for once and tell her, no, he didn't betray her. She was trying to get him to join them, they had a moment, she offered to heal his scar. And didn't. On the other hand, helping Azula, meant he got to go home, be re-instated as the crown prince of the most rich and powerful nation in the entire world. Not a lot of fics actually show just how much Zuko gave up for the greater good and to help people. He gave up everything for them, and very few actually give him props for that.

I like Zutara fics, it ain't my favourite pairing mind you, cuz I prefer Zuko with Ty Lee or Suki, but I still like the pairing. The problem is, very very few fics actually give Zuko the props he deserves and makes him an equal partner in his relationship with Katara.

I'd love to see some fics that do Zuko and Katara justice. Honestly, every time I see the tag 'bamf Katara' on ao3, with nobody else being tagged as badass, I know it's just Katara wank and dismiss it automatically.

Is there anything discussed on it that says Combustion Bending needs to be fired from the forehead? Could the tattoo for it be placed somewhere else on the body? The chest? The palm? etc.

I'm wondering if there's any fics, where when Jon sits on Dany's council during Season 7, and see's how absolutely shit all her allies and advisors are at actually planning a war effort, he takes the reigns and advises her on how to actually wage war and win.

Say there was an Insert into Jon Snow. And the grand ambition he had, that he wanted above all else. Was a dragon of his own.

Now he knows where a few eggs are obviously, but the real question is, how would he hatch one?

Would the Fire and Blood method work? Jon has kings blood from both sides of his family. And by technicality, he was born a king as well, he was born before Robert was crowned I'm fairly certain. And as we know, Kings blood is very powerful magically.

So say, taking a magically powerful number in most fiction like 7, and using that for 7 days. Jon cut himself and smeared his blood on the egg every day. Before on the seventh, sacrificing someone in a fire with the egg within the flame. Would that be enough to hatch the egg?

One thing I can't remeber right. Is when someone learns spells, like beginner magic, intermediate magic, advanced magic etc. Do they purchase the spells separately with skill points, or do they just purchase like 'Intermediate magic' and get access to all the spells?