This Meme + ATLA Ships

THIS CONCEPT >>>>>

I really like their relationship in s1

All of the Jackson parents being super jealous of Joel because his kid actually seems to LIKE him and will like walk with him and sit next to him and go in for hugs and stuff

Atla Gen Week 2021.

Day 3: Found family / Unexpected ally.

@atlagenweek2021

"please feed the author don't poke the author"

*Grins in Challenge Accepted*

Okay, so you know how Zuko has this whole honor complex mixed with daddy issues? Well, what if he didn’t…? And in another universe he instead had something WAY STRANGER? Like, if instead of being obsessed with regaining his honor he was obsessed with tracking down unknown spirits because he literally believes the spirits have it out for him personally?

Cuz’ everyone knows Zuko has the worst luck, but what if his whole life he grew up seeing glimpses of spirits no one’s ever heard about before Zuko’s life royally screws up? Zuko’s having a good time firebending? He sees the tail end of some spooky spirits for half a second and suddenly BOOM! The next day Azula starts trashing Zuko around by lighting BLUE FREAKING FIRE! Zuko reading a nice letter from his cousin Lu Ten on the warfront? Next thing you know he hears dwindling laughter, and the following week BAM Lu Ten is DEAD and uncle Iroh has disappeared from the face of the Earth! The few hours before he and Azula present themselves to Fire Lord Azulon in their white robes? Yeah, he could have SWORN he saw something else staring at the mirror behind him smiling like a maniac, and now the Fire Lord’s dead and his mom has mysteriously vanished too!!!

Like he’s totally a diehard, reckless spirit conspiracy nut, and he’s totally obsessed on proving what would amount to be a Spirit world version of the Illuminati set on making his life miserable? And everyone in the Royal Court would be completely embarrassed and blow him off, but to Zuko it just makes perfect SENSE! Everything he tries to do in life goes unreasonably wrong, and if there’s millions of people in the Avatar world, then wouldn’t it be possible there might be BILLIONS/TRILLIONS of Spirit beings they haven’t even discovered yet some of which are DEFINETELY out to get him!?!? RIGHT?!? He just can’t prove it. Yet…

So when Zuko finally does get banished to go find the Avatar and regain his honor he’s like.

Screw it.

Screw the Avatar.

Screw this stupid war.

I’m going to prove this conspiracy ON MY OWN!!!

Next thing you know he’s traveling around the world investigating Spirit tale cases, making frenemies with Wan Shi Tong in his library (cuz’ why wouldn’t a knowledge seeking Spirit Owl not be cynically interested in this human being’s futile quest for knowledge?), and trying really hard NOT to get entangled with this monk kid named Aang and his friends who somehow always end up destroying Zuko’s hard-earned evidence DAMMIT!!!!

At least the cabbage merchant still believes him…

Welcome to the world of Avatar: The Spirit Files, and the regaling tales of Prince Zuko the Spirit Seeker! THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE!!!!

*Plays Theme Music*

Sokka Scully finds all this VERY suspicious, are spirits even real?

Aang: I was frozen for 100 years! I survived because a spirit merged with my soul a millennia ago and I've been reincarnating ever since!

Sokka: Allegedly.

Katara: You got kidnapped into the spirit world last week, Sokka.

Sokka: Allegedly.

Today’s interest: Firelord Zuko Headcannons

(With servants)

There’s only like half the staff that the palace should have because Ozai and Azusa fired/killed/mutilated/scared off/etc. the rest

So they’re all trying their hardest to do their jobs and their terrified of messing up in case he’s just like the rest of his family

They know he’s friends with the Avatar but you can never really be sure

At first they all stay out of his way

Then, a group of younger maids see Zuko and Aang feeding the turtle-ducks

Aang pushes Zuko into the pond and the maids are sure he’s going to set the boy on fire

But instead he just laughs and checks to made sure none of the turtle-ducks are hurt

A few days later, the cook walks into the meal hall to see how everyone’s meal is going

Instead he sees the Firelord in a heated debate about theatre with Suki while Aang, Katara, Toph and Sokka are in the middle of a food-fight

The cook makes the mistake of squeaking indignantly at the sight of his hard work all over thirteen year-old faces

When Zuko notices him he quiets the other teenagers down and apologises for the mess, the others quickly following his lead

Over time, the sergeants come to realise that the new Firelord is just a regular child

An eccentric child who owns a third of the entire world, but a child

By the time Zuko turns seventeen, the entire staff has warmed to him, even the new employees who had heard rumours about what Zuko’s predecessers did

He’s genuinely kind to them and interested in their lives in a way that they’d never experienced before, especially not from a noble

Eventually it became normal for Zuko to be found in the kitchen teaching servants how to make good quality tea

Zuko also offered hugs to them

Many of them had lost people to the war, and at first he did it as a way to comfort them

He was stiff and had obviously never done it before but the servants loved that he cared about them enough to step out of his comfort zone

He was also warm and very comfortable once he relaxed

The younger, bolder servants took advantage of this by hugging him whenever they could

At first it was when Zuko was alone, then one servant accidentally hugged him when he was in front of the Gaang

Sokka and Toph thought it was hilarious

Katara and Aang joined the hug

Suki comforted the servant after she freaked out and started crying

When Zuko adopted Druk, the entire staff helped raise him

there’s a little detail that i didn’t notice about “the blue spirit” when i first watched it.  when zuko returns to his ship after his misadventures at ponhuai, avatar-less and honorless and still puzzling over aang’s speech and having made an enemy of zhao and probably severely concussed, iroh is there on deck.  

music night happened the previous night.  and yet it’s morning when zuko returns, and iroh is still playing the tsungi horn on deck.  

iroh waited up all night for zuko to come back.  

it’s such a small detail, but speaks volumes about their relationship.  iroh not only allows zuko to sneak out in order to free the avatar in order to preserve his chance at regaining his honor, iroh actually subtly encorages zuko to free aang from ponhuai, even though he clearly knows that there’s every possibilty that zuko will be caught by zhao and iroh will not be able to save him.  

as the guardian of a teenager, iroh’s influence over zuko is limited.  iroh must allow zuko the freedom to chase after the destiny he thinks he wants, iroh cannot always protect zuko or keep him out of danger, iroh cannot even demonstrate affection to zuko in the way he would clearly like to because zuko is too hurt and guarded to be able to accept it from him - 

- but iroh can wait up for him.  

iroh can sit up all night, just to make sure that zuko gets home safely.  

and it is such a striking element of their relationship, because I waited up all night for you becomes the unspoken love language by which they communicate caring and affection for each other.  

iroh waits all night for zuko to return safely from ponhuai stronghold. iroh stays up while zuko sleeps on the ferry and waits up for zuko to return home from his date with jin. iroh sits up all night watching over zuko when he is sick and feverish.  

and it’s not one-sided, because zuko waits up for iroh.  

zuko waits up all night watching over an injured iroh after azula blasts him with blue fire.  zuko sits up all night waiting for iroh to wake up when they reunite at the white lotus camp.

and this gesture becomes so important to zuko that it even becomes the way he demonstrates caring and concern for the members of the gaang.  zuko waits up all night in appa’s saddle, knowing that sokka is planning a rescue mission.  zuko waits up all night for katara to wake, knowing she needs to confront her own deeply-felt anger before she can understand and let go of it.  

and this even is the gesture by which aang first demonstrates friendship to zuko.  after zuko is knocked out by an arrow to his blue spirit mask, aang sits up with zuko for the rest of the night until zuko wakes up, just to make sure zuko is all right.

and the concept of sitting up all night for you is such a poignant contrast to zuko’s memory of his mother, who vanished out his life in the middle of the night, waking him up for a last goodbye.  

it’s pretty clear that iroh sitting up all night with a sick child was far from an unusual occasion.   i think it was probably really important for zuko to be shown, again and again and again, that he has someone who will be there when morning comes.  

one parent left zuko in the night - but one parent will always wait up for him to come home.  

there are two types of parents on the boiling isles

Conversation Prompt

“I had a vision of my own death.”

“Spooky. Was I there?”