Au Where The Gaang Were Looking For A Firebending Teacher, Just Found Zuko On The Side Of The Road And

hc that zuko is autistic (he just like me fr) and has a firepit in his bedroom that he keeps lit at night, not for any temperature reasons but because he got used to having noise (of the ocean) when he slept on the ship, and now he can't sleep without it. also he makes popping noises with his mouth and snaps his fingers subconsciously as stims

I just love the moments when Zuko acts younger than his age due to his severely stunted social skills.  like when he’s acting like a bratty preschooler while being gently bossed around by iroh in ba sing se or when he’s trying to socialize with the gaang for the first time.

I mean, let’s be real: Zuko has been starving for the attention of his peers for years, and once he gets his first dose of social approval and acceptance on his field trip with aang, he ends up going a bit off the rails chasing the high of Friendship.  like he’s trying SO HARD to be Just A Normal Guy here, but he waaaaay overshoots his mark and ends up going all the way back around to “something’s a litttttle off about this dude” again.

I can’t get over how Zuko, when confronted with the mystifying quandary of how to make friends for the first time in his socially-deprived adolescent life, draws an absolute blank and, with no actual hands-on experience to draw from, simply defaults to “imitate Uncle.”

Zuko’s thought process immediately after joining the gaang was clearly: “I really want these people to like me.  Uncle would say that I should just be myself and show them the real me.  but that will never work!!  I’m not likable!!!  …but Uncle is.  everyone likes Uncle.  obvious solution: just be Uncle and everything will be Fine,” and then proceeded to give his best imitation of iroh down to the tea and bad jokes.

Zuko after possibly the world’s worst punchline delivery: “This is great! I’m going to get a good grade in Being Uncle, a thing that is normal to want and possible to achieve!” 

“nailed it”

Made this forever ago and found it!

It's based on that pidgin girl meme!

If Zuko did join the Gaang in Ba Sing Se, he's here to cheer on the boy bestie, the homiesexual.

rating some of my favourite notes on taob bookmarks:

the addition of ‘(not adopted)’ genuinely suckerpunched me and i laughed for 20 whole seconds. 9/10

-1532/10. touch grass

7/10. the colloquial onomatopoeia of ‘haha’ immediately juxtaposing with the simple sentence declarative of ‘i cried’ is a really interesting language choice by this writer that might symbolise-

you terrify me so i’m giving you 10/10 in a desperate attempt to appease you

im beating you with a stick. get all star OUT of my bookmarks. but you get some pity points for the rage spelling. 2/10

-3/10 too relatable

listen i really want to give you minus points but this made me laugh too much. oh you think im annoying?? imagine living here!!!!!!! i have to deal with this bitch 24/7!!! yowai mo!!! 5/10. you got those five points because the sheer balls it took to put that in the bookmark notes where the author can so easily see it is something i actively aspire to

short. precise. self-aware. therapeutic. coping brilliantly i might add. i hope this person is okay. 12/10

these two both knew exactly what they were here for. they came they saw they conquered. these were the only notes for both bookmarks and to that i applaud them. 10/10

from a business standpoint i should give you minus points for quitting the fic but i’m giving you 8/10 anyway just because this response is the most mentally stable thing we’ve seen in taob nation since kanna was still in the fic

10/10 a classic a staple of the cult. get in bitches we’re going feral

-4/10. zuko baby YES. you hate to see a malewife winning. homophobic

lose points for the john mulaney reference just because i like to make @boomerang109′s life unnecessarily difficult. 4/10

this is literally the funniest thing anyone has ever said. this ao3 user just came for zuko’s fucking throat and i can’t even be mad at them because they are 100% correct in everything they said ‘sad. pathetic. poor little meow meow. bitch of the fire nation’. 10000/10

heyyyyyy @enbies-and-felonies​ aha *bites lip*. fuck you too <3. the descriptive writing here gains you points despite the slander on my name. 5.69/10

Artist Zuko really is one of the best things in the world!!😍

HE IS!! I love the idea of it being therapeutic for him (hence his characterization in All the Lights are Shining). I also love the idea of him just being super casual about it. I headcanon that it was something he had to learn as part of his formal education like all of the other noble kids, but he just became exceptional at it. His mother encouraged him (of course) and Iroh continued to do so once Zuko was in his care. So Zuko is just like, “Yeah. This is a skill I was required to learn, but it’s also one of my favorite hobbies and it helps me work through all of my emotions and trauma. And I guess I’m kind of decent at it?”

Also, when the Gaang finds out he can draw, Suki and Toph mercilessly tease Sokka about how much better an artist Zuko is than him. And Katara and Aang want Zuko to teach them how to draw. They keep asking him and he finally relents. It turns out Aang is pretty decent, but Katara is just as bad as Sokka. Zuko is just perplexed by that because Katara excels at so many things, so how is she so bad at this?

(I just have a lot of ideas surrounding artist!Zuko. 🥰)

@bernardo-draws-and-cries had a really big brain idea

Little cape gremlin