Dadriusstan - Val

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”

Do we have confirmation that they're related? Nope. Do they make a bunch of similar faces? Yes. *shrug*

Noodle incident

Inktober 2022 Day 2 - Scurry

The only time Hunter sneaks out

Darius: [arms crossed] Where were you last night?

Hunter: [sweating] Um- at a party! Doing... teenage rebellion?

Darius: Don't lie. You were at a the library weren't you?

Ty Lee keeps a drawing that Zuko made of them playing with turtleducks together. Zuko keeps a sparkly bead bracelet with a little golden flower charm Ty Lee made for him when he mentioned it was his favorite color. They gave these things to each other when they were little, and they mean the world to them - even acting as comfort items despite their initial friendship having faded away and not having seen each other in years.

Long time, no see y’all

Please enjoy this long abandoned messy sketch, pose referenced from that meme photo that I can no longer find anywhere!

Hey, I wanna talk about a piece of fridge brilliance (pun intended) in The Boiling Rock.

Specifically, about the Coolers. And about Zuko.

The Coolers are, first and foremost, a means of firebender suppression. They are invoked as a punishment against unsanctioned firebending. They are designed, specifically, to shut down firebenders who have toed out of line. Like the metal prison in Imprisoned, like the suspended cages in The Puppet Master, these are prison facilities designed with a specific sort of bender in mind.

So then - Zuko.

Why throw Zuko in the Cooler as part of the escape plan? He should be EXACTLY the sort of person the Cooler is designed to work most devastatingly against. It would almost make more sense to try to get Sokka thrown into the cooler - he’s from the South Pole at least. Or maybe Suki, who’s not a bender at all. But they choose Zuko. And he’s successful. Subjected to the most severe form of firebender suppression in the Fire Nation’s most high-profile prison, Zuko is able to dismantle the Cooler and walk away smiling.

Why? 

I want to walk you through some facts:

In a tidbit of behind-the-scenes trivia, it was revealed that airbenders can regulate their body temperature with their breath alone. This is why Aang is so weirdly comfortable traveling around the South and North Pole (and really any climate in the series) in his normal monk garb. Everyone else changes outfits to reflect the changing climate, but not Aang, his breath has that covered.

It would be quite useful if a technique like that could be adapted to another style of bending. The same way that a waterbender’s redirection of their opponent’s energy could be adapted to the redirection of a firebender’s lightning. I bet the man who invented lightning redirection by studying waterbending would have some brilliant insight into using the breath for warmth by studying airbending.

In fact, that exact man tells Zuko “Remember your breath of fire. It could save your life out there.” back in Siege of the North. We see Zuko use his breath to warm himself that very episode, per his uncle’s instructions.

And we see Zuko use his breath of fire in one other case:

To endure the cooler.

I’m willing to bet - Breath of Fire, as a means to keep oneself warm, is not a native firebending technique. If it was, the whole concept of the Cooler would be laughable. Any prisoner would just Breath-o-Fire himself warm in there, and the prison guards would all collectively say “oh wow, the Cooler was a stupid idea, time for a new plan.”

But we know a traditional firebender would be sapped so cold in the Cooler that his firebending becomes unusable. If Zuko were relying on traditional firebending techniques, the same would happen to him. But he’s not.

Zuko’s Breath of Fire is an airbending technique. 

One that Iroh taught him. One the Fire Nation has no precedent for. One which lets Zuko ward off the freezing effects of the Cooler like it’s nothing, and allows him to dismantle it from the inside and come away smiling, unhindered, unaffected, warm to his core. 

It’s another case of Iroh’s brilliance. And I’m betting he and Zuko may be the only two firebenders in the world who could pull this off.

since art reqs are open and a quick search showed nothing, would you like to draw how you imagine Lu Ten to have looked like when he wasn’t in uniform? Totally cool if not!

it‘d be nice if he finally marched back home

context : he’s sitting in his room in nightgown, drinking tea and lending Zuko’s theatre scrolls to read. Maybe they found him somewhere in earth kingdom after the war. Perhaps he fought as a small group of resistance, hence bandages wrapped around his torso and some scars. I gave him slight spiky hair.

after going back to the palace, he continued to aid his cousin as a somewhat non official advisor, he’s still in-line for the throne (In case sth happens) then ofc he can go chill with Iroh whenever he wants.

taking from his father, he’s probably a lady’s guy (he gave me the impression of that????:D)

Max and Preston are girly scream boyfriends

pass it on

I was wondering, how bad was Ozai's abuse even before this Agni Kai? And how much did Piandao know about it?

Piandao was born into wealth and prestige, but he was not raised in it. He was raised in an orphanage, and the workers there would click their tongues and mutter pitying words. Poor young Piandao, his parents are still alive and well, they simply didn’t want him. If only he’d been a firebender.

When Piandao had excelled at the art of the sword, become recognized, and started taking students, he only got nonbenders. People claiming to be the best in their village, wanting glory that they found harder to gain without having bending of their own.

That was why it was such an oddity when he received a letter requesting (commanding, technically, he supposed) that he train the young Prince Zuko in the art of the sword. He’d agreed (there was no other choice), and a few weeks later, the eight-year-old prince arrived for his first lesson.

After two weeks of learning what Zuko was like, Piandao had decided to train the boy in the dual broadswords. 

Those two weeks, and all the time after that, taught Piandao a lot about Prince Zuko. More specifically, about his life back at the palace.

He wasn’t sure the prince even noticed. Piandao, actually, suspected all the movements were involuntary. 

Piandao would test a possible new student. He’d deny them. The student would raise their voice, anger seeping into their tone, spitting in Piandaos’ face about what a valuable pupil he would be to have.

Piandao would see Prince Zuko sitting in the corner wince as the yelling got louder, looking more wary than before.

The first week that Piandao actively was teaching the boy, he brought him to the town square to watch a friendly fire duel. He watched as the boy leaned back when fire came in his direction, even when it was nowhere near him. Piandao would narrow his eyes at the way the prince would rub at his forearm, and the way his eyes would widen a bit and he would flinch minutely when the flames came too close.

They didn’t go to sit and watch the duels much, after that. When they did, they sat far, far away from the front.

All of this could be written off, but Piandao couldn’t ignore what happened the first time that Zuko got a cut during their training.

Zuko was practicing dodging. It was an accident, and not even a major one, just big enough to put a pause on training for the day. The prince hadn’t moved fast enough and the blade he had been dodging struck him in the middle of his arm. The blade was not very sharp, as it was a training one, but it managed to get through the fabric a bit, and blood slowly seeped out.

Before Piandao had been able to speak, to apologize and call for bandages, Zuko had grit his teeth and spoken instead.

“I’m sorry, Master Piandao.”

Piandao had paused, blinking at the eight-year-old boy. “Why are you sorry?”

“I should have been faster. I shouldn’t have gotten hurt.”

“Does it hurt?”

Zuko nodded, a few stray, sweaty stands of hair getting in his eyes. “Yeah. It stings. I’ve learned my lesson, I won’t do it again.”

Piandao had been quiet for a moment before asking, “What... What are you talking about?”

Zuko looked tired, more than anything, and annoyed at himself, glaring at the arm he clutched to his chest. “I mess up and get hurt, I deal with the pain.”

Piandao felt sick, but he had replied simply, “No, I only get the summer with you. No reason to waste time waiting for that to heal without help. We’ll get it cleaned and wrapped.”

It made him want to throw up when he saw how surprised the boy looked as he met his gaze. “I...” Zuko looked down at his arm, then back up and said, “Thank you, Master Piandao.”

The flinches, and way he talked about pain like he deserved it, and the small burn scars, both fresh and fading, that Piandao soon found lay beneath the sleeves, were all enough to paint a rather unwelcome picture, but as Zuko got more comfortable, he would talk all about his mom, waiting back at home, as well as his cousin and uncle, and sometimes his sister.

Never his father.

Things changed when Zuko came for training the summer after his mother disappeared. 

Training was normal, other than the fact that Zuko was rather glum the entire time. He was lost in thoughts, and talked less, and was less excitable. It was rather... upsetting to see.

Then, though, the day before Zuko was to leave, a day that they normally spent relaxing, Zuko came to him, his eyes red, and said, “I don’t wanna go home.”

The next day, the prince had gone home.

Piandao knew about the Agni Kai. He didn’t know what happened to the boy afterward.

He missed him for the three years after that fateful day.

Piandao didn’t train anyone with passion, again, until he met Sokka. The boy reminded him so much of Zuko sometimes that it ached. So alike, yet so very, very different.

Piandao was born a nonbender to two powerful firebender parents. They abandoned him because of it.

When he thought about the way that Zuko’s father (a powerful firebender) treated Zuko himself (a less powerful firebender), Piandao found himself thinking that maybe growing up in the orphanage, parentless, was actually for the best, after all.