Some Of My Atla Headcanons Nobody Asked For Part 2:

now i cant turn down a happy moment,, remember when pai sho didn’t get in the way of avatar hunting?

“whatcha doing?”

“strategizing, zu.” 

[i.d. a digital drawing of zuko, lu ten, and iroh from atla. lu ten sits on one side of a pai sho board with one hand thoughtfully on his chin, across from a smiling iroh. a tiny zuko is peeking over the edge of the table. the characters on the pink background translate to “what are you doing?” “strategizing, zu.” end i.d.]

anyway i think itd be nice if the whole atla gang was meant to take a month-long reunion friend-reconnection extravaganza trip 15 years after they all settled in their different roles and jobs and parts of the world, but a few days in Problems at their respective jobs/homes/families start popping up that force each of them to leave early one by one until only zuko and sokka are left for weeks alone and it's awkward until it's not so bad until it's actually kinda romantic all of a sudden and just when they start to recognize what's going on, friendos all start coming back, having solved their issues at home and absolutely ready to rejoin the last leg of their reunion vacation together which puts no strain at all on anyone's budding feelings whatsoever

AZULA GET BACK HERE-

Any fire siblings concept that gives them this vibe is an automatic favorite 

pov you're Darius

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.

Jet graduates from food theft to swiping angsty tea servers

Okay I’ve seen aus with Jet going to the Boiling Rock after Ba Sing Se and aus where Zuko fights Azula and gets sent to the Boiling Rock, but, consider, both

They both get arrested and Zuko has to explain to Jet that yes, he’s a firebender, and yes he’s the prince of the fire nation, and yes he hunted the avatar across the whole world, but he’s totally good now and Jet has to process that he tried to recruit the literal fire prince into his gang

Zuko gets thrown into the cooler very regularly, almost as much as Jet gets put in solitary, because they rarely last more than ten minutes in the same room before Jet tries to start a brawl. After a while he’s not even angry, it’s just kinda boring in prison and Zuko fights good

Suki recognises Zuko immediately, but after she hears why he’s in prison and watches Jet almost throw him off a ledge several times, she decides to forgive him

Thus starts the weirdest friendship trio ever

They actually work really well together, because Suki supplies the group brain cell, Jet gives them terrible ideas, and Zuko carries them out

The other prisoners and some of the guards quickly recognise that the three most dangerous inmates are teenagers, and now that they’re working together, all they can do is pray. They all end up teaching each other fighting forms they know, and Suki discovers Zuko is a total avatar nerd and thinks Kyoshi was the best avatar since Wan (she approves of his assessment)

Suki plays the ‘you burned down my village’ card exactly once. Jet uses ‘you burned down Suki’s village’ almost daily to get Zuko to do things

Sokka arrives looking for his dad and spots Suki in the yard distracting a guard while Jet keeps watch and Zuko steals his keys. He thinks they’re actually planning a break out, but no, Jet just wanted to fuck with the guards and see if Zuko could melt metal

(They’ve tried escaping, but Suki usually stops them because Jet suggests tying all their blankets together, stealing a messenger hawk and training it to tie the rope to a rock across the boiling lake and climbing across that. Zuko, who has never had a plan beyond ‘break into the maximum security stronghold and go from there’, is 100% on board)

When Hakoda arrives and the other inmates warn him not to piss off the three teenage prisoners, he thinks they’re joking. They’re not. He reevaluates when he sees Jet start a riot in less than ten seconds, Suki kidnap the warden, and Zuko break the gondola lever and jump across a boiling lake

Sokka comes back from his fishing trip with four missing people and no fish

Bonus: Suki: “this is my boyfriend Sokka and his boyfriend Zuko and his boyfriend Jet”

I was just reading For Hearth and Home by Haicrecendo on a03 and I was thinking how amazing it would be for Firelord Zuko to offer a daycare within the palace so parents don’t have to worry about their young children and can pick them up after work. I just love Our Firelord.

I love this so much

Zuko likes to check in on them (re: procrastinate from paperwork) and inevitably ends up on the ground getting used as a jungle-gym

The kids aren't really young enough to remember Ozai, and the idea of a monarch is nebulous and far-off. To them, Zuko is just Some Guy in pretty robes and with a shiny headpiece, who they can easily bully into getting them more snacks and letting them go hang out in the royal gardens and see the turtle-ducks

The new staff are horrified. Everyone else just laughs and continues going about their business. Another day, another toddler drawing on their Fire Lord's face while he naps on the floor.

everyone is like “zuko is the dad of the gaang” and “Katara is the mom!” But consider- you are wrong. Open your eyes, folks. Katara is the dad and ZUKO is the mom.

I mean, overprotective? Tries to Relate to the kids and be the Fun Parent but ends up worrying and nagging anyway, terrible sense of humor but tries so hard anyway? “Let’s have a beach party, you’re working them all too hard? gentle encouragement, you’re doing great buddy!” All Katara.

Stressed, trying to get everyone to take things Seriously™️, constantly sleep deprived, first one awake (rises with the sun) and also the last one to sleep? Excellent glare, great scolding skills, good at finding stuff? Zuko is the mom and y’all need to transcend gender and really see the possibilities.

that’s it. that’s their relationship