I had so much fun portaying Toph’s softer / vulnerable side in this painting! 💚 Let me know how you like this :)

One piece of Avatar lore I don't quite believe is that most avatars don't learn they're the avatar until they're told on their 16th birthday.

like, POV you're some Earth Kingdom kid who knows the previous Water Tribe avatar died suspiciously close to the time you were born. You CANNOT tell me that that entire class-year of starry bright-eyed children doesn't spend every waking moment trying to prove they're the avatar. "Shut up Hang Lee you're not the avatar I'M the avatar. That stream just moved toward me." "Nuh-uh a fish did that and Avatar Tepek died on the summer solstice and YOU'RE a winter baby." "All the seasons are opposite in the water tribe Hang Lee!" "Nuh-uh"

You're 8 years old with all your other 8-year-old friends at your first day of How To Throw A Rock Class you CANNOT tell me that every kid present doesn't waste half the class trying to catch grass on fire with all the sincerity and conviction of a gas station hopeful snagging a mega-millions lotto ticket with their Mars bar and $30 gas fill-up.

this scene manifested itself to me in my head during a late night stroll and there’s no way you can convince me it didn’t happen

it’s funny how the two characters that toxic zuko stans hates the most - aang and mai - are also the two characters that make zuko smile the most.

Surprise neck kiss, Mai is ticklish!

Maiko Week 2021, Day 6 (free day).

@idonthatemaiko

I love how The Boiling Rock can be your fave atla ship episode no matter what you ship. Zukka? It’s their field trip and focused on their relationship development. Mailee? Ty Lee betraying Azula for Mai is one of the best Mailee moments in the show. Sukka? They have a great reunion and loads of cute moments. Maiko? You have to deal with a lot of angst but at the end you get the iconic “I love Zuko more than I fear you.” Zukki? So many interactions to work with.

Suki and Sokka hug for a kofi request!! All these years and this couple is still adorable :’)

Honestly. Whatever you say.

Aa, it’s here! This is my Big Bang piece for the amaaazing fic All These Nightmares Lead To You which can be found [HERE]!!

Thanks to all the mods @zkbigbang for organising this event, thank you for all your hard work!

@mikitheswiftie, @the-peregrine and @proserpinabringerofdeath also made some incredible art for this fic so check them out!

Sokka from Avatar series. The 5th one in my fanart series for Avatar ^^

Calligraphy: Warrior

Our Patreon is still on: https://www.patreon.com/mycks

(Not much expectation there, but we’ll try to refine the rewards a bit more in the coming months.. ><)

Zuko is Autistic

Since I made a post a while ago claiming that Zuko was autistic, some people have been asking for the “proof.” It seems fitting for me to provide said proof now, since it’s autism acceptance month. I’m going to try to be as comprehensive as I can, but if anyone has anything to add, feel free to do so! That said, please do not come on here to tell me that Zuko is not autistic. This is my headcanon, and these are all the things about Zuko that I relate to as an autistic person. 

Alright, buckle up, kids, because Zuko is autistic af and I’m coming with all the receipts - and there are a lot of them.

Let’s start from the beginning. A lot of austistic people develop tactics early on that help us to ‘pass’ as allistic. When unsure of how to act in certain social situations, Zuko tends to mirror Azula. When he was younger, he was shown copying her sense of humor. 

He threw a rock at a baby turtle duck and laughed, saying that this is how Azula feeds turtle ducks. Because Azula thought it was funny, he assumed his mom would think it was funny, too. It wasn’t until Ursa asked, “Why would you do that?” that Zuko even considered it might not be universally funny. 

Zuko is shown laughing at things Azula thinks are funny more than once as a child. If Azula is not laughing directly at Zuko, he usually joins in on the laughter, even if he doesn’t understand the joke. 

Another time Zuko tried to copy Azula was after she demonstrated her skills to their grandfather, Fire Lord Azulon. Zuko immediately attempted to demonstrate his own skills, even though he was not prepared. 

Another thing that some autistic people struggle with is fine motor skills. When Zuko tried to prove to his grandfather that he was as skilled as Azula, he tripped both times he attempted to fire bend. He has obviously improved since that moment, but it took him a long time to do that. 

“You have yet to master your basics. Drill it again.”

Zuko was at sea for three years with Iroh, seemingly doing nothing but training to get strong enough to capture the avatar. After three years, he was still working on his basics, as Iroh points out. Other benders have been shown to become masters much quicker than Zuko. Katara became a waterbending master after one episode. Aang mastered all four elements in the span of about a year. By the age of 12, Toph was already an earthbending master, and she taught herself. Zuko has had to work a lot harder than them to properly control his fine motor skills. It isn’t until he’s mastered his basics that he is able to progress as a bender. 

Since Ozai was obviously not the most supportive parent, Zuko may have had to figure out other ways to hide his autism. 

Another tactic he used was to practice social interactions before they happened. In this scene, he is shown giving a practice performance to a frog:

“The thing is, I have a lot of fire bending experience, and I’m considered to be pretty good at it. Well, you’ve seen me. You know, when I was attacking you?” 

Obviously, this practice session was necessary, because Zuko said plenty of things here that could have easily further escalated the situation. 

Even while using tools like mirroring or practicing social interaction, we all have moments where things might just feel a little off to allistic people. 

Empathy

A lot of autistic people feel empathy differently than allistic people. Some of us might not feel empathy, some might experience hyper empathy, and some might just have a hard time expressing empathy. I suspect Zuko is leaning towards low empathy, or has trouble expressing empathy. 

Exhibit A: 

“My first girlfriend turned into the moon.”

“That’s rough, buddy.” 

Notice how Zuko found it easier to talk about himself. He answered Sokka’s questions about Mai, and the conversation was moving along smoothly. It wasn’t until Sokka shared personal information about himself that Zuko seemed to be out of words. 

Exhibit B:

Toph just told Zuko that her parents gave her everything she ever asked for, but not the one thing she really wanted: their love. 

Zuko spends half of this conversation looking the other way. When he does look at her, notice his expression. He probably has no idea why she is telling him this, so he doesn’t know how to respond. And on top of that, he was under the impression that they were supposed to be looking for Aang. 

A lot of autistic people have what you might call a one track mind (which I’ll get more into later). It’s hard for us to switch focus from one thing to another. 

Toph wanted to partner with Zuko because she wanted a life changing field trip, but Zuko just wanted to find Aang. He was able to have ‘life changing field trips’ with Aang, Katara, and Sokka because he was actively focused on helping them with their specific problems. He had time to mentally prepare to help them. There was careful planning involved in each of those missions. He can’t help Toph in this moment, because her problem is conflicting with the problem they already have: finding Aang.

In both of the examples above, Zuko acknowledges the hardships that Sokka and Toph went through. “That’s rough buddy” and “I know you had a rough childhood.” This may be his way of trying to show compassion, even though it might come across as cold. 

Zuko takes things at face value

Catching things like sarcasm, body language, metaphors, and ‘reading between the lines’ can be difficult for autistic people. This also gives us a reputation for being gullible, because it can be difficult to tell when someone is lying without being able to read the cues. 

The first and most obvious example of this is what Zuko’s entire arc revolves around: 

Capturing the Avatar

Ozai had just fought his own son, a 13 year old, in an Agni Kai. He burned Zuko’s face, intentionally causing permanent damage, and then banished him. All of this because Zuko spoke out of turn. At the time that Zuko was banished, the Avatar hadn’t been spotted for over 100 years. 

Knowing all of that, it seems likely to me that Ozai was being cruel and sarcastic when he said that Zuko could come back after capturing the Avatar. It would be like saying “when pigs fly,” since at that point the Avatar was thought to have been gone forever. 

Iroh, of course, knows this. That’s why in the beginning of the series, he kept reminding Zuko that the Avatar had not been seen in 100 years. He didn’t want Zuko to get his hopes up. Zuko, however, spends every minute for three years training to fight the avatar, and the second he sees something out of the ordinary, he automatically assumes that it is the the avatar’s doing. It’s kind of a miracle that he was right.

Capturing the Avatar = restoring honor. This is an example of both taking what his father told him as fact, and seeing things as black and white, which is also commonly associated with autism. Ozai told Zuko that capturing the avatar would restore his honor, so Zuko became obsessed with finding and capturing Aang. He truly believed that doing so was the only way to restore his honor and return home. It took Zuko years to realize that he could restore his honor in a different way than what his father told him. 

He automatically believes Azula when she says he can come home

“Father regrets?”

It had been three years since he’d seen Azula, and he immediately took what she said at face value. He is excited to be going home, and he is frustrated with Iroh for being skeptical. When Iroh points out that he has never known Ozai to regret anything, Zuko says “did you even listen to Azula?” 

Zuko takes what Azula says as fact, just like he has always done. This is why, as a child, he had to constantly tell himself, “Azula always lies,” because she probably had a habit of fooling Zuko. But now that it has been so long, without the constant reminder that Azula always lies, she takes advantage of the fact that Zuko trusts her so easily, and he falls for her lies once again.

He doesn’t catch on to Jin’s body language

In the episode ‘The Tales of Ba Sing Se,’ Zuko meets a girl named Jin. He immediately is threatened by her, because she keeps looking at him (eye contact is another thing that can be a challenge for autistic people). He assumes she knows they are fire nation. Despite the fact that he has seen her constantly smiling at him, he is completely surprised when he finds out she has a crush on him.

When Jin asks Zuko on a date, he shows up looking like this:

I think most people would catch on that this is Not A Good Look. But when Jin messes up his hair, Zuko gets frustrated. He says, “It took my uncle ten minutes to do my hair!” 

So, Iroh told him this was a good hairstyle, and Zuko trusts Iroh, so he took his word as truth, and went along with it. 

Later on in the date, Jin tries to kiss Zuko. Just before their lips touch, he holds a coupon in front of her face, exclaiming that he brought her a gift.

Zuko likes Jin. He risked a lot to light up the fountain for her. We know he wanted to kiss her, because when she kissed him later, he let her, and he even kissed her back for a moment before he bolted. But in this moment here, he missed the signs that said she was about to kiss him (the hand holding, Jin closing her eyes, leaning forward, etc), so he moved the conversation along in a way that he felt was natural, by giving her a gift. 

He doesn’t realize that Sokka and Suki want time alone

Zuko runs into Suki when he’s about to go into Sokka’s tent. She’s clearly embarrassed, but Zuko doesn’t catch on.

“Sorry, do you need to talk to Sokka, too?”

Suki says no, so Zuko enters Sokka’s tent, to find Sokka like this:

There are roses everywhere, candles are lit, Sokka’s hair is down, he’s posing. Sokka was waiting for Suki to arrive, not Zuko. 

But Zuko doesn’t catch on to that, either, so he sits right down and asks Sokka for advice, totally oblivious to what was supposed to be going down. 

He can’t explain what is ‘off’ about Azula

A lot of autistic people have trouble recognizing patterns. Zuko has known Azula his whole life. He knows what her hair usually looks like. He knows what her makeup usually looks like. She doesn’t usually have dark circles under her eyes. She usually has better posture. I could go on. 

Azula challenged Zuko to an Agni Kai looking like this:

“I can’t explain it, but there’s something off about her.”

This is something I struggle with, too. If my mom dyes her hair, I can tell something is different, but it may take me a few days to figure out exactly what has changed. I think this is what was going on with Zuko here. He knows something is up, but he can’t immediately recognize that Azula has cut her own hair poorly, or that her makeup is different because she did it herself, or that she has dark circles under her eyes, or weird posture, etc. 

Sensory issues 

Sensory issues are also associated with autism. This can manifest in sensory overload and strong reactions to physical contact, among other things.

One way I’ve learned to avoid or come down from sensory overload is to self-isolate and meditate, which is something Zuko does very often. This can also be a way to recharge spoons or mentally prepare for something that might be exhausting.  

This explains why Zuko would react so strongly when someone interrupts his alone time. He needs that time to prepare for every other moment in the day. When this time is interrupted, he lashes out, and has trouble containing his emotions.

Physical contact

Zuko doesn’t always seem to know how to react to physical contact and affection. He reacts negatively if he isn’t prepared, or if he isn’t comfortable with the person. Even if he genuinely likes the person who is touching him (Jin, Iroh, Toph, Katara, etc), he still doesn’t seem to know what to do. 

If Zuko is comfortable with the person who hugs him, he allows them to do so, but he still almost always looks flustered. He doesn’t always hug back, and when he does, it sometimes takes him a moment to process that he’s being hugged before he is able to return the gesture.

Difficulty Changing Plans

As I mentioned before, autistic people sometimes have a one-track mind. We may have difficulty changing plans, and may tend to see things as black and white, with no gray areas. All of these things describe Zuko to a T. 

Zuko tends to get frustrated over any change of plans, but there’s one example I’d like to focus on.

Let’s talk about that angst coma. You know, that time Zuko got physically ill after he did something that completely altered the course of his life? 

That’s the one. The thing is, change is hard. And it can be especially hard for autistic people. Zuko spent the last few years working towards one thing, and one thing only: capturing the avatar. Then, in one day, everything changed. He made a decision to free Appa, which was completely counter to what he has been working towards this entire time. 

I’ve had “angst comas” before, and I know other autistic people who have had similar experiences. Sometimes you really do just need a few days in bed to recuperate and adjust to big changes. 

some side notes that are worth mentioning:

In conclusion Zuko is autistic af. I rest my case.

people with bad taste are always like “yurr hurr The Beach is about zuko and mai and how they’re a great couple” while intellectuals know that Actually The Beach is about mining any and all of the untapped friendship potential of this striking exchange

One of the best twist moments in Avatar is when Ty Lee suddenly and dramatically turns against Azula at the Boiling Rock. Azula was completely convinced that Ty Lee would obey her without question forever, but Azula wasn’t the only one fooled. Mai is just as shocked when Ty Lee rebels as Azula is. Ty Lee’s survival instincts were so sharp that she never let anyone know what she was thinking, not Azula, not Mai, and certainly not Zuko.

Zuko really believed that Ty Lee didn’t understand who he was at all. He completely bought into the act that she’s just a puppet for Azula, who lives in her “little Ty Lee world where everything’s great all the time”. But the thing is, Ty Lee is one of the most perceptive characters in the show, and she’s excellent at keeping that on the down low, but she sees a lot more of Zuko than he thinks, and a lot of what she sees is very familiar to her.

Overshadowed by prodigious siblings?

Wanting to be acknowledged for the talents you have rather than the talents you don’t?

Kept in line by fear?

Spending your whole life bending over backwards to fit the persona the royal family has set for you?

So yeah Zuko. She knows you.

This characterization is definitely emphasized with Ty Lee’s acrobatics, flexibility, and ability to hit pressure points. There’s a level of subtlety and precision that is required for such skills. She had to know her own body to be able to bend it in such ways, and she has to know other people’s bodies to be able to disable them.

And pretty much from the moment you meet her, it’s fairly clear that there’s more to her than her lighthearted, bubbleheaded persona, long before she uses her battle skills. Look at what happens when Azula recruits her. 

Azula used blatant intimidation tactics to get Ty Lee to comply, ordering the net to be set on fire and all the animals released (which, for the record, would not only have endangered Ty Lee but the circus creatures themselves–I bet Ty Lee was attached to them, and that would’ve been a double threat in itself). Ty Lee is visibly terrified, but instead of calling her out or letting Azula see that she was intimidated, she says this:

Instead of endangering herself by pointing out that Azula crossed a line, Ty Lee falls back on her talk of “the universe” and “auras,” talk that canonically gets her indulged or dismissed but never taken seriously. 

She knows that Azula’s dangerous. There’s no way she doesn’t know that Azula is threatening her. But if she can keep Azula from realizing she knows that, she’s a little safer. 

Because she’s one of maybe two people Azula never considered as potential enemies–even (especially, but that’s another thread) Ozai is a threat in her mind, but Mai and Ty Lee are the closest thing Azula has to trusted friends, right up until their betrayal. 

Ty Lee’s spent a lifetime cultivating a personality that not only allows her to stands out among her siblings–it protects her from being treated as a threat. When you’re friends with Azula, that is an essential facade to maintain.  and she does it consistently enough that no one ever sees through it.

All of the Fire Nation kids are so messed up. Zuko’s just the one who gets in the most trouble, because he’s the only one who doesn’t have a mask.

Amazing discussion and there’s one more thing to add to it, specifically in the context of the episode with The Beach.

Azula gets jealous of the male attention that Ty Lee is getting. It’s not the same as being a threat, but it does put Ty Lee in a dangerous position because she has something Azula wants. It doesn’t take much for Azula to turn dangerous and threatening when there’s something she wants and perceives an obstacle in the way, and Ty Lee knows this. And with just a few words, a compliment to Azula, she sets her at ease and makes herself seem vapid (“just laugh at whatever they say even if it’s not funny”) while giving advice. Which means Azula can take or leave her advice but won’t perceive Ty Lee as a real threat to the attention she craves because Ty Lee is getting attention for “being vapid” and not because she’s naturally beautiful and charming.

Its a simple, efficient, and incredible manipulation of a very dangerous and volatile person. Again the agility and flexibility, and no wonder Azula didn’t see her betrayal coming. Every time Ty Lee has entered even the possibility of being a threat to Azula in any realm, she’s immediately flipped the situation to put Azula seemingly back in control and put herself back into a nonthreatening role. Right up until her betrayal.

farewellbathtubbarracuda asked for Toph making Zuko laugh, and after seeing this adorable thing, I decided she should do so via baby badgermole. I’m pretty sure Zuko has an enormous soft spot for animals.

Secret Santa Gift for….. Vesperaline! I’m glad I made this just in time, as I sit here in the airport’s foodcourt an hour before my international flight AHHHHHH 

watch until the very end

your url just makes it better

I love this to pieces, but I only just noticed the “Freshy game” sign n am in actual pain

wait…this is an ad for ICE CREAM?

(so so sweet)

aang and spirit/disguises

I’ve been thinking about the different disguises on the show, and I wanted to try to put my jumbled thoughts down more clearly. i meant to do this months and months ago so i hope it still comes together! and its inspired by musings of @irresistible-revolution and @likealittleheartbeat <3

first, each of aang’s teachers takes on a disguise of some sort - there’s zuko’s blue spirit, toph’s blind bandit, and katara’s painted lady. there’s been lots of analysis of these disguises, but what I think is so interesting is that aang is central to all their storylines within these identities. he’s the first to interact with them and understand them. the first to literally and metaphorically take off their masks.

aang is the first to see and take off zuko’s mask and he begins to understand that zuko has more complicated motivations behind wanting to capture him while sitting with the fact that zuko just saved his life. i still can’t believe “do you think we could’ve been friends?” because aang has such a keen perception and understanding of zuko here, and it also reminds me of hanif abdurraqib saying “it is a blessing to know someone wants a funeral for you” its so fraught but aang sees zuko long before zuko is ready to see himself (with limits bc aang might not know the full story but still). taking the blue spirit mask off and their following exchange really is the (slow-working) catalyst to zuko coming to terms with himself and who he wants to be without a mask.

aang is the first to see toph and her blind bandit disguise and what it does for her. aang was given a vision of toph starkly different from the blind bandit champion earthbender they meet, and still he recognizes her somehow behind the persona she built. btw its really beautiful to me that her laugh is what aang recognizes and that aang saw a vision of toph that was running and laughing and happy and then he first saw her laughing and enjoying herself earthbending :’) when he tracks her down, he shows her that he understands and it lets toph open up to him and share her struggle, and she continues to find moments where she allows herself to be vulnerable with aang and the gaang without putting up as much of a front as she’s used to.

aang also unmasks katara as the painted lady and again sees and understands. he recognizes katara’s desire to help this village and go to greater lengths to help in a more permanent way, follow her intention with the right impact. katara is shameful that she’s sneaking around to do it but aang fully supports and affirms her values and actions. katara’s sweet smile when he says “no i think its great! youre like a secret hero!” aang understands that she wants and needs to use her power this way. and even doesn’t begrudge her for faking appa being sick - something about the way aang holds a lot of space and grace for the people around him, and ofc can’t resist committing crimes lmao

(side note: is it just me or is aang flirting w each of them??? “do you think we could’ve been friends” “then she must be a great earthbender” “that’s amazing!” “you’re really pretty for a spirit” this boy is so sweet and open with his love)

in each instance, aang sees through their disguises, understands them, and helps zuko, toph, and katara recognize in themselves what it is they are trying to achieve with the masks, as well as who they are without the masks. in each case, aang’s teachers shed their disguise and step into who they are and fight for what they believe in. the element of them being aang’s teachers strikes me as really important too because aang is able to help and teach them important lessons just as much as they do for him, and it makes their relationships as friends and teachers and community that much deeper. teaching and learning is fluid and not moving in only one direction, and in the final battle, they succeed because they have the knowledge and strength of one another. i think its easiest to trace how this is true in aang’s final battle, especially through the elements and bending, but it’s true across the board. (I think it was @/irresistible-revolution who made the stunning analysis - in the tags no less - abt katara having the fortitude and bravery to face an azula that was raw power at the end of the agni kai bc of her experience witnessing and moving through the power of the avatar state like !!!!)

finally, I think its also interesting that these (spirit) disguises do have different elements of spirituality woven throughout and highlight different ways of relating to the spiritual. in katara’s instance, it’s appealing to a higher power and stepping into that role and then seeing the confirmation that there are forces and stories larger than us working around us, and we can work with them too. also something powerful about how the gaang comes together to create the illusion behind katara as the painted lady, so she can follow through, and that small but breathtaking moment where aang airbends her above the flames!

for toph’s example, i think it’s the spirituality of connection. how people we are deeply connected to, past and future, are with us and we can tap into those connections if we listen and care. being guided by visions and traces of these connections, and how we can recognize those people and their spirits. aang and toph’s connection is a strong (if understated) current, and the recognition through her laughter as part of her spirit !

in zuko’s example, the “spirit” part comes largely in name and the relationship to the mask being called the ‘blue spirit,’ which might also be invoking a spirit or could be a character name. but the spirituality element (and this is going off something @/likealittleheartbeat said some time ago) is the humanity and the choices we can make to do right or wrong, to confront ourselves and our histories. zuko finally does this and stops hiding behind the mask. the mask was consistently a representation of this back and forth struggle within himself, which part of himself to listen to, as he wants to save and capture aang in one breath, wants to provide for himself and his uncle by stealing, wants to capture appa but ends up setting him free. zuko makes the choice and its transformative.

i don’t think you can fully understand the depth of these disguises and masks without seeing aang as pivotal to how these identities play out and what they tell us. the depth also comes form the fact that they trace back to aang first over anyone else in the narrative. really this is just another episode of if you don’t understand and appreciate aang and his arc, you miss out on a lot of the depth of the show!

YESYESYES!!! One of the my favorite motifs in the show!!!!

And it’s significant to note that Aang also has his own persona: the Avatar. Or is the Avatar’s persona a human named Aang? This is the central question for all of these disguises, at least for me. Both Katara’s and Zuko’s disguises have a spiritual aspect, and Toph’s, although lacking that factor, enters into the realm of celebrity and champion, god-like aspects of society, which especially stand out in a 1) television show about 2) martial arts. What stands out is that Aang (nor the show) never forces any of them to choose between their divine persona and their more complicated humanity. He sees the coexistence of the divine and human. He has felt that complicated tug himself, and it’s the end of the series, in an episode called “Avatar Aang,” that he is able to finally achieve what he has offered his sifus: an integrated sense of self.