Not Spoiler Free

so earlier today i was thinking about how i dont really like Jet... and by extension any of his ships... but tonight i realized the gold mine that is Jet surviving Lake Logai and somehow joining back up with gaang and hardcore pinning after both Katara and Lee Zuko (both who dont like Jet very much anymore) and finding it really hot when those two start arguing with each other

So Azula is named after Ozai's dad (Azulon) but shes the second born so who is Zuko named after? I would find it very strange if Zuko wasn't named after anybody considering his little sister is named after the current Fire Lord

Recently saw a tiktok that was like "if you ship [toph and zuko] than you have issues or you see something galaxy brained that i havent" and stumbled upon the concept of aroace Zuko and i concocted this idea ages ago so im posting it now: the epic Toph x Zuko Marriage of Convenience 

Okay what you are all thinking of is book 3 Toph and Zuko, which totally dont have romantic chemistry and with the added age difference is prob why no one ever considers this ship. Four years when you're a teenager is a big difference. Four years when you're in your twenties and beyond isnt that big a deal. So they're adults and they've been friends for years at this point.

You also gotta sit back and look at what they are. Toph is the only child to a very rich and very well known Earth Kingdom family. Her family name in general is huge and carries a lot of weight but you also got her own accomplishments: Master Earthbender, the Creator of Metalbending, the Avatar's Earthbending teacher, and shes a war hero. Thats big. And then you got Zuko, who at this point is the Fire Lord. Zuko himself comes from a prominent Fire Nation family, seeing as he's royalty. He's also descended from a Avatar, but i dont think thats all that well known. Zuko is a Master Firebender, the Avatar's Firebending Teacher, and a war hero. On top of being famous both these people have credibility to fall back on.

So what im leaning into here is not exactly a marriage alliance seeing as the Earth Kingdom has its own royalty but its definitely a political move

Anyways Zuko has a lot on his plate, dismantling his dad's empire and all that. When he's nearing 30 the council is all like "you need to find a bride". Zuko writes up his ex-girlfriends and finds out they're either married or he just cant bring himself to trap someone into a marriage with him after knowing how it destroyed his mom. So he's stuck with no one of his own choosing so the council and high up nobles are trying to fix him up and not-so-subtly set him up with their daughters. Half of Team Avatar comes and visits (lets say Toph, Aang, and Sokka) and witness the behind the scenes of all this. They're having tea with Zuko and two people come in at different times and try to casually talk about the marriage thing. Toph can hear things that happen in the hallways too. Zuko is all "noooooooo guys why is this happening to me" and Sokka probably finds it funny but also a little sucky, and Aang probably hates it because "Zuko should marry for love!". And Toph is all "I know right" because she can totally relate. Her parents were looking for matches for her since she was born, and now that shes visiting again they've started back up again. Her and Zuko start swapping match-making stories ("so i come home and this boy and his father are there and my mom is all like 'Toph have you met __'" "I'm in the throne room for a meeting on road construction and this guy derails the whole thing so he can introduce his niece to me"). Later on after Toph has been listening in on the palace for a few days now and shes starting to really feel sorry for Zuko. Sokka just keeps making jokes until Toph snaps at him. Aang is pretty oblivious and probably spends all day at the market looking for souvenirs to bring home for Katara. And one night while Zuko is up late doing paperwork by candle light Toph stops by because her body cant sleep at night sometimes and they get to talking and Toph jokingly throws out "what if we just married each other? Then everyone will get off both our backs!" and they're laughing and after they've calmed down Zuko has a light bulb moment and he's like "wait, that might not be a bad idea". They spend all night working out the details to their hypothetical wedding and a day later decide to actually go through with it. Theres uproar from the council of course because Zuko didnt choose their pick Toph isnt Fire Nation nobility. And then Zuko starts listing all her family's importance and stuff and the council is forced to admit to themselves its not actually a bad idea. Plus marrying Earth Kingdom would make the Fire Lord more relatable to the colonies where theyre having a lot of problems with people of mixed heritage right now. Sokka and Aang hear rumblings of this because palace servants gossip and they're debating wether or not to believe these rumors when they run into Toph and just ask her and shes all like "yeah we're talking about it" and they boys flip out. Aang still maintains that everyone should marry for love but Toph and Zuko won't budge.

Over in the Earth Kingdom Toph's parents are ecstatic because the only better option Toph could marry was Earth Kingdom royalty. They completely endorse it and only argue to not seem like pushovers and when topics revolving money come up (ex. dowery). The Earth King gets in on this because its too good a opportunity to not capitalize on it. The Earth Kingdom is abuzz because a foreign King is marrying one of their own. Everyone is hyped and Team Avatar are the only ones who find the whole situation weird because to them its not a fairytale its their actual friends.

All-in-all they get married in the Fire Nation and the guest list was awful to make but people from all over the world are there. Toph's mother freaks out the whole time because "what if Toph falls down all those steps!" The wedding is mostly all Fire Nation tradition but Toph wears a Earth Kingdom wedding dress because everything is political now. Toph and Zuko have a relatively fun night and Sokka has the time of his life. And their marriage actually really works out for them because they're friends. They make fun of fancy people and rant to each other in the evenings. Toph is still running metal bending schools but either now they have to come to her or she gets stuck with a Fire Nation security team for like 3 months of the year she spends in the Earth Kingdom and she gets flashbacks to her childhood. And Zuko is sometimes all "i miss my wife" and the servants are all "awwww they're so in love" but the truth is he wants to talk sh*t with her and because shes blind he always has to write letters with the interpreter's opinion/gossip in mind. Toph still sneaks out all the time because shes not giving up her independence willy-nilly and is not above pulling the blind card to get out of things, which irritates Zuko sometimes because that means he has to deal with boring meetings by himself. They gaang visits all the time and by the time Republic City rolls around Toph manages to get herself sent as a "ambassador" (her and Sokka have some fun their shared meetings) and then to stay on to help set up the police force, which is a little dicy since shes representing the Fire Nation but also shes teaching only metalbending so its a controversial thing. This also gives Zuko a excuse to visit Republic City more often so he can see everyone since they settled down there.

I actually dont remember much of LOK at all but im in the middle of a ATLA rewatch and reminiscing how like three years ago (and a again a few years before that) i was desperately looking for a krew goes back in time and stumbles into the gaang fic (which i could not find in the 100s of xover fics btw) and now im all caught up on Toph having airbending grandkids

Like realistically in LOK time Toph is probably actually really happy. The gaang's friendship meant a lot to her and its another way to connect to Aang whos been dead for a while at that point. But like the reactions in ATLA time...

The first conclusion is probably Aang And Toph Get Married, which makes sense logically because they are the only two in the gaang the same age, but would definitely throw Aang for a loop since hes so into Katara and i dont know what Toph's reaction would be but itd be loud. And like Lin and Tenzin did date so coming to the conclusion Aang's kids and Toph's kids get married would also be a logical decision but not the most obvious one. I can also see someone stupidly commenting how they cant see Toph becoming a mom (i'll be honest i was surprised at first myself) and her getting genuinely upset over that (like in the rewatch ive noticed shes actually a nice and very caring person which i had forgotten. Also hard to guess a person's future when they're twelve)

So yeah. How do you think the Summer of Sozin's Comet era gaang would react to Opal's existence?

Someone off handly mentioned aroace Zuko in their tags and. it makes so much sense. omg. how have i never made this connection before.

Tbh i think we might be seeing a lot of media (tv/movie/books/etc) that draws inspiration from Avatar: The Last Airbender in the next decade or two. The people who watched as it aired are all adults now and therefore working towards their goal of being a author/director/etc. Even before the netflix atla revial there were posts talking about why avatar is so great and/or how this other show got it wrong. I have seen SO MANY published articles comparing redemption arcs to Zuko's. This honestly makes me expect to see things in the future that modeled their redemption arcs on Zuko's. And theres more than just narrative elements like the world building is widely praised.

Started my rewatch of Avatar last night. Only got through ep 1-5 but heres new things i noticed

To this day i still finish every "leave me alone" with a mental "im bushed" so thanks Zuko its been over 10 years

Honestly we missed out on both Zuko and Sokka using the same alias ("Lee") we could of had them both go "Im Lee" at the exact same time and backpedaling because they both cant be Lee to some poor fire nation shop keeper who happens to be friends with three different Lees and doesnt understand what these two are doing (because its actually normal for people with common names, ie Lee, to happen to be friends with each other)