Can someone rec me an ATLA time-loop AU? Pretty please an ATLA time-loop AU in which Zuko’s redemption happens after many loops through the same interaction with the Gaang?
Zuko looping through the battle in the NWT until the time he saves the spirit fish (and incidentally Yue), and then breaking out of the loop and having to deal with the repercussions.
Azula looping through the Boiling Rock until, through various snippets of conversation and different decisions, she understands why Ty Lee and Mai end up betraying her and why Zuko abandoned her.
The Gaang looping through the Day of Black Sun thinking that they’ll break out of the loop once they win the battle, only to realise that their real mission is to save Zuko from Ozai.
There are so many options! Please tell me at least some of them have been written?!
Someone get on these <3
I know one along these lines and it’s the brilliant Samsara: Mai’s Long Day by @loopy777 where Mai loops the Day of Black Sun. Do read it.
I second the above rec for
Samsara: Mai’s Long Day by Loopy [43k, complete].
Mai deals (badly) with her breakup with Zuko, and gradually learns what actually matters to her. Also any and all skills that take her fancy (if it takes a thousand hours to become an expert, she has unlimited). And maybe she works out the best sequence to save some lives along the way. What? she got bored.
Features: Explores the mindnumbing and insanity-inducing effects of being endlessly stuck in the same day, with no clear path of how to end it.
Also:
Again and Again by bip2 [96k, wip]
Zuko dies during the final Agni Kai, and wakes up the night before his first one. He surrenders, burns, heals… is assassinated and wakes up the night before his first Agni Kai. He fights, burns, heals… is assassinated and wakes up the night before his first Agni Kai. He runs, he hides, he… dies and wakes up the night before his first Agni Kai. He runs again.
Features: Most of the loops are just long enough and written such that you forget that it is a time loop fic, and a re shocked when Zuko actually dies. But as a consolation prize, you then get to see a summary of how the rest of that loop plays out with Zuko’s changes.
Live for tomorrow or yesterday by gideongriddle [22k wip]
Sokka is trying lead an invasion, but every time he dies he wakes up with a second chance, and he can’t decide if that’s a curse or a blessing. Zuko is trying to defy his father and join the Avatar, but for some reason the day just keeps resetting. The he sees the Water Tribe boy die and the world fade out, and now he knows who is to blame. Time to see if he can make a better second impression and get some answers. What he gets instead, is feelings.
Features: One of the few time loop fics I’ve read where the looping character decides ‘I’ve had enough of this loop now. “Hey you, come kill me”’; but without being fatalistic.
Why Sokka is Getting Very Tired of Time Loop Shenanigans by NotARobot458 [1.7k wip/complete]
They’ve finally won the war and get a chance to relax. Except… why is his sleeve suddenly blue? And there’s ice under his feet. And a collapsing airbender - Aang! in front of him. And of course Katara still won’t listen to his warnings, even when they prove correct. Typical.
Features: Sokka openly makes use of his foreknowledge. Everyone else ranges between confused, skeptical, and unimpressed.
A Foggy Day by Themanofmanyhats [2.6k, complete]
Locked in his cell, Ozai is visited by a spirit that offers to take him back to the day it all went wrong, a chance to do it right. It was a fluke that he lost in the first place. With the advantage of foreknowledge, how can he possibly fail? Yet he does. So he tries again. He fails. So close, just once more… He tries again. He fails again. Again. Again, again, againagainagainagain… Only the spirit wins.
Decades later, Kuivira is offered the same gift. Only she eventually comes to see the curse. She wins a different battle.
Features: Very short loops, creating a lovely sense of futility and desperate hope. One of the few fics where the loop has no escape.
if you knew the end, where would you begin? by pistachio_cat [16k, complete]
Azula lives her childhood again and again, each iteration shaping her into something sharper, stronger. It is only in the final loop that she realises just how fragile she has become. She shatters. She turns 16 (the first time she has made it so far). She pieces herself together and tries to work out what comes next.
Features: The loops end with canon, each one shows how fragments of canon came to be.
I am so excited to read every single one of these. Thank you!!!