| 1 | The character page for FanFic/TheStalkingZukoSeries. Their WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender canonical characterization applies until it doesn't. Don't list canon-only tropes - they must appear in the fanfic itself. |
| 2 | |
| 3 | '''SPOILERS are very likely to appear, so be wary.''' |
| 4 | |
| 5 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 6 | |
| 7 | [[folder:The Gaang]] |
| 8 | |
| 9 | [[WMG:In General]] |
| 10 | * BothSidesHaveAPoint: |
| 11 | ** The Gaang is divided about the righteousness of killing Firelord Ozai. Ultimately both sides had equally valid points, but also unpleasant flaws--Aang killing Ozai would force a child and believed sole survivor of a genocide to betray his people's highest ideals and act as an executioner, but leaving Ozai alive, if not for complete chance, would have destroyed everything the Gaang fought for. |
| 12 | *** Aang believes that as a force for good, he should uphold what he sees as moral ideals, and killing is unacceptable if they want to return to a world of peace. This proves valid in ''Not Stalking Firelord Zuko'' when Iroh and Zuko discuss how killing Ozai will set a bad precedent when they're trying to portray themselves as rulers of peace and stability and undo the fear of retaliation that Ozai instilled in the people. However, this is brought up because Zuko in particular can't politically afford to be seen as responsible for doing away with his predecessor because there will always be the question of whether he did it to gain power, rather than stability. |
| 13 | *** On the opposing side of the argument, the rest of the Gaang take the a more pragmatic stance and believe that Ozai must die ForTheGreaterGood, which proves to be equally valid because if not for a few obscure Fire Nation succession technicalities that Aang didn't know about, Ozai happening to leave evidence of very specific crimes around, and Azula happening to know where it was, Ozai would've thanked Aang for the second chance at life by starting a civil war, turning the peace talks into a cruel joke (thus resuming the first war), and permanently undermining the credibility of his only widely acceptable replacement's strength as a leader in the eyes of his people and the other Nations, thus successfully destabilizing the world yet again--as he ''almost did.'' |
| 14 | * FoundFamily: Katara sees them as this, and it's clear at varying points that each member shares the sentiment. |
| 15 | * SlidingScaleOfUnavoidableVersusUnforgivable: Discussed and debated by the group in ''Not Stalking Zuko'' in regards to taking the life of Firelord Ozai; it continues to be the biggest point of difference between them for the duration of the trilogy. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | [[WMG: Katara]] |
| 18 | -->''"I have decided to record everything I know about Subject. To know your enemy is to have a great advantage on the battle field. I have decided not to name Subject for confidentiality's sake as well as because calling things by their name eventually endears them to you. [[TemptingFate Subject will not endear himself to me again!]]"'' |
| 19 | -->-- Katara, regarding her writing about Zuko. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | The protagonist and POV character of the fic, a waterbending master from the Southern Water Tribe who has a lot of feelings about Zuko. |
| 22 | ---- |
| 23 | * ABirthdayNotABreak: Her mother died the day before her birthday. The events of "[[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheSouthernRAiders The Southern Raiders]]" also happen around her birthday, meaning that not only does she confront her mother's killer on her birthday, but she also doesn't get to celebrate it with her father as a result of Azula's attack. |
| 24 | * AccidentalPervert: Katara wishes she was this. Problem for her is that all too often, her perversions are either obviously deliberate or fail to materialise. |
| 25 | * AngerBornOfWorry: Katara got quite angry with Zuko when he fought Azula while escaping the Western Air Temple, a battle that resulted in both combatants almost falling to their deaths, and that he seemed more concerned about Azula. |
| 26 | * AdaptationalNiceGuy: |
| 27 | ** Zigzagged. While it's implied in canon that she still doesn't like Zuko as of the start of "The Southern Raiders," in here, she's had a lot more time and focus dedicated to her working through her hostility and distrust towards him; though she begins the story just as if not more petulant and hostile in her dislike of Zuko than in canon, by the chapters covering the events of "The Southern Raiders" she's actually warmed up to him a bit, and her being cross with him is portrayed as AngerBornOfWorry over him putting himself in danger. |
| 28 | ** She is shown to regret claiming that Sokka never loved their mother, a sentiment she didn't openly show in canon. |
| 29 | * BerserkButton: The "F-Word" (Forgiveness), owing to how deeply Aang upset her by [[InnocentlyInsensitive insisting she forgive her mother's killer and, after her refusal, passive-aggressively working Forgiveness into every conversation he had within Katara's earshot]]. This upset her to the point of losing control of her bending and breaking a glass pitcher. When she apologized for breaking it and accidentally cutting those nearby, Aang ''Forgave'' her again, leading to another burst of rage. |
| 30 | * BrokenPedestal: Aang becomes this for her over the course of the story. While Aang didn't ''really'' run away before the final battle, she had no way of knowing that, and the emotional impact of him disappearing ''again'' and leaving them in the lurch at the absolute most critical moment deals a huge blow to her faith in him, although it takes a little while to fully come to the surface. It also forces her to confront Aang's own flaws, which she'd been ignoring or excusing by treating him like a child she had to shelter, which Katara realizes may itself have been because she feared he'd abandon them if she pushed too hard. |
| 31 | * CharacterNarrator: Of all three main stories in the series. Each is framed as being told through Katara's [[SecretDiary Secret Diaries]]. The first, ''Stalking Zuko'', comes from a small "stalking journal" that exists solely for the sake of recording all she learns about "Subject" in case he betrays them. She stops writing in this journal after she decides to cease stalking Zuko, and at the start of "Not Stalking Zuko" she purchases a proper diary, having decided that she likes being able to sort out her private thoughts in writing. It's implied that the narratives for both ''Not Stalking Zuko'' and ''Not Stalking Firelord Zuko'' come from the contents of this same second diary. |
| 32 | * ChildMarriageVeto: Refuses an ArrangedMarriage with Hahn |
| 33 | * CombatPragmatist: The author points out Katara is not above cheating in battle, such as winning a sparring match with Zuko by tickling him. |
| 34 | * CovertPervert: |
| 35 | ** Katara loves seeing Zuko shirtless, and frequently points out when he isn't wearing a shirt in her diary. |
| 36 | ** Her favorite parts from ''Love Amongst the Dragons'' are secretly the heavily implied explicit scenes, which she's reread multiple times. |
| 37 | * DistinctionWithoutADifference: She says that she likes looking at Zuko with his shirt off, but won't touch him unless she can think of a reason. |
| 38 | * FirstPersonSmartass: Katara has a great deal of snark in her narration, particularly many times when she can't or doesn't want to say it out loud. |
| 39 | * FoodSlap: Near the beginning of ''Not Stalking Zuko'', when Sokka claims that she and Zuko had sex while looking for Yon Rha, Katara hits Sokka with the fireflakes she bought for Zuko until he apologizes. |
| 40 | * HintDropping: Usually averted in her other relationships as she's typically very direct, but notably comes into play in her relationship with Aang, with whom she has a lot of complicated feelings towards which results in huge difficulties with confronting him directly on problems that concern him. To avoid conflict and hurting him, she tries to gently hint that she isn't interested in him romantically, but he doesn't pick it up. |
| 41 | * {{Hypocrite}}: Occasionally, though she usually owns up to it when she is. A downplayed instance of when she doesn't takes place when Sokka snoops through her stalking diary, makes fun of her, and the gives the diary to Zuko. Katara is outraged at the invasion of privacy, even though the privacy Sokka invaded is literally a record of Katara stalking someone. It's downplayed because Katara started the diary under the assumption that Zuko was an enemy and she needed to learn all about him in case he stabbed them in the back, whereas Sokka invaded the privacy of arguably his closest loved one. On the other hand, she (and almost the entire cast) also snoops on her allies and loved ones for the remainder of the series. A lessened concept of privacy is apparently a Water Tribe trait. |
| 42 | * HypocrisyNod: She does this from time to time. |
| 43 | ** When she runs away after kissing Aang, she realizes that she's imitating the same thing he did that got on her nerves so often. |
| 44 | ** When she finds out that Jet was also stalking Zuko back in Ba Sing Se, she judges him as being creepy for doing the same thing she'd done for much of the series. |
| 45 | * InelegantBlubbering: On the way back from the search from Yon Rha, she, with her feeling spilling out, has a "snotty cry", with "back of the throat breathing." |
| 46 | * INeverSaidItWasPoison: She eavesdrops on a conversation between Zuko and Aang about love. Zuko then asks her if Aang is also asking her personal questions, prompting Katara to say no, but also muse that he must be the only one she's asking about love, prompting Zuko to realize that he didn't specify what he and Aang talked about. She manages to deflect suspicion before Zuko fully catches on, though. |
| 47 | * LikeAnOldMarriedCouple: Even when they become friends, they still tend to bicker harmlessly over small things like fireflakes. Toph describes them as this in ''Snuggling Dysfuctional Cats.'' |
| 48 | * LyingToProtectYourFeelings: A major reoccurring flaw of hers is the fact that she defaults to this with the people she feels she has to mother in an attempt to cushion those under her care from at least ''some'' of the brutal realities around them. This behavior is implied to stem both from the emotional baggage of how fast Katara herself was forced to grow up and, towards Aang, from an underlying lack of trust in his ability to responsibly handle reality. Despite kind intentions, her decision to do this almost never turns out well. |
| 49 | * MalignedMixedMarriage: Katara isn't just keeping her attraction to Zuko secret because she finds it embarrassing to admit- she also knows that her tribe wouldn't approve of her falling in love with Zuko. Of course, the author believes that such forbidden love succeeding is ''more'' in the spirit of Avatar than Kataang is. |
| 50 | * NoJustNoReaction: When Sokka proposes adding fireflakes as the sixth flavor to five flavor stew, Katara says this verbatim. |
| 51 | * TheNotSecret: Far more people are aware of her stalking Zuko than she initially thinks, including Zuko himself. |
| 52 | * ParentalSubstitute: For Sokka, Aang, and Toph. It's deconstructed. |
| 53 | ** For Aang and Sokka, Katara's role as TeamMom means she feels she has to support them but often, for various reasons, does not feel she can burden them with her own serious internal problems in turn. This means she's gotten used to secretly feeling alone and unsupported in many of her concerns and personal conflicts--at least, until [[TeamDad Zuko]] and [[CoolBigSis Suki]] joined--but also means that, when feeling overwhelmed, her emotions often don't get expressed in a clear, rational, or healthy manner, ''especially'' where Aang is concerned. Not helping this is the fact that, since the beginning of their travels, Aang, Sokka, and later Toph left Katara to shoulder all of the daily hours of domestic work--cooking, washing, mending, unpacking and packing--since none of them had the skills, attention span, or interest to manage those responsibilities, and therefore heavily relied on Katara to take care of them, something she did willingly but is shown to put her under a lot of strain when not appreciated. |
| 54 | ** Many of Toph's conflicts with Katara come from Toph having grown to see the Gaang as her surrogate family and Toph's unresolved issues with her biological family, particularly her mother. As Toph has, like Aang and Sokka, come to see Katara as something of a mother, she tends to react harshly to Katara's mothering after receiving letters from her own mother, because of the reminder of how her own mother views her. Despite this, Toph loves Katara for recognizing who she truly is and relies on Katara's strength of person in her rare moments of vulnerability. |
| 55 | * PowerIncontinence: She accidentally causes a jug of water to burst open while angry. She's deeply embarrassed by this, because while it has happened in the past, she thought she had improved her skills enough to avoid this. |
| 56 | * PrankPunishment: Many of Katara's early hostilities towards Zuko manifested as this, most often taking the form of hiding his fireflakes. However, when the fireflakes have all been eaten, she contemplates alternatives, such as: hiding Zuko's Dao swords, unmatching all of his socks, re-matching all of his socks with the wrong pairs, putting too much salt in his food, telling him the Duke is playing with knives again "and just watch[ing] his panicked face," and getting Teo to ask Zuko to explain the extremely complex firenation governmental system ''again.'' The petty silliness of these "punishments" are underscored by the fact that she also does things like mending his shirts when he's not around. |
| 57 | * PrecociousCrush: Apparently she had one on Bato when she was 12, and she hopes that Aang's feelings for her are this. |
| 58 | * QuicklyDemotedWoman: While the Fire Nation was an active threat on the world stage Katara was one of the Water Tribes' greatest warriors and became one of the six great heroes of Team Avatar to end the Hundred Years War. However, once reunited with her tribe she's treated like their maid and is the only member of Team Avatar barred from the peace talks because her culture doesn't believe in giving women a voice in such important matters and actively look down on the other cultures for having female representatives. Pakku sees her distress and suggests she marry either the Avatar or Hahn, the heir of the North, because Water Tribes only accept inter-Water Tribe marriages sans the Avatar and being married to a high status man and influencing others through him is the only way she'd gain influence in their culture. Eventually with Yue's intervention Katara is allowed to be present during the inter-Water Tribes talks, but still not the peace talks. |
| 59 | * RaisedByDudes: Gender swapped. The men of Katara's tribe were so rarely present in her childhood that their village was only permanently occupied by women and children. Because of this, Katara had largely forgotten about the South's own idea of gender roles, since in her experience the women had always done ''everything'' to run the village, not just the "women's work." |
| 60 | * RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: [[spoiler: As Fire Lady, Katara throws herself into human rights and quality of life causes both national and international. Her first major project is ensuring the availability of safe drinking water in all regions of the Fire Nation with plans to make the project global if it succeeds, something that makes her a UniversallyBelovedLeader among the average citizens of the Fire Nation.]] |
| 61 | * ShippingTorpedo: She tries to let Aang know, as gently as possible, that she doesn't return his feelings. |
| 62 | * StrangerInAFamiliarLand: Katara defines family and home by people. Not only has she come to see the Gaang as her family, and thus can't imagine the South Pole managing to be her home again without them, but she no longer feels that she fits in among the rest of the Southern Water Tribe due to their lack of recognition towards her value as a person. When the war ends and she's no longer needed to fight, the other warriors of her tribe ignore her accomplishments as a war hero and sees no problem with treating her like their maid during their stay at the new Southern Water Tribe embassy in the Fire Nation. Her father doesn't even initially understand why being treated like this offends her and the Southern tribesmen as a whole act like she's hysterical when she becomes upset by it. Katara even describes the idea of returning to the South Pole as filling her with "a thrill of ''fear"''. |
| 63 | * SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: |
| 64 | ** Early on in Stalking Zuko, she often is fairly insistent that Zuko will not endear himself to her again. |
| 65 | ** From the first chapter of ''Not Stalking Zuko'': "This journal will not become full of an obsessive amount of tidbits about Zuko. I am not going to write non-stop about him and his Zuko-ness, because that would be weird and stalkerish and I don't do that anymore." |
| 66 | * TeamMom: Toph directly calls her this at one point, and Katara openly describes her own behavior as maternal. She can apparently intimidate The Hippo into backing down solely through Disapproving Mum stares. The author openly calls her Aang's "mum" in their notes. |
| 67 | * ThisIsGonnaSuck: Her reaction when she realizes that scene of "The Boy in the Iceberg" that re-enacts the scene in the crystal catacombs will put her and Zuko together, with their stage counterparts being the biggest floozies of the play's cast. |
| 68 | * TrademarkFavoriteFood: |
| 69 | ** Sea prunes, which disgust everyone who isn't Water Tribe. |
| 70 | ** Fire flakes are an inversion. Katara's loud and vocal dislike of them sparks common arguments between her and Zuko, but while she doesn't understand her brother's or Zuko's love for them, it's implied her intense dislike is mostly feigned and vocalized just because they're Zuko's favorite snack. After she and he begin to get along better, she's more tolerant of Fire Flakes and even buys them for Zuko, though she does still like to [[LikeAnOldMarriedCouple make small snipes about how they'll make him fat.]] |
| 71 | * {{Tsundere}}: Towards Zuko in ''Stalking Zuko.'' She refers to their relationship as "antagonistic friendship," looks for ways to annoy him and reasons to be angry at him, and goes on and on about how much she doesn't like him... All while mending his clothes while he's not around, buying his favorite snacks because they make him happy even though she vocally hates said snacks, and spending an enormous amount of time and energy looking out for his wellbeing in general. In chapter 11 she even says the signature tsundere line "It's not like I ''like'' him or anything." |
| 72 | * UnreliableNarrator: To an extent, as her description of the events is heavily colored by her biases. |
| 73 | ** She spends much of ''Stalking Zuko'' denying having feelings for "Subject," and at one point, goes off on an angry rant about "Subject" without mentioning what caused her to say that. However, her actual actions reflect a lot more care and concern for Zuko than she'd willingly admit to, even while she struggles to insist in the journal that she did these things solely for practical threat evaluation or because he "tricked" her into caring for him with his "Subject-ness." |
| 74 | ** It's unclear exactly how mature Aang is through her narration, because there's no way her interpretation of his behavior during events ''isn't'' biased. She's largely sympathetic of Aang's plights because she maternally wants to protect his innocence, but she actually has deep trust issues with him that she doesn't even fully seem to realize until ''Not Stalking Firelord Zuko''. The latter story brings attention to a bias that could have (and likely was) warping her perception of Aang's motivations from the beginning, with her portraying him as much more childish than he may have actually been during the events described because she didn't trust him to handle pressure or unpleasant challenges but also didn't want to resent him for his lack of reliability since he's a child. |
| 75 | * WhatTheHellHero: In ''Not Stalking Firelord Zuko'', she snaps under the strain of all of the expectations and limitations being put on her and ''lays into'' Aang about his flightiness and tendency to flee from difficult situations when Aang picks a particularly bad moment to be InnocentlyInsensitive. She's so upset at this point that she isn't very coherent, but it marks a major turning point in their relationship. |
| 76 | |
| 77 | [[WMG: Zuko]] |
| 78 | -->''"It is also very tiring to be constantly mad at someone like Subject, who is more mad at himself for his past misdeeds than I could ever be."'' |
| 79 | -->-- Katara, regarding Zuko. |
| 80 | |
| 81 | A prince of the Fire Nation who, at the start of the story, has just joined Aang's group to teach him firebending. |
| 82 | ---- |
| 83 | * AFatherToHisMen: It's mentioned that he cared for his crew a great deal, and was saddened to hear that at least two of them died in the Siege of the North. |
| 84 | * AnnoyingPatient: Zuko gets very cranky at having to stay in bed with cooler fever. [[spoiler: This also happens somewhat when Dr. Yang prescribes a week of strict bed rest for him after his Agni Kai with Azula.]] |
| 85 | * AThreesomeIsHot: In ''The Boy in the Iceberg'', the play's rendition of Zuko often had threesomes, which becomes a RunningGag in ''Not Stalking Firelord Zuko'' because people only know him through the play and women proposition him. |
| 86 | * BadLiar: Katara observes this early on, and says that it's "endearing" when Zuko tries to come up with lies on the spot. |
| 87 | * BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: The author points out that Zuko's love of Mai is because she was one of the only people in the Fire Nation who wasn't a "jerkface" to him. |
| 88 | * BerserkButton: Because of Jet's constant harrassment and vocal attraction to Katara, Jet's ''existence'' is this to Zuko whenever the two appear in the same scene [[spoiler: up until they reconcile in the side story ''Million Dollar Question.'']] |
| 89 | * BigBrotherMentor: He's one to the Duke, helping him train in sword fighting. |
| 90 | * BuffySpeak: Zuko is prone to this when he wants to talk about feelings. |
| 91 | * ButtMonkey: He ends up having many embarrassing things happen to him, over the course of the story, to the point at which he hopes that it will be someone else's turn to get embarrassed more than he is during the showing of "The Boy in the Iceberg." Unfortunately, that's not what happens. |
| 92 | * CannotTellAJoke: He botches telling one of his uncle's favorite jokes, and decides to give up on trying to be funny. |
| 93 | * CharacterTics: Writes lists to calm himself down. |
| 94 | * DamnYouMuscleMemory: He has trouble fighting with Sokka's sword, since he's used to DualWielding, and doesn't know what to do with his sword-less left hand. |
| 95 | * {{Determinator}}: Katara admires this part about him, but also finds it quite aggravating. |
| 96 | * DisappointedInYou: His reaction after Aang airbends instead of firebending, resulting in Katara getting bitten by the scorpidillo. |
| 97 | * {{Foil}}: To Aang, in regards to how they relate to Katara. Zuko betrayed Katara personally and sides with their enemies in Ba Sing Se, but once he fully accepts the wrongness of that decision and commits to correcting it, he proves steadfast in his commitments and willing to put the effort into fixing what he broke, choosing to stay and ride out Katara's hostility and emotional outbursts to help her work through her emotions. Aang has nominally always remained on Katara's team, but isn't supportive of her feelings when their perspective differs, has a tendency to tell her how she should feel, and proves to be flighty and willing to leave her holding the bag in tough situations without it even occuring to him that he's doing this. |
| 98 | * HairTriggerTemper: Downplayed, though played straight in the past tense. He's noted to have had this during his three years on the ''Wani'' and is still grappling with this flaw throughout the trilogy; he's learned patience and self-control to the extent that he can hold it together for varying amounts of time under varying amounts of stress--and he certainly has different amounts of patience for different people (plenty for Katara, while Jet's burned his last nerve)--but like a volcano, [[RageBreakingPoint he will eventually explode if he can't vent]]. He almost ruins the peace talks when he snaps and curses the dowager empress out for denying that torturing Fire Nation prisoners is a war crime. More humorously, his fuse is so short with Jet by the time he reappears in ''Not Stalking Firelord Zuko'' that Zuko jumps straight to comedic fisticuffs. |
| 99 | * ICanStillFight: Zuko mentions that he has been taught to train even while injured, unless he's been knocked unconscious, so he can fight without showing vulnerability to an enemy. Katara is disturbed by this practice. |
| 100 | * IResembleThatRemark: Grumpily complaining about Suki calling him the grumpiest and least fun person in the Fire Nation. |
| 101 | * ItsAllMyFault: Katara says that when he blames himself for something, he does a "woe is me" dance. |
| 102 | * LiteralMinded: He sometimes takes figurative speech at face value |
| 103 | * MenCantKeepHouse: When they're squatting in the Ember Island vacation home, Zuko doesn't see the point of cleaning up, prompting Katara to remark "Boys." |
| 104 | * OneNoteCook: Zuko makes the best tea out of all of them and he can make good kebabs, but they are the only things he knows how to make. |
| 105 | * PowerIncontinence: When he's jealous he has a tendency of accidentally intensifying nearby open flames. In ''Not Stalking Zuko,'' Sokka discussing Katara's fling with Jet causes permanent scorch marks around the wall sconces that light the interior of the Ember Island summer house. In ''Not Stalking Firelord Zuko'', Katara confessing that she kissed Aang results in Zuko having to pay the owner of the teashop they're sitting in for fire damages. |
| 106 | * ReluctantRuler: He repeatedly makes it very clear that he'd rather have his uncle become Fire Lord, and only agrees to do so when Iroh agrees to advise him. |
| 107 | * TheReliableOne: It's ironic, given his betrayal in the Catacombs, but Katara eventually comes to see Zuko as this. He cares very deeply about living up to his word and unlike others in the group, he's willing to ride out her more extreme emotional outbursts to help her sort out and work through how she feels. This is in sharp contrast with Aang, who is at times both pushy and flighty. |
| 108 | * RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Being made Fire Lord in the immediate aftermath of a 100 year war in which his country was the aggressor isn't a walk in the park, and means he's the individual expected to do the hardest work towards normalizing peace between the nations, restructuring the Fire Nation education system so as not to be a war and propaganda machine, reforming the civil service out of a culture of cronyism and fear, and transitioning the Fire Nation itself out of its state of war without the country bursting into another one from the internal tensions caused by such drastically needed changes. Not to mention finding a solution to the complicated issue that is the Fire Nation colonies that everyone can both agree to and live with. |
| 109 | * SecretStabWound: He hides a training injury from Aang, not wanting him to hold back. |
| 110 | * ShippingTorpedo: It's implied that, even before getting together with Katara, he's trying to gently hint to Aang that his feelings for Katara are unrequited. |
| 111 | * SociallyAwkwardHero: Played for both comedy and drama. Zuko wasn't raised in an environment that helped him learn to work through emotions and spent most of his formative teenage years on a ship with men at least twice is age; his social skills start out a joke at best. Much humor is derived from his awkward "spluttering" "rambling" BuffySpeak when discussing topics he doesn't know how to broach, but his difficulties with communication and expression also feed into his frustration and anger issues. As he gets to know the rest of the Gaang better, his communication difficulties with them slowly lessen, but as a whole his social difficulties still tend to pop up with public speaking or when interacting with those he doesn't know well without some kind of protocol. He's easily stressed out by social gatherings as Firelord and retreats to isolation several times over the course of his own coronation just to recover his fortitude. |
| 112 | * StalkerWithACrush[=/=]StalkerWithoutACrush: is a victim of both variants, Katara calls him the most stalkable person ever. He has been stalked by Katara, Jet, Hakoda, the Duke, [[spoiler:and Mai]]. |
| 113 | * SuccessfulSiblingSyndrome: Initially Azula was seen as the superior sibling and he felt like the less-talented, unworthy one who'd been effectively thrown out of the family by their father. However the perspective flips once their father is removed from power: Zuko is well-adjusted, well-liked, adored by the rest of their family and by the commoners of the nation, and beginning what turns out to be a very successful reign as a much-beloved Firelord, while Azula has a mental breakdown and ends up being institutionalized for years, feeling like she's the failure the family no longer wants. |
| 114 | * TeamDad: He's shocked to realize he's become this upon uttering the phrase "I'm not angry, just DisappointedInYou" to Aang. It hits him particularly hard at that moment because that's a phrase he's heard repeatedly from the parental surrogates of his own life whenever he himself did something particularly stupid or reckless. |
| 115 | * TrainingFromHell: He suffered this when he was younger, and to a lesser extent, inflicts this on Aang. |
| 116 | * TheUsurper: Ozai merely being arrested instead of killed means Zuko is technically this for the first few months of his reign, a political weakness Ozai supporters use to legitimize support for a coup against Zuko. The Fire Nation ends up brinking uncomfortably close to a civil war until the cast finds a loophole to retroactively legitimize Zuko's power grab and officially bar Ozai from the throne. |
| 117 | * WellDoneSonGuy: [[CharacterDevelopment He's grown out of it]], as the fic starts after his HeelFaceTurn, but this desire has influenced many of his actions in the past, such as his desire to learn the tsungi horn because it's something difficult he can master that isn't related to bending. |
| 118 | * WhatTheHellHero |
| 119 | ** He gives one to Aang when he reminds Zuko that he's the Avatar during a meeting on what to do with Ozai. |
| 120 | -->'''Zuko''': Yes, you're the Avatar! And if you had done your duty in the first place I wouldn't even be in this position and I wouldn't even have to make this choice ''(takes a deep breath)'' Look Aang, I'm not trying to freeze you out, but we don't have much time right now and if you have nothing to offer us but empty sanctimony then you are no help what-so-ever and it would be better if you left so that the adults can get on with handling this. |
| 121 | ** Near the end, he gives one to Katara when she admits to spying on him while he met with Sung, as he's furious about the lack of trust on her part. |
| 122 | * WhenHeSmiles: Katara always notices when he smiles and used to keep track how often he smiled |
| 123 | ** Averted, Jet thinks [[PerpetualFrowner Zuko]] looks weird when he smiles |
| 124 | |
| 125 | [[WMG: Aang]] |
| 126 | -->''"Aang has stayed pretty constant. He is still the joyful, happy-go-lucky kid me and Sokka found in the iceberg- despite ''everything''."'' |
| 127 | -->-- Katara, regarding Aang. |
| 128 | |
| 129 | The newest Avatar, whose destiny is to defeat the Fire Nation and restore balance to the world. He has a crush on Katara, but unlike in canon, she does not reciprocate his feelings. |
| 130 | ---- |
| 131 | * AdaptationalDumbass: He comes off as less mature than in canon, so his decision-making skills obviously are that much worse. |
| 132 | * AdaptationalJerkass: Played with. The fic's characterization of Aang doesn't necessarily contradict his canon characterization, but as a character in a DeconstructionFic, flaws that appear occasionally in canon but weren't concluded or developed are far more heavily focused on here and handled with much more severity. His flighty behavior, occasional lack of attentiveness towards the feelings and struggles of others in the group, and unwillingness to compromise over his interpretation of Air Nomad ideals develops here into a tendency to [[InnocentlyInsensitive deeply offend his friends at various points]] with his sanctimonious behavior and self-centered world view. Also, building off his canon tendency to shower Katara in advances whether she's receptive or not, he's treated as a DoggedNiceGuy, since Katara here isn't subtle about being uncomfortable with his romantic overtures. |
| 133 | ** A particular instance of this is the aftermath of The Southern Raiders: in canon Aang believes forgiveness is the right choice for Katara because he sees she's in pain and genuinely thinks that's the best solution to avoid anyone else getting hurt further; notably, Katara was at this point openly considering revenge. After Katara returns and explains that she decided she doesn't want to kill her mother's killer but can't forgive the man either, the episode ends, and Aang is not shown bringing this conflict up again in the following episodes. Here, [[DeconstructionFic since their conflict didn't resolve in canon]], the conflict continues past what the episode shows and Aang goes on to spend the next day or so off-and-on passive-aggressively needling Katara about ''forgiveness'' until Katara becomes so enraged that the word "Forgive" becomes a personal BerserkButton. |
| 134 | * AdaptationalWimp: Unlike in canon, Aang here is not considered a master of all four elements by the arrival of Sozin's comet. While a master of Air and close to mastery in Water, he's portrayed as only moderately competent in Earth and Fire. It was enough power to beat Ozai, especially when the Avatar State kicked in, but it's emphasized in ''Not Stalking Firelord Zuko'' that "good enough" doesn't equal mastery and he's expected to continue his training in the years that follow. |
| 135 | * AllTakeAndNoGive: |
| 136 | ** In a long Author's Note, the author claims that one of the problems with Kataang is that their relationship seems to have been this, judging by the comics and sequel series. They argue that Aang depended on Katara for support but didn't return it. The author blames this negative aspect of their relationship for Katara's comparatively minimized role in world events in ''Legend of Korra,'' and points out that Aang canonically is said to have neglected his other children in favor of Tenzin, the sole airbending child, which implies their other children's care became a burden Katara had to shoulder alone. The author expresses that, given that Katara has massive abandonment issues stemming from childhood, it's unlikely that her romantic relationship with such a flighty man was very functional. For this reason, the author states they believe both Aang and Katara are ill-suited for each other and both deserve better. |
| 137 | ** In the story we see a downplayed version of this dynamic: not only does Aang frequently run away when Katara tries to discuss responsibilities he doesn't like, but while Aang is happy to douse Katara in rare and romantic presents, he doesn't emotionally support her or validate her feelings when she needs him to--he instead insists that he knows how she ''should'' feel. This is most seen in the aftermath of ''The Southern Raiders'' and the immediately proceeding events of Katara's birthday. Not helping matters is that Katara continues to coddle him and doesn't coherently confront him when he upsets her, which enables his avoidant behavior and self-centered perspective rather than helps him work through it. While they both care about each other a lot, their relationship isn't balanced enough to help them grow. |
| 138 | * TheAtoner: According to the author, he wants to make up for disappearing from the world for 100 years. |
| 139 | * BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: When Katara kisses him, as she does at the end of Book 3, he's disgusted, and realizes that it's not what he wanted, with this being [[ShipSinking the last straw that ends his crush on her]]. |
| 140 | * BerserkButton: While he isn't affected by one, he is the wielder of the ''F-Word'' button (Forgiveness), and unintentionally drives his friends up the wall with it at varying points. It ''really'' set off Katara post-''The Southern Raiders'' but started angering Toph and Zuko in the aftermath of defeating Ozai. |
| 141 | * BrokenPedestal: Katara idealized him as the Avatar until he disappeared just before the GrandFinale. Part of the development in their relationship is that she stops idealizing him. |
| 142 | * CassandraTruth: [[spoiler: No one believes Aang when he tells them that he disappeared because he met a lion turtle, most of them think he ran away under pressure.]] |
| 143 | * ChasteHero: He doesn't understand much about romantic love and sex, particularly the association between sex and love, as a result of his Air Nomad customs regarding it. |
| 144 | * ChronicHeroSyndrome: He wants to help people, and let them know that [[HopeBringer The Avatar]] [[HesBack is back]]. |
| 145 | * CripplingOverspecialization: The other members of the Gaang believe that he's too reliant on airbending, and Zuko takes the opportunity to drive this point home after his attempt to airbend a scorpidillo away results in Katara getting bitten. |
| 146 | * DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: The story really takes him to task over his AllLovingHero status and DoggedNiceGuy behavior, demonstrating that 1). showing mercy to enemies that fully intend to continue to harm others can ''very easily'' lead to them getting another opportunity to do exactly that, with all the consequences you'd expect on the viability of future peace talks, and 2). romantic advances, when unwanted, can ''really'' stress the target of those affections out. That said, it [[ReconstructedTrope reconstructs]] the motivations behind the former, proving that Aang's boundless love and forgiveness can be both a potential weakness and a source of great strength. WordOfGod expresses that Aang's complete lack of grudge-holding is what makes him such a good Avatar for overseeing the post-war years, even if sparing Ozai was realistically probably a mistake. |
| 147 | * DeliberateValuesDissonance: Romantic love and sex are separate things to him and he doesn't understand why it would intersect. |
| 148 | * DramaticallyMissingThePoint: He often falls into this regarding his decision to spare Ozai, particularly when he doesn't understand that Ozai isn't grateful that Aang spared him. |
| 149 | * DudleyDoRightStopsToHelp: The Gaang has to leave the abandoned home because Aang, while saving some civilians, revealed that he was the Avatar. |
| 150 | * EntitledToHaveYou: During the argument with Zuko, he claims that he met Katara first and she is his girl, because he's the Avatar. Part of his CharacterDevelopment is outgrowing this perspective. |
| 151 | * {{Foil}}: To Zuko, in regards to how they relate to Katara. Aang has nominally always remained on Katara's team, but isn't supportive of her feelings when their perspective differs, has a tendency to tell her how she should feel, and proves to be flighty and willing to leave her holding the bag in tough situations without it even occuring to him that he's doing this. Zuko betrayed Katara personally and sides with their enemies in Ba Sing Se, but once he fully accepts the wrongness of that decision and commits to correcting it, he proves steadfast in his commitments and willing to put the effort into fixing what he broke, choosing to stay and ride out Katara's hostility and emotional outbursts to help her work through her emotions. |
| 152 | * TheFriendNobodyLikes: Downplayed - the rest of the Gaang love him like family, but find him far more difficult to deal with than in canon. Because of the extended latent conflicts between him and various members of the cast, he, possibly unintentionally, can come off as a mix of Necessity (since he's [[TheChosenOne the Avatar]]) and Pity (since, for all his flaws, he's a NiceGuy in a very difficult position). The Gaang stick with him, openly express how much they care about him, and often go out of their way to do things that make him happy, but the underlying tensions mean that various characters take turns having difficulty enjoying his company or respecting him. It's also noted that they struggle to trust him with major responsibilities because of his tendency to avoid conflict and ignore their advice, so he's often excluded from knowing about important matters and Katara in particular avoids telling him things to his face, even when she has major issues with his choices and behavior. |
| 153 | * GoodCannotComprehendEvil: He cannot fathom that Ozai wouldn't want to be a better person after being defeated, nor that Ozai ''genuinely likes'' hurting people and will continue to try to do so for as long as he is alive. Aang's inability to understand this means he has no grasp of the consequences of ignoring the advice of his past lives and refusing to kill Ozai. |
| 154 | * {{Hypocrite}}: The author accuses Aang of being this for not forgiving some of those who wronged him (for example, the Earth Kingdom soldiers who threatened Katara in order to induce the Avatar State, or the Sandbenders who stole Appa). |
| 155 | * ImStandingRightHere: He has this reaction when Toph and Zuko argue over which form of bending he's worse at while he's in the room. |
| 156 | * InnocentInnuendo: He mentions that he "went penguin sledding" with Katara back when they first met. It's actually innuendo for masturbation, although Aang doesn't understand this. |
| 157 | * InnocentlyInsensitive: |
| 158 | ** Aang idealizes the Air Nomad philosophy of the sanctity of life, and the author expanding and deconstructing his canon refusal to listen to his friends and consider killing Ozai means he can get ''very'' self-righteous in the fic towards those who disagree with his choice, all while under the assumption that he's helping them figure out what's right. While this has led to smaller conflicts in earlier installments, the most serious of these moments is in ''Not Stalking Firelord Zuko,'' where, having witnessed the chaos leaving Ozai alive has caused, Aang accidentally implies that Zuko is to blame for his father's behavior because Zuko didn't ''forgive'' his father enough. |
| 159 | ** A smaller instance, but during Katara's birthday, Aang asks Zuko for suggestions for rare and expensive gifts. He subsequently gets Katara two presents: dragon berries and a rare variety of fire lilies. Katara loves the dragon berries, which she shares with all of them as a family, but while she tries to hide it, the fire lilies make her uncomfortable, both because they have sexual symbolism Aang doesn't realize when given from a boy to a girl and because the flowers instantly remind her of [[TraumaButton Hama.]] Aang wanted to get her impressive gifts but, since he didn't have a clue what she wanted, he accidentally made her uncomfortable instead. |
| 160 | * {{Irony}}: Despite his pacifistic life philosophy, Aang is the member of the Gaang most often in conflict with another teammate over the course of the trilogy because he has difficulty seeing value in opinions and perspectives that differ greatly from his own. |
| 161 | * ItsAllAboutMe: The author seems to believe that Aang isn't a bad kid, just highly self-centered. |
| 162 | * ItsAllMyFault: His reaction when Katara gets bitten by the scorpidillo. |
| 163 | * JustAKid: Aang is often treated like a kid for many of his decisions, such as running away and sparing Ozai. Katara realizes that she has been doing the same by sheltering him from things, such as the human toll of his destroying the Fire Nation fleet at the Siege of the North. |
| 164 | * LastOfHisKind: Aang's status as such drives his actions to an even greater degree than in canon, particularly his efforts to keep Air Nomad culture alive. |
| 165 | * NotWhatItLooksLike: His adventure with the Lion Turtle appeared to all of his friends like he'd up and run away at the most critical moment. He didn't consciously choose to leave them, but between Lion Turtles being considered extinct and his history of doing ''exactly'' this when faced with problems that challenge him emotionally, everyone assumes he ditched them. |
| 166 | * NotQuiteTheRightThing: Aang's decision to spare Ozai's life because Aang himself couldn't morally bear to kill him is portrayed as this. Aang genuinely wanted to do the right thing and couldn't accept that some ForTheGreaterGood choices necessitate doing things typically considered evil, and so refused to do that evil act. It blows up in his face when his decision nearly sends the Fire Nation spiralling into civil war and almost destroys the credibility of the peace talks. Most aren't shy about pointing out how much death and destruction Aang risked by refusing to kill Ozai. |
| 167 | * ThePowerOfLove: Aang's greatest strength is how much he loves and wants everyone else to love, and how little value he holds in the grudges and slights of the past. The author believes this is what truly makes Aang the Avatar the world needs in the post-war environment, despite the flaws that sometimes come with his perspective. |
| 168 | * PrecociousCrush: The author dismisses his feelings for Katara as this, saying that there's a large gap in maturity between them, and that people don't end up with those they crush on when they're 12. |
| 169 | * PrinciplesZealot: The story portrays him as this, given his insistence that sparing Ozai is correct despite all hints and opinions to the contrary. It's portrayed partially as the emotional ramifications of being the only Airbender left to continue the culture and being too naive to understand the extremely dangerous consequences of leaving this particular person alive. |
| 170 | * SecondLove: Ty Lee is this to him. The author suggests that Aang, who likes trying new things, shouldn't settle down with his first love, but that he'll likely have many lovers before settling down with someone. |
| 171 | * SkilledButNaive: One of his biggest underlying flaws. His power makes him indispensable to the war effort and his idealism is pointed out as a strength, but he's not always the best at seeing the bigger picture and his worldview can be overly-simplistic, so it can sometimes trip him up. Zuko justifies this by reminding Aang's in-universe critics of the boy's young age. This flaw manifests most obviously after sparing Ozai. |
| 172 | -->'''Ozai''': ''(to Iroh)'' "You always liked people to think you were the good one. When really you are just too cowardly to do what needs to be done, just like that weakling avatar. People who think they are good are always weak!" |
| 173 | -->'''Aang''': "You're not supposed to be like this! I've shown you mercy, you're supposed to see the error of your ways and want to be a better person in the future." |
| 174 | -->'''Ozai''': ''(laughs)'' "The error of my ways!" ''(laughing turns to sneering)'' I regret nothing! I would do it all again, but this time hotter and longer and more painful[.]" |
| 175 | * SomebodyDoesntLoveRaymond: He really wants everyone to get along and to understand and be friends with him, which means he tends to value pleasing strangers a bit too much and bombards people with his justifications when they disagree with or dislike something he's said or done. The author refers to this as both his greatest strength and weakness, because he's bad at letting personal disagreements go but also feels so much love for everyone that he's good at defusing hate. |
| 176 | * ToughLove: On the receiving end of this from Toph, the author, and to an extent, Zuko, who believe to various degrees that Aang needs to be challenged, not coddled, in order to grow. |
| 177 | * WhatTheHellHero: While he does it in a more gentle way than most of the cast, pointing out that he knows she did it out of love, Aang eventually calls Katara out on treating him like a child, having realized that Katara's coddling and desire to cushion the blow of harsher realities for him has left him with an incomplete understanding of his own circumstances and how he affects others. |
| 178 | * YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: Arnook celebrates Aang's decision to spare Ozai... because keeping him alive has caused huge internal political instability in the Fire Nation and Arnook ''wants'' the Fire Nation to suffer a civil war. He assumes that causing one was Aang's plan all along. Aang is horrified, doubly so after Arnook gleefully describes all the Fire Nation soldiers Aang drowned during the Siege of the North. |
| 179 | |
| 180 | [[WMG: Sokka]] |
| 181 | -->''"Sokka and I always look out for each other, after all. It's nice that Sokka wants to big brother me sometimes. I find it irritating (because I don't really need him to big brother me- [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment I'm am]] a master bender) and sweet (because it's nice that he still tries) at the same time. This is an unusual mix of feelings."'' |
| 182 | -->-- Katara, regarding Sokka. |
| 183 | |
| 184 | Katara's older brother and Suki's boyfriend. |
| 185 | |
| 186 | ---- |
| 187 | |
| 188 | * BigBrotherInstinct: His opposition to Katara's search for their mother's killer is mainly based in worrying about how dangerous it will be for her. |
| 189 | * BothSidesHaveAPoint: His position in the discussion about Yon Rha. He says that Katara was right to neither kill nor forgive Yon Rha, but is more sympathetic to Aang's talk of forgiveness than she is, saying that Aang was worried about her. |
| 190 | * CordonBleughChef: Katara's concerned about his cooking because he likes to experiment. |
| 191 | * HenpeckedHusband: Thought to be this to Suki. |
| 192 | * MalignedMixedMarriage: To a lesser degree than Katara or Bato, but Hakoda isn't completely happy with him going out with Suki. |
| 193 | * MomentKiller: Bursts in on Zuko and Katara during a tender moment while getting lunch for himself and Suki. |
| 194 | * MySisterIsOffLimits: After what happened with Jet, he expresses a desire to choose Katara's boyfriends for her. |
| 195 | * NowYouTellMe: After Katara mentions that she doesn't want anything larger than a breadbox for her birthday, and this is accompanied by a FacePalm. |
| 196 | * OnlySaneMan |
| 197 | * ScheduleFanatic: He's in charge of setting the schedule for Aang's training, and gets quite upset if people don't follow it, even though he's not directly affected. |
| 198 | * ShipperOnDeck: He frequently teases Katara when she tries to deny or downplay her attraction to Zuko, and the author uses this exact phrase to describe him, saying that with his relationship with Suki, he wants to set up his single friends. |
| 199 | * TheTalk: He tries to give this to Aang, but fails miserably given how much he relies on double entendres. |
| 200 | |
| 201 | [[WMG: Toph]] |
| 202 | -->''"Toph, whom I love, don't get me wrong, [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold is not exactly nice]]. She is crazy [[{{Determinator}} stubborn]] and self sufficient and [[DeadpanSnarker sarcastic]] and [[ActionGirl strong]] ([[AddedAlliterativeAppeal she is lots of words beginning with S]]). But she's not all sweetness and light. Toph said he shouldn't think too much on it. She knows what it's like to be new to the group."'' |
| 203 | -->-- Katara, regarding Toph's friendship with Zuko. |
| 204 | |
| 205 | A young earthbending prodigy and Aang's earthbending master who, running away from a dysfunctional and stifling home life, has come to see the group as her surrogate family. |
| 206 | ---- |
| 207 | |
| 208 | * BrattyHalfPint: When something happens that she disagrees with, she can become fairly immature in the way she protests. It really shines when she disagrees with Zuko getting back together with Mai. |
| 209 | * CommonalityConnection: Toward Aang and Zuko. |
| 210 | ** She and Zuko got along well because they both come from high-class families, don't have good relations with their parents, and for a time, were the relative outsiders in the Gaang. Later on, they bond over their trouble relationships with their families. |
| 211 | ** She also sympathizes with Aang's unrequited love for Katara, since she had a crush on Sokka until he ended up with Suki, and as such, hopes to help Aang get over his feelings. |
| 212 | * DeadpanSnarker: As in canon, up to the point of being TheGadfly. She loves to verbally poke, prod, and bait; Katara notes that this is how she entertains herself. |
| 213 | * LikeBrotherAndSister:Zuko sees Toph as the little sister he always wanted, Toph sees him as a big brother. |
| 214 | * ParentalSubstitute: Deconstructed. Many of Toph's conflicts with Katara come from Toph having grown to see the Gaang as her surrogate family and Toph's unresolved issues with her biological family, particularly her mother. As Toph has, like Aang and Sokka, come to see Katara as something of a mother, she tends to react harshly to Katara's mothering after receiving letters from her own mother, because of the reminder of how her own mother views her. Despite this, Toph loves Katara for recognizing who she is as a person and relies on Katara's strength of person in her rare moments of vulnerability. |
| 215 | * ProneToTears: Invoked by Toph in ''A Spoonful Of Sugar'' to avoid getting her feet binded. 1 in 12 twelve girls die from the infection caused by procedure, so by making her parents think she's too weak and sickly she gets to keep her feet. |
| 216 | * ShipperOnDeck: For Zutara, and she's not subtle about it. In ''Snuggling Dysfunctional Cats,'' a side-story, Toph narrates that she sees Katara and Zuko like an old married couple without the marriage and seeks to rectify that. In ''Not Stalking Firelord Zuko'','' when Zuko briefly gets back together with Mai, Toph spends every moment within Mai's earshot complaining about Mai, the heavily implied but unstated reason for this being that Mai isn't Katara. |
| 217 | * TheResenter: In contrast with Katara, who mostly keeps her jealousy and negative opinions about Mai to herself, Toph is extremely vocal and confrontational about how much she dislikes Mai, both because she sees Mai as unsuitably cold and disrespectful to Zuko and because Toph ships him with Katara. |
| 218 | * {{Troll}}: It's pointed out that Toph likes getting reactions out of others, especially during the Truth or Dare game. |
| 219 | * WellDoneSonGuy: Toph wants her parents to accept her for who she is and it is explored in depth in the story. Every time their letters come showing they clearly don't is shown to really upset Toph. It's rectified by Poppy by the time of ''Not Stalking Firelord Zuko.'' |
| 220 | * WhatTheHellHero: |
| 221 | ** Over the first half of ''Stalking Zuko,'' she occasionally calls out Katara on her hostility toward Zuko, particularly when she believes that it's baseless. She stops doing this after a while--it's later implied that this is because she concludes that bickering is their way of flirting. |
| 222 | ** Of the Gaang, she is the most openly furious at Aang over his decision with Ozai [[spoiler:owing to Ozai taking advantage of Aang's mercy to almost murder her]]. She calls him out frequently, and the fact that he still insists he was right regardless makes her even angrier. |
| 223 | |
| 224 | [[WMG: Suki]] |
| 225 | -->''"We have mostly seen Suki as Sokka's girlfriend, and not as a warrior in her own right. We'd been friendly, Suki and I, but I'd known so little about her that I didn't know whether we were proper friends yet."'' |
| 226 | -->--Katara, regarding Suki. |
| 227 | |
| 228 | Leader of the Kyoshi warriors, Sokka's girlfriend, and the last of the main six members of the Gaang to permanently join the team. |
| 229 | ---- |
| 230 | * AccidentalPervert: She once walked in on Zuko on the shower and admits to looking. |
| 231 | * AscendedExtra: While she had a prominent role in canon, she is part of the Gaang and beyond Sokka's love interest. |
| 232 | * CannotTellAJoke: Katara wonders if Suki got her sense of humor from Sokka. But Sokka's thinks she's funny so it works out. |
| 233 | * CloserToEarth: Bizarre sense of humor aside, Katara sees her as the most sensible and level-headed of the team, which is what made her short-lived rivalry with Zuko [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness so unusual.]] |
| 234 | * CoolBigSis: |
| 235 | ** Katara sees her as one for she is older and more wordly than Katara, and Katara even invites her to be her older sister. Toph more reluctantly views her as one. She also helps Aang work out emotional issues that Katara can't help him with. |
| 236 | ** She was this to her Kiyoshi Warriors prior to traveling with the Gaang, and part of her early internal conflict involved no longer having them to lead and take care of. She resumes the role in ''Not Stalking Firelord Zuko.'' |
| 237 | -->'''Katara narrating''': "(Suki had) been a real leader there and had been almost an older sister to her warriors. Now she wasn't quite sure what to do with herself without them." |
| 238 | * CulturedBadass: She's good at music, which the author attributes to her being like a {{Samurai}}. |
| 239 | * TheLeader: Of the Kiyoshi Warriors, type charismatic. Katara describes her as someone who naturally makes others want to emulate her. |
| 240 | * LethalChef: Her food tastes like congealed sadness and burned a roast to an inedible crisp. Sokka ate it anyways because he loves her. Justified in that she never had to cook before as the other Kyoshi Warriors did. She gets better in ''Not Stalking Firelord Zuko'' when she makes a dish that's tasteless but edible. She's learning |
| 241 | * TheMentor: In ''Not Stalking Firelord Zuko'' she becomes Aang's mentor in diplomacy. |
| 242 | * OnlySaneWoman: Discussed. Suki is the most stable and mature of the group--[[NotSoAboveItAll most of the time]], at least. |
| 243 | * OOCIsSeriousBusiness: In ''Not Stalking Zuko'' she has a short-lived petty rivalry with Zuko over which of them is the stealthiest badass. Such behavior is not entirely unheard of for Zuko, but Suki's usually more mature. She admits she felt her own potential role on the team was being threatened, because without her warriors she's no longer a leader and skills at stealth and martial arts had been what she thought had made her useful and unique on a team of genius strategists and benders, and she didn't want to merely be Sokka's SatelliteLoveInterest. |
| 244 | * SatelliteLoveInterest: [[DefiedTrope defied]] as Suki gets more CharacterDevelopment; it's an explicit goal of hers to avoid being seen as this. [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] by Suki herself as she competes with Zuko in ''Not Stalking Zuko'' to establish herself a role in the group outside of being Sokka's girlfriend, with Katara hearing this and wondering if she really knows Suki as a warrior in her own right. |
| 245 | |
| 246 | [[/folder]] |
| 247 | |
| 248 | [[folder: Earth Kingdom]] |
| 249 | |
| 250 | [[WMG: Teo]] |
| 251 | -->''"Haru pointed out that when Teo was a refugee before moving to the northern air temple he'd had to eat grass. Teo replied that's what he meant; it wasn't as bad as eating grass. [[SarcasmMode Thanks Teo]]."'' |
| 252 | -->--Katara regarding Teo |
| 253 | |
| 254 | The Mechanist's paraplegic son. |
| 255 | ---- |
| 256 | * DamnedByFaintPraise: He thinks that sea prunes aren't the worst thing he's eaten. Considering that he's eaten grass as a refugee, this is not saying much. |
| 257 | * LivingProp: While the author set out to give Teo, the Duke and Haru things to do at the Western Air Temple, and the latter two had their personalities expanded upon, Teo mainly is around if someone wants to fly with him. |
| 258 | * OutOfFocus: A side effect of Katara's limited perspective narration. For the duration of ''Stalking Zuko'', the only story for which Teo is present, the ostensible purpose of Katara's narration is studying Zuko to learn his weaknesses--so when recounting events, she mainly writes about those who interact with Zuko or herself. The Duke likes to spend time with Zuko and Toph complains to Katara and Zuko a lot about Haru's crush, but Teo spends most of his time with Aang and doesn't interact much with Katara or Zuko except at mealtimes, so with the exception of shenanigans at mealtimes she only really writes about Teo when she's noting in her journal that Aang's skipping practice to glide with him. |
| 259 | |
| 260 | [[WMG: The Duke]] |
| 261 | -->''"There are many things I cannot ask Subject directly, but the Duke [[ChildrenAreInnocent being a seven year old favors the direct approach in all things]]. He, in fact, asked Subject [[RougeAnglesOfSatin quiet]] directly what happened to its face. Subject replied that it got burned in a very flat voice."'' |
| 262 | -->--Katara, regarding The Duke |
| 263 | |
| 264 | The youngest of the Freedom Fighters. |
| 265 | ---- |
| 266 | * ComicallyMissingThePoint: When Katara catches him stalking Zuko (for the purposes of wanting to see him training), and warns him that it's not safe for him to hang around the firebending training area or train with bladed weapons, The Duke mentions that he knows Katara is also stalking Zuko, and asks her why she doesn't go to him and ask him to train her. |
| 267 | * ConstantlyCurious: He straight-up asked Zuko how he got his scar when no one told him how. |
| 268 | * ChildrenAreInnocent: While Katara worries about how to approach the subject of Zuko's scar, The Duke asks him how he got it, and Zuko said he was burned. |
| 269 | * FromTheMouthsOfBabes: Tends to ask inappropriate questions, such as about Zuko's scar. |
| 270 | * NonActionGuy: The natural result of being a child, but he does try to rectify this by asking Zuko for training. |
| 271 | |
| 272 | [[WMG: Haru]] |
| 273 | -->''"Haru really wants to learn metal bending from Toph because he thinks it is the coolest thing ever. I think Haru has taken to stalking Toph. She is a bit stand offish with him and always knows when he is following her, which is most of the time. He follows her around adoringly. I think it is sweet."'' |
| 274 | -->--Katara, regarding Haru. |
| 275 | |
| 276 | An Earthbender that Katara met early on in her travels. |
| 277 | ---- |
| 278 | * AbhorrentAdmirer: Toph viewed Haru as a platonic version when he wanted to learn metal-bending. |
| 279 | * SnipeHunt: Toph sends him to find metal in the Western Air Temple, confident that there's hardly any there and he'll be gone for a long time. It doesn't permanently work, since he gets spoons from the kitchen. |
| 280 | * StalkerWithoutACrush: Follows Toph around in hopes of learning metalbending from her. |
| 281 | |
| 282 | [[WMG: Jet]] |
| 283 | |
| 284 | -->''"Of all the things that Jet and I have in common – I never in a million years expected stalking Zuko to be one of them."'' |
| 285 | -->--Katara, regarding Jet. |
| 286 | |
| 287 | Leader of the Freedom Fighters, who takes his vendetta against the Fire Nation to morally questionable lengths. He was captured by the Dai Li, and was thought to have died in the secret hideout under Lake Laogai. |
| 288 | |
| 289 | ---- |
| 290 | * AbhorrentAdmirer: Zuko sees him as this. |
| 291 | * [[ArmoredClosetGay Armored Closet Bi]]: Jet is AmbiguouslyBi (not that he realizes it) and tries to cover it up by bragging about the women he slept with |
| 292 | * CasanovaWannabe: He thinks he's hot stuff, but he has a really objectifying view of women, so while he can get dates, they frequently end up dumping him shortly after. In fact, most of the women he makes sexual or flirtatious comments about end up slapping him eventually, starting with the girlfriend whose name he can't remember when trying to show her off to "Lee," continuing with Katara and Suki, and ending with Star and her friends at the Ba Sing See Veil o'eve party. |
| 293 | * CrazyJealousGuy: This is how others see him, and it's implied there's an element of truth to it. He spends much of his own narrative calling the women he interacts with horrible sexual insults, especially Jin, whom he feels so strongly about that he simply dubs her "Shameless Hussy." Notably, Jin briefly dated Zuko, Jet continues to insist she's still interested in him despite her being the one to end their brief attempt at romance, and her initial demonstration of romantic interest in Zuko is what precipitated the escalation of Jet's insults towards her. |
| 294 | * ADayInTheLimelight: He's the starring protagonist of the side story ''Jet's Troubling Obsession.'' Otherwise he's a side character, and only appears in a handful of chapters over the main trilogy. |
| 295 | * TheExtremistWasRight: Zigzagged. He was believed to be crazy by everyone for believing "Mushi and Lee" to be Fire Nation. He's vindicated on this when Zuko reveals the truth when he comes to the Lower Rings as Fire Lord. However, he also accused them of being war criminals and made up completely unsubstantiated accusations regarding their personal lives, none of which are accurate. |
| 296 | * GirlfriendInCanada: brags about sleeping with "Bossy Sexy Katara" when questioned. Zuko doesn't fall for it because he knows Katara and Katara herself is very displeased when she hears of it. |
| 297 | * HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday: After his friends interpret his stalking of Zuko to mean Jet has a crush on him, Jet begins announcing his not-gay sexuality to Zuko and others frequently and often unprompted. The denial is not helped by the fact that almost everything he says to Zuko can be interpreted as a FreudianSlip. |
| 298 | * ImplausibleDeniability: He insists he isn't attracted to Zuko, but frequently comments on how [[PsychologicalProjection other people must think Zuko's attractive and want to do dirty things to him]], kisses Zuko while they're fighting "just to see what it was like," gets caught staring at Zuko's butt for long periods of time, tells everyone who'll listen at the Veil O'Eve party that he and Zuko are ex-lovers (ostensibly just to embarrass Zuko), and propositions Katara and Zuko for a threesome because "it's not gay in a three-way." When Zuko reveals he really is a firebender, one of the things Jet yells at him about is how much "Gay Panic" Jet went through. |
| 299 | * MomentKiller: While most of the cast do this throughout the stories, Jet is the only one to do it on purpose. He claims he deliberately interrupts "Lee's" romantic life because "Lee's" life being terrible makes Jet feel better, but it's heavily implied that Jet actually does this because he's jealous of those who have such moments with "Lee." |
| 300 | * MotiveDecay: At first Jet stalks and harasses Zuko because he believes him to be a firebender, but this quickly gets tangled up with a desire to prove he's not gay, a desire to ruin Zuko's dates, and a desire to get Zuko's attention by antagonizing him. By ''Not Stalking Firelord Zuko'' he's just doing things for the sake of getting on Zuko's nerves. |
| 301 | * TheNicknamer: Has a tendency to give girls very demeaning nicknames, to the point of forgetting their actual names. The ''nicest'' of these is "Bossy Sexy Katara" (said in full every time, as if all three words are part of her name), notably the only girl whose name he actually uses and remembers. The rest of his "nicknames" for women usually dive straight into SlutShaming. |
| 302 | * NotHisSled [=/=] SparedByTheAdaptation: [[spoiler:He doesn't die and recovers from his injuries and brainwashing in ''Not Stalking Firelord Zuko'']] |
| 303 | * OOCIsSeriousBusiness: In ''Jet's Troubling Obsession,'' Jet completely "flips out" in fear and panic at the idea of being put in a jail cell, even begging Zuko to help him by getting Longshot and Smellerbee despite Jet having been nothing but hostile and ungrateful to Zuko's assistance prior. Jet later explains that this was due to a traumatic experience with a prison cell prior but he refuses to provide any other details beyond it having been "a bad experience"; he's barely willing to even say that much. |
| 304 | * ObsessiveHobbyEpisode: ''Jet's Troubling Obsession'' is this for him. He starts out stalking "Lee" because he believes him to be a Firebender, but eventually becomes obsessed with every detail of "Lee's" life to an unhealthy degree, and it's implied he becomes deeply jealous of the women with whom "Lee" interacts. To underscore how unhealthy and creepy this behavior becomes, at one point Smellerbee and Longshot intervene to prevent Jet from following "Lee's" and Jin's date any further, and Jet goes home and rants in his stalker journal about the sexual activities the couple are probably participating in, at one point devolving into just repeating the word "shag" over and over again. Thereafter he begins mentally demeaning both Lee and Jin over allegedly performing sexual actions only actually associated with them because of Jet's own fantasies. |
| 305 | * PsychologicalProjection: Over the course of ''Jet's Troubling Obsession'' he stalks many instances during which Jin and Zuko hang out together. Despite Jin turning Zuko down after their first date and the two thereafter agreeing to be friends, Jet insists that Jin is actually very interested in the many sexually attractive characteristics of Zuko, which Jet himself describes in detail. |
| 306 | * RightForTheWrongReasons: Most of the comedy of ''Jet's Troubling Obsession'' comes from this. Jet's actually right about "Mushi" and "Lee" being Firebenders, but everyone just thinks he's unable to accept his bisexuality and so has dealt with his confusion by treating the boy he's attracted to like an actual threat. The further irony is that this results in the moral variant of this trope also coming into play: by the end of the story, Jet basically admits he's so set on proving Lee's a firebender not because Jet himself wants to do good and protect people from their enemies in the war or even because he genuinely thinks "Lee's" a firebender still, but because accepting that Lee's done nothing to earn his animosity would be humiliating. |
| 307 | * StalkerWithACrush: What he is to Zuko, although he's violently in denial about it. |
| 308 | * StupidSexyFlanders: Jet has this whenever he sees Zuko do something badass. Longshot and Smellerbee first pick up on Jet's crush because even while insulting Zuko Jet can't help but ramble about how attractive, athletic, and incredibly talented he finds him. |
| 309 | * AThreesomeIsHot: Even though he showed up to the Veil O'Eve party in the hopes of angering Zuko, once he notices Katara and Zuko have chemistry together he asks for a three-way. |
| 310 | * {{Troll}}: While initially desiring to out Zuko as a firebender, he eventually becomes obsessed with simply getting his attention and provoking him, and no one and nothing is able to deter him from this [[spoiler:until his time with June and Mai gives him a different perspective]]. |
| 311 | * UnreliableNarrator: Of ''Jet's Troubling Obsession''. Jet spends the story insisting that his stalking is entirely motivated by the desire to root out dangerous firebenders, repeatedly denying any attraction to Zuko, and projecting his dirty fantasies onto his assumptions about others' motivations. Transparent though these denials become, we still don't get a full outside picture of his behavior until ''Not Stalking Firelord Zuko,'' wherein Katara can't even get Jet to pay attention to her long enough to talk because he's too busy oogling Zuko's butt from across the room while denying he's doing so. |
| 312 | * UnusualEuphemism: Inverted. Jet intends for his words to and about Zuko be entirely nonsexual threats, however almost all of them come across to everyone who hears him as [[FreudianSlip Freudian Slips]] or even just outright sexual harrassment. |
| 313 | |
| 314 | [[WMG: Smellerbee]] |
| 315 | A female Freedom Fighter. |
| 316 | ---- |
| 317 | * OfficialCouple: With Longshot |
| 318 | * WomenAreWiser: Shows a ''lot'' more sense than Jet |
| 319 | * WrongGenreSavvy: Tries to be supportive of Jet's sexuality in hopes that acceptance will stop Jet's [[ArmoredClosetGay Armored Closet Bi]]. While she's ''right'', Jet is trying expose Zuko as firebender |
| 320 | |
| 321 | [[WMG: Longshot]] |
| 322 | A silent male Freedom Fighter. |
| 323 | ---- |
| 324 | * NotSoStoic: Shows genuine happiness when Smellerbee accepts his feelings |
| 325 | * OfficialCouple: With Smellerbee |
| 326 | * OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Actually spoke when he confesses his feelings for Smellerbee |
| 327 | * SilentSnarker: Since like in the show, he doesn't speak, he expresses his snarkiness nonverbally. |
| 328 | |
| 329 | [[WMG: Jin]] |
| 330 | A young Earth Kingdom woman Zuko met while hiding in Ba Sing Se. |
| 331 | |
| 332 | ---- |
| 333 | * FakeOutMakeOut: Initiates one with Zuko in an attempt to chase off Jet. |
| 334 | * FlippingTheBird: She flips Jet off during her and Zuko's FakeOutMakeOut. |
| 335 | * RescueRomance: Fell in love with Zuko when he rescued her from the escaped zoo animals. |
| 336 | * {{Muggle}}: Is physically completely ordinary, deliberately to highlight the extraordinary athleticism of the main cast. |
| 337 | * SecretSecretKeeper: [[spoiler: When Zuko told her to cover her eyes and lit all the lanterns on the pond, she peeked through her fingers--so she's known he's a firebender since their first date. She chose not to say anything because she trusted him as a person enough to believe he had his reasons and wasn't in Ba Sing Se to harm anyone.]] |
| 338 | * {{Troll}}: Upon hearing about Jet harassing Zuko, her solution is to FakeOutMakeOut with Zuko directly in front of Jet until Jet becomes so angry he chooses to leave on his own. It ''almost'' works, but Jet instead just retreats and watches from where they can't see him until Jin leaves. |
| 339 | |
| 340 | [[WMG: Song]] |
| 341 | A healer Kuei met and fell in love with while on the run. |
| 342 | |
| 343 | ---- |
| 344 | * FlorenceNightingaleEffect: Kuei fell for her after she healed his bear, Bosco and sheltered them. |
| 345 | * TheMedic: A healer by trade. |
| 346 | * RagsToRoyalty: She is a village healer when she and Kuei fell for each other, she is elevated to Earth Queen when Kuei marries her. |
| 347 | * ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: When the Dowager essentially tries to bribe her to leave Kuei, she refuses. |
| 348 | * StarCrossedLovers: The Dowager forced Kuei to end his relationship to her. |
| 349 | * UptownGirl: Is a regular healer while her lover Kuei is the Earth King |
| 350 | |
| 351 | [[WMG: Earth King Kuei]] |
| 352 | -->''"Perhaps he's just better at being a figurehead than he is an actual King."'' |
| 353 | -->-- Katara, regarding Kuei |
| 354 | |
| 355 | The King of the Earth Kingdom, who is in love with Song. |
| 356 | |
| 357 | * ExtremeDoormat: Initially spineless and deferred ruling the kingdom to his mother. |
| 358 | * GrewASpine: Stood up to his mother so he could marry Song and took charge in peace conference. |
| 359 | * MarryForLove: With encouragement, he decides to make Song his queen despite his mother's wishes |
| 360 | * NobleFugitive: Traveled the Earth Kingdom with his bear to hide from the Fire Nation |
| 361 | * ParentalMarriageVeto: The Dowager broke them up because it was improper for the king to involved with a peasant healer. |
| 362 | * StarCrossedLovers: Kuei and Song |
| 363 | * UptownGirl: He's the Earth King while his love, Song is a healer. |
| 364 | |
| 365 | [[WMG: The Dowager]] |
| 366 | -->''"I'm not sure, because I don't know them very well, but the dowager seems much more forceful than her son. I think she might be the real power behind the throne."'' |
| 367 | -->-- Katara, regarding the Dowager. |
| 368 | |
| 369 | Earth King Kuei's mother. |
| 370 | |
| 371 | ---- |
| 372 | * AwfulTruth: She gave Long Feng and the Dai Li their power to rule in her place when she did not desire or know how to rule and to preserve the culture of Ba Sing Se. [[spoiler: Was completely horrified by Long Feng's abuse of power and the treatment of the Joo Dee]] |
| 373 | * BehindEveryGreatMan: While "Great" is stretching it as far as Kuei goes, the Dowager is the power behind the throne. |
| 374 | * EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: She is only called the Dowager. |
| 375 | * GoodOldWays: Longs for the years gone by. |
| 376 | %%* GrandeDame |
| 377 | * MustMakeAmends: She give the Joo Dee rooms in the palace and tries to be a good hostess to them. |
| 378 | * MyBelovedSmother: Is this to Kuei, but to be fair he was rather spineless until he manned up. |
| 379 | * PragmaticVillainy: While not evil, she is something of an antagonist in that she doesn't think much of Kuei's relationship with Song. That said, she does offer to give them a chance as long as they keep their relationship secret, instead of opposing them outright, because she thinks they'll be forced to break up. |
| 380 | * ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Zig-zagged. While she's against Kuei's love for Song, once she sees that he will not budge on the issue she decides to help out. She teaches Song how to act like a proper queen and moves to fake a noble lineage for Song to hush nay-sayers. That said, she does harbor the hope that being forced to keep their relationship secret will tear Kuei and Song apart, and even tries to bribe Song to break up with Kuei. In a nutshell, she's pragmatic, but not completely open-minded. |
| 381 | * YamatoNadeshiko: an older example, she typically sticks to the private sphere and the manners of the Earth Kingdom court, she has a strong sense duty. She became regent after Long Feng was taken down and when her son too spineless |
| 382 | |
| 383 | [[WMG: The Joo Dee]] |
| 384 | -->''"I wanted to see this one back with her family, but for today I would have just settled for her real name. I tried my very best, but she still looked blank and smiled at me eerily. I gave up in defeat after having no progress with her for over an hour. I walked her back to her ward and made her comfortable. I told her that I was so so sorry – thought it meant little to her. There was a flicker of something in her eyes and she said don't be sad dear. Be happy that you are in Ba Sing Se. There is no war in Ba Sing Se."'' |
| 385 | -->-- Katara, regarding one of the Joo Dees. |
| 386 | |
| 387 | A group of brainwashed tour guides in Ba Sing Se. |
| 388 | |
| 389 | ---- |
| 390 | * AscendedFridgeHorror: What would a all-male, amoral organization do with beautiful brainwashed women with no ties? |
| 391 | * {{Deprogramming}}: What Yugoda and Katara are working to break them out of. |
| 392 | * QuestForIdentity: According to the post-trilogy side story ''Somewhere out there,'' most women recovered their identities in the years to follow, while the women who were "under" the longest at least recovered enough individuality and agency to go on this themselves. |
| 393 | * SexSlave: [[spoiler: The Dai Li used to sexually abuse many of them]] |
| 394 | * UncannyValleyGirl: They creep out everyone |
| 395 | |
| 396 | [[/folder]] |
| 397 | |
| 398 | [[folder: Fire Nation]] |
| 399 | |
| 400 | [[WMG: Chit Sang]] |
| 401 | -->''"I didn't think it was possible that there was a bigger idiot out there than my Subject, but there is."'' |
| 402 | -->-- Katara, regarding Chit Sang. |
| 403 | |
| 404 | A prisoner that Sokka and Zuko met in the Boiling Rock. |
| 405 | |
| 406 | ---- |
| 407 | * DumbassHasAPoint: Despite being stupid, he accurately points out that Aang's defensive attitude regarding sparing Ozai means that he's starting to regret his decision. |
| 408 | * DumbMuscle: In spite of his strength, he isn't very bright, and Katara points out that he's even dumber than Zuko, after he forgets to tell Zuko about cooler fever. |
| 409 | * TheNicknamer: Names Katara "Little Blue," Sokka "Big Blue," Hakoda "Daddy Blue," Zuko "Grumpy," Toph "Tiny," Aang "Smiley," and Suki "Milady" (with a bow). |
| 410 | * RememberedTooLate: He forgot to tell Zuko about cooler fever until Zuko already caught it. [[NowYouTellMe Katara is highly annoyed with him]] |
| 411 | |
| 412 | [[WMG: Yon Rha]] |
| 413 | |
| 414 | -->''"My mother had been killed by this wretched, worthless man. He was pathetic and sad and empty and [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech I told him so]]. There was nothing to him. I '''hated''' him so much, but I couldn't kill him. He wasn't worth it."'' |
| 415 | -->-- Katara, regarding Yon Rha. |
| 416 | |
| 417 | The man who killed Katara's mother. Like in canon, Zuko and Katara track him down near the end of ''Stalking Zuko''. |
| 418 | |
| 419 | ---- |
| 420 | * DirtyCoward: Katara makes it quite clear that she sees his "apology" and attempt to get her to kill his mother instead as ways of saving his own skin, rather than genuine repentance. |
| 421 | * NotWorthKilling: Katara realizes that part of the reason why she can't kill him is because doing so would make her a murderer without bringing her mother back, and part of it is because it would give her no satisfaction to kill someone like him. That said, when Zuko proposes putting Yon Rha on trial for war crimes, Katara's receptive to the possibility. |
| 422 | * PunchClockVillain: The author implies that he, like the rest of the Fire Nation's military, does terrible things simply because he's ordered to do so. |
| 423 | * RetiredMonster: Katara bitterly notes how the man who killed her mother gets to live with ''his'' mother. |
| 424 | |
| 425 | [[WMG: Ming]] |
| 426 | -->''"Ming said she knew that her dad was alive because of that man, and she'd never be able to thank him properly. She decided that if she couldn't thank him properly, she could at least emulate his example and be decent to people, regardless of where they were from."'' |
| 427 | -->--Katara, regarding Ming[[note]]"That man" is the Earth Kingdom healer who saved her father's life[[/note]] |
| 428 | |
| 429 | A female prison guard who watched Bato and other captives in the Iron Cove, as well as Iroh before his escape. |
| 430 | |
| 431 | ---- |
| 432 | * BetaCouple: With Bato. |
| 433 | * DraftDodging: She became a guard to avoid getting draft and help provide for her large family. |
| 434 | * OCStandIn: Was the female guard from the show who snuck treats to Iroh in prison, and who Iroh warned to take sick leave before his escape so she wouldn't be blamed when he broke out. |
| 435 | * StatuesqueStunner: She's said to be as tall as Bato, one of the tallest men from Katara's tribe, and very pretty, to boot. |
| 436 | |
| 437 | [[WMG: Dr.Yang]] |
| 438 | -->''"She sighed in a long suffering tone and said perhaps I wasn't as good a healer as General Iroh thought. Oi! I was good! I snatched the vial from her and did it. Gently. I am a gentle healer after all, with a great bedside manner. Unlike Dr Yang who is a brisk, bossy know-it-all! "'' |
| 439 | -->-- Katara, regarding Dr. Yang |
| 440 | |
| 441 | A Fire Nation doctor who treated Zuko after his Agni Kai with Azula, and eventually becomes Katara's mentor. |
| 442 | ---- |
| 443 | * CoolOldLady: An relatively old woman with many years of experience. |
| 444 | * DrJerk: She's quite harsh with her apprentices, and rarely gives Katara any praise. Hakoda calls her out on this. |
| 445 | * IronLady: Described as such by Hakoda, who goes on to say that Katara ''is not'' like her on that regard. |
| 446 | * TheMedic: One who primarily works with more scientific and medicine-based methods, instead of bending. |
| 447 | * TheStoic: She has shades of this. |
| 448 | * TookALevelInKindness: She becomes a little nicer to Katara after Hakoda calls her out on how her IronLady attitude isn't necessarily doing Katara any favors. |
| 449 | |
| 450 | [[WMG: Azula]] |
| 451 | -->''"Okay Subject, I know your sister is [[AxCrazy a really crazy, homicidal maniac]] who is [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment a life ruiner. She ruins lives]]. I get that. That does not mean that you should jump to your near death just to fight her every time she shows up [[EvilLaugh crackling manically]] about [[CainAndAbel wanting to be an only child and the many ways she wishes to kill you]]."'' |
| 452 | -->-- Katara, regarding Azula |
| 453 | |
| 454 | Zuko's sister. |
| 455 | ---- |
| 456 | * BaitTheDog: After starting to warm up to Katara a little, Azula unpleasantly surprises everyone involved by revealing that Mai was spying on Zuko for her. |
| 457 | * ADayInTheLimelight: She's the starring character of two side stories, ''princess of mine'' and ''An Avatar Christmas Carol.'' |
| 458 | * EveryoneHasStandards: On the receiving end of this, according to Mai. Even the "twin-fish," fish that eat each other by the time they're juveniles, would find Zuko and Azula's sibling relationship incredibly dysfunctional. |
| 459 | * HatesBeingAlone: After her breakdown, she becomes deeply afraid that Zuko, the only person she has left that she actually believes cares about her in any way, will discard her, since she knows she hasn't been a good family member and Zuko now has so many other people he calls family. She pushes people away because she believes she's less likely to be hurt that way, but she also resents everyone she knows for leaving when she succeeds. |
| 460 | * HerOwnWorstEnemy: She's deeply internalized her father's insistence that everyone she cares about sees her as an unlovable monster and she's only wanted by Ozai, to the point that she's convinced herself she is that monster. Once Ozai's world order collapses, she can't escape the idea that she's an unwanted monster who doesn't belong in a better world and among the nicer members of her family. Because of this, she's largely uncooperative throughout her hospitalization. |
| 461 | --> '''Azula:''' "Maybe ''I'' think I'm a monster who doesn't deserve to be happy." |
| 462 | * InferioritySuperiorityComplex: Her insistence of her own superiority covers deep seated self-worth issues stemming from her childhood. Azula clung to Ozai's opinion of her for validation because Ozai convinced her that the rest of the family saw her as a monster, especially her mother. In reality, Azula feels like the sibling less worthy of love and care from the members of their family that are actually capable of loving, and doesn't know how to deal with these feelings or re-establish herself in a world where her father's values have been completely invalidated and aren't relevant anymore. She's jealous that Zuko seems to have managed to find his way while she's lost, and fears he'll leave her behind. |
| 463 | * InsultOfEndearment: When Azula calls Katara "peasant" once, Katara seems to sense some affection behind it. |
| 464 | * LockedOutOfTheLoop: In ''An Avatar Christmas Carol,'' it's shown that, for various reasons relating to her stability and recovery, Zuko decides not to tell Azula that he's dating Katara, despite his and Katara's decision to tell everyone else in their family and close friend group. The three year time skip, however, reveals Azula very quickly figured this out anyways, and it annoys her that he's hiding it. |
| 465 | * LoveIsAWeakness: Her belief in this is developed further in ''An Avatar Christmas Carol.'' Initially she considered love an inconsistent and unreliable but useful tool for manipulation. However, after three years in institutionalized care, she realizes Zuko's and Katara's relationship is actually emotionally serious and becomes ''genuinely afraid'' for them both, because under her belief that love is a weakness is her belief that love can only result in pain. |
| 466 | * TheNicknamer: Like Katara and Jet, her first person narration has the tendency to refer to people by this. For example, she initially calls Katara "Peasant" but eventually settles on calling her "Bossy." |
| 467 | * SuccessfulSiblingSyndrome: Initially she was seen as the superior sibling and Zuko felt like the less-talented, unworthy one who'd been effectively thrown out of the family by their father. However the perspective flips once their father is removed from power: Zuko is well-adjusted, well-liked, adored by the rest of their family and by the commoners of the nation, and beginning what turns out to be a very successful reign as a much-beloved Firelord, while Azula has a mental breakdown and ends up being institutionalized for years, feeling like she's the failure the family no longer wants. |
| 468 | * {{Troll}}: She's often this to Zuko once their relationship begins to restabilize. In ''An Avatar Christmas Carol,'' a story set three years after Sozin's Comet, she often loudly and explicitly describes being sexually attracted to Katara while Zuko's in earshot solely for the entertainment. |
| 469 | --> ''"Azula did this whole spiel to Zuko about how Bossy was so beautiful that her beauty had slain Azula's heterosexuality stone dead. No more would Azula want the boys! No, Azula now wanted Bossy. Bossy was such a delicious, tawdry minx. Her skin was so brown, her eyes were so blue, her hair was so shiny. Bossy was finer than a July day. Azula would totally tap that. Azula said she wanted Bossy's soft, brown hands all over her body. She wanted to touch her pert boobs, grab her fine arse and play with her bouncy, shiny, unicorn-like hair. Azula could understand why anyone would want to bang Bossy. It was an understandable urge. Zuko's reaction had been beyond priceless."'' |
| 470 | --> ''"[Zuko] wanted Azula to sign a card for precious Bossy, saying that this was "her day" and she had been so good to Azula and Azula should "make an effort". Azula had written on the card a very rude message along the lines of '''please accept these gifts from my brother and I. If you wish, we can improve your birthday by giving you lots of oral sex later. Oral sex which you will not need to reciprocate, because this day is about you.''' Azula thinks that Bossy was amused by this. Zuko was not."'' |
| 471 | * TheUnfavorite: Azula feels like one to Ursa, Iroh and to Fire Nation. Justified as Zuko was the preferred heir prior to his banishment due to being the OnlySaneMan. |
| 472 | * TheWorfEffect: To Katara's benefit. Azula was, at the height of Ozai's power, widely considered to be one of if not ''the'' most powerful Firebender in the world. Katara beating her soundly during Sozin's Comet gave Katara a ''reputation'' in the Fire Nation. |
| 473 | |
| 474 | [[WMG: Ty Lee]] |
| 475 | |
| 476 | A friend of Azula and Mai. |
| 477 | |
| 478 | * TheAtoner: Joined the Kyoshi Warriors to atone for her actions. |
| 479 | * BlowYouAway: Is an unrealized airbender. |
| 480 | * GoodBadGirl: Likes to date around but is a good person despite her former allegiances. |
| 481 | |
| 482 | [[WMG: Mai]] |
| 483 | -->''"''Whatever'' did Subject see in Gloomy hairbuns! Maybe it was because [[EmoTeen she was so moody and he was so moody and they would just moody at each other until one of them went off to write some]] ''[[EmoTeen sad poems about how nobody understands them]]''. Friggin Subject. Of course he'd go for the only person on the planet grumpier than him."'' |
| 484 | -->--Katara, regarding Mai |
| 485 | A friend of Azula and Ty Lee, as well as Zuko's on-again off-again girlfriend. |
| 486 | ---- |
| 487 | * AdaptationalBackstoryChange: Downplayed. The author doesn't find Mai's claims of being TheUnfavorite or being forced to repress her emotions for her family's social status to line up with what we see of the character and her family life, so in this series her issues with her parents are portayed as a matter of perspective. |
| 488 | * AllTakeAndNoGive: Iroh privately voices the belief that she's this to Zuko while confiding in Hakoda. During the years Zuko was under his care Iroh had feared that Zuko was growing up self-centered and so always stressed the need to give in a romantic relationship, but now he fears Zuko doesn't know how to assert himself with a partner that keeps taking his willingness to give for granted. It's implied that before her HeelRealization of what their relationship was coming to, Mai deliberately dismissed, demanded, and quite frankly, toyed with Zuko's feelings to keep him focused on her and help her feel more secure in their relationship--she even admits to weaponizing the SilentTreatment in every conflict until he surrendered. It wasn't good for either of them, as it kept both of them miserable and clinging to a dynamic each had outgrown out of a sense of attachment and moral obligation respectively. That said, it's obvious she ''does'' care for him--she helps him with his SuccessionCrisis when he asks even though it involves cooperating with Azula--and even after they [[spoiler:break up for the final time]] she still goes out of her way to help him, [[spoiler:like choosing to spread salacious rumors about herself and Jet to get Jet, who showed up specifically to harrass Zuko, kicked out of the Veil O'Eve party.]] |
| 489 | * AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Despite her tumultuous relationships with Zuko, she warns him about a planned coup, which gives him the time he needs to deal with the conspirators and negate Ozai's claim to the throne. |
| 490 | * CharacterDevelopment: Implied rather than directly seen, owing to Katara's first-person perspective. Mai initially tries to pick up where she and Zuko left off, attempting to hold on to their relationship as it had previously been because she genuinely does care for him and thought she loved him romantically, but her talk with Aang and later Katara implies she was the first between her and Zuko to face how different they now are and how dysfunctional and unhealthy their romantic relationship is for the both of them. [[spoiler:After encountering June and Jet, rather than continuing to complain about her boring privilege and dismissing others' feelings, Mai becomes a great if DeadpanSnarker advice-giver and is fully willing to commit to the far less comfortable life of a bounty-hunter, even asking Katara about the practical skills she'll need on the road so she can pull her weight.]] |
| 491 | * DarkSecret: [[spoiler: She was TheMole for Azula during Zuko's time between banishments, and it's implied by her reporting on Zuko's secret visits to the Iron Cove prison that she followed him everywhere as well. While Zuko and Mai didn't have the healthiest relationship, she does still care for him and at the time Azula outs her Mai still desired a romantic relationship with him, so she never wanted him to find out. Azula outing her as this is the very last straw for even the ''potential'' that they could have become friends again]]. |
| 492 | * DeadpanSnarker: Deconstucted, her snarkiness seems rude and mean to everyone else and tests everyone's patience. That said, the author believes it to be her most endearing character trait. |
| 493 | * DestructiveRomance: Mai and Zuko differ greatly on a number of priorities and personal outlooks on life and this eventually tanks their relationship, but not before they drive each other up the wall a number of times. |
| 494 | * DifferingPrioritiesBreakup: More like "differing ''outlooks'' breakup." Zuko is a passionate and honest person trying his best on a number of serious causes and responsibilities, while Mai is a seemingly disinterested noblewoman who keeps tight control on her emoting. While Mai does care about Zuko, she isn't very understanding of his priorities and concerns and frequently tells him that he's boring and she doesn't care what he thinks or how he feels. On Zuko's side, he often asks more of her than she feels comfortable giving, such as his request that she visit Azula, which blows up in Mai's face. They inevitably break up because there really wasn't much keeping them together other than their past attachment and Zuko's sense of obligation, and neither motivations are strong enough to hold up under their sheer dysfunction. |
| 495 | * ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Changes to a ponytail later on in Not Stalking Firelord Zuko. |
| 496 | * {{Expy}}: The author considers her Avatar's version of WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}. |
| 497 | * TheFriendNobodyLikes: No one that didn't know her previously likes her and barely tolerate because she's Zuko's girlfriend, making her a Dating example. Surprisingly enough, though, she starts getting along better with the others after (albeit not ''as a result of'') her final breakup with Zuko. |
| 498 | * HardDrinkingPartyGirl: Surprisingly, she deliberately invokes this at Zuko's coronation party and chugs a huge amount of alcohol just to spite her parents, then dances wildly before getting onto the stage and loudly announcing to the crowd that she's seen Zuko naked. |
| 499 | * HiddenDepths: She's actually very emotionally intelligent and observant. She gives great self-aware advice to both Aang and Katara regarding their romantic lives, implying some level of awareness of the flaws in her own relationship with Zuko while doing so. She's also unhesitantly willing and even eager to do and say some pretty inappropriate things to attain a more exciting life and/or help out someone she loves, even or especially if her sheltering parents don't encourage the behavior. [[spoiler:She's also quite willing to both ask her former rival in love about the practical skill necessities of--and commit to doing all of the rough labor involved in--travelling the world as a bounty hunter with June.]] |
| 500 | * InSeriesNickname: Katara calls her "Gloomy Hairbuns." |
| 501 | * TheMole: [[spoiler:While Mai did genuinely have feelings for Zuko, she actually reported his every move to Azula during his short-lived wartime return to the Fire Nation.]] |
| 502 | * RebelliousSpirit: Arguably her most defining motivator in the fic outside of her relationship with Zuko is her desire to defy the social norms of her class--from being intentionally rude to the Dowager Empress to her face at the Peace Talks to getting completely drunk, dancing wildly, and yelling inappropriate things about Zuko to the audience during Zuko's coronation. At the Veil O'Eve party, it's her idea to spread scandalous sexual rumors about herself throughout the gathering of important international dignitaries just to get Jet kicked out of the party by association. [[spoiler:She eventually decides to abandon the comfortable living conditions typical of her class and become a bounty hunter with June and Jet]]. |
| 503 | * TheRival: In ''Not Stalking Firelord Zuko'', Katara initially sees her as this for Zuko's affections. While Katara initially tries to maintain her politeness while disliking Mai internally, she later comes to respect Mai for her upfront honesty towards her own flaws which enables her to give wise relationship council to both Aang and Katara. |
| 504 | * SilentTreatment: Her go-to tactic to emotionally dominate her relationship with Zuko whenever he and she were fighting. It's implied she realized how dysfunctional this was [[spoiler:after they permanently broke up]]. |
| 505 | * StalkerWithACrush: [[spoiler:The logical conclusion of Azula's confirmation that Mai was the one reporting all of Zuko's movements to her in-between Zuko's two exiles. Because Azula specifies that Mai was her source regarding Zuko's trips to the Iron Cove prison, something Zuko always did alone, this implies Mai had been stalking him even while dating him.]] |
| 506 | * WhatDoesHeSeeInHer: Zuko and Mai make each other so miserable, people wonder why they are together. Toph thinks it's because Mai's good in bed. |
| 507 | * YouJustToldMe: When Katara asks Mai about how she resolved her disputes with Zuko, Mai says that her preferred method- the silent treatment-is unsuitable for Katara. Katara asks how Mai knew that she and Zuko were an item, and Mai quotes the trope verbatim. |
| 508 | |
| 509 | [[WMG: Iroh]] |
| 510 | |
| 511 | Zuko's uncle, a former general in the Fire Nation and part of the White Lotus Society. |
| 512 | ---- |
| 513 | * {{Flanderization}}: In canon, he's a wise old man, an accomplished general and a powerful firebender whose eccentricities are partly due to ObfuscatingStupidity. Here, his eccentricities are significantly played up, often for the sake of comedy. |
| 514 | * NakedPeopleAreFunny: Iroh's "Naked Iroh Time" is used frequently as comedy,[[spoiler: until Jet realized that he had proof that Iroh was a firebender due his comfortable nudity in the cold early spring in a poorly insulated apartment.]] |
| 515 | * HeroicBSOD: His son's death deeply affected him, to the point at which he wasn't in the proper frame of mind to pass on Lu Ten's letter to Zuko. |
| 516 | * PapaWolf: Frequently described as violently protective of Zuko. The author notes that staying in Ba Sing Se while Zuko was badly injured was an OutOfCharacterMoment for him, which she rectified here. |
| 517 | * ReallyGetsAround: Iroh turns out to have done this, [[LadykillerInLove before he met his wife]], and it's implied he went back to his old ways after the deaths of both his wife and son |
| 518 | * [[ParentalFavoritism Relative Favoritism]]: Unintentional variant, his ThrowTheDogABone moments and familiarity to TheUnfavorite Zuko makes to clear to Azula that Zuko is the one most relatives actually like. |
| 519 | * ShipperOnDeck: He ''really'' wants his nephew to find a significant other that makes him happy--he was highly supportive (and nosy) in regards to Zuko's relationship with Jin in Ba Sing Se, and it's clear from first being introduced that he thinks Katara is wonderful and is ''really excited'' by the idea of her and Zuko dating. Subverted with Mai - Iroh tries to be supportive of her and Zuko's relationship for Zuko's sake, but privately expresses to Hakoda that he dislikes her for being so disrespectful to the people he loves, and it's implied he's tried to gently advise Zuko against the relationship offscreen. |
| 520 | |
| 521 | [[WMG: Jee]] |
| 522 | |
| 523 | A Fire Nation officer who served aboard Zuko's ship. |
| 524 | ---- |
| 525 | * BrutalHonesty: Chosen because he always tells it straight |
| 526 | * TheGoodChancellor: Chosen to be Zuko's advisor. |
| 527 | * WisdomFromTheGutter: As the lieutenant aboard Zuko's ship, he's probably the most unlikely candidate for Zuko's inner circle of advisors. |
| 528 | |
| 529 | [[WMG: Za Jei]] |
| 530 | -->''"She looked like she was made of fierceness, coated in ferocity, with intense filling. She looked like she was ready to '''break someone in half'''. I don't wonder that Zuko used to say that his firebending teacher before Iroh ''drilled him really hard''. I am beginning to think that 'drilled him really hard' is one of Zuko's little euphemisms –[[UnderStatement in the same manner that]] he says that his father is ''not a nice man'' or that Azula is ''a little unwell''."'' |
| 531 | -->--Katara, regarding Za Jei |
| 532 | |
| 533 | Zuko's firebending instructor, who later becomes an advisor to him. |
| 534 | ---- |
| 535 | * BrutalHonesty: She doesn't mince words, especially regarding Aang's shortcomings as an Avatar. |
| 536 | * ChekhovsGunman: She is first mentioned in ''Stalking Zuko'' as the instructor who taught Zuko to dodge by throwing fireballs at him and making him train despite injury until he fainted. She becomes a major character when introduced in ''Not Stalking Firelord Zuko.'' |
| 537 | * ClusterFBomb: Lets off one while complaining about Aang sparing Ozai and the rest of the Gaang treating him like a child. |
| 538 | * CynicalMentor: She provides Zuko with the most expedient and practical advice, and doesn't think much of Aang or his ideals. |
| 539 | * DrillSergeantNasty: Her style of teaching, mentioned above, is shown to be quite brutal and risks injuring Zuko, so Katara understandably thinks it's not necessarily good for him, much less Aang. |
| 540 | * PragmaticHero: She's willing to consider some shady tactics for the good of Zuko's rule, and only rules out having Ozai killed in prison because Zuko's image is based on being better than Ozai. |
| 541 | * ShutUpKirk: She delivers one to Aang after he insists that sparing Ozai was right, while adding that he wishes that Ozai weren't plotting a coup. |
| 542 | -->'''Za Jei''': Listen Avatar, I don't know if anyone in the land of fairy floss, fruit pies and rainbows ever told you, but this is the real world. Here you cannot just wish away your problems. |
| 543 | |
| 544 | [[WMG: Ozai]] |
| 545 | |
| 546 | -->''"I'm oddly glad that Zuko doesn't talk much about his childhood. I think if he did, it would make me too sad. Or it would make me so mad that I'd storm to the capital myself and find Ozai and just beat the crap out of him and say you do not treat people like that!"'' |
| 547 | -->--Katara, regarding Ozai |
| 548 | |
| 549 | Ruler of the Fire Nation, and Zuko and Azula's father. |
| 550 | ---- |
| 551 | * AbusiveParent: The details of his physical and emotional abuse of Azula and Zuko are more detailed here. |
| 552 | * AdaptationalVillainy: As improbable as it seems, the fic portrays him as even crueler than in canon. |
| 553 | * AdaptationalWimp: In a sense. He's portrayed as a more or less incompetent Fire Lord, who's only really good at manipulating people, and is considered an UnskilledButStrong bender. |
| 554 | * TheCaligula: He's shown as significantly more mentally unbalanced than in canon, such as by having dissidents killed. |
| 555 | * CreepySouvenir: Collected the topknots of political dissidents he murdered in his personal TortureCellar. This was used against him to rid him of his claim to the throne |
| 556 | * EvilCannotComprehendGood: He mocks Aang for sparing him. Aang, who'd held out hope of Ozai being changed for the better by his mercy, doesn't take it well. |
| 557 | * TheFarmerAndTheViper: |
| 558 | ** Aang showed Ozai mercy, taking his bending but sparing his life. [[spoiler:The very next chance he gets, Ozai takes Toph hostage, holds her above the ground, and threatens to slit her throat if Aang doesn't comply with his wishes.]] |
| 559 | ** Zuko gave him a prison cell with a window to not deprive him of sunlight, [[spoiler:Ozai uses it to send messages to his followers to stage a coup.]] |
| 560 | * HateSink: Perhaps even more so than in canon. Most of Zuko's problems, from childhood traumas to his difficulties being a post-war Fire Lord, can be blamed on Ozai's many acts of cruelty. |
| 561 | * LastDisrespects: His taking the crown during his father's funeral is said to be an extreme violation of Fire Nation traditions. |
| 562 | * SerialKiller: [[spoiler:All but confirmed in the political scramble after the war. Throughout the story it is established that Ozai is not only cruel, but also impulsive, obsessive, and sadistic, and that he enjoys any excuse to get personally involved with causing others pain. This foreshadows that Ozai didn't just leave "disappearing" people to his supporters, but secretly personally committed "disappearances" himself, keeping his victims in a secret cell below the palace until he was done with them and even cutting off and keeping the topknot bun of his victims as hidden trophies. The discovery of Ozai's "collection" becomes Zuko's legal grounds to officially revoke Ozai's claim to the throne.]] |
| 563 | * UnfitForGreatness: To put it mildly. The author notes that even apart from his sadism and cruelty, he's also not a very competent ruler. |
| 564 | * UnskilledButStrong: His bending is described as powerful but imbalanced, and Lu Ten noticed a possible vulnerability on his left side. |
| 565 | * WouldHurtAChild: Katara shares Zuko's worry about how Aang will fare against Ozai, because if Ozai's the kind who would scar his own child, he won't go easy on Aang because he's a kid. |
| 566 | -->'''Katara''': Now that I know how Zuko got his scar, I'm inclined to share his worry. [[UnderStatement Ozai's not… he's not]] ''[[UnderStatement sentimental]]'' about children. He's not going to go easy on Aang just because he's a kid. |
| 567 | |
| 568 | [[WMG: Lu Ten]] |
| 569 | -->''"(Zuko) always figured that Lu Ten would have known the right answers to his questions and would have made things better for him. But now he had his cousin's answers and it hadn't made him happy."'' |
| 570 | -->-- Katara, regarding Lu Ten. |
| 571 | |
| 572 | Iroh's son and Zuko and Azula's cousin. He was killed during the siege of Ba Sing Se. |
| 573 | ---- |
| 574 | |
| 575 | * TheAce: He was viewed as this while he was alive. |
| 576 | * BeYourself: His letter to Zuko essentially made this point. |
| 577 | * BigBrotherMentor: He was one to Zuko. He tried to be one to Azula but she rejected him |
| 578 | * DeadManWriting: He left behind a letter to Zuko, which Zuko didn't get until he and the Gaang arrived on Ember Island and Katara looked through Lu Ten's belongings. The letter greatly impacted Zuko. |
| 579 | * GenerationXerox: He's implied to be a bit like his father, and picked up a girlfriend. |
| 580 | * InnocentlyInsensitive; He tells Zuko that he shouldn't try to change, but to be himself. Unfortunately, Zuko has internalized others' views of him, and believes that he can never change, although Katara helps him understand this. |
| 581 | * TheNicknamer: He calls Zuko "Snugbug" and Azula "dragonfly," although the latter doesn't like it. |
| 582 | * PosthumousCharacter: Despite having died long before the start of this fic, his backstory and impact on his family is elaborated upon. |
| 583 | |
| 584 | [[WMG: Ursa]] |
| 585 | |
| 586 | Zuko and Azula's mother. |
| 587 | ---- |
| 588 | * CoolTeacher: Was one to Toph as she had to give Toph a '' "lady's education" '' |
| 589 | * MagicalNanny: She discovers Toph is an earthbender due to Toph smoothing the rock samples and organizing the rocks by age |
| 590 | * MasterPoisoner: It's implied this is how she killed Azulon, she also notes that she could have used her talents to become something else. Zuko notes that she had an interest in healing and she's shown to have owned books on medicinal herbs. |
| 591 | * MundaneSolution: Hides the fact she doesn't know anything about the Earth Kingdom by giving Toph an extensive lesson on geology |
| 592 | * NobleFugitive: Who would think the Fire Lady would hide as an Earth Kingdom nanny? |
| 593 | |
| 594 | [[WMG: The Colonial Kids: Rozin, Rei and Rena]] |
| 595 | |
| 596 | Three children the protagonists meet on Ember Island. |
| 597 | ---- |
| 598 | * TwoGuysAndAgirl: Rozin's a guy with two sisters. |
| 599 | |
| 600 | [[WMG: Cookie and Pi]] |
| 601 | -->''"Uncle, who'd spent a great deal of time in the kitchen, said that Cookie wanted to open up a little restaurant on twenty mile beach when he retired and Pi was going to help him and now they'd never get to do that. Even worse Zuko was one of the only people in the world who knew or cared about that and if he didn't acknowledge them, then who would?"'' |
| 602 | -->--Katara, regarding Cookie and Pi. |
| 603 | |
| 604 | Two crew members on Zuko's ship, who died during the siege of the Northern Water Tribe. |
| 605 | |
| 606 | * PosthumousCharacter: They were killed when the Ocean Spirit sank their ship. |
| 607 | * RagtagBunchOfMisfits: They and the others in Zuko's crew were disgraced in some way or another. |
| 608 | * ThoseTwoGuys: They're typically mentioned together. |
| 609 | |
| 610 | [[/folder]] |
| 611 | |
| 612 | [[folder: The Water Tribes]] |
| 613 | * AdaptationalJerkass: Downplayed. In canon, only the North was explicitly shown to have systemic sexism; however, because Sokka is the only male member of the Southern Water Tribe shown interacting with girls in "normal" situations, the author has deduced that the Southern Water Tribe probably wasn't the most equitable towards women either, citing both Sokka's very sexist attitude at the beginning of the series which had to be learned from somewhere and the fact that, back at the South Pole, Katara was evidently expected to do all the domestic work for her family while her ''older'' brother got to play at being in charge of the village's defenses with the children of the village despite having no training or any idea how to protect it, something that carried over into how the Gaang worked because Katara still did all the cooking, mending, and cleaning while Sokka asserted the leadership role despite his early inexperience. The author concludes that Sokka must've been put in charge of the defenses simply because he was the oldest male left in the village, despite most of the women being older and with more experience, while Katara, as a girl, was expected to take on the responsibilities of the domestic work from the point of her mother's death onwards despite being the younger child of the household, which reflects a clearly sexist labor divide. |
| 614 | * CityMouse, CountryMouse: Northern Water Tribe is metropolitian, wealthy and traditional while the Southern Water Tribe are poor, small and adaptable. The South became that way due to Fire Nation raids and receiving no help from the North. |
| 615 | * ControversyProofImage: Subverted. During the war the North refused the Southern Water Tribe's pleas for aid and closed themselves off from the world. Eventually the South noticed that not only were they being denied, but their pleas for support were followed each time by another raid, leading to the unstated but strong implication that the North threw the South under the bus to protect itself. However, these grievances fell by the wayside during the war due to higher priorities, and the Northern Water Tribe was barely thought about on the global stage but respected by the Fire Nation as a "great nation." But when the war ended, their refusal to protect anyone but themselves and callous abandonment of their closest ally and sister tribe gave them a bad reputation in diplomatic circles. Chief Arnook is quite bitter over the fact that, despite being richer and more powerful, the North receives far less reparations and respect from the Fire Nation than the South. |
| 616 | * EnemyMine: The Fire Nation gave the Southern Water Tribe good reparation terms and far more respect. The Southern Water Tribe tends to side the Fire Nation as opposed to their Northern counterparts |
| 617 | * {{Irony}}: Water is the element of change and adaptability, but the Tribes, particularly the North, are so tradition-bound that many of their people have given up trying to change the status quo. |
| 618 | * NoWomansLand: The tribes are not very accepting of women as people with their own agency and independent value. When Katara rejects this, the adult men of her own tribe begin mocking and insulting her, and one even tells her to leave the tribe and move to Kyoshi. Of the six Gaang members, she's the only one not allowed at the peace talks, solely because she's female and the nation she represents doesn't hold pride in her accomplishments because of this. Through Yugoda and Katara, we learn that the women of the Water Tribes are treated like servants and, in the north, like children and property, even as elders. Pakku tells Katara that the only way for her to maintain any kind of political or social power within the Tribes is to marry Han and be the power behind his throne, but even then she wouldn't be able to be herself around him because he'd hate her for being stronger and smarter than him. |
| 619 | * StayInTheKitchen: Towards the women of their tribe. Northern men treat women like property; Southern men treat them like servants. |
| 620 | * StrangerInAFamiliarLand: Katara bitterly implies that the men of her tribe have this coming to them when they finally make it home, as the women have learned to do everything without them in their absence and probably aren't going to take the men's insistence that they StayInTheKitchen lying down. The most vocal misogynist among them in particular, as his wife has, in his absence, become the Tribe's most successful hunter. |
| 621 | * WhoNeedsEnemies: The Tribes attempt to present a united front to get better say in the peace conference. Otherwise, they despise each other. The Southern Water Tribe remembers that Northern Water Tribe didn't lift a finger to help them when they were being slowly killed off while the North thinks the South as poor, uneducated yokels. |
| 622 | |
| 623 | [[WMG: Hakoda]] |
| 624 | -->''"It was the one thing that my Dad hated, us keeping secrets from him. That's why he always wanted to be the cool dad, because he wanted us to always feel comfortable enough to tell him everything."'' |
| 625 | -->--Katara, regarding Hakoda. |
| 626 | |
| 627 | Katara and Sokka's father, as well as chief of the Southern Water Tribe. |
| 628 | |
| 629 | ---- |
| 630 | * AdaptationalPersonalityChange: He's significantly more involved in his children's lives after the war than in canon. On the positive side, he does show a genuine interest in reconnecting with Katara and Sokka, but on the negative side, he disapproves of their love lives. |
| 631 | * AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Hakoda often makes many ill-fated attempts to be "a cool dad," which involve spending a great amount of time with his kids. |
| 632 | * ArmorPiercingQuestion: He asks Aang a few while he's complaining about Zuko kicking him out of the meeting, asking Aang why he thinks Zuko should listen to him, whether Aang thinks his opinion should always matter, and whether Aang's been listening to Zuko. |
| 633 | * DontCallMeSir: He says this to Zuko as part of his desire to be "a cool dad," but Zuko doesn't really accept. |
| 634 | * EmbarrassingNickname: "Sir Hakoda" from Zuko, although it's indicated that he comes to accept it over time. There's implications that this also relates to his "cool dad" persona and that he wants his children's friends to feel comfortable addressing him informally. Subverted when Hakoda meets Jet, and not only refuses to return Jet's polite introductory bow, but informs Jet that he would prefer Jet refer to him as "Sir Hakoda." |
| 635 | * ParentsAsPeople: After being separated from Katara for a long time, he wants to reconnect with her and make up for lost time, but doesn't fully understand how much she's changed. As such, he's initially less than supportive of her desire for women's equality in the Southern Water Tribe. |
| 636 | * WantsAPrizeForBasicDecency: During an argument with Katara, he says he thinks of himself as a good parent by Water Tribe standards because he doesn't [[DomesticAbuse beat his wife]] or [[AbusiveParents kids]]. Katara is not amused when she hears this, saying [[LampshadeHanging he isn't supposed to do that]]. |
| 637 | * WhatTheHellHero: He gets on Katara's case for keeping secrets from him (Bato and Ming's relationship and her own apprenticeship with Dr. Yang, among others). In response, she points out that, among other things, she had been worried about how he'll respond. |
| 638 | |
| 639 | [[WMG: Bato]] |
| 640 | -->''"Bato said that he loved Ming with all his heart and there was nothing lewd or immoral about their relationship. Love was Love. It was a gift from the spirits and sprung up in the most unlikely of places. Bato was not one to deny the will of the spirits – and they had obviously meant for him to love Ming, for she was his other half. More importantly, she was kind and smart and good. To dismiss her out of hand for being firenation was to do her a great disservice."'' |
| 641 | -->--Katara, regarding Bato. |
| 642 | |
| 643 | Hakoda's long-time friend. |
| 644 | ---- |
| 645 | * BetaCouple: With Ming. |
| 646 | * KirkSummation: He says the above quote in defense of interracial marriages, specifically his own love of Ming. This gets him a ShutUpKirk from Han in response. |
| 647 | * MalignedMixedMarriage: His relationship with a Fire Nation woman, as well as his keeping it secret, causes friction between him and Hakoda. Hakoda uses him in an IHaveThisFriend speech to Zuko to dance around talking about him and Katara specifically, but it's clear that he doesn't approve of Bato and Ming's relationship, either. |
| 648 | * SecretRelationship: He keeps his relationship with Ming secret at first, although Katara finds out about it, and it eventually becomes known to the rest of her tribe. |
| 649 | |
| 650 | [[WMG: Pakku]] |
| 651 | -->''"Pakku got a bit defensive, because in his mind, he was just doing the grandfatherly thing and trying to make sure that I would be taken care of. I said women didn't need to be taken care of, they needed to be seen as equals. Pakku said that wasn't reality right now."'' |
| 652 | -->--Katara, regarding Pakku. |
| 653 | |
| 654 | Katara and Aang's waterbending mentor. |
| 655 | ---- |
| 656 | * AdaptationalPersonalityChange: While he has mellowed out since the end of Book 1, he's still fairly socially conservative. |
| 657 | * BluntYes: When arguing about inter-nation marriages with Katara. |
| 658 | -->'''Katara''': Are you saying that their love doesn't count just because the two people involved are from different nations? |
| 659 | -->'''Pakku''': Of course it doesn't count! It is merely lust that is allowed to run rampant. |
| 660 | * TheMatchmaker: He tries to set Katara up with Hahn in an ArrangedMarriage to set an alliance with the Northern Water Tribe and the increasingly resentful Southern Water Tribe. Katara refuses and Hakoda respects her decision. |
| 661 | * NoGuyWantsAnAmazon: His advice to Katara for a marriage with Hahn is to not show off that she's a better fighter than him. |
| 662 | * NobleBigot: Is sexist and isolationist, but willing to listen and help. Honestly thinks Katara could be an excellent "power behind the throne" and use that to enact some of the changes she wants. |
| 663 | ** He opposes inter-nation marriage partially because he is worried the children of such unions will feel torn between two worlds. |
| 664 | * ParentalFavoritism: He never explicitly says it, and he will proudly extoll both of their characters in front of his own chief, but Katara notices immediately that he's far more interested in her life than Sokka's, which upsets her on Sokka's behalf. This is a point of contrast both towards Pakku's previous attitude and towards the culture of their tribes, who celebrate Sokka and dismiss Katara. |
| 665 | * WorthyOpponent: He references this trope when telling Katara that "An enemy worth the conquering is a joy to fight." |
| 666 | |
| 667 | [[WMG: Yugoda]] |
| 668 | -->''"Yugoda said simply, that she had been treated unequally her whole life and she had learnt various ways around it. I said that just because she had been treated unequally her whole life didn't make unequal treatment right – it just meant that she was used to it. Yugoda said you do just get so used to it simply."'' |
| 669 | -->--Katara, regarding Yugoda. |
| 670 | |
| 671 | A woman Katara met at the North Pole who taught her healing arts. |
| 672 | |
| 673 | * ConditionedToAcceptHorror: Downplayed, but she's "used to" the patriarchal society of the Northern Water Tribe, even if she doesn't like it. |
| 674 | * TheMentor: Is Katara's healing mentor. |
| 675 | * StayInTheKitchen: Downplayed. She's not [[FemaleMisogynist sexist]], but but she doesn't see much hope in the Water Tribe's views on women changing any time soon, and believes that Katara would be best off marrying well. |
| 676 | |
| 677 | [[WMG: Arnook]] |
| 678 | -->''"Coexistence and cooperation are two very different things to Arnook. He is willing to embrace the former – but the devastating loss of Yue meant that he could never countenance the latter. The fact that Dad could cooperate with the firenation meant that he must not feel the losses from the war as keenly as the North did."'' |
| 679 | -->--Katara, regarding Arnook. |
| 680 | |
| 681 | Leader of the Northern Water Tribe and Yue's father. |
| 682 | ---- |
| 683 | |
| 684 | * AdaptationalJerkass: In canon, he's portrayed as a wise and benevolent leader, while here, he [[MoralMyopia only really cares about his family and tribe]]. |
| 685 | * DeliberateValuesDissonance: He's very vocal about his Tribe's traditional gender roles and decries the other nations as immoral and depraved because of their wider recognition and acceptance of homosexuality. He's disgusted that the Firelord's own regent, Piandao, is a known homosexual. He also refers to the children of mixed-race couplings as "tainted half-breeds." |
| 686 | * DramaticallyMissingThePoint: He doesn't realize until it's too late that Aang does not like hearing about what he inflicted on the Fire Nation. |
| 687 | * HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Made Hahn his heir despite the fact that Hahn's a terrible warrior and no one likes Hahn. He also congratulated Aang on the Fire Nation Navy casualities he caused in the Siege of the North, not realizing that [[ThouShallNotKill Aang would not]] [[YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame be proud of it.]] |
| 688 | * {{Hypocrite}}: During a joint-meeting with the representatives from the Southern Water Tribe, Arnook criticizes the South's willingness to engage with the rest of the world, saying that "the Earth Kingdom [is] so obsessed with tradition, etiquette and the way that things were that they [are] fast becoming obsolete." Arnook, and the Northern Tribe he represents, are so conservative and devoted to tradition that they denied one of their greatest war heroes a place in the peace talks because she was a woman. Hilariously, Arnook expresses fear that the other Nations would just want to poach the Water Tribe's most talented individuals for themselves, not realizing that the Water Tribes' inflexibility and traditionalism is the very thing pushing many of their brightest stars away. |
| 689 | * {{Jerkass}}: He has reason to hate the Fire Nation, but his gleefully rejoicing over the loss of life and his callous remarks about the personal losses that Sokka and his family suffered cause him to come off as a jerk. |
| 690 | * MirrorCharacter: While he and Katara differ in many perspectives and ideologies, the way he handles his anger and grief makes him similar to what Katara might have been like if she let her hurt and pain and anger consume her moral judgement entirely and had ''no'' capacity to forgive whatsoever, rather than channeling her pain through fighting her direct opponents and being otherwise compassionate towards civilians of all nations. Arnook even has a line that directly mirrors Katara's line to Sokka in ''The Southern Raiders,'' the episode in which she lost control of that grief and rage: like Katara accusing Sokka of not loving their mother as much as she did, Arnook expresses that the South simply must not feel the pains of war like the North. |
| 691 | * MoralMyopia: When hearing about General Fong's misdeeds, he's only upset at what he did to Katara, not his torture of Fire Nation prisoners. He also has relatively little empathy for others, dismissing other people's losses and emotional pain. |
| 692 | * NoSympathy: When Katara's family opposes his position on the Fire Nation, Arnook makes it clear that he doesn't care about their grief over Kya's death, or what losing Yue meant for Sokka, simply because they disagree with him. He also says that the South must not feel the pain that the North has, since they are willing to befriend the Fire Nation--which, because the South was victim to a relentless genocide the North was not only spared from, but refused to do anything about, justifiably shocks and angers the South. |
| 693 | * NotSoSimilar: While his rage and vindictiveness while grieving is similar to Katara's once she gave herself the time to begin working through it, his way of resolution is different: Katara needed to confront Yon Rha for closure, but Zhao died around the same time as Yue. It's implied that the person he really needed closure from was Yue herself, since she ''chose'' to go to her death, however noble the cause; after he speaks with her, he becomes slightly more reasonable and less prone to making cruel and insensitive remarks. And even after getting closure for Yue's death, he still maintains a fundamental sense of superiority over the other demographics and cultures of the world which the far more open-minded Katara doesn't inherently possess. |
| 694 | * TookALevelInKindness: After seeing Yue's spirit, he becomes somewhat nicer and more reasonable. |
| 695 | |
| 696 | [[WMG: Hahn]] |
| 697 | -->''"Pakku wants me to marry Han! Han the jerk who made Yue endlessly miserable! Who ignored her feelings and talked over her constantly. She always talked about her upcoming marriage to Han like it was something she was dutifully resigned to. It was part of her role as a princess, but oh how she loathed the thought of being married to him. And now Pakku thinks I should be the wife of that snivelling little leech!"'' |
| 698 | -->-- Katara, regarding Hahn. |
| 699 | |
| 700 | Yue's former fiance, who later becomes a prospective marriage option for Katara. |
| 701 | ---- |
| 702 | * AllWomenAreLustful: He assumes Katara was angry due to sexual frustration, and tells Bato that since Fire Nation women are "sluts," Bato doesn't have to feel guilty about a one-night stand with one. |
| 703 | * DeliberatelyBadExample: To Aang. Katara briefly decides that if she has to choose between marrying him and marrying Aang, Aang is the much better choice. |
| 704 | * DomesticAbuse: While he doesn't have a partner to commit it upon, he does explicitly support it and implies it's necessary for a man to "tell" a woman something properly. |
| 705 | * DudeNotFunny: After finding out [[SexSlave the abuses of the Joo Dee]], makes a sexist domestic abuse joke about them and then propositions Katara. She responds by smacking him with a snack tray. |
| 706 | * EntitledToHaveYou: Thinks because he's going to to chief that he should have Katara. Since he's one of two people that Pakku believes to be worthy of Katara (the other being [[TheChosenOne Aang]]), it's not entirely baseless... except for [[SarcasmMode the small bit]] about his personality. |
| 707 | * EvilCannotComprehendGood: His ShutUpKirk seems to assume that Bato is as lustful and misogynistic as he is. |
| 708 | * HateSink: As one of the few characters without any sympathetic or redeeming qualities, he serves this role once the major villains have been dealt with. Despite the fact that the author dislikes the Kataang pairing, Katara ending up with Aang becomes a lot more palatable when the only socially acceptable alternative for her is to marry Han. |
| 709 | * {{Jerkass}}: He makes blatantly misogynistic and racist remarks. Katara had chosen to sit in the seat of honor next to him so that she could address the tribes about their view of women, but ends up hitting him with a snack tray and losing that spot, simply because she can't tolerate him long enough. Even [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter Arnook]] eventually realizes that he's not fit to be his successor. |
| 710 | * PrinceCharmless: Is heir to be Northern Water Tribe Chief, is rude, sexist and a terrible fighter. |
| 711 | * ShutUpKirk: After Bato [[KirkSummation passionately talks about his love for Ming while defending inter-nation marriages]], Han responds as follows. |
| 712 | -->'''Hahn''': I get that you have urges. But you know you don't have to marry her right? They aren't like us. All firebenders are such sluts. You can fuck her and leave her. You don't have to debase yourself by having a relationship with one of those firebitches. |
| 713 | |
| 714 | [[WMG:Yue]] |
| 715 | -->''"Yue loved her tribe, and when she knew that she could restore the moon spirit, there was not a single thing any of us could have done to stop her."'' |
| 716 | -->--Katara, regarding Yue. |
| 717 | |
| 718 | Arnook's daughter and Hahn's fiancee. She sacrificed herself to become the Moon Spirit. |
| 719 | ---- |
| 720 | * DeadPersonConversation: In a sense, Katara sometimes talks to Yue, hoping she can hear her, even if she can never respond. |
| 721 | * HeroicSelfDeprecation: She says that she thought she would have been too "weak and scared" to waterbend like Katara did, but Katara remembers her as strong and brave. |
| 722 | * PosthumousCharacter: To an extent. Katara points out that she didn't die, but became the Moon Spirit. |
| 723 |
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