Little Zuko v the World is a For Want Of A Nail Alternate Universe Avatar: The Last Airbender Fan Fic written by MuffinLance. The story starts with Zuko finding Aang within a month of his banishment except instead of being thirteen when banished he's twelve. To go with that Azula and Ty lee are ten, while Mai is eleven. Everyone else however, is still the same age: Sokka is still fifteen and Katara is still fourteen with Aang being the twelve year old kid we all adore.
It's not very surprising to see more shenanigans happen with a younger cast of antagonists. You can find the Fan Work right Here
.For other examples of their work see Towards the Sun, Cheating At Pai Sho and Salvage.
Little Zuko v the World provides examples of:
- Adaptational Badass: Zuko learns the Dancing Dragon style at age 12 instead of 16, and can also bend lightning.
- Age Lift: Whereas Zuko was 16 and Azula and her friends 14 at their introductions, Zuko is 12 and Azula and her friends 10 here.
- Animal Lover: Zuko, of all people, turns out to be one as we quickly come to find out when he's determined to make Appa his pet and rename him 'Honor'. He didn't even have the heart to firebend at it. He shot at it sure but he purposefully missed. It becomes much more tragic when we find out that all his pets have either been eaten, killed by Azula, being the child-psycho she is, or being forced to give them away because Azula kept on attacking them.That's why he's so paranoid with showing how much he adores them in public.Azula: Zuzu, really. A prince should be able to protect his own. Don't complain to me if you keep failing them."
- Bad People Abuse Animals: Azula tends to kill any pets Zuko had unless he was quick enough to rehome them. She would blame Zuko and said pet for not being strong enough to resist her. It's later implied that she's just trying to understand while people feel sad when loved ones die, because she's got a stunted sense of empathy that her father encourages to remain that way.
- The Bet: When Aang encounters Zuko outside of Omashu along with the Fire Nation military, he challenges him to an Agni Kai to leave Omashu alone. Zuko takes the challenge on the condition that if he wins, Omashu has to unconditionally surrender. Zuko narrowly wins the bet.
- Blasphemous Boast: When Zuko regains his firebending after visiting the Sun Warriors and meeting the dragons, he briefly wonders if Agni is still mad at him for disobeying his father. But he ultimately decided even if Agni is mad, Agni could take a hike; Zuko is proud of himself for doing the right thing in saving the 41st.
- Bothering by the Book: Since Adrimal Zhao ordered that no one interrupt his speech and blatantly refused to listen to Yuyan commander Shinu's concerns, Shinu lets Aang and Zuko escape and kept trying to interrupt Zhao, knowing Zhao would refuse to listen to any concerns.
- Chekhov's Gun: The bag of mail for the 41st Division. It reminds Zuko of his desire to stop the plan to sacrifice the lives of 41st Division before it enact. He take the mailbag, disguises himself as a mailboy, sneaks into Fire Nation territory despite being banished to try to warn the 41st about the plan and plead with them to not go forth.
- Children Are Innocent: Once Azula is surrounded with better role models and outside support, she begins acting more like a normal child, indicating her father's toxic influence was what inflamed her more sadistic and antisocial tendencies.
- Cooldown Hug: Played for Laughs when Iroh gives one to Zuko after he freaks out when finding out his ponytail looks stupid on him and he couldn't just cut it off because it's a symbol of his honor. The hug had a limited effect though because Zuko has no idea what a hug even is just calling it a weird thing his Uncle does.
- Sokka gives Zuko a hug everytime he mentions a piece of his traumatic past.
- Cryptic Conversation: Iroh does this. Constantly, to no ones surprise and Zuko's absolute hatred. It's gotten to the point where Iroh uses it as a punishment with Zuko.
- Cuteness Proximity: Zuko is enchanted with Appa due to him being friendly, big, being able to fly, and fluffy. He is conflicted with wanting Appa as a pet and keeping Appa far away from Azula as possible.
- Zuko himself seems to induce this in a lot of people he meets, most prominently being Sokka and Katara. Sokka adopts him as his Nephson. Hilarity Ensues, and Hakoda has a headache.
- Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: After Zuko wins his match with Aang, he's so badly concussed that he keeps voicing every thought that comes to head, which unfortunately includes a lot of unflattering opinions about other people."Congratulations!" a hunched-over old guy dressed in really terrible purple was… pouting at him? "You don't like my new outfit?"
Oh. Zuko had said those other things out loud. "I can burn it for you, if you want," he offered.
The old guy threw back his head and laugh-snorted. "Well, at least I'm surrendering my city to an honest man!"
Oh. King Bumi. Zuko had heard he was insane, no wonder he'd even agreed to this I'm talking out loud again aren't I—
"Yeah you are," Sokka said, and when had the Water Tribe peasant gotten here? "Been here for a few minutes. Could you stop sitting on Aang? And you should probably get someone to check on those multiple head wounds, Aang really kind of… bounced you around at the end. A lot. Do you remember that part…? Easy, just kind of slide off, maybe don't try to stand yet—Or do, that's fine, no need to take advice from a Water Tribe peasant." - Exact Words: Without Aang realizing, his words are deliberately interpreted as Zuko having to leave if he loses the Agni Kai. The Fire Nation military made no promises to the Avatar and were planning to continue their invasion of Omashu if Zuko loses. Zuko won by a slim margin.
- Later on, Zuko's crew takes exception to Zhao trying to murder him by blowing up their ship. They corner him in his cell after the battle (and Yue stabbing him). Jee reports Zhao died of his injuries, not clarifying which injuries.
- Famed In-Story: Everyone in the Fire Nation believes it is Zuko's destiny to capture the Avatar and being glory to Fire Nation.
- Folk Hero: Prince Zuko's accomplishments are more noticeable through out the story.
- For Want Of A Nail:
- In Zuko's invasion of the Southern Water Tribe, it's noted that he has bandages for his face as his scar is still new. Combined with his younger age, instead of seeing a Fire Nation soldier threatening them and their home they see an injured kid attempting to be intimidating.
- Due to Zuko temporarily losing his firebending and getting captured by Hei Bei while trying to get reinforcements for the ship, Zuko fails to save Iroh from the earthbenders on time and Iroh's hands get crushed.
- Fingore: Iroh's hands get crushed by earthbender soldiers.
- Friend or Foe?: During the siege of the North, Zuko attacks the Ocean because it's trying to kill all the Fire Nation soldiers, without realizing that the Ocean has actually merged with Aang. Zuko's lightning attack actually stops Aang's heart, and only Yue/Tui's healing saves him.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Ozai isn't pleased that Zuko is becoming more popular and adored than him.
- Harmless Villain: Well, that's bound to happen when you compare an angsty, brooding sixteen year old teenager to a somewhat less hardened animal-loving twelve year old.
- It gets to the point though where the Gaang doesn't even consider Zuko as much of a threat. Aang actually willingly agrees to be temporarily taken hostage just because Iroh makes really good tea. They, particularly Sokka and Katara, end up adopting him.
- Even Sokka, the guy that's suspicious of everything and hates all Fire Nation, starts to warm up to Zuko after he starts getting subtle hints that he's had a really terrible childhood. A good example of this is when Sokka actually leaves Katara with Zuko, when she was kidnapped by Zuko after stealing that water scroll, to keep an eye on the kid. Hell, they even end up adopting him.
- Hollywood Healing: Defied as it has been a month since the Agni Kai, so Zuko's scar is still healing with scabs, reopening wounds and all. In many moments in the story's beginning, the scar gets agitated or reinjured.
- Hometown Nickname: The Kuzons of the 41st differentiate themselves by their hometown. The two most prominent Kuzons being Aomori and Caldera.
- Identically Named Group: The 41st Omashu Division is full of New Meat all named Kuzon. They differentiate each other through their name of their hometowns.
- Important Haircut: Zigzagged, after internalizing Sokka's insults about his hair and Iroh failing to confirm or deny his concern of his hair, Zuko shaves all of it off. Over the course of the story, it starts to grow back symbolizing how Zuko has begun to internalize new perspectives.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Despite Zuko's attempts, the Gaang don't seem as a threat as much as misguided child.
- In Spite of a Nail: Unfortunately, Kyoshi's Village still burns down while the Avatar's in town courtesy of Zhao instead of Zuko this time around.
- Jurisdiction Friction: The Yuyan archers and their commander, an elite army sniper squad, don't like working under Admiral Zhao, a naval man.
- Kids Are Cruel: Azula is at that unfortunate stage where she is too young to realize empathy and can be very nasty, which is a tendency nurtured by their father.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Both Zuko and Aang have this reaction when they realize that they almost killed each other during the siege of the North. Made even worse for Zuko because his lightning attack actually stopped Aang's heart, and only Yue/Tui's intervention brings him back.
- Not Hyperbole: Zuko laments to Katara that Azula never lets you know when she going to kill you. Katara initially thinks he is exaggerating, only to find that he's being quite literal when Azula leaks Katara's stay on Zuko's boat to Zhao in order to get her killed. Iroh laments how Zuko doesn't exaggerate.
- Parental Substitute: Iroh to Zuko, as usual, and latterly to Azula, in an attempt to undo Ozai's influence. Katara and Sokka adopt Zuko, who's annoyed, but goes with it, especially since he gets a grandfather - Hakoda - who didn't want him dead, unlike Azulon. This is enforced with much hugging.
- Parrying Bullets: Played With
- Enforced: The Yuyan archers deliberately weaken the power of their arrows and do trick shots to avoid hurting Zuko and Aang while still looking like their doing their jobs.
- Lampshaded: Zuko is flabbergasted on how he is deflecting arrows.How was he deflecting arrows with his swords, that wasn't a thing people did outside of plays, Master Piandao had always told him if you ever try that for real I will deny ever having you as a student, so how—?
- Police Code for Everything: Zigzagged, The Yuyan archers have signs for "Should I shoot" and "No, it's endangered", but they don't have code for "Don't shoot the Avatar or Prince Zuko". They compensate by using established signs out of context, such as using their "endangered" sign to refer to Zuko and Aang instead of an endangered animal.
- Poor Communication Kills: While Momo understands that Katara is saying that she wants water, he doesn't know how to use her waterskin. So Momo gets whatever he could find, hoping that it's filled with water, since Lemurs find water in fruits or plants.
- Zuko, due to a misunderstanding involving Momo glued to an Yuyan arrow and a scrap of Aang's clothing, thinks Sokka is trying to coordinate Aang's rescue with him. He didn't know that Sokka never sent a message due being delirious with fever.
- When Zuko defects to the Gaang, he deliberately doesn't tell Iroh because he thinks his uncle is genuinely loyal to the cause and to avoid forcing Iroh to choose between their nation and him. Unfortunately, Zhao has his ship blown up, so Iroh now thinks that Zuko is dead.
- Psychosomatic Superpower Outage: After defeating Aang in Agni Kai over Omashu proiritizing his sense of justice over his honor to Fire Lord Ozai to save the 41st Division from being slaughtered by bait, Zuko temporarily loses his bending.
- Reassignment Backfire: Zuko was told to find the Avatar by Ozai in hopes of it being a demeaning Impossible Task. With Zuko's unintentional success of finding the Avatar within a month of his journey, it makes his hated son look like The Chosen One.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Just like in canon, the Ocean Spirit is furious when Zhao attacks the Moon and tries to destroy the Fire soldiers. Luckily for everyone, Yue/Tui is able to mitigate some of the damage.
- Running Gag: Everyone notices the really gaudy dagger Katara stole from the pirates and keeps in her boot. People can't get past how gaudy it is. Yue even pouts that the one she gets for her birthday isn't as gaudy as Katara's.
- Silent Snarker: Yuyan archers Fujita, Ritsuko and Toriyama quip and talk back to each other in Military sign language.
- Silk Hiding Steel: Princess Yue is sweet, courteous, and gentle. She also helps the Gaang overthrow the patriarchy in her tribe by having women learn fighting and men learn healing, and is getting knife-wielding lessons from Katara. The 'Hiding Steel' part becomes literal when she stabs Zhao with a hidden dagger.
- Take a Third Option: Colonel Shinu is faced with the choice of freeing Aang and Zuko and facing severe consequences from the Firelord or not freeing them and gaining the ire of the Fire Nation over stopping Zuko's epic quest. Shinu and the Yuyan decide to let them go and frame Zhao for their escape.
- Team Mom: Katara, as lampshaded by Sokka. After they effectively adopt Zuko, he tends to snuggle up to her, even though Sokka is more inclined to forcibly glomp him.
- Too Unhappy to Be Hungry: After receiving news that Admiral Zhao had captured the Avatar, Zuko lacks appetite and anguishes in his room.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Azula at age ten has displayed sadistic tendencies as animal cruelty and deliberate harm to her older brother. What makes it worse that Azula isn't intentionally malevolent in her cruelty.
- Xenofiction: There is a part in the Pohuai Stronghold arc on Momo's perceptive with Momo and Katara frustrating each other over getting water.
- You Can Keep Her!: After Zuko rescues Katara from the pirates, he attempts to ransom her back to the Gaang. Being assured of Katara's safety and to punish her for stealing, Sokka decides just to leave her with Zuko.
