Fanfic / While Mighty Oaks Do Fall

While Mighty Oaks Do Fall is an Avatar: The Last Airbender For Want Of A Nail fanfic, written on Archive of Our Own by WitchOfEndor.

The nail occurs right after Fire Lord Azulon's demise, when Ozai decides to get rid of his annoyance of a firstborn by forcing him to join the temple and become a Fire Sage.

This turns out to be a catastrophic mistake for him. On the other hand, the Avatar and his friends are very happy with their new ally.

Contains the following tropes

• Abusive Parents: Ozai basically sold Zuko to the temple (something that also was disowning him), burnt him before exiling him to a secluded temple, and is looking for ways to discredit his name and declare him guilty of heresy. The more Sokka learns about these facts, the more he wants to punch the guy's face.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Here, Zuko's burn scar is on his arm so his face is whole and rather handsome.
• Adaptational Job Change: Zuko isn't a prince anymore since he was given to the temple, he's a Fire Sage. It also has the effect to modify his position in the Gaang — he's not the Avatar's firebending teacher, more of a spiritual advisor.
• Adaptational Personality Change: Zuko completely lacks his canon fierce personality, being more The Spock. He still insists on being honourable, though, even if he's expressing it very differently.
• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: Having been given to the temple when he was eleven years old, Zuko has a much more distant relationship with his birth family, keeping them at arms' length since he's basically disowned. On the other hand, there's no hostility between him and the Gaang since he's not chasing the Avatar, and he immediately joins them after fleeing the Crescent Island.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Sokka in the source material was staunchly heterosexual and interested in Yue and Suki. Here, he's implied to be gay or bisexual from the hints he's crushing on Zuko.
• And Then What?: Fire Sage Izumi points Zuko is right to call the Fire Nation out on being unbalanced, but he has no plan for correcting the imbalance itself and rebuilding after ending the war.
• Culture Clash: Very much so, with Zuko being so curious about the other nations.
  • When visiting an Earth Kingdom abbey, he gets to see the nuns offering material things to the spirits, trading perfume and learning stories from wall-carvings.
  • The Northern Water Tribe keeps their waterbenders separated by gender, and relies on oral traditions followed by the elders.
• Everyone Has Standards: The soldiers under Zhao's command are horrified by the man's willingness to injure Zuko who's a Fire Sage and as such forbidden to be harmed.
• Fantastic Racism: After leaving the Crescent Island, Zuko has to endure a lot of mistrust and open loathing thrown his way for being a fire-bender. He shrugs it off, but the Gaang is rather upset for him when it happens.
• Friendless Background: Deconstructed with Zuko. Since he doesn't know how he's supposed to interact with other children and teens, it causes much distress and conflict in the Gaang.
• Jurisdiction Friction: A major theme. As the Gaang travels through the Earth Kingdom and the Northern Water Tribe, they stumble upon legal troubles and need to fix them as best as they can.
• Guile Hero: Zuko will bash you over the head with the law in order to achieve his goals. As he really wants to keep his oath of non-violence, he has no other choice but to be one of these.
• Gray-and-Grey Morality: People from both sides of the war are mainly people who just want to live. As the story is unfolding, the Gaang has to start thinking about the best way to end the war without destroying the Fire Nation.
• Heir Club for Men: The Dragon Throne follows the agnatic-cognatic succession — a woman won't inherit unless she doesn't have brothers. These princesses are called "White Lotus" after the Pai Sho tile, kept in reserve if needed but rarely used in the game.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every chapter has the title Element Number (Part X). This is because the series is divided in multiple element-theme arcs. So far there have been two Air and Earth arcs, and two Fire and Water arcs which generally correspond to The Stations of the Canon, which only start to diverge greatly with the siege of the north pole.
• Incompatible Orientation: During the later part of the Second Water Arc, Zukko thinks that Sokka is actually heterosexual and that he just failed at I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship by accidently trying to kiss him while being held hostage in the north pole.
• Literal-Minded: Zuko doesn't get metaphors. At all.
• Locked Away in a Monastery: Joining the temple is renuncing one's titles and family ties. Ozai willingly disowned his firstborn this way.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Zuko has elbow-length hair when he's not pinning them in a bun, and Sokka's twitchiness around him certainly hints at him being quite beautiful.
• Loophole Abuse: Katara tries to get Pakku to teach her waterbending by claiming she's a warrior, not a spiritual healer, and gender has nothing to do with that. She needs to beat his ass before he finally accepts her as his student.
• Martyr Without a Cause: Zuko has the alarming habit to put himself in danger as long as he thinks it's justified for someone else's sake. Sokka openly calls him out on his self-destructive tendences when the Northern Pole is about to be invaded and Zuko insists the navy will leave if he's surrended to them.
• Moment Killer: After the siege of the north pole, Sokka and Zuko have an Almost Kiss that is interrupted by Katara. This is Played for Drama as Katara attempts to fix this by attempting have the boys in a sort of Locked in a Room scenario which is interrupted by Aang and Yue.
• Not So Similar: Sokka assumes Zuko has been raised the same way than Aang to become a spiritual leader, and is stunned to learn the older teen actually became a Fire Sage because his father wanted to disown him.
• Outside-Context Problem: The Northern Water Tribe is floored by Zuko being a spiritual leader, since the position is feminine in the Pole. They ultimately decide to legally declare Zuko a girl in order to settle their minds.
• Parental Substitute: High Sage Kenji seems to be more than slightly fond of Zuko, and does everything he can to protect the boy from the Fire Lord.
• Poor Communication Kills: A big cause for tension in the Gaang. The Water siblings and Aang don't understand how Zuko's mind works, but when he tries to ask them for explanation, they often fumble it.
• Running Gag:
  • Zuko's hatred for his Fire Sage hat.
  • Zuko falling into water.
• Unreliable Narrator: Zuko is deeply paranoid and persuaded that everyone hates him, so he tends to see the Gaang's actions in the worst possible light and is utterly oblivious to Sokka's growing crush on him.
• Will They or Won't They?: After the Second Water Arc, Sokka and Zuko develop this, but Played for Drama because especially of both Can't Spit It Out (Sokka) and No Social Skills (Zuko).
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Zuko, as a consequence of being considered of age since he officially became a Fire Sage at eleven years old. It's slightly deconstructed by the fact he doesn't even know how to act his age.