Lies, all lies.
How I Became Yours is an
Avatar The Last Airbender fancomic by Jackie Diaz. The story takes place three years after the canonical end of the show, and
takes some liberties concerning how things worked out (particularly romantically). Toph and Katara have inexplicably taken up residence in an Earth Kingdom estate (owned by Toph?) where they spend their days
monologuing and pining after their One True Loves (Aang and Zuko, respectively). Oh, and Sokka is there too apparently. Elsewhere, unbeknownst to the girls, Aang and Zuko also pine after their true loves. When Zuko discovers that Mai hid Katara’s pregnancy from him, Zuko makes a beeline for Katara’s 18th birthday ball, where the
Star Crossed Lovers joyfully reunite (Aang and Toph also hook up at this event). Unfortunately for them, hell hath no fury like a
Woman Scorned; Mai is not about to take this lying down.
Meanwhile, Sokka comes across an injured Azula who can't remember anything about her past and breaks down crying when confronted with it. But rather than toss her back out into the streets, the Gaang takes her under their wing and cares for her while she
develops a personality completely opposite of the one she had in canon. During this time
she and Sokka fall in love with each other.
The comic enjoyed moderate popularity before certain members of the Avatar fandom got wind of it, and promptly saw to it that the artist was banned from
Deviant Art (the comic’s former home) for recurring instances of art theft. Diaz’s repeated denials of tracing and art theft in the face of overwhelming evidence (screenshots from the show and her drawings match up
line for line) did nothing to endear her to the fandom. Most of the comic may be found
here
.
Tropes:
- Alternate Character Interpretation: Upon realizing what position Azula is in at the end, many have posited that she doesn’t actually have amnesia, as it's all a ploy to get in good with the Water Tribe royalty so she can dismantle the entire civilization from the inside.
- Anachronism Stew: Rampant. The crowning moment of this trope occurs when Katara is seen wearing the Hall Sapphire Necklace. No, really, it’s Photoshopped onto the drawing.
- Author Appeal: The author is of Hispanic heritage, and Spanish Soap Opera cliches have a way of finding their way into the comic with surprising frequency.
- Babies Ever After: The epilogue.
- Badass Decay and Chickification: Azula, we hardly knew ye. Toph gets this treatment as well, going from a devil-may-care fighter to a soft-spoken, nervous flower of a girl who willingly bottoms to a guy she calls "twinkle-toes".
- Beauty Equals Goodness: Mai, the Designated Villain, is the only female character who does not sport breasts that would make Pamela Anderson proud.
- Beta Couple: Aang and Toph. Surprisingly, the main couple (Katara and Zuko) take a back seat near the end while Sokka and Azula take the main spotlight.
- Big No: Sokka pulls off a particularly Narmful one after Azula is stabbed to death.
- Bile Fascination
- Canon Defilement: The names are misspelled, the mechanics of bending are all wrong, the characters are unrecognizable, and somehow we’ve translocated to the Theme Park Version of medieval France if costume and architecture are anything to go by.
- Character Derailment: In spades.
- Cliche Storm: It's essentially Soap Opera meets Romance Novel meets Lifetime Movie Of The Week. With magic powers.
- Cookiecutter Fic: This thing would have been
vastly improved somewhat better marginally less painful to read if Diaz declared it a (western) fantasy/romance comic instead of trying to pass it off as an Avatar fanfic.
- Conspicuous CG: A rather odd variant. The only parts of the comic that Diaz actually
traces draws are the characters and their clothes (well, most of them, anyway). Everything else (backgrounds, accessories, props, settings), are photos. Spectacularly few of them are of Diaz’s own creation.
- Cut And Paste Comic: Taken to truly absurd heights, especially considering that everything was traced or vectored in the first place. Each character averages in at about 4 distinct faces for the duration of the comic and about 2 poses for each outfit.
- Designated Villain: Mai. She gets mad at the husband whom she’s genuinely in love with for having an affair, whereupon he beats her. We’re supposed to hate her?
- Did Not Do The Research: Bloodbending only works under a full moon.
- Die For Our Ship: The fandom is comprised almost entirely of Zutara fangirls looking for a quick fix.
- Dude Not Funny: The aforementioned beating of Mai by Zuko.
- Easy Amnesia: Rather than delve into the canon Azula's complex, fractured mental state, Diaz opts to use this trope as an excuse to completely rewrite the character.
- Erection Rejection: The sex scenes. Even militant Zutarians don't like it!
- Fan Dumb: Dear God, the fandumb...
- Funny Background Event: Although unintentional, it's still funny. In many panels, Aang can be seen in the background wearing an expression that plainly says "Sweet God end the pain now."
- Hatedom Nickname: Barbietara and Lobzula for "Katara" and "Azula."
- Hatedom
- Kudzu Plot
- In Name Only: These are definitely not the characters you know and love.
- Jossed: At least one reader must have thought Azula's pregnancy later in the comic was the result of a rape, until missing pages of comic showing her having sex with Sokka were found in the artist's Photobucket account.
- Les Yay: There's only so many cuddly, affectionate scenes Azula and Katara can share◊ before you start to wonder who the REAL OTP of this comic is.
- Melodrama
- Memetic Mutation: CHARD MONSTER!!!
- Moral Dissonance: Zuko impregnates a fifteen-year-old girl, carries on a love affair with her after he marries his childhood sweetheart, then slaps and verbally abuses his wife when she dares to get upset. Yet he's presented unerringly as a hero.
- Moral Event Horizon: Mai killing Katara’s unborn baby is meant to be this. For more objective readers, it’s Katara bloodbending Mai to death, when she was perfectly capable of merely incapacitating her. Which leads to...
- Moral Myopia: When Mai kills Katara's baby, she's a horrible person. When Katara kills Mai, she's reassured that her actions were nothing short of heroic.
- Mary Sue:
- Fixer Sue: Pretty much all the female characters take it in turns to get their friends to hook up amongst each other.
- God Mode Sue: A possible interpretation of Katara’s infamous daytime bloodbending, as well as the several times when her Healing Hands are vastly more powerful than in the show. It’s either this or Critical Research Failure.
- Possession Sue: Also Katara, who looks more and more like the artist as the comic goes on.
- Purity Sue: Azula, who suffers possibly the greatest Character Derailment the comic has to offer.
- Mixed Marriage: Used so ubiquitously it’s simply absurd.
- Narm
- Most Common Super Power: How do those dresses stay up?
- Off Model: Not simply compared to the original character models, but heavily applies by simply comparing different shots of the same characters. In fact, the title page demonstrates the recurring issue of Katara's skin tone varying wildly from page to page.
- Only Six Faces: It’s particularly obvious in the Babies Ever After epilogue, where the five children all have the exact same face.
- The Power Of Love: Used to the point of the ridiculous. Azula’s love for Sokka allows her to briefly regain her lightning bending, Sokka and Azula’s Intimate Healing, and how Sokka is able to bring Azula back from the Spirit World.
- Put On A Bus: Suki.
- Psycho Ex Girlfriend: What Mai was supposed to be, although she ended up being one of the more sympathetic characters.
- Redemption Equals Sex
- Redemption In The Rain
- Rescue Romance: Sokka and Azula
- Ron The Death Eater: Mai
- Rouge Angles Of Satin
- Say My Name: "ZUKO!!" "KATARA!!!"
- Self Insert Fic: Katara looks an awful lot like Ms. Diaz herself, who has also claimed that the events in the story are based on things that actually happened to her.
- Sequel Hook: Sho is still at large.
- Sex Equals Love: Zuko/Katara
- Schedule Slip: Averted. One thing that can be said for Ms. Diaz is that she did update consistently and frequently, and even more surprisingly, finished the comic.
- Snark Bait: There have already been
melodramatic readings!
- So Bad Its Horrible: What with atrocious grammar and spelling, complete disregard for canon settings and mechanics, repetitive art (various zooms on a single image have been known to make up whole pages), horrendous characterization and a horribly cliched plot, this is the general consensus among the Avatar fandom. Because of its potential as Snark Bait, some consider it So Bad Its Good.
- Sparkling Stream Of Tears
- Star Crossed Lovers: Zuko and Katara at the beginning of the comic.
- Strangled By The Red String: All damn three of the couples, though Aang and Toph suffer slightly less than the other two (likely due to a lack of face time and over the top drama).
- Such A Lovely Noun: Sho does this when he’s taunting Sokka.
- Tears Of Blood: Mai, after being bloodbended.
- Wall Banger: They're everywhere. Really, you don't have to look hard to find one.
- Wangst: In spades.
- Water Works: Katara cries more often that not. And when she’s not crying, chances are Azula is.
