History FanFic / TheStalkingZukoSeries

* RealityIsUnrealistic: The author points out that the decision to SuckOutThePoison is no longer the best method for dealing with poisonous bites, but she had to do it, since the Avatar-verse is not up to the same level as the modern universe, and there weren't any medical facilities on Ember Island.

* OutOfFocus: Because the story is told from Katara's journal, anything she doesn't witness is explained to her later second-hand. This also means that characters like Teo (who had few interactions with Katara at the Temple and then left with Hakoda) don't really have any meaningful presence in the story. It also means that major character conflicts that don't occur near Katara can radically change the dynamics of the cast (such as [[spoiler:The Incident between Ozai and Toph after Aang's and Ozai's Boss Fight]] by the time she sees those characters next).

* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: Zuko tells this to Katara, [[spoiler: when she's having doubts about taking revenge on Yon Rha. Katara returns the favor in ''Not Stalking Zuko.'']]

* AdaptationalContextChange: In canon Aang's and Katara's relationship by the end of the war is portrayed in canon as a naturally occurring, unforced, sincerely reciprocated romance, with their BigDamnKiss in the last scene of the show confirming their relationship. Here, the kiss occurs not because Katara reciprocates Aang's feelings but because Katara's been put under an enormous amount of pressure to partner with either Aang or [[DeliberatelyBadExample Hahn]] and told she realistically has no other options for her future, and so is trying to make herself accept a romantic relationship with him. Whereas canon portrays their post-war relationship as a flawed but generally happy romance, here the aftermath of the kiss has both parties upset by it and they agree to remain platonic.

* AdaptationalContextChange: In canon Aang's and Katara's relationship by the end of the war is portrayed in canon as a sincerely reciprocated romance, with their BigDamnKiss in the last scene of the show confirming their relationship. Here, the kiss occurs not because Katara reciprocates Aang's feelings but because Katara's been put under an enormous amount of pressure to partner with either Aang or [[DeliberatelyBadExample Hahn]] and told she realistically has no other options for her future, and so is trying to make herself accept a romantic relationship with him. The aftermath of the kiss has both parties upset by it.

* AdaptationalContextChange: In canon Aang's and Katara's relationship by the end of the war is intended to be seen as a reciprocated romance and treated as such by every canonical post-war addition to the series, with their BigDamnKiss in the last scene of the show confirming their relationship. Here, the kiss occurs because Katara's been put under an enormous amount of pressure to partner with either Aang or [[DeliberatelyBadExample Hahn]] and told she realistically has no other options for her future, and so is trying to open herself up to a romantic relationship with Aang despite not truly reciprocating his feelings. The aftermath of the kiss, not shown in canon, portrays both parties as upset by it.

* ChildrenAreInnocent: Deconstructed with Aang. He assumes the best in everyone and doesn't seem to be able to predict or comprehend the consequences of this belief in regards to global politics. He doesn't understand moral nuance and has adopted what he can remember of the monks' teachings into an unquestionably righteous code of conduct that he fully trusts to be the truth of how the world is and rightfully should be. He acts on the best and most innocent intentions but his moral framework for the world is childish. [[spoiler: After sparing Ozai's life, Aang has the gall to be angry at Ozai, not for hurting people, but for not conforming to Aang's idealistic worldview by continuing to try to hurt people and being unwilling to repent.]] It's actually hinted that Aang himself may be misunderstanding some key Air Nomad principles owing to only knowing Air culture through the lens of a child, as his mentor Monk Gyatso killed countless firebenders in self-defense.

For the other well-known series by the same author, see ''Fanfic/TheWorstPrisoner,'' a ForWantOfANail AlternateUniverseFic series diverging from Book One's ''[[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheStorm The Storm.]]''

For the other well-known series by the same author, see ''Fanfic/TheWorstPrisoner,'' a ForWantOfANail AlternateUniverseFic series diverging from Book One's ''Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheStorm The Storm.''

* DeconstructionFic: Not so much ''Stalking Zuko'', but its sequels, ''Not Stalking Zuko'' and ''Not Stalking Firelord Zuko'', deconstruct the gender dynamics, politics, relationships, and consequences of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', focusing especially on the likely consequences of the series' unresolved conflicts that aren't focused on, like the pressures that would have been put on Katara for being a trailblazer for women in a very traditional gender role-centric patriarchal society, Aang's DoggedNiceGuy behavior, the lack of understanding between Zuko and Mai, and [[spoiler:the potential consequences of Ozai being left alive.]]

* DeconstructionFic: The series deconstructs the gender dynamics, politics, relationships and consequences of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''.

* MrViceGuy: The trilogy focuses heavily on the cast's flaws, especially Katara's, Aang's, and Zuko's. Katara is bossy, nagging, hypocritical, spiteful, jealous, grudge-holding, nosy to the point of offensive, and far too coddling for anyone's good. Aang is flighty, avoidant, attention-seeking, pushy, entitled, hypocritical, self-righteous, self-centered, and InnocentlyInsensitive. Zuko is socially clumsy, ill-tempered, jealous, easily frustrated, prone to emotional dramaticism and blow-ups, lacking an internal filter, and still struggling with the concepts of honor and guilt to the point that it's ''still'' relatively easy to manipulate him, depending on who exactly is defining "honor" or accusing him of wrongdoing (Ozai and Azula he's past listening to, but he's easily duped into going on a fishing trip he otherwise didn't want to by Hakoda because Hakoda says it's about "masculine honor" and Mai is able to guilt him into continuing to date her because she guilts him about the ''dishonorable'' way he's treated her previously). Despite this, all three are extremely well-intentioned, compassionate, and genuinely heroic people devoted to both their loved ones and to making the world a better place.

* BeigeProse: Katara's first-person perspective journals at times slip into this, as her recounting of events she has no particular strong emotions about tend to take the form of passages written in a choppy, informal, at times structurally and verbally repetitive style, verging on simply listing the need-to-know events that occurred with little variation in word choice. The writing generally becomes more fluid when she moves on to how she actually feels about those events. The choppy and structurally and verbally repetitive aspects of the writing are far less prominent in the third-person side stories, which implies that this is a quirk of Katara's narrative voice.

* BeigeProse: Katara's first-person perspective journals at times slip into this, as her recounting of events she has no particular strong emotions about tend to take the form of passages be written in a choppy, informal, at times structurally and verbally repetitive style, verging on simply listing the need-to-know events that occurred with little variation in word choice. The writing generally becomes more fluid when she moves on to how she actually feels about those events. The choppy and structurally and verbally repetitive aspects of the writing are far less prominent in the third-person side stories, which implies that this is a quirk of Katara's narrative voice.

* BeigeProse: Katara's first-person perspective journals at times slip into this, as her recounting of events she has no particular strong emotions about tend to be written in a brief, choppy, informal, at times structurally and linguistically repetitive style with very simple words. The writing generally becomes more fluid when she moves on to how she actually feels about those events. The choppy and structurally and verbally repetitive aspects of the writing are far less prominent in the third-person side stories, which implies that this is a quirk of Katara's narrative voice.

* BrickJoke: During ''Stalking Zuko'''s take on Katara's perspective of ''The Boiling Rock,'' Katara starts mocking the credibility of Sokka's and Zuko's "gone fishing" excuse, arguing that Zuko probably can't fish because who in his family would have taught him and dismissing the idea that Sokka is teaching Zuko with the assertion that one of them will try to give the other a noogie, there will be an inelegant struggling, both of them will fall in, and all the fish will be scared away anyways. Several chapters later, Hakoda decides to take both boys on a male bonding fishing trip, and that's ''exactly'' what ends up happening.

** Jet does this ''all the time.'' A particularly noteworthy example was the "I'll do nasty things to your dead body" threat from ''Not Stalking Firelord Zuko'', which he only realized sounded like necrophilia after seeing the horrified and disgusted expressions on the faces of those who heard him.

** Jet does this ''all the time.'' A particularly noteworthy example was the "I'll do nasty things to your dead body" threat from [[''Not Stalking Firelord Zuko'']], which he only realized sounded like necrophilia after seeing the horrified and disgusted expressions on the faces of those who heard him.

** According to Katara, Zuko pulls this in the very first chapter of ''Stalking Zuko,'' although she doesn't record what exactly he said. As she puts it: "Subject started talking (rambling, blathering or even blithering are actually better words to describe what he was doing) about how he would not like us to be hostile towards each other, even if we are not friendly... Subject got a bit lost and started to mix his metaphors badly. And one point Subject said something most ridiculous that I misinterpreted and there was much awkwardness all round. Subject left the room for a few moments in a fit of embarrassment and had to collect himself." Later, she notes under her "Things I Learned About Subject" section that "Subject accidentally makes rude double entendres and then blushes furiously."

* MundaneUtility: Firebending is great for warming up water and drying dishes, as Katara discovers.

* AccidentalInnuendo:
** According to Katara, Zuko makes one of these in the very first chapter of ''Stalking Zuko,'' although she doesn't record what exactly he said. As she puts it: "Subject started talking (rambling, blathering or even blithering are actually better words to describe what he was doing) about how he would not like us to be hostile towards each other, even if we are not friendly... Subject got a bit lost and started to mix his metaphors badly. And one point Subject said something most ridiculous that I misinterpreted and there was much awkwardness all round. Subject left the room for a few moments in a fit of embarrassment and had to collect himself." Later, she notes under her "Things I Learned About Subject" section that "Subject accidentally makes rude double entendres and then blushes furiously."
** Jet does this ''all the time.'' A particularly noteworthy example was the "I'll do nasty things to your dead body" threat from [[''Not Stalking Firelord Zuko'']], which he only realized sounded like necrophilia after seeing the horrified and disgusted expressions on the faces of those who heard him.

* DarkerAndEdgier: The fic, compared to canon, as it more openly discusses difficult real-world issues like sexism, war crimes and other such things. Each installment in the trilogy is darker than the last, and more openly talks about those issues.

* EatingTheEyeCandy: Katara is fond of doing this a lot to Zuko.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler: For all they've gone through and all they will have to go through moving forward, the summation epilogue reveals that the Gaang do attain fulfillment in their individual life goals. Aang eventually discovers other unrealized airbenders living among the members of the other nations and is able to restart the Air Nomad culture; he also finds other romantic loves. Sokka and Suki stay together and become important politicians and peacekeepers who oversee the Fire Nation colonies' transition to independence and eventually become the ruling couple of the Southern Water Tribe. Toph gets to have her freedom and adventures while coming to an understanding with her parents and having a home that accepts her with Zuko, Iroh, and Katara in the Fire Nation. Zuko and Katara go on to [[TheyDo get married]], have five children, do an enormous amount of work towards societal and economic reform and global peace initiatives, and become two of the most widely respected monarchs in Fire Nation history, presiding over what becomes considered by historians to be a Golden Age of peace and prosperity in both the Fire Nation and the world.]]