History FanFic / TheStalkingZukoSeries

* UncannyValleyGirl: The Joo Dees, taken UpToEleven.

*** When combined with Aang's passificistic yet self-righteous flaws, these issues snowball into their relationship's fatal flaw: each cares deeply about the other but neither is willing to address the other's flaws outright.

** Aang's refusal to use the more aggressive and deterring firebending instead of the more pacifistic airbending against the scoridillo even when its intent on fatally poisoning Katara mirrors how his more pacifistic approach to the threat that is Ozai leads to Ozai nearly fatally "poisoning" Zuko's reign as Firelord before it even really began.

** When the Aang and Katara come across a scorpidillo in the woods and realize it's close to stinging Katara, Aang is aware that they are afraid of fire but chooses to use airbending against it, not wanting to hurt the creature. The scorpidillo bites Katara, and would have killed her if not for immediate first aid.

** Katara likes to note that X wins/win at X (forever). Also, that much fun was had by all.

** In ''Not Stalking Firelord Zuko'', Ming asks Zuko what Azula'a favorite foods are, because Azula isn't eating what they give her. Zuko tells her that Azula used to really like cinnamon and vanilla cream puffs, but that Azula would probably lie and say she didn't like them, and that she'd always said that she didn't like them, but she "would always unfailing eat them in large quantities when she thought no one was looking." It's a cute quirk from the otherwise serious and dangerous Azula. Then in the side-story prequel ''princess of mine'', we find out that Ursa's purfume smelled like vanilla and cinnamon, and that every dessert reminds Azula of her.

* TheFarmerAndTheViper: Aang spared Ozai's life. [[spoiler:Ozai takes the very next opportunity to snatch and nearly murder Toph, using her life as a bargaining chip.]]

*** When combined with Aang's passificistic yet self-righteous flaws, these issues snowball into their relationship's fatal flaw: each cares deeply about the other but neither is willing to deal with their problems.

''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7250783/1/Stalking_Zuko Stalking Zuko]]'' is an AdaptationExpansion fic that acts as a between/behind the episodes look at ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''. It starts off when Zuko is accepted in the Gaang - Katara doesn't trust him and fears that he will backstab them again. Her solution is to stalk Zuko and write down his every action so she would know his weaknesses. The story follows the Gaang's adventures throughout the second half of season three, retold through Katara's perspective.

* SpotOfTea: Along with Iroh, Zuko always makes tea for the Gaang.

** Katara tries to shelter those she mothers from harsh lethal realities, in part because she wishes to spare them from what she herself was put through. While this can protect the emotional wellbeing of the group in the short-term, it also can cause problems to linger rather than being efficiently addressed and resolved. It also means she bottles up her feelings until they explode, at which point she's not usually coherent enough to express them clearly.

* FatalFlaw: Aang struggles with seeing value in others' perspectives and persistently looks to avoid conflict and seek alternative routes and solutions rather than facing difficult situations head on. While in the show this flaw is discussed, in this fic this flaw has major consequences.
** Early in ''Not Stalking Zuko,'' Katara is stung by a Scorpidillo. Aang had time to scare it off with fire before it stung her, but chose airbending because he didn't want to hurt it. The air blast only serves to startle and agitate it further, and it responds by immediately stinging Katara. If Katara hadn't had access to immediate first aid, this could have been a literally fatal flaw in Aang's response. [[spoiler:It also foreshadows the problems that will arise from Aang's decision to spare Ozai.]]
** Like in canon, Aang ignores the advice of all of his friends and past lives and spares Ozai's life after their battle. [[spoiler:Ozai takes the very next opportunity to try to kill them, nearly succeeding in doing so to Toph. Also, leaving him alive leaves Zuko vulnerable to the political instability of a still-living predecessor who never legally abdicated the throne, meaning rebellious forces have a someone to rally around, and Ozai continues to sneak them orders on how to undermine and assassinate Zuko from prison. Ozai's made very clear that he's going to use every moment he has left in life to further his goals of hurting others and all Aang's decision does is jeopardize the attempts at peace and risk lives.]]

* DefeatMeansFriendship: Defied. [[spoiler: Aang expected the Firelord to stop being a bad person and see the error of his ways after Aang spared him. Aang can't understand why Ozai isn't greatful and cooperative now that Aang has defeated him and spared his life. Instead, Aang sparing Ozai means that Ozai continues to have (and take) opportunities to hurt others and destabilize his son's new reign.]]

Page in Construction, NEEDS WIKI MAGIC! Please add tropes when you spot them.

* [[MistakenForGay Mistaken For Bi]]: Jet insists this is his circumstance when his stalking of "Lee" (Zuko) convinces everyone around him that he has an unhealthy crush on "Lee," but in actuality this is subverted. Jet's friends [[spoiler: and therapist]] tell him that they're okay with his sexuality, he just needs to let go of Lee's "rejection" and move on to keep it from taking over his life. However, Jet's own descriptions in his personal stalker log often fixate on Zuko's amazing talents and impressive physical appearance, and Jet apparently spent most of his first police interview complaining about how good Zuko looked when shirtless, which implies that Jet actually is attracted to Zuko and just [[UnreliableNarrator isn't reporting his own behavior accurately in his journal]], an interpretation WordOfGod supports in their author's notes. It eventually gets to the point where Jet's passages describing Jin's behavior read like transparent projection for his own sexual fantasies regarding Zuko. The strong implication that Jet's just in denial is further supported in ''Not Stalking Firelord Zuko'', [[spoiler: wherein Katara is stunned at Jet blatantly oogling Zuko's butt [[ImplausibleDeniability at the very moment he is denying doing so.]]]]

* [[MistakenForGay Mistaken For Bi]]: Jet insists this is his circumstance when his stalking of "Lee" (Zuko) convinces everyone around him that he has an unhealthy crush on "Lee," but in actuality this is subverted. Jet's friends [[spoiler: and therapist]] tell him that they're okay with his sexuality, he just needs to let go of Lee's "rejection" and move on to keep it from taking over his life. However, Jet's own descriptions in his personal stalker log often fixate on Zuko's amazing talents and impressive physical appearance, and Jet apparently spent most of his first police interview complaining about how good Zuko looked when shirtless, which implies that Jet actually is attracted to Zuko and just [[UnreliableNarrator isn't reporting his own behavior accurately in his journal]], an interpretation WordOfGod supports in their author's notes. It eventually gets to the point where Jet's passages describing Jin's behavior read like transparent projection for his own sexual fantasies regarding Zuko. The strong implication that Jet's just in denial is further supported in ''Not Stalking Firelord Zuko'', [[spoiler: wherein Katara is stunned at Jet blatantly googling Zuko's butt [[ImplausibleDeniability at the very moment he is denying doing so.]]]]

* [[MistakenForGay Mistaken For Bi]]: Jet's stalking is mistaken constantly as having an unhealthy crush on Zuko. Jet's friends [[spoiler: and therapist]] tell him that they're okay with his sexuality, just let go of Lee's "rejection" and move on to keep it from taking over his life.

* AccusationFic: The fic calls out Aang for [[WhatMeasureIsAMook sparing Ozai after sinking countless Fire Nation naval ships]] and causing a disastrous political situation for Zuko.

* 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 stating 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.

* DudeNotFunny: [[spoiler: Katara's reaction to Zuko joking that he'd rather get hit by lightning again than take his medicine can be summarized as a brief but terrifying burst of ColdFury. See NeverSayThatAgain below]].

* DudeNotFunny: [[spoiler: Katara did not like Zuko joking that he'd rather get hit by lightning than do something else, once he was on the mend]].

** During Zuko's recovery from the bolt to his chest he makes a comment about how he'd rather be struck by lightning than keep taking the horribly foul-tasting medicine. Katara's immediate response is a silent, ferocious, unbroken staredown until, after a few silent seconds, Zuko meekly capitulates to taking the medicine, eventually finding the voice to ask, "too soon?" She tells him to '''never make a joke about that again.'''

* DrunkOnTheDarkSide: Parodied with Katara's birthday dictatorship. ([[InsistentTerminology A benign dictatorship!]]) And her Bell of Power in her SickEpisode.

* DrunkOnTheDarkSide: Parodied with Katara's birthday dictatorship. (A benign dictatorship!) And her Bell of Power in her SickEpisode.

* InsistentTerminology: Katara does not "run away," she "storms off." She also suggests that Zuko not call his training Aang "relentless training," but "enthusiastic practice," to make it slightly more appealing to him.

* DeliberatelyBadExample: Why does Katara kiss Aang at the end of the war, despite the fact that she doesn't love him and the author ''hates'' Kataang? Because Katara's been told that unless she marries a high-status husband acceptable to the tribes whom she can influence to support or speak for her, she won't have the power to change anything in their deeply patriarchal society--the Avatar or the son of the Northern Water Tribe's chief are presented as her only realistic options, and [[HateSink Han]] makes [[DoggedNiceGuy Aang]] look like a good choice by comparison.

* DeliberatelyBadExample: Why does Katara kiss Aang at the end of the war, despite the fact that she doesn't love him and the author ''hates'' Kataang? Because Katara's been told that she'd be best off marrying a high-status husband- the Avatar or the son of the Northern Water Tribe's chief- and [[HateSink Han]] makes [[DoggedNiceGuy Aang]] look like a good choice by comparison.

* 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 a CallBack to the double fishhook incident and an assertion that if Sokka does try to teach Zuko, one of them will try to give the other a noogie, there will be inelegant struggling, they'll tip the boat, 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. They eventually come back soaking wet and without any fish. No prizes for guessing what happened.

* TheBusCameBack: The Ember Island kids, Chit Sang, Jee, and Mai all come back.

* {{Dramedy}}: The trilogy is intensely character- and relationship-focused with varying levels of comedy and drama at any particular point; it begins more as a comedy with occasional drama and ends as a romantic drama with occasional comedy. The accompanying side fics set in the shared universe ping-pong between full comedy, high drama, and even tragedy (in the case of ''New Years'').

* ParentsAsPeople: Toph's parents wants what's best for her, but clearly don't understand their daughter and hurt her because of it.

* PrecociousCrush: Aang has one on Katara, and Katara had one on Bato when she was Aang's age. The fact that Katara got over hers is why she hopes he'll get over his crush on her.
* PrisonRape: Implied with the threat of cooler fever. Since its noted that cooler fevers makes one so weak that they can't defend themselves from the guards or fellow prisoners.

* ThePowerOfLove: Ty Lee gives a very good and coherent explanation of what people will do for "the fuzzies" like Mai saving Zuko at Boiling Rock, Suki hijacking the airship to save Sokka, and Oma flattening two cities when Shu died. They hope to invoke this power to get Kuei to grow a spine by [[spoiler: bringing Song back to him.]]
** On the other hand, Pakku tries to deconstruct this in his talk against inter-nation marriage by feeling that love is not enough of a reason to do things like that when the world is already so out of balance. Katara disagrees with him, but admits he had some points.

* NotSoDifferent:
** Suki and Zuko after their stealth-off realize that they are both really great at being "stealthy badasses" and both felt like outsiders to the group (while Zuko [[ReformedButRejected had difficulty getting the Gaang to trust him]], Suki had difficulty finding her role in it).
** Zuko also shares the latter with Toph, as well as their being from privileged backgrounds and having a bad relationship with their parents.
** Toph and Aang both have unrequited crushes on someone else (Katara and Sokka).

** Jet does this ''all the time.'' A particularly noteworthy example was the "I'll do nasty things to your dead body" threat from [[spoiler:''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.

** Pakku and Yugoda ship Katara/Aang, but not for the best of reasons. While having good intentions, they believe that the Water Tribe's patriarchal traditions won't change any time soon, and Katara's best bet is to find a good husband- if she can't stand the son of the Northern Water Tribe's leader, then [[TheChosenOne the Avatar]] would be the best alternative.