Avatar: The Lost Reptile Bender
is a crossover combining the settings of Beastars and Avatar: The Last Airbender / The Legend of Korra.
The Avatar reincarnates through a cycle of species rather than element, with benders of all four elements appearing in each animal clan. After the last Avatar passed nearly two decades ago, they were expected to be reborn as a reptile. With no sign of a reptilian Avatar and the tenuous inter-clan peace beginning to crumble, Legosi must navigate the last years of his adolescence as a pro-bending fanboy with barely-passable earthbending abilities while keeping his komodo ancestry and its spiritual consequences well away from a society that frowns upon interspecies romance. He doesn't do the best job of it, but he's managing to make it work.
This fanfic provides examples of:
- The Ace: Riz is considered the number one member and unofficial leader of the pro-bending teams.
- Adaptational Badass: Elemental bending powers are one hell of a great equalizer in the carnivore/herbivore dichotomy here.
- Haru's an extremely good and dangerous airbender. She's actually already master-level!
- Kibi's an agressive and strong earthbender, to the point that a running joke in Cherryton is that if Tao (who's a waterbender) tried to devour him, Kibi would kick his ass effortlessly.
- Adaptational Heroism: Riz is no longer a killer or a predator, having not been the one to kill Tem, nor has Tem died in this continuation. In stark contrast, he is one of the most friendly and morally upstanding characters in the cast.
- Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: A lot, even ignoring the romantic ships.
- In canon, the Shishigumi is very close and loyal to Louis as he was their temporary leader; in fact, they're second only to Legosi in regards to characters he most interacts with. Because in this continuation, Ibuki is the one to become the Shishigumi's boss and Louis isn't, their interaction are instead rather limited, and the Shishigumi characters end up spending more time with Oguma, in Ibuki's subplot and Legosi, as they help him with his bending. By extension, despite slowly becoming his step-father, Ibuki and Louis do not have the almost-father-son relationship they had in canon.
- In canon, Gouhin and Haru never interact with each other and barely know about each other. In this fic, Gouhin is something of a mentor for Haru when she decides to become a sage.
- Raul is added to the extended secondary cast as both a friend to Jack and a member of the Shishigumi. In canon, he wasn't even a Beastars character, but rather from the sister series Beast Complex, and wasn't indicated to even be at the school at the same time as the other characters.
- Affectionate Nickname: Oggy for Oguma, from Ibuki.
- Allohistorical Allusion:
- Once again, a member of a big club (here, the pro-bending club) is murdered. But instead of Tem, it's Ellen. And the murderer isn't Riz, but Dolph (the hippo, not the Shishigumi).
- "Season" 1 ends with a herbivore in danger of being devoured by the Shishigumi. It's Els, not Haru. Hell, Haru's part of the rescue effort!
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Dosei, Juno's father. "Eccentric", the word she uses to describe him, is an understatement.
Therapybear: I'm not saying all the earthbending masters are insane, but... *gestures at Toph, Bumi, and Kiyoshi* ...there's a high incidence rate. - Asshole Victim: Nobody actually mourns the Lion Chief once he gets killed during the Shishigumi raid. Even his own underlings thought he was a bastard and seem pretty okay with him dead and Ibuki in his place.
- Bad Powers, Bad People: The Lion Chief was a psychic bloodbender and a vicious serial killer who kidnapped herbivores to satiate himself.
- Blind Without 'Em: Ibuki hides the fact he is losing his sight over time until Oguma gifts him with a pair of glasses and he is amazed about how different it is to be able to use them.
- Blow You Away: Haru and Tem, among others, being airbenders.
- Cassandra Truth: In chapter 7, Legosi tries to warn Oguma that something is seriously wrong with Louis. Alas, the old deer isn't interested in listening to a carnivore. Something he regrets a lot later.Oguma: I should have listened to that wolf! I knew it, I had a bad feeling then, but he seemed like he was just a stupid dog and now Louis is fighting alongside the avatar and, and setting fire to Felidae gangsters! Where did I go wrong??
- Dishing Out Dirt: Legosi, Riz, Kibi and Voss, being earthbenders.
- Elemental Powers: It's a crossover with Avatar: The Last Airbender / The Legend of Korra, what were you expecting?
- Entertainingly Wrong: Once Legosi confesses to Dosei that he is in love with a man, Dosei accepts it with open arms, but believes that this means Legosi is dating Jack, it's not until chapter 45 that he clarifies, in a fit of rage, that he is dating Louis.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: A Played for Laughs example in chapter 39. As Oguma moans where he went wrong in Louis' education (having learned that Louis helped the Avatar in attacking the Shishigumi earlier), Yuta, his butler, tries to comfort him by asking him if Louis would really be "the kind of person who would go out with the avatar in the dark and start setting criminal carnivores on fire"... and immediately realizes with horror that yes, he would.
- Making a Splash: Jack, Els and Tao, being waterbenders.
- Fantastic Slur: "Abomination", which is used for hybrids, is considered a slur against them, to the point that Louis and Haru react angrily, if not violently, when people use that word to describe Legosi, even Legosi himself.
- Flight: Legosi develops the power to fly through airbending when Louis accepts his marriage proposal.
- Forbidden Love: All around due to the much harsher treatment of inter-species relationships in relation to the canon material. In the original, relationships between species were considered an Experimented in College thing that was fairly common, but not talked about much; and despite being the minority, marriages between species (even between carnivores and herbivores), was legal. In this fic, Interspecies Romance are outright forbidden and legally punishable, to the point Tem says that they shouldn't even talk about it out in the open when they're playing Truth or Dare. Notable examples include Legosi, a hybrid avatar, with Louis, a deer heir; and Ibuki, a lion gangster, with Oguma, the leader of the Artio Clan.
- Foreshadowing: A Played for Laughs example. In chapter 35, Haru notices that all the people of the Artio clan she knows (except Pina) are now dating big buff carnivores (Louis and Legosi, Tem and Riz, Els and Bill), and jokingly wonders if all Artio people are like that, asking Louis if his father dates a big buff carnivore (which doesn't make Louis laugh). Four chapters later, Oguma does start dating a big buff carnivore: Ibuki.
- Freudian Slip: When trying to explain to Louis that he is courting Ibuki, Oguma ends up saying they're fucking instead. Which is still true, but he didn't mean to say.
- Has a Type: Tem has a thing for buff, strong carnivores, to the point of impliedly being overwhelmed by seeing Riz and Legosi spar, as well as seeing the Shishigumi lions training.
- Historical Hero Upgrade: In-Universe. Avatar Kota's real life was much different than what the book about his life, The Tiger Thief, tells of. It's implied this was done with the intention of making a lot of Kota's more unorthodox traits hidden and make him an overall more palatable and "heroic" figure for Clan Felidae. Among the various changes, it includes hiding the fact he was an archer, not a warrior; that he was a skinny short guy instead of a big, muscular fighter due to both having grown up in the streets and avoiding meat for most of his life; that he was gay and in a relationship with a man from another species (his supposed "best friend", the lion Tak); and that he ended up working with the sages once they agreed to help the orphans he grew up with, whereas the book says he never teamed up with them.
- Killed By The Adaptation: Instead of Tem, it's Ellen who's murdered at the beginning of the story.
- Neutrality Backlash: A lot against the sages, as they leave their Clans to try to help everybody and the spirits, as a result, members of the sages are often branded traitors by their clans, especially if they're benders which would represent a powerful gain to the clan's military might.
- Past-Life Memories: Legosi is noted to be unusually capable of communicating with and remember the lives of past Avatars, which is implied to be because of his nature as a hybrid.
- Playing with Fire: Louis, Bill and Gouhin, being firebenders.
- Official Couple: Five for now:
- Kibi and Tao starting with chapter 20.
- Legosi and Louis starting with chapter 26.
- Riz and Tem starting with chapter 27.
- Bill and Els starting with chapter 32.
- Ibuki and Oguma starting with chapter 39.
- Restoration of Sanity: Legosi manages to heal Louis' brain and cause the trope in chapter 12. Though it's explicitly stated that the damages are still here and that Louis may benefit from multiple healing sessions. Legosi compares it to treating long term injuries and arthritis.
- Secret-Keeper: At the beginning, Jack's the only one to know that Legosi's the Avatar. Gradually, more people discover it: Haru, Louis, Gouhin, Bill, Riz, Tem, Els, Kibi and Tao.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: Bill had already noticed Legosi is the Avatar after seeing him healing Louis using waterbending, but kept it under wraps until he had no choice but to beg him for his health.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Tem lives in this fic (it's Ellen who dies instead).
- Took a Level in Kindness: Louis starts off as a callous and vicious man who is rude and mean to everyone and even worse to carnivores. After a Restoration of Sanity via healing, he is shown to become very nice to everyone, even though he is still a pretty ferocious fighter.
