Webcomic / How I Became Yours

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 taken up residence at an Earth Kingdom estate owned by Toph's family, 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.

Zuko discovers that his jealous wife Mai hid Katara's pregnancy from him by hiding the letters revealing the truth, and murdered her unborn child. After disowning and humiliating Mai, he runs away from the still-recovering Fire Nation and 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, so she enlists the help of a firebending assassin named Sho.

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 or locking her away where no one will find her, the Gaang takes her under their wing and cares for her. 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 DeviantArt (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. She has sadly friends-locked the entire comic at her MySpace page, however, you can view the whole comic in order on Tumblr with a bit better picture quality here.

She has also created a sequel comic: Rise of the Agni Army. Don't expect much. It's a Dead Fic.

For the Legend of Korra Spiritual Successor, see Abuse Cycle.

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Tropes:

• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • A mild example. Aang is the hero who speaks most angrily and at length against the idea that Azula could be honestly repentant. In the series, of course, he is the most forgiving and easy-going of the Avatar team, to the point of outright gullibility in some cases.
  • Zuko is portrayed as a Domestic Abuser who would rather be with Katara than fulfill his duties as Fire Lord.
  • Katara is less caring and motherly and more self-centered than in the series.
• Adaptational Villainy: Mai, who was originally villainous in the canon, but performed a Heel–Face Turn out of love for Zuko. While that love is acknowledged, it's portrayed as childish, petty, and selfish as she lies to Zuko, poisons Katara and Azula, and later attacks Zuko and Katara and the Gaang directly.
• Adaptational Wimp:
  • In general, every single female character that appears in this comic (sans Mai) get chickified to fairly unrealistic levels, such as giving Toph huge D-cup sized breasts at the age of 16.
  • Speaking of Toph, she gets this treatment pretty badly, 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".
  • Katara. The things she does the most in this fic? Whining. Being self-centered. Making even her unborn child's death all about her. Only caring about being Zuko's love interest. Wearing pretty European-style dresses (which isn't bad in and of itself, but considering the canon setting, they're very out of place). The only scene in which she's ever seen using the Action Girl skills that she worked so far for in the series? When she bloodbends Mai to death.
  • Azula, due to her Amnesiac Dissonance, as well as having been de-bended like her father. Rather than the Dark Action Girl in the series, she is now a seemingly kind (if somewhat socially unsmooth) ordinary girl with a Mysterious Past. Though then her memories slowly start returning, and she gets her powers back. In the sequel comic, she is more of a Lady of War.
  • Aang does absolutely nothing in the whole damn comic besides being Toph's lover.
  • Actually lampshaded in Chapter 2◊.
    Toph: Look Katara what happened to that fearless sugar queen I know? I know she's in there!
  • Inverted with Ursa, of all people, who is revealed to be a master firebender.
• All-Loving Heroine: When Azula turns up, all the other heroes are immediately suspicious of her and doubtful about her amnesia story (which, to be fair, sort of makes sense, given who they're dealing with). However, Katara believes her right away and supports and comforts her.
• Almost Dead Girl: Azula conveniently waits until the battle is over to deliver a long speech to Sokka before she 'dies', despite being stabbed in the heart.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • Zuko's confrontation with Mai. In particular, one panel can be interpreted in different ways. What it seemingly intends to show is him rather forcefully shoving her away; however, the way it is depicted, it can also be read as him striking her.
  • It is not made clear whether Sho is actually Mai's brother by blood, or whether he simply calls her "Sister" as an honorific or polite form of address (as is done in some Asian cultures). Going strictly by what has been established previously, the latter is more likely (since Mai had no older siblings in the show); but HIBY is known to take some liberties with canon, so either option is possible.
• Amnesiac Dissonance: Azula is implied to go through this gradually, getting memories back in her sleep. However, the trope is not used to portray self-conflict and soul-searching right before a Heel–Face Turn, as per the usual implications. Instead, it becomes a Hand Wave that says "Azula is crying about the evil things she's done in the past, so that means she's automatically a really good and completely different person now."
• Amnesiacs are Innocent: Azula's amnesia essentially provides the reset to her personality necessary to get her together with Sokka.
• Aristocrats Are Evil:
  • Generally averted, since most of the main characters are of the nobility, and still good. Seemingly played more straight with the Fire Nation nobility specifically, however, with Mai the story's major villain and Sho (who may or may not be a nobleman himself) her dragon, and Zuko's aristocratic advisors opposing his marriage to Katara due to Fantastic Racism.
  • The "good" aristocratic characters typically do not flaunt their social status. By contrast, Mai demeans Katara (and ignores or delegitimizes her own aristocratic background among the Water Tribes) by calling her a "Water Tribe peasant" as a term of contempt.
• Arranged Marriage: In HIBY, Zuko's marriage to Mai is said to have been arranged by his father and her parents. This does not explicitly contradict the series proper, but no mention was ever made of that there.
• Artistic License – Medicine: So, we're supposed to believe that Mai gave Katara a poison so potent, that she miscarries instantly after taking a bite of poisoned fruit despite appearing several months pregnant?
  • When Katara heals Azula from her initial poisoning, she leaves Azula's ninja mask on. While there are a myriad of reasons this is a bad idea, the biggest three are it interfere's with Azula's ability to breath properly, it prevents Katara from properly assessing Azula's pain level (since she cannot see her mouth) and if Azula has to vomit, she is pretty much guarunteed to choke on the results.
  • Azula's Easy Amnesia is a case of Artistic License: Psychology.
  • Zigzagged after Azula is stabbed in the chest. Katara warns that removing the knife will cause them to bleed out, but the solution is to leave the knife in during a sea voyage that takes at least a day.
• Artistic License – Martial Arts: There are a few hand positions traced from stills of the show that somehow make it into the comic. Other than that, none of the "bending" pictured in the comic looks even remotely like the complex forms depicted in the cartoon — mostly because the characters hardly ever move.
• Babies Ever After: In the epilogue, all of the (surviving) protagonists from the series have families with children.
• Badass Family:
  • The Fire Lord's family, even more so than in canon. Zuko and Azula are powerful firebenders, of course, as was their father; and in HIBY this is also shown to be true of Ursa.
  • Mai and Sho, if one interprets them as brother and sister. Mai, of course, is a Badass Normal (to the point of Charles Atlas Superpower), while Sho is both a Master Swordsman and a mighty firebender.
  • Katara's family was likewise already this in the canon, but its badassery increases even more when Princess Azula marries into it.
• The Beautiful Elite: All of the heroes have high social rank and are very beautiful. Well, except Zuko, obviously.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Mai, the designated Hate Sink, is the only female character who does not sport breasts that would make Pamela Anderson proud. She is also the only female character to not be treated to fancy ballgowns, jewelry, or hairstyles, which makes her look (and even act by the act of not dressing up) the closest to her canon counterpart.
• 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 one after Azula is struck in the chest with a throwing knife.
• Blade Enthusiast: Just as in the show, Mai uses throwing knives as her main weapon, and is deadly with them. Unlike in the show, though, How I Became Yours doesn't have to adhere to network standards, so here her knives sometimes hit people.
• Blood from the Mouth: Sho's mouth is dripping blood after a fight with Toph. However, the injury doesn't seem very serious, as he's able to pull off a Deus Exit Machina just seconds after he's hurt. Either that, or he's just that badass.
• Brother–Sister Team: Zuko and Azula, Sokka and Katara, and Mai and Sho. Those last are the only team who really do stuff together, though.
• Brought Down to Normal: Azula, in the beginning. Zuko, unwilling to execute her like he did with his father, is convinced to have Aang remove her bending. She eventually overcomes this.
• Bus Crash:
  • It's offhandedly mentioned that Ozai was executed.
  • Toph's parents died in the war.
• Caught in the Rain: Sokka and Azula.
• Challenge Seeker: While Sho initially seems to be just doing his sister a favor, he apparently was more interested in fighting Sokka. After the fight, he tells them he'll return and explicitly states that it has nothing to do with them murdering his sister, but that they were the first ones to draw blood from him in a long time. Oddly enough, he blames Katara, despite Toph being the one who injured him, thus perhaps subtly showing that he did care about Mai after all.
• Cherry Blossoms: A rare homage to the Eastern setting of the show. The romantic undertone is clear, given the alternate meaning of the word cherry and the gratuitous sex scene under the trees.
• Chickification: Pulled on Katara, Toph, and especially on Azula.
  • June, the girl who was introduced to us by breaking open a ship hull to capture a fugitive, wishes she'd get to dress up more often, complains about her outfit, then giggles.
• The Chosen One: Azula. When she was born, there appeared the image of a beautiful woman holding fire in her hands in the heavens, showing that Agni had blessed her for a great task. As the story develops, it turns out that she was chosen to give birth to the child that will bring peace to the Avatar world.
• Continuity Nod:
  • In "The Boiling Rock" in the series, Azula shut down the warden's questions by the oneliner, "I'm a people person." In HIBY, on her date with Sokka, when he begins wondering why she asks so many questions about him, she smiles and replies similarly, saying, "I'm just a curious person."
  • Azula's hair turning white. This is not explained in HIBY, but in the series, this was what happened to Yue when she was healed in the spirit waters.
• Convenient Miscarriage: Mai poisons Katara in the beginning, making her lose Zuko's love child. This leaves Katara free to act like an infatuated teenager when Zuko comes back into the picture three years later, and also serves as a source of cheap Wangst.
• Costume Porn: Toph wears dresses. Without complaining. And the other girls' outfits are even fancier than hers.
• Covers Always Lie: In addition to the comments Jackie Diaz wrote to look like critical compliments, not one of the three scenes pictured on the cover happens in the comic.
• Crazy-Prepared: Mai and Sho launch an elaborate scheme to provide them with alibis and make sure Zuko is nowhere near when they plot to murder Katara, and prepare carefully to deal with everything the rest of Team Avatar can throw at them. They lose only because of a wild card factor they couldn't possibly predict—namely, Katara's daylight bloodbending, which everyone believed to be an impossibility.
• 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.
• Dead Guy Junior: Katara's miscarried baby is named Kuzon, after Aang's Fire Nation friend from before the war. Her next baby is also named Kuzon, apparently in honor of his older brother.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • Toph's parents are said to have been killed in the war, whereas in The Legend of Korra, it was implied that they were still alive by the time Toph's own children were young adults.
  • It's briefly mentioned that Ozai was executed. In the official Avatar comics, he was kept imprisoned instead.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • Aang is defined solely by his relationship to Toph, who didn't get a lot of screentime or meaningful moments herself in comparison to Katara and Azula.
  • Katara and Zuko themselves are subject to this. Once they hook up, the attention shifts to Sokka and Azula.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Iroh tells Zuko that "Three years ago, Lady Katara was pregnant with child... your child."
• Derailing Love Interests: Mai falls victim to both this and Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome, revealing herself as a crazy jealous woman who kills Katara's unborn child, and then tries to kill Katara herself, too.
• Deus Exit Machina: Zuko and Aang have to leave Toph's estate so Zuko can be Hauled Before a Senate Subcommittee. They are, therefore, not present when Mai and Sho storm the estate in an attempt to kill Katara.
• Deus ex Machina: Sho executes a firebending move seen only twice in the original series: the bender casts a sphere of fire and then disappears. Only he kicks it up a notch, where, instead of using this move as a distraction in order to run away in the resulting smoke, he turns it into a sort of Villain Teleportation. Have we mentioned that, up until this point, he's demonstrated no ability for firebending?
• Distant Finale: There is a brief epilogue taking place six years after the story, with the surviving main cast and their families.
• Domestic Abuse: Zuko's treatment of Mai. To be perfectly fair to him, it's a one-off thing, and a response to him having just learned some rather upsetting things.
• Don't Call Me "Sir": Zuko asks Iroh not to call him "my lord" early on, then forgets to repeat this request when Iroh lapses back into this mode of address. Or maybe he's just given up trying.
• Double In-Law Marriage: Zuko and Katara as well as Sokka and Azula. The brother of each pair of siblings marries the sister of the other.
• The Dragon: Mai's accomplice (and possibly brother), Sho. Although a firebending Blood Knight himself, whose powers appears to be greater than Mai's own, he defers to her while she remains in command.
• Dramatic Ellipsis: Plenty.
• Dull Surprise: To be expected given the amount of copying and pasting; a character might be speaking calmly one panel, then shouting or breaking down into tears in the next with the exact same face.
• 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.
• Exact Eavesdropping: How Azula finds out that Sokka likes her. Interesting that he just happens to start talking about how physically attractive she is when she's supposedly hidden from sight...in a bright, salmon-colored, low-cut dress.
• Face Palm: Iroh does this while Aang and Zuko bicker about whether Azula's memory loss is part of some larger plan.
• Fairy Companion: Azula gets a miniature, flying, glowing Aang duplicate to lead her through the Spirit World. Ostensibly, it's a close-up of those glowing blue fireflies Aang encountered on his way to meet Koh.
• Fanservice Pack: Sokka becomes noticeably, what is likely supposed to be, more attractive as time goes on.
• Fix Fic: The writer appears not to have liked how the romances turned out in canon, and so rewrites them in another way.
• Floating Head Syndrome:
  • The cover/poster for the sequel comic.
  • Aang and Toph for this comic.
• Flynning: The "swordfighting" scenes consist of both parties taking the "en garde" stance for a few panels. Once, Sho executes a clumsy flip, and that's it for variety.
• Forced Miscarriage: This occured prior to the story. Zuko's jealous wife Mai learns about Katara's pregnancy before he does. She sends Katara poisoned fruit and forces her to have a stillbirth halfway through her pregnancy.
• Forgot About His Powers: Inverted. Toph says they know for a fact that Azula is telling the truth, because of her Living Lie Detector powers, ignoring the fact that Azula has proven that she can fool those powers easily.
• Friend to All Living Things: Reformed Azula is a friend to all turtleducks, talking panda nature spirits, and miniature glowing Aang clones.
• Funny Background Event: Although unintentional, it's still funny. In many panels, Aang can be seen in the background wearing an expression that's practically begging for an end to his suffering.
• GIS Syndrome: Oh, so much. One ballroom scene even had blurred photos of Avatar cosplayers in the background.
• Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: Sho does this as he's taunting Sokka before their ensuing fight.
• Hauled Before a Senate Subcommittee: Zuko gets hauled before one when he wants to marry Katara. Justified, since he is the reigning monarch, and whom he marries is thus a matter of great importance to the whole nation. And, well, he did institute the Senate, after all, so he really shouldn't be complaining.
• Heartbeat Soundtrack: Attempted in several places. However, when it's written as "*heart beating faster*" in little italics floating in the background, it's a bit hard to take it seriously.
• Hidden Elf Village: During the Time Skip between the end of the series and the beginning of this comic, Aang finds one of these, populated by Air Nomads. Thus, the fourth elemental nation is not extinct after all. Nothing more is said about this development.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: Azula's ninja costume from her introduction. It's dark and has a mask, but it exposes enough of her pearly-white skin that she'd still be fairly noticeable at night.
• How Much Did You Hear?: "So, Azula, I assume you were hiding in that tree long enough to hear me go on and on about how beautiful you are? And about taking you to see the cherry blossoms, of course..."
• Idiot Ball: Sokka starts the plot off by accidentally mailing a letter concerning all of the details of Katara's pregnancy directly to Mai's doorstep. The only explanation given is that he didn't bother checking where the messenger hawks were going, even though he didn't have a reason to be sending any messages to the Fire Nation in the first place.
  • Mai also holds onto an Idiot Ball by not only keeping the incriminating letter for three years, but leaving it out where one of her maids could easily spot it and bring it to Zuko.
  • A more subtle one is held by Katara and Zuko as well as Aang and other friends. Zuko and Katara both wonder why they never hear from each other but both regularly interact with Aang and others. Even a cursory questioning would quickly reveal the sabotaged communications.
  • After finding an injured woman dressed as an assassin, the gang decide not to unmask her. Even ignoring the medical reasons (see Artistic Lisence above) their logic is that she's trying to hide her identity, so they need to respect that, which ignores the fact that if she's trying to hide her identity from them, that means she is an enemy, and if she isn't trying to hide from them, then she won't mind.
    • They also fail to recognize Azula despite her striking profile, noticeable pale skin and almost unique golden eyes.
• Idle Rich: All the protagonists by the time the story begins, except Zuko (who is a reigning monarch, thus not idle) and Aang (who, as an Airbender monk, lives more frugally). Though several of them take on new responsibilities over the course of the story.
• Immodest Orgasm: Katara treats the reader to a description of her every sensation during her sex scene. Including her groans.
• Imperiled in Pregnancy: As it turns out, Azula was pregnant with Sokka's child when Mai grievously wounded her.
• Impossibly-Low Neckline: Seems to be the default style for every single dress.
  • Especially noticeable with Toph's dress during the ball, which is barely high enough to cover her nipples.
• I Never Got Any Letters: Zuko never learns about his and Katara's son until the start of the story because Mai intercepted her mail.
• Informed Flaw: Toph is blind just like in canon, but that doesn't stop her from being able to tell Katara she looks beautiful, comment on the color of her dress, or enjoy a sunrise.
• In Name Only: The story takes considerable liberties, in varying but typically significant degrees, with the characterization of the protagonists and the established rules of the setting in general.
• I Shall Taunt You: Sho takes the time to insult Sokka right before their fight.
• It's All My Fault: Sokka blames himself for Azula getting stabbed by Mai, even though he had absolutely nothing to do with the events that led up to it (unless you count his Idiot Ball mentioned above) and was powerless anyway to do anything to prevent it.
• It's Always Spring: Azula mentions that she's been at Toph's estate for eight months. During that time we never see any leaves or snow on the ground, not even during a montage which shows two or three months passing. An equatorial climate could be an explanation for that, except Gaoling is at the southern end of the Earth Kingdom, and the plants generally look like those belonging to a temperate region.
• It's All About Me: Katara has a miscarriage. Traumatic and tragic, right? Except the thing that upsets her most (judging by what she emphasizes) is that it happened the day before her birthday. Topped off when, at the beginning of the story, Katara visits her baby's memorial on the anniversary of the miscarriage. She quickly jumps from mourning being unable to save her child to wangsting about how she can't confess her love to Zuko.
  • Zuko accuses Mai of this, but Mai's accusation toward him fits him better.
  • Sho, while retreating, declares he has a grudge against the protagonists because they drew his blood for the first time in a while instead of Mai's death.
• Just Between You and Me: Mai and Sho freely volunteer information to their enemies, such as how Mai poisoned Azula and Katara, without any reason or provocation. Justified, at least in this case, since she intends to kill Katara very soon anyway and just wants to torture her in the meantime.
• Karma Houdini: Zuko, who abuses Mai physically and psychologically and never faces any consequences for it because he did it for "true love". Well, until the sequel, anyway.
• Kudzu Plot: It starts out with Katara missing Zuko and mourning her unborn son, but over time, includes deception, blackmail, amnesiacs, politics and many other plot threads, although few except those related to the shipping get any resolution.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Mai almost killing Azula can be seen as this, especially since Azula almost killed Mai for betraying her in the Boiling Rock.
• Letting Her Hair Down: Katara, Azula, and Toph. Poor Mai is never allowed to relax like they are.
• Living Lie Detector: Just like in canon, Toph has this ability. Unlike in canon, Toph is 100% sure it works all the time, even when dealing with a woman who has demonstrated the ability to fool it in the past. Maybe she's been practicing and improving it since?
• Long Hair Is Feminine:
  • Azula and Katara rarely wear their hair in the trademark updoes of the show.
  • Even Toph, who only wears her hair down when she's having sex and sleeping, still tampers with her bun to make it more elaborate or wears pretty headbands.
• Love Makes You Crazy: Mai's the intended (and most obvious) example of this trope, but it arguably applies to almost the entire main cast. Zuko deserts his nation for months to be with Katara; Katara murders her hypotenuse to be with Zuko. Azula ends up lobotomized and giggly even after she gets her memories back, and Toph... well, her sex scene with Aang is listed under Nightmare Fuel. And all of them, even Sokka and Aang who barely do anything else, defy nasty nation-centric prejudices (which were basically nonexistant in the series) for love.
• Love Makes You Evil: Mai, intentionally. Unintentionally, Zuko and Katara as well.
• Magic Skirt: Hilariously displayed with Katara when Mai attacks her.
• Maligned Mixed Marriage: Used so ubiquitously to the point of absurdity. A Fire Nation royal not being wanted to marry a Water Tribeswoman is understandable, given the nations were at war not very long ago, but why would anyone protest the marriage of an Earth Kingdom girl to an Air Nomad, especially when said Air Nomad is the Avatar?
• Meaningful Name: "Azula" is theorized to mean "dragon" in this fic, missing the point that out of universe it's most likely a reference to her blue fire ("Azul" means "blue" in Spanish), as well as, in universe, being named after Azulon. Though of course, the latter does not rule out the comic's explanation.
• Melodrama: So much of it, especially when characters internally monologue. Characters often talk about hating themselves, not feeling truly alive without their love interests, and so on and so forth.
• Mirror Scare: Mai first shows up for the climax in Katara's mirror.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Taken over from the show. One scene pictures Azula with turtle ducks.
• Modesty Bedsheet: Both varieties are used: the L-shaped sheet one later love scene with Zuko and Katara, and the traditional invocation with Toph just before the Taang love scene.
• Mood Whiplash: During Chapter 2, Zuko and Katara reunite, share The Big Damn Kiss and the very next page jumps to them on a balcony and Katara chewing Zuko out for having never contacted her in three years.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Mai attempts this. Katara achieves it.
• Mystical White Hair: Azula, in the end, after the Moon Spirit heals her from a mortal wound. The hair color is also passed on to her unborn child.
• Negated Moment of Awesome: Azula appears to have regained her bending powers, but then gets hit in the chest by a knife Mai throws.
• Not So Invincible After All: Surprisingly enough, this is played straight when Azula, while regaining her bending powers, is hit in the chest with a thrown knife and nearly killed. This proves that 1) talking isn't a free action and 2) mundane weapons, even seemingly unimpressive ones such as knives, are a threat to benders.
• Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering: The Fire Nation privy council, which bickers relentlessly over whether or not to let Katara marry Zuko. Aang sits in on the meeting and silently prays for death.
• Obligatory Swearing: Quite a bit of it, which is especially jarring considering that it's based off of a children's show.
• Oblivious to His Own Description: As Sokka is entering the Spirit World to save Azula, he begins describing the girl he fell in love with, and she doesn't seem aware that she's the person he's talking about. Justified in that there's no point at which he says "I'm talking about you," and as a result of being in the Spirit World, Azula is gradually losing her memory.
• 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.
  • Ty Lee looks quite different from her appearance in the series. To a lesser extent, so too does Sokka, but in his case it's more justified, as part of that is him just looking older and sporting a new haircut.
  • At one point, instead of tracing Zuko, Diaz traces Ichigo from Bleach, and recolors him to look like Zuko. Even by the comics standards, this is jarring.
• Offscreen Breakup: Sokka and Suki. Early on, Sokka compares the way Katara feels about Zuko to the way he used to feel about Suki. At the party in Chapter 2, Ty Lee mentions in passing that it's a shame they broke up, and Katara mentions that "long distance relationships never work out."
• Only Six Faces: It's particularly obvious in the Babies Ever After epilogue, where the five children all have the exact same face.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In the series, Mai was always The Comically Serious, even when facing down Azula. Seeing her undignified meltdown of anguish and hatred when Zuko rejects her is unsettling to say the least, and shows that she has snapped.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: So your romantic rival's killed your unborn child-now what do you do? If you're Katara, you kill them in the most horrific manner possible.
• Perfect Poison: The poison Mai gives to Katara doesn't kill and isn't meant to, but it is so potent and fast-acting that Katara shows symptoms a few seconds after taking a bite from the poisoned fruit, and it apparently has no symptoms other than forcing miscarriage.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Diaz seems to be under the impression that being the rulers of a country should come with no extra duties. Pretty much every hero has some kind of exalted title, and each is able to spend months doing nothing much more than gazing into their loved one's eyes.
  • Zuko whiles away his time pining for Katara in the Fire Nation, leaves his wife, then spends at least eight months doing nothing but lounging at Toph's estate with his new girlfriend. It's not until he's Hauled Before a Senate Subcommittee that we actually see him doing his job.
  • Sokka and Katara are supposedly Prince of the Northern Water Tribe and Princess of the Water Tribes by now. We never see them carrying out any duties pertaining to this, aside from attending a ball in Katara's honor. They don't even spend any time in the Water Tribe, preferring to lounge around Toph's estates in the Earth Kingdom instead. This is more justifiable than the case with Zuko, however, as an heir apparent will not be ruling. Many real-life crown princes also live in relative leisure, especially when young like the protagonists here.
  • Aang is the leader of a Hidden Elf Village of surviving Air Nomads. He deserts them pretty early in the story, and never returns; in the sequel, he lives with Toph in "Bong" Sing Se.
  • Toph is the head of the Beifong Family and supposedly runs a quarter of the Earth Kingdom, which apparently means that she's Katara's head housekeeper at a splendid estate in the countryside.
  • Iroh apparently does nothing but get wasted once with the kids, drink tea, and play Pai Sho. And it's not an act of Obfuscating Stupidity, either, like it was in the show. Though then again, retiring and letting the next generation handle the world's problems is of course exactly what he was planning to do at the end of the series proper.
• Plot Hole: Zuko and Katara each put a mark on the other's chest during their affair. This is apparently a Fire Nation tradition, which only brings up the question of how Mai never noticed, and why she didn't insist on trading marks with him herself. Plus these are only visible when they are first introduced, despite Zuko's Walking Shirtless Scene and Katara never wearing a dress that would cover it.
• Power Glows: Aang's tattoos glow avatar-state style while having sex with Toph.
• The Power of Love: Used to the point of ridiculousness. Azula's love for Sokka allows her to completely regain her lightning bending, Sokka and Azula's Intimate Healing, and how Sokka is able to bring Azula back from the Spirit World.
• Pretty in Mink: Azula's final dress exudes this.
• Princess Classic: Both Azula and Katara (The Chief's Daughter at best) get "upgraded" into something vaguely reminiscent of Snow White. Azula was a princess in the show, but is a nicer one in HIBY than the Dark Action Girl she mostly appeared as there.
• Princess in Rags: According to the backstory, Azula was banished from the Fire Nation after Aang took away her lightning bending. Her first appearance has her poisoned and bleeding in a back alley, wearing only a tattered "ninja outfit." Sho later reveals that she got into such terrible shape because she tried to get a seat in the new Fire Nation Senate by blackmailing Mai about Zuko and Katara's child, and Mai decided to shut her up instead of caving.
• Princesses Prefer Pink: Downplayed with Azula. One dress she prominently wears isn't quite pink, more of a salmon or peachy color. But given that she usually dressed in red or dark blue Fire Nation uniforms in the series, the difference is still quite striking.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality:
  • Zuko quickly declares Mai's heart darker than either his tyrannical father or manipulative sister. Her crime? Not telling Zuko that Katara was pregnant with his child. This is portrayed as a horrible thing, even though Katara herself decided that for the good of the world Zuko must never know. (See Idiot Ball for how Mai, and ultimately Zuko find out anyway.) When Mai tries the same logic, she's declared selfish.
  • Later, Katara kills Mai in a painful manner. Although it was in the heat of battle, which would be an acceptable excuse, Katara explains that it's because Mai poisoned her to cause her to miscarry. While the anger within Katara is understandable, the Protagonist-Centered Morality comes from the fact that Sokka tells her that it was a heroic thing to do.
• Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: Mai is written as dishonest and murderously jealous, causing Zuko to break up with her, and becomes completely unhinged after this.
• Psycho for Hire: Sho, though he doesn't charge Mai for his services as a favor to her, is stated to be a well-accomplished Bounty Hunter.
• Psychotic Smirk: Sho wears one of these all the time, save for a few brief moments when Toph starts wearing him down.
• Put on a Bus: Suki does not appear in the story, despite being written as Sokka's Love Interest in the last season of the series. Her absence is handwaved in a few lines of dialogue early on.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Azula and Toph.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Zuko and Mai exchange them after he discovers her letters, each accusing the other of selfishness and disregard for the Fire Nation.
• Redemption Equals Death: Subverted. At first, it appears as though this will be played completely straight with reformed Azula ... but thanks to the heroes, this is ultimately averted, and their new friend survives.
• Redemption Equals Sex: Azula, especially considering that she's carrying Sokka's child when Mai hits her with a knife.
• Redemption in the Rain: Azula's first date with Sokka, an early step on her road to redemption, takes place in the rain.
• Remember the New Guy?: We're supposed to believe that Sho has been around since the beginning, since there's no explanation on how he can be Mai's older brother when she's said in canon to be the eldest child in her family. Tom-Tom couldn't be given a Plot-Relevant Age-Up and a name change, could he?
• Replacement Goldfish: Azula becomes a veritable clone of Princess Yue in the end. Zuko and Katara name their new son Kuzon, after the baby Katara lost in the beginning.
• Rescue Romance: Sokka and Azula.
• Retcon:
  • Zuko and Mai's relationship is now an arranged marriage, and Zuko never actually cared for her (or at least, did not love her in a romantic sense).
  • Mai (possibly) has an older brother in Sho, despite canonically being an only child before Tom-Tom was born.
• Revenge Fic: Against Mai, for sinking the artist's preferred ships.
• Rouge Angles of Satin: Plenty. You know you're in trouble when the word "beauty" is misspelled on the cover.
• Say My Name: "ZUKO!!" "KATARA!!!"
• Scenery Porn: Yes, the backgrounds are mostly stolen photographs with traced art Photoshopped on top of them. At least they're pretty stolen photographs with traced art Photoshopped on top of them.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: After listening to a committee of senators bicker over whether a marriage to Katara would be harmful to the Fire Nation or not, Zuko gets fed up. He reminds them just who instituted the Senate after the war (I AM THE SENATE!, anyone?) and dismisses the meeting.
• Self-Insert Fic: Katara looks a lot like Ms. Diaz herself, who's also claimed that the events in the story are based on things that actually happened to her.
• Sequel Hook:
  • Sho is still at large, and has sworn revenge.
  • The sudden disappearance of Mai's mangled body might also count as a retroactive Sequel Hook.
• Sex Equals Love: Zuko/Katara, Sokka/Azula. Aang and Toph just barely subvert this, since they become engaged before their sex scene.
• Sexy Soaked Shirt: Azula's dress gets soaked during a sudden rainstorm. Mercifully, there's not all that much to see.
• Sherlock Scan: Hana does one on an amnesiac Azula, suggesting that she must be from the Fire Nation, because she's been affected by a poison that targets firebenders, was wearing Fire Nation undergarments, and has amber eyes.
• Shipper on Deck: Ping, one of the Air Nomads Aang found, ships Aang/Toph. To a lesser extent, everyone else, except for the villains, is rooting for the characters to get together.
• Shirtless Scene: Zuko, Sokka, and Aang all get at least one. Sho doesn't, despite the fact that he's just as good-looking as the others, because he'd be too sympathetic if he were sexy as well as cool.
• Shoulders of Doom: Sho sports them.
• Siblings in Crime: Mai and Sho, if they are indeed blood relatives.
• Soaperizing: While there's still considerable action, this comic focuses more on relationships than the canon series, and in particular Katara's relationships with Zuko and Azula.
• Sparkling Stream of Tears: Azula does this while running off after being confronted with her past misdeeds.
• Spider-Sense: When Mai attacks Katara, Toph somehow knows that Katara is in danger. Toph isn't even in the building at the time.
• Spin-Offspring: The whole point of Rise of the Agni Army.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Zuko and Katara at the beginning of the comic.
• Such A Lovely Noun: Sho does this when he's taunting Sokka.
• Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome: Mai, who was one of the good characters by the end of the series, becomes the main villain of the story due to her jealousy of Zuko's love for Katara.
• Surprise Pregnancy: Azula, of ALL PEOPLE in chapter 5. Toph figures it out that she's three months in with her Earth-shattering Bending skills and tells Sokka with predictable results.
• Sword Pointing: Sokka does this to Azula and later to Sho. In his defence, he was merely anticipating an attack in both cases. Not that he would've been able to stop either opponent with that ridiculous position if they did attack him.
• Sympathetic Adulterer: Zuko impregnating Katara and assaulting his betrothed Mai when she gets upset about it is intended to be a Pay Cheating unto Evil sense; not only is Mai villainized, but Zuko claims he never loved her, their marriage being retconned as arranged.
• Talking Is a Free Action:
  • Averted when Azula unlocks her lightning bending. Mai buries a knife in her chest while she's powering up.
  • Played straight just about everywhere else in that sequence. Despite having a sword to Sokka's neck, Sho does nothing as Mai gives a "Reason You Suck" Speech to Mai and bloodbends her to death.
  • Azula gives a long speech despite having been stabbed in the chest.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: Mai sends Katara a poisoned fruit basket.
• Tears of Blood: Mai, after being bloodbended.
• Teen Pregnancy: Katara would've only been about fifteen when she was pregnant with Zuko's child. Later, in the epilogue (when she would have been 21), Toph has children who seem to be at least kindergarten-age.
• They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: Zuko demands that Mai address him as "Fire Lord," then smacks her in the scene when he confronts her over Katara's letters.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Azula, due to Amnesiac Dissonance. When she gets a chance to begin her life anew, away from her father's toxic influence, she seems to become a much nicer person.
• Unsound Effect: Of a rather painful variety with sound effects such as "heart beating faster" and "servants leave the room."
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Sokka; by accidentally sending the letter out to the Fire Nation, he informs Mai of Katara's pregnancy.
• Used to Be a Tomboy: Toph has become more feminine with growing up, wearing dresses and makeup and becoming more romantic. Downplayed, however, since she still retains a lot of her rough personality under the surface.
• Vapor Wear: Toph, of all people, wears a flimsy nightgown at one point. And it's painfully obvious that she has nothing on under it.
• Villain Teleportation: Sho can seemingly do something like this with a rare firebending technique, wreathing himself in flames and disappearing out of sight.
• Visual Innuendo: It's chock full of phallic symbolism if you look carefully enough. There are candles in the Zutara sex scene which presumably flicker under Zuko's influence. The rain serves a similar function in the Sokkla sex scene, even though Sokka's not a bender. The Taang scene... is weird, but there. And, of course, Sokka wants to take Azula to see the cherry blossoms.
• Waif-Fu: Katara's acrobatic combat with Mai, where she dodges and spins like a ballet dancer or gymnast in her full-length dress.
• Wall Bang Her: Sokka and Azula.
• Wall of Text: The textboxes are downright cramped at times.
• Waxing Lyrical:
  • During Katara and Zuko's conversation on the balcony, Katara very blatantly rips off "What Hurts the Most" by Mark Wills.
  • Even more blatantly, while Zuko is pining for Katara in the first chapter, part of his inner dialogue contains lyrics straight out of "My Immortal" by Evanescence.
• Wham Line:
  Mai: You see all those years ago, when I got to your letter, something had to be done. You where not sick... like I wanted everyone to believe... I had made something just for you to eat so that little problem would go away... and yes, I took pleaser in doing it...
• What Happened to the Mouse?: After Mai gets murdered, she's never seen again in the comic. You'd think that a corpse with blood leaking out of its eyes and mouth would at least have been featured in the background, but no.
  • Appa gets a few moments like this, especially when Zuko and Aang land on the Earth Kingdom ship in Chapter Five. The Wall of Text discussion with Toph that gets rehashed Ad Nauseam with Sokka later? Pictured in great detail (metaphorically speaking). The ten-ton flying bison-thing that flew to the ship, had to land on the ship, and was possibly throwing off the ship's balance while this discussion is going on? Not even a glimpse of him.
  • Toward the end, Mai asks Sho if he had coated her knives with poison as she requested, and Sho says yes. This was just a ploy to confirm that Mai was responsible for Azula's Easy Amnesia, and the poison's never mentioned again. And then Sho comes right out and says that Mai had poisoned Azula, so that little tidbit becomes meaningless.
  • Ursa makes a total of two appearances, then disappears after informing Zuko and Aang of the battle against Sho and Mai, during which Azula was stabbed.
  • The new temple of Air Nomads — potential plot for a good Hidden Elf Village story arc, or throw-away backstory that unceremoniously throws all of Aang's Last of His Kind troubles into the trash heap?
  • The Water Tribes are reorganized into a hereditary monarchy. Yes, both tribes are now under the command of King Pakku and Queen Kanna, with Prince Sokka and Princess Katara in the wings as joint heirs-apparent. However, in light of The Legend of Korra, this is no new innovation, save for Pakku succeeding the former ruler to the throne and designating the siblings his heirs.
  • In this first chapter, Zuko proclaims Mai is no longer his wife and orders her to leave. However, when we see her later on, she's clearly still living in the castle and she's still the queen, even though it would have been months by now.
  • And, to quote King Bumi, where's Momo?
• Winter Royal Lady: Azula. Blue dress, white fur trim, white hair, the works.
• World of Buxom: Every single female character old enough to have breasts has really, really big breasts. Except for Mai because, you know, she's evil.
• Yandere: Mai is presented as one, and becomes the main antagonist for much of the story.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are:
  • First, Katara does this with Azula, who is remorseful about all the terrible things she did to the team (and others) before, showing her that she can be a good and valuable person.
  • Later, Katara receives this herself from Zuko when she is crushed with guilt for using bloodbending.
• You Did the Right Thing: Katara gets this from Zuko after killing Mai. On the other hand, a closer analysis of the situation and the alternatives calls the morality and necessity this decision into question.
• You Never Did That for Me: Mai makes an observation of this kind as she is about to kill Katara in her rooms:
  Mai: Even when I was married to [Zuko] he never got me flowers.

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