A Matter of Sillyness

...

I have read a LOT of ATLA fanfiction. Like a LOT. And I've seen a fair share of girl Zuko fics. Though, I've noticed a sort of trend within the plots of some of these fics: She gets mistaken for a cis guy (ESPECIALLY by Sokka). I can honestly only think of like one or two AFAB Zuko fics where she’s referred to as a girl from the start, but even then, my memory is incredibly fuzzy. 

The fics seem to always go like this:

Zuko gets misgendered, she doesn't care to correct them. 

Its often because instead of the term ‘princess’ being used, literally anything else is. (Language is a boon that is used very often for this.)

The Gaang seems stupid to her.

Canon shenanigans

Zhao being a fucking creep (Even more common in these kinds of fics than not, while still VERY prevalent. Sometimes the rating gets SO much worse because of this. The fucking horrors I tell ya. I shan't elaborate further.)

Toph can immediately tell

Jetko

Sokka is almost ALWAYS the last to know (But I think there WAS one where Katara was the last to know.) 

The Reveal ™ for everyone in the Gaang is REALLY fucking late in the series. Like Book 3 late.

These elements feel like they're always there when I encounter one of those fics on AO3. (But to be fair, I read the majority of it years ago when I first got into ATLA. And my memory is SHIT. AND I'm a chronic skimmer. So that might not be as accurate as I think it is.)

But all of that isn't exactly the point I want to make here. There's ONE detail that pushes this plot into the direction that it does: Zuko doesn't correct the Gaang even ONCE. To be fair, a lot of the time it's a miscommunication issue because most of the time when they meet face to face they’re fighting and also talking directly to Zuko so Zuko wouldn't exactly know, but yeah. BUT. A whole lot of the time the Gaang doesn't find out because Zuko is like ‘when they find out, they find out. let them make fools of themselves until then.’ or ‘they didn't ask’. BUT I PARAPHRASE HEAVILY HERE. THAT'S JUST THE GIST OF IT.

And this made me think of what canon Zuko would do in that situation cause I dont really think that the “I don't care” mentality would be it? I'd imagine that Zuko would be a lot more bothered, or at the very least correct the misgendering. 

I thought to myself, ‘Why wouldn't the AFAB version be bothered??? 

So I had an  i d e a . Hear me out: Bigender AFAB Zuko. 

…

*crickets chirp*

AFAB Zuko fic but she doesn't care about being referred to as ‘he’ because he doesn't mind EITHER when referring to him, BUT justifies those thoughts with just saying that she doesn't care! AND with the other justifications that I brought up that were used often to drive the plot forward! 

*silence. The crickets left.*

This has INSANE comedic potential. Lets say that the water tribe siblings are he/him-ing Zuko while Aang is like: ‘GUYS! It's rude to assume!’ And Sokka says that its OBVIOUS that Zuko is a guy, but he says it in the WORST way possible. 

……A long pause.

THEN Katara says that Aang is right! 

Aang: Thank you, Ka-

Katara then proceeds to exclusively she/her Zuko to stick it to the patriarchy and piss off Sokka. She DOES also believe it more and more as time goes on.

Aang:

Aang: That's not exactly what I meant.

*       .                  .*

As the Gaang shenanigans go on, Aang tries everything in his power to try and ask Zuko his pronouns, but gets interrupted literally every single time. 

Aang: Oh, by the way, what are your-

*gets fireballed*

*is too far away*

*The Unagi roars*

*BITCHASS ZHAO interrupts*

*Avatar Fucking Roku shows up*

*The Fire Temple gets destroyed*

*The pirates say some BULLSHIT*

*The waterfall lol*

Aang: Do you think we could have been friends too? Oh! Also, I never got to ask but-

*Gets fireballed again*

*Jun*

*Is unconscious/In the Spirit World* 

*canon happens*

*Azula*

*Azula again*

*Azula, yet again*

Meanwhile, Sokka and Katara are aggressively gendering Zuko to prove each other wrong and at one point Zuko hears one of these conversations and is just like:

Zuko, experiencing ultimate euphoria: ???

Zuko, also because she has no idea where this conversation stemmed from: ??????? 

*  *

Blah blah blah character study, blah blah blah season 2, yadda yadda….

These are from a WHILE ago. (Like before I got into the groove of drawing him.)

....

Where am I supposed to go from here??????

"Huh. That actually happened. Lmao."

"Oh God, the shippers are going to go crazy over this"

"Oh God, the shippers are going to go crazy over this"

"Oh GOD NO, the shippers are going to go crazy over this"

"FUCK YEAH THE TRUTHERS WERE RIGHT!"

"JAX YOU CHUD!"

"Oh fuck, the shippers are going to go crazy over the parallels here"

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH MY ABSOLUTE GOAT CAINE IS BACK MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!!!!!!! HOLY SHIIIT!?!?!"

"Oh my final predictions of what they would look like were SO wrong..."

"AGHDHSHAJFHAHJSJFHDHA KINGERS A FJKAHXJDKSHFJAJDHSJJAJAJSHDHSH OH MY GOD IM DYING THIS IS ADORAB- NANDJDKKSJJSAHJDJS"

And now the ones that actually matter!!!

What is bro so angry about? 😭🙏aw HELL naw

hell yeah

[Okay! SO! I have ramblings about a potential unabstracted Jax that I though about at like 1:00 am. Because I did not want to fuck up my eyesight more than it already is, I basically typed with my eyes half closed. I PROMISE that I'll clean this up into something more coherent later, but I wanted to put this out for the time being for people to see!]

--

Fic 423: Transfem Jax gets unabstracted (gone yuri???)

Jax gets unobstructed bc she accepts herself yay.

This is when Pimni gets lassoed

Both are gltchy and in PAIN. Jax feels like her entire body is pins and needles type shii

GOOD GRIEF SHES NAKED!!!!!!

But also like the static electricity when touching stuff including floor.

Caine is alive yay!!

He un-pains both! Or atleast he tries….

Jax still feels the pins and needles, while faint. But ESPECIALLY if not moving for a while. [EXPAND UPON]

Caine CANT fix all of it. Consequences PERMANWNT!!! chronicpain yay!!!

I REALLY like the abstraction hair!!!

Hehe trans colored abstraction eyes yay

Origins

Stages:: Light: looks like an abstraction lolzzz. Jax is more like her past self lile this. She gets irritated more easily. Forgetfyl too. Distant. Its scray.

Darkness: looks lile calm abstraction yayz.! Jax ilacts more lile the drawing Gooseworkx made that depicted Jax is she wasn't a raging asshole and accepted herself earlier. Calmer. More understanding. Obnoxious but in a MORE fun and cutesy way.

Water: flows like the abstraction in the aquarium!!! [play w. Visuals.]

8mag

Like kingwr in light! And sark!!

Imagic except beach episode BUT ACTIALLY.

Goofy ass fish ruiner one say *fasps* all hail the queen!!!

Zach Hadel fish says ;; dude, you're so easily impressed.

But THEM!!! because Goose confirmed Jax inflates when holding her breath, she gets x2ed x3ed on and on!! Not lile pifderfish bc weirdness be weirdoes… sooooool. She kinda HAS to hold her breath to go underwater……… ap ye!!

Beach outfit???? So cute.

OOOH IDEA:: Abstraction fish tail!!! When in wayer!! I'm a genius

Trust tyray.

Caine Jax talk about cenletain social media posts………Good ending with. That!!!! Yay.!

Dinnybunny turi.

Comments snark bout abstradgedy lilz.. CANON!!! Reveal about human name and stuff. Decides to go by ‘Lee’ AND Jax. Pomni has special uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh privileges for Lee. Then warming up to letting others use it too … yayy-@--

Coming out afters the Caine talk.

HOPE FOR THE OTHERS???? ABS))

BTW..SHIT THE DELAUED REAXRIONS TUFD.. IM NOT GOING INTO TOP MUCH DETAION CAISE INEDA SLEEP.

eyes in hair have delayed reaction time depending on how close they are to Jax's brain and eyes.

OHHH WHAT IF MAIN LUPILS HAVE THE ABSTRACTIIN EYEA STUFD!???

anyways… wavelengths in bursts of strong emotion.??? Yes..

Nayways… ..top eyes radius rection time: 1 sec.

Just below the shoulder eyes time : 1.5 secs.

Waist length eyes ti.esecs.5 secs.

Floor level eyes delay time is 5 sects lol. ALSO.

top eyes: always follows where Jax looks.

Shoulder eyes more idle, bit mostly follows eye tracking.

Waist Eyes, mostly looks around lile on a normal abstraction, but when important eye movement is done, lile the EDGES EDGES, they look. For a few seconds before returning to cazedr looks.

Floor eyes: Nearly ALWAYS Distant. Aply above to this one too. BUT. Only looks at direction for a split second x and lile a real eye tk??

In watwr: looks like crying. Does. Lile oil. Polluted a little bit BUT returns to Jax when wanted or when leaving water like as if it were kinetic sand. Bo that's wrong, like it's the magnetic sand thingies. You remember (heh).

In daeness:: reaction time MUCH faster. Moves Up a level. Top only SLIFHT delay, bottom has delayed of Waist. Yk? They act lile they're high mostly. Top eyeeyelidsz-ish acts lile whatever Jax is fucking doin. Ruled of delay apply to this too.