inside my mind is a complex ATLA pro sports au that there is no WAY will fit in one post so FOR NOW… introducing the modern athlete au :)
so i’m envisioning a universe with pro bending as seen in the legend of korra AND modern real life sports
(and i think there can be some really interesting conflict there between nonbenders and benders which i will absolutely get into in the next post i prommy)
for this one i'm just gonna go into characters ok but trust
toph, azula, and katara are on a pro bending team and are not only extremely good but also very popular and well loved
they're on their way to becoming olympic medalists in the sport
zuko is a coach. he was on the track to be part of the pro bending league but had serious setbacks in his bending training/ability after a sparring accident with his horrible father
(ozai was an ex pro bending champion and trained his children for it from WAY too young. he also is technically the sponsor of azula's team, but they're working on getting out of that)
aang is the avatar. who's surprised even (one of these days there will be an au where his job isn't "be the avatar" but not today)
aang is involved because every year he hosts the championships and he trains with zuko, katara, and toph regularly
sokka is the bending team's manager. he runs basically everything, from PR to getting them into games to signing paychecks.
he recently branched out and started representing suki as well
suki is a highly successful martial artist
i'm thinking more successful than the bending team is in her respective sport. maybe an olympic medalist. i'm sowing seeds of conflict rn if u can't tell
azula, ty lee, and mai are roommates and childhood friends still
ty lee is a professional gymnast and mai does archery
ugh i kinda want aang to be more involved but i'm stumped!! this is kind of the basis of what i was thinking but lmk if u wanna see more!!