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Welcome to my blog, which after some deliberation, I have decided to bifurcate. This will primarily be me posting various fandom related stuff, especially GoT, ATLA, and Star Wars. Used to put all my political/theological/philosophical hot takes on here right alongside my fandom stuff, but I decided that would just give whiplash to people who are reading through my blog, so I got rid of those. Might make a second blog for them at some point. Who knows.

Not gonna give out my real name for obvious reasons, but y'all can call me Gwen, she/her. I'm a transgender gal from the US who is probably neurodivergent in at least one way. Nice to meet you. I'm active in various fandoms. GoT/ASoIaF, ATLA, and Star Wars are the main ones, but I also dip my toes into some other fandoms from time to time, including but not limited to RuneScape, Starcraft, the Horizon games, and Wheel of Time.

On that topic, if you're here it's probably because you came here from one of my works on Ao3. In case you're not from Ao3, here is my Ao3 account! Would love it if you give some of my works a read. Time Bows is currently the big project I'm working on, but I will occasionally take breaks from it to do a shorter fic in another fandom.

So this one is inspired by The One Where Hakoda is Kiyi's Dad, but takes a slightly different direction with it. Most notably, removing the Hakoda/Ursa romance and having them be purely platonic. Nothing against their romance, it's just not my cup of tea.

After killing Azulon and being banished by Ozai, instead of returning to her hometown, is placed on a tiny ship all on her own with barely any supplies and set adrift in the ocean, obviously meant to die of drowning, dehydration, or starvation. Instead, by luck or some design of fate, she's shipwrecked in the South Pole and found by Hakoda on a hunting trip. She's near dead by the time she's found, and initially he only plans on getting her well enough to interrogate her.

He wants to know where the ship that launched her boat is and where the rest of the crew are. She says there was no other ship and she was the only one aboard. He doesn't believe her at first, but she says that she was banished. She admits to killing her husband's father because he was going to kill her son, but not who said husband, father-in-law, and son are. After grilling her for some time, Hakoda decides to bring her back to the village for now until he decides whether or not he believes her story and what to do with her.

He never really makes a conscience decision, but she is determined if not very skilled with helping the other women of the village cook, mend, clean and what-not, and as the days drag on she just . . . settled into the village. She's clearly not used to physical labor, but she does it with a grit and determination that earns her respect from the tribes people, and her kindness and humility also earn their regard. And without anyone ever really deciding it, she just becomes part of the village.

Until word drifts in from abroad. The Fire Lord is dead. His son has taken the throne. And the Fire Lady has mysteriously vanished. The Fire Lady with a suspiciously similar name to their new guest. Hakoda puts two and two together and confronts her. She admits to everything. She says all she wants is to move past where she came from and start a new life. Hakoda, in a moment of weakness or kindness depending on who you ask, decides to let her stay. She works hard and earns her keep, and if she's never fully accepted as one of them, enough of the village doesn't reject her that she's comfortable enough.

Fast forward three years, Katara and Sokka find Aang, Zuko crashes into the village and . . . why does that random water tribe woman recognize him? Why does she look so similar? Wait, is that . . . no, it can't be . . . He's in denial at first, but she talks about how they used to feed the turtleducks together, how she would tuck him in and tell him stories. She touches his scar and asks if he did this to him. Zuko tries to say that he deserved it, that he disrespected him, but Ursa is having none of it. She takes him in her arms and cries, saying she should have taken both Zuko and Azula and run away, long before Azulon called for his head.

I've seen a lot of flak being put out by both sides, and frankly, some of it is really nasty, so I'd like to just take a moment and ask everyone to calm down a bit. First things first, Katara, Aang, and Zuko, are all fictional children. They're not real people. No real people are being hurt in any of their relationships or lack thereof. Second of all, the people on the other side of your screen are real people, and what you say to or about them can and does affect them.

It's perfectly okay to dislike Kataang or Zutara. It's perfectly okay to point out aspects you see as problematic in portrayals of either one of them. It's perfectly okay to prefer one over the other. It's not okay to make personal attacks against someone just because they like one or the other. It's not okay to say that everyone who enjoys one or the other must be morally corrupt or else immature or sexist, racist, etc. There are things to be enjoyed about both ships, and just because you personally can't or don't enjoy one or the other for whatever reason doesn't mean other people are wrong for enjoying it.

Feel free to use any or all of these ideas in your own fic if you want.

Shortly after the events of Zuko Alone, Zuko sees a flash of blinding white light and falls unconscious. In the Riverlands, around the time Robb is returning from his campaign in the West, Beric, Thoros, and the Brotherhood Without Banners are marching along a back road when there's a flash of of blinding white light. Once they blink the spots out of their eyes, they see a ring of fire and lying unconscious inside it is a certain scar-faced teenager. Seeing as he appeared accompanied by fire and light, they immediately assume he was sent by the Lord of Light and is special somehow.

Their certainty only increases when Zuko wakes up and reveals 1) that he's a firebender 2) he's the son of the Fire Lord and Fire Lady and a prince, and 3) he knows the Lord of Light/R'hllor by a secret name, which they take to be a super-special secret name as of yet unrevealed to the unworthy masses (Zuko asks them if they are referring to Agni when they first mention the Lord of Light). Take all this together, they immediately dub him the Prince of Light and Champion of Agni/R'hllor/the Lord of Light, and swear their undying allegiance to him.

Zuko is very confused.

He tries convincing them that, yes, he's a prince, and yes, he can make fire with his hands, but he's not that special, but Beric and co just respond with some vague, significant sounding proverb about how the Lord of Light works in mysterious ways or something like that (Zuko yells something about them sounding too much like Uncle).

So Zuko is stuck with this band of outlaws following him proclaiming him a prince (some even think he must be Azor Ahai). Having figured out by now that he's definitely not in Kansas anymore, Zuko doesn't really know what to do, but taking care of the Smallfolk seems like a decent thing to be doing, right? Oh hey, who's this girl we've captured that reminds me of my little sister in some (scary) ways? Apparently someone important named Arya Stark. She's a king's little sister or something. And she really wants this Hound guy dead because he killed her friend, which, fair (also reminiscent of Azula). The Hound guy is being given a trial by combat to prove his innocence. Hmm. I bet I could take him.

Zuko fights the Hound instead of Beric. Between being a prodigy with his dual dao and also having firebending, he wins and kills the Hound for Arya. He throws up afterwards, this being the first man he's actually killed himself, and he and Arya have a discussion about their first kills (this girl has killed how many people? Definitely very Azula like). Zuko basically imprints on Arya and decides to help her out. So instead of just ransoming her to her brother, he asks her what she actually wants. After some discussion, she decides she does want to go see her brother and family again, so they set off for Riverrun. Except along the way they find out Robb's actually going to the Twins for a (Red) wedding, so they head there instead, arriving just in time to fish all the bodies of the river, including Arya's mother.

Arya wants vengeance.

Zuko takes a look at the Twins and thinks, I managed to sneak into Pohuai stronghold, this place can't be much harder. Having conveniently had both his swords and his Blue Spirit mask on him when he got transported to Westeros, he puts them on and Blue Spirits all the prisoners the Freys took out of the Twins (and also sets the place on fire and kills a great many Freys in the process). (Arya wanted to come to, but Zuko put his foot down. This girl might be just as scary as Azula, but she's also even younger than Azula. No way. No how.)

Myrcella: "I mean, technically, no man's ever been in my bed."

Myrcella and Margaery: *flounce off to have "tea" together*

Tommen: *oblivious* "Huh? I don't get it. What's so funny?"

I know there's people who see problematic aspects in Kataang, and similarly there's also people who see problematic aspects in Zutara. I'm not saying they're not there. I'm not saying you aren't valid for disliking one or both ships because of said problems. But no need to rain on other people's parades, yeah? It's perfectly valid if you can't overlook the flaws in certain characters or character dynamics, especially if they're close to your heart and your lived experience, but that doesn't mean the people who can look past them are evil or villainous or morally corrupt. Just because something has flaws doesn't mean the people who enjoy it are enjoying it because of the flaws. It's perfectly fine to call out and discuss the issues in Kataang like Aang kissing her without consent. It's perfectly find to call out and discuss the issues with Zutara, like Katara's people having been effectively genocided by Zuko's. But calling people morally corrupt for enjoying what they enjoy is completely uncalled for.