TheMomoDynasty

Like, imagine they're like "hahaha you can't escape! There is no earth here for you to bend!" And this little 12yo blind girl starts laughing her ass off in their faces and then she just makes a fucking hole in the ground and falls through it.

None of his opponents truly hate him, they can't. He's a great sport, funny, kind, all around stand up guy, even when he gets relaxed in the ring and starts getting a bit cocky.

He started out in featherweight when he first burst onto the scene, and at the time, nobody took the scrawny-looking bald kid seriously until he knocked the reigning champion on his ass. his lean stature and airy footwork have commentators describing him as "nearly impossible to pin down," "too damn slippery," and "a beautiful fighter and not a brutal one." Toph 'Blind Bandit' Beifong is his trainer; she used to compete in the underground circuit and had been undefeated until she went toe-to-toe with Aang and lost. She quit the scene to train him but said she only would if he gave up underground and went pro.

He used to train at South Temple Gym until a fire destroyed it; his father figure and old coach had been inside. Overcome with anger and financially desperate to rebuild his past is why he began underground in the first place. With a chip on his shoulder and slick footwork, nobody else ever stood a chance. The underground was where he met Zuko, and their intense rivalry lasted a summer and two months and was always big news. Nobody knew when the rivals became best friends, to the point where Zuko became one of his trainers as well.

Zuko had been a ruthless and antagonistic boxer with zero sportsmanship, but he was extremely talented. He was the brutal fighter to Aang's beautiful one. They'd only fought four times, each one ending in a draw, and each match was always sold out. They have the same number of losses, beaten by the same opponents: Azula and Ozai. Nobody knew when Aang and Zuko became friends, as their rivalry at one point bordered on sheer animosity, and it was what made their fights so captivating.

When Zuko left the scene to pursue a different path, there had been whispers about Aang having seedy connections because, first, The Blind Bandit and then The Fire Prince both left because of him. Both of them shut that down right quick. Zuko is a famous multidiscipline martial arts instructor, top-class and highly sought after.

Along with his own fighting style, Zuko and Toph have spent countless hours with him, teaching him their own, weaving it in so much so that along with his impressive stamina, he's also incredibly unpredictable in the ring. Whenever Aang fights, one can only hope he enters "The Avatar State," just for the sake of saying they witnessed it; it's as if he's gained the strength and will of ten thousand.

Aang used to train in public gyms, but as much as he loves his fans and all the attention, it's completely counterproductive to his training. His manager, Sokka, suggested he start at a private gym, and Zuko was quick to recommend yours as he trains there too and even hosts some of his classes there whenever he's in town. Having the former "Flame Fist" and "The Monk" as members is excellent exposure for your gym, and the eye candy isn't bad either.

The bald man with bruised fists and bloody gums who fights like he's three seconds away from flying.

notes: wrote more than i expected. part two will be relationship headcanons. not proofread.

Art credit: royharpersmom on x/twitter

And Katara, who would never let her brother do anything that dangerous or that cool without her, goes with him.

So they find the avatar being harbored by the fire nation, they capture him, and they start the journey back to the southern water tribe — but while sokka spends all his time being bossy above deck, Katara spends a lot of her time thinking about the avatar — and who could blame her for wanting to know more about him? No one’s seen an air bender in 100 years, and he’s the avatar.

Katara has always been a little bolder than sokka is comfortable with (see: trespassing on an abandoned, off-limits fire nation ship with a random kid like a day after finding that kid in an iceberg; launching an assault on the northern water tribe’s foremost water bending master because he wouldn’t teach her, even though she was untrained at the time and really shouldn’t have had any chance at surviving, let alone winning; getting herself purposefully arrested by the fire nation to stage a jail break for some earth bending kid she met like 12 hours ago; the entire painted lady debacle).

So it makes sense that instead of just wondering about the avatar, she starts visiting him. And then she starts talking to him. And then he starts talking back. And somewhere in those long weeks it takes to get from the fire nation to the southern water tribe, Katara starts thinking: what if we’ve been wrong all along?

The thing about Katara is that there’s nothing in the world she hates more than injustice, and there’s nothing that could make her stand aside and let it persist when she can do something to stop it — and here is where she starts to realize that maybe she and her people have been primary perpetrators of so much of the world’s injustice for a long, long time, so obviously she does what only the best water bender the southern tribe has seen in generations can do, and breaks the avatar out of the prison that is her brother’s ship. (and when he says “come with me,” of course she says yes; he wants a friend, but he needs a water bending teacher, and maybe helping him is the first step to making things right.)

This is basically my very long-winded way of saying that I had it all wrong in the original post: while having Sokka on your side is basically the necessary condition to winning the war, if there’s anything that might slow him down, it’s definitely his little sister on one of her righteous rampages.

Here is my main point though: in a functional a reverse au, Sokka isn’t the one who takes on Zuko’s role — Katara is.

Ok so, the fire nation attacked first, but the water tribe hit back harder

Maybe Ozai is just dead? Maybe not but I think Ursa might have Zuko and Azula

Zuko and Azula find and defrost Aang from an iceberg off the coast of ember island, but no Appa in sight

The capture of Aang happens like @jatersade describes

Katara stages an escape from Sokka after having her crisis of faith. She hops her and Aang into the middle of the sea where their first stop is Suki, and Aang of course wants to be playful, but Katara KNOWS Sokka is after them. Maybe they take Suki with them.

They pal about on Kyoshi Island and then catch a ride on a ship heading north. Where they stumble upon the southern air temple. And see the destruction wrought. Katara takes a moment to realise that while some of the destruction is from fire benders, most is obvious water damage. Katara learns the full scope of what her people did. It wasn’t protection. At least, it didn’t end at protection. Her people chose violence.

Meanwhile Sokka rolls in to Kyoshi Island and the Kyoshi Warriors viciously protect their homes from the Water tribe soldiers.

The hunt for Appa. Refocused with the plight of his people, Aang needs to find Appa. He knows he went into the ice with him, but doesn’t remember much of when Zuko and Azula brought him out. They have a purpose. They are going to the northern water tribe. The trio is managing this by hopping ships and doing odd jobs for passage which definitely slows down their progress. Lucky for them, it also obscures it, Sokka can’t figure out what the game is. So he can only track them from one island to the next.

While island hopping, the trio stumbles into Zuko and Azula, making their way down to rescue Aang from the water tribe.

I can’t decide on Azula’s personality with not being the puppet of her father, but someone challenges Katara’s loyalty

The GAang makes a stop in the earth kingdom where Suki joins an underground earth bending tournament. The only problem, she isn’t a bender. It takes them a few fights before they realise she isn’t bending and is just dodging the opponents bending and beating them with kickboxing. She is disqualified and they have to run for it. But this has foreshadowing of the blind bandit

They make it to the northern water tribe, and Katara is scared at first thinking it will be as scary as the southern water tribe, but quickly learns the war devastated the once vast sister city. They contact the leader and learn northern water tribe type bending, healing arts and the like. Katara learns her grandma was from the northern water tribe and left to fight against the fire nation when the northern tribe was trying to stay out of the war

Choosing neutrality ultimately led to their devistation

Scouts spot southern water tribe ships in the distance and the GAang escapes on the insistence of the chief and his daughter to go find Appa

Spirit nonsense and or powers yet unseen from katara? Appa is unearthed and they speed back to defend their new friends in the northern water tribe

Yue is consumed by moon powers and force stops the fighting, Sokka is foiled for now…