why am i so bad at being good?

Eventual Mai x Ty Lee. Words: 5,622

AO3 Link

Mai has spent her entire life never being truly seen. Azula only seeing leverage gained against her brother or a pawn to manipulate. Society expecting certain things from the daughter of a noble. Being seen so thoroughly as an ornament, as decoration, as emotionless - that she can walk through a prison mid-riot unquestioned.

Mai is very, very tired of not being seen - and Agni help her, she wants the entire world to truly see her. Eventually, she realizes someone already does.

Starts at the events of The Boiling Rock in s3 and goes in its own direction. Takes place in the same divergent timeline of events as 'The Eyes of the Chief', but following Mai's life after the events of Boiling Rock instead. (Only VERY minor Zutara plot beats, and to the degree there IS Maiko it's treated as a mix of 'a past thing' and 'only borne of obligation')

Zutara Week 2026 Day 4: Visions

I feel a great romance for you. The man you are going to marry... I can see that he's a very powerful bender.

She’s trying to reestablish the dynamic they had in season one where they were enemies because of their roles in the war (Katara: protector of the Avatar, Zuko: hunter of the Avatar). That’s a time when things between them weren’t complicated and she didn’t feel as strongly about him as she does now. But she can’t. It’s personal now and it’s really not about Aang. Because, quite literally the next day, Zuko and Aang go off alone with absolutely no pushback from her. She makes a few snarky comments about Zuko’s bending, but she’s not even a little bit worried about how this is the perfect rouse to get Aang alone and harm/capture him.

Aang was the externalization of Katara’s hope, but in the crystal catacombs, that hope began to shift to Zuko. Him siding with Azula and then Aang subsequently dying was a representation of Katara’s hope in both of them being shattered. She brings Aang back to life, but he can’t access the Avatar State (what her hope really resides in). And then Zuko comes back too. This time he is changed, he is better, he is doing everything she hoped for in Ba Sing Se. But, it’s too painful to think about because of the betrayal, thinking that she wasn’t enough to convince him to stay (abandonment issues rearing it’s head) and so she clings to anger and pushing him away so that she doesn’t get hurt again.

zutara week 2026

zutara week 2026

Zuko does the same for Katara. He doesn’t judge her, he doesn’t place the weight of his expectations on her. He merely allows her to take the journey she must take.

And even their conclusions are the same. Zuko had to go through it all, had to complete the journey, to finally do the right thing. And Katara needed to complete that journey to finally release her hate and blame and grief - or rather to allow them to flow out of her instead of building up inside like a poison. Zuko had to be banished and had to face the truth of his father. Katara had to hunt Yon Rha and had to see him for the coward he truly was (and incidentally the fear at the heart of the Fire Nation’s actions).

Day 3 of @zutaraweek: Aurora

Kya loves trips to the South Pole. It's a welcome change from the hot and humid Fire Nation (and all the learning she had to do at the palace, ugh), she gets to meet with Grandpa Hakoda and Uncle Sokka and all her friends in Wolf Cove, AND she can watch the prettiest aurora australis with everyone. Father even explained that the southern lights are related to some kind of activity from the sun. Kya doesn't quite understand it, maybe she'll ask Aunt Azula to try and recreate one if she's in a good mood. Her aunt is the smartest firebender she knows.

Kya giggles and hopes that Izumi grows up soon so she can also enjoy the pretty lights too.

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