Petition To Make Grumpy X Sunshine Into Sunshine X Midnight Rain

ok here me out even more. as an avid zukka shipper lemme put this in here. toph: just chilling and vibing (she just wants her parents off her back) so she does not give a shit. zuko and sokka are like 'fighting' over her but it becomes too competitive at one point that they just start randomly dating. they dont know its happening and no one else except toph realises because, again, shes just vibing. suki and mai DO eventually realise and partake in the chaos by dating each other. suki still stays as 'team zuko' though, just cause she thinks its fun. MEANWHILE zuko and sokka still havent realised whats going on because yes they are smart but theyre also dumbasses. the earth king joined in on the bidding wars with hakoda and ursa but because hes a neutral party he bids for toph to not get with either zuko or sokka. aang's in the corner on the verhe of a mental breakdown trying to keep everything under control. agni himself shows up in zukos dreams telling him to 'beat that water tribe kid otherwise tui and la would tease him for all eternity'. reminder that zuko's still trying to run the nation. aang eventually uses his avatar powers to trap zuko sokka and toph in the spirit world until they figure it out. king kuei of the earth kingdom wins the bet

ok hear me out - when Zuko and Toph got to like 21 and 17 respectively they started being each other’s dates to fancy events they had to attend

Which of course the newly emerging media was taking to like fish to water, publishing all sorts of rumours and musings about whether the Fire Lord and heir to the Beifong fortune were being matched (which definitely would be an advantageous one)

And naturally Zuko and Toph both love it. Zuko because his advisors aren’t badgering him about marriage (whilst he continues to pine after Mai), and Toph because her parents think she’s months away from being the Fire Lady and so aren’t trying to set her up with suitors. So they basically encourage it, always walking into parties arm in arm, both looking hot af, playing up to the crowd

But the rest of the gaang (namely Aang, Katara and Sokka) HATE it because Zuko and Toph won’t actually admit they’re faking it. So even though they all keeping rolling their eyes and saying “we know you’re just messing with us” internally each one of them is like “zuko and toph afksrgkhjrh!!!!!”

Sokka keeps trying to get Toph away from Zuko because he’s like “no you’re too old this is inappropriate” and so is always trying to drag her away and interrupt dances but this just leads to the media thinking that the fire lord and the next chief of the southern water tribe are fighting over the same girl and they LOVE it

Aang is getting really cheesed off because every time he tries to do a press conference he keeps getting asked if he’s Team Zuko or Team Sokka

Suki 100% is living for the chaos

Katara proudly shows off her Team Sokka shirt in the clinic odd days

“Traveling with a Cyclops,” Luke chided. “Talk about dishonoring Thalia’s memory! I’m surprised at you, Annabeth. You of all people-”

“Stop it!” she shouted.

I didn’t know what Luke was talking about, but Annabeth buried her head in her hands like she was about to cry.

“Leave her alone,” I said.

Annabeth is a lot better than me because if my older brother told me he literally poisoned the only connection to my dead sister and then accused me of being the one in the wrong, I'm pushing him off his damn yacht. No hesitation.  

this is so funny lol

Jeph Jacques decided to go out in a blaze of shitposts and in his honor I think it's only right to share these tweets with a wider audience

goodnight, sweet prince

some jily 7th year stuff cause we need more of them and i’m obsessed:

the marauders officially initiate lily into their nerdy group (this involves them ominously inviting her into their dorm like they’re some sort of cult) and showing her the marauders map and the invisibility cloak (she proceeds to have a full on existential crisis because she cannot believe the four idiots in front of her have such powerful objects in their possession) they also try and give her a nickname but she refuses (they ignore her)

lily practically lives in the boys dorm room. she sleeps in james’ bed most nights, and has become so accustomed to them all walking around half naked. she always wakes up when james goes to early quidditch practice, but she’s never annoyed about it, only giving him a kiss and telling him to kick butt on the field (she obviously then goes back to sleep afterwards) during the times james is up late or up early, lily will literally just sleep in his bed alone, something the marauders also get accustomed to quite quickly (one night sirius jumped into james’ bed cause he wanted some cuddles but was horrified to find lily there instead, it only took a couple of minutes before sirius wound up sleeping beside lily, an activity they would end up doing quite often, both of them just wanting a sibling that loves them)

lily is the biggest cheerleader for james at all of his quidditch games, painting cute little gryffindor coloured flags on her face and making banners. it gets to the big quidditch game at the end of the year and james is so nervous, but lily makes it her personal mission to get him a good breakfast, an early night in bed, and as calm as possible (it works cause it’s lily evans obviously) and every single time james wins (or loses) a game he will fly over to lily and give her a kiss

for james’ 17th birthday, lily decided she wants to throw the biggest party in hogwarts history for him. using her connections from all the houses, as well as her good graces with the teachers and excellent leadership (and bribery) skills, she creates a whole committee dedicated to throwing james the best party ever. the party has everything james loves, even his parents (lily got them to appear in the fireplace via the floo network so he could talk to them on his birthday) and nearly the whole school rocks up (because everyone loves james potter) at some point during the night james takes lily and hides out in the astronomy tower so they can have a moment alone. lily’s worried that it’s because james doesn’t like his party but james assures her that that’s not it, and even starts getting emotional, saying that no one’s ever cared for him like she does, and that even after everything, he feels like he doesn’t deserve her. lily ofc also gets emotional, and they both just sit there stargazing for the rest of the night, gushing about how much they love each other (and talk about all the embarrassing moments of the night)

OK NOW FOR SOME RAPID FIRE CAUSE I’M RAMBLING TOO MUCH:

- james is determined to get into marlene and mary’s good graces, so he takes them out for a day at hogesmade (it the most chaotic and hilarious thing ever, mary and marlene tease him mercilessly and make the whole experience torturous for james)

- when lily meets effie and monty for the first time, she is terrified out of her mind that they won’t like her and therefore james won’t like her anymore (effie and monty ofc love her, and turns out lily is shell shocked about how good looking monty, teasing james about it and saying how she might’ve picked the wrong potter)

- in the later half of 7th year when the war takes a turn, james takes it upon himself to do as much research on muggles as possible, wanting to be informed and not accidentally be prejudiced or arrogant in any way (lily has no idea he does this)

- james serenades lily on valentine’s day by singing ‘I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do’ by ABBA (sirius, remus, and peter are his backup dancers and mary and marlene are his backup singers)

- lily is the only one who knows about the marauders being animagus (she already knows about remus being a werewolf) and at first was really angry they did something so reckless but eventually came around and took it upon herself to cover their tracks as much as possible (because they’re way too obvious about their secret)

- james is lily’s date to petunia’s wedding (lily was dreading the entire night and james was determined to make it fun) and so they ended up extremely drunk, leaving early and crashing a muggle club where they danced right in the middle of together

THERE’S SO MANY MORE I COULD DO BUT THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME GAHHHHH

Gordon Cormier (Aang) and Ian Ousley (Sokka) answer a fan's question about whether there is a possibility of Zukka becoming a thing in future seasons of the show - Toronto Comicon, March 17 2024

transcript under the cut!

Fan: I am wondering in the future if there’s any hope for the Zukka shippers. I’m just putting it out there, wondering if that’s anything I should continue looking for.

Ian: I hear you. I hear you.

Host: You can't spoil it. Netflix has shooters, so.

Ian: That's probably true. Um, I - we haven't, we haven't read any scripts yet, so you can only hope, you know. Yeah, we have no control over that. And I don't know. So I'm right there with you.

Gordon: Are you guys talking about Zuko and Sokka, like Zukka?

Me, recording: Yeeees.

Gordon: Okay, well, I also haven't read any scripts. But I would like to say on behalf of the whole fan base and the whole cast, we are really excited to see what you guys might do with it if you do, because, I mean, I'm in full support. I think that they're a perfect fit.

Host: The charisma is there...

Gordon: Yeah, you guys are both…it'd be really cute, you know.

Host: Yeah. I'm currently writing fanfic about it right now, so, I gotchu.

Gordon, to fan: Thank you.

Ian: I hear you. Thanks.

zuko: I think its time you two admit you are in love with each other and dating. azula(sitting in mais lap): im not sure what you are talking about mai(arms around azula): yeah i dont get it

pls no one come for me on this but i feel like james is just so white boy coded. like he exudes british white boy energy. he just. i respect all those who hc him as poc but hes like (in my brain) the definition of a white boy. like in my head him and lily are the most annoyingly cute white straight couple that everyone still loves. anyways thanks for coming to my ted talk.

Sokka & Zuko- The Invisible Winner of the Kataang/Zutara Debate.

Please don't take this as "Shipping War Bait", I'm doing a character analysis of ATLA about my opinion on which close Zuko relationship makes the most sense!

I feel like fandom treated Zuko/ Sokka as a crack ship but like?? That's never made sense to me.

Firstly I personally think that Aang will always remember how the fire nation destroyed his people. No matter how much he consciously says he forgives Zuko (& the fire nation) I would BET that unconsciously there's still something deeply hurt in Aang that can never truly be healed about that. As a result, Aang would not be able to LOVE Zuko as close as his other relationships. It's one of those hard to swallow pills but it's just how I interpret the characters. Aang's body has that bias, the deepest parts of his mind won't ever forget the horrific fact that his people are dead because of Ozai, and Zuko is Ozai's firstborn.

I know Aang's whole thing is that he preaches forgiveness, but here's the thing... We aren't always aware of how deeply our trauma affects us. Sometimes you don't hold a conscious bias against people... You hold an Unconscious bias. And to me, Aang holding an unconscious bias against Zuko, and not being as close to him, makes sense.

Toph could honestly work with Zuko, I think she's also a good contender for closest relationship. Though I see it in either a platonic or romantic sense (depends on the vibe). I think there could be a bit of 'fandom implicit bias' there in having Zuko and Toph constantly presented as platonic only. Like, Toph is disabled, she's blind... Do we ever question that maybe we don't like putting her with people romantically because she's disabled? Is Katara the one people ship Zuko with romantically- because Katara is more traditionally attractive? Toph is short, stocky, has short hair, is brash, and blind... Like, there's a chance she doesn't get the same treatment as Katara because she's not traditionally attractive in the way Katara is.... Something to think about.

-All that being said, I like Toph and Zuko as having a close bond either romantically or platonically. I think it's funny that they're both born rich kids, I think it's funny that they only have one fully functioning eye between them (and the comedy and hijinks that leads to). And they do work really well together throughout the show, Toph forgives Zuko when he accidentally burns her feet. And Zuko clearly appreciates how chill Toph is- she doesn't have PERSONAL bias towards Zuko as the son of the Fire Lord, in the way that the other three do.

Moving on to Katara, I have a similar sort of feeling there. It's made obvious that Katara SAW her mother die at the hands of the fire nation. It was traumatic, it was horrific, and because she was a child watching it- that is likely a DEEP core memory. In the context of the show, Zuko helps Katara find the man who killed her mother, because it's sort of a levelling of the scales. It doesn't even make Katara LIKE Zuko, it makes her neutral towards him. He helped her to basically right a wrong (that's her perspective). So yeah- for the same reasons, I've just never been convinced that Zuko and Katara could have a strong and intimate relationship because of the deepness of Katara's trauma. It takes a significant amount of time in terms of the show for her to even start talking and trusting Zuko at all. Doesn't FEEL like good romantic potential to me.

But Sokka, Sokka is the best fit of them so far. The thing is, Zuko and Sokka have a lot of different experiences- but shared values. Consider the things they've had to deal with, Sokka had to handle a huge level of grief & pressure as he quickly became responsible for his family and community at a noticeably young age. Then consider how that parallels (it is not THE SAME, but there is a PARALLEL) to Zuko's abuse & exile. They're both young men, they're both conditioned to think they should be a certain way (Sokka a warrior, Zuko a tyrant). Sokka is creative & inventive, which mirrors how Zuko has to create a new emotional source for his fire bending- once again, these are parallel elements of their characters, and demonstrate how they could relate to each other.

Sokka as a character is also slightly more separated from the association between the fire nation and the death of his mother- compared to Katara. Once again, she saw it happen right in front of her as a small child, Sokka was slightly older when the event happened, and didn't see it first hand.

There are some more generic elements of their characters that might suggest gay subtext; such as Sokka's hypermasculinity being a masking behaviour so no-one would think he's attracted to men. (Most people understand why that is; but if you don't know- leaning into very masculine things as a man, can make it feel like people won't question your assumed "straightness").

But I think what I've touched on is more relevant because it's very much tied to THESE specific characters, and how they interact, and how they could relate to each other.

TLDR; Zuko and Sokka work as a ship cos they have less things stopping them (barriers to intimacy & trauma to heal from). And they have probably the highest relatability to each other's lives, allowing them to trust each other and open up, compared to the other characters.

AHHH this is so real. and we also have other characters like emmeline vance (my baby) and emma vanity and more who arguable got mentioned more than like evan rosier AND NO ONE TALKS ABOUT THEM. yes james and sirius are my fav besties BUT MARLENE AND LILY FRIENDSHIP IS RIGHT THERE ITS RIGHT THERE. and i cant even begin to mention the black sisters (heavy on narcissa) CAUSE THEYRE TEN TIMES AS INTERESTING AS evan rosier (mentioned like twice), barty crouch jr (his only personality trait is that hes a badboy and doesnt like his father) and (i will get attacked for this but whatever) regulus black, a canonical supporter of voldemort who only turned his back when kreacher was like. in danger.

can we talk about how the valkyries/marauders era girls are so just mischaracterized?

like here we have james, the funny, smart, prankster father of harry potter. might be immature sometimes. "the sun" "golden retriever" sirius: the bad-boy, a black sheep, sarcastic and snarky. remus, the smart, studious, gentle werewolf. and even peter: sometimes misunderstood, insecure, funny friend.

how about the girls?

lily is harry's know it all perfect mom. either james' gf or jegulus's enemy. marlene is reduced to a sirius variant. mary: popular black girl. shipped with either lily or marlene.

now, despite the pantheon/skittles having little mention in the books (excluding regulus), evan, barty, and reg all have tangible fanmade personalities. the girls?

dorcas: smart black girl. marlene's girlfriend. pandora: evan's spacey twin sister.

it's very strange how nobody creates content about friendships between the girls. there's lots about remus and lily being friends, sirius and marlene, etc. but the girls are almost only talked about in shipping, whether it's with each other or with a guy.

this is NOT saying to stop posting about dorlene or jily or pandalily etc. this is me asking you to ask yourself: why don't you care about marlene and mary being friends as much as james and sirius' friendship?

idk guys am i delusional?

Is Toph the only character in the Avatar gang and series to have a last name?

She is the only gaang member to have an explicitly mentioned last name, to my knowledge. However I think last names are more common in the atlaverse than most people assume.

Most aliases the Gaang use have surnames (the fire family and the Pippinpaddleopsicopolis family). I also don't think it's an "only rich people have surnames" type of thing, since Hiroshi Sato and Varrick both came from humble beginnings. Zhu Li also has a surname. Jargala Omo, a criminal, also has a surname.

I could imagine Aang and the Water Tribe siblings not having surnames not using their potential surnames since their names carry no weight in the Earth Kingdom. Also Aang's entire culture got wiped out, his full legal identification probably doesn't matter that much anymore. Similarly, Suki comes from a rather isolated village. Unlike Toph where her family line directly influences the plot several times. As for Zuko, I can see his family line having a surname but being widely known by their royal titles, as we don't always refer to for example irl british royalty by their surnames.

I have a few headcanons for Mako and Bolin's surname because I needed it for a wip I'm writing. My assumption is that they hadn't gone by their family's last name in a long time and may not fully identify with it, ergo them not introducing themselves with it.

Asami's family name is important due to their wealth and resources and, similairly to Toph, her family name is a big part of the plot.

Korra's the goddamn Avatar, so who gives a fuck abot last names here, she's pretty damn recognisable.