Best of Avatar: The Last Airbender
The best A:TLA fics, in my personal opinion.
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when I appear it's not so clear if I'm a simple spirit or I'm flesh and blood by suzukiblu for beckyh2112
Fandoms: Avatar: The Last Airbender
01 Jul 2018
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Chief Hakoda's only child makes a habit of finding mysterious young men. Some of them she likes more than others.
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The first time Katara sees a boy her own age, she thinks he is a spirit.
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The first thing Zuko tells him during their first lesson after the whole Sun Warrior ruins ordeal, is “Fire comes from the breath.”
a lesson in learning, and re-learning.
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In one universe, Ozai looked at his newborn son and saw disappointment. In another, he saw a way to rival his brother. In both, he looked at his daughter and saw a weapon. The question would be who was the wielder.
Azula was never anyone’s idea of a hero.
Book 1 of salt & ashes
Series
- Part 1 of salt and ashes
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Zuko botches his escape on the day of the eclipse and sits out the war in prison. What will the Gaang do with a new Fire Lord they can't trust? Season Four "Zuko never joined the Gaang, and he's really bad at being good" AU.
Featuring Azula's extended field trip, June not signing up for this, and Sokka's increasing desire to scream. Come get your international politics with a side of baby dragons.
Podfic and German translation now available, see chapter one notes!
Series
- Part 1 of Towards the Sun
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The sun sets on the Day of Black Sun. The coronation is held at dawn.
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Zuko doesn’t mean to start a revolution.
(Or: Iroh is still traveling the Earth Kingdom when Zuko talks his way into a meeting. Ozai goes one step further, and the tides of war begin to shift three years early.)
- Language:
- English
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- 20,490
- Chapters:
- 4/10
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- 8
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- 158
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Bookmarked by mayfriend
08 Aug 2023
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“A very long time ago, there was a king who was great and mighty. But as he grew old, he grew frail and sick, and he was very frightened by death. One day, when he was very old, he heard a rumor. Agni had been playing Pai Sho in the sky, when he dropped his precious Knotweed tile, and it had fallen to the earth.”
“Oh, good,” says Azula, bored. “It’s a story about Pai Sho.”
“Listen,” she says, flapping a hand at Azula. “The Knotweed Tile had special properties. It could heal any sickness. So when the King heard of this, he sent all of his men to the corners of the earth, looking for it. But none could find it, bringing him every other piece except the Knotweed tile. The King became so desperate that he sent every servant, every noble, and every citizen of the kingdom out to find it, until he was alone in his castle, dying.
“Now, the King was not only very sick, but also lonely. And so he was glad when one day, a visitor arrived in his castle. The visitor came into the throne room, where the old King was dying, and asked him if he needed anything.
“The King said, ‘I am very lonely and dying, and I have wasted the last years of my life by searching for something that will never be found. Please, won’t you sit with me for a while and keep me company?’
“The visitor agreed, and he brought out a traveling Pai Sho board. ‘We can play a game,” said the visitor. ‘But I have no tiles to play with.’
“‘I have plenty,’ says the King, and he handed him the various tiles that his subjects had given him. ‘All but the Knotweed tile.’
“And so they began to play the game, and as they played, the King began to feel better than he had in years. The game became very intense, and when it was the visitor’s turn, he paused and looked at the King. ‘You say you do not have the Knotweed tile,’ he said.
“‘That is true,’ said the King, confused.
“‘Then how is it that you’ve just played the tile?’
“The King looked at the board and was startled to see that he had indeed played a Knotweed tile on his last move. And then he realized that he felt much better than he had before, and was suddenly years younger. ‘I don’t understand,’ he said. ‘How can you have found something that no one else could?’
“‘I did not,” answered his visitor. ‘It had been by you all along. I only played a game.’”
The woman lapses into silence. Azula waits, but she says nothing else. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she asks. “How’s that supposed to help me?”
“It’s not,” says the woman. “And I wasn’t finished. What matters is what happens after the King is healed.”
“Which is what?” Azula asks, impatient.
“Oh, well the King passes it along to his son,” says the barmaid. “And his son passes it along as well, and so forth, giving his lineage great fortune. Until one day, one of the King’s grandsons was handed the tile, who held it for many years, and when the time came to pass it along to his son, he instead swallowed it whole, unable to give away his blessing to another.
“His son, denied the blessing, became ill and perished slowly, but still his father felt no regret, as he was still strong and healthy from the blessing. And one day, a visitor came to his court, although his face was shrouded. He brought out a small Pai Sho table and asked the King for a game.
“The King refused. ‘I do not have all the tiles,’ he said, since the Knotweed tile was now deep inside him.
“‘That is fine,’ said the man. ‘Please, let us play anyway.’
“The King agreed, not because he wanted to play a game, but because he had heart the story passed along by his forefathers, and thought that perhaps the traveler would give him a hidden blessing if he played along. So the two of them played the game, until the visitor finally remarked, ‘I see you have not played your Knotweed tile.’
“‘It is lost,’ said the King.
“‘Lost? But I can see it right there,’ and the visitor pointed behind the King. The King, greedy for another magical tile, looked behind him, and he did not see the visitor raise an axe and chop his head off. The Knotweed tile, which had been stuck in his throat, fell upon the floor, and the visitor picked it up. Doing so, the visitor’s hood fell down, and their identity was revealed.”
Azula lifts the cup to her lips, but the tea is cool and barely flavored. “Who was it?” she asks, even though she knows she should pretend not to care.
The girl shrugs. “It varies, depending on who tells the story. Some say it was Agni, reclaiming his lost tile. Or the King’s dead son, or, hell, the Avatar.”
“Well,” says Azula. “Thank you very much for wasting my time.”
“If you were to ask me—”
“I didn’t.”
“I would say it's his daughter,” she finishes. “Avenging her brother.”
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Zuko does not survive that first fateful Agni Kai.
But no matter how much Ozai strives to pretend otherwise, the Old Gods are not dead.
And the Old Gods are angry.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 70,072
- Chapters:
- 10/14
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- 4
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- 1,225
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- 6,441
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Bookmarked by mayfriend
15 Sep 2020
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“Have you heard the tale of the son of the Jasmine Farmer?” the bartender asks. Her hands are tight around her rag.
“What?” Zuko blinks.
“The tale of the Jasmine Farmer.” The bartender repeats, and she stares steadily at him.
“Uh.”
“It’s a well-known tale.” She says. “There was a jasmine farm at the edge of an archipelago, passed down from father to son. The farm had known fair weather and terrible storms, good farmers and bad, but it always grew plentiful crops, no matter what.”
“I don’t know–”
“When the farmer was on his death-bed, he called his son to him,” The bartender blazes on, as though she can’t hear him. “And he told him that the reason their crops always yielded abundance was that a benevolent spirit guarded the farm.”
“‘How can this be?’ The son asked. ‘I have not seen nor felt any spirit protecting me.’
“‘The spirit does not protect you.’ The father refuted. ‘The spirit protects the farm and its inhabitants. Do not harm the farm, nor its inhabitants, and the spirit will persist in its blessing. But harm this land, or one person on it, and the blessing will break and turn. Promise that you will abide by these rules.’
“‘I promise,’ The son said, and the father passed away.
“Years passed, and the son grew and had a child himself, and the son grew careless in minding his father’s rules, even becoming cruel at times. His son, just a child, witnessed his father’s callousness and spoke out against it. The father grew enraged with his son and killed him for his disrespect.
“The spirit witnessed this act, and broke the blessing that guarded the farm.”
The bartender finishes wiping down the counter, and turns to look at him.
“What happened next?” Zuko asks, and the bartender shrugs, a wry half-smile forming on her face.
“Don’t know,” She shrugs. “We’re still living in it.”
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in which lying and acting are the same thing, really by discordiansamba
Fandoms: Avatar: The Last Airbender
13 Dec 2019
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Zuko's never been a liar. That's always been Azula's thing. But now that he's living in enemy territory, he literally has no choice- and the guilt is starting to get to him.
Toph's never had a choice when it comes to acting- she has to, because the girl her parents think she is doesn't exist. She doesn't feel guilty about it at all, not really.
(or, sometimes a liar and an actor are exactly what the other needs)
Series
- Part 4 of kintsugi
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 13,992
- Chapters:
- 2/2
- Comments:
- 369
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- 9,620
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- 341
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- 63,353
Bookmarked by mayfriend
02 Jul 2020
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Toph got into her stance, stomping her left foot, carving an entrance into the rock wall. She made it a little bigger this time, so that Li wouldn't have to stoop over until they came out into the practice arena that she'd carved out for herself. She took a few steps inside, before she realized that he wasn't following.
With a slight frown, she turned back in his direction. "There a problem, Scruffy?"
"You know I won't be able to see shit in there, right?" Li asked.
Toph opened her mouth. Closed it. Then opened it again.
"Shit." She repeated, echoing the boy's earlier swear just as soon as she committed it to memory. She was going to get some use out of that. "You're right."
She couldn't say which of them ended up breaking the silence first- but she guessed it really didn't matter. Hearing the way Li's unexpected bark of laughter mixed with hers was the only thing that was actually important.
"Sorry, Scruffy." Toph said, once their laughter had died down somewhat. "Guess I forgot you aren't completely blind."
"From you?" Li said. "That's a compliment."
Toph beamed. Because if Scruffy could understand that, then it meant he understood her even better than she'd first thought. It meant that when he looked at her, he didn't see her blindness as a weakness, but rather that he'd come to view it as a strength.
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Summary
In one universe, Ozai looked at his newborn son and saw disappointment. In another, he saw a way to rival his brother. In both, he looked at his daughter and saw a weapon. The question would be who was the wielder.
Azula was never anyone’s idea of a hero.
Book 1 of salt & ashes
Series
- Part 1 of salt and ashes
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 96,644
- Chapters:
- 8/8
- Collections:
- 7
- Comments:
- 794
- Kudos:
- 4,082
- Bookmarks:
- 823
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- 120,466
Bookmarked by mayfriend
21 Jul 2021
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“I don’t understand,” she admits quietly. Uncle Iroh makes a noise; it sounds encouraging. “The texts... Honored Father says that the Naval commanders are honorable, that they dedicate their lives to the glory of the Fire Nation and give their lives to protect citizens.” She frowns. “But... the elder had no reason to lie. And you... you are saying he was not wrong.” Her head hurts. The contradiction doesn’t make sense. And Lt. Jee and Sub-Lt. Shika do their jobs well; she can’t see why they’d lie for a random old peasant.
No one answers her immediately. Finally, Sub-Lt. Shika sighs quietly and crouches in front of Azula so their eyes are at the same level. “It’s confusing, because that’s not what we learned in school, correct? Because if this were a play or an opera, we’d be told we were the heroes, right?” Sub-Lt. Shika’s voice is quiet. “All the plays do say that. All the heroes are soldiers or sailors who are fighting to bring our gift of fire to the rest of the world in darkness, help those who need it, protect our own, all of that, right?”
Azula hesitates, then nods. That’s exactly what all the plays she ever got to read were like.
“I know you know the plays are fiction. We can aspire to be those heroes, but they don’t exist.” Sub-Lt. Shika’s expression doesn’t shift, staying just as serious. “But the other truth is that we don’t live in that world either. Fire is light, but you know it burns too.” Her gaze holds steady, not straying to the scarf-covered burn. “And sometimes, instead of heroes bringing light, people are far more interested in burning everything they can. Instead of heroes, some people are wildfires.”
Wildfires are what happens when a firebender loses control, when the flames rage and burn so fiercely, they consume other fires. And other firebenders can lose control of their own fire. Wildfires are dangerous. The only way to stop them is if enough people maintain control to suppress them, or they burn until there’s nothing left. And the stronger the wildfire, the harder to suppress.
She is calling people wildfires. “You’ve seen it before,” Azula says.
“I have.”
Sub-Lt. Shika’s face gives nothing away, but Azula thinks the next question is important. “What happened?”
“The thing about wildfires,” she says, voice feeling heavy, “is that they have to burn. They’ll burn anything in their path... or they’ll burn you if you try to fight them.” She closes her eyes for a moment, breathes deeply like she’s meditating before opening them again. “Some leaders think these wildfires are useful. That they can be used against enemies.”
Azula frowns. “But... you can’t control a wildfire. Everyone knows that.”
Sub-Lt. Shika’s lips twitch upwards slightly. “You’d be surprised.”
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Dragon's fire is not so easily extinguished; when Zuko rediscovers a lost firebending technique, shifting flames can shift the world...
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 704,200
- Chapters:
- 91/91
- Collections:
- 102
- Comments:
- 2,582
- Kudos:
- 17,910
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- 9,088
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- 1,194,015
Bookmarked by mayfriend
30 Aug 2020
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“You love fire when it warms, and hate it when it burns. But it is still fire.”