Artist Zuko Really Is One Of The Best Things In The World!!😍

A Long List of Trash Fire Lord Zuko Headcanons

...that i couldn't get out of my head:

(warning: SUPER LONG POST i havent figured out how to trim posts yet)

he's the one who unchains azula despite iroh's protests. she doesn't even try to fight him, just cries into his shoulder and keeps mumbling about how father's going to be so disappointed in her. he takes her to her rooms and has her drink a sleeping draught, then stations the best guards he has left outside her chambers.

his first council meeting takes place literally a day after sozin's comet. he hobbles into the council chamber shirtless with his entire torso covered in bandages and every council member just looks at him like '...what'

he does NOT sleep for like,,a week after sozin's comet and then another two weeks after his coronation. katara, aang and suki try to persuade him to sleep and he doesn't listen. eventually sokka, toph and mai team up to literally drag his ass to bed and tell him he's not allowed to get up until he sleeps (does mai pin him to the bed with her knives? yes. is it kinky or sexual in any way? definitely not.)

he drinks So. Much. Tea. at this point it's practically tasteless to him but he drinks it anyway because he just needs something to do and tea is something familiar. he keeps iroh on his toes because he's constantly asking for new tea blends, uncle, i think i actually tasted the last one,

he flat-out refuses to grow his hair for at least a year after ozai's defeat. the second it starts getting close to his chin he shears it off himself, with his knife, and his stylist has a heart attack every single time

when he's tired he'll occasionally jump up when one of his guards moves. it stops after a bit, but for the first month and a half or so he's really twitchy. when sokka asks, the only explanation he can come up with is that he's not used to having people stand behind him silently and not want to kill him, much less want to protect him (sokka immediately takes him out for a shopping trip and makes a point of walking behind him the entire time, but only on zuko's right side, where he can clearly see it if sokka moves towards him)

when the healer declares azula mentally unstable and in need of an institution, he shuts himself in his office for the rest of the night. no one's allowed in, not even iroh. he finally emerges in the morning, eyes red from crying and sleep deprivation, and tells the librarian that he'd like a list of the best mental institutions in the country, please, the best in the world if you can get them

he loves theatre (is this even a headcanon?). unfortunately it practically died out in the fire nation along with the rest of the creative arts, leaving nothing but small troupes like the ember island players. one of zuko's personal goals (meaning things he wants to accomplish that aren't as important as restoring his country) is to bring back theatre; he finally manages to do it after about eight months or so of being fire lord, along with other arts like dancing, music and sculpture

he establishes a national day of mourning, on the first day of autumn every year, to commemorate the genocide of the air nomads. from 100AG onwards, every calendar printed in the fire nation has it marked. at first it was called the day of repentance, but aang persuaded him to have it changed (by arguing that he didn't want guilt to be a literal staple of fire nation culture)

he introduces literally So Many educational reforms, plus a mandatory class that teaches students about the cultures of the other nations (air nomads included) and how some of their traditions overlap

he turns down the offer of having a statue put up of him in the capital. toph ignores him and does it anyway.

he visits azula regularly, makes sure she's (relatively) comfortable and well-fed, and sometimes just sits down outside her door and tells her about everything that's going on right now ('some of the far colonies have developed their own standardised writing, azula, you wouldn't believe it, and i've asked the fire sages to come visit more often—but you never liked them, did you? oh, well; i'll make sure none of them go into your chambers by mistake')

(he doesn't know it, but when he does this azula sits by the door and listens. she wonders what kind of writing the colonists have developed, and whether or not the fire sages have taken on some new recruits.)

he hates being above anyone else. never sits in the throne if he can help it, nor does he sit on the dais in the council room. when he talks to people shorter than him, he finds himself stooping a little bit to talk to them on their level (the exception to this rule is sokka, who he mocks for being shorter all the way up until sokka grows taller than him, the bastard)

the first time he visits the earth kingdom, the earth king's ministers call a toast. he ends up being the only one who has to sit out, because he's too young to drink by earth kingdom law

once his servants figure out he won't kill them for talking to him, they start becoming a lot more bold, telling him off when he doesn't take care of himself. at one point, they force him to let them take care of him so much that he literally just bolts into the gardens and hides there until the staff rope in mai and ty lee

when he needs to escape, he does one of two things: (a) he dresses up as the blue spirit and does some parkour until he calms down, or (b) he goes to work at the jasmine dragon. (b) happens less often bc the jasmine dragon's in ba sing se, but there's been a few memorable incidents when an earth kingdom diplomat walks in and yells, 'LEE?!' when they see the fire lord

the first court artist who draws him also happens to be the one who drew azulon and ozai. he draws zuko without his scar. zuko takes one look at it and tells him, very calmly, that he'd like him to leave, please.

zuko burns the portrait. he doesn't fire the court artist, but he never calls on him again unless he has to. a second court artist is called, and can't help but be a bit confused when the fire lord tells him to be sure to include the scar

he forgets the crown. a lot. sometimes he walks into council meetings in his sleepwear with his hair tied up in a messy ponytail and a bunch of scrolls tucked under his arm. none of his councilmen have the guts (or the heart) to tell him that this is not, in fact, formal council wear

he goes to feed the turtleducks when he's stressed. he thinks he's being subtle. he's not. the entire palace knows, and they consciously give him space when they see him in the turtleduck garden

most of his staff are older than him, so they look at him and see this teeny tiny fire lord who is So Small and who Must Be Protected. the day after zuko's coronation, the head chef holds a meeting where they commence Operation Do-Not-Let-That-Boy-Turn-Out-Like-His-Father (subsection He's-The-Only-Good-Thing-We-Have)

one night he wakes up to find suki sitting in his room, decked out in full kyoshi warrior garb and makeup, and just about screams blue murder. suki tells him there are suspicions of an assassin in the palace, and would you please stop yelling it's very distracting, we won't be able to hear anyone coming over that racket

zuko gets very, very paranoid of random spirits after that. yeah, suki looks like a possibly malevolent spirit when she's wearing her makeup, what about it? (when he tells sokka he's highkey terrified of spirit shenanigans, sokka just looks at him and says, 'man, the stories i could tell...', and THAT'S when zuko remembers sokka spent like six months more than he did travelling with the avatar)

on his first visit to the southern water tribe, he removes his boots and leg guards, rolls up his pants and kneels barefoot in the snow. even though chief hakoda immediately starts trying to pull him up, he's stubborn as hell and stays kneeling for the entirety of his very long, very sincere apology-on-behalf-of-the-fire-nation speech. he nearly loses his toes to frostbite after that, and both sokka and katara never stop giving him shit for it

the first time he grows a 'beard' is completely accidental. he's stressed over some trade miscommunications with chief hakoda, hasn't slept in a few days...and then when sokka arrives as water tribe ambassador to help smooth things over, he takes one look at zuko and says 'man, facial hair does not suit you'

zuko: facial what now

he checks a mirror to find that he's got stubble covering his chin, dark enough that it almost looks intentional, and holy gods how the fuck did he not notice this before

'UNCLE WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME' 'i assumed you were doing it on purpose' 'WHEN HAVE I EVER DONE ANYTHING ON PURPOSE'

he shaves it all off immediately, of course, which prompts a lot of teasing and rib-poking from sokka until zuko finally snaps that he's scared it'll make him look like his father. sokka stops after that.

(the day after sokka leaves, zuko finds that a mysterious someone has scribbled all over ozai's royal portrait, giving him a frankly ridiculous beard and moustache that literally CANNOT be grown in real life. oddly enough, he can't bring himself to care about the defamation of royal property. he's too busy laughing.)

his paths cross with toph and sokka more than any of the others, because sokka is ambassador and toph is technically still a beifong. most of the time, at formal functions, he ends up sequestered in the corner with toph and a hoard of snacks, and they talk and swear much more than they usually do (zuko's ministers once heard him when he was drunk with toph, and the servants swear the older ministers' ears started bleeding)

he restores fire nation cultural festivals, and in doing so subjects himself to learning a lot of complicated dances

during one memorable week, he wrote so many letters and drafted so much legislation that he ran out of paper. he had to go visit the nearest school and ask for some

he keeps up with his firebending and sword training even though it's hard to fit into his schedule. his ministers refrain from reminding him that he has guards to protect him now; it's still hard for zuko to trust his safety with anyone but himself (team avatar is the exception).

he started sleepwalking about two months into his reign. no one knew why. one time, he nearly sleepwalked right off the edge of a balcony, and one of his guards had to grab him by the back of his robes.

the sleepwalking stopped after around a month and never happened again. at this point it's practically palace legend.

after freeing the war prisoners, he went around collecting every single earthbender-proof wooden cell he could find in the capital and surrounding areas. when he'd gotten most of them, he gathered them into a huge pile in the city square and set fire to them with his own hands.

unfortunately he couldn't do that with the waterbender metal cells but he did get toph to come in and bend them all into pretty shapes (well, toph thought they were pretty shapes. everyone else thinks they're meaningless squiggles)

he learned how to write with both hands at the same time out of sheer necessity (he refused scribes until it became clear that he'd be putting some people out of a job; that was when he started letting scribes write very, very minor things, but all important documents/drafts/letters are still written by him)

he once put the wet end of an ink brush in his mouth instead of the wooden end by mistake. didn't even realise until he bit down to keep it in place and ink went oozing everywhere

when his guards rushed in to find him coughing and spluttering black liquid all over his desk they thought he'd been poisoned but no he's just stupid

on his 17th birthday, his first one after being crowned, he got tackled by team avatar in the middle of the ballroom and ended up at the bottom of a cuddlepile for like ten minutes

this cuddlepile happened at an event that was very much public and very much formal. it was a scandal for weeks

just. fire lord zuko, guys. so much potential

If there’s anything Iroh misses about his time as crown prince, it’s getting to roast his little brother at any given moment

(Also this sort of pertains to my own headcanon (vaguely inspired by the comics) that Ursa is a proficient dancer, and often performs for big celebrations)

au idea where Zuko comes across Lieutenant Jee at Boiling Rock because once Jee found out about Zhao blowing up Zuko’s ship he actually either abandoned Zhao or straight up turned on him, causing him to be eventually apprehended. He’s happy to see Zuko alive, and actively helps the team escape. He urges Zuko to flee while he stays behind to help Mai.

He’s in the crowd during the coronation and is so proud of Zuko and continues to serve him until he retires and Zuko makes sure he keeps in touch and visits him on Ember Island with Iroh.

Found on pinterest. Credit to the artist.

You know how purple is considered a royal color IRL? In a Zutara AU, it earns that reputation because of them.

Zuko and Katara originally just wear robes of red and blue (Katara blue with red accents, Zuko red with blue accents) but over time they start requesting purple pieces of clothing, and are soon wearing lots of purple with some red and blue. Their kids grow up wearing mostly purple, and thus the next few Firelords, all with significant Water Tribe heritage wear purple. Then the Fire Nation transitions to a true democracy and the throne is abolished, and the living family fades into comfortable obscurity. However, by this time several generations grew up with the Firelord wearing purple. With the origins of its use by the throne, purple is soon used as a symbol in fiction for both power and love against all odds.

Zuko is An Artist: Part 1

Zuko became an artist at a young age. Painting was encouraged by Ursa and Uncle Iroh, so he did it to keep himself occupied.

Eventually, it became more than a hobby. He was an artist down to his core, seeing things through a different lens than his family members.

Azula hated that there was another thing that Zuko was better at than her. However, Ozai didn’t like it, so she didn’t. It was that simple.

Under his sleeves, there were often ink writings and drawings.

His favorite things to draw, ironically, are dragons. Twisty shapes, fangs and wings.

Ozai, again, doesn’t approve and tries to keep Zuko occupied on something that he finds productive.

It doesn’t work.

After Zuko’s exile, most of his art is halted.

But sometimes, he starts rambling about ink and paper and dragons, and suddenly he feels a lot lighter.

Around a year and a half into his exile, he gets new brushes and waterproof ink from Uncle Iroh.

He vanished for about two hours, but when he was next seen there was ink on the walls like a fresh coat of paint.

‘“Mako, have you seen the Prince?” Firenze hummed from his spot on the deck.

“No, honestly. Maybe we left him at the last port?”

The captain laughed. “We can dream, Mako.”

Iroh raised his eyebrow. “He’s painting the hallway. If you’d like, you may join him.”

And so, Zuko gained two new painters. Over time, the entire crew painted the boat black and silver.’

Yeah, the crew painted with Zuko sometimes. It became ritual to paint over it when the salt began to wear away at it.

Zuko still has his whole honor complex, but it’s slightly detached from his actual personality due to the relationship that he had with his crew.

So when the Avatar shows up, he’s shocked instead of insistent to catch him. The sooner that he catches the Avatar, the sooner that he’d get locked away from the world.

So he may or may not have deliberately played cat and mouse with the Avatar.

When Zhao takes the crew, they all visit the prince one-on-one. Some with tears, others with somber hearts. They have a group hug and then they have to leave.

The first time Zuko saw the Northern Water Tribe, he felt a flurry of emotions.

First, awe at the beauty that the people had carved from the ice.

Then, anger that the fire nation was going to knock it down.

He craves the feeling of ink on his hands again.

And once they’re declared enemies of the state, he hopes that he’ll feel that again.

Whenever they have the chance, Ellie and Joel get matching clothes, usually sweatshirts.

The best places to find new ones are remote gift shops that haven't been picked over yet, but they will take anything they can get their hands on, starting a small collection. It's not clear who had the idea first, but they both love it more than they're willing to admit for exactly the same reason - it makes them look like a family, and, more specifically, the package deal they are. They don't actively coordinate their outfits, but if one of them wears a shirt they both have, the other one races to change as soon as they see it.

Everyone else finds it fucking adorable, not that anyone except Tommy would actually be brave enough to say it to their faces, but the people in Jackson like Joel and Ellie more than they know; it's the way they look at each other, really, the bubble of fondness surrounding them wherever they go.

Identical shirts pose one problem though, mostly for Joel. When they're scattered around their house, left on the couch or in his bed, slung over a kitchen chair, it's hard to see what size it is. Ellie loves wearing Joel's shirts, glowing with something adorably childlike whenever she does, but Joel cannot wear hers, and he has gotten stuck in them while trying to pull them on in a hurry more than once.

He complains to Tommy about it (with the biggest fucking smile, and his brother cannot for the life of him take his annoyance seriously), but he still comes up with a solution. After collecting all of their matching shirts, he commandeers their living room and stitches their initials where the clothing tag should be (Ellie hates them, they're itchy, so she cut them off). His embroidery is great, he even makes sure to use the right color schemes, and numb fingertips are worth the crushing hug Ellie gives him afterwards.

(She still steals Joel's shirts, just because she can.)

good morning camp camp nation (it’s almost 2pm)

I don't dislike the name change theory at all because I understand the thought process behind it, with the need to distance yourself from every trace of your abuser and all that. So like I get it. But I very strongly believe in Hunter reclaiming his name. Mostly cuz of scenes like this

It's important to him!! It's the name he uses to distinguish his true self from the persona he's built. It's the name he uses when he wants to be seen as someone other than the Golden Guard. It's the name others use when they want to express that they do see him. The name might have fucked up origins and he's clearly aware of it but being Hunter is the one thing about himself he's certain of right now.

Why aren’t there more fics out there where the Gaang finds out just how much knowledge Zuko has on Avatars and Airbenders? There is no way your telling me that Zuko wouldn’t have read every scroll on the subject that he could get his hands on. I can just see him surprising everyone with his knowledge. He would probably even know who got married and had kids. And it’s probably stuff that even aang hadn’t found out about yet