timepiececlock

A consort? the word isn't quite equivalent... i think this is a language deficiency resulting from sexism in standard English.

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Male mistress = Turtleduck Pond Boy? (Avatar equivalent of Pool Boy) XD

But srsly, yeah. I have a hard time with the "Katara is the other woman" fics, too. It's the most plausible, given the canon ending circumstances, but...I have a hard time thinking Katara would settle for being Woman Number Two in his life, even if it was a transitory phase.

And I agree with dungeonwriter - Zuko has good reason to fear Aang, after the finale. Not that he couldn't get by with his swords, but to lose your bending - that sucks. D:

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dungeonwriter.livejournal.com

"I'm not a mistress," Zuko mumbled, as he lay down next to his lover. "Calling me that is really insulting."

"Well...what should I call you? A consort? A concubine?" Katara asked, as she began to undress.

"Those are names for women," Zuko said, allowing his misery to be mitigated by an eyeful.

"Is it my fault usually men are the one who stray and we haven't made a word for women?" Katara demanded. Haru and she had been having problems and she had decided to get some outside help.

"Yes. Make up a word for me," Zuko demanded. He had skipped out of an important Fire nation meeting for this but no nookie till he had a name.

"Okay. You're my lover. Now give me some love."

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dungeonwriter.livejournal.com

Though Mai is a ninja and would destroy anyone who got between her and her man. Ty Lee can chi bend people badly. Katara can make hurricanes. Sokka is a swordsman. Toph is...Toph.

This is not a world conducive to infidelity.

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Truth, although Bloodbending trumps ninja knives. Aang is the far deadlier scorned spouse, in this case, at least with respect to bending.

Plus, I can kind of see where this Katara-the-Adulterer-Instigator idea comes from, loosely. Zuko (at the end of the series) has a lot of respect for Aang. There's a deep friendship there. I have a really hard time seeing Zuko make the first move towards an adulterous relationship with Katara because of his friendship with Aang. Not so much for Katara/Mai - they never bonded at any point in the series, and we all know women are the more cunning of the species anyway, when it comes to "all is fair in love and war".

Hmm. I'm not doing much to support the topic of this post, methinks. D:

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haha, cute. :D

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I half-way agree. I think Katara has a greater...capacity...for doing that to Mai than Zuko does to Aang. It is hard to believe that Zuko would engage in that behavior...though its equally if not more unbelievable that Katara would treat Aang that way. And part of me wonders if Zuko might not rationalize it as a separate matter--the heart's feelings having no bearing on his respect for Aang as the Avatar. I mean, Zuko is better at being good, yeah, but he's still selfish. We know he'll do foolish things and make foolish choices when acting from his heart, that's VERY in-character. Though Zuko also might apply to the fear thing... he could be insightful enough to realize that while in his own mind world peace and personal relationships are two different and not necessarily co-dependent things, AANG might confuse the two. Aang would take an act of Zuko to be the same as an act of the Fire Lord, and let personal relations damage their political alliance.

My main problem with it, though, is that I think Katara is better than that. Or believes herself to be better than that. Pride is *not* something Katara is short on, we know that much. It's impossible for me to imagine her settling as second-best to anyone. Maybe I could see her being Zuko's consort/mistress if Zuko was still unmarried and she was the only woman in his life, although they're not actually married. I don't know if marriage would even make Katara happy. But I don't think she'd tolerate having to "compete" with anyone's wife or betrothed.

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True about Zuko (and especially his impulsive nature). And exactly right about Katara's character.

Soooo... they should just both be single then, to carry on a shameful premarital sexual relationship. :D Yay!

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I like it! You should post that to the drabble-a-thon. =)

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mswyrr

Nasty. Infidelity is one of my anti-kinks. It's so debasing to characters and sordid in a surprisingly dull way. I wonder at how people can enjoy fic about their favorite characters acting out of character in such unpleasant ways. Why can't they stick with AU fics or fics where inconvenient partners neatly die/disappear/whatever prior to the pairing hooking up?

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Now I am kind of imagining a conversation where Katara, who is visiting the FN on political work on behalf of Aang, and who the night before "visited" Zuko, gets pulled aside by someone--possibly Iroh, maybe Jeong Jeong, and get's told that she is "partaking of a very, very dangerous 'midnight snack.'"

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It's an anti-kink for me, too. I avoid most of them. I did enjoy "A Matter of Honor" (at the Pit) which has the characters only engaged, not married, and in a very hollywood-movie way, both established pairings break up due to dual cheating. It's developed in a humorous, slow, entertaining way, however, with Toph as a reluctant narrator.

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Oh but what a tasty, tasty morsel you be, Zuko. XDDD

I've often seen Iroh in my head as being an instigator himself of a Katara/Zuko affair. It all started with those damned Sozin's Comet book spoilers. :p

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That's my main concern too, that adultery is OOC for both Katara and Zuko, really. Their personalities are quite similar in that they're both very devoted to people they care about.

Sometimes having the 'inconvenient' partners die/disappear/whatever, though, feels like a literary cop-out. :(

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littleduchess.livejournal.com

Yeah I can't see that happening. All those characters are too proud to cheat. I can see Katara instigating something purposefully to piss Aang of if something went seriously wrong though...

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sub-divided.livejournal.com

Boytoy?

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strange_quark

I suppose, in a logistical sense, the former is easier to see. Zuko is likely to be pressured into marriage to continue his line, whereas Katara has much more of a choice in the matter. Katara is also more at liberty to travel then Zuko is, so Katara being an instigator, of sneaking in and out for adulterous liaisons, makes more sense.

I agree with other people, though, that adultery is off-puttingly out of character for both of them, even if they're unhappy in their relationships.

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quaggy

Thank you. People have written fics like that throughout the series, but the seem even more prevalent once the cannon pairings were set in stone... like that would be the only way the two could ever get together in the future. I guess some people find that sexy. I think it's completely out of character. They are both two loyal and straightforward to engage in something that covert. And Zuko? Come on! He's got the worse luck. Everybody would find out within a week because he did something stupid like stub his toe while sneaking into her bedroom.

I'd like to add the fics where Katara secretly has Zuko's child and he doesn't find out the child is grown. Even if you accept the idea that Katara could even do something like that (which I have serious trouble with), there's no way that Zuko wouldn't find out. Aang would probably keep his mouth shut. But Sokka, who's job it was to take up the moral leadership when Katara couldn't for some reason, would never let that happen... especially after Boiling Rock when two became friends. He would make Katara tell him and if she refused, tell Zuko himself. Unless Toph got there first!

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And Zuko? Come on! He's got the worse luck. Everybody would find out within a week because he did something stupid like stub his toe while sneaking into her bedroom.

HA! So true. So very true. Now I want to read *that* fic.

I'd like to add the fics where Katara secretly has Zuko's child and he doesn't find out the child is grown.

I definitely see where you're coming from that, and I agree it's hard to imagine Katara really never telling Zuko. And considering how much it hurt Katara to grow up with a missing parent, I can't imagine her raising a child without a father when that father is still alive and out there, never letting them meet.

I agree with you too about Sokka telling if Katara didn't for some reason, you're right about Sokka being the one "who's job it was to take up the moral leadership" when someone else can't or won't. The only difference I can see is that several of the fics I've read of that nature were written in season 1 or 2, when Zuko was still the enemy. I don't imagine Sokka would want Evil Zuko anywhere near Sokka's nephew/niece, father or not. But after season 3 it's pretty much impossible to believe it.

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Logistically, perhaps, but the exact same argument could be made for Katara having liasons with him when he's FL and NOT married. That doesn't really bother me, if she's his come-and-go lover or something. It's the adultery that irritates me, because it's not only OOC, but in the fics I've read it always, ALWAYS seems to have Katara in a vulnerable situation and Zuko in a power-situation. It's such an unequal relationship.

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Naaahhh...not salacious enough.

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Sometimes its a necessary cop-out, though, if you're here to write a 2,000 word oneshot and not a novel. I just don't have the energy to fairly and with due attention break up Katara and Aang in an amicable way before getting onto the zutara I want to be writing, you know? That's ten chapters of a dying relationship that may be in my head but will never get to paper.

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No, for a 2K oneshot that's different. I'm talking about a multipart, multichapter fic. I think when you have in mind to write a long fic like that, that a convenient "he/she died" in the beginning of the story seems like too easy of a way out.

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Yeah. As cop-outs go, I like "We broke up" much better than "He died", since I think it's a lot more likely, for one.

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akavertigo.livejournal.com

In the sweet, filthy privacy of my head Katara starts an AtLA-esque East India Company and makes FN Economic integration her b*tch.

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Mine too.

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akavertigo.livejournal.com

Screw political marriage! Gimme trade regualations and buying agents!

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quaggy

Now I want to read *that* fic.

You know what? Me too! :-)

The only difference I can see is that several of the fics I've read of that nature were written in season 1 or 2, when Zuko was still the enemy.

Yeah, that I totally get. Even after Zuko theoretically turns good, Sokka's loyalty is with his sister. But a fic that set post-series (of which there have been a fair few lately), means that Sokka would have to lie to his friend, rather than an uneasy ally and he wouldn't be able to ignore that.

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Personally, I tend to write Zuko as the other woman. I always write Katara snapping from having to be the perfect Avatar's waterbender, which I actually think is IC for her.

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Oh yeah, she's a bottle-and-snap type, definitely. I love to read more fics with Zuko as the other woman. And I'd love to see more ATLA fics by you!

I was watching this music video and thinking about Katara and Hama and bloodbending, and I had a kind of thought about an older Katara, mid thirties or early forties, who gets kidnapped or captured or something. Probably for a ransom (either political or financial I don't know.) And she fights but once they restrain her she goes along with it, kind of waiting them out. And eventually, after she gets enough information from them and assesses the situation, she stands up, pulls water from the air or somewhere to break her bonds, bloodbends her captors out of her way, and walks out of the camp/hideout/fortress easy as you please. And they're all like "WTF? How did you do that? Why didn't you escape earlier?"

And she'd say "I haven't bloodbended in twenty two years, but that doesn't mean that I can't. Have you ever seen ice freeze in the cracks of the roads that line the capital? Do you notice that those cracks get bigger every year? You can't build a prison that will hold me. I stayed because I was curious, but I've learned everything I need to know from you. I'm leaving now, good luck."

I sort of imagine her growing up to be Iroh, you know? Like Iroh combined with Madame President from Battlestar Galactica.

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oops, broken link!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfTYu8hL14M

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Um, could you link that again? Because it's not working.

And I could totally see that happening.

I was actually thinking about Avatar earlier, and how said I am that that fandom kind of died a premature death for me.

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Okay, got it.

Oh, that was a good vid.

I've forgotten how much I love that episode.

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I reposted the link in a separate comment below. =)

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I've forgotten how much I love that episode.

Oh me TOO. Katara's bending poses have never been more amazing (the finale finish was great but otherwise she just ran around) or more eloquently drawn with the arms and hands. And it was such a fantastic development point for her character, too.

The show and a lot of the fandom focuses often on how much good comes out of the war's end and their heroic journey--friends and loves they found, the peace they won, the skills and confidence they learned. But there were also profound costs to these guys. Sokka lost Yue. Katara lost the knowledge of innocence and purity in her self and her capabilities. Zuko lost his father and sister.

I don't know if Toph or Aang lost anything permanent, though.

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I've never really written about it, but I'm secretly obsessed with Hama's character. What she became, what she used to be. That look on her face when she bloodbends the rat the first time. Such a wonderful illustration of the damage that war does to people, what it drives them to. And to think that, before the invasion, Hama was exactly like Katara. A little less sad, maybe, but the same.

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Oh, agreed. She's Katara's mirror, and in the same situation, Katara would have done exactly as Hama did (expect for the killing of innocents - I think Katara would have picked more reasonable targets for her revenge.)

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