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wildgoosery has been posting this Sokka/Zuko fic The Usual Reasons and I love it. I was going to start babbling about something she said with regards to it and the realized with horror that it was probably going to be more like a post than a comment, because I got all into the awesomeness of what Avatar was doing that laid the groundwork for what she was doing.
So the comment that she made regarding the situation in her fic was this. For background, the fic takes place after Zuko has joined the GAang, but before Boiling Rock. The two become friends and then friends with benefits, but Mai/Zuko and Sokka/Suki are still very much alive. Zuko, of course, struggles with the idea of what this will mean when he sees Mai again, while Sokka, of course, assures him they're just keeping each other company.
So Ali said, regarding what would happen later on, that Sokka and Zuko are moving together emotionally, but that after the events of Boiling Rock they'll be forced to pull away from each other again. (Though in some ways Boiling Rock, I would say, solidifies their connection before they do.)
So what I was going to start babbling about is how surprisingly natural it is for me to imagine them pulling together emotionally the way they do in her fic and on the show, which goes back to how well the show deals with kids of this age interacting with each other. In the commentary to WAT the writers they mentioned how when they imagined Zuko joining the group they had originally thought Sokka would be most resistant to him, but then realized it was more dramatic if it was Katara.
I think it's more than it being more dramatic, it's also just more organic. As odd as it sounds, I don't think Sokka has much personally against Zuko. He's the enemy, definitely, but if he's no longer the enemy he'll reevaluate him. Somehow that works for this character, and it made me think about the relationships between the three main boys and how it's different than the girls.
I talked about the whole masculine/feminine thing before, but reading Ali's fic is just struck me how it makes so much sense that this boy would draw the others to him in different ways. When Toph joins the group Katara says it'll be nice to have another girl, but she and Toph wind up at odds. Girls are a bit...different that way. I mean, Toph is younger than Katara and that makes a difference--Sokka and Aang didn't immediately hit it off either. Aang was closer to Katara. But with Zuko and Sokka, they're the same age, and that seems important in different ways than it would be with a girl. I guess because it seems like girls at that age might not have been drawn to each other just because they were girls. It seems like many girls, for instance, would just hang with the boys or dislike the other person for being a girl. If they didn't hit it off, that would probably be that.
But looking at the way the boys react to Zuko--with Aang, for instance, the two of them have always had this weird desire for each other's approval even while opposing each other. Aang looks up to Zuko as an older boy--one whose personality is a lot like his own (if it hadn't been twisted, that is) and puts a lot of similar pressures on himself. Aang's being the Avatar and what he symbolizes to Zuko, makes up for his age, so that they can react to each other as equals even though they're different ages.
With Sokka, though, Zuko's just another boy his age, and I don't think he can just be ignored. But personality-wise, they seem to make better friends than rivals. Before Zuko got himself together he might have hated Sokka because Sokka represented everything he wanted to repress in himself: silliness, affection for others, love of life, joy and creativity (the last time Zuko got an idea it didn't work out too well). But once Zuko is more balanced, he can see Sokka as having the qualities he needs and wants to cultivate.
And that's kind of true with Sokka too, because you don't always want to be meat and sarcasm guy. All three boys have done the "I have to reclaim my honor" thing, and it seems very natural that when Aang says it (when first waking up after CoD) he's wrong and should have listened to Katara telling him to rest. Sokka goes to the guy most likely to understand the right and wrong way to regain one's honor and the mistakes you have to make to get there. I think Zuko's shy smile at seeing Hakoda safe with his family is partly him allowing himself to share in the satisfaction. God knows he's never going to be able to save his father, but this is pretty close. It's almost a companion test to successful redirection of Ozai's lightning back in DoBS. First his father fails to destroy him, then Zuko gets to rescue him.
I was reading this book I found at work recently that talked about those four male archetypes that are supposed to be balanced--some people say whenever you find a group of four boys they’ll be these four types. The four are: The King, the Warrior, the Magician and the Lover. (I love applying those to groups of fictional fours--my personal feeling about MWPP? James=King, Sirius=Warrior, Remus=Magician (shapeshifter) and Peter=Lover)
So I can't help but wonder where I'd put the Avatar guys—watch me reduce everyone to symbols and archetypes! They all switch between the four, but it seems like we should also be able to step back and see them playing different roles with each other. Zuko, for instance, is heir to the throne, so that would make him a king. Even though he's spent most of the series as a bad warrior, along the way of his travels he also learns how to be a good king, as he tells Ozai in their confrontation.
Iroh, by contrast, has rejected the literal role of king--except in so far as he is mentoring Zuko to be king. I'd say he seems to be most happy as the lover at this point (go Iroh!) but his warrior or magician is always ready when needed.
Sokka is also all four: he takes on a kingly leader role in making strategy for the group, but he's also a warrior. He’s worked some magic with his plans and the boy's utterly romantic.
It's interesting, actually, to see where each of these characters seems to feel least secure. Sokka sometimes seems insecure as a warrior due to his being left behind unable to protect the water tribe (he's also often teased about his lack of power, since he's young and can't bend). He seeks out a sword master and apprentices himself to the Kyoshi warriors. I might also say he’s weak on magician because he identifies himself as the practical one who isn’t into magic.
Aang’s Avatar role has a lot of king in it. He's watching over four nations, has inherited responsibility and wields power far beyond his own. We've seen him fight as a warrior, he's in touch with the spirit world and magic, and while he’s just now working on being a romantic lover, he’s a natural lover in general. I'd say the role Aang's least comfortable with are King and Warrior--since the air bending style is almost entirely defensive and he shies away from the more aggressive bending styles. It makes sense his role as King will be the last one he masters--as symbolized by the Avatar state.
I'm trying to think of which ones Zuko feels the most insecure about or needs to work on the most (it’s hard when he starts out such a mess!). I'm thinking magician. I mean, even though he's been screwed up for so long so it came out badly, he does quite naturally assume the role of king because he's so into duty. His whole banishment occurred because he had the instincts of a good king and he spent years trying to suppress them. He did pretty well as a warrior even before he got the wisdom to go to the next level. He's got problems as a lover too, but he's learning through trying. (He must be doing something right judging by Mai’s behavior!)
It honestly seems like it's when he's called on to be a Magician that he shies away the most. It's all Iroh mumbo-jumbo to him. I think he needs a visit to the spirit world, maybe. Or maybe I’m completely wrong here and forgetting something.
Anyway, Sokka/Zuko=BFFs 4-EVA!!!wildgoosery’s fic is better than this post which was inspired by it and then went off on a big tangent!
wildgoosery has been posting this Sokka/Zuko fic The Usual Reasons and I love it. I was going to start babbling about something she said with regards to it and the realized with horror that it was probably going to be more like a post than a comment, because I got all into the awesomeness of what Avatar was doing that laid the groundwork for what she was doing.So the comment that she made regarding the situation in her fic was this. For background, the fic takes place after Zuko has joined the GAang, but before Boiling Rock. The two become friends and then friends with benefits, but Mai/Zuko and Sokka/Suki are still very much alive. Zuko, of course, struggles with the idea of what this will mean when he sees Mai again, while Sokka, of course, assures him they're just keeping each other company.
So Ali said, regarding what would happen later on, that Sokka and Zuko are moving together emotionally, but that after the events of Boiling Rock they'll be forced to pull away from each other again. (Though in some ways Boiling Rock, I would say, solidifies their connection before they do.)
So what I was going to start babbling about is how surprisingly natural it is for me to imagine them pulling together emotionally the way they do in her fic and on the show, which goes back to how well the show deals with kids of this age interacting with each other. In the commentary to WAT the writers they mentioned how when they imagined Zuko joining the group they had originally thought Sokka would be most resistant to him, but then realized it was more dramatic if it was Katara.
I think it's more than it being more dramatic, it's also just more organic. As odd as it sounds, I don't think Sokka has much personally against Zuko. He's the enemy, definitely, but if he's no longer the enemy he'll reevaluate him. Somehow that works for this character, and it made me think about the relationships between the three main boys and how it's different than the girls.
I talked about the whole masculine/feminine thing before, but reading Ali's fic is just struck me how it makes so much sense that this boy would draw the others to him in different ways. When Toph joins the group Katara says it'll be nice to have another girl, but she and Toph wind up at odds. Girls are a bit...different that way. I mean, Toph is younger than Katara and that makes a difference--Sokka and Aang didn't immediately hit it off either. Aang was closer to Katara. But with Zuko and Sokka, they're the same age, and that seems important in different ways than it would be with a girl. I guess because it seems like girls at that age might not have been drawn to each other just because they were girls. It seems like many girls, for instance, would just hang with the boys or dislike the other person for being a girl. If they didn't hit it off, that would probably be that.
But looking at the way the boys react to Zuko--with Aang, for instance, the two of them have always had this weird desire for each other's approval even while opposing each other. Aang looks up to Zuko as an older boy--one whose personality is a lot like his own (if it hadn't been twisted, that is) and puts a lot of similar pressures on himself. Aang's being the Avatar and what he symbolizes to Zuko, makes up for his age, so that they can react to each other as equals even though they're different ages.
With Sokka, though, Zuko's just another boy his age, and I don't think he can just be ignored. But personality-wise, they seem to make better friends than rivals. Before Zuko got himself together he might have hated Sokka because Sokka represented everything he wanted to repress in himself: silliness, affection for others, love of life, joy and creativity (the last time Zuko got an idea it didn't work out too well). But once Zuko is more balanced, he can see Sokka as having the qualities he needs and wants to cultivate.
And that's kind of true with Sokka too, because you don't always want to be meat and sarcasm guy. All three boys have done the "I have to reclaim my honor" thing, and it seems very natural that when Aang says it (when first waking up after CoD) he's wrong and should have listened to Katara telling him to rest. Sokka goes to the guy most likely to understand the right and wrong way to regain one's honor and the mistakes you have to make to get there. I think Zuko's shy smile at seeing Hakoda safe with his family is partly him allowing himself to share in the satisfaction. God knows he's never going to be able to save his father, but this is pretty close. It's almost a companion test to successful redirection of Ozai's lightning back in DoBS. First his father fails to destroy him, then Zuko gets to rescue him.
I was reading this book I found at work recently that talked about those four male archetypes that are supposed to be balanced--some people say whenever you find a group of four boys they’ll be these four types. The four are: The King, the Warrior, the Magician and the Lover. (I love applying those to groups of fictional fours--my personal feeling about MWPP? James=King, Sirius=Warrior, Remus=Magician (shapeshifter) and Peter=Lover)
So I can't help but wonder where I'd put the Avatar guys—watch me reduce everyone to symbols and archetypes! They all switch between the four, but it seems like we should also be able to step back and see them playing different roles with each other. Zuko, for instance, is heir to the throne, so that would make him a king. Even though he's spent most of the series as a bad warrior, along the way of his travels he also learns how to be a good king, as he tells Ozai in their confrontation.
Iroh, by contrast, has rejected the literal role of king--except in so far as he is mentoring Zuko to be king. I'd say he seems to be most happy as the lover at this point (go Iroh!) but his warrior or magician is always ready when needed.
Sokka is also all four: he takes on a kingly leader role in making strategy for the group, but he's also a warrior. He’s worked some magic with his plans and the boy's utterly romantic.
It's interesting, actually, to see where each of these characters seems to feel least secure. Sokka sometimes seems insecure as a warrior due to his being left behind unable to protect the water tribe (he's also often teased about his lack of power, since he's young and can't bend). He seeks out a sword master and apprentices himself to the Kyoshi warriors. I might also say he’s weak on magician because he identifies himself as the practical one who isn’t into magic.
Aang’s Avatar role has a lot of king in it. He's watching over four nations, has inherited responsibility and wields power far beyond his own. We've seen him fight as a warrior, he's in touch with the spirit world and magic, and while he’s just now working on being a romantic lover, he’s a natural lover in general. I'd say the role Aang's least comfortable with are King and Warrior--since the air bending style is almost entirely defensive and he shies away from the more aggressive bending styles. It makes sense his role as King will be the last one he masters--as symbolized by the Avatar state.
I'm trying to think of which ones Zuko feels the most insecure about or needs to work on the most (it’s hard when he starts out such a mess!). I'm thinking magician. I mean, even though he's been screwed up for so long so it came out badly, he does quite naturally assume the role of king because he's so into duty. His whole banishment occurred because he had the instincts of a good king and he spent years trying to suppress them. He did pretty well as a warrior even before he got the wisdom to go to the next level. He's got problems as a lover too, but he's learning through trying. (He must be doing something right judging by Mai’s behavior!)
It honestly seems like it's when he's called on to be a Magician that he shies away the most. It's all Iroh mumbo-jumbo to him. I think he needs a visit to the spirit world, maybe. Or maybe I’m completely wrong here and forgetting something.
Anyway, Sokka/Zuko=BFFs 4-EVA!!!
wildgoosery’s fic is better than this post which was inspired by it and then went off on a big tangent! 
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