A friend recently got me to watch the series Avatar: The Last Airbender and I have to say that I heartily enjoyed it.

As per my usual post-series M.O, I've been looking around the net for some quality fanfiction on A:TLA. I've checked out the two fics rec'd on DLP and I can't say that I probably would enjoy either.

I couldn't stand Distorted Realities' writing style and the fact that it would never be finished made me drop it after the first chapter. I refuse to touch Embers with a 20-foot pole because of the blatant canon-rape of the characters that I keep hearing about.

One fic that I did enjoy was Reconstructed Destinies (may be little of a guilty pleasure for me) even though it stuck fairly close to canon.

I don't care about shipping or any other type of crap like that, but I am pretty stringent about the actual level or writing in the story. If anyone has any story, at all, that they could recommend to me, I'd really appreciate it!

 

The one fanfiction I really enjoyed was Another Brother. It’s almost done with the first season and while it doesn’t update particularly fast (last update was in January), it’s probably the best Avatar fanfiction that I’ve ever read. It follows Zuko, who, as a result of an earlier banishment, ends up joining Chief Hakoda’s Water Tribe. Despite the altered roles, everyone remains in character and recognizable.

 

I have to second Another Brother.

I'll throw out Damascus. It was a good story, focusing on everyone's favorite earthbender. Premise is that Aang didn't run away, and got killed in the fight, and a few years ago the water avatar died as well.
Like most other Avatar fics, it's probably abandoned though.

 

If you can stand Zuko worship, try Embers by Vathara.

 

I stopped reading Embers due to the massive retardation. Though at the same time, it seemed to be the best of the Avatar fanfics that I've seen. So yeah. ¬_¬

 

That's kind of a scary thought, isn't it? I don't really understand the huge amount of Zuko-worship in the fandom (I suppose it must be like the fangirls' love for Draco in this fandom). I mean, he's an interesting character, but I honestly found that he was a douche for most of the series. Ah well, what can you do?

I'm actually kind of surprised about the lack of quality fanfiction for A:TLA, considering that it has a semi-large fanbase.

 

The reason why people worship Zuko is because Aang is a 12 year old bald kid with little to no spine. Sokka isn't a bender, so you can't really call him badass. By POE, you get left with Zuko.

Embers was the most well written Avatar fic I found. Despite that, it still sucks. I don't think there are really any good Avatar fics, maybe because the fanbase is made up of children?

 

TV trope's recomendation list
some more suggestions. Warning, they aren't as critical over there are we are over here.

 

One story you might find of interest is Sokka: Master of the Black Sword. Although I personally quite enjoy this story it has been sometime since it updated. The only detractor I can think of is you could possibly make the argument that it has some of the same issues as Embers if you simply switch Zuko with Sokka.

That being said I greatly would encourage you to give it a go if you are searching for well written ATLA fanfiction and I'm somewhat surprised it hasn't been put up for review already.

 

Azula's fans tend to like fics like that one where Zuko and Azula swap destinies. I can't remember the name now, but I'll post it later.

If you can survive through torture/angst-fics, The Way It Was Meant To Be is supposedly pretty good. It makes sense, if you think about it. Azula isn't the nicest girl in the woods, so yeah.

Zuko's appeal stems from the fact that he is one of the more interesting characters of the series. The old DLP thread on ATLA sums it up pretty well when it said that Zuko is one of the better Anti-Villains out there. Key word: Anti-Villain. He's not an Anti-Hero (at least for the most part) and therefore does douchey things... with a legitimate Freudian excuse. I dislike it when HP fans compare him with Draco, because the two characters are nothing like each other.

Zuko had a terrible childhood in canon: growing up with prodigy sister who is batshit crazy, mother who abandons him, father who burns him. Even his Uncle isn't there for some part of his childhood, dealing with Ba Sing Se and the aftermath of Lu Ten's death. The guy also was sent on a wild goose chase for someone who wasn't seen for a hundred years, which effectively is a permanent banishment. All of this, accompanied by the events surrounding his scar, results in a massive Inferiority Complex coupled with a major case of "Well Done Son Guy".

Draco's childhood, despite what his annoying fangirls say, was good: his doting mother spoiled him sweet, while his father was willing to pay Draco's way onto a Quidditch team. The worst that came from that is high expectations from his father. Even Rowling admits that the Malfoys' redeeming trait is their love for each other. Canon!Malfoy had a great childhood.

Zuko also eventually redeemed himself. Draco betrayed Potter twice and ultimately contributed nothing to the defeat of Voldemort, except in the most tenuous way (aka his "wand" thing). Zuko is probably fascinating because of that legitimate Anti-Villain status and the fact that he is a natural Angst magnet... without detracting from his Badass acts. Blue Spirit awesomeness + the Boiling Rock stuff. Once he gets over his whining (which is mid S3), the guy is a pretty good character.

Therefore, Zuko =/= Draco. Don't compare the two, because they are not like each other.

And Embers is terrible. It tries to glorify Zuko, which a baaaad act that reeks of overtime Zuko-love. The guy even admits in-universe that his actions pre-Gaang were not morally upright... yet Embers tries to justify everything. It even gets Ty-Lee to praise Azula... for being determined to kill Aang. Urgh, urgh, urgh.

And don't get me started on Embers' Katara. People tend to forget that the girl voluntarily saved a Fire Nation village from pollution. She's not an Azula-clone or some Well-Intentioned Extremist.


EDIT:

AVATAR: Last of the Black Core is dreadfully unrated. Sure, it introduces a very annoying OC in Chapter Five (?), but it is a very interesting AU retelling of Avatar: Book One. Basically, think Gundam-meets-Avatar. The Benders have become pilots of Rangers, and a lot of the science fiction stuff is intriguing. The soundtrack chosen for the fanfic is also awesome (ANY fic which recognises the musical brilliance of Rhythm Emotion gets a thumbs up in my book).

The Prologue is slow, but necessary. It's a basic info dump. Skip it if you want, but it gives a basic rundown of the AU universe in the style of Katara's opening narration. However, you will only like this fanfic if you are familiar with and/or like Gundam and the Mecha genre (eg Code Geass, GLagann, etc.).

 

Lavanya Six is a pretty good writer, behind one of my favorite Eva fics. She also seems to have dabbled into the Avatar world. I've not read any of them, so I can't comment on their quality, only knowing she handled the Eva one well.

Here's her profile.

http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1511738/Lavanya_Six

 

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4100992/1/Yes_I_am_an_Animal , Is pretty good if a bit ansgt and overly dramatic. Its on the dark side of things.

Airbender'd Child is one of the better series out there as well, Starts off a little slow but once it gets into the swing of things is quite enjoyable.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6289968/1/Airbenders_Child_Water
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6436049/1/Airbenders_Child_Earth
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6607363/1/Airbenders_Child_Fire

 

Airbender's Child reads rather poorly, especially when it comes to its execution of the Airbenders-are-alive premise. Specifically, the Airbender characters (eg Aiko) are not particularly appealing. Moreover, Ursa's characterisation is OOC and makes me want to pull my hair out. Zuko already has enough angst as it is; he doesn't need a nasty Ursa as well. In fact, Ursa is fascinating as a character primarily because she was the brightest light in Zuko's life yet supposedly committed high treason - for her son.

Her name means "bear", for crying out loud, as in "Mother Effing Bear".

The Zutara is also very sappy. I admit that Zutara is not my most favourite couple, but when done well, it can be brilliant. However, good Zutara relies on the belligerency and sexual tension inherent in the Zuko/Katara dynamic. Cutsy sappy stuff doesn't work very well with them.

The only good thing in this series is, like with many ATLA fics, is Toph. An IC Toph's interactions with Zuko make everything better. However, even that can't redeem Airbender's Child.

 

You're definitely right about the overbearing sappiness, but I can see Ursa turning out how she did in the fic.

It's not much of a stretch for unreasoning hatred to appear when you live in mortal terror for most of your life, as she did in that fic. I don't have any strong feelings one way or the other about, to be perfectly honest, but I can see the justification behind her behavior and all that.

The fic itself isn't terribly good, but it's certainly readable.

 

Just because there's justification for a character's portrayal does not necessarily mean that people want to read about it. Say that in a HP fanfic, you set up a scenario in which Hermione's parents are poor and therefore, she never got access to books. Ergo, she is portrayed as an academic unachiever. Sure, the portrayal is supposedly justified, but not many people want to read about a stupid Hermione. Some might, but even those would say that this is not a very IC-Hermione. Especially if the Hermione in question is not academically motivated and does not actively strive to improve herself because "she never grew up around books and therefore does not care about education".

It is the same with the Ursa situation. There is no indication in canon that Ursa would ever stop loving Zuko. Her role in the story is to primarily justify Zuko's "good side" (through the Roku connection) and to give Zuko a morality pet - the Nunnally to Code Geass's Lelouch. The producers gave her the name "Ursa" for a reason; she is protective of her son. Writing the character as a vindictive mother therefore does not ring true to her character, at least to me.

You can try to justify this Ursa all you want, but it would not explain why she is so terrible to her son. If anything, canon implies that Ursa wouldn't abandon her son willingly even at the threat of death.

 

Oh I agree, it's very much out of character for canon Ursa.

Fics can't strictly adhere to canon though, or all you get is a rewrite of the original work. There must be some diversion from canon, otherwise the whole exercise is pointless.

You clearly don't like that the diversion is that Ursa is a cunt, and to be honest I'm not terribly fond of it either, but her new character is explained and justified by the conditions of the fic. It's not really acting out of character when the character in the fic is fundamentally different from canon. "Out of character" is a very bad trait for characters in a fic, but that doesn't mean "Out of canon character". All it means is that characters are explained and remain consistent within the realm of the fic itself.

Edit: As for your Hermione example, there's nothing inherently wrong with a stupid/ignorant Hermione, as long as the author provides a justification for it. If, like in your example, she grew up poor and was more concerned with making ends meet than getting straight A's, it would be well in character for her to not be interested in academics. There's not a whole lot of people who would with that background.

People's character is not defined solely by who they are. Their experiences shape and affect them in ways we don't really understand. A single change in canon, like say Ursa being an Airbender or Harry Potter growing up in a not-abusive family, can drastically alter a person's character.

 

Blood, Silk and Steel is a good one

Dark Sokka and while the premise may be a bit shaky, it was actually very enjoyable.


Blue_Mask_2_Swords_and_Sozins_Comet is also a good, even if it has some "meh" parts

OOC Zuka but I really liked this one

Enslaved in which Zuko is brought as a prisoner to the water tribe. Am not much of a Zuko/Katara (or any Avatar pairings, really) guy but this one was really interesting.

So yeah, quite enjoyable.

Compass Lost is a long oneshot that deals with Azula and her mother, actually quite interesting portrayal of both characters.

When_All_Your_Dreams_Come_True , yeah, the title basically says what's it going to be about. another one shot that has the premise of "what if Zuko captured the Avatar"

The_Problem_With_Zuko , is another long one shot.

I realize that most of the have Zuko as the focus but as Zeitgeist said, Zuko is the most interesting character of Avatar and he and Sokka generally have the best written stories.

If there is a good Katara or Toph centric story, I would be happy to read it.

 

Baak (水火) is considered one of the best works on Azula after the war. A (long) one-shot, it goes deep into Azula's experience with her mother and grandmother.

Again on post-war Azula, one of the most popular works is MasterGhandalf's Heart/Path/Soul of Fire trilogy. It's rather good, and certainly among the better attempts to deal with post-war Azula.

noblesse oblige is possibly the best take on what made Ty Lee so close to Azula, way back in the Fire Academy.

Gentleman of Weapons: AU: In a different world, can a mysterious and ancient Order possibly defeat a ruthless Fire Lord? No. They're utterly screwed, actually. A proper For the Want of a Nail this time around. And one of the greatest A:tLA fanfics, made more awesome by Piandao being a main character.

The Maiden and the Martyr: It's after the war, Azula is better, Zuko's throwing a party, and Sokka's invited. Katara has all the luck. Come for the Sokkla, stay for the manipulation and psychological torture. Possibly the best darkfic portrayal of Azula and Sokka.

I could probably scrounge up a few more, if you want.

 

I would very much like it if you would scrounge up more. Gentleman of Weapons is extremely enjoyable and has a very Dresden feel to it even.
What I would love to read would be something involving the plotline for the new Avatar series. If you haven't heard about that, it's (if I remember correctly) Aang/Katara's daughter dealing with an anti-bender revolution in a steampunk world.

 

That may be a problem, as I usually concentrate on Azula, and most of the fics I know are about her... but I do know one. It's not close to being completed (or even started), but it's simply brilliant. It's AU, with the divergence beginning with Sozin being the Avatar, not Roku. http://overlithe.livejournal.com/ is where most of the detail and scenes can be found.

There's also a recent brilliant fic by the same author, which was "inspired by many, many comics/movies/books, including, but not limited to, Despicable Me (obviously), The Incredibles, the DCU, the Fantastic Four, the Addams Family film series, etc". It's also set in a somewhat more advanced world. http://overlithe.livejournal.com/176499.html

If you want more, as I've said, simply ask. But be warned that most likely, they will center on Azula, as that is my main area of interest in A:tLA.