Avatar Big Bang recs

[sholio]

By now I've read most of the stories in the Avatar Big Bang that looked interesting to me, so here are some recs! Well, actually a lot of recs. (Note: All links go to the googledocs pages where the stories were hosted during the Big Bang; if there are alternate links that I know about, I've included those.)



Canon Timeline Fics

Cannonball by reader_of_books and aerlyn - 35K words, background canon pairings, post-series
This is exactly the kind of plotty, canon-based, action/adventure gen that I've been craving. A killer is targeting diplomatic envoys from the different nations; Aang races time to solve the mystery and find the murderer before more people die - and before one of his friends becomes the next victim. A fun action/friendship story with good OCs, focused mostly on the main three (Aang, Katara and Sokka). I also really liked this story using Inuit culture and legends for the Water Tribe; most authors (well, most of the better authors *g*) are pretty good at drawing on China/Korea/East Asia in general for the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation, but the Water Tribe often comes off as generic fantasy hunter/gatherers, and I liked how grounded they felt in this story. (Sokka's characterization is kinda OTT, but that's a relatively minor complaint.)

Reach Across the Vastness by haku_kaen - 23K words, very mild Iroh/Toph & Zuko/Mai, post-series
Wait! Don't run away! *g* This is one of my very favorite stories in the Big Bang, and it's about 90% action/adventure gen, very tight and tense, with just a little bit of a rather unconventional pairing in the background. But the way it's worked into the story feels very organic, and I really do think this story would be all right for gen fans or readers who aren't on board with that particular pairing. Iroh and Toph are on the run in the wilderness from Earth Kingdom rebels trying to restart the war, while Zuko tries to figure out a way to rescue them without causing a massive diplomatic incident. It takes place a few years after canon, so Toph's grown up (but still very, very Toph). Also being posted in chapters to AO3 (though the whole thing is not up yet).

The Prisoners by blue_lacquer - 26K words, Mai/Zuko & Sokka/Suki, set during canon
This is a great look at Mai's time in Black Rock prison after she's imprisoned for helping Zuko and Sokka escape. It's an absolutely brilliant character study of Mai and her changing attitude toward her nation, as she slowly begins to work through her blind patriotism and internalize the ideals that Zuko is fighting for, as well as dealing emotionally with the way that her ties to other people are bringing her into conflict with her lifelong nihilism. For me, this fits perfectly into canon, filling a gap that I hadn't even realized existed, and giving Mai a plausible path from Azula's perfect soldier to becoming her own person and Zuko's partner in rebuilding the nation. Considering that the whole thing takes place in a series of prisons with most of the cast elsewhere, the author also does a fantastic job of working in as many minor characters and plot threads as possible.

Half Asleep by seserakh - 80K words, canon pairings plus Zuko/Katara, Toph/Aang, Mai/Ty Lee; post-series
An assassin's poison leaves Zuko trapped in the Spirit World, and Katara musters Team Avatar (and friends) to rescue him. Since I'm basically a canon 'shipper, there are so many reasons why I probably should not have enjoyed this story - since it breaks up nearly all of the canon couples - but I ended up loving it. I felt that the author worked hard to do justice to all the characters involved, rather than making someone out to be the bad guy, and I was especially happy that Mai was given purpose and agency and a new relationship rather than being shuffled off to the side. (There were certain aspects of the way that Katara and Aang's relationship was handled that weren't really in line with my own view of the characters, but I think it was quite plausible; the author did a very good job of "selling" it to me as a reader of different pairings. You get a strong sense of the characters growing up, changing, and reassessing their lives as they become adults; they are all very young at the series' end, after all.) And despite the story being a romance, the friendships and the unity of the group as a whole are still at least as important as the romantic pairings; in fact, one of the big plot threads in the story is Katara and Aang finding their way through the weird ex-lover territory back to the close friendship that they shared, and I'm always on board with that kind of thing. Plus there's a tight action plot that involves everybody worrying about Zuko a lot. *g*

Four Seasons by alexb49 - 10K words, Ozai/Ursa & Hakoda/Kya, pre-series; NC-17
This is a really neat series of glimpses of the main characters' parents, before their children were born - I especially love how Hakoda is so much like Sokka at that age. (And the art with it is really stunning.)


AUs

One of the things I like about the Big Bangs and other ficathons is that they often get me to read outside my comfort zone. I'm really not into AUs in general in Avatar, even the "turn left at canon" variety. But I read several and enjoyed them, so perhaps I'll have to seek out some more!

Meet Me on the Solstice by downjune - 39K words, canon pairings plus (forced) Ozai/Mai and suggestions of Ty Lee/Aang & Jet/Katara
This story asks the question: what if Aang lost his final battle with Ozai? In this dark post-canon 'verse, Team Avatar are scattered and driven underground, Aang is a prisoner, and Mai is trapped in a loveless marriage to Ozai, while Zuko is believed dead. Twisty and plotty, with lots of attention to canon-verse friendships (especially Zuko's with Katara and Aang) while the characters also form new friendships and relationships as the seasons turn and they plot for Ozai's defeat - I particularly loved Aang and Mai's growing friendship, as they're both prisoners of different sorts.

Ice Flows Through by attackfish - 28K words, no major pairings; still basically a WIP, though there's an ending
This is a neat AU in which Zuko drowns in the final battle at the end of season one, but Yue brings him back to life - unfortunately for him, the only way she can do it is by bringing him back as a waterbender. Thrown out by the Water Tribe, Zuko and Iroh travel in the Earth Kingdom and try to cope, while Yue (in moon-spirit form) teaches Zuko to control his new waterbending powers. This story also has the most fantastic, original idea for Lu Ten's fate that I've ever seen, and a great early-season-two Zuko voice - still bitter and violently angry, now with even more to be angry about, struggling to come to terms with the loss of everything that's defined him and find a new reason for living. There's an ending, but it's a very open one that's still somewhere in the middle of season two timeline-wise; I hope the author continues the story.

The Problem With Zuko by avacadolove - 25K, (mild) Mai/Zuko, (sort of) Toph/Zuko
In this AU, Lu Ten didn't die, which completely disrupted the chain of events that led to Azulon's death, Ursa's exile and Zuko's falling out with his father. Instead, we have Fire Lord Iroh, Crown Prince Lu Ten, and Zuko as the mostly ignored, less-favorite son of the Fire Lord's brother. Then Lu Ten captures the Avatar and his friends, and Zuko is given charge of their prison as a punishment, eventually leading him to question everything he thought he knew about his life. The Fire Nation royal family are very sharply drawn, recognizable and yet very different (the difference in Iroh is perhaps the most startling, and yet believable for the guy who never experienced Lu Ten's death or his own disinheritance; he's still and has always been the Dragon of the West). I think what I loved most about this was the plausible alternate characterizations for the characters, because it's so common in AUs in any fandom for the characters to still be their canon selves despite radical changes in their backgrounds, and in this case they're not -- but you can see how they got where they are.

Cold by shadowsong26 - 15K, no pairings, still a WIP (it just kind of ... stops)
When Sozin began his conquest, the Air Nomads fought back successfully, and a hundred years of war have left the Air Nomads with the upper hand - and in the position of the major antagonists, as they've entirely twisted their nonviolent philosophy in their struggle for survival. The Fire Nation royal family have been massacred, and the handful of survivors live in exile. Aang is an old man - he's his canonical age, but was never the Avatar - and a rebel against his own people. And the Avatar cycle continues with a new Water Tribe Avatar: Sokka. This is a fascinating upside-down sort of AU with really different, unusual roles for most of the characters, and especially having the Air Nomads as the bad guys is a cool twist.

The Princess and the Badger-Cat by panaili - 43K, Katara/Zuko, sort of Aang/Toph, past Zuko/Mai
This is a rather fluffy AU in which the war never happened, Aang is the Avatar in the present day and best friends with Zuko, and Sokka & Katara left the Water Tribe to find their missing father, only to become separated. Sokka hooks up with Toph, while Katara meets Zuko & Aang. Oh, and Sokka's been turned into a talking badger-cat (... it makes sense in context?). I'm reccing this with some caveats, because there were some aspects of the AU setup that made me *eyebrow* - particularly the fact that Zuko's family appears to be just as violently dysfunctional and abusive as in canon, except that he's made no particular effort to distance himself from them, and I can't figure out how that works for his characterization. Also, there's a certain amount of infodumping, and Mai isn't treated very well. (I wasn't really sure why the Mai/Zuko relationship was in there at all, since she's basically just there to dump him at the beginning and then disappears.) But the character interactions - Sokka & Toph on the one hand; Zuko, Aang & Katara on the other - are really a lot of fun; I'm a total sucker for Zuko-Aang friendship, and there is a ton of it in this story, with h/c, even! Buttons. Pushed. And this is a version of Katara/Zuko that I can get behind (it's mostly the breaking-up-the-canon-pairings aspect of it that bothers me, and in an AU in which Aang/Katara never happened, I'm fine with it).

Comments

[lizbee]

Thank you for the recs! I read "Reach Across the Vastness" yesterday, and then I was casting about, trying to decide which one I should read next.

I wish the roller derby AU would update. I seem to be inordinately invested in that fic.

[sholio]

Thank you! I hope you find them useful. :D

I'm still not quite to the point where I can read total AUs in this fandom - in my head, the characters are so firmly rooted in their time, place and world that I can't quite wrap my mind around them in another setting.

[water-soter.livejournal.com]

There's a few stories I've read on this fandom that might interest you. The first one is an AU called Enslaved. It's an interesting look at the Water Tribe culture though it's a Katara/Zuko romance fic but with none of the mushiness we usually get with this pairing. Zuko struggles when he's suddenly thrown from his life and taken as a slave for the Water Tribe.

A triumphant war party returns with an exotic slave, a gift for the ruling house. Katara and Zuko AU

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5306755/1/Enslaved


This second one I rec mostly for the world building. This person knows her/his stuff. Has done research on different cultures and war and uses that in her story. It's not nice to anyone and gives an interesting look at how different these cultures are and how one concept could mean different things to different people, something we don't see in canon and how these cultures deal with each other and see each other. It gives an interesting reason for the war, the massacre of the Air Nomads and another reason as to why Zuko was so determined to find the Avatar other than his exile. It's really good though you might not like so much how Katara is portrayed.

Because anybody who could break into the North Pole has to have thought theft through better than that... AU bit of "The Cave of Two Lovers".

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5115106/1/Theft_Absolute

this is the prequel

Dragon's fire is not so easily extinguished; when Zuko rediscovers a lost firebending technique, shifting flames can shift the world... Follows "Theft Absolute".

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5398503/1/Embers

Hope you like. It's really long and still a WIP but the author does update every three weeks. Let me know if you like them.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recs! I'll check them out. :)

[recordclip.livejournal.com]

Seconding Vathara's fic Embers rec. EXCELLENT story. The one that got me into Avatar in fact.