History Webcomic / HowIBecameYours

* LongHairIsFeminine: Azula and Toph rarely wear their hair up in their trademark updoes of the show. This [[{{Chickification}} can't be coincidental]].

* YouMightRememberMeFrom: Some of the copy-pasted images quite obviously come from the {{Bleach}} anime. Readers might be jarred a little to see Prince Zuko suddenly become Ichigo Kurosaki with a dye job and a burnt face.

''How I Became Yours'' is an AvatarTheLastAirbender fancomic by Jackie Diaz. The story takes place three years after the canonical end of the show, and [[FanonDiscontinuity takes some liberties]] concerning how things worked out (particularly romantically)...

* TransplantedCharacterFic: It's rather a (western) fantasy[=/=]romance comic than an ''[[AvatarTheLastAirbender Avatar]]'' fanfic.

The comic enjoyed moderate popularity before certain members of the Avatar fandom got wind of it, and promptly saw to it that the artist was banned from DeviantArt (the comic's former home) for recurring instances of art theft. Diaz's repeated denials of tracing and art theft [[ImplausibleDeniability in the face of overwhelming evidence (screenshots from the show and her drawings match up ''line for line'')]] did nothing to endear her to the fandom. She has sadly friends-locked the entire comic at her MySpace page, however, you can view most of it on this Diaz fan's [[http://s762.photobucket.com/albums/xx265/ReneeLuvsZutara/ Photobucket account]].

* ModestyBedsheet: Both varieties are used: the L-shaped sheet one later love scene with Zuko and Katara, and the traditional invokation with Toph just before the Taang love scene.

* DidNotDoTheResearch:

When Zuko discovers that his now-wife Mai hid Katara's pregnancy from him by hiding the letters revealing the truth, after turning his DomesticAbuser switch on by beating up and humiliating Mai he runs away from the still-recovering Fire Nation and makes a beeline for Katara's 18th birthday ball, where the StarCrossedLovers joyfully reunite (Aang and Toph also hook up at this event). Unfortunately for them, hell hath no fury like a WomanScorned; Mai is not about to take this lying down, so she enlists the help of a man named Sho who happens to be her older brother (Nevermind that canon says Mai was an only child until Tom-Tom was born, thus this makes no sense... like the rest of the story.)

Meanwhile, Sokka comes across an injured Azula who can't remember anything about her past and breaks down crying when confronted with it. But rather than toss her back out into the streets or locking her away where no one will find her, the Gaang takes her under their wing and cares for her. During this time [[RescueRomance she and Sokka fall in love with each other...]]

** [[spoiler: Ursa]] makes a total of two appearences, then disappears after [[spoiler: Azula gets stabbed.]]

* AccidentallyAccurate: Believe it or not, the ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' validated [[spoiler:Katara's infamous daytime bloodbending]] by having three canon characters who turn out to be able to do it.

* AccidentallyAccurate: Believe it or not, the ''TheLegendOfKorra'' validated [[spoiler:Katara's infamous daytime bloodbending]] by having three canon characters who turn out to be able to do it.

* AccidentallyAccurate: Believe it or not, the ''TheLegendOfKorra'' validated [[spoiler:Katara's infamous daytime bloobending]] by having three canon characters who turn out to be able to do it.

* AccidentallyAccurate: Believe it or not, the ''TheLegendOfKorra'' validated [[spoiler:Katara's infamous daytime bloobending]] by having two canon characters who turn out to be able to do it.

* AccidentallyAccurate: Believe it or not, the ''TheLegendOfKorra'' validated [[spoiler:Katara's infamous daytime bloobending]] by having two canonical characters who turn out to be able to do it.

* AmnesiacDissonance: Azula is implied to go through this gradually, getting memories back in her sleep. However, the trope is not used to portray self-conflict and soul-searching right before a HeelFaceTurn, as per the usual implications. Instead, it becomes a HandWave that says "Azula is crying about the evil things she's done in the past, so that means she's [[strike: been lobotomized]] automatically a really good and completely different person now."

* BigNo: Sokka pulls off a particularly {{Narm}}ful one after [[spoiler: Azula is stabbed to death.]]

* BusCrash: It's offhandedly mentioned that [[BigBad Oz]][[CompleteMonster ai]] was executed.

* DelusionsOfEloquence: ''Everywhere.'' Cases in point: "a 'curtain' Fire Lord" and "[[MemeticMutation 'CHARD' MONSTER"]].

* DramaticEllipsis: SO VERY MANY.

* GoodAdulteryBadAdultery: Fire Lord Zuko impregnating Katara and ''physically assaulting his betrothed (Mai)'' [[DisproportionateRetribution for getting upset about it]]... we are supposed to sympathise with him and the love he and Katara share ''why'', exactly?

* ItsAlwaysSpring: Azula mentions that she's been at Toph's estate for eight months. During that time we never see any leaves or snow on the ground, not even during a montage which shows two or three months passing. An equatorial climate could be an explanation for that, but the plants generally look like those belonging to a temperate region. It's a result of either YouFailGeographyForever or SoCalization, but the lack of consistency makes deciding which one it is a hard call.

** Sho, while retreating, declares he has a grudge against the protagonists because they drew his blood for the first time in a while, instead of because of Mai's death.
* JerkassDissonance: Mai gets a lot of sympathy, probably because [[JerkAssHasAPoint she tends to be right when it comes to the important details of the comic.]]
* JerkAssHasAPoint: Mai's justification for [[http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx265/ReneeLuvsZutara/HIBY%20Chapter%201/028.jpg keeping Zuko from learning about Katara's pregnancy]] ''is'' actually pretty sound: there would be ''serious'' social and political problems in the Fire Nation if there was an illegitimate heir born from a mixed relationship between the Fire Lord and a Waterbender. But '''of course''', [[DesignatedVillain we're supposed to think of her as a villain for it]].

* {{Jossed}}: At least one reader must have thought [[spoiler: Azula's pregnancy later in the comic was the result of a rape]], until missing pages of comic showing [[spoiler: her having sex with Sokka]] were found in the artist's Photobucket account.

* KarmaHoudini: Zuko, who abuses Mai physically and psychologically and never faces any consequences for it because he did it for [[SarcasmMode "TRUE LOVE."]]

* LongHairIsFeminine: Azula and Toph rarely wear their hair up in their trademark updoes of the show. This [[{{Chickification}} cannot be coincidence]].
* LoveMakesYouCrazy: Mai is the intended [[LoveMakesYouEvil (and most obvious)]] example of this trope, but it arguably applies to almost the entire main cast. Zuko deserts his nation for months to be with Katara; Katara [[spoiler: [[MurderTheHypotenuse murders her hypotenuse]]]] to be with Zuko. Azula ends up lobotomized and giggly even after she gets her memories back, and Toph...well, her sex scene with Aang is listed under NightmareFuel. And all of them, even Sokka and Aang who barely do anything else, defy nasty nation-centric prejudices (which were basically nonexistant in the cartoon) for love.

* MagicSkirt: Hilariously displayed in the tumble-dodge-thing Katara does when Mai attacks her.

** For worse, it's supposed to be forbidden by law...

* MixAndMatchCritters: One page has a badly photoshopped duckturtle, and it is ''[[{{Narm}} hilarious]]''.

* ThePowerOfLove: Used to the point of the ridiculous. Azula's love for Sokka allows her to [[spoiler: completely regain her lightning bending]], Sokka and Azula's IntimateHealing, and how Sokka is able to [[spoiler: bring Azula back from the Spirit World.]]

* PsychoForHire: Sho, though he doesn't charge Mai for his services as a favor to her, is stated to be a well-accomplished (and rather sadistic) bounty hunter.

* RecycledSoundtrack: During Katara and Zuko's conversation on the balcony, Katara very blatantly rips off "What Hurts the Most" by Rascal Flatts.
** Even more blatantly, while Zuko is pining for Katara in the first chapter, part of his inner dialogue contains lyrics straight out of "My Immortal" by Evanescence.

* RougeAnglesOfSatin: You know you're in for a migraine when the word "beauty" is misspelled on the friggin' ''cover.''

* ShouldersOfDoom: Sho's shoulders are not armor. And he has the muscles to fill them out, too. [[EvilIsSexy YUM.]]

** Sho also does this, [[RuleOfCool simply because he's cool]].

* [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything]]: Or, rather, the ''[[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething royals]]'' who [[InvertedTrope don't do anything]]:
** Zuko whiles away his time pining for Katara in the Fire Nation, leaves his wife, then spends at least eight months doing nothing but lounging at Toph's estate with his new girlfriend. It's not until he's HauledBeforeASenateSubcommittee that we actually see him doing his job.

** Aang is the leader of a HiddenElfVillage of surviving Air Nomads. He deserts them pretty early in the story, and never returns; in the sequel, he lives with Toph in ''"Bong"'' Sing Se.
** Toph is a high-ranking Earth noblewoman...which apparently means that she's Katara's head housekeeper at a splendid estate in the countryside.

* TheyCallMeMisterTibbs: Zuko demands that Mai address him as "Fire Lord," then [[DomesticAbuse beats her]] in the scene when he confronts her over Katara's letters.

* VaporWear: Toph - Toph, of all people - wears a flimsy nightgown at one point. And it's [[NippleAndDimed painfully obvious]] that she has nothing on under it.

* VisualInnuendo: It's chock ''full'' of phallic symbolism if you look carefully enough. There are candles in the Zutara sex scene which presumably flicker under Zuko's influence. The rain serves a similar function in the Sokkla sex scene, even though Sokka's not a bender. The Taang scene...is [[PowerGlows weird]], but there. And, of course, Sokka wants to take Azula to see the [[AccidentalInnuendo cherry blossoms]].

* WallOfText: Holy damn, the textboxes are cramped at times.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: After Mai [[spoiler: is murdered]], she is never seen again in the comic. You'd think that a [[spoiler: dead body with blood leaking out of its eyes and mouth]] would at least have been featured in the background, but no.

** The new temple of Air Nomads - potential plot for a good HiddenElfVillage story arc, or throw-away backstory that unceremoniously and callously throws all of Aang's LastOfHisKind troubles into the trash heap?

* WorldOfBuxom: Every single female character old enough to have breasts has really, ''really'' big breasts. Except for Mai...because, you know, [[BeautyEqualsGoodness she's evil.]]

* YouMightRememberMeFrom: Some of the copy-pasted images quite obviously come from the Bleach anime. Readers might be jarred a little to see Prince Zuko suddenly become Ichigo with a dye job and a burned-up face.

** Toph's parents died in the war.

* TeenPregnancy: Katara would have only been about fifteen when she was pregnant with Zoku's child.

** Bloodbending only works under a full moon. Katara uses it to [[spoiler: murder Mai]] ''in broad daylight''.
*** [[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra What do you know?]] It turns out ''you can''.
** Toph says she knew Azula was pregnant because she could sense its heartbeat, despite Azula probably only being a few weeks along ''at best''. (For the people not familiar with human reproductive biology - the embryo doesn't even ''have'' a heart yet at that stage.)
*** You can't even hear the baby's "heart" until around week 12 and with an amplified doppler device, or you can wait around week 20 with a regular stethoscope.
*** There is an attempted HandWave with this by Toph claiming Azula was around three months along, but even then there's still the FridgeLogic as to how Toph could've known just how far along ''exactly'' Azula was.
*** Also, wouldn't Azula get some kind of a bulge starting from two months? Sure, prior to the fourth month mark it can be hidden with proper dressing, but was Diaz aware of that?
** Sho has multiple knives that are probably meant to be throwing knives, probably to highlight his [[StrongFamilyResemblance relationship with Mai]]. However, the knives are placed in such a way that he'd have to be double-jointed in order to retrieve them from their holsters, and even then his effectiveness in battle would be vastly decreased. No wonder he opted for a sword fight with Sokka instead of [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim assassinating him from a safe distance]].
** Azula is dosed with a deadly poison that specifically targets firebenders, giving her EasyAmnesia. This poison at first named "Ginseng Lotus Poison." In the cartoon, Uncle Iroh's favorite tea ''is'' ginseng. [[FridgeBrilliance That probably explains why he's acting so violently out of character]]...he started taking a drug that targets the memory processes to cope with his son's death, overused it a little, [[FridgeHorror and ended up as the addled old man who can't remember not to call his nephew "My Lord."]] The problem with this name was probably pointed out to Diaz at one point, so she alters the name to "Gin Sing Extracts," which is just as bad.
--->'''Iroh:''' Delicious tea? Or deadly poison?
** Iroh explains to Azula that blue fire is called "Cold-blooded Fire" when in the series, that describes lightning due to the serenity needed to use it. Her fire is blue because it's extremely hot.
** Hilariously, Diaz says she reads a lot and claims most people these days don't have a clue what they're talking about these days (pot, kettle. Kettle, pot), and that too many people don't know what's important in their lives (see MoralDissonance and related tropes below). It'd be HypocriticalHumor if she wasn't ''dead serious.''

*** [[TheLegendOfKorra What do you know?]] It turns out ''you can''.

* DidNotDoTheResearch: Bloodbending only works under a full moon. Katara uses it to [[spoiler: murder Mai]] ''in broad daylight''.

** FanonDiscontinuity: Or the fact that Zuko and Mai were very much in love with each other in the series and there was not even a mention that their relationship was even arranged.Of course,[[DieForOurShip Ms.Diaz rewrites their relationship so her favored ship looks good in comparison or give a lame excuse for the reason why Zuko does not love Mai]].

Recently, she's begun work on a sequel comic: [[FanFic/HowIBecameYoursRiseOfTheAgniArmy Rise of the Agni Army]]. Be afraid. Be ''very'' afraid.

Tropes: