Suki/Ty Lee
| Pairing | |
|---|---|
| Pairing: | Suki/Ty Lee |
| Alternative name(s): | Tysuki |
| Gender category: | femslash |
| Fandom: | Avatar: The Last Airbender |
| Canonical?: | No |
| Prevalence: | rarepair; small within femslash |
| Archives: | |
| Other: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Tysuki is a femslash pairing of Suki/Ty Lee from “Avatar the Last Airbender”. It is a rarepair within the fandom, even small within the femslash fandom. As of 8/24/22, the ship has 123 works on Ao3. 27 of those fics contain only Tysuki as a pairing .
Relationship to Canon
Ty Lee and Suki are both minor characters within the show, however they do get quite a bit of screen time together, including a fight scene in Book 3.
Ty Lee and Suki first meet during Book 2, when the Dangerous Ladies come across Appa who had just been helped by the Kyoshi Warriors. A fight ensues, where Suki and the other Kyoshi Warriors are captured by Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee. After this scene, Suki is not seen again until the Boiling Rock episodes in Book 3, where she escapes the aforementioned Fire Nation prison. During this escape, she and Ty Lee fight, though the episode concludes with Ty Lee and Mai betraying Azula to help Zuko, Sokka and Suki (along with Hakoda and Chit Sang) escape.
The show finale reveals that Ty Lee goes on to become a Kyoshi Warrior after the events of the series.
Legend of Korra
Neither Suki nor Ty Lee appear in the sequel show “Legend of Korra”, leaving fans able to speculate about what the future holds for the two characters.
Fandom
The Tysuki fandom is very small in terms of the overall Avatar the Last Airbender fandom, however the fan base it has managed to gather is passionate about the pairing. Tysuki is often present as a side ship to other, more popular ships— especially those involving Sokka, Suki’s canon love interest, however a few shippers enjoy the pairing for its own sake. The pairing picked up steam after the ATLA Renaissance in 2020, though a small handful of fans were creating content for the pairing before then. Tysuki fans often band together with other fans who enjoy ATLA femslash to form communities, since there are relatively few fans.
Themes and Tropes in Fanworks
Tysuki fanworks often focus on exploring what happens after the finale, once Ty Lee becomes a Kyoshi Warrior. As a result, fanworks often take place on Kyoshi Island, though there are also works that take place in the Fire Nation.
Fanworks often make use of the bedsharing trope, and there is a focus on depicting the two in quiet domestic intimacy, almost to contrast with the fact that the two are enemies during the series. As a result of this antagonism, Tysuki can be categorized as an Enemies to Lovers ship. Fans also enjoy exploring the time period after Suki is captured by Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee during the second season of the show for similar reasons.
Works often characterize Ty Lee falling for Suki first rather than the other way around. Tysuki fanworks also often deal with a great deal of mutual pining, though the pining is not always reciprocated at first.
Fan works
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
Fanart
- suki was a punk, ty lee did ballet. what more can i say?, Archived version by pencilscratchins, 2020
Fanfiction
- Allegiances, by such_heights
- Bloom, by resonance_and_d
- Warrior Training by ti
Other
- favorite avatar moments Suki vs. Ty Lee in The Boiling Rock gifset by tourmei
Links & Resources
Tumblr Blogs
Events: probably also some content for this ship at ATLA Femslash Week (see #atlafemslashweek2023 tag or @winter-atla-femslah