Embers: Chapter Twenty-Two, Part II

[masterghandalf]

This is a repost from Das_Sporking2; previous installments of this sporking may be found here.

Warning: This post contains discussion of mind-control, eugenics, some disturbing imagery, and a whole lot of racism, including use of a slur.



MG: Well, everyone, it’s time to continue our journey through Vathara’s Embers! Last time, everybody stood around and told Katara how much she sucks. And maybe there was some other stuff about Chin and Kyoshi and Zuko in there too… but mostly it was the “Katara Sucks” show. Yaaaay. Today, we take a brief check-in with Mai, and eventually get more of Iroh’s plans, but mostly it’s going to be yet more crapping on Katara (and the Water Tribes as a whole…), so strap in for that. Also, Amaya’s back. Joining us today will once again be Zuko and Katara, offering their takes on what Vathara is doing to their characters!

She had to give the Dai Li points for skill, Mai thought, curled feverish in bed under as many blankets as she could pile on.

MG: …yeah, not giving a point for that. Say what you will about the Dai Li, they’re damned good earthbenders.

Stone slid aside from her wall almost soundlessly, opening just enough of a door for Min and Agent Quan to enter.

"...You look awful."

Nothing but honesty in the young man's face. Plus a little guilt. "I'll live," Mai said harshly.

Katara: Of course she will! Mai’s a major character, and I think we’ve already mentioned that loyalty sickness only kills background characters!

Zuko: And the thing is, of course I care about Mai, but she’s barely been in this story so far before Vathara throws her in and puts her life in danger, so I’m not sure how much the audience is supposed to be able to care about this?

MG: I’m not giving it a Stations of the Canon point because nothing like this happens to Mai in the show, but yeah, I think Vathara is definitely counting on her audience having a built-in affection for Mai from the source material to carry this bit. Because just going by Embers itself, we’ve only established Mai as one of Azula’s sidekicks and nothing else and she’s only had one substantial scene and barely been mentioned otherwise, so it’s kind of weird we’re jumping head first into getting drama out of her being in danger.

"Will you?" Quan asked levelly.

"Stomach flu-"

"For your sake, I hope the Fire Princess believes that," Quan said plainly.

Zuko: You’d think if people getting sick from breaking their loyalty to a firebender was actually a thing, that Azula, who is both a firebending prodigy and a control freak, would maybe know how to recognize it?

"Will you?"

She picked up a ceramic cup of water from the stool beside her bed in a trembling hand. Managed a sip, and set it back down. "I'm still alive. And I'm not a firebender." Mai leaned back against pillows, shivering. "I have a chance."

Katara: I’m pretty sure outright saying you “have a chance” guarantees you’ll either get better or that you’ll keel over dead right now. *looks ahead* And since it looks like you make it to the end of this scene okay, I’m going to guess you’ll be getting better!

"...You could die." Min looked almost as pale as she was. "You could die, just from..."

"Reclaiming my loyalty." Mai let her eyes slip closed a moment. "Yes."

Zuko: …have I mentioned yet that I really hate this whole concept?

"Then why-?"

"Because my honor required it." She looked at Min directly. "And my prince asked me to save a child's life."

Katara: Also, Azula lied to you and tried to set you up with your cousin, which I guess is bad even though you’re not that closely related? But it still seems like it’s worth pointing out?

Zuko: And I don’t think the real Mai ever called me “my prince” in her life. Who is this girl?

The young earthbender had to look down.

"He doesn't ask for much," Mai mused. "Zuko never has. Like his mother. You would have liked Lady Ursa. I did. That's why... he was nice. Do you know how hard it is to find a nice firebending boy?

MG: …eh. Zuko always had a core of kindness and a sense of justice, but I’m not sure I’d call that the same as being “nice.” Even by the “Zuko Alone” flashbacks, he could be pretty prickly on the surface. Maybe I’m just quibbling, though.

And he was never as good as Azula, never good enough for the Fire Lord... but he could show you the best ways to sneak into the kitchen, and he never laughed when my knives went all over the place. And they did, when I was starting out. A lot." She shivered. "I have a little brother. Tom-Tom. He's two, he's a brat... but my parents love him. Earth Kingdom rebels and the Avatar kidnapped him. And Azula... Azula made me choose..."

Katara: Okay, I was there, and Mai didn’t exactly seem all that torn up about it? Maybe she was putting on a brave face for Azula, but even so…

Prince Stuko: 115 (I’m going to go ahead and give another point for yet another “Zuko is wonderful” monologue)

"She's horrible," Min breathed.

"She's the Fire Princess," Mai said flatly. "Fire Lord Ozai's chosen heir. No loyal citizen of the Fire Nation can disobey her commands." She took a breath. "Except Zuko. And General Iroh." Another breath. "So I had no choice."

MG: …okay, yeah. Azula being a teenager who commands armies and wraps other evil masterminds around her finger is a lot less impressive when the reason you give to justify that is “literally the entire Fire Nation is magically bound to obey her every whim.” Anyone is scary when you give them that kind of power, but Azula should be scary and effective because she’s Azula. I just really, really think loyalty as a concept cheapens the character and undermines what makes her such a frightening antagonist in the first place.

The Real Victims: 43 (I think “the Fire Nation does what they do because they’re magically enslaved to Azula and Ozai” gets a point)

"We weren't even aware it was possible for one of the Fire Nation to survive broken loyalties," Quan said thoughtfully. "That's... interesting."

Zuko: *flatly* There’s a guy called Jeong Jeong, even in this version of things. Look him up.

Mai looked at him, and the young man Quan was carefully not looking at, and felt something twist behind her carefully-built wall of indifference. "How did it happen? I know how I got into this mess. How did you?"

Min swallowed, silent.

"I'm dying, Min." Mai made herself face it, head on. She'd avoided the truth of Azula for years. The least she could do was accept this one. "If I make it to dawn, if Agni shines on me and I'm not dead yet... I might live.

MG: Laying it on real thick there, Vathara. (spoilers: she’ll live)

But the fire inside me is bleeding, and I'm so cold..." She swallowed the tears. "And I can't even have Ty Lee in here, because she'd guess. She'd try to do something... and Azula would take her out, too. I'm cold." I'm alone. I don't want to die alone.

MG: Gee, this would be a really effective and moving scene if we’d known Embers!Mai for more than five minutes before this happened!

At least her parents had the son they'd always wanted. Her clan would survive.

"We'll have a fire built up," Quan said neutrally. "It wouldn't do for a guest of the Earth King to be... uncomfortable. Especially since her leader is about to be called on an unexpected official visit."

Katara: So, uh… do we know exactly why Quan is siding with Mai against Azula, especially when that also means siding against Long Feng, Quan’s boss? No matter how much he liked her or she impressed him, that’s kind of a lot he’s risking…

Long Feng is making his move. Mai nodded, accepting the gift of information. Or make that the offered trade, from the slight edge to his glance. "Zuko's telling the truth," she said in return. "Whatever your Grand Secretariat has planned, Azula's going to be three steps ahead of him. She's brilliant. And she's of Sozin's line. Ba Sing Se will fall. She'll make it happen."

Divine Right to Rule: 63 (of course, Azula is scary because she’s of Sozin’s line; riiight)

"We are loyal to Long Feng," Quan stated. "I must bring her to him."

"Then let General Iroh's plan happen," Mai answered. "I don't know if it will save the city. But it'll save something." Her lips quirked in a bitter smile. "Zuko's still alive. Up against Azula... that's not easy."

"Isn't that why you're telling us this?" Min said bitterly. "Trying to save your boyfriend?"

"Ex-boyfriend," Mai said flatly. "When I was nine, Azula put an apple on my head and hit it with a fire blast. Zuko knocked me into a pond to try and put it out." She shrugged, shifting layers of blankets. "Who would you rather trust with the city?"

MG: I mean, given the choice, Zuko, but I’m sure that Quan, if he’s really supposed to be the noble patriot Vathara is trying to sell him as, would rather his city remain in Earth Kingdom hands without any Fire royalty on the throne at all?

"An interesting argument," Quan noted. "Trainee Min will remain with you, if there's anything else that can help." He paused in the opening of stone. "And as I understand it, Professor Tingzhe Wen comes from an impeccable line of Ba Sing Se earthbenders. His wife Meixiang... was a refugee, about eighteen years ago. With valid documents, of course." He didn't even glance toward Min. "Though it seems the family has been trying to conceal the fact that their youngest, Jinhai, appears to have been gifted as a... waterbender. Perfectly understandable, of course. It's the sort of thing that would lead to pressure on the university to cost the professor his tenure; even his position. No noble would want their child instructed by someone who had connections to the Foggy Swamp." Smiling slightly, Quan stepped into the shadows, raising stone behind him.

Simple Rubes from the Water Tribes: 52 (yes, Quan is talking in circles to avoid coming right out and saying what he means, but even so we still work in more of “the Foggy Swamp Tribe are the butt monkeys everyone makes fun of”)

For the first time in a long time, Mai found her jaw tempted to drop. "A waterbender?"

"Hot water," Min mumbled, embarrassed. "But I guess you know that trick."

"I've never even heard of that." Mai blinked, surprised. Amazing. She hadn't felt that in... years.

I want to feel that again. I want to live.

Zuko: …okay, getting excited about life? That definitely doesn’t sound like the Mai I know… though I guess being at death’s door kind of puts things in perspective for a person? Did for me a few times, at least.

Mai had to smile slightly. "So you're in this because of your little brother, too. That's kind of funny." Another tremor shook her; she clenched her teeth against it-

Min got an awkward arm around her, holding the cup when her own hands shook too badly. "Is there - would a healer help? I might be able to sneak Amaya in..."

Katara and Zuko: *desperately and simultaneously* NO!!!

Amaya. That's a Water Tribe name. "A waterbender?" Mai shook her head. "I need fire. Not something to put it out."

Katara: …water healing doesn’t work that way, but I guess Mai’s pretty delirious right now, so I won’t take it personally.

She glanced down to his fingers, still wrapped around hers. "Your hands are warm."

Min almost pulled away. Braced himself, and looked at her again. "My mother's the enemy," he managed. "How am I... how can I live with that? She's lied to me all my life, and now my little brother..." He shook his head. "What could I do?"

MG: Honestly, it’s moments like this that genuinely make Min work as a character. He’s certainly not a nice person, or even particularly a good one, but a lot of his actions at least make sense for someone in his position who’s had his life and his sense of identity yanked hard out from under him over the last few weeks (months?) and has found himself and his family caught between powerful, dangerous forces. Kind of makes me wish he wasn’t overshadowed by all the Fire royals and their drama (and Katara-bashing) so he could get more actual focus.

"Sometimes there aren't any good choices," Mai said quietly. Looked back at him, studying pain-filled green eyes. "Talk to me. Ty Lee's... always talking." It let me forget what we were doing. Sometimes. "I've been with the princess chasing the Avatar for the past few months. What have you been doing?"

"Trying not to strangle my little brother?" Min offered.

"Oh come on. That's a given." Mai smirked. Just a little. "Little brothers are annoying. It's their job."

Katara: …to be fair, that’s also true of older brothers sometimes.

She lifted a black brow. "What do you do? You're in the Dai Li. You must be a good bender."

"Not as good as I want to be," Min admitted. "Trained agents... did you see how smooth that wall opened? Have you ever seen anything like that?"

MG: Again, I’ll give Vathara this one. The Dai Li may not be on the level of a true genius like Toph or Bumi, but they’re all clearly elite earthbenders.

"The Avatar's earthbender," Mai nodded. "She's the only one I've seen that good."

Toph: *from out of sight* I heard that! Please tell me you didn’t just compare me to the Dai Li. I’m not that good; I’m better. Kinda wish I could’ve gotten to fight Long Feng, though. Oh, well.

She let herself have another slight smile. "Even better than the Terra Team."

MG: …Mai and Ty Lee fought the Terra Team at the Drill, but did they actually know what they were called? I wouldn’t think so?

"That's what I want," Min said, intense. "To be that good. To know what I'm doing is the right thing for... for our people." He swallowed dryly. "And then, last month, everything... fell apart."

MG: Again, Min is actually a surprisingly good character when Vathara lets him be. It’s just too bad he kind of gets lost in the shuffle with everything else going on.

Mai listened, letting the words beat back the cold. And hoped.

Zuko: …yeah, this would still be a lot better if Mai had actually been in the story before this, and if I wasn’t sure she’s going to be fine.

-

In his nightmares, Zuko walked on water.

MG: *snorts* Okay, I know Vathara loves Zuko, but isn’t that laying it on a little thick? Okay, okay, I don’t know if it’s intentional or not, and the context is completely different, but “walk on water” still conjures up images of a very particular person, don’t you think?

Prince Stuko: 116 (in any case, I’m giving a point for the imagery alone)

Sometimes it was ice, solid as a glacier or crackling underfoot. Sometimes it just was, water rejecting his very footfall, refusing to even have the mercy of drowning him for Sozin's deeds.

The Deadly Depths: 30

This night, like so many nights, the ocean was awash in bodies.

Armor was cold and slick under his bare feet; not yielding itself, but dipping into water in a way that told of the flood-bloated flesh within. He could smell the corruption, taste the horror in the air; rank and fetid, oddly out of place in air so crisp and still.

The ocean rose and fell in a slow wave, a feaster sated at last.

There's nothing I can do.

The Deadly Depths: 31 (okay, as a PTSD nightmare for Zuko this all makes sense, but it’s still part of Vathara’s overall pattern, so I’m counting it)

Zuko walked. Past the staring blind eyes of the dead. Past rolling, unnaturally living eyes in moon-pale dead faces. Past those with no eyes or ears or face, the scavengers of sea and air already feeding.

MG: …apparently Zuko’s nightmares take him to the Dead Marshes, or at least a frozen facsimile thereof.

Nothing I can do... too late, couldn't stop it... couldn't help... failure, always the failure...

Zuko: *hunching awkwardly* Okay, I’ll give Vathara that one… those are feelings I know all too well.

And his next step was on the sodden robe of a woman, drowned with her child in her arms.

Mud... debris... not the North Pole...

MG: So, uh, remember last time Vathara’s AN mentioning that there would be some disturbing imagery in this chapter? We’ve just passed through some of it and are about to hit the worst of it, so steel yourselves.

The clear blue sky of autumn mocked him, sun beating down like a hammer, boiling dead and living alike in the steam of a Fire Nation afternoon. The stench caught him by the throat, strangling him, seeping into clothes and hair and skin until he thought he'd never be rid of it. Only the very tiniest of lizard-birds, the mosquito hawks, kept insect hordes at bay. Blue and red-brown and beetle-green feathers flashed like fireworks in the wind.

In the midst of the rubble near the bodies, something moved.

No... no, I don't want to see this again, please...

A tattered lion-dog, faithful to the last. Matted with mud, starving; trying to lift its head, and he crooned to it that it was okay, he'd been a good boy...

MG: …gah. Part of me can’t help but feel that this sequence is somewhat manipulative, Vathara going out of her way to build up sympathy for Zuko in particular and the Fire Nation in general when we see the context, but even so, as a dog person… that hit me right in the feels, and I can’t lie.

NO!

Zuko woke in the green dimness, breath ragged. Covered his face with his hands, and let the tears soak his sleeves.

Katara: *concerned* Are you going to be okay?

Zuko: *looking shaken* Yeah, I’ll be fine, just… give me a minute.

Nara. Spirits. Nara again.

The Fire Lord was no idiot. Why leave a good general sitting around rusting, even if Iroh had been training a crown prince? Logistics, planning, coordination, adaptability - they weren't just good on the battlefield.

MG: Honestly, I’m not sure about this? I always got the impression that Ozai viewed Iroh, after the failure of the siege of Ba Sing Se and the death of Lu Ten, as a washed-up has-been, a broken shell of the man he’d once been (admittedly, I do think a weakness of the original show is that we’re given very little sense of Iroh and Ozai’s dynamic as brothers… though considering Iroh is somewhere between ten and twenty years Ozai’s senior, it’s doubtful they were ever that close anyway, so I’m kind of extrapolating from the little we do get). And even so, I doubt Ozai would want to give the Dragon of the West any opportunity to build up his power base again, if he was ever motivated to do so. I always assumed Ozai was content to leave Iroh to his tea and pai sho and let him (in Ozai’s view) rot with them.

The Fire Nation needed them at home, desperately, from late summer throughout autumn. The season of air. Of storms. Of the spirit-winds, the hurricanes.

Nara had been almost five years ago, now. One of the worst storms to hit the Fire Nation in decades. Thousands of homes destroyed. Ships demolished, or lifted by wind and wave miles inland. Hundreds dead, despite their lords' best precautions. And they'd tried so hard...

We're on an up cycle, Uncle says. For the next twenty years, it's just going to get worse.

MG: Hmmm… I’m of two minds on this one. It’s good worldbuilding in general, it makes sense, but it’s also Vathara writing about the Fire Nation, and in that context it’s hard to avoid the sense that it’s Vathara deliberately trying to drum up sympathy for the Fire Nation. Especially considering that she’s going to eventually end up spinning off the Fire Nation’s storm season into a reason why the Fire Nation secretly resented the Air Nomads all along, if you’ll believe that. So, yeah. Very mixed feelings here.

The Real Victims: 44

He believed Iroh. Completely. Nothing else could explain chasing the Avatar into a hurricane in the middle of the spirit-damned winter.

It was just weeks after the solstice! There aren't supposed to be storms like that, not when the sun is just starting to come back!

So he'd doubted his uncle, and his ship and crew had almost paid the ultimate price. Like so many of Nara had paid.

Zuko: …yeah, it couldn’t have just been that I was stubborn and obsessed, there had to be an actual reason I thought Uncle was wrong? Even if I do end up admitting I was wrong, that still feels like a little much.

It was Nara that had made him realize he had to stop Azula. He'd been with Uncle and their contingent of guards, seeing the death and devastation... and the order brought out of chaos, as General Iroh and the Home Guard brought in food, clean water, and steel-edged hope. Seeing the difference in deaths between the larger port of Nara, where the land had actually been hit harder - and Jang Hui, up a nearby river, whose lord was weak and whose far fewer people had died by the scores.

Katara: Wait a minute… Jang Hui, isn’t that where…

MG: Where you were the Painted Lady? Yes, it was! And, uh, I think Vathara is kind of reluctant to admit just why that village was in such a sad state when you arrived there, since here she attributes it to a typhoon and then later she sort of dances around the topic when talking about something tangentially related (and her handling of the Painted Lady plotline when we get there, IMO, falls into interesting ideas, but highly questionable execution). Whereas the original episode is very clear that it’s the nearby military base/factory polluting the river that’s the primary source of the village’s woes. But that would make the Fire Nation government and military look bad to admit that, so we have to add other factors as well. Not to mention that Vathara is not-so-sneakily working in that of course Zuko “always” had altruistic motivations for wanting to capture Aang and take the throne, even before he was banished!

Divine Right to Rule: 64 (throwing in a point here for the reference to Jang Hui’s “lord,” when the village’s appearance in canon gave no indication it had any such person)

Prince Stuko: 117

The Real Victims: 45

You don't understand us, Zuko thought wearily, not looking toward where the waterbender slept. How could you? Life at the Poles is hard, but it doesn't change. You know when the ice will freeze. When the winter storms will howl. When you need to hunt. When you need to prepare.

Katara: What, so now natural disasters in the Fire Nation are an excuse to talk about how horrible I am, too? And that’s spoken like someone who’s never had to deal with a freak blizzard… except that, wait, you did, you ran out with Aang into the middle of one and nearly died! So, you really should have known better.

Beware the Sugar Queen: 71

Simple Rubes from the Water Tribes: 53

The Fire Nation had to prepare every summer, for storms that might not hit at all. That might not hit for years. Or might hit four or more in a month, devastating land and fleets alike. There had to be a plan. There had to be supplies laid in, and forts on higher ground, and a record of who could move to safety on their own, and where to look for those who'd need help. And there had to be a strong, compassionate lord, and a loyal people.

Zuko: Yeah, in my experience you want a strong, effective civil service staffed by professionals who know what they’re doing more than a “strong lord and loyal people.” Because they can do a lot more to help than any one person can. And, oh wait, that’s why we actually have that and don’t just rely on local nobility to know what they’re doing!

Divine Right to Rule: 65

Because the most warning anyone ever had was two days in advance, and that only if a fleet with a sharp-eyed captain sent a messenger hawk in time.

Zuko loved the wind. A clear, brisk breeze on the ocean, carrying the scent of salt and green of distant lands... there was nothing like it. But the monsters of wind and storm and wave that roared off the Western Ocean in autumn - no. He knew them too well.

You command the wind, Avatar Aang. You command the storm itself, if you wish. Zuko shook his head. Don't you know why we hated your people?

MG: …see what I mean? And no, the Fire Nation didn’t actually blame the Air Nomads or the Avatar for causing the storms (even Vathara doesn’t go that far) but when we see what they do blame them for, that’s still not great (and when you stop to consider the fact that Zuko is thinking about how much he hates a people his great-grandfather committed genocide on, it goes past “not great” and into “outright disturbing”). And it’s lines like this that make me really side-eye this whole worldbuilding element as feeling like it’s just there to make us feel sorry for the Fire Nation and how hard they have it and how none of the other nations know their suffering… and it’s just a bit much, you know? Especially when this is far from the last element like this that will be introduced.

Detached from Reality: 13

The Real Victims: 46

Enough koala-woolgathering.

MG: …I get that Vathara is trying to modify the expression for the Avatarverse, but I don’t think that was necessary? We don’t say “sheep-woolgathering,” after all.

Time to put one of his bad habits to use, and see if he could fall asleep meditating. Breathe in, and hold, and out...

-

Momo curled next to her heart, Katara waited in the darkness for strained breathing to even out. And shivered.

I thought it was Sokka, having a nightmare about - about Mom...

The same kind of strangled gasp, that in waking life would have been a scream. The same hitch of breath as terror shot its victim from sleep to bolt awake, and the mind scrambled to catch up. The same stifled sounds, and sense of water moving, as her brother hiding tears.

Zuko wasn't like her brother. At all.

Katara: Is… is Vathara actually trying to be sympathetic to me? Wasn’t expecting that!

MG: *grimly* Don’t expect it to last.

But he wasn't acting like Zuko either. Not like the enemy she knew. Checking somebody with his healing? Who wasn't Iroh, or bleeding to death? He'd even looked... almost nice, doing it.

Must be the hair. Makes him look harmless.

Zuko: *clearly uncomfortable* I’d like to say that in the Fire Nation, we traditionally wear our hair long out of reverence for our culture and heritage, and out topknots in particular are a sign of personal honor, and when we’d first met I’d shaved everything but my topknot as a sign I was shamed but seeking redemption, and growing my hair out again didn’t make me look harmless.

Katara: *grins* Yeah. And Sokka’s ponytail is totally a “warrior’s wolf-tail” too.

Yeah, right. Like anybody who could punch like that could ever be harmless. No challenge, no stepping out into the open so she could see him, no chance for her to threaten him back - Zuko might talk a lot about honor, but the worst Water Tribe warrior she'd ever met had more. Even Haun and his warriors, who Chief Arnook had sent on that sneaky, dishonest mission Sokka had told her about, dressing up as Fire Nation warriors - even they would have had the decency to challenge Zhao before they killed him.

They must have been very brave. None of them had come back.

Katara: Okay, now I’m apparently sympathizing with that jerk Hahn. Vathara, you’ve lost me.

MG: And do note the implication that Hahn was just following Water Tribe custom when he marched up to Zhao and loudly challenged him (and then Zhao threw him overboard without missing a beat); it wasn’t just that he was a hotheaded loudmouth, it was actually his culture that made him that dumb. Is that the implication I’m supposed to be taking away here? Urgh. And it’s also being used to make Katara’s anger at Zuko look childish and misguided when, you know, Zuko literally from her perspective ambushed her in the middle of the city and kidnapped her against her will. Katara has very good reason to be pissed off here! It’s not just culture or whatever!

Beware the Sugar Queen: 72

Simple Rubes from the Water Tribes: 54

Zuko? Rescue anybody? What, walk up to a stronghold Zhao was in, and say, "For my honor, turn over the Avatar"? I don't think so.

MG: …sigh. See? We’re firmly in “Katara’s reasonable suspicions are framed to sound as dumb as possible” territory now.

Beware the Sugar Queen: 73

So Shirong was lying to her. That made sense; he was Dai Li. But given the professor was worried about Dai Li, but seemed to trust this one... Something about this whole situation seemed wrong.

Why won't anyone listen to me?

Zuko: Well, because its sounds like I’ve got them all caught up in my mind control powers – that I don’t actually have! – and so they trust every word out of my mouth and hate you! That sound about right?

It could just be Ba Sing Se. But it didn't feel like the Joo Dees' misdirection, or the Earth King's bewildered ignorance, or even the generals' hunger to strike back at the Fire Nation. This - it was like these people didn't think the Fire Nation was the enemy!

MG: Meanwhile, Vathara does seem to think that we should see Katara as being in the wrong for seeing the Fire Nation as the enemy! Because what’s a little conquest and ethnic cleansing between friends, right?

No, Katara thought. The professor said Fire Nation soldiers were monsters. But not the whole nation. Which didn't make sense. The warriors were the nation. Every Water Tribe man fought.

Katara: Except I clearly didn’t think that! I never had a problem fighting Fire Nation soldiers, but I always saw Fire Nation people as, well, people, and I always tried to help people in need, even if they were from the Fire Nation! I didn’t think Zuko was our enemy because he was Fire Nation, I thought he was the enemy because he kept attacking us! It’s not that hard!

But... a lot of Earth Kingdom men didn't seem like warriors at all. They didn't carry swords, or spears. They didn't dress like they were ready to fight; not in fancy clothes like that. And they gave Sokka's weapons weird looks, walking around town. Clothes, too. But especially the weapons.

MG: And now we’re back to Vathara’s favorite trope – the idea that her characters, especially ones she doesn’t like (but sometimes ones she does, too, when someone needs to be exposited at) are almost comically ignorant of other people’s cultures. Even though Katara has, at this point, spent the better part of a year traveling around the world and seen lots of different parts of the Earth Kingdom and the Northern and Foggy Swamp Tribes, all of them extremely different from her homeland. But she’s still struggling to grasp very basic cultural differences (and we’ve got another whiff of Vathara being a hypocrite about “the Fire Nation’s proud warrior race guy values are good and admirable, while the Water Tribes’ proud warrior race guy values are ignorant and backwards”; charming).

Simple Rubes from the Water Tribes: 55

It just didn't make sense. How could Iroh say Zuko wasn't evil? That was like saying Sokka could be evil, when everyone knew he was Hakoda's son! Good people had good children, and evil people... well, there weren't any left in her tribe, but she knew what you did with those. Wait until you got them alone, then push them off the ice when no one was looking.

...Okay, so ice was probably a little harder to come by in the Fire Nation, given Aang had once said there were only a few places it ever snowed. There had to be something just as good.

Though if there wasn't, that would explain a lot.

Katara: *shocked* What on earth…

Zuko: I think I’m going to be sick. That’s the sort of thing I’d expect Azula to believe in…

MG: So… yeah. Vathara’s Water Tribes (or at least the South) are just flat-out eugenicists who routinely murder anyone they deem “evil” without warning or trial to “purify” the tribe so that it only contains “good” people, because good and evil are apparently inherited traits. One, that’s hypocritical as all hell, with how Vathara’s been blathering on about Roku’s bloodline being good and Sozin’s being evil. Two, we’re getting the explanation for where the hells this comes from in this chapter’s AN (and it will be expanded on with The Saga of Fred, the Hypothetical Cannibal down the line) and as you might expect, it’s really racist! And beyond that, purely from a narrative standpoint this is clearly here just so we can dismiss all of Katara’s perfectly reasonable complaints because she’s just a horrible person from a horrible culture who believes crap like this. GAAAAH! I hate this!

Beware the Sugar Queen: 74

Simple Rubes from the Water Tribes: 56

Ooo, she just wanted to sneak over there, lock the jerk up in ice, and demand some straight answers out of him!

Zuko: And speaking as “that jerk” in question, in Katara’s shoes I wouldn’t blame her! But I guess this is why we have to establish that she’s actually horrible so we can ignore all that.

...Except that even locked in ice, Zuko was a pretty scary firebender. Master Pakku had told her that freezing a firebender in a wave of ice like that would, as he'd smirked, "stop them cold."

She'd frozen Zuko. Smirked at him, heart still racing, glad that it was finally over and Aang was safe...

Then the sun had risen, and the next thing she remembered was waking up to an aching head and Aang gone.

Some finishing move. She might as well have been throwing snowballs.

Katara: …you know, losing the Zuko because the sun came up and the moon set – meaning that he got stronger and I got weaker – isn’t exactly a fair test of who’s the better bender, is it?

MG: And of course the whole thing is framed in such a way as to make Pakku sound as bad and ignorant as possible, and to make Zuko look as good as possible. Is anyone surprised at this point?

Prince Stuko: 118

Simple Rubes from the Water Tribes: 57

Which was why she was not going to freeze him now, no matter how much she wanted to. All she had was her waterskin, and it obviously took more than that to take Zuko down.

Prince Stuko: 119

Besides. Attack him the way he deserved to be attacked, and he'd probably pull some "poor little me" lie on the Wens. As if he were innocent.

Aang's the one who's innocent!

Katara: *nonplussed* Yeah, now we’re deep into “I’m biased and irrational and just don’t understand” territory. Consider my earlier compliment about Vathara writing me completely withdrawn.

She'd never had a problem getting people to believe that before. Well, except for Chin Village. But they'd had this crazy idea that Chin the Conqueror was a good guy.

MG: …I mean, it sounded like Katara and Sokka, and probably Aang, were literally only hearing of Chin for the first time at Chin Village? None of them are exactly history nerds, and none of them are from the Earth Kingdom. The bigger problem is, you know, that they were planning to execute Aang for something Kyoshi had done – ie, in one of the Avatar’s past lives. Aang’s own guilt or innocence was kind of irrelevant.

It's like I'm stuck behind ice. I pound and pound, and they see me, but they're not listening...

MG: Funnily enough, that’s kind of how sporking this thing makes me feel sometimes…

Katara's breath caught. Meixiang... she'd said something about Azula using inner fire - whatever that was - on people who were vulnerable. And something about Zuko maybe doing that to Shirong...

Maybe it's not ice I'm pounding on.

Zuko: See!? That’s what I was saying!

MG: And I mean, considering the clear implication that Zuko has, in fact, been grabbing people with loyalty without realizing what he was doing, I think Katara is likely entirely right about this!

Moving quietly, she uncapped her waterskin, wrapping a soft glow around her fingers-

Steel gleamed in faint green light. "Amaya doesn't heal people without permission."

All Sporkers: *burst out in wild, hysterical laughter*

Katara: *wiping her eyes* Literally the first thing we ever saw Amaya do was use a potentially dangerous technique on Iroh without explaining what it was, how it worked, what the risks were or getting his permission! And then she did the same thing to Zuko and he nearly died! And it’s implied that she regularly does this, and it leaves her patients traumatized! Because she apparently has to deal with that regularly! Amaya absolutely heals people without permission – if you call what she does “healing”; it’s about as close to healing as bloodbending is, if you ask me – and anyone who says otherwise is a great big liar! I mean, just… wow, Vathara. You’re shameless, aren’t you?

Meixiang's voice.

Katara: And look, it’s Meixiang saying it and she seems like she’s Vathara’s mouthpiece a lot of the time, so I guess we’re supposed to take it at face value!

Zuko: …I think this may be some of the most brazen lying I’ve ever seen. And I grew up with Azula.

Soft and quiet, but edged with the same steel as the dagger she was stropping on a bit of cloth, kneeling between Katara and her children. "I thought you might be tempted to try something," the professor's wife went on. "For both our sakes, don't."

Zuko: Which is exactly what a brainwashed thrall would say, isn’t it?

"I just want to help!" Katara kept it to an urgent whisper, uneasily aware of the firebender in the corner, and Iroh napping with the other adults near the cave entrance. "I don't know what Zuko did to you, but-"

"All he has done is be a young man, working as a healer in Ba Sing Se," Meixiang said simply. "Just one more refugee, among thousands. He's impulsive, yes. Rude, sometimes. And he certainly has a temper. But I've seen worse. Even my Min has been more thoughtless, sometimes."

Katara: And I literally fought Zuko up and down the entire world. So maybe I saw a different side of him?

Katara snorted. "Somehow, I don't think your son ever burned down a village."

"No," Meixiang said calmly. "But I would, to protect the people I love."

MG: Hmmm. Zuko attacked Sokka and Katara’s village… and Kyoshi Island… and that monastery in “Bato of the Water Tribe” …and all those times, you know what he wasn’t doing? Protecting the people he loved! He was there for one reason – to try and capture Aang, to bring him to his father. We don’t know what Ozai would’ve done to Aang if he had him, but it sure wouldn’t have been good, and I don’t think Zuko was ever naïve enough to think it would’ve been. And while as far as we see Zuko never killed anyone any of those times, he caused a lot of collateral damage and put a lot of people in danger. I don’t want to overstate things. Even at his worst, Zuko was easily the least evil of the show’s major antagonists – hells, I’m pretty sure half the reason Zhao even exists as a character is so Zuko can have a rival much worse than he is, who makes him look more sympathetic in comparison. And that’s before you get into the sympathy Zuko wins from his own backstory and his relationship with his uncle. But he definitely did some bad stuff for bad reasons, and canon!Zuko knew that and ultimately wanted to atone for it. But there is something interesting in how Meixiang just reflexively takes Zuko’s side and basically declares that in his position she’d do the exact same thing, without stopping to consider whether she knows what his position actually was. I think a different writer could get some good drama out of that and make this a situation where neither Katara nor Meixiang are wrong, but are both talking past each other because they know very different sides of Zuko. But this is Vathara, and I do think Meixiang is one of Vathara’s spokespeople in the narrative, so Meixiang is right and Katara is wrong. And it really rubs me the wrong way.

Prince Stuko: 120 (even legitimate criticisms of Zuko get brushed aside)

Another slow strop of cloth on steel; Meixiang didn't even watch her fingers move, green gaze fixed on Katara. "Please stay away from my children."

Mouth dry, Katara bent her water back into its skin, and dove back into her futon. The last time she'd seen someone look like that...

Mom told me to leave the tent. When she knew what that firebender was going to do.

Katara: What, I’m Yon Rha now too? Vathara really wants us all to know I’m an awful hypocrite, doesn’t she?

Meixiang was putting herself between Katara and her children. Against the Avatar's waterbending master. With only a knife.

But I'm not like him! I'm not!

Zuko: No, you’re not. But Vathara apparently doesn’t see the difference between a hollow shell of a man who killed a woman on her knees and just barely missed doing it in front of her little daughter because he had orders (that doesn’t let people off the hook!) and a girl who is trying to help people and do the right thing as she sees it but has committed the unforgivable sin of not liking me.

Beware the Sugar Queen: 75

Yet that look, frightened and determined and knowing there might be no way out...

I'm not like him! I'm not like Zuko!

Angry enough to shatter icebergs, Katara cried herself to sleep.

Katara: And I guess I just meekly give in and completely fall apart in the face of Meixiang’s Zuko-loving righteousness, huh? *sighs heavily* At least this scene looks like it’s over. *looks down* Except that now we’ve got Amaya coming back. Great.

-

Shirong wasn't sure how long he'd been drowsing before footsteps and murmured voices trembled the earth. He opened his eyes to see the general wrap Amaya in a fierce hug, while the Wens traded amused glances and held hands. "You're all right," he said, barely loud enough to be heard. All too aware of the children tumbled together in their futons, and one young man knotted on himself in the most defensible corner he could find. "We were worried."

Zuko: No, we’re really not worried about Amaya, trust me. I’d be perfectly happy never seeing her again.

"Agent Bon warned me it was time to go." Amaya beckoned him over, so they could move around a corner in stone and Tingzhe could raise a wall to keep exhausted youngsters from waking. "He couldn't say it directly, but I think Min is safe, for now. The Wen family is under suspicion... for concealing a waterbender. Which is reason for an interrogation, but not an arrest." Amaya gave Tingzhe a sober look.

Katara: Seems like a pretty big assumption that the Dai Li care that much about proper procedure to me! Pretty sure if they really want to go after someone, they arrest them first, then come up with a reason for it.

"From what Bon didn't say, Quan would prefer it if you never showed up for that interrogation."

"So it's exile, then," Tingzhe said heavily. "Spirits..." He caught Meixiang's worried look, and gave her a tired smile. "He's alive. Exile means nothing beside that."

"Exile is when you leave everyone you care about behind, love," Meixiang said firmly. "I did that once. This? You're here. My children are here, or as safe as they can be. This isn't exile." She smiled back, proud and sad. "You did what you had to for our city, and for the Avatar. Now, we have to look after our clan."

MG: …okay, what exactly has Tingzhe done for Aang, besides lecture him a few chapters ago? I’m legitimately drawing a blank here.

Amaya stepped aside with Iroh, to give the pair a breath more privacy. Looked Shirong up and down with a critical eye. "Are you well?"

"Better," Shirong said plainly, thinking of fiery colors, and the odd shock of holding a lit lamp. "But I think I need you to be a bit more specific about exactly what your apprentice... overdid." He cast a glance at Meixiang. "And why that makes certain people think the Dai Li are vulnerable to the Fire Princess."

Zuko: Because loyalty is something Vathara just won’t let go and keeps making creepier?

"Ah." It was Iroh who nodded, surprising Shirong. "That, I fear, is something we must all discuss. It may change our plans for escape. And if it does not, it changes the urgency of those plans. Even, perhaps, beyond what is necessary to deal with Azula."

Shirong eyed the retired general. "We're fugitives. Azula, who you say is a master firebender and tactician, is in the palace, ready to conspire with Long Feng." Which was reassuring only in that Long Feng knew how important Kuei's life was to Ba Sing Se. His king should be safe. For now. "And any day, the Avatar might fly right back into a trap. Oma and Shu, how can things get any worse?"

Katara: …Vathara could start ranting about the Water Tribes again? I think that would be worse!

Iroh regarded him for a moment, eyes half-closed as he seemed to listen. And then sighed, nodding. "Three reasons. Two of which are tightly intertwined. But the first - yes. The Dai Li are vulnerable to Azula. And they will have no warning, before their own hearts betray them."

MG: As opposed to the canon Dai Li, who sold out Ba Sing Se to Azula entirely of their own free wills…

Protectors of our Cultural Heritage: 52

Shirong shook his head, unwilling to believe that. And more than unwilling to look at why he felt Iroh was right. "That makes no sense. We're loyal to the city."

"To death, and beyond," Iroh said gravely. "For Ba Sing Se, you fight the spirit world itself. And that requires courage beyond that of even a skilled bender. It requires a spirit that fights to live, to prevail, to conquer any enemy set against it." He paused, deliberately. "A soul touched by fire."

Zuko: *exasperated* Oh for the spirits’ sake…

Elemental Determinism: 53 (apparently being a very loyal person is just… automatically a fire-aligned trait)

Protectors of our Cultural Heritage: 53 (still singing the Dai Li’s praises, even when they’re being traitors…)

The Superior Element: 62

Shirong stiffened. "We're Earth Kingdom."

"You are," Iroh agreed. "Though perhaps your family, generations ago... well.

Elemental Determinism: 54

Every spirit has a touch of all four elements. Even the strongest firebender has water within him, binding him to family and home. The Dai Li are earthbenders, but your training and battles strengthen the fire within you as well. And that fire, that loyalty, is vulnerable to the pull of greater fires. Like Azula's."

Elemental Determinism: 55

The Superior Element: 63

"Because she's of the blood of Sozin?" Shirong folded his arms, unconvinced. "I don't see any Dai Li following you around, General."

Divine Right to Rule: 66

"An old tea-maker? That would be most inconvenient." Iroh smiled. And straightened, green eyes no longer full of bemused affection, but sharp as a diamond blade-

Shirong staggered, breath driven from his lungs in a gasp of fear and fury.

This. This is what faced the haima-jiao. The general who held us under siege for six hundred days.

This is the Dragon of the West.

In his sense of spirits, Iroh burned.

Power crushed like a fiery vise, threatening to burn him to ashes. His only hope to survive was to join his small flame to that inferno; to give himself to it and let the firestorm carry him...

No.

A raft in a hurricane; a grasping hand, gripping before he could slip into the abyss. Something let his spirit brace against it, lending its strength to his own. Not as fierce and strong as the inferno pressing on him, no. But it was enough. "No." Shirong dared to meet Iroh's gaze, voice shaking. "You can't have me."

Zuko: ….pretty sure Uncle can’t do, well, any of that. And Vathara just keeps making this more and more terrifying, doesn’t she? Though at least Shirong was able to say no… though it sounds like it was only because of something else strengthening him. I have a couple of ideas about what that might be, and if any of them is right, I think I’m going to set something on fire.

Divine Right to Rule: 67

"And I will not," General Iroh said gently. The sense of fire retreated, until he only seemed a harmless bender again. "Do not fear, Agent Shirong. I would never tamper with the loyalty of one who has already chosen his lord." He sighed, grim. "But Azula is not so honorable."

MG: So, yeah. An unscrupulous firebender can basically force someone into loyalty, or at least overwhelm them enough that they can’t effectively say no (despite the fic’s earlier insistence that loyalty must be given freely)… and we’re still supposed to believe that loyalty is just a perfectly normal and natural part of the way firebenders interact with each other and it’s just some bad eggs misusing it that’s the problem? Seriously, Vathara? That’s what we’re going with? *sighs* I really hate this entire concept.

The Superior Element: 64

"Most Dai Li have never been so deeply wounded by the spirits," Amaya stated, as Shirong tried to catch his breath. "I doubt she could influence them so easily."

Katara: Really not helping, since it sounds like being spiritually “wounded,” whatever that means, makes you more vulnerable!

"Not directly, no," Iroh nodded. "But neither will they sense her fire so clearly, or be so quick to fight against it. They will simply believe they are impressed by her skills, her tactics, and her ruthlessness. They will want to follow her. Long Feng will not lose them in one heartbeat of chosen loyalties. They will simply... slip through his fingers."

MG: And again, I still thinks this undermines Azula as a character and a villain. She didn’t really win the Dai Li to her side, she just sort of took control of them without them realizing what was happening because she’s magic! I don’t know about you, but I find that a lot less impressive.

"Then stop her." Tingzhe looked almost as rattled as Shirong felt, but he stood firm as the university itself. "If she can turn the Dai Li, surely you can as well."

"I cannot," Iroh shook his head. "Azula will act as an ally of Long Feng. Which she is, so long as he serves her purposes. I am his enemy. Spirit to spirit, that cannot be feigned."

Zuko: *sighs heavily* Why does all this sound like Vathara is just making it up as she goes to justify the story going the way it should?

He sighed. "Even if I could, I have a more important responsibility. Prince Zuko must escape Ba Sing Se."

MG: On the one hand, yes, this is Iroh prioritizing his beloved nephew’s safety and well-being… but on the other hand it still can’t help but come across as “Zuko is the most important person in the world,” especially considering Vathara’s past (and future) track record.

"We all need to do that," Shirong pointed out dryly. Leave Ba Sing Se. Spirits, I never thought I would.

"But we are not all yāorén." Iroh indulged in a wry smile at their looks of confusion.

MG: Having gone back through the fic, I think this is the first time Vathara has actually given us a name for what it is that Zuko has become. We’ll get a bit more on her choice of terminology in the AN.

"You are not the only one interested in old history, Professor. I have contacts with records which are... very old, indeed." He regarded Amaya. "When Zuko drowned, he was told the spirits were in disagreement over what should happen to the Fire Nation, and to the world. That the Avatar was human as well as spirit, and none knew what he might do. But," he raised a determined finger, "the Moon also said my nephew's efforts to restore balance deserved her answer."

"The Moon gave him waterbending?" Shirong said, very carefully. A Fire Nation prince?

Prince Stuko: 121 (think this merits a point, all things considered)

"An event I found as surprising as you," Iroh said dryly. "Imagine my further surprise when I learned - only hours ago - this may not be the first time a firebender has been so gifted."

You could have felt a pin drop.

"Long ago, so long it has been lost to all our nations, the Avatar may not have been alone in keeping balance in the world," Iroh went on. "The records are but fragments, yet... it seems there were others to aid him, and give him council. Only the Avatar could bend all four elements, true - but what remains about the yāorén suggests they could bend two. And so they too would know the struggle of learning to master more than one element; the difficulty, and the heartbreak, of trying to belong to more than one nation."

MG: Spoilers, but later developments will confirm that while the yāorén are multi-element benders like the Avatar, the mechanics of how they were are quite different – different enough that they literally cannot teach the Avatar bending (not that we see much evidence of this in any of the many, many many scenes from Zuko’s POV where we see him bending). So, I’m not sure how much they can be said to understand what being the Avatar is like. Of course, I have a sneaking feeling Vathara hadn’t thought of that yet.

True Guardians of Balance: 4

He let out a slow breath. "But while the Avatar is born, it seems a yāorén could only be made. And that, only at great risk. Those I asked did not have a record of what that risk was... but Zuko died. Even if only for moments. I do not doubt, had he not succeeded in the tasks the spirits set him - my nephew would not have returned to me."

Zuko: …Uncle, I have to admit I’d be a lot happier about all of this if you weren’t literally dating the person who nearly killed me!

"And if you can bend one element, why risk your life for two?" Meixiang nodded. "There could never have been many of them."

Katara: I don’t know… people will risk a lot for power. Just look at… you know… *gestures in the general direction of the Fire Nation*. *quietly* And I mean, I might be willing to risk it too, if I really thought it would help Aang…

MG: Spoilers, but Katara is not going to become a yāorén in this fic, if you were wondering/worried about that. There are going to be two others in major roles in addition to Zuko (plus past yāorén/those characters past lives), one of whom we already know and whose status is going to confirmed here shortly (you can probably guess who…) but not Katara.

"And the fewer people who know a technique, the more easily it can be lost," Tingzhe said gravely.

MG: True; I think I mentioned not long ago that the Kyoshi books imply that lightningbending has been lost and rediscovered multiple times, and Korra also heavily implies, IMO, that Hama and an ancestor of Yakone’s invented bloodbending independently and unaware of each other.

"At the risk of sounding horribly disrespectful to a certain great spirit," Shirong said carefully, "your nephew is the last person I'd pick to... counsel the Avatar."

Zuko: There was a time I’d have said the same thing, but… we got there in the end, didn’t we?

MG: Well, don’t look for that here. Even when you do get to team up a couple of times later in the fic, Vathara is still mostly going to use it to beat the drum that you’re simply incompatible as a friend or mentor for Aang (because Aang’s not worthy of you, seemingly). In fact, none of her three yāorén are much interested in helping Aang. Which kind of defeats the point entirely, since the fic is also going to lean heavily on the idea that the lack of yāorén advising and assisting the Avatar for the last few cycles has been the root cause of a lot of the world’s problems and that a certain someone has been deliberately suppressing knowledge of the yāorén to keep things going in that direction (not shilling Vathara’s special creations at all here, why would you think that?) and I’m not really sure Vathara is interested in stopping and working through the full implications of that.

"Shirong," Amaya said, half-scolding, "you know Lee better than that."

"Please, allow me," Iroh said mildly. "For you well know, on the surface, it would seem he is right."

On the surface? Shirong thought in disbelief. Reconsidered, taking into account precisely who was speaking; not just Lee's fond uncle, but the general who had harried the Earth Kingdom army from one end of the continent to the other. "I'm not going to like this, am I?"

Katara: …well, I don’t like this either (in fact, “I don’t like this” is really getting to be an understatement!) so at least you’ll have company?

"I am not well pleased myself," Iroh said gravely. "But having pursued the Avatar at my nephew's side, I have seen things the airbender lacks, whose absence may yet lead to a very short life. Would have led so, save for the Water Tribe children and young Toph." He let a breath sigh out, counting off items on his fingers. "Aang is reckless. While I fully understand the use of excessive force against an enemy, Aang's bending has often caused as much damage to his surroundings - and far more to innocent bystanders - as my nephew. And that before the Avatar state was unleashed."

He Has Much to Learn: 68 (because it’s not like Zuko ever caused massive collateral damage or anything… oh, wait…)

"When Zuko was firebending?" Meixiang's brows climbed.

"Even so," Iroh said dryly. Lifted a second finger. "Aang is naive. He has little grasp of the differences in customs between nations, and appears to believe that any custom he disagrees with may be flaunted without thought or fear of reprisal. Breaking a prisoner's parole he gave my nephew.

MG: …told you we’d be coming back to that one (and we’ve not heard the end of it, either).

Teaching Katara combative waterbending in secret at the North Pole, when women were not permitted to learn.

Katara: …that was for me. I wanted to do that, because I traveled the whole length of the world to learn waterbending and wasn’t about to let the Northern Tribe’s stupid rules tell me I couldn’t. And, you know, I actually ended up shaming Pakku into admitting he was wrong. So maybe don’t lay this one on Aang, and don’t assume that just because something is traditional, it’s always right? *beat* And when did Iroh even learn about that, anyway? Did Pakku write him an angry letter about it and the White Lotus managed to find him in the middle of the Earth Kingdom to deliver it or something?

And here, in Ba Sing Se, invading the very palace to see the Earth King."

Katara: …because we needed to get into the palace to see the King to warn him about the eclipse so he could launch an invasion of the Fire Nation and oh, yeah, we also wanted to overthrow Long Feng who’d been tyrannizing the whole city, brainwashing people, kidnapped Appa and killed Jet – we didn’t just do that for fun, you know!

Iroh shook his head. "I do not say he did not have reason to do so. The Avatar had no reason to know my nephew was honorable.

MG: Actually, Vathara is going to keep harping later on that Aang totally should’ve known all along that Zuko was honorable, and his behavior was therefore actually a sign of him knowingly taking advantage of Zuko’s good nature and no, I’m not really exaggerating that.

Zuko: …what!?

Katara needed to be taught. And Kuei needed, badly, to know the truth of his city. But every time he has acted, Aang has been amazed that there were consequences."

Katara: So, you’re admitting that we were justified in doing all of that, but Aang is still bad for doing it because… traditions are automatically good and shouldn’t be broken, I guess?

He Has Much to Learn: 72 (giving several points for that whole paragraph)

Amaya gave Iroh a considering look. "How do you know what the Avatar did at the North Pole?"

Iroh's grin was pure mischief. "That, I cannot tell you. Yet. There are ways; I hope to tell you of them in time."

Katara: …Pakku really did write him an angry letter, didn’t he? *bursts out giggling* Okay, okay, it’s not really funny, but… it’s kind of funny? “Dear Iroh, it’s Pakku, you wouldn’t believe the day I had…”

"Ice cubes," Amaya muttered. "Sleeping robe. Don't think I won't."

Zuko: …honestly, if she just sticks with that, Uncle got off easy.

"I never doubted it," Iroh said virtuously. And raised a third finger. "Aang is... irresponsible. From what Amaya has told me, he has already tried firebending - before he was ready to learn - and whatever the result, he has now decided he will never firebend." Iroh looked grim. "He is the Avatar. He is a firebender, whether or not he wishes to be. If he does not master his inner fire, he will not master himself." The general swept them all with a sober gaze. "We have all seen our world without an Avatar. Do we wish to see our world with an Avatar's power unleashed by one who will not think?"

MG: Yes, Aang made a bad decision and was traumatized by the results of it. It’s not like that happening and then what Aang went through to get over it – including, you know, willingly burying the hatchet with Zuko and taking him on as his firebending teacher in part because he can tell that Zuko also recognizes how easy it is to accidentally hurt the people you care about and the importance of not letting that happen – was a major part of his arc in canon or anything. From another fic, I’d be willing to write this off as Iroh simply going on the incomplete information he has and coming to the wrong conclusion but, well, this is Embers and “Aang is an immature brat who doesn’t understand anything as well as he thinks, and especially not the Fire Nation or firebending” is pretty much the basis of Vathara’s entire characterization of him, so…

He Has Much to Learn: 73

"Iroh," Shirong said quietly. Daring to look that most dangerous man in the eye. "He's a twelve-year-old boy."

"So he is," Iroh nodded. "Do not think I do not feel compassion. No child should be forced to bear the fate of the world. And I have seen many children bereft by war. I do not doubt some of what drives his recklessness is the need to forget. The need to do something, anything, rather than live in a world which has destroyed all he knew and loved." Iroh looked down, saddened. "I grieve that his people are no more. I understand why he wishes to run from his duty. But the spirits will not allow it. No matter how much harm that does Aang, or any of us."

MG: And here we go conflating “the spirits” and “destiny” again in a way the show never really did…

Amaya stirred at his side. "You do believe the spirits have been using Zuko to chase Aang."

"Yes." Iroh looked away, as if into memory. "Were it not for my nephew's determination to track any lead, no matter how slim, no Fire Nation ship would have been close enough to spot the Avatar's awakening. Aang would still be with the Southern Water Tribe, a child among the other children. And that... would not suit the spirits' purposes."

MG: *sighs heavily* See above. And honestly, I think one (or more) of Aang’s past lives would’ve eventually showed up in his dreams and strong-armed him into heading north and starting his journey. The thing about being the Avatar is that it’s not so much a thing you do as a thing you are – you are the same person as all those past Avatars in at least one sense, born into a new life – and basically every Avatar we’ve seen has some point in their career where they find you can’t run from yourself forever.

He Has Much to Learn: 74

"You have a nasty, suspicious mind," Shirong stated, smiling wryly. And thank the spirits for that. Lee - Zuko - would never have lasted this long without guile on his side.

"An unfortunate side effect of command," Iroh chuckled. "Or at least, of surviving it." He sobered. "But I think you are right. It is not wise for the spirits to have chosen my nephew for such a task. Not because he would not be capable of it, if he survived disobeying the Fire Lord. But because Aang's other allies, save Toph, hate us. As Katara hates us. And how can anyone expect a young boy to listen to the hard reality of my nephew's good sense, when those who have taken him in as family speak against such advice simply because it is Zuko's?"

Zuko: Uh, Uncle? Have you forgotten the part where we chased Aang all over the world and attacked him a bunch of times? Aang didn’t think I was his enemy because Katara and Sokka poisoned him against me or something – he thought I was his enemy because, for a while, I actually was! Remember, he thought we could’ve been friends a long time before I ever wanted to consider it!

Beware the Sugar Queen: 76

Prince Stuko: 122

Ouch, Shirong winced. "Not to mention that small detail of your nephew having chased him across the world. Fire, clanking armor, life or death insults…."

Katara: …why is the Dai Li agent suddenly the voice of reason around here?

"My nephew took very good care of his armor," Iroh said practically. "It never clanked."

Zuko: Really not the point, Uncle! But, uh, I did try to take care of my armor. Uncle taught me that much.

Meixiang smiled. Tingzhe raised a brow at her. "Just picturing our Lee in armor, dear. He doesn't have quite enough hair yet for a respectable topknot… oh." She looked at Iroh, eyes worried. "I hadn't really… thought about that before."

"Hair grows back," Iroh smiled ruefully. "My nephew needed my support, more than I needed my pride."

MG: …and Iroh was on the run too; don’t forget that part. Though yeah, it’s very clear just from the show that Iroh and Zuko cutting off their topknots when they went on the run was a big deal, and them symbolically severing their connection to the Fire Nation. The Kyoshi books would later go into more detail about how the Fire Nation has a lot of rituals regarding the head and hair, and how the topknot specifically is a symbol of honor and pride and is only cut off in times of extreme shame. There’s a bit in the second book where Rangi’s mother, Hei-Ran, cuts off her topknot as a reflection of her guilt in having helped Jianzhu in the previous books and all the trouble and suffering that resulted from that, and it’s treated as only slightly less shocking and horrifying than if she’d committed literal seppuku on the spot. So… yeah, Topknots are a big deal, and Vathara at least managed to pick up on that much.

Gentle words, but the steel behind them hardened Shirong's intuition into conviction. "You're not about to let the spirits have their way, are you?"

"If I had let certain spirits act as they willed, neither Zuko nor I would be here," Iroh observed.

Katara: You know, “the spirits” aren’t just one big blob, you know – they all have different things they want! I don’t think Wan Shih Tong, Hei Bei, the Moon Spirit and Koh the Face Stealer were all sitting down having committee meetings to plan this stuff.

MG: *hums noncommittally*

Shirong looked at him askance. "You're getting Zuko out so the spirits' plan won't work. So he won't be here when the Avatar comes looking for Katara, and won't get shanghaied into being this… yāorén counselor."

"That is my intent, yes."

MG: With the implication being that Iroh is literally putting his nephew above the spiritual wellbeing of the world? I mean, there are circumstances where I could see Iroh doing that, but I’d think it would be a much more wrenching decision for him. But something about how it’s handled here kind of puts me on edge; I think it’s just the overall implication that everyone really should be putting Zuko’s wellbeing over the fate of the world, because this is Embers where the world really does revolve around Zuko. Maybe it’s just Vathara’s overall patterns of behavior making me read this in a very uncharitable light, but even so…

"But to go against the spirits-" Tingzhe began.

"My nephew is human!" Iroh's fists clenched; he made himself breathe.

MG: *cheerily* He’s not, actually! Quite aside from the dragon stuff, the fic is later going to outright state that the yāorén are no longer human (and that’s why they can’t ever teach the Avatar, for some reason). Not sure if this is a case of Iroh being wrong, or Vathara going back and contradicting what she wrote.

"My nephew has lost everything he hoped to gain. Again. Even if his loyalty were not at stake, even if he chose to help the Avatar freely - what help would he be to Aang, when the Avatar loathes the very thought of firebending?

Zuko: …do what we actually ended up doing, which was working that stuff out? With help from dragons, which I’d have thought Vathara would like because she likes dragons a bit too much?

He Has Much to Learn: 75

When Katara, whom Aang trusts, calls us monsters?"

MG: Again, Katara never acted like she thought all Fire Nationals were evil – quite the opposite! But at the same time, maybe there’s a reason why someone from the Southern Water Tribe might be especially hostile to the Fire Nation military and government, hmmm?

Beware the Sugar Queen: 77

The Real Victims: 47

Iroh shook his head. "The Avatar is the bridge between our world and the spirits because spirits do not understand humans well. I do not intend to go against the spirits. I simply believe they have miscalculated.

Zuko: Yeah, well, not meaning to contradict Uncle or anything, but I don’t think the spirits are in charge of any of this? Except maybe me becoming a yāorén, I’ll give him that, but they only had the chance because Amaya’s creepy technique nearly killed me. Remember that part?

For if there is one thing I have learned raising my son and nephew, it is that you cannot force a boy to listen. He must decide he needs help, and seek you out." He sighed. "And so, yes. I will remove Zuko from this city before the Avatar can return. My contacts claim he went to the Western Air Temple, to learn… certain things.

MG: Eastern Air Temple. And wow, the White Lotus is remarkably well-informed, aren’t they?

That should take some time; three, perhaps four more days, at the least." He regarded Shirong. "We will get Zuko out. And we will get you out, as well."

"Me?" Shirong said, startled, as Amaya clapped a hand to her forehead with a muffled groan of disbelief. "What… how… what did Zuko do?"

"I missed it," Amaya admitted. "The obvious signs weren't there, so I thought it wasn't as serious…. The technique I mentioned? It usually has three components. Body, mind, and spirit. You didn't need the first two, but the haima-jiao was drowning your spirit. He must have poured flame in to fight it."

"So I believe," Iroh said gently. And lit a flame in one cupped hand.

Katara: *groans* Of course it’s him… well, better than it being Amaya, I guess?

He can't be serious, Shirong thought, stunned. He can't mean….

Iroh's smile was patient, and touched with rueful humor. He waited.

He could wait there all night. Shirong swallowed dryly, and held out a nerveless hand.

"Do not fear," Iroh said, still gentle. "Controlling fire is difficult. Holding it, if one does not move too hastily, is easy. Breathe, and remember you are part of each other."

Katara: *flatly* Jeong Jeong made Aang do a whole lot of exercises before he even let him start working with a tiny bit of fire. Iroh’s just throwing Shirong right in the deep water – so to speak – isn’t he?

Like holding a baby cat-owl. Warm, and fragile; a heartbeat he could feel through his fingertips, warming his very bones. It pulled on his energies, light as moving grains of sand, flickering with his breath.

I think I want to sit down now.

Zuko: *flatly* Me, too. Looks like the chapter’s almost done, though, so we’ve got that going for us.

"Do you know what this means?" Tingzhe asked in amazement, as Iroh snuffed that unsettling flame.

Katara: That Shirong’s one of Vathara’s special characters? I think we knew that already!

"That I've become the enemy?" Shirong snapped, voice ragged. Mourning the absence of fire like he would an old friend. Spirits.

Zuko: Unless you’re planning on running off to the Fire Nation Capital to pledge your allegiance to my father, I don’t think it works that way. Of course, you worked for Long Feng for twenty years, so I guess going from one dictator to another isn’t a huge jump…

"It means we have hope," Tingzhe said, not rising to the bait. "It means my children, my family… we won't be alone."

"No, we won't," Meixiang agreed. "Our people will come. Anyone who's never quite fit into Ba Sing Se. And probably quite a few who thought they did, before…."

Katara: Oh, right. You all were planning on starting a colony, weren’t you? I kind of forgot that part in between Vathara lecturing everyone about how evil I am.

Elemental Determinism: 56 (apparently people who “think” they fit in don’t really, if they’re Fire Nation enough deep down…)

Iroh raised his eyebrows, curious.

Meixiang's smile was touched with bittersweet amusement. "You control your inner fire, Prince Iroh. So you go unnoticed. Prince Zuko… doesn't."

Stunned realization swept over Iroh's face, and he closed his eyes in utter disbelief. "Oh, Agni. I did not even think of it."

Zuko: What. Uncle Iroh, the Dragon of the West, one of the greatest firebending masters in the whole world, my only mentor and parental figure for the last three years (and the only one who actually cared about me before that) and supposedly a master of this inner fire stuff, just… forgot to teach me to control it. He forgot. Just… just… Vathara… why!?

"Think of what?" Shirong glanced at Amaya, who seemed just as clueless.

"He was thirteen when we left." Iroh was - groaning, Shirong decided. "Barely old enough… and he struggled so hard with the basics, I did not think to work on such advanced techniques… and there was no need, those assigned to our ship were always in a clear chain of command, there were no civilians…."

Zuko: *still stunned* Apparently I have magic mind control powers and you just didn’t think I needed to learn how to control them so I wouldn’t accidentally do that to people!? Just… who is this person and what has he done with my uncle!? *facepalms* Just… when Uncle makes dumb mistakes, they’re more “try to turn a deadly flower into tea” kind of mistakes, not “putting everyone at risk by forgetting to teach my nephew really important principles of firebending” kind of mistakes. I literally can’t believe I’m reading this!

"Meixiang?" Tingzhe asked, wary as Shirong felt.

She smiled ruefully. "The general's just realized he's dropped a lodestone in a sandpit laced with iron filings."

Laced with-? Shirong felt his jaw drop as the implications finally hit home. Meixiang, these two - they're not isolated colonial survivors. Which means…. "How many Fire Nation refugees are there in Ba Sing Se?"

Katara: *getting the implications* Oh, no, no, no, Vathara wouldn’t…

"Counting children born here? Over three thousand." Amaya looked just as stunned. "And I've managed to bring Zuko near most of them."

MG: So, yeah. Between those numbers, Amaya mentioning bringing Zuko near most of them, and the earlier comment that even some people who thought they fit in in Ba Sing Se may now want to leave and follow him… yeah, it sounds like Zuko’s just been binding people to him accidentally all around the city, hasn’t he? Thousands of people. At least. Elbereth Gilthoniel, that… that’s honestly horrifying. Maybe it’s just because I’m currently going back and listening to some of Linkara’s old Event Comics reviews while driving to and from work and, ironically, just got to Final Crisis today, but I can’t help but picture Zuko as, like, a vector of the Anti-Life Equation now or something. Yikes. I just… I don’t even know what to say to this anymore. Amaya’s been taking Zuko all around the city (and yes, she sounds shocked, but knowing her if it turned out she was doing this on purpose I would not be at all surprised) and his loyalty aura has been snagging Fire Nation refugees without his knowledge or theirs… and we were just told this very chapter that it works on people with distant Frie Nation heritage or even a firebender like attitude. And that some of these people were apparently happy here before Zuko got them! I’m… I’m just stunned. And not in a good way. Good job, Iroh!

Elemental Determinism: 57

Prince Stuko: 123

The Superior Element: 65

Thousands. A drop in the bucket, compared to the millions within the Outer Wall. Even so…. "This had better be a really good plan," Shirong said levelly.

Katara: The fact that he’s not already run away screaming makes me think Zuko already got him, too.

Zuko: *is staring blankly forward in utter stupefaction at this plot point*

"I hope that it is." Iroh straightened, shaking off shock. "For I will need to rely on all of you, and whoever you can trust, to begin carrying it out. It will only work if Aang is not here - and to ensure that, Zuko and I must see that Katara gets to safety. Azula will be searching for her, and none of you would survive Azula, should fate turn against us." He stepped aside, and reached into a satchel Amaya had brought to draw out a thick sheaf of notes. "Come, and tell me what you think we can do."

Zuko: *snapping out of it* Go back to the original plan of getting me out of the city as quickly and quietly as possible and hope that snaps everyone out of it?

MG: Well, the good news is, the chapter ends here! The bad news is… we still have the AN to deal with, and it has some doozies too. But Zuko and Katara, I think you’ve earned a break. The rest of us, onward!

-

A/N: Hono'o shoshinsha - "beginner flame". Roughly, a young firebender.

MG: We saw this phrase last chapter, if you’ll recall. No, I don’t know why Vathara is defining it here and not in the AN for last chapter. Maybe she just forgot.

Yāorén - sorcerer (Chinese). Interestingly, the Chinese word for the art of sorcery, wu, is also that for dance. Which certainly brings bending styles to mind. And certain types of sorcery did, specifically, involve invoking the four elements of air, earth, fire, and water, instead of the more usual Oriental suite of five elements (earth, fire, water, wood, and metal) seen in feng shui.

MG: Sooo… I talked over Vathara’s usage of some of these terms with LanWan over on Discord, and as you might expect, there are problems. First off, that Vathara has apparently made a rather elementary mistake in translating some of the characters; to quote LanWan’s response to make sure I don’t lose anything: 巫 vs. 舞 it's not the same character it's not even PRONOUNCED the same way you should ask senseless about specifics bc they speak Cantonese, so they probably can explain better the difference with tones, but basically Vathara is assuming that all Chinese syllables are pronounced the same way AND making an amateur mistake about homophones when it's Anglicized to boot We also discussed how Vathara seems to have missed that the Avatarverse uses the four elements system because Buddhism does, and a lot of the Avatarverse’s worlbuilding is rooted in Buddhism (that some Chinese sorcery uses the same system is for the same reasons). Vathara seems to have missed this connection entirely. Of course, based on how she handles the Air Nomads going forward, she definitely seems to both not understand Buddhism and be actively hostile to it, so there might be a reason for that (a bad one)… Anyway, this just seems to be to be further proof that Vathara’s much-vaunted “in-depth research” is nothing of the sort. Thanks again for your help, LanWan!

Also, strap in, because there’s more racism incoming…

Eskimo culture doesn't do prisons. To this day, pushing someone off the ice is quietly considered legitimate "treatment" for someone with incorrigibly antisocial behavior.

MG: …first off, many Arctic natives consider the “e-word” to be a slur. So nice to see Vathara just throwing it thoughtlessly out there like that, huh (next chapter’s AN does use “Inuit” instead, so maybe someone told her…). /s For another, wow, did Vathara just take the notoriously bad movie North and its unironic and uncritical depiction of an Inuit community shoving their elders off onto ice floes to die so they don’t become burdens on the community seriously or what, because dear Lord! Also, I’m compelled to point out that most pre-modern cultures didn’t really do mass, large-scale incarceration, because they didn’t have the infrastructure for it. Jails were usually temporary holding facilities for prisoners awaiting trial, or for holding specific individuals long-term. Such societies tended to punish serious crimes with some combination of exile, execution of enslavement. So “not doing prisons” is hardly an Inuit thing; historically, most people didn’t really “do prisons” as we think of them.

And no, this is not an invitation to discuss the US prison system (or other modern systems of incarceration) in the comments, thank you!

And Theodosia asked for a review of the names and generations... bear in mind that I'm going mostly from the show's original timeline (you can look on ), before the creators retconned a few things.

MG: So, this is the part I alluded to earlier about Vathara going with the show’s original dates for Sozin’s and Azulon’s reigns, rather than the later versions (that had Azulon reigning for a majority of the war, and which I think makes more sense).

After all, the Guru's supposedly over 150 and in good (if eccentric) shape; Sozin making it to 153 seems quite reasonable. (Theodosia, if this doesn't cover what you asked, please let me know!)

MG: Honestly, I think that’s a stretch. I always assumed Guru Pathik was so long-lived because he’s, well, a guru – he’s highly enlightened and has clearly mastered lots of esoteric spiritual techniques, so it’s no surprise he’s longer-lived than an ordinary person. After him (and discounting Avatars, who we’ll get to in a moment) the next longest-lived person we see is Bumi at 112, who is clearly ancient and looks it (and is an immensely powerful bender and should not be taken at face value), and Sozin was clearly a very, very old man already as of Roku’s death, twelve years before the war began, so it’s not like he was aging slowly (though you could argue he got some boost from the Comet and/or, in Embers!verse, from whatever dragon ancestry he had, which was clearly “not as much as some of his descendants, but enough to be noticeable”). I think “powerful benders making it a bit past a century” is fairly reasonable for the Avatarverse, but “people making it to their 150s without issue” is a harder pill to swallow.

Now, Avatars seem to be very long-lived in general, but Avatars are special and can’t be taken as representative of normal people. And the longest-lived Avatar was canonically Kyoshi, and the Kyoshi novels would eventually establish that she learned meditative techniques from one of her mentors, Lao Ge (aka Tieguai the Immortal) so we’re back to “esoteric spiritual techniques and enlightenment cause longevity.” In fact, though Lao Ge himself denies it, Kyoshi strongly suspects he’s the same person as Guru Shoken, a famous philosopher who was a contemporary of Guru Laghima (who Korra watchers may remember as the guy Zaheer was always on about) who lived thousands of years ago and who Lao Ge likes to quote (Shoken’s philosophy seems to have been a mix of Zen and Nietzschean elements and was considered somewhat heterodox, in contrast to Laghima who was treated as more representative of the orthodox Air Nomad school; Avatar Yangchen is also said to have studied both Laghima and Shoken, and is seen to be introduced to Shoken’s writings in her duology, by the same author as the Kyoshi books).

Fire Lord Sozin: Born 183 years before the series begins. Wife unknown; one son, Azulon. Year of the start of his reign, not known. Died at 153, in bed, rich, and supposedly happy and respected, about 30 years before the series start. Appears to have regretted in his final years what he did to Roku.

MG: Seems pretty much accurate to what we see in “The Avatar and the Fire Lord,” aside from the ages.

Fire Lord Azulon: Born 100 years before Avatar begins, the same year the airbenders were wiped out. Wife Fire Lady Ilah; two sons, Iroh and Ozai. Reigned from about 30 years before series start to about 6 years before the series starts. Died at 93... and not from natural causes.

MG: Again, seems pretty straightforward, though here it’s the regnal dates rather than ages that are off.

General Iroh (former crown prince): Born about 64 years before the series starts (from various sources). Which means he would have been 17 when Sozin died; and yes, knew him for some time.

MG: Which is not true of canon; Iroh was officially born well after his grandfather died.

Wife in canon unknown, but implied to be deceased sometime after the birth of her only child, Lu Ten.

MG: Agreed here; from the show, considering how Iroh’s wife almost never comes up, I’d assumed she was not only dead but had been for a very long time.

Lu Ten's date of birth is unknown, but his memorial picture implies he was an adult serving in the army in the Siege of Ba Sing Se, where he died.

MG: Again, agreed.

Fire Lord Ozai: Born about 43 years before the series starts. Only son of Sozin's line who had not served as a general, prior to the series. Wife Lady Ursa; she never had the chance to become Fire Lady. It is canon their marriage was arranged, and at first happy. Two children, Zuko (former crown prince) and Princess Azula.

MG: Yeah, before The Search retconned a bunch of Ozai and Ursa’s backstory, I think the original idea that I heard floating around was that their marriage, while never loving, was at least initially amicable. I’d always assumed it was the birth of their children – and therefore, in Ozai’s eyes, the continuation of his bloodline and legacy – that crystalized his ambition and set him irrevocably on the path to becoming the man we see in the show, though that’s not the only possible interpretation.

Avatar Roku: Date of birth varies according to source, but shared a birthday with Sozin. Date of death known to be 112 years before the start of the series. Wife Ta Min. At least one son known to have been born. In this AU... well, they were married for decades before that volcano blew up. So I've written that they had some daughters as well: Momiji and Ilah. (And I have a plan for where that son went, too.)

MG: Mmmm-hmmm.

We know from Piandao's case that non-firebender children are often given up by firebender parents. I can see this happening not just from unhappiness (as in his case) but pure safety reasons (the kid can't ever protect himself if you slip).

MG: That seems like a bit of a stretch to extrapolate all of that from only one such case that’s not even spelled out explicitly in the show (maybe Piandao’s parents were just assholes!). Though Vathara’s determination to give firebenders the benefit of the doubt even when it comes to things like rejecting their own children for being nonbenders sure is… something.

Plus in pre-modern Japan, there was a custom of adopting children out into another family if their skills and inclinations matched a certain trade better than their birth family's. This was considered a good thing for the kids and the families; people got successors better fitted to their profession (a blacksmith needs muscle and skill, a brush-maker needs a more delicate touch), you didn't have as much of a "lead time" while a new youngster was taking up the post when his parents died (which could be fatal to a family business), and the families often kept in touch. So, Momiji got adopted out. She probably would have gone to a family with high status. Mai is a governor's daughter, implying the family's been powerful for some time; in this AU she is Momiji's great-granddaughter.

MG: The bit about adoptions in pre-modern Japan seems to have some truth to it; skipping that, yeah, it’s pretty clear from the show that both Mai and Ty Lee come from high-status noble families, though Mai’s family gets a lot more focus (and Vathara does… other things with Ty Lee’s backstory…)

Ilah, however, was a firebender - and would have known her father still thought of Sozin as his dearest friend, despite years of being estranged. It seems to be canon that very few people, if any, knew how Roku died. I can see her falling for the baby Azulon, and given upper-rank firebenders have arranged marriages, that probably wouldn't have struck her as a bad idea when Sozin suggested it.

MG: This seems… incredibly unlikely. Remember, before the day Roku died, it had been decades since he and Sozin had seen each other… and that was the day Roku confronted Sozin for having illegally annexed an Earth Kingdom city, Sozin tried to kill him, they fought, Roku won handily and demolished the throne room, and spared Sozin only out of respect for their past friendship. They certainly weren’t “dearest friends” in the decades leading up to Roku’s death! Now, Roku self-admittedly handled the situation badly (by humiliating but sparing Sozin, he got him to withdraw his troops from the Earth Kingdom that time, but didn’t do anything to stop him from rearming for another go later on, and only convinced him that the Avatar was an obstacle to his plans he needed to deal with) but he was under no illusion he and Sozin were still friends at that point, and I doubt he would have let his family think that either. So, I have a really hard time imagining the series of events that would lead Ilah to go happily to a marriage with Azulon under those circumstances in memory of their fathers’ past friendship.

Kuzon of Byakko: I don't think we knew his age in canon, so I set it at 15.

MG: I still think it’s notable that Vathara makes Kuzon, the firebender (and Zuko’s past life) Aang’s older friend when this was never specified in canon…

This means he was born 115 years before Avatar, and died 17 years before Aang woke up. Wife unknown. Daughter, Lady Kotone, who married the wandering swordsman and firebender Shidan. They in turn had one known daughter, Lady Ursa, age unknown. She looks to be in her thirties in Zuko's flashback, but we know benders tend to live a long time, so I have said she's at least Ozai's age.

And no, there are no death dates for Shidan and Kotone. Yes, go ahead, plot away...

MG: Spoilers – they’re alive. Kotone never shows up in person in the fic, iirc. Shidan does and sticks around for a while in the middle third or so… and by the end, we might be wishing he didn’t.

Sorry if this sounds a bit tetchy, but... here's a final note for those who think characters focus too much on the Siege of the North. Take into account that Zuko and Iroh were on a raft, which means pretty much going with the current. Which means they saw everything else that drifted with that current. Which in turn means, in the aftermath of the Ocean Spirit, one hell of a lot of corpses. The words major trauma come to mind. Is Zuko obsessed with that incident? Oh yeah. Zuko believes in the Avatar... the way survivors of Andrew, Ivan, or Katrina believe in hurricanes. That's the level of devastation Aang caused.

I would say anyone who heard about - much less saw - the destruction of an entire Fire Navy fleet, who then saw Aang walking around town, ought to be forgiven for being a bit twitchy.

MG: Except this is a military defeat, not a natural disaster. Even if the scope of the damage is similar, that’s still not the same thing! And honestly… I still don’t buy that Zuko’s perspective has anything to do with why we’re so hung up on the Siege of the North. Because literally every character who is meant to be sympathetic who hears of those events takes Zuko’s side, regardless of whether they were there or no. At a certain point, it stops being character bias and just becomes authorial bias, and we passed that point long ago. And it’s going to keep getting more and more obvious.

Anyway, the second half of this chapter… I hated it. I really, really hated it. It starts off… fine-ish. The biggest problem with the Mai sequence is that Vathara hasn’t really bothered establishing Embers!Mai as someone we should care about and is clearly heavily resting on the idea that her readership is already invested in Mai from the show, but the scene itself mostly works on its own merits, and Min continues to be a surprisingly interesting character. Even Katara’s initial thought process seems promising… before diving straight into an unholy intersection of character-bashing and racism that just leaves me stunned and appalled, even before we get to the fic outright lying about how Amaya operates to make Katara look worse in comparison. And of course we have the mandatory Zuko shilling, and the formal introduction of the yāorén (and Shirong becoming one) and Iroh giving us more Zuko shilling, and the revelation that Zuko has been unwittingly mind-controlling thousands of people around Ba Sing Se and everyone just sort of being cool with that, and the random bit of anti-Air Nomad racism, and… gah! It just keeps coming, inescapably, and I hate all of it! Really, what more is there to say at this point? Other than that by now Vathara’s virtues as a writer have been entirely overshadowed by her hangups… and by the Valar, she has so many hangups, and they’re all so horrible.

Anyway, that’s all for today, thankfully. Next time, the Gaang return to Ba Sing Se and we start moving towards the climax of this arc. We’ll see you then! Our counts stand at:

Beware the Sugar Queen: 77

The Blind Bandit Wins Again: 32 (giving another point for Toph being singled out as the only one of the Gaang who likes Zuko)

The Deadly Depths: 31

Detached from Reality: 13

Divine Right to Rule: 67

Elemental Determinism: 57

He Has Much to Learn: 75

Prince Stuko: 123

Protectors of our Cultural Heritage: 53

The Real Victims: 47

Roads to Nowhere: 1

Simple Rubes from the Water Tribes: 57

Stations of the Canon: 39

The Superior Element: 65

True Guardians of Balance: 4

The Ultimate Firebenders: 23

And by the way, I recently posted an update over on my journal about my current progress in some of my own fiction writing. If you’re interested, check it out here. Thank you!