MG Reads Embers: Chapter Eight
Dec. 15th, 2023 02:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
masterghandalfNOTE: Before we get started, I’d just like to apologize for the massive unplanned hiatus with this series; I’d intended to take a brief (2-3 day) break between arcs, and then I kept getting tangled up in dealing with various other issues and before I knew it two months had passed! I’m very sorry, and I’m going to try to get back on track with these!
Chapter Eight
We open with a brief AN. A/N: Nope, still don't own anything. Certainly not the dialogue from various episodes, as some of it pops up in here. We then find ourselves with Iroh aboard the ferry to Ba Sing Se, thinking to himself that he longs for something as simple as a bandit attack as he watches Zuko, who has the same look of blank determination he had on the day he was banished. Iroh thinks about how once again Zuko has done the right, honorable thing and paid for it, and this time Iroh himself is to blame – he almost wishes that Zuko would yell at him or otherwise blow up, rather than carry on with the stoic fatalism of a mortally wounded soldier. Iroh thinks to himself that there’s nothing he can do now – or at least, nothing serious. We then cut to Zuko’s point of view as he sees his uncle wearing an absolutely ridiculous hat; resisting the attempt to cheer him up he snaps that they’re not tourists. He tries to distract himself with his meal, but it’s so foul he ends up throwing it over the side rather than risking making himself sick. He tells Iroh that something in the bowl didn’t feel right, but he can’t explain why. Iroh says that if he thinks something is wrong in the energy in the stew, he trusts him – better to go hungry than to risk eating something that bad.
Suddenly another voice pipes up, saying that the speaker knew the food was bad, but hadn’t realized it was that bad. Zuko turns with exasperation to see three teenagers walking up to them - the leader introduces himself as Jet, and says the others are his freedom fighters, Smellerbee and Longshot. Zuko is nonplussed, but worries that if they’re actual fighters, they might know how to spot someone from the Fire Nation and hopes they only know to looki for uniforms. Smellerbee asks if he’s a waterbender, and Jet says they don’t see many of those in the Earth Kingdom. Iroh tells him they’re looking for more waterbenders in Ba Sing Se to help them; Jet wonders if “Lee” did some damage, and that if so, he sounds like their kind of guy (to which Zuko thinks that if Jet is into random damage, he doesn’t want anything to do with him). Jet starts talking about how the captain is eating like a king and how unfair it is; Zuko thinks that life isn’t fair, and clearly Jet and his gang don’t have anyone sane with them to restrain them and he wants to stay well away from them. But then Iroh jumps in and asks what sort of king, and when Jet says “the fat, happy kind,” he has his attention. Zuko decides Jet knows how to hit people’s buttons, but reluctantly agrees to go in on his plan.
We then cut to some point later, as Jet and Zuko hand out “liberated” food; Zuko apologizes to Irho, who tells him he did well – the best way to stay out of someone like Jet’s suspicions is to pretend to go along with him. And at least this way they got a decent meal, which they did pay for. Nonetheless, Iroh thinks the adventure did Zuko’s spirit good, and wonders that his nephew seems to have a knack for covert dealings. He tries to make conversation with Smellerbee about her name, accidentally calling her a boy, to her annoyance, but Zuko ignores the exchange. Iroh thinks that as a teenager, especially a teenage firebender, he’s probably just too hungry to care – and he thinks that later bloomers in both height and bending are not uncommon in Sozin’s line, though Ozai never seemed to appreciate that. Iroh then has a brief conversation with Jet about having been to Ba Sing Se before, when he was a different man, and reflects a bit on his own past, and how he believes in second chances. Zuko then asks Jet about his previous encounter with a waterbender; Jet is confused about how Zuko figured that out, but Zuko just gives him what Iroh thinks of as a general’s glare. Jet briefly mentions a waterbender “and her idiot brother” and thinks that Zuko is more of a realist than either of them; from the description, Iroh is shocked to realize that he must be talking about Katara. He realizes that Jet must really have fought against the Fire Nation to run into her and thinks that he and Zuko really will be better off away from him.
The next morning, we cut to Zuko doing katas, thinking about Azula trying to trick him into captivity and how he can’t let himself be caught like that ever again. He realizes he has to be careful practicing with Jet watching him and thinks about how Katara probably liked him before he did something stupid to ruin it, and how Azula would eat him for lunch. Jet then comes over and tells Zuko he knows who he is – Zuko is startled, but Jet clarifies that he knows Zuko is an outcast and thinks they should stick together. Zuko recognizes the offer to join up with him but doesn’t want to take it and isn’t sure how to say no – he gets distracted as another refugee runs over, asking for a healer and explaining that his wife is bleeding. Zuko runs for his tools, and we cut to him finishing his work and telling the refugee to make sure his wife gets plenty of water. It turns out the wife has successfully delivered a baby girl; Zuko reminds her family that she also needs meat, preferably fish, and Iroh comes in and adds that she’ll also need salt before giving Zuko some tea. Meanwhile, the ferry has reached the docks, and Zuko and Iroh run into some trouble with customs, who assume they’re from the Foggy Swamp Tribe; we suddenly cut to the perspective of a city guard named Huojin as he watches and is amused to see “Mushi” get out of the situation by flirting with the customs lady. However, despite being charmed she still has to tell them that unlicensed healers aren’t allowed to practice in Ba Sing Se, which gets Huojin’s attention. Apparently, she’s heard about the healing on the ferry, but Huojin intervenes to say that it wasn’t quite inside the city, and therefore didn’t violate the laws. They do need a license, but Huojin knows someone named Amaya who can help them; the customs lady reluctantly agrees and finishes stamping their papers. “Lee” bows awkwardly to her, and Huojin recognizes the gesture he almost made – he’s sure that the kid has only just recently left the Fire Nation. He's also sure that “Lee” is a trained fighter and thinks Amaya will have her work cut out with him.
Huojin asks “Mushi” and “Lee” to come with him, and as they leave, he spots Jet and the freedom fighters watching them, and thinks it’s a good thing the city’s so big he’ll probably never see them again. Huojin leads his new companions to a train car, introduces themselves and makes an offhand comment about them having “a touch of heatstroke” – Zuko is confused, but Iroh seems to get what he means immediately; Huojin tells them he really is taking them to a healer named Amaya, who took him in for a while when he was a kid and who can help them now, too. Huojin takes a moment to study their eyes, noticing that Zuko’s are a particularly “pure” shade of gold, and if he really is a waterbender, he thinks that he probably had a good reason to run. Huojin explains that Zuko and Iroh must have been brave to run from the Fire Nation – he did, too, but he can’t really take the credit, since his parents were the brave ones, Zuko stares at him determinedly, and Huojin feels a strange pull from him, and realizes it can be only one thing – loyalty. Huojin thinks about how his parents had told him about that, and though he’s a grown man with a family of his own now, he sometimes can’t shake the feeling of something missing in his life. He recalls talking with another person of Fire Nation heritage, a woman named Meixiang who’s married to an earthbender, and her explanation that this feeling is the lack of a lord to be loyal to – many of the Fire Nation refugees in the city had no lord; others did, but had to leave anyway, and she hoped he could bear it. One of her sons, Jinhai, takes after the Fire Nation side of the family, and he apparently has similar issues. Huojin is left wondering just who “Lee” is, to make him feel this way. Eventually, they reach the Lower Ring and Huojin gestures for his guests to go out ahead, since “Lee” is so twitchy he doesn’t want him behind him.
Huojin leads the way to Amaya’s clinic, which he thinks he could find blindfolded; he reflects on how grateful earthbender patients have dug her a private well, along with a network of hidden boltholes even the Dai Li don’t know about or assume are just unusual treatment rooms. He knocks on the door and Amaya herself, a greying Water Tribe woman, greets him, while also taking a moment to remind another patient not to go arm-wrestling any more earthbenders. Huojin leads his guests inside, talking about how Amaya gets a lot of charity cases, and Zuko puts two and two together and deduces that he and Iroh aren’t alone. Amaya leads them downstairs, while Huojin examines “Lee” some more and thinks that he probably wouldn’t have made it all the way from the Fire Nation if he wasn’t a fighter. Once they arrive, Amaya tells them that the only names she needs are Lee and Mushi; she doesn’t want to know their real names, and if she’s lucky, she never will. Iroh wonders if she’ hiding people from the Dail Li or from the Fire Nation, since Fire Lords tend to keep “enemies lists” of people to be disappeared if they become inconvenient, and some of those on Azulon’s lists vanished and were never found. Amaya explains that the Fire Nation can’t reach here, but the Dai Li can, and it is they, far more than the walls, that protect the city – including from itself. And that means silencing all talk and reminders of the war. And what they do to people is bad enough that you never want to cross them. Iroh insists that they aren’t the war, but Amaya tells him that as far as the Dai Li are concerned, they are, so it’s best to keep their heads down. Zuko starts thinking this is a trap, but Huojin reminds them that Amaya took him in after his parents were taken; Iroh realizes that he’s Fire Nation by birth. Huojin clarfifies that he’s from the colonies and says that if Zuko and Iroh want to make it here, they can, and Amaya can help them. She confirms she can and asks them to trust her. Iroh says he’s willing to take a leap of faith and asks Amaya what she can do for them.
Iroh kneels, and Amaya begins a waterbending healing and sets it to work around his head. Huojin remembers how she did the same thing for him years ago, remembering how the healing created the shell of Huojin, Earth Kingdom citizen around his true identity, and he’s worn it so long now he can barely remember being anyone else. Amaya finishes with Iroh, and he comments that the technique was curious, and his energies feel a bit unsettled now. Amaya tells him it’s just the influence of her technique and it will calm down over the next few days. She explains that she used her healing on his spirit, as well as the body, so that water would protect him, and that she learned the technique long ago from a traveler. Now she uses it to help others. She then turns to Zuko, and something causes him to panic, shooting fire everywhere and trying to bolt from the room. Huojin is stunned to realize that he’s a firebender and tries to tackle him, but Zuko kicks his way free; Iroh then manages to restrain him until Amaya can put him out with a shirshu-spit dart. Iroh explains that if Zuko had tried to kill Huojin, he’d be dead – but he was trying to kill Amaya, and Iroh wants to know why. Amaya bends water into a mirror of ice and shows Iroh his reflection – his eyes have changed color! Huojin remembers how he panicked when he first saw his green eyes and decides he can’t blame Zuko. Iroh takes it in stride, though, and tells Amaya to get to work on Zuko, since he’s been poisoned by a shirshu before, and the darts will wear off soon. Zuko begs him not to do it, insisting he’s not a traitor, and Huojin realizes that as a firebender, his loyalty must be incredibly strong. Iroh insists that it’s not treason to survive, and he begs Zuko to go through with it – he can’t lose another son. Finally, Zuko agrees, though Amaya worries that as a firebender, her healing might kill him. Iroh says it didn’t kill him, and Huojin is stunned to realize they’re both firebenders. Iroh says that Zuko surely will die if their pursuers catch him, and so Amaya reluctantly agrees – and as she begins the healing, Zuko’s heart stops, and the chapter ends.
We conclude with another AN. Okay, so the whole "spiritual metamorphosis" idea in canon bugged me. Especially given the results in Crossroads of Destiny. I have something different in mind. Very different.
…Hey, Aang can't be the only person who ever got Really, Really Lost at sea. (Insert Evil Writer Grin here.)
And I have to admit this particular bunny has bugged me ever since my brain latched onto the whole "the Avatar is the only person who can master all four elements".
MG’s Thoughts
So, having reached Ba Sing Se, we’ve finally begun Embers’ second arc, and in many ways, this feels like the real start of the fic after having spent the first arc on Zuko and Iroh’s dynamic and Zuko’s burgeoning healing abilities. Here, we’re finally getting into the actual plot threads that are going to dominate the fic from here out, and we also start meeting some of the fic’s major OCs – Amaya and Huojin. As introductions go, it’s not bad, and here, unlike the retellings of “Zuko Alone” and “The Chase,” I think that Vathara does a much better job of retelling canon events while also integrating them with her own story. Unfortunately, I think that there are some problems here that are starting to really rear their heads as well.
First off, Jet’s characterization. This is part of a larger problem in the fic, where people who are strongly opposed to the Fire Nation in canon become significantly less sympathetic than their canonical selves under Vathara’s pen. Katara’s the most obvious, and the one most talked about – I think it’s less obvious with someone like Jet, who is after all an antagonist and not a very good person even in canon, but Vathara really goes out of her way to frame him negatively, even at a point where in the actual show he and Zuko were getting along as well as Zuko does with anyone. This trend will continue with Jet, and other characters opposed to the Fire Nation besides him and Katara, across the fic as a whole, so I’ll have more to say then. I’ll also add that this is where loyalty, in the Fire Nation sense, really starts feeling creepy, as we learn that Fire Nationals literally feel empty if they don’t have a lord to serve, and that powerful firebenders can exert an influence of loyalty on people even if neither party means or wants it. That makes my skin crawl, honestly, especially – but not only – in how it seems to imply the feudal system is somehow enmeshed in the Fire Nation’s DNA. But I really don’t think Vathara ever interrogates the implications of all this nearly as well as it deserves – but again, more on that later. The AN also reiterates Vathara’s dislike of the “spiritual metamorphosis” bit from canon – and I still don’t get why she thinks what she did instead makes more sense – as well as hinting towards some of the plot points to come with multi-element benders.
Also, Amaya. I’ve a few things to say about her. She’s going to be one of the fic’s most important OCs, and in my less charitable moments I’ve wondered if that’s because she’s the token “good waterbender” who’s supposed to somehow counterbalance Vathara’s treatment of Katara. And, I have to say, I don’t think she makes that good a first showing, and I seriously have to question her medical ethics. First off, her healing procedure doesn’t just change her patients’ appearance, it also affects their internal sense of self – once again, that creeps me out, even if it’s pretty clear it’s just surface level here. But worse than that, she performs this procedure on people without telling them what it will do or getting their informed consent. Just… what? Aside from being invasive, trouble could have been avoided this very chapter if she’d just done that! Especially since she didn’t even ask if Zuko and Iroh were benders when her technique is potentially lethal to firebenders! Amaya… how many people have you done this to before you figured that out? It just feels like Vathara has unintentionally written Amaya as a Very Bad Healer while trying to do the opposite, and I really don’t see what’s gained for either the character or the story by handling it that way.
Chapter Eight
We open with a brief AN. A/N: Nope, still don't own anything. Certainly not the dialogue from various episodes, as some of it pops up in here. We then find ourselves with Iroh aboard the ferry to Ba Sing Se, thinking to himself that he longs for something as simple as a bandit attack as he watches Zuko, who has the same look of blank determination he had on the day he was banished. Iroh thinks about how once again Zuko has done the right, honorable thing and paid for it, and this time Iroh himself is to blame – he almost wishes that Zuko would yell at him or otherwise blow up, rather than carry on with the stoic fatalism of a mortally wounded soldier. Iroh thinks to himself that there’s nothing he can do now – or at least, nothing serious. We then cut to Zuko’s point of view as he sees his uncle wearing an absolutely ridiculous hat; resisting the attempt to cheer him up he snaps that they’re not tourists. He tries to distract himself with his meal, but it’s so foul he ends up throwing it over the side rather than risking making himself sick. He tells Iroh that something in the bowl didn’t feel right, but he can’t explain why. Iroh says that if he thinks something is wrong in the energy in the stew, he trusts him – better to go hungry than to risk eating something that bad.
Suddenly another voice pipes up, saying that the speaker knew the food was bad, but hadn’t realized it was that bad. Zuko turns with exasperation to see three teenagers walking up to them - the leader introduces himself as Jet, and says the others are his freedom fighters, Smellerbee and Longshot. Zuko is nonplussed, but worries that if they’re actual fighters, they might know how to spot someone from the Fire Nation and hopes they only know to looki for uniforms. Smellerbee asks if he’s a waterbender, and Jet says they don’t see many of those in the Earth Kingdom. Iroh tells him they’re looking for more waterbenders in Ba Sing Se to help them; Jet wonders if “Lee” did some damage, and that if so, he sounds like their kind of guy (to which Zuko thinks that if Jet is into random damage, he doesn’t want anything to do with him). Jet starts talking about how the captain is eating like a king and how unfair it is; Zuko thinks that life isn’t fair, and clearly Jet and his gang don’t have anyone sane with them to restrain them and he wants to stay well away from them. But then Iroh jumps in and asks what sort of king, and when Jet says “the fat, happy kind,” he has his attention. Zuko decides Jet knows how to hit people’s buttons, but reluctantly agrees to go in on his plan.
We then cut to some point later, as Jet and Zuko hand out “liberated” food; Zuko apologizes to Irho, who tells him he did well – the best way to stay out of someone like Jet’s suspicions is to pretend to go along with him. And at least this way they got a decent meal, which they did pay for. Nonetheless, Iroh thinks the adventure did Zuko’s spirit good, and wonders that his nephew seems to have a knack for covert dealings. He tries to make conversation with Smellerbee about her name, accidentally calling her a boy, to her annoyance, but Zuko ignores the exchange. Iroh thinks that as a teenager, especially a teenage firebender, he’s probably just too hungry to care – and he thinks that later bloomers in both height and bending are not uncommon in Sozin’s line, though Ozai never seemed to appreciate that. Iroh then has a brief conversation with Jet about having been to Ba Sing Se before, when he was a different man, and reflects a bit on his own past, and how he believes in second chances. Zuko then asks Jet about his previous encounter with a waterbender; Jet is confused about how Zuko figured that out, but Zuko just gives him what Iroh thinks of as a general’s glare. Jet briefly mentions a waterbender “and her idiot brother” and thinks that Zuko is more of a realist than either of them; from the description, Iroh is shocked to realize that he must be talking about Katara. He realizes that Jet must really have fought against the Fire Nation to run into her and thinks that he and Zuko really will be better off away from him.
The next morning, we cut to Zuko doing katas, thinking about Azula trying to trick him into captivity and how he can’t let himself be caught like that ever again. He realizes he has to be careful practicing with Jet watching him and thinks about how Katara probably liked him before he did something stupid to ruin it, and how Azula would eat him for lunch. Jet then comes over and tells Zuko he knows who he is – Zuko is startled, but Jet clarifies that he knows Zuko is an outcast and thinks they should stick together. Zuko recognizes the offer to join up with him but doesn’t want to take it and isn’t sure how to say no – he gets distracted as another refugee runs over, asking for a healer and explaining that his wife is bleeding. Zuko runs for his tools, and we cut to him finishing his work and telling the refugee to make sure his wife gets plenty of water. It turns out the wife has successfully delivered a baby girl; Zuko reminds her family that she also needs meat, preferably fish, and Iroh comes in and adds that she’ll also need salt before giving Zuko some tea. Meanwhile, the ferry has reached the docks, and Zuko and Iroh run into some trouble with customs, who assume they’re from the Foggy Swamp Tribe; we suddenly cut to the perspective of a city guard named Huojin as he watches and is amused to see “Mushi” get out of the situation by flirting with the customs lady. However, despite being charmed she still has to tell them that unlicensed healers aren’t allowed to practice in Ba Sing Se, which gets Huojin’s attention. Apparently, she’s heard about the healing on the ferry, but Huojin intervenes to say that it wasn’t quite inside the city, and therefore didn’t violate the laws. They do need a license, but Huojin knows someone named Amaya who can help them; the customs lady reluctantly agrees and finishes stamping their papers. “Lee” bows awkwardly to her, and Huojin recognizes the gesture he almost made – he’s sure that the kid has only just recently left the Fire Nation. He's also sure that “Lee” is a trained fighter and thinks Amaya will have her work cut out with him.
Huojin asks “Mushi” and “Lee” to come with him, and as they leave, he spots Jet and the freedom fighters watching them, and thinks it’s a good thing the city’s so big he’ll probably never see them again. Huojin leads his new companions to a train car, introduces themselves and makes an offhand comment about them having “a touch of heatstroke” – Zuko is confused, but Iroh seems to get what he means immediately; Huojin tells them he really is taking them to a healer named Amaya, who took him in for a while when he was a kid and who can help them now, too. Huojin takes a moment to study their eyes, noticing that Zuko’s are a particularly “pure” shade of gold, and if he really is a waterbender, he thinks that he probably had a good reason to run. Huojin explains that Zuko and Iroh must have been brave to run from the Fire Nation – he did, too, but he can’t really take the credit, since his parents were the brave ones, Zuko stares at him determinedly, and Huojin feels a strange pull from him, and realizes it can be only one thing – loyalty. Huojin thinks about how his parents had told him about that, and though he’s a grown man with a family of his own now, he sometimes can’t shake the feeling of something missing in his life. He recalls talking with another person of Fire Nation heritage, a woman named Meixiang who’s married to an earthbender, and her explanation that this feeling is the lack of a lord to be loyal to – many of the Fire Nation refugees in the city had no lord; others did, but had to leave anyway, and she hoped he could bear it. One of her sons, Jinhai, takes after the Fire Nation side of the family, and he apparently has similar issues. Huojin is left wondering just who “Lee” is, to make him feel this way. Eventually, they reach the Lower Ring and Huojin gestures for his guests to go out ahead, since “Lee” is so twitchy he doesn’t want him behind him.
Huojin leads the way to Amaya’s clinic, which he thinks he could find blindfolded; he reflects on how grateful earthbender patients have dug her a private well, along with a network of hidden boltholes even the Dai Li don’t know about or assume are just unusual treatment rooms. He knocks on the door and Amaya herself, a greying Water Tribe woman, greets him, while also taking a moment to remind another patient not to go arm-wrestling any more earthbenders. Huojin leads his guests inside, talking about how Amaya gets a lot of charity cases, and Zuko puts two and two together and deduces that he and Iroh aren’t alone. Amaya leads them downstairs, while Huojin examines “Lee” some more and thinks that he probably wouldn’t have made it all the way from the Fire Nation if he wasn’t a fighter. Once they arrive, Amaya tells them that the only names she needs are Lee and Mushi; she doesn’t want to know their real names, and if she’s lucky, she never will. Iroh wonders if she’ hiding people from the Dail Li or from the Fire Nation, since Fire Lords tend to keep “enemies lists” of people to be disappeared if they become inconvenient, and some of those on Azulon’s lists vanished and were never found. Amaya explains that the Fire Nation can’t reach here, but the Dai Li can, and it is they, far more than the walls, that protect the city – including from itself. And that means silencing all talk and reminders of the war. And what they do to people is bad enough that you never want to cross them. Iroh insists that they aren’t the war, but Amaya tells him that as far as the Dai Li are concerned, they are, so it’s best to keep their heads down. Zuko starts thinking this is a trap, but Huojin reminds them that Amaya took him in after his parents were taken; Iroh realizes that he’s Fire Nation by birth. Huojin clarfifies that he’s from the colonies and says that if Zuko and Iroh want to make it here, they can, and Amaya can help them. She confirms she can and asks them to trust her. Iroh says he’s willing to take a leap of faith and asks Amaya what she can do for them.
Iroh kneels, and Amaya begins a waterbending healing and sets it to work around his head. Huojin remembers how she did the same thing for him years ago, remembering how the healing created the shell of Huojin, Earth Kingdom citizen around his true identity, and he’s worn it so long now he can barely remember being anyone else. Amaya finishes with Iroh, and he comments that the technique was curious, and his energies feel a bit unsettled now. Amaya tells him it’s just the influence of her technique and it will calm down over the next few days. She explains that she used her healing on his spirit, as well as the body, so that water would protect him, and that she learned the technique long ago from a traveler. Now she uses it to help others. She then turns to Zuko, and something causes him to panic, shooting fire everywhere and trying to bolt from the room. Huojin is stunned to realize that he’s a firebender and tries to tackle him, but Zuko kicks his way free; Iroh then manages to restrain him until Amaya can put him out with a shirshu-spit dart. Iroh explains that if Zuko had tried to kill Huojin, he’d be dead – but he was trying to kill Amaya, and Iroh wants to know why. Amaya bends water into a mirror of ice and shows Iroh his reflection – his eyes have changed color! Huojin remembers how he panicked when he first saw his green eyes and decides he can’t blame Zuko. Iroh takes it in stride, though, and tells Amaya to get to work on Zuko, since he’s been poisoned by a shirshu before, and the darts will wear off soon. Zuko begs him not to do it, insisting he’s not a traitor, and Huojin realizes that as a firebender, his loyalty must be incredibly strong. Iroh insists that it’s not treason to survive, and he begs Zuko to go through with it – he can’t lose another son. Finally, Zuko agrees, though Amaya worries that as a firebender, her healing might kill him. Iroh says it didn’t kill him, and Huojin is stunned to realize they’re both firebenders. Iroh says that Zuko surely will die if their pursuers catch him, and so Amaya reluctantly agrees – and as she begins the healing, Zuko’s heart stops, and the chapter ends.
We conclude with another AN. Okay, so the whole "spiritual metamorphosis" idea in canon bugged me. Especially given the results in Crossroads of Destiny. I have something different in mind. Very different.
…Hey, Aang can't be the only person who ever got Really, Really Lost at sea. (Insert Evil Writer Grin here.)
And I have to admit this particular bunny has bugged me ever since my brain latched onto the whole "the Avatar is the only person who can master all four elements".
MG’s Thoughts
So, having reached Ba Sing Se, we’ve finally begun Embers’ second arc, and in many ways, this feels like the real start of the fic after having spent the first arc on Zuko and Iroh’s dynamic and Zuko’s burgeoning healing abilities. Here, we’re finally getting into the actual plot threads that are going to dominate the fic from here out, and we also start meeting some of the fic’s major OCs – Amaya and Huojin. As introductions go, it’s not bad, and here, unlike the retellings of “Zuko Alone” and “The Chase,” I think that Vathara does a much better job of retelling canon events while also integrating them with her own story. Unfortunately, I think that there are some problems here that are starting to really rear their heads as well.
First off, Jet’s characterization. This is part of a larger problem in the fic, where people who are strongly opposed to the Fire Nation in canon become significantly less sympathetic than their canonical selves under Vathara’s pen. Katara’s the most obvious, and the one most talked about – I think it’s less obvious with someone like Jet, who is after all an antagonist and not a very good person even in canon, but Vathara really goes out of her way to frame him negatively, even at a point where in the actual show he and Zuko were getting along as well as Zuko does with anyone. This trend will continue with Jet, and other characters opposed to the Fire Nation besides him and Katara, across the fic as a whole, so I’ll have more to say then. I’ll also add that this is where loyalty, in the Fire Nation sense, really starts feeling creepy, as we learn that Fire Nationals literally feel empty if they don’t have a lord to serve, and that powerful firebenders can exert an influence of loyalty on people even if neither party means or wants it. That makes my skin crawl, honestly, especially – but not only – in how it seems to imply the feudal system is somehow enmeshed in the Fire Nation’s DNA. But I really don’t think Vathara ever interrogates the implications of all this nearly as well as it deserves – but again, more on that later. The AN also reiterates Vathara’s dislike of the “spiritual metamorphosis” bit from canon – and I still don’t get why she thinks what she did instead makes more sense – as well as hinting towards some of the plot points to come with multi-element benders.
Also, Amaya. I’ve a few things to say about her. She’s going to be one of the fic’s most important OCs, and in my less charitable moments I’ve wondered if that’s because she’s the token “good waterbender” who’s supposed to somehow counterbalance Vathara’s treatment of Katara. And, I have to say, I don’t think she makes that good a first showing, and I seriously have to question her medical ethics. First off, her healing procedure doesn’t just change her patients’ appearance, it also affects their internal sense of self – once again, that creeps me out, even if it’s pretty clear it’s just surface level here. But worse than that, she performs this procedure on people without telling them what it will do or getting their informed consent. Just… what? Aside from being invasive, trouble could have been avoided this very chapter if she’d just done that! Especially since she didn’t even ask if Zuko and Iroh were benders when her technique is potentially lethal to firebenders! Amaya… how many people have you done this to before you figured that out? It just feels like Vathara has unintentionally written Amaya as a Very Bad Healer while trying to do the opposite, and I really don’t see what’s gained for either the character or the story by handling it that way.
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Date: 2023-12-18 02:04 am (UTC)