MG Reads Embers: Chapter Fifty-Five
Jan. 31st, 2024 03:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
masterghandalfChapter Fifty-Five
We open with Zuko waiting with Shirong on the docks, as he complains that death by Sokka’s dad isn’t how he wanted to go. He knows that Amaya would want him to rest and doesn’t want more guards – he thinks that if Hakoda meant to attack them, he’d have done it already. Shirong comments that wood’s flammable – Zuko wonders what happened to make him so aggressive towards the Water Tribes and decides it must have been meeting Katara. He wonders whether he should have brought Iroh for this meeting but thinks that they need him working to figure out how to safely vent Asagitatsu. Besides, they have firebenders and Yu Yan archers standing guard against any foul play. He takes a moment to go over his appearance and waits for Hakoda’s ship to pull up. Hakoda is surprised to see Zuko here, and Zuko says the same of him, since the hawk he sent Hakoda came back without a reply. Hakoda thinks “are you still an ally of the Earth King” wasn’t a message he expected from a renegade Fire Nation prince. Shirong insists that Ba Sing Se will never truly fall while it’s true king reigns and the people still fight. Zuko points out the Northern Air Temple nearby and says that they’re here to make sure the Mechanist and his people stay safe. Hakoda thinks it looks like the start of a Fire Nation colony, and Zuko thinks he won’t understand – he just wants to know why Hakoda’s here. Hakoda wants to know where Iroh is, and Zuko has to remind himself not to fry the “condescending barbarian” and explains how Iroh is working to figure out how to keep Asagitatsu from blowing, and Shirong confirms it and that this project has the Earth King’s support. Hakoda wonders where Jee is, and Zuko in turn wonders if Hakoda’s figured out Jee is lying in wait for him should he violate the truce. He considers how Hakoda’s attitude feels like a challenge, and resists the urge to attack – instead, he asks if Hakoda is refusing to deal with the one the Earth King and the spirits recognize as the rightful lord of Dragons’ Wings? If Hakoda says he does refuse, then Shirong and everyone else are standing by to destroy his whole fleet. Suddenly, Saoluan and Langxue pop up; they cheerily greet Hakoda and explain they’re about to go say hello to the Mechanist’s people and ask if he wants to come. Zuko is amused at Hakoda’s disbelieving expression, and thinks that this time, he’s won.
We cut to Langxue bending himself, Saoluan and Hakoda up the mountain on a ramp of ice. Langxue and Saoluan both agree that was too close. Langxue thinks it wouldn’t have taken much longer for things to come to blows, and then the Water Tribe would have been down a fleet. Hakoda thinks that Katara could’ve told Langxue how dangerous Zuko is – Langxue thinks he’d take Zuko over a spoiled brat starting riots any day and wonders why Hakoda hasn’t tied Katara up. Hakoda is taken aback, and Saoluan explains that’s how they do it on Kyoshi Island – a waterbender who goes around casually inflaming emotions like that is dangerous and can get people killed and can get themselves thrown to the Unagi if they don’t stop it. Saoluan tells Langxue to stop and wants to hear Hakoda’s side of the story. He can’t believe that Zuko and Jee really thought Katara could sink their ship, but Langxue thinks she could – she’s the Avatar’s waterbending teacher. Langxue couldn’t do that himself… but he could sink Water Tribe ships. He's never done it on purpose, but… he remembers being tossed overboard for stirring up waves as a child. Hakoda can’t believe it, and Langxue bristles that he dares judge his village. Saoluan explains how Langxue was orphaned, and though nobody really believes his parents’ ship sinking was his fault, there are a lot of ways a waterbender can wreck a ship. She asks Hakoda if Katara’s ever really lost her temper out on the ice. Maybe Katara wouldn’t hurt people on purpose, but sometimes they lose control and bad things happen – on Kyoshi Island, stopping benders like that was Saoluan’s job. She wants to know what Hakoda saw happen on that beach – Hakoda says he saw a young man from the same people who killed his wife laying hands on his daughter, the last waterbender of the Southern Tribe. Langxue snaps back that Katara was dangerous and endangering them all – Hakoda insists that waterbenders are blessed by the spirits, that they should be honored, and that in his tribe they don’t abuse waterbending children for making mistakes. Zuko, meanwhile, is the son, grandson and great-grandson of tyrants, and he doesn’t understand what Saoluan and Langxue are doing with him. Langxue says that Zuko saved his life – he doesn’t care why, just that he did, and now they’re in the same boat, dealing with the same volcano that killed Yangchen.
Hakoda can’t believe this little volcano killed an Avatar, so Saoluan takes glee in pointing out that the tiny cone isn’t Asagitatsu – the whole bay is, and Hakoda’s ships are sitting in it. Langxue is amused at Hakoda’s stunned reaction and says that Firebenders like living in volcanoes. Hakoda stops to consider that, and Langxue realizes Zuko is right – he is planning an invasion. Langxue confirms that yes, Asagitatsu killed Yangchen, and they have historical records to back it up. He explains how airbenders are vulnerable to volcanic ash – more vulnerable that regular humans, and certainly more than dragon-children. Air healers can fix it, but nobody else has the knowledge, and there haven’t been air-healers for a thousand years. Saoluan assures them that Koh works through the sea, and they’ll be safe up here; Langxue tries to fight down his memories from his past life of the last time Asagitatsu erupted and his fears of what will happen if it goes off again. Hakoda, meanwhile, wants to know what Zuko did to offend “the Gnawer” – Langxue says it was to keep breathing, and continues waterbending them up. He thinks about how traveling to the edge of the spirit world is draining for the yaoren and can kill them – the only way to survive is by healing your spirit by just living. But he’s not about to explain that to Hakoda, who already hates Zuko. He explains he doesn’t know what Koh’s plan is – but he knows that they were just fighting for their lives against the dead, and nobody at the Northern Air Temple did anything to help. Saoluan points out that the last time they saw Fire Nation emblems, they were being attacked, and just then they come upon the tangled ruins of a Fire Nation tank, with skeletons still inside. Langxue feels sorry for them, but Hakoda thinks they were attacking the Mechanist’s people. Langxue doesn’t care – no matter how they died, they lived long enough to see their tank fall and know what was coming. Saoluan says that dying that way, they could have left ghosts – and they’ve already fought the dead who were in Koh’s power. Langxue promises they’ll get Zuko or Iroh to get up here and deal with them. There isn’t anyone here who can lay Fire Nation ghosts to rest – nobody but two renegade princes, who as members of the royal family have spiritual authority, and they’ll need to do something about this before the Summer Solstice or they’ll have a real problem on their hands. Hakoda still can’t get past the idea that Zuko is Ozai’s son – Langxue says he’s Shidan’s grandson too, and Byakko doesn’t want the war to continue. Langxue is from Kyoshi Island, but he's still willing to speak up for the one who tried to burn his island. Saoluan points out that Kyoshi sat out the war for a hundred years – she wants to know why Hakoda isn’t mad at them. He says he needs all the help he can get, and Saoluan points out that includes Zuko. Right now, they need to make sure the Northern Air Temple isn’t going to bomb them. At last, they reach the metal cable-carriage that will take them up.
We cut to Hakoda in the temple courtyard, watching as Saoluan and Langxue distribute food to the temple’s inhabitants. He explains to the Mechanist that it’s dangerous that Zuko knows they’re hungry. The Mechanist thinks that Iroh has always known a lot about them and may have been the one who argued in favor of letting them live there in the first place. After they’d won their freedom, they had plenty of supplies for the winter, but now they’re running low. Hakoda asks if there’s anything they can hunt or gather; the Mechanist admits there’s not much. They do have some fellow refugees further down the slope who can farm, but they don’t want to risk bringing attention to them. The herbalist from their original village is down there – she stayed until she was assured Teo would live but couldn’t handle the thin air so far from the earth. The Mechanist takes Hakoda down to his workshop where he shows him some of Sokka’s plans; Hakoda is fondly amused at his son’s lack of artistic ability. The Mechanist doesn’t mind. Hakoda shows him some of Sokka’s plans for submersibles; he’s amazed, but no less amazed at the idea of waterbenders on Kyoshi Island. He realizes he is angry at them – if he’d known, he could have sent Katara there for training years ago. Forcing the thoughts down, he and the Mechanist turn back to exploring how to make the submersibles work. As they talk, Hakoda wonders just what Zuko is up to. He’s been deliberately playing up the Water Tribe stereotype to try and keep the Fire Nation from looking any further, though he also knows Zuko is dangerous. He thinks about how he almost killed Katara with his letter, and wonders what else he could do. He realizes that Zuko is more a warrior than a bender – growing up, Kanna had always taught him that benders considered themselves blessed by the spirits and never used mundane weapons if it could be helped, but Zuko seems to use whatever he can get his hands on. He doesn’t think that attitude has led the Fire Nation down a very good path, and also doesn’t understand why Langxue thinks Zuko would be any use at dealing with ghosts. Then again, he’s also noticed that Langxue’s eyes look much older than his body – he’s knows he’s spirit-touched somehow. He wonders if the volcano’s spirit really did recognize Zuko as a lord, and if it did, what that means. He’s drawn out of his thoughts by the Mechanist, who says that maybe they could use some of the Fire Nation’s tanks as a source of metal. Hakoda warns him there may be a problem with some of those tanks.
We cut to Saoluan as she and Langxue look over the edge of the temple at how far that drop is. Langxue doesn’t want to try gliding – Saoluan points out that they’re already doing it, he just needs to see if any of them can learn to airbend. Langxue insists he’s not afraid of flying, and someone cheerfully points out that even Katara was her first time, and she’d been riding Appa for months. They recognize Teo as he wheels over – they can tell he looks like his father. He wonders if everyone on Kyoshi Island is like them – Saoluan thinks that if they were all like her, maybe Kyoshi didn’t just defeat Chin, she defeated him while drunk. Teo can’t believe an Avatar would drink – Saoluan points out that seeing the destruction Chin left in his wake might drive anyone to drink. Teo admits he’s never heard much about Chin – they’re more worried about the Fire Nation. Saoluan asks if he saw the treaty Zuko sent up – they won’t have to worry about the Fire Nation anymore, but they’ll have other problems. Teo wants to know if the dragon spirit they saw is part of that, and Langxue corrects him that it was part of the solution. Teo says he watched them fight the other Fire Nation soldiers, and Langxue has to explain that those soldiers were already dead – literally. Teo can’t believe it, since the spirits have never really gotten involved in their lives, but Saoluan assures him that they’re real, and sometimes dangerous. Teo decides they need to talk to someone and leads them through the temple to the kitchens where he introduces them to a woman named Aunt Changchang. She wants to know what sort of problem he has that his father can’t fix with machines, and he explains it has to do with spirits. She notices Langxue and how young he is and can’t believe it – even her great-grandmother was older when the spirits started speaking to her. She hugs Langxue and promises to help him – Saoluan asks if she really knew someone else who was spirit-touched, and Changchang says her great-grandmother knew the flood was coming and made sure some of them made it. She wants to know what’s wrong, and Langxue starts to explain…
MG’s Thoughts
So, on the one hand, I do like actually seeing Hakoda visiting the Northern Air Temple and recruiting the Mechanist to help make the submersibles and other machines they’ll need, something that took place off-screen in the original show. Then of course you’ve got the complication of Zuko and company also being there in this version, so you’ve got three different factions with different but related goals having to deal with each other. On the other hand, it really feels like the Water Tribe-bashing and Katara-bashing, which had receded into the background for a while, decided to make a comeback here. It’s mostly just a recap of ideas Vathara has already touched on, but it’s still annoying to me to see Hakoda get lectured to about how dangerous Katara is and how wonderful Zuko is without getting a chance to seriously speak up in his defense in any way that doesn’t involve invoking “good old Water Tribe ways” and nothing else. Yes, we’re told Hakoda’s deliberately playing up the stereotype here, but I’m not really sure how much that helps, mostly because we don’t really get a good sense of why or how that helps. Not to mention that from what we see of Zuko’s POV, Hakoda’s totally right about how Zuko is condescending to him, thinks he’s a barbarian and is practically itching for a chance to fight him… but we’re still clearly supposed to see Zuko as being in the right and getting what he wants out of the situation. Sigh. Also, I’m very confused as to why Koh, a giant centipede who lives in a tree and steals faces, can only extend his power through the ocean. I’m just… not seeing the connection there.
Seventh Arc Final Thoughts
Well, we had quite a bit of plot progression this arc, with Zuko and company reaching Asagitatsu, freeing it from Makoto and starting their colony, Azula meeting Makoto and realizing that there’s more going on behind the scenes in the Fire Nation than she knows, and the Gaang starting their journey through the Fire Nation. Unfortunately, I think this also highlights some of the problems with this story – namely, that the Gaang are mostly back on the stations of the canon. Sure, the specifics are different, but their entry into the Fire Nation, Aang attending the school (off-page), the Painted Lady, and meeting Piandao have all still happened, recognizable from the show despite the fic’s significant divergences from canon that have affected when and why the Gaang went to the Fire Nation. In the meantime, Zuko and Azula are off doing completely different things, which just highlights the discrepancy. Not helping is that as the Gaang crosses the Fire Nation, they keep meeting people – the Painted Lady, Temul – who seem to be there mostly to rub their faces in how little they know about anything (again, contrast Zuko, who seems to be familiar with just about everything whether through his own travels or Kuzon’s memories, and who everyone insists is just that awesome all the time). None of this is new, mind you, but I just think the direction the fic is going at this point highlights my problems with it. Also, this arc is where we got the “Sokka is adopted into the Fire Nation” plot point, which I still think is one of the strangest decisions in the whole fic.
We also get our first look at the fic’s two biggest villains - Koh, and Makoto. I’ve already been on record for thinking that Embers!Koh is not the right direction to take the character, and also not especially interesting as a Great Evil type villain. Makoto – well, she’s intimately tied to the dragon plotlines (being, well, a dragon), and while I don’t think she’s necessarily a bad villain, like most of the dragon stuff I’d like her better if she was in her own setting and not being stuck into the Avatarverse. And I have to say, her showings so far – Azula survived her and is now onto her, and Zuko banished her from Asagitatsu and took back control of the volcano from her – haven’t been all that impressive.
Anyway, for the next arc, the Gaang will be continuing their journey through the Fire Nation, Zuko will be working on building his colony and making alliances, and Azula will be working to uncover Makoto’s trail. Unfortunately, we’re not free of the stations of the canon yet either, and still have yet more revelations about What “Really” Happened coming.
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Date: 2024-01-31 11:11 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2024-11-16 12:17 am (UTC)"Well, now. You have a problem your father can't put right with a pulley and some genius?"
Like science is "cheating" and people shouldn't use it because they'll get mugged to build guns and that's *their* fault. She's careful not to mention the giant drill he was forced to design, and the tanks and airships are described as vaguely as possible - except when "ghosts" are involved which should be somehow placated for dying in the attempt to use stolen technology to murder its creators.
...actually, technology in general is passed over quickly; it's spirits, spirits, spirits all the time, because otherwise she would have to admit that the Fire Nation canonically got all their steampunk tech from the Mechanist.