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masterghandalf) wrote2024-02-09 12:25 pm
masterghandalf) wrote2024-02-09 12:25 pm
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MG Reads Embers: Chapter Sixty-Four
Chapter Sixty-Four
We open with Aang complaining about his nightmares and hallucinations, and that now Gyatso’s here too. Gyatso thinks about how he’s not a dragon-child ghost to appear in the physical world of his own free will whenever he wants, but the borders are always thin around the Avatar and Aang being in the middle of a breakdown makes him even more susceptible. Gyatso agrees it’s not fair and hasn’t been ever since Aang was told he was the Avatar early – every Avatar is supposed to be allowed the chance to have a normal childhood. Aang protests that Gyatso’s not real; Gyatso asks if it matters and asks Aang to tell him what’s bothering him. Aang thinks he does sound like the real Gyatso, and Gyatso is glad Shidan gave him his message. He'd hope he would, but he knew many dragons were killed by Sozin, Azulon and Makoto. Aang says that Gyatso never told him about dragons and accuses Shidan of spying on him and Kuzon – Gyatso says Shidan never tried to hide who he was, and Aang says nobody ever told him dragons were like people. Gyatso says dragons are people, and Aang should have figured that out on his own. What would be the fun in telling him about everything beforehand? Aang protests that Shidan and Zuko aren’t fun; Gyatso tells him that no one is fun when they’re sad, and growing up is painful. Aang wonders why everyone tries to get him to act like a grownup then, and Gyatso tells him he doesn’t get to choose when he grows up. He gestures at a tree and asks if Aang can blow it down with airbending – Aang says he can, and Gyatso asks if he should. He didn’t tell him to do it, he just asked if he could – and does Aang want to disturb the nest in there? When Aang asks what kind of nest it is, Gyatso tells him to take a look. When he does, the angry mockingjays attack him and chase him off – he thinks Sokka was right about enemy birds. Gyatso points out that Aang was the one who stuck his face in there – sometimes it's safer to learn about things from a distance. Aang says if you do that, you might not see everything; Gyatso agrees it’s a good point and thinks that you need to have balance. It’s important to listen before you go into danger; Gyatso himself once nearly drowned because he didn’t listen.
He explains how, as a young man, he once landed on a beach and ignored a nearby fisherman telling him to get away. It turns out that beach had dangerous tides that had taken lives before. That beach was in the Fire Nation; Aang thinks the Fire Nation has changed a lot, if they warned him, and Gyatso says that circumstances are different, but people are still much the same. They try to do good, even if they often fail. Aang thinks people used to do better, but Gyatso says it’s easy to do things like not eat meat when you’re well fed, but when you’re running for your life and need to feed yourself and your family, can you stick to that? Aang says the Fire Nation didn’t have to start the war, and Gyatso tells him who starts a war is less important than who finishes it. It’s not possible to be fair – Sozin and Azulon are dead, and only a handful of people who saw the war begin are still alive. Aang’s duty is to the living, not the dead. But he can still grieve for those who have died, and if he can bring peace to the Fire Nation, he’ll be ready for his next task. Aang is amazed that beating Ozai isn’t enough, and Gyatso tells him that after that, he’ll have to work to repair the damage Sozin did. He’ll need to find the descendants of those who Kuzon and Temul saved – the Fire Nation values clan ties above all else and wouldn’t be so cruel as to force the Air Nomad children to abandon their kin and their element entirely. Gyatso knew there were other airbenders in the world all along, but wasn’t able to tell Aang, because he knew it had to be a secret. Aang says Gyatso could have trusted him, but Gyatso didn’t want to burden him with so many lives. He didn’t force Kuzon to do what he did, either – Kuzon chose that of his own accord, because it was right, and maybe to impress his future wife, Ran. Aang should never underestimate love as a motivation. Aang is embarrassed and starts rambling about Katara and what Water Tribe husbands are expected to be like; Gyatso explains that while Air monks and nuns didn’t marry, sometimes they had… understandings. And sometimes spouses in the other nations have to spend long periods apart from each other. Gyatso explains how the elders forbade marriages because they forbade attachments, but sometimes attachments are necessary – to raise children, for example. Aang wonders if attachments are wrong for elders, but not necessarily wrong for everyone. He wonders why Pathik didn’t tell him that – Gyatso points out that Pathik is a hundred and fifty years old and has outlived everyone he ever loved, many times over, and has no more attachments. He didn’t consider that Aang would be otherwise, or that the Avatar is still a living human.
Gyatso knows what Pathik should have explained. He describes love as a flutter-hornet, perched in your hand. It can be dangerous, but only if you try to force it to stay. Aang is reminded of Katara and how Pakku tried to force her to only be a healer, but she proved him wrong – if you love someone, you can’t force them to do things. Gyatso agrees that’s part of it. More generally, love can’t be forced, and must be given freely. Aang thinks the elders didn’t want anyone to be able to choose to love and asks Gyatso if there was something wrong in the Temples. Gyatso says there was, and it started centuries ago. Yangchen wanted everyone to live in peace, but Xiangchen’s followers twisted that ideal by imposing it on all airbenders by force. Aang says that’s wrong, and Gyatso agrees. Aang must defeat Ozai, but he can’t force the Fire Nation to become peaceful. That would destroy them. Aang worries he’ll have to hurt a lot of people to stop the war – Gyatso says he had friends in the Fire Nation too, and he knows that they would rather die than live like the Air Nomads did. Aang has to understand that the urge to war is as human as the urge to peace. Aang wants to know how to fix it, and Gyatso says it’s not something to be fixed – Aang needs to learn that just because you want to do something, doesn’t mean you should. Aang doesn’t understand, so Gyatso says the Fire Nation needs to learn that if they go to war, there will be consequences. He reminds Aang how he ignored Jeong Jeong’s instructions and ended up burning Katara. Aang says Jeong Jeong never told him that could happen, and Gyatso wonders what Aang thought would happen. A true firebender has to be responsible; Aang points out that Zhao wasn’t very responsible, and Gyatso asks if Zhao is someone Aang wants to be like. Aang doesn’t want to be a firebender at all – he thinks three elements should be enough to beat Ozai. Gyatso hopes Aang is right but warns him to remember the last Avatar who came to the Fire Nation on an eclipse. Aang asks why, but he’s suddenly pulled out of his vision by Sokka, who wants to know if he’s all right. Aang explains about Gyatso, and Sokka thinks that if you see visions of your ancestors before a battle, it’s supposed to be good luck. But ghosts can’t stick around long – not even a dragon-child like Temul. Gyatso, still watching but cut off from interacting, thinks that Sokka is more than he appears. Sokka tells Aang it’s proof that Gyatso still cares; Aang says Gyatso was trying to remind him of what happened with Kyoshi. Sokka wishes he’d had a chance to read some of the Fire Nation histories in Wan Shi Tong’s library, if whatever firebender who’d been there hadn’t burned them. But he doesn’t think anything happened to Kyoshi during the eclipse. Watching, Gyatso sadly whispers that nothing happened to Kyoshi…
We end with an author note: A/N: Thank goodness for Gyatso. He loves the kid, even when Aang's being a brat. Frankly, I think any 12-going-on-13 kid heading into a battle should get to be a brat. But historically, it's only fairly recently that youngsters have been out of the line of fire in the West. Powder monkeys, cabin boys, drummers and messengers; often they were younger even than Aang. The difference is that they knew they could be going into battles. Aang wasn't raised that way. It's got to be like being a Quaker drafted for Viet Nam. Which some were. A lot of them volunteered for unarmed duties, including the very dangerous job of getting the wounded off the battlefield. I don't believe in pacifism, but anybody who deliberately goes into a war zone unarmed, knowing people will be trying to kill him, at least has the courage of his convictions. I respect that.
So on the one hand - yes, Aang's got every reason in the world to throw a tantrum, stick his fingers in his ears, and insist this whole mess is Somebody Else's Fault.
Which, in fact, it is. Several Somebody Elses.
Problem is, just because something is not your fault, doesn't mean it's not your responsibility.
MG’s Thoughts
Again, I have mixed feelings on this chapter. Aang getting to see Gyatso again and have one last conversation with him is something that, in theory, I genuinely like, and there are parts of it that really do work for me. Unfortunately, mixed in are a lot of Vathara’s pet issues. There’s the hypocrisy of the Air Nomads and how their peace was enforced by violence, and how horrible it would be to try to make the Fire Nation live peacefully, obviously. The bit with Aang not realizing Shidan was intelligent… I just find it hard to wrap my mind around. Like, Aang knew Kuzon and Shidan for a long time – we don’t know exactly how long, but it’s clear that Kuzon, especially in Embers, was one of Aang’s best friends, along with Bumi. I feel like for Aang to not realize Shidan was a person, Kuzon would have had to be treating him more like a pet than an equal in Aang’s presence, or at least not correcting Aang when he did it – and that just makes Kuzon seem like a really bad friend to both of them. I just can’t imagine how Kuzon wouldn’t have corrected Aang the moment he implied he thought Shidan was just an animal, and it just feels, again, like the narrative is down on Aang for assuming dragons were like they were in canon - and implicitly that Vathara doesn’t like how canon handles dragons. For that matter, in canon Aang knew full well that he’d screwed up when he burned Katara while training with Jeong Jeong – and that it was absolutely his fault. And he was also clearly paying attention when Jeong Jeong said Zhao had no self-control and that was a bad quality in a firebender because, well, he actively exploits it to beat Zhao later that very episode. And I couldn’t help but notice the pretty explicit statement that Temul is a stronger ghost than Gyatso because and only because she’s a dragon-child.
Also, am I the only one who thinks it’s a little odd how we’re dropped into the middle of Aang’s nightmare with no context, and also get callbacks to things (enemy birds!) that didn’t happen in this fic? Or that, even with everything the AU has changed, Aang still has the exact same nightmares and hallucinations he did in canon?
Eighth Arc Final Thoughts
This arc really feels mostly transitional between the big events of the previous arc (Zuko claiming Asagitatsu, the Gaang reaching the Fire Nation and Sokka getting “adopted”) and the forthcoming invasion of the Fire Nation/battle with General Fong. The biggest thing that happens here is probably the Gaang meeting Shidan, and I think I’ve made clear what I think the problem there is – namely, we have a lot of Shidan interjecting himself into scenes from canon where he, obviously, had no involvement, so Vathara can make him look wise/experienced/badass in comparison. Which is, of course, accompanied by more lecturing on things that the Gaang supposedly don’t understand. It’s all the more striking in contrast to Zuko, who always gets portrayed as knowing about all sorts of things and is never really at the same disadvantage, especially now that he’s assimilated Kuzon’s memories too. On a related note, we’re continuing the theme of the Gaang following the stations of the canon (with special guest star Shidan) while Zuko and company are off doing something completely different that’s much more directly tied to what the fic’s real conflict is about. Vathara also throws a lot more lore at us about thinks like kadzhait, Koh’s origins, Avatar Kesuk and her fate, etc. that are absolutely critical to what’s going on in the fic, but never really got any foreshadowing at all before this point. Anyway, that’s it for this arc. Next time, the invasion begins!
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*Sigh* "I could not love thee half so much loved I not honour more." Guru Pathik is in the right here, and Aang bloody well knows how powerful a motive love is because it nearly killed him. Gyatso should be explaining the difference between love and attachment, because that is what Aang's problem was - he didn't know the difference, so he thought they were the same thing. They're not, and I really wish more people understood that.
Of course, if people understood that then there'd be a lot fewer fics where all Anakin needs to not fall is to discover that his marriage isn't forbidden after all - oh wait, that'd be a good thing. (Seriously, his problem isn't that he got married without permission, his problem is that he'd rather murder people then lose his loved ones. I almost want to write a fic where his secret marriage comes out, it turns out it's no big deal, and he falls anyways.)
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Because he's incensed that the Jedi will kick him out unless he annuls the marriage, since he thinks that as the Chosen One, he should get a special exemption? I could see that.
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Only Anakin still gets those visions.
Thing is, I don't think Anakin would listen to anyone telling him to calm down and talk to Padmé about her prenatal care and birthing plan, because I think he'd trust the vision over anything anyone could tell him. We've gotten very good at preventing deaths from childbirth, but not that good. So he's freaking out because he's seeing visions of Padmé's death and no one can tell him what he wants to hear because he wants to be told that they'll do x, y, and z and Padmé won't have a chance of dying and that's just not how childbirth works.
Well, almost no one. Palpatine is perfectly happy to lie to Anakin about having a perfect solution, and all Anakin needs to do is just perform a few simple tasks for him. Sure it'll be messy and unpleasant, but Padmé will live so it will all be worth it. Everything will be worth it so long as Padmé lives...
... Even killing the children.
Like I said, the problem was never that the marriage was forbidden.
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I actually meant to mention that in my comments, but then it slipped my mind. Whoops! Thank you!
*Sigh* "I could not love thee half so much loved I not honour more." Guru Pathik is in the right here, and Aang bloody well knows how powerful a motive love is because it nearly killed him. Gyatso should be explaining the difference between love and attachment, because that is what Aang's problem was - he didn't know the difference, so he thought they were the same thing. They're not, and I really wish more people understood that.
And thank you for this, too. I knew the talk of love and attachment in this chapter felt off, but I wasn't able to put it into words. I can't help but think it's another part of how either Vathara doesn't understand what the Air Nomads' philosophy is actually supposed to be, is deliberately strawmanning it, or (perhaps most likely) a bit of both.
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I'm just glad that no one's looked at the Catholic theology of detachment and declared we don't allow people to form connections and love each other.
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Water. Bender. Prison. The Earthbender prison was humane in comparison, and even there the Fire Nation forced the earthbenders to abandon their non-bending kin and their element. Any Air Nomad survivors who the Fire Nation captured and for some reason decided not to kill would absolutely be isolated from their kin and their element.
Gyatso says he had friends in the Fire Nation too, and he knows that they would rather die than live like the Air Nomads did.
Really? Like if their homes were destroyed or they were exiled and the Air Nomads were the only ones who would take them in, they would refuse and die rather than accepting if it meant also having to follow Air Nomad codes of conduct? That's... stupid.
Gyatso hopes Aang is right but warns him to remember the last Avatar who came to the Fire Nation on an eclipse.
Oh god. I've been getting bad vibes from some of the remarks that felt like "how dare the Avatar invade the Fire Nation while firebenders are helpless, we have to keep the civilians safe from their attack", but the Air Nomad moral center character directly invoking Kyoshi and her ruining the Fire Nation for centuries? Noooot looking forward to Vathara's take on the Day of Black Sun.
Problem is, just because something is not your fault, doesn't mean it's not your responsibility.
Didn't Aang already understand that by this point in canon? He was stressing over it, which were expressed in his nightmares, but he'd long since accepted that fixing the mess was his responsibility, as was making sure it doesn't happen again.
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To be fair, this is talking about Temul and Kuzon's people, not airbenders captured by Sozin's followers (and the ones who did fall into Sozin's hands apparently went to the onmitsu; whether that's a better or worse fate, I'm not sure on).
Really? Like if their homes were destroyed or they were exiled and the Air Nomads were the only ones who would take them in, they would refuse and die rather than accepting if it meant also having to follow Air Nomad codes of conduct? That's... stupid.
I think the implication is that the only way the Fire Nation would ever consider living peacefully is if someone from the outside came in and tried to force them, and they'd rather die than submit to that.
Noooot looking forward to Vathara's take on the Day of Black Sun.
It's not as bad as it could be, but it's... not great, either.
Didn't Aang already understand that by this point in canon? He was stressing over it, which were expressed in his nightmares, but he'd long since accepted that fixing the mess was his responsibility, as was making sure it doesn't happen again.
I'd agree that he did, absolutely. But I also think canon!Aang understood a lot more than Vathara wants to give him credit for, on a lot of things.
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I think it would be a given that the people who rescued the Air Nomads, possibly breaking All-Mighty Loyalty to do so, would not then turn around and crimes against humanity the people they'd just rescued. And the wording that the Fire Nation in general wouldn't be so cruel rubs me the wrong way because. We have multiple examples showing that yes they would. Temul and Kuzon letting Air Nomad families stay together would just be decency, not Fire Nation Values.
I think the implication is that the only way the Fire Nation would ever consider living peacefully is if someone from the outside came in and tried to force them, and they'd rather die than submit to that.
Fair enough, but... Constantly warring states tend not to thrive, especially when their neighbors are becoming more peaceful and consolidated. Does Vathara think the Fire Nation should be allowed to fall back into a Warring States period and stay that way because Fire Nation Must Fight? And what about all the farmers and peasants who have the constant battles destroy their homes? Would they also prefer to die than get rid of that system?