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masterghandalf) wrote2024-02-22 02:14 pm
masterghandalf) wrote2024-02-22 02:14 pm
MG Reads Embers: Chapter Seventy-Seven
Warning: This chapter contains mind control and violence.
Chapter Seventy-Seven
We open with Sokka searching the temple for a ghost, while being careful not to let himself slip and fall somewhere in the moonlight. He wonders why nobody tried to talk him out of this, but Aang thought it was a great idea, Katara’s up for anything that makes Aang happy, and Zuko thinks finding a ghost wouldn’t be any worse than not finding one. Sokka thinks that this close to the Fire Nation, anyone who finds Zuko might execute him as a traitor, so he probably thinks thanking a ghost who helped him once can’t hurt his circumstances. Toph, meanwhile, has just stayed with Appa and seems to think that if Shih wants to find them, he will, and if he doesn’t, he won’t. Sokka is left sarcastically thinking that splitting up to cover more ground was a great idea, and then reaches for his sword as he spots something in the shadows. We cut to Zuko as he finds the dawn prayer hall, which he recognizes from his last time here. He feels memories from another life wash over him as he remembers what the temple was like when it was still inhabited, and how the nuns believed that constant prayers were necessary to dedicate themselves to their principles, day after day, month after month, year after year, life after life. This is also where they brought their children to be prayed for and blessed. Aang’s children won’t know any of this – sure, he might be familiar with some of the traditions, but everyone who saw them firsthand is dead now, even Kuzon. Zuko thinks to himself how the temples were wrong, locking the Air Nomads away into an increasingly alien life and leaving them vulnerable to any warlord who turned against them, but even the most brainwashed among them were still human, and most of them weren’t elders. He thinks how he-as-Kuzon, Shidan and Temul saved what they could, and in the end at least Kuzon died honorably with Piandao and Temul to stand vigil – not the worst way to go. Far better than what the Air Nomads got when Sozin attacked, though Zuko reminds himself that none of this was Kuzon’s fault – he hadn’t been the one who taught women and children to make themselves easy to kill. He thinks that Aang thinks life is precious, but he hasn’t learned yet that death is precious, too. Suddenly, he hears the sound of cloth and water behind him and turns to find himself facing cold blue eyes.
We cut back to Sokka as he makes his way towards the strange light, remembering Temul’s warnings. If you’re traveling with the Avatar and think something is a spirit… it probably is. She said that the Water Tribes believe waterbenders are close to the spirits, and it’s true, in the sense that anyone who moves energy, including benders, is also vulnerable to energy, and energy against energy, spirits always win. She asked how to fight something you can’t beat, and Sokka thinks that you use tools; he thinks of some of the ritual objects the Southern Water Tribe uses to appease spirits. Spirits are more powerful than humans, but they can’t hurt you if they can’t touch you – that’s why Sozin tried to crush belief in the spirits, to make it harder for them to affect people. Sokka does believe in spirits, after everything he’s seen; he studies the strange light more closely and thinks it reminds him of diamond dust, but that it’s not cold enough. He thinks how in most of the Fire Nation it’s never cold enough for diamond dust, and that the only way this could have gotten here is if there’s a waterbender nearby. But it doesn’t make sense for this to be Aang, Katara or even Zuko. Suddenly, far below them Sokka sees something massive moving through the water, and thinks he has to get Aang.
We cut to Aang talking with Shih; Shih tells him that he’s not bound here by violence, but that he’s a guardian, watching over the temple until the time is right for him to move on. Traditionally, a ghost might linger until their children have grandchildren. Aang thinks Shih’s been here for over a hundred years, though technically, as a ghost he’s only been here for about nineteen years – one of his offspring is apparently taking a long time to fulfil his family duties. Aang thinks that he’s heard clans are a big deal in the Fire Nation and wonders why Shih hasn’t pushed his son to have kids. Shih thinks that sort of thing rarely works, and besides, his son has finally found a woman, so he suspects the problem will solve itself soon. For another, his son already has enough burdens on his shoulders, and Shih doesn’t want to add another. Besides, Gyate was Air Nomad and so is her son; Shih wouldn’t force him to live according to Fire Nation standards any more than he’d force Toph to break a deal, or Zuko to abandon his people – or Sokka and Katara to abandon Aang after accepting him into their family. Shih does want to know why Aang wanted to talk to him alone, without his friends to overhear. Aang admits he’s still scared and wishes he could just run away rather than have to fight Ozai or Koh. Shih explains that too many people have run away over the centuries; sometimes, you have to be brave and do what’s right. It’s not fair, but Aang has shown he can be afraid and do what’s right anyway – and that’s true courage. Aang thinks that if you don’t think something will work, doing it anyway isn’t brave, it’s just stupid. Shih asks if Aang thinks Zhao was stupid – Aang thinks so, since destroying the moon is something that would hurt everyone, but Shih says that destroying waterbending and throwing the world out of balance would have helped the Fire Nation. It was wrong, but evil doesn’t always mean stupidity, and Aang’s job would be easier if it did. But even your enemies have reasons for what they do, and if you can find out those reasons and understand them, you might be able to persuade them that your plan is better and make them no longer be enemies. Aang thinks Katara tried to tell him that once, when he wanted to go along with General Fong’s plan, but he just wanted the war to stop. Shih thinks that’s understandable and asks if Roku was stupid – Aang doesn’t know. He asks if Katara and Sokka were stupid to go into danger with him; Aang says they believed in him, and Shih wonders if that made things better or worse. Aang wants to say that Katara isn’t stupid, but before he can Sokka comes running up, saying they’re in trouble.
We cut to Katara as she watches Zuko in the lanternlight, thinking how appropriate it is to see Ozai’s son lit by flames. Zuko greets her, and Katara wonders to herself about how much he must want to hurt her; when he looks away, she decides he thinks she’s not even worth noticing. Zuko asks if Sokka had a better idea where to look; he complains the temple is a maze and wonders if the airbenders built it that way for fun. Katara can’t believe he thinks a sacred place was built for “fun,” and she can only imagine what it was like when it was inhabited – and Zuko’s family destroyed it. Zuko points out various things that the Air Nomads did for fun, and how Aang seems to think the world exists solely for fun. Katara, still thinking about the destruction the Fire Nation caused, asks why he shouldn’t. Zuko thinks that sounds weird coming from Katara, and she asks if he thinks she doesn’t know how to have fun; she thinks everyone seems to think that about her, and she wants to prove them wrong. She wants to have fun… Zuko says “fun” doesn’t really describe what they’re doing now, and Katara thinks Fire Nation ghosts must be too malevolent for them to tell ghost stories for fun. A voice seems to whisper about the ghost who’s here, keeping powers that would help Katara away from her… Katara thinks firebenders don’t care about sacred things, and tells Zuko that the temple was destroyed, not deserted – the nuns didn’t just leave. The voice whispers about how she has to protect the others, and Zuko insists it is deserted, since no one lives here now, and then he asks if Katara’s all right. She thinks people died here and Zuko doesn’t even care – he says he didn’t do it, but Katara says he didn’t stop it, while the voice tells her that water against fire, water wins, and water can’t be evil. Zuko protests that that was a hundred years ago, and Katara thinks he’s afraid of her, and he wouldn’t’ be afraid if he hadn’t done anything wrong. The voice tells her he can’t be trusted, to attack him and show him what fun really is… She decides to make him confess and reminds him that his great-grandfather was a murderer. Zuko asks her to be more specific, since all his great-grandfathers were murderers, and Katara thinks he’s not even ashamed. He asks if she is – all Water Tribe chieftains are killers. But Zuko admits all his great-grandfathers were murderers, even Roku. Zuko tries to explain his family tree, but Katara calls him a liar and attacks.
We cut to Zuko, frozen in place as Katara stops his heart. He manages to drop the lantern to distract her, which buys him enough control to breathe again, but he’s still paralyzed and realizes Katara is bloodbending him. He thinks she’s going to kill him, but he refuses to die; he spots some moss and manages to pull some water from it and shoot it up Katara’s nose, distracting her enough for him to break free. He wants to run, but he knows that as soon as Katara reorients herself, she’ll bloodbend him again. So, he attacks, focusing on destroying her waterskin – he knows she trains with it, so without it she’ll be disoriented and take more time to gather water. He wants to keep her focused on that, instead of the ocean nearby, but suddenly he feels like he’s drowning as a voice tells him the chieftain’s daughter has cast him out of the tribe. He says it’s got the wrong tribe and breathes out fire, protecting himself from its influence; he realizes that this isn’t Katara, something else has taken control of her. Suddenly, Katara manages to bend a giant wave, and Zuko can almost hear Toph telling him this is going to suck… We cut to Katara, frustrated that Zuko won’t stay still and let her crush him. They keep fighting as Zuko tries to tell her that something’s got control of her and to remember Yugoda’s training. She won’t listen and snuffs his fire, but suddenly he manages to turn her wave back on her and freeze her – she recognizes a northern waterbending form, and the voice starts shrieking for her to kill him before he kills her. She manages to break free and blasts Zuko with ice needles, though he melts them and blasts her with a wave of fire. The voice yells for the enemy of the tribe to die, while Katara suddenly wonders just what she’s doing as the wind roars…
We cut to Aang asking if Katara’s okay, even if he can tell she’s not. He runs over to her as Toph is screaming and Sokka is trying to get his attention; he asks Katara what Zuko did to her, and promises they’ll get water and she’ll be okay. Katara says he can’t bring water – there was something in the water, and it was somehow using the full moon to control her. She didn’t mean to attack Zuko, but it made her, and when he burned her it was forced to withdraw. Aang can’t believe it, but Katara says it’s true, and asks what Aang did – looking back up, he sees that he blasted all through the prayer hall, wrecking everything… and Zuko is gone. Even Toph looks terrified, and Aang goes to look down at the water, and sees that Zuko’s not there. Sokka says someone as skinny as Zuko doesn’t float; Aang is horrified and says he didn’t mean to, and Katara says he did it anyway – they did. They killed Zuko. Toph turns and flees. We cut to Toph later, thinking to herself about how Zuko’s gone. Suddenly, Shih appears beside her and asks to join her. He thinks he should have warded the temple better – he knew about the destruction at the North Pole and the invasion, and he did ward the temple against spirits. What took hold of Katara wasn’t a spirit – if it was, it would be in much worse shape, since no spirit can attack a dragon-child without consequences. Toph insists that Zuko is dead, and she can’t believe Aang of all people did it. Shih thinks Zuko isn’t dead – he’s a dragon-child with an unfinished task, and probably would have left a ghost. Besides, Sozin’s bloodline are very hard to kill, and Shih thinks that if Zuko died, everyone would know it. Toph thinks that means he’s out there somewhere, and wonders what good her earthbending is if she can’t even find a friend who needs her. Shih says finding someone lost at sea isn’t easy for anyone, and if Zuko is alive he will need her. He tells her to keep her friends out of trouble, and promises he can protect them from the creature, now that he knows it’s there, at least so long as they stay at the temple. He also warns Toph that the first rule of rescue is to never become another victim. Toph asks if he’s saying she can’t help Zuko; Shih says if anyone can survive this, Zuko can. Toph says she felt Aang hit him really hard, and Shih wraps her in a hug, telling her he knows…
We end with a brief author note. A/N: Diamond dust is cool, literally. Check it out on Wikipedia. It's a near-ground cloud of tiny ice crystals, and while you can see it anywhere it gets significantly below freezing, it's most common near the poles. Water Tribes would be familiar with it. Fire Nation? Heh. No.
MG’s Thoughts
Well, this is the Katara Gets Possessed chapter (or, technically the second one – the Painted Lady was first). Frankly, the sea serpent (that’s what was controlling her, if anyone was wondering) feels like a very blatant diabolus ex machina to me, coming out of nowhere to tear the Gaang and Zuko apart (and it can’t help but feel like it’s supposed to be more “proof” that the Gaang and Zuko shouldn’t be together) just as soon as they’ve teamed up. And it does come out of nowhere – we’ve had some talk about sea serpents a while back, but absolutely no indication one just happened to be hanging out around the Western Air Temple aside from a brief scene of Katara watching the water and thinking creepy thoughts last chapter. I hesitate to call this “bashing,” as such, because Katara wasn’t in control of herself for most of the chapter and everyone, including both her and Zuko, are aware she wouldn’t be acting like this in her right mind… but I still can’t help but notice that this threat was only able to reach Zuko and the Gaang through Katara and her hostility towards Zuko (and it's yet another creepy water-related thing, too…). And I must say, while the serpent pushed Katara to react with irrational violence, I don’t think Zuko acquitted himself terribly well during their initial conversation either, coming off as passive-aggressive and snide in a way I don’t think Vathara meant, but I can’t help but read it as (seriously, from context it should have been really obvious which of his great-grandfathers they were talking about!).
I also continue to be bugged by how the fic handles the Air Nomads. This chapter flat-out says that the Air Temples were bad, and blames the elders for preventing them from being able to fight back when Sozin attacked (I’ll remind everyone again of Gyatso, who was surrounded by dead firebenders – it makes me think that Vathara either forgot, that Gyatso was inexplicably the only Air Nomad able to break the conditioning, or the nuns really were more heavily brainwashed for what I can only imagine was the convenience of the monks; ick). It just seems to send the message overall that while the Air Nomads as people didn’t deserve to die and that Kuzon and Temul were right to try and save them, their culture and society was still wrong and bad, which is… not a good look, fic. Furthermore, while I like much of Aang’s conversation with Shih, I have to quibble with his description of Zhao – I think the original show is very clear that killing the Moon Spirit would be a bad thing for everyone, including Zhao himself. I wouldn’t call Zhao “stupid,” exactly, but “shortsighted” and “hubristic,” definitely. Also, wow, Vathara really wants to hint that Shih is Aang’s father without coming right out and saying it, doesn’t she?
And no, Zuko’s not dead, but… if he died, everyone would just know it? Seriously, Vathara? As if the fic’s whole world revolving around Zuko wasn’t obvious already…
Chapter Seventy-Seven
We open with Sokka searching the temple for a ghost, while being careful not to let himself slip and fall somewhere in the moonlight. He wonders why nobody tried to talk him out of this, but Aang thought it was a great idea, Katara’s up for anything that makes Aang happy, and Zuko thinks finding a ghost wouldn’t be any worse than not finding one. Sokka thinks that this close to the Fire Nation, anyone who finds Zuko might execute him as a traitor, so he probably thinks thanking a ghost who helped him once can’t hurt his circumstances. Toph, meanwhile, has just stayed with Appa and seems to think that if Shih wants to find them, he will, and if he doesn’t, he won’t. Sokka is left sarcastically thinking that splitting up to cover more ground was a great idea, and then reaches for his sword as he spots something in the shadows. We cut to Zuko as he finds the dawn prayer hall, which he recognizes from his last time here. He feels memories from another life wash over him as he remembers what the temple was like when it was still inhabited, and how the nuns believed that constant prayers were necessary to dedicate themselves to their principles, day after day, month after month, year after year, life after life. This is also where they brought their children to be prayed for and blessed. Aang’s children won’t know any of this – sure, he might be familiar with some of the traditions, but everyone who saw them firsthand is dead now, even Kuzon. Zuko thinks to himself how the temples were wrong, locking the Air Nomads away into an increasingly alien life and leaving them vulnerable to any warlord who turned against them, but even the most brainwashed among them were still human, and most of them weren’t elders. He thinks how he-as-Kuzon, Shidan and Temul saved what they could, and in the end at least Kuzon died honorably with Piandao and Temul to stand vigil – not the worst way to go. Far better than what the Air Nomads got when Sozin attacked, though Zuko reminds himself that none of this was Kuzon’s fault – he hadn’t been the one who taught women and children to make themselves easy to kill. He thinks that Aang thinks life is precious, but he hasn’t learned yet that death is precious, too. Suddenly, he hears the sound of cloth and water behind him and turns to find himself facing cold blue eyes.
We cut back to Sokka as he makes his way towards the strange light, remembering Temul’s warnings. If you’re traveling with the Avatar and think something is a spirit… it probably is. She said that the Water Tribes believe waterbenders are close to the spirits, and it’s true, in the sense that anyone who moves energy, including benders, is also vulnerable to energy, and energy against energy, spirits always win. She asked how to fight something you can’t beat, and Sokka thinks that you use tools; he thinks of some of the ritual objects the Southern Water Tribe uses to appease spirits. Spirits are more powerful than humans, but they can’t hurt you if they can’t touch you – that’s why Sozin tried to crush belief in the spirits, to make it harder for them to affect people. Sokka does believe in spirits, after everything he’s seen; he studies the strange light more closely and thinks it reminds him of diamond dust, but that it’s not cold enough. He thinks how in most of the Fire Nation it’s never cold enough for diamond dust, and that the only way this could have gotten here is if there’s a waterbender nearby. But it doesn’t make sense for this to be Aang, Katara or even Zuko. Suddenly, far below them Sokka sees something massive moving through the water, and thinks he has to get Aang.
We cut to Aang talking with Shih; Shih tells him that he’s not bound here by violence, but that he’s a guardian, watching over the temple until the time is right for him to move on. Traditionally, a ghost might linger until their children have grandchildren. Aang thinks Shih’s been here for over a hundred years, though technically, as a ghost he’s only been here for about nineteen years – one of his offspring is apparently taking a long time to fulfil his family duties. Aang thinks that he’s heard clans are a big deal in the Fire Nation and wonders why Shih hasn’t pushed his son to have kids. Shih thinks that sort of thing rarely works, and besides, his son has finally found a woman, so he suspects the problem will solve itself soon. For another, his son already has enough burdens on his shoulders, and Shih doesn’t want to add another. Besides, Gyate was Air Nomad and so is her son; Shih wouldn’t force him to live according to Fire Nation standards any more than he’d force Toph to break a deal, or Zuko to abandon his people – or Sokka and Katara to abandon Aang after accepting him into their family. Shih does want to know why Aang wanted to talk to him alone, without his friends to overhear. Aang admits he’s still scared and wishes he could just run away rather than have to fight Ozai or Koh. Shih explains that too many people have run away over the centuries; sometimes, you have to be brave and do what’s right. It’s not fair, but Aang has shown he can be afraid and do what’s right anyway – and that’s true courage. Aang thinks that if you don’t think something will work, doing it anyway isn’t brave, it’s just stupid. Shih asks if Aang thinks Zhao was stupid – Aang thinks so, since destroying the moon is something that would hurt everyone, but Shih says that destroying waterbending and throwing the world out of balance would have helped the Fire Nation. It was wrong, but evil doesn’t always mean stupidity, and Aang’s job would be easier if it did. But even your enemies have reasons for what they do, and if you can find out those reasons and understand them, you might be able to persuade them that your plan is better and make them no longer be enemies. Aang thinks Katara tried to tell him that once, when he wanted to go along with General Fong’s plan, but he just wanted the war to stop. Shih thinks that’s understandable and asks if Roku was stupid – Aang doesn’t know. He asks if Katara and Sokka were stupid to go into danger with him; Aang says they believed in him, and Shih wonders if that made things better or worse. Aang wants to say that Katara isn’t stupid, but before he can Sokka comes running up, saying they’re in trouble.
We cut to Katara as she watches Zuko in the lanternlight, thinking how appropriate it is to see Ozai’s son lit by flames. Zuko greets her, and Katara wonders to herself about how much he must want to hurt her; when he looks away, she decides he thinks she’s not even worth noticing. Zuko asks if Sokka had a better idea where to look; he complains the temple is a maze and wonders if the airbenders built it that way for fun. Katara can’t believe he thinks a sacred place was built for “fun,” and she can only imagine what it was like when it was inhabited – and Zuko’s family destroyed it. Zuko points out various things that the Air Nomads did for fun, and how Aang seems to think the world exists solely for fun. Katara, still thinking about the destruction the Fire Nation caused, asks why he shouldn’t. Zuko thinks that sounds weird coming from Katara, and she asks if he thinks she doesn’t know how to have fun; she thinks everyone seems to think that about her, and she wants to prove them wrong. She wants to have fun… Zuko says “fun” doesn’t really describe what they’re doing now, and Katara thinks Fire Nation ghosts must be too malevolent for them to tell ghost stories for fun. A voice seems to whisper about the ghost who’s here, keeping powers that would help Katara away from her… Katara thinks firebenders don’t care about sacred things, and tells Zuko that the temple was destroyed, not deserted – the nuns didn’t just leave. The voice whispers about how she has to protect the others, and Zuko insists it is deserted, since no one lives here now, and then he asks if Katara’s all right. She thinks people died here and Zuko doesn’t even care – he says he didn’t do it, but Katara says he didn’t stop it, while the voice tells her that water against fire, water wins, and water can’t be evil. Zuko protests that that was a hundred years ago, and Katara thinks he’s afraid of her, and he wouldn’t’ be afraid if he hadn’t done anything wrong. The voice tells her he can’t be trusted, to attack him and show him what fun really is… She decides to make him confess and reminds him that his great-grandfather was a murderer. Zuko asks her to be more specific, since all his great-grandfathers were murderers, and Katara thinks he’s not even ashamed. He asks if she is – all Water Tribe chieftains are killers. But Zuko admits all his great-grandfathers were murderers, even Roku. Zuko tries to explain his family tree, but Katara calls him a liar and attacks.
We cut to Zuko, frozen in place as Katara stops his heart. He manages to drop the lantern to distract her, which buys him enough control to breathe again, but he’s still paralyzed and realizes Katara is bloodbending him. He thinks she’s going to kill him, but he refuses to die; he spots some moss and manages to pull some water from it and shoot it up Katara’s nose, distracting her enough for him to break free. He wants to run, but he knows that as soon as Katara reorients herself, she’ll bloodbend him again. So, he attacks, focusing on destroying her waterskin – he knows she trains with it, so without it she’ll be disoriented and take more time to gather water. He wants to keep her focused on that, instead of the ocean nearby, but suddenly he feels like he’s drowning as a voice tells him the chieftain’s daughter has cast him out of the tribe. He says it’s got the wrong tribe and breathes out fire, protecting himself from its influence; he realizes that this isn’t Katara, something else has taken control of her. Suddenly, Katara manages to bend a giant wave, and Zuko can almost hear Toph telling him this is going to suck… We cut to Katara, frustrated that Zuko won’t stay still and let her crush him. They keep fighting as Zuko tries to tell her that something’s got control of her and to remember Yugoda’s training. She won’t listen and snuffs his fire, but suddenly he manages to turn her wave back on her and freeze her – she recognizes a northern waterbending form, and the voice starts shrieking for her to kill him before he kills her. She manages to break free and blasts Zuko with ice needles, though he melts them and blasts her with a wave of fire. The voice yells for the enemy of the tribe to die, while Katara suddenly wonders just what she’s doing as the wind roars…
We cut to Aang asking if Katara’s okay, even if he can tell she’s not. He runs over to her as Toph is screaming and Sokka is trying to get his attention; he asks Katara what Zuko did to her, and promises they’ll get water and she’ll be okay. Katara says he can’t bring water – there was something in the water, and it was somehow using the full moon to control her. She didn’t mean to attack Zuko, but it made her, and when he burned her it was forced to withdraw. Aang can’t believe it, but Katara says it’s true, and asks what Aang did – looking back up, he sees that he blasted all through the prayer hall, wrecking everything… and Zuko is gone. Even Toph looks terrified, and Aang goes to look down at the water, and sees that Zuko’s not there. Sokka says someone as skinny as Zuko doesn’t float; Aang is horrified and says he didn’t mean to, and Katara says he did it anyway – they did. They killed Zuko. Toph turns and flees. We cut to Toph later, thinking to herself about how Zuko’s gone. Suddenly, Shih appears beside her and asks to join her. He thinks he should have warded the temple better – he knew about the destruction at the North Pole and the invasion, and he did ward the temple against spirits. What took hold of Katara wasn’t a spirit – if it was, it would be in much worse shape, since no spirit can attack a dragon-child without consequences. Toph insists that Zuko is dead, and she can’t believe Aang of all people did it. Shih thinks Zuko isn’t dead – he’s a dragon-child with an unfinished task, and probably would have left a ghost. Besides, Sozin’s bloodline are very hard to kill, and Shih thinks that if Zuko died, everyone would know it. Toph thinks that means he’s out there somewhere, and wonders what good her earthbending is if she can’t even find a friend who needs her. Shih says finding someone lost at sea isn’t easy for anyone, and if Zuko is alive he will need her. He tells her to keep her friends out of trouble, and promises he can protect them from the creature, now that he knows it’s there, at least so long as they stay at the temple. He also warns Toph that the first rule of rescue is to never become another victim. Toph asks if he’s saying she can’t help Zuko; Shih says if anyone can survive this, Zuko can. Toph says she felt Aang hit him really hard, and Shih wraps her in a hug, telling her he knows…
We end with a brief author note. A/N: Diamond dust is cool, literally. Check it out on Wikipedia. It's a near-ground cloud of tiny ice crystals, and while you can see it anywhere it gets significantly below freezing, it's most common near the poles. Water Tribes would be familiar with it. Fire Nation? Heh. No.
MG’s Thoughts
Well, this is the Katara Gets Possessed chapter (or, technically the second one – the Painted Lady was first). Frankly, the sea serpent (that’s what was controlling her, if anyone was wondering) feels like a very blatant diabolus ex machina to me, coming out of nowhere to tear the Gaang and Zuko apart (and it can’t help but feel like it’s supposed to be more “proof” that the Gaang and Zuko shouldn’t be together) just as soon as they’ve teamed up. And it does come out of nowhere – we’ve had some talk about sea serpents a while back, but absolutely no indication one just happened to be hanging out around the Western Air Temple aside from a brief scene of Katara watching the water and thinking creepy thoughts last chapter. I hesitate to call this “bashing,” as such, because Katara wasn’t in control of herself for most of the chapter and everyone, including both her and Zuko, are aware she wouldn’t be acting like this in her right mind… but I still can’t help but notice that this threat was only able to reach Zuko and the Gaang through Katara and her hostility towards Zuko (and it's yet another creepy water-related thing, too…). And I must say, while the serpent pushed Katara to react with irrational violence, I don’t think Zuko acquitted himself terribly well during their initial conversation either, coming off as passive-aggressive and snide in a way I don’t think Vathara meant, but I can’t help but read it as (seriously, from context it should have been really obvious which of his great-grandfathers they were talking about!).
I also continue to be bugged by how the fic handles the Air Nomads. This chapter flat-out says that the Air Temples were bad, and blames the elders for preventing them from being able to fight back when Sozin attacked (I’ll remind everyone again of Gyatso, who was surrounded by dead firebenders – it makes me think that Vathara either forgot, that Gyatso was inexplicably the only Air Nomad able to break the conditioning, or the nuns really were more heavily brainwashed for what I can only imagine was the convenience of the monks; ick). It just seems to send the message overall that while the Air Nomads as people didn’t deserve to die and that Kuzon and Temul were right to try and save them, their culture and society was still wrong and bad, which is… not a good look, fic. Furthermore, while I like much of Aang’s conversation with Shih, I have to quibble with his description of Zhao – I think the original show is very clear that killing the Moon Spirit would be a bad thing for everyone, including Zhao himself. I wouldn’t call Zhao “stupid,” exactly, but “shortsighted” and “hubristic,” definitely. Also, wow, Vathara really wants to hint that Shih is Aang’s father without coming right out and saying it, doesn’t she?
And no, Zuko’s not dead, but… if he died, everyone would just know it? Seriously, Vathara? As if the fic’s whole world revolving around Zuko wasn’t obvious already…
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And no, Zuko’s not dead, but… if he died, everyone would just know it? Seriously, Vathara? As if the fic’s whole world revolving around Zuko wasn’t obvious already…
"Whenever Zuko's not on screen, all the other characters should be asking 'Where's Zuko?'"
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(I once read a think-piece on BHNA where the author claimed, in all seriousness, that running away from the zero-pointer instead of trying to rescue the girl was 'immoral', because apparently adding to the body count is the morally required option. Uh, no. You are wrong, and your argument is stupid.)
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Honestly, that's something I find frustrating about Embers in general - it sometimes makes really good or interesting points or has good ideas, and then the rest of the time it turns around and just goes off the rails entirely.
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My personal theory? Katara is the reincarnation of Roku's WIFE. (If only because Katara was 101% adoring of Aang from the start, well before she learned he was the Avatar. "...he's special! I can tell! I sense he's filled with much wisdom.") And Zuko admitted that not only did Sozin turn their daughter into his son's brood mare, but that he thinks Roku is scum. And Vathara leaves it up in the air exactly how aware Zuko is that Sozin murdered Roku.
Katara was hanging onto her temper as hard as she could, and then the jerk drove a knife into a relationship spanning lifetimes and TWISTED.