masterghandalf

Chapter Eighty-Three

We open with Aang on the deck of Hakoda’s ships, going over the high wind road on their maps and showing them the route Ozai will have to take. Katara, watching, thinks about how Toph still isn’t comfortable on ships, but she’s better off than Shiyu, who is terribly seasick, though some tea he’s been given is helping. Aang goes on to explain the best place to catch the airship fleet with a storm. He thinks it will be awful, but at least this way Ozai and his soldiers will be the only ones getting hurt. Shiyu hopes those who live on the coast nearby will be prepared, but Sokka thinks it will be a controlled sort of mess and much better than the alternatives. As for the drowned, so long as Koh isn’t controlling them, they’ll be drawn back to their homes in the Fire Nation, and Shiyu thinks the great names can deal with them. Sokka thinks that with this plan, at least they won’t be adding to the drowned – most of Ozai’s forces will die when their airships fall out of the sky, not by drowning. Aang says he hates this, and Katara understands, but she doesn’t share the feeling – she doesn’t think killing is wrong, and she thinks they’ll save more people by stopping Ozai. Sokka thinks most of the Fire Nation people they know would rather die cleanly by one big blast of wind than by drowning, but Aang thinks dead is still dead. Shiyu says it’s not like that, to a ghost – dying in water is a terrible trauma for people of the Fire Nation, but other deaths are less so, and someone who doesn’t die by drowning will be harder for Koh to control.

Shiyu wants to know how they can help, but Aang thinks he has to do this alone – even Appa won’t be able to fly in what he’s going to have to unleash. The last time he tried, they both ended up frozen. Sleeping for a hundred years took everything away from Aang, and he’s not going to let that happen again. He knows he’s supposed to be detached and let things go, but in this case he can’t, and he’s not going to risk his friends. That doesn’t mean he has to do everything alone – the others can keep Appa safe and take him to warn the Northern Water Tribe. Shiyu thinks he’s old enough to look after himself, but Toph doesn’t think so when he’s seasick. He doubts she’d do as well in a war balloon – being surrounded by your opposite element isn’t good for any master bender. He thinks it will be a long flight, but Aang says it will be more like a bunch of flights, since Katara has an idea for ice ramps. While Aang is alone, Shiyu wants him to take time to meditate on sunlight. Which is not to say he should start throwing fire around – airstaffs and sky bison fur are both flammable. Aang decides maybe just meditating is best after all.

We cut to Zuko, complaining that no matter what Iroh says, meditating won’t solve his problems. Asahi snorts at him as Zuko keeps practicing his sword forms. Zuko muses to himself that he has the whole world trying to kill him, so why is he having problems with Iroh now? He continues working through his forms, thinking about how they’re effective in actual combat, and then starts talking again about how he has to protect his people, and how he helped rescue Shiyu and get Teo and his people prepared. He has all the resources he needs, and his people are counting on him. As a yaoren, his duty is to handle spiritual problems the Avatar can’t, including Asagitatsu – why can’t Iroh see that? He doesn’t want to be at odds with Iroh, but he thinks that Iroh invited a bunch of waterbenders into the domain without asking, and what will he end up doing next time? Zuko doesn’t understand why; he thinks about how they gave up the chase for the Avatar and settled in Ba Sing Se, and when they started planning their colony, he thought they were on the same page. Zuko grumbles to himself about not being a Pai Sho player, and then it hits him. Iroh is a leader of the White Lotus, and he wants to save the whole world. Zuko can’t. That’s what’s put them at odds. Having realized the problem, he still needs to decide what to do about it – both Iroh and Tingzhe agree you shouldn’t teach when you’re angry, but Zuko isn’t angry, just tired. He decides to go head off to see Jinhai, feeling lucky they have no shortage of leaves to practice with. We cut to Aang, thinking that bending a storm is exhilarating and terrifying, and he wonders whether he should really be doing this. He’s got the clouds building now, and he starts preparing to drag them into Ozai’s path. He thinks it will take a while for the storm and the fleet to hit each other, so he’ll have time to meditate.

We cut to Shirong musing to Tingzhe and Amaya that Iroh’s problem is he likes to gamble on Pai Sho with other people’s money. Amaya takes a moment to watch Zuko training Jinhai and make sure he’s breathing right, and then reminds Shirong that Iroh is her husband, and he never gambles without reason. Shirong is sure he does have a reason, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t also have bad habits. Tingzhe adds that for most of his life, Iroh has been a general, and that’s different from being a prince or a great name. Amaya considers them both carefully while thinking about how she doesn’t like to see her husband and step-nephew at odds like this. She wants to know what Tingzhe means, and he starts musing about how she’s familiar with various sorts of leaders – chieftains, the Earth King, ship captains, and so on. But there are different kinds of generals; foolish ones, like General Gang, and reckless ones, like General Fong. Iroh was a very good general, loved by his men and respected by his enemies – but in almost all cases, when a general sends troops into battle, the general is not the one who ends up paying the price. Amaya is disturbed to think of the implications; part of her wonders why Ozai has to come here, but she knows their existence defies him, so he can’t let them exist. Tingzhe adds that a king or lord’s duty is to their people; a general’s duty is to carry out their ruler’s will. A good general doesn’t spend the lives of their troops casually, but their job is not to save lives, it is to spend them where they can best secure victory. Amaya watches Zuko a bit more, and then asks if Iroh’s plan is not just to defend Dragons’ Wings, but to defeat Ozai. If so, he may have to do it, even if it means undermining Zuko – if the Avatar can’t defeat Ozai, someone has to. Shirong thinks Iroh’s goal isn’t that modest.

Amaya wants to know what goal is greater than defeating the Fire Lord, and Shirong says it’s to restore balance to the world itself. Amaya is stunned, and protests that there aren’t nearly enough of them here to do that. They can keep Asagitatsu calm and the drowned at bay, maybe hold Ozai off for a while, but beyond that… she realizes that Iroh doesn’t think he can lose, and Shirong worries it could be worse, if Iroh means to set himself up as another Long Feng. Amaya doubts that; pulling strings from the shadows isn’t Iroh’s way. Unfortunately, he also doesn’t know when to let go. Tingzhe, while watching Zuko and Jinhai, can sympathize with that, as a father. On top of that, Iroh has a lot on his plate, and Zuko has a temper. Shirong comments that he’s a firebender and a dragon child. Tingzhe thinks that it’s not just fire, since Min can be the same way, but there are different kinds of anger. Shirong thinks that Iroh needs to work with the Avatar, while Zuko shunned him. Amaya thinks that young men don’t usually have the authority to banish someone in the Water Tribes, but Zuko’s old enough he could, if there weren’t any senior warriors present. She asks if the yaoren don’t have the authority to banish unruly spirits, and Shirong thinks they do, and Iroh has been ignoring that Aang almost killed Zuko. Tingzhe thinks Shirong still sees Zuko as a recruit, not an heir of Sozin with the world on his shoulders. But Shirong should also know how a young recruit can benefit and grow from surviving trials. Tingzhe knows that both Shirong and Amaya would trust Zuko to help them, because he’s a trained healer and, as much as anyone can be, a trained yaoren – but he’s not a trained general. A proper general would leap at the chance to seize all his objectives at once. Amaya thinks they can’t risk everything for a chance to win, and Tingzhe says that Zuko, as lord of Dragons’ Wings, can’t do that – and if Iroh can’t accept that, then they can only pray that Aang stops Ozai before he gets here.

We cut to Aang wondering if Yangchen ever did anything like this as he flies with the storm towards the nearest war balloon; he hopes she didn’t, because that would mean she was fighting alone. He slices through the war balloon, letting it fall and trying not to think about what happens next. The other balloons and ships start launching fireballs at him, and Aang dodges some and sends some of the others flying back; he thinks to himself that he can do this. He feels awful about hurting people, and worse for wanting to hurt people, but he knows he has to in order to keep the Northern Water Tribe safe. He hopes that no innocents got caught out in this storm, but tries to focus on his mission, and his refusal to run away again. He thinks maybe if he can knock out Ozai’s flagship, the rest of the fleet will retreat. He spots an airship with elaborate gold decorations and prepares to attack it, when suddenly he sees a figure in dark red robes laced with gold emerge from the cabin. He wonders why he came out in the storm; he lets himself get blown off course and has to double back to take cover behind one of the other airships, watching the figure and realizing that he has Zuko’s eyes, and Sozin’s… Sozin, who left his best friend to die. Aang remembers Zuko telling him to decide where he stands, and he knows he has to kill Ozai… but he can’t bring himself to do it. He decides to change tactics, thinking maybe if he ices the airships, he can force them down without killing anyone… he hadn’t thought Ozai could see him, but there’s a sudden flash of lightning, and Aang realizes Ozai shot through one of his own airships to get at him. Aang falls from the sky in agony; below him, beneath the sea, he can make out the shapes of sunken ships, one of which looks like Zhao’s… he wonders why it’s always lightning, and the sea swallows him.

We end with an author note. A/N: Whoof. Aang POV - well, let's just say I find it very alien trying to write an avowed pacifist. Hope this worked.
Okay, apparently "Invincible" is by Hedley, and "I Wish I had an Angel" by Nightwish. I can remember odd facts about the ecology of lizard-dispersed fruiting plants, but not song titles and bands. Go figure.
I'd really appreciate it if people would stop posting comments from the Headscratchers. I'm not planning to read the Tropes page again until after Embers is done.
And before people complain that Zuko makes no mistakes, define mistake.
If by 'mistake' you mean a decision that ends up with negative consequences - in the show, the Gaang gets to make a pile of mistakes that had no consequences. If they'd made 'em in real life, they'd all be dead. (Burning the seal blubber jerky as firewood? Seriously? Your survival supplies?) Zuko's made plenty of mistakes, or he'd never have gotten backed into this corner with Aang. But he hasn't made a lot of life-threatening mistakes - because if he had, he'd be dead.
As for other kinds of mistakes... try that mess with Katara on the beach. Whoof. Or fighting Katara with his back to a cliff. That was a life-threatening mistake. And he almost died.
I'm going to take a wild stab here and guess that what people are really complaining about is the lack of Zuko-angst over "my god what have I done". The problem with that is, in this AU, the Crossroads of Destiny didn't happen. Zuko went against the Fire Lord, but he did not betray Iroh. And since they got out of Ba Sing Se, Zuko has been really really busy keeping people alive. Some people angst under those conditions, yes. But you'd be surprised how many people just grit their teeth, find the next target, and keep going. Yes, even in the middle of a war. Yes, even after having set other human beings on fire.
But if you really want angst, take another look. Because there's one big mistake Zuko's been making all along, and it's about to bite hard...

MG’s Thoughts

Most of this chapter, until the end, was pretty much more of the sort of preparation we saw from last chapter. I do appreciate that Vathara is at least trying to take time to explain Iroh’s mindset here and why he’s doing what he’s doing, but I still question the notion that a conflict between Zuko and Iroh was the right choice for the story, at least at this stage, and it can’t shake the feeling that Iroh is being torn down to prop Zuko up, especially when everyone who’s talking the matter over seems to agree that Zuko is still in the right and Iroh is in the wrong, even if they understand Iroh’s motivations. And, well, it’s kind of rich to say that Zuko isn’t a general when just a bit over ten chapters ago we had Zuko lead Dragons’ Wings to victory over Fong with Iroh explicitly saying he did a better job than he would have. I feel like Vathara is trying to have her cake and eat it too here. Aang’s fight with the airship fleet – yes, he failed, but in context I’m inclined to take this less as bashing, and more as getting Aang into the position he needs to be for the actual climax (and yes, Vathara is going to allow him a victory before the end).

As for the AN – first of, based on how she writes him in general and some of her previous comments, I have no trouble believing that Vathara finds Aang’s mindset difficult to get into! Re: Zuko making mistakes. I don’t think Vathara means it this way, but it really does feel like she’s saying she’s actively keeping Zuko from making mistakes that have too serious consequences. The example she cites about him getting in trouble fighting Katara is noteworthy to me, because it highlights the issue of framing. Vathara may say Zuko made a mistake, but the way the scenario is set up, that’s not how it feels – it’s never presented as “Zuko screwed up and is paying a price” but “the kadzhait, Katara and Aang ganged up on him, between the kadzhait’s malice, Katara being an angry waterbender, and Aang being impulsive, and that’s what nearly got him killed, minimal fault of his own.” There’s a difference. And Zuko still ended up coming back to save the Gaang from their own stupidity, which also affects how the audience is liable to read that scene. Generally, the way the fic tends to frame things, it feels less to me like “Zuko never makes mistakes” and more “maybe Zuko does sometimes make mistakes, but his biggest problems are always caused by other peoples’ mistakes.” Overall, as other people have pointed out before, the fic’s narrative just feels like it takes Zuko’s side much more strongly than the canon’s narrative takes Aang’s side (especially with how the fic goes over everything Aang or Katara may have done wrong with a fine-toothed comb, while brushing Zuko’s actual crimes under the rug). And I will say, canon Zuko is so strongly defined by his angst, his self-doubt, and his tendency to make shortsighted decisions – all of these especially from Book II on, the material Embers is adapting – that it’s no wonder the character feels off with those traits downplayed or removed! Also, Vathara’s example at from “The Southern Air Temple” – am I the only one who thinks that the seal jerky Aang burned probably wasn’t the only food they had? If only because while Sokka’s hungry that whole episode, Aang and Katara seem fine – and Aang wouldn’t have eaten the seal jerky (not only is he a vegetarian, he didn’t even recognize it as food!) anyway.