masterghandalf

[masterghandalf]

Ooof. This hit me *unexpectedly* hard, not going to lie.

Transitioning is far and away the best choice I ever made. I only started three years ago and it's improved my life immeasurably. I would do it again every time.

It's never too late to start HRT. You may think it won't matter, that it won't help you, but you literally can't imagine how much it can do. The world is scary for us right now, but I promise it's still worth it.

Buy the new clothes.

Pick a new name.

Start HRT.

Anyone who tells you not to isn't worth your time.

[masterghandalf]

MG Reads Embers: Chapter Thirty-Three

Note: This is a continuation of my reread and commentary of Embers by Vathara, originally posted last fall and winter on my Dreamwidth account.

Chapter Thirty-Three We open with a brief author note. A/N: Warning, Azula in this chapter. The chapter proper begins with Tingzhe Wen reading some earthbending scrolls the Dai Li apparently had stashed away, while feeling like something isn’t right. He looks around and sees Jinhai meditating with Shirong, Jia and Suyin going over old histories with Huojin, Luli reading to her children, and Meixiang working on her knives, making sure they’re sharp enough. Tingzhe asks Meixiang if she knows what’s wrong and considers doing some meditation himself – she thinks it’s because Min is being held captive, but Tingzhe’s not sure. He’s read a lot of history, but he doesn’t have any experience with this sort of battle himself. Meixiang and Huojin remind him that he’s got lots of people around him who do know and to listen to them. Meixiang assures him that they’ll get Min out – her grandfather was a Fire Sage, so she knows the spirits are watching out for their family. Shirong, who overhears, thinks that someone so in touch with the spirits should know the war is wrong, no matter what Kyoshi did to the Fire Nation. Apparently, the Earth Kingdom’s official histories don’t mention much about what happened, but Tingzhe knows that about three hundred years ago, Fire Nation pirate attacks suddenly stopped, and Kyoshi was somehow involved. Meixiang is surprised – she thought everyone in the Earth Kingdom knew that. Tingzhe admits he never wanted to pry into the facts missing from the official histories for his family’s sake; Meixiang gathers everyone together and tells them the story of what Kyoshi did. Once she’s done, everyone is stunned. She relates how Sozin’s father, when he was a prince, went to beg Kyoshi in her old age to release her decree, but she never did – and Sozin must have hated the indignity of his father being forced to beg. He might have asked Roku, but Roku didn’t leave his training for the Fire Lord’s funeral, which was a terrible insult. And of course, nobody else could break the decree, since if you break loyalty you die, and everyone had to be loyal to the Fire Lord. Tingzhe wonders why people didn’t just leave the Fire Nation. Shirong reminds him that Zuko was exiled and had no choice – that’s not the same thing is disloyalty. Beyond that, it was the Avatar who ordered everyone to swear to the Fire Lord. That means the decree has the full force of the spirits behind it, and the sprits will turn on anyone who defies it. On the other hand, carrying out the war doesn’t hit the Fire Nation with spiritual misfortune for the same reason – technically, they’re following the Avatar’s orders.

Tingzhe realizes that so long as the Fire Lord wants the war to continue, it will, and nobody can oppose him. Shirong explains that at a Fire Lord’s funeral, it’s customary for all the great names to attend or send proxies to confirm their fealty to the new Fire Lord. Roku must have been a great name, to be allowed to be friends with a prince – by not coming or sending someone, he was essentially saying that his role as the Avatar was more important than his role as a subject of the Fire Nation, and since Kyoshi had already refused Sozin’s father, Sozin had no reason to believe Roku would think differently. Shirong thinks that Sozin was evil, but he might have given up too, in his place. Huojin realizes, though, that Iroh broke loyalty to Azulon, and then avoided having to swear to Ozai – he’s been free for years. But he still had loyalty to his nephew, so he stuck around for Zuko’s sake. Shirong suddenly starts laughing – he’s realized that Zuko’s an exile, so he’s technically outside of Kyoshi’s decree. He can do whatever he wants. Meixiang realizes that Zuko can set up his own independent domain, and already has the people to do it. Huojin wonders if anyone in Ba Sing Se is still loyal to their old lords back in the Fire Nation – Meixiang says Zuko’s descended from Byakko, which is as old a domain as they get, and he’s a powerful firebender and he has a lot of dragon blood; he can shield them, especially since he’s a healer. Other healers can’t touch loyalty sickness, but fire healers can. They wonder about earth – and point to an old scroll Jia has. But somehow, nobody else seems to be able to see it… Amaya and Shirong capture… something from midair and have Jinhai burn it. This was a spirit’s influence; everyone surrounds Shirong, and he admits he saw that scroll before, but never seemed to be able to remember it. They start discussing healing, and how it differs from regular bending. Jia wants to learn, if it can help get her brother back. Tingzhe is proud of her, and of his family – he thinks they’re going to be fine. Of course, there’s still one enemy in the way… Azula.

We cut to Azula as she tries and fails to bend hot water. She recalls that Iroh studied waterbenders but can’t figure out why. She thinks fire is the superior element, but still… if Iroh learned something useful, he should have shared it with someone who could use it, like her. She wonders how long Iroh has plotted against her father, but vows that he won’t hurt him – Azula is strong, she’s Ozai’s heir, she’s loyal. Everything Zuko isn’t. She remembers Ursa telling Zuko to protect her but thinks that’s foolish… she doesn’t need it… and besides, who’d protect a monster, anyway… Azula reflects on how she’s spent years building up to her current victory. Zuko’s only alive because their father wanted to teach him a lesson – and give her a reminder of what happens if she should fail. As if she ever would… can’t he trust her? But a Fire Lord always has people plotting against them… but after Azula took Ba Sing Se without a single soldier, nobody will ever dare plot against her again. She thinks she needs to focus on maintaining the Dai Li, who are too useful a resources… though she’s not sure how they let those spirits get into the palace. The Fire Sages wouldn’t stand for it. She might need to get some of them assigned here. She turns her thoughts to Mai, wondering at how Mai dared betray her when Azula did so much for her, including covering up her relationship with the royal family to give her a shot at a relationship with Zuko. Of course, Mai’s great-grandmother and Azula’s grandmother were sisters, which can cause complications. Apparently when people descended from sisters marry, the resulting children can be… monstrous. Not that Azula disapproves of firebenders born without sentimentality. And maybe she still has a chance to find out for herself – even if Mai and Zuko won’t have any children, she can always wait until Tom-Tom comes of age and marry him herself.

Meanwhile, Mai herself has arrived with messages. The top one is from General Gang, which the Fire Nation had intercepted. She can tell something was going on with him and wonders why he wanted to send word to Ba Sing Se so quickly, Still, it’s a moot point now. She also sees that Suzuran is due to come into port tomorrow. She knows it’s a dumping ground for malcontents and incompetents, and also that Captain Jee is in command – and Jee has a history with Zuko. She drops a few hints, hoping Mai will pick up on them, and also laments about Yakume’s behavior earlier and how he was clearly one of Iroh’s soldiers. She wonders what her father was thinking, leaving Zuko with their uncle. Mai thinks he needed to at least have a show of someone training Zuko, a potential heir, and nobody took Iroh seriously anymore anyway. Meanwhile, Azula wants to know what to do about this potential insurgency. Mai suggests watching and waiting. Azula is amused and looks forward to crushing them – she starts to weave her plans. She thinks about how she’d made previous crews under Zuko mutiny, though Zhao ended up derailing all of that with his own plans; Azula’s glad he’s dead. But now, the world will bend to her will.

We cut to Aang and his friends coming up on shore, Toph thrilled to be on land again – and how the spirit Zuko sent, which Toph has named Boots, is apparently helping her goad Aang into actually practicing. Aang isn’t happy about letting the world thing he’s dead, but Sokka convinced him it was tactically smart. Zuko knows Aang’s not dead, though, and Toph wonders what he’ll end up doing. She knows Zuko chased Aang across the world, with a level of determination beyond sanity – or even humanity. But that doesn’t bother her – she thinks he’s a decent person anyway. Still, Aang crossed lines with him, and Toph knows he won’t be able to give up on revenge. Meanwhile, Sokka is trying to talk Aang into practicing deflecting projectiles against his boomerang. Aang remembers the Yu Yan archers, and Sokka wonders why they’ve never seen them again. They know someone broke Aang out without using firebending – the Yu Yan aren’t firebenders either, and neither are Mai and Ty Lee. Just because they’ll be hitting the capital during the eclipse doesn’t mean it won’t be dangerous. While they’re working, Katara takes Toph aside. Toph wants to know why Katara isn’t pushing Aang to learn air healing. Toph herself is a great fighter, but she has no idea how to heal using earthbending and doesn’t have the right attitude. Katara wonders if Haru might be a good choice for an earth healer and shares the story of the prison barge. Apparently Zuko already told Toph about tracking Katara using her necklace, with angers Katara. Zuko had admitted it wasn’t very honorable – but when tracking an enemy of the whole Fire Nation, any method goes. Anyway, Katara knows the Air Nomads were peaceful – so why did the healer from her vision have a sword? Toph thinks maybe she needed to defend herself – healing takes a lot out of you, more than normal bending. Katara thinks bending is a gift from the spirits, and they have to respect that, or they’ll end up like the Fire Nation, burning whole forests for fuel. Toph backs up – the Water Tribes use swords, made from teeth and bone rather than metal, but still swords. Would Katara use one if she lost her bending? Katara thinks this doesn’t have anything to do with spirits, so Toph reminds her that her people use water for everything – they even build with ice. So what’s wrong with the Fire Nation using their element and burning things for fuel? Katara thinks it’s not the same, and none of them have any honor, including Zuko. Toph wonders if she might try healing after all – it might help with her headache.

Toph wonders if Katara is so mad at Aang and Sokka and indicates she’d be willing to help; Katara says she’s not angry at Aang, but he doesn’t seem to care about her mom, even though he was so angry when he found Gyatso’s skeleton that he nearly blew them off the mountain. Toph reminds her that Aang didn’t have a mom, he had a teacher… he might expect Katara to feel the same way about Pakku. Toph’s reminded that Katara is also Aang’s teacher, and he has a crush on her, and thinks that won’t end well. Out loud, she reminds Katara that they’re all from different places and have different values, but they can work together to win, and then fix things. Katara thinks she sounds like Sokka, which Toph doesn’t mind. She thinks Katara does need to calm down before she goes back to work with Aang… maybe she’d like to help Toph try some experiments with seawater? We cut to Iroh and Zuko as they wrap up practicing. Zuko thinks he’s not good enough, but Iroh thinks he can pass as an ordinary firebender long enough to get into Ba Sing Se unnoticed, even if he couldn’t fool Azula herself. Zuko says Azula missed him in the palace, and Iroh is impressed. Zuko’s used to hiding from Azula – he knows how not to be found. This gets the attention of Sergeant Kyo, who asks Zuko to demonstrate – and suddenly the sense of his inner fire seems to vanish. Zuko’s blending his own inner fire into the heat around him, camouflaging it. Apparently, he was inspired by a book Iroh gave him as a child – Iroh hadn’t realized he’d take it that seriously. Kyo thinks the book’s not a bad place to start – and anyone who can hide from their crew, including Teruko, is clearly doing something right. Iroh is amused that he’s treating Zuko like a newbie marine. Kyo says it’s all about the state of mind, and not everyone can do it. Zuko knows Azula will have the Dai Li with her, though, so they’ll have to be extra careful. Meanwhile, Zuko notices that the refugee ferries are gone; no more refugees are coming to Ba Sing Se these days. He wonders if they could find them, and if Teruko might be up to playing pirate. With Amaya’s connection, Zuko might be able to get crews. But Zuko will have to be the one to present this plan to the Earth King in person – Zuko doesn’t think Azula has him. He must be in hiding, so Zuko will have to get to him and persuade him. If he can’t, he’ll have to try his luck with individual captains. Teruko says she’ll need plans for the harbor, which she thinks Iroh must have. He admits he does… and is amused that if they’re breaking Kyoshi’s decree, they’re going all the way, and are becoming pirates indeed.

We cut to Langxue and Saoluan, docked near a delta and watching Fire Nation ships through a spyglass. She thinks they look too good to be pirates and asks one of the sailors they’re traveling with if he knows who they are. The sailor, Shu, starts rambling about how they’re near the Foggy Swamp and there’s waterbenders here, but after some prompting says he thinks the Fire Nation guys are from Byakko – Byakko’s not too bad, as Fire Nation people go, even if they do eat bugs. Langxue doesn’t care what they eat – he just wants some real food. Meanwhile, the ship’s captain is arguing with the swamp man he’s been trying to trade with. The swamp guy has a message from Hue, who knew Langxue and Saoluan would be coming; the Moon told him. Langxue introduces himself and Saoluan, says they’re already doing what the spirits want. The captain already has enough problems, so Langxue and Saoluan get in the boat with the swampbenders and head off with them. They bring them over to dock with the Byakko ship, where they’re met by an older Fire Nation nobleman who Saoluan finds very intimidating. She feels safe in his presence, though, even though he’s Fire Nation, and she doesn’t know why. Langxue thinks he’s being very obvious about something – he’s not even sweating. The old man comments that he’s old enough to do as he wishes, calling that a “custom” which Langxue corrects to “human custom.” But Langxue thinks the old man is here to help them – Yue and Hue wouldn’t have sent them to meet him if he was a dark dragon. The old man introduces himself as Shidan of Byakko and says that his grandson will need their help. Saoluan is put off by his attitude, and Langxue tells her the truth – Shidan is a dragon. Saoluan is stunned – she thought all the dragons were dead. Shidan admits many of them are, and the survivors have gone to great lengths to make sure the world thinks they’re extinct. But they have common enemies – Shidan hopes he won’t have to help them take on the whole Fire Nation, but for now they have to leave, before Makoto finds them. Langxue realizes his past life knew Makoto – but that was a thousand years ago. How has no one killed her? Shidan says many have tried, and died trying – apparently, she was nearly killed centuries ago, before Kyoshi came and ruined things. A century ago, she found a new tactic – she took human form, and married Fire Lord Sozin and became the mother of his heir. Saoluan realizes that Ozai isn’t human and is shaken.

She tells Shidan that Azulon is dead, which he knows, and he says Makoto will never forgive his clan for that. More than that, she knows the yaoren and hates them, though Shidan has managed to keep her off Zuko’s trail so far. Worst of all, she’s been Koh’s ally in the past, and may be again. Shidan and his wife have managed to keep Makoto out of Byakko so far – and Shidan’s parents died doing it - but she’s old, powerful and evil, and he can’t fight her head on forever. Especially since Shidan assumed human form to marry Kotone, and he’s tied to that form until she dies. Fortunately, his current mission gives him a chance for some action and to help the Moon Spirit, so he’s very committed to it. He offers them aid, and his ship. He can get them through Fire Nation blockades – and he knows Langxue is like his grandson. Shidan felt Zuko drown and be brought back and decided to leave home to seek him. Byakko has connections with the Foggy Swamp already, so… here he is. Saoluan doesn’t trust him, but Shidan assures her that his kind my be ruthless, but they are honest and forthright. Saoluan says he’s wearing blue, even though he’s a Fire Nation noble, and Shidan says that’s not a lie – Byakko is located at a mountain now, but they were originally a wave clan. They’ve kept their healing knowledge hidden, since it can save a person from dying from broken loyalty… and the Fire Lord won’t allow that. Langxue remembers all the wave clans are healers and can’t believe that the Fire Nation would wipe out half their own people – and then he and Saoluan both realize what Kyoshi must have done. Again, Shidan offers temporary alliance against common enemies. Langxue and Saoluan accept. For the moment, though, Shidan has an errand of his own – he needs to assure his clan that their line is secure. There aren’t dragons in the Foggy Swamp… but apparently something of that sort. They need to stop by Pohuai Stronghold, which, conveniently, is on the way to Gaipain. Saoluan wants to know what they’re waiting for.

We end with an author note: A/N: If you're wondering what's up with firebenders and genealogies, besides just trying not to have too much dragon blood, the interested reader might check out human mitochondrial genetics on Wikipedia. Especially the facts that the mtDNA passed to kids from the same mother can vary remarkably, and have differing effects depending on the nuclear DNA involved. Mixing two species (and their mitochondria), even with the spirits taking a hand, isn't exactly something that's always going to have good results. Given the Fire Nation doesn't have genetic testing to figure out what the problem is, they go by a rough rule of thumb: do not marry descendants of sisters. Even so, this doesn't catch everything. And yes, theoretically speaking, Mai and Zuko would be fine. They don't know that. Plus, they know Azula's involved. Assuming whatever Azula's involved in will screw you up royally (pun intended) is a survival trait. "Dragon-child" doesn't have to refer to a direct dragon descendant; it can also refer to anyone who exhibits enough of the traits to show there's a lot of dragon in their background. And it can skip generations. (However, Teruko does come from a long, long line of tavern-burners...) Akuma komainu-ko - roughly, "devil stone lion (or lion-dog) cub". The stone lions are protective guardians outside temples. Shidan's outfit - think Piandao's robe, with a belt and a haori on top. Yes, the "mountain stripes" were inspired by the Shinsengumi. (Does anyone know what Piandao's outfit is officially called? As far as I can tell it's either some kind of changshan or Manchu-type robe, but I can't track down a positive ID.) For those who are wondering - don't worry about Sokka and Suki. Those two, in canon, understand each other enough to know they've got cultural differences to work out. I think that's the most grounded, plausible, working relationship in the whole show. (And one of the cutest. Sokka's Look of Awe when Suki goes after the Warden in Boiling Rock... there's a guy secure enough in being a warrior to appreciate her!) And a reviewer pointed me to the TVTropes page on Embers. ...You guys are awesome. (Yes, even those of you who think I like Zuko too much. And that I did everything wrong. That page is cool!) MG’s Thoughts I don’t have nearly as much to say about this chapter as the previous ones, but it actually contains a fair bit that I like, and most of what I don’t like is more minor. While I have my qualms about how Vathara writes Azula, the way she depicts her internal monologue here – full of arrogance and ruthlessness, but with a core of insecurity that bubbles to the top at unpredictable moments and that she never lets anyone else see – feels very genuine. The scenes with the Gaang also work better than a lot of what we’ve been seeing from them lately, since everyone’s calmed down enough that they’re allowed to just be people for now, though elements like “Toph Knows Best” and “Katara Is Irrational and can’t see beyond her own culture” still crop up. I’m of two minds about the bit with the Wens – I probably like them the most of Vathara’s various OCs at this point in the fic and enjoy their dynamic, but we get yet another chance to talk about how Kyoshi ruined the Fire Nation (this time, giving Sozin – who the fic in general, to its credit, does usually depict as evil – a few inches of whitewashing), and I really don’t see how Meixiang (who has lived in Ba Sing Se for decades, is married to an Earth Kingdom man and raised four Earth Kingdom children) remains this ignorant about what is and isn’t common knowledge in the Earth Kingdom. And I still don’t like how much of what’s going on with the Fire Nation refugees is bound up in the loyalty stuff.

This chapter also sees the official introduction of Shidan, and the fic’s second main antagonists – Makoto aka Sozin’s dragon aka Sozin’s wife, who’s been foreshadowed so far, but only a little bit (I’m not sure if she counts as an OC or not; very technically, she’s not only a canon character but two can characters but taken in a direction radically different from anything canon ever established about them). Frankly, this falls into a lot more of the “this stuff would be interesting in an original work, but I don’t like it as part of Avatar specifically” category that I’ve mentioned before. It also plays into what I think is one of the core tensions of the fic – Vathara is trying to do something that’s more gritty and “realistic” than canon with its emphasis on sociology and politics, while also cranking the high fantasy elements of the setting up to eleven in ways that make the story fundamentally less grounded and realistic. I don’t think it’s a needle that’s impossible to thread… but I’m not sure Embers actually manages it.

[masterghandalf]

MG Reads Embers: Chapter Thirty-Two

Note: This is a continuation of my reread and commentary of Embers by Vathara, originally posted last fall and winter on my Dreamwidth account.

Chapter Thirty-Two We open with an author note. A/N: Given the reactions to the use of pinyin in people's names, I'm going to quit using them in the main text. Instead, I'll put them in the notes for people who really want to look them up. Also, the site seems determined to eat my scene breaks. Hopefully using the horizontal rulers will work. The chapter proper begins with Teruko as she meets with some of the other officers on the ship. One of them ribs Teruko for “bunking” with the prince but gets slapped by another officer for it. Teruko assures them she’s not bunking with Zuko – he’s a prince, and in the mood he’s in he’s not safe anyway. Apparently, he went through – and burned – a bunch of drafts of his letter before he sent it to Katara. Teruko read it and was impressed – Iroh seems to think it will hit Katara even worse. More to the point, Teruko’s learned enough about Zuko’s history from Iroh to know someone’s tried to kill him in his sleep before. But someone does have to ride herd on Zuko, and none of the others are up to the task – Teruko singles out one soldier in particular, the one who made the joke to begin with, who’s apparently easily distracted by his deck of risqué cards. Teruko thinks Zuko would rather burn those cards than look at them. He may be a teenage boy, but he’s a dragon-child – dragons mature slowly, and Zuko doesn’t have a territory yet. Everyone is confused, so Teruko borrows a steel knife and gouges it with her claws. Her great-grandfather was a dragon, so she knows what she’s talking about – and Zuko’s years away from being interested in smut. Another female marine is stunned and thinks Teruko must have had a hard time growing up with that much dragon in her. One of the older lieutenants seems familiar, though, and asks Teruko what they need to know. She describes how dragon-children can lose the ability to use or comprehend words in times of extreme stress – anything that’s not words can work, including hand-signals, but in that state Zuko will be single-mindedly focused on destroying the enemy and protecting his clan. She thinks he’s probably got a good enough lid on it that nobody ever noticed he was anything more than an obsessive teenager with a temper. Beyond that – don’t lie to him, don’t sneak up on him, and don’t share fear around him, because part of him thinks fear means prey. She calls Aang an idiot for flinching too much. One officer, who was with Jee when he served on Zuko’s ship, thinks they’re in the middle of a spirit-tale, and that’s not a good thing to be – but Fushi, the other female officer, thinks it is if they’re the good guys. Some of the officers exchange knowing looks, and Teruko wants to know what she doesn’t know.

We cut to Zuko, who’s been sleeping in Asahi’s pen, as Sadao wakes him up – apparently something’s back. Teruko’s waiting outside; Zuko tells her if this is what they think it is, she won’t be needed, but she says she’s expendable and he isn’t. She won’t say how many spirits she’s gone up against before, but Zuko reluctantly allows her to accompany him. As Zuko marches through the ship, the sailors imprisoned for mutiny heckle him for being a traitor, but he wants to know if they’ve seen anything unusual down here. He thinks he hears something and calls out for the spirit; locating the sound, he catches it with a waterbending move and discovers what looks like a pair of boots. Teruko wonders if they’ve been spooked by something harmless. Zuko thinks this sort of spirit sometimes likes to spook people off cliffs or into vats of blasting jelly and demands to know if it’s the sort that would do something like that. The spirit seems abashed; Zuko decides to throw it off the ship anyway, but then feels bad about it and tells it he knows someone who’d like to play with it. He’s going to send the spirit over to Aang, to give him some practice in being the bridge with something a little less dangerous than the Ocean Spirit. He promises to write it a note to give to Aang if it will leave their ship in peace. He lets the spirit go, and it turns invisible and leaves. Teruko is amused, and Zuko turns to one of the prisoners, who is in awe. Apparently Jee has told Zuko that this prisoner is an honorable man who just happens to be loyal to Ozai. He tells him about how Zhao tried to kill the moon, and now the spirits are taking a direct interest in things. Someone had better ask the Fire Sages if they can help out. The prisoner, Aoi, says that Zuko betrayed the Fire Lord for the Avatar; Zuko corrects him that he did it for his people, not for Aang. Maybe even Azula can become a better person, if she doesn’t have to compete with Zuko for the throne. Teruko says Azula tried to kill him, but Zuko knows Ozai would approve of that. Zuko’s going to let Aoi go and wants him to report to Ozai and tell him everything Zuko just told him; the Fire Nation may be in danger from the spirits, and the Fire Lord should know. Zuko, meanwhile, is going to do what he has to do. Aoi accuses Zuko of healing Aang, and Zuko says he had no choice – the alternatives were worse. The next Avatar would be born in the Northern Water Tribe and would never stop until all the Fire Nation were dead. Aang, though, hates fighting, and if the Fire Nation withdraws to its original borders, he might prevent further reprisals. Whether the Fire Nation does this is up to Ozai and the war council. Zuko’s a renegade, though, and any action he takes doesn’t speak for the Fire Nation. Aoi wonders what Zuko is going to do – Zuko summarizes the events of the last few days and wants to know if Aoi really wants to know what happens next.

Finally, Zuko heads up to the deck, desperate for fresh air. Teruko tells him that lying hurts, even if it’s not technically a lie. He wonders how Azula does it, and wonders if she should marry Aang – they have so much in common! Iroh comes over and tells him that’s not fair to Aang – Zuko thinks they both lie all the time and never have to work for anything, and Iroh admits that maybe it wasn’t fair to Azula. She does work herself very hard; on the other hand, there’s never any real malice to Aang’s actions. Zuko starts ranting that he doesn’t care, a lie’s a lie, and Teruko says he won’t bend on this. There’s a reason Kotone handles all diplomacy in Byakko – dragons don’t like liars. Even bluffing bothers Zuko; hearing her, he realizes she’s not like his mother, but she still seems to get this. Iroh agrees to keep this in mind for future plans; Zuko knows that means something and quashes the desire to keep complaining about Aang and Azula. He wonders if sending a message to Ozai will help anything; it’s not like he cares about Zuko. Iroh thinks Ozai will care that Zuko survived Azula trying to kill him, and he also knows that Zuko is honest and will at least consider that his words are true. Zuko thinks what they really need is a miracle – for Aang to sit down and think. Sadao adds that the Avatar wants to fight them, but Zuko says that Aang and the Avatar aren’t the same thing. Iroh says he’s read about past Avatars and seen Aang in action – he thinks Aang doesn’t control the Avatar State yet, it controls him. Zuko remembers Toph saying Aang hates what he did at the North Pole and wonders how to get him to listen. Iroh says Aang isn’t entirely a fool – he’s stayed ahead of Zuko, and he has good friends. Toph, of course, but Sokka is capable and just needs more experience, and Katara… well. But Zuko was raised from birth to know his duties, and Aang wasn’t. Zuko wishes Iroh would tell him things before they become important – Iroh reminds him that Aang is twelve and wasn’t willing to listen, so it’s not like Zuko actually ruined anything. And he does think Zuko has given Aang a gift… a new friend.

We cut to Aang helping Hakoda’s healer shovel snow over Katara; Hakoda says the Fire Nation told him what happened to Zuko wasn’t contagious, but it’s apparently not quite the same thing. Zuko had chills; Katara is burning up. Toph thinks maybe it is the same sickness; Hakoda asks if the Fire Nation lied to them, and Toph insists they didn’t. But she does know something that might help Katara. She refers back to what Kyoshi did to the Fire Nation, and Aang still can’t believe an Avatar did something so horrible. Toph thinks Kyoshi took from them what was most important to them. What’s most important to a waterbender? Family and community. Katara was caught between obligations to Aang and obligations to her tribe and couldn’t handle it, so now her internal water is drying up. What Aang needs to understand is that a Water Tribesperson needs revenge, and Zuko at least understood that. Aang thinks its awful, but Sokka can’t wrap his mind around that. Asiavik the healer can’t believe Aang doesn’t want to quiet the spirits of his people with blood, but Hakoda reminds him the Air Nomads don’t believe in that. But he also knows the Air Nomads’ ways aren’t Water Tribe ways. Hakoda thinks he's shed enough Fire Nation blood on Kya’s behalf – whether Katara thinks the same is up to her, and Aang shouldn’t try to force her. Aang still doesn’t understand, and Toph thinks this is why he’ll never get earthbending – he can’t focus on one thing. But Toph says Zuko doesn’t actually want anyone to die – just that he has an obligation as a great name. It reminds Toph of her own father – everyone knows his word is good, so people sometimes come to the Beifongs to have him adjudicate disputes. And if one of those parties broke their contract, he’d have to do something about it. Since people look to the Beifongs, he can’t just be as good as other merchants, he has to be better.

Sokka realizes that even in the Fire Nation, killing their mom was considered wrong. Toph agrees – Katara thinks that all the Fire Nation are monsters, but this guy actually was, and it’s Zuko’s responsibility to see he was punished. Aang still thinks its awful; Toph changes the subject and said that when Zuko was sick, Iroh had to keep him warm, so maybe Katara needs to be dunked in water? Aang does it, and Katara does look a little better. Moonrise might also help; they just have to keep her going until then. Hakoda wants to know what Zuko’s internal conflict was about – Toph says it’s Iroh’s place to explain, not hers, but fire isn’t about family, fire is about loyalty. Everyone figures out that Zuko could have died healing Aang, since that’s going against the Fire Lord’s will. And Kyoshi made sure everyone was loyal to the Fire Lord. Aang is floored by the implications for the genocide of the Air Nomads, while Toph reminds Sokka that Zuko knew what happened to his people and didn’t want it to happen to anyone else. Sokka realizes that by destroying the water clans, Kyoshi killed off all the Fire Nation’s healers; Asiavik thinks that without healers, the whole Fire Nation went insane. Aang thinks it was all his fault, but Sokka tells him no, he’s not Kyoshi, or Roku, or Sozin. Sokka knows Aang didn’t want to be the Avatar – Sokka wouldn’t want it either. Kyoshi screwed up, Roku screwed up, Sozin started the war, but now Aang has a chance to stop it. Sokka has also realized that this revelation makes the Fire Lord the lynchpin of the whole Fire Nation; take out the Fire Lord, the Fire Nation splinters. Killing him might just put Azula in charge, but Hakoda thinks there are worse things you can do to a man than kill him. Hakoda thinks the war comes before vengeance – Aang brightens at that, but Sokka wonders if that applies to the Fire Nation vengeance Zuko offered Katara. He does think he’ll have to do something nice for Toph. Meanwhile, there’s still one wrinkle to this plan – how does Zuko fit into things? He helped them because of Toph and because it was the right thing to do, but now he’s free to follow his own path – something no firebender has been in centuries. Toph trusts him, but Hakoda doesn’t want to let him off lightly for hurting his children. Still, they’ll deal with that when they come to it.

Sokka and Toph sit down together. Toph still doesn’t think the situation is going well, and Sokka can’t stop her from warning Zuko, though she thinks he’ll expect it. Sokka can’t believe Amaya took him in and adopted him as part of her tribe; Toph says people in Ba Sing Se thought he was from the Foggy Swamp, and Sokka will never forgive her for the mental image of Zuko in leaves and a loincloth. But Toph says they do eat bugs in the Fire Nation sometimes. Sokka is still confused – if Aang takes down Ozai and stops Azula from taking the throne, isn’t that it? Toph reminds him that some of Hakoda’s men attacked Zuko’s ship a while back even though he wasn’t part of the war. The rest of the world can turn to the Avatar for justice, but the Fire Nation doesn’t trust the Avatar’s justice. Sokka knows his dad thinks Zuko is like a chief’s son, and in the Water Tribes you take the fight to your enemy face to face, like what the Fire Nation calls High War. But Zuko stopped acting like that a while ago. They talk about how Zuko snuck into the North Pole using his firebending to stay alive; most firebenders can’t do that, so Sokka reminds himself to tell Aang not to freeze people so casually. The point is, if Zuko comes after them, he’ll use Low War, not High War, and he and Iroh are scarily dangerous benders. Toph reminds him that technically, Zuko outranks Iroh, and Sokka is amazed to realize that Zuko commanded that ship the whole time. Zuko was responsible for that ship, and now he’s responsible for Suzuran. Which means he’ll do the responsible thing to keep his people alive – he'll hide. Sokka remembers Iroh trying to protect the Moon Spirit and realizes he could have died for that; Toph isn’t sure she could have. She’d die for her friends, but Zuko and Iroh would die for strangers. Sokka isn’t sure he can even think that big. He realizes that Zuko and Iroh are trying to save the world too – or at least the Fire Nation part of it. Toph says they can’t waste time worrying about all this – they have to focus on the now. They decide to make a deal, Earth Kingdom style. Sokka wants to stop the war, but not kill everyone in the Fire Nation. Zuko and Iroh seem to want that too, but to save as many of their people as they can. He realizes that Zuko is trying to get as many people out of the war – and out from under his father’s control – as he can, but his train of thought gets interrupted by the sound of stomping feet as something starts kicking at them. He realizes rather glumly it’s a spirit, with a note for Aang.

We cut to Katara as she appears before Yue in the Spirit World; Yue seems to be guiding her through some sort of waterbending form and says its something Yugoda didn’t know she had to teach her. She says “Aang’s friend” is lucky, and leads Katara to a pool to look in. She sees something writhing in the dark, but Yue promises that her “Brother” will keep the enemy away. She gets sucked into visions, where she’s an airbending healer fleeing Xiangchen… an earthbending healer fleeing Chin… a firebending healer fleeing Sozin… and then she’s herself again. She asks why they killed all the healers, and Yue says that all medicines are poisons. Healers change what will be and that causes imbalance. Some spirits don’t like that. Others, like Yue, disagree. Katara realizes that spirits may have planned the deaths, but humans did them – like Zhao trying to kill the moon. She wants to help, and Yue tells her how she helped Zuko, though it also hurt him – Katara is overwhelmed with hate for Zuko, but Yue assures her that she loves her. She has something else to show Katara now, and the vision shifts to the Earth King’s throne room. We cut to Captain An Lu-shan, sure that he’s going to die, though Yakume reassures him. He can’t believe Amaya did this to them, but Yakume says all the Water Tribes are uncivilized. Still, Lu-shan can’t believe Amaya would hide a Fire Nation prince in Ba Sing Se itself. Huojin knew, and now he and his whole family are gone, leaving Lu-shan to take the blame. Yakume thinks Huojin was trying to protect him and assures him the Fire Nation doesn’t hold one man guilty for another’s crimes. Yakume also knew Huojin was Fire Nation from the moment he saw him, since he recognized that Huojin owes loyalty to Amaya for sheltering him. Now he’s loyal to Zuko, but Zuko was a royal firebender old enough to look for retainers. Don’t blame Huojin for that. Yakume thinks about how stable and predictable Earth Kingdom culture is and gradually comes to the realization that Zuko and Iroh were just here for safety, like any other refugees. Still, he has no idea how Zuko’s eyes changed color, from gold to green. He wonders if Amaya’s waterbending had anything to do with it, and how she did it.

Meanwhile, Lu-shan knows from the earlier message that Iroh is returning to the city and isn’t happy. He has no idea what to do about it; neither does Yakume, who knows men who probably wouldn’t have been alive if Iroh hadn’t left the siege. On the other hand, he doesn’t know how many of the refugees are loyal to Zuko – and if Zuko’s dead, and Azula killed him, nothing will be able to stop their vengeance. And as a firebender of the royal line, his angry spirit will be so strong they’ll never lay it to rest. Meanwhile, another officer, Captain Taka, is finishing up his report to Azula… when it’s suddenly interrupted by a horde of chattering spirits that burst into the throne room. Azula and her entourage make short work of them, and Yakume wonders if Mai is single. Yakume is himself married, but… a man can dream. Apparently, the spirits were sandal monsters, and Lu-shan thinks the Dai Li are failing on the job. Yakume thinks the Fire Sages are usually decent people and wonders if the Earth Kingdom’s priests of Guanyin hold consolation ceremonies – Lu-shan says they do, but it’s the Dai Li who hunt spirits. Azula, meanwhile, has noticed them and wants to know why they’re here. Yakume has information for her, but as he hands over his report the force of her presence reminds him of rumors about Sozin’s wife, who mysteriously disappeared after his death… Azula tells him to leave, but he sees Ty Lee staring at the air, and wonders if the throne room is really empty after all…

We cut to Ty Lee, praying to Tengri in thanks that Katara’s aura is gone. Azula meanwhile is in full rant – she can’t understand how these people have betrayed the royal line in such a way! She thinks Azula’s aura looks weird, and that she hit her head hard – she’d hide the symptoms of a concussion, but Ty Lee has to help her. She thinks Zuko would do the same, though Azula never realized that. She also thinks to herself that Aang is so silly – doesn’t he realize fire can’t kill the wind? There are always scattered breezes left, and they’ll build again given time – but now there’s still a monk left alive, who could start Xiangchen’s mess all over again. Ty Lee has to make sure that doesn’t happen, for her family’s sake. She wishes she could talk to Aang – she knows he doesn’t want people to die, so why doesn’t he just join up with Ozai? People die when they fight the Fire Nation, so she fights for the Fire Nation instead so that doesn’t have to happen. Only a few people had to die when they took Ba Sing Se. Ty Lee thinks Aang will turn up again, and she’ll talk to him then. She thinks Zuko was good, like Iroh is good – Ozai is Zuko’s father, but Iroh is his teacher, and that’s more important. Ty Lee will make Aang see that turning himself in to Zuko was the right thing to do, for everyone’s sakes. Finally, Azula’s temper dies down and Ty Lee jumps down to her; they talk about the circus, and catching traitors. Later, Ty Lee catches up with Mai and asks when she’s breaking Min out. Azula can catch traitors later; right now, she needs a healer. Apparently Azula killed the last healer who saw her; Zuko would help if he was here, but Azula killed him to. Ty Lee thinks that Zuko was always afraid of Azula, and he was right to be. She thinks he should have run… but firebenders don’t run. Right now, she wants to help Mai and Quan, even though they’ll be up against the rest of the Dai Li. Someone might get hurt, but Ty Lee found something fun at a lower ring market – shirshu darts!

We cut to Langxue waking up as Saoluan thanks Guanyin. He realizes they’re on a ship and have left the island – and part of his hair has turned white from where the Moon Spirit touched him. Right now, they’re going to Omashu – it’s under Fire Nation occupation, but Saoluan knows some Earth Kingdom soldiers in the area who might help them. Langxue says they have to go north, though he doesn’t know where – he also knows Saoluan is connected to the White Lotus and admits he knows all the signs. He’s still him, but he’s tapped into memories from his past lives… and he’s an airbender now, as well as a waterbender. He’s yaoren, and Saoluan knows what that means. The Avatar starts with all four elements – yaoren start with one but gain another later in life. They also tend to have bad luck and to attract hostile spirits. Creating a yaoren requires at least one of the greater spirits to take notice of a person, and they are often yaoren again over their next lives. A thousand years ago, Langxue was one of Yangchen’s yaoren. Saoluan thinks it’s weird, but she believes him. She knows Air monks didn’t use swords, and that move Langxue pulled out on the beach must have been a thousand years old. While he was out, he was also mumbling in Fire Nation High Court, which Saoluan knows enough to recognize. Right now, Langxue needs to find someone, maybe in the Fire Nation. He has snatches of memory from his previous life, and he remembers fighting Koh and people who helped him, and Yu Yan archers were on their side. The Fire Nation wasn’t the enemy then. Saoluan notices the mention of Koh and thinks Langxue doesn’t make easy enemies; Langxue right now just needs a spirit healer. Becoming a yaoren traumatizes the soul, and he needs someone who can fix that. Another yaoren can help, but there isn’t one here, so he needs a healer instead. Langxue thinks they need to go to Gaipan first – but he doesn’t want to see the Avatar right now, because he’d probably start hurting him. He also needs time to adjust to air. Saoluan assures him they’re still family and hugs him, and after a while she starts asking about the Avatar and spirits. Apparently, teaching the Avatar about the spirit world is the yaoren’s job, but Langxue remembers Koh was trying to wake up a volcano and wipe out the Northern Water Tribe and half the Earth Kingdom and they had to stop him. Yaoren need spirit healers, and most of them are spirit healers out of necessity, but Koh managed to kill them all and he didn’t stop there. After Langxue gets healed, he needs to find out why the Ocean Spirit is mad and fix it. He wonders if a lot of people have died recently without proper burial – Saoluan heard about what happened at the North Pole and explains, and Langxue can’t believe it.

We cut to Toph waking up to the sound of giggling, and Katara talking in her sleep about Azula being attacked by shoes. Katara slowly wakes up, saying that she’s okay, just tired and freezing. She’s feeling better, but when Aang says he’s happy she doesn’t need revenge anymore, she turns cold. Toph corrects him and says Hakoda says stopping the Fire Lord has to come first, and Aang complains about how the spirit Zuko sent is driving everyone crazy. And indeed, the thing is proceeding to make a racket. Aang can’t give it what it wants to make it leave, because it has what it wants – someone to play with. Toph says he’s got to find his line in the sand, and Sokka thinks Zuko didn’t send this spirit to them to help them. He’s trying to split them apart. Toph thinks he is trying to help, in his own way – everyone in his family is good at mind games, and they need to be ready to expect that when they face Ozai. Katara says Aang was adopted by Gyatso and clearly loved him, but there are things about families he doesn’t understand. Family traits get passed down; everyone in the Fire Lord’s family is dangerous because they train the same way, but also because they’re just naturally gifted and have a knack for messing with people’s heads. Aang thinks teachers are more important than bloodlines, but Toph corrects him – she was taught by badgermoles, but still looks like her mom. People in the same family have things in common. Also, Zuko may want Aang to defeat his father, but he’s also mad at him in a way he can’t easily get over. Aang says hate is self-destructive, but Toph assures him Zuko doesn’t hate him. He only went after Aang because he had orders. Sokka does think that Zuko might have reason to hate Aang now, since Aang is going to fight his dad, and he can’t imagine Zuko would have continued to follow Ozai’s orders if he didn’t love him on some level. Aang thinks that if family motivates a person to do that sort of thing, the monks were right to not want it. Sokka assures him that they’re his family and that’s why they’re there for him, and even Toph thinks that her family did love her, even if they were bad at it – she thinks Zuko is lucky to have Iroh. Aang thinks good people have to care about everybody; Katara thinks good people can’t care about everybody, because some people are evil and have to be fought.

Toph says family is like bending – it can help people or mess them up. Family didn’t ruin the Fire Nation – Kyoshi did. Aang insists Kyoshi couldn’t have meant that – she was an Avatar, which meant she was an airbender. Katara then shares her vision – she saw there’s a spirit trying to kill all healers. Aang wonders why a spirit would do that, and Sokka reminds him Wan Shi Tong tried to kill them – not all spirits like them. Sokka isn’t surprised someone has it out for the Water Tribes and the Fire Nation, but Katara corrects him that they’re after all healers – in her vision, she was an earth healer, too. She asks Toph to make clay and describes the technique from her vision, and Toph manages a little… something. Aang isn’t happy, though. Katara describes how Xiangchen was after the air healers, and Aang can’t believe it. Gyatso told him Xiangchen was a hero! Toph thinks the Fire Nation calls Sozin a hero, but the realm problem is that there’s a part of airbending Aang doesn’t know. Which isn’t something he’s used to feeling. Katara asks why Xiangchen was a hero, and Aang explains he stopped something involving people getting their hands pierced and hauled off as captives by people who used bows – maybe they were related to the Yu Yan, though Gyatso said Xiangchen shamed this tribe into giving up their bows altogether. Aang thinks it would be great if the Fire Nation did the same, but Sokka won’t let him – Kyoshi messed with the Fire Nation enough. And Fire Nation people need to fight, anyway. Aang reminds Katara that her dad says the Fire Lord comes first, but she makes it clear she’s not giving up entirely – she does want to know if Aang wants to know about the air healers. Toph thinks that the Fire Nation went crazy because they lost their healers – but the Earth Kingdom and Air Nomads don’t have healers either. They’re unbalanced too. Toph realizes that for balance, there had to be airbenders who healed and fought. She can tell Katara’s holding something back and has some idea what it is. Sokka interrupts by asking about Yue, and so Katara starts telling him about the technique she taught her, which will keep her from bending other people’s feelings…

We end with a short author note. A/N: "Steal Polar Bear's Fur", is actually "High Pat On Horse". I once ran across a tale of a woman stealing white hairs from the moon-bear's chest to cure her husband from war-sickness, and the move looked right for that. Betobeto - in Japanese folklore, the betobeto-san is a spirit that makes the sound of footsteps following you. Bakezōri - a straw zōri sandal which has been transformed into a tsukumogami, a yōkai (spirit creature) which was once an ordinary household item. It runs through the house and chants "kararin, kororin, kankororin!" Translations on this vary. I've found a few sources that say kororin refers to the sound of something tumbling. Others say it means "Eyes three, Eyes three and teeth two!" In case anyone's wondering... in this AU, Zuko, the Gaang, and the entire Avatar world are smack in the middle of a Thirty Xanatos Pileup. And historically, every nation has been caught in its gears. Twice. MG’s Thoughts Once again, this chapter’s a lot. On the one hand, it’s kind of a relief that Vathara seems to have, for the moment, worked out her ire against Katara and is willing to build her back up a bit (though this isn’t the last time the fic will go after her, alas). We also actually got to see some of the Gaang sitting down and talking with each other and at least trying to work out their issues, which is nice to see after what we’ve been having the last several chapters. On the other hand, a lot of it does still come back to talking about how important Zuko is and/or having Toph be the one to explain everything to the others, which isn’t really a problem in a vacuum as such but does continue what I’d consider some of the fic’s more annoying trends.

We also get our first real hint at the fic’s overarching plot here, with Koh and his efforts to wipe out all healers and destroy humanity. And, I’m kind of torn, because on the one hand, a lot of this stuff is actually really interesting… but on the other hand, a lot of it also feels like Vathara is trying to crowbar her own mythology into the Avatarverse, and it shows some of its seams. Really, we’re getting to the point where a lot of the fic is stuff that would be really interesting as a work of original fantasy (I’d put the dragon stuff here too, tbh) but I don’t much care for it as a direction for a reimagining of A:TLA specifically. Also, this may be nitpicky, but water healing makes sense (the human body’s mostly made of the stuff, after all). I know not everyone agrees, but I think fire healing also makes sense (especially with how the show in Book Three makes the point of fire being connected to energy and life). On the other hand, air and earth healing don’t really seem to fit as naturally. And of course, this plotline gets tied to the progressive breaking of the Air Nomads’ pedestals, which in the light of everything else the fic does with the Air Nomads feels excessive and meanspirited (sorry, Aang, but your culture’s most beloved hero who championed pacifism was actually evil and just as bad as Sozin! Sleep well!) And it is a bit rich for Vathara to have invoked Hanlon’s Razor a few chpaters ago and then reveal that everything actually was Koh’s fault – malice it is! Also, we have another real-world deity appearing in this chapter – Guanyin, a real-life bodhisattva who actually is revered in China. In addition to being jarring for the same reason I find Tengri to be (as I mentioned a few posts ago) it also stands out because previous chapters had implied the Earth Kingdom worshipped Oma and Shu as deified heroes… Guanyin hasn’t been mentioned at all, and comes out of nowhere, and that bugs me. It also leaves the Water Tribes in the awkward position of being the only culture left who revere fictional deities.

Finally, we have the revelation of Ty Lee as a secret airbender. This was another bit of fanon (along with “Kuzon is really important” and “Koh is the big bad”) that was really prevalent back in the day, and… I think the evidence is there but mostly circumstantial and superficial (Ty Lee has brown hair and grey eyes, like Aang – but not everyone from the same nation looks the same; she’s flighty; she’s very agile). Besides, it’s explicitly stated that Ty Lee, like Mai, comes from a noble family – her heritage isn’t a mystery, and I think that if she has any Air Nomad ancestry at all, it would have to be many, many generations back. Besides, like with Koh and Kuzon, it’s another thing that always struck me as a little too neat and pat – to have them all in the same fic is even more so. I think it also takes the sting off the Air Nomad genocide to reveal that there’s a notable population of airbenders who survived and assimilated into the Fire Nation – Ty Lee thinking Aang is silly for thinking his people are all dead just seems to rub that in even more. As does the idea that Yan Rha was a criminal by Fire Nation standards for killing Kya – when he was sent there as part of a mission specifically to kill the last waterbender of the Southern Tribe, and believed Kya was that person, not a random murder of a civilian by a random grunt. That doesn't mean it wasn't a crime by Fire Nation standards... but Yan Rha wasn't exactly a lone wolf, either.

[masterghandalf]

MG Reads Embers: Chapter Thirty-One

Note: This is a continuation of my reread and commentary of Embers by Vathara, originally posted last fall and winter on my Dreamwidth account.

Chapter Thirty-One We open on the Suzuran as it sails away from the battle, with Jee still amazed by what Zuko did to get them free. Even from someone of the royal line, he didn’t expect that. Now, Jee is watching Zuko trying to explain his techniques to the ship’s other firebenders, including Iroh and Teruko. Like waterbenders, this style of firebending relies on rhythms, but unlike the tides, it’s not safe – and even a healing can be a kind of fight. Nobody said healers have to be nice. Jee is impressed at how Zuko has matured, and privately credits Iroh. Sadao manages to get it briefly, but Zuko compliments him nonetheless – this takes a while to master, but he’s making good progress; Sadao is clearly pleased by his praise. Jee goes to talk to Iroh, who explains how the style of firebending Zuko uses for healing is very different from his own, but still can’t believe he missed it. Jee hints at what Teruko believes about Zuko’s heritage; Iroh agrees with her, especially in light of Aang mentioning Shidan as Kuzon’s dragon companion. Whatever the reason, Zuko has now stood his ground against some of the most dangerous forces in the world and survived. Iroh promises Jee that they have hope again, and will find new allies, glancing up at the moon as he does. Jee doesn’t believe it, but Iroh tells him the Water Tribes believe waterbenders are blessed – as Yue has blessed Zuko. The world may hate the Fire Nation, but the Moon Spirit is shielding them. Now they have to trust in her tides. We cut to Sadao, practicing, as Zuko joins him. He explains he knows how Sadao feels, and how difficult this is – fire wants to burn, and making it do anything constructive can be hard. It’s good that Sadao’s intimidated by it. Zuko knows what sort of crew the high-ups would have given Jee, but he also knows Jee’s turned them into a good crew even if they haven’t realized it. And Zuko is not going to let Sadao be a failure.

We cut to Bato telling Hakoda that Suzuran is gone, and their Earth Kingdom “allies” are getting twitchy. Meanwhile, it’s time for Hakoda to have words with Katara. He finds her comforting Aang, telling him that “he” was lying; Hakoda deliberately misunderstands and agrees with her that Colone Mohe was lying. The Earth Kingdom respects noble blood; it would be easier to justify breaking a truce with Zuko if he was a bastard. Aang knows that’s not what Katara meant, and Hakoda agrees – but he needs to talk with Katara now about how she almost made them break the truce. If he ever meets Pakku, he’s going to have a long talk with him, too. Aang insists that Katara wouldn’t do that, and Pakku may be cranky but he’s still a great master. Hakoda says Pakku is a northern waterbender – a southern waterbender should know better than to interfere with a chief’s decisions. He also thinks that Zuko has hunted Aang and his friends across the world for half a year; he knows them better than anyone by now. Hakoda thinks to himself that Toph and Zuko clearly already have an understanding, and Toph seems to know what’s going on already. Katara protests that if she’s angry, she’s got a right to be – and after what the Fire Nation has done for the last century, so what if some of them die? Hakoda feels hate for the Fire Nation surging in him and tells Katara to stop it. Aang realizes that was Katara doing that all along and can’t believe it – someone could’ve gotten hurt! Katara blames Zuko, and Toph tells her if she finishes that sentence, someone will get hurt. Bato says the men can’t learn what she’s been doing – there are no other women here to judge her, but that doesn’t mean the men won’t if they feel it’s necessary. Katara stares in horror, but Aang can’t believe everyone is fighting like this when there are more important things to do. Hakoda, though, insists that Katara tried to make them break a truce. How could they have lived with themselves if they’d done that? How could they have gone home with that sort of shame? Aang says Katara was banished and that worked out; Hakoda is taken aback, so Aang and Katara explain how Sokka threw them out of the village after they went to the Fire Nation ship. Katara says a bender has to conquer fear, but Sokka says literally any other way would have been better. Still, Aang talked Katara into going back, Gran-Gran let it go, and Sokka thought that was the end of the matter.

Hakoda isn’t so sure. He asks what happened when an Air Nomad did something unforgivable; Aang doesn’t know what that would be, but Sokka reminds him of all the skeletons around Gyatso. Aang, clearly distraught, admits he knows you sometimes have to do bad things when fighting for your life, but he also can’t shake the image of Kuzon going to war in a Fire Nation uniform. Toph breaks in to let him know Iroh told her Kuzon managed to use his status as lord of Byakko to avoid serving in the army, and he didn’t fight – though he did sneak around some. He spent his life trying to find Aang – but promises are important to the Fire Nation, the Earth Kingdom, and the Water Tribes. Aang says he knows that, and Hakoda says he should understand why Katara’s actions were wrong. She tried to force them against their will to break their word. For now, though, they have an opportunity to take the fight to the Fire Lord – Hakoda wants to know if Aang will come with him and says that Katara can serve better as a healer than a fighter. If he does, he and Katara will be watched. Aang says Katara was sorry, but Hakoda wants to hear it from her – she says she was trying to do what was right. Hakoda just repeats that she’ll be watched – and if she does it again, he’ll have to act. All he’s asking is Katara to leave their emotions alone. Show them she’s a waterbender who can be trusted. He also tells Aang that Bato told him about taking them all ice-dodging, and that Aang qualifies as an honorary member of the Water Tribe – and that honor comes with responsibilities. Can Aang prove to the world he’s the kind of Avatar who can be trusted? Aang says he’s trying; Hakoda knows and wants him to keep trying. A moment later, Asiavik, Hakoda’s healer, comes over – he says Xiu is back, and she’s brought a message.

We cut to Aang reading the message – it turns out to be an old airbender letter from hundreds of years ago, written by a monk named Yuan-ti. Watching him, Sokka is rueful about how quickly Aang bounces back – at least Katara seems to get that Hakoda’s angry. Xiu can’t believe how old Aang is, though she knows Kyoshi lived to be over two hundred and Kuruk apparently lived even longer; Aang admits he spent most of that time in an iceberg. Sokka wants to make sure Xiu doesn’t send word back to the Fire Nation that Aang’s alive – or at least, anyone else in the Fire Nation. Xiu’s seen the bounty on Zuko’s head – she knows he’s not going to be telling anyone. Meanwhile, Xiu herself seems to have broken up with her boyfriend – apparently, he was overprotective and she didn’t like that, so they had a fight. Not helping that he didn’t tell her what the army was going to do. Sokka gets that he didn’t trust her, and Xiu is pleased he noticed. Sokka, though, knows that Azula had Kyoshi Warrior outfits, and is suddenly worried about Suki. Meanwhile, Xiu is continuing to explain how whenever a firebender comes up with a new technique, they teach it to as many people as they can – so the Earth Kingdom tries to kill them as soon as possible. Now Zuko has the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation after him. Katara can’t believe she still feels sorry for him after what he did during the fighting, but Xiu says her dad taught her you should always fight to survive – or you might end up somewhere like Chin Village, who want to kill anyone connected to Kyoshi for what she did to Chin the Conqueror. Sokka admits they were there, and they end up explaining how they got out alive. Aang can’t imagine that would have really boiled him, but Xiu assures him they would have – her father always told her that given the choice between Chin Village and the Fire Nation, go with the Fire Nation. They boiled a fisherman alive just last year. Aang says violence doesn’t solve anything, so Xiu tells him to keep reading. Aang doesn’t get it – he’s just talking about visiting the Western Air Temple – but Sokka points out a reference to “smoke from numberless pyres” and to the destruction wrought by great waves. The Fire Nation was telling the truth about Kyoshi. Aang can’t believe it, but Xiu tells him the Fire Nation pirates killed Kyoshi’s son. Apparently, she tried to warn the Fire Nation, but the Earth King – who hated the Fire Nation, and hated Kyoshi for forcing his father to create the Dai Li – made sure that warning never arrived. Anyway, the people of Chin still hate the Avatar for what she did to one man who deserved it – but could anyone deserve what Kyoshi did the Fire Nation?

Sokka thinks back to all the times he’s seen Aang in the Avatar State and the kind of power he had. You can’t fight power like that – except Azula did. Most people are too stunned when they see the Avatar State to do anything about it, but not her. And somehow, she got through, even though nobody’s ever touched Aang in the Avatar State before… suddenly, Sokka remembers Aang telling him about Koh, who claimed to have had a grudge against the Avatar for nine hundred years. He wonders if this is all bigger than he’d realized. Katara says that the Fire Nation didn’t deserve it then, but they do now – Aang wants to fix things, but Katara doesn’t think they want to be fixed. Aang says Kuzon wasn’t like that, and Iroh isn’t – Sokka adds that they can defeat the Fire Lord first, stop the real bad guy, then deal with fixing everyone else later. Looking back over the letter, Sokka spots a reference to “renegades” and wonders if that meant Byakko – and something called “Harmonious Accord” and “bearing nuns.” Aang says that means the nuns were pregnant – new airbenders had to come from somewhere. Apparently, some of the nuns were distressed about the deaths in the Fire Nation, so the letter said that they had to be brought back into “Harmonious Accord” to learn that mercy and compassion are illusions that tether you to the world, and they must learn to let everything go, even that which is most precious. Sokka, reading between the lines, asks if Aang’s parents gave him up; Aang says that all Air Nomads did that, and they didn’t really have parents the way other peoples do. Girls stayed with the temple they were born at, and boys were split between the north and south – and he suddenly realizes everyone is staring at him in horror. Aang doesn’t understand – he’d made no secret that Gyatso raised him, and even Zuko knew he wouldn’t know about fathers, though that’s not entirely true, since Aang had travelled around and seen how other people lived. He just doesn’t know his own father. Toph says most people don’t study the Air Nomads anymore; Sokka says he’s going to go get snacks, while Aang starts telling Katara all about Gyatso.

Outside, Xiu, Toph and Sokka are all shaken – they can’t wrap their heads around the Air Nomads and can’t believe Aang didn’t think it was wrong. That scares Sokka almost as much as the Fire Lord. He blames Zuko for leaving and dumping this problem on them – Toph reminds him that Zuko’s never lied about why he’s after Aang, and he’s always been straight with them, but he’ll never be their friend. Xiu thinks they must be braver than she is, to be Aang’s friends. Sokka then goes to find Hakoda and tells him aribenders aren’t what people think. Sokka explains but can’t believe Aang doesn’t know what a family is… or why they’re fighting. Toph wonders if Iroh’s right about why the war started and explains what he told her about airbenders and hurricanes. She knows he said that Iroh thinks Sozin kept the airbenders from warning the Fire Nation about the big hurricane… but maybe the Fire Nation had good reason to believe airbenders would do something like that. Toph also has something she wants everyone to know – Zuko’s not hunting Aang anymore. He told her to keep quiet about it, and Beifongs keep their word, so she did. But Zuko really was trying to help Aang, and he really did help her free Appa, since he wanted to stop another North Pole from happening. But he has a plan. Toph doesn’t know what it is… but she does know Aang isn’t the only one who’s had run-ins with spirits. Toph knows something else about Zuko too… but it’s not her secret to tell. Hakoda is pleased with her honesty and has decided that if they don’t want Ba Sing Se to hear about what happened here, they need to leave soon, even if it means sailing at night. Apparently, ever since the moon went dark… they’ve been seeing something in the water at night, accompanied by a wind from the north…

We cut to someone named Langxue as he thinks he should be running the other way. Apparently, mutilated corpses have been washing up on the shore after dark lately, and children are to stay away – but someone named Saoluan is in danger, so Langxue has no choice. Apparently, most people think he’s bad luck, but Saoluan took him under her wing and showed him some moves. But Langxue has been an orphan ever since his family died, and while he’s passed from family to family, no one has taken him in. Except for Saoluan. And so now he’s looking for her, hoping she’s still playing pai sho and away from the water. We learn this is a small cove on Kyoshi Island, well away from the main harbor; down in the water, something is thrashing about. An Unagi, with a giant leech-like creature clinging to its neck. Langxue recognizes it as a jurenzhi, though he doesn’t know why it’s here – no one has offended the Ocean Spirit that much, not even Suki when she left to join the war. He spots Saoluan hauling a fisherman to safety, then starts waterbending at the leech. Saoluan asks if he’s alone – apparently all the adult waterbenders are off purifying themselves in a sweat lodge to try and soothe the Ocean Spirit. Saoluan is annoyed – she can tell the spirits are angry, but still they could have spared some benders to do something useful! Langxue says the whole village has to do it or it won’t work; Saoluan is darkly amused, thinking it’s just their luck. Meanwhile, the fishermen don’t want to let the leech have the Unagi; Saoluan thinks its lucky as the last one, six years ago, which reminds her of the story of why all the current crop of Kyoshi Warriors are Suki’s age. Saoluan promises to tell the story later, but for now she has a plan. The leech starts untangling itself from the Unagi, and their struggle causes a wave that crashes down onto the shore; Langxue only barely waterbends himself out, and Saoluan challenges the thing to fight her instead. Langxue bends at the leech, trying to help her, but only gets its attention.

He’s swept into the sea – and wakes up to find an old man with a mustache looking down on him. He thinks he’s dead – and then a young man in a Fire Nation uniform approaches; Langxue flips into a fighting stance Saoluan taught him, but the newcomer asks him to calm down. He says they’re all friends here, even if it’s been a while and then tells “Hyourin” to wake up. Langxue is suddenly inundated with memories not his own and recognizes Kaze. He doesn’t know what happened; Kaze explains that they stopped something terrible from happening, but Koh got away, and things went wrong – now, for a thousand years, there haven’t been any spirit healers. Which means no yaoren. Now, though there are two – maybe three, if Shirong learns fast enough. When Langxue wakes up, he needs to head north, and he’ll figure out what to do along the way. He realizes what’s happening to him but wants to be sent back to save Saoluan. Kaze says he’s sorry about one more thing – and Langxue can feel Agni’s presence, and the Moon Spirit’s. She explains that Agni has to yield his claim, and the balance must be maintained. Langxue seems to piece together what this means, but Yue stresses that he still belongs to her. Gyatso thinks that what they’re going to do will break Aang’s heart, but it’s necessary to restore balance to the world. Hyourin was a killer – but so was Kyoshi. Gyatso says Aang wasn’t responsible, and this will only lead to the deaths Yangchen sacrificed herself to stop. Kaze tells him he missed the point – air is freedom. Gyatso won’t help, and Kaze says this is why the Earth Kingdom let the Air Nomads die. Langxue says that if he won’t help, he won’t – Yue says the world has forgotten what it means to be Yaoren, but she has not, and calls on the power of the spirit of the sky to be their fourth. Langxue blacks out.

He wakes up on the beach to find Saoluan tending to him. He gets her out of the way, then uses waterbending to freeze the leech. Saoluan says they need to go, but Langxue draws his sword. He says that the longsword is water, the saber is earth, dual swords for fire… and katanas for air. He releases a blast of wind that blows the leech apart. Saoluan is stunned and tells Langxue she’ll handle it; he tells her to never give up again. He calls her his big sister, and then passes out; she picks him up and carries him down the beach. She tells the fishermen to burn and break the leech’s jaws, and hopefully they’ll have some breathing room before another one comes. For now, she’s not going to let the village blame Langxue for this. He’s a waterbender, but he’s also a kid… and now they’re going, but she won’t say where… We cut to Mai, thinking she hates secrets as she haggles with a brush maker who reminds her of Iroh. She thinks that he may be Iroh’s contact, but Iroh won’t come back here any time soon, with Azula in charge. Min is in a cell now, and Mai mentally berates Zuko – covering for the Avatar wasn’t worth his life! Mai half listens to the merchant as she goes over his supplies, and then catches something he said and purchases an ornament. Walking the streets later, she thinks how eerily quiet it is, much more than Omashu, and decides Long Feng broke these people before the Fire Nation ever got here. But as much as Mai hates Azula, she is truly Sozin’s heir and is following his motto – build something stronger from the ashes. Still, Mai means to defy Azula, at least in part for Min’s sake. She arrives at the cell where he’s kept and bullies her way past the guards. Apparently, prisoners under Ozai and Azula’s power have committed suicide before – she wants to check on him. Inside, she has Min breathe and assures him Azula doesn’t have his family. Fire calls to fire – firebenders are strongest in a clan, especially headed by a great name. Azula couldn’t take Min because he was fueled by someone else, and they were loyal to someone else. Mai thinks it would take a strong firebender to lend Min the strength to resist Azula. He starts rambling about what Azula wanted to do to him – Mai realizes Azula wouldn’t be this cruel without a reason and thinks she’s probably trying to panic someone enough they try to rescue Min and expose the whole resistance to her.

Finally, after Mai plays the whole scenario out in her mind, Min tells her to never give up without a fight, and she gives him the pin she bought – which has diamond wire inside, which can cut through steel, given time. She reminds him to not give up and leaves. She decides to feel out Ty Lee, then Quan – to see if they can help her do the impossible. We cut to Jee and Teruko, looking over a map of Ba Sing Se with Zuko and some of the other officers. They don’t have enough room to fit three thousand people on their ship, or enough resources to start a new colony. Iroh knows that, but they started making their plans before they found Suzuran. For now, they need to get a lot of people out of Ba Sing Se under Azula’s nose. Azula will anticipate any plan they make – but she’s a perfectionist who surrounds herself with exceptional people. To slip under her notice, Suzuran needs to look completely unremarkable. They can head in, pretending to be a routine prisoner transport, pick up Shirong and anyone who can’t make it overland. As cover, they can report the location of Hakoda’s fleet, which the Fire Nation would figure out eventually anyway. Jee thinks it will work, since no Fire Navy ship has ever deserted, but Azula will suspect something eventually. They’ll have to figure out some way to handle her. Not to mention, if they set up a domain outside the Fire Lord’s control, that will violate Kyoshi’s decree – but Iroh says an exile is beyond the Fire Lord’s authority. And Kyoshi never said an exile couldn’t rule a domain. Teruko thinks there’s clearly a lot of dragon in Iroh’s side of the family – that’s why dragon-children aren’t supposed to marry each other. You don’t want to be too dragon… and Zuko gets it from both sides. But she’ll deal with that later. After the meeting Teruko corners Zuko, telling him he isn’t expendable. Iroh is a traitor, but not an exile. Zuko’s the only one who can rule their domain, so he needs to stay alive. She thinks nobody should have to deal with a mess like this – but Zuko’s a great name, and that’s what they’re born and trained for. Zuko apologizes – he realizes that most people don’t have luck as terrible as he does, but sometimes he forgets it. He lays out some documents and prepares to go off to bed, but Teruko catches sight of one of them and demands to know if that’s what she thinks it is. Zuko explains about the argument on the beach, and about Katara – she’s a waterbender, she needs her family to love her, and he just set that family on fire. Teruko thinks a teenager couldn’t have been that ruthless – then corrects herself that he’s a teenage dragon-child who’d been chasing Katara and her friends for half a year, so yes, he could.

Zuko admits he regrets doing it on purpose – he knows how his father handles the court and all the manipulation and threats he uses. But he had to make everyone else turn on Katara so they wouldn’t turn on them. Teruko tells him not to worry – he has good instincts. He won without fighting, turning a dangerous opponent into a liability for the other side. She thinks to herself she needs to have a talk with Iroh, and especially to make sure he tells Zuko he’s a dragon-child. Nobody expects good diplomacy from a dragon-child. Sure, Zuko may have antagonized the Avatar, but the Avatar was never going to deal honorably with the Fire Nation. She trusts Zuko; this stuns him, which makes Teruko all the more certain his father is an idiot. Zuko admits he had to turn Katara and Sokka against each other, and he’s not proud of it. Teruko realizes that for waterbenders, family is like clan – fire is loyalty and power, water is family and community. She was the only waterbender in her village, and Teruko thinks she can understand a bit of what that must have been like. Ozai may have hated Zuko, but at least he saw who he was – everyone just saw Katara as their perfect waterbender who could do no wrong. But if Katara ever knew Zuko felt sorry for her, she’d rip his heart out. Still, now he’s made Aang see part of her he’d avoided, and now he might well throw her away because she actually hates her enemies. Teruko realizes Katara thought she was honorable, by Water Tribe standards. Zuko doesn’t trust her, but he does agree, so he’s going to do something for her Aang won’t. He won’t let her get revenge on the whole Fire Nation, but he can get her justice. Teruko realizes that the Avatar is supposed to keep balance between the nations and Zuko’s going to rub this in his face – she thinks Shidan will love him and wants to know how she can help.

We cut to Katara, watching Aang and Appa but still feeling alone and cut off like she hasn’t in a long time. She wonders how Xiu is doing; she doesn’t like her, since she took Zuko’s side, but it was still better than listening to Aang talking about how all the monks looked after him, so he was fine not having parents. Sokka brought food back for Aang, but not her, and Xiu told her she’s seen how Aang looks at her – if she doesn’t want to give up her children, stay away from him. Katara thinks that she can’t leave Aang, since he’s the Avatar. Toph comes over, complaining that she hates wooden decks – Katara thinks she’d prefer a metal Fire Nation ship, and Toph admits she would. On a wooden ship, she has nothing to bend. Toph tries to talk Katara into ditching the guys and doing their own thing. Katara insists she’s fine, but Toph knows she’s lying. They talk about things benders do when they’re angry, and Toph wonders if Katara was controlling people on purpose. She admits she didn’t, and Toph says it wasn’t her fault, just like it wasn’t Zuko’s fault when the knot in Aang’s back blew up in his face and he blasted Bato by accident. Katra is outraged, and Toph explains that the lightning wasn’t his – it was Azula’s power that’s stuck in Aang, and Zuko had to draw it out and apparently slipped up. It wasn’t what either of them wanted. Katara remembers wanting to kill Azula, and Toph thinks Aang broke his deal with Katara by not having her back during the fight. Katara may not think of it as a deal, but it was. Airbenders may not kill, but other benders do, and Aang belongs to all the elements. How can they help him if he won’t listen to them? Katara doesn’t want to make him give up who he is, but Toph thinks he may have to in order to save everyone else. Aang doesn’t need to be just like her, but he does need to be willing to stop the bad guys. Katara thinks it’s not fair… and Sokka spots a message hawk. The hawk lands nearby, and Sokka starts reading – the letter is for Toph but includes a message for whoever is reading it to her. Part of the letter is for Katara, too. She takes it and starts reading. First off, Zuko explains how serious an insult “bastard” is for a great name in Fire Nation culture. Zuko struck back, but now that he’s away from the fight and calmed down, he understands the seriousness of Katara’s actions and knows she’s not stupid. He’s learned some things about her culture recently and wants to share some things about his. First off, he knows every firebender is dangerous, and some firebenders have done shameful things in the war. He also knows that he’s a threat to Aang – Aang scares him, not because he’s powerful, but because he’s an idiot. Azula carefully controls the damage she does, but Aang doesn’t. He didn’t know there was a dangerous spirit loose in Ba Sing Se, and such spirits are fueled by unhallowed deaths – and because of his actions at the North Pole, thousands of unhallowed corpses are now drifting through the ocean. Zuko is happy to stand in the way of the person who caused that.

He also knows Katara wants vengeance for her mother. He’d never keep her from that, but he’ll define what vengeance is. It doesn’t involve him, Iroh, or anyone in his crew – they didn’t do it. The Fire Nation values vendetta, but only against the person who actually wronged you. Zuko did some digging with Iroh and Jee and has given Katara the name of her mother’s killer, and a name she can use to travel the Fire Nation incognito searching for vengeance. It’s not a gift – Zuko is just helping Katara fulfil her right to vengeance. But Zuko knows Aang won’t approve. The Air Nomads didn’t believe in violence… but they could just fly away from all their problems. Aang won’t support Katra’s vendetta, even though it’s just… but the Fire Nation’s conflict with the Avatar has always been about justice. Now Zuko has given Katara a chance for justice. She can still hate him, if she wants. Aang is left horrified at the contents of the letter – doesn’t Zuko know revenge is dangerous to both parties? Katara has to forgive, and let it go. But Katara can’t do that. Her mother is gone – Aang doesn’t understand, but Zuko of all people does. She stares at Aang, tells him she doesn’t know him at all, and then passes out.

We end with an author note. A/N: "It is better to be hated for what you are, than loved for what you are not." - André Gide. Lángxuě (Snow Wolf); Sāoluàn (bedlam, disorder, havoc, roughhouse, TEMPEST). ...I just know someone has recognized who those two are based on. Heh. jùrénzhì = giant leech; I gave it a Chinese name, but this is an actual monster out of Cherokee folklore. Though I've fiddled with it a little. What Sāoluàn uses is called the "precordial thump". Just in case anyone's wondering, do not do this without advanced medical training. (Check Wikipedia for more details.) Sometimes, it works. General note on pinyin: I use 'em when I can find 'em. Until recently, I didn't have a good source that displayed them accurately. Now I seem to have found one, at www .mandarintools worddict. html So I plan to keep using them. On Katara: someone that badly hurt, that stuck in old childhood patterns, takes time to fix. Time, and a nonjudgmental ear - which Aang, the Water Tribe fleet, and Sokka (much as I love the sarcastic one) are not. They've only been out of Ba Sing Se a few days, and Toph has just been putting together how bad the situation is. Give her a little time to work. MG’s Thoughts Okay, some big things going on in this chapter. First off, the Katara-bashing is still going on, though I think this is about the point in the fic where it peaks, for lack of a better word – after this arc, the Katara-bashing doesn’t go away, but Vathara does start allowing her a somewhat more sympathetic presentation. Though not without getting an implicit death threat from her own father if she doesn’t change her ways; yuck. And of course, there’s her letter from Zuko at the end of this chapter, and, okay, I have to admit to being kind of uncomfortable that Zuko, a prince of the country that killed Katara’s mother, has taken it upon himself to set the terms for when and how Katara is allowed to have revenge while explicitly speaking in a semi-official capacity as a Fire Nation noble. And what weirds me out even more is that Katara is receptive to it, when I think even canon!Katara (pre-“Southern Raiders”) would probably be furiously tearing Zuko’s note up at his presumption, much less Vathara’s “the Fire Nation in general and Zuko in particular all deserve to die” version, though maybe that’s just me.

On the other hand, the Katara-bashing ebbing a bit is accompanied by an increase in Aang-bashing and Air Nomad-bashing. The Aang-bashing is a bit different; Vathara doesn’t seem to think Aang is a bad person, just that he’s immature and naïve and has no idea how to properly wield the power he has without hurting people, but she’s not going to let it go (also, pretty sure in canon Aang and friends knew exactly what the people of Chin Village intended to do to him – they were just happy to get out of there alive and put that place behind them). And then there’s the Air Nomad-bashing, which starts in earnest this chapter. For one, it’s clear Vathara does not approve of their ideals, mostly reducing them to hollow, childish platitudes every other character shoots down with little effort. And on the other hand… well, part of me can’t shake the idea that Vathara just can’t get over that the Air Nomads dared to raise their children in a way other than nuclear families, since she choose to take and run with the most sinister interpretation of that possible, and then has everyone, no matter what nation they’re from, react with revulsion. Making it worse is that the fic comes, IMO, perilously close to hopping the line from “Sozin was able to deceive the Fire Nation into hating the Air Nomads and wanting them dead” to “Sozin took advantage of the fact that the Fire Nation actually had good reasons for wanting the Air Nomads dead,” which is obviously a much more troubling thing. And, IMO, both of these points are going to get much worse as the fic goes on. I got some pushback on my original review that it had misrepresented what the fic actually said about the Air Nomads, but even so… a lot of what Vathara does with them makes me very deeply uncomfortable.

Finally, this chapter is really where we get the fic’s actual big bad clearly identified, even if we don’t know what he’s up to yet – Koh the Face-Stealer. It’s a decision I don’t much like. Part of my reasons are personal – when I was writing my own A:TLA fics years ago (around the time Vathara was writing Embers, actually – time flies!), for about five minutes I considered making Koh the big bad of my Azula Trilogy, before coming to my senses and realizing it was a terrible idea (I ended up creating an OC spirit instead). I just think Koh works much, much better as the secretive, dangerous keeper of eldritch knowledge than as an active bad guy; I also very much didn’t want to risk my own fics taking the onus for the war and the general state of the world off the Fire Nation and putting it on someone else, which I think Embers does (with Koh and his ally, the fic’s other main villain, really ending up overshadowing Ozai as the big threat). It also feels a bit too pat to me; like the bit about Kuzon being connected with Zuko, and a few other plot points that are coming, it feels like another symptom of the idea that character and worldbuilding details can’t just exist. Koh was the biggest, meanest spirit Aang met in the original show, so obviously he has to be the Avatarverse’s equivalent of Satan or something. I wonder if this interpretation, bugged the show’s original creators, too, because later installments of the Avatarverse would establish that Koh is far from the worst thing the Spirit World has to offer – Korra has Vaatu, of course, but the Kyoshi novels also have Father Glowworm dismiss Koh as a “chatty little upstart,” too (on a tangentially related note, it amuses me that Vathara decided Kuruk lived longer than Kyoshi, when the Kyoshi novels would eventually make it clear that Kuruk died young – for anyone, not just an Avatar - and the fact that he didn’t leave a solid legacy behind caused a lot of problems for Kyoshi). I also don’t think the fic does a great job of foreshadowing Koh’s involvement (he’s gotten a fair few mentions so far, but almost entirely in the form of people swearing by him or mentioning him as a legendary figure, not as someone who’s actually behind things in the present), though I might be more forgiving if I liked the plot point in general better. I’ll doubtless have more to say on this as we go on.

[masterghandalf]

MG Reads Embers: Chapter Thirty

Still having technical difficulties with these, so posting links instead of full recaps. My commentary on Embers: Chapter Thirty may be found here: masterghandalf | MG Reads Embers: Chapter Thirty (dreamwidth.org). Sorry for the inconvenience!

[masterghandalf]

MG Reads Embers: Chapter Twenty-Nine

Still having technical difficulties with these, so posting links instead of full recaps. My commentary on Embers: Chapter Twenty-Nine may be found here: masterghandalf | MG Reads Embers: Chapter Twenty-Nine (dreamwidth.org). Sorry for the inconvenience!

[masterghandalf]

MG Reads Embers: Chapter Twenty-Eight

Still having technical difficulties with these, so still posting links instead of full recaps. My commentary on Embers: Chapter Twenty-Eight may be found here: masterghandalf | MG Reads Embers: Chapter Twenty-Eight (dreamwidth.org). Sorry for the inconvenience!

[masterghandalf]

MG Reads Embers: Chapter Twenty-Seven

Still having technical difficulties with these, so still posting links instead of full recaps. My commentary on Embers: Chapter Twenty-Seven may be found here: masterghandalf | MG Reads Embers: Chapter Twenty-Seven (dreamwidth.org). Sorry for the inconvenience!

[masterghandalf]

MG Reads Embers: Chapter Twenty-Six

Still having technical difficulties with these, so still posting links instead of full recaps. My commentary on Embers: Chapter Twenty-Six may be found here: masterghandalf | MG Reads Embers: Chapter Twenty-Six (dreamwidth.org). Sorry for the inconvenience!

[masterghandalf]

MG Reads Embers: Chapter Twenty-Five

Still having technical difficulties with these, so still posting links instead of full recaps. My commentary on Embers: Chapter Twenty-Five may be found here: masterghandalf | MG Reads Embers: Chapter Twenty-Five (dreamwidth.org). Sorry for the inconvenience!

[masterghandalf]

MG Reads Embers: Chapter Twenty-Four

Still having technical difficulties with these, so posting links instead of full recaps. My commentary on Embers: Chapter Twenty-Four may be found here: masterghandalf | MG Reads Embers: Chapter Twenty-Four (dreamwidth.org). Sorry for the inconvenience!

[masterghandalf]

MG Reads Embers: Chapter Twenty-Three

For now, I'm just going to continue posting links to these rather than copying the entire post, since I'm still not sure what was causing my previous issues. Anyway, my commentary on Embers: Chapter Twenty-Three may be found here: masterghandalf | MG Reads Embers: Chapter Twenty-Three (dreamwidth.org). Sorry for the inconvenience!

[masterghandalf]

MG Reads Embers: Chapter Twenty-Two

Still having technical issues, so I'm just going to include a link to the original Dreamwidth post and see if that works. My commentary on Embers: Chapter Twenty-Two may be found here: masterghandalf | MG Reads Embers: Chapter Twenty-Two (dreamwidth.org) Very sorry for the trouble!

[masterghandalf]

MG Reads Embers: Chapter Twenty-One

I've been having technical difficulties posting this one, so I'm just going to include a link to the original Dreamwidth post and see if that works. My commentary on Embers: Chapter Twenty-One may be found here: masterghandalf | MG Reads Embers: Chapter Twenty-One (dreamwidth.org) Very sorry for the trouble!

[masterghandalf]

MG Reads Embers: Chapter Twenty

Note: This is a continuation of my reread and commentary of Embers by Vathara, originally posted last fall and winter on my Dreamwidth account.

Chapter Twenty We open with Katara wondering where Toph is, and Sokka remembering how she asked him to keep quiet before she slips away. Aang thinks she went to see Luli but doesn’t know why; he can’t imagine he’ll have to bend jade that often. Katara thinks Toph wouldn’t stay out this long without a reason – and besides, she thinks they’re being followed. Sokka agrees and hopes that if the Dai Li are following them, they’re not following Toph. He explains that nobody wants to talk with them about anything important - this makes Katara think of Amaya, and Sokka says that it’s weird for a waterbender to show up and just flat out say she won’t talk to them like that – and then for Toph to disappear right afterwards. Maybe she got bored, but Sokka thinks she’s after something important – Appa. He thinks Amaya was a distraction, and that she brought someone else, probably her apprentice, and that person talked with Toph while the Dai Li weren’t watching them. They argue over why Toph wouldn’t tell them, but decide she might need their help – and what sort of Water Tribe name is “Lee,” anyway? Aang decides Appa is more important than Toph’s plan, and that they should go see Luli. We cut to Zuko and Toph, getting ready to begin their infiltration of Lake Laogai. Zuko asks if Aang meant to destroy the fleet at the North Pole. Toph can tell from sensing Zuko’s body language that he’s starting to trust her a little – at the same time, he’s not just a firebender, he’s the prince. Aang was raised by monks and Katara and Sokka by a village chief, but Zuko was raised to rule an empire. Toph knows how big Ba Sing Se is, and that Iroh once laid siege to it – the amount of resources that would take boggles her. And she can only imagine how much Aang destroyed at the North Pole. Toph says Aang just wanted to stop the fleet, and Zuko says that that never would have happened with Zhao in command; Toph wonders if Aang should have just grabbed Pakku and run to train with him somewhere else, and Zuko thinks he should have. Toph wonders why Aang didn’t think of that, though Zuko admits it wouldn’t have stopped the invasion. Zhao had influence and a plan – though maybe if Aang hadn’t gone to the Water Tribes in the first place, Zhao wouldn’t have invaded when he did.

Zuko, for his part, thinks Zhao’s plan was bad – and obviously, it didn’t work. He’d have only sent a few ships to the North Pole in Zhao’s place, carrying very specialized people – Toph already knows about Ty Lee, and there are other people who can do what she can. They don’t normally leave the Fire Nation during wartime, but a member of the royal family could order it. The Water Tribes wouldn’t know what to look for – their warriors aren’t real soldiers, most of their leadership is terrible, and they fight to kick out outsiders, not out of a sense of national duty. They rely on their waterbenders, and most of their warriors have had nobody to fight for decades except each other – and they have fought each other, a lot. Which means they’re more worried about each other than an invasion, and a small force could slip by them and kidnap Aang. Toph is stunned. Meanwhile, they’re still a long way from Lake Laogai, so Toph wants to hear all about Zuko’s time chasing Aang – the stuff the others haven’t told her, like the time Katara stole from pirates. Privately, Toph is hoping to get Zuko on their side - Aang will need a firebending teacher eventually. In the meantime, Zuko starts his story. We cut to Quan asking Shirong why Amaya would visit the Avatar. Shirong has no idea; all he can think of is that one of the Avatar’s friends is a waterbender too. Privately, he wonders if Zuko is up to something, but keeps it to himself. Quan doesn’t want her doing it again – Long Feng is disturbed by the situation, and they’ve lost track of Toph. Shirong thinks that she vanishes sometimes, but always turns up again. Quan tells him to have a good night and leaves, and Shirong suddenly realizes they suspect him. If the other Dai Li figure out what he’s actually up to, he could be hauled in front of Long Feng personally, which terrifies him. Still, Shirong thinks it’s worth it to keep the Avatar out of Long Feng’s hands. He thinks to himself that Zuko can do this but doesn’t dare show his hand by acting to help him. Or, maybe there’s one thing to do. He goes to his quarters and prays and his personal shrine to Oma, Shu and even Agni, begging for them to help Zuko. He doesn’t notice that, for a moment, the shrine glows gold.

We cut to Zuko and Toph at Lake Laogai; Toph is impressed by everything Zuko pulled off his journey, but Zuko just says that if the Fire Lord gives you a command, you obey. Whatever it takes. Toph knows that Zuko’s not just in this for orders, though, and Zuko asks her if she wants Azula in charge of the Fire Nation. Toph agrees that would be bad and asks how Zuko has faked being a waterbender so well. In response, Zuko bends the water away to create a path in the lake, to Toph’s shock. He warns her that once they get in, he won’t be able to do that – if the Dai Li see he’s a waterbender, they might figure out who he is. Zuko gives a brief explanation of how the spirits gave him waterbending and that he really is Amaya’s apprentice. Toph is amused and wants to know if she can tell the others Amaya’s apprentice is Fire Nation, if only for the look on Katara’s face. The two of them find where Zuko exposed the entrance to the base and head on in, Zuko reminding himself he’s doing this for his people, not Aang. We cut to Huojin, hearing the sound of pounding on his door – and it turns out to be the Avatar and his friends on the other side. They’re asking for Luli, Toph and “Lee,” and when Huojin tries to direct them to the guard headquarters, Aang bends him up to his neck in rocks. Huojin, angry now, demands to know what they want with his wife. Aang says they just want to talk and lets him go; Huojin chews them out for assaulting a city guard and staying out past curfew. They explain they’re looking for Toph and it took a long time to find the house. Huojin explains that she was here but isn’t anymore. And he’s certainly not going to tell them where to find Luli after how they treated him. He wants to see their papers, but apparently Toph had them – Aang thinks that the Avatar shouldn’t need papers, but Huojin pretends not to believe him. We cut back to Toph, thinking that Zuko’s having fun at least as they infiltrate Lake Laogai. She thinks it’s weird for a firebender to be that good at this. In fact, he seems excited, like she did at a high-stakes match. Making their way through the base, they stumble on a cell holding three prisoners who Zuko recognizes – Jet, Smellerbee, and Longshot. Zuko wants Toph to get them out – better they don’t talk to him at all. Meanwhile, Toph can hear the voices of the new Joo Dees from a nearby cell, mindlessly repeating slogans – she remembers what Amaya said about them and decides that if the Fire Nation wants Ba Sing Se, they can have it – or at least they could if it weren’t for the ordinary people who live here. Jet says they tried to do it to them, too; Smellerbee and Longshot grab him and make him shut up, and Toph realizes they’re in trouble.

We cut to Long Feng as he asks about Shirong, while running over his plans for Aang. He thinks about General Fong’s report that the Avatar State can be triggered by extreme emotion, and he doesn’t want to risk losing everything he’s built here. Quan thinks Shirong is acting odd, but he imagines anyone would after what he just went through – still, he promises he won’t let his friendship with Shirong get in the way of his duty. Meanwhile, Long Feng knows Toph vanished only after Amaya went to see Aang, and Amaya’s new apprentice troubles him too. He can’t imagine how he avoided military service, or how he was so effective against the spirit. Suddenly, another agent runs in, saying they found Toph – and sure enough, in the corridor outside, he finds Toph and the Freedom Fighters brawling against the Dai Li – and Toph is almost singlehandedly winning. Meanwhile, she’s got someone else with her – a firebender! We cut to Zuko fighting and thinking about how Jet is crazy. Zuko doesn’t want to kill any of the Dai Li, some of whom he knows – he just wants to get Appa out. Then he spots Long Feng, and he's happy to burn him, tossing some dried leaves in his direction and igniting them. The ensuing firestorm blocks the Dai Li’s vision, but not Toph’s – she keeps fighting as Smellerbee and Longshot yank Jet away. We cut to Katara, fuming about how Huojin stalled them for so long before sending them on to the Wens’ house. She knows he really knew who Aang was, and wishes she could have frozen him solid. Reaching the house, Sokka suggests Aang knock, which Katara sarcastically says worked out so well before. They argue a bit about who should do it, and finally Sokka does. Meixiang comes to the door, and he introduces them and says they’re looking for Toph. Meixiang says Luli’s here, but being with the children all day has worn her out – but she’ll answer their questions. And she heard about Sokka from Jia. Aang and Katara insist that they really need to find Toph – Meixiang says she knows she is, but she can handle it, and demands to know why Aang, the Avatar, would bring the Dai Li straight to her family. Meixiang’s husband teaches the history of a time before the Dai Li and that puts them in danger. Aang should wait for Toph to find him and then leave Ba Sing Se and go somewhere he can help people. Aang insists he is helping people, and Meixiang yells for her husband and tells him to show Aang a map. She points out where the Fire Nation’s invasion path is. They’re heading for Ba Sing Se, which is why the Avatar should be anywhere else. Kyoshi wasn’t in Ba Sing Se when Chin the Conqueror nearly took it, but she defeated him – Aang disgustedly says she killed him, and Tingzhe wonders what else Aang would have wanted her to do. Chin had to split his forces to deal with Kyoshi and the city separately, which led to his downfall.

Suddenly, Min comes in, telling his father he can’t be talking about this. Tingzhe says he knows he shouldn’t be, but to do nothing against evil is to abet it – a mistake the Air Nomads made, to their cost. Min thinks this is crazy and blames everything that’s happened to their family on “Lee.” Katara wants to know about him, but Min tells her to get out before she gets his family killed. Tingzhe says that Aang and his friends are uninvited, but they are guests; Aang says that he's the Avatar, and he protects people. Min says he can’t help them – there’s nothing they can do against the Dai Li. Katara asks if there’s anything Min can do for his family, and he wonders. We cut to Zuko and Toph breaking into Appa’s cell. Toph immediately runs over to hug Appa and apologize to him, scaring Zuko – who suddenly has a flashback to Aang assuring him that Appa’s a vegetarian, something he knows never happened. Or did it? Jet pokes his head in, surprised that the Dai Li had the Avatar’s bison, and Zuko thinks that they still do have him, and they need to move. They manage to get Appa free, and then Long Feng comes in with a bunch of other Dai Li, assuring them that they’re not going anywhere. But they take off anyway, with Toph and Zuko managing to blast their way through the ceiling and out into the sky. Jet wants to know why Zuko’s doing this, and Toph tells him that not everyone from the Fire Nation is crazy – and besides, she’s Aang’s friend and teacher. They fly past the outer wall, dodging boulders, and finally set down about an hour outside the city, where the let the Freedom Fighters off. Jet is angry at Zuko for abandoning them, but Smellerbee is just happy to be out of the city. Toph tosses her a coin, gives her name, and says she expects to be paid back; Zuko wonders if she can afford it, but Toph assures him she can, and besides, people give Aang stuff. It just reminds Zuko of Azula. Toph’s confused, and so Zuko explains how Azula and Aang are both naturally gifted, everything’s easy for them, people want to help them and in Aang’s case even the spirits are on his side. Toph says she wants him to win, too, and Zuko asks her what happens if he does – because when the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes hate the Fire Nation, and if the Fire Nation isn’t a threat anymore, they’ll come for their revenge. Toph protests that Aang won’t let that happen, but Zuko says that Sozin destroyed his people – the North Pole will just be a warm-up for him. For now, he just wants Toph to get Aang out of the city.

We cut to Aang telling Sokka they have to go back and help the Wens, but Sokka thinks they’ve done enough – they need to be thinking about hitting the Fire Nation from behind. They were so fixated on defeating Ozai personally, they forgot they have armies to worry about too. But before they can do that, they still need to get the king and the generals on their side – and suddenly, Sokka’s thoughts are interrupted as out of nowhere, Appa appears, Toph riding on his back. The Dai Li try to intercept him, to no avail, as Appa picks Team Avatar up and carries them off. Toph explains how she and “Lee” rescued Appa and says that he gave her a note and they need to see it. Once they get to an island out on the lake, Toph passes the letter to Sokka, who reads the explanation of how the Earth King is a figurehead and the real power is Long Feng, who runs the Dai Li and has the generals in his pocket. The refugees are kept divided and under control, and an unthinking hate of the Fire Nation is fostered. Long Feng is not Aang’s ally, and he's read General Fong’s reports – he and the generals were planning to use Appa to keep Aang under control and pointed at their enemies. Now that Aang has Appa, he needs to get out. Sokka thinks the writing sounds familiar, and Katara questions Toph about “Lee” – Aang is surprised too, since the Water Tribes prefer to conduct business face to face and aren’t known as letter-writers. Toph explains that they had to act fast to rescue Appa, and Lee didn’t want to meet Team Avatar because even though he’s a waterbender, he’s Fire Nation. Team Avatar are thoroughly weirded out by this, and Toph explains how conflicted “Lee” is – Katara thinks he should feel horrible, after everything the Fire Nation’s done, and in fact, he should probably just crawl off and die! Toph yells at her to take it back, and they realize she’s crying. She said she hadn’t wanted to believe how much the Water Tribes hate the Fire Nation even after Lee tried to tell her, but she realizes it now. Aang promises to defeat the Fire Lord, but Toph wants to know what his plan is after that, but none of them can think of more than “figure it out when the time comes.” For the meantime, they have another enemy to deal with – Long Feng. They need to take the opportunity to break Long Feng’s hold on the Earth King – and meanwhile, the Dai Li are looking for them, so they don’t have much time. They decide to head out.

We cut to Iroh, watching Zuko sleep and thinking that Zuko hasn’t broken his loyalty yet, but he’s getting closer and closer to that point. He hopes Zuko is strong enough to survive when it happens… but he doesn’t know. We then cut to Long Feng in prison, as he’s assured the Dai Li are still loyal to him. For now, his plans are in motion and he’s sure he’ll soon be back in control. He already has plans to hand over “Lee” and Shirong and scapegoat them for his actions. He thinks to himself that Min will be a fine agent, indeed…

We end with another author note: A/N: Okay, did anybody else look at what was found in Long Feng's office and think, "Trap!" We know Long Feng's a plotter, and has been for decades. Information related to the Gaang, that those generals could find in his office? That just happens to get his latest enemies-slash-annoyances scattered to the four winds, with two of the three powerful benders out of the city entirely? Right. Trap. Azula piggy-backing on the opportunity to get in was probably the one thing Long Feng didn't see coming. But then, she was born lucky. Assume most of "The Earth King" happened as canon, minus Appa's tooth-marks and Zuko's hallucinations. Poor guy. He'd probably prefer the hallucinations, compared to what's coming. And unfortunately, this is the last of my already-written chapters. I'm working on chapters 21 and 22, and hope to have 21 up sometime next week. Unless Murphy's Law kicks in. Given this is Zuko... well. MG’s Thoughts I think comparing this chapter to the canon episodes it adapts – “Lake Laogai” and “The Earth King” – is very telling. The biggest change here is that, in canon, everyone was involved in fighting the Dai Li and rescuing Appa, whereas here… yeah, I think the fact that Zuko and Toph get to have a cool adventure while Aang, Katara and Sokka bumble around Ba Sing Se making nuisances of themselves says quite a lot about where Vathara’s priorities are (as does the fact that instead of getting his dramatic death scene from canon, Jet is just reduced to being the load for Zuko). This is also a chapter where I think the seams between the fic and canon really show, in various ways. For one, it literally doesn’t make sense if you don’t know the original show, as we go from Long Feng (arguably the most prominent villain in the fic so far, since Ozai at this point is an entirely off-page character and Azula’s only had one scene) being in charge to being in prison with no explanation. This is the sort of thing that, I’ve noted before, will get more and more jarring as the fic goes on and the further it mutates into something only loosely connected to the show. For that matter, how did the events of “The Earth King” play out when Appa didn’t bite Long Feng? The bite marks on his leg were kind of important for the Earth King realizing he wasn’t being straight with him. I’m also not sure about Long Feng having specifically planned the Gaang to split up, since I never got the impression he expected to be deposed so suddenly (though I doubt he was displeased by how things did work out, at least until Azula turned on him) – I’d always figured he had that stuff (which was, after all, genuine) in his office because he’d been planning to use it as leverage and never got the chance. On a related note, we have Vathara’s toned down Dai Li running up awkwardly against canon’s Dai Li, so you end up with weird bits like Zuko being disgusted by the atrocities of Lake Laogai – and still seeming to think the people who committed those atrocities are honorable men he doesn’t want to hurt if he doesn’t have to. Huh?

A bigger issue is that this is where the fic really starts its Water Tribe bashing (and a brief aside of Air Nomad bashing). Whatever Zuko thinks, did… did we really need an entire monologue about how much the Water Tribe’s military sucks (ironically, the system of uneven, disunified feudal levies Vathara describes the Northern Tribe as using would fit right in… in her take on the Fire Nation)? Making it worse is Zuko’s apparent assertion that Aang should have just left the city to Zhao’s mercies, even though Zuko acknowledges that it probably wouldn’t have stopped the invasion (and in canon… yeah, Aang’s presence in the city may have made it a more tempting target, but Zhao had clearly been planning that for a while, possibly for most of his career, depending on exactly when he found the library). Like, I know Vathara prides herself on “realism”, but did she put any thought into what a city being sacked by an invading army, even the tamest, most PG version of that, would look like and how there’s no way that Aang could be remotely in character and abandon people to that? And then we get to the idea that the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes just hate the Fire Nation so much and the Fire Nation by this point is totally conquering the world in self-defense guys. Excuse me!? And maybe that’s just supposed to be Zuko’s perspective, but… the rest of the fic doesn’t exactly suggest he’s wrong. Especially when you have Katara in this very chapter wishing for “Lee” – someone who, as far as she knows, she’s never met – to drop dead just because he’s Fire Nation. Really, Vathara seems to have taken Katara’s post- “Crossroads of Destiny” hostility to Zuko (which was, you know, because she’d trusted him and he betrayed that trust), read it back into her character before that episode, and decides it actually applies to everyone in the Fire Nation. Whatever the logic, I don’t like it, and it’s going to keep getting worse over the next several arcs.

[masterghandalf]

MG Reads Embers: Chapter Nineteen

Note: This is a continuation of my reread and commentary of Embers by Vathara, originally posted last fall and winter on my Dreamwidth account.

Chapter Nineteen We open with a brief author note. A/N: Again, don't own episode dialogue, especially from "Lake Laogai." The chapter proper begins with Shirong, meditating in a palace garden the Dai Li have taken over as he tries to recover from the battle with the spirit. Sunlight seems to help, but also makes him think of Zuko and the favor he means to ask him. No sooner has he thought so than Zuko himself shows up; he wonders how Shirong makes sitting on rocks look so comfortable, and Shirong admits that being near the earth helps him heal. Amaya is with him, and also starting to feel better. Zuko examines Shirong a bit with his healing and then does… something to him, which seems to concern Amaya. Zuko was just trying to fix the damage the spirit did, but Amaya thinks he overdid it. Shirong tells them he’s made sure they’re alone, for now, though Quan will be by later, and Amay takes the opportunity to give a bit more information on what exactly Zuko did. Shirong takes a moment to consider, then asks to speak to Zuko in private. He’s not trying to recruit him right now – this is a personal favor, though he privately doubts Long Feng would think of it that way. Still, he thinks to himself that this is what the city needs from him right now. He takes a moment to consider Zuko and how young he is, then thinks to himself that the Avatar and his friends are even younger – at least Zuko has some sense, at least when he stops to think. Which reminds him of Temul, the firebender from Kyoshi’s time he read about, who was apparently similar. Finally, Shirong admits to Zuko that he needs his help, but not with a spirit- the Avatar’s bison is being held under Lake Laogai. The Blue Spirit once saved the Avatar from Pohuai Stronghold; whatever his personal feelings for the Avatar are after the North Pole, he could infiltrate Lake Laogai and maybe by releasing the bison protect the people of Ba Sing Se from more feral spirits.

Zuko doesn’t understand what he means, so Shirong explains about what he read about the connections between Avatars and their animals, and that bad things can happen if that connection is severed. Zuko takes the hint, but Shirong has worse news. Apparently, he also found a recent report from General Fong about his attempts to induce the Avatar State and that he found that it can be done if you threaten someone the Avatar cares about. Shirong worries that Long Feng and General Fong may be planning something together, and Zuko is rightly horrified. Shirong says he can’t risk what might happen to Ba Sing Se if their plan goes awry; Zuko tells him that he’s in no state to do this himself, but that he’ll do it. After all, Zuko broke into the North Pole by himself. Shirong thinks he needs to hear that story someday. Zuko’s seen Aang in the Avatar State and thinks that General Fong must be crazy if he thinks he can control him when he’s like that; Shirong is relieved to see that Zuko at least seems committed to the mission. Zuko has no desire to help Aang, but he also doesn’t think the plan will work – Zhao got caught flat-footed, but the Fire Nation won’t let that happen again, and Azula’s smarter than Zhao. If anyone can figure out how to kill the Avatar, it’s her. Shirong wonders exactly how Zuko is so familiar with the royal family and just how high up Iroh might have been. Meanwhile, Zuko has one condition – Shirong will tell the Dai Li that Zuko isn’t a suitable recruit. If Shirong goes down this path, he may have to work against the Dai Li again – while Zuko lost his honor long ago, he doesn’t want to drag Shirong down with him. This reminds Shirong of the seven core principles of the Fire Nation that he read about several chapters ago, which Kyoshi apparently wrote down when she was learning firebending. He’d thought the Fire Nation as she knew it was destroyed, but maybe its principles are still there. He warns Zuko to tell his uncle to keep his head down – Shirong knows he’s a firebender, and other people might figure it out, too. Zuko says he’s not, but Shirong thinks he’s a terrible liar. He's seen them both fight, and he recognizes firebending principles when he sees them.

Shirong promises not to turn them in, though – if nothing else, he owes it to Amaya, who’s saved his life in the past. For now, he has something else he wants to tell Zuko about – Temul. Shirong explains that she was a firebender centuries ago who did something similar to what Zuko has done in trying to apply waterbending principles to firebending. Apparently, this didn’t make Kyoshi very happy – from what Shirong read, Kyoshi enforced the separation of the nations with an iron hand, and what she’d say about Zuko, a person Shirong believes to be of mixed Fire Nation and Water Tribe heritage, wouldn’t bear repeating in polite company. Iroh might have heard of her and might know something that could help. Meanwhile, the biggest obstacle is going to be the lake itself. We cut to Zuko later as he’s heading to the Wens’, quietly panicking to himself as he thinks about what the implications of Appa being in Ba Sing Se are. Zuko thinks to himself that the Avatar can’t be here, he hasn’t had enough time to plan anything yet, and finally manages to bring himself back under control. He considers talking with Iroh about it but can’t pull him from his job in the middle of the day. Besides, he realizes that if he is still being watched and doesn’t show up at the Wens’, the Dai Li might get suspicious, and might connect things back to Shirong. Finally, he arrives at the Wens’, where Suyin asks if something’s wrong. Zuko admits he’s had better days and gives a brief rundown of rescuing Amaya from the spirit. He’s not in the mood to teach Suyin or Jinhai anything new today and instead just focuses on reviewing the basics. He worries that if things go wrong, he might never teach them again, which convinces him further that his people need him here. After they’re done, Zuko tells them a bit more about the spirit, though he spares the worst details – he wonders if haima-jiao are why the Water Tribes prefer to live near the poles, and wonders why Katara, with all the violence she’s seen or been part of, hasn’t drawn one – he realizes it must be because she’s traveling with the avatar, and a haima-jiao wouldn’t be stupid enough to pick that fight. It all makes Suyin think of the Water Tribe boy her sister encountered, and she remembers that his name was Sokka.

This is the last straw, and Zuko is so completely overwhelmed by emotion that he can barely speak or think clearly and is only just restraining himself from lashing out uncontrollably. He can hear Meixiang warning her children to get back, telling them that sometimes this happens to the great names, and quietly prays that he not be given a target to vent his distress on. Meixiang approaches slowly, kneeling, and addressing Zuko as her lord while offering a knife in homage reciting what sounds like an oath of fealty; this manages to pull Zuko back to himself and he tells her to get up – he’s not her lord. She says that he is and is pleased that he’s enough in control of himself to understand and respond to her. She explains that she knows this happens to some firebenders; dragons aren’t born with the ability to speak and have to learn it later in life – some firebenders, when overwhelmed with rage or other emotions, end up reverting to a state where they can’t speak or understand words either. Sometimes the submission of a follower is the only thing that can calm the inner dragon down. Meixiang wonders that Iroh has never told Zuko about this; Zuko says it doesn’t happen to Iroh in the same way, and wonders about the connection between firebenders and dragons and why it’s seemingly so strong in him. Meixiang is confused, since that means Zuko doesn’t get dragon’s blood from his uncle’s side of the family, and then remembers that he said his mother was a healer. Zuko snaps he doesn’t know why it happens, just that sometimes he gets so angry he can’t communicate - Meixiang assures him it’s not his or Ursa’s fault, just part of their heritage. She asks if Sokka is Zuko’s enemy; Zuko thinks to himself that Sokka’s only fifteen, but Azula’s only fourteen, so maybe it doesn’t matter. Zuko explains that he’s an ally of the Avatar, who is an enemy of the Fire Nation, and Meixiang is amazed that Zuko seems to think he can take someone like that on alone. She makes Zuko – with all due respect – sit down and demands to know exactly what he promised the Fire Lord to do. Zuko admits he never spoke to Ozai after the Agni Kai – Azula delivered the terms. But he was charged with capturing the Avatar and ending his threat to the Fire Nation. Meixiang asks who she, her children, and Huojin and his family are to him, and Zuko says that they’re his people – she asks if he’s going to talk to Iroh, but Zuko says there’s more to it than she knows and starts rambling about Appa and Lake Laogai. Meixiang goes and gets Suyin and tells her to go with Zuko, whispering an explanation in her ear. She then makes Zuko promise that Suyin will be safe with him, and when he does, she tells him that they need him more than he realizes.

We cut to Pao’s tea shop, where Pao himself protests that Iroh isn’t here – he quit when a noble offered him his own tea shop in the upper ring! Suyin watches Zuko as he takes in the news and thinks about how her mother told her to make sure he came back alive, and that she’d explain more later. Pao tries to convince Zuko to talk to his uncle, but Zuko knows that if he left, he’s not coming back. Zuko and Suyin leave; Suyin tells him he could have been nicer, but Zuko thinks that it’s probably best for Pao if they’re not there. Suyin wants an explanation, but Zuko tells her he was supposed to find Iroh and then get her home, and he’s not thinking very well right now. At last, they find Iroh at the clinic, having tea with Amaya. Zuko tells Iroh that Appa’s at Lake Laogai and Suyin knows something about Sokka. Meanwhile, he’s going out to the garden to practice. Over the sound of Zuko breaking ice, Suyin explains to Iroh what her sister told her about Sokka and how badly Zuko reacted when he heard. Iroh wants to know exactly what happened. We cut to Zuko practicing out in the garden, thinking to himself about how Aang and his friends are here in Ba Sing Se, and he has to do something, but if he’s not careful a lot of people could get hurt. Zuko is torn between his duty to the Fire Nation and his duty to the people he’s befriended in the city. On the verge of panicking again, he sits down and tries to think things through logically, as Iroh taught him. He decides he needs information, and a way to keep his people safe. Maybe he could do that by capturing the Avatar – but he doubts he’d win that fight if it happened in his current state. And there’s other factors to worry about to – the Dai Li want to maintain order, and there’s Azula, who Zuko thinks could capture the Avatar but might not be able to hold him, which means she might decide to kill him instead. Overwhelmed, he tries to hold back tears, wondering if this is going to be the North Pole all over again. Finally, out of nowhere, a flyer falls from the sky; Zuko picks it up to find a picture of Appa on it and curses the spirits.

We cut to Amaya and Iroh making their way towards the inner ring; Amaya wonders if Zuko will stay put, and Iroh thinks he will, if only because he’s busy thinking. Amaya wonders why Iroh doesn’t just order him to wait, and Iroh admits he can’t – Zuko’s the crown prince, so even though Iroh’s his uncle, Zuko technically outranks him. But that’s part of why Iroh always liked it when they were able to go ashore and be away from prying eyes, where they could actually be uncle and nephew and not just general and prince – and that connection was something Iroh knew Zuko needed. Amaya still thinks that as Zuko’s uncle and his teacher, Iroh should be able to tell him not to do this, but Iroh won’t – not with both Zuko’s honor and Ba Sing Se as a whole at stake. Aside from attracting more dangerous spirits, the Avatar’s presence in the city will make the Fire Nation all the more determined to conquer it – or destroy it. Sozin and his armies wiped out the Air Temples in a single day, and Ozai will do the same to Ba Sing Se if that’s what it takes to get at Aang. Anyway, under these circumstances Iroh will advise Zuko but won’t tell him to do nothing. Amaya thinks Iroh has a lot of faith in Zuko – Iroh thinks that there’s a lot of Ozai in his nephew, more than he wants to admit, but also a lot of Ursa, and Iroh has tried to teach him to balance both sides and make them into something constructive. At last, they reach the house whose address is on the flyer; Iroh explains that he and Zuko have met Aang many times, but Aang has always slipped through their fingers. He thinks the spirits seem to want Zuko to chase Aang, but never catch him – and if he meets whichever spirit wanted to put his nephew through that, they’ll have words. Amaya hopes that what they’re planning works – Zuko’s been a good apprentice, and she wants him back. Iroh hopes that Toph will be able to convince the rest of her friends to see reason and knocks on the side of the house with a rock. We cut to Toph herself, inside, as she hears the sound and wonders what it is. Aang then distracts her by bursting in, excitedly exclaiming that he’s dropped off all the leaflets and wants to know if there’s any news about Appa yet, which annoys Toph and makes her want to beat her head against something hard. She thinks that Aang has a lot of raw talent for bending, but never seems to take the time to do things the right way. She gets that he’s under a deadline, but thinks he has no real understanding of how to train hard. She’s tried to teach him, but every time she does, Katara steps in; like right now, when she tells Aang to just be patient, to Toph’s exasperation.

Suddenly, someone knocks on the door; it turns out to be a Water Tribe woman, who says she’d heard there were some other Water Tribe people living here and thought she’d like to meet them. Katara expresses disbelief that the woman might want to meet Sokka – then realizes she’s from the Northern Tribe and wonders what she’s doing in the city. Amaya explains she’s a healer… and then Toph loses the thread of the conversation as she picks up the knocking sound again and realizes it’s the opening music from the Earth Rumble tournament, which means someone is doing this on purpose and probably wants to talk to her, specifically. She sneaks out back and finds Iroh; she’s surprised to see him here, and he explains it’s a long story. But, while Amaya is distracting Katara and Sokka, he’d like to talk to her. He says Amaya’s a good friend, and Toph is amused to pick up hinds she’s rather more than that… but Toph gets that he wants to talk to her without the others knowing, since Katara’s still upset about that time Zuko tied her to a tree and all. Iroh admits Zuko did do that, but it at least kept Katara restrained and under their sight, and out of the hands of the pirates she’d stolen from – and people who steal from pirates often don’t survive, and those who do survive, especially young women, often regret it. Toph thinks Katara left out that part and wants to know what Iroh wants to talk about. Iroh explains about Appa, and how he thinks he’ll need an earthbender’s help to rescue him - and Toph, as it happens, is the one ally of Aang’s who might give them a fair hearing. Toph can tell from his voice and stance that they’re in trouble, and Toph at least agrees to listen to Zuko, though she makes Iroh promise that neither of them intends to hurt Aang. Toph says she’ll tell them she needs to see Luli again to talk more about jade – Iroh recognizes Luli as Huojin’s wife and suggests her shop as a meeting place. Toph agrees, since she wants to hear from Zuko, and goes back inside to tell the others she’s leaving – only for Joo Dee to suddenly appear at the door. We go through the show’s scene of the Gaang’s conversation with her, with Toph thinking to herself that Joo Dee’s confused reaction to the other woman also calling herself Joo Dee is a danger sign. Joo Dee explains that dropping fliers is forbidden, making Toph wonder why they’re bothering to stay in the city and if Aang just literally can’t live without Appa. Finally, Aang loses his temper and yells that he doesn’t care about the rules, to which Toph is both amused and pleased. Aang slams the door in Joo Dee’s face, and shortly after, Amaya comes back from where she’d been lurking out of sight. She explains that the Dai Li have a system – it may take a while for this Joo Dee’s report to be put through, but since she’s been assigned to the Avatar, she’ll probably be given priority. Katara is stunned to learn there’s more than one Joo Dee – Amaya assures her there are probably hundreds of them.

Aang is confused – he can imagine there being two women with the same name who work for the Dai Li, but hundreds? Amaya is exasperated – they are naïve. She asks if it ever occurred to Katara to try and treat the Joo Dees, and Katara thinks they’re weird, but there’s nothing wrong with them. Amaya says Yugoda should have covered mental trauma in the second week of training, and Sokka and Aang both jump in with the story of Katara training with Pakku and how she forced him to take her on. Amaya is stunned that Katara isn’t a fully trained healer – she’d assumed she must be, since she’s wearing Pakku’s necklace. She’d hoped Katara had already figured out what was going on and was only biding her time trying to find a way to escape – not that many people do escape from Long Feng’s grasp. Katara explains that she got the necklace from her grandmother, and Amaya realizes that Long Feng probably does think Katara is a fully qualified healer, and it’s the only thing keeping him from trying to brainwash them – none of them are Fire Nation, so it would take. Katara is stunned that Amaya has anything good to say about the Fire Nation, who tried to kill the Moon Spirit. Amaya says it’s only their wills that are stronger – they’ll not bend to what Long Feng will try to do to them, but they will break eventually. If Aang won’t understand that, he’ll never become a firebender, and the world will suffer. Aang insists that he’ll never learn firebending and won’t need it to defeat the Fire Lord. Amaya sadly decides there’s nothing more she can do, and wishes them all luck – Sokka says she’s Water Tribe, she knows the Dai Li are evil, why won’t she help them? Amaya says that she’s the last of the Water Tribe in the city, aside from her apprentice – all the other waterbenders who were here are dead now, because of a dangerous spirit, and Aang, who’s supposed to deal with that sort of thing, sensed nothing. Aang protests that nobody told him, and Amaya says that Long Feng wants him kept quiet and contained until he’s ready to use him. Toph thinks she’s guessing – but she’s pretty sure. Besides, Amaya says that Aang should be able to sense a hostile spirit without people telling him, but he didn’t – and so the Dai Li, who he calls evil, put their lives on the line to defeat it and protect the people it was preying on, including her. For a century, they’ve been all that stands between Ba Sing Se and destruction. So, Amaya wants Aang to find his bison and leave, and she slams the door behind her as she goes.

Katara thinks Amaya was weirder than the Joo Dees, but Toph says she was telling the truth and didn’t feel like the Joo Dees, who just sound blank. Aang protests that he would have felt a spirit if it had been there, though he admits he doesn’t know how that works, and Sokka adds that he didn’t realize the koi fish were the Moon and Ocean Spirits until it was almost too late. Sokka says he’ll never forgive Zuko for what happened to Yue, but he’s also realizing how much he doesn’t know about what’s going on in Ba Sing Se. Aang can’t believe that he sounds like he’s saying they should stay put, and Sokka says he’s not – Aang is happy, and from now on doesn’t care what he has to do in order to find Appa. Toph wants to invade the palace, bury the Dai Li, maybe kidnap the Earth King, and is disappointed that Aang just wants to put up the rest of the posters. They end up heading off into the city to do exactly that, and Toph strikes out on her own so she can go meet with Zuko. She thinks that Iroh seems like a good guy, but knows that Zuko is honor-bound to capture Aang and this might be a trap – but on the other hand, he did help the out against Azula, and she wants to know how he’s pulling off pretending to be a waterbender’s apprentice. She wishes the others didn’t blame Yue’s death on him, though she can’t figure out why – she thinks it sounds like Zhao was responsible for that, and while Zuko was tied up during the events, Iroh tried to stop him. She thinks to herself that the others’ morality seems to just be “Fire Nation bad, Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes good” and nothing more. As far as she can tell, Zuko’s only interest is chasing Aang, not anything else, and she can’t figure out why the others hate him so much. She thinks he deserves someone to hear him out. And if it doesn’t work out – if Katara can take Zuko, Toph definitely can.

She arrives at Luli’s shop to find Iroh trying out tea shop names with Zuko; Huojin lets them know Toph’s here and is amused to see they’ve all already met. Toph can tell from Zuko’s stance that he really is Amaya’s apprentice, and it makes her think he feels more like a dragon than he did before. They all sit down to talk about negotiating a temporary alliance. Zuko calls Toph a master earthbender and a worthy opponent, but she’s still not hearing a reason he wanted to talk. If he could find Appa, they can too – Zuko says he wants them out of Ba Sing Se as soon as possible. He asks if she knows anything about what happened at the North Pole, and that it sounds like the people in charge of the city want to make something like that happen again. Toph remembers the others telling her about the North Pole, and then about General Fong’s experiments, and protests that Aang doesn’t want anything like that to happen again. Zuko says he doesn’t either, which is why he’s helping – besides, he can’t capture the Avatar in Ba Sing Se without revealing himself, which will only get him killed or captured by the Dai Li. Then not only will he die, he’ll die as a failure. So, the best thing for everyone involved is to reunite Aang with Appa and get them out of the city. Huojin wonders if he, a guard, should even be party to this – Iroh says the Dai Li don’t officially have Appa, and what they don’t have can’t be stolen from them. Huojin thinks there’s something wrong with that logic but just asks if Toph really wants to go along with this. Zuko passes her some papers with things he’s found out about the city, for Toph to give to Sokka to convince him to go if nothing else works. It’s anonymous, so they won’t know it’s from him. Toph knows Zuko is asking for her help alone, not any of the others, which they all agree would end badly. Toph wants to know the plan, but first, Zuko wants to know why she believes him. Toph explains that her family deals with Fire Nation merchants, and she knows Fire Nationals never talk about disputes between family members with outsiders – but Zuko warned them about Azula, which meant he was treating them with honor to repay Katara for helping him, even though she was Water Tribe. Which means Zuko also has honor – and that means Toph is in.

We end with another author note. A/N: Written at least partly because in canon, Toph never got her life-changing field trip. The bit between Zuko and Meixiang is in part based on the scene where Roku is revealed as the next Avatar, and everybody hits the ground; even the prince kneeling. Proper signals of dominance and submission are very important to large, heavily-armed predators. It's also in part based on what we see from Fang, Ran, and Sho. Dragons communicate through (apparent) telepathic images, and movement. Words, they're not so good at. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! MG’s Thoughts

Okay, let’s get the Lion Turtle in the room out of the way first – this is the chapter where Vathara really starts letting us know what she feels about the Gaang in general (that they’re all, with the exception of Toph, a bunch of naïve kids who don’t know what they’re doing) and Katara in particular (that she’s an awful selfish hypocrite who doesn’t know nearly as much as she thinks she does and is actively bad for Aang). I think we see a lot of the phenomenon I mentioned earlier where Vathara stacks the deck against the Gaang, whether by introducing elements they couldn’t have known about in canon and blaming them for not knowing, or by retconning them to be ignorant of things they’d clearly figured out in canon but maybe didn’t explicitly come out and say clearly enough for her. In the case of the former, they’re made to not know the Dai Li aren’t evil (when nothing in their interactions with them has suggested otherwise), that the Joo Dees can be healed (Katara was able to do a little with Jet in canon but not get rid of his brainwashing entirely, and there’s certainly no reason to think she’d be able to just sense it if she wasn’t already working on the person) or that there was a spirit attacking the city (when there wasn’t in canon; even in the fic, we’re explicitly told that the spirit was keeping a low profile so as to not attract the Avatar’s attention, and that the Dai Li were deliberately keeping Aang in the dark). In the case of the latter, the show!Gaang clearly knew there was something up with the Joo Dees and they weren’t just women who happened to have the same name, they just didn’t know what. On a related note, Zuko chased the Gaang across the whole world, attacked them multiple times, and repeatedly tried to capture Aang – I think they have plenty of reason to think he’s the bad buy, even if they’ve also met worse people. Having all of this being delivered by Amaya, Vathara’s waterbender, just seems to rub more salt in the wound, tbh. With Katara specifically, you also have the implication that she was wrong and immature to want to learn from Pakku and it would have been more use to her friends if she’d just swallowed her pride and learned healing like a good girl (blegh – also, Yugoda’s students start as little kids much younger than Katara; we see this explicitly. Are we supposed to believe she teaches them mental healing in their second week? Somehow, I don’t think giving little kids the ability to alter peoples’ brain chemistry is a good idea!) and even when she does something Toph seemed to agree with – trying to teach Aang to be patient – Toph still pooh-poohs it in her internal monologue… for some reason.

And, uh, I guess the subtext we're supposed to take away is that Zuko probably saved Katara from being raped by those pirates, guys. Because clearly that's what A:TLA needed.

On a note I’m more torn about – we have more dragon stuff this chapter. On the one hand, it makes sense that dragons don’t think like humans. On the other hand, there are a couple of ways it rubs me wrong. First off, it (and there’s more coming in this vein) reminds me a lot of certain werewolf tropes I really don’t like, where the person’s “animal nature” (which is usually based on outdated ideas of wolf behavior, even when the characters are something other than wolves) seems to be the reason why they do everything and is often used to excuse jerkish or unpleasant behavior. I know a lot of people seem to be into that sort of thing, but it’s always been a turn off for me. On a more personal note, the way it’s framed here seems a lot like how someone on the autism spectrum can experience a meltdown and need to decompress if overloaded with too much stuff to deal with at once; as an autistic person myself, to have it specifically attributed to Zuko’s nonhuman heritage… I really don’t know what to think about that (and it’s entirely possible Vathara didn’t intend the comparison at all and I’m just reading into it based on my own experiences). In context, it also feels like more of emphasizing how “special” firebenders in general and the Fire nobility specifically are (especially since the solution is apparently… for someone to offer fealty?). As for the bit in the author note – yeah, everyone bowing to Roku doesn’t feel like it needs any explanation other than “in a deeply hierarchical, formal society, it’s very important to recognize and acknowledge who outranks who, and to what degree,” no dragons required.

On an unrelated note – this is the first time we really get it spelled out that the fic’s version of Kyoshi was, in fact, really, really racist and kind of a reactionary. Now, I know there’s no way Vathara could have known this, because the books only started coming out when Embers had been done for five years, but it’s still kind of hilarious in hindsight when the novels revealed that canon’s Kyoshi is not only herself biracial (Earth Kingdom father, Air Nomad mother), but was in love with a Fire Nation girl. Ironic, no? Not to mention, in general I have no idea if FC Yee (who wrote the Kyoshi novels) ever read Embers, but if someone told me he set out to do a point-by-point refutation of the fic’s version of Kyoshi and its Fire Nation backstory… I wouldn’t be surprised (more on this as it’s relevant). Come to think, if I ever do a full sporking of this thing, I’d seriously consider using Kyoshi and Rangi as guest sporkers for at least part of it, if only for the sheer WTH their reactions would no doubt be.

On one last note, I do apologize for how long these posts are – alas, the fic has a lot of detail and very long chapters, and a lot of it is important for what it’s doing and where it’s going. I’ll try to tighten things up a bit going forward but, fair warning, we’re to the point where these chapters aren’t getting any shorter.

[masterghandalf]

MG Reads Embers: Chapter Eighteen

Note: This is a continuation of my reread and commentary of Embers by Vathara, originally posted last fall and winter on my Dreamwidth account.

Chapter Eighteen We open the chapter with Amaya as dawn comes, she’s wrapped in a blanket weighted down with warm stones; Iroh asks her if she’s warm enough, and she assures him she is. Suddenly, she remembers what happened last night and is horrified, but Iroh assures her that she’s survived and its over, and that she must have been the one who saved Agent Bon as well, freezing him in a way that left him alive after the spirit’s attack. Still, Amaya feels guilty for those the spirit did kill, though Iroh assures her she did what she could and had the courage to stand up the spirit – and courage always comes with scars, even though they’re not usually as visible as his nephew’s. They discuss how Zuko fought off the spirit, and how being a firebender helped, but true courage and true friends helped more; finally, Amaya asks Iroh to leave so she can get dressed. Later, she comes out to find Zuko and Iroh have prepared breakfast for her. Apparently, Iroh used to rely on servants and camp cooks for his meals, but finally his wife made him learn to cook after he got a bad case of food poisoning from camp food, and he made sure to pass the skill on to his son and nephew. Amaya wishes she could have met Iroh’s wife; Zuko does, too, and wonders if his mother could have saved her if she’d been there. Iroh reminds him that Ursa was only a child when Natsu died, and her parents had good reason to avoid the capital. Suddenly, Amaya remembers someone in trouble, who needs immediate help – and Zuko is stunned when she tells him it’s Jet.

We cut to Huojin outside the clinic, who’s surprised to hear Zuko coming his way; he asks what the problem is, and Zuko gives him a brief rundown of what happened last night. He assures Huojin that Amaya will be fine and Iroh is with her now, and that the spirit is dead. The two of them head down into the room under the clinic where the Freedom Fighters were questioned and find them all gone. Zuko wonders if the haima-jiao got them, but Huojin assures him that he did all he could and that you can’t save everyone. Still, Zuko admits that the only reason he’s upset is that he’ll have to tell Amaya; Huojin tells him you can’t save idiots from themselves. Zuko will be handling the clinic today while Amaya recovers, Huojin will try to get a message to Shirong and make sure he’s all right. Zuko asks if he can get certain ingredients from the market, and explains he wants to make a candy called smoke-sugar – his mother taught him how, when he was a kid. Huojin, for his part, would love to have the recipe. We cut to Amaya, who wonders how Iroh can really work for someone like Pao; Iroh assures her it’s not so bad. Amaya insists he can go home, but Iroh wants to make sure she’s absolutely read first. Iroh then admits that he owes Amaya, because he felt he inadvertently put her in danger. He knew the spirit might be dangerous to a young waterbender on their own but hadn’t considered it might also be so dangerous to her. And so, he feels that be staying away from her, he may have put her in more danger, and honor demands he make it up to her. As of right now, they’re no longer being watched, so it’s free to speak of some things more openly. And so, Iroh reveals to Amaya his true identity – the Dragon of the West. Amaya is floored by this revelation – she can’t believe that “Mushi” was the son of a tyrant, and a feared conqueror in his own right. And if Zuko is really his nephew, that makes him… Amaya can’t believe it. Iroh knows she considers all of Sozin’s bloodline to be evil, and Iroh admits that Sozin was evil… but when Iroh was a child, he didn’t know that, and to him Sozin was just Grandfather who was always right. It was only later that Iroh learned how wrong that was. He now believes that while the world is full of evil, that means people must cherish good when they find it. Part of him even wonders if Ozai might have turned out differently if someone had loved him more. Amaya protests that Iroh is the face of the war, and he admits that he was, but after the death of so many of his troops, including his son, he lost his stomach for battle. He ordered the retreat, even knowing it was against his father’s will and might kill him. Now, though, his only wish in life is for Zuko to survive and thrive. Amaya acknowledges that Zuko is definitely Iroh’s nephew, and they’re both totally insane. Last night, Zuko pulled water from wet beach – but he learned that trick from Amaya, and she can take it straight from the air…

We cut to Zuko, ruminating on how he’s learned to be very aware of when danger is near over the course of his life. He’s just gotten home, only to find his and Iroh’s apartment frozen over and the landlord demanding an explanation. Zuko glares at the man until he backs down, then knocks on the apartment door and calls for Amaya. Coming inside, he finds the room covered in ice, with Amaya standing and facing Iroh, who’s iced up to his neck. Zuko snarkily asks them what they want him to do with the witnesses, which gets their attention. Zuko promises they’ll work this out and turns around to close the door so none of the other residents can watch; when he turns back, the water is all melted, though Iroh’s a bit damp. Now Zuko is left in the uncomfortable position of having walked in on two people he loves fighting. We cut to later, as Iroh and Amaya are preparing a meal; Zuko is apparently avoiding them, and Iroh explains it’s a habit he picked up when his parents started fighting. Amaya recognizes this as a form of defiance against unfair situations she’s seen before. She wonders if it’s not a reflection of the war in miniature – Sozin destroyed an entire nation in his quest to remake the world in his own image, but how much more damage did he do to his own people? Iroh comments that they all have to make their own choices, and then Zuko comes back in, admitting that the situation isn’t what he thought. Iroh says it was just a discussion he and Amaya needed to have, one long overdue – he’s also noticed that Zuko has ingredients for smoke-sugar and says it will be a fine treat. Later that evening, as they’re all crunching on the candy, Iroh explains that he told Amaya who they really are. Zuko is stunned, but Amaya thinks it explains a lot. Still, if the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation is secretly a waterbender… that could cause problems. Zuko has a plan, though. Ozai is cruel, but Azula is insane, and there are great names who won’t follow her if given another option. They can split the Fire Nation, and Aang will have no cause to fight those who want to stay out of the war. Unfortunately, Aang is twelve, and has no experience with war – if the wrong people have his ear, bad things could happen. Zuko admits he gave his word to capture Aang, but Aang isn’t here, and his people are – that means they take priority. Still, he’s worried things will go wrong – they always do. Iroh promises the world will look a little brighter with rest.

Amaya wants to have a chance to check on Shirong, if he’ll let her. Zuko assures her that he knows the spirit took her against her will, and she wonders if Zuko thinks the same about Aang and the Ocean Spirit. Iroh assures her that was the Avatar’s fault -he deliberately let the Ocean Spirit possess him, and he’d have thought a student of Gyatso’s would know to be more careful. Zuko thinks Aang probably thought he could be the Ocean Spirit’s friend and wonders how Iroh knows about Gyatso, and Iroh admits he has sources of information the Fire Lord wouldn’t approve of. He also learned that Gyatso was a close friend of Roku’s. Zuko recalls meeting Gyatos in his vision and wonders why he acted like he knows him – Iroh thinks Gyatso probably thought he was his mother’s grandfather, Kuzon. Iroh has seen no records that Aang knew Kuzon but their ages are close enough it would be possible. Zuko grouses about not looking a century old and then he leaves; Amaya thinks Iroh is holding something back. Iroh admits there’s something he’s begun to suspect, but he doesn’t want Zuko to know until he’s certain. In the spirit world, Zuko sought Kuzon’s aid, but Kuzon never appeared, even though other people did. In life, Kuzon and Zuko never met, since Kuzon died before Zuko was born, and since it wasn’t a natural death and he was on Azulon’s enemies list, Iroh always suspected foul play. This suggests some rather pointed things to Iroh, but he doesn’t want to burden Zuko, who’s been through enough, with it. Iroh will tell him when he needs to know, and when he’s ready to be officially introduced to the White Lotus. Amaya wonders what other secrets Iroh is hiding, and he says he has none that are relevant now. She tells him that one nephew clearly isn’t enough family to keep him honest, and Iroh laments that Zuko hasn’t been able to find a nice girl. Amaya tells him that Zuko isn’t the one who’s found a nice girl, though she’s not sure how nice she actually is… Iroh thinks that he’ll have to wait to tell Zuko to come back down until it’s safe, and the chapter ends.

Finally, we have an Author Note. A/N: As far as Zuko and Iroh hiding out in Ba Sing Se goes, I think of that as one big Refuge in Audacity plot on Iroh's part. It's just too implausible for anyone to believe the Dragon of the West and the Crown Prince are in the city. So they don't. And as far as the pair not figuring out Aang is also in Ba Sing Se... well, they didn't figure it out in canon until the leaflet dropped on Zuko's head. So my thought is that Iroh, who desperately wants to keep Zuko away from the Avatar, probably told his White Lotus contacts not to tell him where Aang was. If he doesn't know, he's not lying to Zuko. And the Gaang's about to pop up again, next chapter. Toph rules! MG’s Thoughts I… really don’t have a whole lot to say about this chapter, other than that for the most part it’s a nice little denouement after the big spirit fight last time, and it’s good to see Iroh and Zuko finally have a chance to open up to Amaya. On the other hand, I do have a few quibbles. First off, the fic still can’t stop mocking Jet, even when he’s not physically present (and for all Zuko and Huojin know, got eaten by a spirit, though we’ll eventually learn he’s alive and he’ll show up again). For another, during Iroh’s conversation with Amaya, we have the weird bit about how the war has hurt the Fire Nation too, which, fair enough, it totally has – but for Amaya to put the damage the Fire Nation did to itself as equal to or worse than the Air Nomad genocide, even implicitly, rubs me the wrong way. It just feels like yet another point in the fic’s running theme that “the Fire Nation are the real victims here!” For a last point, we have it very heavily hinted here that Zuko is in fact the reincarnation of Kuzon (which we’ll eventually get confirmed). Part of this is the continuation of the earlier idea that Kuzon can’t be just some guy Aang happened to know – he has to be a super-special firebender and noble and Zuko’s ancestor, because no detail is allowed to just exist without being important to the story. For another, it’s yet another way Zuko is special – we’re now at firebending healer, Kuzon’s descendant, Kuzon’s reincarnation, double fire/water bender, secretly a really powerful firebender before his abilities got suppressed, and descendant of dragons. That’s… a lot, and I still feel that loading Zuko down with specialness takes away from what makes him an interesting character in canon, and paradoxically makes his achievements less impressive. But maybe that’s just me.

Also, we get another “Koizilla was the worst” bit… from Iroh. Who was there when Aang merged with the Ocean Spirit, watched it happen, and didn’t seem to have a problem with it. Huh?

Second Arc Final Thoughts We’re now at the end of what TVTropes lists as the fic’s second arc (technically the first half of the Ba Sing Se arc, which is split in two for reasons that will become more apparent). This arc is really where the fic starts coming into its own, for better or for worse. It’s tied for the longest arc in the fic, and it’s where a lot of important concepts start getting introduced. This is where Zuko officially becomes a waterbender after dancing around it for a bit during the first arc, and where the connection between firebenders and dragons (which the fic will be getting a lot of mileage out of) is first spelled out; it’s also where the fic’s first round of major OCs are introduced (Amaya, Huojin, the Wen family, Shirong), though they’ll not be the last. We also see Zuko start drawing up some rough plans for something that will drive a lot of the fic’s plot going forward. The Gaang, on the other hand, are barely in this one (except for a brief appearance by Toph) and there’s still a lot of OCs and the fic’s mythos that haven’t been set up yet (neither of the two actual main villains have been properly introduced yet, for example, though they’ve both had some very slight foreshadowing in this arc). Plot-wise, it’s mostly been pretty episodic and slice of life, showing Zuko and Iroh integrating themselves into Ba Sing Se and making new friends and allies, with the closest thing to an overall story arc being Zuko’s gradual development of his powers and the spirit attacks and their aftermath in the last four chapters.

The best part of the fic continues to be the Zuko and Iroh interactions, and seeing Zuko as a fish out of water in Ba Sing Se. I also generally like the interactions of Zuko with the Wens and seeing Zuko as a teacher. While the arc didn’t really have a single overarching antagonist (Jet’s more of a recurring nuisance, and Long Feng is scheming in the background but not taking center stage) the closest thing is the spirit from the later chapters, which I’ll admit is decently creepy. Unfortunately, this arc is also where a lot of the fic’s problems start becoming a lot more obvious – the lionization of the Fire Nation, and especially the Fire Nation nobility really starts here, for example. Vathara certainly allows that the Fire Nation’s leaders are evil – she doesn’t try to whitewash Ozai’s crimes – but it’s clear she really wants us to love the Fire Nation culture she’s created and is determined to take the sting off of a lot of the Fire Nation’s villainous actions from canon. On a related note, this is also where we really start getting into one of the fic’s pet issues – reminding everyone how horrible Koizilla was (which will end up becoming plot-relevant, I’m not kidding). And I’ve said it before, but the fic’s treatment of the Dai Li really bugs me, also, with Vathara’s fondness for Hard Men Doing Hard Things for the Greater Good meaning she’s taken them away from being the brutal secret police and into being badass spirit fighters protecting the city from evil, with Long Feng and his cronies just being the bad apples in charge or something. There’s also the recurring treatment of Jet as a complete idiot who everybody hates, who is supposedly a threat to anyone with Fire Nation blood but who Zuko can effortlessly humiliate whenever he wants to, and it’s just… kind of excessive. I also think that it’s obvious Vathara really wants us to love some of her OCs (especially Amaya and Shirong) and for me at least it falls a little flat – I don’t think Amaya gives a very good first impression with how she handles things with her patients, while Shirong is, well, a Dai Li in good standing, with all that implies - but maybe it’s just me. On the other hand, some of the fic’s other more obnoxious traits – Katara bashing, Air Nomad bashing, Kyoshi bashing, everything being about dragons, and so on – either aren’t present yet, or are still in their infancy. So, on the whole the arc is kind of a mixed bag for me, combining elements I like with the real beginnings of a lot of the fic’s deeper recurring issues.

Next time, we start the second part of the Ba Sing Se arc, when the conflict over the city starts kicking into high gear. Which means that the plot is going to be speeding up, but also that we’re going to be seeing more of the Gaang – which means the Katara bashing is about to start in earnest. But that’s for next time.