#in was established in multiple episodes that the air nomads were against the use of violence to resolve conflicts

[reneesfanworks]

I swear to fucking god if I hear one more person saying that aang, the air nomad, the CHILD, who just happens to be the avatar, should have killed ozai even if it goes against all his cultural principles (principles which, by the way, were established in text, in canon, from the fist season) I'm gonna start biting people

[babie-azula]

kya lives??

ok this was totally random but, what if Kya was alive still? The events of the raid on the Southern Water Tribe still occur but Kya isn’t killed, she’s captured. 

Azulon starts raiding the STW because he believes the avatar died during the Air Nation Genocide and reincarnated as a waterbender. Therefore, it is in his best interest to find the avatar and capture them. If he kills them then he’ll have to search the earth kingdom and they are still slowly gaining territory. It’s not feasible to begin capturing earthbenders and not have the resources to contain them away from coal and earth. Do they have the wood for that? 

So when the Southern Raiders attack the STW when Hakoda is chief, they capture Kya as the last waterbender. They would keep her alive but barely in a private prison made specifically for her. Hama was most likely in her early 20s when she was captured and she seems to be in her late 70s when we see her in season 3. She was the only survivor from the larger camps. I think they would add her cell near the capital prison that help Iroh but close to underground tunnels that are apart of the palace so Azulon is able to extract information and potentially use her power for himself (if he believes she is the avatar). 

Hakoda is dead set on revenge but Bato has to hold him back. Hakoda’s grief I think would be the same as before but he hates himself for letting Kya suffer. He should have been able to protect her. 

Sokka and Katara don’t know for sure if their mother is alive, but from Kanna’s stories of Hama they assume she had died. It’s worse when they grow up and hear the horror stories of what happens to water benders when they are captured by pirates or the Fire Nation. The siblings assume their mother suffered through dehumanizing torture and died in a cell without her family and no hope of going home. It would increase their rage against the fire nation  and the ability to bring up their mother is worse. Her name is associated to what could happen to Katara when she find out she is a waterbender. This would hinder her ability to train because she knows her mother had to suffer because of her. 

I think her fight with Master Pakku would be very different because she will yell at him that her mother suffered in the Fire Nation prisons because her daughter was a waterbender and he doesn’t care enough to help defend the female students. I would assume the NWT will also hear the same horror stories because of trade networks. At least from Kyoshi Island and other island villages that need resources. 

Now for Kya’s escape. This happens during the Day of Black Sun after Zuko stands up to his father, He would have a plan with his war balloon when he wrote his letter to Mai suggesting this was planned ahead. I’ve always headcannoned that Zuko brought with him a big bag of gold incase he needed to bribe or buy anything of importance. While he ran from the treasury, to break his uncle out, he is cornered by guard and has to change direction. This leads him to Kya’s hidden cell. He doesn’t know who she is but recognizes that she is Water Tribe. He decides to free her, because she reminds him of his mother. Kya doesn’t know who he is, but he’s busting her out (blue spirit style ;D ) so she trusts him enough to get her out. Once they reach the war balloon, cue the awkward conversation. 

Kya ask’s him who he is, and Zuko tells her he used to be the crown prince and he wants to help the avatar defeat his father. Kya tells him that she was captured from the SWT as the last waterbender and then Zuko realizes that this is Katara and Sokka’s mom (holy shit right). Then things get even more awkward when Zuko tells her that he knows her kids, and might have accidentally been chasing her kids for the last few months. This will not settle well with Kya but I think sharing war stories with one other during their flight will warm Kya up to Zuko. She recognizes the fact that he his an abuse victim (it’s clear from the way he handles himself and the multiple scars/ bruises he has). I sense bonding while and at one point his scar will definitely be brought up. It’s a lot easier for Zuko to open up because Kya is very similar to Ursa, she is nurturing, kind, and sacrificed herself for her children. She feels safe to him. 

Once they reach the Western Air Temple, Zuko will set up camp and find the TOAD. Yes, the toad is still here and he practices what he’s going to say to said toad. When Kya finds him after cleaning up, she decides to give him some pointers on how to introduce himself. She tells him, why not explain why you were chasing them in the first place, but Zuko will not agree because he doesn’t want to give excuses for his actions. This will make Kya tear up, she is very proud of her adopted child. So they both wait for the Gaang, Kya hiding while Zuko introduces himself until Toph notices that there is another heartbeat. Zuko assumes the group think’s that he was going to try and capture them again and freaks out, Kya recognizes this and goes to help him. This blows her cover and she sees her kids for the first time in 5-6 years. Very tearful reunion, both Siblings don’t know how to feel about this. Zuko who chased them around the world and helped kill Aang, but who also saved Aang once and brought back their Mother. This would help Zuko intergrate more and avoid burning Toph’s feet. But, the siblings spend a lot of time with their mother so Zuko bonds with Toph and Aang instead. This would help establish their relationship for The Firebending Masters and expand upon Zuko and Aang’s friendship. 

The Boiling Rock would be the same episode except once they come back we have SWT family reunion. This would be very hard for both Toph, Aang, Zuko, and all the other people in the Temple. Everyone is happy that Kya and Hakoda are here and they’re a family again but it hurts so much. Toph wishes her parents cared about her, Aang misses Gyatso and the Air Nomads, Zuko wishes he had loving parents (Ursa is dead in this au), The Duke misses the freedom fighters, Teo and Haru both miss their dads. It’s a very bittersweet moment and Zuko has to leave early because he has a lot of unpleasant memories that are brought up. Toph goes to comfort him because she can relate to parents that don’t believe in her. 

Zuko is terrified of Hakoda. Toph, Kya, and Hakoda notice and know exactly why. It’s hard to bring up without causing him to spiral so Hakoda decided to talk to him alone during dinner to reassure him that he will not hurt him or his own children. It’s your standard Zuko and Hakoda bonding. This will end up with the SWT parents pseudo adopting the rest of the Gaang. 

Suki and Kya bonding over their dudes. They would also share their experiences in prison, helping each other cope with the trauma they’ve been through. Suki and Hakoda have a lot of things in common and hit it off really well. 

They will get separated once Azula finds them but instead of finding who killed them Katara and Zuko find the people responsible for taking her mother away. Then we have Katara and Zuko bonding (no shipping this is pure gen. besides Sukka). We stan a healthy ride or die friendship. 

This was kind random but I thought it would be an interesting idea. I only thought of this for the Kya and Zuko bonding. I swear to god, Kya and Hakoda would totally adopt the feral firebending child. 

[swordsandparasols]

Gwanghae:  History vs The Crowned Clown

TVN’s much anticipated sageuk, The Crowned Clown has aired and…my feelings are somewhat mixed.  It’s good-certainly better than 100 Days Husband, and faster paced than the first episodes of Mr. Sunshine-but there are choices I question.  In particular, it’s taking the popular path of using violence against women to show abuses of power.  At this point it isn’t gratuitous, but if the show makes it a trend and makes it the main way to show the differences between the strong and weak in society and the palace, it could be a dealbreaker.  We’ll see how the next couple weeks go.

 The main point of this post, though, is the complicated and interesting history behind Gwanghae. The Crowned Clown is loosely based of Masquerade, a Prince & Pauper type story about Joseon’s fifteenth king, Gwanghae, who is quite the controversial figure, to the point where he’s one of only two of Joseon’s kings who was not given a posthumous title, instead sill being known by his princely title of Gwanhaegun.  (The other is Yeonsanggun, who is less controversial and more sraight up reviled.) I have not seen Masquerade (I intended to before the series started, but it didn’t happen) but The Crowned Clown is a “serial numbers filed off” version of history.  It sticks closer to history than, say, Grand Prince, or even some sageuks that don’t bother filing off the serial numbers.  The biggest divergences (outside of the core premise of the king having a performer who looks just like him temporarily take his place in the palace) are that principle figures are deaged considerably, and the size of the royal family being scaled down.  Unfortunately, this means some of the most interesting bits no longer apply.

 Gwanghae was the second son of Seonjo, with both he and his older brother being born to one of Seonjo’s consorts.  Seonjo had 23 children with 6 consorts, over half of them sons.  Unfortunately, not a single one of those 23 children were with his queen.  Fast forward some and an alarming number of those sons are reaching adulthood.  (Seonjo’s brood had a fairly decent childhood survival rate at this point.)  No crown prince has been selected and Queen Uiin unfortunately couldn’t get pregnant and produce a legitimate heir to conveniently solve the problem no matter how many temples she prayed at.  Also inconvenient was the fact that Seonjo’s oldest son, Imhae, was generally considered totally incompetent, so that easy route wasn’t a very good idea either.  

 Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on whether you’re a noble or royal with the means to head for the hills, or a commoner stuck dealing with invading armies) in 1591, the Japanese decided they would just cross over through Joseon in order to attack China, resulting in a full scale invasion.  Seonjo promptly sent a “The Japanese are coming!” letter to China and went of the defense.  IT didn’t do him much good though and in 1592, he and most of the court fled to the Ming border.  Who stayed behind?  Second prince Gwanghae, who spent the next seven years as the defacto ruler of Joseon, seeing to defenses and overseeing reconstruction.  (This is hat’s going on in the sageuk parts of Live Up To Your Name, and is the basis for the movie Warriors of the Dawn, which also feature Yeo Jin Goo as Gwanghae, but more age appropriate that time.)  After the war, making Gwanghae Crown Prince was now the easy and obvious choice.  He’d already done the job for over half a decade, after all.  Sure, he wasn’t the oldest or legitimate, both of which were generally preferable, but he was the best they had.

 Then in 1600, Queen Uiin died and Seonjo married the much much much (as in, younger than some of his kids) Queen Inmok, who promptly  gave him two legitimate children in the space of 6 years.  Princess Jeongmyung, who was no threat to the established status quo, and Prince Yeongchang, who very much was.  “What’s this?”  the court asked “A LEGITIMATE heir?  And a baby who will probably still be a kid when the king croaks and therefore easier for us to influence than that stubborn and strongwilled Gwanghae?  SIRE WE MUST HAVE A DISCUSSION!!!”  Suddenly that bit where Gwanghae effectively saved the country and did a good job ruling for seven years when they all ran off with their tails between their legs didn’t seem s important anymore.

 For better or worse, Seonjo died in 1608, when Prince Yeongchang was still a baby, and before any changes could be made regarding who the crown prince was.  This did not make significant parts of the court stop conspiring to replace Gwanghae with Yeongchang, and eventually Gwanghae was forced to send Yeongchang into exile, where he died the next year at 12 years old.  That Gwanghae either had him poisoned or one of his supporters took it upon themselves to have him poisoned on Gwanghae’s behalf  Is the generally accepted but, strictly speaking, not proven cause.  Somewhere around this time, Queen Inmok and Princess Jeongmyung are sent into exile.  As a side note, Jeongmyung was believed dead for a while, prompting the basis for the series Hwajung, which, to my knowledge, is the only show dealing with the period that acknowledges that she existed, though others have been happy to have Yeongchang secretly survive until adulthood.  The Dowager Queen and princess were also imprisoned and lived in near-poverty.  This part most likely was something forced by dominant court factions that Gwanghae couldn’t prevent, but that didn’t mean he didn’t get the blame.  Given that they believed him to be responsible for the little prince’s death, I’m sure they were also pretty happy to blame him for the situation.

 Despite the bad handling of some family things, Gwanghae ended up a pretty good king, though not popular.  He was a good politician, literary arts thrived under his rule (as long as you didn’t write Hong Gil Dong, that one went badly), he rebuilt multiple palaces that had been destroyed during the wars and redistributed lands to the common people.  He reintroduced identification cards, attempted to bring smaller political factions to the fore instead of the court being and endless battle between two dogs fighting over a bone with no other opinions getting a say, and attempted to implement systems to make taxation easier on citizens, but was unable to widely implement it, only successfully doing so in one province.  It did eventually spread to the rest of Joseon, but not until decades after he died.  Realizing that Korea could not realistically stand on the same ground as some other countries in terms of military might, he sought to strengthen foreign relations, with the Ming Empire, Japan, and the Manchus.

 During all this, though, well, he just wasn’t popular.  SOMETIMES PEOPLE JUST DON’T LIKE YOU! (And think you had the wrong mom.)  Plots were constant, causing paranoia to run high. (Given that he was later overthrown by his nephew-the much weaker King Injo-he was right to be paranoid.)  All this leads up to Masquerade, in which the appropriately aged Gwanghae seeks a double to help him avoid being assassinated.

 In The Crowned Clown, most, if not all, of this background is gone.  Gwanghae became king at 33 years old.  Yeo Jin goo is a decade younger and is playing a character the same age.  (Jang Hyuk’s Seonjo is also a good 20 or so years younger.)  Gone are the military accomplishments.  Also gone are all his siblings except for Yeongchang.  In addition, Queen Inmok is significantly older, not younger.  Yi Hun’s (this version of Gwanghae) paranoia starts almost immediately after he becomes king, including many violent outbursts.  With Yi Hun being so much younger and without the other siblings, but still illegitimate, the drama of his being crown prince while others prefer Yeongchang due to legitimacy is much more rote.  This isn’t to say it’s badly done or boring or without it’s own drama or problems because it isn’t, it’s just way less interesting and not nearly as charged as the actual history was.

 Given that this is a TV series that skews younger (and more female for the audience) than the movie, and that filing the serial numbers off  gives them more freedom with the ending, I’m guessing that we’ll eventually learn that Yi Hun’s paranoia and outbursts were at least partly due to being poisoned, and the series will end with him  becoming a better king, and the titular clown, Ha Seon, returning to his nomadic life, but with more awareness of how to fight injustice.  That or they’ll kill Yi Hun and Ha Seon will become king with only a few people any the wiser.  (It also wouldn’t surprise me if they revealed that Yeongchang’s death was faked.)  Given that Yeo Jin Goo is a much beloved former child actor-in part because of his many child and teen years spent playing the younger versions of leads in sageuks-who only very recently transitioned into adult roles, I don’t really expect a too-brutal ending.

 Incidentally, any time I’m reminded that Yeo Jin Goo is all grown up now, my reaction is along these lines:

 “He is what? No he isn’t he’s only 15.  YOUNG MAN WHY ARE YOU DOING PHOTOSHOOTS LIKE THIS BUTTON YOUR SHIRT RIGHT NOW!”

 This despite the fact that he’s always looked a bit older than his age due to having fairly broad and strong features.