It makes him feel old and forgotten in an unchosen way, and all the things he did here feel old and forgotten, too.
Oh, man. He doesn't even get to see himself passing into history, not really, because the great things he did are not things people want to remember, not any more.
They're things Zuko is trying to make the Fire Nation forget.
And in the Earth Kingdom he's a bogeyman of sorts, something mother's use to chase their children down to supper. The Dragon of the West will get you! The first time he heard something like this, passing by a downstairs window, he half thought someone was calling him.
in the way only a teenager who's trying to sound like an adult can
Oh, Zuko. Diplomacy is never really going to be his forte, and he's just spent three goddamn years on a boat. Iroh tried to encourage him to keep up his calligraphy, at least, but he wasn't interested.
And, man, Iroh and that nervy, speccy, geeky Earth King. Who he might have got along rather well with, in a different life. He is glad, at least, that Zuko has no-one worse to deal with. And of course, he has always appreciated irony. It is really a base condition of his life in Ba Sing Se.
He does not mention Lu Ten to the Earth King until his third visit, and regrets it. It is his last visit to the Earth King.
OH MAN. The Earth King, bending forward, pouring the tea himself, such an honour - he doesn't do it often; he even forgets to lift his sleeve away from the table - looking up across at Iroh, blinking, hovering between polite commiseration and, perhaps, disgust.
He has looked up more records of the seige himself, since Iroh's last visit. He has read some eye-witness accounts. Talked to old soldiers. And the only thing he is prepared to give Iroh, now, is a kind of pity, the pity you would give to a much smaller man. He pours the tea in silence.
no subject
Oh, man. He doesn't even get to see himself passing into history, not really, because the great things he did are not things people want to remember, not any more.
They're things Zuko is trying to make the Fire Nation forget.
And in the Earth Kingdom he's a bogeyman of sorts, something mother's use to chase their children down to supper. The Dragon of the West will get you! The first time he heard something like this, passing by a downstairs window, he half thought someone was calling him.
in the way only a teenager who's trying to sound like an adult can
Oh, Zuko. Diplomacy is never really going to be his forte, and he's just spent three goddamn years on a boat. Iroh tried to encourage him to keep up his calligraphy, at least, but he wasn't interested.
And, man, Iroh and that nervy, speccy, geeky Earth King. Who he might have got along rather well with, in a different life. He is glad, at least, that Zuko has no-one worse to deal with. And of course, he has always appreciated irony. It is really a base condition of his life in Ba Sing Se.
He does not mention Lu Ten to the Earth King until his third visit, and regrets it. It is his last visit to the Earth King.
OH MAN. The Earth King, bending forward, pouring the tea himself, such an honour - he doesn't do it often; he even forgets to lift his sleeve away from the table - looking up across at Iroh, blinking, hovering between polite commiseration and, perhaps, disgust.
He has looked up more records of the seige himself, since Iroh's last visit. He has read some eye-witness accounts. Talked to old soldiers. And the only thing he is prepared to give Iroh, now, is a kind of pity, the pity you would give to a much smaller man. He pours the tea in silence.