Burying Lu Ten instead of giving him to the fire-- God. I'm thinking of the theory we had going about Iroh's legitimacy and this? This would be another thing that would make it 'okay' for Ozai to overthrow him.
OMG, that epic thread you guys produced (lol what, me, internet-stalk?!) where AZULON IS PRINCE CHARLES? And Iroh is pretty much Azulon’s Henry Fitzroy? Only finally legitimated after much courtly wrangling? And Ozai and he are all kinda vaaaguely like Edmund and Edgar in Lear, but with the legitimacies swapped? Yeah. When Ozai hears the rumours, back in the Fire Nation, about this final insult to the royal line, he can hardly believe his luck.
Finally, finally Iroh has done something so crass, so egregiously weak minded, that Azulon won’t be able to indulge him any longer. After a century of war, it’s understood that any general can suffer disaster in battle. And Iroh has had a glorious career. But to put his son in the earth ... it is an offense against everything a Fire Lord should stand for. Ozai rolls the message scroll back up. He smiles, a little. He goes to check on his daughter’s training.
And, oh man:
What, was he supposed to be frightened? That is his son, blood of his blood, fire of his fire. It Lu Ten wants to move around a few pai sho figures, whisper a few things to the fire in the stove, well, Iroh isn't going to be worried about it.
Iroh would I think be pretty much delighted? Saddened, perhaps, at his son’s presence being so tentative, so peripheral, perhaps even a product of his own aging mind, his secret wishes. But there’s not really any harm in that. If his mind is going, it is slipping peacefully, with the sudden shivering of the surface of a bowl of tea, a flicker out of the corner of his eye as he bends to stir the pot.
And it might after all be his son, retired to domesticity from whatever distant reach of the spirit world he has been travelling. Come to keep an old man company in the dank Earth Kingdom winter.
He takes it as a sign that he is going to die soon.
Of course he does.
OH MAN. Uh, thanks for descending on this thread and MAPPING OUT IROH’S LAST DAYS, you guys.
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OMG, that epic thread you guys produced (lol what, me, internet-stalk?!) where AZULON IS PRINCE CHARLES? And Iroh is pretty much Azulon’s Henry Fitzroy? Only finally legitimated after much courtly wrangling? And Ozai and he are all kinda vaaaguely like Edmund and Edgar in Lear, but with the legitimacies swapped? Yeah. When Ozai hears the rumours, back in the Fire Nation, about this final insult to the royal line, he can hardly believe his luck.
Finally, finally Iroh has done something so crass, so egregiously weak minded, that Azulon won’t be able to indulge him any longer. After a century of war, it’s understood that any general can suffer disaster in battle. And Iroh has had a glorious career. But to put his son in the earth ... it is an offense against everything a Fire Lord should stand for. Ozai rolls the message scroll back up. He smiles, a little. He goes to check on his daughter’s training.
And, oh man:
What, was he supposed to be frightened? That is his son, blood of his blood, fire of his fire. It Lu Ten wants to move around a few pai sho figures, whisper a few things to the fire in the stove, well, Iroh isn't going to be worried about it.
Iroh would I think be pretty much delighted? Saddened, perhaps, at his son’s presence being so tentative, so peripheral, perhaps even a product of his own aging mind, his secret wishes. But there’s not really any harm in that. If his mind is going, it is slipping peacefully, with the sudden shivering of the surface of a bowl of tea, a flicker out of the corner of his eye as he bends to stir the pot.
And it might after all be his son, retired to domesticity from whatever distant reach of the spirit world he has been travelling. Come to keep an old man company in the dank Earth Kingdom winter.
He takes it as a sign that he is going to die soon.
Of course he does.
OH MAN. Uh, thanks for descending on this thread and MAPPING OUT IROH’S LAST DAYS, you guys.