Fire Nation Graffiti (and other primary sources)

[fulselden]

Series: Avatar
Characters/pairings: canon characters, mention of Mai/Zuko
Ratings/warnings: G


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Being a notation made at the foot of a wall

In the lower passage of the eastern apartments

By the children of the second prince

In the year of the sand leopard

At the close of the evening

In the electrical air before thunder

When they should have been in bed.

 

 

When I grow up I am going to be

A prince.

I was going to write that!

I know, dumb-dumb.

 

 

 

-----

 

 

 

Being some fragments of juvenilia

Attributed to Fire Lord Zuko,

Who was given to the fire

In the year of the dragon-hawk

Honour to his memory.

 

 

Mai, your hair shines like

The sun on a [deletion: ‘sword’] knife, I wish

I could stroke it now.

 

Mai, your face, [deletions: ‘beautiful’, ‘fine’, ‘lovely’] so clear,

A full moon in deep water.

Or in the night sky.

 

I want you to know,

Mai, that I even enjoyed

The part with the fish.

 

Summer rain falls [deletion: illegible] softly.

Mai, your skin is snow pale silk

Except [illegible].

 

 

For access to the remaining texts, please apply to the royal archivists.

Relevant forms are available at the central library and from the lower palace offices.

Access is subject to approval.

 

 

 

------

 

 

 

Being a notation discovered on the wall of the upper guest chambers,

accompanied by a series of markings

possibly unidentified tribal symbols

perhaps intended as representations of individuals

or as schematic maps

together with a fine amateur drawing of an air bison

during palace renovation work in the wake of the Century War:

 

 

WATER TRIIIIIIBE.

 

 

 

-----

 

 

 

Being a letter in the hand of Fire Lord Zuko, provisionally dated from the third year of his reign, from the private collection of Fire Lord Akemi:

 

Aang. [deletion: I hope you are well] I’m sorry. I know you have a lot to do where you are, but I need you here, please. There are still disturbances in [illegible] and shortages [illegible] hardly any reserves; peasants are still using rice for brewing despite the prohibitions [deletion: illegible].

There are other issues but [deletion: I’m sure things will improve soon] the problem is Red Rock Island. People are refusing to evacuate and the Fire Sages say they need your help to allow for a controlled eruption. This absolutely cannot wait, Aang, it is not like last summer.

I hope you are well, all the same. I’ve had to do some things, here. I need to talk to you. Mai says hello to Katara and so do I of course.

Please disregard the wording on the letter sent through official channels and come as soon as you can. With deepest respect, Zuko.

PS – Aang I don’t know if you will be able to [illegible; the lower half of the document has sustained severe fire damage].

 

 

 

-----

 

 

 

Being a notation earthbent into the ceiling of the throne room:

 

Toph Bei Fong rulez [sic].

 

Other fragmentary characters appear in general to be attempts to represent vulgar Earth Kingdom phrases. They are however legible only with difficulty.

 

All these characters are still extant behind the decorative panelling.

 

 

 

-----

 

 

 

From the collection of messenger scrolls in the possession of Prince Kenzo, second child of Mai and Fire Lord Zuko. Transcribed and deciphered by Hina Laosin, palace archivist.

 

 

For the immediate attention of Fire Lady Mai.

 

Your Honour,

 

Glory and good fortune to the Family and the Nation.

Allow me to state at the outset that our guest remains in custody.

We have reassessed our security procedures in the wake of the incident.

Nevertheless, at sunrise check-in this morning, the following text was discovered burnt into the wall outside our guest’s room:

 

I wish to emphasize that my business remains unfinished. My dearest Mai, please inform [illegible] that I have something to say.

With all due respect,

[illegible] Azula.

 

She appears to have locked herself back inside without any further activity.

 

Awaiting immediate instruction,

 

Your humble servant,

Ayako Muzon

Chief warden, Seika Island Facility.

 

 

 

-----

 

 

 

Written by Princess Ursa for the attention of her youngest child, just prior to her departure for exile.

 

 

My dearest girl,

 

Please remember what I told you this evening about your honoured father, it is very important.

I promise you that other things are more important than [illegible].

Please remember that I love you, Azula, always.

Please remember that a certain standard of behaviour is required

From someone in your position.

I wish I had time to come to you but there is no time.

Darling remember it is how you use it that counts.

 

Please be careful, darling, remember you are very strong with all my love your mother.

 

This paper was burnt while the ink was still wet.

 

 

 

-----

 

 

 

Being a note discovered tucked into the side of Fire Lady Mai’s mirror by Mai herself.

 

I’m sorry Mai.

I know you’ll already know when you find this.

I know you’ll understand, sort of.

I’ll try not to hurt any of the guards.

I’ll try not to let her hurt anyone.

Hugs, Ty Lee.

 

 

 

-----

 

 

 

Being a notation discovered on the favourite wall scroll of Fire Lord Zuko

Which is a perfect example of Kanzo Era calligraphy

OR IT WAS

And which he had only taken down

And left on his desk

For a moment.

            Dad, Mother said you’d be in here.

            We need to ask you something.

            Because Uncle said you were the expert.

                        Just put it here, silly.

            Fine. Where do babies come from?

            We will be in the garden.

                        ANSWER SOON PLEASE IT IS A BET.

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[fulselden]

Lu Ten's memory is not something for someone to peer at as if it is a bug stuck through with a golden pin under glass.

Fuck, you're right. He wouldn't be quiet, he'd ask questions. About what it was like, raising a son in the Fire Nation. Going off to war with him. Where, exactly, he is buried now.


I keep thinking that there were so very many refugees into Ba Sing Se that they are the ones, for the most part, living in that new section and the sections around it. Iroh suspects that if he ventured further out, he'd find people who lived there when they were children, but even with his penchant for penitence he doesn't want to see their scars.

But, oh god, some of them will make it out of the Lower Ring, you know. As merchants or gangsters who do well for themselves or whatever. Coming up into Iroh's rich, posh tea shop, with the matrons of the Upper Ring laughing into their sleeves and the soft clink of tea bowls, smoothing down their new fine clothes, glancing across the counter into the back of the shop. Every time, Iroh wonders if someone will stop and say his name.

[obsession_inc]

What is it like, losing a son? The king doesn't say what is it like to have grief? but Iroh hears it behind it, in the attentive set of the man's head and the slightly-too-interested tone of his voice. This man, whose parents died when he was too young to remember, who never had siblings who betrayed him or children to lose. Iroh doesn't know how to talk to this man without hate rising in his voice. He goes home, and he pours tea for himself, and for Lu Ten, and he keeps both cups hot for hours without drinking a drop.

Coming up into Iroh's rich, posh tea shop, with the matrons of the Upper Ring laughing into their sleeves and the soft clink of tea bowls, smoothing down their new fine clothes, glancing across the counter into the back of the shop. Every time, Iroh wonders if someone will stop and say his name.

And what he'll do if they do. It seems so unlikely that nobody would, but it keeps not happening. His own importance here is not with his own face, certainly not with his hair so white. It is so strange.

[fulselden]

His own importance here is not with his own face, certainly not with his hair so white. It is so strange.

Sometimes he wonders if this is something akin to what Zuko felt, just a little, when he first took the bandages off. Then he tells himself that he evidently hasn't missed out on the family tendency for over-dramatisation as entirely as he would like to believe. He pours his tea, a new blend. A little too sharp, the leaves picked slightly too soon.

And oh, damn:

Iroh doesn't know how to talk to this man without hate rising in his voice. He goes home, and he pours tea for himself, and for Lu Ten, and he keeps both cups hot for hours without drinking a drop.

... Yeah. That's his story, man. That's how it ends, Iroh looking down through the steam.

[quigonejinn]

Or this: a funeral club. Iroh is a steady member of the merchant's association for the district, and since he came back without the young man who had been helping him, a few months later, one of the other merchants approaches him.

"Do you have family in the city?" the man says, sipping his tea. He runs a tailor's shop, specializing in high-end custom robes. "It is a good idea for those of us who are alone."

Members to put their money in every month, and when they die, the club pays for the expenses of the funeral. Even if you are buried in the city (as opposed to being transported home), there is a grave site. The after-funeral dinner. Incense to burn, so that your ancestors know that you are on your way to join them. Small clay models to accompany you into the grave, so that you will have presents for your ancestors when you finally see them.

Iroh does not hold much stock with this: the Fire Nation teaches grave-fire purifies us all into ash and nothingness, but Iroh has seen too many burned bodies to have believed that for decades. This is, in fact, why he made them bury Iroh, rather than burn him. In the circles of power, this was counted as a sign of his madness.

[fulselden]

if you are buried in the city (as opposed to being transported home), there is a grave site.

Oh man, burial in Ba Sing Se. Well regulated, of course: there is really no alternative. But pricey, contested. When Iroh’s friend writes his letter to his young relative, after the old man’s death, he waits until after the funeral (it is arranged quickly, as is proper, propitious) so that he can include some of the details, though he feels too awkward, in the end, to describe the funeral dinner properly.

The men and women Iroh’s age, letting themselves have too much rice wine, spilling it from the little conical cups at the close of the evening. The earnest young people in their best clothes for the funeral.

The same serious young men and women who used to come and talk Pai Sho strategies, who told Iroh their troubles over tea in the back kitchen after he’d closed up shop for the day.

Iroh might have preferred to collect cheerful youngsters – he is pretty fond of Ty Lee, for instance; her bendiness is so very ... impressive. But he seems to have lost the knack.

In the circles of power, this was counted as a sign of his madness.

ARGH. I mean, Iroh may never have just flat out lost it, like Jeong Jeong, gone and sat in a swamp and meditated on the fire inside him as if he could chew it up and spit it out if he tried hard enough, but to order his only son, a prince of the Fire Nation, buried ... yeah.

There are mutters, as well, about how unfair it is of him to deny Lu Ten the grave-fire. Of how his spirit will be trapped in the Earth Kingdom, inside the walls of Ba Sing Se.

Iroh never believed in this kind of thing, of course, even in childhood. But living in his tea shop in the Upper Ring, he keeps an eye out, just the same.

[obsession_inc]

Jesus Christ, you guys, I LOVE THIS ALL SO MUCH. 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.

[quigonejinn]

Bury Iroh. *FACEPALM*

But living in his tea shop in the Upper Ring, he keeps an eye out, just the same.

I want the fic about him being haunted -- no joke, actual poltergeist-y ghost haunted -- so bad, it's not even funny. He takes it as a sign that he is going to die soon.

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.

[fulselden]

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.

[quigonejinn]

AZULON IS PRINCE CHARLES

That phrase will always make me laugh. Always. If reports start popping up of some chick wandering around conventions wearing a shirt with that, you can be pretty sure it's me. (And yeah, in my head, Ilah is as far from being model pretty as Camilla is -- handsome in the traditional cultural sense, so well-built and strong and good at the upper-class sports of FIREBENDING and MILITARY CAMPAIGNING of the Fire Nation, but really, not going to show up as a fashion icon or on a commemorative plate in a Cinderella dress anytime soon.)

And yeah, Iroh is so, so, so the FitzRoy that lived up to the titles and then some. In my head, a big part of Iroh's guilt about Lu Ten dying is that Lu Ten was so gung-ho about campaigning and personally being part of the seige of Ba Sing Se because he saw it as a way to help his dad secure the throne. Helps if you know the next one in line is really great, too, especially in a society with as many Confucian undertones as Fire Nation.

(Although one thing I'm not sure I know is if the Fire Nation works on a strictly patrilineal line of descent, rather than a generational one -- like, if the Fire Lord-ship would have gone to Lu Ten if Iroh kicked it, or whether it would have gone to Ozai. Because that would explain, I think, the line in Zuko's flashback about how Azula shouldn't hope that Iroh dies because how would she feel if Lu Ten wanted Dad dead? Because while that makes sense in a familial way if Lu Ten is ahead of Azula in succession, it makes much more sense on a power-scheme sense plus a family sense if the succession goes Iroh - Ozai - Lu Ten - Zuko - Azula.)

Come to keep an old man company in the dank Earth Kingdom winter.

It helps with the guilt of having forgotten some things about Lu Ten, who has been dead for close to twenty years now: there is that picture of him, but Iroh can't summon up the image of the living thing anymore. Easier to think of Lu Ten as consisting of patterns in the flame and the movement of curtains on a dead-still afternoon.

OH MAN. Uh, thanks for descending on this thread and MAPPING OUT IROH’S LAST DAYS, you guys.

DON'T EVEN TRY TO MAKE IT SOUND LIKE THIS WAS ALL US YOU WERE IN ON IT TOO

[fulselden]

I WOULD SO WEAR THAT T-SHIRT. Hilarious from every possible angle!

Ilah is as far from being model pretty as Camilla is

SO MUCH YES. I mean, didn’t you have Azulon meet her on campaign? And be turned on by her firebending. And even if her family had bred for prettiness as successfully as say Mai’s household, a youth spent training and fighting with firebending, trekking along hot dusty roads on the fringes of the Earth Kingdom colonies, commanding decisive, brutal assaults on every little port or fortress that’s needed as a refuelling station or which commands rich farmland or potential mining territory – well, that’s gonna leave you looking weathered, to say the least.

Helps if you know the next one in line is really great, too, especially in a society with as many Confucian undertones as Fire Nation

Oh man, Lu Ten, so much THE GOOD SON. And Ozai, conversely, so profoundly aware that he was never, ever good enough, mapping his own lack so precisely out onto his children.

the line in Zuko's flashback about how Azula shouldn't hope that Iroh dies because how would she feel if Lu Ten wanted Dad dead? Because while that makes sense in a familial way if Lu Ten is ahead of Azula in succession, it makes much more sense on a power-scheme sense plus a family sense if the succession goes Iroh - Ozai - Lu Ten - Zuko - Azula.

That’s such a fascinating line of thought. I mean, it makes Ozai parading Azula and Zuko in front of his father even more gratuitously nasty. Because of course even if he and Lu Ten were much more closely tied in the succession stakes than those rules imply, because Lu Ten is A GOOD SON and Azulon knows perfectly well that Ozai is a poisonous little brat ... he was still technically ahead of Lu Ten and would be ahead of any children Iroh might produce in the future.

And oh man, little Zuko never considers, when he’s defending Iroh to his sister, that if she’s willing to wish for Iroh’s death, if she’s apparently unmoved when Lu Ten does die, what else would she be willing to countenance, to gain the throne? Who else is most important to her, stands most in the path of her ambition?

I SHOULD MENTION HOW MUCH I LOVE YOUR IDEA OF THIS SPRAWLING ROYAL FAMILY BEING WHITTLED DOWN TO A TINY BITTER KNOT OF INFIGHTING AND INCEST BY THE WAY.

the guilt of having forgotten some things about Lu Ten

Oh, Iroh. In the Fire Nation, he knows there are more pictures, statues. Zuko has been rather emphatic when it comes to honouring his cousin, and it was of course politically expedient. But Iroh would rather have the little flicks of fire and air, here in Ba Sing Se.

YOU WERE IN ON IT TOO

I APPROVE OF THIS ‘DOOMTHREAD’ BUSINESS

[quigonejinn]

Doomthread is the best, really. It's hard to doomthread when you only ahve two people, but three, I think, is when you can really get something to take off AND IT IS LIKE A CONTINUOUS STREAM OF JOY IN THE INBOX.

even if her family had bred for prettiness as successfully as say Mai’s household

You know, this is really an itneresting thought, because it really seems that the Fire Nation is damn good at its human breeding programs -- I mean, OK, it's canon that Ty Lee's sisters all look alike, and it's head-canon that Ozai bred for Firebending ability first and morals never and somehow ended up with Zuko as a total sport. But throw in the idea of Mai's family looking for pretty, classically beautiful girls (I'm using Ursa as a model -- there is a definite resemblance in the way that they're drawn with the height and the long face and pale skin) -- and yeah. Yeah.

In my head, the fic is about three times when Ilah surprised Azulon -- once when he saw her in the just-out-of-middle-class part of the city, once when they actually met on his sister's campaign and she started singing, and once, when he was recalled from campaign because his father was finally dying, and he was going to be the Fire Lord, in which event he would damn well marry Ilah if he wanted and legitimate his son, and he comes back, and the compound he had established for her was empty, because she was dead of the same summer fever as his father and half the city is dying of. And there is eleven year old Iroh, kneeling and trying to hold back tears and properly welcome him as a subject to the Fire Lord and --

LOOK, LAST OF THE WINE WAS A PRETTY BIG INFLUENCE ON ME, TOO.

the little flicks of fire and air, here in Ba Sing Se

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. See, I was going to say that I wanted to write this, but that phrase, that phrase convinces me that you are the only person to do it. LITTLE FLICKS OF FIRE AND AIR.

even if her family had bred for prettiness as successfully as say Mai’s household

I am fascinated by the idea of the Fire Nation nobility and their little breeding programs. We know Ty Lee's sisters are all in the same mold, and it's pretty common head-canon that Ozai bred for firebending first and morals never, except he ended up with a sport like Zuko. So -- Mai's family, breeding for classically good-looking children, if you want to use the points of similarity between Ursa and Mai as your touchstones (height, slender, long oval face, long hair).

Ilah's family bred for strength. Endurance. Height, not so much. :D

[obsession_inc]

Doomthread is much much better with more than two people, because there are more surprises and much more to bounce off of! I have been so happy about all this, I can't even express it. WELCOME TO DOOMTHREADING! YOU FIT IN WELL!

I do love the theory that it's not so much Iroh that Ozai is competing with, as it's Lu Ten, who isn't a firebender. God. I wonder what all Ozai was up to, while Iroh and Lu Ten were on the field? I can only imagine that his bid for bumping Iroh from the Crown Prince spot was the last part of a long, long campaign of whispers and winks, trying to undermine Iroh with Azulon, and Azulon put up with it because they're brothers, it's normal for brothers to bicker and not get along, even if he would have preferred that they did get along because there's only two of them, this is normal, too! Right?

I am going to have to write myself an Azulon story at some point, I think. The loss of his family was so huge, and impacted him so strongly-- impacted the country, too, I would imagine.

the little flicks of fire and air, here in Ba Sing Se

JFC, fulselden, this is AWESOME.

I SHOULD MENTION HOW MUCH I LOVE YOUR IDEA OF THIS SPRAWLING ROYAL FAMILY BEING WHITTLED DOWN TO A TINY BITTER KNOT OF INFIGHTING AND INCEST BY THE WAY.

I am convinced that Azulon wanted a huge family to make up for the loss of his own, and that the problem with not getting to marry Ilah first off-- and then having problems with his politically-selected brides (from the same family!) and fertility-- made it so that he ended up with just the two. Although I keep wondering, since my brain is still all Tudor on this, how many miscarriages happened-- OH, WAIT. If maybe the politically-selected brides' family was too close, genetically speaking, to Azulon, and a regressive gene kept popping up? I know this makes it way too easy to go AHA, AND THUS THE TENDENCY TOWARD INSANITY IN OZAI AND AZULA, but I don't think it's that (although man, it couldn't have helped), it's something that made pregnancies unstable. Ozai was something of a miracle. A sucky miracle, but there you go. And someone might have tried to explain what happened to Azulon, but he had it in his head that obviously he wasn't meant to have much family, and that's when he went back to the original Plan A and brought up Ilah and Iroh, because if this is all the family he gets then by god it's all going to be legitimate. And of course Ilah was too old to have any more kids at that point. God, it's all so awful. (AND WE MADE IT ALL UP. Which I love.)

And there is eleven year old Iroh, kneeling and trying to hold back tears and properly welcome him as a subject to the Fire Lord and --

Seriously, Rhod, you have got to freaking write this. Er. When you have time. Because that image punches me in the heart every time you mention it. Oh, Iroh.

[quigonejinn]

IGNORE THE DOUBLE-MENTION OR WHATEVER OF FIRE NATION BREEDING.

(SO GREAT I TALKED ABOUT IT TWICE!)

[fulselden]

A CONTINUOUS STREAM OF JOY IN THE INBOX

TRUFAX.

AND I MEAN FIRE NATION BREEDING IS TOTALLY WORTH TALKING ABOUT TWICE.

Especially since as you say they seem really fucking good at it. Even when they produce dudes shaped like teapots – vide Iroh - (well, until his prison workout session), said dudes have numerous compensating qualities. So, yeah, the thought of Mai especially being every bit as completely what her parents were hoping for – at least physically - as Azula (well, at least, she’s certainly what Ozai was hoping for) ... man. And then she does make it all the way to Fire Lady, and they’re so very pleased she has done everything they could have asked of her.

And Zuko, total sport. Poor Zuko.

the fic is about three times when Ilah surprised Azulon

YEAH. I was about to quote basically that entire paragraph back at you, but I think you should just write the fic. Azulon, hearing Ilah singing, out in the Earth Kingdom on his sister’s campaign. Oh man, Iroh kneeling in the dust in the courtyard, the smell of the incense they’re burning in the house to ward off the fever, his father coming home down the dry road. YES YOU SHOULD WRITE THIS SO MUCH.

ALSO: DEAD GAY GREEKS, AND THE PLAGUE AND THE DREGS OF THE WINE. OH, MAN. MY HEEEART.

I was going to say that I wanted to write this

WELL I FEEL YOU SHOULD TOTALLY DO THIS FIC TOO. There can’t really be too many versions of Iroh in Ba Sing Se. And if fic writing is a hall of mirrors anyway it can totally refract different versions of random comment-thread canon, right? I FEEL SO POSTMODERN.

[obsession_inc]

DUDE. THIS HAPPENED. LAST TIME. The original DOOMTHREAD, two years ago, saw the invention (pretty much whole cloth) of a character and history for Maria Stark, and quigonejinn and gabby_silang both wrote the story, and they were very different stories and both completely awesome. I FULLY SUPPORT THIS HAPPENING AGAIN.

[fulselden]

WHY THANK YOU! I AM GLAD TO BE INITIATED!

And, man, I will go and discover those stories. I do heart Iron Man pretty strongly. But apparently I needed a flying bison to make me heart stuff on the internet!

it's not so much Iroh that Ozai is competing with, as it's Lu Ten, who isn't a firebender

Oh, man, that just makes the stakes so much higher. I mean, is it even traditional for a non-bender to take the throne at all? And yes, Ozai – kept at home because Azulon knows he’s too old to be sure of siring another heir, and he can’t afford to lose all of them in the field. And sure that if he did go to war, he’d burn the Earth Kingdom down to ash within five years, but instead holed up in the palace, orchestrating this elaborate whispering campaign against Lu Ten and Iroh.

it's normal for brothers to bicker and not get along

Yeaaah. I mean, for Azulon, this Cain and Abel dynamic would just be so fucking alien. If he grew up the little brother, tagging along after his older siblings, watching them train and flirt and bicker, leave for war and return and leave again, he knows that family is the one thing you do not tear apart, because the war will do that for you. In other words I would love to see you write Azulon, man.

And, yeah. What this would do to the Fire Nation. All the pictures of the royals in schoolrooms and libraries and offices, getting draped one by one with white cloth.

since my brain is still all Tudor on this, how many miscarriages happened-- OH, WAIT. If maybe the politically-selected brides' family was too close, genetically speaking, to Azulon, and a regressive gene kept popping up?

ARRRGH. Or even, positing some other base reproductive dysfunction, phantom pregnancies, as with Mary. So he’d keep on trying with the first poor bride for years. And yeah, lol inbreeding is too simple to explain Ozai and Azula, but, man. Ozai the precious son who isn’t quite precious enough. Who takes such care to make sure his wife, at least, comes from a lineage that hasn’t been welcomed into the upper echelons since it produced the Avatar. But of course, that doesn’t mean much to a prince. All it promises is power. And, you know, less in the way of consanguinity.

And, man, Ilah being too old to have kids by the time Azulon’s finally, finally brought her and Iroh into the fold.

God, it's all so awful. (AND WE MADE IT ALL UP. Which I love.)

IT IS A HEADY SENSATION. OH FIRE NATION WOE.

[quigonejinn]

OZAI IS A POISONOUS LITTLE BRAT.

[obsession_inc]

Okay, I am sending you links for general Iron Man shenanigans, GOOD TIMES.

Ozai the precious son who isn’t quite precious enough.

I keep thinking that oh, holy shit, this may actually explain a lot about why he is the way he is. Not only because he lost his birthright to Iroh when he was small, but because, even before that, he was spoiled rotten and told endlessly how special and wonderful he was. Because he was the one that survived. The only child of the Fire Lord, the last representative of that bloodline stretching back a thousand years. My God, how he must have been pampered. He was told he was a miracle, and he completely believed it.

And then, Iroh was brought back, and it wasn't just that Ozai's birthright was taken away, it was that he wasn't special anymore. He was one of two princes instead of the only one.

Damn, that also explains a lot about how he raised Azula, first behind Ursa's back, and then brazenly when she was gone. Zuko is weak; she was the special one.

[fulselden]

Wow. Thank you so much for the links. I have been opening tags like woah here. So, so cool. Man am I glad to have some hand-holding when it comes to Iron Man stuff. I HAVE TOTAL CONFIDENCE IT WILL BE AWESOME, THAT IS SUCH A RELIEF.

The only child of the Fire Lord, the last representative of that bloodline stretching back a thousand years.

And you just know that the Fire Lords probably claim descent from some Fire Spirit or ascended Fire Lord or some such. Man.

As you say, that explains so, so much about Ozai, about Azula, about their absolute trust in perfection. And when it became apparent that Zuko wasn't perfect by his standards, Ozai made sure you could tell it as soon as you saw his face.

[quigonejinn]

Alterna-thought: what if Iroh got brought in because they thought he was not going to survive.

[obsession_inc]

OH FUCK ME SIDEWAYS. BECAUSE HE WAS A VERY DELICATE LITTLE BOY. AND ALL HIS SIBLINGS HAD BEEN STILLBORN.

::flails very hard::

[quigonejinn]

Here is how your father met your mother: he was on campaign with his sister, and your mother was an officer of the general staff.

...

Of course, there is more than that, but separating actual events from the ballad from the street songs from the didactic text from the novels -- it is not easy, because in later years, the story became a romance. A fable. One version had your father falling in love when he saw her firebending. A few have your mother saving your father's life. One has it the other way around. Some are softer, more romantic.

What you know, as a child, is this: when your father is not on campaign, your father comes to dinner two or three times a week. He is a tall man, much taller than your mother, and not only servants, but anyone else in the house gives way to him. Otherwise, when it is just the three of you, it is not terribly formal, though once a while, your mother will get up the whole ceremony and the kneeling and the offering of food when your father needs reminding of his duty towards you. When your father comes for dinner, he usually spends the night, and you expect that during holidays and the days of ritual, he is not there. This is because your parents are not married.

Your mother likes the idea of your father falling in love after seeing her wash her hair. "As if there would be time for that on one of Azula's campaigns," your mother says, laughing.

Yes, Azula.

[obsession_inc]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! RHOD. RHOD. AZULON'S SISTER'S NAME WAS AZULA? OMG. I AM GOING TO DIE NOW KTHX.

WRITE MOAR. OMG.

[fulselden]

... Oh man. Fuck. Azula.

separating actual events from the ballad from the street songs from the didactic text from the novels

IS THIS A WORLD WHERE THE FIRE NATION WON?

ETA: THOUGH THE ABOVE MAKES MUCH MORE SENSE. FACEPALM. BUT DUDE, I STILL CHERISH THE WEIRD AU BELOW:

Is this ... is this Mai, some of the edges rubbed off her by victory, getting right the hell out of being Fire Lady? Because her association with Azula gives her even this much latitude; because her parents presided over the fall of Omashu and not over its recapture; because she isn’t a bender and Zuko can’t afford to take the chance of having a non-bending heir? Because she never really wanted that job, anyway? Because there are other ways of exercising power?

Or is this not Mai at all, and she’s the one still in the centre, in the palace, letting Zuko have his nights off, his little warm segments of domesticity?

though once a while, your mother will get up the whole ceremony and the kneeling and the offering of food when your father needs reminding of his duty towards you

YES. Oh, man, control through subjection, of a sort. A skill it is still expedient for any woman to acquire, in the Fire Nation, for any noble, even. This whole society shot through with the sideways, the conditional, the indirect, even as it trains its children to go straight for the kill. Subversive ballads, propaganda rhymes. Memories of war.

"As if there would be time for that on one of Azula's campaigns,"

INDEED. Hell, who is even fire lord, in this world?

[quigonejinn]

OKAY IN MY HEAD THIS WAS HOW AZULON AND ILAH MET BUT I REALLY LIKE THE IDEA OF THIS BEING THE ALTERNATE HISTORY OF MAI OH MY GOD WHY DO YOU HAVE SO MANY LUSCIOUS, LUSCIOUS IDEAS?