RadiantPhoenix
Trudging up the Hill
- Location
- USA, Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Still two years to go before Aang wakes up in the OTL.
Deep Red (Avatar: The Last Airbender)
- Thread starter kosm
- Start date
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The back-and-forth with Ozai was rather excellent, Akane skillfully cartwheeled over the eloquent idiocy Ozai displayed without overly offending him. Akane is already showing herself to be a wiser leader than her father.
Good to get tutoring from probably the best firebender on the planet. Regardless of how reticient he is with any positive reinforcement, being pushed hard is how she will improve the fastest in pure Fire bending.
Onto library scene, interesting how Iroh might be misjudging our politics, catching us reading thinly veiled Fire-supremacist nonsense. Akane didn't make it obvious that she considered it pretty useless. Iroh is definitely trying to reconnect, and also trying to steer Akane towards a more White Lotus mindset. I feel doubt that he'd ever reveal that without being completely certain of our loyalties. Kinda sucks that Akane basically snubbed him on Ozai's orders, though her telegraphing how her Father wouldn't approve was elegant.
But expanding Akane's bending philosophy is always excellent. It makes amazing scenes of future!Akane fighting Zuko and the Gaang and being generally unstoppable appear in my head. In particular, have this very strong image of Akane mastering Lightning + Air philosophy to a degree where she fires a bolt in midair and "grounds" it in the sky instead of through her feet, resembling a natural strike and being even stronger. Don't even know if that's a coherent concept but it feels cool.
Good to get tutoring from probably the best firebender on the planet. Regardless of how reticient he is with any positive reinforcement, being pushed hard is how she will improve the fastest in pure Fire bending.
Onto library scene, interesting how Iroh might be misjudging our politics, catching us reading thinly veiled Fire-supremacist nonsense. Akane didn't make it obvious that she considered it pretty useless. Iroh is definitely trying to reconnect, and also trying to steer Akane towards a more White Lotus mindset. I feel doubt that he'd ever reveal that without being completely certain of our loyalties. Kinda sucks that Akane basically snubbed him on Ozai's orders, though her telegraphing how her Father wouldn't approve was elegant.
But expanding Akane's bending philosophy is always excellent. It makes amazing scenes of future!Akane fighting Zuko and the Gaang and being generally unstoppable appear in my head. In particular, have this very strong image of Akane mastering Lightning + Air philosophy to a degree where she fires a bolt in midair and "grounds" it in the sky instead of through her feet, resembling a natural strike and being even stronger. Don't even know if that's a coherent concept but it feels cool.
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- Location
- United States
I can't wait until she finally puts down Ozai.
I'd love an Omake where Akane is on some kind of trip and the Gaang pulls an ill-advised attempt at capturing her (be it to convince her of stuff or for a hostage exchange or anything), getting absolutely demolished in the process. And Akane can be like: On the one hand you don't seem like a threat so I could just let you go, but on the other hand Ozai would figure it out so tooooo baaaad xD.
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Damn, every talk with Ozai feels like a boss fight. At least the Zuko interlude helped in how we have certainty of the worst course of action: Ozai despises nothing so much as flip-flopping.
On another note, a task like 'avoid Iroh' makes me feel like there are spies absolutely everywhere. Like, I can't imagine Ozai won't know we took that book.
On the "universality of fire ending": isn't that idea actually how metalbending is described to work? I seem to remember "impurities within the metal" being what made it bendable. That seems to imply that the concept isn't total garbage. Even if thermal energy as such doesn't count as (enough) fire content, maybe there are some things we can bend that aren't obvious.
Plasma, maybe? Could we use a steady lightning discharge to create Plasma we could then use kinda like a waterbender does water (without an ice option obviously)? Plasma Whip, anyone? Should go right through water, ice and Earth barriers.
Then there's Mr Sparky Sparky Boom AKA 'Combustion Man'. I wonder if it's possible to imitate his abilities with enough research.
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RadiantPhoenix
Trudging up the Hill
- Location
- USA, Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Akane could start learning combustionbending, but she'd suck at it for a long time.
- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
Iroh's playing coy - in canon, he knows how to bend the heat in tea, for example.
- Location
- Leeds
And Sozin bends heat out of a volcano. The author was making the specific claim that water bending can be achieved or at least approximated by advanced use of that heat transfer technique. What Iroh means is that no one achieved that, not that no one managed the basic technique.
Tranquil Zebra
Equid of Peerless Tranquility
- Location
- Norway
I think most firbenders of note knows how to bend heat away. The conceptual leap to bending the heat of water from one place to another, and have the water "stick" to the heat, is quite another matter. The avatar could probably flash boil water and send the vapours forward as a scalding cyclone, but the whole philosophy of the four elements and how they relate would be undermined if fire actually was the superior element able to bend all matter. The author is either a troll or a sincere supremacist.
PS: In Legend of Korra we see lava bending. Lava is both hot and liquid, but at the end of the day it can only be bent by an earth-bender. The four classical elements can be mapped to states of matter if you squint, but this is not how things work in AtLA. With blood- and metalbending we see how if an element is not "pure" enough, only special skill or special circumstances allows it to be bent at all. Philosophy and stuff matters, or bloodbending would be as easy as bending a wet sponge.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
Trolling would be rather suicidal, so it's probably sincerely written by a supremacist Fire Sage to legitimize and pander to that mindset.
- Location
- Leeds
Throw a rock in the fire nation capital and I guarantee you'll hit a sincere supremacist. Fire nation citizens come in a lot of flavours but I don't think ironic is one.
- Location
- Here & There
I always enjoy the conversations between Ozai and Akane. Akane is steadfast but she also has to survive the years of bias and knowlege Ozai obtained that reinforces his belief that only members the Fire Nation are capable of being strong and loyal.
Though part of me wonders if Ozai would actually try to encourage bitterness between his kin. If he is it's certainly not working since Azula respects Akane both as a sibling and as person with power and Zuko while jealous of his sisters isn't as bitter as he was at the start of the Original Time Line.
Though part of me wonders if Ozai would actually try to encourage bitterness between his kin. If he is it's certainly not working since Azula respects Akane both as a sibling and as person with power and Zuko while jealous of his sisters isn't as bitter as he was at the start of the Original Time Line.
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- Location
- Leeds
I wonder what impurities are?
pretty sure we're not allowed to link there due to nsfw content (including images) on the site, you might wanna delete that and send a PM instead.
- Location
- Here & There
Okay will do so. Thank you for telling me.
Poliamida
(Verified Heavy Molecule)
- Location
- Beyond the Stars
I adored Ozai's scene. The guy spits pure nonsenses, but you can't argue with how absolute certain he is of himself and his policies. We have to turn him into a head on a spike at the earliest.
And Iroh is already a member of the White Lotus! And seems to be trying to recruit us. That will be interesting.
And Iroh is already a member of the White Lotus! And seems to be trying to recruit us. That will be interesting.
- Location
- Somewhere with a Thousand Watchful Eyes
- Pronouns
- They/Them
So, this popped in my head:
Aang and his companions had heard a lot about Zuko's older sister, from him and from Azula.
"My older sister, she was born talented, like my younger sister. Father would sometimes mutter about our incompetence and start to say something about Akane before cutting off. We never caught up to her, even after she left."
"My sister... she was my hero. She was everything I wanted to be. No matter what, she had always made sure I knew she was there for me. She was more of a mother than my actual mother."
After everything, the Avatar expected her to be nine feet tall, glowing, and capable of bending the sun.
He did not expect that, when they finally met her, she would be sitting down on a rocking chair while her wife worked the fields.
"Akane?!" Zoku had shouted. "What are you doing here?"
"Enjoying the view, mainly," the disgraced princess answered, gazing at her wife. Zuko blushed.
"Wait, is that Mitsuki? Are you two...? Were you two...?"
"I didn't set father's beard on fire and challenged him to Agni Kai because I had nothing better to do, little brother." She shrugged. "He said something about her parents, I lost my temper, I gave him some scars, he gave me one, and then we left."
While the siblings reconnected, Zuko's sister-in-law offered the Gaang some cold drinks. Aang decided Akane and Mitsuki were pretty cool.
He decided they were terrifying afrer witnessing them obliterate the team of Fire Nation soldiers that had followed.
Aang and his companions had heard a lot about Zuko's older sister, from him and from Azula.
"My older sister, she was born talented, like my younger sister. Father would sometimes mutter about our incompetence and start to say something about Akane before cutting off. We never caught up to her, even after she left."
"My sister... she was my hero. She was everything I wanted to be. No matter what, she had always made sure I knew she was there for me. She was more of a mother than my actual mother."
After everything, the Avatar expected her to be nine feet tall, glowing, and capable of bending the sun.
He did not expect that, when they finally met her, she would be sitting down on a rocking chair while her wife worked the fields.
"Akane?!" Zoku had shouted. "What are you doing here?"
"Enjoying the view, mainly," the disgraced princess answered, gazing at her wife. Zuko blushed.
"Wait, is that Mitsuki? Are you two...? Were you two...?"
"I didn't set father's beard on fire and challenged him to Agni Kai because I had nothing better to do, little brother." She shrugged. "He said something about her parents, I lost my temper, I gave him some scars, he gave me one, and then we left."
While the siblings reconnected, Zuko's sister-in-law offered the Gaang some cold drinks. Aang decided Akane and Mitsuki were pretty cool.
He decided they were terrifying afrer witnessing them obliterate the team of Fire Nation soldiers that had followed.
JuliusClonkus
Scatterbrained Speculator
- Location
- Federal Reichspublic of Karlsland
Yes on that.
Ozai fully intended to usurp the throne on the night that Azulon was tabled - that Akane did Azulon in before he killed her is more of a happy accident than anything else. If Akane had died, Ozai would've struck down his grief-maddened father and could have easily justified doing it because Azulon would have slain Ozai's child.
To rephrase, Ozai had no qualms about murdering his father for the throne; he was simply pre-empted by Akane's actions, and likely held back previously only due to the fact that Iroh wouldn't have let him get away with it prior to Lu Ten's death.
Ozai still assumes that, by and large, his children are similarly morally challenged, and have no qualms about doing him in much the same way (wrong on the first part, right on the second part).
If his children got along - well, Zuko has no real ambition of his own from his point of view, and would just defer to either Akane or Azula in any plot. Akane and Azula could probably agree to share the power that being Fire Lord allows you, and move to depose him. I suspect that if the two of them moved against him, he'd actually be pressed very hard, to say nothing of how things will be later.
If he keeps his children arrayed against each other however, and makes no secret of the fact that he considers the role of "crown prince/ss" to be rather flexible, they might just focus on destroying each other, and whoever remains is both the strongest and no longer able to muster enough strength to Azulon his sociopathic ass off the throne.
- Location
- Mars
Ha! This is the best mental image.
Now all we need is the 7.5 foot tall Mitsuko and we'll have the set.
Rem
fite me
I'm not sure if Iroh hasn't realized that we're in an extremely precarious situation where Ozai could decide we're not worth risking keeping alive, or if he's trying to help us in his own way.
While with the way the quest is going on anonkun I doubt we'll ever side with Iroh completely and realize "hey, an aggressive war of expansion just makes everybody worse off," we're far closer to him than Ozai by virtue of the fact that we're only slightly insane, and understand things like ethics and family and human emotions. And that's not great for our long term survival.
See, it makes us a threat to Ozai. He was willing to let Zuko run around with Iroh in canon because, I think, Zuko was a bit pathetic and honestly just no threat at all, and Iroh lacked the cruelty or ambition to use him as a tool to take the throne. We, on the other hand, are perceived as brilliant and ambitious. Maybe not as inherently talented at firebending as Azula, but we make up for it in other ways. Even without us associating with Iroh, Ozai no doubt views us as a potential political and literal threat* in a way that canon Zuko never was (at least until the end I guess, but by that point Ozai had jumped off the deep end). Hanging out with his hippie older brother won't earn us any points in his book, so we'll have to play this cautiously.
*Erroneously, of course. The true threat to his reign is Table-Kun.
...As an aside, kosm, I really hope you consider making our family's hereditary insanity a legitimate plot point for Akane in the future. Not because I want us to go Full Azulon, but because I like the idea of it becoming a problem and Akane desperately seeking a cure, or at least a way to mitigate the effects. Pathos is great! Suffering is great!
I am thoroughly amused by the fact that, even after bragging about the Waterbenders being less proficient at manipulating heat and taking that as a sign of Firebender superiority, people who read the text ultimately proved to have no proficiency at the inverse.
While with the way the quest is going on anonkun I doubt we'll ever side with Iroh completely and realize "hey, an aggressive war of expansion just makes everybody worse off," we're far closer to him than Ozai by virtue of the fact that we're only slightly insane, and understand things like ethics and family and human emotions. And that's not great for our long term survival.
See, it makes us a threat to Ozai. He was willing to let Zuko run around with Iroh in canon because, I think, Zuko was a bit pathetic and honestly just no threat at all, and Iroh lacked the cruelty or ambition to use him as a tool to take the throne. We, on the other hand, are perceived as brilliant and ambitious. Maybe not as inherently talented at firebending as Azula, but we make up for it in other ways. Even without us associating with Iroh, Ozai no doubt views us as a potential political and literal threat* in a way that canon Zuko never was (at least until the end I guess, but by that point Ozai had jumped off the deep end). Hanging out with his hippie older brother won't earn us any points in his book, so we'll have to play this cautiously.
*Erroneously, of course. The true threat to his reign is Table-Kun.
...As an aside, kosm, I really hope you consider making our family's hereditary insanity a legitimate plot point for Akane in the future. Not because I want us to go Full Azulon, but because I like the idea of it becoming a problem and Akane desperately seeking a cure, or at least a way to mitigate the effects. Pathos is great! Suffering is great!
I am thoroughly amused by the fact that, even after bragging about the Waterbenders being less proficient at manipulating heat and taking that as a sign of Firebender superiority, people who read the text ultimately proved to have no proficiency at the inverse.
This might be me missing something but has Ozai actually accomplished anything of significance beyond becoming Fire Lord? I was just thinking that it seemed pathetic for Ozai to criticize his brother's failure to conquer Ba Sing Se given his own lack of significant military accomplishments and realized that I couldn't really think of anything Ozai had done prior to becoming Fire Lord that was particularly noteworthy.
Did Ozai just spend his entire life before becoming Fire Lord as a spare heir that hung around the palace and practiced firebending or did he actually pursue a meaningful career?
Did Ozai just spend his entire life before becoming Fire Lord as a spare heir that hung around the palace and practiced firebending or did he actually pursue a meaningful career?
- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
Ozai doesn't have any great military accomplishments - his main leadership skillset is in economics, and his main contribution to the war effort has been boosting the amount of labour camps and forced labour by a shitload.
I do recall that being mentioned but I was mostly interested in how he acquired this alleged "leadership skill in economics". Does he have any practical experience running a major enterprise like a city or major business? Was he being groomed to take the place of one of the Ministers?
My thinking is that Ozai's overly simplistic perspective on the Earth Kingdom and the state of the war makes a lot more sense if you consider that the entirety of his education consisted of propaganda received as part of a traditional princely education for a second son. Believing that military losses occur because the general or soldiers simply didn't try hard enough or gave up is the type of logic displayed by someone raised on propaganda with no actual experience or true understanding of the real world. His economic and racial policies could similarly be explained away by this flawed education.
Ozai presents himself as some kind of mastermind who earned his power through hard work and cunning but in truth it seems more as if he simply got extremely lucky as the actions of family members transformed poor decisions into brilliant victories. Similarly, Ozai has not demonstrated any particular skills as Fire Lord with all of the Canon victories being achieved by others and most major defeats being a result of his failures to lead or to control his subordinates.
My thinking is that Ozai's overly simplistic perspective on the Earth Kingdom and the state of the war makes a lot more sense if you consider that the entirety of his education consisted of propaganda received as part of a traditional princely education for a second son. Believing that military losses occur because the general or soldiers simply didn't try hard enough or gave up is the type of logic displayed by someone raised on propaganda with no actual experience or true understanding of the real world. His economic and racial policies could similarly be explained away by this flawed education.
Ozai presents himself as some kind of mastermind who earned his power through hard work and cunning but in truth it seems more as if he simply got extremely lucky as the actions of family members transformed poor decisions into brilliant victories. Similarly, Ozai has not demonstrated any particular skills as Fire Lord with all of the Canon victories being achieved by others and most major defeats being a result of his failures to lead or to control his subordinates.
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