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Deep Red (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

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Vaermina said:
If Akane brings Mitsuko then it locks out the best path for escaping, which would be via faking her own death.

It would also tell Ozai that Mitsuko is very important to Akane.

Which means Ozai will use Piandao as a lever to force Mitsuko, if not Akane herself to come back. Probably via a long drawn out public execution under the pretense that Piandao and his daughter were traitors who kidnapped the nations crown princess.
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I'd say a few things to that.

First if before we leave the FN we talk to Mitsuko and tell her of our plans to leave she could just tell Piandao so he could leave the FN and not be used as leverage. Or simply have a message delievered to him from Mitsuko that "hints" at him leaving the fire nation in a way that isn't necessarily obvious on first glance by anyone quickly reading the mail sent out when the time to escape comes.

Secondly: Akane is pretty messed up bending wise— Akane is at her weakest she's ever been and is about to go out on the battlefield. Having Mitsuko with her could be the difference between actual life and death, before she gets a chance to fake it. This is a big thing here, and the most vital point imo. Sending the person who just had their main form of combat severely crippled into a war and then not bringing their bodyguard that is supremely skilled at combat is asking for something to happen.

Thirdly: If Mitsuko "falls" Akane is weak enough atm, that her falling to a force that took down Mitsuko is easily believable so them both "dying" in the same situation isn't necessarily unbelievable.

I don't think it is impossible to fake both Mitsuko's and Akane's deaths at the same time, especially since as her body guard Mitsuko would basically always be by Akane's side during the war.
 
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Sinarblood said:
I'd say a few things to that.

First if before we leave the FN we talk to Mitsuko and tell her of our plans to leave she could just tell Piandao so he could leave the FN and not be used as leverage. Or simply have a message delievered to him from Mitsuko that "hints" at him leaving the fire nation in a way that isn't necessarily obvious on first glance by anyone quickly reading the mail sent out when the time to escape comes.

Secondly: Akane is pretty messed up bending wise— Akane is at her weakest she's ever been and is about to go out on the battlefield. Having Mitsuko with her could be the difference between actual life and death, before she gets a chance to fake it. This is a big thing here, and the most vital point imo. Sending the person who just had their main form of combat severely crippled into a war and then not bringing their bodyguard that is supremely skilled at combat is asking for something to happen.

Thirdly: If Mitsuko "falls" Akane is weak enough atm, that her falling to a force that took down Mitsuko is easily believable so them both "dying" in the same situation isn't necessarily unbelievable.

I don't think it is impossible to fake both Mitsuko's and Akane's deaths at the same time, especially since as her body guard Mitsuko would basically always be by Akane's side during the war.
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Assuming they somehow manage to get Piandao to go with them, Ozai will just claim "X people in Piandao's lands were part of the conspiracy" and execute them to bring Piandao back.

Because remember, Ozai is a sociopath.

Now, in addition to that you're forgetting that in the land of the 1800s faking a persons death requires 2 parties, the person faking their death, and the person helping to sell the death to everyone else. And Mitsuko is the only person loyal to Akane who could sell such a thing.

And of course the War would be the worst place to try to fake a death because the Fire Nation would move hell and high water to bring her body home. The best place to pull a fake death would actually be on the boat trip. Jump overboard faking a suicide, no way to recover the body, and it would play into Ozai's ego by confirming what he already thought, which was that Akane was just too emotionally weak.
 
Fuck Ozai.

OK, so first I was thinking that since there can be no winning with Ozai if we're not willing to just become his copy that there was no avoiding getting screwed, but that's the thing: we should have realized this earlier and just given up on living with him before it came to this. Run away, inform Iroh, whatever, the point is that trying to please Ozai would always have ended with us running into a burning wall.

Seriously, fuck Ozai.

I'm just glad we still have Mitsuko. But after all this investment into Azula having to leave her with Ozai is honestly what pains me the most, here. He's going to be feeding her nothing but crazy pills and I fear in a year's time all our work with her will have come to nothing.

Seriously, FUCK OZAI.
 
I know kosm's comment wasn't part of the update, but
kosm said:
This is a chance to court the support of those dissatisfied with Father's self-destructive policies. You'll have to do what you can to avoid participating in Father's senseless killings.
like, this could result in the more special ops option to avoid being involved in the mass killings, while the other option would be more going after glory as a leader on the front lines to court the support of loyalists, even if it meant being involved in mass killings
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So unless you have a WoG that the "special ops option" no longer applies, several people are completely misrepresenting the military assignment.

No war crimes required.
 
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Well first, we dont have enough info to plan anything in detail.
How i see it right now there are two obvious paths.

1) Plan "mini Ursa"

Fake your own death. (somehow)

Run away. Be gay with Mitsuko

Spend 2 years before avatar apears wandering the world. Find the way to restore your belief in protecting the family.

But you are now the traitor in FK. And you are still on top of shit-list for the rest of the world. To become relevant again you would need someone to vouch for you.
That means either becoming firebender teacher for the Avatar or join the White Lotus.

TBH, I dont like it. Its too close to canon for my tastes.

2) Plan "mini Ozai" (or more PR friendly "mini Iroh")

Join the Army, like voters were planning before this fiasco.

Gain respect of soldiers. You can do it by making sure soldiers under your command survive as long as possible either by presenting good cunning plans or leading from the front and taking hits for them. Be careful because thats how your cousin died but your fire apparently gets stronger when you protect someone.

Gain respect of officers. That would require personal touch with each officer. Promote loyal, demote disloyal. Not enough info to tell.

Find Ozai spies. Remove them or feed them false info.

In broad strokes If you show that you are an excelent general (like Iroh was) you wouldnt lose respect of soldiery\citizens if you minory\moderetly disobey Ozai from time to time(with more reasonable alternative and not all the time)

While public opinion is on your side you can get away with some insubordination. (Ozai already couldnt do anything to you even when youve threaten him to his face. It was voters panic that led to current situation.)

Spend time in army building reputation, connections and resourses. When avatar will apear use him as distraction to usurp the throne. Kill Ozai, hang his goaty on the wall as trophy. (not enough info to plan in more detail)

i like this story more. but it would be a lot harder to pull off because i dont believe chat can manage to choose right options consistently. Or not succumb to panic and\or bloodlust

(If you think rep is not enough to protect you from Ozai, google "Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck")
 
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Remember to take into account the "realism" factor when making plans.

Akane, at this point, is still a young teenager who knows very little that Ozai hasn't arranged for her to be taught, which is mostly bending and propaganda history. And one who, due to her obsession with Azula, Mitsuko, and being "perfect", hasn't really bothered building anything other then the most shallow of personal/political connections with others.
 
Vaermina said:
Remember to take into account the "realism" factor when making plans.

Akane, at this point, is still a young teenager who knows very little that Ozai hasn't arranged for her to be taught, which is mostly bending and propaganda history. And one who, due to her obsession with Azula, Mitsuko, and being "perfect", hasn't really bothered building anything other then the most shallow of personal/political connections with others.
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Maybe Im biased here but she is not that hopeless. She can give suprisingly good public speeches, and her flattery skills are off the charts. She did gain Azula loyalty somehow. It wouldnt be that OOC for her to be good leader.
 
medved847 said:
Maybe Im biased here but she is not that hopeless. She can give suprisingly good public speeches, and her flattery skills are off the charts. She did gain Azula loyalty somehow. It wouldnt be that OOC for her to be good leader.
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You would be correct...
A day in quest time ago.

Now she is broken. Not only can she not properly bend, she has lost herself. Do you really expect her to lead anyone effectively?!
She needs to find herself. Redefining herself and rediscovering her fire is what she needs to do. I do not expect it to be possibly while dancing to Ozai's tune, and joining military would be exactly that.
 
Been catching up. I notice a lot of people have been talking about leaving and running away, and I'm really not sure where they are coming from.

I think running away pretty much locks the quest into canon rehash (boring and against characterisation as far as I can tell).

If Akane runs away she will no longer have oppotunity to network, to be seen as the rightful heir to the FN. She will be unable to gain the loyalty/admiration of soldiers and officers who would be vital to any sort of coup.
If the players plan to actually try and take over from Ozai at all, running away will completely scupper any such plans entirely, as either you'll be seen as a traitor or dead, and in which case Zuko/Azula would be seen as heir and claims of being Akane, rightful heir may fall on deaf ears.
Besides that, where would Akane go? The Earth Kingdom? The Water Tribes? What would Akane do if she ran away?

Considering the quest as-is, i'm of the opinion that the quest kosm is writing isn't guranteed success; the risks and outcomes aren't always seen in the options given to the player. People should consider this when they vote, and try to think about what the outcomes and possible things that can be done if that option succeeds. Here, the "running away" option, I can't see how it could possibly aid Akane's/the playerbase's goals.

I also saw some comments while lurking about how it would be impossible to create any sort of power base since Ozai is the Fire Lord.
Let's remember that to the people of the FN, and especially the soldiers and officers, Akane is the rightful heir, Ozai's personal feelings towards her aren't known far and wide. If they have any intelligence at all, they'd be clamouring for the favour of the future Fire Lord. Undoubtedly there will be spies, but you have to ask yourself how many spies could there possibly be in normal army units.

If leaving the army and going into hiding etc becomes neccessary then I am sure we will have the oppotunity to do so, later. I ask only that people consider the consequences of such a decision, especially since I am of the firm belief that it's being taken as a knee-jerk reaction to Ozai.
 
tenchifew said:
I do not expect it to be possibly while dancing to Ozai's tune, and joining military would be exactly that.
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Again, unless you have WoG/proof to the contrary, the following still applies:
kosm said:
This is a chance to court the support of those dissatisfied with Father's self-destructive policies. You'll have to do what you can to avoid participating in Father's senseless killings.
like, this could result in the more special ops option to avoid being involved in the mass killings, while the other option would be more going after glory as a leader on the front lines to court the support of loyalists, even if it meant being involved in mass killings
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So I don't see how "special ops for the FN" is automatically worse for Akane's mental health than "hunted by the FN". As I see it, both routes will prospectively take two years for her to find her new equilibrium.

The main draw for the military assignment is Azula, though. She's one of the two people we care about, and if we flee, Ozai has two years to exploit that Akane abandoned her. How could Azula look up to a big sister who broke and ran, who is weak, who left her, ...
In short, if we run, we lose her. Our darling sister will be twisted into the insane caricature we know from canon.
 
Nachtigall said:
Again, unless you have WoG/proof to the contrary, the following still applies:

So I don't see how "special ops for the FN" is automatically worse for Akane's mental health than "hunted by the FN". As I see it, both routes will prospectively take two years for her to find her new equilibrium.

The main draw for the military assignment is Azula, though. She's one of the two people we care about, and if we flee, Ozai has two years to exploit that Akane abandoned her. How could Azula look up to a big sister who broke and ran, who is weak, who left her, ...
In short, if we run, we lose her. Our darling sister will be twisted into the insane caricature we know from canon.
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This was before we fucked up this bad and broke Akane.
Back then yes, we could have done it.

Not now. Not anymore.

Otherwise please quote kosm after Akane was destroyed. Because your quote is from before that, and situation has changed dramatically.
 
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Again, proof. It's easy to say "not anymore", but being broken doesn't mean she'll just roll over and lose any and all agency. If that were the case, she couldn't decide to flee either.
 
Her being broken now doesn't mean that she isn't still going to be sent on campaign in the EK. Like we voted for.
 
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