Ask the Author Part the Second: For want of a nail

[attackfish]

Ganked from askerian by way of suzukiblu

Inspired by Doctor Who's "Turn Left:" Pick one of my stories and tell me a point in the tale that you'd change. Something tiny (e.g. "and then Harry told a knock knock joke instead of a light bulb joke") or big (e.g. "and then June found Koh's spine and ripped it out before he could crush her arm and steal her face") and I'll tell you how that one difference would have altered the course of the entire story.

Comments

[lavanyasix.livejournal.com]

What would have happened in 'Drink it Down' if the DoBS invasion had been a complete success?

How would 'Between' have gone if Harry had been Harriet, and looked exactly like Lily at that age (except for her eyes, which she got from James)?



*goes off to gank this meme*

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, well I would have had to tag it AU... The ladies would have been freed early, they would have busted into the Boiling Rock to rescue Suki, Zuko would be in prison, and Aang would be agonizing over killing Ozai. And Sokka? not agonizing over killing Azula. And Ty Lee wouldn't be a Kyoshi warrior. The hard thing about this one is that Drink it Down isn't AU at all, so, this question prompts off a whole possible AU of canon.

Ginny wouldn't have a crush on Harriet, (or Ron wouldn't have recognized it) which would mean that he wouldn't have the rage at Harriet for that, and Ginny's attempts to get her attention that keep Ginny from catching the snitch. Harriet would have been stuck in a dorm with Pansy, Daphne, Millicent, and Tracy, which would have been all kinds of not fun for her. Oh you mean with Snape? He would have taken less pleasure in the less obvious parallels between himself and Harriet, and he would have been more torn between pleasure that Harriet's troubles hurt her father, and anger that there James Potter is playing protector to the physical reminder that Lily chose him over Snape. Snape probably wouldn't have tried to expel her. Also, her being hung up and stripped naked by a group of boys might have erm, prompted better punishment of out Gryffindors given her gender and the more obvious sexual component.

[lavanyasix.livejournal.com]

That Victory!DoBS AU sounds pretty neat. I'd totally take a crack at something like that if I weren't busy on other projects.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

That it does. My brain has a horrible habit of throwing interesting AUs at me while I'm busy with other fic.

[dungeonwriter.livejournal.com]

Whistling up a Storm

But it's men who want to learn healing, and how that would change gender roles.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Aha, but there men who want to learn healing in that, because you can't have true equality until femininity and tasks seen as feminine aren't devalued. Something this society is a long way away from getting. More specifically, if men had wanted to learn healing before the women had started wanting to learn to fight, they probably would have pushed the girls out first, and society would have maintained its patriarchal model.

[roachpatrol.livejournal.com]

Considering the way Civilized Western Society handled things for a long time, the male healers would have considered themselves 'professionals' and had women around to do the cleaning up, i.e getting the icky barf and blood out of the way after the men had done the important chakra realignment stuff. Or possibly women healers would only have been allowed to heal women? They certainly wouldn't have ever been allowed to learn how to fight, no society busy disenfranchising a group wants that group to know how to kick some ass. The Northern Water Tribe has some serious Issues, man...

[clockwerkchaos.livejournal.com]

Yup, though they might not even be allowed to heal women. Remember, in western society "midwives" were pushed out of even helping to give birth by doctors.

...


Oddly enough I had a cyberpunk AU which had this premise for it's waterbenders. As technology advanced, the "combat" aspect of waterbending became less and less important, but the healing became more so. Thus, the males pushed the females out of their traditional role. Only "professionally-trained" waterbenders (male-dominated) were considered appropriate for high stakes healing.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

And at the time this was happening in the real world, doctors still really knew nest to nothing, whereas midwives had a boatload of traditional knowledge. Doctors waged a cultural smear campaign with huge amounts of racism showing a filthy poor black woman midwife asking if they wanted that woman touching their child as well as a legal campaign to make midwifing without a medical license illegal. This of course was at the time that docs still believed in hysteria caused by uterine malfunction. Maternal and infant mortality soared. It's these sort of underhanded life endangering tactics that the men in the Northern Water Tribe would have used. I wonder if also in a Victorian model would women have become "angels of the house" and a cult of domesticity have been born as they were kicked out of their other traditional occupation? Probably.

We didn't see the lives of poor NWT members at all, if they exist. Obviously poor women have always worked.

[(Anonymous)]

And at the time this was happening in the real world, doctors still really knew nest to nothing, whereas midwives had a boatload of traditional knowledge. Doctors waged a cultural smear campaign with huge amounts of racism showing a filthy poor black woman midwife asking if they wanted that woman touching their child as well as a legal campaign to make midwifing without a medical license illegal. This of course was at the time that docs still believed in hysteria caused by uterine malfunction.
--
I agree with all this. However I'm a bit curious about this.

-Maternal and infant mortality soared. -

The first professionalization for midwifery took place around the 18th century, with a second wave around the early 1800. The earliest remotely reliable data I can find for infant mortality is around 1850 (http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/haines.demography). Which doesn't mean anything, it's not my area of expertise, but I'd love to look at the data from earlier. Any chance you could direct me to where I could find it?

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

According to the NIH and National Library of Medicine, the rates of maternal mortality in England (The records were better there, why the U.S. NIH was keeping the data...) in doctor and midwife kept records in the 18th century (which they were already starting to be careful about, though governmental involvement in those records would come later) Midwife and surgeon home births accounted for between 5 and 29 maternal deaths per 1000 women, depending on the location and how maternal death was calculated. The numbers shrank as the use of certain surgery techniques were mostly abandoned in favor of midwife style techniques on the parts of surgeons. However, as lying in hospitals became more common, their maternal death rates were calculated to be 85/1000, likely due to pore sanitation and a greater willingness on the part of doctors to take surgical solutions. Since the big push by doctors was not only to get rid of midwives but move births into hospitals. Since lying in hospitals and physician assisted birth was still relatively rare, and midwife and surgeon home birth was improving, this did not effect average birth and death rates.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

This AU sounds interesting. link?

[clockwerkchaos.livejournal.com]

Just an idea at the moment, haven't posted it at the moment. But give me a day or two and I can post the write up I have.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Thanks XD.

[clockwerkchaos.livejournal.com]

This.... thing, balllooned in to a 11k monstrosity of a write up that reads like the revenge of my econ major. But, it is final completed (in two parts). Here it is.

http://clockwerkchaos.livejournal.com/

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

This. Men taking women's roles before women have started taking men's leads to something similar to what happened in the Western early Industrial era, with women's work on the farm no longer needed and male "scientific" doctors (medical science being in its infancy, they weren't all that scientific, as I'm sure you know) taking over female herb healing roles. Women were displaced completely, and the ones well off enough not to have to work in factories were pushed into a solely domestic role and devalued further even while they were being touted as pure, pure paragons of virtue, charged with raising moral youth and taming their menfolk. In other words, things would have gotten worse for our NWT ladies.

[roachpatrol.livejournal.com]

In Ice Flows Through-- what if Zuko had decided to stay and be chief of the Northern Water Tribe? Say, he had decided to 'civilize' it, Fire-Nation style, and then maybe open peace talks with the Fire Nation? The Fire Nation seems pretty down with gender equality and women fighters in the way that the Water Tribe really, really isn't, and the idea of Zuko as the closest thing to a feminist for a thousand miles is kind of hilarious.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Hmm. The choice wasn't really open to him. Only Yue really liked him for the job and Arnook had him thrown out. If Arnook had listened to Yue and made Zuko heir, Zuko at this point is still in his "Fire Nation or Nothing" mentality, and he would have been a sulky, resentful, horrible ruler. Depending when Arnook died, if Zuko had stayed and tried to open negotiations with thr Fire Nation, he would be opening negotiations with either Ozai or Azula, who are going for world domination. Zuko holding the NWT would be a personal affront. Resentful as Zuko would have been, I'm not sure he would have done anything about the gender equality of the North, just because he'd be too busy sulking. Also, it's unlikely he'd keep the throne for long. The NWT would rebel.

And Lu Ten and Rinzee would be stuck brainwashed in the Earth Kingdom.

[roachpatrol.livejournal.com]

So basically horror for everyone, which is the best kind of horror! Well, it's a good thing that stuff didn't happen that way, then.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

*nods very rapidly*

Thoug on the bright side, Zuko at some point would have smacked Hahn.

[lita-of-jupiter.livejournal.com]

Ozai doesn't let the Dragon of the West join Zuko in exile... what if Zuko kille Zhao during that Agni KAi?

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Hmm, good question. Zuko would have been within his rights to do so according to Fire Nation law, so he likely would have gone back to his ship to agonize a bit, and deal with his pissed off crew (who used to be Zhao's men). As he went off to search for the Avatar and Zhao's men dealt with their chain of command problems, Ozai, receiving word of this might either be impressed and think better of his boy and give him some manpower and funding (oh Azula, your snit would be epic) or he would decide Zuko was dangerous and troublesome and try to drag him home. ala book 2.

[lita-of-jupiter.livejournal.com]

Heh... Zhao woudlnt get to punch a fish, Azula would have a bitch fit and MAi might smile....

I say win... also fire nation naviy doesnt go and die

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. Win indeed.

Ozai doesnt let dragon of the West join Zuko . . .

[(Anonymous)]

Are you going to continue this one. i would love to hear more after Zuko takes a "nap" during the frog sucking scene. how does he function after his shoulder heals?

also what happens if in the Zuko hurts his leg . . . he thanks Teo (after he tries his wooden leg out) like he has some semblance of people skills and then hangs out with him for a while

Re: Ozai doesnt let dragon of the West join Zuko . . .

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Maybe. I think it's one of those fics that I'll be writing every time I get a request for it, and when school lets out for winter, I want to throw a little existing AUs meme, and i hope someone asks for this.

Teo would be gracious, Iroh would be gratified, and Zuko would be incredibly uncomfortable. And there would be delightful squirming. Shame Zuko has no social skills.

Re: Ozai doesnt let dragon of the West join Zuko . . .

[(Anonymous)]

You know I will definately be waiting for that
(BTW-Happy Hanukkah!!!!!). I will certainly take you up on that - oh yeah. I would love to hear more about Teo and Zuko especially since I love it when Zuko squirms and blushes - I love to push people's buttons. (evil grin :-) H

Re: Ozai doesnt let dragon of the West join Zuko . . .

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Thank you, Happy Holidays!

me too. That's why I like Zuko. He has so many buttons.

[(Anonymous)]

ooo another ugly dark idea. Zuko wakes up scarred and deaf. He hit his head so hard when he passed out from the agni kai, he has a head injury and is cortically deaf. how does he learn to lip read. how successful is he in pretending that he is normal but Iroh knows something is up. I would like to be a fly on the wall while he is adjusting to that.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

floranna was going to write something very similar to this for her big bang, but she never finished. Maybe someday I can persuade her to.

lip reading?

[(Anonymous)]

oooo that would be great-i like her style too. Maybe co author?? grins
H

Re: lip reading?

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Lol, I doubt I could co-author anything. I'm a huge control freak.

Re: lip reading?

[floranna.livejournal.com]

I am still planning on continuing it, but right now is yuletide so it will be pushed forward. Again. ^^'

[clockwerkchaos.livejournal.com]

June has Nyla lick her face before facing Koh.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Well, if Nyla or June were able to control the dosing of the paralytic so that June wasn't completely immobile and only her face muscles suffered, June and Koh's conversation would be utterly one-sided while June fought not to drool and sliced our giant bug open like sashimi. And she would have brought the kid's face home, and gotten her commission, and a month later, some kid would have gotten into the spirit world and accidentally killed the butterfly of spiritual necessity (or something like that), and then the world would end. Either that, or Aang has to go to the spirit world to make everything right again. If not, June would have spent a couple of hours cursing and muttering until she could move again, and then Koh would have had her face a few hours late.