I love this. Thank you so very much! That was lovely and long and totally worth the wait. I'm terribly amused that this is labeled "shortfic" ;)
Iroh and the crew... Oh hell, that was horrible. In a good way, as I kind of asked for horrible. I love how the absolute worst thing in the story happens in the beginning, and things steadily get better after that (except for the surprise!haircutting scene, which I'll get back to), and yet for Zuko, everything just seems to get more... grinding, and hopeless, and bleak.
Zuko's POV is wonderful. He's thirteen years old and still enough of a child to tear up when he hears his father won't ransom him, but the future stubborness and obsessive determination have clearly started to sprout. I want to box him around the head and give him a hug and some fire flakes at the same time during most of the story.
The first time the guards cut Zuko's hair is so abrupt that there's barely time to feel more than shocked, but that second time... He's a tough kid and it's not surprising that he's made it so far without really falling apart, but tears in that moment are so justified and so painful. This is my favorite part of the fic. Perhaps a little because I always take much inappropriate joy in any Zuko-whumping, but mostly because it seems so believable, and I honestly hadn't expected it to happen again. It's just as random and sudden as the first time they cut it, and yet exponentially worse somehow.
I wonder, are Arnook and his guards really hoping to assimilate Zuko into the tribe? They clearly don't really know what to do with him after Ozai tells them "Zuko who?", but I'm curious if they truly believe they can make that raging ball of hostility into a productive member of their society. Yugoda and some of the guards seem to think that Zuko is still young enough to be turned around and tough love will do the trick, but... yeah.
Pakku trying to be approachable and comforting. Oh, god. No wonder Zuko was weirded out.
Both Zuko and Yue are a little young in this fic for outright shipping, but I really like the foundation that's being laid here for a relationship, just friendly or otherwise. Zuko's pretty much constant rebuffing of Yue's attempts at communication are as frustrating as they are in character. I wanted to shake him sometimes, but it's all kind of understandable as well. Yue's attitude of yes, I know, sorry, but the hard reality is that we are going to talk and we are going to play games, okay? is also very IC and, upon rereading, kind of hilarious as well. She's a nice person, but she's royalty too, and she's got just as much time on her hands as Zuko. He doesn't stand a chance.
So there was that drabble, but I now have a second head fanon that has Zuko living/being forced to live with the Northern Water Tribe with a year or two, trying to escape at every turn and slowly but surely learning how to bide his time and think things through. Yue becomes his kind-of-friend, and maybe Zuko even gets interested in more, but "nice pretty girl who's my only friend" is still trumped by "I must capture the Avatar to regain my honor and go home". Then just when he's got a really good plan going with a boat and provisions and everything stashed away, Yue's engagement to Hahn is announced. Hahn being Hahn, he's probably spent the last few years bullying the Fire Nation guy at every turn. Yue says "how about I not marry you" and demands to be let in Zuko's escape plan. Zuko flails around for a while trying to convince her to get the hell out of his boat, but that doesn't work so well. Many adventures ensue! And as soon as they reach civilization, Zuko hears that the Avatar arrived at the Northern Water Tribe two days after they left, because the universe hates him.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2011-11-17 01:04 pm (UTC)Iroh and the crew... Oh hell, that was horrible. In a good way, as I kind of asked for horrible. I love how the absolute worst thing in the story happens in the beginning, and things steadily get better after that (except for the surprise!haircutting scene, which I'll get back to), and yet for Zuko, everything just seems to get more... grinding, and hopeless, and bleak.
Zuko's POV is wonderful. He's thirteen years old and still enough of a child to tear up when he hears his father won't ransom him, but the future stubborness and obsessive determination have clearly started to sprout. I want to box him around the head and give him a hug and some fire flakes at the same time during most of the story.
The first time the guards cut Zuko's hair is so abrupt that there's barely time to feel more than shocked, but that second time... He's a tough kid and it's not surprising that he's made it so far without really falling apart, but tears in that moment are so justified and so painful. This is my favorite part of the fic. Perhaps a little because I always take much inappropriate joy in any Zuko-whumping, but mostly because it seems so believable, and I honestly hadn't expected it to happen again. It's just as random and sudden as the first time they cut it, and yet exponentially worse somehow.
I wonder, are Arnook and his guards really hoping to assimilate Zuko into the tribe? They clearly don't really know what to do with him after Ozai tells them "Zuko who?", but I'm curious if they truly believe they can make that raging ball of hostility into a productive member of their society. Yugoda and some of the guards seem to think that Zuko is still young enough to be turned around and tough love will do the trick, but... yeah.
Pakku trying to be approachable and comforting. Oh, god. No wonder Zuko was weirded out.
Both Zuko and Yue are a little young in this fic for outright shipping, but I really like the foundation that's being laid here for a relationship, just friendly or otherwise. Zuko's pretty much constant rebuffing of Yue's attempts at communication are as frustrating as they are in character. I wanted to shake him sometimes, but it's all kind of understandable as well. Yue's attitude of yes, I know, sorry, but the hard reality is that we are going to talk and we are going to play games, okay? is also very IC and, upon rereading, kind of hilarious as well. She's a nice person, but she's royalty too, and she's got just as much time on her hands as Zuko. He doesn't stand a chance.
So there was that drabble, but I now have a second head fanon that has Zuko living/being forced to live with the Northern Water Tribe with a year or two, trying to escape at every turn and slowly but surely learning how to bide his time and think things through. Yue becomes his kind-of-friend, and maybe Zuko even gets interested in more, but "nice pretty girl who's my only friend" is still trumped by "I must capture the Avatar to regain my honor and go home". Then just when he's got a really good plan going with a boat and provisions and everything stashed away, Yue's engagement to Hahn is announced. Hahn being Hahn, he's probably spent the last few years bullying the Fire Nation guy at every turn. Yue says "how about I not marry you" and demands to be let in Zuko's escape plan. Zuko flails around for a while trying to convince her to get the hell out of his boat, but that doesn't work so well. Many adventures ensue! And as soon as they reach civilization, Zuko hears that the Avatar arrived at the Northern Water Tribe two days after they left, because the universe hates him.
Thank you! *off to rec*