Kindle the Wind (The Avatar! Zuko 'verse) commentfic meme

[attackfish]

That's it, folks, I can't take it.  In the hopes that maybe writing some of what I want to write will get me unblocked on the fic I'm trying to write, I'm giving in and running a commentfic meme for my Avatar!Zuko verse.  Comment with up to five requests, and I’ll guarantee you at least one commentfic.  I’ll probably answer with more, knowing me.  weirdlet , fanficforensics, beboots, and floranna  get seven requests and a guarantee of two fics, because beboots  and floranna  are the best betas ever, and weirdlet and fanficforensics just because.


Also, the 'verse has a title now, Kindle the Wind!


Air, Water, Earth, Fire.

Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them, but when the world needed him most, he vanished.

A hundred years passed and the new Avatar crashed into the ice sheet that borders our village. Although he is the Fire Nation prince, and it's his family and his nation that have brought this war to the world, I have hope that inside Zuko lies the spark of greatness. In the end, he has to save the world.

Front Cover Illustration

Timeline:

The Turtle-Crab and the Hawk
The first time Zuko struck a Fire Nation soldier in anger
Banner
Meeting Sokka and Katara
The joys of new bending
Zuko surprising himself by being spiritual and philosophical
Gran-Gran criticizing Uncle's parenting skills
Uncle Iroh finds out
Iroh has a talk with his nephew
Agni Kai against Zhao
Laying Aang to rest at the Southern Air Temple
Momo joins the Party
Sokka finds out the women on the ship aren't there to cook (and learns something, maybe)
Act of Providence
The Spinning Gates

Comments

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

I love you so much right now for this request. I'm really excited actually, for when I'll get to the post A:tLA stuff, and the persistent accusations of favoritism Zuko will face, their need to rush their marriage, Zuko and Mai's inability to conceive with Zuko gone all the time, and what that means for Mai's position... Yay!

[somariel]

You're welcome.

Just a few more thoughts

[somariel]

I also see Mai as facing accusations of bias within the Fire Nation because of her love for Zuko. (I said love and not marriage because I imagine that a good part of what is giving her legitimacy as Firelady Regent is the fact that she is married to Zuko. In fact, I have this mental image of someone from the Earth Kingdom or the Water Tribes asking Zuko why he couldn't have chosen a regent whom he wasn't married to and Zuko having to explain this (including the fact that they're working on making Mai the Firelord's mother).)

It also occurred to me recently that Mai and Zuko might well end up having two weddings: a small, rushed, mostly private one soon after Ozai's defeat and a big, very public one sometime later that is at least half an international PR move and is subject to all of the planning that would go into a royal wedding.

Re: Just a few more thoughts

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. Within the Fire Nation, their world has been tilted sideways after losing Ozai, and then now this non-bending girl that almost nobody has ever heard of is suddenly on the throne? (As regent, but still...) Surely there was a royal cousin somewhere who should have inherited. Or Zuko should have married one of the powerful woman movers and shakers of the Fire Nation, a general, or an admiral, or one of the governors. They don't get, or don't like that part of Mai's appeal as regent was that she wasn't any of those things, aside from the fact that Zuko loves her and is happy to marry her.

I can see that conversation happening, especially with somebody from the Southern Water Tribe or one of the Earth villages like Kyoshi, and Zuko explaining it, and the other person involved being like "This explains so much about why the Fire Nation is nuts".

This is very likely. They would want to present their marriage to the world as a done deal, and legitimize Mai's regency, but then they would also have to have a big public wedding to silence the people denying the wedding had happened.

Re: Just a few more thoughts

[somariel]

part of Mai's appeal as regent was that she wasn't any of those things

Oh, yes. I'm sure that the Earth Kingdom would have had a fit if Zuko had chosen one of the powerful women in the Fire Nation or someone who was the daughter of powerful people.

Re: Just a few more thoughts

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Mai is the daughter of a relatively powerful family.

This was why Iroh couldn't take the throne or be regent.

Re: Just a few more thoughts

[somariel]

Relatively powerful. Her father was only governor of Omashu for what, six months?

Re: Just a few more thoughts

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but wse don't know what he was before being governor of Omashu. For all we know, he was governor of a string of colonies. Generally, governing a newly conquered territory is hard work that needs a certain amount of finesse, and in historical empires, the successful governors of such territories could parley that into extremely high political advancement, so whoever got the post should be someone either skilled, or powerful. Since Azula thinks he's an idiot, and we haven't seen anything to contredict that, I'm going with powerful, especially since he was able to betrothe his daughter to the fourth in line for the throne, and that betrothal wasn't broken off when Zuko became crown prince. Plus, their house in the Caldera is right next to the palace. My theory is that Mai's father is the idiot son of some great dead general, and he's rich. Which makes Azula dissing him a tactical mistake, but one that it wouldn't be out of character for her to make...

Re: Just a few more thoughts

[somariel]

You have a good point there. I didn't really think about it that hard.

Re: Just a few more thoughts

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I may have gone a little overboard.