History Fanfic / Embers

''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5398503/1/Embers Embers]]'' is an ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' FanFic by Creator/{{Vathara}} that attempts to deconstruct the standard story of a [[TheTeam group]] of [[IdiotHero kids]] [[BlackAndWhiteMorality saving]] the world from TheEmpire, with copious amounts of FridgeLogic and FridgeHorror. Moving the ''Avatar'' universe on the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism (characters had best not try to invoke HeroInsurance, for example), causes the good guys to [[HanlonsRazor seem]] less good and the bad guys to range from AntiHero to pure evil. It also explores things that the TV show had to gloss over for kids, like [[ChildByRape the horrors of war]], [[EldritchAbomination dangerous]] spirits, and [[MindRape Azula]].

It is a sequel to her one-shot ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5115106/1/Theft_Absolute Theft Absolute]]'', which was written, in part, due to Vathara's exasperation with the theft in "Cave of Two Lovers". If Zuko could sneak into the North Pole, then he certainly should have thought out that theft better. Further, due to her knowledge of history, it was especially jarring:

->Pre English conquest, the gravest of all crimes in Welsh law was not murder, but theft. And while armed robbery was considered excusable under some circumstances, theft by stealth – theft absolute – could be a capital crime. Stealing from your own host, who'd taken you in and given you shelter… well. Very bad.

What at first seems like a fairly simple AlternateContinuity, ''Embers'' is deepened by Vathara's worldbuilding. She draws on her extensive research into psychology and real-world history and philosophy (she includes some partial [[ShownTheirWork bibliographies]]) to explain how the ''Avatar'' world could be the way it is and what that would imply about what the viewer does not see. Eventually, it grew into a full-fledged AlternateUniverse. The varying interpretations of people and groups that can result from the different historical & ethical perspective is the main source of controversy. See the [[Headscratchers/{{Embers}} Headscratchers]] and discussion pages for further details.

Little fragments of the show's FridgeLogic are expertly explained... in ways that later become ChekhovsArmory.

Be warned that this fic has a [[GambitPileup lot of plot twists]]: there ''will'' be unmarked {{Late Arrival Spoiler}}s, because after a certain point it's just not possible to say anything about the fic without them.

During their travels in the Earth Kingdom, Zuko -- [[ForWantOfANail instead of]] resorting to banditry to survive -- reveals a Firebending technique he learned from his mother: Fire-''healing.'' This draws him into a millennia-old conspiracy spanning both the living and spirit worlds -- to wipe out all healing benders, cripple the Avatar by eliminating the yaoren, who were meant to train him in dealing with spirits & combining elements in the same way that his other teachers taught him about the four forms of normal bending, and, eventually wipe out the human race. Oh, and there are dragons too.

''Embers'' can be divided into twelve major story arcs:

* [[WalkingTheEarth The Walking The Earth Kingdom]] Arc: After the confrontation in ''Theft Absolute'', Iroh talks Zuko into wandering the Earth Kingdom posing as a healer. Along the way they fight a plague spirit, acquire a team pet in the form of a cranky, attack-happy ostrich-horse, and Zuko learns how to fake waterbending with very hot water. Iroh makes the mistake of praying to Yue, and Zuko and Katara work together to save Iroh after Azula's attack, causing the Gaang to question what they know about Zuko, Iroh, and firebending. Chapters 1-7.
* The Ba Sing Se Arc, Part I: Zuko continues to pose as a healer in Ba Sing Se with the help of Amaya, who Iroh's contacts discovered is using her waterbending to hide Fire Nation refugees, although she is unaware of the White Lotus. This is made easier when Yue takes the opportunity to grant Iroh's prayer for a means to bring about peace by temporarily killing Zuko to make him a yaoren, meaning either the Fire Nation will fall apart when Azula takes the throne, or Aang gets a new yaoren. Or both. Zuko begins to open up, but between a young firebender, the Dai Li eying him as a potential recruit, and man-eating spirits, it's clear these peaceful days won't last long. Chapters 8-18.
* The Ba Sing Se Arc, Part II: Canon begins to interfere with a vengeance. A Dai Li agent informs Zuko that they have Aang's bison, and he needs help breaking him out: Zuko recruits Toph to assist. Katara is temporarily captured very dishonorably by Zuko, strengthening her animosity for him. It ends with a showdown with Azula, and everyone running for their lives. This is where the fic becomes controversial. Chs. 19-24
* The Beach Arc: Zuko assists Katara in healing Aang's lightning trauma, while more is revealed about the nature of firebending, dragons, and a lot of foreshadowed stuff. Katara not completing her healing training at the North Pole has terrible consequences for herself, not Aang. Meanwhile, Kuei and other refugees hide from Azula in the catacombs under Ba Sing Se, awaiting rescue. Chs. 25-30
* The Shipboard Arc: Zuko and Iroh escape aboard ship, the Gaang travels with Hakoda's fleet, and Katara's lack of training is remedied during a vision quest by Yue, who also reveals the true scope of the conflict, and what needs to be done for balance to be restored. Meanwhile, Yue arranges for additional assistance in the form of a third yaoren and it is revealed that even though Toph accidentally prevented Iroh from finishing her off, Azula didn't escape the fight that ended the Ba Sing Se Arc unscathed... Ch. 31-36
* Exodus from Ba Sing Se arc: Zuko, Iroh and Shirong lead Earth Kingdom citizens out of Ba Sing Se via escape by amphibious train. Azula and Ty Lee are headed back to the Fire Nation for reinforcements which include getting the Fire Sages to take care of the restless spirits of Ba Sing Se and thus making her its ruler. Kuei is in hiding with Bon and Quan. While trekking a forest, Jet and his Freedom Fighters attack Zuko and his people, only to be countered by Langxue and Shidan, Zuko's dragon grandfather/Kuzon's dragon friend. And now, a tense gathering takes place between Zuko, Iroh and Shidan... Ch. 37-46
* The Fire Nation arc: As of Ch. 47, Aang has left for the Fire Nation with the Gaang in pursuit, and Makoto has finally appeared. She attacks Azula, who fights her off, which may have only furthered her {{plan}}. Sokka and Aang spend time having a "manly" talk, while Azula gets some sorely needed healing from Shidan. The Fire Lord is less than amused when he learns that Azula has had contact with her grandfather, and Azula's loyalties are tested once she meets her father. Katara meets the Painted Lady where she and the rest of the Gaang learn to tread lightly with spirits, who points out Shu Jing to them. This is where the Gaang ends up next, home of the retired Fire Army major, Piandao and Kuzon's ghost mate, Temul, who teaches them about ground fires and how Sky bison treading on their fields is bad news for farmers. In the Earth Kingdom, Kuei learns more about the Touzaikaze and how they survived in the desert both airbenders and sandbenders living underground. Zuko, Shirong and Langxue go off to find Asagitatsu to stop the volcano from erupting by fighting off Makoto and Koh. They win. While here, Aang finally learns of the tragic fate that befell his good friend, Kuzon who was killed by airbenders, trained by none other than Aang's own Temple mate, Ja Aku. Currently, the Southern Water Tribe fleet has caught up to Zuko and his crew, and are now in the Northern Air Temple. Ch. 47-55
* Under the shelter of Dragons' Wings: Everyone is planning for the Invasion. In the Fire Nation capital, Azula and Mai take care of some dirty business that is, wrapped around a dead Fire Sage's body before Azula plans with the Fire Lord who gives her Shidan's request for help. Zuko and his allies explore their new home, and come to some mortifying revelations Avatar Kesuk, walking-whales/Sea serpents, and Koh, and decide that these things need to be kept secret from Hakoda and Tao. Meanwhile, with the Gaang, they meet Shidan who helps them put an end to Hama and her reign of terror. The good news is, the Gaang lives. The bad news: the Fire Nation knows about their plans to invade during the Day of Black Sun. Ch. 56-64
* The Invasion: Avatar Aang and his allies attack the heart of the Fire Nation: the Caldera. However, Azula has known about their plans months ahead of schedule, and has planned to ambush the Avatar's ambush accordingly. Zuko's trusty ship crew (Kyo, Rikiya) are sent to interrupt Fong's little march towards Dragons' Wings. When Aang goes to face the Fire Lord, he finds a nasty surprise: Makoto. Ch. 65 to 69.
* The Siege of Dragons' Wings: The eclipse is over, and while the Gaang recovers Zuko has to deal with general Fong and his army. Ch. 70 to 74.
* The Search for the Fire Sage: Zuko climbs aboard and joins the Gaang to search for the arrested Fire Sage to teach Aang Firebending. An encounter with a sea serpent possessing Katara leads to Zuko fighting for his life and ending up in Byakko. Ch.75 to 80.
* Sozin's Comet: The Fire Sage has been located. Zuko has fulfilled his obligation to the Gaang, Shunned Aang, basically the Temple's version of Banishment, and is returning to Dragons' Wings. Meanwhile, the Fire Lord plans to use Sozin's Comet to invade the Northern Water Tribe, and the Gaang must figure out a way to stop him. Ch. 81-91/End.

''Embers'' is complete as of January 18, 2014.

Please refrain from Administrivia/{{Justifying Edit}}s or TakeThat edits and post on [[FanFic/{{Embers}} the discussion board]] or [[Headscratchers/{{Embers}} the Headscratchers page]]. And, there is a [[Characters/{{Embers}} character tab]], to put place all those [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment characterization and character-specific tropes]].
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!!''Embers'' provides examples of:
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[[folder:A-C]]
* AbductionIsLove: In the historical form of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_kidnapping Bride Kidnapping]]. Played straight by the Water Tribes according to Sokka, and by the Earth Kingdom according to the Dai Li (when it comes to spiritually strong 'desert witches' for the Earth King's bloodline), but inverted in the Fire Nation, where it's a woman that ambushes the man with 'three cups of wine and a [[RedStringOfFate red cord]]'. In both cases, it's merely ceremonial, basically part of the marriage rites or a proposal (Iroh's wife proposed in this fashion). However Teruko [[BlackComedyRape jokes]] about doing it to [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale Sokka]], since he's prime stock, and given the Northern Water Tribe's feuding traditions and all three groups' cultures, it's probably been nonconsensual more than often enough in the past.
* AbsenceOfEvidence: Sokka notices in Chapter 33 that one very important thing was missing from the remnants of the Fire Nation's attack against the Southern Air Temple a century ago: [[spoiler:The human remains of all the Air Nomad children that lived there.]] While in the TV episode this was likely done to prevent a R-rating or worse, this is a ''very'' important plot point in ''Embers''.
* AchievementsInIgnorance: Invoked. Toph states that some of her best stuff is because no one told her she couldn't do it.
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: This seems more true about the Fire Nation, but...
-->"Remember that talk you gave us about what kind of boys to drag home?" Jia jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "He's the guy you ''warned'' us about."\\
"I didn't do anything!" Zuko protested. Trying not to look past Meixiang to Katara. Who hated him anyway, so it wasn't like it mattered… but he ''hadn't''.\\
"No, of course you didn't." Meixiang smiled, bittersweet. "Sweet, deadly, and broken. Your uncle's going to have to beat them off with a stick."
* AllMythsAreTrue: The stories of the [[spoiler:dragon wife and healing fire survived in the Fire Nation]] in the form of plays and legends, despite [[spoiler:deliberate attempts to destroy knowledge of them, according to Iroh and Azula.]]
* AmnesiacDissonance: Or rather, reincarnation dissonance. [[spoiler:Helping his friend Aang was Kuzon's main goal, as shown when he surfaces during Zuko's second near-death-experience, whereas Zuko views him as a pain in the neck he has to deal with but would prefer to keep far away.]]
* AncientAstronauts: Inverted. Instead of spirits [[spoiler:actually being SufficientlyAdvancedAliens, humanity may have come to the Avatar's planet from another world.]]
* AncientTradition: The Order of the White Lotus has agents everywhere and has been around for a number of ''millennia''.
* AndroclesLion: Invoked by Shirong, [[spoiler:trying to convince Kuei to trust the Fire Nation refugees.]]
* AngerBornOfWorry: Increasingly obvious in Toph's case the more she learns about the many, many close calls "Sparky" has barely survived.
* ApocalypseHow: [[spoiler:A Class 2 via supervolcano]] is one part of the BigBad's EvilPlan. The goal is [[spoiler:Class 3a, engineered human extinction, and Koh likely has several other irons in the fire...]]
* ArrangedMarriage: Ursa and Ozai and each next Earth King, because of a need of a spiritually strong wife. It seems that's how matters look in the Earth Kingdom. [[spoiler:The Touzaikaze didn't have problem with sending an air-healer and a presumably strong sand-bender as potential brides for Kuei.]]
* AsianFoxSpirit: One of Wan Shin Tong's 'procurers'.
* AuraVision: Ty Lee, [[spoiler:since she's an airbender. Aang's own lie detection ability seems to work in the same way, only without the visualization, which may be because he's a master airbender.]]
* AuthorAppeal: Many. Cultural dynamics, psychology, spirits, ''dragons'', people banging their heads against walls, Iroh & Toph being badass, and Zuko torture are among the most obvious.
** And on a larger scale, politics, ProudWarriorRaceGuy, HalfHumanHybrid, WhatMeasureIsANonhuman, psychic empaths, blood-drinking, and pack-bonding that flirts with the MindRape line appear to be thematic of a lot of Vathara's works in general.
** Vathara has a ''huge'' thing for claws. Has given them to people in ways that involve Zuko (and Kenshin, in two other universes) being part dragon, some [[FanFic/ProjectTatterdemalion AU space version]] of the Manga/{{Bleach}} cast becoming [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot octopus-cat-alien-hybrid]] survivors of TheVirus, some ''bizarre'' gene-sharing with Godzilla, [[NomDeGuerre Battousai]] being a psychic dragon-tooth demon sword which possesses the mild-mannered [[Manga/RurouniKenshin Kenshin]], genetic tampering on the ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'' cast by [[Series/StargateSG1 Goa'uld]], and a ''VideoGame/CrisisCore'' AU in which Zack and Cloud [[SerialEscalation become part griffin because of a conversation Aerith has with a sapient gargoyle]]. These are all considered good things.
** Vathara also loves military units and the men who command them. Especially when they're accustomed to killing enough to not blink at doing it but don't like it ''too'' much, are extremely dutiful and [[AFatherToHisMen fathers to their men]], and their personal senses of duty and ethics come into collision because [[GeneralRipper the brass is evil]]. That particular [=OC=] appears in a large selection of her work; ''Embers'' has a whole sub-plot involving the Earth and Fire versions working together to keep peace in occupied Ba Sing Se.
* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Shidan, lord of Byakko, [[spoiler:grandfather]], dragon in human form, among most feared/respected Firebenders on the planet, probably a beyond-lethal swordsman, and quite likely one of the (if not ''the'') most powerful bender shown until now... yet it's stated very clearly by Zuko[[spoiler:/Kuzon]] that he could never visit Ozai's court, for he [[DecadentCourt would]] [[TheEmpath slaughter]] the SmugSnake noble bastards within minutes... and then immediately be killed by Ozai. Say what you will about Ozai and his methods, he ''really'' deserves the title of Fire Lord.
* AuthorTract: Moved to the [[Headscratchers/{{Embers}} Headscratchers]] page.
* AwesomenessIsVolatile: Invoked almost by name by Toph in Chapter 31:
-->'''Toph:''' I'm not saying Aang should be like me. I'm the greatest earthbender in the ''world''. Too much awesome? Could ''break'' something.
* BadassBoast: Avatar Yangchen has the best so far, surprisingly. And she's not even ''boasting'', she was trying to be ''reassuring''. [[spoiler:Well, she was [[RaisedByWolves raised by evil monks]] who wanted to keep her ignorant of the outside world]].
-->'''Yangchen:''' You don't truly think you would survive if I meant you ill, do you, young one?
** Zuko gets one in Chapter 80.
-->'''Zuko:''' [[spoiler:Ask [[TheDevil your elder]] what I've done to the drowned. Ask the ocean where the sea serpent's bones lie. Ask who woke Asagitatsu! ''Do you think you can face me?'']]
* BadassNormal: The Fire Nation in canon has a disproportionate amount of these, which is justified by the fact that firebenders start bending late (while the others seem to start at birth), meaning they need to start teaching martial arts discipline to everyone, early, before they start throwing sparks. As this story has everyone able to use chi, this makes Piandao understandable but still awesome. [[spoiler:The Yu Yan are non-bender chi users founded to fight airbender raiding parties; Zuko points out that Boomerang always hitting where Sokka wants is not (just) skill.]]
** However, several of the show's BadassNormal Fire Nation people [[spoiler:aren't normal. Ty Lee is an airbender, and at this point it's confirmed that there is a long-standing population of Fire Nation airbenders.]]
** Chapter 59 has one such Fire Nation citizen [[spoiler:the Byakko "merchant" Hitomi is actually one of the Yamabushi, the so-called Renegades that Monk Yuan-ti spoke of in Chapter 31. Hitomi isn't an airbender, but she is of Air Nomad descent, and fearful of Monk Aang.]]
* TheBait: Zuko deliberately puts himself in harms way to protect first Iroh and then anyone he considers his people.
** [[spoiler:This seems to be a trait common to dragons. They played target for Avatar Kesuk's rage and Shidan plans to do this if a spirit is involved in one of his people's disappearance in Hama's village. Technically he'll be doing it twice as if any supposed spirit is strong enough to defeat him then it is a threat to the entire Fire Nation.]]
* BalkanizeMe: What needs to happen to the Fire Nation, instead of just putting Zuko in charge as in the show. As several states, they fight among and police each other: as one state, all it would take is one corrupt Fire Lord and the whole thing would start all over again.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Iroh prays to [[spoiler:Yue, and the way she and the other spirits grant it]] completely ruins his plans for [[spoiler:Zuko]]. Shirong prays in general [[spoiler:that a certain messed up kid could have a little help. ''Agni'' answers and Shirong also ends up a yaoren.]]
** In Chapter 31, [[spoiler:Langxue explicitly refrains from offhandedly wishing Saoluan dead, choosing instead to specify banging pots together while she slept and yelling at her]]. Malicious spirits are noted to use otherwise benign curses as a excuse to inflict suffering and death.
** In Chapter 45, Bon and Quan talk about the difficulties of their occupation, since it makes them unattractive to women, therefore barring them from having a normal life, let alone a family: "Pray," Bon echoed. "Right. Because it'd take a miracle to find spiritually strong women in the middle of a Fire Nation invasion-". Right after that, guess what happens?
* BerserkButton:
** Lying, for Zuko [[spoiler:and dragons/dragon-descended firebenders in general. Given that dragons communicate with emotions and pictures, (canon examples include Fang touching Aang with a whisker to give him visions, as well as Ran and Shao's rainbow fire), not words, most likely only psychopathic 'dark' dragons would be able to manage it, and]] Azula lies as easily as she breathes, without feeling any emotions about it as far as Toph can tell. If the ability to lie meant someone was evil in some species, it'd start ringing instinctive alarm bells very, very quickly.
** Being told to give up his katana is one for Langxue. It belonged to his dead mother and in Kyoshi island, it is considered a woman's weapon, anyone that told him to give it up ended on the receiving end of a teenage waterbender's ire. Aang also tells Langxue to give up his sword because as an airbender he can't use weapons. It ticks of Langxue, who up to that point had been trying to convince Zuko to give Aang another chance. After that little discussion Langxue fully agrees with Zuko that Aang is an idiot and a brat and angrily tells Iroh that he will not be teaching Aang anything. This might be compounded by the fact that Langxue was once a water-fire yaoren as Hyourin and to a child of fire it would be unthinkable not to take up a weapon.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: A recurring theme that shows up most dramatically in Iroh's [[spoiler:killing of General Gang (arguably in cold blood)]], Aang, and Ty Lee's own [[spoiler:inner monologue about how it's oh so sad that Zuko died but only natural, and everyone should just surrender to Ozai so no one else will get killed. And how Aang should have surrendered so Zuko could have been the heir. This appears to be ''official policy'' for the non-Byakko airbender survivors.]]
** Earth King Kuei. Do NOT ''ever'' hurt any of his people. Wan Shi Tong is one such example.
* BigBad: Surprisingly, not Ozai. He's treated as a symptom of a disease: if the world was running properly, someone like that would have been stopped long before gaining that much power. It seems as though the real enemy is the current disruption of the cycle, ignorance and racism themselves. However, it's been confirmed that it was ''engineered'' to get this bad, [[spoiler:specifically by Koh the Face Stealer.]]
* BigBrotherIsWatching: The Dai Li and their brainwashed Joo Dees. [[spoiler:It's implied that at least some of the Dai Li remain with Azula in order to make sure that no one tells her about Lake Laogai. One tells Min that he'll [[ShootTheDog kill him]] instead of letting Azula have him, which he's grateful for.]] However, it's very possible that she knows and doesn't care, because she doesn't need it. Without the checks and balances provided by [[spoiler:fire healing allowing rebels to survive and the lords of several domains being willing to gang up on anyone who crosses the MoralEventHorizon by trying to use it this way, fire loyalty can be used to]] punish thoughtcrime with death, no expensive surveillance system required.
* BigDamnHeroes: Zuko manages to pull one with a ''gondola''.
* BilingualBonus: "Tejina" is Japanese for "sleight of hand", while 'Makoto' means "truth". Keep that in mind where those names come up.
* BlackAndGreyMorality: While more upbeat than most examples of this, one of ''Embers''[='=] main themes is that people will often find themselves in situations where they will have to do the wrong thing for the right reasons, or the right thing for the wrong reasons. While at first it seems that this is a case of GreyAndGrayMorality, or 'messed-up people messing up in a messed-up world', sometimes people just have to die, and what divides the characters Vathara holds up as examples from those she deconstructs is their willingness to admit it when they've done something unethical or are going to for the sake of what they hold dear, right reasons or not.
* BlessedWithSuck: The yaoren in the fic (Zuko, [[spoiler:Shirong, and Langxue]]), who all have terrible luck.
** Aang definitely counts, despite the Avatar having all the power of the world with no spirit wound. However, instead of being told on his sixteenth birthday, his Elders tell him when he's ''twelve''. Shunned the by his fellow friends at the Temple, this will be nothing in comparison to what the Onmitsu and the descendants of the surviving Air peoples will do to him, should he come near them. Zuko and Shirong don't want to go near Aang despite their duty to the Avatar, and Langxue will definitely have his hope shot down once he meets the Gaang. Really, Aang really has to be the biggest [[TheWoobie Woobie]] in the story.
** In Chapter 45, [[spoiler:Shidan]] informs Zuko that Zuko possesses, "The blessing – of no blessing at all." Because he has absolutely no luck, he is, in some unexplained way, invisible to spirits (which apparently gives him power to change the world that he apparently wouldn't have otherwise). Of course, the downside of this is his lack of luck.
** Any yaoren in the time when spirit healing was lost got a cool new superpower to play with while they died.
* BloodOath: There is a spiritual bond, peculiar to each nation, where the TheOathBreaker suffers pain, fatigue, sickness, AngstComa, and then (almost certainly) death (unless treated by a healing bender).
** Fire Nation: Loyalty
** Water Tribe: Community and Family
** Earth Kingdom: Oaths and Contracts
** Air Nomads: Piety--the unquestioning acceptance of what they are taught by older Airbenders.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: a major source of conflict in the fic, both for plot and worldbuilding purposes. It applies to Spirits and partly to dragons. Because of this it is sometimes impossible to avoid angering some spirits without the Avatar's help. It definitely explains why making the Four Nations understand each other was a full time job requiring an Avatar's powers – especially as the spiritual realm does ''not'' care about human ethics. The spirits of the Fire Nation believe that the Fire Lord has the ''right'' to do as he likes to the rest of the world [[spoiler:in the Avatar's absence, because he has Avatar Kyoshi's mandate.]] That is why Aang '''is''' TheOnlyOne who can end the war – [[spoiler:by forcibly revoking that mandate.]]
** Azula thinks about [[spoiler:Ty Lee]] in these terms, as an intelligence that works by alien rules.
** [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Vathara's dragons]] turn this into fearsomeness, simply because dragon morality is similar to human morality with a crucial difference: both human and dragon morality have [[LawfulGood innocence and trustworthiness]] as shared key virtues, but are opposed as to which takes priority – to a human, a [[NeutralGood nonviolent traitor]] (a draft dodger) is less of a concern than a [[LawfulEvil dutiful sociopath]] (a war criminal). For dragons, it's the other way around – a BloodKnight is at least of use to the clan, but a DirtyCoward is a weak link to be eliminated at all costs. Basically, if asked to choose whether ToBeLawfulOrGood, humans are more likely to pick Good, and dragons (along with all other known spiritual entities) are more likely to pick Lawful. As you can guess, this causes humans and dragons to confuse the hell out of each other at best, and actively seek each others' destruction at worst. In chapter 39, we get to hear why the dragons went along with the genocide of the Air Nomads from a dragon who witnessed but actively subverted it: [[spoiler:'''''Zuko's maternal grandfather.''''']]
--->'''[[spoiler:Shidan]]:''' For one of dragon's blood to not take up weapons, to not prepare night and day to slaughter any enemies that would come against them – it is unthinkable. It is – one who does such a thing, who believes the world will not be dangerous, will not strive to kill him... That is what we call ''insane''. Do you understand? ...The bonds of clan mean one ''must'' assist one's kin. And it is our dangerousness, our peril to each other, that keeps each clan from another's throats. If one member of the clan ''will not fight'', and other clans know that to be true...
--->'''Langxue:''' They stomp on him, everybody else comes roaring in to fight, and the whole countryside goes up in flames.
*** The dragons, including [[spoiler:Shidan]] interpreted the airbender genocide as acting against deserters. In other words, if there had been ''Embers''-verse dragons in America IRL during TheSixties, they would have helped UsefulNotes/RichardNixon ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings slaughter every protester at Kent State.]]'' If they'd been... [[GodwinsLaw elsewhere]]... a [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII couple of decades earlier]]... And in both cases, ''some'' of them ''might'' figure out that they'd committed atrocities ''decades'' later. Let's just say that dragons don't make good neighbors for humans.
*** Also acts as a case of Fridge Brilliance: human/dragon hybrids with too much dragon blood inheirit hybrid instinctual morality. Zuko is constantly tearing himself apart because he prizes innocence and trustworthiness equally, and can never really console himself to either morality. Azula is TheUnfettered because to her, [[MortonsFork the innocent are untrustworthy and the dutiful are puppets]].
*** Referencing the above notes about dragons, WordOfGod is given in the footnote to [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5398503/43/Embers Chapter 43]].
* BrickJoke: Chapter 27 has this exchange;
--->'''Iroh:''' Husband-stealing? I have not seen that custom followed in some time. You may wish to watch your step in Byakko, nephew.
--->'''Zuko:''' Yeah, right. [[spoiler:Only if she's blind.]]
** In Chapter 91;
--->[[spoiler:'''Toph:''' When I'm old enough, you point me at some good sake. I've got some ideas for a cord that won't burn, and I'm going to need somebody who can make sure it's red...]]
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: Some readers feel the fic isn't spending enough time on the villainous acts of the Fire Nation: characters aren't appropriately horrified by them, or they should be ignoring the Avatar's own actions due to what the Fire Nation did first [[spoiler:or second, or after having been run through the gears of a GambitPileup twice.]] This trope itself appears to be at fault for this – the Fire Nation has committed so many invasions, genocides, war crimes, and other actions that people might occasionally be shocked by something really audacious (like killing the Moon) but there's not a lot of real surprise: everybody knows what happened to the Air Nomads, so when they do something else it's Just Another Tuesday for Sozin's Fire Nation. On the other hand, when a good guy, much less a pacifist, does something as unexpected as [[spoiler:metaphorically bringing a very dirty warhead to a bending fight when he's the Avatar, and thus by definition powerful enough to have no real need to resort to such a thing]], WhatTheHellHero ensues.
* CainAndAbel:
** Vathara notes in author's notes that there's a definite theme of this in Fire Nation Royalty: Zuko and Azula, Ozai vs. Iroh and Ursa, and adds to it by making [[spoiler:Ilah, Azulon's wife, Roku's daughter.]]
%%** And what about the similarity in names between [[spoiler:Xiangchen and Yangchen?]]
* CallingTheOldManOut: During his spirit-encounter with Roku, Zuko all but calls Roku an idiot for failing to see he could have prevented the war by undoing the unnatural situation Kyoshi had put them in, as well as for failing to accept his guilt in the matter.
* TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive: Just to hammer this in, [[spoiler:one of Aang's posters of Appa falls on Zuko after he's already acknowledged he has to help the Avatar by rescuing Appa.]]
-->'''Zuko:''' ''I know already!''
* CanonDiscontinuity: The creators of Avatar might have declared that The Great Divide didn't happen after realizing all the UnfortunateImplications. Vathara isn't letting them get away with it that easy.
* CastFromHitPoints: Sozin-style firebending burns up the wielder's own chi, or life force, forcing it to be an offense-focused style since if it becomes an endurance match they'd lose. [[spoiler:Not true of other styles of firebending: Ty Lee recognizes this increased endurance would allow Zuko to defeat Azula.]]
* ChasteHero: [[spoiler:Dragons don't start looking for mates until they have claimed a territory to bring them home to]], which tallies with canon Zuko being in a relationship with Mai as soon as he was accepted back as heir, and then leaving her behind when he lost that position instead of taking her with him to join Aang.
* ChekhovsArmory: Not just ChekhovsGun but ChekhovsArmory. The [[StealthPun Plot Hooks]] in chapter three, for example. Two that have been referenced several times but not come into play yet are [[spoiler:Iroh's ability to see spirits when no one else can and Amaya's meeting with the lion turtle.]]
** Not exactly for the second, it is heavily implied that [[spoiler:Amaya's ability to heal Zuko's spirit (which was broken and bleeding like a head wound when Yue made him a yaoren) came from said Lion-turtle]]
** Chapter 49 tells the episode of the Painted Lady through her POV. [[spoiler:Katara disguises herself as the Painted Lady, which in ''Embers'', has the grisly consequences of what happens when one takes the name of said spirit.]] This goes back to the prequel of this fic, ''Theft Absolute''. The aesop is "Never steal from one who provides you hospitality." Suddenly, the controversy of Aang's using Koizilla against the Fire Navy makes sense. As the Avatar, Aang can make anyone, any spirit, bow to his command and do his bidding. Tui didn't possess Aang; it's the other way around. The rage against the drowned Fire Navy spirits may be due to Aang's using Tui's power and form, and then doing absolutely nothing to help Tui clean up. In other words, [[OhCrap ''ouch'']].
** In Chapter 22, Iroh hints that the White Lotus has, centuries ago, had to deal with an Avatar that went bad. [[spoiler:It has been revealed in Chapter 57 that Avatar was Kesuk, from the Northern Water Tribe. According to the records the White Lotus kept, she was never really strong of mind or spirit, and when her spirit beast was killed, Kesuk snapped. Already desiring the world at her feet, she went on a destructive rampage. The dragons of Asagitatsu, with lots of help from both the Fire Isles and Air Nomads, stopped her, though it cost them greatly.]]
** In Chapter 9, after Zuko startles himself [[spoiler:with rudimentary waterbending]], he asks if there are spirits in the water of well in Amaya's clinic. Her response?
--->'''Amaya:''' Not to my knowledge. A little paranoid, aren't you?
*** Eight chapters later (17), [[spoiler:the haima-jiao uses said well to possess the waterbending healer.]]
** You guys remember that [[spoiler:skeleton of the horrific sea monster]] they found in [[spoiler:the White Lotus Vault]]? Check out chapter 88.
** In Chapter 14, Zuko creates a move that uses burning leaves to create wind. In Chapter 80, he finally gets to use it seriously... against Aang.
--->'''Zuko:''' You have no idea how long I've been waiting to do that.
* ChekhovsSkill: Didn't you think it was '''weird''' in the series that the Dai Li, sworn to protect Ba Sing Se, ''left'' their city to follow Azula around? ''Embers'' explains that certain Firebenders can bend the inner flame, which affects loyalty. Suddenly it all makes sense: Azula presented herself as someone better and more worthy to follow, and used her Inner Fire so they'd follow her. But then, who else has it? What about the other elements? Vathara takes things to their logical extremes.
* ChekhovsVolcano: The [[FourIsDeath four great water volcanoes]] of the Avatar world, each on a [[TimeBomb different timer to blow]], and each on its own [[EarthShatteringKaboom having more than enough potential]] to wipe out a [[ApocalypseHow damn good chunk of the human population should they explode: first in the fallout by breathing in the ash, and then by starving out the survivors thanks to the damage to crops and farmland.]] [[spoiler:And of course, this destructive genocidal power is a prominent feature in Koh's grand plan to KillAllHumans.]]
** [[spoiler:Vathara named them after the [[TheFourGods Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations]]. The Black Tortoise (Kurokame) and Vermillion Bird (Akitori) volcanoes threaten to go every 6,000 and 3,000 years respectively; they are thusly guarded by dragons who are both completely disinterested in and out of reach of humans. Shirotora (White Tiger, every 500 years) and Asagitatsu (Azure Dragon, every 1,000 years) are not.]]
*** [[spoiler:To be more precise, Shirotora is guarded and pacified by the Lords of Byakko and their heirs. Its schedule of eruption every 500 years and the threat inherent should there be none of Clan Byakko living to appease him is pretty much THE only thing that's stopped the Fire Lords from executing the entire family.]]
*** [[spoiler:Asagitatsu, on the other hand, ''has no guardians''. That clan has only one known member – Makoto – and she's been missing for a very long time. The last time Asagitatsu blew, Yangchen and her yaoren were killed and the world was plunged into a nuclear winter. [[FridgeHorror That's why there was no war for a generation after Yangchen's death]]: nobody had either the resources nor manpower available, because they were all focused just on ''staying alive''. The only reason humanity survived was the mid-winter timing; a few months either way would have caused mass famines when harvest or planting seasons failed. It is strongly suggested Koh has learned from this mistake and plans to set Asagitatsu off again, this time during the harvest.]]
*** [[spoiler:Thankfully, ''Suzuran'' has just about everything and everyone on board to prevent catastrophe. Whether they can make a difference or not is the big question.]]
* LesCollaborateurs: [[spoiler:Ty Lee & the Elders of the non-Byakko Airbenders living in the Fire Nation, aka Azulon's ninja, who killed Kuzon when he rescued some of the Air Nomad children they'd brainwashed.]]
* CombatMedic: Zuko and Katara. It also seems that any other elemental healer before Kuruk was taught to both fight and heal. [[spoiler:Kuei said that swords were a recognized sign of air-healers.]]
** Subverted with Toph. She knows the basics, thanks to Katara, but isn't really willing to learn more.
* CompellingVoice: King Kuei [[spoiler:descends from Earth Kingdom shamans, and has the ability to do this to spirits. It's partly based on the idea of China's Emperor being able to do the same thing, partly on Earthbending's equivalent to Firebending's loyalty manipulation and Waterbending's emotional.]]
* ConflictBall: Some people accuse Vathara of handing this to Katara. While Katara doesn't like Zuko in canon and does later threaten to kill him (after Aang nearly dies because ''Zuko betrays them''), some think that her antagonism in this fic is so extreme that it's quite clear this trope was used to pad the story out to the desired ending, if not to outright [[RonTheDeathEater vilify her]]. Some see this as a happy return to the Katara that challenged Pakku, and mother issues aside, if the Fire Nation tried to wipe out their people slowly and painfully, who wouldn't be racist against them?
** This sticks out since Katara only gets handed the ConflictBall after Ba Sing Se. In the earlier chapters of ''Embers'', she helps save Iroh's life, as she offered to do in canon, and her inner monologue says that 'nobody deserved that pain' (referring to Zuko). Then she starts acting far more irrationally after having about ten chapters to muse on the encounter.
*** In regards to Katara's inner monologue about how "nobody deserved that pain", her inner voice, the same voice that picked a fight with Toph said "not even Zuko?" Even back then Katara was having issues doing the right thing when it came to people of the Fire-nation, she healed Iroh though, because at the time she saw him as a harmless elder & on the Water Tribes' side. After Ba-Sing-Se, Katara now saw Iroh as A) a warrior and B) the enemy. Combine that with the awful time she had in Ba-Sing-Se... well she's going to be kinda snarly towards anyone whose Fire-Nation, and then things kept getting worse.
** Rewatched, Vathara is taking a line from canon and running with it
---->"It's just that for so long now, whenever I would imagine the face of the enemy, it was your face." —Katara "The Crossroads of Destiny", Season 2, Episode 20
** Then there's the instance of Aang's escape in the first episode. Which no one really seems to care about (no one mentions it). In ''Embers'', it's suddenly this huge slight that '''Cannot Be Forgiven'''.
*** As of Chapter 31 [[spoiler:it appears the Author has somewhat resolved the conflict between Katara and Zuko, but Aang is still holding it, along with the IdiotBall.]]
** Mostly, this Troper feels that everything is mostly IC, on the outer edges of it, but within the bounds of legitimate interpretation. However, there are two that really stick out at me. Both in Chapter 32(?) when Vathara deliberately makes [[spoiler:Katara argumentative so her protests give Hakoda the wrong impression, that she was bending people on purpose]], as it could have easily gone the other way. And well, the IC one that [[spoiler:Zuko threw at the Gaang and the Water Tribe Fleet on purpose.]]
* ConservationOfNinjutsu: In Chapter 36, Shirong thinks that they have absolutely no chance against [[spoiler:Ty Lee]], while [[spoiler:Kuzon was able to kill a fourth of Azulon's air nomad ninja forces before finally being taken down.]]
*** That could just be the fact that [[spoiler:Kuzon]] was so familiar with them. After all, they were sort of like adopted children. Shirong probably had less than a few days to analyze [[spoiler:Ty Lee]]'s fighting style. As well, Shirong and Zuko were reduced to hand-to-hand and bending at the time [[spoiler:and Zuko was out cold]], which was bad to use against Ty Lee, who's trained for that stuff. [[spoiler:Kuzon used a sword, which is extremely effective against the weaponless.]]
%%* CrazyCulturalComparison
* CrypticConversation: While it wasn't obvious in her conversations with Zuko (she has no reason to make things easy for the son of her enemy, after all), during the scene where [[spoiler:Yue teaches Katara how to control her empathic powers, despite Yue's best efforts, the gap between human and spirit is enough that Katara has to work to figure out what she's saying]] and, in a subversion, succeeds.
* CultureClash: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshades]] and [[{{Anvilicious}} Anvils]] abound here. Vathara's biggest reason behind writing the fic seems to be exasperation at the canon Four Nations being {{The Theme Park Version}}s of China, Japan, Tibetan Monks and Inuit Tribes. For example, Vathara spends almost an entire chapter on the difference between the Nations' different definitions of "truce".
** In the Water Tribes, a truce is decided upon by the women, who get together and decide that their men have wasted enough time and effort fighting, or are needed back home. Once they've determined that the men are rested and recovered, the truce is revoked and they go to war again.
** In the Earth Kingdom, the local King (or the Earth King, if it's a big enough deal), will declare a truce only as a final ceasefire, when either they or the enemy is thoroughly crushed. Truces aren't temporary... they ''end'' the war, and breaking the truce starts a new one.
** In the Fire Nation, the ranking officer can call for a truce at any time, but they will ''hold'' that truce without fail. They ''will not'' break a truce, but will revoke it and inform their enemy of the revocation before they attack.
** The Air Nomads don't ''have'' truces. They may stop fighting, or work together with an enemy for a while against a common foe, but there's nothing binding about it. They can change their minds whenever they want, without informing anyone. This has led to them being generally liked but not trusted, and in ''Embers'', has led to '''HUGE''' problems between the nations.
*** QED everyone would be pushing each others' {{Berserk Button}}s. It's not pretty, but it's also much more realistic.
** "Fair" is also a concept that trips people up:
*** Earth has the closest to the sense of fairness held by most readers, with debts balancing in the manner of equal weights or stones leaning on each other for mutual support.
*** Water's emphasis on community sometimes means that "fair" is when the people inside the community get what they need and everything they can grasp while outsiders get the leftovers.
*** Fire is influenced by both the nature of fire and the [[spoiler:predator instincts]] of their [[spoiler:dragon]] ancestors. Whoever has the strength to get the most, gets the most, but if they don't leave enough for others they are likely to end up with nothing as everyone else gangs up on them.
*** For Air, at least at the temples, fairness was based on equality of outcomes and circumstances. Vathara is basing it on the flashback in "The Storm" – where Aang agrees with [[spoiler:the guy who later trained airbending assassins for Sozin]] that it's ''not'' "fair" for the Avatar to compete against normal benders; TallPoppySyndrome.
** Also, funerary practices for each Nation:
*** The Water Tribes give their tribe members back to the Ocean.
*** The Earth Kingdom buries their dead.
*** The Fire Nation cremates the dead, setting up funeral pyres upon which the body is burned.
*** The Air Nomads have their sky burial – they take the body of the deceased up high in the mountains, and render the corpse into little pieces for the vulture-eagles to take care of.
** The word "student" is not the same thing for an Air Monk and Fire Nation:
*** The Fire Nation High Court lingo uses Japanese words. "Deshi" means apprentice. Shidan defines apprentice as "one who hunts to your guidance".
*** The Air Monks and Nuns are teachers to the younger monks and nuns, as they show their students the Way.
* CursedWithAwesome: [[spoiler:Yue's 'gift' of waterbending ensures that Zuko cannot become the next Fire Lord, which would mean he has no alternative but to go his canon route and join Aang earlier, except he's intent on [[RefusalOfTheCall Refusing]].]] Chapter 36 specifically discusses this as a curse.
** However, Zuko is pragmatic enough to put the time into learning waterbending (even though he still sees it as a curse) because it's undeniably USEFUL.
* CycleOfRevenge: What Aang is trying to prevent and everyone else thinks is both inevitable and agrees Aang is the only one capable of stopping.
** Also present in multiple arcs in which villains have reasons for the evil they do, and often hit targets not responsible for the damage.
*** The Fire Nation attacked the Air Nomads because the Air Nomads [[spoiler:did not warn them about the coming hurricane, and because they harbor the Avatar, who, as Kyoshi, killed thousands of them and destroyed the foundations of their culture. They also remember the raids of the White Wind, ancestors of the airbenders they killed who raided, enslaved, and killed their people.]] They may have also attacked the Earth Kingdom because they [[spoiler:spawned Kyoshi.]]
*** The Southern Water Tribe attacks [[spoiler:Zuko's]] ship, even though the ship is not involved in the war, because [[spoiler:it is a Fire Nation]] ship and therefore necessarily evil. Later, Katara [[spoiler:wants to/tries to attack the survivors]] and blames them for the deaths in her tribe that happened when they defended themselves from their attackers.
*** Jet takes revenge on anyone in any way associated with the Fire Nation in revenge for what happened to his village, [[spoiler:even those who are trying to stop the war.]]
*** The Air Nomads [[spoiler:hunted down and mindbent the remnants of the White Wind with extreme prejudice]], possibly not just because they had different philosophies.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:D-G]]
* DeadMansSwitch: The real reason Clan Byakko hasn't been wiped out. In the same way Kuei's family protects Ba Sing Se from spirits just by existing, Mt. Shirotora, aka the White Tiger, [[spoiler:is the Avatar universe's equivalent of Mt. Krakatoa. While the mountain spirit is implied to be fond of Clan Byakko, who treat it with respect, it would take more than forty fire sages to forcibly subdue it... until they slipped, and they didn't just have a supervolcano eruption on their hands, but an ''angry'' supervolcano.]]
** [[spoiler:Zuko also plans to do this with Asagitatsu if Aang doesn't accept the idea of his all-nation colony.]]
* DealWithTheDevil: Or rather [[spoiler:A Deal with Temul.]] In Chapter 54:
-->"A bold lie, from one who would see my nation drowned (destroyed) for one woman's murder." Temul's gaze was implacable as lava. "You'd have us all pay for one man's evil." She pointed a long, bony finger. "And who will pay for his? Would you offer ''your'' life, little waterbender?"\\
Aang gulped. Because of course Katara would. She was perfect, she was kind, she was just ''good''...\\
She... wasn't saying anything.\\
Sokka stepped forward. "I would."\\
For Katara to agree would be to possibly open the door to giving up her life to Temul, which is likely why she stayed quiet. However, Sokka did speak up, opening that door, and [[spoiler:Temul adopted him]], so that his life is no longer his own.
* {{Deconstruction}}: Of stories where a group of 'special' children are expected to save the world despite personal tragedies in general and Avatar in specific.
* DefensiveFeintTrap: [[spoiler:What Zuko sets for Fong's army at Dragon's Wings.]]
* DeliberateValuesDissonance:
** The Fire Nation's justice system is utterly alien; The Water Tribes, Air Nomads and Earth Kingdoms have familiar ethics-based legal systems (assumption of innocence, punishment of the guilty, reparation to the injured) enforced by the heads of their communities. Competence and integrity may vary, and they may disagree on minutiae, but they can comprehend each other easily enough. The Fire Nation has a [[ItsAllAboutMe sociopathically selfish]] approach to justice: The only reason ''not'' to commit a hostile act is if the person you're attacking will kill you for it, and if they don't have the ability to stop you, then they ''[[TheSocialDarwinist deserve]]'' to lose property, to suffer pain and to die unlamented - MightMakesRight. The other nations dub this "homicidal mania"l
--->[[spoiler:'''Shidan''']]:'' ...to '''not''' take up weapons, to '''not''' prepare night and day to slaughter any enemies that would come against them - it is unthinkable. It is - one who does such a thing, who believes the world will '''not''' be dangerous, will '''not''' strive to kill him... That is what we call '''insane'''. ...And it is our dangerousness, our peril to each other, that keeps each clan from another's throats. If one member of the clan '''will not fight''', and other clans '''know''' that to be true...''
--->'''Langxue:''' ''They stomp on him, everybody else comes roaring in to fight, and the whole countryside goes up in flames.''
*** This even applies to ''warfare''. Zuko believes the War is wrong because the Fire Nation will be unable to hold its new territories, and as a result be unable to prevent retaliation by the other nations - retaliation that will kill pretty much everyone in the Fire Nation. He doesn't believe that the war is immoral, just ''unsuccessful.'' Vathara suggests this is inherent to their culture - a throwback to the constant state of clan warfare in which the only law was; "War is [[NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught only immoral if you lose]]."
--->'''Zuko:''' ''I wish I could stop the war, Toph. I really wish I could. But I can't. Because you know what will happen if it stops? They'll come for us. The Earth Kingdom, the Water Tribes… you have no idea how much they hate us. They'll come.''
** The Air Nomads have faith in freedom to the point that Aang doesn't understand that people can and will do things they don't want to do, let alone that people can [[MoreThanMindControl make others want what others want]]. His belief in the sanctity of life is downright insane to the hunter instincts of fire and the hunter survival needs of water. The concept of true evil that one can not reason with is totally outside his worldview, and the pacifism of his culture is called into question as there are more definitions of harm than physical injury.
** The Water Tribes' orientation towards community often means that "good" is what benefits people inside the community of the tribes. Any crime against a member of the tribes from an outsider is 10 times worse than the same crime going the other direction. Members of the tribe who do evil are the tribe's responsibility. An outsider striking down an evildoer of the tribe is still attacking the tribe, even if the tribe would do much the same to the evildoer if they had the chance to do so.
** Averted in a meta-example. We the readers think [[spoiler:being part dragon is awesome and a mark of being special.]] However what Vathara is writing is that the [[spoiler:other nations would not see it that way. They would most likely view the Fire Nation as being animals, either partially or fully--beasts that need to be put down, and all around easier to dehumanize.]] Named characters don't view it this way, but individuals are smart, people are dumb.
* {{Determinator}}: Zuko and [[spoiler:his previous incarnation, Kuzon, who didn't let even death stop him from trying to find and help his friend]]. Chapter 32(?) has both Sokka and Toph agreeing [[spoiler:Aang needs to learn how to do this.]]
** The Yaoren [[spoiler:are chosen and [[NearDeathExperience survive]] because of this quality.]]
** ''Embers'' also implies another reason for Zuko's determinator status: [[spoiler:his [[HalfHumanHybrid prey drive]]]] which (luckily for Aang) seems to stop after the [[spoiler:Search, Eye-stalk, and the Chase aspects, whereas Azula prefers the Kill Bite]]. Aang might also have intuited that Sokka's description of Zuko's behavior [[spoiler:"He was hunting us."]] in Chapter 34, seems a little... off. (But not inaccurate.) [[spoiler:Aang's different preconceptions about what hunting means might be helping him out in this case.]]
* DisabilitySuperpower: In order to become a [[spoiler:yaoren, having the scar from a near-fatal spirit wound (or nearly dying from lack of your element)]] is necessary.
** Slightly subverted in Chapter 34 by [[spoiler:Kuei.]]
-->"Well – those are the strongest yaoren, in the tales," [[spoiler:Kuei]] managed, eyes still wide. "The warriors. The ones the spirits set between us and harm. But the stories say some benders went on spirit-quests to ''become'' yaoren. Though it was risky. You could die. Even if you didn't, it didn't always work. And the ones who lived... well, they weren't who you might expect." He gave Shirong a shaky smile. "If spirit-torn yaoren are lion-dogs, questing yaoren were cricket-mice. They were healers."
** Worse for the Fire Nation. Their prisons for benders are designed to starve them of their element, wounding their spirits. ''Every single survivor'' of one of those prisons, like the Earthbenders Katara rescued (and ''Hama'') has the potential to become a yaoren. Who obviously won't have much reason to like the Fire Nation.
* DiscontinuityNod: Also for The Great Divide. May be considered a MythologyGag by the author, in which the episode did not happen, but the characterization being solid. It is uncertain if Vathara considers The Great Divide to be {{canon}} or not.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Chin Village doesn't just go after Aang on Avatar Day. Kyoshi Island folks are advised that if it's a choice between Chin Village and racist, potentially war-criminal Fire Nation troops, head for the troops.
* DistressedDamsel: [[spoiler:Amaya]], leading to a CMOA for Iroh.
* DontYouDarePityMe: The Fire Nation: Iroh specifically says this is one of the reasons they don't talk about [[spoiler:Kyoshi or loyalty sickness.]] Zuko also says that Katara would try to rip his heart out if he ever dared pity her, and [[InLoveWithYourCarnage it kind of sounds like a compliment]].
** Zuko, as refugee Lee in the Earth Kingdom, also communicated this to those whose eyes lingered on his scar.
* DoomMagnet: [[spoiler:Due to wounds sustained in the defense of Ba Sing Se from a horde of spirits, Shirong is cursed: unlike other Dai Li, he works alone because terrible things happen to his partners. One of the reasons he lets himself get attached to Lee may be the relief he feels when he realizes hanging around him couldn't possibly make Lee's luck any worse.]]
** According to Vathara, any member of Sozin's line is also considered this to some extent.
** Normally, anyone doing what the Fire Nation is doing would get hit by this like a ton of bricks. [[spoiler:Due to Kyoshi's decree, it's not the Fire Nation people who commit genocide for the Fire Lord that end up a DoomMagnet, it's the people who ''don't'', because they're disobeying the Avatar through the Fire Lord. Combine that with loyalty sickness, and it's no wonder that Jeong Jeong was the only (known) person in a century to survive telling the Fire Lord where to shove it. Theoretically, Ozai should be dead meat, since he'd end up with every single soldier's bad karma, except he's got the Fire Sages to protect him, there are some spirits who want him to keep doing what he's doing, and apparently dragon blood helps.]]
* TheDragon: Azula to Ozai (her inner monologue confirms she's loyal for most of the fic), and quite possibly [[spoiler:Makoto to Koh, although they may just be allies.]]
** [[spoiler:In the most recent story arcs, Vathara seems to be hinting that Azula (after being spirit-healed and then taking Zuko's advice on prioritizing the people of fire nation over her father's designs) is edging into DragonWithAnAgenda [[IncrediblyLamePun territory]].]]
* DragonAncestry: Most of the Fire Nation has dragon ancestry to some degree or another; for most it's distant enough that the only non-human traits they have are SupernaturalGoldEyes, but for Zuko and Azula ([[spoiler:whose grandfather is a dragon]]), they have claw-like nails that can only be filed with obsidian, more powerful [[PlayingWithFire firebending]] than is usual, and NoSocialSkills due to the conflict between their draconic and human instincts for how to interact with others. The reason that it isn't widely known is that Fire Nation keeps their draconic heritage a secret from the other nations, out of fear of being seen as animals or less than human because of it.
* DragonLady: [[spoiler:Makoto (a.k.a. Fire Lady Tejina) was a literal one at one point.]]
* DragonRider: So far, only the canon ones: Roku, Sozin, and Kuzon. Roku's was his spirit animal/guide (as Appa is Aang's), Sozin's [[spoiler:became his wife]], and Kuzon's [[spoiler:ended up marrying his daughter and becoming Zuko's grandfather.]] Since ''Embers'' shows that dragons are very proud creatures and just as intelligent as humans (and very touchy about respect and dominance issues), there probably won't be too many more [[spoiler:even if Byakko's refugee dragon population goes to war alongside the humans.]]
* DueToTheDead: Each nation has their own, and is [[CultureClash suitably horrified]] at all of the others
** The Water Tribes give their tribe members back to the Ocean.
** The Earth Kingdom buries their dead.
** The Fire Nation cremates the dead, setting up funeral pyres upon which the body is burned.
** The Air Nomads have their sky burial: they take the body of the deceased up high in the mountains, and render the corpse into little pieces for the vulture-eagles to take care of.
* EasyLogistics: Easi''er'' at least. Though the Earth Kingdom has had a number of rebellions and screw-ups, one of which [[spoiler:was an ''assassination attempt'' on the Earth King's family that put Long Feng in charge of the Dai Li, who left that province to be abandoned to the Fire Nation]], the Fire Nation is ''completely'' immune to such setbacks because [[spoiler:the mandate granted to the Fire Lord by Avatar Kyoshi means that [[StateSec any domain that protests the war]] is [[{{Ghostapo}} ravaged by angry spirits]].]] Everyone in Fire Nation ''has'' to support the war, no matter what it costs them – even to the point of permitting the Creator/{{Charles Dickens}}esque poverty and environmental damage seen in "The Painted Lady".
* ElementalBaggage: Mentioned with Zuko's temper and how [[spoiler:Shirong experiences emotional and mental changes, as well as a greater drive and focus. It's noted that it can make you do very stupid things for your goals. Airbenders being flighty, Waterbenders being community orientated, and Earthbenders stubborn.]]
* EmbarrassingCoverUp: When accused about lying about his past soon after arriving to Ba Sing Se, Zuko comes up on the spot with the excuse that his mother was from Foggy Swamp Tribe, who are ''infamously'' {{Cloudcuckoolander}}s known for their weird Waterbending style and eccentricities like eating bugs. While this perfectly justifies the oddities of his cover story and why he's so touchy about his past, the admission also silences all onlookers around and earns Zuko lots of odd looks and whispering.
* EnemyCivilWar: [[spoiler:What Zuko believes will happen when Ozai dies, especially if Azula takes the throne.]] He's knowingly [[spoiler:making this more likely by creating another Domain outside of the Fire Lord's control.]]
* EvenEvilHasStandards: [[spoiler:Azula. Terrifyingly evil enough that Vathara posts a warning every time she makes an appearance. Still horrified by [[LaserGuidedAmnesia what the Air Monks]] [[{{Brainwashed}} and onmitsu]] [[GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul do to people they get their hands on]].]]
* EveryoneIsRelated: The Fire Nation are always concerned about the family trees of each budding couple and avoiding inbreeding. Usually it's to prevent awkward individuals like Zuko or dangerous people like Azula. And since benders can sense their element in ''nationalities'', they can easily tell if a foreigner has some of their own nation's blood in them, and that often clues them into who may be a distant cousin of who. Sometimes, these are even WhamLine worthy.
* EvilPlan: It's too early to say for sure, but given the fic's track record for foreshadowing, the current state of the cycle, Aang's ignorance, [[spoiler:the blunders of the recent Avatars, the extinction of the yaoren and the swift deaths of any new ones, what Yangchen did to turn the Air Nomads into the 'Air Monks']], and almost the current state of the world may be consequences of [[spoiler:Koh the Face Stealer's vendetta against the Avatar, especially since characters have often wondered about what it would take to get vengeance on or get rid of the Avatar. To kill the Avatar would require ending the cycle of rebirth, for one thing, and having humanity, or as much as possible of it, be actively seeking to destroy the Avatar too could only be a good thing.]]
** It has been confirmed that [[spoiler:Koh is behind it, and he's not just going after the Avatar: the goal is the destruction of the human race, which would explain the focus on crippling the Avatars: they're the ones most able to fight back.]]
* TheEvilPrincess: Azula. While yes, she may be trying to kill Zuko with Ozai's blessing, [[spoiler:she used Ty Lee's ability to interfere with Zuko's firebending kata practice despite the fact she knew how embarrassing it was to Ozai to have his firstborn son be so weak, and hence Ozai would be furious if he found out.]]
* {{Expy}}: [[WordOfGod According to]] Vathara, her method of OC creation is to not do so. Instead, she uses expies of characters from other series. Of course, most of her other fics are crossovers.
** Professor Wen: [[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade Professor Henry Jones Sr]].
** Min Wen & Jia are [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Xander and Cordelia]]: there's some speculation that Suyin is based on Willow, or that she and Jinhai are [[Manga/RurouniKenshin Kaoru and Yahiko]].
** Huojin: [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Commissioner Gordon]]
** Dai Li agent Shirong: Michael Archangel from ''Series/{{Airwolf}}'', a series Vathara has written extensively for. And there's speculation that Donghai is based on Dominic Santini from the same series.
** Amaya: [[StarWars Jedi Healer T'raa Saa]]. And a potential alternate for Donghai is Han Solo.
** Langxue and Suoluan: [[Manga/{{Bleach}} Toushirou Hitsugaya and Rangiku Matsumoto]]
** Sgt. Kyo, a Marine with the ability to [[Series/{{NCIS}} smack the back of offenders' heads before they even see it coming]], complete with the rest of his squad.
** Shih and Gyate, a fire nation ex-assassin and his airbending nun lover seem to be [[Manga/RurouniKenshin Kenshin Himura and Kaoru Kamiya]].
** Even species get in on the act; the "rattle vipers" are suspiciously similar to Pern's tunnelsnakes, complete with "you know it's not a snake, I know it's not a snake, try telling that to the locals." (Chapter 53)
* FantasticRacism: In addition to the more normal racism shown in the show (the Fire Nation thinks the others are inferior, the others think the Fire Nation is AlwaysChaoticEvil / BadPowersBadPeople), Iroh tells Toph that he is afraid that [[spoiler:this trope will come into play if the other nations find out that the Fire Nation has draconic ancestry and what that means.]] After all, it would be very attractive to blame their tendency to kill and so on on them being actual monsters instead of [[spoiler:Kyoshi's blunder]], and it would serve as an additional justification for the genocide practically the entire Fire Nation is convinced would happen following a defeat by the Avatar, between the Avatar's right for vengeance on his people's killers and the Water Tribe and Earth Kingdom's own grievances.
** Even [[spoiler:Professor Wen, who married a woman from the Fire Nation, is discomforted by the fact his wife 'isn't human'. However, this is not so much due to any kind of disgust than utter terror that a Great Name of Fire could use Loyalty to steal her from him. And though she ''says'' in Chapter 13 that her husband and children will always be more important to her than any Lord, that was before she learned who Zuko was -- and her [[INeedAFreakingDrink reaction]] did not inspire confidence. She didn't immediately re-affirm her loyalty to her family either, recognizing the depth of the problem. Instead, Meixiang took quiet a few chapters before acting, and then in chapter 29 decided that the best option was to merge traditions and make a clan of ''both'' Earth and Fire in order to protect her loyalty and that of her children, especially Jinhai. [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation Keeping Shirong sane by adding him to the Wen Clan was little more than a moral bonus to her]].]]
* FateWorseThanDeath: Ty Lee tells Azula [[spoiler:what happened to the Air Nomads who could not get away from Xiangchen's followers.]]
* FireIceLightning: [[spoiler:Zuko can wield, or at least redirect, all three after the early arcs. He is able to wield all three by Chapter 78.]]
* FisherKing: Kuei, with regards to the palace specter who appeared in his absence:
-->She who only appears if the Imperial Palace is abandoned. If no king rules here, Shirong recalled. The spirits will not recognize Azula as our ruler. No matter what the cost.
* FlatEarthAtheist: Most of the Fire Nation. An entire populace who randomly start PlayingWithFire, yet consider tales of fire-healers or traditions like the blood knot silly and superstitious. Zhao took it UpToEleven, proclaiming they don't have to fear spirits and then tried to kill the Moon.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Lots and lots, with several hints sprinkled many chapters and tens of thousands of words in advance of each reveal, to the point of ChekhovsArmory.
* TheFourGods: Given that the blue dragon is her symbol in the original series, Azula, the female version of Azulon, likely does mean Azure Dragon: the Azure Dragon is associated with the East, which would explain the opposition to the Dragon of the West, Iroh. To that ''Embers'' adds Byakko, the White Tiger of the West as Kuzon's [[spoiler:and Ursa's]] clan name and domain. It is unknown if Suzaku or Genbu (the lion-turtle of the north?) will feature in the fic. Byakko is associated with the season of autumn and the element of metal: in Avatar [[spoiler:autumn is associated with the element of air, and it's been conformed that Byakko's been sheltering airbenders since before Kyoshi.]]
** Confirmed in Chapter 46. [[spoiler:Meixiang reveals the names of death: Kurokame (lit. "Black Turtle" being Genbu), Akitori ("Red Bird" being Suzaku), Shirotora (we all know what it means), and finally, Asagitatsu (has to be Seiryuu).]]
* FreudianExcuse: Par for the course in both Azula's and Katara's canon characterizations. [[spoiler:And Koh has his own issues with his parent: the Avatar Spirit.]]
* GambitPileup: WordOfGod states that this happened in the past, and is happening right now, which is the reason for the current imbalance of the world. And that all the nations got caught in the gears--twice!
* GenocideBackfire: [[spoiler:Zuko's apology to Katara]] reveals that by Fire Nation law and custom, Aang is obligated to kill his father's murderer. Since Aang doesn't know who his father is? The entire Fire Nation is convinced that he's going to wipe them out (even the ones who 'like' Aang think he'll let his allies do it) since they acknowledge that it's 'the right thing for him to do' according to their moral system. Azula's inner monologue shows how useful she and Ozai find this as a means to get the Fire Nation to continue the war, since obviously even the ones who don't want to fight can't stop, because that means the Avatar can kill their families unopposed, [[spoiler:not to mention the firebenders among them will drop dead if they tell Ozai no.]] Aang isn't just a [[SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids naive little boy]]. His ideals are the only ones that can stop the war.
* GenocideFromTheInside: Makoto, the dragon companion of Fire Lord Sozin, ([[ShapeshiftingLover and later his lover and wife]]) has been working to kill off other dragons, and was behind the start of the Fire Nation hunting them to near extinction.
* GhostShipping: Ping and Lu Ten seem to be on rather good terms, although it doesn't seem to be anything more than flirting.
* TheGodsMustBeLazy: At this point, subverted. [[spoiler:The 'good' spirits are basically all in on the action (with the exception of Tui, who is actually spreading the result of the Avatar's actions at the north pole), and it's been shown that rather than the spirits sitting back and letting the Fire Nation get this far, they're actually been involved in this from the beginning... although mainly the ones on the other side.]]
* GoodIsNotNice: Or rather, spirits aren't. Yue [[spoiler:makes Zuko a waterbender without asking consent, and may or may not have known what this would do to the Fire Nation.]] As for [[spoiler:Wan Shi Tong's kitsune agent and the haima-jiao...]]
* TheGoodTheBadAndTheEvil: Aang's well-meaning but ignorant idealism, Zuko and the Dai Li's willingness to do things they know are wrong for the sake of protecting others, and Ozai.
* GreyAndGrayMorality: At first glance, this verse seems like a very well written example of this. People do the right thing for the wrong reasons and the wrong thing for the right reasons. Nothing is ever as cut and dry as it may seem -- and the fact each nation's culture is so very different, as well as backed by spiritual {{Blood Oath}}s (which, in the case of the Fire Nation, bind even non-benders), just causes more incomprehension and confusion. [[ArcWords There are reasons, but no excuses]]. However, the fact that there genuinely are characteristics that can make a person beyond redemption or tolerance, or events so profane they cannot be allowed, makes it a very well written example of BlackAndGrayMorality instead.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:H-J]]
* HanlonsRazor: A major theme of the fic is why 'sufficiently advanced stupidity' can be mistaken for malice and vice versa: because ignorance can stack up just as much, if not more, of a body count as outright malice. At least malice knows what it's doing and keeps the collateral damage down. [[spoiler:Of course, in the case of Koh's plot, the collateral damage to humanity was practically the entire point, it turns out...]]
* HardWorkHardlyWorks: Aang and Azula have this in common, as Zuko points out. ''Embers'' examines the logical consequences of this: one of the reasons for Aang's IdiotBall, as Toph points out, is that while Aang is a prodigy at bending and many other things (due to his past lives), he's never had the opportunity to learn ''how to learn'' concepts that are new to him. So while everyone agrees he's a bending and tactical genius, that has actually stunted his ability to learn and adapt. Most people can't learn bending at his level without mastering learning: Aang could.
* HateFic: ''Everyone'' except the [[RootingForTheEmpire Fire Nation]] in general and [[DracoInLeatherPants Zuko]] in particular (though the [[SecretPolice Dai Li]] also get a few inches of whitewashing) is absolutely brutalized. Strangely for a Zuko-centric fic, [[LauncherOfAThousandShips Katara]] not only doesn't end up falling for the [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys brooding Fire Prince]], but gets tortured ''even worse'' than every character save [[TakeThatScrappy Aang]](whose Nation is {{Retcon}}ned to be EvilAllAlong and his canon relationship with Katara is [[BrokenPedestal severely damaged]]), stated ''InUniverse'' to be punishment for hating Zuko.
* HatePlague: [[spoiler:Amak, along with all other survivors of the waterbender prison all carry a fairly nasty one, capable of driving entire tribes insane. This is a logical extension of the empathy waterbenders use to keep all the spears pointed in the right direction. Combine it with PTSD, however, and we've got an entire group of [[TheCorrupter corrupters]] on our hands. As a result, some of them killed themselves upon realizing they could not go home without turning everyone around them into Wendigo, some of them headed to the Earth Kingdom, and some settled in Lituya Bay.]]
* HealingShiv: To (almost) everyone who's ever been on the wrong ''or'' right end of a Fire Nation's attack and see firebending as a dangerous tool at best.
* HealItWithFire: Premise of the fic. What Zuko and clan Byakko are able to do.
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Azula may be heading for one of these, by way of EvenEvilHasStandards.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Zuko thought this was going to happen when he went to save Aang from Azula: he survived only due to the healing fire and Iroh's presence]]. What happened to Avatar Yangchen and [[spoiler:all the yaoren, courtesy of Koh and a volcano.]]
** [[spoiler:In Chapter 57,Langxue tells Zuko that yaoren can feel where they died. Hyourin and his comrades made sure they survived until they reached a White Lotus secret vault containing the reason Koh hates humans so that their bodies could serve as markers to their reincarnations. They gave up their own right to proper burials just so the vault was never permanently lost.]]
*** [[spoiler:The Dragons who used themselves as bait to lure Avatar Kesuk to Asagitatsu and the Air Nomads and Bison who tried to save them when they tired.]]
*** [[spoiler:Hue and the other swampbenders who are planning to lure Makoto away so that she doesn't chase the Gaang.]]
* HeroSecretService: The Gaang, complete with explaining some of Aang's behavior in canon as him wanting, on whatever level, to drive them away so they'd be safe, not wanting them to die for something he considers all his fault anyway. In addition, [[spoiler:the yaoren appear to function as this for the various Avatars – Yangchen's 'dear friends' committed a group HeroicSacrifice alongside her, and Langxue gives their job description as holding the line against the current threat until the Avatar can get there to solve the problem.]]
* HeroWithBadPublicity: Even the people in the Fire Nation who think the war is wrong mostly believe that Aang's [[spoiler:what, the third coming of Kyoshi?]] According to Azula's inner monologue, this is deliberate propoganda to use the threat of the Avatar to mobilize the Fire Nation. Also, the Earth Kingdom generals and Kyoshi Island's leaders appear to be deliberatly trying to keep what happened at the North Pole a secret in order to avoid this trope – which will likely backfire very, very badly when people find out that not only are people being killed by spirits because the Avatar isn't doing his job as the bridge to the Spirit World, he's the one who ticked them off so badly in the first place and isn't lifting a finger to fix it.
* HiddenElfVillage: In addition to [[spoiler:Byakko]], Sokka questions why the Northern Water Tribe didn't help out the Southern, or anyone else for that matter. [[spoiler:Given that they're protecting the world's only surviving healing benders behind those walls...]]
** In canon, the Sun Warriors were this: Vathara has not decided whether or not to include them. Byakko may be a subversion: They're a popular tourist destination due to having one of the few mountains in the Fire Nation high enough to have snow, and they bought the amount of not isolation but insulation from Ozai's power they have by [[spoiler:the rulers giving their daughter Ursa to Ozai, and never even getting to meet their grandchildren, at least not yet]]. They have very good reasons for keeping under the radar: [[spoiler:according to Teruko, they're hiding dragons, who are supposed to be extinct, people on Azulon's 'execute on sight' List, firebenders who haven't sworn loyalty to Ozai since they came into their power after the age at which the Fire Nation stops testing, and given the description of the mountain monks in an earlier chapter and the Air Monk letter in Chapter 31, they may also be hiding airbenders]]. It's not so much hypocrisy and disgust at the world as a deliberate plan [[spoiler:to provide a refuge]], likely by Kuzon. Zuko [[spoiler:seems to have the same idea of creating a place to preserve both Fire Nation traditions and, explicitly, the freedom which is necessary for airbenders to be born.]]
** As of Chapter 34, it's more or less guaranteed that [[spoiler:Byakko is hiding Airbender descendants from the male-only Southern Temple. Likely full Masters, no less. Which could be good or bad, depending on what they've learned in the hundred years since their people were rendered nearly extinct. It also raises the issue of the Western Air Temple, which was one of the two female-only Air Nomad Temples, and was located in the Fire Nation itself, much closer to Byakko then even the Southern Temple Aang was raised in.]]
** In Chapter 37, [[spoiler:The mystery of the missing Air Temple children is solved- those that weren't killed by Sozin or rescued by Kuzon, the Fire Lord had kidnapped to be raised by his onmitsu.]]
** In Chapter 76, [[spoiler:Lituya Bay, a fishing village in Byakko is home to some of the surviving southern waterbenders.]]
* HighlyVisibleNinja: [[spoiler:Ty Lee]], since "onmitsu" is the name for the classical concept of a spy/saboteur/assassin in ancient Japan (words like "ninja" and "shinobi" are modern inventions).
%%* HoldYourHippogriffs
* HilariousInHindsight: At one point, Zuko gets into a shouting match with Roku, screaming that he was ''not'' his great-grandfather (Roku was damning him as the heir to Sozin's legacy at the time. [[spoiler:Later on, we find out that Zuko had been Kuzon in his former life, and who had chosen to be reborn). So, in fact, Zuko ''is'' his great-grandfather!]]
* HonorBeforeReason: Or rather, honor for very good reasons. Is it death before dishonor if [[spoiler:a firebender betraying their lord caused their inner fire to go out, killing them?]] Of course, [[spoiler:it's not 100% fatal]]. The same thing applies to Earthbenders who break contracts, Waterbenders who abandon the tribe, and likely Airbenders who abandon their teachings.
* HopeSpot: Aang seems to finally be getting a clue about how to deal with the mess the war wrecked, and decides to start listening to people instead of just judging them. [[spoiler:Then he encounters the drowned.]]
* HotForTeacher: In Chapter 33, Toph briefly considers Aang/Katara as an example of this trope. [[spoiler:Then in Chapter 37, she breaks Sokka's brain by mentioning it.]]
* HotSkittyOnWailordAction: [[spoiler:Amaya is quickly disabused of this notion regarding dragon/human pairings by being informed that dragons sometimes choose to become {{Shapeshifting Lover}}s]]
* HowDoIShotWeb: [[spoiler:Zuko with Waterbending, Shirong and Jinhai with Firebending, and]] Especially Aang with shamanism.
** Aang's inability to sense or discern the intention of dangerous spirit activity and ingorance of each nations' supernatural bonds has gotten him flack from all sides( thanks to freezing himself before Gyatso could fill him in on the powers & expectations of the Bridge Between Worlds).
** And then he has to deal with the totally ''inhuman''. Some of which make Hei Bai's ''angry'' form look like the peaceful panda.
* HumansAreBastards: What makes someone a good person is being honest about their own flaws and trying to minimize the damage; Vathara seems to be arguing that this is the true nature of heroism, since [[GenreBlindness claiming that everyone is fundamentally good]] and [[KnightTemplar forcing them to act that way]] when they can't is stupid and likely to make things worse at best and leads to fearsomeness at worst.
** In addition to that, this is the reason that some of the spirits want to [[spoiler:wipe out humanity.]] Others are in it for power or personal vendettas.
* HumansAreSpecial: [[spoiler:When spirits want to wipe out humanity, do they pick a fight with us? No, they try to trick us into destroying ''ourselves'', slowly destroying our capability to fight them and turning the strengths of the various nations into weaknesses.]] The fact that humanity can and ''should'' stop relying on the Avatar to solve all its problems and regain its own strength and agency is a theme in the fic, culminating when Sokka tells Aang that he doesn't believe in the Avatar's ability to save the world, but that of Aang himself: the person, not the powerful spirit.
-->'''Sokka:''' I believe in the kid who was smart enough to trick Katara into penguin-sledding. Who was crazy enough to ride the Unagi. Who had the guts to save Zuko – man, I can't believe you saved Zuko! – instead of letting Zhao grab him. That's what's really going to save the world. Sure, we need plans and weapons and benders strong enough to stop the Fire Lord. We need to fight. And it's not going to be pretty. But after that? We need ''you''.
** As of Chapters 46-47, [[spoiler:it's pretty much proven that Koh has become so frustrated with humans avoiding, averting, or defeating his attempts to destroy them all that he's decided to use a historically unstoppable super-volcano to do the job this time.]]
* AnIcePerson: [[spoiler:The third Yaoren]], as appropriate for a Hitsugaya expy. [[spoiler:In his previous life as one of Yangchen's assistants, he was a water-fire yaoren, and notes that while he used to use those two highly emotional and forceful elements to keep each other in check, due to the personality changes associated with yaoren powers, air will now be allowing water to affect him even more strongly as well as having its own effects on his rationality.]]
* IdiotBall: Detractors accuse Vathara of handing this to the Gaang.
** Justified. You know how the title is Avatar: The Last Airbender? The fact he's the last of the Air Nomads is a big part of Aang's identity, and since he is the last, if he ceases to be an Air Nomad then his people will cease to be, and it will be all his fault twice over. However, according to ''Embers'', the Avatar is NOT a member of the people he is born to: Roku not really being Fire Nation and therefore not feeling what everyone else around him knew instinctively is a plot point. Instead, it's the Avatar's job to try to understand all the cultures without ever really being a member of any of them. Aang ran away from Gyatso in the first place to be able to stay with his 'family' and remain a normal Air Nomad. Throughout the original series and ''Embers'', he's been holding on to his airbender identity so that his people can live on. [[IdiotBall The pacifism and other ideals]] Aang espouses are a fundamental part of being an air nomad. If he were a normal air nomad, they'd be the right way to be. As the Avatar, being in denial about who he is (and therefore isn't) and rejecting his responsibilities to the world is one big IdiotBall. Trying to pry it out of his hands is a big part of the fic, and necessary to world peace, but [[TheWoobie man, you have to feel sorry for the kid]]. On the other hand, they also need the ideals; everyone needs to do a balancing act between having to kill the monsters like Azula, and stopping a CycleOfRevenge in its tracks.
** According to WordOfGod in review responses, Aang is absolutely right about something else too: [[spoiler:the Air Nomads as he knew them will cease to be as a consequence of at least one of his duties as Avatar.]] Is it really an idiot ball if carrying it is necessary to achieve your goals?
** WordOfGod too is that Aang ''should'' get to ''stay'' true to his pacifistic ideals, and solve things without violence. [[spoiler:He does.]] It's not exactly an IdiotBall when [[TheWoobie Aang]] is surrounded by people who think he means 'stop' as in 'kill' the Fire Lord, and is learning that [[spoiler:the Air Nomads were not exactly what he was raised to think they were.]]
* ImADoctorNotAPlaceholder: In Chapter 15, Amaya says, "I'm a healer, not a spirit."
* InLoveWithYourCarnage: The Fire Nation. A fairly even-tempered Fire Nation officer sees Mai massacring spirits and immediately wants her as a member of his family, great names prefer wives who can deal with assassins, Teruko finds Toph threatening people in order to get her way absolutely adorable...
* {{Irony}}: Back when the Fire Nation was divided up into warring clans they thought Air Nomads to be a bit touched in the head for being friends with them, and with the other clan they have been at war with for generations. [[spoiler:Chapter 54 has Aang doubting Kuzon, because Kuzon was friends with him, and with Temul, someone who Aang considers to be a bad person.]]
* ISurrenderSuckers:
** Aang to Zuko in the very beginning of the series.
** Azula does this to the Gaang as in canon.
* IThoughtEveryoneCouldDoThat: Zuko's assumption when he hears that the Water Tribes [[spoiler:trim their nails]] without [[AbsurdlySharpBlade obsidian knives]] is that either they have some metalworking trick the Fire Nation doesn't or that bone knives might be better than he thought. He doesn't realize that there's something special about [[spoiler:having fingernails that steel can't cut, or any of his other signs of draconic ancestry.]] It's pointed out in the Author's Notes that people tend to judge normal by themselves and what they can do. Sokka's accuracy with Boomerang is another example: [[spoiler:he's been using his chi to fight all along without noticing it]] even though he thought only benders could use chi. Aang also had no idea that other people had problems with temperatures below freezing, since Aang's perfectly capable of sleeping on snow without ill effects.
* ItRunsInTheFamily: Most members of Fire Nation royal and Byakko family are highly paranoid and agressive. They are also prone to sociopathy. [[spoiler:Dragon blood tends to do this to people.]] It's hinted that it may be a case with many other Fire Nation clans.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Zuko practically says the trope name to Katara [[spoiler:talking about her canon motivation of {{Revenge}} for her mother, the aftermath of the BreakTheCutie [[StepfordSmiler she's been trying to hide]] and the MoralMyopia that results from, among other things, not having had the scene in the cave where she found out that Zuko had a mother too, in ''Embers''.]]
* JigsawPuzzlePlot: Vathara treats canon as this, fitting in bits of Real Life history to fill in the gaps. The metaphor is used by Ty Lee and Azula in Chapter 36.
* JustFollowingOrders: In the Fire Nation, this justifies everything from kidnapping to cold-blooded murder. [[spoiler:A side effect of Loyalty: people who disobey the orders of their Lords die the most horrible deaths it's possible for a human being to suffer.]] Thus, Zuko has never and ''will'' never apologize for any of his canonical actions throughout Season One.
-->(Chapter 22) '''''I had my orders!'''''
[[/folder]]
[[folder:K-O]]
* KatanasAreJustBetter: [[spoiler:They were the ancient symbol of airbending, and both foreshadowing and the way Vathara characterizes airbenders hints that she'll be giving the show's depiction of them her usual levels in badass.]] As of Chapter 36, she has.
* KissingCousins: [[spoiler:Zuko/Mai.]] The historical Chinese variant, where any known relation is unacceptable. [[spoiler:Azula knew all along]]. The author also notes that the characters are afraid if one link is hidden, there might be many more they don't know about.
** According to [[spoiler:Teruko, The Fire Nation's]] obsession with geneology and preventing inbreeding is in order to prevent [[spoiler:anyone ending up with too much dragon blood]], since this results in [[spoiler:people like Azula at worst, or the social graces (and all-consuming rage) of Zuko at best.]] Since [[spoiler:Mai is the descendant of non-firebenders and Avatar Roku, she's no more likely to have evil children than Zuko and any other Fire Nation person]]. However, they don't know that, and [[spoiler:the current Fire Nation theory of genetics says that they would, and that's specifically why Azula set them up in the first place.]]
%%* KnightInSourArmor: Zuko
* LaserGuidedKarma: Except the spirits have bad aim. Anyone who fights a spirit, regardless of whether or not they're a good person or even if the spirit was trying to eat them for something they had nothing to do with at the time, has open season declared on them. [[spoiler:Tingzhe Wen was hit with a fever that might have been fatal because Sokka hit Wan Shin Tong over the head with a book, and some spirits take this to the extreme of 'because some humans hurt the balance, I get to kill you all'.]]
* LivingLieDetector: Airbenders: words are just breath on the wind, and they rule the wind. And don't forget Toph.
** Airbenders tend to [[spoiler:not to regard lying as a big deal, despite being aware that the people of other nations, unlike themselves, can be lied to. This hits berserk buttons, particularily among dragon-descended firebenders. This is less firebenders being lie detectors and Vathara extrapolating from the fact that in canon Dragons seem to be telepaths or empaths of one sort of another.]] See BerserkButton.
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Zuko is not only unaware he's [[spoiler:descended from the Avatar, although slightly differently than in canon]], but also [[spoiler:Kuzon's reincarnation.]] Azula kept Zuko's letters from reaching Mai [[spoiler:to make her think marrying him was still viable.]]
** As of Chapter 36, Zuko knows about [[spoiler:his descent from Avatar Roku]], and was distinctly not happy that Iroh had chosen to keep that fact from him.
** And as of Chapter 37, Zuko knows about [[spoiler:his past life as Kuzon.]]
* LostColony: Fire Nation legends, one of the reasons some spirits dislike humanity and the fact that Ba Sing Se sprung up overnight indicate that the Avatar world may be one.
* MagneticMedium: People, who have strong spiritual power--or deal with supernatural activity on daily basis--usually attract spirits along with any other [[WeirdnessMagnet strange phenomena]] that follows. This gets them ostracized from society, not just because of danger they may cause, but also the spiritual scars they often get along the way that other people subconsciously find unnerving.
* MamaBear: [[spoiler:Amaya, to her hidden folk]]; Ursa; [[spoiler:Kyoshi]]; Meixiang to her kin; Sokka realizes that if [[spoiler:his mother had been born in the Fire Nation, where noblewomen are trained to defend their children against assassins, she might still be alive despite not being a bender.]]
* MessianicArchetype: The Avatar, with much attention paid to what this implies. For instance, originally the Fire Sages, who were the priests of Agni, served the Avatar, as the voice of Agni on earth. This meant that [[spoiler:Kyoshi's decree]] carried the force of a divine commandment and, given the mechanics of Fire Nation loyalty, [[spoiler:for a Firebender to turn against the Fire Lord would require foreswearing their loyalty to them, the Avatar, and Agni, the source of firebending himself.]] So it is, in a sense, a very good thing for Aang that modern firebenders don't like him, much less have loyalty to him or regard him as The Messiah in the first place. It's likely that the Fire Sage who helped Aang in canon either [[spoiler:nurtured loyalty to Agni in place of Ozai in order to survive loyalty sickness before Aang came along, since all (known) firebenders are required to swear loyalty to him, or was able to hold it off long enough to help Aang, as Zuko did, and then died offscreen.]]
** [[spoiler:As he's been rescued from the Boiling Rock prison to serve as Aang's Firebending teacher, either this or he became the third Firebender in the past century to survive loyalty sickness without healing fire]]
** [[spoiler:It's confirmed that he considers ''Iroh'' to be the true fire lord, because Ursa killed Azulon that should discredit Ozai's claim to power by Fire Nation laws. Sokka points this out that what Ursa did was technically legal, since Azulon was a dark dragon and therefore it was the ''responsibility'' of his family to remove him from power. It's made clear that the Fire Sage has deliberately ignored this fact for the sole purpose of staying loyal to Iroh. Since Iroh wants the Avatar well, the fire sage can help Aang.]]
* MoralMyopia: In addition to the canon Fire Nation abuses, the Water Tribes show this in spades. [[MisaimedFandom Not to mention some of the fans]]. [[spoiler:And the non-Byakko hidden Air Nomads.]]
* MoreThanMindControl: [[spoiler:Benders can pull on your emotions. What the Dai Li pull. However, Azula's plans for Min indicate that it's not exactly mind control in the first place]]
* MyOwnGrampa: As Zuko [[spoiler:is the reincarnation of Kuzon]], and Zuko's mother, Ursa, [[spoiler:is the daughter of Shidan and Kuzon's daughter Kotone,]] Zuko is technically his own [[spoiler:great-grandfather]] in a strange spiritual way.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: [[spoiler:Xiangchen to the other Air Nomads. Before Xiangchen, though, was Subodei and his clan, the White Wind. And of course, Aang to the Onmitsu and other Air peoples still hiding out there]]. Chin, Sozin, and Kyoshi all got NOTHING on the Air Nomads.
** To elaborate [[spoiler:Xiangchen]] is a Taoist term for [[ElementalRockPaperScissors improper dominance in the cycle of elements]]. What Sozin was trying to, with Fire ruling over all? ''That's'' what the name means.
* NarrativeCausality: Discussed in chapter 17
-->"Just tell me why this monster isn't going to do the smart thing, hide on the bottom of the lake, and laugh at us."\\
"Three reasons!" The retired general sounded grimly cheerful. "First, if it did that, we would have no chance to rescue Amaya. And that would simply not be fair."\\
"This isn't a spirit-tale, Uncle!" ''The hero doesn't always win. As if we were ever heroes.''\\
"Is it not?"
* NeverMessWithGranny: EVERY Fire Nation woman learns to fight. And it is the older generation who teach the younger one.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Aang allowing the Ocean Spirit to possess him in defense of the Northern Water Tribe [[spoiler:was {{plan}}ned by Koh]]. At least Ocean didn't massacre the Northern Water Tribe too since they knew to hit the dirt praying, but [[spoiler:spiritual pollution has spread all the way from there to Kyoshi Island, and the uncremated Fire Nation dead are going to be incredibly angry and vicious due to the way they were killed, meaning the Northern Water Tribe may be under the sort of attack that caused Long Feng's rise to power.]]
** During The Beach arc, Zuko ([[spoiler:aided by memories from his previous life]]) gives a pretty hefty chewing out to Avatar Roku over how he could have prevented Sozin coming to power and the resultant war if he'd just paid attention to his people and how Kyoshi's decree was driving them all nuts instead of giving things the once over, saying "everything's fine as-is", then running away to other nations to train in other forms of bending. In his subsequent explanation of just what Kyoshi did to the Fire Nation that ultimately caused the war, Zuko may not explicitly state that the Fire Nation got drunk for a week after Roku died, but his opinions make it clear they probably didn't care too much to see this second Avatar die.
** Congratulations, Katara! You've just handed verbal proof that Shidan--and by extension, Byakko--is working against the Fire Lord to the Fire Lord's own army. Their deaths, if any, will be on your head.
** Kudos, Aang! You've finally figured out how and why you need to end the war, revoke decrees, etc. And the first thing you do immediately afterward is to douse the flames guiding the souls of the Drowned to the Spirit World and preventing them from attacking the exhausted Dragons' Wings. And said Drowned are now dragging themselves to shore. OhCrap.
* NiceJobBreakingItHerod: Sozin's goal wasn't to wipe out the Air Nomads: it was to kill Roku's reincarnation. [[spoiler:He arranged for thousands of people to die in a way that implied the Air Nomads had acted callously, at best, and Aang was going to repeat Kyoshi's massacre, at worst. It's likely Plan A was for the Air Nomads to produce Aang so that he could be put on (show) trial. When they couldn't do that, well, that 'proved' either the Air Nomads has been callously negligent, at best, or Aang was going to repeat Kyoshi's Massacre, at worst]]. Admittedly the '''Fire Nation's''' goals, and propaganda, were for destroying Air Bending so another Avatar could never call down a hurricane again.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: [[spoiler:In chapter 51, Sokka realizes Zuko did this at the North Pole. If Zuko wasn't there, Iroh might not have been there, and Yue wouldn't have known she could save the Moon. That is debatable. What is not is this: If Zuko wasn't there no one would have dragged the meditating Aang across the ice, meaning ''he would have been there, vulnerable, when Zhao showed up.'']]
* NoDelaysForTheWicked: Everyone in the Fire Nation has to [[spoiler:[[YouHaveFailedMe do as the Fire Lord says or risk death by loyalty sickness]] – JustFollowingOrders with a knife at their neck]]. Fire Nation soldiers in the field [[spoiler:[[ExplosiveLeash die if they blatantly disobey orders]], even if that means committing war crimes, because [[MoreThanMindControl Fire Is Loyalty]]]]. Fire Nation civilians [[spoiler:get attacked by Fire Nation spirits if they oppose the war because "[[{{Ghostapo}} Fire Spirits owe loyalty to The Fire Lord]]" – even if that support is polluting their water supplies]]. Luckily, every autumn is hurricane season--crippling the nation-- and the other nations aren't exactly push overs even after a century of war, and sheer human incompetence (see Sadao's story) as well as the way that loyalty isn't meant to be monolithic keep the Fire Nation from being [[Franchise/StarTrek the Borg]]. (Iroh explains in 29 that loyalty means "the bonds of fire and spirit to one's clan, one's lord, and one's followers.")
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Kuzon [[spoiler:reborn as Zuko]] and how!
** Kuzon trying to save the airbenders. Most of Kuzon's family die. He makes an oath that requires him to frequently desert what's left of his family to pursue what turns out to be a hopeless quest. He is betrayed by people he trusts. He is killed in revenge for some of the decisions he made at the time.
** Helping Zuko tears apart the lives of several residents of Ba Sing Se. Helping Aang just makes it all worse.
* NoManOfWomanBorn: A well-known weakness of spirits (see the Mythology section of the page). For instance, water of the shore is not technically water of the lake [[spoiler:and thus it can be bent without leaving the bender open to possession by the haima-jiao.]]
* NoodleImplements: Chapter 25: Jee hasn't seen sucha creative interpretation of regulations since his old chief engineer got caught with a feather boa, a hog-monkey, and six dancing girls.
* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Aang after being struck by Azula's lightning, and [[spoiler:Zuko betraying Ozai]]. While Azula doesn't say the fatal words in that scene, the triumph in her eyes and voice when she realized [[spoiler:Zuko was trying to stop her]] was more than enough, it seems.
* NowYouTellMe: Most helpful cultural notes are dropped long after diplomacy has been thrown out the window, smashed through a second building, and had its credit card stolen by Azula. If it is not played straight, it is doubly subverted, where information is told, misunderstood, and explained again to better effect.
* OhMyGods: All over the place.
* OnlyBadGuysCallTheirLawyers: In Chapter 79, it's all but stated that this is the Big Problem everyone in the world has with the Fire Nation, but lack the cultural attitudes to define. Due to their natural state of intrigue and warfare (and their race-wide {{Hot Blooded}}ness), Fire Nationals become extremely vague and formal whenever they feel pressured, as the slightest ill-conceived word could ruin formal agreements or even get them killed. In other words, they lawyer up, and everyone assumes they're hiding something.
--->"He grew up in court," Karasu stated. [[spoiler:"Nephew. You're among kin."]]
** In Chapter 77, this is actually [[spoiler:the big button that a mind-influencing monster pushes to make Katara attack Zuko.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:P-R]]
* PairTheSpares: Done with [[spoiler:Min/Mai]]
** Bon/Amisi, if Kuei doesn't decide to become polygamous.
* PersonalityPowers: A person's raw ability in manipulating an element or using techniques based on it is dependent on the degree they possess the personality traits related to that element (among other factors, such as genetics and spiritual favour). [[spoiler:The reverse is also revealed to be true, when those who become yaoren experience personality changes related to the new element. Zuko, who is forcibly given water, becomes far more willing to let others close, and what Shirong experiences after being given fire can be summed up as an increased tendency towards fanaticism that really worries him.]]
* PersonOfMassDestruction: It's not just Aang: One of the illogical things in canon was that a single practitioner of a style stripped of all combat moves was suddenly able to slaughter a small mountain of combat-trained, veteran firebenders given superpowers by Sozin's comet. After experiencing that transformation, it's no wonder Gyatso is horrified by the possibility that airbenders might once again start actually learning how to fight. In the battle in [[spoiler:Chapter 36, on top of a train, Shirong realizes that Ty Lee is holding them in the palm of her hand since her element has them surrounded, and Kuei recites a proverb stating that airbending is the element best at destruction]]. Chalk up another series plothole closed by ''Embers''.
* PhysicalGod: The Avatar Spirit is the closest thing to a western god, and thus by extension [[MessianicArchetype its human incarnations]] are this. In a very CrystalDragonJesus way, the Avatars mediate between the human world and the spirits, allowing [[BlueAndOrangeMorality the Avatar Spirit to understand man]]. A lot of the consequences of this trope are examined in ''Embers'':
** When the human part of the equation doesn't understand people all that well? Yangchen is quite willing to admit her mistakes and failures, Kuruk additionally got along well with the common people of all four nations and people weren't afraid to tell him no, acting more like a god in the 'larger than life human' sense. And then Kyoshi somehow gets (or is given?) the idea that an unfallible [[AGodAmI god is she]], who cannot be defied and can't possibly be wrong, and the misconception is passed down to her successors.
** Aang's belief that the Avatar intrinsically has all the answers may be what leads to his backwards approach to becoming the Avatar Spirit: most other Avatars only achieved this after attaining whatever measure of enlightenment/understanding of the world and all bending necessary to awaken as a PhysicalGod and control vast natural forces. Aang seems to believe that he's supposed to just 'open himself' to the Avatar Spirit, which may have been why he thought giving control to the Ocean Spirit was a good idea instead of a [[WeaponOfMassDestruction forbidden for very good reason]] one.
* PillarsOfMoralCharacter: Invoked on Zuko after he gets his [[spoiler:second element]] and healer training, also Iroh, a bit on Amaya. As it is a Japanese trope it is primarily attached to people from the Japan {{Expy}}, the Fire Nation.
* {{Pirate}}: In addition to the pirates Katara stole the waterbending scroll from, the Fire Nation historically got invaded by pirate 'kings' called the waegu (whom might have come from the Earth Kingdom orginally), then the Fire Nation's lack of a central government made them a pirate haven, since all pirates had to do to escape pursuit was to cross the border of one of the many, many small domains, and some domains were entirely on the ocean, meaning very little in the way of international waters. This ended in tragedy when [[spoiler:Kyoshi wiped out the wave clans, along with most of firebending, trying to get the pirates that killed her son]]. In addition to that, both Water Tribes used to not only commit piracy but raid Earth Kingdom villages: the Southern tribe used to fence their loot on Kyoshi Island (despite Kyoshi's views on piracy), and mounting a coast guard was one of the things that brought Chin to power.
** There may be Type 2s coming up. Chapter 33 sees Zuko making plans to [[spoiler:steal Ba Sing Se's fleet to smuggle people to safety, and Iroh makes a comment about bringing back the memory of the waegu, flouting Kyoshi's decree. Perhaps they'll even fly a pirate flag?]]
* PlotHole: The number and scale of those in the original series is much of what inspired the fic, it seems.
-->'''Vathara:''' Canon leaves one big plothole... well, one short, somewhat rotund, awesome firebending plothole.
** However, there may be at least one in the fic: [[spoiler:Teruko seriously believed the propaganda that Sozin was a hero: this was the reason she doubted that Azula had hit Zuko with lightning and the Plot Hooks were used. Given that her own grandfather was a dragon child, she knew dragons personally, and Sozin committed genocide against them, it makes little sense that she'd have him on any sort of a pedastal.]]
*** Averted: [[spoiler:WordOfGod explains that while Teruko wasn't lying, she wasn't telling the whole truth, either – despite what he did to the dragons, Sozin is still publicly considered a hero for ending the "airbender threat".]]
** Nobody can redirect lightning… until Iroh created that ability, after his study of waterbending. (To heck with this being a Zuko-Sue, it's Iroh-Sue all the way… not that there's anything wrong with that.) [[spoiler:Azula meditates on Iroh's treacherous plans since he kept a counter to the Royal Lightning a secret, while she's trying to bend hot water.]]
** On Vathara's part, Chapter 57: [[spoiler:Avatar Kesuk went crazy and got stuck in the Avatar State. It's strongly implied, if not outright stated, that she was in it when she died. Except dying in the Avatar State breaks the cycle, so what was going on there?]]
*** This one is later explained, as [[spoiler:Kesuk was killed by Asagitatsu- a sacred volcano which explicitly has the power to kill a rampaging Avatar '''without''' destroying the Avatar Cycle.]]
* PosthumousCharacter: Canon characters include Gyatso, Sozin, Kya, and past Avatars like Roku, while Emberverse characters have Kuzon (who's given more background), some of Zuko's and Azula's grandparents, Hirata (the Fire Nation Avatar before Yangchen), Xiangchen, Subodei, and several Air Nomad groups.
* PowerOfFriendship: According to Iroh, dragons, who eat the weak, view this as a real enough type of power that Aang should be safe if he approaches them accompanied by his friends. While seemingly a fic pretty far over to the Cynical side of [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism Idealism Versus Cynicism]], ''Embers'' spends a lot of time on the importance of this, as well as the PowerOfLove and PowerOfTrust. Of course, the fact that even good things can have bad consequences is an important theme.
* PowerOfTrust: In their first encounter, Aang [[spoiler:trusted Zuko but didn't feel obligated to be trustworthy in return]]. To [[CultureClash Zuko, representing the Fire Nation]], this had massive UnfortunateImplications, especially since Aang did this knowing Zuko held a high rank in the Fire Nation. [[spoiler:He essentially said he considered all Fire Nation people non-persons, unworthy of honorable treatment]]. Since the Fire Nation being unable to trust the Avatar removes any chance of long-term peace, the fact that even someone who does want peace believes that is very, very scary. Trust is powerful, and this is what happens when there isn't any.
-->'''Teruko:''' Sir.... He's the Avatar. We're Fire Nation. He's not going to treat us honorably. No matter what.
* ProperlyParanoid: Just about any of the less optimistic {{Doom Magnet}}s
* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Subverted. While the narrative often seems to favor the protagonists, it's mainly because the [=POVs=] are often [[UnreliableNarrator characters]] that already follow (as with Teruko), like (Toph and Amaya), or have a good impression of them (Xiu). Dissenting point of views are narrated much later in the story, when they chip in to the momentum of the plot.
* RageAgainstTheMentor: We can only hope Pakku gets the beatdown he so richly deserves. In addition, Zuko isn't likely to appreciate being LockedOutOfTheLoop on several important plot points: [[spoiler:his descent from Avatar Roku, his draconic ancestry, what being Kuzon's reincarnation is doing to his head (it may be making him dislike Aang as well as like him: it's one thing to be hurt by an enemy, another by a best friend)]]. Also subverted by [[spoiler:Yue and Katara: instead of being frustrated by the CrypticConversation, Katara realizes that Yue is doing her best and keeps trying to figure out what she means, enabling the real meaning to come through, instead of blaming her and giving up as per the trope.]]
*** Though, as of chapter 37, Zuko is no longer locked out of the loops.
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: [[spoiler:Captain Jee's crew.]]
* RazorWind: An airbending technique used by [[spoiler:the third yaoren. This may be why the ancient airbenders, even healers, carried katanas.]]
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Sokka gives one to ''Fire Lord Ozai'' in Chapter 89.
* RefusalOfTheCall: Zuko [[spoiler:is trying to find an alternative to becoming Aang's firebending teacher and yaoren ally,]] after Yue ensured that he [[YouCantGoHomeAgain can't go home again]].
* {{Reincarnation}}: As expected of the setting, [[spoiler:even though in this AU, Aang is explicitly ''not'' reincarnated, but merely the latest host of the World Spirit. Zuko is the more traditional reincarnation of Aang's childhood friend Kuzon, keeping a promise to Gyatso as well as making up for being unable to prevent the genocide, and Lu Ten and Lángxuě were yaoren allies of Avatar Yangchen.]]
* RememberedICouldFly: [[spoiler:Ty Lee is a non-contrived example. The prospective consequences of Zuko's survival drive her into such desperation that she [[LaserGuidedAmnesia remembers how to Airbend]]. First order of business? Gale-blast everything in Zuko's direction.]]
* RescueRomance: Played with for [[spoiler:Iroh and Amaya.]]
* RetGone: Originally the story was going to be slightly AU where everything happened just the way it did in the show up to that point. It seems like this might not still be true.
-->"when I started writing this story, I didn't intend it to be nearly as AU as it turned out. But then I got into researching exactly what sparks off genocides in RL, and what usually has to happen first. And then wondered about why water was the only healing element, and how that might be balanced if all the elements are supposed to be necessary to the world's balance. And then the bunnies tied together Koh, and Wan Shi Tong, and a few other things..." —Vathara AN Chapter 37
* RetiredBadass: Iroh, [[spoiler:who comes out of retirement, and announces it by [[ShockAndAwe smiting an Earth Kingdom general]].]]
* TheRevolutionWillNotBeVillified: Played with. While ''Embers'' calls for the complete destruction of the Fire Nation government, Zuko acknowledges that [[spoiler:by creating a hidden refuge he's basically going to be sitting back and allowing the rest of the Fire Nation to be massacred, if not egging it on]], although he and Iroh both agree that it deserves it for a certain value of deserves. On the other hand, it's implied that that the Avatar's actions at the North Pole are deliberately being kept secret by Water Tribe elders and Earth Kingdom officials in order to prevent him from being seen as other than The Messiah (and prompting the Fire Nation to try it with a Fire Spirit) [[spoiler:even though the massed bad karma has already started to kill innocent bystanders; some kind of warning would certainly lower the body count.]]
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Zuko [[spoiler:thinks the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes will do this to the Fire Nation once the war's over unless Aang stops it]]. Whether or not he's right is still up in the air. Also, [[spoiler:Katara is trying very hard not to do this while Zuko stamps on her Berserk Buttons. ]]
** And then he offers [[spoiler:her an ''acceptable'' means of doing so, [[MagnificentBastard admitting it's a play]] to [[BreakingTheFellowship separate her from the Gaang]]. and it worked]]. For about five seconds, thanks to [[spoiler:Yue.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:S]]
* SacredHospitality: Referenced in the oneshot that started it all: in addition to that there's [[spoiler:the loyalty of Amaya's Hidden Folk, and The Shelter of Dragon's Wings]], where hospitality is rewarded or given because it's expected that it will be rewarded.
** The Right of Hospitality, recognized by the Air Nomads: you do not attack someone in your camp (under your protection) without due cause and warning. [[spoiler:Aang violating it by almost killing him in chapter 77 is the last straw for Zuko.]]
* SacredLanguage: In a world where everyone speaks the same language, there's Fire Nation High Court, unless there's a better trope? Since the Fire Nation is the ThemeParkVersion of Japan, then shouldn't they have an indiginous language just like the real Japan does? In addition to using it for messages that might be intercepted (like Navajo Code Talkers), a disporprotionate amount of the terms Iroh and other Fire Nation people use for spirits and spirit-related things are High Court words. Given that the current Fire Nation government [[spoiler:was formed around the head of the Fire Sages, the ones who dealt with spirits and hence the closest thing the Fire Nation ever had to a multi-domain body without outside interference, it's entirely possible that it was originally mostly a ritual language]]. For instance Agni Kai is High Court. Taking a broad view of the setting it's likely that High Court is a mix of Japanese, due to what the Fire Nation is, and some form of Hindi. Chapter 49 confirms that High Court is Sanskrit, with various Japanese words imported.
* SadlyMythtaken: [[spoiler:One of Kyoshi's followers had become a Yaoren and died for lack of spirit-healing. Seeing an Earthbending follower die from Waterbending was a major reason for Avatar Kyoshi insisting on the rigid separation of the elements and nations. However, in the present, hundred-year-old spiritualists like Aang and Tao believe the spirits took offense to and struck down the follower for daring to tread on two elements. This was a completely wrong attribution of cause, as bending two element requires both great spirits' blessing. However, it could be quite true, for present benders, since the spirits tend to violently uphold an Avatar's Decree and it's unclear whether Kyoshi ever formally decreed this or just considered it a self-evident truth.]]
** Name a historical hero and prepare to be disillusioned. [[spoiler:In the latest chapter, it's revealed that a Northern Water Tribe Avatar went insane and tried to take over the world.]]
** In chapter 46, Langxue insists that Asagitatsu didn't ''kill Avatar Yangchen''. It killed dozens of people, one of whom was her.
* ScarsAreForever: Amaya can heal lethal wounds or massive spiritual trauma, and create alternate personalities for people. However, revomoving the scarred skin on Zuko's face is beyond her.
* SeaMonster: [[spoiler:Man-eating Seahorse dragons, leeches that can give hell to the Unagi, and (by chapter 43) something huge that makes Sokka think twice about pentapi. All stem from the Ocean Spirit's ongoing revenge, and they probably aren't the only things that we'll see.]]
** Add to that list, the Isonade, or shark monster, that [[spoiler:Azula faced as she was battling with Makoto.]]
*** [[spoiler:Walking Whales, a.k.a. the Kadzait. They can grow to huge sizes (the skeleton Zuko encounters is 50 ft. tall), live extremely long lives, and can be good or evil, just like dragons. The Dark ones are known as Sea Serpents.]]
*** [[spoiler:In Chapter 78 Zuko defeats a sea serpent banished from his clan for cannibalism of the pods' children. In Chapter 79 we find out that Kadzait are usually sable in color and like colder waters. They have much smaller and more brightly multicolored cousins who live in warm waters called Rakko. The Kadzait seem most like whales while the Rakko are like dolphins.]]
*** [[spoiler:Considering that ''rakko'' means ''otter'' in Japanese, it's likely that the Rakko are otter-dolphin hybrids, following the combined-animal theme of Avatar.]]
* SecretPolice: The Dai Li, and this fic manages to humanize them.
* SeparatedByACommonLanguage: Truce: highly regulated temporary ceasefire, the women calling a time-out, an end to the war, or 'whatever, it's not really that important.'
* ShapeshifterModeLock: [[spoiler:Shidan can't turn back into a dragon. The transformation to human is described as a gift from Agni, meaning dragons are unable to shapeshift on their own, and lasts either for a night or the lifetime of their [[InterspeciesRomance human lover]], which would be why they disappear after their lover dies.]]
* ShapeshiftingLover: A common InterspeciesRomance fairy tale in the Fire Nation about dragons [[spoiler:that's true. Shidan, Kuzon's dragon companion, married Kuzon's daughter and became Ursa's father. This is likely intended, not just to be special, but as a [[IncrediblyLamePun polar]] opposite of the Water Tribes. Earth and Air learn from their bending spirit animals, Water learns from spirits, and Fire, in effect, joins with their bending spirit animals.]]
* ShipperOnDeck: The Dai Li ship Kuei/a woman (or women) with enough spiritual strength to give him a heir and not get [[CurbStompBattle curbstomped]] if he dies.
* ShipSinking: [[spoiler:Zuko/Mai]] is no more in this fic, and [[spoiler:Aang/Katara]] is LeftHanging in a precarious position.
* ShockAndAwe: Iroh [[spoiler:comes out of retirement by [[PapaWolf smiting]] a certain Earth Kingdom general]], an event that was both [[IncrediblyLamePun shocking]] to those who weren't familiar with his history. [[PsychoElectro Azula]] is the modern fiction version of a lightning wielder, but in earlier works it was a [[VideoGame/ChronoTrigger heroic or divine element]]. Given some of the foreshadowing (the mind and airbenders), it will likely come up again, especially since the fic makes liberal use of ChekhovsArmory.
* {{Shonen}}: ''Embers'' could be summed up as 'what if Avatar was a shonen series starring Zuko?' The most obvious influence is Rurouni Kenshin, which Vathara has also written for (some characters introduced in 31 may be expies from it, according to some), what with the retired badass who is still badass (Iroh) and the Fire Nation being made that way with good intentions but ending up an expansionist and racist dictatorship (like the Meiji government).
* ShootTheDog: Part of a growing schism between Hakoda and several Kyoshi Islanders; Hakoda is horrified that Langxue, a waterbending child, was tossed into the ocean when his flash-back to his family's death threatened to destroy the boat he was on. Understandable in that his tribe is more likely to hunt than fish, plus the obvious lack of benders, and it is less likely that a similar situation would have come up in living memory, so his love of his daughter and quasi-religious respect for water benders make talk about them being a threat from failing to control themselves less than effective. The deaths caused by the island's neutrality do not help his sympathies.
* ShootTheMedicFirst: [[spoiler:According to Yue, there are spirits who think that humanity should be wiped out. They're doing it by taking out (by proxy) the healing benders first, since they're a vital component of humanity's ability to defend itself]]. This is probably why everyone except [[spoiler:The Northern Water Tribe]] has lost their [[spoiler:healers.]]
* ShoutOut: There's more than just what's listed – Vathara is a crossover author, after all.
** ''Franchise/StarWars'': "Only Imperial Firebenders are that precise."
** ''Film/{{Dragonheart}}'': "Though the tales say that when it comes to humans, they prefer to only chew in self-defense."
** Possibly ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch'': "''I'' have ''a family. It's not my tribe. It's small and hidden and broken.''"
** ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': "I am Temul of Shu Jing. I am the blood of dragons." "Byakko remembers."

** ''Series/{{NCIS}}'': "The rumor you need silver arrows to kill him? Completely false. It's never worked."
* ShownTheirWork: Bibliographies in the author notes.
** Waterbenders being considered blessed by the spirits is a plot point, but not an invented one: [[http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Names_in_the_World_of_Avatar#Bending_arts the Canon pinyin for the bending arts]] translate so that Earth and Fire are "abilities," while Air and Water are divine.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: So damned cynical you won't be surprised if she decides to just KillEmAll.
** If anything, ''Embers'' slides it so far over to the cynical side that it ends up being incredibly idealistic and hopeful. Vathara is showing that normally the Avatar universe's methods of preventing racism and war actually do work, (unlike the actual show, which implies people like Ozai and Chin are allowed to get that far and plunge the world into war all the time) and that it's possible for people to overcome all the ignorance and hatred shown in the fic. The fact that she shows how dangerous and deeply ingrained in even the best of us racism and anger actually are just makes the triumph over it more impressive.
*** And a quote from Ch. 14, in which Huojin notes this "so cynical it's idealistic" in [[spoiler:Zuko]] and sums it up nicely.
-->Which implied Lee was both pessimistic enough to believe running wouldn't do any good, and optimistic enough to believe he could survive anyway. Ow.
* SmoochOfVictory and RescueSex: Averted.
-->'''Shirong:''' The hero's supposed to get the girl. You know, the handsome prince, or the injured, bleeding common bender who saved the day in the nick of time? It's a fundamental law of the universe!
-->'''Iroh:''' And what makes you think the hero did not?
* SmugSuper: In addition to how Sokka is treated in canon, according to Hakoda, the Southern Water Tribe left the North for a reason. The way Pakku [[spoiler:sabotaged Katara, because there was absolutely nothing wrong with tampering with people's brains in the service of the Avatar, after all, and what the girl didn't know wouldn't hurt her]] isn't going to help matters. Additionally justified among waterbenders since they're considered blessed by their gods.
* SpaceWhaleAesop: In-universe. Sort of. With every Spirit attack, a character always comes out of it with more just experience in not getting mauled to death.
** Iroh: The Haima-Jiao attack leads to him understanding [[spoiler:that he perhaps should have extended a hand of assistance to Amaya, even if she did not want it.]]
** Toph: Learns that she probably shouldn't be so quick to stick her toes into unknown water, but rather than just being bitten by a fish [[spoiler:when she happens to be experimenting with the concept of bending salt-water]], she gets attacked by the [[KrakenAndLeviathan Water Spider]] that happens to hunt in that bay.
** Zuko: Indirectly, learns something of overcoming his fears and [[YouShouldKnowThisAlready trauma]] when Shirong shares one of his own inner demons, [[spoiler:which is being haunted by the night he was attacked by something close to an actual demon and its hatchlings.]]
** Katara: Never EVER take the guise of a spirit, particularly if said spirit is from the Enemy's homeland. Do not make any offhand remarks about what you think you know about the Enemy while said spirit has taken over your body.
** Aang: When dealing with spirits, be absolutely ''positively'' certain of the ExactWords spoken, and do be sure to use very specific and precise words in terms and agreements. The Painted Lady gave him a lesson in this, and HOW. She also gave a hint about what Ocean thinks:
--->"You seek justice, Avatar? Better for your friend if you do not! She is naamacaura! Justice would be her drowned body washed ashore, liver eaten, to show all I am not mocked! Ask Tui and La, if you think I lie."
* SpiritWorld: In canon the only ones we see visit the Spirit World are Aang and Sokka (even if he doesn't remember any of it). We never actually see Iroh there, although it is known that he went there in search of Lu Ten. In ''Embers'', Zuko and Langxue are both dragged there after dying to receive yaoren abilities. The second time occurs in Ch. 53 when all the yaoren voluntarily travel there so that Zuko can speak to Asagitatsu.
** To clarify, the yaoren '''do not''' enter the SpiritWorld, rather they approach it. Shoreline metaphors have popped up since the second kamuiy fight, and a (volcanic) shore is 'where' they go. The real world is the beach, the Spirit World is the ocean, and for the yaoren to cross that border is ''death.''
* StealthHiBye: Shidan does this to Shirong in Ch. 47.
-->"Walking among inattentive humans... it is much like holding a long feather, and coming across a sleeping cat. Irresistible."
* StealthPun: Hey, remember the fused metal fishooks that proved Azula shot Zuko with lighting? Remember when Zuko bought them? No? It was back in Chapter Three. [[IncrediblyLamePun They were Plot Hooks]].
** Mindbending, anyone?
* StepfordSmiler: [[spoiler:Katara, a Type A motivated by both her family's situation and the fear that she's a Type C. When the {{Masquerade}} is threatened, her efforts to protect it start to make her resemble a Type C, and when it breaks it looks like she'll head off on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge. However, [[ThePowerofFriendship Toph and Yue]] accepting her for who she is begin to make her smile for real.]]
* SupernaturalGoldEyes: Called "Sozin's Eyes" in the Fire Nation, they're a rare shade that generally indicates firebending prowess. Zuko has them while Azula doesn't, which is regarded as highly ironic. [[spoiler:Actually, they're a sign of more non-human ancestry, as in Japanese myth, only with dragons instead of kitsune (although kitsune do exist in ''Embers''...)]] The trope mentions the potential for a SuperpoweredEvilSide [[spoiler:which is sort of true: dragon children, when they go berserk, can lose the ability to understand human speech and may, like spirits, kill even those under their protection if they don't hit the ground in supplication or otherwise show submission fast enough.]]
** [[spoiler:There are also "evil dragons"-- SuperpoweredEvilSide as a characteristic. Non-evil dragons just get pissed and hear monkey-jabber for speech. ]]
** Though actual gold eyes are kind of a norm for Fire Nation, like blue in the Water and (apparently) grey for Air. Though blacks and browns also appear. It's Zuko's particular pale shade that are associated with dragon blood and Sozin.
* SuperPrototype: Subverted. The dating of the White Lotus' (remaining?) records indicates that [[spoiler:the yaoren came ''before'' the Avatar]]. Since they're the result of a spirit deciding to empower a mortal to handle something that threatens the balance, it makes sense that when they were unable to handle whatever problem and the Avatar Spirit began to be incarnated, it took that template and turned it UpToEleven. The Avatar [[spoiler:has all four elements instead of just two, is born with them instead of having to worry about any of those [[DisabilitySuperpower possibly-madness-and-death-inducing spiritual wounds]], is incredibly powerful instead of sometimes possessing HeroicWillpower without the raw bending power to back it up (which would likely be why they got that wound in the first place), is reborn like yaoren often are instead of immortal like normal spirits (which likely helps immensely when it comes to understanding the human condition, since Aang is only slightly GenreBlind instead of utterly incapable of acting like or understanding normal people,)]] has the past incarnations to act as full-on advisors... It's no wonder [[spoiler:the yaoren got demoted to HeroSecretService.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:T-U]]
* TakingYouWithMe: Ty Lee tells Azula about Yangchen [[spoiler:taking down Subodei and Xiangchen at the North Pole.]]
* TalkingAnimal: Subverted. Dragons don't use words, what with the fangs and the wrong-shaped tongue and all. Instead, as in canon, they communicate via images and telempathy. [[spoiler:While they can shapeshift into human form and learn to speak, it's not very natural for them; it's implied dragons have a big difficulty with the fact that a lot of human communication is white lies or saying one thing to mean another, and this lack of aptitude for human speech and communication seems to get passed down to their descendants, resulting in not just {{Angrish}} but failure to not only understand words but the idea that the mouth noises might mean something while operating on instinct. Humans with the traits of dark dragons, on the other hand, are consummate liars, which makes sense given how hard it would be to fake belief and ''feelings'' in a story well enough to lie telempathically.]]
** As shown in Chapter 78 [[spoiler:the kadzhait also use telempathy to communicate.]]
* TeamDad: As his character page notes, Zuko became this in canon. In ''Embers'' [[spoiler:he spends a lot of time and energy avoiding being forced into Aang's true companions, and it looks like the position will be taken by Hakoda.]]
* TeamMom: Katara, with much attention paid to what this implies [[spoiler:about the impact of losing her own mother and the strain of having to take her place for Sokka and Hakoda's sake.]]
* TeamPet: Asahi, and Iroh calls [[spoiler:Zuko sending Aang the betobeto giving a grieving child a new friend]], so once Aang learns to put his foot down and say "Bad [[spoiler:spirit]]!" the Gaang might get a third, in addition to Momo and Appa. Toph already seems rather fond of it and gave it the nickname [[spoiler:Boots.]]
* TechnicolorFire: Healing fire is gold, green, and violet[[spoiler:, just like dragon flame]]. And of course Azula's blue fire.
* TellMeHowYouFight: ...and Iroh will tell you what (kind of bender) you are. Firebenders have to take the offensive, since they're burning up their own chi and will get exhausted or just drop dead if the fight goes on too long. Earthbenders wait for the right moment to strike. Waterbenders redirect the opponent's energy and switch between defense and offense. Airbenders dodge and redirect (negative jin, the opposing philosophy/element to Firebending's positive jin). Except, according to chapter 31, [[spoiler:that wasn't always the case. And Gyatso is very, very scared and horrified by what will happen if airbenders become killers once again. Given how fast the Air Nomads, even he, switched from pacifism to killing piles of comet-superpowered veteran Firebenders, he's certainly right.]]
** Given it'd be a relatively simple matter for an airbender to simply collapse somebody's ribcage/lungs, induce a realistic form of ExplosiveDecompression, and other fun crosses of BloodlessCarnage with {{Family Unfriendly Death}}s, one who actively ''wants'' to kill probably ought to be considered fearsome. It might be worth noting that in the canon, [[spoiler:the one time we see any skeletons in the Air Temples, the only bones we see of the dead Firebenders are the ''skulls''.]]
* ThereAreNoTherapists: Polar summers and winters are not good for the human psyche (the show references midnight sun madness). The Fire Nation killed all of the Southern Water Tribe's waterbending healer/therapists [[spoiler:and untrained Katara blamed herself for not being able to do that job and save those lives, while getting no therapy or consoling for her own mother's loss.]]
* TitleDrop: In chapter 36:
-->Iroh: [[spoiler:"To break one's loyalty, is to douse one's inner fire." Iroh watched them both. "A healer can feed that fire. Can nurture '''embers''' even against the chill of death, until the spirit rallies... or fails.]]
* ToBeLawfulOrGood: The central conflict in ''Embers''; humans need to be Good in order to survive – innocence protected, compassion rewarded, cruelty punished. However, Spirits and spirit-related entities are creatures of Law; to act against their (''extremely'' restrictive) natures is equivalent to being deprived of warmth, food, water, or even air. Violating a contract with a spirit is thus an act of murderous violence, to be answered in kind. As you can guess, this causes humans and spirits to confuse the hell out of each other at best, and actively seek each others' destruction at worst. Take into account that the Avatar – a human/spirit hybrid with divided loyalties – is not unique, and the War and subsequent destruction is not surprising; what is surprising is that there are any humans left ''alive'', as we're ''much'' easier to kill.
* TookALevelInBadass: Zuko might have become a [[spoiler:yaoren]], but the point at which how much stronger he's gotten becomes apparent is when he [[spoiler:frees the Suzuran in order to escape an earth kingdom army.]]
** Earth King Kuei. Clearly, his majesty keeps getting [[CharacterDevelopment more and more awesome]] with each appearance he makes, especially [[spoiler:where he accepts Eshe as his wife/lover, knowing where his duty as Earth King lies.]]
* TouchedByVorlons: [[spoiler:Zuko]] as he was not technically "touched", it was [[spoiler:Yue's]] intevension that gave him his secondary power in a first place.
* {{Troperrific}}: Clearly. Became even more so once Vathara ''found out about'' this page.
* TrueCompanions: A major theme in all of Vathara's works is that people need people: we're fundamentally a pack/tribe species, and if we don't have people we trust enough to be honest with even about our flaws, people we know would be willing to die to protect us, and vice versa, we subconsciously find that terrifying and start to go quietly insane. [[spoiler:This is the reason for the huge disconnect in the fic between how Katara is described and shown in her inner monologue, a nice person who wants to help others and will do the honorable thing, and how she treats Zuko.]]
* UndyingLoyalty: The hat of the Fire Nation. [[spoiler:In a ''very'' literal sense, as in 99% of cases, breaking their loyalty means ''they die.'' Amaya speficially points this out in reference to the Dai Li's brainwashing techniques. People from the Fire Nation can resist the brainwashing for far longer than people of the other nations, and the brainwashing is never wholly effective on them. And Shirong notes that if you ever tried to use one of the few successfully-brainwashed subjects against their own nation, they simply died.]]
-->'''Amaya:''' [[spoiler:They'll break, but they ''won't'' bend.]]
* UnreliableNarrator: It is often mentioned in the [=ANs=] that Zuko is this, due to his preconceptions about the Fire Nation and the morality of its actions, [[CultureClash amongst other things]]. Some of her fans miss this.
** Practically everyone in the story is an Unreliable Narrator, having their own set of cultural and personal blinders that prevent them from understanding the words and actions of those from other cultures. This CultureClash is one of the main points and themes of the story. Much of the controversy over this story revolves around whether this is done in a way that smoothly meshes with the characters' canon personalities and behavior, or just shackles them to some form of IdiotBall.
** As of chapter 46, it's evident that not only is Azula misreading her brother (unsurprisingly), but Zuko is greatly misreading ''Aang'', allowing his anger to cloud his perception of who he's dealing with.
** [[spoiler:Shidan]] makes a big mistake, justified since [[spoiler:he's not the best at understanding humans]]. Knowledge of the show will immediately show that he doesn't know what he's talking about, though.
-->"The Fire Lord is arrogant and cruel. He is not foolish. No one can reign over ashes."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:V-Z]]
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Sozin, Chin among earth peasants, [[spoiler:and Aang believes that Xiangchen, who kicked off the genocidal ShootTheMedicFirst plan, was a hero. From Katara's reaction, after she experienced the memories of one of his victims, it's safe to say he's wrong.]]
* VisionQuest: Apparently one of these, with guides of all four nations, is another requirement for [[spoiler:becoming a yaoren if another one isn't around to help]]. Katara has her own, [[spoiler:where she is trained to control her wild empathic powers by Yue, but does not become a yaoren]]. On the other hand, given that the most powerful benders are those who learned from the sources of their bending styles, this may end not just compensating for [[spoiler:Pakku's sabotage]], but making her significantly stronger.
* WarriorMonk: Shiratora-san's Yamabushi. Definitely ''not'' pacifists.
* WeirdnessMagnet: Team Avatar due to Aang's presence, just as in canon. Toph states outright that she had never even met a spirit before joining up, even if she is a bender.
** Also people, who have been dealing with the spirits before or are spiritually aware. They tend to become {{Doom Magnet}}s as well. Society ostracizes them, because of a danger their presence may cause.
* WellDoneSonGuy: Azula and Zuko are both this type of personality, as in canon. [[spoiler:So is Koh, in this continuity.]]
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Arguably one of the author's [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation reasons]] for Katara's more than slightly questionable behavior during and after the Ba Sing Se arc.
* {{Wendigo}}: Discussed as part of the ShownTheirWork about why [[DeliberateValuesDissonance Katara is acting as a responsible adult]] and doing the right thing when [[WrongGenreSavvy she suspects that Zuko is driving the others crazy and needs to die under Ba Sing Se]]. Or rather, [[CultureClash she would be if this were the Water Tribes]]. Vathara seems to enjoy breaking brains and conventional definitions of right and wrong by pointing out the scary bits of how the human psyche works.
* WhamEpisode:
** Chapter 45. [[spoiler:Not only are the Touzaikaze revealed, but one of them is an ''air-healer''. What's more, they offer themselves as potential candidates for brides to the Earth King. Looks like there will be some shipping in the Emberverse after all...]]
** Chapter 57. [[spoiler:Koh is the Avatar Spirit's first child.]]
** Chapter 88. [[spoiler:Ursa. ALIVE. ''With paired dao at her sides''. In front of Azula.]]
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Tao just disappears after Chapter 57. There's no indication of whether he stayed in Dragon's Wings or at the Northern Air Temple, or if he joined the invasion force.
* WhatTheHellHero: This happens a lot. It could even be said that the divergence point of ''Embers'' from Canon is Iroh calling Zuko out on something in the prequel oneshot ''Theft Absolute''.
** Ty Lee [[spoiler:wants to ask Aang why he didn't just surrender so Zuko would be heir.]]
* WhiteMage: In the original series Katara very pointedly chose offensive waterbending over healing, which is then ignored for the rest of the series. In ''Embers'' this is even more significant, since [[spoiler:throughout her childhood she was given the impression she was supposed to be the healer, and a failure because she wasn't, so she's not just defying the Northern Water Tribe's sexism when she makes the choice to fight but also her own feelings of insecurity and failure]]. Instead of becoming the healer despite almost no training in the show, her talents and interest lie in the other direction and will likely remain insistent on being the BlackMage. Her alternative candidate for healer training is [[spoiler:Haru, since Toph is also [[CuteBruiser violence-focused]], not to mention more interested on what she can do with seawater.]]
* WhiteMansBurden: The plot element that puts Zuko in high gear -- and Vathara is ''in favor of'' -- is that after a century of war and colonization, the Fire Nation has pretty deeply assimilated a great deal of the Earth Kingdom's territory and population by hook or by crook. And that forcing the conquerors to make compensation for what they did would do more harm than good, hence the War must continue and ultimately be won for the sake of civilization. The Fire Prince is ''pissed'' that the Fire Nation could lose what he considers to Fire Nation "property" simply because their grandparents stole land and brides. He frames it as the Avatar "taking away [[FeudalOverlord our]] people", and ''never'' considers that anyone ''wouldn't'' want to be part of the Fire Nation. Even Iroh sees it as "The Fire Nation has taken so much from the world. The balance may require that we give it back. Even if it breaks our hearts." '''Anyone and everyone''' who doesn't believe in the Fire Nation's right to what they see as cosmopolitanism(complete with Firebenders at the top of the social ladder) is portrayed as outrageously racist(Katara, many Water Tribe warriors and people in Ba Sing Se) if not an out-and-out ''war criminal''(Jet and many Earth Kingdom generals).
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: [[spoiler:Iroh was about to kill Azula at the end of the Ba Sing Se arc, but is 'rescued' by Toph before he can deliver the finishing blow.]]
** [[spoiler:Captain Lu-shan flat-out questions why the hell Iroh didn't do this, if he's known that Azula has been trying to kill Zuko since she was six.]]
* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Toph, being damn 12 year old, seems to have more understaning about other cultures and politics and how people work than the rest of the group. Her parents are rich merchants making deals [[spoiler:even with Fire Nation,]] but still.
* TheWisePrince: Zuko. Not only has Vathara [[spoiler:made it impossible for him to assume the throne of the Fire Nation the way he did in canon,]] one of the main arguments against him being a CanonSue is how much fun the author is clearly having torturing him. The title itself references his ability to hang on despite things that should have crushed him (see the TraumaCongaLine page quote), and it's clearly a major plot mechanic.
* WizardsLiveLonger: If a powerful bender dies before their hundredth birthday, it probably wasn't of natural causes.
%%* WorldOfBadass
* {{Xenofiction}}: The CentralTheme is that ''absolutely no-one in the story'' is a human as the reader comprehends humans -- specifically, ''[[TheEvilsOfFreeWill no-one has truly free will]]''. In ''Embers'', ''every'' character except Aang (who has [[YouCantFightFate even worse baggage of his very own]]) has some kind of RestrainingBolt, MagicallyBindingContract ''and'' ExplosiveLeash InTheBlood which gives their respective leadership both subtle and ''lethal'' control over their actions and thoughts, and ''every'' culture has both a form of MindControl and MoreThanMindControl -- and everyone and every culture not only [[IThoughtEveryoneCouldDoThat thinks that theirs is normal and any other type is monstrous]], but only their leadership is likely to be fully aware of their own culture's controls. And since they never talk about those secret control functions, a lot of people have no understanding how and why they work -- ''even those from the same culture''. A key part of resolving the conflicts Vathara puts in place is everyone ''finally'', '''after aeons of interaction''', gaining widespread understanding -- both internally and externally -- of those functions so they can avoid setting them off or abusing them in the future. Vathara never really talks about how those mind control functions express themselves in multiracial pairings, either.
* YinYangBomb: [[spoiler:Zuko's fire- and waterbending]]
* YouAreGrounded: Aang's [[CrazyEnoughToWork (oddly effective)]] way of dealing with [[spoiler:Koh, once and for all.]]
* YouAreNotAlone: Since the job of the Earth King is to deal with spirits, and those who fight spirits are marked and thus separated from normal people, Yangchen implies that Kyoshi created the Dai Li so that the Earth King would have not just help in dealing with spirits (part of what set off Chin's rebellion), but a group of people, including commoners, who could be regarded as friends and co-workers, allowing the Kings to have a source of friends and much more understanding of the people around them. The purpose of the [[spoiler:yaoren appears to be this as well: a new avatar is understandably going to be upset at finding out their whole life was a lie, they're not like the people they love anymore (or never were), they now have a destiny to fulfill that doesn't care about what they wanted and got three more elements dropped on them. Not to mention teaching what you can pull with two elements that wouldn't occur to single element teachers. Meaning the elimination of the yaoren led to the Avatar feeling alone and isolated, as Aang does since he's 'the only one who can save the world,' and thus far less mentally stable.]]
* YouCantGoHomeAgain:
** Zuko [[spoiler:once Yue makes him a Yaoren]], and Aang's clinging to the hope of reestablishing the peaceful, idyllic Air Nomads just the way they were [[spoiler:despite all the hints that something was very wrong there...]]
** Amisi and Eshe of the Touzaikaze. They were sent by their tribe to forge an alliance with Kuei, and are not going home, unless they want to go back in disgrace.
** Chapter 76. [[spoiler:After Hama busted herself out of prison, the other surviving Southern waterbenders decided not to go back to their tribe in the South Pole. Shamed and disgraced and abandoned by one that was their responsibility, they made their home in Lituya Bay.]]
* YouDidntAsk: There's a fair amount of this going on due to all the CultureClash. Vital information or basic assumptions that are seen as too obvious to mention by people of one group often aren't obvious at all to others. This turns into a multi-directional pile-up as the eclipse approaches and it comes to light that many of the people involved with or aware off the impending invasion have very different ideas about what this involves and how it will be carried out.
* ZombieApocalypse: It's coming. Ch. 46's [[WordOfGod author's notes]] reveal that [[spoiler:Koh the Facestealer is partially based on Nidhoggr, according to WordOfGod from the creators of WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender. During the Norse apocalypse, Ragnarok, Nidhoggr controlled the corpses he had consumed]] making it a ZombieApocalypse. There are large numbers of unhallowed dead near the Northern Water Tribe.
[[/folder]]
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