Not Stalking Firelord Zuko
Now we're up to Not Stalking Firelord Zuko
. To recap, the Gaang and their allies won the war and are starting the peace process. Unfortunately, while Katara confessed to Zuko as he lay near death after the battle with Azula, he forgot the confession, and Hakoda strongly, albeit not overtly, discourages their relationship.
Katara recalls Gran-Gran's advice about how you shouldn't leave anything that needs to be done rightto men, and that is why she has taken it upon herself to help out. Her father wants her and Sokka to help out so they can spend time as a tribe, particularly when it comes to the ship that Iroh gave them, and many of the warriors want to get home.
Of course, Hakoda wants to spend time with Katara and Sokka in particular, possibly to show that he's a "cool dad." This also prevents Katara from hanging out with Zuko, and knowing Hakoda, that is likely a side effect that's neither unintended nor unwanted.
Their new ship needs to be renamed, and after some debate and worries about superstitions, Sokka proposes "Yue," and Hakoda accepts that, closing the discussion on that matter.
The men argue about who will stay and who will go to Ba Sing Se, and Bato certainly wants to stay, much to Hakoda's disapproval. Some teasing ensues, until Hakoda gets everyone to drop it.
Speaking of Bato's reason for staying, Katara thinks ahead to the dinner in which they'll meet Ming. Bato doesn't need to pack, but the other men do, so Katara is once again left with the job of doing the mending, which she hadn't done on principle. She had hoped to see whether the men would do their own clothing, but they hadn't; they were only waiting for Katara to be more "reasonable." They clearly failed, since Katara wishes she was a firebender, so that she could set all their clothing ablaze. Katara's angry enough to give her speech, but she can't get their attention. Katara's about to try even harder when a servant takes the clothes from her and says that she shouldn't need to do that, telling her that "Sir Bato" wants to talk to her (when servants formally address males who are their guests, I've noticed that "Master" or "Lord" work best as the Spear Counterpart to "Lady"). The serving girl departs without Katara learning her name, evidently making her the fourth OC.
Bato needs Katara's help, since he can cook, but not for such a large group of people. Katara doesn't have any more experience, but she's good at organizing people and giving orders. Finding good substitutes for the ingredients is a challenge, but Sokka offers to "help" taste test, ending up fairly obnoxious.
While they're in the kitchen, Bato, whom Katara and Sokka see as an Honorary Uncle, talks about Ming and how they'll "love" her, and certainly hopes that they will. While Hakoda "has views on" Bato's relationship with Ming, Katara likes her so far.
The topic shifts to Ming's work (even if Bato's unsure whether he's allowed to talk about it), and how Azula has been moved into the convalescent home, but still isn't ready to see Zuko and Ty Lee. Ming likes having more guards under her command, but Azula's still "a sick girl" who's been both better and worse over the past few days.
The conversation shifts to the tribe's opinions of Ming. Bato recalls how Hakoda thinks it's nothing more than a fling, and the tribe likes to tease him about it, and while he dismisses the latter as "just joking," he notes that something else is in the way. Katara, out of the loop, asks about it, and Sokka points out that since Hakoda didn't outright forbid Bato from seeing Ming, they would take the opportunity to have sex with girls who find Water Tribe men exotic and fascinating, although Katara cuts him off before he can say it outright. It seems Hakoda's passive-aggressive approach to Bato and Ming is not at all having the desired effect, if the warriors think that he's fine with one night stands but not committed relationships.
Bato, of course, insists that he's not just having a fling with Ming, and Sokka reassures him, saying that at least he's not accused of being her Henpecked Husband, like the men are saying about him and Suki. Bato says that Sokka's time in the kitchen doesn't help matters; apparently, he doesn't think that Real Men Cook.
The serving girl comes back with the clothes, and is surprised when Katara wants to learn her name- which happens to be Izi (Hey, You! can get somewhat confusing after a while, so it's understandable that Katara would want to learn names), leaving after Katara thanks her. Katara's impressed with Izi's work, hoping that she'll never have to see any of the clothes again, but asks why she got stuck with the work. The answer, according to a guy named Kuba, is that the Water Tribe men don't trust the Fire Nation women to do the work. As such, he's convinced that Katara did it, and Katara takes pleasure in correcting him, both to see the look on his face and because she doesn't want to take credit for others' work.
Zuko, Toph, Aang and Iroh arrive. Zuko tries to set rules for "Sir Hakoda's guests," (Is he back to calling Hakoda that?), including forbidding the hedgehog song, but Iroh overrules him, saying this is supposed to be a celebration. Katara's happy to see the four of them after spending all day with her tribe.
Sokka shares the sentiment, and he and Katara welcome everyone back, acting as though "it's been so long" since they last saw each other, even though it's only been a day. Aang's quite popular among the men of the Water Tribe, and surprisingly enough, Katara lets it pass without suggesting that Aang gets his respect because he's male. I hope she's getting over her bitterness about Aang disappearing and not killing Ozai. Aang brings Momo out to let him play, and Momo proves surprisingly popular, including among one of the biggest and meanest warriors, Sorrak.
Katara finds Zuko and Toph off in a corner, since they don't know the warriors as well. Iroh's refilling Zuko's drink, evidently to get him drunk enough so that he and the others can let off steam after an event that Zuko promises to tell Katara about later.
Katara tries to introduce Zuko and Toph to the warriors. Unfortunately, this results in Toph meeting a warrior named Kuba, who doesn't think much of her as a short blind girl, saying that he was literally Expecting Someone Taller. Katara and Zuko are appropriately horrified, while Toph decides to taunt Kuba. Kuba, having no idea who he's dealing with, is unwilling to hit "a tiny blind girl," until the girl calls his masculinity into question. With his fellowmen watching, Kuba then takes a half-hearted swing at her, which Toph dodges easily, and tries again with more force, only for Toph to knock him into the ground and declare that is how she deals with larger male opponents. Katara's quite amused at Toph's display, and Suki also approves after barely avoiding falling into the hole.
Katara then meets Ming, whom she describes as a tall Fire Nation beauty. Katara politely greets her, and Ming says she heard about Katara from Bato. Apparently, the other Water Tribe warriors know her from the prison, and during their incarceration, she smuggled them pickles, much to Katara's surprise (it is surprising that an enemy prison guard would do such a favor for PO Ws), since it's treatment the Boiling Rock prisoners didn't get. Iroh greets Ming with flattery that borders on flirting, prompting her to call him a "cheeky old flirt" in response. The part in which Ming meets Hakoda, the chief, is the most difficult, but he seems honestly glad to meet her, and she responds in kind.
Dinner goes well, with Aang seated at the seat of honor as the Avatar. Iroh promises to ensure that their "young friends" don't get drunk, although that ends up happening with the warriors., In the end, those who came have fun, and Katara finds that most important.
Katara, sitting near Ming, wants to get to know her better, and notices that Ming is trying to make a good impression on Hakoda. Dad tells Ming the story of "the great blubber fiasco," something that is deeply embarrassing to Hakoda. Sokka, Hakoda and Suki make bad jokes and puns that only they find funny. Suki and Zuko subtly dare each other to eat the disgusting Water Tribe food.
Hakoda asks Ming, who cleaned her plates, how she's liking Water Tribe food. Ming, who managed to keep her disgust to herself, impressing Katara, says that she enjoys it, but considers salt an acquired taste, and recalls the pickles that she smuggled to the men. Hakoda jokes about how he didn't get it at his prisons, but asks a serious question about why Ming's so good to her prisoners, as well as why someone like her is a prison guard. Ming's a bit shy about the subject, but it's clear that Hakoda's interested in hearing it in order to understand what Bato sees in her (which is a step up from trying to break them up).
Ming prepares to tell a long story, saying it started with her father, who raised her after her mother died in the battle of "Wide Island" when she "was only young" (Generally, it works best when the person gives a specific age, preferably low single digits). As a single dad with four kids, Ming's father served in the Home Guard instead of the front lines, until Ozai came into power. Ozai then increased the conscription rates and requirements for exemptions, requiring people to be single parents of five children to be exempt (a bit odd that they specify the number of children, and a bit convenient that it just happens to exclude Ming's father). Even worse, Ming's father and the other new recruits are used in the "ducklings and hawks" strategy.
Ming, looking absolutely disgusted, explains that it's a favorite tactic of Ozai and his cronies, and everyone knows that being stuck in one such divisions is a death sentence. As the conversation brings up unpleasant memories for Zuko, (like the time he spoke out against and got his face scarred as a result), Katara gives Zuko a comforting hand squeeze. Meanwhile, Hakoda, who loves all his men, is disgusted by this strategy's disregard for human life, a sentiment Ming shares. Ming says that the battle didn't go well, and her father was left for dead.
Hakoda expresses his condolences, but Ming clarifies that her father didn't die. He lost his legs to an Earthbender, and two things kept him alive- the desire to see his kids again and an Earth Kingdom healer who treated him and the other four survivors of his unit, even if he didn't understand why before he, along with the four others, was traded for the healer's son in a low level prisoner exchange. Ming doesn't know, either, but she says that the healer healed his father with grace, and treated him well despite being a prisoner of war, possibly because the healer wanted to see his son again. The healer, aware of the significance of this, says that he thinks people, rather than where they're from, matter.
Ming wants to thank the man, but in lieu of that, decides to emulate him and be decent to people, especially to prisoners of war, whom she knows didn't commit any crimes. Hakoda's surprised at how someone like her lasted so long in the Fire Nation prison system (I'd be more worried about her ideals being ground down over time than her actual survival), and Ming says that she's smarter and a better firebender than most of her fellow guards, whom she describes as dumb as a box of hammers. Both traits enable her to handle any trouble, but the former also keeps her out of trouble, which is why she sneaks the pickles in. Bato reassures her that he doesn't think she's a weirdo, resulting in an affectionate moment. Hakoda agrees with Ming's assessment of the guards' intelligence, and she says that he got the dumbest guards, because most intelligent people are scared of the "Blue Wolf" (of course, fear can often be irrational, so dumb people are quite often afraid). Hakoda nods in agreement, secretly proud of his Bad Ass title.
Ming notes that Hakoda most likely got male guards, and the female guards were generally smarter. There's actually a reason for this; the men go in for a power trip, while the women go to avoid conscription. Because female prison guards are in short supply, Azulon (since Ozai can't have any good ideas) made them exempt, and Ming sees it as preferable to being catapult fodder or having five or more kids. Of course, Ming also likes it best because she got to meet Bato this way.
All in all, this story goes to show that the author's at her best in Character Development and worldbuilding when she's not trying to prove a point.
That's all for now. These longer chapters will almost certainly be in multiple parts, as I said before, likely at least three or four parts each.
What I liked
- Katara getting out of doing the work, and getting to set Kuba straight.
- Katara forgoing an opportunity to complain about Aang.
- Hakoda opening his mind to Ming.
- Ming's story is interesting and quite touching.
What I didn't like
- Some slightly contrived Fire Nation fanon that makes Ozai look incompetent as well as evil.
