On their way back, Katara and Zuko pass by the palace, and sees a throng of "floozies" with signs, evidently looking for Zuko. Zuko, dismayed, has Katara duck into an alley, and suggests taking the long way to the house. After some prodding, Zuko reveals that the floozies had gathered outside the palace, waiting for him, under the erroneous belief that he lived there, when, in fact, he planned to move in after coronation. The smallest acknowledgement from Zuko causes them to faint or blush, so he doesn't even do that. Katara sarcastically remarks about how many want him to kiss them or father their children, which evidently strikes close to home, since Zuko asks if it's really "that bad."
Katara's taken off guard momentarily, and has to admit that she's jealous of Zuko, as well as worried what having this many fangirls will do to him, since Aang gets smug when his fangirls are around (forcing Toph to subtly trip them with earthbending), and Sokka apparently is also a "dickhead" when there are girls competing for his attention. By comparison, Zuko is more shy around the opposite sex, and more willing to have a man to man talk with Hakoda or eat sea prunes than deal with the floozies. Katara's glad for that, but likes to test him to see whether he really feels that way, or is pretending to, like Aang does. I can't help but feel that this is (yet another) passage for the purpose of making Zuko look better i comparison to Aang, even if it's not necessarily in character for Aang.
To test Zuko, Katara asks if he's at all happy about having the most lickable body in the Fire Nation, and Zuko's caught off guard until he realizes that it's on one of the signs. Zuko says that he wants to be polite to the fangirls but not encourage them, as helping one who fainted had only exacerbated the problem. Naturally, dealing with an entire group is harder, although Zuko realizes that they're only interested in him as a prince, not a person. Still, Katara's worried about some of them stalking Zuko. Zuko immediately realizes the absurdity of Katara saying this and laughs uncontrollably, pausing only long enough to point it out to Katara. As annoyed as Katara is, she's happy that Zuko's happy, as well as that she's the one who can best make him happy.
Another author's note follows, welcoming us to NSFLZ and saying that its opening line is a Shout-Out to Pride and Prejudice. The similarities go futher, according to the author, as Zutara is evidently similar to Elizabeth and Darcy's relationship (I'm not all that familiar with the book, but even though Elizabeth and Darcy had different backgrounds and social classes, they weren't enemies the same way Katara and Zuko were).
The author mentions seeing a brief snippet of The Legend of Korra, but not watching any more than that.
After another "YMMV on everything" note, the author summarizes Hakoda's situation- after being away for three years, he doesn't know his kids well anymore now that they've changed in his absence, so he wants to reconnect with them. Unfortunately, because they've changed, they're used to independence, they find it difficult to go back and submit to Hakoda again. Unfortunately, Hakoda doesn't account for this when he assumes they'll come back to him, despite the implicit knowledge that they've changed, and it's unfortunate that Hakoda always comes off as ignorant to some degree in this subplot.
Incidentally, in Smoke and Shadow Part 2, Sokka and Katara are finally going back to the South Pole. They're fairly eager to see home again, although they don't indicate how long they're going to stay. Katara's less than happy about having to part with Aang when he's called to the Fire Nation to deal with the Kemurikage, but in the end, their relationship evidently weathers this challenge, although I'm not sure what happens with Sokka and Suki. It's more or less what I'd expect from the comics, given that they focus less on relationships.
Back to the fic, Katara's torn. On the one hand, she wants to see home and her father again, and is uncertain what her life would be like in the Fire Nation. On the other hand, she doesn't want to be separated from Zuko and is certain that she'll be ordered around again, like the rest of the women of the Water Tribe. As such, Katara can't answer Zuko's question, which will apparently make him nervous and influence his behavior when Mai returns.
The author mentions that Iroh gave Hakoda the ship to transport the warriors home, and that Hakoda can afford to send personnel home since he doesn't need that many people.
The author mentions how Hakoda's tacit approval of Bato and Ming's relationship led Water Tribe warriors to seek out one night stands with Fire Nation women, and that the author will address the implications of this without making the fic too dark.
The author mentions that she wanted to flesh out Ming's character as one of the "good" prison guards, the other being the one who arrested Zuko for lingering outside Suki's cell, possibly intending to protect her from him raping her. The author observes that by comparison, the male guards are sadistic or dumb, and decides to explain this by proposing the possibility of an incentive, which would explain why someone as kind as Ming would become a guard. To make things short, the Fire Nation needs recruits, while the women would want to serve where there's less possibility of their lives being thrown away and where those who aren't as supportive of the war won't have to fight it. In Ming's case, her backstory with her father (whom the author used as a survivor of "ducklingsand hawks") also plays a role, although as the author points out that those prisoner exchanges were rare, it's evident that few had similar experiences. Going off of that, the author also contrasts the ruthlessness of someone like Bujing (who wouldn't have approved the exchanges) with the kindness Ming's father was shown by an enemy healer, an interesting observation, albeit one that doesn't quite necessitate almost summarizing the entire story.
The author discusses Fire Nation infrastructure and says, albeit not quite as succinctly, that the Fire Lord controls everything, even if there is a chain of command involved. The author reiterates that Zuko's going to have to trim the deadweight and think about how to deal with the not purely evil others, noting that they must have been scared, and rightly so, if Ozai could make Ursa disappear.
A word about Ursa. Disregarding "The Search," all indications in the series seemed to point to her departure after killing Azulon as being done of her own volition. Granted, there's not much choice when you've killed the Fire Lord and the new Fire Lord considers you a liability, but it's more accurate to say that she fled the capital than that she was abducted or spirited away somewhere.
In any case, the author suggests that when even Ozai couldn't "disappear" everyone at once, Zuko won't be able to enact his reforms that easily, either. As such, Zuko decides to work with people, something the author observes is "idealistic" of him, and promises to show how that will pan out. I can practically hear the dismissive contempt in the author's choice of words, and know that this will likely result in her relatively cynical theories about the Avatar-verse driving the story.
The author says that Toph and Iroh are friends, and were gossiping about Katara and Zuko through gestures, even if the people in question are unaware of it, yet another detail that the author has to explain because the first person narrator doesn't get it, as "unsubtle" as Toph is being.
The author says that most post-war fics have people trying to assassinate Zuko, which seems reasonable, although not all of them use them as ammunition for arguments that Aang should have killed Ozai. The author again points out that Zuko's worried but tries not to dwell on it, and hires outside help to keep Ozai's influence away. The author also mentions that Ozai was behind this (as if we needed her to tell us), and that there will be more information on The Squad later on.
The author also bringss up Zuko and Katara's "not-date" and the constast between the implicit sexism of the Fire Nation (the phrase "glass ceiling" is used), and the explicit sexism of the Water Tribes.
Last on the list is the floozies, and the author points out that Aang, like Tinkerbell, needs applause and attention to live. The author also points out that Katara was long overdue for some laughs at her expense.
Next time, Zuko will practice his coronation speech and Katara will give one of her own about women's rights.
What I liked
- The joke at Katara's expense regarding her stalking
What I didn't like
- Dismissing Aang as attention-obsessed.
- Lengthy author's notes once again largely retread the chapter and summarize things.
