Welcome to the one hundredth entry of this liveblog. It's taken much longer to get to this point than I initially planned, and I haven't gotten as far as I'd hoped (I'd originally planned on this being the concluding installment, back when I was doing one installment per chapter, plus an introduction and a conclusion), but I've gotten significantly farther than I thought, after getting close to stopping at times, and hope to finish liveblogging the series, even if it takes me another 100 installments or more.
Katara makes her way back to the villa, and holds in her "ugly tears." She encounters Zuko, who's surprised to see her in that state. Zuko asks what's wrong, and when Katara refuses to talk about it, he changes tack and asks what he can do. Unfortunately, he doesn't have much of an oppotunity to help, since Katara notes that the Southern Water Tribe is not very receptive to outsiders telling them what to do. So Zuko offers to help cheer Katara up, and while Katara declines hot noodles or letting off steam, she's more amenable to tea or hugs, and is surprised that Zuko's the one who initiates the latter.
Katara feels somewhat better but still doesn't want to talk about it, and instead asks what Zuko has been up to, as well as why he's up so late. Zuko says he's been writing speeches, but ends up scrunching them before the ink is dry, resulting in it getting all over his hands. When Katara gives him a look, he protests that writing speeches is difficult for him, especially where he is now, but he's there so he can avoid "the annoying twins." After Lenka serves tea and ginger snaps, Zuko complains about the twins communicating with each other and Iroh in "code," and there's only so much frustration he can take, especially after the afternoon.
This brings us back to Aang vs. JJ, and Zuko asks Katara if Aang found her, since he's convinced that she's the only one who could comfort him. Zuko asks if Katara and Aang had another fight, but Katara reassures him that it isn't the case, and that she appreciates him sticking up for her, which is a welcome change from her putting up with Aang out of pity.
Katara tells Zuko about Aang's fight with JJ, and Zuko's quite annoyed with JJ, as well as despairing over the prospect of ruling over a feisty nation of people when he can't resolve a dispute of this nature. Zuko says that JJ reminds him of his firebending drill instructors, and that sort of harsh training is not suitable for Aang, a problem exacerbated by how JJ doesn't see other points of view. On the other hand, Zuko believes that as unpleasant as it is to admit, JJ has a point about Aang's deficiencies, and that's even more annoying; Zuko can ignore JJ if he's "talking out of his arse," but not when he has years of firebending experience. Perhaps even worse, Zuko knows that Aang needs to be more confrontational, but not how to teach him that, and neither does Katara.
Zuko says Aang doesn't need to enjoy confrontation to become a good firebender, but he must be capable of it, which won't happen as long as he wants to be friends with everyone and it takes a great deal of effort to anger him. Katara says that's one of Aang's finer qualities, as well as one most conducive to bringing about peace. Zuko agrees, but says that Aang must make difficult decisions for peace, ones that not everyone will like, and he needs more of a backbone to do so.
They discuss whether JJ can be convinced to resume teaching Aang, and Zuko's unsure. He notes that Iroh doesn't have much free time, which limits how useful he is as an alternative, but Iroh doesn't want to make JJ feel forced to train Aang, especially when JJ won't do it until Aang masters earth and water.
They then discuss replacement teachers, having Toph resume earthbending training, Iroh take over firebending, and Katara continue teaching waterbending, while advising Iroh. Katara agrees, suggesting that Aang's mood would improve if he learned from her, and hers would improve from bending forcefully.
Zuko suggests that Katara go get Aang and tell him of their plans, but unfortunately, that involves going back to the Water Tribe house, so she delegates the job to Zuko. Zuko wonders whether something happened, and insists that Katara can tell him. He gets through her defenses this time, and she tells him about the men refusing to take the message from her speech and worse, her fight with her father. Katara sees women's equality as quite important, and that in failing to make her point heard, she let down the women of her tribe, Suki and herself. Zuko simply tells Katara to turn around, and Katara sees her father behind her.
Hakoda asks to talk to Katara alone, shooting Zuko a pointed look. Zuko tells "Sir Hakoda" that he'll leave and go get Aang.
Katara waits for Hakoda to speak first, and he starts off with an apology for not listening, not noticing how Katara was being treated and for thinking of treating Katara well as a privilege. Katara sheds Tears of Joy as they hug, and while he reiterates the point about what she's asking for being a big change (the most reasonable of his assertions), given how stubborn the men were, he asks for some time. Katara's willing to give it to him, glad that he understands.
The author begins this chapter's author's note with two apologies- that this chapter took longer to write than she would have liked, and that Katara's speech didn't have the impact some readers were hoping for. She says the former's due to college, and the latter's because one speech doesn't make all the problems related to gender issues go away. The latter is true, but one would hope that Hakoda and Sokka would be a bit more receptive to the speech/the feelings that inspired Katara to make it, or that it would lead at least one of the warriors to a Jerkass Realization.
The author seems somewhat contemptuous of overly idealistic works, but it's worth pointing out why they're so appealing. They tend to be hopeful in tone, and emphasize the ability an individual has to make a difference. Perhaps after seeing someone speak out against sexism and make a difference, a girl in real life might be inspired to do the same. Partly for this reason, the tendency of writers to deconstruct various tropes in fiction out of the implicit belief that their take on it is better and more realistic strikes me as somewhat arrogant and reactionary.
The author then gets into the Aang vs. JJ issue. The author points out that JJ never wanted to teach Aang, only doing so because Roku strong-armed him into doing so, and that Aang's recent decisions didn't do him any favors in JJ's eyes, particularly his leaving before the final battle and feeling "entitled" to learn fire. Again, it's obvious that the debate is stacked in favor of Aang's opponents, and minimal consideration is given to his prspective.
The author does suggest, however, that Aang's perhaps in a better spot to learn fire, having learned Earth and Water and trained under Zuko. Of course, Zuko's short on time, and so is Iroh, so Iroh asks JJ to train Aang as a favor, and because they had a previous master-student relationship (of course, it wasn't a very good one). Of course, then JJ refuses to teach Aang as long as he has his present attitude, and while Iroh will try to get him to reconsider, he won't force him, unlike Iroh.
The author says she wants everyone to have a point in this argument, because the arguments in the post-war period are complicated, and there's no clear enemy anymore. All this is all well and good, but you can clearly see when the author puts significantly more effort into understanding one side's perspective than the other in this fic. Aang gets the short end of the stick more often than not, and when the author points out that he doesn't deal well with shades of gray, it's clear that this will continue.
The author concedes that JJ's wrong to suddenly blast "the strongest fire" at him and force him to do the basics after so long training with Zuko, in addition to the personality clash between them. The author suggests that Aang's easy-going personality and desire to make peace with everyone will make him the best Avatar for the world in the post-war period, because it's impossible to fight hate with hate, but he'll also need to get over his desire to please everyone, since doing so is impossible. Again, it's interesting to see the author telling us about Aang's good points, but she'll have to show them in action, which is LONG overdue after two entire fics of showing Aang as immature and ineffectual, not even giving him credit for defeating the Big Bad and saving the world.
The author cites the Avatar Day as an example, citing how Aang's upset about one village hating the Avatar when, as Sokka points out, the whole Fire Nation hates him. On the other hand, Aang's trying to help the entire world, and it's obviously disheartening to hear that people don't trust him, and are bitter about Kyoshi killing Chin, someone who, like Ozai, was a conquering tyrant.
The author says Aang will need to change, even if it's not drastically, since he's 12 and has to grow up. She hopes Iroh will give Aang the Character Development that he should have gotten in the show, thereby expressing the arrogance I've often seen in many fix fics (the author makes no attempt to hide or deny that this is one).
The author suggests that Aang is still young and JJ was harsh on him, which was why Zuko took his side, and the author descibes their relationship as more paternalistic than equal friends. The author suggests that Aang rebels against Zuko as the tough father figure, but runs to him when he needs to deal with something, and sees dealing with Ozai as Zuko's job. All of this reeks of the author reinterpreting scenes to support her conclusions, particularly bashing Aang as irresponsible.
Of course, while Zuko thinks of Aang as a flake, and has no problems telling him that because the Gaang, being friends, tell hard truths to each other, he can't stand for anyone outside the Gaang doing so.
Zuko's perspective has changed recently, and he's starting to realize he wasn't treated well as a child. That's a good development, since it always bugged me how passively he accepted being mistreated in this fic. The author also suggests that while he's still learning firebending basics from his uncle at the start, he was likely good at it, but didn't have much confidence, due to his instructors beating it out of him, something that he's only just realized is a bad thing. As such, he takes umbrage at Aang being treated that way, even if he thinks JJ is right about some things.
The author then suggests that Zuko and Aang's short and concise declaration of friendship should be replaced with a longer and less eloquent description of their brotherly/paternal relationship. Perhaps this is why the author doesn't write out more of the dialogue in this fic, since she doesn't have Bryke's finesse with the dialogue (or perhaps writing in general, since her story doesn't succeed at being superior to the original).
The author says that while Zuko's Aang's "dad," Katara's "just as clearly..." which likely implies that she's his mom, something I haven't heard for a while. Of course, it's also because Zuko, Iroh and Toph are all brutally honest, while Katara's good at cheering him up... at least until she needs cheering up herself. Her speech had a bit more effect than she thought, but she has a long way to go, particularly when most of them get defensive and don't think they're in the wrong, lashing out at the person who dares to challenge them.
Katara's speech makes the simple point of asking men to treat women as equals, and is similar to Rita's speech to her husband in "Made in Dageham." The author points out that it's unfortunate that a man standing up for women's rights "has more resonance" than a woman standing up for her own, and I agree, although possibly not for the reasons she cites. Ideally, movements for equality should be led and spearheaded by the group in question, lest those participating in it be seen as doing so out of some patronizing and paternalistic motivation.
Possibly going off on this, the author then suggests that Aang would have tried to win over the menfolk, playing the Avatar Card as necessary, his attempt would have fallen flat, and Sokka would have been forced to defuse the situation and tell Aang about his tribe. Perhaps Aang's efforts were ineffective, but at the same time, he was the only one present who actually showed support for Katara; it somewhat rubs me the wrong way that Sokka did so little for his sister in this case, especially considering his character arc involved getting over his sexism.
The author says that both Katara and Zuko had bad days, and reiterates Zuko's fear that his inability to resolve the dispute does not bode well for his tenure as Fire Lord. It's pointed out once again that the two characters have a good comfort level, supporting each other but not hesitating to disagree, since they value each other. The Zutara relationship is fairly well done here, but it shouldn't eclipse other relationships.
Hakoda arrives, and the author spells out the underlying tension between him and Zuko while suggesting that, by contrast, Toph and Iroh want Zuko and Katara to get together. Another preview follows, suggesting that Mai will return next chapter.
What I liked
- Katara appreciating Aang sticking up for her.
- Some other appreciation of Aang's positive traits.
- Hakoda's apology.
- The author planning on trying to explore Aang's good qualities.
- Interesting bit of Character Development regarding Zuko's change in perspective regarding himself.
What I didn't like
- JJ's arguments are given a bit much credence.
- The author's interpretations of Aang are once again colored by her biases.
- That the author has not made any serious effort to portray Aang well or give him points until now
