This chapter is the first of three on Zuko's coronation. Par for the course, an event that's touched on at the end of the series becomes a major plot point in the fic. That's hardly unexpected, though, given the series thus far, and the fact that the characters have been preparing since near the end of Not Stalking Zuko. For now, though, it's time for a recap.
Previously on Avatar The Last Airbender, we last saw Mai being hauled off to prisonnote after betraying Azula by allowing Zuko to escape along with several prominent prisoners of war and his fellow prison breaker, Sokka. The entire incident proved that while Mai was understandably angry as a result of Zuko's (albeit well-intentioned) decision to leave without telling her anything, she still cared for him enough to risk her life for him, paving the way for their reconciliation in the ending, two episodes and the four-part Grand Finale later.
Of course, this isn't canon, but a fanfic written by someone who wants to change it to suit her own ends, including pairing Zuko and Katara with each other, rather than Mai and Aang. So while the author's spent all the dozens of chapters and hundreds of thousands of words since The Boiling Rock building up the relationship between Zuko and Katara, she's going to have to derail Zuko and Mai's at some point, but given her desire to stick to The Stations of the Canon, she can only begin the process now.
Katara is so astonished to see Mai with Zuko that she forgets to include a question mark when she asks why she's there. Her anger only rises as she sees Mai hugging Zuko, resulting in her barely suppressing the urge to yell at her to get her hands off Zuko. Katara admits to not liking Mai but denies being jealous of her.
Katara then, seemingly channeling the author, asks how Zuko and Mai could end up together, given that Zuko is "warm and passionate" while Mai is an Ice Queen who seemingly does not care for her brother, and Katara again cites Mai's refusal to make a hostage exchange for him at Omashu. Granted, this was written before The Rebound and Smoke and Shadow showed how much Mai cared for Tom-tom, but it still seems overly negatively skewed even without taking those into consideration. Katara also complains about how Mai named Victory Is Boring after beating her and Sokka easily, and did so smugly. Katara takes the opportunity to play Moment Killer by clearing her throat, but the only reaction she gets out of Mai is the briefest show of disdain before she walks out, telling Zuko to think about what she said, while saying she'll see him at the banquet.
Katara's briefly distracted by Mai's aristocrat dress, thinking about how impractical it is to move, much less fight, in that, but then demands answers from Zuko. Zuko says that Mai snuck into his room and tied his pajamas for him, causing Katara to say Mai did it wrong just for the sake of criticizing her over something. Zuko also mentions that Mai wants to get back to him, with an odd degree of ambivalence in his voice. Apparently, Zuko's unsure whether Mai's flippant suggestion that "it's fine, whatever" means that she forgave him for leaving him in prison, but says she hugged him (which is a significant gesture for someone as cold as Mai), at which point Katara had come in.
Zuko then has a question for Katara- what she thinks about him and Mai resuming their relationship. Obviously, Katara's answer would be no, and she doesn't think much of his honor in that situation, but she knows that saying that would offend him, and so keeps her thoughts to herself. Unfortunately, Katara also forgoes giving an actual answer, and instead humphs and puts her hands on her hips.
Katara does make it clear that she dislikes Mai, though, and Zuko, who understandably isn't fond of the fact that his girlfriend and one of his female friends don't like each other (assign roles to Katara and Mai according to your shipping preferences), and asks her why he shouldn't get back with her. As one might imagine, Katara knows that saying "Because I'm in love with you" might not pass muster, and hesitates to answer long enough for Zuko to ask Katara's opinion as a friend, much to her dismay.
It's understandable that Katara would get upset (for this fic; in canon, she wasn't this invested in Zuko's- or even Aang's- love for her). To use an example, in Persona 4, there are several points at which you can choose to enter into a romantic relationship with the girls.
- In Rank 9 of Yukiko's Social Link, she'll ask you straight out why you're always with her. Say "Because I really like you" to make her your girlfriend, and "Because you're my friend/we're classmates" to end up as friends with her.
- In Rank 9 of Marie's Social Link in Golden, you must say that you love her, and then hug her to fall in love with her.
- Naoto's a bit more complicated. You must tell her that you're glad she's a girl, then defend her from the knife, then say you did that because you love her.
If you don't trigger the relationship then, there and that way, there are no second chances unless you reload your game. It's thus possible that Katara, like in those cases, fears that the boy she likes has permanently friendzoned her.
In any case, Katara is furious to hear that Zuko loves Mai and only thinks of Katara as a friend. She wants to tell him that as a friend, he should do what's right, but as someone who loves him, she wants him instead. She seizes the moment, but only gets the first half across when Aang barges in (for the second time now) to get Zuko for his presents.
Zuko notes that Aang seems overly excited about gifts for someone whose religion dictates not being materialistic, and Katara agrees. On the other hand, excitement over presents isn't necessarily about greed, but wanting to see what's under the wrapping, or what your friends have gotten to celebrate an occasion. Furthermore, given that Aang has been portrayed as almost obsessed with his Air Nomad culture thus far, why would the author show him as breaking from it here, if not to bash him as immature?
That's all for now, but let's do something a bit special in this entry- an author's note in the style of the fic's author's notes.
Sorry this chapter took a long time to come out, since I've been losing interest in this liveblog once again. The disappearance of the liveblog's first installment, while not a major loss, was fairly demoralizing.
I decided to include the recap to show what sort of established relationship Zuko and Mai have at this point in canon. It's had its ups and downs, but it's clear that Zuko and Mai have a great deal of history, and even if Zuko has angered Mai, she still cares for him. There's a reason why the First Girl Wins, since she has the most time to solidify and develop her relationship with the male lead. Granted, the author strongly disagrees, as evidenced by her liberal use of "WTF" when discussing Zuko and Mai's reunion.
Then, we get to Katara's reactions to Mai and to Zuko's inadvertently friendzoning her. If you've been following the author's notes thus far, you know that the author has been leading up to Zuko and Mai's scene together for a while, now, and that, in turn, will lead up to a kiss between Katara... and AANG!
Yes, I'm entirely serious about this. Granted, Katara wants Aang to help her get over Zuko (which does come off as a bit questionable in its own way), and, unlike The Promise, it's followed by Katara deeply regretting it as opposed to getting teased by her friends (which makes it as non-romantic as possible) but it does say a great deal about how far the author is willing to go in order to follow canon.
Most people, when retelling a story, tend to remove the parts that are not convenient to the story they want to tell, or are affected by other changes. For example, let's look at the following sequence of events.
- Alice travels to the next town and meets Bob.
- Bob is almost killed in a battle, but miraculously survives.
- While nursing Bob back to help, Alice and Bob become closer.
- After Bob recovers, Alice and Bob head on to the next town.
- Alice meets Charlie, who's also interested in her.
- Alice and Bob continue to fall in love over time.
- Bob saves Alice's life in battle, and the two officially declare their love.
- Charlie makes a Love Confession to Alice, but gets rejected.
- Alice, Bob and Charlie fight in the Final Battle and win.
- Alice and Bob get married and have kids.
In this case, the simplest and easiest course of action uf you're writing an Alice/Charlie fic is to have Bob perish in the battle where he's wounded, and for Alice to go on without him. Bob's actions can be done by other people, and perhaps, Charlie could be the one to save Alice instead. You would have significantly less time for Alice to get together with Bob, but other than that, there would be few changes.
Going back to this fic, there's a great deal of underlying changes, even if, on a superficial level, it follows the same story. In this fic, Katara is significantly more invested in Zuko's opinion than she ever was in Aang's (ironic that the author suggests that she's become a Satellite Love Interest). On the flip side, while she canonically starts off hating Zuko (albeit with understandable reasons) but ultimately comes to consider him a friend, her interactions with Aang in this fic seem to suggest that she tolerates him at best.
Case in point, you can see it when she's exasperated over Aang once again serving as Moment Killer, and joins Zuko in mocking Aang's greed in spite of his obsession with Air Nomad teachings. You can see it again when she kisses him for her own benefit, rather than because she's even remotely close to returning his feelings
Did this sound completely redundant, rehashing the points I made in this entry, as well as in previous ones? Good- you get some idea of how the author's notes in this fic works. I hope you join me next time, when I share some of my thoughts on the third and final installment of Smoke and Shadow.
What I liked
- Again, I can't really think of anything.
What I didn't like
- Mai's arrival turning out to be another setback in Zuko and Katara getting together.
- The author putting (temporary) adherence to canon ahead of what's bst for the story.
- Aang bing portrayed as materialistic and unfaithful even to Air Nomad teachings.
