Warning: I'm not quite done ranting yet. Why? Because the author isn't done with the Ozai subplot, either.
Toph comes to the hospital to bug Katara, and soon reveals why- she got another letter from her parents and needs Katara to read it to her. This time, it's from her father, and once again, he insists on playing the victim and blaming her. Toph's parents were never especially sympathetic characters (at least until Lao gets Character Development in The Rift), mainly being obstacles to Toph joining the Gaang, but this is unusually stubborn even for them. Unfortunately for Katara, Toph does not want pity at the moment, and runs off, even tripping Katara with earthbending when she tries to follow.
In spite of that, and Toph once again rebuffing help, Katara takes it personally when Sokka suggests that Toph doesn't want or need mothering, even though Katara should know better since "The Runaway" (although she does admit that she's angry because she knows Sokka's right). Then again, Zuko does make a more effective point to Toph, drawing upon how he felt when he returned home after supposedly killing Aang, and once again extends his offer to stay in the Fire Nation with him. Toph refuses it as long as she thinks it's made out of pity, but once he points out that it's because he likes having her around, she eagerly accepts.
Mai shows up to remind Zuko of their dinner date, and Katara notices that not even Iroh likes her. Iroh discusses the particulars of the arrangements with Zuko, particularly that it might win over even her parents, and how having her around to protect Zuko from assassins is a definite plus.
Zuko has a talk with Katara about his relationship woes with Mai, and while Katara engages in a bit of schadenfreude that things aren't going so well between him and Mai, she's also willing to be a supportive listener. Apparently, Mai not only opposes the idea of her visiting Azula, but of Iroh fostering Toph, since he didn't consult her, and it'll be bad for Zuko's image. Mai was never this much of a shrew in canon, and I have to wonder whether, like with Aang's portrayal, which was intended to show him as someone who needs to get tough love and grow up, that this is meant to show how dysfunctional Maiko is.
Mai then reveals that there's many people who don't like Zuko, from war profiteers to war criminals, and they're planning to re-enthrone Ozai by taking advantage of a rule saying that a non-bender can still be Fire Lord, resulting in an Oh Crap! reaction by Katara when she learns of this. As one might expect, this leads to Zuko bitterly lamenting Aang's decision, and his underlying assumption that Aang believed that taking Ozai's bending was good enough. The fact is, regardless of all the fanon the author pulls out of the place where the sun doesn't shine to justify her position and stack the deck against Aang, that Aang was able to deprive Ozai of all ability to fight back while his friends crushed the Fire Nation military at the height of their power.
Zuko notes that the conspiracy has a secondary goal in waiting until Zuko got coronated to act- they want to disrupt the government before the peace talks, and thus possibly cause the war to break out again, and forcing the Gaang on the run once more. Zuko in particular is troubled, because as much as he hates being Fire Lord, he's also afraid of losing it because of those people and seeing his father take power again.
Katara and Zuko let off some steam like old times, and Katara notices that Zuko's recovering well, save for having less stamina than before. They still don't have a solution to their problem just yet, but Katara believes that, as the saying goes, "it's not over till it's over."
The author says that she brought up Toph to address the dropped plot point. I agree, although it was addressed in the Rift, years later.
Then we get to Aang's decision, and the author describes Ozai's statement of "I'm still alive," as a warning to Aang that he won't be content to sit in prison (most evildoers aren't, unless they've had a change of heart), when it seems more like the desperate ranting of a defeated man who can do nothing but taunt those who have vanquished him.
The thing about characters like Aang is that people who believe they made the wrong choices or otherwise failed in their endeavors acknowledge that their hearts are in the right place, but this author's note does not even give him this modicum of credit. There's a description of Aang's choices as Always Save the Girl and/or It's All About Me that drips with contempt for him, far too much for a basic "I'm not trying to hate on Aang" to justify. The rest of the note also has a fair amount of the same for Bryke for giving him a "get out of responsibilities free pass," which she doesn't even try to qualify.
So where does all this vitriol and negativity go? Naturally, it seeps into the fic itself, like toxic waste into groundwater. The most visible result is that characters have far less patience for and compassion for Aang (even when it's out of character for them). While the author claims to want Aang to get some "tough love," there seems to be relatively little love about it, since, as I've said before, Katara and the others seem to treat him as more of a tactical and diplomatic asset than a friend. To a lesser degree, the fic slides further toward the cynical end of the Sliding Scaleof Idealism Versus Cynicism, and Zuko, someone who, despite his Heel–Face Turn, has difficulty being traditionally heroic, tends to be right more of the time. Fic's don't have to be Original Flavor, but it's clear when an author's personal beliefs start to color them, and what is this fic if not an attempt to rewrite canon as the author sees fit, first and foremost by making Zutara the Official Couple?
You may also notice that this liveblog is becoming more negative, and in my case, this is partly because of my growing disappointment with this fic. I'd initially seen it as having quite a few things that I disagreed with (Zutara, bashing Aang over not killing Ozai, etc). As time went on, more and more flaws popped up, from a fandom perspective (the lack of respect for Kataang or Maiko as pairings), and more importantly, from the story (poor pacing, some characters being portrayed inaccurately or one-dimensionally), thus leading me to become increasingly disillusioned with it.
What I liked
- Once again, I'm drawing a blank.
What I didn't like
- Mai being portrayed as highly unpleasant.
- Aang's decisions being treated as mstakes.
- Aang being said to be motivated by selfish reasons.
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