The author gives a "trigger warning" that this chapter references self-harm. I understand what she's trying to do here, but at the same time, I think that all these "trigger warnings" that fanfic authors put in, which seem largely absent from professionally produced works, seem to be a somewhat excessive attempt to warn people about what's in a given work.
Katara starts her apprenticeship with Dr. Yang, who's fairly impatient with her even though Katara showed up early. Dr. Yang tells Katara to stick with her, and says that unfortunately, she won't be starting with anything easy, but with the children's ward. When Katara is pleased to work with children, Dr. Yang seems mildly impressed, but warns her not to let her passion cloud her judgment. All this seems to be yet another development that pushes her from "tough but fair" to "overly critical harpy" status (I suppose "overly critical" could also apply to me, but I actually try to find things to compliment here, something that's becoming increasingly difficult).
Of course, Dr. Yang ends up being right on the latter point, as Katara reads a story to a burn victim with the flu named Zanna, simply because the little girl made a cute face at her. Dr. Yang ends up giving Katara quite a scolding, and Katara's unused to actually getting the scoldings. That experience of having the roles reversed should give her perspective, somewhat reminiscent of one story from a children's book I read in which a rude girl gets a myna bird that parrots her impudence.
Dr. Yang gets interrupted by Ming, who informs her that Azula's having a fit, and Katara, despite suspecting that she's out of her depth here, recalls Dr. Yang's orders for her to stick with her, and follows the two women as they run off.
Azula turns out to have taken a turn for the worse since Katara last saw her, and considering that the sight of her canonically moved her to pity her enemy, that's saying something. Azula seems to be able to burn herself with her own firebending, but while she could knock Dr. Yang back, she can't resist Ming. Even though Katara describes Azula's condition as a string of euphemisms for insanity, she tries to reason with her to the best of her ability. Katara eventually learns that the problem is that Azula thinks that Zuko is dead, which is why she's having hallucinations about him along with Ursa (Azula's 0 for 2 here), and after trying in vain to convince Azula that she's wrong, offers to let her see Zuko if they let her treat her burns.
Dr. Yang, instead of thanking Katara for helping her resolve a situation that was clearly out of her control, scolds her for making a promise like that, her scolding tempered by her headache, rather than any degree of gratitude. Katara, however, defends her actions, insisting that Zuko wants to and can see Azula, and finally makes some headway in convincing Dr. Yang, who notes that the alternatives for getting Azula to accept treatment aren't much better, and they set out to get Zuko.
Dr. Yang and Katara go find Zuko, who's with Aang and Momo, and tell him what's going on with Azula. Zuko's visit with Azula doesn't exactly go swimmingly, as Azula spends much of the early visit confirming that he is, in fact, real, and involves Azula venting many of her personal issues, but Zuko does make a bit of progress reaching out to her.
Dr. Yang finally gets it in herself to say something nice to someone- albeit not about her protege- and says that Zuko did "vey(sic) well." Unfortunately, Azula's illness is beyond the Fire Nation's ability to handle,and she might benefit from a "mind therapist" from the Earth Kingdom. Considering that she doesn't get much better in The Search, maybe Dr. Yang, and by extension, the author, have a point here. In the meantime, though, Zuko's sure that Ty Lee is willing to see her, but will have to ask Mai about it.
Katara gets off for the day, and walks back with Zuko. Zuko indicates that Azula's mental illness went back as far as they could remember, and his mother scolded him for teasing her over that. In spite of that, Zuko admits that it's a bit shocking to see Azula in that state even though she's good at everything. It's hard for him to hate her even considering all the terrible things she did to him, but it's also hard for him to help her. In spite of that, Zuko's determined to try, since she's his little sister, and thus his responsibility.
Zuko asks about Katara's day, and is pleased to hear about her reading from "Princess Elsa and the Goblet of Fire," an obvious nod to Harry Potter (Couldn't the author at least have made the "Goblet of Fire" part less obvious?) Zuko's day is less interesting, since he's reading over legal texts to prepare for war crimes trials. Katara believes this is more Aang's department, but concedes Zuko's point about how "ridiculous" Aang had been about Zuko's "evil dad" (On the contrary, Aang's bringing Ozai back to face justice works better for this) and because Aang doesn't have the best image in the Fire Nation.
Zuko has to think about how to make things fair, and that means not making up rules to punish people retroactively. They discuss the various war criminals, and Yon Rha comes up. Katara decides that she's not content with the Cruel Mercy option, and decides that he should stand trial, since while it's somewhat anti-climactic, it would give her closure.
Katara also reflects on the time she spent with Zuko back then, and how she opened up to him about difficult subjects, like Hama. It's nice to see the trust between Zuko and Katara brought up again, but I'm of the opinion that Katara should be able to trust others with those subjects.
I'm leaving off for now. I personally think a lot of these chapters would be better off divided into two or more parts, not just because of how long they are, but because they cover a wide variety of subjects, and making them shorter would help keep them more focused around a single theme.
What I liked
- Katara seems in her element at the hospital.
- Katara's effective handling of Azula.
What I didn't like
- The not entirely necessary trigger warning.
- Dr. Yang's becoming more of a jerk over time.
