- Zuko: After all those snowballs to the head, you still look out for her.Sokka: I throw witticisms at her, she throws snowballs at me, the relationship works.Zuko: Seems to me you're getting the short end of the deal.Sokka: (glancing at a sleeping Katara with a smile) Katara is my sister. When it comes to her, I don't mind getting the short end of the deal.
Katara starts asking odd things of people, including asking various members of the Gaang to play music for her, and for Zuko to bring her food and drinks. She also asks Zuko to carry her places, Toph to preface every statement directed at her with "you were right," for Sokka to not make any sarcastic comments, and for Aang to work on the ball trick he tried earlier.
Katara does note, though, that Aang's constant desire for attention makes it hard for her to read LATD. Toph responds with "affectionate insults" about Aang's need for attention, while Zuko asks how well that will work in combat. When Aang says it's not for combat, Zuko tells him that with the confrontation with the "fatherlord" coming up, he needs to focus on more useful training. Katara uses her "injured powers," not unlike her "birthday powers," to get them to Agree To Disagee, but laments that her ankle is recovering, and her powers will soon be gone.
Of course, Katara then points out why she is making such outlandish requests; she isn't good at sitting around. It's somewhat interesting that a lot of the comedy in this fic underscores more serious issues. She then decides to do something nice in return, and mend the Gaang's things.
Sokka and Suki go shopping, while Toph and Aang snuggle near Katara. Aang accidentally rips a pair of Toph's pants, resulting in Katara getting cross with him and him making a sad face. Toph metalbends her bracelet and listens to Zuko read LATD to her. Katara reveals that she got Zuko to read out loud while she mended. Zuko agrees easily, and is taking the morning off because Aang is stressed out. This is beneficial for Katara (who's multitasking), for Aang (who doesn't have the patience to read books) and Toph (who's blind).
As Zuko reads the part about the "dragon-bender" Tian being taken in by Zara, Toph ends up next to him, wanting to "listen better," and elbows him in the chest, much to his discomfort. Meanwhile, Aang gets distracted by a game with Momo.
Katara's three fourths of the way through the mending pile when Zali comes for Tian, hoping to swap her for Kizu, and resulting in the twins having a duel. At that point, Sokka and Suki get in, with Sokka challenging Zuko to a spare. Katara doesn't like this, as she still has mending to do and wants to see the outcome of the fight in the book. But in spite of Katara's protests, Sokka insists on sparring immediately, implying a deeper meaning to it. Zuko reluctantly accepts, and leaves the reading to Aang.
Aang tries to read to Katara, but doesn't do the voices, and gets bored with it after a while. This is another metaphor for Aang's portrayal in the fic- as someone who always comes in second to Zuko in Katara's mind, and who is less than committed.
Katara is happy that Aang is relaxing, though, and decides to get back to LATD later. Toph is curious as to why Sokka wanted to spar with Zuko, though. Katara and Aang consider the possibilities of shopping, fishing and swords. Toph sarcastically suggests it's about Katara, but Katara says otherwise, even if she admits that she's too far away to eavesdrop. Aang sees them from a distance, but can't see what they're saying, but does see Zuko drop his swords in surprise.
Apparently, Zuko got injured during the spar, as a result of getting distracted by Sokka. Katara, after getting Zuko to remove his shirt, sets about healing him. Aang asks about what happened, and Sokka said he won through pure skill, while Zuko says Sokka distracted him, resulting in a good natured argument about who'd win. Katara believes that Zuko is the better swordsman (which is what I gathered), although she does notice how often he gets injured, and wonders if the universe hates him even more than it does her and Sokka.
While Katara wonders what Zuko and Sokka were talking about when Zuko got injured, Toph comes right out and asks about it. Zuko hesitates, and Sokka says "Fishing", and when pressed, says it's a "complicated manly metaphor." Suki comes up behind him, and Sokka panics.
Katara finishes healing Zuko's arm, leading to him putting his shirt back on and going to train with Aang. Suki and Sokka have an argument about sexism. Toph sits with Katara, picking her toes until she goes to randomly bend at Aang to test his reflexes.
Katara gets back to LATD, but cries over a sad scene, in which Zali sacrifices herself for Zara, apparently through a Twin Switch. Aang gives her a hug, and Katara says it's nothing, finding it ridiculous that the book is moving her as much as it is, but Zuko reassures her that others find it sad. Katara wonders if this means that Zuko likes the book, in spite of denying it earlier. Zuko tries to deny it, although Toph and Katara don't believe him, and Zuko hastily retreats to train with Aang- apparently, Aang isn't the only one to use training as an excuse to get away from other things.
Katara uses waterbending healing on her leg, and it's back to normal size. Katara realizes she can walk around the house, and wonders if her final healing session will teach Aang anything about waterbending healing.
Dinner is kebabs, so I suspsect Katara's eager to get back to cooking to give herself and the Gaang some variety.
After dinner, Zuko brings Katara sun poppy tea in bed, and is pleased at how well Katara's leg is coming along. Zuko unwraps Katara's bandages and gives her the anklet. Katara's stomach flutters again, and she is of two minds regarding it.
The first is Katara's swoony part, and is excited to get things from Zuko. This obviously requires less explanation from Katara, from the author and from me.
The second is Katara's more sensible part, and tells her to stop daydreaming about Zuko, since it's a waste of time, especially in the middle of a war, and that things won't work out between them.
Katara finds the second more convincing, unless she's actually around Zuko.
Katara teases Zuko about LATD, knowing that he enjoys reading it out loud, and that she doesn't need Toph's abilities to see through this. After teasing and tickling, he confesses that he loves it, because his mother used to read it to him. Even if he knows it's melodramatic, he feels at home and safe with it. He tells her to "judge away," but she elects to "nudge away" affectionately instead, listening to the first part of her mind regarding Zuko.
At breakfast, Sokka has the idea of making a "special jam" by adding fireflakes, earning himself a whack from the commonsense stick.
Aang practices earthbending, while Katara plans on having a healing lesson with him later. Katara's up and moving to an extent, and overhears a conversation between Zuko and Sokka while they're watching Aang and Toph.
Sokka starts off with an apology, and Zuko wants to know whether it's for slicing his arm or what he said that apparently distracted him. Sokka is hesitant to discuss this, but says that his comment came out wrong, prompting Zuko to wonder how bad it would have been if it came out right. Sokka says that Zuko's his best friend, though, much to Zuko's surprise.
Zuko asks Sokka what he wanted to talk about. Sokka goes into a speech about brotherly affection, and Katara notes to herself that she appreciates Sokka's efforts to look out for her even though she can look out for herself.
Sokka then says that he's grateful for Zuko helping Katara in the forest, and that's what he should have started out with. He then says that he'll cut anyone who hurts her to pieces with his boomerang (Incidentally, is his boomerang a bladed weapon?). Zuko offers to help, but Sokka tells him he's missing the point; if anything happens to him, he wants Zuko to look out for Katara. Zuko says he doesn't want anything to happen to Sokka, either. Sokka says they're glad they had the talk, and a bit of "inelegant struggling" ensues over the accident the other day, how all their conversations seem to end.
Katara concludes Toph was right, and is glad that they were having a good conversation about her, even if she won't disclose what she hears while eavesdropping.
After a lunch of kebabs, Katara takes Aang to his room to practice healing so that he won't get sidetracked, and she notices a tickling sensation, which seems to be a slight improvement for Aang, even if Katara doesn't feel any better. Katara wishes she'd learned more from Yugoda so that she could help Aang more; that's a good observation that it's unwise to have an Incompletely Trained healer giving Aang help on this matter, even considering the author's hastily trying to make up for the fact that Aang never learned healing in the show.
Katara teaches Aang some more, and realizes that he's paying attention, but she's getting distracted by his messy room, with his few possessions scattered everywhere. Katara tells Aang that he's supposed to put them into cupboards, but Aang says 1)he'll just take them out again, 2)the cupboard's locked, and 3)the cupboard gives Aang "bad vibes." Katara, thinking neatness gives Aang bad vibes, gets to the task of picking the lock. But once she opens, she realizes that Aang's intuition was correct.
Aang asks about Katara's shocked reaction, and Katara says there's a dead animal inside, knowing how much Aang cares for animals. Katara tells Aang to go train with Toph while she gets rid of the skeleton, and asks him to send Zuko up to help her.
Katara only wishes that a dead animal were inside, since Aang got Ozai's room, and the first thing Katara noticed was a list of "People to Kill," with some of the names crossed off. Katara decides to get rid of the stuff so that Aang doesn't get nightmares, but also to ask Zuko why, in hopes of understanding more about why he's so touchy about his father.
Zuko comes up, evidently prepared for dead animal removal. Apparently, this is Zuko's first time seeing this "collection of crazy evil," since he'd stayed in a separate room, and so had his mother (which says something about Ursa and Ozai's marriage). It's revealed that Ozai bears a grudge against Iroh, as the brothers had an Agni Kai in the past. Ozai lost, but walked away unscathed under some conditiions. Katara learns that since the Agni Kai is an "honor duel," it's a big deal. Zuko is shocked that his father planned to use Iroh's attachment to "the boy" against him, and wants to burn it all.
Zuko loads Ozai's collection into the bag, not wanting to read it. Apparently, to Ozai, the world is divided into enemies, allies and "miscellaneous obstacles," and Zuko fits into the latter. Katara asks Zuko if he wants to read it, but he says he doesn't need to do so to know what his father thought about him.
Azula has the largest file, and Zuko notes that Ozai has been giving her special firebending lessons since she was six. Katara wonders if it might be useful to understanding her fighting style and defeating her. Zuko's hesitant to read it, but lets Katara read it if she wants.
A piece of paper falls out, and it's revealed that Ozai is using Ty Lee as a lesson for Azula to learn how to manipulate others. Ozai suggests, to his displeasure, that Azula was less than happy with the scorpidillo trick she pulled on Ty Lee in the past, and reveals that his beheading the scorpidillos was to teach the children violence.
Katara is quite disturbed, realizing that Ozai's lessons were about manipulating people, rather than fire. She also notices how he never refers to anyone by name in these documents, proof that he didn't see any of them as people.
Katara sees that the document is only about one summer's worth of lessons, which was too much for Ursa. Ozai says that Ursa accused Ozai of turning Azula into a monster while Azula could hear her, and Ozai is pleased, using that statement to turn Azula against Ursa. Zuko took Azula away and plays the tsungi horn to drown out the sound of the argument, a sound Ozai hated (which rules that out as a way for Zuko to get Ozai's approval. Zuko told Azula she wasn't a monster, so Ozai decided to separate them, to prevent Zuko's "weakness" from tainting Azula.
Katara's saddened by the thought of siblings being raised to hurt each other, especially since nothing of the sort happened to her and Sokka. In spite of Zuko being adamant about not wanting to read it, Katara shows him the file, hoping it proves that Azula only turned out the way she did because of Ozai's influence. Zuko morosely says that Ozai succeeded in what he set out to do, before tossing the file aside to be burned. Everything else is out of the cupboard, leaving it free for Aang's use.
Meanwhile, Aang is earthbending with Toph, and Sokka and Suki are cuddling. It's interesting how Aang's training schedule allows opportunities like this for Zuko and Katara to spend time together. Zuko and Katara watch the sack burn together in silence, with Katara hoping to express sympathy more eloquently than by calling Zuko's father "a nutcase"; I sympathize with her, since that often happens to me.
Katara is certain, however, that her father never did anything like that to her, and that if Zuko talked about his childhood more, she would be filled with an urge to beat up Ozai. Katara just lays her hand over Zuko's.
Katara makes dinner that evening, and notices that the Gaang seems to be back to normal... except for Zuko. After dinner, Katara approaches him, and tries to get him to share his feelings with her with the "copper piece for your thoughts" expression, nagging and truthbending.
The truth is, Zuko no longer cares about his father, but does care about his sister. They were close while they were young, but then Ozai noticed Azula's talent, and forced the siblings to compete against each other. As a result, Zuko began to resent Azula and feel inferior to her, so now he's uncertain he can defeat her on his own. Above all else, he's sad about having to fight her to the death, knowing it's the last thing their mother wanted.
Katara's determined that if either of them dies, it won't be Zuko, and doesn't want to hear any talk about him dying. Zuko apologizes for being an idiot, and Katara agrees, but adds that he's her idiot and she doesn't want anything to hurt him.
The author apologizes for the lateness, and hopes the chapter's long enough to compensate for that.
She then says that it's about their respective relationships with their siblings, and that Zuko and Katara are mirrors of each other who create a "perfect ying-yang balance," that Bryke should have realized was perfect for shipping.
Apparently, Jackie Diaz picked up on this as well, in How I Became Yours, since she not only had Zuko marry Katara, but he also had Sokka marry Azula, resulting in each set of siblings' older brother marrying the other set's younger sister.
The author points out that Katara's outlandish requests are her being Katara. She also points out the disconnect between Aang and Zuko over the "funkyball," with Aang "almost in denial" about how he'll have to fight (but for all his canonical refusal to kill, he doesn't have anything against fighting, and even enjoys it a little on occasion), and Zuko has to remind him about it. The author also wants to reinforce the "maternal connection between Aang and Katara" (This AGAIN?!).
Zuko reads LATD to Katara and the others because it's "too cute" (although from what little we see of the book in "The Search", it doesn't sound like it would fit in the book, or that the play would be an adaptation of a book). It's also the first time in a long time that anyone has read to Toph.
The author notes that Sokka feels awkward about acting "big brotherly" to Zuko, and the sparring session is a failed attempt to deal with this conversation in a non-awkward way. The author points out that Sokka keeps getting lucky hits and injuring Zuko when they spar, and this is no exception. Katara also gets closer to admitting that she likes Zuko, but the "problems and consequences" stand in the way (it might be nice for her to think more about what they are, if they're such a factor in her decision), and she hopes she'll get over it. The author points out that people want Sokka to have "a big brother moment," and the author points out that his bond with Katara is one of the best and most realistic ones on TV in ages. Sokka is protective of Katara, and is torn between wanting to cut Zuko to pieces if he hurts her, and believing that Zuko, his best friend, can protect Katara during the war. As such, the author believes he would not come down hard on Zuko unless he did something terrible, contrary to what he did in some other fics the author read. The author compares it with her own experience with her siblings.
The author notes that if anything, Sokka realizes Zuko is reliable, and can be counted on to take care of Katara if anything happens to him, a possibility that the Gaang tries not to think about but can't deny (which is a good reminder of how Avatar is showing a war). As such, Zuko and Sokka declare best-friendiness in an awkward fashion.
The author points out that LATD is melodramatic, and a Guilty Pleasure, not unlike soap operas. Zuko thus won't admit to liking it to anyone except Katara, his "favorite person."
The author points out that Katara would rant at Aang about cleaning his room, and I'm surprised that the author didn't try to say Katara is being motherly toward him, since this is one of the most stereotypical things mothers do.
The author points out that she wrote up more of Ozai's journal on how he taught Azula to be a psycho, but didn't publish it because it was fairly dark, although it does give more insight into Ozai and shows a more "adorable" young Zuko.
The author finds Ozai two-dimensional, and wants more insight on what drives him, which is mostly good, but it can potentially ruin the credibility of purely evil yet appropraitely terrifying villains. The author describes him as paranoid, crazy, and willing to rule through fear. The author points out that Ozai hated Iroh and Lu Ten, had mixed feelings about Ursa, resented Zuko, and saw everyone else around hi as pawns.
The author points out that Iroh most likely defeated Ozai in an Agni Kai and humiliated him at some point, using said incident as 1)a cause of why Ozai resents Iroh, and 2)why Zuko believes Iroh could defeat Ozai.
The author points out that Azula would have needed some "help" to get to the point where she was in "Zuko Alone," (the youngest we've seen her as in series). The author points out that kids are malleable, and Azula would have "lapped up" the one on one attention from her father (attention she also wanted from her mother), becoming cruel in the process.
Ursa tried not to play favorites, but liked Zuko more, while being concerned at what Azula was becoming. This is an interesting perspective, although I wonder if part of that was how Azula more easily took to following Ozai's sadistic example than Zuko. This leads to the misunderstanding mentioned above, an interesting idea of where Azula gets the idea that her mother thought she was a monster.
The author points out that Ursa wants Zuko and Azula to get along, and Zuko once did as well, but he believes Azula is too far gone (It should be noted when Zuko asks Iroh about training him in more advanced firebending, he preemptively brings up how Iroh most likely wants him to get along with Azula, as if to disagree, but Iroh solemnly says that "She's crazy and she needs to go down," in a fairly depressing moment). Clearly, Zuko and the people close to him wish things hadn't come to this between him and Azula, and I wonder what Ursa would think.
In the end, Zuko doesn't know how to articulate his feelings well, apart from destroying the contents of the cupboard, and Katara gets protective of "her idiot."
Next time, there will be "The Boy in the Iceberg," or better said, "The Ember Island Players", marking the fic's return to canon, even if it's a recap episode.
What I liked
- The look at Zuko and Azula's tragic sibling relationship
- Ozai's closet.
What I didn't like
- Aang being portrayed as in denial about having to fight.
- The "maternal connection" being brought up again.
- Too little elaboration on what's getting in the way of Zutara at this point.
