- "My brother once told me that nothing someone says before the word 'but' really counts."—Benjen Stark, Game of Thrones
The Gaang starts making battle plans, and Katara notices how when Sokka doesn't make jokes, it's proof that the situation is truly grim.
They then work out a possible time to strike at the Fire Lord. Zuko says that Ozai hardly ever leaves his throne room apart from self-aggrandizing purposes, but they do have a chance. Zuko mentions that Ozai seems more concerned about the parade than the actual battle, so they could attack when he was near the harbor, enabling Katara to use the water and Toph to use the earth. Unfortunately, they'll also have to contend with an entire military assembly.
Toph doesn't like one part of Zuko's plan- the implication that she's useless on an airship. Zuko reminds Toph of her motion sickness, and vomiting on various forms of transportation (which seems to be taken to the same extremes as the Dragon Slayers' motion sickness from Fairy Tail), and saying that Toph can't bend the entire airship (although Toph does metalbend a door to great effect in the finale; Zuko should know that the airships are made of smaller metal parts). Toph threatens to metalbend Zuko's swords, but Zuko gets the conversation back on track.
Zuko suspects that there will be a speech, and proposes that Sokka and Suki create a diversion, while the benders besides Aang attack from the other side, and Aang attacks down the middle. If this is supposed to be the superior alternative plan, it certainly hinges on a lot of Zuko's assumptions. Sokka whispers something to Zuko (based on what's said next, presumably to remind him that he hasn't taught Aang how to deal with lightning bending yet). Zuko then goes to teach Aang something, and Katara, once again, decides to watch it.
Zuko decides to teach Aang how to redirect lightning, which is something he'd planned to save for when Aang had more focus, but it's something that Aang must do if Azula and/or Ozai use lightning on him, and can do if he concentrates enough (a good vote of confidence, albeit one that leads to Aang making funny faces).
Zuko demonstrates the technique and makes Aang match his movements. Katara notices the technique's similarity to waterbending, in that it turns an opponent's strength against them, and upon hearing that Iroh adapted it from waterbending, she wonders how he did it. The simple answer is that it's easy to watch enemy techniques and imitate them while finding countermeasures, or otherwise think of something while fighting them. A large part of warfare is outthinking the enemy, and if you can think of new strategies while watching them, then you'll be able to stay one step ahead of them.
Zuko and Aang practice for a little bit, and discuss chi flow. Aang asks Zuko if he redirected lightning before, and Zuko says yes, against his father. Aang asks what it felt like, which Katara notes is not the first thing that would have come to her mind. We're apparently meant to think that Aang is Innocently Insensitive, but this question is actually somewhat relevant, since the conversation is learning how to do what Zuko did back then, not Zuko's Daddy Issues.
A canon exchange ensues, with Zuko describing it as redirecting a great power, with any mistakes likely to be fatal, and Aang suggesting that he might not be finished off if Katara still has the spirit water (with him looking to Katara for validation), only to learn that no, she does not have any more after she healed him at the end of Book 2. Disabused of the notion that he has that as a safety net, Aang trains with less enthusiasm before, and is even less enthusiastic about the idea that he'll have to kill Ozai, but he ends up successfully redirecting the fire whips.
Sokka does a rundown of his plan over lunch, which has been streamlined while Aang was practicing. Zuko mentions Aang's success at lightning bending, pleasing Sokka, since that's the keystone to the plan. Essentially, the plan is for Aang to redirect and shoot Ozai's lightning back at him, thereby killing him. Aang's dubious about this plan, and while the reason is obvious, there are other reasons it might not work. I suspect that Ozai expects it to be used against him, and given that he's faster than Iroh or Azula, he could probably fire a second attack and take Aang out while he's aiming his redirected bolt.
Sokka doesn't like his plans being criticized, particularly when Aang complains about killing Ozai in what Sokka describes as self defense, particularly since his end would come from the bolt he used to try to kill Aang. That description is debatable. On the one hand, Ozai is threatening to kill many innocent people, and would, as Sokka said, be trying to kill Aang; heroes can kill him without even going into Anti-Hero territory, even if it's not something that would be done by Aang or on a children's show. On the other hand, in the plan described, the Gaang would be intruding on Ozai's territory with the express purpose of killing him, so they would be the aggressors in that case.
Aang points out that Zuko also redirected lightning and didn't kill Ozai then (I'd like to point out that Zuko has no qualms against killing, so the fact that he didn't kill Ozai is not because he doesn't like killing people in general or his father in particular). Zuko struggles to answer, saying that he can't be the one to kill "the fatherlord", and that it's something that Aang does for lasting peace. As strange as I find Zuko's belief that it would be wrong for him to kill Ozai (considering that he proposes Iroh, someone in a similar position do it), Zuko, by insisting that Aang do it, forfeits all right to complain about Aang not killing Ozai later. Furthermore, if it's for the sake of peace, rather than vengeance or seizing power, a more merciful approach would work better, as a way that removes the Fire Lord as a threat without killing him would better fit that end.
In any case, Zuko dodges the question and asks what Aang thinks is right, and Aang is unsure.
Zuko and Katara have yet another dish washing scene, which will probably be their last for a while, while everyone else prepares to practice Sokka's plan. Suki trains Toph in hand-to-hand combat in case enemies get too close for her to earthbend, and so that Suki won't worry about Toph so much (with Katara pointing out that Suki is a worrier as well as a warrior). Aang and Sokka talk about the map, making it one of the few times they've had one-on-one interactions in this fic.
Katara seems a bit scared of the lightning, and Zuko, sensing that worry, promises to redirect it. This leads Katara to the last time someone shot lightning at Zuko, and she's incredulous that Zuko's father tried to kill him, even if it's not out of character for Ozai. Zuko says worse things have happened (only the scar comes to mind), and, in what he considers a display of optimism, suggests that his father had fired "a full charge" at him, which means he's ready for anything the Fire Lord can throw at him, and they can do anything if they stick together..
The Gaang then practices the plan on terrain that they believe resembles the royal plaza, with Toph enjoying her role as "Melon Lord." In terms of the actual operation, though, Toph will be with Sokka and Suki, instead of the benders. Sokka also believes that he and Suki can protect Toph, the youngest of the group, while Toph believes that she can protect them. Katara thinks that Both Sides Have a Point.
Sokka reviews the plan again, and calls the Katara/Zuko team "Team Liquid-y hot," something Katara finds somewhat dirty and sexual, and worries whether if she asked Zuko to do something of that nature, they'd end up having sex (although she doesn't say it outright). I'm not sure whether Katara's reaction is more because it's a Zutara fic or because the fic is probably T-rated because of the various sexual innuendo and subtext.
Toph coats some boulders with black, sticky and flammable goo and starts throwing them as Sokka charges, getting into her Melon Lord persona quite gleefully. During the training session, Katara thinks about how well she works as a team with Zuko, since they nicely complement each other, before thinking of Sokka's nickname, which results in her brain going in the gutter again.
As in canon, Aang attacks the melon, but is unable to perform the coup de gras. Sokka points out that if this were real, Aang would be shot full of lightning (because of the fact that it's a training exercise amongst friends and allies, and no one can shoot lightning, it's not exactly easy to simulate that).
Katara once again notices that Aang is uncomfortable when it comes to killing the Fire Lord, and, yet again, worries about what will happen if he gets shot full of lightning and she can't heal him. Going back to this issue, it's apparently treated as a new thing, even in this fic. While some say that canon only brought up the Thou Shalt Not Kill issue at the last minute (granted, Aang was able to apparently knock out or run away from his enemies until now, so it wasn't an issue), this isn't much of an improvement.
Aang apologizes, and says it doesn't feel right, but Sokka then slices through his sword as a demonstration. Momo eats the melon, while Aang is horrified.
At this point, the canon training scene ends, and the author's views about Aang not killing Ozai come to the fore. It's harder to tell because of Katara's internal narration in the author's style, but if you look closely and know canon well, you can tell where it ends and where the author's original segments begin.
Katara has conflicting feelings, torn between wanting to comfort Aang and give him a Get a Hold of Yourself Man while saying that they'll see worse tomorrow. She mentions that she knows that it goes against Air Nomad beliefs and Aang's own inclinations; see the epigraph at the top of the page; I agree with Ned Stark that such concessions generally don't mean much.
The "but" then comes, and Katara says that Ozai is an evil and horrible man, and killing him will be in self defense. While Ozai's evil is indisputable, once again, "self defense" is the wrong word, and does not apply as a defense simply because the victim can and does fight back. Katara is overcome with worry over what will happen to the world.
Katara, in an effort to find out why Aang wouldn't feel like himself by killing Ozai, uses gentle encouragement, believing that it works best on Aang. The way she's putting it- focusing on what gets results rather than Aang's feelings- makes it almost come off as emotional manipulation. Aang gives the answer that Katara probably expected- it doesn't follow Air Nomad teachings- and Katara is left at a loss for words for a moment.
Katara then manages to find an approach she can use. She tries to convince him that he's not betraying the teachings by killing Ozai, but when that fails, she says that Aang is the Avatar, and that killing Ozai is the only way to fulfill his duties, end the war and restore balance. The fact that Ozai must be dealt with is clear, but Katara has done nothing to prove that Ozai must be killed, and that there are no other acceptable ways to deal with him.
Aang accepts what Katara's saying up until her conclusion, but then recoils from her and says that what she's saying doesn't fit him at all, and gives Katara a look that hurts her felings. That Katara would play the victim without truly considering the meaning of what she's saying is for Aang is quite odious.
Zuko essentially goes for the bad cop approach and insists that Aang must do this, with their help. Aang asks why Zuko didn't do Ozai in, and Zuko points out that Iroh said that royals killing royals always ends badly in the Fire Nation, which is why the Avatar must do it. Aang, uncharacteristically naive and pacifistic, suggests that they reason with Ozai, but Zuko says that "you couldn't just reason with his father. His father wanted to see the entire world burn." The author doesn't even try to give Aang a rebuttal to this, so he shouts at Zuko until Suki suggests a tea break, and they ride back in grumpy silence.
The awkward silence continues during the tea break, and when they do speak, they're back to the conversation from before. Aang proposes that perhaps there's another way to deal with Ozai(there is), and brings up how Katara didn't kill Yon Rha. This ends up hitting Katara's Berserk Button, and she drops her cup. As the others clean up the pieces while preventing Toph and Katara from cutting themselves, Aang apologizes, but insists that it's true.
This is another of Aang's points that, in some ways, makes more sense than the author gives it credit for. Katara has never actually taken a human life that we know of, not even the man who personally wronged her the most, so she does not fully understand what she is asking of Aang.
Katara tries to convince Aang that it's different, and she's right; Aang from canon never considered killing the Fire Lord to be an act of revenge. She also points out that Zuko was the only one who truly understood how difficult it was to not kill Yon Rha, and why she hasn't talked about it since then. Part of this ties into the fic's sense of pacing, since in the series, it was enough for Katara to reach a tentative understanding about Yon Rha, and in the series, she didn't cry into Zuko's arms.
As Aang tries to say that because killing the Fire Lord is revenge, just like killing Yon Rha would have been, he should spare the Fire Lord just like Katara spare Yon Rha, Katara finally snaps, insists that it's justice, not revenge, and storms off.
While it was nice to see Katara openly express her emotions around Aang, it's unfortunate that she has only seemed fully honest about her negative emotions about him thus far.
Katara retreats to the beach and throws icicles at rocks, breaking the rocks. She tries to see Aang's perspective so that she can convince him to change said perspective, which seems to be a disingenuous approach that will not help her understand Aang.
Katara keeps asking questions, which seem more like statements, as she finds it hard to believe that Aang could say what he said about Yon Rha, that he's using Yon Rha as an excuse to shirk from killing Ozai. More than anything, she doesn't understand why they're even debating killing Ozai.
The author says that she hoped Aang would grow up and embrace the less pleasant aspects of his duty as Avatar, but the lion turtle cheated him out of that. To that, I say that it simply isn't what Avatar is all about. The idea of Aang being forced to give in and kill someone (admittedly someone very evil) is too dark for a children's show, and doesn't fit with Aang having come up with new and creative solutions to problems in the past.
Katara's questioning herself doesn't get her far, even as night falls, and this time, Zuko finds her. Zuko improves Katara's mood by agreeing with her, and says that because there was a great deal of shouting, Aang had run off.
As a result of that, Toph went looking for Aang and Zuko went looking for Katara. Meanwhile, Sokka drew up possible alternative plans in case "Aang chickened out.", and Suki was cooking fried rice, which Zuko says not even Suki can mess up. Katara, unconvinced, decides to take over.
Katara asks about what alternatives Sokka has in mind, since killing the Fire Lord is meant to be Aang's task. Zuko agrees, and thus believes that they should be trying to convince Aang to do it. Failing that, he wants to think of a way to kill Ozai without any of them having to do so.
Katara proposes killing Ozai herself, saying that while she hadn't been able to kill Yon Rha due to how pathetic he was, she can kill Ozai, since ending the war is what her mother would have wanted.
Zuko says that while it's a noble offer, one that Sokka and Suki had made, the fire nation liked scapegoats, and with the Fire Lord being killed in front of witnesses, unless Iroh takes over, Azula will crush the assassin's homeland in retribution. Katara is left at a loss for words, and she can only hope that Aang sees reason, since she can't think of any alternative plans.
This is EXTREMELY flawed logic, largely because it forgets that the others are effectively accomplices to the killing. The group consists of the last Air Nomad that we know of at this point (somewhat convenient that his homeland was already destroyed), two siblings from the Southern Water Tribe, an Earth Kingdom girl (whose homeland is already in danger), leader of the Kyoshi warriors, and the exiled prince of the Fire Nation (whom Azula has already tried to kill). Ozai made a lot of enemies, and Azula will be quite busy exacting retribution no matter who does in Ozai, since they're all accountable to some degree.
In the kitchen, Suki has burned the rice and Sokka is trying to think of ways to take out the airship fleet. Toph is still looking for Aang, so Katara sends Suki out to help her, while taking over. Toph soon returns, reporting failure, and when Zuko tries to reassure her, she says he doesn't know Aang the way she does, and she's worried that Aang will pull another disappearing act on them again.
Katara says that Aang won't run away and let them down after all that, which doesn't convince Toph. She is convinced, however, by Zuko's skill at tracking Aang down (as he has been for much of his time before his Heel-Face Turn), and Toph is glad to say that she hid his glider. Katara wants to believe in Aang, but she can't after what happened that afternoon.
Suki returns with Aang, and the others hide and listen to the conversation. As Aang and Suki come in, Aang notices that the others were there and asks if they're mad at him, but Suki says they aren't. Aang asks Suki for her opinion. Suki is a bit more compassionate than the others, but she tells him that she can't think of any other ways.
Another author's note follows. She's back from Nepal, and back onto canon. The latter, quite naturally, involves dealing with perceived plot holes and other things that bother her.
The author mentions in passing that she finds that "liquid-y hot" sounds dirty. I personally find it reminds me of liquid metal, like the kind that is melted in a foundry.
The author says that she doesn't think the Gaang would "wing it" in the biggest battle of their lives- a simpler explanation is that with a dearth of reliable intelligence on where Ozai is or what he's doing, they don't have a choice. The author suggests that the preliminary plan would play to their advantages, while minimizing their disadvantages (Toph's motion sickness), while enabling them to escape once Ozai's dead. Naturally, this all goes out the window once Aang disappears (which the author believes is before Ozai becomes Phoenix King), and the group is upset because this more viable plan is ruined.
The author believes that while Sokka is in charge of the planning (which is essentially canon), Suki isn't far behind him in terms of intelligence. Zuko would have told Sokka about lightningbending in one of their "man-dates" from the author's headcanon, which would have become top priority after Aang's inability to go into the Avatar State came to light.
The author believes that Zuko wouldn't have waited until just before the big battle to teach Aang how to redirect lightning, a technique that's quite important for him, and which the author blives he would have taught Aang first. The author thus hypothesizes that Zuko believed Aang wasn't ready to learn lightningbending (again, as with the other advanced forms of bending, I suspect he can't use it at all), but pressed for time, he decides to teach him what he can. It should be pointed out that this technique is one that Zuko himself learned quite recently.
The author wonders how Iroh could have learned lightning redirection from watching waterbenders, since they're at war with the Fire Nation, there are none in the southern tribes and the northern tribe is isolated. It seems most likely that Iroh, who has spent most of his life in the military, would have fought one at some point, and observed that technique in the battle.
The author mentions that Zuko and Katara work well as a team, as do Toph, Suki and Sokka. No points for guessing who is excluded.
The author calls Aang out on pushing the Gaang away when they would have stood with him through anything. The author believes that it was Bryke's attempt to show Aang standing up for himself (which hardly seems to be the message), but it instead made him come off as immature. She, once again, says we can disagree with her on this.
I'll take her up on that, and say that she completely misinterpreted the intended message. For Aang, the Grand Finale was not about maturity or independence, but about his duty as Avatar and his own beliefs (which, being moral principles, is more than about simple laziness or unwillingness to do what is expectd of him). He succeeds in saving the world and staying true to his own principles, and the author, by portraying him as selfish and immature, completely tramples all over that part of the show in favor of her own preferred non-canon pairing.
Furthermore, the Gaang is not standing with Aang in the fic. They are continually putting pressure on him to give in and do things as they want him to, without giving any serious weight to his feelings and desires. Once again, they thrust the responsibility of killing Ozai onto Aang's shoulders and treat him as a tactical asset, while the narrative calls this trust and friendship.
The author goes back to the team compositions for a moment, and says that the mutual protectiveness helps the Toph/Suki/Sokka team work well.
The author gets back to the issue of Aang not killing Ozai by bringing up the Melon Lord incident, and the author finds it hard to believe that he didn't say anything about not killing the Fire Lord sooner, since he was ready to fight him on the Day of the Black Sun. There's a very simple explanation for that. Back then, Aang could simply have attacked the firebending-less Fire Lord and incapacitated him, before handing him to the army. As for Aang not speaking up sooner, I agree it's a bit odd to bring up the issue so close to the end, but Aang has never been willing to kill, although, as I said earlier, he always had alternatives available to him.
The author points out that with all the "shenanigans" going on, the Gaang never had time to address it, and this is why she thinks Aang is so far away from the others. A much simpler explanation is that, even in tight-knit groups of friends, some members may want time alone, as Zuko has frequently done in the past.
The others tell Aang why he needs to do it, and he doesn't like what he's hearing. Sokka takes a turn as the "bad cop" after splitting Melon Lord in two. Of course, the others try different approaches, and the author agrees with Suki that it's not fair. Of course, these concessions are before a "but," and she then says that Aang has to do it, and no one else can do it for him.
The author says that the older kids are more mature, not as rigidly adhering to a belief system (While being inflexible can cause problems, so too can compromising one's values too easily, especially as far as far as killing is concerned).
Of course, the author says they can't kill Ozai, since Zuko knows that Azula will take over after Ozai dies. Naturally, Azula should be next on the list, since she is an unrepentant supporter of the war effort, and played a large role in the creation of Ozai's genocidal plan. They worry that if Azula will take over, their homes will be crushed, and they don't want that. The author points out that because Aang has no homeland that will suffer repercussions, he should kill Ozai. Once again, Aang made many friends and gathered many allies since emerging from the iceberg, and if Azula wants vengeance, those people and their homelands will feel her wrath.
As for Toph, the author points out that even though she talks big, she can't bring herself to kill in cold blood. Of course, the same can be said for the rest of the Gaang, none of whom has killed anyone.
The author believes that killing Ozai was something Aang had to do, and believes that his past lives agreeing only drove the point home(on the contrary; it showed that he found a new solution, one that his predecessors had not thought of, thereby surpassing him). Once again, she COMPLETELY misses the point of these last few episodes, in favor of forcing Aang to kill someone (who, admittedly, probably deserves it), and grows disappointed when her solution, which Aang NEVER would have taken, is ruled out.
The author briefly runs through Aang's arguments against killing Ozai, and says that he isn't meant to come off as a jerk (of course, neither is Katara, but she did), but he has a very simplistic worldview(so does the author, who essentially twists things to support her belief that Ozai must be killed) and ended up setting off Katara.
The author says that she's not trying to hate on Aang, but she found him immature in these last few episodes (perhaps that could account for why Aang seems to be treated so harshly, since the fic almost solely focuses on these episodes). The author says Aang will face the consequences of his decision in the post-Sozin's Comet arc, which strikes me as highly vindictive.
The author has Suki call Aang back, and uses "sweetie" on him as a term of endearment from a mother or older sister. She says that it gets a lot of derision because of "The Promise", whose name she does not speak because of sheer contempt for the comic (of course, there are three as of this writing). The author's sheer contempt toward the post-series materials comes off as sour grapes (I'm tempted to assume that it's because Kataang became canon, and was reinforced over and over, by Tenzin's very existence among other things, but she did give other reasons), and makes her come off as someone who's bitter about how the series Jumped the Shark in the Grand Finale, and is now trying to dictate how it should have gone.
Sorry if I'm coming off as overly harsh on the author. She's good at writing, so it's unfortunate that her talent is being used in what seems like an ill-willed deconstruction, if not an outright mockery of canon. Her original segments seem somewhat stronger, so I suspect that she would have been better off taking this fic Off the Rails at some point, possibly even back in the catacombs. Perhaps by doing so, she could have enabled even more time for Zuko and Katara to get together, while allowing Aang to gracefully give up on Katara. Perhaps she could have avoided what she believes to be plot holes from canon, rather than having to write over them.
The next chapter will feature the Gaang finding Ozai's picture, and Aang running off (or rather, involuntarily being called by the lion turtle).
What I liked
- Unfortunately, nothing. Again, I'm not going to disingenuously claim to find good in it while criticizing it to this extent, as the author does with Aang.
What I didn't like
- The Author Tract against Aang not killing Ozai became incedibly blatant here.
- The author completely misinterprets the message in the Grand Finale.
- The author's desperate attempts to pothole plot holes create more problems.
- The author's incredibly poorly thought out reasoning for why the other kids can't kill Ozai.
