Fanfic / Foxfire (Rahar_Moonfire)

Foxfire is a Avatar: The Last Airbender fanfic by Rahar_Moonfire.

A young man wakes alone and badly burned in a ghost town with no idea how he got there.

When he regains consciousness, he is found by a refugee couple named Than and Ying, who help him get back on his feet. With no idea who he is and no idea where he's supposed to be going, he is invited to join them on their journey to Ba Sing Se. With a lack of anything to call him, they dub him Li for now.

As they journey to Ba Sing Se that they start to realize that Li's life out of a Spirit Tale as they meet a lost Knowledge Seeker...

It's still receiving irregular updates.

NOTE: Zuko will be mostly referred as Li.

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Tropes found in this work:

#-F

• Abandoned War Child: Children born from Fire Nation soldiers assaulting Earth Kingdom people is rather common. Jet knew several of them and Than disguises Li as one.
• Accomplice by Inaction: Jet considers the Gaang just as responsible for Li's condition as Azula was due to the fact they didn't even bother to think about him despite them assisting Iroh and knowing Zuko's relationship to him. In the Gaang's defense, they did try to look for Li, but Jet doesn't know that.
• Act of True Love: When his and Jet's relationship intensifies, Li willingly tells Jet that he's a firebender. He felt it would be wrong to hide from Jet considering Jet's real trauma over firebenders before starting a true romantic relationship. Li did it fully knowing that Jet could reject him at best or rat him out to the Dai Li at worst.
• Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: The suspense-filled Woman In White Arc has a quiet train ride scene that has Li reveal his chest scar to Jet, Jin, and Shanyuan.
• Action Survivor: While Jin is a nonbending noncombatant, she survives getting captured by the Dai Li, breaks out of a mindwashing trance and gets away from the Kuchisake-Onna's rampage. She also successfully talks Qiao out of danger by revealing Honqi's true nature.
• Adaptational Heroism: Long Feng, who honestly seeks to protect Ba Sing Se because the King is a useless Royal Brat. He's however willing to use brutal methods that breed fear in the people he's supposed to be protect and causes potential allies to be distrustful of him.
• Adults Are Useless: Jet certainly feels this way.
  Jet: Adults are all the same. They talk, and plan, and act without asking the opinion of anyone actually involved in the situation. In this case: us. They just ignore us or treat us like we're not there.
• All for Nothing: All of Hongqi's horrific crimes were completely unneccessary. Hongqi's bride Qiao would have preferred that Hongqi had a mistress so she wouldn't have to have sex with him. Also Qiao adores children and have raised his illegitimate children as heirs. Which goes to show how monstrous and entitled Hongqi was.
• All-Loving Hero: Deconstructed with Aang's response to the Kuchisake-Onna. Aghast at the rise of such a powerful and malevolent spirit, he asks why nobody tried to attend to her shrine to appease her. The forlorn answer is another question - why should anyone put up a shrine to a murderer?
• Almost Kiss: Jet tries to kiss Li after accepting him as a firebender. But Li backs away, feeling unready.
• Always Chaotic Evil: Due to the war, most people see firebenders as this. Which doesn't help Li's self-confidence when he realizes that he is one.
• Amnesiacs are Innocent: Outside of his innate skill, Li doesn't remember who he is. While he's still bad at socializing and hot-tempered as Zuko, he's far more sweeter and less angry. Li even smiles which stuns Iroh. Even Jet, who hates firebenders, gives Li a chance due to the latter's honesty and innocence.
• Amazon Chaser: Jet is a bisexual version of this as he's explicitly attracted to both Katara and Li for their looks and their martial prowess.
• Amnesia Danger:
  • Zigzagged. Since Li's amnesia made him less angry and more friendlier, he has more friends and allies. On the other hand, Li nearly suffocates to death when Katara encases his head in ice blocking his airways. Katara did it to buy herself time, knowing that Zuko would melt it. However Li couldn't.
  • More subtly, lacking Zuko's memories and experiences through trauma makes Li much more vulnerable emotionally as he's re-experiencing past trauma and living through new trauma for the first time without any of his coping mechanisms.
• Amnesiac Dissonance: As exiled Fire Nation royalty, Zuko was always angry, never smiled and a proud firebender. As the refugee Li, he is cautious, cheerful and trying to make a new life for himself. And rather horrified about being a firebender.
• Amnesiac Liar: After losing his memories, Zuko believed that he was refugee called Li. Which causes issues when he finds out otherwise.
• Amnesiac Resonance: Li finds it strange that he's so skilled swords, innately knows seafaring and good at sneaking around. The implications depress him.
• Androcles' Lion: Li rescued Zenko, a spirit fox and Knowledge Seeker from a swarm of buzzard-wasps and returned her hoshi-tama which contains her soul to her. As a result she vows to help Li recover his memories.
• Armor-Piercing Response: The Woman in White as part of her evolution to the more powerful Kuchisake-Onna, attempts to lure Li to his death by asking him if he thinks she's pretty. Li, who's heartbroken over Jet's rejection of him and his true identity, furiously asks her what he's supposed to know of beauty since half of his face is melted off. His response makes the ghost take pause and sympathize with Li over their shared facial disfigurements and betrayal by their loved ones.
• Ascended Extra: Several of them
  • Than and Ying were originally reoccurring extras but have major roles in the story as becoming Li's adoptive family.
  • Tengfei was the Dai Li was intimidated by Azula, captured by Iroh and interrogated by the Gaang in the Season 2 finale.
  • Qiao was one of the Upper Ring girls who made fun of Toph in Tales of Ba Sing Se. Here she plays a crucial role as part of the cultural worldbuilding of the Earth Kingdom.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Professor Zei gets to spend his afterlife exploring and reading as much of the Wan Shi Tong Library as he wants and researching whatever he wants without anyone stopping him. Further more, the Wan Shi Tong, He Who Knows Ten Thousand Things, looks to Zei for his knowledge on human nature and gives him a position in the library.
• Asian Fox Spirit: Zenko is a stereotypical mischievous fox spirit with three tails. However due to the Mix-and-Match Critter common to the setting, just being a fox is considered exotic.
• Astral Projection: Li is able to loosen the chi that binds his soul to his body, but only when he's sleeping. He unknowingly does so to visit the Wan Shi Tong's library in the Spirit World.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Li is able to create the base for Phoenix-Style firebending by observing the Wan Shi Tong fly.
• Awful Truth: Li takes it rather badly to the point of an anxiety attack the reveal of his true identity and his resurfacing memories.
• Bad Liar: Li can't lie even when he wants to.
• Badass in Distress: Li is arrested and interrogated by the Dai Li.
• Bargain with Heaven: In exchange for sharing Li's future memories to gain new knowledge, the Wan Shi Tong will give any information he asks for. If Li rediscovers the lost Firebending style Dance of a Phoenix and protects the Knowledge Seeker, Zenko the Wan Shi Tong will grant Li his protection and help him recover his past and true name.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • All Iroh wanted for was for Zuko to let go of his anger, stop hunting the Avatar and actually be happy. As Li, Zuko does all of these things but doesn't even remember nor recognize Iroh. Iroh is heartbroken but is glad that Zuko is finally happy.
  • Li wants to know he is and where he came from. He regrets it when he does.
  • Roulan wants the Dai Li's help in stopping a disease outbreak. When it comes true immediately, she amends her wish that nobody she knows dies.
• Bearer of Bad News: Jet inform Mushi/Iroh that he found Mushi's missing nephew, Li. But Li doesn't recognize anyone named Mushi. Iroh realizes what he means when Li doesn't even recognize him when he sees him.
• Becoming the Mask: Li is Zuko fully embracing his identity as a lost refugee.
• Behavioral Conditioning: Zuko's firebending and martial arts skills is so ingrained that he still a capable fighter as Li despite losing his memory and his bending. When he is a theoretical firebending form in a book, he instantly knows its wrong despite not knowing how its wrong.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Jet and Li often pick fights with each other both figuratively and literally. However their bickering and sparring is always friendly and they're both deeply attracted to each other.
• Benevolent Boss: While Pao is very strict and a better business owner than he is a barista, he cares for the emotional well-being of his employees. He forces Li to take time off when he's emotionally shaken and gives Mushi a day off to mourn his late son.
• Big Brother Is Watching You: The Dai Li are always watching...
• Big Brother Instinct:
  • Jet forces himself to be patient with Aang by reminding himself that Aang is no different from the kids he used to watch over as a Freedom Fighter.
  • Despite being overcome by a panic attack, Li still holds Hope carefully and gently in his arms on instinct.
• A Boy and His X: An amnesiac prince and his spirit fox.
• Black-and-White Insanity: Katara's problem is that she can't handle moral ambiguity. While she was justified in attack Li considering Zuko's history of ambushing them. Katara went too far when she suffocates Li despite Li, Jin, Toph, Ruolan and all of Li's neighbors' pleading for her to stop. Katara rationalizes it as protecting them from Li's deception despite that Li didn't even attack her. When Jet tries to defend Li and point out her hypocrisy, Katara refuses to listen. Katara refuses to believe that the Dai Li are capable of altruistic actions and believes they are lying when they reveal that Avatar Kyoshi created them.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: To the Wan Shi Tong, people who seek to learn new things or recover old knowledge are inherently good people and must be treated fairly. People who destroy or abuse knowledge are untrustworthy and regarded with suspicion.
• Blunt "Yes": When Li was dealing with an obnoxious student, the student asked if he (Li) thought he was stupid. Li replies with a harsh "Yes."
• Book Dumb: Jet doesn't know how to write and can barely read. In his defense, his parents died before they could continue Jet's education. He didn't need to read until he went to Ba Sing Se.
• Brainwashed: When arrested by the Dai Li, Li is put under a hypnotic trance for interrogation. To Long Feng's annoyance, Li isn't a Fire Nation spy... but he is a protectorate of the Wan Shi Tong, who they don't want to mess with.
• Breather Episode: After the tense Woman in White Arc and before Li gets his heart broken with the reveal of his true past, Li and Jet have a passionate night together and relax in a bathhouse the morning after.
• Brought Down to Badass: As a result of his amnesia, Li loses his anger which powers his firebending. Li is still a master swordsman and re-learn firebending from the ground up by creating an ancient style.
• Bully Hunter: Deconstructed with Katara and Qiao as a result of Deliberate Values Dissonance. To Katara she was punishing rude Rich Bitches who made fun of Toph by pulling a harmless but humiliating prank on them. To Qiao, she and her friends were nearly drowned just for criticizing someone since Katara didn't consider that they couldn't swim. To make matters worse, Katara's attack scarred Qiao's face which could decimate her marriage prospects and ruin her family.
• Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest: Inverted as Jet only acts perverted and lustful toward Li, which he becomes more sincere about as he falls in love with him.
• Cerebus Retcon: The treehouses that the Freedom Fighters were living in were built by Jet and his late father. The treehouses were re-purposed into shelters by Jet and his fellow orphans. And Jet was kicked out of the last remnant of his home.
• Chekhov's Skill:
  • Li is established to be a terrible liar which most of his attempts being immediately seen through. As a result when he tells Jet that he has amnesia and rediscovered he was a firebender, Jet believes him. Jet notes that while Li's story sounds impossible, Li can't lie.
  • Li is able to see and interact with spirits as seen with his interactions with Zenko and the Wan Shi Tong. This ends up being the catalyst for the Woman in White Arc.
• Child by Rape: A dark fact of life for Jet as he grew up indirectly knowing several of them.
• Claimed by the Supernatural: The Wan Shi Tong has one of his Knowledge Keepers, a kitsune named Zenko travel with Li to show that Li is under his protection.
• The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: Despite being the owner of a tea shop, Pao is pretty bad at actually making tea and is reliant on Mushi and Li to do so. In Pao's defense, he's a much better businessman.
• Cold Iron: Iron chains are one of the few things that can hurt and bind powerful spirits. Unfortunately for the Dai Li, Toph hasn't invented metalbending yet so they have to link chains to rocks if they want to use it in combat.
• Combat Pragmatist: Jet get the advantage over Li despite Li being the superior fighter by constantly fighting dirty against Li. Jet even notes Li's growing hair in hopes of being able to pull it when it grows long enough.
• Commonality Connection: The Woman in White grows attached to Li due to the latter giving her genuine sympathy over their shared facial disfigurements and betrayal by their loved ones.
• Composite Character: In-Universe as Women in White and the Kuchisake-Onna are well-known and seperate types of spirits. The Woman in White's evolution into a Kuchisake-Onna is discovery of her continued connection to the living and a terrifying demonstration of power.
• Connected All Along: The Kuchisake's former lover and betrayer is Hongqi, son of Quon, who's Jet's boss.
• Contrived Coincidence: The well Li gets water for the tea shop also happens to be near a clinic that Katara and Toph are being escorted to.
• Conveniently Unverifiable Cover Story: Than claims Li is his nephew through his sister and a Fire Nation soldier. It helps that said sister is dead and biracial war children are common.
• Country Mouse: What country-born Jet misses about his home is farmland and trees. Jet admits to hating the heavily urban and barren Lower Ring due to the lack of plant life.
• Creepy Cute: In-Universe. While the more spiritually sensitive regard Zenko as unsettling, she's still a small fluffy animal. People would frequently ask Li if they could pet Zenko.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Two children were forced into a kiln which was forced shut so they slowly cremated alive.
• Crush Blush: Li is constantly turning red around Jet. It boosts Jet's ego to find out that Li also blushes when thinking about him.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The Kuchisake-Onna versus a team of master Dai Li. She slaughtered them. Literally.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: In the midsts of a panic attack, Li leaves scorch marks on his chair despite him not being able to consciously firebend.
• Dead to Begin With: Professor Zei was killed when he was Buried Alive when the Wan Shi Tong's library flooded with sand. Despite that he becomes a Spirit Advisor to Li and teaches the intricacies of humanity to the Wan Shi Tong.
• Deal with the Devil: Li bargins with the Kuchisake-Onna to stop her from killing everyone when trapped in Lake Laogai. She wants her children's killer "burned alive burned to ashes" in exchange of stopping her rampage. She is too powerful for Li to even contemplate refusing.
• Death of a Child: Two children are found burned to death in the Potter's Guild community kiln. Which shakes Li and the rest of the Lower Ring to the core.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Katara accidentally scratched a girl to punish her for making fun of the blind Toph's looks. While the attack was a minor scratch, the Ba Sing Se upper crust considers it a grievous assault. A woman who lets her face get scars is considered a dishonorable woman and Qiao stands to lose her engagement and her family's reputation if it scars.
• Deuteragonist: Jet is effectively the second main character.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • Than and Ying invite Li to go to Ba Sing Se with them. Without considering that Ba Sing Se is strict with documentation and Li doesn't have a passport.
  • When Aang creates a bigger zoo, Jet has to break to him people and animals were hurt in the process and the space on which the zoo was built was used to farm.
  • Shanyuan thinks up of a plan of escaping on Appa. Without considering that he never flew before and that flying in the Air is the opposite of his element.
• Disability Superpower: Zenko is blind but is a powerful spirit capable of learning anything and can telepathically communicate with people when her eyes are open.
• Disproportionate Retribution: How Qiao and other Upper Ring folk see Katara's actions in Tales of Ba Sing Se. Qiao criticizes a girl's make-up. Instead of talking back, Katara scars her and nearly drowns her and her friends.
• Distinguishing Mark: Zuko/Li has a massive burn over his left eye. It's such a unique feature that Jet is able to immediately identify Li as Mushi's nephew when he tells him that his nephew had that specific burn scar.
• Distracted by the Sexy: When Jet first sees the Woman in White, he is completely entralled by her beauty. It takes Li's intervention to prevent Jet from being lured to his death.
• A Dog Named "Dog": The Knowledge Seeker fox Li rescues asks to be called Zenko. A fox called "good fox."
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Li steals a passport from an old man to enter Ba Sing Se. The old man is Iroh, and the passport is Zuko's.
  • The Wan Shi Tong willingly puts his trust into Li/Zuko despite Li being a firebender like the one who deliberately destroyed a wing of his library.
  • Jet, who has a strong and irrational hatred of the Fire Nation, befriends and becomes completely enamored with Li, who is both firebender and Fire Nation prince.
  • Despite Jet's past bigotry toward Fire Nation people, Jet was willing to let go of his prejudice and fairly judged Li based on his actions. Katara, who tries to be fair and judged Jet for his bigotry, attempts to preemptively kill Li despite that Li didn't do anything to her.
  • Li is all Iroh ever wanted from Zuko. A version of his nephew that finally gave up on his self-destructive desires to please his abusive father and tries to move with his life and be happier. The catch is that Li doesn't know how Iroh is to Zuko and already has a family.
• Dreaming of Times Gone By: Li subconsciously remembers his past in his dreams even if he doesn't remember them.
• Driven to Suicide: The Woman in White killed herself after her cheating lover disfigured her. Which is half the reason. She crossed the Despair Event Horizon when her lover took their young children and prevented her from seeing them.
• Dude, Not Funny!: Li is rather horrified that Professor Zei jokes about his own death.
• Dying as Yourself: Once the Kuchisake-Onna finally has her former lover punished for his crimes and is reunited with the spirits of her murdered children she reverts to the loving and kind mother she used to be.
• Easy Amnesia: Major concussive force to the head combined with heart and chest trauma led to Li to wake up with no memory of who he was.
• Entertainingly Wrong: After seeing Li cool a hot kiln and create ice, Shanyuan assumes that he's a waterbender.
• Ethereal White Dress: A beautiful but hostile ghost of woman who was betrayed by her lover and is haunting a canal near the Ba Sing Se University Library.
• Everyone Has Standards: Qiao is your average snooty and conceited Upper Ring citizen but when she's informed her betrothed drove his lover to suicide and murdered his children, she's devastated.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: Zigzagged with Zenko. Zenko is able to sense spiritual anomalies such as Joo Dee and the Woman in White before the prodigious Li could. However Zenko also growls whenever she's near Aang or Katara due to their betrayal of the Wan Shi Tong.
• Evil Is Petty: Despite abandoning the Woman in White to marry wealthier women, her lover disfigured her and took the children so she wouldn't move on.
• Exact Words: Li follows the Kuchisake-Onna's demands to the letter to avoid having to actually murder someone to fulfill them.
• Extremely Short Timespan: The Woman in White Arc takes over a span of 4 days in 40 chapters with the fourth day lasting over 30 chapters.
• Eyes Always Shut: Zenko's eyes are always closed unless she has to communicate with other people.
• Fate Worse than Death: Invoked by Li to get the Kuchisake-Onna's revenge on Hongqi without having to kill him.
• Fire Purifies: As opposed to the typical burning and destruction of Fire Nation firebending, Li's fire purifies whether its malevolent spirits or infection.
• Forbidden Fruit: After a career working in Ba Sing Se University and dodging persecution from the Dai Li, Professor Zei sees any information about the Fire Nation as this.
• Forceful Kiss: Jet surprises Li during a spar by kissing him on the lips. Jet ends up getting his nose broken for that.
• Foreshadowing: Katara lashes out at a group of rich girls, inflicts a small cut on one, and is surprised by the girl's hysterical reaction to the chance she might suffer from minor facial scarring. Annoyed, she comments she doesn't see the problem in a small scar, only to be tartly informed facial scars are a major social taboo in Ba Sing Se, and that little cut could very well have ruined the girl's life. That shows part of Hongqi's sheer depravity in giving his former lover a Glasgow Grin.
• The Four Loves: Li is initially far more stable and happier than Zuko was due to having the familial love of Than, Ying and Hope and the romantic love of Jet. Having a complete family unit and a love interest to form his support system helps Li adapt to Ba Sing Se better.
• Friend to All Children:
  • While Li is awkard and blunt Li adores children and children adore him back. Especially his baby adopted cousin Hope, who coos for Li's attention. Li breaks down into tears after finding the bodies of kiln children. He even braves the Kuchisake-Onna to protect the kiln children's spirits unless she calms her wrath.
  • Qiao adores children and considers them the only good thing about marriage.
• Friendly Rivalry: Jet and Li end up bonding over swordfighting. Heck, Jet wins Li over by offering a place for them to safely practice.

G-L

• The Gadfly: Jet loves to tease Li, especially since Li takes everything so seriously.
• Gallows Humor: Professor Zei thinks its rather funny to describe his own death by being Buried Alive just to see Li's reaction.
• Ghostly Chill: When the Woman in White appears its always cold. Most tellingly in her final appearance as the courtyard of the Potters' Guild is freezing despite the active kilns.
• Ghostly Goals: All the Kuchisake-Onna wants is revenge for her lover's betrayal, her disfigurement and her children's murders. She killed many people as a result of her haunting and only ceases when Li offers to avenge her. Li manages to put her to rest by reuniting her with the ghosts of her murdered children.
• Giftedly Bad: Li is absolutely terrible at pottery. It's so bad that even young children are better than him at pottery. As a result, he can't take up his adoptive family's Family Business and has to find work elsewhere.
• Gilligan Cut: At the end of chapter 51, Li pities whoever ends being hit by Shanyuan's vomit falling from Appa. The next chapter starts with Smellerbee being hit with said vomit.
• Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: After the emotionally draining events of the Woman in White Arc, Jet and Li get sexually intimate to affirm their strengthened bond and give some needed emotional and physical assurance.
• Good Samaritan: Than and Ying find the unconscious and injured Li alone in a ghost town. Out of the goodness of their hearts, they help Li and allow him to join them on their way to Ba Sing Se.
• Gossipy Hens: Jin is the self-proclaimed Gossip Queen of the Lower Ring. Jin likes to keep track of rumors and the goings on of the Lower Ring. To Jin's credit, she tries to make sure the gossip she spreads is close to the truth.
• Gray-and-Grey Morality: Jet is forced to realize the world is a huge, complicated mess when he learns an Earth Kingdom citizen gruesomely murdered his kids, the Kuchisake-Onna is very much justified in her desire for revenge and the Nice Guy he's crushing hard on is a firebender.
• Gut Feeling: While Jet doesn't realize Zenko's a spirit, he can tell that she's not a normal animal.
• Half-Breed Discrimination: While being physically mixed race doesn't bat any eyelashes, having the hated powers of the enemy will get one killed. Li and everyone who knows him has to keep Li's fire-bending a secret to avoid him getting killed. Tengfei casually mentions having to kill mixed-race children if they show signs of fire-bending.
• Happily Adopted: Than and Ying essentially adopt Li as their son and they're all pretty happy about it.
• Hard Truth Aesop: Aang wants to help the Dai Li with the Kuchisake-Onna due to his duty as Avatar. The rest of the Gaang refuse since the Dai Li are distracted, they can finally talk to the Earth King. Aang wants to do both, but has to learn that he can't save everyone and to keep his priorities in check.
• Harmful to Minors: Jet saw his family burn alive when the Rough Rhinos burned down his home.
• Has a Type: Jet has a thing for compassionate skilled fighters as seen in his attraction in first Katara and later Li.
• Heel Realization:
  • Jet realizes that his fellow Freedom Fighters were right to kick him out and the Gaang were right to stop him for attempting to wipe out a Fire Nation-occupied town.
  • Jet's worldview is turned on its head when Li, a fellow refugee and Jet's friend/crush, reveals to Jet that he's a firebender. Li knows of Jet's history and trauma with firebenders but refuses to lie to Jet. This forces Jet to recontextualize his past experiences with firebenders with new eyes. Jet realizes that firebenders are people, good and bad, instead of monsters.
• Hell Is That Noise: While crossing the desert, they hear a horrible screech which Li instantly recognizes as a fox.
• Heroes Gone Fishing: Li, Jet and Zenko go shopping to find nice scented soap.
• Heroic Bystander: Qiao rescues the greviously wounded Shanyuan by having her coach take him to her estate to be stabilized by her estate's healers.
• Hidden Depths: Jet is very patient and empathetic toward children. As leader of the Freedom Fighters, he had to act as father figure to the younger orphans to both keep them occupied and away from the more darker horrors of war.
• Hitodama Light: When the Woman in White is reunited with her murdered children, she looks like she's carrying two small balls of light.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Arresting Li for firebending nearly gets the Dai Li slaughtered because the Kuchisake-Onna travels through water. Their secret base is in a lake.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs:
  • "^{Spirit tales} Fairy tales were coming alive in his personal life and Than was not prepared to handle this."
  • "Jet called ^{bull-bearshit} bullshit"
  • "What by ^Koh's God's blue balls was that thing!?"
  • "How did anyone say 'no' to those ^{baby sparrowhawk eyes} puppy-dog eyes?"
  • "Because I'm a sly ^coyote-fox fox"
  • "Son of a ^batchfire bitch!"
• Honesty Is the Best Policy: Li makes a point of being honest and upfront with his feelings to the point that he's incapable of lying. Which works to his favor when he tells Jet that he's amnesiac and that he's a firebender because Jet knows that Li is being honest with him.
• Hormone-Addled Teenager: As romantically interested Jet is in Li, Jet also makes it clear that he wants to get into Li's pants.
• How Do I Shot Web?: Li has to relearn firebending from the ground up and struggles to do so.
• Humans Are Bastards: Despite being back-stabbed twice by humans, the Wan Shi Tong still treats Li and Professor Zei with fairness and acknowledgement for their skills. To be fair, they are both giving the Wan Shi Tong new knowledge and he reciprocates by treating them more fairly. The Wan Shi Tong still hates humans otherwise.
• Humans Through Alien Eyes: Zenko, a kitsune Knowledge Seeker only had a passing interest in humans until she met Li. When the story switches to her point of view, Zenko is fascinated and weirded out by humanity. She likes babies and Li because they seek out new knowledge like her but doesn't understand why so much time is spent in sleeping.
• Hyper-Awareness: Jet is really good at reading people's body language and facial cues which helps him figure out when someone is being truthful or not. This helps him determine that no, Li really is telling the truth about being amnesiac.
• Hypocrite: Katara is called out as one by Jet. she preached about not judging people for where they come from or who they are. But she nearly kills Li for something he no longer is.
• Hypocrite Has a Point: To be fair to Katara, Zuko is still pretty dangerous and being hunted down by him for two years doesn't go away just because he changed.
• I Am Who?: Li is a refugee trying to make a new life for himself. He is rather horrified to discover he's the amnesiac Fire Prince Zuko.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Katara feels justified in encasing Li's head in a block of ice because the last time she forgot to, he kicked her ass and successfully kidnapped Aang.
• I Gave My Word:
  • Li promised the Wan Shi Tong that he would protect Zenko in both body and mind. When the Kuchisake-Onna attacks them, Li banishes Zenko back to the Wan Shi Tong to avoid harm.
  • Li also vowed to the Wan Shi Tong that he would learn the lost art of Phoenix-style firebending and become a Fire Sage.
• I Know Your True Name: Spirits become more powerful when they are named. For example, Zenko gains her third tail when she gives Li her name.
• I'm Having Soul Pains: Li constantly has headaches due to his subconscious trying to remember. However when he remembers something traumatizing he has an anxiety attack.
• I Need to Go Iron My Dog: Li attempts to get out of escorting Toph back to the Upper Ring by claiming that he needs to give Zenko a bath. Zenko smacks him with her tails for implying that she's dirty.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
  • Iroh loves his nephew so much that he doesn't tell Li of his past or their relationship so Li could keep his new, happier life in Ba Sing Se despite Iroh effectively losing a second child.
  • When Jet didn't respond at after Li reveals the truth of him being a firebender, Li took it as rejection. Li accepts the rejection and tells him that he understands why. Li would have left Jet alone despite how much Li loved him.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Poor Ying is always just outside of Ba Sing Se when she gives birth.
  • Li still goes on a date (with Jet instead of Jin) that still ends badly.
  • The Tales of Ba Sing Se happen off-screen with direct consequences within story.
• Ignored Epiphany: Jet realized that his past actions were wrong and the Freedom Fighters were right to kick him out. He initially ignores it to focus how he lost his found family and the last piece of home he had.
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: Li badly lies that he's not a bad liar.
• Insistent Terminology: Because Li isn't his actual name, the Wan Shi Tong refers him as "Human called Li."
• Internalized Categorism: Due to having family and friends who lost everything to the Fire Nation, Li is initially horrified to find out that he's a firebender.
• It's a Small World, After All: All roads lead to Ba Sing Se as they call it since Jet, Li, Roulan, Mushi, Jin, Than, Ying all meet in the Lower Ring of Ba Sing Se.
• It's All About Me: Implied with Hongqi. He's fine with dumping with his mistress, but disfigures her so she wouldn't dare move from him. Hongqi even murders his children without remorse so he could marry better.
• Jerkass Has a Point: As rude Pao was to Li, he did have the right to kick Li out of his tea shop for bringing in an animal.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Hongqi abandons his mistress, who's the mother of his children, disfigures her so she wouldn't remarry and emotionally destroys her by taking their children. Prevented from seeing her own children, the mistress commits suicide. Hongqi gets away with it completely due to no one knowing the existence of his mistress and children. His luck finally runs out when he murders his children by burning them to death in order to marry an aristocratic girl. The horrific murders not only attract the attention of Li and the Dai Li but empowers the mistress' spirit with enough hatred to become the powerful Kuchisake-Onna. As the Kuchisake-Onna she slaughters so many people that it engineers his downfall as his punishment is the only way to appease her. Li unpersons him and disfigures him. Then the Dai Li arrest him in front of his parents for his crimes.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Professor Zei is ecstatic that the Wan Shi Tong wants Zei to publish his knowledge of anthropology and teach him everything he knows.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Jet serves as one to Li during the Woman in White Arc, which helps Li from falling into fear and despair through the Kuchisake-Onna's presence.
• Literal-Minded: Jet asks Li on a date by offering to get some grub. Li is disgusted thinking Jet wants to get fly maggots until Jet clarifies that he meant food.
• Logical Weakness:
  • Exploited. Katara blocks Li's airways by encasing his head in ice since firebending is dependent on breath control.
  • Due to originally being a Woman in White, the Kuchisake-Onna is only capable enthralling people attracted to women. She fails to enthrall Jin due to the latter's heterosexuality.
• Love at First Sight: Jet admits to liking Li the first moment he saw him. Although he fell in actual love the more he got to know Li.
• Loving Details: Li starts carrying a piece of straw for Jet just because he knows how irritated Jet gets without something to chew on.
• Luminescent Blush: Li tends to blush when Jet flirts with him.

M-Z

• Magical Incantation: Spells are used to deal with spirits. Li finds books with spells in the library of Ba Sing Se University but they are poorly crafted.
• Magnetic Medium:
  • Spirits flock to Li due to his spiritual sensitivity and lineage as great-grandson to Avatar Roku.
  • Spiritually strong people are called Naturals among the Dai Li and very sought out.
• Mama Bear:
  • Discussed as Zenko and the Wan Shi Tong are wary of crossing mothers, who would frequently stop at nothing to destroy anything that harmed their child.
  • Their fears are completely justified as shown with the Kuchisake-Onna. No one, not even the Dai Li could stop her in her revenge for her murdered children.
• Master Swordsman: Li still has his sword skills.
• Maternity Crisis: Ying goes into labor on the ferry to Ba Sing Se.
• Meaningful Name: According to Li, his name is spelled with the characters "to stand" or "establish." Fitting for someone trying to start a new life.
• The Medic: Roulan, a herbalist, who midwifes for Ying and gives medical advice for Li.
• Metaphorically True:
  • Than is being truthful that his sister had a relationship with a Fire Nation soldier. Than just leaves out that the relationship was consensual and said soldier was a woman.
  • Iroh employs this heavily with Jet, who can tell when people are lying. to tell him Li's backstory without revealing the entire truth. Iroh tells Jet that Li is wanted for treason for helping the Avatar, has been hunted down and nearly killed by Fire Princess Azula and is the Blue Spirit. He just leaves out that Li is Prince Zuko.
• Mind-Control Eyes: Jin describes the hypnotized Li's as glazed over.
• Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Investigating a haunting —> Stopping a powerful and murderous spirit by uncovering her adulterous and child-murdering former lover.
• Minor Injury Overreaction: Qiao treats the scratch Katara gave her as a horrific facial disfigurement. A high-class woman having facial scars is treated as a massive dishonor on the woman's family and the family she marries into. Had Qiao scarred, her fiancee would be in his rights to dump her which could disgrace her family.
• Missed Him by That Much:
  • Li and Zenko unwittingly robs Iroh and the Gaang of his own passport while they slept. Had anyone been keeping watch they would have reunited Zuko and Iroh much sooner.
  • Due to Roulan's recommendation Li visits Pao's Teahouse where unbeknownst to him, where Iroh works. Only for Li to get kicked out and miss Iroh entirely due to bringing Zenko, a fox inside.
• Mission from God: Li is tasked from the the Wan Shi Tong to rediscover the lost firebending style Dance of the Phoenix and become a Fire Sage. A mission from a Great Spirit is such a big deal that not even the Dai Li want to get in Li's way.
• Moral Myopia: Katara believes its perfectly fine to think Li and Jet are evil and irredeemable but has a problem when people don't want to be near her for attacking an innocent person in public.
• Muggle–Mage Romance: Nonbender Jet with the firebending Li.
• Mundane Utility: Ying looks forward to not having to spend money on firewood once Li regains confidence with his firebending.
• Murder Into Malevolence: The Woman in White was a beautiful woman who fell in love with a much wealthier upper-class man and started a family with him. However he wanted to marry wealthier women so he drove her to commit suicide to get rid of her. At first, she only killed people who cheated on their loved ones. When her children are murdered, she starts killing anyone that crosses her path.
• Must Have Caffeine: Jet and Li want their Yerba Matte tea.
• Mythical Motifs: Li is associated with the phoenix to represent his new life created from the destruction of his old one.
• Mystical Plague: A mysterious cholera-esque epidemic begins to spread in the Lower rings without cause through water. The plague is halted through the boiling of water. It turns out to be the Kuchisake-Onna's curse. And her rotting corpse.
• Name Amnesia: Li didn't know his own name when he woke up.
• Named by the Adaptation: Tengfei is the Dai Li agent that in the show was intimidated by Azula and later interrogated by the Gaang to try to find Katara.
• Nephewism: Than and Ying call Li Than's nephew by Than's sister to explain away his differing appearance and why he's traveling with them.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Katara attacks Li not realizing the well was contaminated by the Kuchisake-Onna and screams out his true identity. Which not only gets Li arrested but allows the Kuchisake-Onna to latch onto Li and become far more powerful when he's taken to Lake Laogai. Directly resulting in several deaths.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished" Invoked when Jet learns that the Kuchisake-Onna's unfaithful and murderous lover was the son of his boss. He states that he now has to quit his job.
• No OSHA Compliance: To Li's annoyance, the Ba Sing Se University Library doesn't have any ladders due it being designed for earthbenders who would lift themselves with the stone flooring.
• Not a Morning Person: Inverted, Li rises with the sun.
• Nobility Marries Money: Qiao is descended from aristocrats who run Ba Sing Se's First Bank. While her fiancee's father became rich through delivering food from the Lower Rings to the rich.
• Occult Blue Eyes: Zenko, a kitsune has light blue slightless eyes. This is show Zenko's supernatural nature as Zenko is as intelligent as a person despite her animal appearance.
• Offing the Offspring: The backstory of the Kuchisake-Onna: her lover leaves her to marry other, more wealthy women but he disfigures her and takes her young children just so she won't move on from him. Then her lover murders her children to be free of them.
• Oh, Crap!: Katara is terrified when she finds out that Li and his "pet" fox work/under the protection of the Wan Shi Tong... who has a massive, and what's worse, entirely justified, grudge against the Gaang.
• Oh, My Gods!: Fire Nation people swear by Agni like other fics but Earth Kingdom migrants swear by Oma and Shu while Ba Sing Se natives swear by Yu Huang (the Jade Emperor).
• Old Cop, Young Cop: Tengfei is the serious no-nonsense master Dai Li while Shanyuan is the excitable and naive Apprentice.
• Omniscient Morality License: Deconstructed. Aang and Sokka's theft of information from the Wan Shi Tong leads the spirit and all of his House to declare the Avatar an oathbreaker and thief, and Katara's attacking a group of rich girls is shown to be a disproportionately petty and vicious assault.
• Panicky Expectant Father: Averted, Than remains calms while Ying gives birth . Li, on the other hand, was on the verge of a panic attack.
• Pater Familicide: The Kuchisake-Onna's lover drove her to suicide and then burned his children alive.
• Pent-Up Power Peril: Benders must use their element as often as possible or risk endangering their health if they won't/are unable to. Than and Ying worry about Li's longterm health since he couldn't firebend and Roulan is grateful for being a nonbender.
• Perception Filter: Unless someone is spiritually strong, people tend to see Zenko as a normal animal.
• Persecuted Intellectuals: Many of Professor Zei's students were disappeared by the Dai Li with Professor Zei fleeing to make his fateful trip to the Wan Shi Tong Library before the Dai Li caught him.
• Person with the Clothing: A beautiful but hostile ghost of woman who was betrayed by her lover is called the Woman in White while haunting a canal near the Ba Sing Se University Library.
• Pet the Dog: The Wan Shi Tong gives Professor Zei a position in the his library in exchange for Zei's knowledge about the human condition. Considering Zei's history with Dai Li censorship and how he died to stay, it's a surprisingly sweet gesture.
• Plausible Deniability:
  • So he wouldn't be forced to arrest Li, Tengfei focused on Li cooling a hot kiln and making ice and deliberately ignoring the sparks of flame Li created.
  • Again, Jet has Cheng collaborate that Li has only cooled things when around them.
• The Pollyanna: Being dead isn't enough to get Professor Zei down. His cheerfulness disturbs Li.
• The Power of Hate: The Woman in White stayed out of hatred for her ex-lover. After her children are murdered, her hatred transformed her into a Kuchisake-Onna which made her so powerful that not even several master Dai Li could stop her.
• Pragmatic Hero: While Qiao saved Shanyuan because it was the right thing to do, it helped that it would have the Dai Li owe her and make clear that she had nothing to do with the attacker who was her fiancee.
• Privilege Makes You Evil: Hongqi is the son of a kind and wealthy Upper Ring merchant. He disfigures his mistress and drove her to suicide by taking her children. Then he horrifically murders said children.
• Proud Scholar Race: The Knowledge Seekers literally live to find any new knowledge on behalf of the Wan Shi Tong. Li even goes out of his way to experience new things to not deprive Zenko of new things to learn.
• Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: Katara is invoked as one on two separate times:
  • Jet hides himself and Li when he spots Katara due to the terrible circumstances of their break-up. After Katara attacks an unarmed Li, Jet definitely sees Katara as psycho and hypocritical.
  • Li tells Jin that Katara is his boyfriend's ex to excuse why he doesn't want to go near her or be seen by her.
• Psychosomatic Super Power Outage: What prevents Li figuring out that he was a firebender is that he's not angry. Without Zuko's anger to power his bending, Li is forced to start from scratch which helps in rediscovering a lost form of firebending.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Tengfei is a veteran Dai Li who's very fatherly to his apprentice and refuses to bring work on his days off. However as a veteran Dai Li, he has been part and party to different atrocities and intellectual suppression. Tengfel casually mentions in his internal monologue the murder of biracial firebending children and the disappearing of liberal intellectuals. He even expresses annoyance over Professor Zei's successful escape.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Li pleads with his eyes when he seriously asks Jet not to go near the murderous Woman in White. Jet wonders how people ever refused Li when he gives the "baby sparrowhawk eyes."
• Pygmalion Snapback: Discussed. After Li's true identity is revealed, Jet still isn't afraid of what Li could do. But he is afraid of what Prince Zuko would do.
• Rage Breaking Point: Zenko attempts to steal Li's hat to tease him. But Li just had a very long couple of days...
  Li: I can't remember anything about my life before a few days ago. I woke up with just my dao, my bag of supplies, the clothes on my back, and that hat. I saved your life, the least you can do is give me back my hat.
• Refusal of the Call: Zenko knows someone is going to eventually teach Aang how to astral project for his Avatar training. What she also knows that it's not going to be her because she hates Aang for breaking his oath with the Wan Shi Tong, her master.
• Revenge Before Reason: While Katara had understandable reasons to be suspicious of Li, she should have chosen a more discrete method of dealing with him.
• Rock Bottom: Where Li is at the beginning. He lost his family, his friends, his name, his memory, everything. Li woke up only with his dao, his pack, the clothes on back and his ostrich horse.
• Screaming Birth: Yin is infamous in the Lower Ring for her intense labor on the Ba Sing Se ferry.
• Secret Other Family: The Kuchisake-Onna and her murdered children are implied to be this. No records of them exist so Hongqi got rid of them without anyone knowing.
• Sexy Soaked Shirt: Jet is pretty damn happy to see Li's robes cling to him after getting wet in the rain.
• Socially Awkward Hero: Li is still as bad at coming off as friendly.
• Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: To Long Feng's annoyance, Li is not a Fire Nation spy but a refugee who happens to be a firebender.
• Shoo the Dog: Knowing that Zenko doesn't stand a chance against the Kuchisake-Onna and he is unable to protect her, Li banishes Zenko back to the Wan Shi Tong's library.
• Shout-Out: To Revenge of the Sith during Jet and Li's first sparring in which Jet mentally brags about having the higher ground right before Li kicks him in the gut.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: The reason that Li and Jet have a mutual attraction to each other.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Li shows how he grew around sailors for three years through his colorful swears:
  Li: Fuck your skinny ass with a maggoty daikon radish, Jet!
• Siren Song: The Woman in White is the ghost of a woman who committed suicide through drowning. She lures victims through her beauty and soothing voice and then drowns them.
• The Social Expert: Jet is able to read the personalities and motives of people around him. Which made him a great leader and helps him integrate into Ba Sing Se. He even wins Li over as a friend by taking back his invitation to the Freedom Fighters by showing understanding that Li would want to stay with his adoptive family and to Li's desire to practice his swords.
• Soul Jar: Zenko's starball or hoishi tama contains her very being. Which places her in danger when she was separated from it in her first meeting with Li.
• Special Person, Normal Name: People are weirded out when the scarred, obviously Spirit-touched person traveling with an exotic animal has the rather boring name of Li. A common name for an uncommon person as Ying calls it.
• Spider-Sense: Li has an innate sense of danger. It can be simple as knowing when food is spoiled or as complex as knowing what kind of dangerous spirit is haunting him.
• Spirit Advisor:
  • Zenko takes Li to get advice from Professor Zei for advice on the Woman in White. While Zei fails to give Li the advice he sought, Li does leave more enlightened about the Wan Shi Tong's past history with the Gaang.
  • Zei ends up being to Zenko and the Wan Shi Tong as he informs them on human-based spirits and gives them insight on humanity's workings.
• Spotting the Thread: Jet knows that Li is Mushi's lost nephew and is told by Li himself that Li's a firebender. Jet realizes that Mushi must also be a firebender since he doesn't use firewood to make tea and bending ability runs in families.
• Squee: Jin and Li have a blast flying on Appa while escaping Lake Laogai.
• The Stations of the Canon: Defied, the story has marched to its own beat since The Chase and hasn't looked back since.
• Starting a New Life: After losing his identity and memories, Li goes to Ba Sing Se to start over. Unlike canon, Li does find genuine satisfaction in Ba Sing Se due to his new family and friends. However his past catches up to him and the Spirits won't leave him alone.
• Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl: The Woman in White/Kuchisake-Onna is an onryo who was driven to suicide and killed many innocent people in the Lower and Middle Rings of Ba Sing Se due to being unable to reach the one who wronged her. Although she is well-kept and beautiful despite her deformed mouth.
• Supernatural Aid: As part of his Bargain with Heaven with Li, the Wan Shi Tong will give Li any information he requests as long it helps him further the pursuit of rediscovering Phoenix-style firebending or would help him and Zenko protect themselves.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Li's eye color helps Than and Ying immediately realize that he's Fire Nation and probably a bender.
• Sympathy for the Hero: After Li helps her find justice and reunite her with the souls of her murdered children, she shows sympathy for him and warns him when touching his burn scar:
  I did not lie firebird. You will never find peace so long as the person who did this lives.
• Talking the Monster to Death: Since the Kuchisake-Onna is too powerful to fight or subdue, Li stops her rampage by talking to her and get revenge on her behalf.
• Think Nothing of It: As opposed to most humans who would have held her starball hostage, Li gave it back to Zenko. He never brings it up again and doesn't understand the magnitude of his act.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Iroh remarks that it's going to be a long day when he sees Li in a depressed state and Jet avoiding Li.
• This Is My Human: Justified as Zenko is a kitsune and Knowledge Seeker belonging to Wan Shi Tong. So Zenko is not Li's pet, Li is her person.
• The Tease: Jet enjoys making Li flustered and embarrassed to catch Li's attention or rile him up. Which he frequently does through flirting or deliberately talking about their usual activities very out of context.
• To Be Lawful or Good: Tengfei is duty-bound as a Dai Li to turn in Li for suspected Fire Nation connections. On the other hand since Li is under the protection of the Wan Shi Tong, doing so might put the entirety of Ba Sing Se on a powerful spirit's shitlist. Tengfei choose not to act and defends himself with his reasoning.
• Token Heroic Orc:
  • Tengfei and Shanyuan are Dai Li who are concerned with protecting the city from malicious spirits and malicious people.
  • Jet considers Li and Mushi to be this as they are non-malicious firebenders.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: Li is far optimistic and positive thanks due to having the emotional support of a full family and several friends making Ba Sing Se more bearable.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Without his obsession with the Fire Nation guiding him, Jet is far more empathetic than he was in canon.
• Training the Gift of Magic: Li has to rediscover a lost form of firebending which means relearning everything from the ground up.
• Trauma Button:
  • Li has a panic attack when Jet touches the scarred side of his face due to subconsciously remembering his father's attack.
  • Jin nearly freaks out when told that someone deliberately burned their children alive due to her own memories of Fire Nation attacks at the Outer Wall.
• True Sight: Spiritually strong people can see spirits and ghosts. How much a person can see can vary on scale with Muggles, who can't see any spirits at all on the lower end. Jet, who can sense spirits but cannot see past a spirit's disguise, being in the middle and Li and the Dai Li, who can see and interact with spirits as they actually are, on the far end.
• Tsundere: Li is rude and blunt to Jet at first but becomes sweeter and open with him after knowing Jet better.
• Undead Tax Exemption: Li is invited by Than and Ying to go to Ba Sing Se with them. Only to hit a major snag with they realize that the immigration processing center won't accept anyone without documentation. Li doesn't even have a passport.
• The Unsmile: Li and Zenko were already unsettled by the Joo Dee's presence. When she smiled, it was so terrifying they nearly attacked her.
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Li doesn't tell Jet, Jin or Shanyuan of his plan to exorcise the Kuchisake-Onna, mostly because he's making it up as he goes along.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The noblewoman Qiao^note one of the rich girls who made fun of Toph in Tales of Ba Sing Se. She unintentionally sets off the Woman in White arc by getting engaged to the Woman in White's lover. To be free to marry her, the lover drove the Woman in White to suicide and murdered her children.
• Weirdness Magnet: Invoked by Jet, who tries to cheer Mushi up by pointing out that trouble-magnets like his lost nephew are found when they follow the trouble.
• What If?: In canon when Azula ambushed Zuko, he broke through the wall when thrown against it. Here, the wall held and Azula was able to strike him with a lightning blast to the heart. Thinking Zuko was dead, she left him there and turned her attention to the Gaang and Iroh, forcing them to flee. Left for dead with head and heart trauma, Zuko lost consciousness.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Li is horrified when he finds that the Gaang betrayed the Wan Shi Tong caused Professor Zei to die as result. He doesn't why they betrayed the trust of a neutral party instead of making efforts to win the Wan Shi Tong as an ally.
  • Right after Katara threw Qiao and her two friends into the canal, Dai Li Shenyuan was quite incensed and pointedly announced her no one amongst these girls knows how to swim.
  • Jet is astounded and disappointed that Aang accidentally left Li to die.
  • Jet calls Katara out for letting her hatred drive her to attack an innocent Li. Especially since Katara previously called Jet out for doing the same thing.
• When She Smiles: Iroh is stunned when he sees his dour and bitter nephew smile. Especially since Iroh feared that Zuko would never smile again.
• Will-o'-Wisp: Li's soul takes the form of a delicate orange ball of light when Zenko has him astral project.
• Working-Class Hero: While Jet is charismatic, witty and charming, he's barely literate and worries about keeping himself and his friends sheltered and fed.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Li is forced to start from Rock Bottom, having no memory and few worldly possessions. Li gets adopted by fellow refugees, becomes part of a loving family and is able to be happy in Ba Sing Se. It doesn't stay for long due to the Woman in White and the Dai Li.
• You Look Like You've Seen a Ghost: Professor Zei says this word for word after he deliberately creeps out Li by describing his death.