Note: The announcement at the end of it has been changed, but some of it has been left around to showcase some of my feelings about the ending.
The chapter is titled "Volcano Day Part 1," but while the Volcano Day arc seems to go on for a few chapters, the title isn't continued.
Katara says that getting the Gaang up together is difficult because of their differing sleep schedules. Zuko says they should beat the hordes of tourists, but Katara believes getting a good night's sleep is more important.
Aang is the most excited because of his love of new things, while Sokka and Katara are less excited and Toph is quite reluctant. Toph stays in bed through breakfast, forcing Aang to get her something to eat; a hastily made "five jam sandwich," with all five jams included in the hopes of getting the one Toph likes.
The Gaang reaches their first destination, Port Ember, but before they can reach their final destination, Mount Ember, they must reach Equinox Bay, which is 30 minutes away by train or an hour by ferry.
At this point, you might be wondering what trains are doing in ATLA, although I do recall a train in The Lost Adventures. Katara shares the sentiment, saying that they don't have any earthbenders to work the trams like in Ba Sing Se. Zuko says that steam powers the train, and Sokka gives some Techno Babble that Katara doesn't pay attention to.
Katara, not having seen a train engine before, is reminded of "The Drill" (finally a reference to that episode), but finds it less intimidating because it looks "clunky." She then notices the passenger carriages, which she doesn't believe are enough to serve everyone. Zuko takes the opportunity to say that this is why he insisted on going early, and Aang becomes quite restless and impatient while waiting in line. But only one person has to wait in line, so Zuko takes the task.
Katara notices some kids, with one boy who looks like Aang saying he "bags the bench," while a taller girl tells him not to do that with every seat, and the tallest girl tells them both to behave, leading Katara to wonder if they are siblings and the tallest girl is also the eldest.
Suki and Sokka have prepared for a wait, taking along Kyoshi's autobiography and Yangchen's book of days, respectively. So Katara has to keep Aang and Toph entertained without bending, lest they run into problems that make their current ones seem small.
Toph loudly complains about how the Fire Nation is Fascist, but Inefficient, and the boy agrees, saying he's been there for three weeks and they've been running into problems like this ever since they got there.
The boy introduces himself, saying he's Rozin, and the girl who looks like his sister is Rei. Rei is apparently learning how to be a firebender, but for some reason, has to keep that secret.
Toph and Katara introduce themselves, and Aang, wanting to avoid being discovered because of his famous name, uses the Kuzon alias again. One would think Katara and Toph are names unique to the Water Tribes and Earth Kingdom. The three Gaang members introduce themselves as being from the colonies, and Rozin is pleased to meet them, wanting to meet colonial kids. He says he's from Oyster Bay, brings up a slang term for the Fire Nation ("Old Smokey", although it seems strange for the colonists to have slang for their country), and asks which colony the Gaang is from.
Katara has an "Oh bollocks" moment, realizing that outside of the Fire Nation, and even among citizens from the Fire Nation homeland, they don't distinguish between the colonies. But the colonists do, and Katara can't think of a name. She then thinks back to her encounter with Jet, and remembers the town of Gaipan.
Rozin accepts the answer, saying that it's a logging town, and that his town is a wine town, where his mom bought a lot of wine for her relatives. While it seems likely that one industry would be predominant in a town's economy, it doesn't seem like it would be the only thing or the identifying part.
Rozin asks the others if they got a letter from relatives in the Fire Nation, out of the blue. Rozin, not expecting an answer from them, proceeds with his story; his mother had a falling out with her father over marrying Rozin's father, but then gets messenger hawks asking them to come back and bring the family, with 30 gold pieces for passage. So there they are, trying to make friends with their "poffy" cousins. He concludes they use different slang where they're from, and says the term refers to snotty individuals. Katara, thinking of Zuko, doesn't like this, and Rozin's surprised they found a nice one, since most of them are aloof to those they realize are from the colonies. He makes a comical disdainful face that Aang and Katara laugh at. When Toph doesn't respond, Rozin is surprised, but soon realizes that she's blind and feels like a jerk.
Rena then arrives and tells Rozin to stop bothering the nice people. But both parties reassure her that it's good to speak with other colonials, so Rena is mollified. Rena agrees with the sentiment, having been in an argument with a mainlander over her position in the queue.
Rena complains that the infrastructure has been messed up since the invasion in "The Day of the Black Sun." Rena recounts it, doing a poor imitation of Water Tribe accents and dismissing the plan as a foolish one. Katara and Sokka clearly want to protest the former and latter points, respectively, but refrain from doing so in order to not blow their covers.
Back at Ember Island, the harbor was being locked down, and the mainlanders had begun freaking out. Rumors spread about Ozai allowing the invasion to happen, and killing Iroh and Zuko by making them "disappear" as he did with many others. Katara's disturbed, wondering if the fact that Ursa disappeared means that she's dead. More rumors went around claiming that the Avatar led the invasion, and Ozai hid from Aang. Only the threat of imprisonment quells the rumors.
The chaos threw the transports in disarray, which, combined with a transport cancellation forcing them to take the long way, and delayed Rena and her family from getting to the island.
But Rena has another story. At the train station, there is normally a "rhino bus", which Rena says they should know about, pulled by kimodo rhinos, but the rhinos were called away to help clean the city. So when Rena's family boarded the bus, only to find out that it wouldn't be running again until tomorrow, the mainlanders remained calm while the colonials freaked out.
Rena's mother decides not to wait another day, so she decides to follow. Several other mainlanders get the same idea, pretending that they're on a bus and even having the two "drivers" compete with each other.
Katara reassures Rena that there are nice mainlanders, like Zuko (whom she doesn't refer to by name).
Aang, despite using a false name, is honest about his reason to go to the volcano- learning firebending. Rena says the group is doing this for Rei, who appears somewhat embarrassed about this. According to Rena's book, firebenders are meant to meditate on the volcano, and "play with lava". Rena's skeptical, but decides to go up there for the good restaurant, and to support her sister.
Rei is, for some reason, insistent on doing this by herself, but Rena says it will be more fun for all of them, and invites her new friends to come along and spend an "arvo," or afternoon, together. Zuko then arrives. Rei gasps at his scar, much to his discomfort. Rena recognizes him, and it turns out that he was the mainlander she had a run-in with in the queue (so much for using Zuko as an example of a good mainlander). Zuko reluctantly accepts their coming along.
The Gaang and the kids, whom I will call The Three Rs, board the train. There's a scramble, and because of how crowded it is, some of them have to sit on others' laps. Zuko and Katara sit together, but wind up with Toph and Aang in their laps, much to Katara's displeasure. Rei stands up to hold onto a bar, and Zuko plans on following suit, but is vetoed by Toph, who's playing "slappy clappy" with Rozin.
Rena passes around some wine gummies and asks the Gaang why they're here, causing them to realize that they'll need a story. Aang says they're all colonists and are staying with Zuko, who's their cousin. Perhaps it would be a better idea to have one person designated as the storyteller, lest they run the riisk of their accounts contradicting each other.
Aang borrows from Rena's story, mentioning the surprise letter, and lies so confidently that it impresses Katara.
Rena finds it strange that so many colonials are getting summoned by their families, and finds it annoying that mainlanders demand their colonial relatives drop everything and visit. Rei, however, doesn't like the remarks made about their aunt and uncle, but Rena implies that she's still upset over something the mainlanders said to Rei in the capital.
Aang's story, however, runs into a problem when Rozin says he saw Suki and Sokka kissing, and wonders why they would do that if they're cousins. Aang says that they are boyfriend and girlfriend, and he used the term "cousin" for simplicity's sake (Interestingly enough, while people talk about their parents-, children- and siblings-in law, they don't seem to mention cousins' spouses much).
Rena, in an attempt to change the subject, asks Rei about what the guide book says about the volcano. She says the Mount Ember Temple is quite popular, and that while there is a hike up the mountain, there's also a cable car. Rei, whether because of liking hiking or wanting to ditch her siblings, opts to go for the hike while the others use the cable car, but Rena shoots down the plan. On the other side of the spectrum, Aang is disappointed that they'll have to do the hike. As a way of compromise, Aang gets to do the cable car on the way back, even though Sokka doesn't like the cable cars. It's mentioned that Zuko knows the way, having been here before.
Rei shyly asks a question, with Katara encouraging her to speak up. She asks about Aang and Zuko's firebending experience, and they tell the truth; Aang has been doing it for a few months, and Zuko has been doing it for as long as he can remember. Rei says that she, a self-taught firebender, has been struggling with the blocks for a few months, and has not made any progress. Aang, in a poorly thought out attempt to console her, says the blocks are easy, and he got his in a few days (one of the few times that he actually gets something quickly in this fic. Katara smacks Aang on the back of the head, and Aang admits that he has a good teacher; perhaps that's the difference between Aang and Rei. Zuko offers to help Rei out, cheering her up.
The train reaches its stop and the Gaang diverges from the crowd heading to the cable car to take the path up the mountain. Rozin, curious and impressed about how well Toph is walking, asks how she can do it without a cane or dog, an interesting insight into how Toph can "see" much more than most blind people, but not as much as a sighted people. Toph says it's from sonic pulses from her mouth, and lets off "an ungodly scream to demonstrate." Toph then, over the others' objections, agrees to Rozin's request to do it again.
That's all I felt like doing.
What I liked
- Toph's sonic wave.
What I didn't like
- The excessive amount of in universe slang.
- The stories didn't really go anywhere.
- The start of yet another long filler arc.
I decided to go on a long hiatus for a few reasons.
Firstly, this is becoming more and more blatantly a Fix Fic. The author openly professes a desire to "fix" canon, and in the last chapter of NSFLZ, an epilogue containing where she hopes the Gaang, their allies and their former enemies will end up in the future, she repeatedly makes derisive references to the comics and Legend of Korra. For example, she says "In my head canon, Aang is not the last air bender, nor does he pass such a terrible legacy onto his son."
Regarding the first point, what about the subtitle of the series, "The Last Airbender," which, as a result of James Cameron's Avatar, was the only part of the title used in M. Night Shyalaman's half-baked film adaptation of the series? The author would have us believe that the spirits can restore the balance, but when a megalomaniacal and not particularly bright Fire Nation admiral killed the Moon Spirit, it took a special person's Heroic Sacrifice to save it.
Regarding the second point, Aang had three kids, with Tenzin, the youngest, being the Airbender of the family. I have to wonder- if it took three children for Katara to have one who could airbend, how many more would it take to have a second child? The author seems to be second-guessing Aang's decisions based on information that no one could possibly know again.
The second reason is the bits of fanon and reinterpretations of the canon. Among them are:
- Ursa was Toph's nanny and ended up as a Joo Dee. I know Ursa's decision in "The Search" was controversial (of course, a lot of things in ATLA are), but this is a bit too contrived.
- Jet is apparently alive.
- Mai's parents actually cared for her, and had difficulty showing it. That's giving them too much credit.
The third reason is that I looked ahead to the ending. To put a long story short, after over 800,000 words and developing romance between Zuko and Katara, Katara concludes that even though their future is uncertain, she loves Zuko and she's fairly confident that he feels the same way. They don't marry. They don't have sex. They don't kiss. They don't even openly express their love or become a couple. As far as the baseball analogy goes, Zutara hasn't even hit the ball yet, while in canon, Kataang got at least three home runs offscreen, so to speak.
Some people complain about how nothing happens once a couple gets together, but this is something else entirely; Zuko and Katara haven't even admitted their love. Fanfiction allowed the author to tell a version of Avatar in which Katara and Zuko fall in love, so perhaps it would not have been too much of an extension to have them openly admit that love, court each other, marry, and even have children. It would have made for a potentially good fanfic.
Perhaps this may sound a little harsh. But if the author feels as though she has the right to say how canon should have gone, I feel as though I can share my two cents on where her fanfic should have gone.
The fourth and final reason is that I no longer feel like going on such a long journey through the hundreds of words of the rest of the fic, especially if this ends up going nowhere. The extraneous bits and pieces will continue in the week leading up to Sozin's Comet's arrival, and continue again after peace returns. The long authors' notes contribute to the problem.
But it hasn't been entirely bad. In seeing the author's notes, I've gotten into the mindset of someone who reinterprets and adds to canon, and it's also helped me gain insights into my own processes. How do you flesh out a past that was only hinted at in canon? How do you give depth to a minor character, or portray one who's open to interpretations? I fault many of the author's conclusions, but I have also come to understand how she came to them, and how to expand on canon in a good way. This is all fairly relevant to me as a writer of fan fiction, so while I don't think I can go on any longer, I've learned a great deal thus far.
So, with that, I decided to take a few months off, but now I'm back, hopefully for good this time. This is one of my longst and most ambitious projets, and I hope to see it through to the end.
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