Wikibending
is an Avatar: The Last Airbender fanfic by KingoftheUzbeks featuring fictional in-universe Wikipedia articles about various topics including leaders, conflicts, and major events. Each chapter stands on its own, but there is internal consistency.
This fanfic provides examples of:
- Acceptable Breaks from Canon: Azula’s biography changes some details from the post-ATLA comics, making no mention of Azula being released to help find Ursa nor her pretending to be the Kemurikage. Instead, she remained institutionalized for 23 years and then returned to the palace, and then after another four-year stay at the mental institution following a relapse she spent the remainder of her life living a peaceful retirement on the island of Sofina.
- Alternative Calendar: In addition to using the standard BG/AG for years, this fic names months. So far, the month names are: Siyue, Ziyue, Liúyuè, Lùyuè, Youyue, Bayue, Maoyue, Chaoyue, and Haiyue.
- Ambiguous Situation: Just like real history, there are several facts which are disputed and debated.
- No one knows whether Bumi used spiritual means to extend his life or not.
- Fire Nation accounts claim Lu Ten died saving his entire unit from destruction, while Earth Kingdom accounts claim he had an utterly inglorious death in a cowpig sty. It's unclear which is true, though the latter seems more likely.
- Did General Tian have any involvement with King Jie's assassination? He claimed ignorance and reprimanded the killers, but no one was actually punished and he was reportedly unsurprised when he was Offered the Crown.
- Tian's own death counts as well. Officially he died from a spideradder bite, but some suspect foul play.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: There's the wartime Fire Lords, of course, but there's also Earth King Jie, who was a cruel tyrant much like Hou-Ting would ultimately be.
- Authority in Name Only: The Council of Elders of the old Air Nomads were technically world leaders, but their authority over the other Air Nomads was rarely invoked. Averted with the New Air Nation, where Tenzin has actual authority as Abbot-General, albeit less than the heads of state of other nations.
- Balkanize Me: Following the collapse of the Earth Empire and the dissolution of the monarchy by King Wu, the former Earth Kingdom split into twelve new states, with the United Republic of Nations gaining some extra land in the process.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Many of Bumi's more eccentric moments are mentioned in his biography, including: defeating Sozin with a combination of earthbending and interpretive dance, asking for honest opinions of his hair instead of financial tribute, sending pranks to Ba Sing Se hoping he could get the Dai Li to laugh, and choosing the winner of a city-wide scavenger hunt as his heir.
- The Coup: General Guanyu Ye effectively took control of Ba Sing Se during the siege. Long Feng remained in control of the palace but Ye turned the palace into a Gilded Cage, sending food and water in but letting no orders or information out. Fear of another military leader attempting this is what made Long Feng ban mentioning the war.
- Didn't Think This Through: Sozin and his generals assumed there would be a "quick and easy war", not really considering how difficult waging war on the entire world would be. By contrast, Azulon made many long-term plans, since he knew the war wouldn't be over any time soon.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: The master earthbenders in Ba Sing Se initially refused to recognize Toph's accomplishments because she never passed an earthbending mastery exam, nevermind the fact that she literally can't because there's a written component.
- Dysfunction Junction: It's noted that Amon's leadership was the only thing keeping the Equlists a unified movement, with everyone disagreeing about what post-revolution society would look like and not having a defined set of beliefs other than being against bending. Amon developed a Cult of Personality which helped smooth over differences, but once Amon's waterbending was revealed the party fell apart instantly and eventually reformed into three smaller groups.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Neither the Earth King nor the Water Tribe Chief at the beginning of the war were particularly moral people, but they were utterly horrified by the genocide of the Air Nomads.
- Earth King Kun was largely apathetic toward the war effort, but even he thought the Northern Water Tribe were cowards for retreating into their homelands and making no more offensives, which only resulted in the Fire Navy gaining more power in the seas.
- Fictional Counterpart: The Eight Wonders of the World as listed by the Air Nomad Dorjee. There are two manmade wonders listed for each nation,note and just like the Seven Wonders of our world, several of them no longer exist (see Monumental Damage below).
- General Failure: General Ye died defending a guard post, leaving General Yang in control of Ba Sing Se. Yang was far less effective than his predecessor, surrendering the entire Outer Wall the moment Iroh took control of the breach, despite the other generals' plans to create a makeshift second line of defense.
- Interservice Rivalry: The drilling of Ba Sing Se was originally going to have war balloon support, but military politics led to the war balloon/airships moving to the navy, and War Minister Qin was unwilling to share the glory.
- Irony: Every ten years, all Air Nomads return to the temples for the Kurultais, meetings where the nation's management is discussed. In 0 AG, the Kurultai coincided with the coming of the Great Comet, which many Air Nomads saw as a good omen. Whoops…
- Legend Fades to Myth: By the time of the "present" (a little after 200 AG), there are three different versions of what happened during the Camellia-Peony War, none of which are completely accurate.
- Firstly, there's the original official story as reported at the time. Yun conspired with the Saowon clan to destabilize the Fire Nation. Kyoshi apprehended the Saowons while Fire Lord Zoryu apprehended Yun. The Saowons were confined to their home island as punishment but they weren't executed at the behest of Kyoshi.
- Later, when Sozin rewrote Fire Nation history, he changed details to be anti-Avatar. Zoryu did all the apprehending and all the traitors were executed, meanwhile Kyoshi was an incompetent, dangerously violent loose cannon who nearly ruined everything. However, some of this anti-Kyoshi information is true, such as misidentifying Zoryu. Sozin also renamed the conflict as the Floral Crisis (it was admittedly never actually a war in the first place).
- Lastly there's the truest story, passed down on Kyoshi Island: that Yun's only goal was personal revenge and the Saowon clan had nothing to do with his plans. The "Yun" Zoryu captured was an impostor who he used to defeat his rivals, while the real Yun was later killed by Kyoshi in the Earth Kingdom. This one's the most accurate, but probably leaves out the less noble aspects of Kyoshi that made it into Sozin's version and is largely thought to be nothing more than local legend by the present.
- Monumental Damage: Five of the Eight Wonders of the World were either damaged or outright destroyed by the Fire Nation during the war,note while a sixth (the fortress Utjitunnik) was brought down by an earthquake.
- Mundane Utility: The return of the comet in 200 AG saw two popular firebenders fight each other in a professional Agni Kai called the Clash of the Comet.
- Named by the Adaptation:
- The Fire Nation royal family doesn't have a canon family name. Here it's called the Minato Clan.
- Yasuko Sato's maiden surname is given as Park.
- N.G.O. Superpower: Future Industries has become such a MegaCorp that it holds significant influence over international geopolitics, something that only increased once Asami began dating Korra. At its current rate of growth it's predicted to eventually have a complete monopoly over all the world's technology, though Asami has expressed interest in making sure this doesn't happen.
- Offered the Crown:
- As mentioned previously, General Tian was given the crown of the Earth Kingdom after the assassination of King Jie.
- As mentioned in canon, the elders of the Southern Water Tribe chose Tonraq to be High Chief after the south gained independence. Although he's the brother of the guy who just invaded the south and tried to destroy the world, he did lead the resistance against Unalaq, he's well-versed in international geopolitics, and the fact that his only child is the Avatar means he's unlikely to start a dynasty and a new chief can be chosen after he dies or abdicates.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Bumi disguised himself as a child so he could attend Toph's Metalbending Academy. No one bought it, but he was taught anyway since he was the one funding the school in the first place.
- Pen Name: Five years after the war, Iroh wrote a philosophical work known as The Five Wisdoms and published it as "Mushi".
- Related in the Adaptation: Mai is said to be part of the Sei'naka family, and thus related to Rangi and Hei-Ran.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: The Southern Water Tribe traitors who sold information about Katara's waterbending to the Fire Nation were executed by being dropped down an icy crevasse.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Iroh went on a failed one after Lu Ten died. He burned his way all the way from Ba Sing Se's Outer Wall to the Inner Wall, only to discover the Inner Wall was just as tall and strong as the outer one and there was no way he could breach through the Inner Wall and maintain control of the Outer Wall at the same time.
- Sketchy Successor: Earth King Yahui was a strong leader who successfully fought off many Fire Nation advances during the war. His son Kun, on the other hand, was a drunkard who cared more for women than for actually trying to preserve his kingdom. Yahui's commanders managed to keep the war efforts going well for a while, but over time they all died or retired and Kun didn't care enough to pick competent people to replace them.
- Kun's son Jie was even worse. While Kun was a bad leader, he was at least amiable in attitude. Jie was a tyrant who boiled citizens who insulted him alive and threw failed generals to the eelhounds. After seven years on the throne the Dai Li, Council of Five, and royal palace guards all teamed up and assassinated Jie.
- Smash the Symbol: Sozin ordered that the Avatar Szeto Colossus of Sanya be defaced and replaced with his own visage a few years into the war. After the war, Zuko attempted to have the statue torn down, which was protested by the people of Sanya who saw the statue as a symbol of their city regardless of whose face was on it. Thus, instead of being torn down entirely, Sozin's face was removed and replaced with Szeto's original image.
- Spark of the Rebellion: By 99 AG it was predicted the Fire Nation would soon win the war and many gave up hope… until the Avatar returned. Suddenly there was much fiercer resistance against the Fire Nation in hopes of buying Aang enough time to master the elements.
- Unexpected Successor: Bumi was the illegitimate son of the previous King of Omashu, and so was never expected to take the throne. However, Bumi became the heir when his legitimate half-brother was killed early into the Hundred Year War at the Delegation of Reckoning.
- What If?: Referenced in-universe, as many people speculate what would have happened if Azula truly became Fire Lord.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Hakoda publicly called the Northern Water Tribe out in his famous "Rung Speech" for abandoning the South and leaving them to suffer against the Southern Raiders while they have the audacity to look down on him for being a southerner despite the fact that he did far more for the war effort than anyone in the North.
- Worthy Opponent:
- Generals Iroh and Tian formed a grudging respect for each other, and would even occasionally exchange tea recipes.
- Back when he controlled the Tiger Flats Triad, rival tried members praised Amon for bringing "respectability" to the gangs.
