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emletish-fish · 6 years

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Worst Prisoner Chapter 6 Notes

Ao3

FF.net

Lovely readers!

one million thanks to Boogum for the beta!

Thanks so much for sticking with it, and a huge enormous thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who reviews and comments. Your feedback keeps me writing! Since this chapter is huge, I'll keep my rambles short.

Today I will ramble about

Sokka and leadership.

Aang and the grieving process.

Iroh's parenting style.

My Two favourite drama llamas and their ‘forbidden love’.

The main events of Bato of the water tribe, Aang stealing the map, ice-dodging and Sokka and Katara temporarily leaving would still go the same way, because there is some great character development for Aang and Sokka there. I've just written about what would be different.

Sokka, I love that kid. Bless him, I think he is great. This episode does deal with how he sees leadership and what it means to be a man. Sokka does idolise the warrior culture and is very keen to be seen as a manly, manly Water Tribe warrior man. While Katara is often painted as Team Mum, I would argue that Sokka is definitely the team leader. Zuko will eventually become to the team dad, but even he is just following Sokka's ideas and plans at this stage. In fact, I'd say Zuko will generally follow Sokka's lead. Look at Boiling Rock, it's mostly Sokka doing all the plans and Zuko being his ride-or-die buddy, and offering unconditional support.

The thing about leadership and feeling responsible is that it can be tough and lonely. Sokka's 16 and still trying to figure out how to be the leader at this stage. He would especially not be too confident in his decisions here, given how everything had turned out recently. He is more that willing to hand leadership over to an older male from his tribe, who he knows, trusts and respects. And in all honesty, Bato's not wrong that it is much safer for everyone to split up now.

The Gaang would no longer be attracting even more attention from the Fire Nation, and the abbey is theoretically much safer for Zuko than been dragged through the forest by them. Everyone knows Zuko hasn't had the best luck with them so far on the remaining uninjured front. Neither Sokka or Katara are happy with this arrangement, but I also couldn't see either of them directly rebelling against Bato, who they respect and love.

Bato is exactly like Mike Wazowski from Monsters, Inc. “You put that thing back where it came from or so help me!”

Bato was never going to be happy to see Zuko in this scenario. Sorry to everyone who wanted Zuko to go ice-dodging. I just couldn't see Bato, who strikes me as someone who would be very protective of his best friend's kids, being too happy with them travelling/kidnapping the prince of the Fire Nation or wanting to initiate a firebender into Water Tribe customs. The prejudice against the Fire-Nation is (justifiably) deep in the SWT. This is also why he doesn't refer to Zuko by name either, as that would humanise him. In Bato's mind, all fire benders are bad.

Aang, and the grieving process: I love Aang as a character in season one and two, even some of season 3, but his characterisation gets unceremoniously shoved under the bus by Bryke's favouritism and their desire to force Kataang, and it has led to a great deal of backlash against the lil muffin. A great deal has been written about the Katara side of the fallout, but I say poor Aang deserved better, too.

@marsreds

Marsreds on Tumblr had some lovely metas all about how Aang deserved better that I agree with. One of her points is that the Kataang relationship, which is stated in canon to be Aang transferring the love of his whole people into an unhealthy attachment to Katara as a coping mechanism, is pretty much a band-aid over the massive wound that is Aang's grief. I agree with this 100%, and it is one of the huge reasons why their dynamic is so unhealthy, because Katara can never make up for an entire people by herself.

Aang doesn't really go through the recognised grieving process; denial, bargaining, anger, depression, acceptance, during the show. I am not saying that I wanted the show to become bogged down in it or for Aang to become a maudlin character. His optimism and joy are some of the best things about him. However, I do think Aang's recovery should have happened.

I would say he seems stuck in denial, and bargaining in the show. Swapping the love he felt from a whole people into the maternal care he gets from one person and becoming dependant on that relationship reeks of an unhealthy bargaining coping mechanism. So this chapter, I had him acknowledge to himself that he really does miss his old life, his old friends and the way the world used to be.

Do you ever just think about how many shenanigans Zuko got into, and then consider the fact that Iroh 100% knew and let him go off anyway? Iroh really only calls him out on the stealing and trying to bring Appa back to their tiny apartment in Ba Sing Se. Other than that, Iroh's cool with it. This would have been a big wake-up call for him.

He has a very laissez-faire style to parenting/mentoring Zuko. He lets Zuko go off and make his own mistakes then helps him pick up the pieces, and offers wisdom after the fact. This approach was probably good early on, given how emotionally damaged Zuko was. He would not have responded well to his Uncle being an over-bearing parental type in the early days of the Wani, especially when he was trying be all grown up in front of the men, (a lil baby captain). However, they have just fallen into this pattern of Zuko doing really dangerous stuff and Iroh never pulling him back.

Zuko and Katara's biggest obstacle is not some dark n' edgy bullshit (because they actually are very similar people who are compatible in many ways). It is the fact that they have been born and raised on the opposite side of a 100 year war and are meant to see each other as the enemy!

The respective cultures/nations will not be happy with their relationship/connection at all. Members of the SWT would not be happy seeing Katara, their last waterbender, with someone from the Fire Nation. Not to mention the overt colonisation and disdain of other races by the Fire Nation! It's Romeo and Juliet, or Oma and Shu level stuff. Two lovers, forbidden from one and another, a war divides their people ...like c'mon. Who else is it meant to be? Oma and Shu is a metaphor for their love! It epic level stuff.

I don't love the comics because of how they trash my lil muffins. However, I vaguely recall one where they tried to bring this aspect into K@taang. Aang had to choose between Katara and his duty to the world, and Katara was just going to..not have a vote in the relationship, I guess. See Bryke know how powerful and romantic a theme the whole forbidden lovers thing is, but it does not apply at all to the canon ships. It just makes it look like Aang makes all the decisions in the relationship.

Next chapter we will meet Jeong Jeong and other deserters, Katara will discover a new skill, Zuko will discover a new idea, Aang will make a friend and Sokka will be taken to an all you can eat meat restaurant.

Til then.

#worst prisoner #emletish rants #emletish writes #emletish fic #zuko #iroh #katara #zutara #sokka #sokka's instincts #aang #bato

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