the-hopefulpenguin

[the-hopefulpenguin]

what do you know of loss?

no words for how much I adore these two characters and the ways their journeys parallel one another's... take this as part character study (what if they helped each other heal!) and part ship content (they were made for each other...) anyways. the shadowzel illness never stops

[the-hopefulpenguin]

GAR Organizational Structure (with bonus despair)

point the first: the structure tcw gives us for the GAR is nonsensical. captains are leading legions, a battalion is apparently sufficient for a marshal commander, and generals are, oh my god, leading troops out in the field—the way no general irl actually does, because they are a strategic target and if the enemy kills/captures them it would be a tremendous blow. not gonna lie: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) is a disaster and should be ashamed of itself. 

i mostly ignore all of the above for my sanity, because 1) it’s more fun to watch jedi waving laser swords around amidst thickets of blasterfire, 2) the whole endgame is to kill them anyway, so who cares if a few jump the gun, and 3) maybe cody just really digs all those cool cats down in the 212th. maybe he runs ops with them whenever he can get away with it. whatever, it’s explainable.

(nothing will ever explain why rex, a junior officer, was leading a whole-ass legion. i cannot forgive. i will not forget.)

point the second: the only hard numbers we have for how big the GAR is are in the repcomm books, which put it at 3 million soldiers. this is. it’s. it’s absolutely ludicrously small. to put it in perspective, the united states armed forces alone comprise about 1.4 million active duty personnel in its various branches. that’s ONE military on ONE planet. the GFFA has anywhere from 12 to 70 million inhabited planets. sure, most of them won’t participate in the war, but even if you take the lower figure of 12 million, assume 10% are participants (whether as suppliers, victims, allies, or just re-supplied a star destroyer that one time), and take 10% of that as ACTIVE participants, then the number of planets the GAR needs to have a presence on is still 120 thousand. do a little math, and for the GAR to maintain a US-sized presence (which i think we can all agree is plenty large enough to bully a planet into submission) x 120k, the GAR would have to have 170 billion active duty personnel.

if the last number was too small, this one’s too huge. It’s beyond enormous. how do they feed everyone? but consider: the GAR wouldn’t have to have the same presence on all planets. some of them might be small, like the rishi outpost. some might not need active policing at all, such as core planets like alderaan. i’ll admit right now that i’m extremely lazy and don’t feel like crunching the numbers to determine the size of the GAR presence on upwards of a million planets. i’m just gonna say “one billion active duty clones for the war.” it’s still hysterically enormous, but it’s a lot more manageable.

my headcanon for the organizational structure of the GAR, using both wikipedia and wookieepedia for reference:

GAR: 1 billion active duty clones (broken down into 10 systems armies)—led by yoda, who is eisenhower

systems army: 100 million clones (2 sector armies)—led by a marshal commander, each of whom is attached to a jedi councilmember (so ponds, cody, wolffe, etc. our beloved cc-2224 is marshal commander of the 3rd systems army.) 

sector army: 50 million (5 planetary armies)—led by a rear marshal commander, each attached to senior jedi masters who are not on the council (so gree, bly, fox, etc)

planetary army: 10 million (5 corps)—senior commander (note: given the unit mobility we see in the show, “planetary” is more a polite request than an actual rule, especially as attrition takes its toll. troops go where they needed.)

corps: 2 million (5 divisions)—corps commander

division: 400 thousand (5 legions)—division commander

legion: 80 thousand (5 brigades)—legion commander

brigade: 16 thousand (5 regiments)—brigadier commander

regiment: 3,200 (4 battalions)—regimental commander

battalion: 800 (4 companies)—major

company: 200 (4 platoons)—captain/1st sergeant

platoon: 50 (5 squads)—lieutenant/staff sergeant 

squad: 10 (2 fire teams)—sergeant

(fire) team: 5 troopers

(“active duty” in this context (the context being slave soldiers) means all clones of age to deploy who are not on medical leave. the total number of cadets of all ages, who are not considered active duty, probably dwarfs this 1 billion figure by like a factor of 978645, which i’m not even going to think about because the sheer logistics of that is staggering. the only reason this army wasn’t discovered sooner is because of movie magic.)

the eagle-eyed among you may notice that several of the formations i’ve separated out (e.g. brigade and legion) are actually the same size irl. in my defense: it’s a billion fucking soldiers! there is no existing military structure on earth that can accommodate a command of that size!! something had to give!!

again, those keen-eyed among you may notice that there are no less than eight different ranks of commander, only three of which are supported by wookieepedia. in my defense: star wars gave us a crappy starting point, and i can only work with what i’m given. either i bump up NCOs to commanding platoons and companies and reinstall our beloved rex as captain of torrent brigade (my soul fucking shudders), or we have to deal with eight different unit sizes all led by officers addressed formally as “commander.”

(it is clone etiquette to address commanders by title and name in mixed company, save the highest-ranking officer, who is THE commander and may be addressed sans name. it is clone humor to fuck with non-clones by sending them on goose-chases in search of “the commander.”)

moving on.

according to wookiepedia, the ranks of jedi are thus:

grand high jedi general—yoda (actually i lied, i made this one up)

high jedi general—the other 11 councilmembers

senior jedi general—all jedi masters

jedi general—all jedi knights

jedi commander—all jedi padawans

as far as i’m concerned those ranks can stay as-is, with senior and regular generals getting scattered throughout the command structure wherever i feel like putting them. it’s not like they make sense as military leaders anyway; they’re last-minute pasties to cover up the GAR’s scandalous bits and make it fit for public propaganda.

of note, there are 12 jedi who sit on the jedi council, but only 10 sector armies. conveniently, yoda doesn’t need to command a sector army, because he commands all the armies. likewise, i headcanon shaak ti doesn’t actually have a command, as she stays on kamino for quality assurance purposes. gotta make sure there aren’t any ethics violations going on.

some may have noticed that fox, despite answering to the chancellor and not to a jedi, is in the “rear marshal” category. i did this (actually @countessofbiscuit did this and i shamelessly stole it) because i (we) headcanon fox not just as head of the coruscant guard, but the head of the CG, GAR military police, and penal battalions. he’s got a big command, too, even if he doesn’t have a jedi to show for it. plus, it makes for excellent intraservice beef if palpatine pushed for fox’s promotion against the prevailing cultural trends of the GAR. (poor fox.)

final notes on this already long-winded and horrific post: seniority within the ranks of the marshal commanders depends on the seniority of their attendant jedi and their own level of experience. e.g. mace windu is the senior-most jedi after yoda, so ponds commands the 1st systems army. however, ponds dies relatively early in the war, so bacara, despite being assigned to the 2nd systems army (i just made that up, i have no idea if ki-adi mundi has seniority after mace), outranks ponds’s replacement because he has more experience. most of this is tacit and doesn’t really affect anything except who sits where at mandatory formal dinners, but it’s also used to justify who’s allowed to eat the last donut—to mixed success.

how DO they feed everyone, though? like, seriously?

#this is tremendously wonderful #orbats and bureaucratic politics my beloved

[the-hopefulpenguin]

what do you know of loss?

no words for how much I adore these two characters and the ways their journeys parallel one another's... take this as part character study (what if they helped each other heal!) and part ship content (they were made for each other...) anyways. the shadowzel illness never stops

[the-hopefulpenguin]

world building concept for an old stuffy aristocratic society:

transitioning is perfectly allowed and this society makes space for trans people but it works in very repressed ways. you are supposed to come out privately to your parents who will then make a formal announcement that their heir has "found a job abroad". you will take a trip to a little hospital/boarding school/retirement home far into the countryside where you will live for a year with other trans people transitioning, you will be given all the medical assitance needed as well as classes on how to properly perform your prefered gender. how to dress, how to talk, the little social niceties needed, etc.

afterwards when you return home your family will throw a little party to reintroduce you into society and to welcome you back where they will claim you are a "distant cousin" that [deadname] found abroad that your family now wants to sponsor and is going to become part of the family. all the needed paperwork is quietly taken care of in the background by very well paid lawyers.

absolutely everyone knows what "finding a job abroad" and "distant cousin" actually means but it is extremely impolite to ever bring it up out loud. at most some people will gossip about behind closed doors. no mention of your previous identity is ever made again, you are supposed to act as if you are 100% cis.

[the-hopefulpenguin]

you join a discord video call at the request of your long time mutual and instead of the 23 year old art history student you thought you'd been friends with you are greeted by two dozen middle aged business men huddled around a conference table intently staring at you

[the-hopefulpenguin]

Not me once again using Tumblr as image hosting website...this is for my slightly experimental fic, A Terrible, Swift Sword: Wargaming the Defence of the Republic, 173 AG.

#lok #lok fanfic

[the-hopefulpenguin]

WEIRDLY SPECIFIC BUT HELPFUL CHARACTER BUILDING QUESTIONS

What’s the lie your character says most often?

How loosely or strictly do they use the word ‘friend’?

How often do they show their genuine emotions to others versus just the audience knowing?

What’s a hobby they used to have that they miss?

Can they cry on command? If so, what do they think about to make it happen?

What’s their favorite [insert anything] that they’ve never recommended to anyone before?

What would you (mun) yell in the middle of a crowd to find them? What would their best friend and/or romantic partner yell?

How loose is their use of the phrase ‘I love you’?

Do they give tough love or gentle love most often? Which do they prefer to receive?

What fact do they excitedly tell everyone about at every opportunity?

If someone was impersonating them, what would friends / family ask or do to tell the difference?

What’s something that makes them laugh every single time? Be specific!

When do they fake a smile? How often?

How do they put out a candle?

What’s the most obvious difference between their behavior at home, at work, at school, with friends, and when they’re alone?

What kinds of people do they have arguments with in their head?

What do they notice first in the mirror versus what most people first notice looking at them?

Who do they love truly, 100% unconditionally (if anyone)?

What would they do if stuck in a room with the person they’ve been avoiding?

Who do they like as a person but hate their work? Vice versa, whose work do they like but don’t like the person?

What common etiquette do they disagree with? Do they still follow it?

What simple activity that most people do / can do scares your character?

What do they feel guilty for that the other person(s) doesn’t / don’t even remember?

Did they take a cookie from the cookie jar? What kind of cookie was it?

What subject / topic do they know a lot about that’s completely useless to the direct plot?

How would they respond to being fired by a good boss?

What’s the worst gift they ever received? How did they respond?

What do they tell people they want? What do they actually want?

How do they respond when someone doesn’t believe them?

When they make a mistake and feel bad, does the guilt differ when it’s personal versus when it’s professional?

When do they feel the most guilt? How do they respond to it?

If they committed one petty crime / misdemeanor, what would it be? Why?

How do they greet someone they dislike / hate?

How do they greet someone they like / love?

What is the smallest, morally questionable choice they’ve made?

Who do they keep in their life for professional gain? Is it for malicious intent?

What’s a secret they haven’t told serious romantic partners and don’t plan to tell?

What hobby are they good at in private, but bad at in front of others? Why?

Would they rather be invited to an event to feel included or be excluded from an event if they were not genuinely wanted there?

How do they respond to a loose handshake? What goes through their head?

What phrases, pronunciations, or mannerisms did they pick up from someone / somewhere else?

If invited to a TED Talk, what topic would they present on? What would the title of their presentation be?

What do they commonly misinterpret because of their own upbringing / environment / biases? How do they respond when realizing the misunderstanding?

What language would be easiest for them to learn? Why?

What’s something unimportant / frivolous that they hate passionately?

Are they a listener or a talker? If they’re a listener, what makes them talk? If they’re a talker, what makes them listen?

Who have they forgotten about that remembers them very well?

Who would they say ‘yes’ to if invited to do something they abhorred / strongly didn’t want to do?

Would they eat something they find gross to be polite?

What belief / moral / personality trait do they stand by that you (mun) personally don’t agree with?

What’s a phrase they say a lot?

Do they act on their immediate emotions, or do they wait for the facts before acting?

Who would / do they believe without question?

What’s their instinct in a fight / flight / freeze / fawn situation?

What’s something they’re expected to enjoy based on their hobbies / profession that they actually dislike / hate?

If they’re scared, who do they want comfort from? Does this answer change depending on the type of fear?

What’s a simple daily activity / motion that they mess up often?

How many hobbies have they attempted to have over their lifetime? Is there a common theme?

[the-hopefulpenguin]

Thanks for the tag @orangepanic!

“Helm, match their turn,” I ordered. “I want to pass them on the broadside; Miss Haltridge, maintain the two hundred feet minimum, upon your life.”

From At Her Peril, an original historical fantasy WIP about an all-female crew of sky-ship pilots fighting Parliament and the French in an alternate Napoleonic Wars.

Tagging @therealtsk, @heyitschartic, @cpericardium, and anyone else who would like to participate!

Doing a thing

Thanks for tagging me @twinkle-toph✨

RULES: Post the last sentence you wrote (fanfic / original / anything) and tag as many people as there are words in the sentence (unless you’re like me and write enough run on sentences to where you can’t possibly tag that many people for words).

From the fic where Tenzin gets his tattoos:

She took it in less than a heartbeat and the smile that grew on his face was more confident with the grounding squeeze she provided him.

No pressure tagging: @kurocache @risingsoleil @chiefbeifongcanrailme @oldandirrelevant and anyone else interested :)

#tag game

[the-hopefulpenguin]

HAPPY BARRISS DAY!!!! organized by my wonderful beautiful friend @americiumam and put together on @barrissday !! clawed my way out of art hell for this one . love you barriss and abby <3

#this is a thoroughly wonderful piece of art #the use of light is spectacular #barriss very much at peace is the feeling - as the poor woman deserves

[the-hopefulpenguin]

Read the Thousand Names (Book 1 of the Shadow Campaigns) by Djano Wexler and man Winter Ihrenglass is such a good character y'all. We see her go from a relatively insecure and survivalist soldier who escaped to the Army from her hellhole orphanage to a competent lieutenant over the course of the book. She struggles and tries her best, has regrets from her past choices and decisions, but learns from them. Her relationships with Bobby and Feor are the best.

She's also a Butch Lesbian. I am pointing out here cause I've been reading a lot of wlw fantasy this past year and a half or so and I could count the number of books/series with genuinely butch leaning masc women on one hand. Maybe two if I'm a little less stringent. So I want to point it out to everyone.

#winter is such an excellent character #I think it also helped by how Wexler handles the military detail #we are not only told Winter is competent - we see her be competent

[the-hopefulpenguin]

Been thinking about the series a lot lately so I made a portrait painting of my favorite possessed soldier and Infernivore cause it doesn't get enough love :))))

#winter!! #this is such a brilliant rendition #I love the play of light on her shoulder #and the detailing on the epaulette is just fantastic

[the-hopefulpenguin]

'Some days it seems so long ago, and some days…'

I'm deeply fond of Thomas Nightingale and also he frequently makes me very sad, so I wanted to draw something about that. Also, I figured if anyone would suit Leyendecker illustration vibes, which I'm really into right now, he would.

(Drawn in alcohol markers and coloured fineliners, and image described in alt text.)

#this is quite entirely spectacular #I love the detail on the suit - the way it creases and folds

[the-hopefulpenguin]

romanticizing your life is such a powerful tool and it’s a shame that it’s mostly used by people on tiktok to justify the purchase of expensive breakfast smoothies when there are few better ways to force oneself through unpleasant shit than imagining a cinematic backstory for your extremely quotidian suffering

[the-hopefulpenguin]

The Problem of the Earth Kingdom

I’ve been doing some more thinking about Avatar geopolitics and I’ve settled upon a bit of an overarching theory - that the Earth Kingdom is the seat of every war in the last two centuries plus of the Avatar universe.

This is not to say that the Fire Nation, in particular, does not bear culpability for the Hundred Year War; they absolutely do; but rather that the geopolitical problem posed by the Earth Kingdom is one which policymakers have grappled with throughout the shows and books, to limited success. In brief, it is this: a strong Earth Kingdom is too powerful; a weak one is too unstable. As a result, policymakers in the Caldera, Republic City, the Water Tribes, and the White Lotus have struggled to find an effective balance - and repeatedly failed to do so.

To prove this, I would like to do give a history of major conflicts in Avatar and why they link back to this central problem of the Earth Kingdom.

THE PLATINUM KING Our first piece of evidence is the Platinum Affair and subsequent rule of Earth King Feishan in the late 5th and early 4th centuries BG. These inferences are drawn noting that we have relatively limited textual evidence from the period.

The inciting incident was a prolonged civil war in the Earth Kingdom, between the armies of the Earth King Feishan and a General Nong. The origins of the conflict are unclear, but we do know that it was protracted, with neither side seeking a decisive engagement. This had a negative impact on trade and potentially international stability.

As a consequence, the Water Tribes and Fire Nation began to fund General Nong in secret - the intention appearing to be to have him win and end the fighting, with a friendly regime in Ba Sing Se. In other words, foreign powers refused to tolerate instability in the Earth Kingdom, and so intervened.

Unfortunately for Agna Q’ela and the Caldera, Feishan ultimately won the civil war at the Battle of Llamapaca’s Crossing, which revealed the funding scheme and foreign culpability in it. The Earth King responded by embargoing on the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom, with only four cities permitted to handle a limited throughput of foreign trade. Internationally mobile elites (the shang merchants) in these cities, seeking to break free of the Earth King, attempted to develop new forms of bending - risking international stability in the process. Feishan also considered invasions of the other powers due to cooled relations. This is an example of how a strong, centralised Earth Kingdom provoked resistance from its periphery and fear abroad.

THE FIFTH NATION Our next piece of evidence is centred on the late fourth and early third centuries BG - the rise and fall of the Fifth Nation, a major group of corsairs operating off the southern coast of the Earth Kingdom.

Our textual sources on their rise to prominence are somewhat patchy. We know that there was a long history of sea-banditry in the region, but by the time of Yangchen, they were powerful enough for the Avatar to personally sign a treaty with them to secure an agreement not to attack the coasts of the Earth Kingdom. It is probable that their willingness to sign a deal with Yangchen was as much to do with fear of a united Earth Kingdom under Feishan as it was terror of the Avatar. After all, Yangchen’s treaty makes no mention of at-sea piracy; only that which directly targets the Earth Kingdom.

However, the end of the Feishan dynasty - it is unclear if this is the death of Feishan himself, or an immediate successor - led to the Wars of Secrets and Daggers, a succession of assassinations and palace coups from at least 306-296 BG which killed at least seven royals. This chaos was exploited by the Yellow Neck Uprising and led to rising status among regional magnates such as Jianzhu - who ultimately crushed the Yellow Necks at the Battle of Zhulu Pass. In short, the late fourth century BG saw a complete collapse in central Earth Kingdom authority.

The Fifth Nation was quick to exploit this, defeating the Earth Kingdom fleet in open combat and establishing maritime hegemony in the Eastern Ocean. They failed to expand into the Mo Ce, largely due to the actions of the Fire Nation, who stepped up their patrols to counter the pirate threat. The Fifth Nation was ultimately destroyed by Avatar Kyoshi and an aggressive maritime counterinsurgency campaign waged by the Fire Nation. In other words, the failure of Earth Kingdom stability exported a severe maritime security challenge which required sustained Calderan intervention to resolve.

SOZIN’S FEAR, OZAI’S FOLLY I've presented my argument about the origins of the Hundred Year War previously, so I will not dwell on it - the above article is a richer explanation. In brief, however, from the crisis of the fourth century, the Earth Kingdom began to enjoy a slow revival in fortunes through the third and second centuries - largely due to the actions of Avatar Kyoshi. By the first century BG, it is plausible that Ba Sing Se’s authority was once more reaching into its maritime periphery along the Mo Ce coastline.

For a Fire Nation used to trading privileges and political influence in this part of the Earth Kingdom, this could be seen as an immediate infringement. Moreover, the example of Feishan suggests that a united Earth Kingdom could threaten the core interests - perhaps even sovereignty - of the Fire Nation. Sozin therefore invaded the Earth Kingdom not to exterminate it, but to secure Fire Nation interests in the periphery and limit the Earth Kingdom’s united power.

Unfortunately for the Fire Nation, the Earth Kingdom proved more cohesive than they had assessed, and the war ground on for decades until Ozai, a strategically inept Fire Lord, mobilised a big enough coalition against him to end in a defeat for the Fire Nation - one actively enabled by the Avatar.

SWORD OF THE CALDERA But for the Fire Nation, defeat in war led to victory in peace. Fire Lord Zuko swiftly renounced overt rule on the continent, but defended Fire Nation privileges all the same - deploying an army to the continent in 101 AG to face down a royal force under Earth King Kuei. This crisis was settled by Avatar Aang, and led to the creation of the United Republic, carved out of Earth Kingdom territory along the Mo Ce periphery.

But, as discussed elsewhere, the United Republic was only nominally independent. In practice, it was heavily tied into the cultural and economic world of the Fire Nation - to the point that the commander-in-chief of its military is a Fire Nation prince. It is unclear if Zuko personally intended this, but it is a defensible position to argue that the United Republic was created to weaken the Earth Kingdom.

And weaken it, it most likely did. By the late 2nd century AG, the Earth Kingdom is experiencing a serious domestic crisis, on the order of the crisis of the late fourth/early third century BG. Even the movement of tax revenues to Ba Sing Se is seriously in doubt due to bandit activity, while local magnates such as Suyin of Zaofu wield immense power. It is probable that the United Republic played a role in this - it deprived the Earth Kingdom of much of the lucrative Mo Ce trade, and served as a constant demonstration of Ba Sing Se’s weakness.

This was all well and good for the Fire Nation and other international actors, who had reason to fear a strong Earth Kingdom. But the situation spiralled out of control with the assassination of Queen Hou-Ting, and an enfeebled Earth Kingdom which did not pose a foreign threat collapsed into anarchy.

UNITY & DISASTER Clearly, something had to be done - instability in the Earth Kingdom threatened trading relations and fostered transnational threats such as the Red Lotus. The international community was unwilling to deploy their own troops into the Earth Kingdom to restore order, so; much like with General Nong centuries earlier; they selected a proxy to do it for them: Kuvira.

The global strategic intent seems clear. Prince Wu was a United Republic-friendly candidate for the throne. Kuvira, legally empowered and supported with money and weapons, would re-unite the Earth Kingdom. She would then step aside and let Wu take the throne, where he would reign over a stabilised but non-threatening Earth Kingdom.

Unfortunately for this plan, Kuvira refused to hand over power, instead forming the revanchist Earth Empire and setting her sights on conquering the United Republic. This was not megalomania but rather geopolitics; for the Earth Kingdom to be strong, the Fire Nation-backed intrusion on the Mo Ce periphery must be repulsed. There are certainly shades of Feishan’s embargo policy to be found in Kuvira’s approach. Kuvira was, however, subsequently defeated by the Avatar and the United Forces, ending the immediate territorial threat to the United Republic.

RUINS OF THE EMPIRE In light of this challenge, the policy approach changed - the Earth Kingdom would be abolished, and instead be broken up into a set of independent, democratic states. On the surface, this resolves the too strong/too unstable paradox which plagued foreign policy calculations for centuries. In practice, it is highly likely to lead to further violence.

There is little tradition of local democracy in the Earth Kingdom, but extensive examples of military magnates and warlords assuming control in the absence of centralised authority. The aftermath of Kuvira’s conquests, as we see in Ruins of the Empire, left substantial stockpiles of sophisticated weapons available. The division of a large, multi-ethnic empire into smaller states is a difficult process likely to lead to grievance and dissent. And all this is not to mention the threat of spirit vine weapon proliferation.

The future of the Earth Kingdom, far from looking like a democratic paradise, probably involves a chaotic mixture of shaky democracies and outright autocracies vying for position. If any one of the successor states can gain enough power, they may well attempt to follow Kuvira, and Chin, and Feishan, in consolidating imperial rule over the whole Earth Kingdom.

For foreign powers, then, far from solving anything with this new step, they have simply fired the starting pistol on the latest round of Earth Kingdom instability - which is likely, in the best case, to generate transborder threats requiring action; and in the worst case, lead to the consolidation of the Earth Kingdom behind a new, revanchist leader, and the outbreak of another major conventional war.

#atla #lok #atla meta #lok meta #atla worldbuilding #lok worldbuilding #zuko #kyoshi #yangchen

[the-hopefulpenguin]

the galaxy has a firewall happy N7 day!

[the-hopefulpenguin]

[the-hopefulpenguin]

Commentary on this exchange from The Isoru Airlift?

Excerpt from Princess Ursa’s Remarks to Republic City Press Corps:

“We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the United Republic in opposing abuses of human dignity and defending the rights of citizens, wherever they may be. But we cannot send Fire Army troops into the Earth Kingdom. To do so would revive the memory of the Hundred Year War, fuel the grievances which empower warlords and genocidaires, and undermine any hope of a lasting peace.”

—

Republic City Gazette: Fire Nation Refuses Military Support to Isoru Evacuation, Citing Escalation Risk

Yue Bay Times: BETRAYAL! Fire Nation Princess Stabs Brother in Back

Star of Teyana: FINE, WE’LL DO IT OURSELVES: Sixteen retired officers make the case for the war, exclusive on page 3.

The Times of Caldera: United Republic, Fire Nation, “Shoulder-to-Shoulder” for International Peace, Says Princess Ursa

Equality Now: Arrogant Fire Nation Once Again Abandons United Republic

—

Iroh,

You won’t be surprised to hear I’ve been following the news closely. I think I can help.

A. Sato.

Isoru! The fic I really ought to get back to and a setting I am keen to talk about, so thank you for the ask! There’s a few different components in this, so apologies if the reply rambles a little.

First, ref: Ursa’s remarks, I think there’s some commentary on both the context of including it, and the content too. On context, I wrote this with a bit of an eye towards the sort of role a member of the Fire Nation royal family might have in a crisis situation. My sense was that while Ursa is not a professional diplomat, as a very visible symbolic representative of her country, she has particular utility in public diplomatic efforts (this leaves aside the liaison value-add of her brother being the UF military C-in-C, of course). Hence, it felt appropriate to have a major intervention in the narrative come via comments to press.

Regarding the context of her remarks, the language is quite modern/real world in some respects (“We therefore, here in Britain, stand shoulder to shoulder with our American friends” to quote Tony Blair), but the sentiment is linked into the LOK world-state. I think the Fire Nation, while far from abandoning the military instrument of national power, has huge sensitivities regarding deployment of ground troops into the Earth Kingdom. This is both a cultural piece, but also political; leaving aside the textual comments Ursa makes about their reception in the EK, there are likely domestic revanchists in the Fire Nation who would be emboldened.

Also – the reference to abuses of human dignity is a stealthy shout-out to the Conventions on the Protection of Innocents and Respect for the Dignity of the Human Person (also known as the Cranefish Conventions), from another one of my fics.

Second, the newspaper headlines; I love newspapers very much! The thinking here is to represent a spectrum of opinion – of course The Times of Caldera dodges the whole issue and notes only the joint resolve of the two nations, while the Gazette is an even-handed broadsheet. Equality Now is particularly interesting (I think, anyway) because it references a broader headcanon I have that the Equalist movement had strong nationalist shades, focusing its ire on foreign benders. And Star of Teyana being militaristic is a reference to some of my thinking on the United Forces’; Teyana is a major base for them.

Last, with Asami! So the Airlift was initially envisaged as part of a series of stories called ‘Sato’s War’ which was predicated on the assumption of Asami Sato becoming heavily enmeshed within the United Forces’ and Kuvira’s efforts to manage conflict in the Earth Kingdom* - with all the moral peril and interesting high-tech shenanigans involved. In general, I think she is the sort of woman who wants to solve problems, particularly technical ones, and whether one is an Irohsami shipper or not, she definitely has a working relationship with Iroh in any event.

*Chapter 3 of the story would feature Asami flying on a secret diplomatic mission to Kuvira to request her army supports United Forces troops cut off in Isoru; in my notes, I have a line from Iroh where he muses that Asami “has a face which could launch a thousand ships; no doubt her words could re-route an armoured brigade.” On a less self-indulgent note, I think there is some rich story-telling material in the connection between Kuvira and the United Forces during the timeskip which would be great to unpick.

Thank you again for the ask!

#lok #lok worldbuilding #asami sato #iroh ii #irohsami #asami solves problems!