(no subject)

[esmenet]

I just realized the reason I'm (very slowly) writing this Zuko-in-Ba-Sing-Se!fic is a) to fulfill my narrative kink of Destined Hero abandoning their destiny for a happy domestic-ish life, b) to write something about the Dai Li, and c) to get Zuko/Li* to go to university. And get all angry about them not having certain scholarly works in their collection, since, seriously, just because you happen to be at war with someone's country is no reason not to have copies of everything they ever wrote. Also maybe he will get offended that they only have the modernist version of Love Amongst the Dragons and spend weeks trying to find someone who has the one written in pre-Reformation Vulgar Fire Nation. Oh gods I am not equipped to be turning Zuko into an academic. Why am I trying? Oh right because I am secretly trying to write the most idfic-y Zuko ever. Okay then. :D


*I don't know if Zuko is the kind of person who thinks of himself by name in his head. But I personally would find if everyone I met knew me as Li and called me such then that would be pretty effectively my name whether I was given it at birth or not.



Also Wade-Giles romanization can go DIAF. *glare*

Comments

[annotated_em]

I...

*sits down at your feet and gives you puppy eyes* I wants academic!Zuko. I wants this like burning. I will be your resident cranky grad student informant if you like, but oh I wants it, precious.

(And I didn't even know I wanted this thing.)

[esmenet]

Yes, yes, please do! *_* All I know about academia is gleaned from other people's journals, and this is definitely one of those things I'll be going "aaaaah is this right? is this right? do people act like this or am I writing it this way just because it's funny? is his courseload too light? this means I have to go actually read Journey to the West now, doesn't it? what kind of clothes should he be wearing? how much of these texts he's reading be in scrolls instead of bound volumes? how am I going to get him from working in a teashop and having no extra cash to actually taking classes? how do I fix things so the Fire Nation doesn't collapse or conquer the world without Zuko there to legitimately take over and fix everything? how many female students would there be?" about.

. . . I hope you're okay with lots of weird questions. ^_^;; (The Earth Kingdom is mostly based off of Qin Dynasty China, right?)

[annotated_em]

*thoughtful* My field is literature and then rhetoric & composition, so I only have a vague sense of how a Chinese-analogue university might function. (Alas that I am not a historian!) But I am willing to let ideas be bounced off me till the cows come home.

[esmenet]

Which is basically what I need. :D Thank you!

Can you help me try and figure out what the various locales of Avatar are like as regards women, disabled people, etc.? (e.g., was that haiku class Sokka stumbled into in Ba Sing Se was part of the university, or was it just for young noblewomen? Were there any female students that we know of?) I mean, we know the Fire Nation has at least some female soldiers, and that Zuko at least grew up surrounded by badass girls, but there don't seem to be a lot of powerful older women around in either the Fire Nation or the Earth Kingdom. Or any female Dai Li.

And while everyone seemed to take Teo pretty much in stride, I doubt the Fire Nation is too kind to citizens who are physically unable to fight in battle. Hmmm. *thoughtful*