What if the courtly expression/euphemism for 'capture' is 'bring before me'? And Zuko, being Zuko, could chase Aang all around the world with his real motive being only to get him still long enough to talk with in private.
Interesting... Would this be a mixture of wilful misapprehension and hopeful interpretation of his instructions on Zuko's part? And given that this would really absolve Zuko of a lot of his canon culpability and jerkiness (or, well, at least some of the latter), I could see it playing into him being a lot more functional by the time he and Iroh hit Ba Sing Se.
Plus, of course Aang's take on all this bears further investigation - being from the time of peace tm, he might actually have a good chance of understanding where Zuko is coming from both culturally and linguistically, assuming a Zuko steeped in ye olde texts - and that they ever got a chance to sit down and talk minus fireballs and explosions, of course.
I was thinking of Old Fire not being backwards as much as out of fashion. Like, in Japan, for a long time Chinese poetry was considered artistically to be the hot shit and Japanese poetry was just, you know, the stuff you wrote to tell your lovers you couldn't see them this week.
*Slaps forehead* - of course, the role of Chinese literature and language in Japan is a really obvious place to start. And particularly interesting wrt to Ursa, for instance, thinking of Heian court ladies like Ono no Komachi et al writing their classics in the vernacular. Actually, they'd be a great place to begin in general, I guess, for obvious reasons of awesomeness but also because as far as I know (NOT FAR - must... read... Tale of Genji...) they could write as they did not only because of the high premium Heian high society placed on aesthetics but also because they were relatively unconstrained, as court ladies go. Which, much as I appreciate the Reign Within dynamic, might help make sense of what looked to be a fair degree of gender equality within the canon Fire Nation.
And, yes, under the art/business/politics model MEK would be pretty all encompassing (though what about religion?) - and I do enjoy the thought of Old Fire being something that, say, canny merchants from the home isles might chatter away in while provincials from the Earth Kingdom colonies gnash their teeth in frustration, or which Iroh might use on ship to correct Zuko within the hearing of crew members without shaming him.
unless Modern Earth Kingdom is actually derived from/is in fact Air Nomad
Yeah, that's fascinating. But ... a lot to deal with (last remnants of an ancient Air Empire??!). Though, returning to Aang specifically, I rather like the idea of him having been forced to study some of the same dusty old classics as aca!Zuko sought out - after all, in canon the monks do seem to have put their Avatar-in-waiting through some fairly intensive world-touring, which might have been preparation for his role as much as nomad business as usual. So a basic (and reluctant!) grounding in the classics also seems possible.
Discussion helps a lot.
Oh good! I'm completely new to this whole fandom n' fic writing thing (YES, I OWE MY FIRST FANDOM TO A TINY GLOWING MONK) so I don't exactly have much experience using canon as a sandbox to play around in. But, well, it is so fun. And now I really really would like to read some iteration of aca!Zuko. Y'know, assuming it turns out to be doable. Which, yeah - I wish I could provide awesome and helpful ideas for places to start. But ... I can't think of anything that isn't hugely obvious. Sigh. But, uh, good luck!
no subject
Interesting... Would this be a mixture of wilful misapprehension and hopeful interpretation of his instructions on Zuko's part? And given that this would really absolve Zuko of a lot of his canon culpability and jerkiness (or, well, at least some of the latter), I could see it playing into him being a lot more functional by the time he and Iroh hit Ba Sing Se.
Plus, of course Aang's take on all this bears further investigation - being from the time of peace tm, he might actually have a good chance of understanding where Zuko is coming from both culturally and linguistically, assuming a Zuko steeped in ye olde texts - and that they ever got a chance to sit down and talk minus fireballs and explosions, of course.
I was thinking of Old Fire not being backwards as much as out of fashion. Like, in Japan, for a long time Chinese poetry was considered artistically to be the hot shit and Japanese poetry was just, you know, the stuff you wrote to tell your lovers you couldn't see them this week.
*Slaps forehead* - of course, the role of Chinese literature and language in Japan is a really obvious place to start. And particularly interesting wrt to Ursa, for instance, thinking of Heian court ladies like Ono no Komachi et al writing their classics in the vernacular. Actually, they'd be a great place to begin in general, I guess, for obvious reasons of awesomeness but also because as far as I know (NOT FAR - must... read... Tale of Genji...) they could write as they did not only because of the high premium Heian high society placed on aesthetics but also because they were relatively unconstrained, as court ladies go. Which, much as I appreciate the Reign Within dynamic, might help make sense of what looked to be a fair degree of gender equality within the canon Fire Nation.
And, yes, under the art/business/politics model MEK would be pretty all encompassing (though what about religion?) - and I do enjoy the thought of Old Fire being something that, say, canny merchants from the home isles might chatter away in while provincials from the Earth Kingdom colonies gnash their teeth in frustration, or which Iroh might use on ship to correct Zuko within the hearing of crew members without shaming him.
unless Modern Earth Kingdom is actually derived from/is in fact Air Nomad
Yeah, that's fascinating. But ... a lot to deal with (last remnants of an ancient Air Empire??!). Though, returning to Aang specifically, I rather like the idea of him having been forced to study some of the same dusty old classics as aca!Zuko sought out - after all, in canon the monks do seem to have put their Avatar-in-waiting through some fairly intensive world-touring, which might have been preparation for his role as much as nomad business as usual. So a basic (and reluctant!) grounding in the classics also seems possible.
Discussion helps a lot.
Oh good! I'm completely new to this whole fandom n' fic writing thing (YES, I OWE MY FIRST FANDOM TO A TINY GLOWING MONK) so I don't exactly have much experience using canon as a sandbox to play around in. But, well, it is so fun. And now I really really would like to read some iteration of aca!Zuko. Y'know, assuming it turns out to be doable. Which, yeah - I wish I could provide awesome and helpful ideas for places to start. But ... I can't think of anything that isn't hugely obvious. Sigh. But, uh, good luck!