Wouldn't it be interesting if Fire Lord was historically the head Fire Sage's title, but the current system came about when a Fire Lord made some sort of deal with a great spirit to keep the Fire Nation free of spiritual problems, a side effect (or possibly one of the main terms, especially if having children with the spirit was part of the deal) being that if the Fire Lord's family line ever ended, the protection would be over. So if Ozai and Azula are dead or incapable, and Zuko is also out of the picture due to being both informally disowned and a wandering sage, SPIRITUAL CHAOS.
Which would work really well for Mai if she had some spiritual training/Fire Sage ancestry herself, and therefore the authority to hold ceremonies and such in the royal palace. (I can see her sending Zuko a letter saying "You know, you could un-disown yourself and come help me with this," and his reply being along the lines of "Sorry, I'm trying to get Wan Shi Tong to let me into his library! But here are a bunch of spirit-binding ceremonies in case you need them.") And she would be absolutely beautiful at delegating, though she might have to reform the government a bit first.
I wonder if the 'only benders can be Fire Lord' thing has its origins in requirements for Fire Sages? Like, spirits are tricky and can mess with your weapons, but you can always use your spiritual energy to set them on fire. Or maybe it's just that firebenders are blessed by Agni and have extra protection or something.
There would be a lot of opposition, I think. A lot of Earth Kingdom & Water Tribe people accusing (or thinking it, rather) Mai of forcing extra concessions out of the Earth King on top of everything the Fire Nation got out of the war (which was mostly lots of dead soldiers and angry citizens, really) or of trying to conquer the Earth Kingdom by having her heirs rule it. On the other hand, Mai would probably teach Kuei how the real world actually works and how to handle this whole 'politics' thing, and if they could get through the first couple of years everything would probably work out okay. And the Fire Nation might be happy just to have some stability again.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2010-10-01 06:28 pm (UTC)Which would work really well for Mai if she had some spiritual training/Fire Sage ancestry herself, and therefore the authority to hold ceremonies and such in the royal palace. (I can see her sending Zuko a letter saying "You know, you could un-disown yourself and come help me with this," and his reply being along the lines of "Sorry, I'm trying to get Wan Shi Tong to let me into his library! But here are a bunch of spirit-binding ceremonies in case you need them.") And she would be absolutely beautiful at delegating, though she might have to reform the government a bit first.
I wonder if the 'only benders can be Fire Lord' thing has its origins in requirements for Fire Sages? Like, spirits are tricky and can mess with your weapons, but you can always use your spiritual energy to set them on fire. Or maybe it's just that firebenders are blessed by Agni and have extra protection or something.
There would be a lot of opposition, I think. A lot of Earth Kingdom & Water Tribe people accusing (or thinking it, rather) Mai of forcing extra concessions out of the Earth King on top of everything the Fire Nation got out of the war (which was mostly lots of dead soldiers and angry citizens, really) or of trying to conquer the Earth Kingdom by having her heirs rule it. On the other hand, Mai would probably teach Kuei how the real world actually works and how to handle this whole 'politics' thing, and if they could get through the first couple of years everything would probably work out okay. And the Fire Nation might be happy just to have some stability again.