I wouldn't be surprised if there were female Dai Li! But of course you can't tell unless you already know, because of the uniforms. And I'd bet it's not so much a "women can't become ____" type thing and more social oppression. "I won't have my daughter doing X," or your friends gradually sliding away from you, that kind of thing. But for the Dai Li or the university or the army(probably) if for nothing else, should your parents let you sit the exams and you pass, you're in.
And I can definitely see Mai introducing the concept of 'promotion on merit' to the other areas of Earth Kingdom life.
Hmm, they probably would have somewhere special to keep the uniforms. Maybe they have lockers somewhere in the Palace?
true firebending
Oh man, I forgot about the Sun Warriors! Iroh would probably send them a letter or something, if they didn't already know. The question, then, is if they stay put, lend any direct help at all (would they be okay with people finding out they were still around? Or would they just send a few people with knowledge of the Ancient Ways (tm) to go out and teach firebending at the newly-built shrines/temples?) or try to take over.
I'm very tempted to put Zuko at the South Pole about when he was in canon, looking for Water Tribe sagas and information on the Avatar, but something about that just doesn't feel right. The thing is, I kind of want to skip over most or all of his time with the Gaang between meeting them and being at the North Pole. :[ Because I don't want this fic to be about Aang's story, I want it to be about Mai's and Zuko's, even if Zuko is the sort of person who would enjoy riding to the North Pole on a flying bison. So maybe he and his uncle are at the North Pole when they get there. (Which you already said, sorry.) Probably pretending to be an Earth Kingdom noble with his Uncle. And Aang would totally notice all the Fire Nation poetry he was reflexively referencing.
And I forgot about Zhao, too. >.< I could totally see him going "Spiritual chaos in the homeland? That's gotta be the moon spirit's fault, LET'S GO KILL IT and win unending fame and glory for me!" And while he probably wouldn't have gotten promoted to Admiral with Ozai dead and the homeland in chaos, he might have enough power and charisma to make a bunch of people think that launching an attack on the North Pole and possibly winning lots of military glory for their favourite possible ruler = GREAT IDEA. (It worked for the Romans, okay.) If the intention was to conquer and subjugate rather than destroy, they might not even know or care about Aang. (Then again, if the majority of the fleet was there for Aang, and Aang just grabbed a waterbending teacher and ran, I can see major major embarrassment and loss of authority for Zhao as a good three-fourths of his fleet just turns around and heads home.) And Yue could continue sticking around the North Pole being awesome, or she might decide to go off and see the world. Maybe hang around with Sokka and Katara and Aang, maybe join Zuko and Iroh on their quest to, um, be wandering sages and send useful stuff home to Mai, maybe go to the Fire Nation and use her spiritual influence a bit. (I'd love to write something where she just sneaks in and fights spirits, and Mai runs into her.)
Leaving Azula alive would create so many interesting problems, oh man. Imagine if the royal line's seal on spirits (or whatever) was broken when Ozai was killed, and Azula had to deal with it all? She might have an even worse time of it than Mai and Ty Lee by themselves, since she's never struck me as the type of person who's good at maintaining already running systems. Mai would just fix everything out of annoyance, but I could see Azula forgetting about unimportant things like spirits eating all the common folk.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2010-10-05 06:12 pm (UTC)And I can definitely see Mai introducing the concept of 'promotion on merit' to the other areas of Earth Kingdom life.
Hmm, they probably would have somewhere special to keep the uniforms. Maybe they have lockers somewhere in the Palace?
true firebending
Oh man, I forgot about the Sun Warriors! Iroh would probably send them a letter or something, if they didn't already know. The question, then, is if they stay put, lend any direct help at all (would they be okay with people finding out they were still around? Or would they just send a few people with knowledge of the Ancient Ways (tm) to go out and teach firebending at the newly-built shrines/temples?) or try to take over.
I'm very tempted to put Zuko at the South Pole about when he was in canon, looking for Water Tribe sagas and information on the Avatar, but something about that just doesn't feel right. The thing is, I kind of want to skip over most or all of his time with the Gaang between meeting them and being at the North Pole. :[ Because I don't want this fic to be about Aang's story, I want it to be about Mai's and Zuko's, even if Zuko is the sort of person who would enjoy riding to the North Pole on a flying bison. So maybe he and his uncle are at the North Pole when they get there. (Which you already said, sorry.) Probably pretending to be an Earth Kingdom noble with his Uncle. And Aang would totally notice all the Fire Nation poetry he was reflexively referencing.
And I forgot about Zhao, too. >.< I could totally see him going "Spiritual chaos in the homeland? That's gotta be the moon spirit's fault, LET'S GO KILL IT and win unending fame and glory for me!" And while he probably wouldn't have gotten promoted to Admiral with Ozai dead and the homeland in chaos, he might have enough power and charisma to make a bunch of people think that launching an attack on the North Pole and possibly winning lots of military glory for their favourite possible ruler = GREAT IDEA. (It worked for the Romans, okay.) If the intention was to conquer and subjugate rather than destroy, they might not even know or care about Aang. (Then again, if the majority of the fleet was there for Aang, and Aang just grabbed a waterbending teacher and ran, I can see major major embarrassment and loss of authority for Zhao as a good three-fourths of his fleet just turns around and heads home.) And Yue could continue sticking around the North Pole being awesome, or she might decide to go off and see the world. Maybe hang around with Sokka and Katara and Aang, maybe join Zuko and Iroh on their quest to, um, be wandering sages and send useful stuff home to Mai, maybe go to the Fire Nation and use her spiritual influence a bit. (I'd love to write something where she just sneaks in and fights spirits, and Mai runs into her.)
Leaving Azula alive would create so many interesting problems, oh man. Imagine if the royal line's seal on spirits (or whatever) was broken when Ozai was killed, and Azula had to deal with it all? She might have an even worse time of it than Mai and Ty Lee by themselves, since she's never struck me as the type of person who's good at maintaining already running systems. Mai would just fix everything out of annoyance, but I could see Azula forgetting about unimportant things like spirits eating all the common folk.