The American Fire Nation
My first post of 2008! Why can I never balance being social online and being social in real life? I AM TRYING, GUYS!
So, something I should have posted about weeks ago: How much do I love Zuko? SOOOOOO MUCH!
Unlike the rest of fandom. *g* But up until The Day of Black Sun, I mostly just loved laughing at Zuko, and was sort of second-hand fond of him, because Iroh loves him and so do octopedingenue and rashaka and other awesome brainy people I know. He's cute, I thought, especially in exile, but he's kind of an idiot.
But now he's an idiot that I respect. Not his badassery; I respected that since he whipped Zhao in their agni ki, but his decision-making processes. Zuko obviously wanted very badly to believe that everything he was raised to believe was true, and he spent a long time not acknowledging, or not accepting, and then not dealing with the truth about the war that his people were responsible for, that was supposed to be so great for the world.
But now he's gone home and seen that it's not what he believed it would be, should be, and he stepped up and took responsibility in the most mature way imaginable, and I am so proud of him. And also he is really adorable.
He's also us, or what we could be. The makers of Avatar, bless their hearts, haven't shied away from showing the view from the inside of the evil empire this season, and doesn't it look familiar? The kids are just the same as kids anywhere, but they believe what they're taught and most of them will grow up to do their best at what seems right to them; even if what's right includes war. Hey guess what! Doing what seems right with the wrong information leads to people getting hurt.
I love that Zuko talked about being taught that the war was supposed to be for the good of the people being conquered. Sounds like spreading democracy and capitalism! Which equals freedom, right? Weird how people need to be violently forced to be free...
Finding out you've been doing the wrong thing all the time you were doing your best fucking sucks! It's hard and it isn't fair and it hurts! It's no wonder Zuko tried to crawl back in his shell and go home to where it all made sense and pretend the stories he was raised on were true, even though it meant helping the sister he knew was fucked up in a twisted/evil way.
That's kind of where I feel like I am now, actually, Zuko at the beginning of this season. Here I am with my pretty apartment and cable and Guitar Hero and access to alcohol and clothes and all the food I can imagine... all this stuff that's supposed to be boxed happiness, only it turns out it's ridiculously difficult to get your hands on anything that's produced cruelty-free here in western "civilization" and the Earth is in dangerously bad shape but here we are fiddling while Rome burns (if we're even willing to admit there's a fire).
And maybe it was obvious in The Beach (and before) that Zuko was angry with himself, but it's no easy thing to figure out what to do with that kind of feeling. Where do you start?
Would that I had an Avatar to throw my lot in with. No matter how bad I might be at being good, my gods how cute is that scene? OH ZUKO!
(Like Spike with the chocolates trying to practice apologizing to his Buffy mannequin in -- oh, shame on me, what episode is that?)
Anyway, Zuko made a mature and informed decision and is doing the hard thing and my love for him is multiplied about a million times, and it makes me hopeful too, that stories with this shape are getting told here. Because if we, the privileged youth of the "first world" or the "developed world" or whatever you want to call it, can do what Zuko is doing -- can turn away from our fathers and reach out to our not-really-enemies and take our lumps and share what we have to offer -- maybe we can save our world after all.
So, something I should have posted about weeks ago: How much do I love Zuko? SOOOOOO MUCH!
Unlike the rest of fandom. *g* But up until The Day of Black Sun, I mostly just loved laughing at Zuko, and was sort of second-hand fond of him, because Iroh loves him and so do octopedingenue and rashaka and other awesome brainy people I know. He's cute, I thought, especially in exile, but he's kind of an idiot.
But now he's an idiot that I respect. Not his badassery; I respected that since he whipped Zhao in their agni ki, but his decision-making processes. Zuko obviously wanted very badly to believe that everything he was raised to believe was true, and he spent a long time not acknowledging, or not accepting, and then not dealing with the truth about the war that his people were responsible for, that was supposed to be so great for the world.
But now he's gone home and seen that it's not what he believed it would be, should be, and he stepped up and took responsibility in the most mature way imaginable, and I am so proud of him. And also he is really adorable.
He's also us, or what we could be. The makers of Avatar, bless their hearts, haven't shied away from showing the view from the inside of the evil empire this season, and doesn't it look familiar? The kids are just the same as kids anywhere, but they believe what they're taught and most of them will grow up to do their best at what seems right to them; even if what's right includes war. Hey guess what! Doing what seems right with the wrong information leads to people getting hurt.
I love that Zuko talked about being taught that the war was supposed to be for the good of the people being conquered. Sounds like spreading democracy and capitalism! Which equals freedom, right? Weird how people need to be violently forced to be free...
Finding out you've been doing the wrong thing all the time you were doing your best fucking sucks! It's hard and it isn't fair and it hurts! It's no wonder Zuko tried to crawl back in his shell and go home to where it all made sense and pretend the stories he was raised on were true, even though it meant helping the sister he knew was fucked up in a twisted/evil way.
That's kind of where I feel like I am now, actually, Zuko at the beginning of this season. Here I am with my pretty apartment and cable and Guitar Hero and access to alcohol and clothes and all the food I can imagine... all this stuff that's supposed to be boxed happiness, only it turns out it's ridiculously difficult to get your hands on anything that's produced cruelty-free here in western "civilization" and the Earth is in dangerously bad shape but here we are fiddling while Rome burns (if we're even willing to admit there's a fire).
And maybe it was obvious in The Beach (and before) that Zuko was angry with himself, but it's no easy thing to figure out what to do with that kind of feeling. Where do you start?
Would that I had an Avatar to throw my lot in with. No matter how bad I might be at being good, my gods how cute is that scene? OH ZUKO!
(Like Spike with the chocolates trying to practice apologizing to his Buffy mannequin in -- oh, shame on me, what episode is that?)
Anyway, Zuko made a mature and informed decision and is doing the hard thing and my love for him is multiplied about a million times, and it makes me hopeful too, that stories with this shape are getting told here. Because if we, the privileged youth of the "first world" or the "developed world" or whatever you want to call it, can do what Zuko is doing -- can turn away from our fathers and reach out to our not-really-enemies and take our lumps and share what we have to offer -- maybe we can save our world after all.