Embers/WMG

This is the Wild Mass Guessing page for Vathara's fanfic Embers. As a fic that contains lots and lots of Foreshadowing, and liberal uses of Chekhov's Armoury, it encourages trying to guess future plot points.

Yaoren usually start with bending either water, air, or earth, and add fire. Fire-born usually don't become yaoren, and water/earth/air combos are practically unheard of.

 * Of every named and power-revealed yaoren, all of them had fire as one of their elements, until Shiro-chan popped up and started smacking his head against the wall because he got air not fire. This is needed because of Fire's non-human ancestry coloring the actions of every person with it in their family tree.


 * Fire is going against The Way Things Work right now-- so those most likely to be wounded are either fire or interacting with fire.


 * Kaze (Lu ten's previous life)was an fire/air yaoren and Kyoishi's friend would have been a earth/water yaoren if he survied. The yaoren have only just been rediscovered, just because the one's we see now mostly have fire does not mean they all did.


 * Fire includes creative destruction-- burning the weave of fate-- however you want to phrase 'damaging the expected for the needed.' That would seem to bias towards fire, at least slightly.

Where is Asagitatsu again? What animal represents it? How do you get a certain title?
Makoto's going down, and Asagitatsu is going to be home of the Dragon of The West AND the Dragon of the North
 * Someone else might show up. Even bets on it being a turtle-thing or a (scary) blue (flame) dragon.... and wouldn't that be interesting?
 * Azula offs Makoto after Makoto tries to maim her? I'm down with that.

Zuko's actions in Nara will be important.
The lion-dogs will probably be part of it. The Nara flood and a lion-dog came up in his dream, Zuko helping at the flood came up in 26, and a line I assumed was about a legend-story ("I hear folks from there still remember this quiet li'l tyke in the gold, finding poor lost lion-dogs") makes more sense as applying to Zuko, in context as pointing to those who would be personally loyal to the prince. A ten year old noble that cares about animals and is there helping in a disaster area-- who WOULDN'T love him?

The cause of the attacks on Water Tribe isn't The Ocean being angry at them for failing to protect his wife.
The Unsactified Fire Nation dead are attacking them. Or driving/directing evil spirits to do so. Or are being eaten by spirits and infecting them.
 * The restless Fire Nation dead are certainly doing something -lighting a ceremonial flame is meant to send them on and reduce the number of angry spirits wandering around, and they'd have more reason to attack the Water Tribe than the Ocean would.

The Air Nomads were just as broken as the Fire Nation.
Yangchen did to the Air Nomads what Kyoshi did to the Fire Nation, and that's where Kyoshi got the idea.
 * Airbenders are People Of Mass Destruction and Xiangchen was carrying out a genocide of people with airbender ancestry: forcing his supporters to be peaceful and sort of imprisoning them in monasteries/nunneries (Yangchen was a nun) was probably necessary, as an alternative to executing them all. If the Air Nomads that became the Air Monks were Xiangchen's supporters, that is likely why the 'official history' that Gyatso told Aang paints him as a good guy, the way the Fire Nation and Earth peasants see Sozin and Chin.
 * Close. Subodei did all the killing, and Xiangchen and his followers went and took nearly all other airbenders to the Temples. Yangchen didn't find out until her yaoren broke her out of her cloister, and at some point, went to the North Pole to take down Subodei and Xiangchen.
 * The Yu Yan (who are as good as confirmed to be Airbenders) were fighting to defend the Northern Water Tribe against Xiangchen's supporters: that may be why they were allowed to be 'renegades in Byakko' as referenced in that letter instead of being forced into the temples like everyone else.
 * According to Ch. 37, there are at least two other non-temple air nomad groups: the Onmitsu/ninja (who would have been under the Fire Lord, and hence Fire Sages' protection) and some people in the Si Wong Desert (sandbenders?), when it's established that some people from that desert have the ability to command spirits: this is where Kuei gets it from.
 * Please Note: According the Word of God, the Yu Yan are not Airbenders. They are Fire Nation people (who do not have Airbender blood, or at least not enough to make them Airbenders) who have learned to use their chi with bows and arrows, as opposed to swords (like Piandao). They were formed about 1,000 years ago to deal with Air Nomad raids on the Fire Nation.
 * The Northern Water Tribe probably were targeted by Xiangchen because they weren't going to hand over Tribe members with Airbender blood. The memory of what happened then (volcanoes were involved) may have been why they didn't do anything when Sozin went after the Northern Air Temple.
 * Hopefully Yangchen didn't mean for the entire Air Nomad population to stay forcefully converted to her religious sect: it was likely a temporary measure that she didn't live long enough to revoke (due to that volcano), and then Kuruk had bigger problems.
 * Kyoshi, who was very Earth Kingdom ideologically, wouldn't have seen anything wrong with the temples. It turned Mongol equivalents into peaceful monks who stayed put mentally even if not physically. A brilliant plan that worked perfectly!
 * Which possibly explains the Dai Li's penchant for mindbending.
 * So not only did she not revoke it, she tried to do the same thing for the Fire Domains.
 * So, the Air Monks were living in a manner just as unnatural for them as the Fire Nation was, and 'harmonious accord' was necessary to make sure they stayed living that way, the way the avatar wanted, in the same way that Sozin's line had loyalty going for it. It would take a lot of mindbending to force the element specifically identified as requiring freedom to all be happy as members of a very repressive and limiting religion.
 * Chapter 37 confirms that yes, there was mindbending involved, especially with the pregnant nuns (and nearly with Aang), and this is still being done by the Onmitsu. So, while it's been confirmed that yes, something was very wrong with the Air Nomads, it hasn't been confirmed that this was Yangchen's fault per se.
 * Chapter 39 confirms that Xiangchen raised Yangchen, knowing that she was the Avatar, and that Kaze and Hyourin "got her loose". It is certain that Yangchen broke free from her guardian (mentor?), and we all know what that entails. Going against everything she was ever taught as an Air Monk, she wasn't viewed as a hero by her own people; Xiangchen was. She was caught in a volcano, which is the same thing that happened with Roku.
 * Chapter 41 confirms Longshot as having Airbender blood. It is not known what tribe, though, and many Air Nomad peoples (like the Duo Qang) had archers. Longshot could probably be born from parents who had Airbender blood from the raids the Air Nomads had centuries back.
 * An alternate interpretation could be that Longshot has DRAGON blood. The quote "faint traces of (Jet's) chosen enemy" fits those of fire better than those of air. And while it WOULD be bold for an airbender to take up archery in the current political climate, there have been several mentions that Dragon's don't like archers, and that Zuko is not good at archery. (Or throwing knives. Swords, which serve as claws, are more natural for Dragon-children.)But an archer with Dragon blood wouldn't be unheard of- Iroh's father was a Dragon-child, and he managed to shoot that bandit. And Shidan certainly doesn't mind his archer allies, the Yu Yan.
 * Longshot-with-Dragonblood would also explain the several mentions by Shidan that "we" have kin in the swamp, and the recent reiteration that dragons don't do talking so very well. It may also explain Longshot's reaction to Shidan eyeing him up, and give a new light to past interactions with Zuko and Iroh. (Dragons follow the strong ones.)
 * Well I can't believe no one got this; Longshot has both. Possibly one of his parents was a colonial who went rouge or he has certin things in common with a shaman.

Kuruk split Northern Waterbending to save the healers.

 * Every single other healing form of bending got wiped out during the term of its own avatar. Kuruk was the only Avatar able to protect his people, and, like Yangchen, he knew that Koh was the enemy, and probably knew his intentions.
 * While there isn't a single set of rules for what constitutes a civilian/noncombatant in the Avatarverse, a female healer who wasn't a trained warrior would fit the requirements of all peoples but Airbending (and note that Kuruk didn't revoke what Yangchen did to force the Air Nomads to stay peaceful, despite the fact he certainly wasn't anti-combat or pro-conformity).
 * Or the fact that this fic did not change season 1 which means than Koh attacked his wife and Kuruk could not have known about him then and tried to find answers, so the Fire Nation, who respects vendetta, told him about Koh, and he went on a warpath, only concerned abot Koh which might have kept Koh busy but left the world slowly setting up for Chin to happen.
 * In Ch 57 we learn of the evil Avatar Kesuk, who was a Northern Water Tribe woman who wanted to take over the world and went on an insane rampage of destruction after her spirit animal was killed. We also learn that Koh is the World's spirits eldest child and was enraged when the human vessel containing his parent was killed by fire and air because of that rampage. I forget who exactly said it, but Avatar Kuruk was the last told this. This may have been why he said women were meant to heal to stop another incident like this from happening. It also explains why Koh hates humans in general and Fire and Air in particular.

Temul's ability to call down lightning is the height of wave style firebending.
That would also fit in well with the mountain fire benders being the warriors or what the water tribe said. The mountain ability to zap people would be more readily at hand just part and shoot (oh archer fire bender shooting a lighting bolt) while the wave clans would need clouds.
 * The most badass thing in mountain style of firebending is the ability to shoot out lightning which Iroh describes as pushing out the negative energy out and at the enemy. Now why won't wave style do basically the opposite and push out the positive which would build up a large positive charge attracting any large out negative charges like oh lightning, which fits in with whole control fires outside of yourself thing too.
 * In canon, Iroh says that in order to create lightning, firebenders must separate Yin and Yang - positive energy and negative energy, which creates an imbalance. These opposing energies seek to come together, which the firebender then simply guides, thereby being able to bend lightning.//

Fire Nation bender prisons: Their victims all have the potential to become yaoren.

 * It's established that those prisons slowly kill a bender: that's certainly a wound to their spirit.
 * Min was imprisoned by Azula, away from earth, and Amaya warns that he shouldn't reach for any other elements too strongly.
 * Apparently it was possible to deliberately become a yaoren by questing/fasting: controlled deprivation of a bender's element so a second one could move in?
 * Do those yaoren still need spirit healers, though? The conversation Langxue had with Kaze/Lu Ten in the Spirit World seems to point to yes.
 * Haru was temporarily imprisoned on one of those barges, and he's going to be trained in healing by Katara, when, according to Kuei, that kind of yaoren often tended to be healers.
 * All the prisoners on that barge were saved because Katara used waterbending to restore their will to live and fight, and Shirong ended up a fire yaoren after Zuko did that for him. So the Gaang's first encounter with people they'll know are yaoren will probably be earth/waterbender allies.
 * Shirong became a fire yaoren because he prayed to the Great Spirits while recovering from a spirit wound, and Agni answered. Langxue became an air yaoren because he was spiritually wounded fighting the giant leech and "prayed" for more speed to escape it, and got a quickie spirit quest to find (I assume) Tengri. So those earthbender prisoners would have become water yaoren only if they had prayed to and got a response from the Moon while their spirits were still recovering. Even then, they might not live very long if there aren't any spirit healers around, which is the main reason why Langxue needs to meet up with Zuko's group.
 * It's been establishes that the Great Spirits were creating more yaoren during this century, they just tended to die within a season. Since Katara was shown all elements' healing forms by Yue, and spirithealing is sort of the intersection of them (that doesn't require any bending but spirit/ki bending, which even nonbenders can do, it's likely that she has spirit healer potential? Especially since those taught by the source of the different bending styles are the most powerful and Katara was, again, taught by Yue.

Dragons are fire/air yaoren.

 * The only other ones able to fly without complying with the laws of physics, the sky bison, are airbenders. While heating air inside the both might provide lift, they don't look much like balloons. That would explain why Sozin had to wipe out not just the Air Nomads (and sky bison) but dragons as well: to wipe out knowledge of airbending he would had to eliminate not just the benders but two species of bending animals. Although it's possible he did it just to wipe out the knowledge of healing fire, which dragons seem to use instinctively and may require in order to hatch eggs.
 * I hate to break this to you, but Avatar Dragons have wings. However, it IS true that they move though an element that isn't their own. Badger-moles dig, Air Bison fly, Magic Fish swim...and Dragons breathe fire and fly?
 * Probably jossed by Ch. 46, where a dragon doesn't fly for awhile because it would create sparks. That implies the flight's a firebending technique, somehow.
 * She was next to the firepit-- it took a second read-through, but I think that's why she was worried about sparks.

The reason the Air Nomads were all airbenders was their use of Harmonious Accord.

 * We are know that benders are born to communities which uphold their element's ideals and that if all the element's ideals are upheld, no benders can be born to other elements. It seems logical that the more strongly held the ideals are, the more benders will be born.
 * Harmonious Accord stopped the Air Nomads from forming familial attachments. It upheld the ideal of freedom to a much greater degree than the other nations committed to their ideals.
 * Or possibly replaced familial attachments with attachments to non-related teacher figures and friends -effectively from 'ties of blood' to 'ties of love'.

Balances within Balances
At first it was cute, and re-establishing balance. In canon Water learned from the great spirits while everyone else learned from magic animals, so it made sense for Fire didn't just learn from the animals, the lesser spirits, they became part of them. Greater and Lesser, Learning and Blood.

But as of Chapter 36...The Tengri's children, Tengri's blood. And before that, all through canon, human beings being used as expys for swearing by gods.


 * Air: Blood of the Greater
 * Water: Lessons of the Greater
 * Earth: Become the Greater
 * Fire: Blood of the Lesser

We're missing something. And it's possible that Water Benders truly are blessed. Perhaps they become lesser spirits of a sort when they die...
 * [spoiler:Somewhat confirmed. Fire has the blood of Agni's children, and Water sometimes have the spirits of The Ocean's children.]

The Air Nomads did not believe themselves to be 'blessed' by their God.
In fact, drawing from Chapter 36 'Tengri's blood', the Air Nomads may be directly descended from Tengri himself. In chapter 27, Yangchen says "We are children of the mountains, and the Eternal Blue Sky".
 * Kind of hard to believe, as the Mongols always said "By the will of the Eternal Blue Sky", which is basically the same as the Chinese Emperor's Mandate of Heaven. It's a matter of pride that conquerors often cited themselves as being blessed by the Heavens, that they have the right to rule over everyone else.
 * Fridge Brilliance - Shidan said that Air's fatal flaw is Pride. The Air Nomads such as the White Wind and Xiangchen (the former wanting world domination; the latter wanting to unite all Airbenders via oppressive religion) thought that they were above it all. Typical Air. Storm Lord must be seething at the fact that his own children (i.e. Xiangchen) could turn their backs on him without giving their due. As for the White Wind, Tengri never gave them orders to conquer anyone. What's more, what father would want to see his children fighting and killing each other?
 * Well that would work if he was a sane human, not for one of the four top gods(or spirits) and it was said a lot of the air tribes liked fighting so Tengri probably did too, he may be wind or a tornado. Monk one moment samurai the next.

Zuko will become the next Lord of Byakko
It's been stated that Zuko can never inherit the Dragon throne. Since he can use healing fire, is a water-yaoren, and Ursa's son, he would make the perfect heir to clan Byakko. He's basically Kuzon reincarnated. And since Zuko can't be Fire Lord...
 * However, Shidan did mention that he was bringing the Yu Yan news of a new grandcild. This may have been an excuse for the visit, but- as Shidan is a dragon- it is doubtful that this is a lie. In addition, Zuko's chosen territory (given by the Earth King) is likely too far away for him to rule both areas succesfully, given the likelihood of spirit atacks in the area and the need for his people to be protected.
 * Although Kuzon seems to have been absent from Byakko for months at a time, and that was never phrased as an abandonment of his responsibilities there.
 * Ch. 46 reveals that Zuko's part of another volcano bloodline, and that one is right where he and Iroh were planning to put their new settlement. Coincidence?
 * Nope, that volcano is probably his great grandmother's place because dragons go back to being dragons when their lover dies(or when they want to get it on with a human- for a night or a lifetime), and there are not a lot of people over there, and Makoto could be the reason it did not blow yet. Fight a dragon then prepare for a siege, and comets, erupting volcanos, Sozin's big space rock (does the space rock have a spirit? And seeing what its name is, could it be Sozin?) is coming and Zuko has made himself a target, so Ozai goes to attack and the Earth King comes in behind smashing Ozai in between a rock and a hard place. And only everyone is going to be super powered ozai could beat him and Zuko and some allies play at clock and dagger.

If Azula doesn't ascend to the Dragon Throne, another heir will be chosen
Those of the Fire Nation are known to adopt children out. Momiji, Ilah's sister, was not a firebender, and was thus adopted out to another family where her real talents could be put to good use. The same can be done with a family that has a firebender in the family. If Azula was found and deemed unworthy to lead the Fire Nation, Zuko knows he can turn to - Jinhai of the Wen Clan, since he too, is descended from Avatar Roku.
 * Jossed as of Chapter 40: Word of God states in the Author's Notes that she wouldn't place Jinhai - who is only six years old - into such a stressful and dangerous role.
 * Also, while Jinhai is related to Zuko, it's through the wrong branch of the family. The Fire Nation and Kyoshi's decree only accept those of Sozin's line, ie. Sozin's descendants. Jinhai is descended from Avatar Roku, not Sozin, and while he may have inherited the spiritual awareness that is apparently common to both lineages, the fact he is not one of Sozin's blood renders him ineligible.
 * There's a host of other obstacles too, like being born in Earth Kingdom Ba Sing Se instead of the Fire Nation, his father and siblings being Earthbenders, and the little fact that should Zuko succeed in his plan there won't be a Dragon Throne anymore, the position of Fire Lord being stripped of all secular authority and reverting back to the original religious title it used to be.

The most powerful bender (barring the Avatar) in the world will be...
Earth King Kuei. He's getting training in basic spirit-healing from Amaya, a Northern Water Tribe waterbending healer, as well as help from the Wen family. Jinhai's too young to teach Kuei much about firebending, since he's learning the art himself, but once Shirong and Zuko are back, they can help with the firebending training. That leaves Air, and if Langxue does not join their group, then Kuei knows where he can go to get training - in the Si Wong desert, where his ancestors (father or mother's side?) hail from. He has some shamanic blood in him, but he does need to learn more about the art to perform his duties as Earth King properly. Amaya may just tell him about her meeting with a Lion-turtle, which will lead Kuei to his final training stop.
 * Not an earthbender. Still pretty powerful.
 * The power level he has is justified, since he's the produce of a several-thousand-year-long breeding program, but it's possible that the banishing of Wan Shi Tong was at least partially made possible not by him, but by some official power granted to the Earth King. He referred to 'appealing to the higher court of Oma and Shu,' meaning that there are some precedents for this: something of a Celestial Bureaucracy? His powers over spirits are based on those of China's Emperor in mythology, after all, where they had that belief system. The power of a single human being probably wouldn't be able to keep them all from getting in, it would drain his chi dry, but there appears to be a system in place that enables him to be more powerful than a single bender acting alone. Fisher King, etc. Again, it may not be Kuei per se that is powerful, but Kuei as The Earth King.

Koh the Face Stealer was not counting on the Earth King to join the fight.
Due to this oversight, Koh's going to get thrashed by none other than King Kuei. That is, if he doesn't do something about Azula first...
 * Well, apparently the bitchslapping of Wan Shin Tong was impressive enough that Kuei seems likely to get a harem out of it.
 * If Kuei decides to marry both Touzaikaze girls. It is true that the Chinese Emperors had lots and lots of concubines, but Kuei seems too gobsmacked by the revelation that air-healers have shown up at his doorstep, practically sacrificing themselves to him. There's also the question of whether or not Kuei can handle more than one wife. He may just stick to one to make things easier.
 * Or he could have the world united through peace and love so everyone is in one giant sex party where anyone does anyone if they want to so no more wars because people will be too busy being ... whore's.

Kanna left the Northern Water Tribe because of the way their waterbenders were regarded.
In canon, Kanna leaves because she did not like Pakku and his sexist ways. However, in the Emberverse, it is known that master benders can make one think/feel a certain way. Pakku sabotaged Katara; Vathara can very well take this a step further: since waterbenders are thought to be blessed by their Gods, within their tribe, they have the right to do whatever they want (as is the way with monarchs who have "divine right to rule"). This belief, coupled with Pakku's arrogance and how he upholds the Northern Water Tribe's ways and that he's a Master waterbender, is what scared Kanna off. She fled to the Southern Water Tribe, which was established on the basis that no, just because you were a bender, did not give one the right to do whatever one pleased. That the Southern Water Tribe elects their Chief due to the fact that he has to earn it, and that he does not have to be a waterbender, must have broken the NWT's brain, and that's what Kanna liked about them.

Aang is headed for a major Angst Coma.
Let's look at the facts.

1) Xiangchen is not a good guy; in fact, he's an evil conqueror who snuffed out the other Air Nomad peoples, and forced them into submission.

2) Zuko is Kuzon reincarnated, because he promised Gyatso that he would find Aang. Only Kuzon was killed by Azulon's onmitsu for saving Air Nomad children.

3) Ty Lee, being part of the Duo-Qang descended Onmitsu, knows her own people's history, and does not see Aang as a savior, but the second coming of Xiangchen.

4) Earth King Kuei is a very well-read, finely educated guy, and though as decent and well-meaning like Aang is, he cannot forget the fact that Xiangchen and his followers killed many of Kuei's ancestors' tribe.

5) He's a child who grew up in apparent peace and to him violence was rare; nowadays peace is so rare that people probably forgot what it means and that is always going to mess him up.

6) Also nearly every last person he ever loved, cared for, knew, or talked to, is dead and the people that are not he can count on one hand with fingers left to spare, plus its been a hundred years so they are going to be very different.

7)He is adjusting surprisingly well. Even if he has his own ideas that most people think are a dream from some cactus juice.

Azula will bring out the Onmitsu during the Day of Black Sun, and lots of people are gonna die. The Fire Nation and the Onmitsu vs. the gAang, Water Tribe, and whoever else they can bring to bear? The gAang and the Water Tribes do not stand a chance. Airbenders have the greatest chance of destruction. Once Aang realizes these things, he'll go into shock, and may require spirit-healing. "Langxue: He can come out of it. Without Appa. That? Is one tough kid."
 * This troper thinks that Lady Ursa may show up later. Amaya won't go near Aang, and Eshe, the only air-healer we've seen, has not bothered to greet the Avatar, just like her tribe. Professor Wen and Jia are too far away and don't want to be around Aang anyways (they're on Zuko's side, and like Zuko, prefer to stay away from the Avatar). Princess Ursa is still wandering around, and who knows? She may just cross paths with the gang, and if they play their cards right, she might heal Aang.
 * All these facts can also contribute to Break the Cutie/Kill the Cutie when Aang sees other airbenders trying to kill him, and he may not have the will to fight back.
 * Break the Cutie? Angst Coma? Probably not. The problems people have with Aang are that he's young and he's very air. It is air's philosophy to avoid what it doesn't want to deal with (like things that damage sanity stat) and be very, very effective when it chooses a target, and children are also learning, growing and adaptable. Right now, he's in denial about a lot of things and dodging around the stuff he can't deal with: the 'flightyness' that people object to is why he's not in an Angst Coma. They are defense mechanisms, and they are working supremely well. Azula wants to break his spirit? Good luck with that. Aang already lost everything he loved, and he's finding a way to keep functioning. A lot of the things he's not dealing with are things he can't deal with anyway: they happened years ago, or on the other side of the world, or Katara's problem wasn't with him, it was with her family. He didn't have a breakdown when Katara rejected him, he was confused and tried to figure out what was going on. What happens when Aang comes across something that should Break the Cutie, something absolutely horrible related to his vast amount of personal trauma that should destroy his optimistic view of humanity and the world, that there's no finding a way around (or he doesn't want to)? A Crowning Moment of Awesome happens, as in the scene with the shaman.
 * Embers spends a lot of time on saying that Aang really is a good, bright kid, with a lot of power to solve problems, he's just young, and a lot of people are working to actively deceive and undermine him, because of how effective he'd be if he knew what to do and where to point all this power he has. He gets all these conflicting messages, that he should and shouldn't use his power. He's in a situation designed to make it seem as though everything he does just makes things worse and sap his confidence. Break the Cutie and Angst Coma tend to result from some earthshattering blow, and good luck landing one of those on Aang's psyche. Losing everything he loves? Been thought that. Airbenders fighting him now? Kuzon was his best friend, and now he knows that Zuko is Kuzon's descendant. Aang might not be The Determinator, but he's a Zen Survivor: good luck getting him to go down and stay down.
 * What Aang does not realize is that Kuzon is Zuko, at least, reincarnated. Once he gets down to how and why, the truth will shatter him. And hello, live Air Nomad survivors? Particularly the ones who don't fit Aang's idealistic view of the perfect Air Monk? Ty Lee and her clan are against him, allied with Azula. The Touzaikaze haven't bothered to stop by and say "Hello, we're the descendants of the survivors whom your people tried to brainwash/kill, we're going to help you!", and one of them is likely to marry the Earth King, whom by the way, is not willing to give Air Nomads some of his territory without a buffer zone. As for earth-shattering views, how about the truth about Xiangchen?
 * No, he doesn't realise that Zuko is Kuzon reincarnated. On the other hand, how is finding this out worse than waking up to discover that all the people you know and love are a hundred years dead? If anything, finding out about the reincarnation is likely to boost his spirits -"The guy I knew a hundred years ago, who I knew to be a good and trustworthy person, has been reincarnated? I'm not as alone as I was! And hey, I trust him -I know he'll try to do the right thing!" As for knowing that the Touzaikaze are around...Aang doesn't expect people to come to him, he goes to them, so I imagine that he won't be surprised that they haven't approached him, and, while finding out their reasons for doing so will be a nasty shock, it's nothing against what he's already gone through. The thing about Aang is that he's already survived some pretty massive knocks, so predicting that future blows are going to hurt him badly doesn't hold up; he's demonstrated an awful lot of resilience.
 * That's very optimistic, but then again, that would be Aang. Remember what Tao said about each Avatar: Aang is not Roku and Kyoshi. Zuko is NOT Kuzon. So you think that Aang will think that Zuko/Kuzon will readily step into the mold of a "good person"? That Zuko will just do what Aang thinks is right? Zuko and Kuzon may share certain characteristics, but they are not the same person. Zuko is NOT Aang's friend; Sokka, Katara and Toph are. Monk Xiangchen has been hailed as a hero to the Air Monks for a millenia; you think Aang is going to accept the fact that the Air Monk way, the peaceful way, is really a lie? That the peace Xiangchen had imposed on all airbenders, the ones he and his followers captured, was founded on the idea that all Airbenders should be spiritual? Aang has managed out of sheer, dumb luck. However, he can't escape the truth. And if he thinks he can just approach the Onmitsu or Touzaikaze and expect them to rally to his banner, then he'd be Completely Missing the Point and Too Dumb to Live.
 * Zuko may not be Kuzon, but he does carry the same spirit, which from the point of veiw of someone who used to be a friend is a good thing; it means something tangible lives on. Aang won't expect Zuko to step into the role of a good Air Monk, and he's had too much experience to presume that Zuko's suddenly going to act like Kuzon. He does, however, trust Kuzon, and thus Zuko, to be a good person -maybe by an alien set of standards, but a good person nonetheless. As for Xiangchen...did Aang ever meet Xiangchen? Subodei? Sure, they're held up as heroes, but they aren't Aang's role models; that was Gyatso. And Gyatso embodied all the virtues that the Air Monks' society held up: Forgiveness, good humour, kindness, a willingness to be friends with everyone. Xiangchen was a crazy mass-murderer who brainwashed people, and all the Air Monks carried on his work...except for the one person whose guidance Aang truly valued. And that value system, the one Gyatso espoused, is laudable. Either way, no matter how it hits him, going into an Angst Coma isn't Aang's style. He just shrugs it off until he can deal with it, and jumps at the next problem.
 * Good points, both of these. The problem with Aang is that he does not ground himself (pun wholly intended) nearly as well as Toph does when it comes to actually confronting a problem. He gets distracted too easily and goes from one thing to another without a backward glance, and this can come back and hit him in the worst way possible. When Katara told them about the vision she had from Yue about Xiangchen going after the air-healers, Aang denied it. He didn't even bother to ask about it later, even though Katara showed him that every element could heal. I would love to see Aang tear Xiangchen down in front of all the other Air Nomads in the end, to put Gyatso up as a true hero, as well as Yangchen, but I believe it is critical for Aang to really face facts about his own people before Azula paints him as an even worse Complete Monster than monk Xiangchen and Skylord Subodei put together. Aang has held up fairly well so far, but there are some things that a 12 year old child should NOT have to do or endure.
 * As of Chapter 47, it's confirmed that Aang deals with pain by finding a way to ignore it but is capable of handling it when he has to. (Also, that idyllic life he was going to have and never did? Ouch.)
 * The truth about the ship is one thing; the truth about his own people, on the other hand...I'm not convinced that Aang will be able to hold up very well at discovering the truth about the Air Monks' past. Ty Lee went nuts when she thought Zuko was going to kill Azula, what she thinks is her and her people's best chance at life, and she's mindbent. If every element could heal, then there has to be a blood oath for the Air Nomads. Meaning there is something that can make them choke on the air they're breathing, and experience sickness, pain, and death. We just don't know what it is yet.
 * Another fact has come to light as of chapter 57:


 * Even if Aang does crack and gets trampled by all of those things, he's the Avatar, that means he's not just an Airbender, just like Roku couldn't get loyalty sickness, Aang won't be spiritually damaged if he goes against the Air Nomads or whatever.

Katara and Langxue will not get along
When Langxue meets up with the gAang, Katara and Sokka will be thrilled to meet another Water Tribe person, especially since he's a waterbender. At first glance, anyways...until they learn how the Eastern Waterbenders are totally different from the Northern and Southern tribes. For one, the ones who fight are not the waterbenders, but the Kyoshi warriors, and the only ones who can be part of that group are older girls (like Suki), who do not bend, but carry fans and swords. The Eastern waterbenders are not revered as "blessed" or seen as strong spiritual figures, and I bet they have their own form of council. Langxue is a boy, a waterbender, is learning how to use a sword, and that he will defer to Suki instead of Katara will definitely break the girl's brain. Langxue will not appreciate Katara's self-righteousness, and he will be blunt about staying with Saoluan instead of joining them and not let Katara put him down for having Saoluan as family and using a weapon. He can get along well with Sokka, though. Aang...not at all, and Toph, yeah.

Aang + Ty Lee = Foe Yay
Aang may not know much about "that tribe that pierced hands from a long, long time ago", but he thinks that Xiangchen did the right thing. Ty Lee knows that Aang the Avatar is not good for her and her people, and she's all for helping Azula take him down. This is one meeting that is destined to be.
 * Or a total Crack Pairing...
 * Hey, if Zuko/Toph can happen, why not Aang/Ty Lee?
 * As a pairing? Highly unlikely. Embers is looking to be general than with any sort of shipping.
 * Unless thats how air benders have truce's, sex is the exact opposite of killing (force a life from this plain of existence and bring a new one into existence) and Air Nomads ted to go to extreme's very easily so that could be a reasonable thing to happen.
 * Aang said in a previous chapter that airbenders don't have truces, since they don't fight. Anyways, it's not as if Aang x Ty Lee will happen, because there's no way the other Air Nomads will allow another alliance of killers (Subodei) and mindbenders (Air Monks). Aang and Ty Lee's kid would be hunted down. They'd best be off with other people.

Zuko, Shirong and Langxue will be the heroes of this story.
Think about it. Aang may be the Avatar, but as of right now, he's not the one the world needs. For centuries, there have been no yaoren to help bridge the gap between the Nations, and without them, the Avatar had no help either. Aang will definitely be the savior that everyone has been waiting for, but it is Zuko, Shirong and Langxue who will ultimately restore balance to the world. While returning the sexy bendeing forms to the world. The W Orld needs some loveing right?

The gAang will meet Temul.
They're bound to land on one of the islands, even if it isn't their first island of choice (Byakko). Toph wants to tell Shidan that Aang is here, and Sokka will probably get his sword-training from Piandao, who lives in Shu Jing. And of course, who're the gAang to pass up encountering with another spirit...particularly, Temul? Aang will inevitably find out how his best friend Kuzon died, and Temul will be happy to enlighten him...by utterly thrashing him up and down the island and tearing his hopes and dreams to shreds. Temul HATES Avatars, Fire Lords, and most of all, Air Nomads. Of course, this revelation will break Katara's faith in the spirits.
 * Confirmed in chapter 50! Almost word for word. (Except Temul's a ghost, not a spirit- breaking Katara is left to The Painted Lady.)

The end will have Aang meeting the descendants of the surviving Air peoples.
Since Zuko, Langxue and Shirong can bridge the gap between the Nations, Aang's goal will be to reconcile with the other Air Nomad groups. As of the moment, it's justifiable that the other Air Nomads such as the Yamabushi and Touzaikaze won't want to go near Aang (who represents the Main Temples' Air Monks) or Ty Lee (Fire Nation-allied onmitsu). It all began with the Air Nomads, so Aang can get to the root of the problem and fix things. He owes it to the other Air peoples to make things right between them.

The Air Nomads will steal the limelight from the Fire Nation.
On the Day of Black Sun, the Onmitsu (and maybe, if the gaang can get them on their side, the Yamabushi) will shock everyone with their appearance, and they'll be the Ensemble Darkhorse for the rest of the fic.
 * Here's hoping they're expies of ninjas from another Vathara fandom. Can has Aoshi? And/or Soi Fong? What about Misao as one of Ty Lee's sisters?

Each element has a dual, yet complimentary, nature.
Water is Family and Community and Fire is Loyalty and Power by Zuko's own words, "We're loyalty and power. They're family and community." (ch 31)

Earth is Compassion and Mercy. In the letter Aang read (ch 31), it says "mercy and compassion" as attachment to be let go. By this, the writer meant Earthly attachments which are the opposite of Air. Tao tells Aang (ch 37), "...too often we forget earth's true heart: not tradition, but compassion."

Time and again, Air is referred to as Freedom. But true Freedom can't exist without Liberty.
 * What counts as freedom changes from person to person you know.
 * Word of God combined with chapter 63 suggests they are Teachings and Truth.

Earth may also be the element of 'fertility.' Or shipping, given how much importance they give marriage. Oma and Shu.

Fire may also be the element of One night stands because dragons night or a lifetime and with the mask at their parades make it so people don't know who the people who are shaking up are. Either way All of the Nations forgot the sex bending arts so that its more fun and They cant protect children to be. ohh damm take a way the way to defend new life comeing into this world, then take healing so noone can pull through and finally big wars so everyone get pointed at each other so take away fighting. Koh is one brillint creature.
 * More likely Air.

I'm not entirely sure that's it. Each element seems to have not two, but three describers. It's more like one thing binds it, one thing defines it, and one thing defines it's people.
 * Water- Bound by Family, defined by Community, and its people have Adaptability
 * Earth- Bound by Contracts, defined by Compassion (not tradition, as per above), and its people have Perseverance
 * Fire- Bound by Loyalty, defined by Power, and its people have Determination
 * Air- Bound by Teachings, defined by ???, and its people have Freedom
 * I can't believe I didn't think of it, but...Air could be defined as Independence.

Way back in Chapter 9, when Zuko needs support from a representative of each of the elements to become a yaoren, there's this this exchange ""A very long day," the monk chuckled softly. "But here you are. With love, compassion, and honor." Zuko stared. Turned, and looked. Behind him, Lu Ten winked back, one arm wrapped around Ping's shoulders. Beside them, the Water Tribe woman rolled her eyes. Unsettled, Zuko looked back at the airbender, in time to see one white brow go up in curiosity. "Friends and allies are the greatest of treasures," the monk said plainly. "What more could you need?" "Truth," Zuko blurted out."
 * Chapter 59 seems to imply that they are defined by Be Yourself or finding the right way for each person and what someone personal morals are. Questioning their teachings?
 * I don't think that that's Air in a nutshell. The Yamabushi are the ones who believe in finding their own Way; they are only one group of Air Nomads. Ty Lee prays to Tengri, and it can be deduced that so does the rest of her Clan, but the other groups don't seem to. The Touzaikaze seem to devote themselves to Sarasvati, their river spirit in the desert. However, there is a connection between all of these. There are different ways to do things, after all, different ways to go. Path. That's the best I can think of.

If that's not Vathara being as blatant as she ever is, I'm not sure what could be. Fire is Honor, Water is Love, Earth is Compassion. Truth, which he still needs, which is lost and hidden and suppressed across the entire world, which needs to be brought back before the gigantic mess the world is in can be fixed, is Air. As for the different groups of air nomads believing different things, one of the major themes of this fic is that Truth is different for everyone.

There is a lava spirit.
Earth has Oma & Shu. Water has Tui & La. Air has Tengri alone so far, but Yangchen said "the mountains and the eternal blue sky," so the mountain spirit may be yet to show up (and a mountain spirit can be air if a big hunk of rock can be a water spirit). The Fire Nation is based around the sun and the fact they live on (and around) volcanic islands. If the lava spirit got angry at some point, that would explain why there are so few lavabenders. It would make sense for a lava spirit to have an explosive temper: consider Pele.
 * Confirmed. Shiratora, Asagitastsu, Akatori, and Kurokami are the four deadliest volcanoes.
 * Not confirmed for the 'duality' reason though. Guanyin is the head earth goddess, Oma and Shu are just her deputies (sort of like Agni's dragons), so Earth and Fire, at least, are singular.

Katara will undergo a drastic 180.
After the Day Of Black Sun and the Gaang's plans have failed, with live Air Nomads still around, Aang will want to seek the others out. Nomads being vastly different from each other, there will be some who will cry out for just recompense from Aang for what his people have caused them, that he should repent for the sins of Xiangchen and his followers. Seeing this, Katara will be overcome with horror and guilt at what she had been demanding of Zuko and the Fire Nation. At this point, it's the only way she'll really change.
 * seeing Zuko without a shirt might do it.

Haru will become a yaoren.
Specifically, he'll become a healing yaoren. Balance requires healers as well as warriors, after all, and all three of the current yaoren are spirit-torn. Additionally, he's going to be trained in healing by Katara, who is the only person who knows how air-healing works (unless one of the fringe groups mentioned managed to hang on to it). For this reason, he'll likely be an earth-air yaoren.
 * Maybe. At this rate, though, it seems like Toph may be the first one, since she was trying to bend the ashes in smoke. Haru may come later, but Toph has a head-start, because she knows that Zuko is a water yaoren. She may just take matters into her own hands and start bending smoke when the rest of the Gaang isn't looking.
 * Zuko was able to bend the heat in hot sand, too, without being an earth yaoren. Toph, being a combat bender, would need a spirit wound to become one - does the attack from the sea monster count as a spirit wound?
 * Toph is only able to feel what is on the ground, so if she becomes air yaoren, she won't use her power effecively. If she gets power allowing her to sense in the air, she will get big power-up, because she will be able to see things not only as good as the rest of the gaang, but also feel them underground, hidden ect. It will give her too much power, she already is Badass.
 * What's wrong with that?
 * There's no such thing as 'too Badass' with Yaoren, since being preternaturally determined, hard-edged, and effective are the only things thatkeep them alive after the fatal wound that permitted their gift and keep them alive through a life of often tangible bad luck. If the Sea Spider damaged Toph enough, then her condition might worsen and she'll need a spirit healer (which will surely move the plot, with Tao seeming ignorant of such abilities). If she's damaged a little, then she'd be as eligible as the imprisoned Earthbenders. I don't think Haru was on long enough to go through spirit wounds, but Tyro sure counts.
 * There is such thing. Well, Yaoren are not the Avatar. Toph already is calling herself "The Greatest Earthbender" and she is right. But I agree, if well-written it may be a super plot twist (Author is pracicaly a God of Pen, so is not impossible). To get another element you (or someone in your name) have to pray for it. I don't see Toph or Aang praying to Autumn Lord. She may get angry with her pupile and say something like "Oh Lord, let me understand this idiot," and he will, with the gift of airbending.
 * Healing yaoren go on spirit-quests, instead of being spirit-torn, so he's still eligible. Mind you, there is the little problem that nobody knows exactly what a spirit-quest entails any longer. And given that the quest was potentially fatal, it's likely that deliberately wounding yourself was a part of it...
 * Letting Haru in is good for earth-healing, not next Yaoren. He is just too soft and without character to become one.

The Sandbenders will show up later in the story.
Remember those sandbenders who took Appa away? They may just lead us to the Air Nomad group living in the Si Wong desert - the Touzaikaze. The Sandbenders are NOT Air Nomads, just Earthbenders who have learned how to live in that particular environment. Being neighbors of a sort, the Sandbenders probably give them news of the outside world - or the other way around, if the Touzaikaze found a way to get information without revealing who they are to the world. Some groups of Sandbenders may even act as a sort of guard for them, if they have good relations with the Touzaikaze, and keep them secret from other Earthbenders.
 * In canon, the sandbenders took Appa because they could sell him and make a profit for finding a Sky Bison. In Embers, they could very well have taken Appa to the Touzaikaze as a gift, or even for Appa to be well taken care of, instead of wasting away in the desert.
 * Confirmed in Chapter 45.

Next Yaoren will be airbender using earth.
We already have firebender plus waterbending, earthbender with fire and waterebender using airbending. That may not be a pattern, but if it is only bender left is airbender and only second element not used is eath.
 * I'd count on a pattern, since the great spirits probably don't share all that well. Won't THAT be fun! Either fugitive airbenders or assassin air benders suddenly smacked with "go play nice or die."
 * Likely this Yaoren will be Eshe, the airbender who appeared in chapter 45. Eshe is the only established Airbending character near a spirit-healer right now, and becoming a Air/Earth Yaoren can probably help her candidacy as future Queen. And I suspect there have been a LOT of people praying for Kuei to find a strong bride.
 * Maybe. It's highly doubted that becoming yaoren changes her candidacy as Queen, as Kuei just agreed to ally with the Touzaikaze, which means he will marry Eshe.
 * I agree they'll wed, but he only agreed to ally with them, not to marry one of the girls. (for spiritual reasons) Started a new (not so) WMG down below for this. Chapter 34 specifically says that if a bender starves themselves of their element in a quest to become Yaoren, they're "cricket-mice" and the healers. Sounds like something a brave woman might do, which would show her love for her love's people.
 * It's been heavily emphasized that the Earth King must marry a woman with enough spiritual strength. Earth King Luo Hua and Queen Ye Zao managed to have an heir who just happens to be a pretty damn strong spiritbender (he kicked out Wan Shi Tong!). Now that the opportunity has presented itself to him, Kuei's taking advantage of it. Helps that he's marrying a legend.
 * Considering that, as implied by the glances to empty rooftops in chapter 45, many of the Dai Li who are not hiding underground(the ones working with the Fire Nation are still supposed to PROTECT Ba Sing Se from SPIRITUAL MALICE) are missing... well, I think there's going to be a spirit encounter coming soon.
 * Or possibly Eshe will become the only healing Yaoren, and deliberately seek that ability. With all the books Kuei is likely to throw at her in an attempt to charm, I don't think lack of knowledge will be a problem for her spirit-quest. In which case, Vathara will have to show us how, eaxactly, an Airbender manages to cut themselves off from their element without asphyxiating.
 * Uh, you're forgetting the fact that Zuko can heal. Haru's mentioned to be the type for healing, too.
 * There are "fighting Yaoren" and "healing Yaoren"-- it doesn't mean they can't both do both, it means that their focus is on one or the other. Haru might even become a spirit healer, like Kuei, without becoming a Yaoren. (since such an option was specifically mentioned-- chapter 34, search "cricket-mice," basically the wounded become fighters and those that quest for it become healers)
 * I think that question was answered in chapter 59. Air is cut off from its source by being in a sealed room with 'stale air.' Maybe Hitomi will be the healing yaoren? Hitomi IS an airbender (Unless this troper is being an idiot- I can't tell if she's lying about not being an airbender or not... Ack.) and she was just starved from her element but surrounded by earth... it could happen, like what almost happened to Min.
 * Hitomi said she's not an airbender, so I take it she's not an airbender. Descendent of one? Maybe. Air Nomad? Yes. She told Toph if she told Aang about who she was, then she'd lie, vehemently protesting that she's no Air Nomad. As she's not a bender, she can't really become a yaoren.

The third Invasion of the North Pole will happen soon.
The first invasion of the North Pole had Yangchen and her yaoren + Fire Nation Yu Yan archers (and maybe some of the waterbenders) vs. Subodei's clan and Xiangchen. The second invasion just occurred a few months ago. The third invasion will involve the current yaoren (Zuko, Shirong and Langxue) and maybe Aang and his group + Tao against the Fire Nation undead. With Tao's teaching Aang about those who tread on two elements as arrogant, there's going to be a fight between Zuko's group and Aang's.
 * Well, another invasion by the Fire Nation will happen soon if Azula has anything to say about it: plans for one were in her inner monologue a dozen or so chapters ago. Also, the invasion on the show was the third invasion: the Northern Water Tribe had armor from one about a century ago in the show.

Langxue will not join Aang.
Specifically, Langxue is on his own side, which has his only family, Saoluan. He doesn't want to be separated from her, and Sokka and Katara support the Avatar, which means they support the separation of the Four Nations and its people. Kyoshi is alive through Aang, and despite being a Kyoshi Island inhabitant, it is highly doubtful that Langxue goes along with Kyoshi's edict. That, and Aang does not approve of fighting Airbenders who kill (and let's face it, he's not ready at all for being anyone's teacher). Langxue needs someone to teach him airbending, and the only ones who can do that and use the katana are the yamabushi on Byakko.
 * Given how much Langxue knows about the Order of the White Lotus, want to bet he was a member? While the duty of a yaoren is to support the Avatar, it's also the duty of the Order to... take care of Avatars who have gone to the dark side. While Langxue is a kid who wants to stay near his family, keep in mind how much Kuzon was influencing Zuko. Langxue might be sticking around Zuko's group because Iroh, the current head of the Order is there and something needs to be done about Aang, even if Langxue would prefer to solve it by getting Zuko to be Aang's firebending teacher.
 * 'Something needs to be done about Aang'...? The Order of the White Lotus is to take care of Avatars who go evil. Langxue and Iroh would have to be idiots to throw away a young, optimistic, and well-meaning Avatar to wait sixteen years on a gamble that the next one -from the Water Tribes, who have just as much reason to hate the Fire Nation and none of Aang's cultural blocks to repress it -would miraculously be a person who was willing to take the Fire Nation's side and capable of handling spirits without training.
 * Seconded. Remember what Sokka realized after he saw that Zuko was willing to throw his life away to save Aang during the fight in the palace at the end of the Ba Sing Se arc? A water tribe avatar means the Fire Nation is screwed beyond words, and Iroh, head of the White Lotus, knows it. Also, as 46 shows, Iroh's opinion of Aang is very different from Zuko's. Iroh is used to young people being idiots (Exhibit A: Zuko) who can grow out of it. He thinks of Aang as basically a brave, idealistic, good boy, and is actually personally concerned for him, to the point that when he thinks of Aang having to deal with Koh, he doesn't think of it in terms of 'dead meat,' it's Nightmare Fuel.
 * Except he already ran into Koh and, with Roku's help, survived. He definitely has the ability to handle great spirits, just lacks the training
 * But Iroh thinks that Aang would be manipulated by Koh to do/be something horrible. I wonder if the Evil Avatar is the one who ticked off Koh, and if once the Avatar dies he joins the other Avatars; that would mean Zuko is right and the avatar(or avatar state) is just a little bit evil.

Ursa is Yaoren.
It was said, that Ozai gave her very serious wound, "not one of the flesh;" that means her soul is hurt--one of the things needed to become Yaoren. Even after 6 years she is still wounded, even being dragon-child and part of fire-healers clan, she couldn't overcome it. She may have became Yaoren, which resulted into fire healing not exactly working.
 * Would explain why apparently she's not being all that rational: remember what having a fire wound did to Zuko? She may be dying, too: Shidan mentioned that they were on a desperate search for a spirit-healer awhile back and couldn't find one.
 * They mentioned that the bender wasn't chosen by Agni to be shared; I had thought it was probably Lu Ten, but he's not related by blood-- and Shidan felt Zuko drown; how would he not feel his own daughter take such damage?
 * It's possible she's wounded but not a yaoren. Yet. So far we've got fire-water and fire-earth, but no fire-air, and Byakko has the yamabushi, so if she went on a spiritual retreat to hide/try to recover from what happened, it would probably be with them. Boy, think of what a fire-air yaoren could do in terms of destructive force. Air + fire = suddenly vastly increased air pressure = explosion, on top of the firestorm possibilities. According to the fic, yaoren of opposing elements are the most powerful, but there's versatility and then there's KABOOM.
 * Come to that, imagine what air/earth could do on a volcano. Ever heard of obsidian? 'Black glass of the mountain', and it deserves the name; imagine a bender who could control both that, and the wind the shards flew in.

The Spirit Visions granted to various characters are part of the plot involving Koh the Face-Stealer and Wan Shi Tong to, among other things, get rid of all the healing benders.
Subodei had a spirit vision of him (so far as this troper can figure) conquering the world. Xiangchen had a spirit vision of USING Subodei's conquest to enforce something pretty much like the Airbender's Harmonious Accord on the entire rest of the world, which among other things led to the loss of the healing airbenders. Iroh had a spirit vision of him succesfully taking Ba Sing Se. There's no evidence of WHO gave ANY of these people their visions.

== The odd bit of historical information that Tingzhe Wen mentioned about Ba Sing Se apparently not having grown naturally, but popping up full grown, historically speaking, overnight, is going to be a Chekov's, um... fact? Idea? History? Chekov's something, anyhow. == Vathara never drops odd, weird little facts in for no reason at all. This? Seems both weird and, possibly, very big.
 * Given some of the hints about why the spirits want to wipe out humanity, it's entirely possible that it's one more hint that humanity did not originate on the Avatar's planet. Ostrich-horse and other names like that indicate they came from a more Earthlike planet, where there were creatures called ostriches and horses. According to Yue there's also a debate about whether or not humanity is part of the cycle: can they be included in it or are they inherantly unnatural and disruptive to the cycle? That explains why the Avatar would be necessary for the planetary consciousness to understand humanity: if humanity was a natural part of the world, then the Avatar would also embody humanity. It wouldn't need to incarnate as a human in order to be human (or at least a certain percentage human, since it would also embody every other living thing).
 * Tingzhe mentioned that Ba Sing Se had appeared overnight (the first colony?) in response to being told that according to Fire Nation legends, this was 'the world of the spirits and dragons,' and humanity had come from elsewhere. IIRC, he had asked why they were comfortable with marrying something supernatural/not of the normal world, and was told that really, humans didn't have a right to call anyone else here unnatural.
 * According to Shidan in another chapter, Koh the Face Stealer considers dragons human, since some or all of them contain human blood. It's possible that dragons were created by Agni, or at least upgraded with human genes to human-level intelligence, to act as interpreters. That would explain why a predatory species that communicates with telepathy would be as psychologically similar to humanity as they are, instead of even more alien.
 * Confirmed in Ch. 46.

In the epilogue, Kuei will have an heir.
Now that Kuei has two marriage candidates, it's possible that by the end of the story, he'll have a son or daughter to continue the family business.
 * To steal from the comments on chapter 45-- "choose the harem ending!"

Kuei will marry Eshe.
He's agreed to consider it, he's introducing both girls to his people, she rather bravely protected her cousin when they snuck in to see Kuei, and she's clearly fond of scrolls/reading/books.
 * This troper thinks so as well, even though Amisi stands as a possible bride. Kuei gravitated towards Eshe because of the fact that she's an air-healer, which means she has to be very skilled at what she does, and spiritually strong. She'll be able to fight and defend their children should Kuei happen to die early. What's not to like?

Vathara is reading this page right now laughing evilly.
Vathara is reading this section right now with Cheshire Cat Grin and will soon have sadistic pleasure with proving us wrong.
 * All things considered, I can see her reading this to double-check her reasoning....
 * Flat-out confirmed at the end of Chapter 46.
 * It's pretty obvious she's been trolling the Embers tropes' page, as she's responded to some of the things here.

Air-healers are special...
To steal a theory from one of the reviewers, the air-healers were the best spirit-healers. Every element had warriors and healers - this is what helps keep the balance. And the air-healers were most in touch with the balance. If healing is akin to fighting (Zuko does say that healing is like a inward battle), then to be a healer was to also be a killer. Both actions tie you to the world. Vathara also wrote for Rurouni Kenshin, and it would not be surprising to hear from Eshe, the first air-healer to be introduced, to say that the sword is a tool for killing.
 * Air is also the best combat element. Mass destruction, explosive decompression, not to mention the fact that they can kill people from dozens of meters away straight up out of reach. It says something that the Fire Nation practically had to invent an entire ki-based martial art to fight airbenders: conventional archery would just be handing them ammo. Not to mention infantry vs. a Combat Pragmatist airbender? "Come down here so I can hit yo-urk!" Death From Above indeed. This makes sense, given the focus on the idea that fighting and healing are two sides of the same coin: best fighting element = best healing element.
 * The immediate downside of Air is probably that it sucks on defense: Fragile Speedster airbenders vs. Mighty Glacier earthbenders? That military history quote from Kuei is interesting. Water seems to be the Jack of All Stats of the elements: its strength is versatility. Besieging a place requires endurance fire (and likely air) wouldn't have, and it's also simultaneously being on the offense, trying to take the city, and on defense, since the city would be trying to drive them away. Lightning Bruiser waterbenders? And of course firebenders are already Glass Cannon types: able to provide overwhelming offensive power to smash through enemies... but they can only fight for so long without stopping unless they want to drop dead. Of course, that's Sozin's style, and the water clan styles and the title of the fic imply a smaller, less-powerful flame that stays burning for a long time, which makes sense for the water clans as a philosophy, actually, since they'd have to go onshore to get more fuel. So they'd think more in terms of 'how do we conserve fuel?' Since for a steam-powered metal boat to run out of fuel is bad.
 * Air benders are best at defense though the greatest defense is not to be there and air benders are all about dodging.
 * Earth King Kuei tossing Wan Shi Tong out shows that defense/fortification in depth can be badass. No single bender should be able to do all of that, he was drawing on the authority of the Earth King. Owl just got pwnd by the Weight of Tradition.
 * It's not so much strengths and weaknesses as how you use them. Like in the Day of the Black Sun, you can tell the Fire Nation is close to taking over the world because the Avatar and his allies make an assassination like battle to try to end the war. If you remove the head, all else will follow-- use your strengths on the enemies' weakness, and try to defend your own weak points.

Dark dragons have mind powers.
Shidan is shown to have a Psychic Link with Zuko and Ursa, so this has to be pretty common amongst regular dragons. As for dark dragons? If Azula is a Consummate Liar, then Makoto has have even more powerful Mind Over Matter abilities. Dark dragons, along with being able to lie as easily as breathing, can shapeshift freely without the trouble that regular dragons have, and so naturally powerful ones would be able to have Psychic Powers.
 * Shidan is also shown to be able to sense bloodlines and at very least fire benders; he identified Jinhai and his ancestry just by going "hm, who would Zuko be protecting on the ship?" I think the dark dragon abilities would be more in the direction of either making folks believe the lies, or in hiding. (Which will be interesting if Zuko's 'hide in the ambient warmth' thing is an example....)
 * Well, all dragons have mind powers, the question is whether or not they have extra ones. The dragon in Ch. 46 didn't seem to be a dark dragon, and it was still able to walk right into a human camp and distract/cause to forget a human kid. That was probably a case of the difference between lying and sneakyness, but this was a distant relative of Makoto's...
 * She also "mentioned" that the elders wouldn't like it.
 * Because it was unfair, not because it was wrong.
 * Wait a moment, isn't Aang always going on about it being the Avatar's job to make things fair and gets rather up in arms when something isn't fair? And the dragon mentioned the elders wouldn't like it for that very reason and the Air Monks and Nuns were basically ruled by elders. Air Monks & Nuns learned from dragons?
 * In chapter 47, Makoto invades Azula's mind. It's implied by her timing that she needs physical contact to do this, so it could be a variation on the mental link Shidan uses with Zuko in chapter 45.

Eshe will not become Yaoren.
There are still other airbenders out there. One of the Yamabushi or even Onmitsu could become yaoren.
 * Ty Lee, anyone?
 * Is Azula crazy enough to have her along while hunting the only thing that's been shown to harm her spirit? (The Harmonious Accord can't make them vulnerable, or they'd have had nuns dropping like flies.)
 * Many other characters will not become Yaoren. What's this theory anyway?
 * Hopefully, Vathara will not make yet a third Yaoren be one of her O Cs. True, her characterisation's okay, but there are plenty of canon characters for her to flesh out without extending the list even further.
 * There is limited choice there, though. Most of the eligible main characters already have sufficient or more than sufficient power, it's their application of it that's lacking.
 * Eshe's people seem to be a deeply assimilated Earth/Air mix already, a synergy epitomised by pairing Eshe and Amisi. Making Eshe a yaoren on top of this seems deeply redundant.

Suki will soon make her appearance.
It's been a while since we've seen Suki, or any of the other Kyoshi Warriors from canon. From what has been told, Ocean is angry and there are spirits running about here and there. Depending if Vathara has her in the Boiling Rock or some other prison, she may break out, or someone else may have broken her out. As long as Azula isn't around, she has some leeway.
 * She mentioned that she thought that Suki & Sokka were great for each other, since Sokka was secure enough as a warrior to appreciate the Badass Action Girl. However, she also mentioned that Suki facing Azula was a major act of bravery, and this is an author that thinks Azula merits a warning, and the way she writes her she certainly deserves it. It was a long time until her reappearance in canon, though, so unless Azula realizes that hmm, the Gaang knew Kyoshi warriors, she has some Kyoshi warriors she could interrogate or try to Mind Rape and use against them, it's hard to think of a way to justify an early rescue. Although, if Iroh is going to be organizing smuggling people out of the Fire Nation anyway, and the Gaang could probably use a friend and Kyoshi expert...
 * Iroh is going to be organizing smuggling people out of the fire nation with Mai. Theory has legs, especially since that would make Sokka sit down and listen even more than he already does.

The Avatar World is a giant spaceship.
It's a giant colony ship, in fact. People were granted the ability to bend the various elements so they could keep the engines going, keep up weapons and life support, and so on. The Avatar's purpose is to keep the balance because you need a lot of benders from each nation to fix the systems when anything goes wrong; keeping all the nations alive is key for that.
 * Air is the propulsion system; Tengri keeps them going to wherever they're headed.
 * Earth is the shielding. It's also the main data storage system, hence Earth's affinity for tradition and records.
 * Fire is the weapons system (what else?). It's Agni's job to keep an eye out for trouble and remove it -permanently.
 * Water takes care of life support. Water exists naturally in all living things, so it's easy for waterbenders to monitor how well everything's growing.

Of course, Koh -and a number of others -are exceptionally grumpy at having their planet co-opted for a colony ship...so that's another reason the Avatar is needed: Keep the ship's systems (the major elemental spirits) happy, and keep the disgruntled spirits in check!


 * Forget planet, try "why does the Fire Nation send ships east to invade the Earth Kingdoms?" They put ships through the Serpent's Pass to get to the Fire Nation - and the Gaang travels through it as well. Why not make like Columbus to get to the Earth Kingdoms, unless this is a Flat World - kinda like this one.

Makoto is going to appear very soon.
With all the foreshadowing and explanations of Zuko's and Azula's ancestry, Makoto aka Fire Lady Tejina is bount to rear her ugly head. The good guys (Zuko's group and the gAang) saving the day at the North Pole? Well, next moment, Makoto will somehow magnificently screw their plans up royally. She knows that the yaoren are now alive and the Avatar is back. Besides helping Koh (somewhat), she can also go and visit Ozai and Azula. They are her favorite side of the family, being like her, and Sozin's and her great-grandchildren. (Byakko the Yaouren the White Lotus Avatar and allies ect, ect,). or go to volcano and say look at that! then push him in.
 * She may be a little annoyed with her grandson for setting up the death of her son; on the other hand, her granddaughter, even with tainted blood, might be an instant hit.
 * Makoto has been described as a dangerous and active enemy; it would be very surprising if she didn't make an appearance -perhaps persuading Asagitatsu to let go ahead of schedule?
 * Or, the reason it has not blown yet? That volcano could be her lair. After all, what would a evil person get out of destroying the world? That would mean killing themselves and all of their toys (victims).
 * So after Sozin's death she turns back into a dragon she would need a place that humans would be scarce so as not to be hunted down later because even though she is one of the most dangerous living (or the most) all someone has to do is get Lucky once, be it by ...
 * Being killed in her sleep, a lot of people teaming up and someone gets lucky, a powerful group becomes a hit squad
 * All they got to do is get lucky once, she has to win every time.
 * Which is true about everyone. For example:
 * Toph- attack from the sky or sea hey she might be the greatest earth bender in the world that does not mean she is the greatest fighting earthbender in the world for right now that title still goes to Bumi in my opinion.
 * so air nomad arrow from far away and ty lee ability to dampen sound and boom! Dead Little Blind Bandit.
 * Aang- chi blocker comes up with a innocent smile and gives him poison, take glider away so he cant run away
 * Katara- experienced team (dai li Yu yan chi blockers ect) or a better fighter.
 * Iroh- get really lucky, or be really really good AND bring a bunch of friends. Or a Tea Pot thats has been poisoned
 * Zuko- force him to save one of his people after he is weekend from that exploit it and end it then, don't let it draw out, or just be better than him and cut off escape routs.
 * Sokka- take him away from the big guns he can use in a plan to mess you over and just kill him do not give him time to make a plan and do not use someone who is close to his fighting level (which is normal person decent) and kill the annoyingly smart water tribe kid.
 * Confirmed (or rejected depending on how soon "soon" is) by her appearance in chapter 47. (Ozai is apparently a hit. Azula less so.)

There are more Air Nomads yet to be revealed.
The yamabushi, onmitsu and Touzaikaze are just the few. In Chapter 35, Kuei did mention there could be some who've hidden in the north part of the Earth Kingdom. Likely, these could be very small families who've no wish to involve themselves in affairs of the world.

Wan Shi Tong will team up with Koh.
The Owl is out for revenge, and for being cast out of his beloved niche of books, scrolls and whatnot, will be noticed by Koh, and together, they can strike at humanity. Wan Shi Tong has been banished; where else can he go? Better, who can he go to for information? Didnt he take his library into the spirit world? I could have sworn that is what he said in that episode.

Air is...
Expression. This is what binds an Airbender. While they should be free to express themselves however they please, Xiangchen clamped down on that by making it canonical law that all Airbenders should live in a monastery and be spiritual and pacifistic. The opposite of this (Earth) would be making an impression. Or bipolar abilites- nice peace loving, Like the eye of a storm, so peace and love and yadda yadda and then the storm comes, so tengri followers go Blood Thirsty and MORE BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD.... erm AIR SPIRIT!
 * Hmm, personally, I thought that it'd be Faith and Belief which binds an airbender spiritually.
 * I think it's 'faith' in your teachers/teachings. Or maybe friendship. Pay attention to how Aang justifies everything in his head, especially in the later chapters (his discussion with Sokka in chapter 48 is probably the best example I can think of. Count how many times 'teach' or its derivatives shows up in Aangs thoughts). And notice that most of what he 'doesn't get' is stuff that goes against his teachings or conflicts with his idea of a teacher. Admittedly, Avatars are supposedly not bound like everybody else, so he may not be the best example. It does follow with how our other examples of air benders act, though. The Nuns from Temul's flashback refuse to listen to Temul, because it goes against their teachings (that they can't be attacked/they can fly away) and because, as the elders, they would be the supreme teachers- the air equivalent to a great name, chief, or king (and we all know how willing THEY are to take advice from other nations). Ty Lee, too, seems to be influenced at least a little more by what her family has taught her than you would expect (especially given what they did to her). Of course, a case might be made for friendship as well, even if it's not as strong. Ty Lee follows Azula because she is her friend FRIEND. Roku, Gyatso, Kuzon, Katara... Aang clings to them and disbelieves their ability to be wrong or bad people because they are his FRIENDS. Any time you try to show any of these people in a less than completely positive light- that's when Aang (and Ty Lee) break down.
 * Ty Lee's always know Azula isn't a good person. She follows her because she thinks it's the best way to minimize the damage Azula does and to protect her family. She been taught that helping the strongest win ends the fighting fastest and staying on the good side of the people in power puts you in a position to be able to help others. It's when Zuko proves that it's possible to fight Azula successfully that she starts to lose it. Ultimately she still sides with Azula, her beliefs shaken but intact.
 * It seems to be choice that is the other half of the equation or at least questioning the teachings. In chapter 59, a big deal is made of Aang learning to find his own Way.
 * I think it's Truth. Way back in chapter 9 when Zuko needs support from a representative of each of the elements and still needs air, Ghost!Gyatso describes his other helpers as "love, compassion, and honor" (water, earth and fire), asks what more he needs, and Zuko blurts out "Truth." Given who Zuko is a reincarnation of, I think this is a very telling instinctive answer. The airbenders who are having trouble are the one's being told that what they believe isn't true, that they may have to face being wrong about something or someone. Or everything and everyone they thought they knew. Aang is learning to find his own truth now.
 * Chapter 63 suggests that's close. Word of God says that Air is bound by their teachings, but Ty Lee breaks when she realizes those teachings are based on a lie. Kind of like Water is Love/Family, Earth is Compassion/Contracts and Fire is Honore/Loyalty, air is Truth/Teachings. You need the first to be bound by the second.
 * If it's when airbenders stop following a set of beliefs that they break down, that give the Elders a great rationalization for Harmonious Accord: If you decide we're wrong and you need to find a different Way, you could die, so us keeping you from realizing we're wrong must be in your best interest. People doing terrible things to their own generally think they've got a good reason.

Suyin is going to learn how to use chi.
Like the Yu-Yan, Suyin will learn how to put her chi to good use, whether it be throwing knives or other weapons or channeling it through her body. This way, she can protect Jinhai better, and definitely make an impact should Jet ever come near them again. Nah probably just surprise him enough that someone else can get him. Personally I want to see Min give someone a beat down.

Makoto turned evil because of the Northern Air Temple's existence.
Thanks to Chapter 46, we now know the location of Asagitatsu, a.k.a. Makoto's "lost" mountain home: the Northern Air Temple is sitting right smack on top of it. In other words, because Xiangchen was such a prideful asshole that he all but stole that mountain from the dragons for the sake of his "grand vision", Makoto snapped, declaring on humanity for the transgression and joining Koh's side. As Koh himself caused Xiangchen's vision in the first place, it's possible he might have even planned it that way, gaining for himself the last remaining bloodline capable of influencing Asagitatsu's behavior.
 * In capter 53, Makoto refers to (presumably) airbenders as "those lying beasts that had weakened her clan so much they [her clan] had to die". (Given the context, there's an even chance that is how she sees things, but that doesn't mean it's accurate.)

Aang, Katara and Sokka will find out that Zuko...
is a waterbender, as well as find out that there are more double-elemental benders like him in Shirong and Langxue. Their shock (as well as Tao's) will allow Zuko and his two yaoren allies to work to get the volcano under control, and Toph will help them, as well as tell the gAang "Are you guys gonna just stand there and stare, or are you gonna HELP?" They'll actually help, questions definitely saved for later, and everyone will do their part, surprising each other. This won't last long, though, because Zuko and his group have other plans and don't intend to stick around the North Pole with the gAang.

Asagitatsu will be critical to impeding the Zombie Apocalypse.
The Fire Nation dead are under hundreds of feet of freezing water. There's no way anything's going to burn down there...except, possibly, for lava. The dead will be sent on thanks to firebenders moving massive amounts of heat out of the volcano --thus forestalling an eruption --and sending it down to burn the sunken navy. This may or may not require an Avatar's power.
 * Confirmed

Eshe and Amisi are going to help during the North Pole arc.
Not that they're going towards the North Pole; because of the dangerous ash spreading from that region, Eshe is going to do what she can to bend it away from the Earth Kingdom as much as possible. Amisi, being her cousin, will go with her and maybe even separate the ash from the tainted air, and if not, get the crops underground. Who knows? Kuei may must order other earthbenders to do this as well, and even some of the Touzaikaze may help out.

Corollary to the theory above about Humans not originating on the Avatar planet: The humans are Ancients.
We can be almost 100% sure now, given the story in 46 and earlier information, that Humans didn't originate on the Avatar Planet. We also know that the Ruins beneath Ba Sing Se are much older than anything else, different than everything else, and appeared over night. The humans who showed up could Energy Bend, which is something totally different than the powers native to the Avatar World (46), and clearly arrived pre-formed, complete with the ability to use metal tools.

Now Energy Bending, complete with healing abilities, sounds an awful lot like Ascended/Near Ascended powers, and the city underneath Ba Sing Se sounds an awful lot like a City Ship. This would explain why the humans appeared out of nowhere, but were advanced and had powers. And, Vathara crosses over with Stargate quite frequently. And she likes unexpected plot twists.

I was Wondering on how the finale was going to work and I came up with some stuff. 1- If she tells the story of how the Avatar was created it must have been one of the biggest problems ever in their wolds to get all of the great spirits to work together on this. Maybe two Yaoren got all 4 bending arts and then one went evil and the other kept reincarnating 3 more times to begin the Avatar cycle And maybe the evil one comes into play. 2- If at the end if Zuko gets a daughter named Korra (he is a waterbender too) 3- If the Evil Avatar is shown who probably went mad from holding the world together. ( who probably is the one who wronged Koh) and his logic for it is this

I am the Avatar. The Avatar is the Spirit of the world. I am the Spirit of the WORLD. So shouldn't the world... Bow Down to Me?

The real reason why the Elders wanted to separate Gyatso and Aang.
Canon has it that Gyatso allowed Aang to play games and throw fruit pies on the adult Monks' heads, instead of training as the Avatar. In Embers, Gyatso knew Kuzon, and was even implied to collaborate with Kuroyama of Byakko. The Elders wanted to stop Gyatso from corrupting Aang with ideas that went against official Air Monk teachings, or better yet, keep Gyatso from telling Aang the truth about the Air Monks. Thus, the Elders attempted to send Aang away to the Eastern Air Temple, where he'd be mindbended into peaceful compliance, without Gyatso's interference.
 * Hasn't this basically been confirmed? That whole scene with someone thinking that Aang might have saved the world by running away.
 * No, it's about what Gyatso may have been trying to teach Aang. Gyatso isn't just Aang's cool Old Master; while he wants Aang to be happy, he also has his own motives and intentions. Why conspire with Kuroyama anyways? What exactly was Gyatso doing? And it seems that he knows something about the last Air Nomad Avatar. And something tells me it's not the Official Version that the Temples have been handing out like bestsellers. What did Gyatso know, how did he know, and if he was not mindbent, how could he teach Aang what he knew about Pai-Sho, a game played by members of the elusive White Lotus?
 * Surely, we can take it for granted that Gyatso had his own motives and intentions. Given that he opposes the only group of mindbenders we know of in the vicinity, it seems unlikely he's a mindless puppet.
 * Why would Gyatso need to be mindbent in order to teach Aang a popular boardgame?
 * was it possible that Gyatso was part of the White Lotus? Aang's internal monologue may hint to this when he is ccontemplating Iroh's look early on in the story add this to how Aang complained about how he started to change what he taught Aang after the announcement that Aang was the Avatar, it seems possible.

Azula. Yaoren.
As of 47, she almost got killed by Makoto. She's a Combat Pragmatist and apparently Tengri doesn't have a problem with those. Tengri would probably be pleased to get the 'better' one of the two royal siblings. She's about to have a near-death experience, and apparently people can get offered Yaoren powers & do the whole vision quest thing in those. But we need a Evil Yaoren, it wold be cool and Ozai's side needs a little bit more fire power
 * Also, Azula = Nightmare Fuel, and what's about the only thing scarier than Azula? An Azula yaoren that can fly. Start running now... except that won't work anymore, Aang. Nowhere would be safe... She'd go after Makoto first, but poor Zuzu...

I got to wonder what Azula is going to do when she meets daddy again. Hey! she's having her teenage rebellion! Just like her dear brother Zuko. Only In the fire nation they take stuff very seriously.

Potential Bad Assery.
Hey does any one remember when Zuko and that memory about Kuzon's death? and his musing's afterwards? I was thinking about what weapon was left in hand for him and I know if its a weapon its going to be dual swords, but what else? wait, double swords and fire........... Krato's anyone? Zuko is a God killer .... great Spirit Killer. are the yauroen going to go spirit hunting?

Aang will learn to heal.
While he's been learning combat bending because he has to master all forms of bending and because up until now few people knew about other types of healing, he isn't really suited mentally to it. He likes bending, but he doesn't like fighting. He wants to help people. The obvious solution is for Aang to learn to heal, something that he would probably enjoy a lot and which would have the dual purpose of fully balancing him within each element.
 * Actually, in the context of the fic, healing and fighting are two sides of the same coin. Zuko acknowledged this, going so far as to say that healing is like an inward battle. If this is so, then how can Aang be prepared to heal? He can barely stand fighting as it is, let alone acknowledge that even Air can heal.
 * True that healing and fighting are two sides of the same coin, but benders can still prefer one or the other. I can see Aang deliberately learning a style of bending that can be directly used to help people, even if he finds it hard, because it's in his nature to help others, and, while healing may be related to fighting, it still has a different outcome.
 * Could learning healing styles be a lead-in to an thump over the head in regards to fighting? "Sometimes, it's like when someone has an infection- in order for them to get better, you have to kill what's making them sick first. It's not nice, and it's not gentle, or painless, but if you don't, the person you're trying to heal will die, no matter what else you do."
 * Also, healing is a subtle, difficult art that takes a great deal of time to learn. Aang does not have it in him to work hard when he's too used to getting things down as easily as airbending and big, flashy moves.

: Langxue won't learn airbending from the yamabushi.
Byakko is a long way off, and maybe later, he'll go with Zuko to the Fire Nation. There are still a lot of things that have to be done in the Earth Kingdom, like help Zuko set up his domain, and meet the Earth King. Then, he'll end up meeting Kuei's royal consort, Eshe, an experienced airbending swordswoman, and he'll be under her tutelage.

Shidan is an Expy of ...
Alucard. And Lady Kotone will be an Expy of Integra.

Ty Lee will become a yaoren.
Specifically, Air+Fire. And then the caldera will explode from the awesomeness.

Shih and Gyate's son is important
Specifically, he's traveling with a couple of water tribe chief's kids and a Merchant Princess of the Earth kingdom.
 * Curse you, I was gonna put this WMG up. It kinda just screams it, doesn't it?
 * Yep. My first thought was actually that Piandao might be their kid (his skill with swords, gray eyes, the mentions that their kids might not be benders) followed by no, that doesn't work, he'd be nearly as old as... Aang. (Now I have to go work out if Piando could be Aang's brother, born VERY late!)
 * Did anyone notice the similarity of Gyate's name to Gaytso?If girls are sent to the opposite temple in which they were born that means she was born in the eastern air temple which seems to be closest to the southern temple where Aang grew up.
 * Ooh, that would give a REALLY good reason for his parents to be introduced-- especially if it meant Aang's master was his uncle. (It could just mean "the name sounded good....")
 * If you read carefully, I believe it was implied that her son died at a young age or could be the avatar but that is unlikely it is possible though. Speaking of blood relations of Aang, does any one remember Zuko's musing and forshadowing of Gaytso's and the Uncle of Kuzon's plan for Aang to see what the temple had driven out of there own spirits. It sounded like Aang had a sister or something.
 * It's more likely that Gyate's son was taken from her and sent to one of the other air temples, as was Air Nomad custom. It's stated that her daughter is nearly of the age where she will suffer the same fate as her brother. It's implied that (1) she will only meet this fate if she's an airbender; and (2) that the Elders are those who enforce that fate.
 * I doubt any of these could be possible. According to the vision Temul showed Aang and Co. she learned of Shih's pregnancy mere DAYS before Sozin invaded. Aang would already have been 12, and Gyatso was ancient. However, some relationship between Gyate and Gyatso may have been possible. If I were to extrapolate from what we know of Gyatso himself and his possible involvement with the White Lotus, one could very well assume that he may have arranged for his children to be spirited out of the temples to be raised elswhere. All we know about Shih is that he was onmitsu. The Demon of Taku. Which may become important later. After all, if he did help some of the nuns and children escape the destruction, where would he take them? He was onmitsu, the only place he could likely hide them successfully would be amoung his own people. It's even possible he's STILL ALIVE. He'd be pretty old, 140, but given what he was, I've no doubt he could use chi, and chi users tend to live very long lives. I would guess that we do see one of his decendants in Ty Lee.
 * The twelve year gap between Gyate's children, if her son was Aang, is not unreasonable. Her life-span is a lot longer than ours, which implies she was fertile for longer. Given the peaceful life of Air Nomads, it's unlikely she was expected to have more than two or three. Why not space them out?
 * Ty Lee is part of an onmitsu group that serves the Dragon Throne and the Dragon Throne wants Shih dead. Also, Kuzon was the one to hide the children Shih rescued. However, he did place some children with the onmitsu and they took babies from the other Temple, so it is just about possible that Ty Lee is related to Shih.

Azula is currently undergoing redemption
Due to upbringing and genetics, Azula is a dark dragon. This means that she completely lacks any sense of conscience and has a natural bent towards insanity. Azula's actions are evil; this is obvious to everyone in the story EXCEPT FOR AZULA. She has no inner conception of right and wrong and her main external source of moral guidance has been Fire Lord Ozai. Amaya has apparently used her Spirit Healing to fix the tendency towards insanity, and as a result, Azula has been acting much more rationally as of late. She's still a sociopath, of course, but the blame for that lies with Ozai (and, to some extent, Ursa), not Azula. In the meantime, Azula has become enemies with Makoto and she has also started acting in ways that might be contrary to the Fire Lord's interests in order to protect Ty Lee and Mai. And, most importantly, Zuko still loves her. Of course, she hasn't been redeemed YET. The chapter warnings for Nightmare Fuel will doubtless still apply for a long time yet: Zuko's path to redemption was a cakewalk by comparison to what Azula must face. But that does seem to be the direction that the story appears to be heading.
 * Alternately, she could be "redeemed" by being very slightly less psychotic, getting sympathetic backstory and defecting to the protagonists. The "good guys" will like her better, but she'll never work out morality, let alone try to be good for the sake of being good.

Zuko will turn into a dragon.
If dragons can become human and have children, why wouldn't a dragon-child eventually be able to grow wings, scales, and claws? Most likely to happen while Zuko is trying to heal Asagitatsu.
 * IIRC, it's a blessing of Agni, in order to allow them to have children. For some reason, my subconscious responded to the notion with a snort and a "wrong sibling".... Since the dragons are nearly wiped out, and Azula is Azula, I can so see her falling for a dragon and getting the opposite blessing!

There are still Airbison out there.
Chapter 52: "Our caverns aren't like this. The sandstorms' full force never enters, but sometimes the wind howls down the chambers like a thunderstorm, and you can see stones glow blue in the darkness, casting sparks to any fur..."

There are not going to be any more double benders.
Out of the three all of them have combo of all of them Specifically they shall be the second to last teachers Aang shall have.
 * Zuko- FIRE and WATER
 * Shriong-Earth and FIRE
 * Shiro chan- WATER and WIND
 * Shiro chan- WATER and WIND
 * Shiro chan- WATER and WIND

Shiro will teach Aang the lighter points of water instead of the barbarians and the the harder points of Air.

Zuko will teach Aang fire and some combo of water he will teach the most important because water and fire represent life the best.(and Life is hard) Shirong shall teach Aang about the more "civilized" and be a sounding board for everyone also threat you see spirit you kill it. (not sure about him)
 * The yaoren aren't just there to teach the Avatar the elements, though it's possible they did. So far, their job has mostly been described as dealing with spirits when the Avatar can't or needs help and spreading inter-cultural understanding. While they did, historically, show Avatars the finer points of combining two elements, it was relatively non-vital.

Koh is going to make all hell brake lose at the day of black sun
If you listen to The Earth kingdom resistance (go Kuei!) apparently it make spirit hunters' jobs easier when it is not dark. Agni and maybe La will be powerless. everyone in that battle is going to be owned.
 * unless we may finally see something of Guyagin oma and Shu or Tengri.
 * whay hasen't Aang said anything about his patron(or air nomads god) anyway? whats up with that?

Spirits
ok just to keep this written down. La + ???? ??? + ??? Agni | Tui Married to La In conclusion, Spirits do incest and are confusing. Time travel may have been involved. La is the dirty old man always trying to feel up his grand daughter and Tui says no (push and pull in an enternal dance)

Lv of spirits Boots!| Sea dragon eats liver| Panda forest| Owl| Great ones!| Avatar

OMG!
"If what I have been taught of the spirits is true, he is not." He regarded Aang, gaze level. "The Avatar Spirit is incarnated, life after life. Separate, human lives, each of whom claim their own spirit. Each of whom will in turn pass away, to join those who advise the next Avatar. You are many things, young man, but you are not Roku."

If the Avatar have there own spirits as well as the avatar spirit. then when Aang goes all glowy the past avatars are not incharge the Spirit of the world is while being influenced by the Avatars! and seeing as how the world is made up of fire, water, earth and air. along with everything there is,

"THEN THE AVATAR SPIRIT IS THE COMBINED FORM OF EVERY SPIRIT IN EXISTENCE!"

Spirits are not mortal so they can be in two places at once or part of there consience or esence could be. so when an Avatar masters the Avatar state they are in control of the spirit of the world to a Degree.

is this the reason there is an Avatar? because all the other spirits sealed away there Lord/combined being, into a new race that showed out of nowhere that is not under its control So they could gain Individuality?

They do test runs with first bender then Yaouren then the Avatar or use Pure Chi(no elements) so Sepreate Human lives each of whom claim their own spirit. Each of whom will in turn pass away to help control the Avatar! After it happens the Avatar becomes the peace keeper between the the two races of The spirit's and spirit creatures and humans. I wonder If Vathura shall show us the first Avatar. the first human to control the Spirit of the World.

The kinship of Spirits
The Avatar world, as a play ground for the spirits, was created by a giant water Super Volcano, as in the Entire Earth Kingdom is part of the caldera.

The spirit of that volcano is the Avatar Spirit. Recall how they 'greeted' Asagitatsu? All the Elements, burning ice, air filled earth. The four super volcanoes of the Avatar world are Four Element Spirits, and the closest kin to the Avatar Spirit there is.
 * Incidentally this might explain why the Blue Dragon Mountain is One Hundred Years overdue. Because of the kinship between four element spirits they don't go by mortal clocks, they go by Avatar-time. Thus Aang being frozen for 100 years also 'froze' the four Volcanoes.
 * Isn't that because Koh is planning to set it off at harvest time to smother all of the crops and kill as many humans as he can?
 * The in-fic consensus as of chapter 56 is that Koh and Makoto planned to kill Aang by causing Asagitatsu to erupt whilst he was studying with the North Water Tribe. Even if he didn't go running to "fix" the problem, he would probably get ash-filled lungs, which the people of Air are even more likely to die from than normal people. Killing most of the Earth Kingdom, if they timed it right, was just a side-benefit. As Aang disappeared, Makoto saved up her once-in-a-thousand-years explosion.

Fire Nation
Hey I just fully realized something about the fire nation for hypothetically speaking no one leader would like even a friendly fire nation as a next door nieghboor with Air you know they are going to be unpredictable and that just they way you are.

However with fire nation if you spend enough time with them you will know generally thier exact intents when dealing with them if you can speak fire nation you know them plane and simple. generally the fire nation can be a bunch of annoying arrogant....Fire Nation, that starts fights (its the element that eats other's to survive) and no one can do anything about them.

you cant really attack them seeing as the live on a Volcano witch means that when you attack the fire nation (or the mountain clans) they metaphorically have a bomb strapped to there chest. You Lose either way. And you on Defense? thats what they want bye bye.

ironiclly this trait that has been a boon to the fire Nation is going to mess with Zuko's group over because thats what Koh want's so Zuko cant use that as a threat.(back up or I push the red shiny button!) Zuko has no Luck (since the day he was born!)


 * It's heavily implied that the volcanoes most of the FN live on aren't capable of damaging anyone other than their inhabitants when they erupt. This is why Azulon could slaughter all of Temul's clan, but not all of Kuzon's.

Random Comment about Sozin's Comet
Is it possible to for Zuko, Toph, yaoren, etc. to bend Sozin's comet away? Is there any way for this to fit into a story? It's probably too difficult to fit into Embers though. =/
 * Benders can only affect things within a certain physical distance of them. Bending might also not affect the comet, as it is a gift of the Great Spirits. They are subordinate to the Spirit of the World, so it is likely their domain does not include extra-planetary space. Maybe energy-bending (attributed to the first humans) would work?

The White Lotus
Way back in the first few chapters, Iroh vaguely mentions the White Lotus exterminating Avatars if they went out of control. Add together Vathara's skill at Chekhov's Armoury, the several scenarios in which Aang could go insane, Zuko's terrible luck when it comes to keeping away from Aang, Iroh's attachment to Zuko, and Aang's ability to ruin every plan ever made just by touching it, and we have ourselves a problem.

Piandao will adopt an heir for Shu Jing
....and it will be Sokka. 'Never help a domain that is lordless' and Piandao was adopted, and has no children.....

Why? Because Zhao sent two warships to wipe out the village. Which had no defences. Dude wanted to kill the moon!
 * confirmed and jossed, Sokka did get adopted into the clan but... he was adopted by Temul.

Vathara making points about growing up with psychopaths is not about Zuko and Azula
Well not just about the two of them. It's about Aang.

Specifically this quote: "Anyone so massively screwed by Fate as to be in a relationship with a psychopath - much less raised by one - will come away with two things: a bent moral compass, and a severely damaged ability to test reality. Both of which, ironically, are in part caused by an accurate perception of the psychopath: this person holds my life in his hands, and does not care. Right, wrong, every fact and supposition that make up reality - for the survivor, all are first tested against, will this keep me alive? All too often, if it doesn't agree with what the psychopath wants, the answer is no." Note that having someone's mind bend to the point that they are no long them is functionally death.

And to pull from wikipedia "Psychopathy is a mental disorder characterized primarily by a lack of empathy and remorse, shallow emotions, egocentricity, and deceptiveness." Now reread the sections on 'harmonious accord' where it's explained that it removes and prevents the Air Nomad's from forming attachments, such as caring for their kids or simple empathy, from experiencing strong uncontrolled emotions, encouraged the Air Nomad's to think of themselves as sole pillars of morality and higher purpose in the world, and lying if it helps prevent violence. That's textbook Psychopath, never mind that they were also apparently all about the non-violence. Several of the memories we've seen from Aang's childhood are outright cult brainwashing, forbidding a child to play with any of his age mates cause he's different to the group anyone? We also have that flash of Gyate being downright terrified that the elder will find her out.

In the present time we have Aang's complete inability to accept that anything the Elder's say could ever be thought to be wrong, even down to the idea that they could have defended themselves when invaded. It could just be the naivety of youth but none of the other characters regardless of age are shown with similar problems. Combine his youth with the sure knowledge the the Elder's can't be questioned ever or bad things happen... Making Aang understand that working with the cultures of the rest of the world because they have equal validity may be quite the battle.


 * Given the way the other Air Avatar was treated, and how Vathara keeps mentioning her...yeah, this sounds likely.


 * As cultural understanding goes, getting Aang to open up to other viewpoints under this theory will require him to understand that he is safe, and he will not die inside should he adopt different cultural values. That huge amount of fear from being raised by so many of them coupled with the intense grief and shock from being suddenly cut adrift from the culture he knows (even if it was responsible for his fear) probably leads to incredibly thick walls. Right now, Katara is probably his best bet for understanding this, since he trusts her above anyone else and she cares for him deeply. Her protective nature could give him a sense of safety, so that he feels more free to explore other options.

""Aang." Sokka's voice didn't waver. But blue eyes narrowed with a determination that made Aang just a little uneasy. "I wish you were right, that talking fixed everything. I really, really wish you were. But we tried talking to Hama. We were with her a whole day. She knew two of us were Water Tribe; she knew we had a way to get into the Fire Nation. Which means she knew we had a way to get out. If she wanted to get away from the war, if all she wanted was to go home - all she had to do was ask us."
 * Chapter 60 confirms this. Just look at the way Aang and Sokka speak and act:

"Maybe she was too scared to ask," Aang shot back. "Maybe she knew you'd figure out she ran away. And she was scared, and she just couldn't!"

"This isn't about you." Aang almost jumped into a defensive stance. Sokka... Sokka sounded angry. Not just mad, in a who-ate-the-blubber-jerky way. Angry."

Sokka
This little guess has grown out of a one-off musing by Hakoda waaay back in Ch. 26, and please by all means stop me if I'm crazy or if there is absolutely no other proof for it and I'm just oblivious. But so far, there have been at least a few slight parallels between Sokka and Zuko, such as each moving (against their wills) towards and into each other's culture just to name one. Now, the quote from Hakoda that has been bothering me is:

"There's something odd about [Zuko].

An oddness that seemed to linger around Sokka, as well, once he'd started looking. Something that stirred the hairs on the back of his neck, like a ghost-wind off the ice..."

Now, we all (including Zuko by now) know that Zuko is Kuzon reborn, and to me that would be a pretty major cause for stirring the creepy-factor in someone who has "The knack for seeing things not as everyone wanted them to be, but as they truly were. And, at times even more important, as they might be." (also Ch. 26). So I being to wonder if Sokka also has a past life floating around somewhere, but I can't begin to provide an intelligent guess as to who. Also, just to play devil's advocate with my own guess, the only known reincarnated people we've seen so far haven't been very lucky (Zuko being the poster boy there, of course). Langxue was orphaned and Lu Ten kind of died, and Sokka's sitting pretty about as far as you can get on the other side of the luck scale.
 * I'm pretty sure the oddness refers to them being spirit-touched. They've both done battle with spirits and it has left scars that other people can feel. I think one of the Dai Li goes into more detail about this in one of the more recent chapters. Its hard for them to find wives because normal people pick up on the spiritual scars and find it off-putting.
 * Not only did someone explain it, one of the Dai Li mused on his guilty temptation to let spirits loose around civilians, defend the women, and find a lady that way. That said, as I understand the setting, EVERYONE has past lives floating around-- Zuko is just odd because his is in living memory.
 * The luck issue might be more complicated than it seems:
 * Langxue and Lu Ten were both reborn yaoren. Becoming yaoren changes them to something not-quite human and required them to fight spirits. This may have still marked them after their rebirth, attracting spirits to attack them and bad luck.
 * Zuko burned away his luck in the process of being immediately reincarnated.
 * Zuko and Lu Ten are members of the Fire Lord's family. As the Fire Lord is unbalancing the world, the spirits think hurting them will set things to rights.
 * Part of the Avatar arrangement is that eveyone is supposed to help and obey the Avatar. Spirits do this by giving the Avatar and those he likes (or they interpret as helping him) good luck and his enemies bad luck. Thus, Sokka has good luck, despite having fought a spirit. Of course, the spirits also try to help the Avatar by pushing him towards his goals. (Hence, Zuko having great luck when looking for the Avatar and awful when capturing him. The spirits don't want Aang to hang around and have fun.)
 * So, reincarnation may not be bad luck in itself or it may be, but Sokka's is countered by spending time with Aang.

What was going on with that letter to Katara?
Some IN-STORY theories/opinions on Zuko's letter to Katara:


 * Zuko's opinion: He should write this letter because he feels a need to apologize/"make things right" now that Katara's tribe has turned against her, due in part to his words on the beach. Makes Katara hating him permissible.
 * Also I get to verbally sucker-punch that ice-viper in the gut. Damn I feel better after doing that.
 * *Retrospect* That letter could have killed her. What the fuck is wrong with me?


 * Aang's opinion: Zuko is trying to poison Katara's pure, gentle spirit with the evil ways of revenge. And wait, hang on, does Zuko want one of his OWN people to die now? What- is he crazy? Or just that desperate to hurt somebody?


 * Toph's opinion: Reason #1: Zuko is a great name with an obligation. #2 He's still mad at Aang and Katara, although mainly Aang. Reading the letter, for Katara, was like "getting hit by house-size hailstones," possibly completing his revenge against Katara.


 * Sokka: hey, an excuse to be in the Fire Nation. we can totally use this for the plan, and less of our people will have to die when we eventually invade. Let's just try to keep the shaky balance between Aang's wishes and Katara's needs for a bit longer- priorities, people. And also, man, does Zuko know his mind games. Hey, we should watch out for that from his relatives, thanks Toph.


 * Piandao: (Snooping through mail in other people's pockets is a rewarding activity!) Oh, wow. The prince is actually intelligent. And he broke loyalty to Ozai? Hey. We can work with tha- Oh hell. Prince in Pissed-Off Shidan mode. Sees the Avatar's waterbending teacher as an enemy, juding by the snarly "polite" tone. Did not need this complication in my life. (After another conversation: Hang on, the Avatar lied to the prince? Oh, damn. Pissed-Off Dragon mode makes a lot more sense now.)


 * Temul: Ha. Ha. Ha. Kuzon is back, baby! Bet he hates the Avatar just as much as I do, because man, is this kid annoying. And ignorant. And annoying. Hey, maybe he finally agrees with me about that stupid Aang kid! I heard down through the spirit grapevine that he remembers who he is now. That angry letter must therefore be evidence that he finally agrees with my expert opinion on Aang's uselessness and my general dislike for his (Aang's) people. Finally - at least dying gave him a hit with the cluebar. Wanting revenge for his death 18 years ago is just plain SENSE.


 * Hakoda: You (nearly) killed my daughter. Prepare to die. (Or, you know, get knocked out cold and stuffed behind an igloo. I'd like that. But I might settle for Bullying the Dragon.) And also, prince arrogant? The near-lethal effecct of that letter was totally deliberate.

Opinions on these opinions:


 * Hakoda's persepctive is, oddly enough, supported by the letter. Zuko's great disdain for the mass unintentional damage Aang causes kind of makes the reader assume that the damage Zuko causes with, you know, THE SAME LETTER... is going to be intentional. Poor Zuko PROBABLY didn't mean to be the poster-boy for irony.


 * Temul sincerely misses Kuzon, sincerely hates the Avatar, and sincerely dislikes Aang. It's kind of messing with her head, and she's making her evidence fit her desires. Also somewhat understandable, as she doesn't seem to KNOW that Zuko didn't remember Kuzon until after the letter. Still, she has a point: there could have been some bleed-through going on there. Not merely anger at Aang for being such a poor friend to Kuzon's reincarnation, but also anger at Katara for being the person Aang clearly values much, much, much, much, much, much more than he ever will Zuko might be affecting Zuko's emotions here.
 * Remember that Kuzon was, rather literally, stabbed in the back by some of the airbenders he saved. Then Aang pulls an I Surrender Suckers on Zuko. Zuko's hurt and shock at that revelation may have gotten tangled with the slowly emerging memories and emotions of Kuzon - and, given that he didn't consciously remember being Kuzon, he had no way of separating the two. Add in a serious "WTF, I spent my 'entire life' trying to find and help you, and you were chilling out in an iceberg rather than living that hell with the rest of us?! And now that you're out you spend half your time taking vacations and riding dangerous animals?" and...


 * Piando sees a cool family resemblence with someone he may or may not know is an ACTUAL dragon, also realizes that the letter is deliberately snarly while being polite.
 * His version of the White Lotus perspective seems a lot more "yay! and then the avatar will be allied with all the reasonable people we want on our side" rather than, "ah, well, he's young and brave and perhaps a tad flightly but a nice boy overall" underlined with the paranoia "checking for inconsistencies of behavior and wondering if he will have to take Aang out" that is General Iroh.
 * In retrospect, he did have Azula for a niece. And she had a pretty good "innocent" act back in the day, herself.


 * Sokka focuses more on dealing with the aftereffects of the letter than analyzing it's content, Toph was the only one with a semi-positive interpretation, and Aang thinks Zuko's just nuts.

Oddly enough, if you look at the CONSEQUENCES of the letter (taking a leaf from Sooka's book), and briefly assume the letter DID have the positive intent to "make things right", and allow for the fact that Zuko IS a little crazy, it's much easier to realize what that letter accomplished.
 * Before letter: Katara, ostracized from her tribe and her friends, with the exception of Toph.
 * After letter: Man, Zuko did a really jerky thing there. That jerk. And really, Aang, WTH? Revenge is totally reasonable, Katara was just trying to be a good Water Tribe girl. To support their tradition of revenge, the tribe has to support at least Katara's wish for revenge against the opinions of the Avatar. Katara is included and Aang excluded, all at once.

Good plan, actually. Get people to do what you want by making them hate you- Zuko, isn't that what you did on the beach to proctect Iroh? And in Ba Sing Se against the Seahorse-monster? And what you suggested to Iroh about Azula finding out that you're alive in one of the many plans proposed for getting the refugees out of Ba Sing Se? One wonders how often he played target for Azula in order to protect the turtleducks or servants or something- it's clearly a tried and true method.


 * Zuko's idea of "make it right" is likely rather more complicated than apologising for the excessive degree of his anger. He also rewrites the letter several time, which doesn't suggest thoughtless lashing-out or ignorance of the letter's pontential to damage Katara's self-image or Aang's relationships.
 * Temul is very clearly shown as being inclined to look beyond personal grudges. She outright says that, despite her dislike of Aang, she's only taking revenge on him because she has to. (This is likely literally true. As a ghost, she exists because of her need for revenge against Azulon and the Avatar.)

Ja Aku turned traitor and went to work for Azulon.
He doesn't sound like a good guy in the first place, the way Aang remembers how Ja Aku turned him away from playing with the other monks. He must have sold out on his fellow monks and even his own Elders to save his own life, and thus, came to serve the Fire Lord after. Why would a Southern Air Monk end up serving the Fire Lord, when this is the guy who continued Sozin's policy of eliminating the Air Nomads? It seems there are traitors within the Air Monks and the Temples.

Chi can be channelled through dancing.
Early in the fic, Zuko compares fire-healing to partner-dancing, a practice which the Fire Nation doesn't have (according to Iroh).


 * What's never made clear is how/why Zuko knows about the practice at all, let alone grasping it enough to use as a comparison, when his major source of knowledge on other cultures is Iroh's tactical treatises. (Being too busy hunting the Avatar to spend too long paying attention to Iroh or the cultural entertainment around him.)
 * In the fic it's mentioned that Zuko has had to do a lot of low war. Spying, dressing up. He's gone undercover before, and passed. That's how he knows about it. Figure it this way: go to a party, drinks are flowing, loosening tongues. And people are dancing.
 * Almost everything we see is in the colonies-- even though there are fire nation people there, there's also earth, so even barring "sneaky stuff," he should've noticed that earth folks dance with each-other.

Aang is going to meet Shih and publically yell at him about the misdeeds as "The Demon of Taku".
Chances are that Shih and Gyate are still around. They could have died in a Heroic Sacrifice, but old age isn't really an issue. If they are around, the chances of them never meeting Aang are minimal.

Aang is impulsive, indiscreet, oblivious to martial threat from non-benders (and chi-users) and very upset about the combination of airbenders and killers. (Hopefully, Gyate will get to whack him with a stick.)

Yamabushi = Camp Jupiter; Onmitsu = Camp Half-Blood
And/or vice versa. Two separate Air Nomad groups in one setting - the Fire Nation, only they don't know it. Kuzon kept them separate for a good reason - so they wouldn't kill each other (well, the Onmitsu would want to "share the love" by including their warrior monk brethren...but no way in hell would the yamabushi EVER stand for it, hence, potential bloodshed). The Day of Black Sun could be a deciding factor on whether these two do meet, if not the end of the fic.

Teo is/will be an airbender.
This sentence felt a bit like another of her Chekhov's Gun moments; "Teo swept an arm across to brush away the argument; Saoluan squinted, as wind suddenly gusted dust in her eyes."
 * [Spoiler:Confirmed- Ch 61.]

There will be an allusion to Rurouni Kenshin.
More than 20 chapters ago, Katara told Toph about certain airbenders from Yue. "Why would a healer carry a sword?" Chapter 45 reveals the existense of the Touzaikaze, and Eshe, whom Kuei recognizes as a healer from the katana strapped to her back. I bet Vathara is just itching to, once the G Aang or even Langxue and Zuko meet Kuei's bride, have Eshe say "A sword is a tool for killing", frank, without mincing words or sugarcoating it, and without apology.
 * Ch. 51. Shih (aka the Demon of Taku) is an ex-onimistu with who gave up his swords after the battle of Taku and became the lover of an Air Nun who wanted to bash Temul over the head with her staff when she thought Temul was there to take Shih back to the Fire Nation.Vathara freely admits to using expys and if these two aren't Kenshin and Kaoru I don't know who is.

High Court was the tongue of Air before it was Fire.
""Show me a pupil more sunya-susrusha than she!"

Devoid of desire to hear or learn, Sokka knew. Deserted. Desolate."

With Air's obsession with hearing, with teaching and being taught, isn't that an apt connection for the words?

Appa will recognize Shidan next chapter.
Animals have better senses than humans do, and Appa is going to scent Shidan as his friend, and will hover obsessively over Shidan, much to his chagrin and the gAang's (Aang and Katara, mainly) shock.

Sokka is going to become a Firebender.
Notice that the leaders of the Water Tribes aren't benders? In Embers, leadership usually involves having some fire in your temperament, and water is fire's opposing element. His family has the right genes for bending, and Sokka gets fire well enough to start figuring out Zuko on the beach despite a Water Tribe upbringing.

Part of this WMG is my guess is that Teruko's speculation about 'half of our kids would have a good chance' has more to do with mixed-race offspring tending to strongly favor one element in temperament, so only the kids born/raised in the culture of their elemental heritage would have a good chance of bending. Jia and Min are Earthbenders, but Suyin isn't a Firebender despite being Fire Nation at heart, and Jinhai was born when one of the Fire Lord's family was holding the city siege. About half of Sokka's offspring in a Firebabe/Sokka pairing would be Water Tribe, and they wouldn't be likely to be benders if raised Fire Nation.

Now he has an additional upbringing: That of a great name Fire Nation scion raised by a dragon-child. And he's in a land where bringing out the 'Sokka, son of Temul' POV is important to keeping the G Aang alive. I won't be surprised if he starts throwing sparks. Hopefully while Shidan is around to teach him what he needs to not be dangerous to the G Aang.

Shidan telling Azula, it was ironic, that Ursa had chosen to fear the wrong child is, important.
He could have just meant that Ursa currently feared Zuko but should fear Azula, but that doesn't fit because he had just said he didn't have to kill Azula. Which suggest that Ursa chose to fear Azula when she should have feared Zuko. The question is, why?
 * There's nothing more dangerous than an idealist. If Zuko is sure it's what must be done, he WILL do anything. Azula is limited by her desires, and previously by her father's.
 * Also not in chapter 53, Makoto tells Zuko, "A Pity. And I had thought your sister his true heir..." To me, this can mean one of two things. Maybe Azula was so much like Shidan (and thus is much less evil than we think) that Makoto assumed Azula took after him the most until she met Zuko. More likely, Zuko is more like Sozin/Azulon/Ozai than even Azula, supporting your hypothesis.
 * Another vote that she meant the latter. Given how contemptuous Makoto is of Shidan, if she'd meant to say Zuko was his heir, she would have been a lot more rude. And if she meant that he was the heir of her husband or son, she might actually mean that having to kill him was a pity, if he had some of the qualities she approved of in them.

The offspring of air benders were not all air benders.
Those that were not benders would either be adopted out or ...

All Elements are opposites
Related to the above entry on the tri/duality of each element, and mostly already supported by the text. Each element is opposite to each of the others, just in three different aspects.


 * Elemency: Everyone knows fire and water are opposites in elemency, as are earth and air.
 * Jin: Air and Fire are based on opposite jins- fire is positive, while air is negative. The only thing that can be the opposite of water (which is positive AND negative jin), is therefore earth, neutral jin.
 * Values (For lack of a better word): Water is all about the tribe, and will vehemently defend its own members over stranger and outsiders. In chapter 60, Aang states that such ideas are selfish and that one should only do the opposite- defend strangers and not friends. Earth and fire, meanwhile, are built around domains. Earth Kingdom domains are their land. Notice the complete bafflement, if not outright horror, when people form the Earth Kingdom learn that, in the Fire Nation, domains are defined people. Stationary land and mobile people are opposites are well, as far as values go.

Aang and Katara will stop Koh with love.
Drawing on a few aspects here: The fact that spirits, even great spirits, can merge with humans; the fact that spirits lack a lot of the flexibility of humans but still have certain needs; and the fact that Koh is the Avatar's child...

Here's what I think will happen: Koh will possess Katara. Katara might even invite him to do so, recognising the grief and anger Koh feels over the death of the Avatar, and perhaps reasoning that she should try to calm him down. While the two are merged, in their shared grief over the loss of their parents...Aang will show up, go into the Avatar State, and control it, embracing the two of them and telling Koh that he is loved.

Earth is tradition, and Earth holds grudges. Air is flighty, but Air forgives. That's how the villain is going to be overthrown: By Aang looking at him (and Katara) and saying, "Yeah, you've done some bad stuff, and felt some bad things, but you know what? I still love you."

Gyate is alive...
Vathara basically said that Aang was going to meet an adult of his culture in the authors notes of chapter 60. What other Air Nun/Monk do we know survived? Maybe he'll run in to yamabushi or have a spirit vision or something, but I'm thinking he's going to run into someone living. Furthermore, some people have guessed that she's Aang and/or Piandao's mom. Who better to help relieve Aang's family issues than his actual mom?
 * Okay, the guess that Gyate's alive is still possible, but the reasoning behind it is jossed as of chapter 62.
 * ?? Just because he gets a message from his Teacher doesn't mean he won't meet his mom/Piando's mom. Did I miss something?
 * I guess that's true. I was just thinking that Vathara's fairly creative way of getting Aang a talk with his elders made my idea less... necessary.

Aang, 'The Way' and Character Development
Thus far, we have seen a Firebender (Zuko), a Waterbender (Katara), and an Earthbender (Quan), suffer sickness from breaking the... bindings of their element. Given Vathara's predilection for balance, I think it's inevitable that an airbender is going to have to break their 'bindings' as well, and I think it's going to be Aang. It seems weird that an element that's all about freedom would be bound by something, yetWord of God is that air is bound by their teachings. But what if at one point that is what every 'true' airbender (or master airbender or something) had to eventually do? If they had to break that which bound them and come up with their own understanding and 'way' in the world despite the way they had been taught. Also consider Hitomi's words and secrecy. She refused to say anymore about airbending until Aang had found his own Way. If a fellow airbender tells you that you have to stop accepting that which you have been taught, wouldn't that to be considered a teaching? Thus finding his own Way would have been impossible if someone spilled the beans. Finally, Vathara has made it quite clear that Aang is going to have to understand other nations and come to terms with the realities of his beliefs. It is inevitable that he break the binding of his teachings.


 * It's already been stated that the Avatar is the exception to this- he's ALL the elements, with none of the bindings. Aang may have been raised as an Airbender, but at least as far as this aspect of bending is concerned, he's not.
 * No, I think it says that no Fire Avatar was ever born with enough Dragon's blood to truly feel the pull that most of the fire nation does. And all the evidence in the text suggests that Aang is, somehow, bound by his teachings. Seriously, make a game out of it. Pick a chapter from Aang's point of view and take a shot every time the word 'teach' or its derivatives are mentioned. Good luck with that.
 * Well, I kind of want to retract this, because some of my reasoning was right, but for the wrong person, and some of it seems skewed in regards to recent chapters, but hey, we'll see.

Someone else was behind the White Wind and Subodei
Because there was a Subedei (Bat'atur) in the real world, he was born to the Reindeer people in the north. He was one of Genghis Khan's generals/commanders. He was not a great Khan, he served one.
 * Subodei, in this fic, is like Genghis Khan and was the leader of the White Wind. As for the man behind Subodei, there was Xiangchen.

We're going to find out some good things the White Wind did too.
Just as the Mongols made observatories, and colleges and hospitals even as they slaughtered their way across the land.
 * The good thing about the Mongols was that they were religiously tolerant. Also, if you had a particular skill, the Mongols would integrate you into their ranks, even if you weren't a fighter. If you had no skill or opposed them, they would kill you. Otherwise, yeah, the White Wind would be like this. They seem like the type to use even non-benders in their armies.

Skylord Subodei is Avatar Yangchen's father.
This totally flew over my head the first time I read it, but...in chapter 42, Ty Lee tells Azula about the Air Nomads of the past 1000 years ago. She begins by revealing how the previous Fire Avatar before Roku was killed - by the raids of the violent Air Nomads the White Wind, led by Skylord Subodei. The skylord had a special spiritual advisor - Xiangchen, his favorite shaman. Subodei had a vision of having the entire world at his mercy, while Xiangchen fed his boss more lies so he could implement his own diabolically cloaked scheme of a world at peace. Ty Lee relates "So he helped Subodei until Avatar Hirata was killed, so the Skylord could give him the next Avatar. And he did". This line didn't really get to me, because I thought that probably Subodei had generals who had children who could have had the next Avatar, or found some other Air group that produced Yangchen...but that wouldn't make any sense. How did Subodei find the Avatar so quickly? And why would any of his generals, loyal to him as may be, give up their own child to him, even if he is their leader? (They could very well use the Avatar for their own purposes and dethrone Subodei as the White Wind's leader, for one, and so, why give her up?) The answer is simple: Subodei had not just sons, but daughters. Just like Genghis Khan, whose sons are widely discussed in history while his daughters (yes, he had daughters, but they aren't as well documented as their brothers are) are not. Yangchen was born to one of Subodei's illicit unions, and Xiangchen, being close to Subodei in matters of religion and state, was chosen to rear his master's daughter as a Nun.

Zuko and Azula have 'pure human' blood from AT MOST ONLY TWO of their great-grandparents.
CONCLUSION: Zuko and Azula have strong blood connections to (and possible blood relation to) Asagitatsu the Blue Dragon volcano Spirit, Shirotora the White Tiger spirit, and the Avatar spirirt, as well as "countless" generations of powerful Fire Sages and great names with some degree of dragon blood. It's POSSIBLE Ta Min and Ran had no dragon blood (100% human blood), and it is POSSIBLE(though slightly unlikely, considering her presence on the volcano) that Ta Min was not even a chi-user. Ran very likely to be at least a chi-user, if not a bender. Among Zuko and Azula's great-grandparents, EVERYONE ELSE has some dragon blood, and at THREE of those great-grandparents have 0% human blood.
 * Let's count the great-grandparents: Fire Lord Sozin, Makoto(fire Lady Tejina), Avatar Roku, Ta Min, Kuzon, Ran, Shidan's unnamed father, Shidan's unammed mother. The humans aren't "normal" humans; even the dragons aren't neccesarily normal dragons. And remember every firebender has at least some dragon blood in them- that's where the gold eyes come from.
 * Shidan's mother:100% dragon, 0% human
 * Shidan's father: 100% dragon, 0% human
 * Makoto:100% dragon(dark dragon), 0% human
 * ALSO related to dragon-spirit Asagitatsu
 * ALSO has some strange power over water spirits that may or may not subsequently impact her children (consider that Avatar Roku's powers, while not inherited by him, clearly are implied to have an influence on his decendents)
 * CONCLUSION: 100% dragon, but NOT a "normal" dragon
 * Sozin: Fire Lord, MORE THAN 50% dragon, LESS THAN 50% human
 * Fire Lord: "blood and bone" of the position that, before Kyoshi, was most powerful/most competent/most spiritually strong of the Fire sages for countless generations
 * himself the child of a full dragon and another Fire Lord, who- while maybe not enough to qualify as a dragon-child- is a great name and an extremely powerful firebender who likely has more dragon blood than the avarage firebender.
 * Additionally The Fire Lord's line might genetically have some similarities with the spiritual strength of the Earth King's line, and who knows what having the Avatar's power spiritually backing up the Fire Lord's position (and to some extent, his entire family's position: consider the 'curse' that made Chisen unable to bear while PRINCE Ozai had two heirs) might be.
 * Confirmed to have "dark dragon' traits
 * Avatar Roku: the Avatar
 * implied to pass down a "connection with spirits" to his decendants
 * also the family "obsession with tea"
 * the only firebender who may not have ANY dragon blood, he at least has very little, likely much less than any other powerful firebenders
 * Ta Min:
 * possibly not even a firebender, maybe not even be Fire Nation
 * established not to have gold eyes
 * Roku, as not only a great name but the Avatar, may have had more freedom from the great names' custom of picking powerful firebending brides
 * is the most likely of Zuko and Azula's great-grandparents to be 100% human (although that's not exactly a powerless state, by not being one of Agni's she might have had the lack of protection that lets the avatar spirirt meddle more effectively with humans- making them forget, implied to shortening thier life spans, etc.)
 * Kuzon: a great name and skilled firebender, he's NOT 100% human even if he's not a dragon child
 * a blood connection to the White Tiger volcano spirit, possible distant RELATION? who knows.
 * Ran: Word of God states she's not a dragon
 * may not even be a firebender, but liklely was either that or a chi-user, as she lived to her late 90s Whereupon she had an "accident" with a "storm" (of assassins) which implies she was fairly active late in age.
 * Betrothed to a great name, which implies she was a firebender herself.
 * Hoever, was betrothed before the Comet came, while Kuzon was about sixth in line for heir. And having a firebendng bride(or a non-bender with benders in the family tree) certainly seems to be preffered, it doesn't seem like a custom too set so long as the woman was a good enough fighter to handle herself against assassins after the kids.
 * Possibly no dragon blood, possible she was a non-bender from a family of benders and only had a little dragon blood, possible she was a bender and still only had a little
 * UNLIKELY she was a dragon-child seeing as she and Kuzon both approved Shidan's marriage to her daughter, but not impossible


 * But according to Vathara, by mixing two dragon-children, Zuko and Azula may turn out either almost all Dragon... Or almost all human. I wonder if one is one and one's the other... that certainly would be interesting.
 * Doubtful that either sibling is almost all human. Zuko's dragon child tendencies have been clearly laid out (difficult birth, late bending, becoming word lost, ect) and Azula has been called a dark dragon. Maybe you can be a dark dragon without being a full on dragon child, but that has not been stated by [Word of God]
 * It's really not so much WOG as genetics-- getting someone who's "almost all human" would be as unusual as getting someone who was a "pure" half-dragon, just like the parents. I'm horrible at explaining, but even with two breeds of beef cattle, you do NOT generally want anything but a pure-blood bull, so it's simple to predict the calf; the cow can be all sorts of fractions of this and that to make it easier to carry the calf, but so long as the bull is a controlled option, you have a decent chance of making sure the calf isn't big enough to kill the cow, won't be tiny, will be the right color, will muscle up right, etc. If the bull is a mix and the cow is a mix, and for argument we'll assume there are only two breeds involved? You can come up with almost anything, and that assumes that most traits are recessive! (Both parents have to have, even if it's hidden, to pass on.) It's probably safe to say that a lot of draconic traits are NOT recessive....
 * I understand the genetics behind it, but I thought it was weird that she said it was possible for someone to turn out almost all human if she wasn't planning for one of them to be almost all human or the opposite, almost all dragon.

In the unlikelyhood that we somehow get to see a new version of Embers Island Players (EIP)
As we all know the EIP based their play on eyewitness accounts - such as cabbage sellers, caravans, travelling musicians, etc. -, Fire Nation Propaganda, and WMG - EIP!Toph can see through echolocation. With all the changes Vathara has made I think the portrayal of Aang, Toph and maybe Sokka would continue to be pretty much the same but not Katara or Zuko's.

Katara's portrayal could still be weepy and filled with dreary 'Hope' monologues and could very well start changing through the play since she tends to come off as increasingly prejudiced to anything FN, especially after they leave Ba Sing Se, and who's to say that the EIP won't somehow come across someone willing to tell them so.

Zuko, on the other hand, has many possible variations of interpretation going for him. Actually, showing an adaptation of EMP episode is thematically consistent with Vathara's tendency to play "who knows what," and has the potential to make a lot more sense, plot-wise, than it does in canon. Think about it: the cabbage merchant who fed the playwright his info in canon is now an ONMITSU AGENT.
 * Honor-obsessed moron. Unlikely but like I said before they could start out like this and then change him as the story goes.
 * Demonize his actions. He helped Aang get away from Azula and get back his bison, then healed him and let him go, so that he could go 'vacationing' up near the Northern Air Temple AFTER he rubbed the princess' nose in the fact she didn't kill him and then made his grand exit by means of floating train.
 * Tragic Hero. He managed to learn how to be a better person as an exile, worthy enough to be the next Fire Lord, but the Avatar (or Yue, if they get their facts straight) cursed him to be a waterbender and now Zuko despite being completely uneligible to the throne continues to be loyal to his people by: 'Occupying' the Northern Air Temple, being 'betrayed' by the Avatar when the Earth army show up, sending a spirits to haunt Aang, etc.
 * I highly doubt that the author is going to rewrite The Ember Island Players. The fic has been diverging from canon for a while. Vathara never did anything for the Beach episode, after all, so why bother doing EIP?
 * Because it would be awesome? I know it really wouldn't fit but this is the WMG page we can still speculate right? :D
 * (Perhaps mindbent to think he's really a cabbage merchant who just happens to pass lots of informative letters along to his relatives, but still, a spy.)
 * But we can assume, if he gives accurate info/ inaccurate info to the general populace in this form, he has a REASON If Azula ever happened to "steal" this particular onmitsu- she might not even have to, as they are supposed to "answer to her" even if she's having problems right now becuase Ty Lee slipped the mindbending leash- I can totally see her using this as a tool.
 * And the difficulties of Aang not being on Ember Island at the equivalent point in the canon timeline are not as great as they appear: it is possible changed events have prompted a character to disseminate their propaganda earlier than they would have in canon, and even if they didn't, it was not mentioned in canon that the EMP performance of "the Boy in the Iceberg" was the PREMIERE performance. Even IN CANON, it is possible that the script of "the Boy in the I Ceberg" was distributed to several different theaters. As long as it takes place a bit after Day of Black Sun, it's also possible for EMP and other theatres to be putting on the same script BEFORE the gaang got a chance to see the canon equivalent.
 * I really, REALLY want THIS to be the reason we see The Boy in the Iceberg, but I just really want to see how Vathara handles the Ember Island P Layers in general.

Ember's massive broken base is...
Just as Vathara Planned
 * Seconded

Sokka is spirit touched
Let me explain-- we know that after being reunited with his son, Hakoda noted an "otherness" to Sokka that apparently hadn't been there before. We also know Sokka fought Wan-Shi-Tong--which could certainly account for the otherness, but that isn't when he became spirit touched. Way back when in season 1, Aang had to deal with Hei Bai, Sokka tried to help and couldn't do jack against Hei Bei; then, by season 2, he can take out a power knowledge spirit with a BOOK! Sure, he had the element of surprise--but still, he shouldn't have been able to affect Wan-Shi-Tong. However it wasn't when he was kidnapped by Hei Bai that Sokka got that otherness, no Sokka became spirit touched at the end of season 1 when Yue, after just turning into the moon, kisses him. She blessed him, left him spirit touched, and it was either an accident or purpose. If it was an accident, it probably happened because Yue didn't have a handle on everything she could do yet, seeing as she'd been a spirit for all of 30 seconds. If Yue blessed him on purpose, it was most likely because she knew being the Avatar's friend he would have to deal with spirits more and while Aang as the Avatar and Katara as a powerful waterbender could handle spirits coming after them, Sokka COULDN'T, so Yue gave Sokka the strength he would need to survive a fight with a spirit. we've had simply FIGHTING spirits being the thing that marks a person before, with genetics as a sort of secondary way of getting involved-- simply being 'touched' by spirits, not so much, and 'blessed' seems to apply to being able to bend at all. That said, the idea that Sokka became spirit-touched with YUE makes perfect sense in hindsight-- not having bending, and not hiding, he's the target for every spiritual type thing that comes around. (Being very protective puts him in the line of fire.)
 * I... seriously had not considered how often Sokka gets involved with spirits. And Yue-reunited-with-the-moon blessing him is a great idea. BUT:

Both Aang and Azula will end up heading to Asagitatsu after the battle, in order to ask Zuko for help.

 * Aang will definitely be going there- the likelihood of him beating the Fire Lord during the eclipse hovers somewhere under 1%, and (unlike in canon) the Gaang does know of ONE place that has not yet been overrun/occupied by the Fire Lord's forces that has more strategic value to the war than just the northern Air Temple alone. (Particularly a Temple that has likely just lost its Mechanist.)
 * Shidan telling Aang to leave Zuko alone pretty much guarantees they'll meet up soon, possibly more due to spiritual intereference (what a good idea, little dragon! they really should meet! run off, Avatar, to find your Yaoren friend from a previous life!) than because Aang isn't great at heeding this kind of useful advice.
 * Azula's father is rethinking her position as heir, and she may no longer be welcome (offically banished or unoffically in danger of her life) in the Fire Nation after the eclipse.
 * Azula's plan to attack at a different time/place than her father intended is risky. Not becuase it is a betrayal, of course- really, it's merely a slight variation in allocation of resources in her plans to defend the fire nation. She is the Fire Lord's loyal daughter. She only has the best interests of the Fire Nation at heart. She intends him no disrespect. ...Yeah. I don't think those excuses will really fly.
 * If Azula's plan works and accomplishes both her and her father's goals, why should Ozai off Azula now that Makoto has been rendered useless? He must be aware of his banished son has made a domain outside his authority. Azula going over to the good guys' side would just mean some other Baddy would have to take her place. I think Ozai will keep Azula around for a while.
 * If Azula saves the day, she becomes a threat. She's there because she's a useful tool. Everything for Ozai, nothing for those outside Ozai, nothing possibly a threat to Ozai....
 * Recent events have made Ty Lee becoming a Yaoren more probable.
 * Ty Lee has just broken the airbender equivalent of loyalty. She has at her disposal no bending healers of her element, some beginning earth-healers, and a dragon-child who values her highly. Interference from Agni seems slightly more probable than Oma and Shu, particularly if Agni views Azula's continued mental health as important to the well-being of his people. She could heal on her own, like Katara, but Amaya's warning to Quan about not praying to any elements other than earth after his oath-breaking seems like too good an example of foreshadowing to waste. Ty Lee, though an airbender, identifies more closely with the Fire Nation than any other yaoren did with what later became their complementary elements.
 * If Ty Lee does become a yaoren, Mai knows that she will need a spirit-healer to survive, and Zuko is the only spirit-healer Mai knows who might be willing to help.
 * Depends if Ty Lee prays to Agni. Vathara has already made her an Airbender in this story; giving her Fire is giving her way too much already.
 * Imagine the look on Zuko's face when both Aang and Azula show up at his door. And he has to play referee. Hah.

Tengri and Agni will make an appearance in the story.
We've heard about Tui and La, have seen them canon and within the fic. However, we have not seen Guanyin, Oma, Shu, Agni and Tengri. The characters mention Guanyin frequently, and often refer to her and/or Oma w/Shu, as is Agni and Tengri (less so than the other two). I have a feeling we'll get to see them in mortal form...or, maybe even human form.

Tengri is not happy with the Avatar Spirit.
While we hear how some spirits (Tui and La, Guanyin, Agni) were for seeing humans as worthy of receiving the bending arts, Tengri was not. His isles were wiped out by Avatar Kesuk (Water Tribe), his people (almost most of them) Brainwashed and Crazy, enslaved, and nearly all killed, and the current Avatar (Air Monk) not doing anything to make it any better. If you think Agni has a problem with the Avatar Spirit, just think of how wrathful Tengri must be.

The Day of Invasion will go as in canon - in failure.
Only worse, because of the story packs more supernatural implications and consequences. Hakoda's and Tao's allies (all the adults, anyways) will be captured, but not by normal Fire Nation soldiers...but the Onmitsu. Tao will pull off a Heroic Sacrifice for the G Aang, then along with Hakoda, taken to the Onmitsu to be interrogated, even tortured. They'll find out that Air Nomads still exist - and they are on the Fire Nation's side. The horror!