Avatar: The Last Airbender/WMG/Plot: Difference between revisions

Azula, as has been mentioned many times before, plans for every contingency. She could have deliberately planted the idea of hiring an assassin into Zuko's head, because--saybecause—say it with me now-- shenow—she is a [[Manipulative Bastard]], and because she has just as much to gain from Aang's death as Zuko does. Azula did a very dangerous and risky thing--shething—she lied to her father outright about Zuko killing Aang--andAang—and if Ozai treats his least favored child like less than garbage for a minor infraction, what would Ozai do if he found out Azula, his favorite, tricked him into accepting "lucky to be born" Zuko back into the fold?

It's shown in Aang's flashback in "The Storm" that Pai Sho already existed in his time, so the secret organization closely connected to the game could have, too. Now, the Fire Nation executed their genocide of the Air Nomads at the point in the Avatar Cycle when the Avatar was an Airbender, and the logical conclusion would not be that he was frozen in [[Suspended Animation]] in an iceberg but that he had been killed. As the years went by without a new Avatar appearing, it must have seemed obvious, according to the first episode Opening Narration, that the cycle had somehow been broken by death while in the Avatar State, and the Avatar wasn't coming back. So without the Great Maintainer of Elemental Balance and Harmony, where would they get someone to "restore balance to the world" during an imperialist war? Mixing the bloodlines of the two who started the war... it made sense to Iroh. No way he gave Zuko that "understanding the other four elements" lecture in "Bitter Work" just to help illustrate how to redirect lightning: "All this four elements talk sounds like Avatar stuff." And Destiny was okay with that plan -- Zukoplan—Zuko found the actual Avatar when he was [[Dangerous Sixteenth Birthday|sixteen]].

*** Zuko's not eligible -- Maieligible—Mai and him are almost certainly formally betrothed. (When she's a fellow noblewoman you don't generally get to set your ''mistress'' up with quarters in the royal palace and then openly visit her without chaperones, but its no breach to do so with your ''fiancee''. Its not like Mai was some village girl concubine, after all -- herall—her father's a provincial governor, she has a social position and a reputation to maintain.)

Although the known history has examples of lazy and ineffectual Avatars like Kuruk, or harsh and domineering ones like Kyoshi, there aren't any really ''evil'' ones that we've heard of. Barring isolated examples like that one village of the descendants of sore losers, its generally accepted by all nations that the Avatar will ''of course'' be a benevolent, relatively unselfish force. Now given that the Spirit World selects potential Avatars for having the proper spiritual qualities and that each Avatar has access to the mentorship and advice of all their past selves, the fact remains that they are human beings with free will. So you'd think at least ''once'' in history there would have been an Avatar who went entirely corrupt with their power, human nature and the law of averages being what it is. And even one such negative example on the historical record would have colored people's reactions, no? So obviously ''something'' is out there to relatively quickly put down Avatars who have gone entirely Sith Lord about the whole business. Now, it could just be that the Garden of Ancient Avatars reaches out and spiritbends the Bending right out of the Avatar gone rogue or something... but then we also have this secret society composed of the greatest Bending masters and martial arts masters of the world, all of them devoted to the same aims of balance and harmony between nations as the Avatar -- andAvatar—and yet who deliberately remain ''apart'' from the Avatar. Working with him on occasion, when necessary, but never working ''for'' him. Now why would they do such a thing unless they're aware of the possibility that they might one day be in conflict with him? And what other force could hope to take down an insane or evil Avatar ''except'' a gathering of the greatest Benders and warriors in the world? It all fits.

**** The title of "dragon" is given to firebenders who successfully killed a dragon. Iroh was given the title because he "killed" the last dragons. (in actuality, he simply learned from them, and lied about killing them so the fire nation would stop [[Humans Are Bastardsthe Real Monsters|poaching the creatures who gave them the gift of fire.]])

== In fifty years or so, the series' surviving [[Extraordinarily Empowered Girl|Extraordinarily Empowered Girls]]s will form their own secret club. ==

Then Azula shows up. Kuei decides to conduct another test, this time to see how the Avatar confronts a direct threat. The added bonus is to determine if Zuko and Iroh, who the Dai Li have been monitoring all the while, can be brought on-board for the invasion -- someoneinvasion—someone needs to replace Ozai as Firelord, after all, and perhaps the Avatar can score a firebending teacher while he's at it. Only everything goes pear-shaped when Azula manages to "kill" Aang. Because they think the Avatar's dead at first, the Dai Li fall back on "Plan B": surrendering the city to the Fire Nation to avoid its annihilation during Sozin's Comet while making themselves useful to Azula. That way the Dai Li can get the score on the Fire Nation government's inner workings.