>Second tangent: Man, I can't wait until the Psi Corps decides to do
>something arrogant and ill-advised with what must look to them like an
>underdeveloped planet full of powerful human psions. It's going to go
>hilariously wrong for them.

Give them a little credit; they generally do enough scouting and research to know ahead of time if a previously unknown population is likely to present a problem. Most of the people who are in actual operational charge of the organization are not maniacs, just assholes.

>It's entirely possible that Azana is related to Zuko but not in any
>way part of the extended Royal Family

That is the most likely scenario, yes.

>Zuko's actual lineal
>descendants are probably well-documented even if some of them ended up
>down at the heels, but they might have kept the existence of his much
>younger half-sister quiet.

After the end of the Hundred Year War, I doubt there was any real need to do that. If he had a younger, previously unknown half-sibling who was Ozai's offspring, sure, that would be a potential issue, but Kiyi (and any other children Ursa and Noren might've had after we saw them) wouldn't be anywhere on the succession line anyway. Besides, I like to think that Kiyi and Zuko were pretty tight. :) That's not to say the Hira'a branch of the family couldn't be obscure - in fact, I rather expect it was and is - but they don't actually have to have been hidden in some kind of bizarre government coverup. Think of all the obscure cousins and other distant branches any real royal family must have, of whom nobody much has ever heard.

>I can't imagine Ursa wanted to go back to
>doing the whole Princess thing.

No, no indeed. But there was never any real chance of that happening, anyway. One of the relatively few genuine advantages of being an autocrat in a pre-telecommunications world is that if you want your mother left in peace, she's bloody well going to be.

>Or Karana is wacky in the head. Or both!

I wouldn't go so far as "wacky in the head", but she was drunk.

>>"Some of Zuko's detractors claimed he'd had her killed, or
>>banished her to some spiritsforsaken corner of the world - because she
>>was a threat to his rule, or simply an embarrassment to the family."
>
>I think 'Agni-forsaken' might flow better when you have cause for Fire
>people to deploy this particular phrasing, but that's just a stylistic
>preference on my part.

Azana is largely agnostic about these matters; she might've picked up the habit of referring to the spirits rather than Agni from Karana.

>I imagine that Azula is a convenient mythological figure for
>unreconstructed Fire chauvinists.

I rather doubt there are many of those around any longer, at least in the sense (which I think you've hinted at assuming the presence of several times) of people who harbor some kind of realistic desire to see a return to Sozinite ideals and what have you. I mean, keep in mind it's the year 291. Expecting to find an actual, practicing Sozinite in the Diqiu of 291 ASC is like assuming that there are still people in England who are actively scheming to restore the Stuarts to the throne, or active hardcore Tory cells in Atlantic Canada plotting to overthrow the upstart Continental Congress and restore the American colonies to the Queen's dominions. It rather strains credulity.

>Also, she killed the Avatar. Not a lot of people have that on their
>resume.

It's really not that impressive an accomplishment when you read the not-even-very-fine print about him only having been dead for maybe half an hour.

"You forget, we were present at a vast, unexplained undersea sponge migration."

"Ray, the sponges migrated about a foot and a half."

>Ugh. Has anyone who wasn't a giant douchecanoe ever worn
>snakeskin cowboy boots unironically? Because I don't think they have.
>Especially not with a suit.

I wouldn't entirely put it past Ryo Sato, actually, but only if he was actually riding an ostrich horse at the time. And yeah, he wouldn't wear a suit for that.

>>"Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot. Only your chunky little pal
>>from the South Pole gets to call you that, right?" He spread his hands
>>in a gesture of mocking surrender (Anne noticed that his nails were
>>varnished the same red as his suit)
>
>Okay, for a mob torpedo, Kaiten looks completely ridiculous.

There's a definite comic-opera aspect to the dress sense of his echelon in the Agni Kai. The intended aesthetic is not so much Mafia as glam rock.

>In light of future events, I have to say that I very much like this
>passage right here, but I think it could have been better executed
>without hitting the nail on the head so hard with Anne's follow-up.

That's entirely possible, although then it would've been rather hard to convey what she was trying to warn Azana about. Ultimately, it seemed better to point up the sharpness of her street instincts than be cagey about what was going on with Kaiten, but maybe not.

>Yeah, because people who hit on the bright idea of using supercharged
>firebending to conquer everything in their way have an amazing track
>record there, buddy.

Actually, if you look back far enough, the track record is about 50-50. I mean, it sure as shit worked for Sozin.

>the vibe I've been getting around the Triads so
>far in Diqiu is... hmm. It's hard to describe. It's got sort of an
>"the mob in the 70s and 80s" feel to it. Their time is passing and
>they just don't know it yet

There is an element of that, particularly with the Agni Kai. They have long been the most thuggish and reactionary - and yet most flamboyant and showmanlike - of the city's Triads, and so the most likely to sort of bullheadedly refuse to accept that the times, they are a-changin'. There are others whose leaders are at least willing to take chances on new ways of organizing and operating things. Heck, there's at least one that's gone completely legit - in the late third century, the Triple Threat operates entirely above the board, as a civic organization, kind of like the Rotary Club or Kiwanis. (That occasionally messes with Korra's head.)

>>When she let it out,
>>her eyes snapped open, clear and bright once more - and the fire that
>>suddenly wreathed her hands was a clean incandescent blue, like the
>>flame of an acetylene torch.
>
>I can honestly say that I didn't see this coming.

Neither did Kaiten...

>If this is a "literally nobody else has been able to do this since
>Azula" situation, though, where the blue flame is a one-a-century
>talent, then all that gets dialed up to eleven.

Since the disappearance of Princess Azula, one other person has indisputably firebent a blue flame before unimpeachable witnesses; but only once, and on a very special occasion.

>Azana may find herself
>the subject of some rather unpleasant attention from her mothers
>ultraconservative political faction

I'm not sure Azera belongs to a "faction", as such. Like I said before, I find it very difficult to believe that anyone, apart from the sort of people who in other circumstances would be standing at bus stations insisting that they are Napoleon, seriously wants (or thinks there is any chance of) a return to the pre-Zuko Fire Nation's "the murders will continue until all the survivors love us" foreign relations policy. Even Azera doesn't want that.

>Katara may ask her cousin to renew his friendship with his old
>schoolmate to ensure that the exact opposite of that happens.

If it came to it, Katara and Azana are old schoolmates too; their careers at Piandao Academy overlapped by a couple of years. So there's that pretext to be had if she really required one to keep tabs on her. Anyway, I doubt Shinzen and Azana have so lost touch since graduation that "renewing" anything would be required. He doesn't live in Republic City, but, as Azera amply demonstrates quite often, there are telephones now. :)

>It could
>cause trouble for her MLB career, with opposing teams claiming unfair
>advantage, the bending equivalent of using a corked bat or putting an
>airbender on the team.

If she used it in competition, and its greater intensity provided some clear advantage not otherwise obtainable, the other team might have grounds for a protest, but otherwise... well, this is a sport where they used to, and occasionally still do, let the Avatar play, so long as she promises to stick to whatever color belt she's wearing. The sanctioning body is clearly not that bothered about what extralegal things players might do so long as they don't do it. Besides, it could be argued that it's simply a very advanced form of the art, and if you were going to go after her for it, you might as well penalize, e.g., the winner of this year's Future City Historic GP for being a better driver than the others.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
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