>I guess this would be a bad time to point out that you're actually
>farther behind than you estimated above, then, because there's been at
>least one other Mini while you've been away that you didn't mention in
>your list. ;) And there may yet be another before you're really able
>to come up for air, but see below.

Ooooh, damn, Bride to Far. Yes. My thoughts on that sucker are complex. There are... layers to Azana and Karana's relationship that I don't want to disrespect by not giving them more consideration than I usually give.

>I don't know about useful, but it might be fun, and if you check the
>EPU motto, that's actually what we're ostensibly here for...
>
>... although, that said, the concept kind of gives me the Fear,
>because so much of what was coming out 20 years ago embarrasses the
>living shit out of me. :)

Yeah, that's the thing I was trying to be polite about. Some of it holds up well; other parts do... not.

It's actually probably better that I did not try and do a 20th anniversary thing for Soulsearch, as Larry is still active and writing (Friendship is Magic fiction, actually; so is Overstreet, oddly enough) and it is... not anywhere up to his current standards.

>That's... not going to happen. Sorry. If Azula has learned
>anything in her decades in exile, it's that sometimes you have
>to change up your ambitions. She dearly wishes to see the Fire
>Nation again, or at least be assured that it still exists, that
>it ever did exist; but taking it over? After all this time,
>and when being in charge of it the first time was the on-ramp to her
>life coming completely the hell apart? No. Not so much. The galaxy
>turns; history has moved on.

Fair enough. I'll always have my imagination. It's your garden, I just come in and walk barefoot through the flower beds occasionally. Heck, revealing editorial intentions is something I should be thanking you for, I know you guys prefer not to do that. :)

I just really like it when Azula conquers things is all. Well... I like it when she tries to conquer things. I suspect I'd have liked her ruling over the sea of ash Daddy was trying to create a lot less than her rise to power.

Having said all that, Azula returning to the Fire Nation as it has become in Diqiu is just pregnant with all kinds of possibility. Does she go openly, or as a tourist under her nom-de-space? If she goes openly, will she suddenly find herself seized on by reactionary factions within the Fire Lords court as a rallying point? Will shit get real? Will she roll her eyes theatrically before needing to choke someone out? Will she get very annoyed at the amount of Zuko statues?

I look forward to finding out one day. Perhaps one day soon. Perhaps not.

>Depends on one's position in court. Beria has to do that kind of
>thing all the time, but then he did in life as well, and that life
>ultimately ended because he had an off day and failed one of his
>regular Plot Against the Others checks. (Nikita Sergeyeveich, if
>you're watching, I know you didn't do it because he was a vicious and
>revolting serial rapist, you did it so he wouldn't do it to you first,
>but regardless, I just want to thank you again on behalf of all
>humanity for putting one in the back of that motherfucker's head.)

You liked your russian history courses, didn't you?

>>Assuming this doesn't simply happen on the fields of Ragnarok, may I
>>express the sincere and fervent hope that, should Azula decide to pay
>>a visit to Muspelheim, there be a Flame Princess team-up?
>>
>>Because that's another thing I would like to happen. :)
>
>I won't speak to the specific context, but I will say that this is a
>lot more likely to come to pass than your "Azula the Merciless
>delivers an ultimatum" thing. Although, it occurs to me, she probably
>has a better name than that if she's Surtur's daughter (which she may
>not be).

I dunno, "Flame Princess" is a pretty good name. I mean, "Princess Bubblegum" works fine as a name; nobody except Marceline actually calls her "Bonnibel" after all. So does "Ice King." Admittedly, UF is not Adventure Time, but still.

Although, thinking about it, in the actual context of Adventure Time, Flame Princess may in fact be "Flame King" now, because Ooo doesn't care about your damn gendered titles, and if a cookie wants to be a Princess, or a lady wants to rule the Fire Kingdom with an iron fist as Flame King, that is a thing that can happen.

More seriously, I like to imagine that, if she actually is Surtur's daughter (for a given value of daughter, really, Surtur seems like the kind of guy who would nod approvingly at Ozai's style of parenting, and for that matter I'd be amazed if he were cosmologically capable of a genuinely procreative act; if he wanted a child he might have to build one out of discarded cosmic detritus) I can see him saddling her with one of those names where anyone trying to actually say it dissolves into plasma as their soul turns inside-out, so they just go by "Flame Princess" instead.

Regardless, she and Azula would totally be besties. I bet their dungeon crawls are a lot more fun than Finns, too.

>Not everyone on the Phoenix Queen's crew is from Mojave, but
>yes, she's spent a lot of the last eight years or so whipping them
>into better shape for confronting the galaxy at large. And they've
>all just generally got a lot more experience than they did when the
>biggest task on their to-do list was wiping out the Fiends (which,
>frankly, Azula could've done by herself, but it gets lonely without
>anyone to turn to and say, "Are we having fun yet?").

On a more somber note, I also like to imagine Azula really misses Mai and Ty Lee sometimes. Yeah, she has a new team now, but it's never quite the same, you know?

Also, she never got to make out with Ty Lee the way she now understands that Ty Lee really wanted to but that she was way too oblivious to notice.

>Also, keep in mind that we're talking about the Moscow police
>not noticing anything. That's marginally more difficult to arrange
>than nobody in Freeside caring that you just annihilated everyone in
>the Silver Rush, but not by a really wide margin. :)

I take it Arkady Renko isn't knocking around in UF, then. :)

>You know what helps with that? Not giving her the Ballistic
>Fist variant that turns her victims' corpses into land mines. I'm
>just saying. :)

Honestly, what I usually ended up doing was using her as a tank. Pick up Veronica, go right to the RepCon HQ, loot the corpses of the Brotherhood of Steel guys inside, put her into their power armor. At that point I can just let her charge into groups of guys and then blow them away at leisure as they try futilely to destroy my perky companion.

Assuming she doesn't get stuck in a doorway, or set off explosives, or... well. You've been there, you don't need me to tell you.

-Merc
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