>>Yes. My thoughts on that sucker are complex.
>
>Hmm. That's one of those phrases that never actually means anything
>good, like "we have to talk" or "it's about your daughter".

Usually I would agree with this line of reasoning, but in this case it does in fact mean something good, or at least, good enough for me personally that I want to do justice to it in a way that encourages you guys to do more of that kind of thing.

I think you've got something real special with Azana and Karana, is what I'm saying here.

>>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 openly claimed to be Fire Lord Ozai's long-lost daughter Azula
>in 291 ASC, would anyone believe her?

I'm going to touch on this more in my commentary on the Etude, but my reasoning is that it would depend on how common the blue flame is.

If it's rare but not unheard of, she's just a particularly powerful firebender who has gone round the bend. If it's a crazy rare once in a generation, nobody since Azula has had the blue flame until Azana came along thing, that would probably get the Fire Nation Royal Family and/or Korra interested, and Korra in particular could probably verify Azula's identity.

More prosaically, Azula can prove well enough to stand up in court, I think, that she spent a very long time frozen in crystallite. If she really cared about being openly known as Azula again, she could always just do things the old-fashioned way and hammer on the Babylon Foundation's bureaucracy until her paperwork ends up on the desk of someone important enough to get in touch with Diqiu to process her citizenship claim.

Of course, doing that could lead immediately to a major diplomatic incident as the Earth Kingdom demands a long-overdue war crimes trial, but Azula is kind of a walking diplomatic incident anyway. Also she seems like the type to be insulted if, returning to Ba Sing Ce for the first time in two centuries under her own name, the Republic City Limited was not greeted by crowds of protestors. Do the ingrates have no sense of history? She conquered their city and oppressed them wickedly for months!

>>and for that matter I'd be amazed if he were cosmologically capable of
>>a genuinely procreative act;
>
>In the process of answering this part, I had an idea which I prefer
>not to share at this time.

Then I've done my job!

>However, I will note that, based on her first canonical appearance
>(and her earliest costumes), FP has a particular cultural signature
>going on there which could be of use in devising a UF version of her.
>She doesn't grant wishes, but a fire spirit in harem pants who's
>originally found trapped in a lamp? Hmm.

I am intrigued and titillated by this teaser and choose to back off a bit while the idea germinates in your brain-soil.

>Ty Lee, sure, I can see that, but can anyone really miss Mai? That's
>like getting nostalgic for the kindergarten teacher who used to hit
>you across the knuckles for writing with your left hand.*

Hey, Mai is a perfectly serviceable and interesting goth-type character. I mean, she's no Raven, but who is?

-Merc
Keep Rat