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Subject: "Fire Hazards"     Previous Topic | Next Topic
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Conferences Symphony of the Sword/The Order of the Rose Topic #411
Reading Topic #411, reply 22
Mercutio
Member since May-26-13
942 posts
Jan-20-14, 06:24 AM (EDT)
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22. "RE: Fire Hazards"
In response to message #19
 
   >>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.

This is true, but... well. I'll just say in my own mind, even when they plan things out competently and think they've got all their bases covered, the Psi Corps strikes me very much as a "sure, I can fit that in my mouth" organization. :)

>>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.

Mmm, really? I mean... I can see that eventually being the case, but one imagines they'd want to keep them hush-hush for awhile. Zuko's early years were... fraught. They were a ton of assassination attempts and I sort of got the impression that the unstated reason the Kyoshi Warriors were imported wasn't just because they're the best they are at what they do, but because Zuko literally could not trust his own people. Sort of a Swiss Guard sort of deal. In that sort of a political environment you want to keep the fact that two huge sources of leverage are alive and well and living in an isolated village on the down-low, I think.

It's not a big deal, though, really.

>Besides, I like to think that Kiyi and Zuko were pretty tight. :)

I would really love to see people in general (not you guys specifically, although I certainly wouldn't complain) do more with Kiyi. Much like Kori, she's just absolutely loaded with potential that is curiously unmined so far.

>>I can't imagine Ursa wanted to go back to
>>doing the whole Princess thing.
>
>No, no indeed.

Although on reflection, maybe Kiyi wanted to do the whole princess deal if she found out that it was a potential option. I wouldn't have minded being a princess when I was a kid.

Or even now, really. Princess' get to do all sorts of cool stuff, like fly on zeppelins and conquer the Earth Kingdom and have awesome wire fights. :)

>>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.

This may be inartful phrasing on my part. "Unreconstructed" implies a lot more than I wanted it to; I almost used "crypto" but that particular formulation doesn't get a lot of play around here. :)

What I'm imagining is sort of a Niall Ferguson, apologist-for-empire, Zuko-ruined-everything sort of Fire nationalism. People who recognize that they're not going to be re-annexing the Republic anytime soon (and really, who would want to? All that race-mixing, ugh!) but will construct elaborate defenses of the Hundred Year War and write books defending Fire Nation culture as inherently superior to that of the other nations. Probably they also create a lot of dolchstoss narratives around Zuko as part of the whole "the Fire Nation didn't lose, it merely declined to win" thing.

That's just me, tho.

>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.

Oh, right, nothing like that. That would be just silly, even for me.

>>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.

I recall being very impressed at the time. :) Seeing it happen on-screen with no warning and no ability to immediately pop in the Season 3 DVDs was... stressful.

>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.

Now I really want to see a big-budget rock opera about mobsters.

>>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.

It's not a big deal; my personal aesthetics usually trend more towards preferring things to be subtle rather than explicit. It's personal taste, not a value judgment.

>>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.

Short term, yeah. On the other hand, Sozin might not have liked what his ideals did to his country long-term. He might have done it anyway if he'd known that eventually it would lead to Zuko and a golden-ish age of stability and prosperity for Diqiu, with a strong and advanced Republic based on an alloy of the Fire Nation strengths and those of the other nations, because Sozin was all about the ends justifying the means, but I sort of imagine that Sozin would regard Azulon and Ozai with deep and abiding contempt.

Especially Ozai; Sozin was a monster, but he harbored actual beliefs in something greater than himself. Ozai was just a thug who turned Sozin's beloved Fire Nation into nothing but a hate engine.

TLDR; it depends a lot on what your definition of "worked" is. :)

>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.)

That actually makes a ton of sense, as the ecumenical gang would of necessity have to be the most practical and tolerant one.

>>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...

Oh, I'm not saying it would work, but if I were the other franchises, I would consider taking hard-line measures to ensure that we didn't need to face off against someone who had firebending +1 equipped. That's the kind of thing you do not wanna do if at all possible. :)

-Merc
Keep Rat


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  Subject     Author     Message Date     ID  
 Fire Hazards [View All] MuninsFire Dec-17-13 TOP
   RE: Fire Hazards Meagen Dec-18-13 1
      RE: Fire Hazards MuninsFire Dec-18-13 3
          RE: Fire Hazards Gryphonadmin Dec-18-13 6
              RE: Fire Hazards MuninsFire Dec-18-13 7
      RE: Fire Hazards Gryphonadmin Dec-18-13 4
   RE: Fire Hazards twipper Dec-18-13 2
      RE: Fire Hazards Proginoskes Dec-19-13 9
          RE: Fire Hazards Offsides Dec-19-13 10
              RE: Fire Hazards Gryphonadmin Dec-19-13 11
                  RE: Fire Hazards ebony14 Dec-19-13 12
                      RE: Fire Hazards Offsides Dec-19-13 13
                  RE: Fire Hazards VoidRandom Dec-21-13 16
                      RE: Fire Hazards Gryphonadmin Dec-21-13 17
   RE: Fire Hazards Bushido Dec-18-13 5
      RE: Fire Hazards Gryphonadmin Dec-18-13 8
          RE: Fire Hazards Bushido Dec-21-13 14
              RE: Fire Hazards pjmoyermoderator Dec-21-13 15
   RE: Fire Hazards Mercutio Jan-19-14 18
      RE: Fire Hazards Gryphonadmin Jan-19-14 19
         RE: Fire Hazards Mercutio Jan-20-14 22
              RE: Fire Hazards Peter Eng Jan-20-14 23
              RE: Fire Hazards Zemyla Mar-10-14 27
      Oh yes, also: Gryphonadmin Jan-20-14 20
          RE: Oh yes, also: The Traitor Jan-20-14 21
          RE: Oh yes, also: Mercutio Jan-20-14 24
              RE: Oh yes, also: Gryphonadmin Jan-20-14 26
      RE: Fire Hazards junipermoderator Jan-20-14 25


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