I’m kind of disappointed that so much Firelord!Zuko content seems to be about how he’s on the verge of falling apart, and how the nation doesn’t respect him and his ministers won’t cooperate with him, and he’s separated from the gaang
And that’s not untrue. Zuko has to run a government that was, a few months ago, ready and willing to burn the rest of the world to ash, and that’s a serious burden to bear, but it’s not hopeless. This is a new time of peace. A new dawn. Where are all my pieces that focus on peace and growth? About Zuko fostering friendly alliances? About Zuko leading by example?
A servant accidentally drops a serving platter of roast duck during a ball. The juice splatters a noble woman’s gown. She backhands the servant across the face and her husband is calling for punishment and people are watching as though it’s some kind of show, because this is the way it is in the palace. Until, that is, the Firelord steps forward and helps the servant to his feet. Zuko asks the shaking man if he is alright. He calls for another servant to help clean up the mess. He tells the noblewoman in a tight voice that she, nor anyone else in these walls, will not raise a violent hand to anyone under his care
Zuko is walking through a city courtyard as he speaks with the Mayor when a young child waddles up and tugs at Zuko’s golden-hemmed robes, curious at the way they catch the light. The guards rush forward and the boy’s parents fall over themselves to offer apologies and beg for forgiveness, and Zuko bends down and picks the child up under the arms, and settles him on his hip. The child reaches for his gold crown settled in his topknot and Zuko laughs and gently pushes his hands away. He gives the boy back to his parents, and says, “There’s no need to apologise. Curiosity is a valuable trait in a young boy. You should encourage his curiosity for life.” And then he sweeps away with the Mayor in tow, as though nothing is amiss, as though his gentle smile and understanding words didn’t rattle these two townspeople more than a reprimand every would
Zuko shifting the nation’s priority away from militarisation, while trying to create new jobs for displaced people, jobs that will help his nation recover. Zuko implementing a new curriculum in schools. Zuko consulting with all kinds of people, like Iroh and Aang, yes, but also other nobles, and common people, and foreign dignitaries, and historical and cultural experts. Zuko bringing culture back to the Fire Nation.
Zuko struggling with his famous temper, but working every single day to be the kind of leader his people can put their trust in. A Firelord that doesn’t strike fear into his people, the people he’s dedicated to protecting. A Firelord that’s very different to his forefathers, who decimated entire cultures, who burned the faces of their sons and cast them out for speaking out of turn.
Zuko being kind and patient. Zuko working hard but slowly, over time, earning the trust and love of his people.
I finally tracked down a fun snippet I read a while back, where an assassin tries to get close enough to poison Zuko by disguising themselves as a servant, and this plan immediately fails because Zuko knows all his servants by name.
oh my GOD these just made my entire day. So wholesome
Firelord zuko reserves an hour of his day to sit by the pond and feed the turtleducks. He offers a bag of crumbs to anyone who wants to join and listens to them talk about their day and tries to offer advice in a way he thinks iroh would say. at first it starts off as pseudo deep sounding words but after a while he learns how to offer legitimate sage advice.
chell, doomguy, link, samus, and master chief are all in the server and not one of them has ever sent a message in it. they all consider the others to be their closest friends
there’s a channel where Red sends pictures of all of his pokemon and they all get a Thumbs Up emoji react from everyone else
samus and master chief, though not silent protagonists, are in the server because its a good place to hang out with their friends
“Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit - all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. It’s the sound of failure: so much modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking apart. The distorted guitar sound is the sound of something too loud for the medium supposed to carry it. The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry too powerful for the throat that releases it. The excitement of grainy film, of bleached-out black and white, is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the medium assigned to record them.” -Brian Eno
that Brian Eno quote about how whatever you find most repulsive about a medium (film grain, record scratches/fuzz, CDs skipping) will be the first thing you try and emulate once that medium is obsolete because it’s “the sign of a moment too powerful for the medium assigned to contain it”…. man…….
raymond animal crossing is a bug and hes gonna get patched
twitter sucks so fucking much there are like 30 accounts named like “images preceding legendary events“ and 80% of their posts are the first frame of a mediocre tv show’s intro
it’s so bad it’s like we devolved back to the days of
“if you remember this, your childhood was awesome!”
why does everyone on tumblr act like this website is so much better there are 100 blogs on this website that just make prideflags for characters who pee or whatever
when did i ever say this website is better
Tumblr may be a hellsite but we have no illusions otherwise
The first training of Zuko we see, Iroh shoots a fireball right into Zuko’s face - while Zuko just stands there unflinching. It’s the very first episode, and Zuko & Iroh are the obvious villains, and it just seems like some macho bs they do. And then comes the duel with Zhao, and Zuko is down, but when he sees that flaming fist to his face, something lets loose inside him that helps him turn the fight around…But it’s not until we learn Zuko’s backstory that all this gets a whole new meaning.
Why would Zuko still be on basics if not because he suffered a huge setback after his agni kai? Imagine how much hard work, patience it was to build Zuko back up again, so he would not freeze in blind panic (or curl up in a ball) when fire gets close to his face. I think Iroh practiced this with him all the time until he could stand there unflinching (knowing that Iroh is in full control of his bending and trusting that his uncle would never hurt him). And when it came to the duel with Zhao, Zuko could react in a RL situation instead of freezing up, and turn all the negative feelings (rage, anger, pain, whatever) into fuel to win the fight against a bender who is much more skilled than he is.
And Iroh obviously drilled him with control and restraint, because no matter how much he lets his rage loose, he has enough control not to hurt Zhao and enough self-restraint not to burn him at the end. I definitely think it was a deliberate choice on Iroh’s part to hold back on teaching offensive forms to Zuko beyond the basics (knowing that combining those with his unprocessed anger could result in him being out of control and hurt people). Instead, it seems he concentrated on teaching him defensive forms, fire breath, heat control, and so on…
Oh god, that makes such sense. Even after recovery, Zuko would not have wanted fire anywhere near him, especially his face, and it would have been ages until he could bend without flinching. But rather than seeing it as part of recovery from a very traumatic experience. He would have beaten himself over the head with it, internally, because he would have seen flinching at fire as a weakness.
I am Silver Tongue, I am an artist. I have many characters and you can check out my art in the art tag. I occasionally practice witchcraft though I don't do anything too complicated. I am girl 2 and don't know what else to put here.
