1. This is an AU that is fairly difficult to construct. Aside from the fact that they are both strategically minded, Sokka and Azula have very little in common. Changing them around would change the entire dynamic of the Fire Nation Royals, because I just can’t imagine that Sokka, who has a conscience, would attract Ozai’s favor in at all the same way as Azula, who he favored for their similar personalities at least as much for her firebending talent. So here we have Sokka the clownish protege firebender, and Ozai’s second disappointment, and this has to be the fault of Ursa and her weak blood.
2. Meanwhile Katara has an older nonbending sister who likes to torture animals before killing them, and is still really good at convincing Gran Gran that she’s a sweetheart.
3. Zuko is not exiled in this universe, because Ozai doesn’t want him out of the way in favor of Sokka. Instead, both are stuck at court, miserable, treated like crap by their father. When Sokka overheard that Ozai was going to kill Zuko, he talked him into running away together. They hid out in one of the palace tunnels until Ursa found them and told them Azulon was dead and it was safe to go home. Ozai forced her into exile soon after.
4. Mai and Ty Lee are much happier in this universe where they aren’t being abused by Azula. Mai’s parents might still be horrible, and Ty Lee still feels ignored, but at least they have never had to deal with Azula. Because of this, Mai is more open with her emotions, and Ty Lee never runs away to join the circus.
5. Sokka and Ty Lee flirt terribly with each other, constantly.
-Would alternate Azula (Akana?) use a boomerang? -How would growing up with a sister like that affect Katara? -Did Katara’s mother catch onto the fact that something was off about her elder daughter? -Alternately, did growing up in Katara’s family curb Azula’s worst tendencies? -Did alternate Azula blame Katara for their mother’s death, and if so, how did it affect their relationship? -How’s SOZIN for alternate Sokka’s name? XD
Akanna does use a boomerang but she might just go with knives instead of the club for her close up weapon. She’s always about doing the unexpected, and a boomerang is that.
Katara is much more cautious and guarded around her sister, and anyone she thinks might tell her sister anything, than she is in canon, and also more prone to snapping defensively at people. She feels under attack.
Kya did cotton on to Akanna’s nastier side, and while she was alive, she and Hakoda tried to teach her better, but after Kya died, and Hakoda left, Kanna thought they were paranoid and being too harsh with a child. This combined with the trauma caused by the invasion and her mother’s death (which she absolutely blames Katara for) means that Akanna’s cruelty is in full effect by the time canon starts. She is however sneakier about it than canon Azula ever had to be.
Two things, first, Akanna is a nonbender with a powerful bending sister. She doesn’t have the “I am the acknowledged superior and having my brother around highlights this” relationship with Katara that Azula in canon has with Zuko. Her feelings are much less complicated. She loathes her.
Second there are no adolescent boys in the Southern Water Tribe. In canon Sokka was the only one. Akanna does not feel the same need to protect her sister that he had.
1. So first things first. how does Ursa get into a position to become regent? The answer is that Ozai dies. The poisoning does not go to plan. Ozai can’t help but gloat over his father’s intended demise, and with his last breath, Azulon fries his son with lightning. Ursa has to think fast. She claims that the second prince was assassanated, and Firelord Azulon died of the shock of seeing him like that. Frantically she writes to Iroh. but he does not answer. She is forced to consolidate power on her own. She claims to be ruling in his stead until he returns, and indeed she intends to step down. She just neglects to mention he never appointed her.
2. And then Iroh does return home a wreck. He has no interest in the throne she so capably kept warm for him, and sinks deeper and deeper into grief fueled mysticism and attempts to journey to the Spirit World. Ruling on Iroh’s behalf while he is right there in the palace is growing old fast, and Ursa’s position is becoming increasingly tenuous. This is something she tells to Iroh. Rather than pull himself out of his grief. Iroh abdicates in favor of his nephew and appoints Ursa his regent.
3. Ursa is furious. This is not what she wanted, and Ursa sees it as Iroh abdicating not only the throne but his responsibilities, and his duty. This is not something she will forgive easily.
4. This does mean she now has near complete freedom over her children’s education, and that Zuko is suddenly officially Firelord. Azula can stop scheming now. She has no path through the throne that doesn’t go directly through her brother. She doesn’t stop scheming of course, but she adopts the dream of conquering the Earth Kingdom and ruling the colonies as Zuko’s viceroy. This is a dream that Ursa encourages, being an imperialist. Azula’s dreams, motives, and insecurities change under her mother’s careful guidance, as she builds a more resilient sense of self and learns to stop using others for her own gratification.
5. Iroh meanwhile is nursing his newfound anti-imperialism, which given how he decided he would rather dump the responsibility of ruling on somebody else in Ursa’s eyes… She disagrees with him, and she doesn’t see why he should get a say now.
I’m letting Sokka and Katara keep their same names because it appears in the Southern Water Tribe at least, a endings are gender neutral.
1. Sokka is the eldest daughter of a village chief, but she is nothing special. She is one of five other teenage girls, but after her brother, the next oldest boy in the village is six. So she always has it in her mind that someday she will leave the village to find a man. It’s just the way it is. So there’s always that part of her that knows the village won’t be her home forever, but she always thought the South Pole would be. Village life is incredibly stifling for Sokka. After her mother’s death and her father’s going off to war, she has had to shoulder the moose-lion’s share of chores, and while her brother was too young to do it, the hunting as well. It’s exhausting, and neverending, and all anybody tells her is how lucky she is her brother wasn’t old enough to leave yet.
2. Katara meanwhile is the chief’s only son, and the only waterbender in the entire South Pole. He’s a catch. He also witnessed his mother’s murder, all to protect him, and responded to this and the sudden absence of his father by trying to parent his older sister. Sokka jokes that her little brother will make a good wife someday.
3. This is the world into which Aang drops. And it’s into this world that Sokka has to sneak away, because Katara is a boy, and fourteen is old enough really to leave in the eyes of the village, but why is Sokka going with him? But Katara’s glad to have him around.
4. The Kyoshi warriors are a revelation for Sokka. She has always felt miserable that she couldn’t help defend her home, that she couldn’t protect her vulnerable little brother, and here are these nonbending women warriors, who can teach her to fight, and who keep their own homes safe with or without the men. They fascinate her and thrill her, especially their leader, and if she didn’t need to keep her brother safe on the way to the North Pole, she would never leave.
5. In the North, Katara is readily trained by Pakku. It’s Sokka who is forced to come to a reckoning. It’s much easier to recognize what she had felt for Suki now that she’s feeling it for Yue too.
These heartbreaking and incredibly moving images show the affection and love shown during the height of the Aids crisis. Photographer Gideon Mendel’s project The Ward began in 1993 when he spent a number of weeks on the Charles Bell wards in London’s Middlesex Hospital. All the patients on the ward were dying with the knowledge that there was no cure for the disease. During this time antiretroviral medications were not available and patients on the ward faced the prospect of an early death.
TAZ/Old Kingdom crossover where Kravitz is an Abhorsen chasing a denim-clad necromancer around the southern countryside and getting increasingly frustrated that the guy does not respect the aesthetic like, at all
I came up with this on the way to the grocery store, possibly as my brain’s way to confirm that not all the crossovers I come up with are cursed.
Barry is from Ancelstierre with a science background, much like Nick, but instead of disproving the magic of the Old Kingdom he wants to see how it works and combine it with scientific technology. Since he doesn’t have the same cultural aversion to free magic, he ends up dabbling in both that AND charter magic. If the Abhorsen can use both, then it’s clearly possible to combine them. And necromancy doesn’t HAVE to be used for evil. (It’s still illegal, Barold.) Most of the townspeople in the old kingdom give him a wide berth, but there are rumors that if your cow is sick or if you had a crop die off, he’s your guy.
Lup and Taako are Clayr by birth. The Clayr Saw that Lup was a girl, but boys aren’t common on the glacier, so they plan on sending Taako to his father once they’re older. When the twins find out, they run off before they are separated. They live a hardscrabble life with traders and the like until they run into Barry. They’re both very accomplished Charter mages, but Lup’s also interested in dabbling in free magic, which makes her even more powerful, although it’s dangerous and there are a few close calls. They don’t have much of the Sight, although occasionally they use it to con people.
Kravitz is the Abhorsen and has actually met Astarael. He doesn’t think she’s that bad. After a few run-ins with the mysterious necromancer who’s been running around the southern part of the Old Kingdom, he starting to think Barry’s not that bad either, but he has a job to do. Yes, Barry, I know the little girl was crying because her pet dog got hit by a car, but you can’t just bring it back.
I guess this means Kravitz works with Mogget? Ye gods.
Magnus lives peacefully with his wife in a village and is very good at making things. If he feels a strange kinship with the charter stones in the village square, it just makes him a better craftsman, so who’s to worry?
Merle was baptized into the Charter but doesn’t feel a strong connection to it these days. He wouldn’t call himself religious. Then, he is wandering somewhere and finds a shrine with a little statue of a dog, and suddenly, there’s God. I mean, the dog that came out of nowhere doesn’t admit to being Kibeth, but he’s not stupid.
(Later, when they start meeting up, Magnus is delighted by the Disreptuable Dog. “I’m pretty sure that’s one of the seven shiners,” Merle tells him privately. “Who cares?” Magnus says. “She loves getting her belly rubbed, and I’m not gonna say no to that.”)
Lucretia is a member of the royal family, although she’s not directly in line for the throne. She’s very interested in historical research, the stories of the bloodlines, and how she fits in all of this. She spends a lot of time traveling to the glacier to research in the Great Library, and the Clayr tell her she’s wasted as royalty. She would’ve made an excellent librarian. She’s practically an unofficial one and has helped out during some of their crises. Davenport is captain of the Paperwing division of the royal guard and ends up flying her to the glacier most of the time. He’s the best pilot they have and can whistle up a hurricane if he has to.
Everything is going fine (Kravitz chases Barry, Taako, and Lup around with Looney Tunes style hijinks but his heart isn’t really in it at this point) until Barry hears about some very powerful artifact buried in the hill by Edge and decide he just has to investigate. He gets Nick Sayre’d and starts digging up the Destroyer with an undead army. Kravitz admits this is a significant upgrade to his threat level. Meanwhile, Lup and Taako have a rare flash of the Sight and are puzzling over what the vision about “seven birds and seven shiners” has to do with anything, and who all those people they don’t recognize were. But Kravitz was in it, so they end up allying with him and eventually collecting all the other IPRE members in a desperate bid to rebind Orannis before it all goes to shit. I can wedge Kravitz into the shiner group because Taako and Lup are twins and so only cover one bell. How are some of the others members of the bloodlines? I’m not sure. People get around sometimes and don’t document it, right? It’s fine. Someone loses a hand. Destroyer!Barry hits Davenport with a Belgaer/Dyrim combo for a while. Lucretia’s probably going to end up Queen.
The adventures of Unassuming Hufflepuff continue. In an Unassuming fasion.
Summer at the manor was quiet except when Granddad insisted
on morning target practice in the range set up in the back garden. Doctors
argued with him about it, but Granddad insisted that shooting revolvers kept
the arthritis at bay.
Doctors, Uh has noticed, really do not like it when a cure
that should never work actually does work.
“ALEX!”
“MY NAME IS UH, GRANDDAD!” Uh shouts back, closing
their book with a sigh.
“WHATEVER!” Graddad replies from the garden. “YOU HAVEN’T
BEEN ON THE RANGE YET THIS WEEK!”
Uh puts their book aside, vacates the bench on the balcony,
and then climbs down the support column to land in the back garden with a
thump. “Granddad, I have a wand. I don’t need to shoot anyone when I can
hex them. Besides, guns don’t work at Hogwarts.”
“No, modern
guns don’t work at Hogwarts,” Granddad corrects Uh cheerfully, clearing
the barrels of both revolvers before handing them over. “But if you go old
school…”
“Fine.” Uh gives up, loads the revolvers,
obliterates the two remaining targets the manor staff have yet to replace, and
then hands the emptied weapons back to Granddad. “There you are. Can I
please read my book now?”
Granddad is staring at the targets, a distant look in his
eyes. Uh would almost call it sadness.
No, not feelings, not again! This is still not Uh’s job!
“Sometimes it amazes me how much you take after
me,” Granddad says, tilting his head at the targets. “Then it’s your
Gran, and the way you both bury your heads in books. Then it’s Lin with the
magic and the swords…and then there’s your dad.”
“I don’t take after Dad at all,” Uh reminds
Granddad.
Granddad reaches over and ruffles Uh’s long hair. “Alex
always wanted to fix things, too, sweetheart.”
Fine. Uh will at least admit to that. But at least they
don’t go wandering off and get lost for three years and counting.
Granddad knows what they’re thinking. “Sweetheart, I
still blame your Uncle Jonathan for that.”
Uh nods. That is also likely. Uncle Jonathan is…like that.
Gran always says he took after their great-grandfather, who was a bit mad, and
then Jonathan’s service in World War I made everything worse.
Uh is halfway back to the manor before they realize.
“Wait. Granddad! Old school? That was a terrible pun!”
In Harry Potter’s third year of Hogwarts, Professor
Trelawney decides a mess of tea leaves in a teacup is not a mess, but a Grim,
the black dog of death. Everyone ignores this after the initial fuss dies down,
but it isn’t exactly forgotten.
It’s reasoned in Houses that are Not Gryffindor that Potter
has actually tried to die for the previous two terms already. Trelawney might
be an incense-laden fraud, but even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Three
times, even, if you’re in possession of a Time-Turner.
Thus, on Christmas Day, everyone staying over during the
hols awakens to find that the massive gaudy star on the Great Hall’s Christmas
tree has been replaced with an ornament painted up to eerily resemble the head
of the Grim.
Harry thinks it’s hilarious. He waits until the holiday is
over to thank the twins for giving him a laugh.
George and Fred glance at each other. While an excellent
idea, this was not their doing.
This is unacceptable. Their status as the school pranksters is at risk.
The twins decide that they will find this obvious Kindred
Spirit and enlist them in the joys of terrorizing Hogwarts’ staff.
What they don’t expect is how difficult this task will be.
They also don’t expect the result: a Hufflepuff so unassuming that they looked
over the blond kid’s hair at least twice before realizing they were overlooking
their culprit.
“Oh, that’s just the curse,” the Hufflepuff says after
introductions are completed.
“Aren’t you a Muggle-born?” George asks.
The Hufflepuff shrugs.
After a bit of conversation, George and Fred decide two
things:
The Hufflepuff is a quiet, elusive, pranking genius.
They are adopting Unassuming Hufflepuff post-haste.
Well, three things, really. Unassuming Hufflepuff is so
unassuming that they could get away with murder, if they were so inclined.
None of them realize that this new alliance means that they
will eventually save the school from Sirius Black.
anyway tear gas is actually a fucking nerve agent that can absolutely kill you and even though governments think its cool to spray it on kids the geneva convention disagrees
i’ve been thinking about this all day. speaking as a person who has been tear gassed to hell and back i wouldn’t fucking wish that sensation on my worst enemy let alone CHILDREN. it’s beyond words. don’t believe people when they tell you it’s for crowd control. it’s not. it’s to make crowds PANIC. it’s to make you fear for your life. it’s to make you feel like you’re dying. it can trigger panic attacks and asthma attacks in young people and heart attacks in the elderly. it’s fucking unconscionable is what it is and every single government who uses it should be shamed for eternity
The other option is bullets you know…? Would you rather tear gas or live ammunition like in other countries?
the other option is GRANTING THEM ASYLUM you ABSOLUTE DEMONS
The absolute bare minimum would be for us to stop trying to subvert U.S. laws that exist to protect refugees, actually accept asylum requests in a reasonably timely manner, and let them stay and find work/shelter in the U.S. while their requests for asylum are processed.
The legally mandated process for requesting asylum is to go to a port of entry, make a preliminary request, and then await a decision on one’s case IN THE UNITED STATES. These people showed up to do exactly what they were supposed to do, but Trump/the Border Protection Agency have been limiting access to the port of entry (taking only 40 to 100 requests per day), so many of these people are looking at months long wait-times camped out on the Mexican side of the border (in a literal, overcrowded camp, I mean) just to put in a request. And they may be racing against the clock, because Trump has been trying for a deal with Mexico to make asylum seekers wait on the Mexican side of the border for months or even years as their individual requests for asylum are processed.*
*for the sake of completeness of information: as of 11/27/18 the deal seems to have fallen through.
I think calling the Uchiha oppressed prior to the massacre (important!) would be an overreach. They were a clan that was involved in a simmering power struggle with some other clans in their shinobi coalition village experiment. They were given special authority (police status) that had pros and cons. The limitation of their movements had pros and cons. The whole business of the Uchiha clan district doesn’t appear to be different than many other clan compounds.
Now, the way that they were surprise attacked and wiped out down to the youngest and oldest member? That’s oppression, yeah.
As I’ve mentioned before but am too lazy to look up, this kind of “wiping out an entire clan” thing is a historical thing that really happened for logical, if brutal and merciless, reasons.
The thought pattern goes like this: revenge cycles cause massive destruction over generations, potentially forever. How to prevent revenge?
Ok, if when you kill someone, you also kill everyone that would be honour-bound to take revenge on their behalf, you’ve stopped the revenge cycle.
So that’s the historical justification for killing babies. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
It makes a certain amount of sense, in a lawful evil way. It’s totally in character for Danzo to do it.
Anyway. The clan massacre was a sudden massive and overwhelming oppression. Before that, I wouldn’t say that the Uchiha were really oppressed. They were playing the political game, they just weren’t playing it very well.
Hm, I normally totally agree with you but in this case I only partially agree with you. Especially about the “They were playing a political game, and weren’t playing it very well,” bit. Are you only including the information we were given early series, and not the Itachi Gaiden stuff?
Because I think it was made quite clear in the gaiden stuff that Danzou was actively working against the Uchiha. He had rumors spread about them after the Kyuubi attack. He was working with Orochimaru to steal their bloodline (among others, but his required stealing eyes, so he was actively targeting Uchiha and killing them for it, poor Shisui), he had their clan moved off their original land to the outskirts of the village, where Fugaku claimed it was more difficult for the police to do their jobs, and where it was presumably harder to attract customers.
The Aburame’s preferences were taken into consideration:
The Uchiha’s concerns were dismissed:
So Danzou here is not only sequestering the clan away from the main village, he’s basically dismissing the police’s purpose. Hiruzen then jumps in to try and ‘make up for it’ by letting them have some space for private training grounds…. which only further isolates them from the village. As if training grounds – which are all over the village! – make up for not being as emergency-ready.
And on that note, I don’t believe we see other clans with shops in their compounds – in fact, we explicitly see an Akimichi restaurant that’s not in the clan compound – so that seems like it’s a special Uchiha thing that leaves them very cut off from the village. Perhaps worst of all, he had their clan under constant, active surveillance, which they knew about, which means the other ninja certainly did too. (Hell, if you include the light novel stuff, which I usually don’t, Danzou actively had some Uchiha killed and replaced.)
So, the Uchiha were physically sequestered in their own area, the department they were given that was meant to honor them was declared useless (”We’ll just use ANBU patrols!”) and its ability to function was reduced and isolated from the village at large, and finally, they were actively treated as a threat to the village, and not even secretly, so that had to have affected their ability to have relationships with anyone outside the clan. Their homes, jobs, and social prospects were all distanced from the village, with active enforcement of that sequestration from the government. That sounds like active, structural oppression to me.
(Of course, all this is not even getting started on Danzou just taking and Killing Uchiha clan shinobi, how easily he flexed his power to get the Uchiha massacred even without Hiruzen’s support, and how no justice was sought for them after the fact, but several of those points fall into line with your specification of before the massacre so I suppose they’re not quite as helpful.)
Cheloneuniverse 