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beboots
Quote from a book review from His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik.
Okay guys, I have never read a series so fast before (including when I was big into Harry Potter). No joke. Those of you who see me in person will have already heard me rant about the awesomeness of the Temeraire series, but for those of you who haven't seen me in the past week or so, here it is!
Essentially, it is the Napoleonic wars, but with dragons. I know, I know - you're all like "wait, what?!", but hear me out! It is pure awesome, making the history major and the fantasy author in me squee. There were a few times in which I actually had to put these books down (especially the last one, Victory of Eagles) and run around the room in excitement. I am not exaggerating.
The series is set in an alternate universe in which dragons have been around for ages, and the aerial corps are a part of every military power. They're like ships, but living, breathing, flying and speaking creatures. The author has put a lot of thought into the historical consequences of such - speaking of different breeding programmes between European nations, and even places such as China (where it is more established). There are references to the Incan Empire - which was never conquered because they have dragons.
The main character is a naval captain called William Laurence, who embodies all that I love about the regency era, the age of sail, and Jane Austen. He is very well-mannered, of minor nobility, I believe, and just... awesome. At the beginning of the book, he has captured a French ship, and there is a dragon egg aboard. Being way out to sea, it hatches before they get to land, and the young dragonet Temeraire imprints on Laurence, much to his inward horror but outward nonchalance.
So, upon reaching shore, Laurence is (eventually) transferred to the aerial corps, a much less respectable profession than being in the navy. Laurence sees that the aviators are coarse, rude (they actually introduce themselves! D: ), and, horror of horrors, wear unironed, wrinkled clothing.! Laurence still contains all of the prejudices of his era - he is immensely surprised and shocked when he learns of female aviators, for one, and can't actually look Captain Catherine Harcourt anywhere but the face because her outfit (a typical captain's uniform, including pants) is so scandalous. ;)
But, all of that aside, one of the most awesome things about this series is his relationship with his dragon, Temeraire. Reluctant at first, but Laurence eventually comes to see Temeraire as not an animal, but an incredibly intelligent being in his own right... and over the course of several books starts to question the general public (and the admiralty's) treatment of dragons (which is actually worse than horses, in some cases, despite their intelligence).
I direct you all now to my folder of favourite Temeraire fanart on deviantart: http://beboots.deviantart.com/favourites/#Temeraire Beware, for they contain spoilers! But seriously, this series is absolutely awesome. I read the first one (it's entire 356 pages) over the course of two days while skiing in Jasper (and I spent 8 hours a day skiing, to boot). The second one (equally as long), I read over a day and a half. The third, in just under two days. The fourth I took three days to read, but only because it was the first week of school. And I read the most recent (and epic) book in a day and a half.
Now, at least, I can concentrate on actual schoolwork, and get stuff other than reading done. Not that I'm complaining.
Far from it. :)
(a post on my first week of school and/or Christmas vacation may follow if I remember to write one)
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Date: 2010-12-18 05:15 am (UTC)I... may have to get that series, now. :3 Thanks for the rec! Also, "Anti-Gandalf" is now my new favourite descriptor for a certain character type. XD
Being an author has always been a plan on the side for me. "Real life" first, but I will always be writing on the side, and hopefully I will eventually write something so awesome I will send it to a publisher... but becoming a world famouse author and living off of the royalties will never be a realistic main plan for me. ;) I'll keep practicing, though.
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Date: 2010-12-18 02:46 pm (UTC)"Anti-Gandalf" does actually have his reasons for what he's been doing. He lost his wife three thousand years before the series started, and then he lost the daughter that everybody liked better. He's left with the girl that spent a good chunk of her formative years adamantly despising him.
I don't agree with all of the author's ideas about men/women, but he's light years past most of the fantasy wrote around the 70s/80s (I think the books are from the early 80s). The first series is mostly men, but in time just about everybody has a crowning moment of awesome (to steal from tvtropes, which is a dangerous, dangerous place to be).
Medical school was actually more realistic than "I'm going to write books for money." I test well, I remember details, and so far it seems like I have the right kind of brain for this. Don't quote me on that in two years, and definitely don't quote me on it in four-- that's when we start going into hospitals and then stop needing direct supervision.
Writing is a great hobby for de-stressing, even if there are times when it stresses me out like nothing else. Sometimes, once in a while, everything is perfect and the world's all pretty. Completely worth it.
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Date: 2010-12-18 05:48 pm (UTC)My mother has always supported me in any job career I wish to go after, except, she says, if I want to do a job that involves night shift. Then I'm on my own. ;)
I totally agree about writing - when the words just flow from your fingers it's the most amazing feeling.
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Date: 2010-12-18 10:13 pm (UTC)Azula got "genre-savvy," which fits her very well. Some people might think it's a bad thing to have in mind, especially since I think Aang is a sweetheart, but I was thrilled that she shot him. Not because I wanted her to win, but because a hero had an epic long involved transformation sequence with music //and the villain took advantage.// I needed that to happen at least once.
When the words won't come at all for a scene that you've been trying for three weeks... that's the withdrawal end of writing. Any addictive substance/habit has some kind of downside.
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Date: 2010-12-18 10:33 pm (UTC)"...because a hero had an epic long involved transformation sequence with music //and the villain took advantage.//" Oh man, I've never thought about it that way! ... THAT IS SO TRUE.
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Date: 2010-12-18 11:22 pm (UTC)It probably makes me a bad person, but I have wanted this to happen for forever. I saw Power Rangers and went "okay, but why?" My friends showed me Sailor Moon, it happens in Iron Man and Transformers-- if there is a long, elaborate, and lovingly animated transformation scene, I want the bad guy to pull a Indiana Jones and shoot. (Shooting in the back was actually a very efficient touch.)
Plus, it leads into one of my favorite parts with Azula, ever. She has very, very little benefit in bringing Zuko home with her as a prince. She could have blamed him for not being able to recover the Avatar's body, nobody would have fussed except Iroh-- she brought him home, let him take the credit, and even pushed Mai at him so that he'd stay put. That's why she became one of my favorite characters, that transition-- she is a ruthless fighter, but she's probably just as damaged when it comes to "how to be friends." People like to point out that Zuko's dork-ness comes from a few years of being Ozai's unwanted kid, but then there's the scene in canon where Iroh says that Azula is crazy and needs to go down. Admittedly, this is after she shot him in the shoulder, but...
/end rant. I've had Azula on the mind today, mostly for the Firefly cross a few people actually want to see again.
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Date: 2010-12-19 04:03 pm (UTC)"but then there's the scene in canon where Iroh says that Azula is crazy and needs to go down." XD I love that scene!
I think Azula definitely has her moments, and she is incredibly badass. I think the one thing that bothers me about her is that she acts like she's ten years older than she actually is. I understand that you have to appeal to a kid's audience, and almost EVERYONE in the series acts older than they actually are, and that she's a prodigy and also has probably been drinking her father's koolaid a little, but still! We get a bit of a different side of her in the Beach episode where we see that with her own age group she's just as socially awkward as her brother if not worse, but still! ;)
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Date: 2010-12-19 04:18 pm (UTC)The part that bothered me about the scene with Iroh wasn't the line (which was funny, especially in contrast to what Zuko said), but the implications. It didn't bother me until the beach episode when I started putting a few things together. Azula is convinced that her mother thought she was a monster, and she's not going to be getting any encouragement from her uncle. She probably does fit the definitions of a psychopath/sociopath (I'd need to check the DSM to know which), but if you see that in children, you can help them.
She had Ozai feeding her Kool-Aid while her uncle sends her the classic "oh you're a girl you like babies" present. Zuko was the favorite child with Ursa and Iroh, and that leaves Ozai for her. I've done a lot of work with kids, I've read child psych listings of when you can expect children to understand X and Y, and it all points to a few things-- if you want Azula to be better, you need to give her models of the right behavior and you need to keep working to get rid of the bullying tendencies. Ursa had no idea what to do for the child, and I'll give Iroh credit by assuming that he had no idea what to do with a little girl.
I've seen many, many writers go into detail about how Zuko's childhood made him snappish and bad-tempered and a complete and utter dork. Most people don't extend the same argument to his sister. She had three years with not much buffer around. She has to go pick up Mai and Ty Lee, Zuko and Iroh weren't there, and it was all Ozai all the time.
She's still not joining the side of puppies and rainbows without some serious bribery at the proper juncture, and even then she'd have been playing them, but it makes her easier for me to write.
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Date: 2010-12-19 05:05 pm (UTC)Oh yeah, you're totally right about that present thing, too! I've never really thought about Azula's relationship with good ole Uncle Iroh, but now it occurs to me that there's definitely some mutual disrespect going on...
Also, a while back I ran across THIS, which I think you would find interesting... It's a list of fic ideas from prompts, and one of them is "what if Zuko was Ozai's favourite, and Azula was exiled instead of him?" and has interesting implications for Azula:
http://sodomquake.livejournal.com/160106.html?thread=849002#t849002
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Date: 2010-12-19 06:32 pm (UTC)I think I really started paying attention to Azula when I saw the doll. It pissed me off like nothing else when I was a kid. I was a tomboy. I was in charge of picking up food every morning for the pre-school class toad. My dad still remembers the morning he was in charge of helping with that. I flipped over a rock, very matter-of-factly said "that looks slimy," and dropped the slug into my little empty margarine tub. People still gave me dolls and pink things and all the other nice/useless things that sat in my closet and were never touched. To me, it always meant that people hadn't paid attention at all. My grandmother was awesome and got me hand-picked books for every Christmas, but a few aunts lumped me in with the rest of the girly cousins and that was it. I ended up playing Nancy Drew and creating giant epic storylines with the massive Barbie collection.
So it's probably not a gigantic deal, as things go. Iroh sent her a doll (when he sent her older brother a cool knife with an awesome story and some history). After that, Iroh is there to help Zuko out and get him some opportunities, all while he continuously thinks that Azula's a monster. I've worked with kids that needed reminders to touch animals gently, and that needed extra coaxing to play nice. Give a little positive attention and nearly any child will come around inside a week. Ignore them, only pay attention when they misbehave...
There's a quote in The Secret Garden that always reminded me of Zuko and Azula. I don't have it exactly, but the gist of it is "I don't know what's worse for a child, to always get their way or to never have it." Azula had everything she could possibly want except love (because Ozai doesn't do affection and Ursa and Iroh seemed to keep their distance), Zuko got everything messed up except for his relationships with people that cared about him.
As I might have said, it's more personal because I work with these kids. I've never met a child that was completely beyond help, but if you let them grow into being a teenager that thinks she's a monster... Azula's too damn smart to not know that she's unusual, and I might write a post-canon with her to get into that a little. Kids don't usually throw rocks at animals out of a fully mean-spirited apathy. They're mad and want to hurt something else to feel better. Azula throwing rocks at turtle-ducks probably happened because she was upset with Ursa, so she throws rocks to get attention, but the attention doesn't feel good, and it's all a bad, bad cycle.
And OH MY GOSH FAVORITE-ZUKO.
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Date: 2010-12-19 07:08 pm (UTC)"To me, it always meant that people hadn't paid attention at all." Trufax. For me, I was always irritated by the friends/relatives who lumped me and my twin sister together, like we were one person/unit. I lived in a communist state - TWIN COMMUNISM! Like, gifts were always FOR SHARING (which never really works with young children, I'm not going to lie). If we each got a gift, they were always matching: the same thing, just different colours or what have you. :P Luckily enough, we had FAIRLY similar tastes, but it still irritated us both that we were always given the same things, while our little brother got unique stuff, not just the same things as us but in blue.
"Iroh sent her a doll (when he sent her older brother a cool knife with an awesome story and some history)." This is quite true. I do have to wonder, though, about the age thing here. Azula, while smart, is still quite young, and I get the impression that Iroh has been away for several years (wasn't the siege of Ba Sing Se like 600 days long?). Zuko clearly remembers him well, but he is an older child, and probably spent much time with his uncle (at least, enough to be quite affectionate about him). Perhaps it's a case of "I haven't seen my niece in three years and crap what should I get her? Oh, I know, girls her age like DOLLS, right?" Iroh also has a son, not a daughter, and his wife looks like she's out of the picture, and he never had a sister himself, so perhaps he just hasn't had any experience with young girls? And when he left Azula was much younger and wasn't evidently that scary-smart? That doesn't change/excuse the fact that he doesn't know anything about his niece, but...
Ooh, I read the Secret Garden ages ago when I was a child. That quote seems to fit in quite nicely in the themes of the story, from what I recall, though.
I would seriously LOVE to read a story (written by you! :D ) that addresses Azula's issues in an informed way. Far too often I think she's just written off as spoiled evil genius child, when there are layers more to that one-dimensional portrayal.
Also, YES I really wish someone had written that fic out entirely. >_>
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Date: 2010-12-19 08:22 pm (UTC)I do think that Iroh hadn't met Azula yet, and I've also given him the benefit of the doubt and thought he might not know what to do with girl-children. He had one child, a boy, and might have thought girls were odd. He was besieging Ba Sing Se for 600 days, that's nothing for the setup and the trip home, so it could have been something else. There isn't enough interaction between them to really know what's going on, but Ursa could have mentioned a better present. Send the girl a scroll about bending or some military history, she would have liked that better.
I just might have a story where the main point is finding Zuzu's mother, but Sokka has an epiphany. Zuko's been trying to make Ozai talk, and that's not going to work. So Sokka takes it upon himself to go ask Azula if she knows. He lucks out and takes the right tack. He doesn't act like she's insane, he doesn't pity her, he doesn't treat her like an idiot. He's willing to help her out in exchange, if he knows what she wants, and just wants information about her mom.
I have no idea where it goes from there. She is a spoiled evil genius child, but she was just as socially awkward as Zuzu in her own hyper-aggressive ways. Sokka is magical, and wouldn't hold much of a grudge against her. She didn't actually torture Suki, and Katara kicked Azula's butt after the Agni Kai thing, and he probably has no idea why Katara was anywhere in the area when people were throwing fire around in an emotionally-charged battle.
My friend's (slowly) writing a story that's going to be kickass. Five or so years after canon ends, Azula breaks out of the insane asylum. Sokka's moving around on his own for the White Lotus, so he's not tied down anywhere when Zuko asks him for a favor. Azula's missing, he doesn't want an international incident, and Sokka's done weirder things before. It turns out that Azula ran away after a few people made a good attempt at killing her, and by the time Sokka knows what's going on, he's found the roots of a conspiracy that eventually wants Ozai on the throne. Zany adventures ensue, and because my friend is hopeless, he cannot write any story without turning it into a romance. Luckily he's set it up the right way, so who knows. I think it's going to work.
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Date: 2010-12-19 08:37 pm (UTC)I agree, it doesn't excuse Iroh (does he not ask about Ursa's other child at all in letters back home, just Zuko?), but it does help explain a few things.
There aren't nearly enough good stories out there about the quest to find out what happened to Ursa. I think that that was one of the biggest dangling unresolved plot threads of the series. Dead/not dead? Banished? A general on the front, what?
Also that sounds super neat! If you need anyone to bounce ideas off of, you know where to find me... :3
I would imagine that Azula will still be very good at getting at all of Sokka's psychological weak spots. One of Sokka's tasks will be to help her learn that she doesn't have to be continually trying to manipulate people, and that she can have friends that don't stay with her because of fear.
Ooh... and that other story sounds neat-o too! Send me a link whenever it gets posted? "Azula's missing, he doesn't want an international incident, and Sokka's done weirder things before." XD Excellent justifications!
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Date: 2010-12-19 08:56 pm (UTC)I also don't give Iroh many points for how he tried to turn Zuko around. If you want him to change, then help him out or let him do it naturally. His approach was absolutely no good with Zuzu.
The main point of my little thing with Sokka and Azula is probably getting Azula to ask for something at all. She's going to end up playing crazy within a couple years. She can get better with help, but Azula has more of an advantage if the world thinks that she is insane. She doesn't trust her friends, thinks her mother hates her, her dad turned on her, her brother spat on the second chance she handed him on a silver platter... she's a lonely, angry girl whose friends are both too busy to stay with her. Sokka is the first interesting thing to happen in ages.
Azula manipulated Sokka very, very well in Black Sun. She'll do fine.
I like to imagine that Ursa was White Lotus, but I have no idea why she didn't reappear. I also would have expected her to have Words with Ozai after Zuko's banishment.(That could explain why Ozai took Zuko back in, even—Ursa might have made him promise to behave himself in the future, she's killed a Fire Lord before.)
My friend's story is going to be fun, I think, especially because Sokka's brilliant ideas eventually involve sneaking Azula out of Ba Sing Se (they were visiting Toph) while both of them are dressed as Kyoshi Warriors. I'm pretty excited about that.
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Date: 2010-12-19 09:51 pm (UTC)"His approach was absolutely no good with Zuzu." WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT PITHY METAPHORICAL PROVERBS ALWAYS WORK PERFECTLY WITH ANGRY TEENAGERS
"Azula has more of an advantage if the world thinks that she is insane." Trufax. Underestimate her at your peril. ;)
I've read several good (and sadly short) fics that speculate on what happened to Ursa. I personally think that she must be alive but banished, because, references to genocide aside, this is still a TV show aimed at young people, and so I don't think that the creators would have Ozai killing off his wife.
This is a interesting take on how Ursa's exile would end:
http://community.livejournal.com/white_knuckle/39451.html?thread=279579#t279579
...and it's one sentence sequel:
http://community.livejournal.com/white_knuckle/58368.html?thread=1357568#t1357568
This one was my favourite speculative drabble:
http://community.livejournal.com/white_knuckle/46670.html?thread=660046#t660046
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Date: 2010-12-19 11:58 pm (UTC)I have no idea what Iroh was thinking, seriously. Tea and Pai Sho-- he might as well whip out the brightly-colored grandparent candy and see how much good that would have done. (I guess "not much.")
Sane-Azula-playing-crazy was half the reason I wanted to write the story where Sokka's doing Zuko a favor and trying to find Ursa (and time for a breath).
The "have we met?" at the end of the other-Ursa was terrible. "Secluded house arrest" is really the only alternative to "dead" that makes sense, though, because I don't imagine that Ursa would have let Zuko's banishment pass without comment.
Losing posts to the whims of the internet is really, really annoying. Whenever I do, I get very careful for days after, and then I forget and after a while I lose a long post that took ages to write.
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Date: 2010-12-20 12:10 am (UTC)I wanted to make a reference to Hamlet here, but my brain isn't working at the moment. Too much art history studying for me. >_>
A lot of the typing commands are second nature to me, you see. I use "Tab" and "ctrl + something" all the time. I was going for "ctrl + t" for new tab and I clicked "ctrl + r" (refresh) instead. So it's mostly my fault. BUT STILL-! :P
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Date: 2010-12-20 12:21 am (UTC)After he's starting to get it, throw him into hypothetical situations, make it clear that temper can cost you in a battle... forget about Ozai, forget trying to replace Ozai. Zuko doesn't know what fathers do, and maybe it doesn't matter. Be the mentor that he needs, and in time Zuko is going to look around and realize that he can be happier on his little exile-ship sailing around getting nothing done than he ever was in Fire Nation. Start looking for Ursa instead if Zuko's interested.
None of this is guaranteed to work, but "angry young man" is pretty easy. "Angry young man with good reason from a nasty background"-- just look how Zuko reacts to people being kind, and go from there.
/end ranting. Iroh couldn't decide if Zuko should be treated like a man or a child, and that's the problem with teenagers. They need both. I think he could have had an easier time of it if he'd paid more attention.
I've done control-R before. I've also done things where enough time passed that the website won't send the post in, and refreshes itself for you.
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Date: 2010-12-20 01:03 am (UTC)Oh yes, websites that refresh themselves after a period of inactivity annoy me so much. >:(