FanArt: The Last Airbender - Water Tribe, Finale

[sherkahn]

All is lost.

Fire Nation ships command the sky above the Northern Water Tribe capital, beyond the Waterbender's ability to bring down. A bombardment to wipe out the entire tribe is about to be underway. Azula has unleashed her full fury in a lightning strike on Zhao, and the mystic pool at the oasis is empty.

Now comes a turning of the tide.

Zhao of the Water Tribe

*Cannot stress enough that this is fandom... but epic fandom.

*big scans to come. Sorry dial-up people.















































And that is it... for now.

Ok, my apologies to everyone who has been reading along.

I think I gave the impression that there would be a big battle beyond the duel at the oasis that we saw, but this is a character story, not a major battle story. I blame myself for the way I broke it up.
Again, my apologies. The story was... IS... amazing and really feels like a living breathing continuation of that universe.

Now, onto discussion topics...

*Mind you, these are not canon, as the story above is fan-fiction, though I really hope it does become canon.

- Yes, Lao was part of the airship debacle. Notice that when he delivered the command scrolls to the War Minister, he was without his two escorts. Where are they? What happened in the time he was left alone? Only Lao knows.

- What was Zhao's plan? Get Azula to the oasis. Perform a ritual and get her to do believe that he has done everything asked of her and keep his end of the bargain. If the spirits didn't come to talk to her, then that was the will of the spirits, not his. That way she would end up with nothing and he would get all she promised. He wasn't counting on her committing genocide afterwards.

- Are Li and Lo dead? Are they haunting Azula? Seems to be. Azula must have gotten the idea about spirits taking on spirits from somewhere.

- Why DID the spirits of the Moon and Ocean bring back Zhao? They need him as a host/vessel to leave the spirit oasis, as the Ocean spirit needed to be bonded to Aang to defeat the navy. Having been attacked earlier during the Siege of the North, they recognized their vulnerability and seem to have chosen to look for a new sanctuary. What better camouflage out in the open then under the care of their former worst enemy?

- Why did the spirits take his memories? If Zhao was going to be used as a tool by the spirits, then a simple, uncomplicated puppet would be an ideal one. A puppet that was unaware he was being used, but competent enough to survive out in the world. But Zhao was outcast before he could be brought before them one more time.

A big theme that was subtly covered was the idea of serving others and of slavery. Zhao was determined to lead, to serve great powers, but has always "biting" at the "leash" he was on. If he was not aware of the leash, then he got along fine. (Commander Kwon, I am looking at you.)

Chief Arnook seemed to suspect at the beginning that Zhao was returned by the spirits for some purpose, but never would have guessed their intention to leave. But he, like the spirits, judged Zhao's character correctly. Whenever Zhaoka's aggressive nature fired up, he was directed to channel those energies for the good of the tribe. The spirits seem to be doing the same for their own needs.

All in all this was an exceptionally good read, well crafted from beginning to end. It stayed true to the rules of the AtLA universe, characters made sense and had moments of joy and pain, loss and wonder that we could all appreciate. Conflicts and resolutions were established and addressed very well. And most important there is a desire to read more, the best trait of a great story.

Compliments abound for Rufftoon on her art and story. And should she continue the story in the future, then I hope we see a progression of the natural world addressing the coming of the steampunk machines, and what spirits may have crossed over during the recent upheavals.


suggested tags

title: The Water Tribe
character: Admiral Zhao

creator: Johane Matte

Comments

[catbird]

While I do like this finale better in some ways than the actual series finale (no sudden eleventh-hour spirit turtles appeared - everything that happened in Water Tribe was prepared long before, and there were shorter, nicer fight scenes), I wish there was more resolution on the character level. Maybe because I read this as a sort of redemption tale, and Zhao's redemption seems strangely incomplete. Also, his relationships to all the Water Tribe characters (especially Arluk, Horuk and Nauja) remain so unresolved, only Arnook has an inkling of what's going on.

Also, I'm not really happy with Azula as the villain here... compared to Zhao's moral ambiguity, and Lao's strange trickster role, she comes off as terribly flat and one-dimensional with her rah-rah-vengeance behaviour. But maybe that's just Azula, she disappointed me in the series, too.

All in all: brilliant, engaging, true to the source, but terribly unresolved.

[ajremix.livejournal.com]

Rufftoon did do a continuation of sorts that can be found on her livejournal:

http://pics.livejournal.com/rufftoon/gallery/0003bhaz

It's mainly illustrated plot points with sections of dialogue rather than a fully realized comic, but it does resolve the Zhao-spirits plot line and brings back Azula for a bit.

[goodfellow-puck.livejournal.com]

Are you not going to continue posting the over 100 pgs of the third "volume" that came after this? They are a lot more rough since Matte was just trying to get all the ideas in her head down, but it's still interesting. :)

For anyone else, you can read those pages here: http://pics.livejournal.com/rufftoon/gallery/0003bhaz

or you can read them with all her extra commentary and side comedy sketches here:
http://rufftoon.livejournal.com/tag/water%20tribe
Start on the next page of posts, entitled "So Where Were We?" and go fwd in post dates from there...or back, if you want to see all the commentary/sketches from the entire thing! :)

It was really nice to re-read this work! Of course I love how on-model, on-canon everything is, but I also love her attention to expression and timing. Most of all I love that she's painfully true to the character and the limits of him and the show he comes from. Zhao doesn't have a tushed sappy happy ending with Nauja, as much as we'd like it. He's still the character he was in the show. It's fantastic! I hope Matte gets to work on the new Avatar series and gets inspired all over again. :)

[neuhallidae]

Oh maaaaan, I hadn't known there was another "chapter". I wuvs it, incompleteness and all.

[espanolbot]

Yikes, pedophile slave owners weren't something I'd expect to see in an Avatar related thing.

Nice to see the Guru actually do something though. :)

[ametti]

Awesome. This story arc was spot-on, even for fanfiction. I'm glad you posted them, I had a good time reading it.

[lonewolf23k]

I don't think Li and Lo are dead, but rather that their memory is haunting Azula, much the same way Ursa's memory was by the end of her stint as Firelord. Azula may be a bit more under control, but she's still slightly unhinged.

[long_silence]

Those were actually Li and Lo's spirits? I thought that Azula had just gone crazier and thought she was seeing them, like when she thought she saw Ursula.

[zechs80]

I'm a little surprised Yue didn't haunt Zhao anywhere in this. Still a damn good story.

[the_engineer]

Completely epic. A fantastic read.

[pepperspray101]

Waaagh, its over. I loved this! So sad for Zhao, but yup, he got too greedy. And YES! Thank you folks for sharing the links that show what follows. *runs off to read them*

[deliandra]

Oh, Lao. How I love you and your obsession with pottery.