ideas I didn’t end up writing but really wanted to:

(1) The revolution is successful, and Hiroshi and Amon move Asami and Tarrlok to a gilded cage luxurious private rooms. Tarrlok and Asami are initially hostile but are driven to band together against their infinitely more objectionable relations and split ends; Hiroshi is as shitty a father as might be expected, which unsurprisingly alienates Noatak, who despite his many failings as a brother retains intense if twisted affection and absolutely zero inclination towards resolving Tarrlok’s recalcitrance with fratricide.

(2) Korra stays on the task force, is torn between “accomplishing things and beating people up” and “personal loyalty and ethics” as personified in Tarrlok and Tenzin. 

(3) Unalaq and his family die when Korra is very young, before she’s revealed as the Avatar. Tonraq becomes Chief of the Northern Water Tribe and Korra, princess and his heir.

(4) Koirë is a very young Elf of the House of Finwë, largely unaware of the rising tensions between the Númenóreans and the Elves. She sneaks off Tol Eressëa and sails to Númenor to find her fortune with her distant cousins, the Elf-friendly lords of Andúnië. Amandil accepts her into his household against his own better judgment (passing her off, in the dangerous atmosphere of the time, as an orphaned cousin), and before long, she’s up to her ears in the Byzantine politics of Tar-Míriel’s Númenor.

(5) more of the burning, where Tarrlok doesn’t bloodbend Korra, she burns him, and immediately horrified, runs to tell Tenzin what she’s done. As Tarrlok recovers, there’s an uneasy detente between Tarrlok/Saikhan and Korra/Tenzin in the interests of fighting Equalists, the Equalists are using the attack to rally support (if he’s not safe WHO IS), and Amon himself is barely containing his rage.

(6) Korra is one of the bloodbending kids - the oldest, at twenty minutes Noatak’s senior. For whatever reason, she doesn’t manifest her other elements until the usual age, and is simply a waterbending prodigy like her twin, pulled out of healing lessons to be trained as a bloodbender with him. Her power and will easily make her the second-favourite. THIS CAN ONLY END WELL.

(414):honestly if we didnt hate the same people we would have a friendship based on nothing

ikkinthekitsune:

- Yeah, I could see Noatak taking the brunt of Yakone’s physical aggression, if only because he’d have almost certainly did his best to shelter Tarrlok from Yakone and draw out his rage in the process. =( You can’t really blame him for self-preservation given the circumstances.

Yeah. And Noatak is just more assertive and confrontational, even as a child, so even unintentionally … :\

- That’s pretty much in line with my own feelings about Noatak’s hypocrisy. Not to mention, I’d much rather think that Noatak was messing with Korra than that she couldn’t keep control over her powers.

Definitely.

- I can certainly see what you mean now, about Noatak not really having the opportunity to abuse Tarrlok given the way things turned out.

- That would certainly make for an interesting fic!

Thanks! It’s one of my earliest plotbunnies (I posted it at ficbending, even), though nobody ever took me up on it :\

As much as Hiroshi is the worse person though, I suspect Asami would suffer less personal damage from the lecture - she’s pretty solid in her convictions that Hiroshi is delusional and not worth listening to, but Tarrlok is far more tractable in that regard.

Yeah. I mean, I imagine it would be very painful for her - more, in some ways, because Hiroshi’s affection seems much more transient, for all of Noatak’s fucked-up-ness. But she’s more likely to hold her ground, and Hiroshi is less likely to pull any kind of mind games on her (intentionally or not).

(IIRC, it was mostly about how it was originally Team Amon and Hiroshi with Tarrlok and Asami as prisoners who realllly don’t like each other, and over time Hiroshi being such a ridiculously terrible father quietly alienates Noatak while Tarrlok and Asami gradually band together in a 100% non-shippy way.)

ikkinthekitsune:

anghraine:

It’s here: http://fail-fandomanon.livejournal.com/49366.html?thread=227581910#t227581910

I would definitely have thrown in a few more X Neutrals in there :)

…yeah, why aren’t there any X-Neutrals?  o_0  That’s a really weird way of going about it.  xD;

Korra characters don’t really fit very well into D&D alignments, anyway.  Korra’s definitely aligned with good but has little interest in many of the moral requirements, for one thing.  Mako is disciplined, but not particularly lawful (though he might become more lawful in Book 2 due to being a cop).  Lin is a stickler for the law until it conflicts with her desire to protect the city, and then goes vigilante; she’s not neutral so much as she’s all-in one way or the other depending.  Tarrlok being Lawful is just kind of odd — he acts within the system but doesn’t seem all that interested in law for its own ends — and he’s somewhere between Neutral and Evil on the other end but doesn’t really work all that well in either category.  I don’t even know what to do with Amon… Neutral Evil, maybe…?  He certainly doesn’t seem lawful.

Well, I think the original alignment system was intended to account for that kind of ambiguity rather than being completely absolute - it’s totally possible to have, say, a Chaotic Evil character in a D&D game who is aligned with (i.e. associated with, on the team of) the “good” side, or a Lawful Good character who’s torn between the demands of whatever system they adhere to and their conscience, or someone who switches alignments over time, etc etc. It’s kind of a spectrum anyway. I’ve always liked it better than, say, Hogwarts Sorting or whatnot because it’s more, idk, negotiable.

Personally, I’d probably go:

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Equalist Rhapsody, by NinjaRaisin

It’s not quite what I was whining about earlier, but it is a really enjoyable tribute to, pretty much, all of LOK, set to Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. Sharing for maximum fandom enjoyment!

ikkinthekitsune:

anghraine:

avatarparallels:

Avenge - inflict harm in return for (an injury or wrong done to oneself or another)

I guess I have to give credit where it’s due. Yakone psychologically, emotionally, and very probably physically abused his sons to the point that they were defined by things he did to them before the ages of fourteen and eleven and his elder son cooperated with his younger son’s murder of them both to finally rid themselves and the world of his influence, but he never actually tried to kill them. So it’s Hiroshi who wins the Fire Lord Ozai seal of approval here.

#terrible fathers #somebody maybe we’ll get a terrible mother #and NO ursa does not count

I think it’s more of a draw, really.  I mean, Hiroshi attempting to murder Asami outright counts for a lot, but he seems to have been a man who was capable of love but allowed his grief to mutate into barely-controllable rage while Yakone seemed to have been more of a pathological narcissist who cared about no one besides himself right from the get-go.  If Yakone thought murdering one of his kids would have done him any good, he would have done it in a second.

As for terrible mothers, Yon Rha (the guy who killed Katara’s mother) had a pretty awful mother who served as some sort of mix between Freudian Excuse and Karmic Retribution, and Mai’s mother certainly didn’t do her any favors judging by her speech in The Beach.  They’re certainly nowhere near as common in the Avatarverse as terrible fathers, though.

Oh, probably. I think Hiroshi brought up Asami very well, and his mental breakdown is at least understandable; Yakone was just a total douche on every conceivable level who warped his very young sons for the rest of their lives. But, say, Tarrlok’s betrayal - though it would have undoubtedly led to violence without Noatak’s intervention - leads to the dissolution of all his plans, but he turns apathetic rather than immediately homicidal. (Though tbh, Hiroshi doesn’t really make much sense to me.)

Eh, there are mothers who aren’t good, of course, but I wouldn’t judge either of those as remotely comparable to Ozai, Hiroshi, and Yakone in either significance or terribleness - honestly, they’re so extremely minor characters that we have hardly any idea what they’re even like.

avatarparallels:

Avenge - inflict harm in return for (an injury or wrong done to oneself or another)

I guess I have to give credit where it’s due. Yakone psychologically, emotionally, and very probably physically abused his sons to the point that they were defined by things he did to them before the ages of fourteen and eleven and his elder son cooperated with his younger son’s murder of them both to finally rid themselves and the world of his influence, but he never actually tried to kill them. So it’s Hiroshi who wins the Fire Lord Ozai seal of approval here.

There was a f_fa thread about how you’d fix your canon, and my answer for LOK ended up (1) really long, and (2) not LOK at all, just an AU fanfic idea I like. So I’m putting it here instead.

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lantur:

Summary: AU. A fight between the revolutionary forces and Team Avatar and their supporters goes horribly wrong when Asami is badly injured. To make matters worse, she’s kidnapped and dragged away from her friends, back to an Equalist hideout… 

Rating: T

Pairing: This one features Amon and Asami, but is mostly Asami-centric, I think. 

-

Asami is fast, dodging two punches from electric gloves so much like her own, and pushing Mako out of the way of two chi-blockers that had been creeping up behind him, in his blind spot. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees a silvery gleam of metal shooting toward her, and she twists away— 

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Oh, I love it. Particularly that she bides her time rather than flying into a rage, which seems very Asami, and the Equalists are all fairly human, and Amon connects Hiroshi-Asami to him and Tarrlok (it’s really hard not to see that connection when it’s like, capturing his daughter and keeping her locked up in a cell will clearly solve their family problems, says the man who captured his little brother and is keeping him in a cell).

patronsaintoffirebenders:

Hiroshi: Young man, it is nothing to be ashamed of. I too came from humble beginnings. Why, when I was your age, I was a mere shoe-shiner, and all I had to my name was an idea — the Satomobile. Now, I was fortunate enough to meet someone who believed in me and my work ethic. He gave the money I need to get my idea off the ground, and I built the entire Future Industries empire from that one, selfless loan. […] Now, I’d hate to see you lose your chance at winning the championship just because you’re short a few yuans. That’s why I’m going to sponsor the Fire Ferrets in the tournament! […]

Mako: Thank you both so much. I promise the Fire Ferrets will make the most of this opportunity.  

my god the hate i bear for hiroshi sato

asami stans with their hearts in the right place must bear an equivalent hatred for hiroshi sato, but i chiefly hate him as a mako stan; let me explain

here hiroshi is espousing an extremely american attitude - the bootstraps story, the horatio alger myth that any poor young man who only tries hard enough and dreams big enough and works hard enough can make it big - and it’s such a beautiful and compelling story, isn’t it? this robust, turn-of-the-century optimism, blind to systems of oppression and privilege, and hiroshi paints this picture so big and bright

and mako buys it hook line and sinker - how not? (even though it implies that if you do not make it, it is your fault for not working hard enough - no one is thinking on this level yet)

here is the proof of hiroshi’s story all around him, this bright and industrious factory, hiroshi’s beautiful well-mannered daughter - mako has changed out of asami’s charitable kuang suit and is back in his shabby clothes, but hiroshi is kind enough to drag his poverty out into the open, bluntly, so that it is no shameful and unspoken secret, and then render it immaterial by simply saying, i believe in you - i believe in your work ethic - i believe you can make it - I BELIEVE YOU ARE LIKE ME - I BELIEVE YOU CAN ACHIEVE MY LEVEL OF SUCCESS

please think: how long has it been since mako had someone believe in him like that? someone who wasn’t a gang member, wasn’t a triad…  how long since someone took a personal interest in him, someone who wasn’t a criminal, someone he had no reason to suspect of ulterior motives? mako, who seems such a tough cookie to crack, mako and his fortress of surliness that intimidates most strangers from even trying - mako, uncharacteristically, has his defenses blown wide open by the unexpected stroke of good fortune that is getting to meet hiroshi fuckin’ sato. mako is as vulnerable as a baby chick ready to imprint, thrust out of any setting that is comfortable and familiar, nervous and excited, and hiroshi sets him at his ease, believes in him, and provides the tangible sort of proof that mako needs - in korra’s case it was results in the ring; in hiroshi’s case it’s yuans, a pile of cold hard yuans that opens a whole hallway full of doors in mako’s imagination - now it really is just up to him and his talent! 

please remember that mako lost his father at age eight, a father he loved so much that he wears his father’s scarf day in and day out in memoriam - and here is a gray-haired older gentleman with fire nation eyes, smiling and kind, who says mako, i believe in you, let me show you how much i believe in you, and puts a cash value to it without mako ever asking, without mako ever even dreaming to ask

and mako could never have expected this, could never have hoped for this, the way a gold-digger might have angled, the way a gold-digger might have planned - he had no idea asami was the sato girl, he had no expectation she would invite him to meet her father, there was no POSSIBLE WAY he could have foreseen that mind-boggling level of noblesse oblige - not in mako’s wildest DREAMS, because mako is practical, mako is sensible, mako makes do with what he’s got, mako doesn’t rely on miracles falling from the sky - he leaves relying on miracles to bolin, because he’s the one who really has to make things actually work, and in this case he was ready to let the championship dream ultimately go, because “it’s just not in the cards this year” 

but then there is hiroshi sato

who lies to a fatherless street orphan to his face

who manipulates a teenage boy into feeling like he’s worth a damn, like he has a mentor who really cares, who sees himself in him, who will look out for him

god, the hope in mako’s voice, the disbelief and the hope and the sturdiness with which he humbly swears that his team will make the most of it because none of it is a joke to him and he takes his life seriously and he will not make hiroshi’s investment a waste

fuck you a lot, hiroshi sato