Ok but Zuko using the knowledge he acquired during his banishment to help him as the Fire Lord. Like making small talk with Earth Kingdom dignitaries about their local foods that he enjoyed and even misses. Like having in-depth conversations with his captains about sea currents and navigation. Like, in the middle of a meeting with several high-ranking naval officials, pointing out flails in security, like how a person can cling to a Fire Nation ship for hours at a time, or climb aboard using hatches on the upper decks, or disguise themselves as a lower ranking guard with easily accessible spare armour….
Though none of his experiences can prepare Zuko for the long, awkward silence that comes after he admits to doing or at least knowing something illegal and/or completely buck wild
fire lord zuko: you should maybe revisit the security measures around the water ducts that the sealturtles use
northern water tribe leader: that’s not necessary, no one can survive submerged in the artic ocean for so many minutes
zuko:
zuko: remember that time the fire nation attacked you
Zuko: okay first you have to promise not to get mad
Earth King: Tell me about your first visit to Ba Sing Se.
Zuko:
Okay, but before all this:
Advisors: Princess Azula did perform the astounding feat of infiltrating Ba Sing Se…
Zuko: Huh? Oh, that’s not hard. It’s pretty nice, if you don’t mind the brainwashing, but you can’t get a spicy octopus for love or money. We ate so much jook. *shudders*
Advisors:… you got in too…. interesting.
*
Advisors: The mysterious Water Tribe city at the North Pole
Zuko: It’s a pretty place, if you like ice. Lots of sealturtles. They have a really nice little sort of sacred grove thing there, too, I kidnapped the Avatar from it once.
Advisors: …. we have some questions….
*
Advisors: We still have not found the Fire Lord’s secret supplier of new weapons -
Zuko: He’s at the Northern Air Temple. (Realizing they’re all staring at him) Oh, no, I haven’t met him personally, but I have friends who have. He sounds like a very interesting guy.
Advisors: SO MANY QUESTIONS
*
Zuko: (while directing post-war reparation efforts) Oh, and we need to send a lot of people to work on replanting the forest around this obscure village.
Advisors:…. may we ask why?
Zuko: Apparently the local panda spirit is pretty mad about having its forest burned down.
Advisors, now afraid to ask: ….Yes, Fire Lord.
*
Every now and then, the curiosity gets too much and they’ll bring up something like ‘legendary sand benders’ or ‘Southern Islands’ and Zuko invariably produces some tidbit of local knowledge (either his own or gleaned from the Gaang’s stories) and six Foreign Ministers have resigned in fear and the seventh one only barely held it together when Zuko greeted an envoy from a tiny, insignificant Earth Kingdom island with ‘Listen, I am really sorry about what happened last time, I hope the supplies I sent helped with the rebuilding, do you still have that giant eel thing?” IS THERE ANYTHING HE DOESN’T KNOW.
Advisor: Before we start the meeting, I’d like to address the anniversary of Captain Zhao’s mysterious disappearance…
Zuko: At least he died doing what he loved?
Advisor: What do you mean, died?
Advisor: so we’re still unaware of where the air temple is located-
Zuko pointing at the map: it’s really not that hard to find, I’ve been there three times and lived there for a bit. Its near the su- oh right I can’t talk about it
The Advisor, realizing the Fire Lord is talking about some vastly unknown areas that were deemed unsafe for people and an upside down gravity defying temple airbenders should only be able to access: sir??????
@thatlostsock What do you think will happen when they find out about Boiling Rock? Or the Blue Spirit?
@life-is-fandoms For the boiling rock I feel like Zuko would ty to tell them but as soon as he gets into detail the advisors look so horrified lmao and for the Blue Spirit he would deny it or something so he can keep doing his thing without the advisors onto him (they still are)
*
Advisor: we heard that last year four prisoners broke out of The Boiling Rock, it was horrible and criminal, what do you think of it?
Zuko:
Zuko: alright lets take a moment to imagine I’m not the Firelord and I’m recognized as a criminal to the fire nation-
*
Advisor: a criminal called “The Blue Spirit” has resurfaced what should we do?
Zuko: hm, are you sure they’re not just a freedom fighter or Kyoshi warrior-
Advisor: no I’m fairly certain that The Blue Spirit is of water tribe origin and not of the earth kingdom.
Zuko: Oh, interesting. And what do you propose we should do to stop them?
Suki & Sokka:
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