I love fantasizing about what would've happened if Jet had won that fight.
No wait, this is actually a FASCINATING hypothetical to contemplate, even if you put aside the shipper lens. because, when you watch the scene, neither of them decisively won or lost that fight. Both of them lose one sword each, and end up in That Spinshot™ before the Dai Li arrive and say:
"Drop your weapons!"
And Jet disengages from the fight and says:
"Arrest them. They're firebenders!"
Interesting. Throughout this entire sequence, Jet repeatedly addresses the bystanders, the onlookers, the crowd. The only times he directly addresses Zuko (and Iroh by proxy), is when he's trying to goad him into firebending. Right from the start, it's an intentionally public (albeit rash,) attempt at proving their origins and his claims undeniably, and alerting the milieu and the authorities. Crucially, he is not trying to KILL them HIMSELF. When the Dai Li tells them to stop, HE COMPLIES, probably because he genuinely thought they'd hear him out on what he's damn sure he saw. The Jet we see at the tea-shop fight has not taken it upon himself to personally do away with the fire nationals, but rather prove his claims to the public and make it possible to take collective/official action against them (which again, makes sense in context of his character arc and motivations for going to Ba Sing Se).
And as much as he hates his life here at this point, Zuko is pretty darn serious about not blowing their cover. Sure, he immediately squares up to fight Jet (because he's still Zuko, and working customer service at that) but at no point does he say or do anything that might give them away. He says a total of two lines throughout the whole sequence. Literally relentless force vs immovable object.
Which brings me to why this is so very intriguing in context of the art here. For the fight to have gotten to that point, there had to have been no intervention (the guards didn't seem interested in doing so in the original, and neither did any of the bystanders). Zuko, assumably, still hasn't done anything to prove the accusation. They're, once again assumably, still in public, with a significant audience, at that. Jet literally has 'Lee' pinned at swordpoint. He could kill him right then and there.
But would he? Would Jet, the boy who's trying and failing to do better, considering the juncture in his life that he's at, outright kill the people person he knows suspects is a firebender - finish the job himself for the greater good? And if not, what on earth would he do at this point? What would Zuko do, one arm immobilized, the other gripping the blade itself, facing imminent death for all he knows (unless he does something)? What would Iroh do, Iroh who's been watching and yelling placations from afar?
Anway, sorry for the mini-essay, and i don't know if I was able to put across my thoughts clearly, but I think this situation would be soo interesting considering their individual motivations, where they're at in their lives currently, and how it has affected them.
Friend, please never apologize for writing a mini-essay on my favorite characters from my current favorite hyper-fixation. I come to tumblr specifically to read long-form essays by complete strangers that shed new lights on a thing of beauty that we both love. I read every word with care and attention. Never apologize.
Yeah, this is a really compelling piece of art and I never thought about any of this before. Thrilling.
Thank you T-T It's heartening to know people like these analyses as much as I do.
SO I'M HERE TO FURTHER (OVER)ANALYSE THIS PIECE OF ART.
(most of these probably weren't intended but that will not stop me from reading into it, sorry you told me not to apologise)
One thing that stands out to me here is that Jet is also gripping the blade portion of his sword. Probably because this is a tight spot to be in, anything could happen if he loosens his hold at this point, and he hasn't had the chance to adjust his grip lest the tide of the battle turns in an instant.
Neither of them look particularly concerned by the fact that they're tightly holding A SHARP METAL WEAPON THAT'S CAPABLE OF SLICING A WOODEN TABLE CLEANLY IN HALF (as seen earlier)
Besides, Zuko here has to be countering the force Jet is exerting so that he doesn't get his fucking throat slit (as put so well by @0bscvr1ty). Whether Jet would actually do it or not is debatable, as I said earlier, but I don't think either of them know the answer to that at this point, and would thus act accordingly. What I'm trying to say is, he has to be holding the blade with a considerable amount of force.
The NEXT THING(s) I noticed are very very interesting: 1. Jet's wheat grass is still intact. 2. Zuko still has his apron.
Now, it's very likely the artist has added those in to make the characters recognisable, I totally get it, but let us ponder The Implications for a second. The apron disappearing is likely an animation error in the original, but since the fight scene is spliced with other scenes, it's very possible Zuko lost it at some point during the fight. Meanwhile, we very clearly SEE the wheat grass being sliced by Zuko - the show draws attention to it with a whole ass slow-motion.
We already know this art piece is a divergence from `what actually went down. With the help of these details, we can pinpoint the exact portion of the OG fight from where it diverges. It all lines up! This is the series of events in the original fight:
Jet and Zuko each lose one sword.
Zuko slices Jet's wheat-grass
Jet leaps back to give his "The Fire Nation is trying to silence me!" dialogue and jumps back into attacking.
(Crucially, Zuko has his apron throughout this whole sequence)
The scene cuts to the Earth King's party (as it continually does throughout the fight). We can assume that the fight is continuing in this time, only off-screen.
When we next cut back to the fight, Zuko does not have his apron.
Therefore, I think it's perfectly possible for him to have lost it in the scuffle in a portion of the fight that happened off-screen while the show cut to the party. Watched continuously, it's impossible as there's only a 3 second gap between the apron being present, and subsequently disappearing. BUT!! if you interpret the fight to not be continuous (as is implied, now that I watch it again. Jet leaps at Zuko from the front, and the scene cuts away. When we cut back, they're facing to the side, as we can see with the perspective provided by the well in the foreground. Zuko does not have his apron anymore.), you end up with a plausible interval during which the apron might have been discarded.
Therefore, this particular situation depicted in the art above would HAVE to have taken place between points 1 and 2. Which is 30 seconds into a fight that lasts a whole minute (minus any bits that might have happened off-screen during the scene splicing), if watched unbroken.
(yes, i did the math)
By inference, it's unlikely that Jet ever ends up in the situation where he climbs a well and yells "THE FIRE NATION IS TRYING TO SILENCE ME!!" to an entire square full of people, since that happens after he has to retreat for a second once his wheat grass gets sliced.
And I'm willing to bet that him screaming that particular line in public, from an elevated position at that, was what alerted the Dai Li to come to the site as quickly as they did in the OG show.
Don't get me wrong, I don't for a second think that the Dai Li will just...not show up in this canon-divergent situation. All I'm saying is, it's likely they'd take a bit MORE time to get there. Up until that point, Jet had been loud, but only in the confines of the tea shop. The only lines he says prior to the wheat-grass-slicing (which has not occurred in this art), are said to Zuko personally to goad him into firebending, NOT YELLED TO A WHOLE DAMN AUDIENCE.
It'd buy Jet at least half a minute more, if not a whole one, before the Dai Li show up in this particular instance depicted in the art - whether he knows it or not.
tldr; the ripple effect of Jet overpowering Zuko at that point of the fight specifically would be INSANE (and prev has unleashed something rather unhinged within me).
