Dead people in ATLA either reincarnate or stay as ghosts until they’re ready to do so. There is no afterlife just as there are no gods. The closest thing to gods ATLA has is spirits but if the Spirit World was the afterlife, I think there would be a lot more humans around when Avatars visit. Iroh’s only there because he went in before he died.
Zuko knows why his mother left because Grandfather Azulon is still there as a ghost to tell him Ursa poisoned him to save Zuko’s life. He was going to haunt Ursa until he realized Zuko could see him and haunted him instead. Surprise, surprise, the guy who ordered the death of his grandson is a dick.
There are many servants dead by Ozai’s wrath in the palace. Their ghosts teach Zuko to stay quiet and fade into the background where it’s safe.
When Lu Ten dies, he regrets that he wasn’t able to save his young cousins from Ozai. Lu Ten stays a ghost and mentors Zuko in combat, bending, and strategy.
When the 41st Division die despite Zuko’s protests, and Zuko himself is burned and banished, the 41st Division find out Zuko defended them and stay ghosts to teach him all they can.
Zuko’s able to escape before the pirates hired by Zhao blow up his ship because the ghosts haunting the pirates warn him. This doesn’t change the plot, but it does save Zuko some pain.
Aang is followed/haunted by Monk Gyatso while Sokka & Katara are followed/haunted by Kya.
SPOILERS for Episode 6 of the Avatar Live Action series
AKA why this episode makes me SO grateful for this adaptation (re: the Zuko flashbacks and the Agni Kai).
----
Wow.
I admit, I was really worried at the idea that Zuko might potentially fight back in the Agni Kai against his father in the live action. I expected to HATE it, and it's certainly a bold change, but it fits in SO WELL with why Zuko is the way that he is (and why he works so hard to push down his empathy whenever Aang tries to reason with him).
The Agni Kai - Zuko obviously did NOT want to fight his father. He still tried to apologize and beg for mercy, but in the end he was just too terrified of his father to disobey a direct order.
But when Ozai left him an opening to see what he'd do with it, Zuko couldn't bring himself to actually land a blow that might burn him. Making his lack of ruthlessness the weakness that Ozai ends up mutilating him for - even straight up telling Zuko that compassion is weakness and then demonstrating by holding his own child down and lighting him on fire - adds a layer of depth that only enhances the original scene (and in another stroke of genius, we see Ozai nearly in tears himself. He's convincing himself of this lesson as well as Zuko, which was likely passed down to him by his own father). Honestly, this to me is even more heartbreaking than Ozai burning him for refusing to stand and fight. Zuko did everything his father asked and he still failed, because his family has distorted what it means to be honorable and believes Zuko's capacity for mercy to be a shameful weakness unbecoming of an heir to the throne.
The 41st Division - And here come the waterworks. Assigning the very people Zuko was hurt so severely for trying to save to his ship as it's being cast out of the fire nation (presumably forever, with the Avatar not having been seen in 100 years) is SUCH a brilliant addition. His crew resents Zuko for being stuck on this impossible mission with this bratty, angry child. And Zuko is too ashamed of his "weakness" to explain why they were assigned to him.
I can totally see Zuko's hurt at their lack of respect making him even more angry (especially after everything he went through to save them from being sacrificed), and his seemingly irrational anger at them just continuing to make them resent him more in a neverending feedback loop of anger and disrespect that's been growing and festering for 3 years.
Which makes the scene at the end when Zuko's crew finally learns about how he saved their lives (as well as why he's obsessed with the avatar, why he's banished, what his scar means and why he's trying so very hard to rid himself of empathy, even if he can never quite manage it when it counts) so much more impactful. I SOBBED when the 41st Division stood at attention and showed him their utmost respect and loyalty, possibly for the first time since they've been on that ship. Zuko's soft "what's going on?" at finally being honored by his crew is just imprinted on my brain.
The seed of the idea that his compassion may NOT actually be what was shameful about his banishment afterall can finally begin to take root.
throw these children on the pyre (they will light your funeral fire)
read it on ao3 | masterlist
Fandom: Avatar: the Last Airbender
TW: canon-typical references to zuko & ozai's agni kai, the whole situation with the 41st division is also heavily discussed, but overall there's nothing super graphic, and no actual character death. please let me know if there are any other warnings that should be added.
Wordcount: 1,030
Originally published: June 9th, 2023
Summary: maybe, if things weren't the way they were, it's something the rich fuckers in charge might've actually seen coming.
but then, if things weren't the way they were, the agni kai wouldn't have happened. if things weren't the way they were, the whole plan wouldn't have been introduced in the first place, and it certainly wouldn't have fallen solely to a thirteen year old boy to decry it.
so maybe, really, this was always going to happen.
(or: that first agni kai has far reaching consequences.)
Notes: n/a
Transfer Notes: this was initially written in my phone notes, and wasn’t really meant to turn into anything, which is why it’s in lapslock. this work is also the first one i’ve locked on ao3, and i will likely be locking all others in the future to avoid ai scraping. don’t quite have the same qualms about posting it here bc for some reason i feel like it would be a bad idea for anyone trying to train writing or chat ais by scraping fucking tumblr.
maybe, if things weren't the way they were, it's something the rich fuckers in charge might've actually seen coming.
but then, if things weren't the way they were, the agni kai wouldn't have happened. if things weren't the way they were, the whole plan wouldn't have been introduced in the first place, and it certainly wouldn't have fallen solely to a thirteen year old boy to decry it.
so maybe, really, this was always going to happen.
you see, here is something that is expected: news takes time to travel.
here is what is not: official orders mean half a dozen extra layers of bureaucracy for every new pair of eyes that pass over them, mean waiting on desks in piles for hours or days.
and rumors? well, rumors take far less time to spread than troop movements.
it goes like this: one soldier gets a letter.
she thinks that her siblings have a real sick sense of humor that's only rotted further since her leaving.
but then two more soldiers get letters.
funny, that the same silly, horrid rumor reached them as her, when their families are all so far apart. but hey, rumors travel fast, and the war is many-legged.
except it's not just one, or two. then it's three, five, a dozen, forty-two, the nephew of a serving maid in the imperial palace, the daughter of a guard in the heart of a caldera, too much, too many, and suddenly—suddenly, thinking this is just a baseless rumor is getting harder and harder. suddenly, people are talking. messages from family members are being compared, from friends, from old co-workers and classmates they thought didn't give half a damn about them, from every far corner of their nation and then some—the mainland, the outer islands, the colonies, the front, even.
because suddenly, half the squadron is getting more letters in the span of a single week than they have in their entire lives, nonetheless their three and a half months since joining up or being conscripted.
and with every letter the tension grows thicker, the silence heavier, morale lower.
every piece of parchment, every shaky character in dark ink pleads the same thing in so many shades, dripping like molasses in their throats, blood down their chins, latching into their very bones no matter how hard they try to shake them, listen. listen. please, dear agni, listen. fight. run. anything. goodbye. i love you. please live. you're not meant to leave alive. he burned for you. it wasn't enough. you need to go. stay alive stay alive stay alive please stay alive.
the orders that will put their division into the jaws of death with no remorse are still buried in a pile of parchment somewhere with others just like it, weighted down with a cup of tea spiked with something sharper, prospective deaths paid no mind in exchange for more important things.
what else is not expected, then?
well, that young soldiers will not take their own kill orders laying down so lightly.
that half of them didn't choose to be here in the first place. that being a fresh face might mean bright-eyed idealism, but it also means that they haven't made solid connections here yet, haven't fully settled into this routine like they'll live it for years, haven't grown numb to what they'll eventually be asked to do, or started thinking about things like military career paths.
that, perhaps, loyalty isn't so much bought with three squares a day, a hard cot, and a barely-livable pay every two weeks to send home to people they might never see again, as it is earned, through things like actions, like sacrifice, like trying to put a stopper on the blood before it's spilled.
that people are far less stupid than those in charge often account for, and even with minimal training, a newbie division of hundreds and thousands outweighs the two dozen officers trying to keep them in line thrice over with far more room to spare. that, when motivated, people are willing to push back. sometimes, they're even willing to do so together.
their marching orders are only twelve days away by courier and three by hawk when the entire 41st division makes a very, very vocal decision to resign.
maybe jeong jeong made a name for himself, being the first to desert.
but there's power in numbers. and suddenly, there's a whole lot of kids who are very, very motivated to make sure a bunch of greenlings just like them (and their friends and their families) don't get put on the pyre next.
this is war, of course. sacrifices have to be made. after nine decades and counting, every one of them knows that. but—nine decades and counting is an awful lot of time, to learn the difference between going to battle with even the faintest hope of survival and going in with your death warrant already signed; between dying for a broader, greater purpose, and dying for something that could've been achieved any number of other ways; between what's necessary and wasteful.
(they'll fight a war, sure. just not the one their nation had really been counting on.)
and, well, if the rookies aren't safe—who is, really?
the 41st is far from the last to leave their posts. in the span of only a single month, ozai accomplishes what no other firelord has for the past six hundred and forty nine years: he begins turning his own army against himself, en masse.
half a world away, a spirit and those of one thousand and one people it's inhabited lay perpetually active as they have been for the past several decades, inside the body of a little boy, inside the warm embrace of his animal guide, inside the freezing prison of the glacier they're entombed in, inside the dark, lethal waters of the south pole, and together, they wait, for the spark that will light the fire that will split the glacier that will bring balance. it will be waiting for years yet.
on the shores of the earth kingdom, on the creeping slopes of the fire nation, a revolution starts now.
It is said that the hope of the Fire Nation died with its prince. A child, burned and banished, sent off to die with their children. The massacre of the 41st it was called. Four thousand sons and daughters of Agni sent to the slaughter for a hill that was worthless. Yet in his death, he inspired others to live. The one thousand soldiers who survived that battle would adopt a new name. The Scared Legion. It was an insult to Ozai and everything he stood for. They painted their faces to match their fallen prince and trained night and day to ensure that they would never fall to ensure his memory would live on. Ozai was not blind to this however and gave them the worst equipment, food stuffs and soldiers imaginable. And yet with every dishonor the Fire Lord shoved their way, their feats of glory grew ten fold. Under the command of a skillful leader named Lee the legion conquered much of the southern Earth Kingdom even before the Central Earth Kingdom was fully secured.
Then Everything Changed when the Avatar was discovered. Forced by public opinion, noble influence and the need for competent commanders the lone commander of the legion was granted the title of High General and was ordered to take control of the Third Army. Some five hundred thousand men and women. Quickly the young Lee reorganized his men, secured his territory, and implemented several new regulations for those under his command to follow. Within a month nearly every military unit was a highly disciplined, trained and skilled force capable of producing their own supplies as well as surviving indefinitely alone.
As news spread of the Avatar so to did the incompetence of Ozai’s chosen officers. Where ever the Avatar traveled, the Fire Nation faced defeat after crushing defeat. The flooding of the Central Valley, the rebellion of Coal, The Northern Temple rebellion. and most disastrously, the loss of the Forth Army and most of the Eastern Fleet by the Ocean Spirit and Avatar. With every loss the number of trained soldiers dwindled until the only ones left were newly conscripted recruits and Lee own five hundred thousand. The attempted Coup of the Earth king by Princess Azula and her subsequent capture sealed Ozai’s fate as the Fire Nation forces at the walls of Ba Sing Se were caught off guard when the Earth Kingdom launched a full scale counter assault. They pushed through the war torn central Earth Kingdom with ease, retaking village after village and cutting the Front in two. The Rich colonies protected by what remains of the second and fourth armies in the North and Lee’s Third Army to the south protecting new colonies.
When the Southern and Northern Water Tribe fleets docked in the retaken Earth Kingdom ports, orders signed by Ozai himself came instructing General Lee to abandon the southern front and defend the home islands. He did as instructed and abandoned the Southern Earth kingdom. But instead of playing catch up with the joint force of Earth and Water, he marched his army and the colonials who had settled in the south to the Sozin Era colonies in the north.
Fighting was fierce as Lee led his two million strong force through retaken Earth Kingdom lands. He pushed his soldiers hard and the civilians even harder. But they would do anything to avoid being ground down by the Earth Kingdom Army at their rear. Finally after a month of marching the hundreds of convoys containing the two million fire nation nationals reached the Northern Front and rejoined with their kin.
A few days later when news of the Capital’s and Ozai’s defeat And General Iroh’s rise to the Dragon Throne, General Lee took control of the Sozin Era colonies and seceded from the Fire Nation vowing that he nor anyone else under his protection will ever bow to traitors and tyrants.
Surrounded on all sides by hostel nations and armies the now independent Fire Nation colonies underwent a massive infrastructure build up in order to maximize the one million strong army guarding a territory the size of the home islands which themselves had a standing army of six million. Rail lines, roads, fortifications along the coasts and rivers, factories mines and farms as well as schools, clinics and libraries sprouted up over the course of a month in preparation for Sozin’s comet and the expected assault that would take place during it.
But such preparation would not be needed as the Avatar, along with his Earth and Water Bending teachers a water tribesman warrior and a Kyoshi warrior, landed in the newly declared capital city of Yu Dao and asked to see the High General.
It is said that the Air Monk Avatar upon seeing the General for the first time blinked and asked why he looked like a teenager to which the honorable General Lee dumbly asked why he was just a little kid.
The 41st division that Zuko once defended heard of their prince’s great sacrifice from one of the lieutenants listening into their general’s plan for them
They Division left as they refused to follow Ozai and sought out to serve Zuko, the only one who stood up for them
On the run and some of their brethren captured and taken to the Boiling Rock, other developed a new firebending style more in depth to stealth, far advance than any other form
They call themselves the Pyro Angels, once called dead soldiers rising from the flamed graves as they dedicated themselves to the prince and bringing down the firelord that abandoned them
Pyros wear white owl-shaped masks with dark red and black skintight armor and a pure black shroud to hide in darkness, and silver talons on their gloves and boots for combat and stealth
They used wing-like swords in combat as well as firebending, like their prince does
When they heard that Prince Zuko was at the Western Airtemple with the Avatar, they believed the Avatar had captured and were torturing him for information
The most skilled group was sent to rescue him and kill those who dare to harm the prince
Chit Sang was the captain of that division, he helped his soldiers escape as he offered himself as bait, keeping him a prisoner in hopes of drawing out the others
When he recognized Zuko, he showed great respect and honor to be in the presence of the prince that saved them
Zuko apologized that he could not save the Division
But Chit Sang explained what happened that day and told Zuko that it was thanks to him that the Division survived and was born anew, ready to serve the one person who saved them
The Pyro Angels beat the balloon to the camp where the Gaang were ambushed by the Pyro Angel’s, using speed and stealth to take them down, demanding the location of the prince and they would give a quick death
Luckily, Chit Sang order them to stand down, explaining that they were not Zuko’s captors but his friends
They stopped their attack when Zuko stepped out and bowed to him with great loyalty
After calming down and their reunion with those who were captured, the Pyro Angel’s Lieutenant Sakura offered that they cook for Zuko and the Gaang as an apology from a misunderstanding
Zuko explained his relationship with the Division, he told painfully of how he got his scar
Chit Song asked where the others were as Sakura led the way to the Pyro Angels
She shot a flamed arrow to signal them that they found the prince as they lit their flames to show the army Zuko has
Sakura is not a big fan of Katara since her hostility and threatened that if anything befalls their prince, the Pyro’s wrath will be quick and brutal with her
Sakura often asks if she could kill or maim Katara, angered by her comments to the prince, adding she could make it look like an accident but Zuko keeps firmly telling her no
After Katara’s and Zuko’s mission for the killer and Katara finally forgiven, Sakura took a moment for her and Katara to be alone and told her coldly that it is she who should be begging for Zuko’s forgiveness
It took time for the Pyros to be use and friendly with the Gaang, especially Sakura and Katara
When Zuko met with his uncle and planned out what to do, he had half of the Pyro’s leave with his uncle and the others to leave with him to secure the Capital so he and Katara can face Azula alone
After the war, the Pyro Angels replaced the imperial Firebenders, becoming the highest ranking firebenders in the military who’s only objective is to protect the capital and the royal family, since they have been doing even into the series the legend of Korra
Ursa II is a member of the Pyro Angels and met Mako when she and her brother were catching up
