Starting off first with massive thanks for your work and the assembly of information in a way that is concise and fun to read, I cannot stretch enough how amazing it is that the ATLA fandom has people like you doing such work for free 🤗
I'm almost afraid to ask (😆) because subconsciously I might already be aware that there's zero logical base for my type of story, BUT: If Zuko got himself a wife with a massive difference in class and social standing (precisely speaking, a lower class palace servant), what are possible repercussions (or asked differently, how bad would it get?)
I assume that basically everone will be actively working against it:
- Nobles who don't get to marry their daughters into the palace
- Members of the nobility who suddenly have a proper commoner inside their circles (they would make her "othered" at every possibility, withholding information, blaming her for disobeying rules she can't know, talking about people she hasn't met yet, about rumors she isn't privy to and so on, and of course there will be a massive difference in educational levels)
- Fire Sages who fear the "impurity" of royal bloodlines and maybe for the Fire Nation's reputation (does it make their leader look weak or stupid?)
- in this specific case: other palace servants would loathe her too (imagine having trained your whole life to be a lady in waiting and then the Fire Lady is someone who used to be several ranks below your own, I think it counts for a massive disappointment, maybe even source of shame?)
So in my heart, I know it's a proper fairytale nonsense type of concept, but I like the idea too much and I'd be happy about some insights if you have the time to answer (if not, feel free to ignore this ask anytime 🤗)
What if a Servant/Peasant Becomes the Fire Lady?
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Firstly, please don't be afraid to ask these kinds of questions—it isn't silly at all! It is your story, which means you can write exactly what you want! It's not nonsense at all. I think you already have a fantastic foundation for the narrative and a keen sense of where the conflicts will naturally arise. Fairytales are well-known for a reason; they resonate with people! My own fic has been compared to Cinderella, which was unintentional, but it goes to show the trope resonates with people—even subconsciously.
With fic, it ultimately doesn't really matter if it is historically accurate or not, but just so you know there are plenty of historical references of servants, slaves and commoners who become Queens. It isn't common in Western European society with confirmed historical figures, but the concept is PERVASIVE in folklore, sagas, fairytales and media. But Middle Eastern, African, and Asian history does have a few confirmed figures with low origins. But my intention behind writing these essays it to inspire people, not police people, so if anyone gives you flak for your story because "it's not historically accurate" or "it's unrealistic" send them my way and I'll have a chat to them, or tell them to go write their own "more accurate" story instead of complaining about your expression of creativity.
I am very intrigued by your story because you’ve got a good core for tension. You are absolutely right in identifying the key factions that would be hostile to your OC; Fire Nation nobles who have no hope of marrying their own daughters into the palace would be deeply insulted by a servant rising to the rank of consort. The nobility would undoubtedly treat her with snobbishness, ostracise her, and make her feel completely out of place. You are also spot-on regarding the Fire Sages and the palace servants. The Sages would be furious, fearing that such a match makes Zuko look weak or foolish, while the servants would harbour immense jealousy. This environment creates a brilliant foundation for a plot where the primary conflict comes from the surrounding world rather than the couple itself, which will inevitably draw your character and Zuko closer together as they fight through it.
So I don't know if the insight I can offer will be very helpful because you seem to have a pretty good grasp on the threats. If you haven't already, you might want to read my essay So You Want to Date a Monarch? It was written with the intention of having two nobles/leaders date each other, but it does have some insight you can use for Zuko's part in the story; like how leaders navigate personal relationships under intense public scrutiny.
How severe the push back against OC gets depends entirely on how much angst/Whump you want to inject into the story. If you look to historical royal courts for inspiration—particularly the women’s palaces—the politics were often savage. Quite literally, the sky is the limit for how bad things could get. If you are in the pure angst and Hurt no comfort writing for personal catharsis camp, camp, go crazy; the level of "bad" things that can get is endless. By all means, make it seem like everyone is against them, torture your blorbos; you do you, boo.
But if you want to focus on the romantic, fluff, and comfort side of hurt and comfort. I would suggest that you make one or two major villains who do villainous behaviour like some of the things I'll talk about below. Then, the rest of the people in your fic become meanies, or cronies of the villains.
Having actual villains as figureheads for the prejudice helps you decide what is in character and tone appropriate for your story. It will help you direct the misfortune for your OC and Zuko. It also allows readers to target their displeasure 😅 This is something I have found with writing angst… having a person as a the villain helps reader feel like there is a reason you OC and Zuko have all this trouble and that it is not just senseless gratuitous misery. Instead of making the readers feel that the OC is surrounded by prejudice and that the situation is hopeless, having a villain helps the OC have one or two specific people to overcome rather than an entire system that the villain represents. If the readers can feel like the obstacle is actually just a few bad people in court who are tricky to remove, it helps them root for your pairing.
Depending on your timeline, here are a few directions you could take for things to happen in your story:
If you are building up to them having a relationship:
If you are starting the story with the meet-cute and then going into the courtship here are some other things you could consider for your plot.
Strained Friendships of OC: Your character might start altering her appearance and behaviour to fit into the noble world, leading to a rift with her old friends. Think of films like The Devil Wears Prada or The Princess Diaries, where the protagonist’s inner circle of friends feels left behind or confused as they start changing the way they dress, mannerisms, and speech because of the new world they have entered.
Education gaps: Can your OC read and write? A lot of servants and lower-class people historically were illiterate or only semiliterate. With the way the old Chinese writing systems works (more pictographic rather than phonetic), it is very common historically that a poor person may only know how to spell a few words, like names, counters, directions and basic numbers, not full sentences. In the Japanese Writing system they have a phonetic alphabet and pictographic characters based on the Chinese system. Which alphabet you used was historically an indicator of class; using the phonetic alphabet was for children and poor people who couldn't afford education to learn the pictographic alphabet. So maybe consider if Zuko writes a note to her, can she understand it? Does she miss instructions to meet at places because she can't read his writing?
Secrecy: If the relationship must be kept secret initially, she won't be able to explain to her friends why she is suddenly visiting the spa, changing her hair, or wearing expensive clothing, creating further distance. Also, perhaps she is forced into situations like having to attend as a waiter or servant where she witnesses nobility flirt with Zuko he might have to awkwardly and politely attempt to dismiss advances. Zuko might even witness OC being mistreated by a member of his court and be put in a difficult situation to stand up for her.
Disguises: Does Zuko attempt to disguise himself to go with her on dates without being recognised? Do they have a secret meeting place they hang out in that may become compromised? Or does your OC disguise herself as a noble lady to attend an event that Zuko invites her to and provides her clothes for, but she has to avoid being recognised by fellow staff?
If starting with an established relationship:
If the story begins with an established relationship, consider what the courtship phase was like, as these would be things that Zuko and OC would have developed trust over and dealt with in the past—it will become your backstory for the OC. If you were going for an AU where Zuko and the OC were married while he was in exile and he returns to the throne, which makes his commoner wife now Queen, the conflict will be much more jarring. With OC as consort, the conflict would shift from social alienation and trying to drive her out, to systemic humiliation and sabotage, trying to oust her or straight up get rid of her…. permanently.
Domestic Sabotage: Perhaps servants could be easily manipulated or paid off by a villain to sabotage OC. Or, handmaid might be jealous of OC because they want to be her and just be vindictive on their own. Something I have toyed with is having servants unpick the hems of clothes so they fall apart during public duties, or intentionally mismanaging schedules to cause scandal. They could also give her bad fashion advice on purpose, for example, if in high society certain hairstyles or clothing items are symbolic of things like; being pregnant, being single, being in mourning, or associated with courtesans. In a lot of cultures, certain hairstyles are reserved for married women and unmarried women. Sometimes skirt and sleeve lengths are also symbolic of purity too. For example, in Premodern Japan, tying the obi (kimono's belt) at the front rather than the back was something (Orian) Courtesans did. So if a handmaid styles OC inappropriately and sends her out somewhere very public, it will signal things to the nobility that will start rumours or get OC mocked for not knowing customs.
Spies and Traitors: But also having a Handmaid saboteur can be very serious and deadly as well, as they may spy on OC or give access to assassins/ try to assassinate her themselves. The What if the Fire Lord is Female? Essay give some points for things Sages and noble might try to control a Queen, you may find some of the points of having trusted staff helpful here for ideas.
Manufactured Scandals: Ambitious nobles might try to force a divorce by framing her. They could bribe someone close to her to orchestrate a compromising situation, making it appear as though she is being unfaithful to Zuko. They may hirer male courtesans or companions to try seduce her or even set her up. Getting OC divorced is a ultimate goal for the nobility as it would; 1. oust her from the palace and 2. disgrace her and reinforce the narrative that "low born" is equal to low morals. Even if Zuko fully believes her, the Sages and nobility might pressure him that having her around is scandalous and shameful. The public may even believe rumours and she could lose support.
The Sages' Political Pressure: Even if Zuko is married The Fire Sages might relentlessly pressure Zuko to take a "proper" noble wife, urging him to demote OC to a concubine or second wife in favour of a Noble Chief wife. A noble house may even team up with the Sages to promote their daughter as a candidate. While Zuko would fiercely resist this, it places him in a tight political spot.
Fighting Back: The couple would have to carefully navigate ousting corrupt Sages and nobility and elevating allies without upsetting the public’s reverence for the Fire Sages' institution or making enemies of powerful families and factions in court. Catching the villain directly in a crime against OC or the throne would be the cleanest solution; because this is straight up treason. But doing so might be hard if your villain is smart or using proxies. Zuko would have to devote significant resources to exposing them without the Villain finding out they are being investigated through the circles of government they work in. So you can invent some cool spy/royal intelligence characters that are loyal only to Zuko and OC who might be tasked with keeping OC safe or becoming a double agent to infiltrate the circles of conspirators and gather evidence to convict them.
Escalation and Darker Historical Tactics
If you want to lean into a darker, high-stakes drama, historical courts frequently resorted to physical harm disguised as benevolence so here are some ideas for just how bad things can get for poor OC:
Assassins: your villains can straight up just try kill her. We see Zuko can hire an assassin (who is actually a hitman) in the capital relatively easily in Book 3 of the original series. So characters who can hire hitmen would have to have money. But bear in mind historically, assassins are usually politically motivated, not paid hitmen. They have stakes in the politics behind the kill; it's an assassination plot because they are a group of people behind it who benefit from the murder. It is rare that someone would carry out a murder on a well protected target they did not benefit from in anyway other than money, cause the risk doesn't outweigh the reward. They might not take a job like killing the Fire Lord's wife because it put themselves at enormous risk. It is also risky for the hirer of the assassin or conspirarors; if assassins fail to kill their target and are captured, they can rat them out. But there is another way…
Manipulation: if OC's former peers are consumed by intense jealousy, you could make one character who is a little more unhinged than the rest; a ruthless, jilted servant. A character who may have motive and opportunity, but not means. If you want to elevate the physical danger OC is in, a noble or Sage can manipulate this specific servant and give them the means to become a proxy assassin. Through calculated flattery ('You are prettier; you worked just as hard—why her?'), the villain grooms the servant, planting ideas of poison or sabotage. This gives the upper-class villain absolute plausible deniability while using the servant's intimate knowledge of your character's daily routine to strike from the shadows.
Poison: is the weapon of choice because it is hard to trace back to the poisoner or even hard to tell if it is murder or just natural cause. And Poisons are accessible to all characters. For the upper class they could absolutely give OC poison under the guise of a gift. If you watch Apothecary Diaries or know a bit about historic cosmetics, poisons could be in high class luxury items like fragrances, dyes, medicines and beauty products like lead face powder. But I would argue that servants and lower class people in your fic might actually have more access to more deadly poisons as they were common for domestic duties; pest control, gardening and cleaning. There could be underground services offered by apothecaries and chemists who act as poison specialist and merchants for those nobles who want to get rid of rivals discreetly, for the right price.
Also you can give think of poisons a little nuance:
The Allergies: A rival noblewoman might invite her to a formal tea with other guests under the guise of peace, only to intentionally serve dishes featuring an ingredient your character is highly allergic to. This forces a cruel dilemma: eat and suffer a dangerous, embarrassing reaction, or refuse and be branded rude for insulting her host.
Targeted Medical Malpractice: Something I came across when research for the What if the Fire Lord is Female essay was that historically, in the Chinese Imperial Harem, high-ranking consorts would bribe masseuses of pregnant rivals or send them one as a gift. These masseuses were paid to cause harm or induce a miscarriage under the guise of routine care. You can have court ladies Sending gifts, treatments, their personal doctors, or cures and seeming nice but actually; giving her harmful treatment, gifting teas laced with drugs to intoxicate her and put her in a compromising situation. Or perhaps make her ill/ sleep through an important meeting or event.
Is butter a carb?: Similar to this, consider that poisons aren't always intend to be deadly, but can be used to target OC's beauty. A side effect of most poisons is hair loss and rashes. In the Fire Nation hair seems to be a big deal, so having someone target OC's hair would be devastating to her. Like Catey does to Regina George in Mean Girls, someone could interfere with her diet to make her gain weight rapidly. Or less harmful, do what my mum accidentally did to my little sister as a baby and turn her oompa-loompa orange with a over saturation do carrots, pumpkins and sweet potatoes in her diet.
Poisoned Gifts: Poison doesn't have to be ingested to threaten a person's life. Poisoned items and clothes can be used to slowly deteriorate health, cause rashes, or make hair fall out at a slow rate that emulates a natural illness in times before advances in science. Wall paper, crockery, bedsheets, hair brushes, shoes and clothes—anything that can be dyed and then come in contact with skin—can cause serious illness decline and then death through continued use. For a Fire Nation twist, you could look into the real-world history of arsenic-dyed dresses. While history is famous for toxic green gowns, the Fire Nation could utilise 'Arsenic Ruby', a red mineral that could create a beautiful red/orang dye readily used in Asia historically for fireworks.
So don't say your ideas are nonsense please! Your concept is incredibly rich, and the hurdles your character faces will only make her journey—and her bond with Zuko—more compelling. I can’t wait to see how you develop this. And definitely tag me so I see what you get up to! Also feel free to DM, I'm probably in an opposite timezone but very happy to chat if you want more specifics or just want to tell me about you OC and fic.
