fanfic rants

[timepiececlock]

My first post at fanficrants. About Zutara fic, of course. It's what I rant about when I have nothing else to do.

Edit: thinking about the subject further, I kind of wish that when I read a fic about Zuko running around as the Blue Spirit, that someone would actually be injured with those swords of his. I mean, that will never really happen on the show because of the network, but come on. Sword fights are scary, bloody affairs. People lose arms and legs and heads. People get disemboweled and impaled. People get their hamstrings cut. How come I read this fics where Zuko gets into a swordfight and miraculously no one loses any body parts, even when the swordfighter wins? Did we not remember our lessons from Kill Bill? Especially if Zuko ever got into a fight with Ty Lee or Mei, who use neither bending nor long-reach weapons. As sad as it is, if Zuko were fighting them for real (such as defending Iroh from them) then all it would take is one moment where Ty Lee dodges right when she should have dodged left and oops, pressure-point contortionist girl is no longer a problem for our heroes.

Comments

[loveroftheflame.livejournal.com]

You have a point... Sword fighting is bloody business... I feel the same way about the EB's. You crush someone under a pile of rock and something will go splat eventually... Yuck.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I just have to roll my eyes when Zuko gets knocked full-on in the stomach with a rock that's a foot across, and he's still able to get up afterward. Instead of lying on the grown moaning because his rib bones have been shattered and the pieces have punctured his internal organs to cause internal bleeding and certain death.

[loveroftheflame.livejournal.com]

Can I get an amen? The logistics of that fight....*sigh* Anyway nice point once again...

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

And breaking rocks or chains with *swords*. @.@

[rasielle.livejournal.com]

I've never read a Zutara fic wherein Katara is being compared to an "angel", but then again, I have stopped reading most Zutara fanfiction at The Pit. The reasons are obvious. Your patience is saintly.

That post has incited some interesting arguments, though - which is a little amusing, since Avatar is just a cartoon/anime/whatever; but heartening, since it reminds us that there are still people in the world that bother to think these things through.

While it *is* correct that angels don't only exist in Christianity, I think it might be safe to assume that they wouldn't in Avatarverse, and it'd be even safer to assume that the writer of said fic is ignorant of the angels' nonexistence, especially if (s)he was casually throwing it into some internal monologuing. Which is annoying, and which is the point of your post, I believe. So most of the debate that's gone on really shouldn't be there.

Re: lack of proper gore - It would be pretty loony to expect some appropriate *violence* on the show, but I'm rather surprised at the lack of it in fanfiction. The canon exaggerated-beatings-that-do-no-damage, I can forgive; the lack of accurate violence in fanfiction? No. Granted, there are a few out there ((to my knowledge)), but that's hardly enough. Fanon-wise, it should be there *all the time*, I think.

[jakia.livejournal.com]

There are two answers I have to this, but first, may I point you to http://community.livejournal.com/adrasteicfic/4351.html#cutid1 <---that fic, by sporkyadrasteia? I love it if only for two lines, the ones where he chops the lizard's heads off, because it is such a good mental image and hey, violence is fun.

Anyway, for your questions: One answer is that it is obviously a Nick show and therefore they cannot show violence. Because in Zuko alone? Instead of knocking them out I was expecting him to kill though EB mo'fos. But he didn't. :emotear:

HOWEVER, there is the school of thought that Zuko is in the process (and what a long and daunting process it is) of getting redeemed. Meaning, as a on-the-way-there-good guy, he should aim to injure, not kill, always.

Because he's an in-progesss good guy. Needs to have redemption points and all.

(on the other hand, I could so see Jet swinging out some swords and killing people like crazy. Zuko not so much.)

Gore and blood?

[muffytaj.livejournal.com]

Map of Your Head

If he had ever thought about it (which he was not apt to do) Zuko would have supposed that the first serious injury he dealt would have been in firebending training. Fire was temperamental and, although he was not an introspective person, he knew he had a bit of a temper. He trained with experienced people, and his soldiers were good with releasing just enough fire to cancel his strikes, but accidents happened.

With his swords he had always felt so in control. Blades couldn’t run away from you, couldn’t take on a life of their own and burn and bite and eat your flesh.

Or so he thought.

If he had paused, in the helter skelter shambles that was his life, to ponder for a moment, he would naturally have assumed that the first person he killed would be an earthbender. The Fire Nation was involved in active warfare against the earthbenders, and they would be the ones most likely to shield the Avatar. If he had been given to mental images, red blood on green cloth would have been what he conjured up.

He believed you only killed your country’s enemy.

And if he went too far, there was always Uncle Iroh, ready with a quick step and faster tongue to stop things from going wrong.

So nowhere in his supposed musings did his current scenario exist. His guardian Iroh lying underneath him, hand pressed to his chest, panting wildly; people of all colours surrounding him, blue beside him (backing him up, his mortal foe) green behind him (protecting his back, enemy of his country) yellow above him (giving him cover, the one he wanted dead) and red before him (bleeding on his blades, his kinsmen).

Red on red, his broadswords ran away with him, cutting through the young girl’s flesh like a hot knife through butter. The work of an instant, he could not stop until the stroke was finished. The girl he had known since childhood, the one who had gotten too close, had chosen left instead of right (she would have lost a hand that way, but what is a hand to a life?) now gave a gargled choke and, with two wet thumps, fell to the ground.

Horror coursed through him, and for a moment he thought he was going to be violently ill, but then another figure in red raced towards him, trampling through the dead girl’s blood, and moved to strike.

And so he swallowed his fear, the sick feeling of his world once again getting yanked from underneath his feet, rejected the urge to shut his eyes for one brief moment in memory of Ty Lee (for that moment would have meant his own death) and instead slid back into position, once again ready to kill.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Like I already said above, the show itself is excluded because of obvious reasons. :)

Although, interestingly, I counted when I was watching The Blue Spirit, and he appeared to throw at least 3 people off a wall in the fortress battle. A fall that was long enough to definitely kill you. I remember being surprised-- not that Zuko would kill in battle (because I assume that's what he was trained to do, given that he had the best training that royalty can buy), but that he was killing his own citizens and future subjects.

Does redemption mean using non-fatal strategies in fighting?

Now that IS an interesting question. Thanks for bringing it up.

Hm... it's almost moot to discuss it because we'll never see Zuko kill anyone except possibly his father. So you can never really answer the question. But, for discussion... hm. I have to say I never thought of it that way. Because I don't think Zuko was a murderer before, I don't see a lack of killing as part of his redemptive path. He's already there. Should he "aim to injure, not kill, always" ? Hm... I think 80% of the time yes, 20% of the time, no. For the most part we want our protagonists to respect life, and we've seen that Zuko does respect life. But Zuko is not Aang, who will always try to find a way, ALL of the time (although we know Aang in the Avatar State does *not* respect life as much as normal Aang.) Zuko's redemption doesn't mean that he does more or less violence, it requires that the violence he does be to deserving parties, in appropriate circumstances. Defending the innocent, fighting evil, etc etc. In all-out battle I can see Zuko killing someone if he thinks its necessary.

Actually, I think Zuko's redemption doesn't change the line of when to murder or not-- it changes the line of when to use smaller violence. He's not setting buildings on fire any more just to make a point, or randomly threatening people, etc.

With my post, I don't think it's so much that Zuko needs to *kill* people in fanfic-- it's just that I think it'd be nice if we saw some realistic swordfighting scenes in fanfic. And in a realistic sword fight, the only way to get hit and not get a serious injury is with the flat of the sword, but in a battle against someone like Mai or Ty Lee, Zuko might not have the luxury of turning his sword to hit in a non-limb-severing way. He was obviously trained to use the swords, which means he was trained to kill with swords. And when you're in a fight, you do what you were trained until the fight is over.

(Yeah, Jet would *so* gut people all the time with his swords.)

"The Fairer Sex"

[elenathehun.livejournal.com]

In the end, it was all Iroh's fault, because Iroh made Zuko remember all the things he should do as a warrior, especially to those weaker than himself. It was Luten's fault, too, because he had always been kind to his younger self. And it was also his mother's fault, because she had taught him too well about the duty of men to the fairer sex.

Except when they could fight back, of course. Then they were a legitimate target.

But that was why Zuko thrust his sword into and out of Mai's side, spilling her guts over her dark overdress and onto the ground as she collapsed onto her side. She stared up at him and gasped, and he bent down and cut her throat quickly. Just because she had to be killed didn't mean it had to be done badly.

He barely glanced at the little blind girl Mai had been aiming at, only checking once to see if any of the darts had hit her. They hadn't - they had all landed wild, Mai's aim off as his sword had cut into her. Zuko shrugged and turned away...

...and then his shoulders slumped and he sighed. Damn his uncle! He turned around to face the little girl.

"Excuse me, Miss, but do you require an escort to your home?" he asked politedly.

And then the little girl 'looked' at him with her strange pale eyes and laughed. "Sure. Do you know the way to the Palace?"

Zuko nodded before realizing she couldn't see him. "Uh, yes, I do. Is that where you want to go?"

"Yes, please."

Zuko sighed silently and rocked on the balls of his feet. It would take hours to get to the center of Ba Seng Se...

He was totally blaming this on his uncle.

"Well, take my hand, miss."

The girl took his hand readily and followed his lead. "My name is Toph, by the way. What's yours?"

Zuko hesitated. "Lee."

A strange smile covered the girl's mouth. "It's a pleasure to meet you...Lee."

Re: "The Fairer Sex"

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

:laugh: Thanks for the entertainment.

Re: Gore and blood?

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I just realized I never commented on this. Thank you! I really enjoyed reading it-- angst and gore, angst and gore. I love the phrase "his broadswords ran away with him".

Re: Gore and blood?

[muffytaj.livejournal.com]

Oh, I just thought you didn't like it *sheepish*

And hey, writing about Zuko is always going to have the angry angst. I was just glad to have an excuse to throw in the gore as well :D