new Zutara AU.... brainstorming
Oct. 7th, 2007 09:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timepiececlockAbout a month ago I tried to think of a way to meld a Z/K fic with the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty. My brainstorms were not very rewarding, however. Tonight I had the idea of doing it instead as a fusion with The Princess Bride. Primarily the film plot, since it's been too long since I read the book.
Basic plot points of The Princess Bride:
-boy & girl separated while in love, boy "dead"
-5 years later, girl is engaged to evil prince, becomes princess bride
-boy is dread pirate
-princess is kidnapped, supposed to be murdered to start a war
-pirate chases down her kidnappers
-pirate fights the sword duel
-pirate beats the giant
-wine/poison battle of wits
-pirate reveals his identity as boy, lovers are reuinited and brave the fire swamp
-lovers are captured, boy is taken to be tortured and princess beliefs him safe, now engaged again to evil prince
-boy is tortured to point of death, bride bargains with prince
-giant and swordsman rescue the pirate's body, take him to magical max for revival
-giant, swordsman, and pirate break into castle to rescue the princess the night of the wedding
-many battles, they escape and live happily ever after
A pure fusion with ATLA would probably have Zuko as the hunting-obsessed evil prince, but the problem with that is that Zuko (or under a stretch, maybe Sokka) is also the best person to be the Man In Black. And since I do love Bluetara fics, I've decided that I'm going to have Zuko as the Man In Black and someone else as the evil prince.
I also would be changing a lot to give the princess a more active role, less of a damsel in distress.
Tentative cast outline:
Princess Bride/Buttercup: Katara
Westley/Pirate Roberts/Man In Black: Zuko/Blue Spirit
Fezzik: Zhao? someone else?
Evil Prince Humperdink: Fire Lord Ozai
Brother to Fire Lord: Iroh
Iroh's son: Lu Ten
Six-fingered man: Princess Azula (though
Swordsman/Inigo: Sokka
Giant: Toph
Miracle Max: Aang & Spirit World
Dread Pirate Roberts: June, under disguise as a man
Zuko disappeared when he was young, lived in the earth king with his mother who ran away and took him as a toddler after Fire Lord Azulon was murdered. They go to the Southern Water Tribe when Zuko is 16, and he leaves when he's 18. He doesn't realize he's the prince until he goes to the castle to rescue Katara.
Ozai decides he wants a war, and at the same time his advisors tell him he needs to choose a new wife so that he can have a male heir. He wants his daughter to be heir, but he decides he can do both: get married, kill his pretty young wife, then blame her murder on the Earth Kingdom, counting on the Water Tribes to be his war allies once their valued healer and daughter of the chief is murdered after she is married to the Fire Lord as part of a treaty.
Sokka is the swordsman role, and he learns rumors about men being hired to kidnap the princess, so he pretends to be a kidnapper so he can get to her and protect her, as well as keeping her from marrying the evil monarch, whom he never liked. He intends to help them kidnap her, then double-cross them and run off with everyone thinking she's dead. She recognizes his voice, though, and he secretly tells her of his plan. Unfortunately, before the plan can be put into action he realizes they're being followed, and the other kidnappers run off with Katara while he's fighting the blue spirit, who he thinks wants to kidnap Katara too (he was off being a warrior and never around much during the ). It's all a huge misunderstanding, but the BS lets him live after knocking him out.
The other kidnapper is __? toph? She puts up a half-hearted attempt to stop him, more because she's competitive than out of any loyalty to her employer.
When Zuko rescues katara, then they are both captured, Zuko still doesn't know who he is, nor does Ozai. Zuko is tortured by Azula, who finds a portrait of their mother in his bag, and recognizes the face. She puts the pieces together, realizes he's actually her brother who could threaten her as heir, and makes sure he "dies" in the torture process.
...
Possible ending:
Ozai and Azula are killed, Iroh offers to recognize Zuko as Fire Lord, but Zuko, who was never raised as a prince, turns him down. Iroh becomes Fire Lord and Lu Ten his heir, and Zuko runs off with Katara.
Or... Zuko becomes the prince/heir and
*******************************************
Basically, I can potentially figure out or work out the entire plot (not exactly what you see here, but something similar) except one annoying thing: whether or not Zuko should be a prince.
In the basic storyline, Westley is not a prince. He's a farm boy, then a pirate/swordsman/adventurer. More to the point, at the end Westley and Buttercup run off together... Westley certain doesn't become king in Humperdink's place.
I could make Zuko all those things, but that means to strip him of his princehood. And it PAINS me to think about writing him that way, because so much of Zuko's identity is wound up in his idea of being Prince of the Fire Nation. It's his strongest motivation in the show.
I could have what I've got theorized above, which is like having Zuko as a secret prince who doesn't even realize his identity until the end of the story, but then what's the point of that? He'd still be raised to believe himself a commoner, so it would still be like denying that part of his character.
When I first thought of this tonight, it seemed such an easy parallel... Zuko as the Blue Spirit fighting against the odds to rescue his true love: "Death cannot stop true love; it can only delay it a little while." There was the added appeal of doing many of Westley's scenes with a Zuko personality twist.
But Zuko's personality wouldn't be what it is if he weren't a prince. See the problem? Ideas welcome.
Basic plot points of The Princess Bride:
-boy & girl separated while in love, boy "dead"
-5 years later, girl is engaged to evil prince, becomes princess bride
-boy is dread pirate
-princess is kidnapped, supposed to be murdered to start a war
-pirate chases down her kidnappers
-pirate fights the sword duel
-pirate beats the giant
-wine/poison battle of wits
-pirate reveals his identity as boy, lovers are reuinited and brave the fire swamp
-lovers are captured, boy is taken to be tortured and princess beliefs him safe, now engaged again to evil prince
-boy is tortured to point of death, bride bargains with prince
-giant and swordsman rescue the pirate's body, take him to magical max for revival
-giant, swordsman, and pirate break into castle to rescue the princess the night of the wedding
-many battles, they escape and live happily ever after
A pure fusion with ATLA would probably have Zuko as the hunting-obsessed evil prince, but the problem with that is that Zuko (or under a stretch, maybe Sokka) is also the best person to be the Man In Black. And since I do love Bluetara fics, I've decided that I'm going to have Zuko as the Man In Black and someone else as the evil prince.
I also would be changing a lot to give the princess a more active role, less of a damsel in distress.
Tentative cast outline:
Princess Bride/Buttercup: Katara
Westley/Pirate Roberts/Man In Black: Zuko/Blue Spirit
Fezzik: Zhao? someone else?
Evil Prince Humperdink: Fire Lord Ozai
Brother to Fire Lord: Iroh
Iroh's son: Lu Ten
Six-fingered man: Princess Azula (though
Swordsman/Inigo: Sokka
Giant: Toph
Miracle Max: Aang & Spirit World
Dread Pirate Roberts: June, under disguise as a man
Zuko disappeared when he was young, lived in the earth king with his mother who ran away and took him as a toddler after Fire Lord Azulon was murdered. They go to the Southern Water Tribe when Zuko is 16, and he leaves when he's 18. He doesn't realize he's the prince until he goes to the castle to rescue Katara.
Ozai decides he wants a war, and at the same time his advisors tell him he needs to choose a new wife so that he can have a male heir. He wants his daughter to be heir, but he decides he can do both: get married, kill his pretty young wife, then blame her murder on the Earth Kingdom, counting on the Water Tribes to be his war allies once their valued healer and daughter of the chief is murdered after she is married to the Fire Lord as part of a treaty.
Sokka is the swordsman role, and he learns rumors about men being hired to kidnap the princess, so he pretends to be a kidnapper so he can get to her and protect her, as well as keeping her from marrying the evil monarch, whom he never liked. He intends to help them kidnap her, then double-cross them and run off with everyone thinking she's dead. She recognizes his voice, though, and he secretly tells her of his plan. Unfortunately, before the plan can be put into action he realizes they're being followed, and the other kidnappers run off with Katara while he's fighting the blue spirit, who he thinks wants to kidnap Katara too (he was off being a warrior and never around much during the ). It's all a huge misunderstanding, but the BS lets him live after knocking him out.
The other kidnapper is __? toph? She puts up a half-hearted attempt to stop him, more because she's competitive than out of any loyalty to her employer.
When Zuko rescues katara, then they are both captured, Zuko still doesn't know who he is, nor does Ozai. Zuko is tortured by Azula, who finds a portrait of their mother in his bag, and recognizes the face. She puts the pieces together, realizes he's actually her brother who could threaten her as heir, and makes sure he "dies" in the torture process.
...
Possible ending:
Ozai and Azula are killed, Iroh offers to recognize Zuko as Fire Lord, but Zuko, who was never raised as a prince, turns him down. Iroh becomes Fire Lord and Lu Ten his heir, and Zuko runs off with Katara.
Or... Zuko becomes the prince/heir and
*******************************************
Basically, I can potentially figure out or work out the entire plot (not exactly what you see here, but something similar) except one annoying thing: whether or not Zuko should be a prince.
In the basic storyline, Westley is not a prince. He's a farm boy, then a pirate/swordsman/adventurer. More to the point, at the end Westley and Buttercup run off together... Westley certain doesn't become king in Humperdink's place.
I could make Zuko all those things, but that means to strip him of his princehood. And it PAINS me to think about writing him that way, because so much of Zuko's identity is wound up in his idea of being Prince of the Fire Nation. It's his strongest motivation in the show.
I could have what I've got theorized above, which is like having Zuko as a secret prince who doesn't even realize his identity until the end of the story, but then what's the point of that? He'd still be raised to believe himself a commoner, so it would still be like denying that part of his character.
When I first thought of this tonight, it seemed such an easy parallel... Zuko as the Blue Spirit fighting against the odds to rescue his true love: "Death cannot stop true love; it can only delay it a little while." There was the added appeal of doing many of Westley's scenes with a Zuko personality twist.
But Zuko's personality wouldn't be what it is if he weren't a prince. See the problem? Ideas welcome.
