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 Post subject: A:TLA "The Promise" Vol. 2

Posted: 2012-06-08 01:33am 

Volume 2 is out now, and the bastards are making us wait through the summer before Volume 3 and the resolution of the storyline.

The volume is awesome, giving us a nice look into the mentality of Ozai, while Zuko and Kuei are about to wreck everything they and Aang fought to achieve. The subplot about Toph's students provided lots of awesome humor (Sokka is a motivation bender! Hahaha) and Katara's reaction to Aang's "fan club" was priceless.

So, anyone else reading this?

 Post subject: Re: A:TLA "The Promise" Vol. 2

Posted: 2012-06-08 02:04am 

To be honest I'm kind of with the Earth King on this one. Those "colonies" are a gaping wound on the Earth Kingdom and a constant reminder of the war. I know they eventually end up getting turned into the Republic of Nations from LoK, but it's their land, illegally stolen through bloodshed and murder. The Fire Nation needs to shut up and GTFO. If they wont, then the Earthers have every right to show them the door.

 Post subject: Re: A:TLA "The Promise" Vol. 2

Posted: 2012-06-08 02:40am 

I think it's a bit more complicated with the colonists who were born in the colonies. Forcing them to migrate to the Fire Nation archipelago would be effectively expelling to a place they've never lived in before, kind of like how a whole ton of Germans living outside of the boundaries of post-World War 2 Germany were expelled and forced to move.

Moreover, if the Fire Nation has occupied parts of it for longer than 100 years . . . is it really the Earth Kingdom's land anymore?

 Post subject: Re: A:TLA "The Promise" Vol. 2

Posted: 2012-06-08 11:34am 

Kuei's motivation's aren't just those reasons, though. He's doing this because he's still ashamed at how he was bamboozled by the Dai Li for most of his reign, resulting in losing his capitol. Zuko's doing this because he feels an obligation to Fire Nation citizens who, quite understandably, don't want to lose the only homes they've had.

Because there is a critical issue here; Yu Dao, and the oldest colonies, have been there for a century (they might even predate the attack on the Air Nomads). And looking at the Mayor's family, there has been a lot of inter-marriage between the Fire Nation colonists and local Earth Kingdom people. They are, effectively, their own polyglot culture. Not without equality problems (as was pointed out in Volume 1), but you'll still have "Earth Kingdom" denizens of Yu Dao who will be supportive of the colonists, who consider themselves people of Yu Dao and not the Earth Kingdom. So even if Kuei expels all the colonists... what happens to them? Do they stay and become aliens in their own land, supplanted by Earth Kingdom settlers? Do they go too and become aliens in the Fire Nation? (And, frankly, given how the series showed the differences, the colonists will be pretty much aliens in the Fire Nation too).

Yeah, we know how this will result thanks to LoK, but I'm looking forward to seeing how it's resolved in the immediate sense.

 Post subject: Re: A:TLA "The Promise" Vol. 2

Posted: 2012-06-08 02:45pm 

Yeah, the colony issue is a no-win scenario, which is why the establishment of the United Republic really was the best compromise that Aang and Zuko will pursue.