bentflame | (no subject)

Current Mood: apathetic
Current Location: Gaia

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(no subject)

It has become readily apparent that hospitals are even more dull when you're not the one admitted. The war effort is decidedly uneventful at the moment, I'm not a fan of television, and there's only so many books one can read before even that becomes boring.

Someone; anyone. Amuse me.

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I can tell you're crushed.

Kadaj's mother wasn't one of my girls.

Hardly.

"One of your girls"?

Yes?

Does that mean what I think it means?

What do you think it means?

I'm not going to play these games. Forget it.

Actually, I'm intrigued. You're so apathetic about everything, and the fact you asked about Kadaj's mother, the phrase "one of my girls" is somewhat amusing.

I asked because he seemed bothered by it.

He wasn't a good enough son to stop his mother from behind captured by the enemy and killed. It's amusing to see the reaction he gets.

That sounds a bit like my brother, actually.

The one that complains about his duty of Fire Lord?

The very same.

Would you care to elaborate?

Our mother gave up her home and title to save him, despite the fact that he was clearly unworthy. If he had been a more valuable son the sacrifice wouldn't have been necessary.

How strange. Why would she need to save him?

She loved him, if you can imagine.

If I can imagine.

Yes.

What did he do to garner Ozai's wrath?

My grandfather's, actually. My father suggested to Azulon that my uncle's- his older brother's- birthright be obliterated after his son's death. The suggestion made perfect sense; after all, my father had two children to continue his line, while Iroh had none. But Azulon grew angry at the suggestion that more suffering be added onto my uncle's plate, and decreed that Zuko be killed so that my father too would know how it felt to lose a child.

It was a lot of silly business, really, and proof that my grandfather had grown soft in his old age.

Ozai was foolish to ask such a thing. Iroh would have returned a hero from war; a fallen son and all the more eligible to form alliances because he was single man. Azulon knew this, to do such a thing was not out of the kindness out of his heart, it was to save himself from political ruin to do such a thing to a national hero.

Fire Lord Ozai recognized that Iroh giving up the siege of Ba Sing Se simply due to grief indicated that he would be a weak Fire Lord. Iroh was hardly a war hero- he was a failure and a fool.

That is a stupid conclusion and I'm disappointed in you.

To lead a country, one needs to be strong; above personal connections. If Iroh hadn't allowed his grief to consume his goal we would have captured Ba Sing Se that much sooner.

His son's death would have riled the nation more to defeat the enemy. Return home, defeated. Use that grief to say it stole royalty, beloved royalty - the army comes back ten times stronger.