Re: Ozai, disappointmentsgigabombJuly 22 2010, 03:42:47 UTC
... you know, it occurs to me that the way you write Ozai, he is completely unable to form emotional attachments to people who can't live up to his initial expectations/aren't geniuses/can't match him in some manner. I mean, in this fic Ozai still obviously has some hopes for Zuko even after being disappointed for three months, but it's only when Zuko displays a complete lack of talent that Ozai starts emotionally distancing himself from Zuko, if only subconsciously. I like that Ozai still does care for Zuko here, enough to spend months trying to teach him something basic, and the fact that Ozai seems the type to get easily frustrated when someone does not pick up on something as quickly as he expects means he is trying as a parent... but Ozai losing that connection because Zuko disappoints him so thoroughly explains a lot of their relationship and also a lot of why he cares about Lu Ten and Ursa (and Iroh, at least before his brother disappointed him as well) and why he seems sort of relationship-dead by the time he scars Zuko: one of his equals is dead, the other is missing, and the third disappointed him.
Sorry for the rambling, I just liked seeing sort of inkling why Zuko had fond memories of his father when in the TV show's timeline Ozai only displays any sort of positive emotion towards Zuko when Zuko exceeds his expectations and to all reports kills the Avatar.
Re: Ozai, disappointmentsbeckyh2112July 22 2010, 03:45:23 UTC
That is pretty much what I'm going for. Well, I'm not sure if I was ever that explicit about what it takes, but the way I write Ozai, he has a hard time forming emotional attachments to people. Your read of what I'm writing fits very nicely. *takes it and puts it into my thinky-thoughts cauldron*
why he seems sort of relationship-dead by the time he scars Zuko: one of his equals is dead, the other is missing, and the third disappointed him.
Re: Ozai, disappointmentsgigabombJuly 22 2010, 04:05:09 UTC
Well, it makes sense for him to be that way if he was raised as an unwanted son without the protection of being a favored child (sort of like Zuko, but from birth as opposed to age 9 or 10 or so): if he is going to care about someone that deeply in as dangerous a place as the Fire Nation royal court, they'd better be able to take whatever is dished out to them and rise along with him; that way, he never has to leave them behind until they crash in the end after all, showing that no one can rise with him and thus it's not even worth it to try and bring them along.
See, I can never put these kinds of thoughts into words. I have general feelings about how people should react given their histories, but if someone asked me to 'xplain why Ozai is the way he is, my explanation would be his history and "he has some of the crazy" without, you know, anything as wondrously detailed and accurate as this.
You probably thought something similar at least subconsciously though, because the way you write characters is very internally consistent. I mean, I've had it happen to me where I've written characters (or played them in RPs) in a certain way and it was only after I was finished that I realized there were very specific reasons certain characters acted in certain ways and it just had not percolated into my consciousness yet. So... that's how it works with a lot of writers, I guess.
Sorry for the rambling, I just liked seeing sort of inkling why Zuko had fond memories of his father when in the TV show's timeline Ozai only displays any sort of positive emotion towards Zuko when Zuko exceeds his expectations and to all reports kills the Avatar.
Reply
why he seems sort of relationship-dead by the time he scars Zuko: one of his equals is dead, the other is missing, and the third disappointed him.
Yes. So much yes.
Reply
Reply
*purrrrrrrrrrrrrs*
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment