My subconscious likes Hamlet a lot, apparently
So, bear in mind that I did not realize any of this at the time.
I wrote the plot of an opera that the Fire Nation might have had. It is long and convoluted and full of really unrealistic plot contrivances, and is, in other words, entirely operatic. I'm a little in love with it. The initial inspiration was from Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, but from there it just took influences from every opera I have ever seen or played or heard of. People dress in someone else's clothes and are not recognized! Strange love dodecahedrons happen that would be entirely sorted if anyone ever communicated effectively! Families conspire to arrange matches the way they want them! People are dramatic! And I had fun.
So then when I was in the shower I came up with a short fic, and when I got out of the shower I went to write it down. In which a troupe of players that Zuko had seen when he still lived in the capital came to the palace, and he asked them to put on a performance for him and the Fire Lady and the court. (Mai, by the way, considers said opera to be entirely cheesy and will only sit through it because she likes indulging Zuko once in a while.) And there is a scene in which they talk about theater, because Zuko having been a theater critic ever since he was tiny is a.) a piece of fanon I can get behind and b.) THE CUTEST THING EVER AMIRITE. (You guys, tiny!Zuko tried to get his father to write a royal decree preventing the Ember Island Players from ever putting on Love Amongst the Dragons again. This is my headcanon and I will not be shaken from it.)
So, in this scene in which Zuko talks to the tragedians of the city players that have come to the palace, they briefly mention another play, from which the grandfather/senior patriarch of the players offers to demonstrate a speech. The play is called Zulin Triumphant (or Zulin Victorious, I hadn't decided yet) and, because I hadn't come up with a plot, I just borrowed something from another fic I'd written, when I was on Vyvanse and NEEDED TO EXPLAIN THINGS A LOT. It is not a fic with any sort of point and, indeed, I have no idea where it was going. So I had them quote a few lines paraphrasing one of the characters, because Zulin- the Fire Lord about whom Zulin Triumphant was written- is female, and I needed a young male for the Player to have played in his youth, so I stole some of what would have been Prince Shula's inner monologue (and I swear, I wasn't trying for iambic pentameter, but I was already envisioning Zulin Triumphant as a Shakespeare-esque play rather than an opera, and lo, the lines came out in blank verse). And then I realized that Prince Shula's character is a young prince who is told by the ghost of his ancestor that a female ancestor of his had an affair. Neither the ghost nor the adulterous ancestress is his immediate parent, but-
Well, um. You see where that one is apparently going.
So-
Then I realized I should perhaps think these things through more thoroughly.
Goodbye.
I wrote the plot of an opera that the Fire Nation might have had. It is long and convoluted and full of really unrealistic plot contrivances, and is, in other words, entirely operatic. I'm a little in love with it. The initial inspiration was from Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, but from there it just took influences from every opera I have ever seen or played or heard of. People dress in someone else's clothes and are not recognized! Strange love dodecahedrons happen that would be entirely sorted if anyone ever communicated effectively! Families conspire to arrange matches the way they want them! People are dramatic! And I had fun.
So then when I was in the shower I came up with a short fic, and when I got out of the shower I went to write it down. In which a troupe of players that Zuko had seen when he still lived in the capital came to the palace, and he asked them to put on a performance for him and the Fire Lady and the court. (Mai, by the way, considers said opera to be entirely cheesy and will only sit through it because she likes indulging Zuko once in a while.) And there is a scene in which they talk about theater, because Zuko having been a theater critic ever since he was tiny is a.) a piece of fanon I can get behind and b.) THE CUTEST THING EVER AMIRITE. (You guys, tiny!Zuko tried to get his father to write a royal decree preventing the Ember Island Players from ever putting on Love Amongst the Dragons again. This is my headcanon and I will not be shaken from it.)
So, in this scene in which Zuko talks to the tragedians of the city players that have come to the palace, they briefly mention another play, from which the grandfather/senior patriarch of the players offers to demonstrate a speech. The play is called Zulin Triumphant (or Zulin Victorious, I hadn't decided yet) and, because I hadn't come up with a plot, I just borrowed something from another fic I'd written, when I was on Vyvanse and NEEDED TO EXPLAIN THINGS A LOT. It is not a fic with any sort of point and, indeed, I have no idea where it was going. So I had them quote a few lines paraphrasing one of the characters, because Zulin- the Fire Lord about whom Zulin Triumphant was written- is female, and I needed a young male for the Player to have played in his youth, so I stole some of what would have been Prince Shula's inner monologue (and I swear, I wasn't trying for iambic pentameter, but I was already envisioning Zulin Triumphant as a Shakespeare-esque play rather than an opera, and lo, the lines came out in blank verse). And then I realized that Prince Shula's character is a young prince who is told by the ghost of his ancestor that a female ancestor of his had an affair. Neither the ghost nor the adulterous ancestress is his immediate parent, but-
Well, um. You see where that one is apparently going.
So-
Then I realized I should perhaps think these things through more thoroughly.
Goodbye.