[Avatar Fic] Broken Promises

[beckyh2112]

Been sitting on this for pretty much a month before turning it over to a few other people to look over. It's as ready as I'm going to make it and does everything I want it to do. So. Up it goes.

Title: Broken Promises
Characters: Jeong Jeong, Zhao, Torao (OC), Osamu (OC), Piandao, Iroh
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 4900+
Summary: Jeong Jeong does not

Comments

[plushulala]

This is wonderful. :)

[beckyh2112]

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[crystaldrake]

Very nice.

I like the insight on Jeong Jeong and Zhao relationship.

[beckyh2112]

Thank you!

Oh, what sort of insight? I'm always curious about how other people read my writing.

[crystaldrake]

My mind is distracted with real life stuff right now. But I will give you a more in depth review later this week.

[avocado_love]

Wow.

Thank you so much for writing this. I actually found it on fanfiction.net, but wanted to comment here. This pretty much sums up everything I wanted to see about Jeong Jeong. He browbeats his students into fearing the fire. Honestly, I can't see what else they could do but fail. Anyway, this fic ended on a melancholy note, but I can see how the events of this would eventually set Jeong Jeong on the path to desertion. Great fic!

[beckyh2112]

I'm glad you enjoyed it.

In a lot of ways, Jeong Jeong is really not cut out to be a firebending teacher. He's got too many of his own issues with fire to effectively teach students. He did do rather well with teaching Zhao and Torao, but he failed with them in some key ways. Osamu... He honestly did more harm than good with Osamu, though he did do some good.

Of course, compared to the other people who try to teach teenagers firebending (Iroh), Jeong Jeong is actually pretty damn good.

I'm amazed the Fire Nation does as well as it does sometimes.

[blue_lacquer]

I really enjoyed this. It's quite thought-provoking. I particularly like the strong sense of the Fire Nation being damaged, being too heavily immersed in power, fear and control, and the different ways this influences the characters: Jeong Jeong's obsession with fire's destructive side, Zhao's desire for power, Osamu and Torao's difficulties fire bending (for different reasons). I also like the idea of the flame in the void as a not very good meditation practice--it's a strong image to illustrate what's wrong with how the Fire Nation approaches bending.

[beckyh2112]

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

I wouldn't say Osamu has difficulty firebending, at least not in any way comparable to Torao. (Because I'm a pedant.) Osamu has a whole bunch of JJ-induced issues, whereas Torao temporarily lost an internal source for his fire.

Flame in the void is a wonderful meditation for certain things, but for firebending or anything working with real fire? Way, way not so much there.

[hedgehog39]

Wow.
I know I'm ridiculously late to this party, but I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed what you've done here. There's a special sense that accompanies the realization that you've been teaching someone the wrong lesson and you nailed it right on the head.

[beckyh2112]

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it. (Also, it kind of gives me a little start of glee to see people reading and commenting on my older works. ^_^)

Jeong Jeong has been teaching what he knows for a long time, but what he knows is rage and destruction. Now that he's finally pinging on that, it's screwing up his ability to teach firebending even more. It's going to be a long time before he can do any good as a teacher.