Ask the Author: For want of a nail

[lavanya_six]

Ganked from askerian by way of suzukiblu by way of attackfish


Inspired by Doctor Who's "Turn Left:" Pick one of my stories and tell me a point in the tale that you'd change. Something tiny (e.g. "and then Gendo decided to play Eye of the Tiger instead of 99 Red Balloons") or big (e.g. "and then the Blue Spirit decided to try escaping from Mai rather than reveal he was Zuko") and I'll tell you how that one difference would have altered the course of the entire story.

Comments

[loopy777.livejournal.com]

Siege of the South- Hama didn't successfully punch Aang out of the Avatar State, and was blown away. Wooooooosh. Oops.

[lavanyasix.livejournal.com]

Aang would have a heroic blue screen of death, then be wracked with guilt for the rest of his life. Him ever mastering the Avatar State would be very difficult because of what happened to Hama. He'd never return to the Southern Water Tribe, although they'd probably send out people to search for him (being the world's last hope and all). Kanna would make a raft out of debris and paddle onwards to the South Pole, because the only thing that can bring down Gran-Gran is Kryptonite.

Aang might still eventually master the elements and defeat the Fire Nation but it would take years longer. He'd pull his punches against his enemies, having killed somebody already. There'd also be a lot more heat on him than in canon. Since Roku is still a figure in living memory of a lot of people, Fire Lord Azulon won't leave hunting Aang to his favorite toy general/admiral/princess like Ozai did. Azulon will see Aang as an existential threat to the Fire Nation, and without the training and protection the Southern Water Tribe offered him Aang will be in danger all the time.

[(Anonymous)]

I figured that he would have avoided returning to the Tribe, but you raise a good point that it would involve pretty much running right into the Fire (if I may indulge in an appropriate elemental metaphor). It's too bad that the time frame doesn't offer many canon characters for Aang to befriend, as it would have been fun to think about who and how he might have tried to form a support group. (Hm, maybe the Jeong-Jeong you introduced could be co-opted...)

[loopy777.livejournal.com]

Dangit, that was me.

[lavanyasix.livejournal.com]

>t's too bad that the time frame doesn't offer many canon characters for Aang to befriend, as it would have been fun to think about who and how he might have tried to form a support group. (Hm, maybe the Jeong-Jeong you introduced could be co-opted...)


That's pretty much why I limited it to a one-shot. While worldbuilding things at an earlier point in the war might be fun, a lot of the colorful minor characters and stuff from canon would be inaccessible. For the short drabble sequel I'm doing for Omoni -- ( I really need to finish that ) -- I made Li and Lo into Aang's antagonists.

[clockwerkchaos.livejournal.com]

What if Gendo did decide to play Eye of the Tiger instead of 99 Red Balloons.

How would Taking Sights plot have change, if you suddenly became a peggy sue and were writing it now, knowing what you know.

How would Full Metal Bitch have changed if Toph managed to take Lu Ten hostage?

How about if after the siege was over, Toph had used her popularity among the solders to launch a coup, becoming the queen bitch of Ba Sing Se? (Hey, I just realize Kuei's 25, I think that makes him like, the only name Avatar character around FMB Toph's age)

How would it have change if after the war Toph... broke. She comes home, not the boisterous, angry, active woman. But one who just endured to much, a silent ghost, with little interest in the world and a meek but unenthusiastic agreement to her parents wishes?

[lavanyasix.livejournal.com]

1. That nod to Taking Sights in Chapter 11 of Nobody Dies would have referenced that song instead of 99 Red Balloons:

Someone's been singing at the karaoke machine, a german pop song about the nuclear apocalypse.

Hoshi looks to his right. Hikari smiles, a forced, angry thing on her lips as she pulls up a chair and sits. Across from her, the kid her recognizes from photos as Shinji Ikari sits across from her.

The song finishes, and the singer hands off the mike from his white gloved hands. For some reason, a disco beat begins playing as he walks across the karaoke bar, fixing his black jacket and adjusting his amber glasses.


2. It wouldn't be 180,000 words long and only be up to the Tenth Angel, for starters. I still have about 200-300k more to go before the story is done and that's about a year's exclusive investment of my time. I would probably have just made it a very long one-shot, focused exclusively on Gendo's relationship with Shinji and Rei. Or I may not have written it at all since I've discovered I'm crap at writing Shinji.

3. Without getting into a terrible amount of spoilers, Toph would have ended up leading the Earth Kingdom's version of the Rough Rhinos, Lu Ten would have been held hostage to force a FN withdrawal from the Agricultural Zone, Azulon would have disinherited Iroh for various reasons the foremost of which would be the withdrawal, and Iroh would never have become spiritually awoken.

Assuming the Stations of the Canon are in effect, then one of Azulon's last acts as Fire Lord, before he dies and Lu Ten takes the throne, would have been to banish Iroh with his return conditional on capturing the Avatar. Aang's rescue from the Pohuai Stronghold would have been at the hands of Terra Team... not that they knew he was there ahead of time. They were just there to bust some heads.

4. Nearly all of her ambitions would have been strangled by the bureaucracy of Ba Sing Se. The Dai Li's back would be broken, but on the down side BSS would see a lot more war-related civil unrest. Toph actually might have ended up married to Kuei. If the Gaang had come calling with their DoBS inversion plan, she would have thrown BSS's full weight behind it. If she had discovered Iroh and Zuko were hiding in BSS... it would have been nasty for them. Since there aren't a whole lot of other master earthbenders named in canon, let's say that in such an AU that Aang's earthbending teacher ends up being Jojo the Kissing Bandit.

5. She'd have ended up married off to some nobleman and probably popped out a few kids by the time Aang defrosts. I don't think she'd have joined up with Aang. She wouldn't have even come to his attention.

[clockwerkchaos.livejournal.com]

1. So no magical training montage?

3. Bull. It completely obvious that it would result in Toph and Lu Ten declaring their undying love for each other. That is clearly the correct and appropriote response to a captive situation involving a the prince of group you have been at war with for a generation. And I promise you there is a an extensive collection of Avatar fanfic to back me up on this.

(I really shouldn't take such potshots, but certain Zutara fanfics makes it soooo easy and I'm a bad person)

4.Is it wrong I totally want to see this? Katara reaction to Aang's new teacher's "fee". Queen Bitch Toph (and Kuei's reaction). Azula being in for a really nasty shock if she tries infiltration. Iroh and Zuko's death defying escape from the city. It would be totally awesome.

[lavanyasix.livejournal.com]

1. Sadly, training montages in the Eva-verse only work to J-Pop.


3. Perhaps some far-sighted individual in the Earth Army will realize the propaganda of them having bent Fire Lord Lu Ten over their knee for a spanking -- cowing the feared Dragon of the West -- and release a satirical play featuring the untold "true story" of Lu Ten's capture and how he fell for one of those girls from Ba Sing Se.

[clockwerkchaos.livejournal.com]

1. Egads, no wonder it's such a crapsack universe!

3. I pretty sure this will ned one of two ways.
a. Toph is amused.
b. Toph is not amused, they never find the body

[lavanyasix.livejournal.com]

Toph is amused, but heckles the actors throughout the show... inadvertently spawning the AtLA Universe's equivalent of the Rocky Horror Picture Show's subcultural of audience participation.

[clockwerkchaos.livejournal.com]

Rocky- Toph. I am so pathetically easy to amuse.

[gamiel.livejournal.com]

Asuka's Competitor - what if it was Asuka that was gay for Misato instead of Shinji for Kaij

[lavanyasix.livejournal.com]

Y'know, originally I had planned for Asuka's Competitor to be a trilogy of fics and one of them would be just that premise -- lesbian Asuka hot for straight Misato. (The third fic would be centered around a pre-Impact Yui and Fuyutsuki competing for Gendo's affection.) I ended up being pretty satisfied by just Asuka's Competitor so I never wrote the other two.

If I had to guess, I'd say some of the humor in such a story would have come from Shinji being shamefully aroused by Asuka blatantly flirting with Misato: wearing skimpy clothes around the apartment, being oblivious to Shinji's reactions. There'd also be Shinji having to constantly put up with Kensuke and Touji drooling over the idea of Asuka getting it on with Misato. Hikari might try to ask out Asuka through Shinji.

I once heard that humor comes from suffering, and Misato really wouldn't suffer too much in that kind of story. She'd be ragged on a little by Kaji and Ritsuko, but she'd endure Asuka the same way that Kaji did in canon. Now Shinji suffering would be funny, but for different reasons than Asuka in 'Competitor' -- he's not crushing on Misato like Asuka was on Kaji.

[gamiel.livejournal.com]

Interesting. What if they both were gay (or bi)

[lavanyasix.livejournal.com]

Not sure. After it became clear that Misato and Kaji hooked up, they'd probably steal some of Misato's beer and then proceed to get wasted together over the loss of their respective crushes.