I blame @muffinlance almost entirely because my brain has been hyper fixated on a potential Zuko AU all throughout work today where the crew of the Wani are secretly coaching Zuko into what they believe a good Firelord will be–which really doesn’t take much because anyone with a single OUNCE of sense spending time on Zuko can tell that once he grows up a bit and matures he’ll be a good, devoted leader–because they’re absolutely planning a coup the MOMENT Zuko comes of age.
Iroh may or may not be aware, but they’re doing it with or without his support so it’s Fine.
There are a lot of political exiles on that boat beside Zuko, maybe some noble bastards who are being kept around just in case their trueborn siblings die in the war effort and their parents need a spare but not one handy enough to actively usurp their own power. Old soldiers who’ve burnt out on active combat and watching their younger comrades thrown to slaughter, just all around a lot of folks who have a much more vested interest in Ozai going down now combined with Zuko’s ability to collect new parents.
They’re gonna see their boy on that flame thrown or it kills them.
Yes please. <3
Like logistically I REALLY like the idea of Jee actually being Technically Noble through blood but not Noble Enough because his parents never married and in a nepotism rich upper echelons of the fire nation navy he never would have gotten himself pulled out of the lesser ranks without Iroh recognizing his potential and Iroh’s a man who instills loyalty through love. Jee looks at Zuko and sees that but also sees less of the cold calculation that Iroh processes the world through even with that lens of caring. Jee sees Zuko and knows the potential is there for someone who will take the Fire Nation and revitalize it not into a greater war machine but as a fire nation hale and whole as very few alive today have ever seen.
Jee’s not the only Literal Bastard on board the ship, just the highest-ranked. The komodo-rhino keeper is a quiet young woman, Shun Yan with the delicate features of a fine born lady but the hard calluses and soft freckles of a farmer. She never wanted to be a soldier, she’d just wanted to tend to her mother’s farm but one day the father she’d never even heard of appeared and commanded that no child of his, no matter how weak her spark would be squandered in some podunk farming village. She isn’t much older than Zuko really, twenty now and only seventeen when she heard calls that an escort was needed for a small royal vessel and she used every scrap of her idiot father’s name to get herself on that useless, no glory vessel. It had just been an escape from the battles at first, escape from the soldier’s life she’d never wanted but when she sees just how gentle the prince is with the rhinos? Well, she thinks that perhaps she was wrong to believe that there was nothing in the fire nation worth fighting for.
But it’s not just not quite nobles, there are plenty of old common men. Men who fought alongside Iroh in battles aplenty, those who lost friends, and limbs and conventional careers along with them. Shohei, a chef with only seven fingers who manages to make even the blandest of earth kingdom ingredients sing with flavor from back home. Iroh knows his days of bending much more than cook fires have been over since he lost his third finger and the feeling in most of his left leg but he’s never managed to shake the man. For his credit, Shohei is just as loyal and devoted to his old commander, following him off to sea even when he could have stayed in his nice cushy job as assistant head chef in the palace. He’ll get back there sooner or later, Zuko’s got better taste in spices than his father. If Shohei keeps supplying the kid with fresh fire flakes he’s certain he’ll have his spot in the kitchen back, hell maybe he’ll be the head chef when they get Zuko up on that throne.
@muffinlance I continue to blame you for all of this.